Chapter 160: Ch 160: Can’t we just stay?
The Disaster Management Bureau agents snapped their heads around.
"Whoa!"
Wires tipped with Jin Nasol’s ornate nails shot out and snagged the mer-
child’s sleeve.
This was the personal weapon of A-squad’s assistant manager.
"Huh? Look, fireworks!"
The child laughed.
Hearing the tainted mer-child’s giggle, Jin Nasol sliced the most lethal
appendage first—the part that secreted paralytic and infectious fluids.
Slice.
"Aaaagh!"
The enormous tail attached to the mer-child dropped to the floor. Blood and
slime burst out.
"It hurts! It hurts!"
An agent’s counter-strike missed by a hair.
Without a pause, Jin Nasol yanked the now-crippled mer-child in with her
wire and clamped the child under one arm.
"Eek!"
Then she announced.
"Take one more step and it dies."
"...!"
It was a perfectly rational choice.
’Her legs aren’t in perfect condition.’
Her calf, still numb from the bell-blade trap, had already forced her to burn
items just to keep up with that ominous cat.
Trying to fight two Bureau agents, grab the loot, and run in this state would
be idiotic.
And Jin Nasol loathed idiocy.
So, she chose.
"I said stay back."
"...!"
Words failed, but the gesture spoke plainly.
"Hold on, Bronze-ah."
Agent Choi, who valued every single life, raised both hands as if to yield
while frantically hunting for alternatives.
But...
That was not the Bureau’s textbook response.
’Hostage.’
The textbook agent, Agent Bronze, stared at the villain with dark eyes.
These scum planned to steal the twelve shells that could save twelve
children.
’Even though those people could escape without them.’
Letting them go would doom those kids.
The Bureau’s priority was crystal clear.
Maximize lives with minimal sacrifice.
—If one civilian must be lost to save many more.
’So be it.’
"...Bronze-ah?"
Agent Bronze made his decision in a flash.
He raised his glass handgun and charged.
"Hey—!"
At that exact instant, another creature moved.
Jingle.
"W-Wait...!"
Amid Baek Saheon’s startled cry, the cat sprang soundlessly off his
shoulder.
Clamped in its jaws was an Angel’s Sigh conch, pulled straight from Baek
Saheon’s bag.
"No!"
The cat sprinted straight at Jin Nasol.
"...!"
She reflexively braced to kick and flick her wire, yet the cat wasn’t aiming
for her.
It veered slightly, down and sideways.
"Huh? Kitty doll..."
Straight to the mer-child in Jin Nasol’s grip.
The cat pressed the conch, still clenched in its teeth, tight against the child’s
ear.
"...!"
From within the shell flowed a tingling voice.
Hummm.
It was a hum as lovely as a soprano’s aria, a lullaby a parent once crooned.
A stirring phrase of a national anthem, a jubilant hymn brimming with life.
But only one phrase.
A single melody drifted softly, tenderly from the shell and tickled the
child’s ear.
"...Huh?"
The tailless mer-child froze.
Hm, hmmmm, hmm, hmmmmmhh...
Bleeding slowed.
Ulcers shrinking on face and limbs, the torsion of infection easing, vocal
cords returning to proper shape.
It wasn’t a full rewind to a pristine child, but the rampant infection faltered,
and the human life still inside flared like kindling catching flame.
Next moment—
"Huuu..."
With a deep sigh, the child was once more simply a sick little boy.
"..."
"..."
Everyone, stunned by the miracle, hesitated on pure instinct.
"W-What’s going on? Mom...!"
The boy burst into hysterical sobs, the hallucination collapsing, Twinkle
Twinkle Ocean Palace gone, and horrific reality laid bare to naked eyes.
"...!"
’It even breaks the brainwashing...!’
And as the child was banished from that blissful dream and kept bawling,
the cat, astonishingly, crept into his arms and let him cling for comfort.
"K-Kitty..."
Even when the child yanked its head with a rather rough grip, the cat sat
motionless.
That only made it creepier, yet the signal was unmistakable.
That creature was friendly toward children.
’Is this a ghost story whose rules change by age?’
Ever an elite of the Field Investigation Team, Jin Nasol kept analyzing, yet
she did not release her hostage.
