By Zephyria 258
At that moment,
“Oh, dear.”
Whoosh!
A black shadow surged from the floor, engulfing ‘it’ and dragging it into the darkness. The middle-aged man, or rather, it, vanished without a trace. As the onlookers began to murmur, the man who had collapsed caught sight of a pistachio strawberry Frappuccino topped with whipped cream.
“Are you alright?”
The man struggled to lift his head. A young man in a black suit and sunglasses stood there, holding the Frappuccino. He extended an empty hand as if to offer assistance.
“Let’s get you up first.”
The man grasped his hand with trembling fingers, and the young man effortlessly hoisted him to his feet. Slurp, the young man took a sip of the drink and slid his sunglasses up with the back of his hand.
“Are you hurt anywhere?”
“Yes, yes…. Thank you. But what was that just now….”
“A hallucination.”
“Pardon?”
“A Rift opened nearby. It seems a Monster that casts illusions escaped from it. Wow, I almost fell for it myself.”
“Yes, eh?”
“Oh, who am I, you ask? I understand your curiosity. I’m this kind of person.”
The young man pulled out his employee ID from inside his suit jacket and presented it for all to see. Wave Guild, Very Small Miracle Mingi Seo. Min-gi Seo dusted off the man’s shoulders and arms.
“I’ve taken care of the Monster, so don’t worry.”
“Yes, yes….”
“In exchange, I’ll just take a business card. It’s nothing major, just to help with some fact-finding later. Oh, you don’t have to take it out. I’ve already got it.”
Indeed, the man’s business card was pinched between Min-gi Seo’s index and middle fingers. He was too bewildered to wonder when he had taken it. Min-gi Seo tucked the man’s business card behind his employee ID and pointed with his thumb at a green bus approaching the bus stop.
“There’s your bus coming. Take the 1113, right? I wish you all a speedy commute home! Everyone!”
Min-gi Seo bowed politely. Then, he vanished from sight in an instant, as if melting into the shadows. The man stared blankly at the spot where he had disappeared. A hallucination? No way.
‘It’ was real.
A real human turning into a Monster….
Screech, the green bus pulled up to the bus stop. The doors opened, and people poured out. The man hastily stepped back to avoid being swept away by the crowd. And then.
He saw the white liquid splattered on the ground.
The liquid glistened with an eerie sheen.
Kieeeeeeek….
The Monster’s screech shook the conference room. Min-gi Seo raised the remote control and pressed the stop button. The screen froze on a creature with grotesquely twisted limbs, neither human nor Monster, its maw gaping open.
“……”
Only two people were seated in the Wave Guild’s conference room. Min-gi Seo, who was stirring the whipped cream and melted drink with a straw, glanced at Jung-bin sitting across from him. Jung-bin’s face was unusually pale. Probably, his own face looked similar. Min-gi Seo stopped stirring the straw and asked.
“Did the Awakened Management Bureau know about this?”
“…I didn’t know.”
Jung-bin muttered, his fingertips pressed together.
“I just thought there was a problem with the Invasion Dungeon and a Monster had escaped…. The Rift Management Agency thought the same.”
“Well, no one expected a human to undergo Mutation into a Monster. Not any of us.”
Jung-bin sighed deeply and rubbed his eyes. Min-gi Seo slid his sunglasses up. His dark, lifeless eyes narrowed.
“This is a Mutation of a regular citizen. The form is different from those mutated by drugs, and so is the Mutation process.”
“……”
“Though I doubt the average person could tell the difference.”
“The person we caught…. No, the Monster, how is it?”
“I’ve temporarily confined it in my shadow, but it can’t hold for long. Actually, I feel nauseous right now. It’s thrashing around so much.”
As if to prove his point, Min-gi Seo turned his head away, covered his mouth, and retched, gagging. Jung-bin slowly closed and opened his eyes.
“Could you take care of it at Wave Guild for a while?”
“The Guild Leader and Vice Guild Leader are both away, so I can’t get permission right now, you know?”
“I’ll take responsibility.”
“If you say so.”
Min-gi Seo wiped his mouth with the back of his hand and lowered his voice.
“You’ll have to keep a tight lid on this.”
“……”
Instead of answering, Jung-bin sighed softly. Min-gi Seo folded his fingers one by one.
“First, contact Mackerel and the National Intelligence Service. Tell them to scrub any mentions of this from online and the dark web. If necessary, do some public opinion manipulation, too.”
“…How much do you think this will spread?”
