The Past
Familiar gear.
Familiar scenery.
I had never seen it even once. I had never used it even once. And yet it felt familiar—as if I had been wearing it for years, as if I had been staring at this exact vista for years.
Then the memories came flooding in. Just like when I equipped an Identity, they poured straight into my skull.
“Ugh…!”
A junior split cleanly in half right before my eyes. A classmate crushed under a Trial that had appeared without warning. A senior who stepped forward to protect me and died with a hole through his chest. Every memory tore through my mind like a rabid animal, clawing and thrashing without mercy.
“Hayeon! Are you okay?!”
“Ah, mister? Why all of a sudden?!”
“Hyung!”
Even my companions’ shouts could not stop the torrent of memories from raking through my head. And then, at last, the wave that had seemed endless finally broke.
“Hah… hah…”
Constellation, ‘One Who Oxidized into Light’, wears a complicated expression at the long-unseen sight.
Constellation, ‘Librarian of the Library’, recalls a horrific past and frowns.
Ayin and Angela both reacted with clear distaste, as if their own terrible pasts had surfaced as well.
Then, from the far end of the corridor, someone came running.
“Team Leader Park Hayeon! What are you doing here?!”
A staff member with pink hair streaming behind her sprinted toward me—the very same employee who had first warned me of the crisis in the dream I had before entering the Theater Dungeon. My former junior, Evangelin.
“It’s an emergency, Team Leader! The Mountain of Smiling Bodies has escaped and already evolved to Stage 2!”
“But… who are these people? Why don’t they have any E.G.O gear…?”
Evangelin rattled off the situation in a rush, then finally turned her questions on the companions standing behind me.
“Ah, we were just—”
“Evangelin. Is that everything?”
The answer that left my mouth was so cold it even gave me chills. The body that had been kneeling on the floor was already standing ramrod straight, eyes locked on the employee in front of me.
“! No, sir! Actually…”
“Answer quickly. You know I hate people who drag things out.”
“…Nothing There has escaped.”
“Senior Joshua is trying to hold it back, but… it’s already evolved to Stage 3…”
“Tell Joshua right now to prioritize suppressing the Mountain of Smiling Bodies first.”
“And order every other employee to stay clear of the Disciplinary Team.”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
The moment I finished speaking, Evangelin bolted in the opposite direction. When I turned around, my companions were staring at me with open bewilderment.
“…Let’s go. We don’t have much time.”
“…Huh? Uh, yeah.”
“W-What the hell, mister…? And what’s with that gear…?”
“For now, don’t ask anything.”
At my words their mouths snapped shut. In silence we walked to the elevator at the end of the corridor and stepped inside.
The doors had barely closed for ten seconds before they opened again. What greeted us was a lobby painted entirely in red, and standing in its center was a monster that spoke with countless overlapping voices.
“HeLlo?”
“hELp!”
“Ugh, what the hell is that thing?”
It spoke as if a dozen different people were talking at once, every syllable a tangled mess of voices.
“HeLlO?”
KWAANG—!
“…Huh?”
Before I even realized it, my hand had already caught the crimson bullet that had been flying straight at Lee Jihye’s face. Her legs gave out and she collapsed to the floor.
“What… the hell was that…?”
“H-Hayeon…?”
“Who did you eat this time?”
“Manager! Manager!”
It just kept wailing “Manager.” And I knew that voice.
“…So you went too, Alps.”
Alps—the only classmate who had still been left. His cheerful chatter had been the one thing that made this hellish life even slightly bearable. Now even that was gone.
“I’ll make you want to crawl back into your containment unit.”
I leveled the greatsword in my hands at the creature. A black rectangular blade studded with yellow eyes—one of Lobotomy Corporation’s absolute top-tier E.G.O.
Twilight was in my grip right now.
Paht—
I closed the distance in a single burst and cleaved the monster vertically.
Shwaak—!
“HeLP!”
“There’s no one left in this place who will help you.”
I knocked aside the iron mace swinging in from a diagonal and carved it horizontally. The thing thrashed as if in agony. One after another I severed its legs, its arms, its torso. Unable to endure any longer, it collapsed back into a red egg.
“Mister… were you always this strong?”
“…Park Hayeon. What the hell happened to you?”
“…Get out of there. The recovery team will be here any second.”
No sooner had the words left my mouth than the elevator doors behind my companions slid open and people poured out. In moments they had scooped up Nothing There’s egg and carried it away. One of them stopped in front of me and saluted.
“Excellent work, Team Leader Park Hayeon!”
