'It's actually him! Squad Leader!'
Since when did that white reptilian head and those vertical pupils start making me feel so relieved I could cry?
I almost jumped to my feet when I saw the lizard wearing the lizard mask.
'Of course, it's not exactly the right situation to be feeling that happy right now…'
Still, the memories of being super-saved by the physically strongest in those insane ghost stories were just too vivid.
Anyway, Chief Lizard, who seemed to have just returned from the Darkness, was now starting his report to the Research Team.
"It took three hours and twenty-four minutes to clear."
"Ah, um. Section Chief. Now might not be the best time for details…"
"?"
"There are outsiders present."
The Research Team gestured towards the office, now thrown into chaos.
Nearly thirty injured children, a handful of government agents, and even the groaning Daydream Inc. staff lay scattered around the space.
"I see."
Even though Section Chief Lee Jaheon would have just seen, as usual, a room full of civilians instead of employees after clearing the Darkness, there wasn't a trace of disturbance on his face. Typical of the lizard that was him, really.
What bothered me, though, was that no one else had followed in after him.
'The researcher definitely said the D-squad had returned.'
But Section Chief Lee Jaheon was alone.
...Don't tell me the new hires all died in an instant?
Whatever my doubts, the interactions among Daydream Inc. employees continued.
"Um, Section Chief. The Dream Essence Collector, if you could bring it over this way…"
"Yes."
"Thank you…! Um, if you could just wait for a moment."
With the Mermaid Grave cleared, it was the first thing that needed to be handled.
After handing back the Dream Essence solution to the researcher, Chief Lizard looked around the unusually crowded Research Team area.
As his gaze swept the room… those blood-red eyes locked onto me.
"..."
No way.
'Ah, did he recognize me?'
But soon, the gaze moved on, and Chief Lizard silently walked into the center of the office and sat down on a meeting sofa.
…That meant he'd just walked in and sat right among the blood-soaked, contaminated children without batting an eye.
"Th-that spot…"
Even the Research Team was stammering.
His presence was so extraordinary and forceful, you could hear agents whispering to each other.
"…Agent. Do you know him, by any chance?"
"The lizard mask? No. But if I'd seen him even once before, I'd never forget him."
Agent Choi also seemed to be seeing him for the first time.
Um, that made sense.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon, or rather Employee D, was a character who would first appear when the Dark Exploration Records got bigger and anomalous gag (joke) clears became acceptable amongst the community.
'You could say his exploration records don't really overlap with Agent Choi's, who was active mostly in the early days.'
Even the kids who'd just received first aid and regained their energy were sneaking glances at the man in the lizard mask.
It would've been nice if things had just ended there.
But as time passed, the number of 'kids who'd regained their energy' kept increasing, so…
"Excuse me. Are we going to see my mom now?"
"I, I wanna go to the bathroom…"
"Subin is hungry!"
The relatively uninjured kids started looking around and then began raising their hands to speak.
Even though they'd had horrific experiences in the Twinkle Twinkle Ocean Palace, because it was all inside that fairytale-like hallucination, they hadn't lost their innocence.
On top of that, being left injured on the uncomfortable office floor, it was impressive the kids had held out this long without a word.
"I need to pee…"
But with this, the researchers now had the perfect excuse to lure kids away one by one. Damn it.
Any minute now, the researchers would probably start saying things like, 'Let's take you to the bathroom, let's take you to the cafeteria,' and try to separate the kids into groups.
The agents would certainly stick with them like glue, but the problem was, there would always be some kids left behind, which meant they'd get split up.
'If the agents are separated one by one, it'll only get harder to deal with the Daydream Inc. employees.'
As it was, the agents were already at their physical limits, covered in bruises from head to toe.
This obvious setup wasn't lost on the agents either. Their expressions had grown subtly colder.
If that's the case… there's no other way.
'We'll have to make the first move.'
And the safest employee here is…
'Only I know that.'
Holding back a sigh, I whispered to one of the kids who said they wanted to go to the bathroom.
"Really? Do you know where it is?"
"Yeah."
With that, the kid shot up and shyly grabbed the pants leg of someone nearby and asked,
"Excuse me, Ahjussi. Where's the bathroom…?"
"…!"
Section Chief Lee Jaheon.
The lizard-faced man sitting on the sofa blinked and looked back at the child.
"Kids, just a moment…"
Before Agent Choi could say anything, I egged the other kids on.
"Do you wanna go too?"
"Yeah!"
"Me too!"
Kwak Jaekang was gone, and all the familiar employees had disappeared for treatment and interviews.
On top of that, half my face was still covered in ulcer scars and necrosis, so the odds of anyone recognizing me were extremely low.
