The Larva of a Thousand Faces Awakens
No matter how exceptional a shaman I might be, crafting talismans was far from simple.
It was no trivial matter for shamans to receive a single sheet of yellow paper as a valuable offering.
A talisman did not complete simply by writing characters on a sheet of yellow goehangji.
The goehangji had to be dyed at exactly zishi, the midnight hour.
When carving the characters, one had to intone sacred prayers to infuse them with divine power.
Therefore, making a single talisman was a serious labor.
It was never easy, physically or mentally.
In that sense.
“Kyaaah!”
“Doctor Kim Miryeo, come out right now!”
The order to produce two thousand three hundred and fifty-three talismans was nothing less than a command to kill me.
For an entire week, I had sacrificed even my gaming time to laboriously craft them.
Yet by the current moment, I had completed only five hundred.
Some fifteen hundred remained.
The thought of enduring three more weeks of this grueling toil sent me halfway to madness.
I immediately lodged a vigorous complaint with Dr. Kim Miryeo.
Instead, she looked at me with genuine curiosity and asked.
“Ara-nim, do you game?”
“…Hao.”
“You enjoy delicious food, don’t you?”
“…I eat it.”
“You read books too, right?”
“…I read them.”
“You game, you eat, you read.”
“You do everything while working, so what is so difficult about it?”
“Ara-nim, you are working five hours less than the average staff of the Seoul Branch right now.”
This insane organization.
The Seoul Branch treated humans like disposable tools.
All of them, including Kim Miryeo, lived under the grotesque belief that a minimum of fourteen hours a day was normal.
Since everyone around me was so hardworking, Kim Miryeo naturally demanded the same from me.
Why?
Because she had decided to treat me as human.
…Even though my working hours differ from those of a normal human.
I had never worked that hard even at the palace.
Kim Miryeo shrugged with an expression of helplessness.
“Actually, if you don’t want to do it, you don’t have to.”
“Eh? Really?”
“Yes.”
“It is not a forced command.”
“…?”
Not forced.
Earlier, Kim Miryeo had claimed she had received full control rights from headquarters.
That meant, from her perspective, she could issue any forced command to me.
Was she testing me?
I wondered if she was simply checking how obedient I was without orders.
I exhaled heavily and replied.
“…No, I will do it.”
“I will finish it within two weeks.”
Kim Miryeo smiled upon hearing my words.
“Good thinking.”
“If anything else is needed, feel free to request it.”
“If you want sweets…”
Kim Miryeo glanced at a corner of my containment room.
“…No, that won’t be necessary.”
“It is already sufficient.”
At the end of Kim Miryeo’s gaze, an enormous pile of sweets—received from the Seoul Branch staff as bokchae instead of talismans—stacked up.
Ugh, those would likely spoil soon.
I asked Kim Miryeo.
“Doctor, can I receive money instead of sweets as bokchae?”
Kim Miryeo shrugged as if it made no difference.
I nodded.
“Then from now on, I will receive it as money.”
One never knew.
If I diligently proved my usefulness here, I might one day escape to the modern world as a free being.
For that day, I needed to hoard money bit by bit.
With that resolve, I returned to crafting talismans.
No.
Just as I was about to resume, I suddenly grabbed the hand of Kim Miryeo, who had turned away from me.
“Doctor.”
“…?”
Kim Miryeo looked visibly startled by my sudden action, then subtly slipped her hand into her pocket.
I had no idea what was inside, but it was probably a weapon capable of instantly subduing me.
Thinking that she was far too thorough for a woman.
I raised both hands to her and began explaining the strange energy I had just sensed.
“Doctor.”
“Please listen to me without misunderstanding.”
“A malevolent spirit has appeared.”
“And it is inside this Seoul Branch.”
“…?”
Kim Miryeo listened quietly, then stared at me intently before speaking.
“Really.”
She then gave a hollow laugh and continued.
“Ara. It seems the Specter Energy Barrier has no meaning for you at all.”
“Your anomaly detection range is approximately five kilometers in radius, isn’t it?”
“That does not seem particularly wide. Can you artificially expand the detection range?”
I gave Kim Miryeo a dazed expression in reply.
Then, as I realized the situation, I asked her.
“…Did you test me?”
“Well, to be precise, it was partly for that purpose.”
