Human beings are creatures that create fear out of every space, object, and situation.
There are more than enough people who fear ordinary places like schools, offices, and public transportation, not to mention playgrounds, daycare centers, and amusement parks that ought to be full of dreams and hope.
And it wasn’t just places. Objects were the same way. Dolls, mirrors, shoes, even clothes bought directly from vintage shops... people said ghosts clung to all kinds of things. Our ancestors used to say goblins hid in brooms and rubber shoes, so it was hard to call it some modern trend.
Jeon Jiho said anomalies were what happened when all those tiny fears gathered together and took on substance. Stories about getting on the wrong bus on your way to work and ending up in the afterlife, or about an amusement park clown carrying around a human head instead of a helium balloon, spread and spread until they became a world of their own.
They had existed since ancient times, but once the internet developed and society became saturated with information, anomalies spread rapidly. No matter how much the state created the Anomaly Control Department, there was no way it could completely control paranormal YouTube channel owners or the people who posted horror-story rules online.
“Even so, civilian casualties have remained low so far. Since anomalies are properly separated from reality, even if someone enters one, if they know the escape method, they can return with about a ten percent chance.”
“If the survival rate is only ten percent, doesn’t that mean civilian casualties are high?”
“It’s better than having no hope at all. Kang Iru escaped Dowon High School by reading the rules sheet we wrote, didn’t he?”
“Well, yeah...”
The rules sheet came back to mind, the one that had been wrong about everything except that jumping from the rooftop was the way out. Still, if it hadn’t existed, I would never have figured out how to leave the school, so it was true that it had helped me escape the anomaly.
“Most of the entities inside an anomaly are ordinary entities, monsters that cannot communicate. True to beings created from fear as their raw material, they attack those who enter the anomaly. There are some that do not attack immediately, but those are extremely rare.”
Jeon Jiho said there was no way to know the exact reason the monsters inside anomalies attacked humans, but I felt like I understood anyway. If a cockroach gets into someone’s house, doesn’t the human living there try to kill it somehow? From a monster’s point of view, humans probably looked like cockroach teachers who had wandered into their home....
And even if communication with a cockroach were possible, how many humans would actually let that cockroach leave unharmed? Even if you kindly said, “Mr. Roach, our home is much too shabby for a fine gentleman like you, so please use that window over there,” there was no guarantee Mr. Roach wouldn’t lay eggs along the way to the window.
At Dowon High School too, the teacher hadn’t attacked us right away. It had first asked whether we were really students of Dowon High School. That meant there had been a process of determining whether what had come into its house was really a cockroach or not.
“Of course, there are also entities capable of communication. We call them special entities. The chairman you named ‘Minsu’ is a representative example.”
“‘Minsu’ didn’t have tentacles on him, though. He looked completely human.”
“That’s because most special entities were originally human.”
“Seriously?”
“Yes. In the chairman’s case, his appearance had not changed much from when he first entered Dowon High School.”
So “Minsu” was a cockroach that had entered a human home and become the homeowner?
In truth, the fact that “Minsu” had originally been human wasn’t all that surprising. I had already suspected it, and aside from being inhumanly good-looking, “Minsu” wasn’t very monster-like. Sure, he acted creepy sometimes, and when he claimed he was helping, he sent Kim Jihoon and Lim Jinsung outside the school rather than back to reality, and he’d repeatedly asked whether I wanted to become a teacher....
“Not all special entities were human to begin with, but most are humans who remained inside an anomaly and mutated under its influence.”
“If someone changes like that, can’t they turn back into a human?”
“In theory, no. There have been cases where private organizations rescued special entities and returned them to society, but the endings were not good.”
“How did they end?”
“That’s classified.”
“Why is everything classified?”
“If you become a controller, I’ll be able to tell you more. You’ll likely be judged first-rank.”
“Even if I’m the ultimate traitor to the nation, I can still become a civil servant?”
“The ulti... what?”
Instead of digging any further into all that classified nonsense, I told him about the promise “Minsu” and I had made. When I said that “Minsu” had asked me to swear, but it had felt a bit too extreme so I settled it with a promise instead, the lines between Jeon Jiho’s brows relaxed ever so slightly.
Then they furrowed all over again when he heard that I had promised that once “Minsu” finished all the school’s business and came to find me, I would set up an amazing date course and take him out.
“Why did you make a promise like that?”
“Because he kept asking me to become a teacher, or principal, or vice principal. I had to survive first.”
“......”
“Anyway, if ‘Minsu’ comes out into reality, the other entities all come pouring out too, right?”
“Yes. The chairman became the chairman for the purpose of controlling Dowon High School. He must not come out into reality. Anomalies with many entities and a large site are difficult to contain. A great many people will die. Someone has to take responsibility and control anomalies like that.”
