How Dare You Touch Mary?
The containment facility had changed a lot since the day I first fell into this world. No one would ever recognize the dark, gloomy cavern it used to be from its current appearance.
‘It really has changed a lot.’
While the Response Bureau had transformed dramatically, the anomaly gallery remained exactly as it had always been.
They were still busy tearing each other apart, as always.
When I was still alive, in the later years of my life, would I ever have imagined that a bonsai employee I had poured so much affection into as a hobby would appear here?
This has never happened before, and it’s not even the same world—it’s a completely different one. What do you make of this?
The fact that the employee has already fallen into the hands of the freak who stuffs dolls is punishment enough, so please show some mercy.
Besides, honestly, none of you wrote anything about the employee in the manual either. Why am I the only one getting flak for this?
DollBloodSauce: The results turned out fine anyway! Say something, you freak who stuffs dolls!!!
DollPizza was getting beaten up even harder than usual today.
Watching it didn’t make me feel particularly sorry for him.
After all, he still hadn’t handed over the doll collection.
I didn’t know what was so great about that doll collection, but his nasty selfishness in wanting to keep it all to himself was infuriating.
‘This guy had something decent after all?’
It was a collection that beautifully captured the unique personalities of dolls hundreds of times more charming than Amurotica.
I understood what he meant. I too was deeply immersed in the charms of various anomalies, but in the end, I always returned to Mary.
I had never once neglected my management of Mary.
Amurotica would be reborn anew in this place through my loving care. If it were ever rehabilitated someday, I might employ it as staff, but that time was not now.
After several rounds of verification confirmed that Amurotica had been DollBloodSauce’s employee, the ghosts went into an uproar.
It was because of the possibility that employees who had been with them in that world might reappear as anomalies, or that some might have already established themselves here.
Such a thing had never happened before.
I knew they were all fossils, but I hadn’t realized the gap had widened to this extent.
Anyway, it was only a possibility, and even if I knew, there wasn’t much I could do about it. The only option was to grow stronger so I could continue cherishing anomalies like this.
‘First, I need to manage these kids.’
I had to do what I had to do.
The others seemed to have been managed fairly well in their own way, but Mary looked quite filthy even from a distance.
“What is this…”
When I approached and looked closely, it was far worse than that. There was a crack in Mary’s left shin.
She was the very first anomaly to enter our containment facility, the one I had managed every single day. Everyone knew how much I cherished her, so there was no way anyone inside the Response Bureau would have done this.
Who on earth—?
I turned to look at the employees who had been quietly following behind me since earlier.
“What happened? Is there anyone among you who injured Mary?”
“There isn’t anyone among us exactly, but the Amryu Association suddenly launched a massive assault, and she got hurt during the chaos!”
“And what were you all doing?”
“Well……”
Judging by the bruises and injuries, they had at least pretended to fight, but they clearly hadn’t done it properly. After all, none of them had lost limbs or become incapacitated.
“Do a better job of protecting her next time.”
“Yes sir.”
“I’d prefer this kind of thing never happens again.”
I didn’t say anything more. There was no need to put it into words.
Starting today, I planned to drill the spirit of a true aficionado—someone willing to lay down their life for anomalies—into their heads until it was firmly embedded. I would train them exactly as I did things myself. They would come to think that dying would be far more comfortable.
“Organize everything the Amryu Association did and bring it to me.”
After checking the documents, it seemed the Amryu Association’s members had been causing quite the nuisance while I was at the amusement park.
Not only had individual armaments and combat prowess grown stronger, but they had even begun launching coordinated group assaults.
If I left them alone any longer, they would keep interfering like this. It seemed best to clean them up before things got worse.
If there was any chance an employee connected to the ghosts might appear, I needed to prepare in advance. It would probably take quite a while.
Fortunately, it seemed there was no connection. The ghosts were also furious that the containment facility had been attacked. It looked like they all had a strong aversion to assaults.
The Amryu Association was a criminal syndicate operating in the shadows, a coalition of underworld organizations. They dabbled in anything that could make money—including, of course, anomalies and anomalous phenomena.
Mana, drugs, even humans and anomalies themselves.
Their main source of income was selling all materials obtained from anomalous spaces and utilizing those spaces themselves.
After examining goods leaking from the black market, the Response Bureau speculated that the Amryu Association was also using other anomalous spaces that had yet to be identified.
This was the primary reason the Response Bureau viewed the Amryu Association with such caution.
‘Time to wipe them all out. How dare they touch Mary?’
The EastRepresentative, who watched over my daily training, had once told me that true masters imbued multiple meanings into a single move.
From that perspective, my actions naturally carried other reasons as well.
The endless promotion of the containment facility in the anomaly gallery—despite constantly being banned—had finally borne fruit. I had received a direct message.
She had the kind of amorphous hair and figure that seemed capable of transforming at will. A dress fused with her body, reptilian skin, and sticky wings that scattered white powder as they fluttered.
She was an incredibly charming anomaly.
How kind she was.
I would get my revenge and meet her no matter what.
Wasn’t this exactly what the EastRepresentative meant by imbuing multiple meanings into a single move?
[Infiltration of Amryu Association Headquarters]
I was about to immediately accept the mission from the Response Bureau without hesitation, but an unexpected obstacle stood in my way.
“The competition rate is extremely high. In cases like this, they usually select the most suitable candidate.”
“What are the selection criteria?”
“It varies by mission, but this time it will be based on combat ability. They’ll verify it through sparring. Will you still proceed?”
I nodded.
The employee silently added my name to the candidate list.
“Would you like to see the list?”
‘They’re only picking one person, yet ten people applied?’
Looking at the list, everyone except Nahee was unfamiliar to me.
“A lot of people from the Status Quo Faction applied.”
Ha Taewon was standing beside me, looking at the list. I hadn’t even sensed his movement.
“Is that so?”
“Yeah. It’s strange. Normally, missions like this are handled by our side. The Status Quo Faction usually prefers places that operate according to established rules or things that make money, like mana collection.”
“……”
“They’re doing things they’ve never done before. It smells fishy.”
Ha Taewon sniffed as if he had caught a whiff of something suspicious.
“Normally I would have applied myself, but if you’re going, there’s no need.”
“What about Senior Nahee?”
“If she were in normal condition, I would trust her with it. But not now. She’s too broken to take on a mission. She’s just running nonstop without rest.”
“Is that even possible?”
Although agents died easily, the Response Bureau took fairly good care of its personnel.
No matter how badly someone was injured, as long as they were still breathing, they would be treated. Even if minor mental issues arose, they would be taken off duty and given full treatment.
The fact that Ha Taewon said she was that broken meant she shouldn’t have been able to take on consecutive missions.
“Have you forgotten? Nahee is a hypnotist. It’s easy for her to manipulate others into thinking she’s mentally fine.”
“That could be. But even so, is there a reason she would push herself so recklessly?”
“……I don’t know. Anyway, I’d appreciate it if you could defeat Nahee, Jeongchan.”
“If I beat all the other candidates, you mean.”
“If you fight as well as you did in the sewers, the rest won’t be a problem.”
Ha Taewon chuckled.
“Those guys don’t know that, though. They still think of you as nothing more than someone who’s good at finding rules.”
“That’s good.”
The more the opponent let their guard down, the easier it would be to secure the mission.