The Larva of the Human Face, and After
Here in the director's office of the Seoul Branch of the B.A.R.I. Anomaly Management Bureau,
Kim Miryeo lit a combat stim herb she had specially airlifted from the A-Alpha Team quarters.
Tap, tap.
Chiiiiiik.
Anyone could tell it was the awkward way a first-timer lights a cigarette.
She took a deep drag of the stim herb with her hollow eyes.
Huuuueup.
"Cough, cough, heh...!"
Of course, the smoke had penetrated deep into her lungs, and she complained as if she had a cold.
But as expected, the combat stim herb was effective.
Even though she was so exhausted she could collapse at any moment, after inhaling the stim herb once, Kim Miryeo’s fatigue vanished completely.
Even if it was only temporary.
The reason she was so drained was simple.
She had stayed up all night for four days to handle the incident where Ara’s group split BAR-207 in half.
To put it bluntly, BAR-207 did not get destroyed.
...It was merely split in half.
Of course, they investigated and researched the split BAR-207, but no abnormal reactions had been observed yet.
Even the Mind Value was measured at 0.
According to Ara, the original personalities and the ‘black personality’ had completely vanished, she said.
In reality, the current BAR-207 was just two empty shells of a biological entity barely clinging together.
Even if they wanted to research BAR-207 further, since there was no reaction, they couldn’t continue the research.
Ultimately, the research was halted, and Kim Miryeo sent a report on this series of events to headquarters.
Today, a reply and command order arrived from headquarters.
Kim Miryeo took another drag of the stim herb.
Her eyes watered from the acrid smoke, but her tension didn’t ease.
Because she had a rough idea of what kind of command would come from headquarters.
It’s impossible to convert the value of an isolated anomaly into money.
Even [BAR-207], unlike other three-star anomalies that were just dangerous, was one of the entities where, if you followed the special containment procedures and response manuals well, you could conduct research safely.
‘...And Ara split it in half.’
No matter what, since Ara is a zero-star anomaly, it was clear that some action was necessary.
Moreover, Kim Miryeo, the overall responsible party for the incident, couldn’t avoid punishment.
Kim Miryeo exhaled a sigh and began reading the command order from headquarters.
...
...
...
[Grade invalidation of the three-star anomaly, ‘The Larva of the Human Face.’]
[Adjust the grade of ‘The Larva of the Human Face’ to ‘invalid’.]
[The remnants of the invalidated ‘The Larva of the Human Face’ are to be stored in the Seoul Branch’s Level 1 isolation facility. The branch director may assign management personnel at their discretion.]
As expected, the three-star anomaly ‘The Larva of the Human Face’ received the invalid grade.
Consequently, its unique serial number BAR-207 naturally disappeared, and related research was halted.
The headquarters’ command didn’t end there.
[Memory erasure required for all personnel involved in the ████ incident who are researchers or agents of B grade or below]
A memory erasure order had been issued.
In this Seoul Branch, only two people had security clearance of A or higher: Kim Miryeo and the deputy commander of the A-Alpha Team.
In fact, the order was to erase the memories of all employees except these two.
Up to this point, it was within Kim Miryeo’s expected range of commands.
But after that, even Kim Miryeo couldn’t have predicted it.
"..."
No other commands.
This was it.
No action orders regarding BAR-322 and Ara.
No disciplinary orders for the responsible party Kim Miryeo.
Most importantly, no commands related to ‘religion’.
When writing the report to send to headquarters, Kim Miryeo had not distorted any content.
She had written in as much detail as possible based on the facts of what she had heard, seen, and felt.
Of course, she had recorded the contents regarding ‘religion’ and ‘symbols’.
Everything Ara said and did, and her anomalous abilities, were all recorded.
Yet this was the result.
What this meant was quite clear.
Not receiving any punishment meant that, surprisingly, Kim Miryeo had acted in a way that matched the headquarters’ taste.
‘It seems the headquarters is also curious about religion.’
Just as she was confused whether she could share information about religion or not, it was fortunate.
With this, she could investigate religion more thoroughly without any burden.
Kim Miryeo muttered.
"The Cult of Chaos."
The black personality of BAR-207 had directly mentioned the name of the god worshipped by the religious group ‘The Cult of Chaos.’
In other words, there was some connection between the black personality of BAR-207 and the Cult of Chaos.
If there was a problem, it was that ‘The Cult of Chaos’ was an institution that sharply opposed the ‘Anomaly Management Bureau’, the supranational group Kim Miryeo belonged to.
In fact, it could be described as the ‘enemy force’ of the Bureau.
How could she sell information about such an enemy force?
Whatever it was, she would have to talk to Ara.
After all, Ara was the core of all these incidents and living evidence.