'As long as I act properly, it'll be fine.'
Blending in among the kids, I went up to Section Chief Lee Jaheon and asked as much like the other kids as I could,
"Ahjussi, can you take us to the bathroom?"
"Yes."
The kids who had gathered around me looked up at him with shining eyes.
"Are you going to show us the way?"
"Yes."
And as soon as Section Chief Lee Jaheon stood up, the children finally burst into giggles and clung to his thighs and back.
"Wow!"
Only then did I give the two agents a small nod.
It was a signal that if anything went wrong along the way, I'd shout and alert them to danger.
Agent Bronze seemed to realize that I'd picked the 'safest' employee, and though his expression was complicated, he stayed silent and did not intervene.
"Let's go!"
In any case, thanks to this, Section Chief Lee Jaheon started walking down the hallway with about six or seven children in tow, just like a pied piper lizard.
.
.
And fortunately, there were no other incidents until we safely finished using the nearby restroom.
'Phew.'
After helping the children who were too young to use the bathroom alone, I washed my hand with cold water at the sink to try to collect myself.
'It really is inconvenient having only one hand.'
And now that I was using this familiar company restroom again, it felt like my mind might float away.
'I just want to collapse into a bed…'
Suppressing my fatigue, I finished washing my hand.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon quietly came up next to me.
No way, was he going to look after me just because I was a child…
"Mr. Roe Deer."
I almost struck the lizard head with my remaining hand.
"Anti-eavesdropping equipment is currently active. This conversation will not leak outside."
Phew.
With a trembling hand, I turned off the faucet and lowered my voice.
"How did you recognize me? I mean, I don't even have an arm anymore, and my age has changed…"
"? Yes. You have been determined as the same person through the change in age and loss of limb."
"..."
Let's just move on.
He's a reptilian alien who fires holy bomb barrages, so maybe he has other methods of analysis…
"Anyway, thank you for your help. I nearly had my identity exposed to the Research Team."
"I see."
"When we return to the room, please also make sure the children don't get led away by researchers along the way."
"Yes."
The lizard's lidless eyes stared into space for a moment, then returned to me.
…The children hadn't come out of the bathroom yet, so we still had time for a short conversation.
I hesitated for a moment, then asked,
"Have you been doing well, Squad Leader? I wanted to ask if the new staff in the D-squad are doing alright, and if your explorations into the Darkness have gone well…"
"There are no new staff."
"…!"
"Currently, the D-squad is assigned to single-person entries into Darknesses, and there are no unusual incidents."
"…I see."
…So Lee Jaheon was working alone.
'He's been left in the lurch.'
Just when the squad had been promoted to an elite squad and was about to start trial operations, I, the person who'd been promoted and transferred, went missing and was declared dead.
In the end, the D-squad was left dangling like a kite with its string cut.
So even if the company had been dragging its feet for months, not knowing what to do with the squad, it wouldn't be strange at all…
But because it was so realistic, my mouth felt even more bitter.
'There must have been a lot of rumors.'
Even if Chief Lizard was the type who didn't care about things like that at all.
...
"Um, Squad Leader."
I opened my mouth before I knew it.
"If I make a purchase at the Space Mall, does that help you, Section Chief?"
"Purchases at the Space Mall are not directly related to Section Chief Lee Jaheon's livelihood."
However.
The corner of his mouth drew a slightly friendly curve.
"But it is helpful to us."
It was an odd way of putting it.
'…That reminds me of 'We Can Help!' somehow.'
At any rate, I understood that it provided indirect help.
If that's the case…
"Do I have to use cash to shop there?"
"No."
"…! Then is it possible to barter items?"
"No."
Damn it.
"Then how do I use other payment methods?"
"Use the VIP card. The conversation will end here. Someone is approaching."
I processed his sentences one by one.
Click!
The restroom's frosted glass door slid open and someone entered with brisk steps, coming all the way to the sink.
"Oh~ What fun conversation are you having with the children?"
Kwak Jaekang.
"I showed them to the restroom."
"Ah, bodily functions! Very important~ Especially for children."
Kwak Jaekang, in a white lab coat, bent down to meet my eyes.
'Damn it!'
Feigning fear, I quickly lowered my head and stepped back.
Kwak Jaekang's voice dropped to a whisper, as if offering a secret favor.
"Want to come with me? We'll have delicious snacks, play on the playground with your friends, and get a good rest~"
"..."
"Let's just go with the friends who are here now. Not the others, just you, specially."
"…I wanna see my mommy and daddy."
"Of course! You'll get to see them too."
This bastard, seriously.
