Suspicious Movements

Nahee made her way to the Operations Planning Room.

The one who had summoned her was Director Yun Jonggu of the Planning Room.

The Operations Planning Room served as the control tower of the Response Bureau during normal times. It was safe to say that every document passed through their hands.

Among those duties were drafting operation plans, evaluating mission merits to grant rewards, and assessing agents for promotion.

And, though it happened only rarely, they also handled documents related to the disposal of agents.

That was why agents never treated the staff of the Planning Room lightly.

Yun Jonggu let out a warm, hearty laugh, but Nahee could not shake her wariness.

The man before her was the leader of those who could extract information from the smallest clues and circumstantial evidence, who planted countless layers of meaning into every word and gesture—and then uncovered them all.

Hypnosis would not work on him, and it would not be strange to say his ability to read psychology rivaled that of a professional therapist.

Perhaps that was why even this light small talk left her unbearably tense.

At Nahee's words, Yun Jonggu's eyebrows twitched with interest.

When Nahee gave a small nod, Yun Jonggu looked visibly pleased.

Yun Jonggu shuddered as if the memory alone was horrifying.

Nahee could not smile at the sight. It was because every agent suspected of attacking Planning Room staff had been eliminated. Rumors that Yun Jonggu was behind it all were rampant.

Perhaps even the spread of those rumors had been intentional. After that, the number of agents who dared touch the self-proclaimed neutral Planning Room had dropped sharply.

Yun Jonggu took a sip of tea, his expression showing clear relief.

Nahee pouted her lips and grumbled as if truly disappointed.

Not only had he survived two encounters with what agents treated as natural disasters, but he had rescued people each time. He had even accumulated merits that surpassed his rank, such as slaying the mother of the divers.

It was certainly astonishing, yet Nahee felt a sense of unease in the conversation. If he wanted to praise someone, he should have offered a reward or called the person in question instead of her.

Yun Jonggu pulled a rulebook for the amusement park from his pocket. It resembled the Response Bureau's format, but it was one Nahee had never seen before.

Leaving Nahee's growing suspicion hanging, Yun Jonggu continued.

…

This was a story Nahee already knew. It was the incident where an unstoppable contamination had warped every rulebook.

She too had been shocked when she saw the new rulebook she had rewritten herself.

Yun Jonggu finally got to the main point.

Generally, anomalies—excluding certain objects—were entities that could only be encountered inside anomaly spaces.

For the Response Bureau, that was a blessing. If they had lived in the same world, an even harsher reality would have awaited them.

However, spaces with high mana that devoured humans would occasionally erode into the real world. That was why the Bureau created rulebooks.

One of the aftereffects of such erosion was that anomalies once trapped inside anomaly spaces could now roam freely between reality and those spaces.

The white-faced ghost of the hotel had done so, and so had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠the visiting doctor of the hospital.

Nahee flatly denied Yun Jonggu's theory.

It made sense. If the anomaly space had grown powerful enough for an anomaly to travel back and forth, it would have been impossible to complete the ruleset.

The circus troupe.

At those words, Nahee's body trembled slightly. Before becoming an agent, during her training, that very example had been used to show how dangerous an anomaly space could become once it grew too large.

It was also a place the Response Bureau had barely managed to eliminate after nearly annihilating itself. If the anomalies there had been capable of resurrection, the Bureau—if not all of humanity—would surely have been destroyed.

If the anomaly in question had belonged to that space, overturning the entire Response Bureau would not have been impossible.

Now that she thought about it, the similarities between the circus and the amusement park were far too many—from mental contamination that induced feelings of joy to anomalies taking the form of dolls.

…

Yun Jonggu simply smiled without answering.

Nahee stared at the cup of tea in front of her.

What could be in it?

A truth serum? A memory erasure agent? Or perhaps some drug she wouldn't even recognize.

Yet in her current position of being suspected, she had no choice but to drink it.

Gulp—

The tea, at a pleasantly warm temperature, slid down her throat.

Only then did Nahee understand why Yun Jonggu had called her. It was to ask about Jeongchan.

These were the words of an old man steeped in deep suspicion. He had not always been like this, but his position had shaped him into this man.

I thought only I knew that fact.

Nahee could not fathom how far the Planning Room Director's reach extended in gathering information. She could only feel anew that the abyss of the Response Bureau was no less deep than any anomaly space.

Yun Jonggu wrote something on a small memo pad.

All the names were completely new to Nahee.

She examined the names with careful attention.

Just as the Status Quo Faction maintained a good relationship with the company, perhaps they could cooperate with these groups as well.

Yun Jonggu made his proposal.

It was a request to suspect a colleague to whom she had entrusted her life and become a spy. Nahee's face twisted at the words, but what came next shook her deeply.

It meant he would grant her the promotion she had longed for, even if she lacked the qualifications. The influence of the Operations Planning Room Director carried that much weight.

She already knew this. It was precisely why she sought to reach 7th Grade.

(Caution: Image)

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(Approaching the Containment Bureau)

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(Raopf discovered preparing for broadcast)

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(Caution: Disturbing Image!)

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(Raopf has recognized you)

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