She merely stopped overtly subduing the child. No one could predict how
that cat-shaped danger would react.
But...
"Really, these people are out of their minds."
Someone exploited that tiny opening.
"...!"
A glass bullet flew.
Jin Nasol saw it. One agent fired the glass handgun at her legs while
another, already in range, tried to bind her torso.
’Hah.’
She deliberately let herself topple backward.
Her body, suddenly limp and boneless, slipped past their grapples by a hair.
At the same time she flung the hostage straight into Agent Choi’s arms.
"...!"
The moment Agent Choi caught the child, who was still clutching the cat.
’There are hostages everywhere.’
Jin Nasol made the cold calculation and kicked the door.
’We’re pulling out.’
The other Daydream employees, reading her intentions, moved to follow.
Baek Saheon gripped the bag holding the remaining eleven Angel’s Sighs
and bolted.
[This way]
The cat looked up.
"...!"
The ominous cat quietly stepped out from the arms of the child held by
Agent Choi.
"Why are you..."
The quadruped creature walked among the frozen onlookers. Then, after
passing by everyone, it stopped in front of something.
The severed tail of the young mermaid, the one Jin Na-sol had cut off.
A strand of the ulcer mass.
[This way]
The cat’s form crackled as it turned to face the people.
"W-What are we supposed to do with that...?"
[This way]
Its blood-red eyes looked directly at me.
A gaze that seemed to already know everything about me.
"..."
Fucking hell.
Baek Saheon quickly grabbed the tail with his gloved hand, trying to stuff it
into the waterproof pouch on the front of his bag.
But Agent Choi was faster. He snatched the tail away before he could.
"Ah...!"
Agent Choi, still categorized as a ’child’, firmly gripped the still-wriggling
tail that was desperately trying to parasitize him, and spoke to the cat.
"You provoked the attack because you needed this, didn’t you?"
Silence.
"What use is this tail?"
The cat did not speak.
And yet, it answered.
[This way]
By fixing its gaze on the employees of Daydream Inc.
"...!"
Agent Choi secured the tail in a containment case and then hurriedly began
scribbling words on the ground with the chalk he carried.
A point of connection where the gaze of the Twinkle Twinkle Ocean Palace
and the Mermaid Grave intersects.
– You guys are using the tails, huh?
"...!"
– If you tell me where and how you use it, I promise I won’t fight
anymore until we get out of here~ I swear it on my honor as an agent!
^^
– Is it something you use to escape? I know all about you running away
on the escape vessel. So where and how do you use it?
’This crazy bastard...’
But Agent Choi had his reasons for confidence.
– The cat seems to want us to talk, too, right?
[10]
"Agh, seriously!"
With the cat starting yet another countdown, Baek Saheon glanced about.
’Not wearing the target for this...’
Thankfully Kang Yihak crouched first and began writing.
– How much will you pay us if we tell? haha
Another lunatic...
– We’re completely broke ᅲᅲ You rich guys suck it up! Don’t want
Kitty to pop your head, right~
"Eyy."
’You lil shits...!’
In the end, under the pressure of the countdown, Baek Saheon wrote the
answer himself in place of his money-crazed colleague, using his best
judgment.
– You already know, right... The tail’s an entry pass for the escape run.
– But we never brutally cut the tails off of the mer-children. We only
took the minimal amount from already fully infected general entities.
We need to survive too...
’Telling them we butchered a kid would make them flip!’
Even so, Agent Choi didn’t blink.
– How is it used? Fuel? Ticket? Sacrifice?
Was it safe to spill this much?
[6]
Damn it.
– An admission ticket.
As he wrote, Baek Saheon instinctively glanced toward where the cat had
been. After squeezing him with that killer countdown—are you satisfied
now, you psycho bastard?
But the cat was gone.
"...!"
It was now standing in front of the window.
Standing... on two legs.
[This way]
The cat’s posture was uncanny.
As if something else were forcing it to move, it stood eerily upright on two
legs near the window and lifted its left front paw, pointing sharply
westward.
That direction was...
...The escape vessel!
And with that, it dropped below the window.
"...!!"
People rushed to the window and looked down, but below—there was
nothing.
The cat had vanished.
"...Hah."
The air suddenly felt lighter.