I’d made that promise without knowing anything, but once I heard that because of me, a lot of innocent people could die, be hurt, or get dragged into an anomaly, it didn’t feel great. I might be selfish and underhanded, but I wasn’t some sociopath who took pleasure in harming blameless strangers.
“For that reason, I would like Kang Iru to enter Dowon High School again.”
That said, I still didn’t want to go back to the place where I had almost died.
Jeon Jiho said I had to go back in and break my promise with “Minsu.” Otherwise, when “Minsu” came out into reality, the other entities would come out with him, and the ordinary entities in Dowon High School were not exactly friendly toward humans.
Logically, I did feel like I ought to clean up the mess I had caused. But going back in only for “Minsu” to welcome me with a welcome back banner and hire me as a teacher? Absolutely not. Teacher authority had already hit rock bottom both in Dowon High School and in reality, and now I was supposed to become one? No chance.
“It won’t be easy to go back into a place where you nearly died.”
When I said nothing, Jeon Jiho nodded as if he understood completely. Then, just as he had when we first met, he reached out and grabbed my shoulder.
“I can help you make the decisi— guh, kh...”
“Huh?”
I had been thinking this guy really had no sense of personal space, when Jeon Jiho suddenly started coughing up blood. Blood poured from his nose and mouth like a fountain, and I was so startled I missed my chance to scream and just stared at him stupidly.
I wanted to demand what the hell was suddenly wrong with him, but Jeon Jiho collapsed onto the floor in an instant. At the same time, the interview room door flew open and a whole group of people in similar civil service uniforms rushed in.
“Controller!”
“Start by identifying the entity. That might not be human.”
“Don’t provoke it right away. Judging by what happened to Controller Jeon, this isn’t ordinary.”
I had no idea that this many people had been waiting outside the interview room. I hadn’t heard a single presence, but it seemed at least four of them had been monitoring what was happening inside.
Sure, watching the interviewee for safety reasons was one thing, but hearing, “That might not be human,” was honestly kind of hurtful. I had no idea why, both inside and outside anomalies, people kept insisting on treating me like I wasn’t human.
“Excuse me, this wasn’t me doing something to him. This guy suddenly grabbed my shoulder and started vomiting blood.”
“Don’t be misled by what it says. We don’t know how it will act.”
“No, wait—”
“Subdue it first! Sedate it before we put it in restraints—”
I was about to shout back in outrage, but something flew into the back of my neck and stabbed into me. Along with the sound of a needle sinking in, I pitched forward right on top of Jeon Jiho’s collapsed body.
***
“Have you finished identifying the entity?”
“Yes. For now, it appears to be human.”
“For now?”
“It is human, but... there are several spells on it. Branding won’t work either.”
When I came to again, my whole body was restrained. My eyes were covered, and I had a gag in my mouth too.
Faced with such a ridiculous situation, I actually became calmer. So the Anomaly Control Department really wasn’t a state agency after all, but a gang of scammer criminals. No wonder they’d seemed like a cult.
Instead of letting them know right away that I was awake, I kept pretending to be unconscious and listened to the voices around me. These bastards had taken my blood without my consent because they needed to run some tests—though honestly, I might have technically consented earlier when I signed that confidentiality agreement in a daze over the ten million won.
“No matter what kind of injury he receives, it heals immediately. And when subjected to mental manipulation, he counterattacks.”
“Is that a spell the chairman put on him?”
“The wound regeneration is definitely the chairman’s... but the mental manipulation counterattack is uncertain.”
While I lay there with my eyes closed, pretending to be unconscious, I learned several shocking things.
One was that Jeon Jiho had tried to use mental manipulation on me, only to get completely destroyed by the backlash and collapse vomiting blood. Another was that “Minsu” hadn’t just healed my leg—he had also put some kind of automatic recovery on me. Apparently these Anomaly Control Department bastards had realized that and, to confirm it, injured my body without my consent—though, thinking about it, I may have seen something similar in the agreement when I signed it.
Still, if I were in the Anomaly Control Department’s shoes, I probably would have restrained first too if there were a human who couldn’t be affected by mental manipulation, could communicate with the entities inside anomalies, and healed immediately whenever he was injured. It was unfair, but I could understand it.
I was trying to figure out when I should suddenly sit up and say I get why you’re suspicious, but I really am human, when the man who had taken my blood spoke again.
“Should we check whether he recovers even after amputation?”
“Yes. Let’s deal with it quickly while he’s unconscious.”
Were they out of their fucking minds?
No matter how much of an ultimate traitor to the nation I might have become, this was too much. I couldn’t let this lunatic cult group take my blood and then go on to chop off my limbs too.
Beep—
Beep—
Beep—
But before I could jolt upright and resist, disaster alert alarms started blaring from all directions, shrill enough to hammer at my ears.