Chapter 2 - Daycare
Daycare
Translator : Elizabeth
"Ah."
Collapsing in place and sniffing, trembling at the cold wind brushing my skin, I was startled by the ung-ae (crying) sounds of the entities coming from outside and moved two steps further away from the door.
In the hand mirror I checked again and again, a face that still hadn't changed was looking back at me.
'The fortunate thing is.'
Was it due to the trait of becoming an Anomaly? I was no longer hungry.
Should I be happy about this...?
'No.'
The situation still hadn't improved. No, it had gotten worse!
I searched for my phone with trembling hands and logged into the gallery again.
[Title: Real-time Ghost-bro is in big trouble]
Nickname: User
Where is the bastard who told me how to use the stone earlier!!!!!!
↳ What the, you're still alive?
↳ But why the fuss?
↳ SafeToday: Oh, nice to see you.
↳ User: You bad bastard...!
↳ SafeToday: ? Why the temper?
↳ User: Because of you!!]
"Eek...!"
I said I'm in big trouble!
Instinctively feeling my lower body, I ended up despairing.
A very important object that maintained my masculinity had disappeared.
Now, in this world, a healthy and robust man named Park Jun-seo could no longer be found.
[↳ No, but if your fingers are fine enough to post on the gallery, haven't you already made a profit?
↳ Is it a profit?
↳ Ah lol at least I saved you lol
↳ SafeToday: 'ㅅ';;;
↳ User: I said I'm fucked, seriously;;;
↳ SafeToday: No, did you die or something, or is it a super urgent situation?
↳ SafeToday: Seeing you posting just fine, it seems like using the stone went well, so why are you acting like that;
↳ User: My body became weird, my body!
↳ SafeToday: ???
↳ Heu-eung... My body is weird...]
"....."
The information gap between us is severe.
They probably think I'm posting on the gallery with all limbs intact—well, partially true—but!
I don't know what kind of Anomaly I was hit with, but something floated in front of my eyes and my body changed too!
[↳ SafeToday: So did you escape?
↳ User: I couldn't!
↳ Thanks for the answer!
↳ R*tard lol
↳ Hang in there...
↳ Just about to die, did something stupid, and became 'just about to die' again?
↳ Hey hey hey]
[Title: What on earth are you doing;]
Nickname: SafeToday
You said you used the stone.
Why are you still doing stupid things like that?
By now, you should've either entered a nastier Anomaly or succeeded in the gamble, one of the two?
↳ User: How would I know that!
↳ SafeToday: Did you summon an Anomaly?
↳ User: Yeah;
↳ SafeToday: But.
↳ User: You told me to smear blood so I did, but weird purple light came out of the stone and black smoke just poured out.
↳ SafeToday: Oh, but.
↳ User: I was surrounded by black smoke and lost consciousness, and my body changed.
↳ SafeToday: ?
↳ SafeToday: What changed and how?
↳ What kind of Anomaly changes a body?
↳ That part is the Anomaly;
↳ Aha!]
"Ugh...!"
I shivered once again at the cold wind blowing in.
Why the hell did it strip all my clothes and change them!
'My suit!'
An item I bought with great resolve because I wanted to look sharp after getting a job, for what it's worth.
Due to the phenomenon just now, it disappeared without a trace, and the only thing hanging on my body is a thin negligee that a girl would wear before sleeping.
"Cold..."
Thanks to that, every time the cold air passed over my body—especially between my legs—my shoulders instinctively shrank with a hic sound at the awkward and creepy sensation.
It's a desperate situation and a desperate physical state, but I had to keep holding onto the gallery.
Do I tell the gallery this as it is?
According to the status window, I became an Anomaly, but my body turned from an adult male into a cute little girl?
Instinctive rejection comes first.
'You are the best spectacle for the Administration Bureau.'
Clearly, the information that floated up due to the quest window told me not to reveal my existence to those related to the Administration Bureau.
Why?
"Be- because weak Anomalies get locked up and sucked dry."
Having held the title of an agent, for what it's worth, I knew how the Administration Bureau handled Anomalies and entities.
They continue to explore Anomalies that are too vicious and malicious to handle, but those deemed manageable lead to containment measures.
"Prison..."
Locked up.
Confined entities are experimented on to the Bureau's taste and fall into existence where they must endlessly offer up resources.
"Me too...?"
The moment I imagined it, a chill swept over my shoulders.
The Administration Bureau controls Anomalies.