However, Ara was an anomaly with the serial number [BAR-322], after all.
Every time Kim Miryeo tried to converse with her, unless it was an urgent situation, she had to follow all kinds of manuals and command protocols.
Just the preparation time was three hours.
How inefficient.
"..."
Suddenly, a plausible idea popped into Kim Miryeo’s mind.
After all, it was confirmed through this incident that there would be no interference with Ara from headquarters.
So, executing this idea would be fine.
Ah, of course, before executing this idea.
"Kuuul..."
Well, she had to take a nap first.
With her tension relieved, Kim Miryeo collapsed on the desk, snored with her nose, and fell asleep.
***
Clang, clang, clang!
I slammed the joystick and shouted.
"Waaaaaaaah, you coward!"
"So it’s not that I’m a coward, you know."
Today too, I was having a 1v1 fighting game battle with Baek Jiseung as usual.
The result was 4-6, my disappointing loss.
My original skill was slowly returning, but fighting games are much more about knowledge than reflexes.
Even now, my knowledge was still too lacking to beat Baek Jiseung.
He gave me advice.
"Ara-nim, you should learn delay catch first before anything else."
"I want to learn movement first properly."
"Steps and moving are just showy. Especially for newbies like you."
"Didn’t you almost lose to that rookie? It was 4-6."
"..."
"Huh? What was that reaction. You weren’t going easy on me, were you..."
"T-Then I’ll be going now, Ara-nim!"
Click.
He went easy on me.
Humiliating.
I had practiced hard, but it seemed my blade hadn’t reached Baek Jiseung’s neck yet.
As soon as Baek Jiseung left, a familiar-faced woman entered the isolation facility.
"Hey, Dr. Kim Miryeo..."
I greeted Dr. Kim Miryeo who had come in, and I couldn’t help but be quite surprised.
She looked half like a corpse.
Her waist was drooping, her hair was matted, and her face was haggard like a patient.
I was worried about her health and asked.
"Doctor, are you sick?"
"No, I just couldn’t sleep for four days."
"Isn’t that painful?"
"Now it’s fine. I slept for about four hours."
"..."
Even the Bureau’s branch director isn’t anyone.
Unlike her appearance, her tone was extremely normal, so I soon stopped worrying about Kim Miryeo.
Kim Miryeo sat down and said to me.
"Ara. The reason I’m here today is..."
I interrupted Kim Miryeo’s words and spoke.
"To commend my achievements!"
At my words, Kim Miryeo showed an unknown expression.
I couldn’t back down. Let’s advance with momentum.
Before Kim Miryeo asked me about my responsibility for this incident, I spoke first.
"Thanks to me, you wiped out the merciless evil demon from this world, so you should receive an appropriate compensation!"
"..."
"My demands are as follows. First, build a shrine in the Seoul Branch of the Bureau, and allow me to make witch tools!"
"..."
"Also, after breakfast every day, provide the highest-grade crystal grapes, and furthermore..."
Kim Miryeo was laughing.
Noticing her, I asked in a voice that was crawling towards the doctor.
"W-What, tell me something, Doctor."
Kim Miryeo said with a firm expression.
"782 billion."
"...Huh?"
"This is the damage amount to the Seoul Branch caused by this incident."
"Eh..."
"Level 3 isolation facility destroyed, complete invalidation of the three-star anomaly. By the way, three-star anomalies have values that are impossible to measure in money."
"T-That’s, so..."
"All thanks to Ara."
I was flustered and pushed the golden coin bundles I had hidden under my futon to Kim Miryeo and said.
"U-Use this to restore!"
At that moment, Kim Miryeo who had been maintaining composure showed a dumbfounded expression.
"...You received this much money as compensation? In the world, how much did you actually extort as compensation?"
"W-Well, compensation is expensive! I almost got scammed 5 million won by a witch grandma."
While making amulets for Bureau employees, I had been collecting money bit by bit.
The amount was so significant that even Kim Miryeo was surprised.
Taking advantage of her being taken aback, I continued.
"A-And! Originally, didn’t the doctor order me? No matter what, to prevent it from becoming ‘non-existent’."
"Yes."
"I just faithfully followed the doctor’s orders."
"Yes. Well done, Ara."
"..."
This woman.
Whenever I spoke, she countered, so today she seemed very suspicious.
Was it because of fatigue that her mind was messed up?
Looking at me being puzzled, Kim Miryeo said.
"Ara. You said you needed to commend your achievements?"
"Y-Yes... After thinking about it, I don’t think I particularly need a commendation..."
"I’ll commend you."
At Kim Miryeo’s following words.
I was momentarily dazed.
"I’ll make a credential for Ara."