PC Room
There was no chaos to speak of.
J arrived at the scene, lighting a cigarette and furrowing his brow. The captured anomaly was locked in the cooling device of the containment unit, his entire body frozen solid. The injured were being carried to the emergency facilities inside the Management Bureau, groaning in pain.
The remaining management staff were checking on the unconscious students. Due to their reckless movements, there were broken joints and severe injuries everywhere. The staff poured O-777, the so-called HP potion, onto their wounds, and the injuries were instantly healed.
Other personnel were busy restoring the bullet holes and damaged parts on the school's outer wall.
The only saving grace was that the O-525 had covered the entire school, so the outside civilians had no idea about this incident.
The remaining task was simply to make this event disappear as if it never happened.
It had been a year since the day a similar incident occurred.
“J-ssi, you’ve arrived.”
At that moment, Lee Si-a appeared beside him. She was staring at him with eyes that seemed uneasy.
“004. Report the situation.”
“The anomaly that appeared at the school has been captured, with multiple injuries but no deaths. We have captured the main culprit of this incident, and all H-174s encountered at the gymnasium have been eliminated. Unlike the students who were mentally contaminated by the anomaly and fell unconscious, there were students who maintained their sanity and were isolated. However, since her H-value was within acceptable limits, we only removed her memories.”
“You’ve heard all that already. What I’m curious about is who took care of it. That’s something you could never do with your abilities.”
J's cold gaze pierced Lee Si-a. It was as if he could see straight into her heart, causing her to flinch and lower her eyes.
“T-that is Han Mir.”
“As expected.”
He took a deep drag on his cigarette and exhaled a cloud of white smoke.
“Where is that anomaly now?”
“T-that’s annoying to deal with, so he threw it away and disappeared. He probably went home.”
“Tsk, what did you do without catching him?”
“I’m sorry. No matter how much I tried to reason with him, his stance was so firm…”
J sighed deeply and crushed the cigarette butt on the ground with his shoe.
“Fine. I’ll go find that anomaly myself later.”
“Yes.”
He harbored ill feelings toward Han Mir. He had been working inside the Management Bureau for a while, which was a safe job that no longer threatened his life, but because that guy had escaped, he had to take all the blame and was demoted to field duty.
He should have captured the guy somehow, even if it meant forcing him to ingest mind-breaking drugs.
At first glance, it might seem like he solved the anomaly incident, but his thoughts were different. In reality, he was just another anomaly dragging along anomalies and anomalous events.
Around Han Mir, anomalies and anomalous events had appeared for two consecutive days. Unless they dealt with him properly, such incidents would likely repeat.
Even if it passed safely without casualties now, they didn’t know when a much more dangerous anomaly or anomalous event would occur.
And at that time, there was no guarantee that Han Mir would solve it like now. In this incident, if things went wrong, the dispatched unit members could all be wiped out. If such dangerous situations repeated without Han Mir’s help, it would eventually become a threat to the world.
The anomaly that the Management Bureau should be most vigilant about right now wasn’t the one sealed underground that would bring about the end of the world if awakened, nor the one secretly transported to a restricted area that no one could approach.
It was Han Mir himself.
Other anomalies were maintaining their safety, but Han Mir’s unpredictable actions could lead to any result.
If it were up to him, he’d like to kill him cleanly, but because he possessed the power of a hero, it was impossible with his own strength as just a human.
They needed a way to control that anomaly. Given that he was dispatched as the responsible party for this incident, pressure would undoubtedly come from above to resolve it somehow. This branch here was just a monitoring station.
If they couldn’t handle it, they’d have to be executed.
Not just fired, but a real death sentence.
He stared at Lee Si-a for a moment. She felt uncomfortable with his gaze sweeping over every corner of her body, but she accepted it without showing it.
“Either way, that anomaly is a vigorous young man. He’s probably in the prime of his hormones.”
“…Huh?”
“004. I heard your mission is to seduce the anomaly. If the method you came up with doesn’t work on him, forcibly overwhelm him.”
