Chapter 273

273
Within the sub-zero atmosphere.
A voice drifted from the other side of the reinforced steel portal, the sole entry point to the cramped chamber where the urban legend was being held.
Teacher?
….
Teacher?
I’ve arrived with some instructional materials I put together!
“Wh—.”
I slammed my palm over the mouth of Baek Saheon. He began to resist instinctively before turning into a statue.
It was because the Security Chief and I were both fixated on that steel door, remaining perfectly motionless.
“….”
“….”
The noise faded away.
The voice belonging to the ■■ Affiliated Kindergarten instructor vanished as though it had never existed, leaving only silence outside the barrier.
However, I could already identify the speaker.
‘…Supervisor Park Minseong.’
The individual who was supposed to be at the Annex reception was here, having abandoned his post to stand directly behind the quarantine seal on the second basement level.
Completely Contaminated.
‘….’
A terrifying instinct sent a tremor through my frame. Inside my attire, vibrating through remnants of a body whose location I couldn’t pinpoint.
‘What has Director Cheong done?’
I took a wary step toward the reinforced door….
Beep-boop.
“…!”
The lock disengaged.
The barrier had been breached using the Security Team’s specific clearance. I felt the Security Chief at my side tug his brim lower and prepare to move. With a heavy groan, the steel door swung wide. And through the opening….
A hand thrust inward.
Teacher, look at this!
It was wearing a Hand Puppet.
This is for our story today. It’s….
Following the rhythmic twitching of the teacher’s fingers, the puppet began to wave its limbs and head in a lighthearted, bouncy routine. It had braided chestnut pigtails and crimson-stained cheeks….
Red Riding Hood.
The youngster clad in a small scarlet cloak.
Long ago, there was a charming and courageous little girl. She was never seen without the red riding hood her grandmother had crafted for her.
From the flank.
A bizarre noise resonated.
One day, while traveling to her grandmother’s cottage with some sweets and butter….
She crossed paths with a Giant Hungry Wolf.
I attempted to rush the entrance to halt the performance.
But strangely, my limbs refused to obey.
As if I were being suppressed by an external directive.
Just like that.
The predatory wolf addressed Red Riding Hood.
‘Little girl, where is your destination?’
A second arm, its sleeve precisely folded back, slid through the doorway. A twisted wolf Hand Puppet, radiating malice, engaged in a dialogue with Red Riding Hood.
The beast discovered Red Riding Hood’s plan to visit her grandmother, and by outrunning the girl, he reached the residence first and….
Devoured the grandmother!
A Black Figure shimmered.
You cannot imagine how greedily he gulped her down in a single mouthful. Our ■■ Affiliated Kindergarten pupils should also maintain a healthy appetite, shouldn’t they?
And this predator’s hunger was bottomless, so he readied another feast as he had intended….
Red Riding Hood herself.
The sound of someone savoring their lips.
It was audible.
The wolf, hidden in a Grandmother Disguise, reclined in the bed and welcomed Red Riding Hood!
Red Riding Hood tilted her head, confused.
‘Grandmother, why are your limbs so large?’
The wolf answered.
‘The better to embrace you with, my dear.’
‘Grandmother, why are your ears so large?’
‘The better to listen to you with, my dear.’
‘Grandmother, why are your eyes so large?’
‘The better to observe you with, my dear.’
Then Red Riding Hood inquired once more.
‘Grandmother, why are your teeth so large?’
‘That is….’
“The better to devour you.”
A dark essence consumed the area.
The sound of the Stone Altar crumbling, the noise of wood being crushed within a maw, and everything was pulled into the giant fangs.
The Security Chief was gone.
“■■ child.”
A Black Silhouette surged upward, and from its depths, a multitude of swelling eyes and jagged mouths burst forth, blanketing the floor, while massive, lethal talons shifted their gaze, hunting for a target. It gulped down the puppet that had breached the gap, hand and all■■■■ack■■k-kill■■th■■■■■an ideal teacher remains silent. Turmoil, grit, agony, the creature’s thick, tarry fluids flooding the room, a revolting noise, and those endless eyes.
The colossal frame of a Quadrupedal Beast, roughly and haphazardly sewn together, erupted from the cramped quarantine cell like a detonation.
A massive wolf, appearing as if drenched in pitch, leaking viscous, charred-black secretions.
Its maw unhinges.
From both sides of its skull.

“■delicious■ ■■■■.”
“Run■quick■■.”
Garbled sounds vibrated through the air.
It scanned the room.
A titanic paw with curved talons reached out to grab the blindfolded man attempting to flee into a narrow alcove. A dissolving head tried to force its snout through the doorway into the corridor outside….
The instant I saw that.
My body regained its motion.