Because Anomalies are indeed bad guys.
'Anomalies tear people apart.'
Most of the unlucky people caught by them meet terrible ends.
That is why they confine entities by exerting the maximum technological power the Administration Bureau can perform.
"Ah."
I looked down at my two hands.
Slender arms covered in pale skin, unsuited for this terrible place.
However, the reality is, as the status window said, I have been encroached by an Anomaly, and it's a situation where it wouldn't be strange if the Administration Bureau 'misunderstood' my current form.
"...No."
Danger signals ring loudly in my head.
...It seemed I had to avoid informing the gallery of 'everything' happening right now.
"Sheesh...!"
Tears try to well up again from the injustice, but I wipe them roughly and grab the phone.
[- SafeToday: Did this guy die while talking? Where'd he go?
↳ Seeing him gibbering since earlier, looked like he'd die soon, well it's natural yep.
↳ Ah, another F-Rank goes like this...
↳ Yep, your future.
↳ lol You think you'll be different?]
[Title: You bad guys, I'm not dead yet]
Nickname: User
My head is attached fine, so why are you guys killing me off among yourselves!
↳ Oh, my dopamine is here.
↳ Tough, so tough.
↳ SafeToday: How long are you going to flip pancakes (waffle)? Hurry up and answer, it's frustrating;]
I forced my brain to work.
A situation where I can convince them without revealing my status and identity.
[↳ User: Something like a quest window floated in front of my eyes;
↳ ?
↳ SafeToday: ???
↳ Is this aggro (trolling)?
↳ User: No, seriously, a status window is floating in front of my eyes.
↳ Ah, why doesn't it appear for me?
↳ I want to go to another world too, fuck.]
[↳ Is there an Anomaly like that?
↳ Status Window Anomaly shiver
↳ Is it some hallucination-related Anomaly?
↳ SafeToday: This is ridiculous lol. Is it really aggro?
↳ User: Who trolls risking their life;
↳ You?
↳ Is that a racist remark?
↳ Gasp]
[Title: Yeah, well, you wouldn't have come this far just to troll]
Nickname: SafeToday
So what about that window?
Earlier you said your body was weird.
↳ User: No, after the status window appeared, I felt a bit livelier.
↳ SafeToday: What the;]
"...Phew."
First, I succeeded in glossing it over.
The next thing to ask is, of course, about the next situation.
[- User: But on this window
↳ User: It tells me to go outside and face the entities, what do I do?
↳ Yes?
↳ What the fuck lol
↳ If it's that dedicated, just die for it;]
"It's not a joooooke...!"
Seriously, it gives such a crazy quest, so what am I supposed to do...!
Injustice welled up again, but I took a deep breath and posted a reply.
[↳ User: Wouldn't it be better to just do as the quest says...?
↳ SafeToday: Are you crazy?
↳ SafeToday: If you want your belly stabbed by an Anomaly, go ahead.]
"Hiiiik..."
I hate that.
But the quest window wouldn't have appeared like this without any meaning, right...?
I'm sick of being locked up and staying still helplessly.
Rather than wasting time in this place without any hope, my mind leaned towards wanting to take action that held even a sliver of hope.
[↳ SafeToday: You're breathing right now because you got lucky.
↳ SafeToday: If you go outside now, you really die.
↳ Fr, bastards who break Daycare rules get insta-killed, simply put.
↳ I'm curious though, wanna try going out?
↳ You go out.]
Frustration takes the lead.
But what am I supposed to do here...?!
Since I've already broken the rules, the probability that the Administration Bureau won't care about me anymore is high.
'Sacrifices to a minimum.'
Because making additional sacrifices follow a target already judged dead is what they find most unpleasant.
[- User: I'll just try doing as the quest says.
↳ SafeToday: Ah damn, I said don't do it?
↳ User: Then what am I supposed to do here...! Stay locked up forever and die...?!
↳ User: Since starving to death while staying still is the same anyway, I have to go out and try something at least.
↳ Fr, the choices have no answer lol.
↳ Seeing this punk talk nonsense about quests and whatnot since earlier, it's already too late. RIP.
↳ Okay~ let's go out~]
Ung-aee!!
"Hic."
Once again, the cries of entities anxiously calling for a victim came from outside the door.
Did the other colleagues who came with me escape well on their own?
Since it's safe if you just follow the rules, they might have returned to the Administration Bureau without caring about my safety.