“The Mountain of Smiling Bodies?”
“Yes, sir! We just finished suppressing it and completed containment!”
“Good. Well done.”
“Thank you, sir!”
He bowed respectfully once more and left with the rest of the recovery team. My companions could only stare at the scene as if they could not believe their eyes.
“This place is Lobotomy Corporation.”
“This is not a movie. This is hell.”
“Hell… you say?”
“Yes. What else would you call a place crawling with monsters that defy human comprehension?”
Their faces drained of color; cold sweat beaded on their skin. They were probably imagining that every monster here was like the Nothing There they had just witnessed.
“Don’t worry. That one was the highest-grade Abnormality in this facility.”
“Abnormality…?”
“Even if I explained, you wouldn’t understand.”
“And there’s nothing good about understanding it either.”
They swallowed the flood of questions rising in their throats and closed their mouths.
“Follow me. I’ll give you a quick introduction.”
I led them back into the elevator. Moments later we arrived in a vast space saturated with yellow light.
“This is the Central Command. It’s the core of the entire company.”
“The core…?”
“Whoa! What’s that?! It’s so cute!”
Lee Jihye was making a fuss in front of one of the containment unit doors. That one was… Punishing Bird’s unit, if I remembered correctly.
“W-Wait, why is it coming this way?”
“…Get behind me, Jihye.”
She scrambled backward at my words. The containment door opened and a small bird fluttered out on beating wings.
“From this moment on, do not lay a single finger on it.”
“One wrong touch and you’re dead.”
Everyone immediately shifted into a wary stance. Punishing Bird was harmless if left alone—but the instant anyone struck it even once, it would swallow them whole. The big bird from before had been friendly toward me. Punishing Bird might be the same… but there was no guarantee it would extend that kindness to anyone else.
“Peep?”
It spotted me, flew over, and began circling. After buzzing around my face as if confirming my identity, it suddenly—
“Peep!”
—rammed straight into my face.
“Oof—”
It rubbed its body against my cheek, chirping happily. Behind me I could feel several pairs of eyes boring into my back with mixed emotions.
“…After all that talk about how dangerous it is, it’s just a cute little thing after all!”
“Same as last time… is there something special about Hayeon…?”
“Hyung… can I pet it just once?”
Gil-yeong approached with sparkling eyes.
“Peep!”
Before I could answer, the bird flew over and rubbed itself against him.
“Whoa…”
Gil-yeong stroked Punishing Bird with careful hands. The bird seemed to enjoy it, letting out a high, pleased cry.
“Peep!”
“M-Me too, just once…”
“Punishing Bird. Come here.”
It abandoned the slowly approaching Lee Jihye and flew back to me. I could feel her despair, but Abnormalities were not animals for petting. They were beings that could snatch a human life in a single instant—and I had no intention of leaving one free.
This entity can be contained.
A blue window floated up before my eyes. At the same time I opened my mouth.
“Containment.”
Containment
Golden chains erupted from the floor and wrapped around Punishing Bird exactly as they had around the big bird before. Far from looking uncomfortable, the little bird seemed to find the chains cozy and simply nestled into them.
“Peeeee…”
Slowly the chains sank back into the floor, taking the bird with them until nothing remained.
Constellation, ‘One Who Oxidized into Light’, activates the TT2 Protocol.
The Theater Owner is satisfied with the new ending.
A passage leading out of the movie has opened in the Control Team lobby.
A passage had opened—not a forced ejection, but an actual exit. That meant something still remained.
“You all go on ahead. I still have things to look for, so I’ll leave later.”
“…Alright. Honestly, worrying about you in a place like this doesn’t seem to mean much.”
“Tch… Fine, but next time you let me pet that bird!”
“Then I’ll go first, Hayeon. See you later.”
“Come back quick, hyung.”
“Yeah. Take that elevator over there and you’ll reach the top.”
They headed for the elevator I pointed out. In moments the doors closed and they vanished from sight.
“Well then… time to go hunting.”
I stepped into the elevator on the opposite side and let it carry me away.
To cut straight to the result: I reaped three harvests.
Der Freischütz. Funeral of the Dead Butterflies. Crumbling Armor.
I was able to contain a total of three Abnormalities. Everything else was beyond containment, and taking the E.G.O gear stored in the equipment rooms proved impossible as well.
I rode the elevator back down to the Control Team lobby. Now it was time to wake from the nightmare.
Constellation, ‘One Who Oxidized into Light’, finishes his work.
Constellation, ‘One Who Oxidized into Light’, confirms his achievements and is satisfied.