‘…!’
I immediately surged forward like a cloud of Black Smoke and gripped the massive creature’s snout. It’s exhausting. It has two snouts.
Simultaneously, with another tendril, I attempted to blind the many eyes protruding from its limbs. The eyeballs strained to push through the vapor. I could feel the salivating maw inside the mist. The terrifying realization that letting go would mean death; I had to maintain my hold until the Security Chief regained his mind….
Gulp.
…?
Crunch, crunch.
The sound of mastication. The sound of something being inhaled, the sound of waste being forced down a gullet….
It originated from inside the smoke.
One of the wolf’s maws
was consuming my Black Smoke.
!!
I gripped that snout once more. This grimy, archaic, repulsive monster is eating me! How dare a low-grade scrap of filth like this do this to ■■, but the sheer force of its hunger….
‘Be quiet!’
What was that? What was that surge of disgust? What am I thinking? I need to focus. Again, again…, no! I have to stop the Security Chief somehow….
Ah.
I will access the wiki and delete it.
Yes, in the end, that is the only way. This gargantuan, freakish beast will soon ‘grind me up,’ slip through the opening, and consume Supervisor Park Minseong and Baek Saheon entirely. Time is running out. I can’t hold out much longer! Before that happens, to pacify it, I must take the risk and read….
….
…!!!
I understood.
‘If it’s Director Cheong.’
She would have planned for this as well.
‘Forcing me to use my power…!’
The reason I was suddenly paralyzed ‘as if under a command,’ and then suddenly released in a moment of extreme panic.
‘So that I would react blindly and recklessly trigger my wiki skill…!’
If I did, I would revert to being 130666.
Stripped of Kim Soleum’s empathy and human thought, I would become a hollow shell that only follows the directives of a Special Division employee’s contract.
Then, by default, I would….
-Director Cheong has seen through it.
…be robbed of my mind again by the person who set this trap from the shadows, serving as a perfect tool.
It’s a perfect strategy to make 130666 abandon Director Ho’s project willingly, in one move.
‘No.’
I had to avoid that trap. But what if Supervisor Park Minseong or Baek Saheon are killed? Even if they aren’t, the Security Team on this floor would arrive, and everything would descend into chaos.
I was trapped in a corner.
‘Curse it.’
Furthermore….
The last, lingering mystery.
‘How does Director Cheong know about my state…?’
How does she know that suppressing a Ghost Story Entity causes me to lose the identity of Kim Soleum?
I don’t have the answer. But there’s no time.
Fear and urgency collided as these realizations hit me.
But there is one more way to restrain it….
“Ugh!”
Baek Saheon, who had been scrambling to stay away from the dark beast and the smoke, dropped a piece of Nostalgia Candy.
I grabbed it.
-While the Eyeball Candy dissolves, it anchors the user’s mind and body to their healthiest state from the last decade.
The candy felt unusually heavy in my grip.
“Stop! Don’t do it! It won’t work! That thing is a total nightmare!”
I’m aware.
I remember when the Nostalgia Kitty around my neck back when I was 130666 shattered under the pressure.
However….
This will be enough.
Just enough of a window to use the tactic that worked on me.
‘Just a gap!’
I barely managed to flick the Nostalgia Candy into the maw of the beast that was currently devouring me.
Snatch.
…Gulp.
The Nostalgia Candy, which usually takes time to dissolve, vanished on the creature’s tongue like a slug hit with salt, but….
In that split second, it shifted.
A human shape.
‘…!’
But it vanished instantly.
I pulled out another Nostalgia Candy and tossed it between the massive teeth.
And this time, matching the rhythm of the flickering human image….
Jingle.
I produced a spare Jade Drop I had been keeping and pressed it into its hide.
The Disaster Management Bureau’s artifact, designed to restore sanity, chimed with a piercing, clear tone.
“■■! Stop■■■!”
If it was a level of Contamination so deep its nature had shifted, just like mine.
‘I simply have to apply the same cure that saved me…!’
I had to force it to remember its sanity.
The massive Quadrupedal Beast, with its dual snouts, infinite eyes, and tar-slicked teeth, shuddered violently… then went still as if struck by lightning.
I retrieved another bell and fixed it into the wolf’s side. I kept it ringing, ensuring the sound echoed. Then, another bell….
“Don’t.”
A hand caught mine.
A human arm ending in massive talons.
“Any, more, will be counterproductive….”
The wolf manifestation began to dissolve.
The shape that had been lunging through the doorway melted into a thick black sludge, and the scarred, stitched beastly form wavered….
The Security Chief appeared.
“….”
The eyes at his temples were still twitching as if seeking a kill, and the marks left by the claws on the steel door were deep and jagged.
