I took the dog-shaped “Minsu” with me and kept exploring the inside of Baekju Apartments. I asked “Minsu” whether “the caretaker” might be outside the apartment building, and “Minsu” answered with a dubious expression—this was the first time I learned that even a dog could have facial expressions.
{I don’t think it would be a good idea to go outside the building.}
“Why?”
{The thing crawling around out there seems a little aggressive.}
“......”
{Are you the kind of person who handles pain well, Iru?}
“Starting today, I’m an indoor person.”
I know it’s rude to walk around indoors with a large dog off leash, but trusting only “Minsu” and going outside the apartment building felt like suicide.
{Whatever happens, you won’t die. I’ll protect you!}
“Isn’t that basically saying I just won’t die?”
{Wouldn’t that be enough? Even if you move into Baekju Apartments, I can come find you anytime. It’s actually pretty close to the school.}
I wasn’t particularly curious about the fact that Baekju Apartments was apparently already prime school-zone housing.
I set out with “Minsu” to find “the caretaker.” According to the rules sheet I had found under the mattress in Unit 201, “the caretaker” was highly likely to be the husband of that deranged middle-aged woman I had met.
For some reason, it seemed that “the caretaker,” like “Minsu,” who had become the chairman of Dowon High School, had also fallen into being a special entity of Baekju Apartments.
““Minsu.””
{Yes!}
“How did you end up living at that school?”
Were most special entities originally human?
The rules sheet had emphasized that one must treat “the caretaker” kindly. Putting together the different bits of information, the “caretaker” here was most likely the same caretaker who had killed himself after failing to endure the outrageous behavior of the residents of Tricent Ityllazium, the apartment complex built after Baekju Apartments was demolished.
If so, I wondered whether “Minsu” had also become part of an anomaly in that same way. Right now he had appeared in front of me in the form of a dog, but “Minsu” was fundamentally humanoid. Even in Dowon High School, which was full of tentacle entities, hadn’t he maintained that neat human form? How on earth had someone so young ended up becoming the chairman of Tentacle High School?
{I don’t really remember.}
“Nothing at all?”
{Nothing at all.}
“Minsu,” still in the form of a black dog, circled around me. I stopped walking for a moment, bent down, and petted him. As a dog, “Minsu” was soft and warm.
{I couldn’t even remember my own name, and then one day, Iru appeared.}
“Say I got dragged in, not appeared.”
{And you gave me a name. A new name....}
Since he was a dog, rubbing himself against me like that, I didn’t feel like pushing him away. I scratched the back of “Minsu’s” neck all over. “Minsu” rubbed himself against me as if he was about to flop over and expose his belly, then suddenly bit the hem of my pants and tugged me backward.
{Someone’s coming.}
I stepped back as “Minsu” pulled. The moment I moved, giggling laughter rang out. In an instant, black BB pellets rained down where I had been standing.
{He dodged it! He dodged that!}
{Again! Shoot again! Kik, kikik, he’s dod ging!}
{Who ever hits him first wins!}
The moment I heard that laughter, impossible to place at any age, part of the rules sheet I had barely managed to memorize before chewing and swallowing it surfaced on its own.
13. It is not recommended to remain at the entrance of the Baekju Apartments building for long. The entrance is a space through which numerous residents come and go. At the entrance, you may encounter any resident other than the resident of Unit 1101, who lives on the top floor.
13-1. The resident of Unit 1101 cannot leave Unit 1101. Unit 1101 is managed by Dore Co., Ltd. Approaching the resident of Unit 1101 is strictly prohibited.
└ But why is this prohibited?? I hid in 1101 trying to avoid those brats, and it didn’t seem that dangerous
└ What is wrong with the people who always go to 1101 even when they’re told not to? Do you have nine lives?? If it says don’t go, then don’t go;; The boss said don’t go, so why the hell do you insist on going and getting cursed lol
└ But that thing was reassembling itself?? Is that a special entity or an ordinary entity? When it reassembled, it had a human face?? Shouldn’t we be rescuing it?
13-2. At the entrance of the Baekju Apartments building, the ordinary entity you are most likely to encounter will be one of the following four. Except for Entity D, communication is impossible, so no matter which entity you encounter, prioritize escape above all else. If you fail to escape, welcome to your new residence.
→ A. An entity covered head to toe in what appear to be luxury goods, walking with an arrogant attitude.
: It has a face made of two small circles joined together and wears high heels. Its clothes change every time, and like the other residents, it has multiple arms and fingers. Thanks to the high heels, it runs slowly. If you do not get the sense that “your eyes met,” it is relatively safe.
└ These days it takes its shoes off and chases people, so don’t let your guard down ㄷㄷ When it crawls with its arms it’s crazy fast
└ Ah, fuck, can you please update this kind of thing immediately
→ B. Childlike entities, presumably young, that move around in a group carrying BB guns.
