Chapter 83
Chapter 83
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 83
Chapter Title: Dream of Toys
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83.
We crushed them.
I don't know who it was, but someone let out a really satisfying shout.
It felt like all the pent-up frustration in my gut had been blown away.
So, now, to match that sense of relief...
I could vividly imagine the living murder toys ripping off our limbs and swinging them around like playthings.
'Those GRA Agency bastards... causing trouble right up to the end.'
But...
From here on out, it's their own fault.
I have no reason to help them.
Now that we've found the owner of this ghost story, the lazy sleeper, our business here is done.
My gaze turned to our eldest Bear Doll.
"Go to the third one and tell them they can come back now... And as for the others there, could you just scare them a bit on your way?"
Snap-!
With the eldest's salute made of sharp blades.
Tototototo!
The eldest Bear Doll toddled off toward the GRA Agency folks with cute little footsteps.
'This should be enough.'
If they're just scared a little, they'll scurry back to the Agency on their own.
That settles it.
I've done everything I can.
Now all that's left...
Is to climb this massive tower.
Left alone atop the enormous bedding tower, I roughly gauged its height with my eyes.
'...It's tall.'
Insanely so.
At this height, no normal person could climb it on their own power.
Normally, it might've been better to wait for the Bear Doll Trio to return.
Creak-
A rusty metallic screech scraped harshly against my eardrums.
'Those guys aren't gonna wait for me.'
Creak-
Creeeak-
Creak-
It wasn't just one source; it sounded like a dissonant cacophony of unpleasant metallic noises.
Starting from where I stood, the screeches echoed from all directions.
Creak-
And they seemed to be drawing closer and closer to me.
The source of those sharp metallic sounds.
Was the murder toy legions on the move. And the reason they've awakened... well, no need to say it.
Yeah, all because of those GRA Agency idiots.
I had planned to leisurely wait for the Bear Dolls to come back.
But given the situation.
I couldn't just sit around waiting anymore.
If I just stood here waiting for the Bear Doll Trio...
It'd end with my limbs severed.
Those murder toys might be playing house with my arms and legs.
And there's already precedent for it.
==========
/Dream of Toys
Employee Lee Nak-hyun searched for the new recruit who'd been deployed with him when he realized they were missing.
Creak-
He followed the eerie sounds coming from somewhere and found the new recruit.
Creak-
Creak-
With all their limbs torn off by the murder toys.
The toys were gripping the new recruit's arms and legs... playing what looked like a mock sword fight.
==========
I did it too when I was a kid.
Picking up sticks off the ground and playing around.
But...
No one's crazy enough to want someone else picking up their own arms and legs and swinging them like toys.
Rustle-
I immediately rummaged through my Employee ID.
The moment a specific texture touched my fingertips inside the ID.
I pulled the item out. What emerged into the world was.
A white mask with a rather dumb-looking expression.
The item's name is as follows.
-Mass-Produced Hero.
I never thought the day would come to use this item so soon. Of course, I'd wanted to test its performance as soon as possible.
But I didn't expect that day to arrive this quickly...
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/Item List
Mass-Produced Hero
(A hope that will someday shatter.)
Haven't you ever thought it at least once?
'I want to be a hero who saves everyone!'
That utterly useless, childish...
Foolish delusion.
I'll make that childish delusion come true.
So, become our hero.
【Become... my own 'little hero.'】
Use: Become a hero. / Prolonged use causes extreme hunger.
*An item containing a child's deep wish from a war-torn country. (But they say heroes and villains are separated by a mere hair's breadth.)
==========
As the description says.
Prolonged use is marked as 'extreme hunger.'
And I know what that 'extreme hunger' entails.
To sate that extreme hunger.
The wearer of this item committed unspeakable atrocities. This item is that dangerous.
So never.
Exceed one minute.
The first person to show symptoms wore it for exactly one minute.
So as long as I don't wear this mask for over a minute, it's safe.
With a tower of bedding this tall, I could reach the top in one go without needing more than 10 seconds.
That's how powerful this mask is.
It all depends on how you use it.
My gaze fell on the white mask, and with a short deep breath, I gently pressed it against the front of my glasses-wearing face.
Shhwick-
Gold dust swirled as the mask lost its form and vanished into the air.
『You have been designated as a 'little hero.』
A stiff voice announcing my designation as a 'little hero' brushed past my ear, and a dumb face like the one on the white mask etched itself onto my cheek.
Perfect.
But that didn't bring any special physical changes.
The only thing I felt in my body was.
Maybe that it felt a bit lighter.
After a brief stretch, I did a light jump in place to loosen up.
Hop-
......Huh?
A sensation like the wind caressing my whole body, as if I'd momentarily escaped gravity.
The quality of the air touching my skin changed, and all the massive toys before me looked tiny.
That's when I realized...
I'd jumped so high that the peak of the bedding pile was directly above me in my line of sight.