As a few people caught their breath and began thinking rapidly—
"The escape vessel... the escape vessel!"
Baek Saheon tore at his hair.
"That’s it! The cat meant for us to board the escape vessel and get out!"
"What?"
"I-It said, ’Prepare for death’! I thought that meant something else, but now
it seems it was a warning! If we don’t all escape by boat, it’ll kill us...!"
"...!"
"We have to get out of here—"
But the Daydream Inc. employees didn’t forget the danger so quickly. The
Disaster Management agents were still here. And...
The memory of what the cat had just done.
"..."
At that moment, Agent Choi fell into thought.
The cat had forced them to sever the mer-child’s tail, then used the conch
shell to heal it.
Any adult would have recognized that as a friendly act toward children...
"Hmm."
Thinking of that, Choi calmly wrote on the ground.
– The cat showed us where the conch shells were and even
demonstrated the cure. Clearly it wants us to use them to save as many
kids as possible...
– Unless you’d rather risk being slaughtered by a monster for your
greed?
’Damn it.’
But Choi didn’t stop there.
– Otherwise, will you cooperate only until we’re all safely out?
"...!"
– Make sure you escort every child out safely, using the conch shells on the
escape vessel.
"..."
Jin Nasol shoved Baek Saheon aside and strode forward without hesitation.
She barely blinked as she wrote.
– Any foolish moves and you’re shot.
"Okay~"
Thus, a strange temporary alliance was born.
It was a team capable of utilizing both the sensory perception of the
Mermaid Grave and the Twinkle Twinkle Ocean Palace, with enough
personnel to both handle the biological disaster and protect multiple
children at once.
’...Was it leading us into this?’
Ryu Jaekwan’s eyes twitched slightly.
Just what kind of supernatural phenomenon was that rumor in the form of a
cat, to lead to something like this...? No, what mattered for now was
getting out of here safely and completing the mission.
Wait!
Yes, and he wasn’t even alone anymore. They had a rookie now, too...
"Grapes!"
Ryu Jaekwan spun to face his superior grimly. Their rookie must still be
searching for survivors among the children...
"We have to find him at once. If someone’s left behind..."
"Hold on, hold on! Calm down. We’re meeting this evening anyway. We’ll
pass by and pick him up on the way out."
That was the problem...!
’We can’t take these maniacs with us...!’
"I’ll... threaten them a bit first."
Agent Choi, instead of keeping the conch shell with Baek Saheon,
demanded the tail tissue of the general infected creatures as collateral, and
verified that the employees weren’t lying about the location of the escape
vessel.
He even pretended to wrestle over the conch shell to discreetly attach a
tracking device to it, completing the precautions.
"All set."
Finally, they firmly agreed to meet in front of the building near the escape
vessel.
"Now let’s gather the kids."
"...Yes."
In any case, the encounter between that lunatic pseudo-pharmaceutical
company and Agent Grapes was now inevitable.
Ryu Jaekwan felt a chill in his chest, but resolved that he should spot the
rookie first and make him cover his face with a hood or something.
If he said he wanted to protect the rookie’s identity from the cult-like
pharmaceutical staff, his superior would probably understand.
"By the fountain!"
"Yes."
But the moment they met Agent Grapes at the central fountain of the city—
"Agent!"
Ryu Jaekwan realized his plan had been meaningless.
Through the suncatcher he had been holding up reflexively—just in case—
he saw it clearly.
The rookie agent, who turned back after noticing them...
"I’ve been gathering and organizing the children by age group!"
Half of his face was covered in ulcers.
"..."
Ryu Jaekwan came to a halt.
Cold sweat ran down his back as his trembling eyes scanned the childlike
figure of the rookie agent...
Below the torso, long umbilical cord-like masses of cellular tissue dangled.
From his waist, thick chunks of flesh extended outward, with ulcers
hanging from him like a tail.
It was grotesque and horrific. But because of the setting in an underwater
city, and because the form resembled a tail...
This biological disaster was referred to as the merfolk.
"But playing together is so much fun..."
The mer-child, who had once been an agent, smiled and waved.
"Can’t we stay just one more day?"
Upon seeing the rookie fully infected by the biological disaster, the two
agents stopped in place, their faces completely drained of color.