“Well, isn’t this the information age where everything gets filmed?”
Min-gi Seo pointed to the screen with his index finger.
“Fortunately, this scene was only captured by CCTV. It happened too suddenly. Just leave the archived file and delete everything else. Well, Team Leader, you know best.”
“……”
“What we need to be most concerned about is….”
“The rumors, I know.”
It’s certain that humans can undergo Mutation into Monsters. There’s evidence right before their eyes. But if they release this information without knowing who, under what conditions, or by what they undergo Mutation….
‘There will be even greater chaos.’
The rumor that Awakened can undergo Mutation into monsters hasn’t even died down yet. If they release information that humans can undergo Mutation into monsters on top of that.
There will be more hatred of Awakened, people will suspect and isolate those who fit the Mutation conditions, and some will commit suicide because they can’t overcome their fear. Jung-bin took out his cell phone from his suit jacket pocket and asked.
“You directly witnessed the Mutation scene. Were there any peculiarities?”
“He looked very unwell. He kept coughing, too.”
“Coughing?”
“Yes, coughing. He kept coughing like his lungs were tearing apart.”
“……”
Ugh, Min-gi Seo, who barely suppressed another gag, slid his sunglasses up.
“That’s the problem, it’s such a common symptom.”
“I see….”
Jung-bin massaged his neck. Every time he looked at the Monster on the screen, an ominous premonition surged within him. He blurted out the words he had been trying to swallow.
“If…. The white Monster is the result of a human undergoing Mutation.”
“……”
“Then all the Monsters that appeared in the Invasion Dungeon are….”
“That’s enough.”
Jung-bin raised his head. As Min-gi Seo swirled the melted Frappuccino, a pair of finger-sized shadow dolls appeared on the desk where Jung-bin was sitting. The shadow dolls drew hearts above their heads and wiggled their butts.
“If you think too much, you’ll age early.”
“……”
“Live young. We have to see each other for a long time, right?”
Jung-bin chuckled. Then, he stuck his index finger out at the shadow dolls. The shadow dolls jumped in place and started running away from his finger.
“I don’t think I should be hearing that from you.”
Thwack! Honeybee gracefully kicked away the debris that had popped out. Fragments scattered in all directions. She put her hands on her hips, lowered her head, and groaned.
“Seriously, how can they be so extinct? I won’t even have anything to write in the report! Explored 20km but found nothing. That’ll be the end of it in one line.”
“Shall we… Hah, return soon? Hah…. Cough, cough.”
A young man carrying heavy machinery asked, panting. Perhaps because he was a D-grade Hunter belonging to the HB Guild’s investigation team, he seemed to lack stamina compared to the S-grade and A-grade Hunters. Besides, he was carrying heavy machinery. Honeybee groaned in annoyance and turned sharply to look at Eui-jae.
“Are you sure there aren’t any?”
“Yes. According to my ability.”
“Haa…. Okay, let’s go back. I don’t think anything will pop out even if we go further. We can’t just create Monsters that don’t exist.”
“Th, thank you… Cough!”
“Why are you coughing so much? You need to do more physical training when we get back. Drink some water.”
Honeybee took out a bottle of water from her Inventory, opened the cap, and handed it to him. The young man bowed repeatedly and accepted the bottle. The young man’s hands were trembling. Was that machine really that heavy? Eui-jae asked.
“Come to think of it, what is that machine?”
“Oh, it’s a machine for checking the Monster density inside the Dungeon. I brought it to see if it would work on Invasion Dungeons too…. But it wasn’t very effective.”
“Cough! Cough….”
At that moment, the young man who was drinking water started coughing violently, as if he had choked. Honeybee patted his shoulder with a flustered expression.
“What’s wrong, did you drink it too fast?”
“Cough, keh-cough… Hah….”
However, the young man’s panting did not subside easily. The shaking of his shoulders gradually increased. Lee Sa-young, who had his hands in his coat pockets and was looking at the distant horizon, turned his head. His purple eyes seemed to stare at the young man, but soon turned cold. Sa-young grabbed Eui-jae’s arm and pulled him back.
“Get back.”
“What? Why?”
“Honeybee, you too, get away.”
“What?”
“Get away!”
The moment Sa-young shouted.
Drip.
White liquid dripped down.
Honeybee stared blankly at the young man. A whitish liquid was dripping from the young man’s nose and mouth. The young man reached out his hand towards Honeybee.
And then,
A pure white light burst forth.