"Dun wanna. Ahjussi's scary and ugly …"
"…!!"
Hearing the children coming out, I hid behind Section Chief Lee Jaheon.
"Scary!"
"What's wrong? Why?"
"He's scary!"
"I guess that Ahjussi's scary…"
Children are quick and easy to influence. The mood shifted in an instant, and all of them hesitated, then rushed behind the kind Ahjussi to get away from the scary Ahjussi in the white coat.
"No, I might not look as good as Section Chief Lee, but still, I have my own… Ah, this is embarrassing."
Seeing the lizard with all the children clinging to him, Kwak Jaekang scratched the back of his head.
There was a flash of regret and obsession in his eyes.
"Section Chief Lee, if you're thinking of trying to lure the kids…"
"?"
"You should know your place. Haah."
Clicking his tongue, Kwak Jaekang eventually turned around… and left the restroom.
Creak.
The moment the bathroom door closed, a few of the children let out involuntary sighs of relief.
…I had a thought.
Maybe the children weren't just reacting to the mood, but instinctively sensing someone harmful…
"Let's go."
"Okay."
Section Chief Lee Jaheon once again became the pied lizard and led the children back to the lab.
The agents, who had been nervously watching the door, finally let out short sighs of relief, and the suffocating tension eased just a little.
'…Thank you.'
I gave Section Chief Lee Jaheon a small, inconspicuous bow of gratitude, and he, still wearing that expressionless reptilian face, sat on the sofa and continued to stand guard…
And about an hour or two later—
"…Staff of the Disaster Management Bureau have arrived."
The backup we'd been waiting for had come.
What happened afterward went more smoothly than expected.
As soon as Agent Choi's urgent message was received, the Disaster Management Bureau dispatched rescue vehicles and came to Daydream Inc., and with everything ready to escalate, even the Research Team had no choice but to step back.
"We'll just take a simple sample. That's nothing harmful to anyone, so it should be fine, right?"
Agent Bronze was about to explode, but in the end, tissue samples from the 'mer-children' were indeed collected…
'They're just scraping some from the cut tail stumps.'
That much wouldn't harm the children.
What concerned me a bit was that they also took some of my own flesh… I'll have to contact Director Ho quickly to make sure it gets handled.
The important thing is—
"Wow!!"
We were finally free from the ghost story.
.
.
"Aigoo, the kids are all asleep."
The children had all fallen asleep.
Loaded into the ambulances sent by the Disaster Management Bureau, the kids were quickly transported to headquarters.
There, they were cleaned up, treated by medical specialists, changed into clean clothes, and given a meal.
Only after that, maybe due to all the accumulated fatigue from their spectacular ordeal, did they finally fall sound asleep.
'…Thank goodness.'
Of course, the agents were finally able to take a hot shower and get a meal, too.
"Grapes finally turned back into an adult, too."
The same went for me.
Thanks to a quick recharge from the dokkaebi flame, my right arm was restored, and my whole body returned to its original adult male form. I sank into the sofa, feeling a rare sense of stability.
For some reason, the lounge of Black Tortoise Team 1 felt more comfortable than ever.
Then again, it always did feel like a cozy school club room, so maybe it was only natural…
"You never know what that company might try next."
"I know."
In my drowsy state, I caught bits of the agents' conversation beside me.
Agent Bronze seemed suspicious that Daydream Inc. might try something else…
"We got a call from the analysis team, by the way… About the drugs the kids were given. Apparently, some bottles had a Daydream potion mixed in, the kind that makes you fall asleep and get transported 'somewhere' else."
"…!"
My mind snapped awake.
"I did notice they were 'selecting' certain bottles for the more heavily mutated kids, so I was keeping an eye on it."
"Have those all been removed now?"
"Of course!"
Phew.
Agent Choi patted me on the shoulder.
"Grapes, you really did well earlier. You even managed to make that not-yet-in-on-the-conspiracy staff member take you to the restroom for real!"
"...Yes."
At that, Agent Bronze was trying desperately not to meet my or Agent Choi's eyes, even by accident.
Thank you, Agent…
"So now… we should go get that fixed, right?"
Hm?
Agent Choi suddenly pointed at me. Or, more precisely… at the half of my face still bearing the traces of ulcers.
Right. Even after returning to my original appearance, the signs of infection hadn't disappeared.
It seemed that the mental contamination from being merged with the ghost story had been cured by the conch shell, which was why I hadn't been as conscious of it until now.
"So if we go to the infirmary…"
"No, there's a faster way than that."
Agent Choi stood up. Agent Bronze followed suit from the sofa without a word, and both turned to me with a smile.
"Let's go meet the Elder."
"...!"