Slap. Slap.
Clutching the plain hand mirror tightly in my hand, I quietly approached the door.
"...."
There was no presence coming from immediately outside, but 'they' would be somewhere not far away.
「▶ Go outside the room and discover lower entities five times (0/5) (Incomplete)」
Gulp.
I hate it, I really hate it like crazy, but.
I wanted to bet my expectations, however faint, on this ridiculous coincidence that happened to me.
"You said it's an Anomaly...?! Anomalies don't attack each other, right?!"
Clearly, according to the status window, I had become something similar to an Anomaly.
This completely changed body seemed to forcibly add credibility to that point.
[- SafeToday: I don't know anymore.
↳ SafeToday: Telling him to just stay stuck there and die is also cruel to say;
↳ SafeToday: Still, be careful.
↳ User: Since I'll keep leaving records until right before I die, look at it later and if there's anything to add to the manual rules, add it.
↳ SafeToday: Ok;
↳ What, he was a nice F-Rank.
↳ Fuck, everyone turned their guns around, he was a nice bastard.
↳ The kid is nice, yeah;]
Knowing that the situation I'm in isn't just moderately desperate, over there they also eventually affirmed my actions.
"Huu."
My thin legs, devoid of muscle, tremble.
If I didn't tense up and hold on, it felt like I would collapse any moment.
"I'm going to live."
I can't die in a place like this.
In a place where such terrible monsters that dig into people's abdomens roam, I could never die in vain.
Because there are still many things I want to do.
Therefore—
Click.
I put my hand on the doorknob and slowly turn it.
Carefully, so that not even a faint metallic sound is made.
Since I have the hand mirror I just got, if I just shine it outside the room to check, I can clear the quest!
"Hoo, hoo...!"
.. ... ....
Ung-ae.
"Ah."
And I saw it.
The 'monster' waiting in front of the door, as if it knew I would come out from the start.
"Uh, ah. Ah...?"
My trembling legs couldn't hold on anymore and gave way backward.
"Hiiik."
My butt hit the hard ground with a thud, but before I could even feel pain from the impact, the phenomenon that rushed in pierced my thoughts.
It's there.
The entity named 'Crying Child', extremely angry that I violated the item.
The Crying Child of the Daycare roams the inside of the building looking for a scapegoat.
As if craving a mother's warm embrace, it had the habit of ruthlessly digging out the captured scapegoat's abdomen and settling inside.
'Ca, caught—'
Especially for a target who violated No. 9 among the items governing the inside of the Daycare, it approaches with aggression and speed that cannot be reacted to.
And here right now, was a scapegoat who had incurred the wrath of those terrible monsters.
"Ung-aee..."
The Crying Child attached to the ceiling slides down to the floor.
Even if it looks small, no different from any other baby on the outside, there was clearly an element that caused discomfort dwelling within them.
Pale skin devoid of blood as if already dead, and within the eyes of the small head that lifted with difficulty as if looking for mom, staring at me—dwelled clear malice.
Why does this tiny existence possess such grotesque strength to tear an adult's abdomen?
As if to answer that instinctive question, the Crying Child looking at me trembled.
Crunch!
The back of the curled-up small body.
The skin tore longways along the spine, finally starting to reveal what was inside.
"Ung-aeee!"
The Crying Child, having cornered its target, lets out a cry filled with delight.
A long body with bloody skin grotesquely pressed onto it, and long tentacles with sharp blades attached waved gently, looking for prey.
Along with nausea rising from deep inside, my thoughts, messed up by fear, barely squeezed out language.
"P, P, Please save me. I was wrong. Ah..."
I'm dying. Here, this futilely?
Slither.
One tentacle, squirming like a living snake, carefully swept down my cheek as if checking the freshness of the prey.
"Hic, hup!"
Tap.
Soon, the Crying Child, having finished its judgment, crawled over leading its tentacles.
"Ung-aee..."
Death approaches.
It will cross the threshold and toy with me until I scream a satisfactory scream, anticipating the terrible time to come.
Like that.
The Crying Child, which climbed up my trembling thin legs and was in a posture to rummage through my abdomen at any moment.
Flomp. (Soft thud/embrace sound)
"Ah...?"
As if it had been seeking warm warmth for a long time, it closed its eyes showing only whites and fell asleep in my embrace.
Zzz, zzz... (Soft breathing)
「▶ Go outside the room and discover lower entities five times (1/5) (Incomplete)」