Chapter 161.3

 

As they approached, the door’s device spoke.

 

[Please ve■fy removal of infect■ ■■■.]

 

Hmm.

 

– So you just have to show it a severed tail?

 

When a few employees from Daydream Inc. only nodded weakly in response and said nothing, Agent Choi quickly added one more thing.

 

– To the cool person who answers quickly: 50,000 won, haha

– I thought it was to prove you’d hunted an infected entity and helped stop the spread! That’s how you get access to the pod, haha

 

As soon as that answer came back, Agent Choi nodded and immediately handed over cash.

“Yahoo!”

Then, ignoring the giggling employee in the pony mask, he turned around and called out,

“Alright then… Grapes-ie. Want to come over here? And let’s bring that friend you were just talking to as well!”

“Yes!”

Kim Soleum, standing among the children, took one child by the hand and walked toward the escape pod.

Fortunately, it seemed the Daydream employees hadn’t realized he was an agent.

Ryu Jaekwan, on alert, reached into Baek Saheon’s bag and yanked out several conch shells as if robbing him, handing them to Agent Choi.

“This…”

Baek Saheon’s quiet stream of curses, swallowed in frustration, didn’t make it through.

Agent Choi smiled and lifted one of the conch shells, approaching Grapes.

“If you just close your eyes for a second, it’ll be over quick…”

But at that moment.

“What’s that?”

“Whoa! It’s a real white spaceship!”

The child standing beside Grapes suddenly ran toward the escape pod.

“…!”

“Let’s go together!”

Grapes followed the child, running all the way to the front of the escape pod.

“Wait…!”

 

Forcibly boarding an infected child onto the escape pod will trigger rapid shedding, causing ulcers to erupt across the entire body and resulting in total loss of life signs.

Do not attempt under any circumstances.

 

It must not happen—!

To make matters worse, the Daydream Inc. employees immediately shifted into an aggressive stance. Agent Bronze stepped in to block them.

“Grapes-ie!”

“Huh?”

At that moment, Grapes turned at the sound of his name.

Naturally, his tail brushed against the escape pod’s door device.

“…!”

The message displayed the same message again.

 

[Please ve■fy removal of infect■ ■■■.]

 

“Wow! You were right! It flashed just now!”

“Right?”

In that brief moment, Agent Choi ran over and yanked both of them back.

Watching the scene through the suncatcher, Agent Bronze let out a short sigh and dropped his threatening posture toward Daydream Inc.

A tense silence lingered in the air.

“Ha. Still, at least the escape pod isn’t attacking. That’s a relief.”

Agent Choi didn’t even have time to wipe the cold sweat from his brow before he raised the conch shell.

But…

“……”

Agent Bronze felt something strange from the scene he had just witnessed.

The device had reacted again the moment a living tail made contact.

And his superior’s words…

 

– At least the escape pod isn’t attacking. That’s a relief.

 

“…!”

Could it be.

“If we just treat the kids, hand them the severed tails, and board them…”

“No.”

“…Bronze-ah?”

“This… this isn’t what we think.”

Agent Bronze reread the text on the device.

 

[Please ve■fy removal of infect■ ■■■.]

 

It read as if one were meant to remove an infection, like killing the infected merfolk, and verify it.

But…

“This is already a ruined city. Judging by how hastily this escape pod space was constructed, it must’ve been built in a rush during the final collapse as a last-ditch escape attempt.”

“And?”

“That would mean most of the people expected to use this escape pod were already infected.”

“…!”

Agent Bronze turned again toward the last remaining escape pod.

“And if it really was the last remaining means of escape, it wouldn’t be strange for it to have been designed under the assumption that everyone was infected.”

“…That makes sense.”

Agent Choi’s eyes lit up.

“In that case, to minimize the risk of contagion spreading to other locations…”

“Yes.”

Both agents turned their gaze to the tails.

Those grotesque biological masses, leaking infectious mucus.

“It means the directive is to sever the infectious appendage—the tail—and then board the escape pod.”

Then, the device’s message took on a completely different meaning:

 

[Please verify removal of infectious protrusion.]