“One anomaly from the Busan Branch was already scheduled for transport to the Seoul Branch at this exact time today.”
“So, what was the answer?”
Hmm.
She truly was an obstinate woman.
I answered her question honestly.
“Artificially expanding the detection range…”
“I can do it, but I would have to sacrifice a great deal.”
To sense the malevolent spirit’s presence over a wider range, I would need to invoke a divine being within my own body.
“Why, Doctor, you saw it that day…”
“Stop.”
“Ah, sorry.”
I did not know why, but it seemed the Doctor wanted to bury that day’s incident between the two of us.
The Doctor told me.
“Ara. Soon you will need to attempt direct communication with that anomaly yourself.”
“Note that this is a ‘forced command,’ so refusal is impossible.”
Oh dear.
Communicating with a malevolent spirit.
From my perspective, this was rather welcome news.
It might simply be coincidence, but the Changwi I had met last time had known about shamans.
The very term ‘shaman’ seemed erased from history books.
If this were a living, breathing malevolent spirit, why had shamans been erased from history?
Perhaps I could figure it out.
I nodded at Kim Miryeo.
“I understand. Whenever you summon me.”
Kim Miryeo turned her back and said.
“Ah, note that it may take quite some time.”
“Please focus on talisman production until then.”
“Understood.”
Ah.
What an ordeal.
Once again, I faced a heavy labor.
* * *
Dr. Kim Miryeo was the youngest researcher to achieve A-grade in the shortest time.
After her encounter with the anomaly, she had thoroughly examined every document to which her security clearance granted access.
She searched for every single word I had uttered.
Shaman.
Mudang.
Fortune-telling.
Gut.
Talisman.
Tyrant not recorded in history.
And so on—literally every word from my lips.
Yet she found nothing.
Perhaps the words had never existed.
Or someone had deliberately hidden the information.
Her curiosity, though potentially dangerous enough to incur a great calamity, was a trait she could not suppress.
Thanks to that trait, she had risen to her position at breakneck speed.
Headquarters was likely aware of her tendency.
‘Assigning control of the anomaly to someone like me.’
‘They must have some expectation from me.’
‘There is a hidden agenda.’
Kim Miryeo decided to act boldly.
Her bold action was to invoke the ‘Dialogue Protocol between Anomalies.’
In truth, communication between anomalies was one of the most common protocols at the Management Bureau.
Of course, risks were high since any variable could occur, but the research gains from such dialogues were enormous.
Kim Miryeo had reviewed the documents on the anomaly temporarily transferred to the Seoul Branch for research—the [BAR-207].
* * *
B.A.R.I. (Borderline Anomalies Response & Investigation)
Class 3 Confidential Document
[Serial Number: BAR-207]
[Alias: Larva of Many Faces]
[Grade: Rank 3]
[Overview]
BAR-207 is an entity with a larval body and a human head attached, possessing intelligence as an anomaly.
The head part transforms every hour after observation, and each head exhibits significant differences in dialect, memory, personality, and aggression.
Therefore, each head is classified as a separate personality.
A Personality
(Infant)
Intelligence exists, but dialogue is impossible.
Food (high-fat milk) must be distributed every five minutes.
If food is not provided…
…
…
B Personality
(Blonde Female)
Intelligence exists, and dialogue is possible.
Upon manifestation of the B Personality, all assigned researchers and agents must be immediately changed to ‘male.’
If not changed…
…
…
C Personality
(Blonde Male)
Intelligence exists, and dialogue is possible.
Upon manifestation of the C Personality, all assigned researchers and agents must be immediately changed to ‘female.’
If not changed…
…
…
Kim Miryeo nodded naturally while reviewing the document.
Good.
If Ara and this entity communicated, even a single piece of information might drop.
Of course, she was not entirely without concern.
…It was not about worrying over the anomaly, of course.
She was concerned for the ‘Larva of Many Faces,’ a Rank 3 anomaly that would engage in dialogue with Ara.
Why worry about Ara?
A Rank 3 anomaly? Even a Rank 4 anomaly could be crushed in a single strike, yet Ara was an unprecedented anomaly.
Kim Miryeo recalled the events of that day and shuddered, then muttered.
“I hope the anomaly does not crush the larva…”
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Paper Charm Mass Production