Lee Si-a blinked for a moment, pondering his intention.
“That means…”
“You know it well but pretend not to. Isn’t that a must-learn for female agents? About the core of the beauty trap. You have a good figure and face, so have sex with that anomaly and take the lead.”
Lee Si-a bit her lower lip hard.
⁎⁎⁎⁎⁎
“I’m quitting without permission, but honestly, since it’s become such a mess, it’s fine to leave, right?”
Han Mir thought that the bothersome aftermath would be handled by the Management Bureau, so today he could enjoy a day off. He was wandering the city.
Even though it was still early, people were busy going about their own paths. Some were preparing ingredients inside shops, others driving trucks to procure materials for the shops. Janitors cleaning up the remnants of last night’s frenzy and drunks getting hangover soup with hot rice porridge.
Han Mir felt a sense of peace and smiled faintly.
What he desired was not turbulent, not stimulating, but just a peaceful daily life. Not rolling around in a scene where an anomaly was rampaging like just now.
Why had he never been entangled with anything that could be considered an anomaly before going to the other world, but after returning, he was entangled like this? He wondered if something peculiar happened in the reverse summoning process or if the Demon King army had entered this world. But since he couldn’t contact his current companions, he couldn’t ask. If he told the Management Bureau, they would obviously try to use him or isolate him, so he didn’t want to get close to them.
“Mm?”
At that moment, Han Mir saw a sign that was a holy grail to the male students around him.
The sign of a PC room that had seen some years. Seeing that familiar yet nostalgic sign, his heart fluttered with a mix of emotion and a thrill from deep within.
He had forgotten the existence of PC rooms during his long life in the other world.
Even though he loved games like that.
Han Mir smiled brightly and entered the PC room.
The traces of the money he had poured out before being summoned to the other world were still there intact.
Remaining Time: 10 hours 30 minutes
“Huhu, today I’ll feel like the old days and stay up all night.”
Han Mir logged into his favorite game. Thanks to the power gained from the other world life, his reaction speed was surprising even to himself. The attacks of enemies flying on the screen looked like slow motion, and he could predict how they would move.
As a result, he set an unbelievable record of 20 consecutive wins in less than an hour.
But for some reason, the heart that had been filled with excitement as he played the game grew duller and duller.
“Useless. Was it really this boring originally?”
He pouted his lips and ended the game.
The game he had invested so much time in, one that made him sweat with concentration for each round, now felt as boring as playing the games he did in his childhood as an adult.
So he connected to another game and played, but the result was the same.
No matter what game he played, he won easily, and even if there was a troll player on the team, he didn’t lose. Chat discussions erupted that he was using hacks.
“Haa, everything is boring.”
Han Mir leaned back in the plush chair and banged his head against it. It seemed that competitive games were no longer suitable for him anymore. He thought about playing an RPG game, but there were only pay-to-win games, so there was no game that matched his current taste.
He was thinking of just going out and eating delicious food. There was something catching his eye on the edge of the monitor. A game he had never seen before on the desktop background.
A door icon drawn boldly on a purple background. For some reason, it had a strangely captivating power.
“Shall I try one last time?”
Han Mir clicked the game without hesitation.
I will grant you the greatest pleasure. However, once selected, it cannot be reversed. Will you participate?
[Yes/No]
Han Mir shrugged and naturally clicked Yes.
Paaaaaat!
Then, a dazzling light burst out from the monitor, so bright it was hard to open one’s eyes.
Han Mir, who thought from the start that it was a game inducing vision impairment, frowned. In his clear vision, he saw clearly.
An old door slowly revealing itself in the pure white light.
Squeak.
With a creepy sound as if it was right in front of him, the door opened.
“Eh?”
Han Mir blinked blankly.
“What is this?”
He had been sitting in a plush chair, but suddenly he was in a space he had never seen before. He looked around, gritted his teeth, and spat out curses.
“Ah, shit. Is this real? It’s happening again and again?”