: Frail entities with the build of lower elementary school children. They usually travel in groups of three to five. One definitely has a circular face, and the others often have triangular or inverted triangular faces. They can fire BB pellets from a distance. Those BB pellets are made of hydrochloric acid, so you should protect your body as much as possible. These entities will chase you from the moment you encounter them until the moment you escape. It is recommended that you accept the risk and hide inside an open apartment. If you enter an apartment where a resident is present, welcome to your new residence.
└ These things are devils themselves. Don’t fight back, just run no matter what. If you avoid the one acting like the leader, you might live.
└ But how long do these things keep chasing youㅠㅠ? I don’t even have ankles anymore, so I can’t run
→ C. An elderly entity, presumably old, walking with a cane.
: A face made of densely repeated small circles, wearing a faux fur coat (it is really human skin. Do not stare at it for too long.) and gemstone rings on every finger. Presumed elderly. Walks with a cane in both hands and is very slow. Relatively safe unless deliberately provoked.
→ D. A young male entity, presumably, with a face that is half humanoid.
: Half human, half circular face. Wearing a white shirt and beige pants. It is an ordinary entity, but when its face is not twisted, communication is possible at a low probability. If you provide the body part this entity demands, it will tell you information about a missing person or the location of “the caretaker.” Retrievers are advised to obtain missing-person information if they encounter Entity D.
└ Trade with it no matter what. If you say you won’t trade, this bastard won’t tell you anything and will just rip off your fingers. And it barely communicates anyway. Whoever wrote that communication is possible should update this honestly.
The problem was that I had tried to go outside to look for the caretaker’s office, only to be stopped by the fog. I hadn’t planned on lingering at the building entrance, but in the middle of it all “Minsu” had shown up in the form of a dog, and I had lost time without realizing it.
Strictly speaking, I hadn’t even been standing there that long, but the ordinary entities inside the anomaly gave no quarter. I immediately scooped “Minsu” up into my arms.
“Of all things, the ones that show up have to be those little kids with a fundamentally evil view of human nature?”
I’d had this feeling ever since the fourth-floor hallway at Dowon High School, but I really didn’t seem to have much luck. Why couldn’t it have been the elderly entity, the one with no comments attached at all? Why did it have to be the little brats who were the only ones with a note basically saying that if you couldn’t shake them off, you should just move in?
{He’s run ning! He’s run ning!}
{Kik, kikik! He must be scared!}
The pellets were apparently made of hydrochloric acid, so of course I was scared. From experience, groups of children don’t respond well to talking. At that age, looking good in front of your peer group matters, so no matter how much adults tell them not to do something, they won’t listen.
Avoiding the children, I ran for the emergency stairs with “Minsu” in my arms. I trusted that if I didn’t carry him, “Minsu” would be perfectly capable of escaping on his own, but because he was in the form of a black dog, I couldn’t help worrying that he might get hit by a BB pellet. Injuring a dog was absolutely unacceptable.
Maybe because he liked being carried even in a situation like this, “Minsu” stayed quiet in my arms, curling his large body up against me. Which meant I was the only one forced to put on a high-difficulty escape show, running from children with BB guns while carrying a giant dog.
Compared to an ordinary human, I’m actually pretty fast myself, but the entities inside the anomaly were crawling all over the walls. I should have realized it from the moment I saw they had multiple arms! Watching them move along the walls like Spider-Man was so absurd I couldn’t even speak.
I take it back. Thinking they were better than tentacles was a mistake. The kids from Tentacle High School crawled on the floor, sure, but they didn’t climb walls.
Maybe realizing I’d hit the limit of my stamina, “Minsu” barked loudly at the children.
{A dog! A dog! Let’s hit the dog!}
{That isn’t a dog, is it?}
{Are dogs scary?}
{It’s a dog! A dog! It barked! Dogs are weak! Let’s hit the dog!}
More than the fact that “Minsu” had started barking like a dog, I was dumbfounded by these children, proof positive of a fundamentally evil view of human nature, saying dogs were weaker and deciding to shoot the dog instead. Even in Hollywood movies, hurting the dog is a line people don’t cross, but apparently these children were inside an anomaly, so they were just doing whatever they wanted.
“Hey!”
In the end, I stopped and accepted that I was going to get hit by a few BB pellets. The demon children crawling over the walls all turned to look at me at once when I shouted. They seemed never to have imagined I would stop so suddenly.
“What unit do you live in? Look at you little brats with no manners! You know you can shoot people, but you can’t shoot a dog, right?”
Who the hell did they think they were, shooting someone else’s dog—well, technically this only looks like a dog, it’s actually “Minsu”—with BB guns? If children were devils, it was obviously their parents’ fault.
“Bring your parents here!”
My furious voice rang sharply through the inside of the apartment building.