This mask...
Is insane!!
With just a light jump, I'd risen so high I couldn't even grasp where I was, taking in the top of the bedding tower I'd aimed for with both eyes.
But following that brief weightlessness for me was.
The inevitable laws of physics.
Rustle-!
!
I was now.
Plummeting toward the ground at an alarming speed.
"W-Wait!"
The big jump in place was fine and all...
'How the hell do I land?!'
Flailing my arms and feeling gravity rapidly closing in with my whole body.
Gulp-
I had no choice but to trust my legs right now.
'Please, don't let me die!'
The instant my soles hit the ground.
Plop-
......Huh?
There was no intense impact transmitted through my soles.
Contrary to my worries, landing from that height caused zero damage.
My legs were perfectly fine, unbelievably so.
So fine that.
I questioned if I'd really landed from that height.
Still dumbfounded by what just happened.
...Oh crap.
'Time!'
I didn't have time to stand here marveling.
I didn't have much time left.
It'd already been at least 10 seconds since I equipped this 'Mass-Produced Hero.'
I've confirmed its performance.
Now I just need to get to the top of that target bedding tower in one shot.
With another short deep breath like before.
As I steadied my stance to jump.
Flash-!
......Light?
'What light?'
A sparkling flash caught my eye from quite a distance away.
When I spotted a beam of light shooting high into the sky, I first thought it was a rescue signal from the Agency folks.
It looked exactly like that.
That single flash.
Until it split in all directions...
The split beams soon shot out rapidly in every direction.
Drawing strange trajectories through the air as if aimed at specific targets.
And right after.
Boom!
!
A massive explosion roared into my ears mercilessly.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, countless blasts pierced my hearing, echoing through the entire space.
I didn't witness it with my own eyes.
But I could roughly guess that those beams had flown toward something.
Like the explosions from smashing a large machine.
So those light beams had just.
Annihilated all the murder toys in this place in a single moment.
And.
Flash-!
As the flash grazed the cheek of a man standing dumbfounded in the current situation.
KABOOM-!
A deafening roar assaulted my ears, and text appeared before the man's eyes.
『Lucky Day』
!!
The black text 'Lucky Day' appeared before my eyes.
Suddenly.
Right in front of me.
"......"
My stiffened gaze slowly turned to where the flash had grazed my cheek and landed.
Even though it was just a small beam, the spot it passed left...
An endless black pit gaping open.
....
The sudden activation of 'Lucky Day.'
And the flash that grazed my cheek.
No need for more words.
The situation spoke for itself.
The landing spot of that flash that just grazed my cheek...
Wasn't the floor.
It was my head.
A loud voice echoed through the entire space right after.
"H-Huh? How'd you dodge it?"
The voice came from far away.
A woman's voice that had been mumbling strangely for a while now brushed my ears.
I swallowed dryly dozens more times.
And though I wished it wasn't true.
I couldn't deny what my eyes had seen.
Amid the brilliant flashes.
An entity with the power to shatter every murder toy in this place in an instant.
The possibility flashing through my mind now...
Was that new GRA Agency forces had been deployed into this ghost story.
And.
The pinnacle of the Agency's forces, known as.
Executive Director level.
And I know the one with that absurd mass-destruction item.
One of the few Executive Directors with overwhelming mass-destruction power.
-Z-Team Executive Director Seo Eun-bom.
That woman is here now.
No need to ask why.
Deploying an Executive Director into a mere C-grade place was simple.
The 'permanent erasure' of a ghost story whose very existence is a disaster.
To kill me, who'd recently been graded S-rank. Seo Eun-bom had been deployed.
Blatantly so.
She's here to kill me.
Now I really had no time to waste.
Any hesitation, and I'd get a nice hole blown through my head.
'Damn it!'
I immediately steadied my stance and jumped straight for the tower's peak.
Landing at the targeted spot.
Flash-!
'Let me catch my breath!'
Another bright flash shot up beyond the ceiling.
My eyes also caught the sight of a child with sheep horns, sleeping soundly atop the bedding tower as if the world were ending.
Gazing at the kid still asleep despite all the chaos around, I wasted no time pulling out the Quill Pen.
『Valid raw material identified.』
Yes!
Maybe because they were asleep and couldn't resist?
What luck.
This sealed the process of containing the ghost story in the Quill Pen without much delay.
But.
The real problem starts now.
Just moments ago, the flash attacks dispersed toward all the murder toys scattered in this space were now converging into one, rapidly stretching toward me.
If I take that head-on.
Instant death right here.
I'd vanish without a trace, obviously.
So please-
Just once...
'Work properly just once!'
I thrust forward the Quill Pen I'd just captured it with.
Drip-
Black ink weakly dripped from the Quill Pen's tip toward the floor, and text appeared before my eyes.
【The child just... loved toys, that's all.】