But simultaneously, the Security Chief pulled an object from his coat and drove it into his own midsection.
Like an injection.
But it wasn’t a fluid….
‘…A stone?’
Quickly, the energy leaked out of the Security Chief’s frame.
He slowly reverted to his usual, tired, and lethargic self, regaining his standard look….
But I hadn’t forgotten.
The image revealed by the Nostalgia Candy just moments ago.
‘It looked different from how the Security Chief appears now….’
A man in formal attire wearing a Wolf Mask.
I felt as though I recognized him.
“….”
In the center of the demolished Stone Altar quarantine chamber.
The Security Chief stood still, his gaze fixed, as if drifting into a void.
…Suppression, achieved.
Thud.
“Heok.”
Near me, I heard Baek Saheon gasping, and from the doorway, the Contaminated voice of Supervisor Park Minseong continued, blood pouring from his mangled arms as he repeated the training manual.
With effort, I stood up and moved toward Supervisor Park Minseong….
“What a repulsive sight.”
The mangled steel door swung wide.
The person stepping out from beside the Sprout Class teacher, who was huddled and trying to stem the blood.
Accompanied by the click of dress shoes, that voice rang out….
“What is the meaning of this disaster?”
Director Cheongdalrae.
The eyes of a woman whose age was impossible to determine scanned the wreckage and stopped on me.
“Are you aware that an unsanctioned breach like this is grounds for dismissal? To the point of harming a front desk staff member who sought you out.”
….
“You will not escape punishment for this. It’s a pity, but you will have to step down from that ridiculous project team. You.”
I’m finished.
A wave of catastrophe hit me. I tried to back away, but my legs were rooted. Director Cheongdalrae’s hand moved toward my head….
Knock, knock.
“…!”
Beyond the threshold, from the door of the quarantine room across the hall.
A polite rapping was heard, and then, remarkably, the door swung open.
It was the Fox Counseling Room.
Framed by a glow like brilliant sunlight, Ho Yuwon stepped out.
“My, speak of the devil. Have you started forgetting your place because of all that posturing?”
“Executive Director Cheong Dallae.”
Director Ho walked forward.
“What is all this? I am truly baffled.”
He stood beside me, resting a hand on my shoulder.
“130666 was merely conducting a patrol at my request, and it appears a tragic accident occurred, which he then managed to contain. I wonder who is responsible for such an accident. Truly, it seems a reception employee turned up in a state of terminal Contamination, out of nowhere.”
“….”
“Now that I think about it, I’ve heard you favor techniques that exploit the Contamination of the Security Team, Director Cheong.”
“And you saw fit to move a Special Division employee to your project without permission.”
“That is a separate matter entirely!”
Director Ho’s tone became mockingly sympathetic.
“Hiring a Daydream Inc. staffer for a Project is within my rights as an executive. It might be a sensitive topic if you were attempting to use a company-contracted individual for your own private ends, as if he were your personal servant….”
“Private ends, you say.”
I heard Director Cheong chuckle.
“I don’t believe that’s an accusation you should be making to me. Director Ho.”
“….”
“Recently….”
She looked toward the door of the room Director Ho had just exited.
“I’ve received reports that the Fox Counseling Room is frequently unoccupied.”
Director Ho’s face remained a mask.
“Ah, clearly, you and the Fox Counseling Room have no particular tie. It’s just that rumors are circulating that your actions this year are quite irregular….”
“….”
“I am eager to see your results this year. I wonder how much longer we will both hold the title of Development Division director.”
Director Cheong’s attention shifted back to me.
“And how long you intend to keep my employee.”
If my throat weren’t dry, I would have swallowed.
“Even a pet knows not to snap at its owner. I never imagined an employee who only survived because of the contract I provided would act like this….”
“….”
“Regardless, I shall assist with the cleanup. Since that would benefit my company’s interests.”
Director Cheong reached out and….
Seized Supervisor Park Minseong by the head.
The Sprout Class Teacher was still frantically reciting the manual.
“Now, shall we summon the Security Team and relocate this individual to their training facility?”
Wait.
“Since he has been lost to Contamination, he won’t be fit for work for some time, so wouldn’t he require re-education? Naturally, the training costs will be billed at the employee rate, but given the severity….”
Director Cheong noted, glancing at the arms I had tried to help.
“I suspect he will find himself in significantly more debt….”
“….”
“This is the point where I feel I should propose some generous terms.”
From the way she spoke, I knew.
Director Cheong is fully aware.
She knows Supervisor Park Minseong was working with me and Director Ho.
She knows I feel responsible for him.
“For this ‘unfortunate’ Annex receptionist, I’ll need to draft a very special new employment contract….”
“Exactly like the one you signed.”