 

It wasn’t telling them to hunt and kill another infected being.

It was telling them to remove their own infection source: the tail.

Only coherent beings who had severed their tail and ‘verified’ it could safely board.

“Wait. Then that means…”

“Yes.”

For the first time today, a faint smile of exhilaration appeared on Agent Bronze’s face.

“We don’t need to fully cure the infection. If the children simply cut off their tails and verify it, they should be able to board the escape pod without the conch shell.”

“…!”

“And if we only use the conches on the kids who are at risk of dying from blood loss when cutting their tails…”

As long as they distribute them correctly—

“We can all get out. Together.”

Not a single child left behind.

They could rescue everyone from this supernatural disaster.

 

 

* * *

 

 

That’s it!

I clenched my fist discreetly.

I was still among the children, so I wouldn’t be noticed, but I had to stifle the sighs of relief and joy that kept trying to escape my lips.

‘We did it.’

By naturally merging Daydream Inc.’s intel with the Disaster Management Bureau’s, they had reached a conclusion similar to the one I’d reasoned out.

How much effort had it taken to steer everyone to this conclusion without raising suspicion…!

It’s been a truly brutal day.

I swallowed hard.

‘…Even getting infected was a wise choice.’

It would be a lie to say it wasn’t horrifying and revolting.

But the benefits gained by becoming infected were too valuable to give up.

From concealing my identity completely from Daydream Inc. employees by hiding behind the tumor covering half my face, to ultimately giving them a direct hint toward the conclusion: ‘you can enter the escape pod if you sever the tail’…

It had been the one and only correct answer. It was the only way to break through every obstacle naturally, without arousing suspicion.

And…

‘…I might be able to take myself off the suspect list too.’

That cat.

Agent Choi knew I could transform into a ‘stray animal’. After all, he was the one who recommended the item.

Of course, due to the effects of the fake Necronomicon, the two couldn’t be directly linked, but you never know. After escaping, suspicion might still arise.

‘Better to bury it with something stronger.’

That’s why I chose to attempt infection up to ‘the limit of what my rationality could endure’.

Gradually increasing the infected mucus, deliberately ingesting it little by little.

‘This was the limit.’

This current state, with half my face engulfed in tumorous boils.

Able to understand the hive’s will and the strange telepathy shared with the children, yet without losing my own sense of self.

…Strangely enough, the dokkaebi trick that turned me into a child actually helped. Maybe because it forcibly fixed me in the form of ‘my child self’.

In any case, I’d kept the option of taking a Nostalgia Candy if things went south…

But now it looked like I wouldn’t need it.

‘Perfect.’

I believed in you, agents…!

The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau really is different from that damn psychopath potion company!

It was… actually kind of touching.

‘This is the classic Disaster Management Bureau-style resolution I haven’t seen since before the Dark Exploration Records took off…!’

Trying to save as many as possible, and actually succeeding in the end.

Maybe it was because I was in a child’s body, but my chest swelled with emotion. Sniff.

Of course, this being a ghost story, about half the time these kinds of attempts ended in total annihilation, but this time, things were going smoothly.

Now all we had to do was time our escape together…

 

Tingle—

 

‘…Huh?’

That’s when it happened.

A strange sensation began crawling up from my tail.

 

Tingle—

 

‘Above?’

My head shot up.

…Beside me, a child in a blue dress muttered softly.

“Weird.”

She was right.

“Weird.”

No, it wasn’t just that one child.

All twenty-seven children standing near me lifted their heads to look into the air.

Every single young mer-child… who still had their tails attached.

“The Mermaid Princess… is angry.”

It seemed so.

All the hosts sensed something, from somewhere no one could pinpoint.

A threat to survival.

She was searching for where it had been triggered…

And now, she had found it.

The Mermaid Princess.

 

Tingle—

 

“Grapes-ie?”

“Right now.”

A chill swept down my spine.

My mouth moved on its own, quickly.

“The Mermaid Princess is on her way.”

 

BOOM.

 

The ceiling collapsed.

And hundreds of tumor masses began to surge downward.