Until the Amryu Association Falls
The two thoughts split inside my head—kill the Amryu Association that hurt Mary and rescue the female anomaly who wants to come to the Management Bureau from the Amryu Association—then spun like a taegeuk before fusing into one. They were separate ideas, yet both fixed on the same target.
Capture the Amryu Association.
The bracket appeared. It was a single-elimination tournament; winners advanced.
Everyone else only needed two wins. I had to win three matches to reach the finals.
The Status Quo Faction agents were clustered together, whispering. It looked like they were plotting something. They seemed less concerned with who advanced and more with which faction came out on top. Maybe Ha Taewon was right—they were scheming.
Ha Taewon had shown me unwavering trust from the moment we met. His combat ability was outstanding, but I found it hard to believe someone who spouted nonsense about me saving the Response Bureau once.
What the hell is a geul-kaseu anyway?
Aah, you don't know…
He chewed over the memory with a bitter expression, then left once registration for mission support closed. He must have been watching until the end in case a 7th-grade from the Status Quo Faction stepped in.
That meant none of the duel participants were 7th-grade or higher. Lucky for me.
The ghosts were right. We were the same rank, but the years they had accumulated couldn't be dismissed easily.
Above all, while I had fought anomalies since arriving here, I had never fought another person. It meant I lacked experience. I had no choice but to approach this carefully.
So far, the number of times I had charged in recklessly could be counted on one hand. I moved after slowly observing and analyzing. I hadn't intended it, but the martial arts I learned fit that pattern perfectly. Absorbing energy bought me time to scout, and it exposed the opponent's weaknesses more clearly.
I was confident in my mental strength and the energy stored in my dantian, so I planned to fight the same way this time.
Nahee, swinging her flail mercilessly to crack skulls. Ha Taewon, pulling a gun from his coat and pumping bullet after bullet into his target until the damage registered. Jang Yo-el, who alone swung a massive cross to crush anomalies beyond recognition. Every agent I'd seen in action was a monster. (Tosam was cute, so she didn't count.)
I had to defeat four people who were either equal to those monsters or just short of them. One of them was Nahee. I had hoped to face her in the finals, but the bracket made that impossible. If we both kept winning, we'd meet in the semifinals.
“Senior, I'll see you in the semifinals.”
“……”
“Senior?”
“Yes, my junior.”
Nahee looked dazed, similar to the survivors we had rescued from the amusement park.
“Is something wrong?”
“I was spacing out for a moment.”
She popped some pills into her mouth and moved as if nothing was wrong.
“Let's definitely meet in the semifinals, my junior. If we fight, be careful of my hypnosis.”
“You're going to use your hypnosis ability?”
“Of course. I won't hesitate to use any means necessary.”
She was really going to use that terrifying ability?
“Please go easy on me.”
I spoke from the heart.
Honestly, having my limbs cut off or holes punched through my body wasn't that scary, but hypnosis was.
If Nahee had been a middle-aged, pot-bellied man in a white tank top, I would have forfeited the match without hesitation.
Nahee laughed at my expression, as if she found it absurd.
“Hehe. Anyway, your mental barrier will block most of it, so it probably won't work properly. At worst, you'll just get a headache.”
If that was all, I needed to worry more about her flail.
I studied her flail closely, noting its shape and spacing. I also observed the rhythm of her arms and legs when she swung it. The proper distance I needed to maintain was already forming in my mind.
“Normally I would yield to you, but this time I really want to handle it myself.”
It seemed Nahee had her own story. I didn't know what it was, but I had my own reasons for wanting to take down the Amryu Association.
“I can't yield either.”
“Good. I wouldn't want you to. But promise me one thing.”
Nahee looked toward the Status Quo Faction group. Her gaze bored into one person in particular.
As if noticing her stare, one of the agents there looked back. It was the 8th-grade agent Shin Yugeon.
“No matter who wins between us, make sure the Status Quo Faction doesn't win. Absolutely.”
Cold fury lingered on Nahee's face as she spoke.
