Chapter 48
Chapter 48
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 48. Aestheticism
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It might seem obvious, but if the Management Bureau has a Containment Team, then naturally there's also a Management Team. The Containment Team subdues containment objects, and then the Management Team describes management procedures in consultation with relevant departments.
Of course, that process is kept secret from everyone except the Management Team and the higher-ups.
I gaze at the turntable in front of me.
A turntable sitting quietly with an LP record placed on it, spinning away.
My temples are throbbing, so it feels like something is happening.
I look at the turntable.
[Name: Turntable]
[Age: Made 3 years ago]
[Specialty: Mental Delirium]
[Talent: None]
[Background: This turntable, infused with the bizarre stubbornness of someone claiming it's art, plays horrific music.]
[Weakness: Burn it.]
Can't we just burn things like this?
I click my tongue and look around the turntable.
The LP record is slotted in place, stopped.
I open the manual.
[Office Manual]
[PRV - Object Name: Turntable - Management Team Member Hwang Dongryeol's Record]
[This object continuously plays human screams.]
[Prolonged exposure leads to ongoing mental delirium and self-harm.]
[The screams last about a month, and when the music stops, otherworldliness begins around it, leading to the <CENSORED> phenomenon.]
[An employee with resistance to mental attacks must spin the turntable once a month.]
[Mental effects intensify while the music plays, and hallucinations may occur.]
Now this feels like a proper manual. Up until now, I'd been encountering things for the first time or with zero info, so there were times I wondered if it was even useful.
Anyway, if I'd left it alone without thinking, it would've been a disaster.
I stride over and press the rewind button.
The LP record starts spinning backward.
-Ahh! Aaaah!
After spinning backward for a long time, the music soon begins.
It wasn't music.
It was people's screams.
"Urk..."
My migraine intensifies to the point of ringing in my ears.
If you recorded hell's sinners screaming and played it back, it'd sound just like this.
I plug my ears with both hands, but the sound doesn't diminish at all as it starts resounding in my head.
A sound that seems to vibrate not the eardrums, but the soul itself.
-Aaaaah!!! Aaaaaah!!!
"Ugh!"
I roughly exhale and open my eyes to regain my senses.
"...What."
I was inside an art gallery.
My head was still ringing, and the tinnitus persisted, but more than that, the sudden sight of the gallery completely stole my attention.
Floors made of marble, a brilliantly shining chandelier.
And lining the sides—
"...Insane."
Things that used to be people.
A horrific sight unfolded before my eyes, too gruesome to describe.
In places where paintings should be in a normal gallery, there were human remains—or actual humans.
"What kind of lunatic..."
I press my temple and stagger forward.
"Please, spare me!"
A human scream rings out.
I turn toward the scream, and the ground folds as space gets sucked in.
Someone stood before me.
Not human.
The head was a human head.
A woman's face grinning as if her mouth would tear at the corners.
Her red hair was tangled like it had never been combed, and conversely, her freckled face evoked an inexplicable unease.
More than anything, the difference was—
-Clunk!
Where her body should have been, a white female mannequin torso was attached.
She opened her mouth, and unexpectedly fluent words flowed out.
"You're the human who destroyed my basement."
...
"How did you do it?"
Basement...
-Beep!
A tearing tinnitus starts in my ears.
The headache is so intense I can't even speak.
It feels like my head is splitting open.
"Let's take a look."
It stared right at my face.
And I looked up at its head.
[Name: Aestheticism]
[Age: -]
[Characteristics: Art]
[Talent: Art]
[Background: If you were to name the top ten most harmful entities to humans, this is proudly one of them.]
[Weakness: When all the galleries it creates burn away, it will disappear too.]
Did it sense my gaze? It looked at me with a radiant smile.
"Your struggles to survive somehow are admirable."
The mannequin's hand lifted eerily and tapped my forehead.
"Keep trying. I'll give you a gift too."
"Huhuk!"
The gallery flows past like a panorama.
Countless backdrops and artworks, along with people's screams assaulting my eyes and ears.
And I was back in the containment room.
Something was gripped in my hand.
I looked down at my hand, and in it was a very small, antique statue.
A statue crudely carved to resemble a human.
Soon, its information appeared before my eyes.