Unlike the cynical ExplorationLover, I felt a strange sense of unease seeing Nahee—who always tried to maintain her dignity—act this way.
“Senior, did something happen to you?”
Nahee's mouth parted slightly, then closed. It moved again before finally remaining shut.
“Even if I told you, it would only interfere with the fight. So if you win, I'll tell you. Now go on, get out there.”
The duels began. I was up first.
“Working as an agent for the time being will be difficult.”
Nahee ignored the doctor's words.
She had heard them when they attacked the amusement park,
when they escaped the quiz show,
when they cleared the sewers,
and countless times before that. She had heard it so often that, like remembering the melody of a song after listening to it a few times, she could mimic the doctor's next line perfectly.
Just like now.
“Your mental contamination has already reached a serious level. It's a wonder you're still sane.”
The doctor's eyes widened in shock. He tried to jump up from his seat, but his legs wouldn't move.
“You won't be able to move your lower body. You won't be able to scream, either.”
It was because he was under hypnosis.
“What is this… surely not…”
This sight was painfully familiar to her.
“That's right. I'll hypnotize you into diagnosing me as mentally sound. I'll also be taking the mental contamination treatment medication you have.”
Nahee's words struck the doctor like a blow.
This wasn't just any condition. It was mental contamination.
Even ordinary humans exposed to anomalous phenomena would have their minds corrupted and change.
A person who lost their sense of direction in the sewers and mistook left for right would turn on their right-turn signal and swerve left.
A person with the common contamination pattern of insisting they had four fingers would turn everyone else's fingers into four on a busy street.
One of the contaminated people from the amusement park had torn open the mouths of family members who wouldn't smile at them.
Even ordinary people with contaminated minds did such things. If an agent went mad, the fact that they possessed transcendent power made them no different from an anomaly. That was why the Response Bureau spared no expense in treating and managing agents—to control those who could be even more dangerous than the anomalies themselves.
Nahee's declaration showed she no longer cared about any of that. To the doctor, she was no different from an anomaly wearing human skin.
“I know my own limits. I haven't caused any accidents and I've been fine.”
“Couldn't that also be the result of memory manipulation?”
“I haven't crossed the line. If I had, I would already be locked up somewhere, wouldn't I?”
The doctor reviewed the results of her mental contamination tests from the past few years. Every result showed normal. He couldn't trust the data.
Like mental illness, mental contamination had many aspects that couldn't be verified through simple tests. It required direct observation and confirmation by people. It always had to pass through human hands.
In that sense, those with the ability to deceive people could escape mental contamination diagnosis whenever they wanted.
“Now I finally understand how someone with mental interference abilities could have the mental barrier of an average agent. Since you're already broken, those results were inevitable.”
Nahee didn't deny it. She simply waited, looking bored. The doctor didn't miss the signal.
“I've said these words so many times.”
“You've said that many times too.”
“Then you must be familiar with me saying that while I've seen many malingerers, this is the first time I've seen an agent who deceives a doctor because she wants to keep working?”
“That's correct.”
The doctor hid his flustered expression and asked calmly.
“Exactly when did you start deceiving me?”
“There were times when a large, unexpected sum of money would periodically appear in your wallet, right?”
“…There were.”
“You used that money to buy mental contamination treatment drugs and to eat out with your family. It was probably from then.”
“……From the beginning, then.”
“I'm sorry. Goodbye.”
Nahee snapped her fingers.
She was already a veteran who had been working since her high school days—more than eight years. Editing the hypnotized doctor's memories and filling them with new ones was now something she could do with her eyes closed.
After a brief moment, the doctor came to his senses again. The confused doctor gave a completely different diagnosis from before.
“The consultation shows no issues today either. Is it because you have abilities even though your barrier is average? Your recovery is fast. You may go now.”
“I'll see you again.”
“Please keep coming for tests and consultations. If only all agents were like you, Nahee.”
“Wouldn't that make your job harder?”
Leaving the puzzled doctor behind, Nahee took a bottle of medicine.
She couldn't break down yet.
Not until she destroyed the Amryu Association.