[Name: One Chance]
[Age: Just created]
[Characteristics: Life]
[Talent: None]
[Background: A capricious aestheticist occasionally gives this to humans it takes a liking to as a favor. Grants the power to defy death once.]
[Weakness: Destroyed when its holder dies.]
Drip...
Blood flowed from my nose.
The music made of people's screams still battered my ears, but unlike before, there was no headache.
I wiped the nosebleed flowing down with the back of my hand and headed outside. A man wearing sunglasses approached me with a worried look.
"You okay?"
"No."
My head was pounding.
The man handed me a handkerchief and matched my gaze apologetically.
"You saw something."
"You didn't know and send me in?"
"No."
"Human woman's head, white mannequin."
The man's hand stopped.
"...Can you explain?"
I wipe the flowing nosebleed and explain to the man. Details about the gallery and the object labeled Aestheticism.
After hearing my full explanation, the man looked at me with a grave expression.
"You're one of the few in Management Bureau history to see it and survive."
"Is that a compliment?"
"An enormous one. It's unbelievable you got out with just a nosebleed."
A compliment, right?
I looked up at the man, and sensing my gaze, he raised one hand.
"We'll protect you thoroughly at the Bureau."
"Not using me as bait?"
"To be honest, using you as bait would be insane."
"Why?"
"When you fish, do you use gold as bait?"
Tsk. I clicked my tongue and looked at the man.
"I hope you keep that promise."
"I stake the entire Management Bureau on it."
"You have that kind of position?"
"I'm higher than you think. And the Bureau won't fall to something like that anyway."
Then why haven't you gone out and caught it?
I sigh involuntarily.
"But it looks like you got something out of it too."
He glanced at my hand, read my expression, and quickly waved it off.
"Not taking it. It's yours fair and square. You earned it."
"Is this trustworthy?"
What if I die and respawn inside the gallery or something.
"To my knowledge, no such cases have ever been recorded."
As if dispelling my worries, he clapped his hands.
"Then I suppose I should lend you something now."
"How much more are you going to use me?"
"It's not that. Pure goodwill."
The man pulls two items from his pocket.
Familiar butane gas,
"...A bead?"
A small bead the size of a knuckle.
"It's not a containment object, but one of the research team's masterpieces. Throw it on the ground when in danger. It'll help."
"Not a bomb, right?"
"You're not the type to scatter bombs and survive, are you?"
I don't refuse gifts.
I tucked the butane gas and bead into my pocket.
Now I have some decent weapons besides Critical.
"Alright, then. Shall we talk about the 'Hospital'?"
...
"It'll take time, so let's talk on the way up."
I follow the man and listen as we walk.
"As you know, the Bureau has some enemies."
"You said it wasn't dangerous at all."
"To the Bureau, yes. They never attack us directly. They know they can't win."
...
"But they can touch civilians. Among them, the 'Hospital' is a bit special."
"Special?"
"They create diseases and try to cure them."
Create and cure diseases.
Yoo Daon in patient clothes came to mind.
"They experiment on countless people for that."
...
"If someone doesn't die no matter how much disease you transfer or how many surgeries you perform, wouldn't they be the perfect test subject?"
[The woman who refuses death gets caught in bizarre incidents from her first day on the job. But because she doesn't die, she meets someone different from all those who've used her, and once again stakes her life.]
It was what I'd seen when Yoo Daon's regeneration first activated.
"Too bad."
"Indeed. And frankly, I believe you know how much they want her back."
...
"We can't provide full support. The Bureau has its own issues."
Ding. The elevator arrives.
"But when that day comes, we can provide gear."
He winked and pointed to my inner pocket.
"Good luck."
The elevator doors closed with him inside.
...
What to do.
"Uh, Jaeheon-ssi!"
As I pondered, a familiar voice rang in my ears.
Black hair cascading to her waist, a bright smile, and softly curved eye smile.
A smile full of pure goodwill, unmistakable to anyone.
Yoo Daon waved her hand vigorously with that smile.
"Were you coming back from somewhere?"
...
"Did something happen?"
"Daon-ssi."
"Yes?"
"Want to grab a drink after work?"
"Sure!"
Yoo Daon nodded with a radiant smile.
Bathed in sunlight, her bright smile shone even more dazzlingly.