Chapter 54: Ch 54: Who exactly are you?
The final day at the Horizon Mountain Lodge—
The promised three days had passed. The final morning at the ’Horizon
Mountain Lodge’ had arrived.
"..."
The civil servant woke up in his bed.
It wasn’t a pleasant morning.
Something about the situation had felt off for a while now, like a carefully
laid plan slowly unraveling.
To make matters worse, the assignment itself hadn’t been one he was eager
to take on in the first place.
Still, the job wasn’t done yet. He donned his prepared work uniform,
strapped on his gear, picked up his tools, and stepped out of his room.
What awaited him outside wasn’t a welcome sight.
"...Huu."
The first-floor living room was soaked in blood.
It looked as though someone had created a pentagram offering with blood,
placing severed body parts at each point.
On the lone clean sofa lay a woman, unconscious.
It was the wife from the couple.
"..."
The agent hesitated briefly but ultimately resolved to carry out his duties as
planned.
He knew all too well the risks of acting on personal judgment.
And besides...
"Uugh... wh-what?!"
They weren’t exactly the kind of people worth saving.
"AAAAAAHH!"
The woman woke abruptly and screamed at the sight before her.
A tall man, clad in a black, waterproof raincoat, stood before her, holding a
butcher knife over 35 centimeters long!!
The man sighed deeply.
’Of all times.’
She had to wake up now.
He was exhausted. More than usual.
How could things have gone so wildly off course?
The agent’s mind flashed back to the first day at the lodge.
His initial target had been one of the couple.
Greedy and vulnerable, they were an easy mark. According to the Disaster
Management Bureau’s analysis, eliminating one half of a couple first would
effectively sow fear, making the subsequent tasks easier.
Following the script embedded in his mind, he had planned to lure the target
to the kitchen and bring the frame’s ominous prophecy to life.
’I’ll burn that person in the stove.’
But someone had beaten him to it.
"...?!"
The stove already contained a corpse.
And not just any corpse—it had been left in a bizarrely grotesque state.
...??
His mind swam with confusion.
The Disaster Management Bureau had ensured that he would be assigned
the role of the serial killer, pre-assigning him the cassette tape as part of the
Disaster’s framework.
So how could there be another killer?
At the time, he had dismissed it as the unpredictable nature of supernatural
catastrophes.
That was, until lunchtime, when he stumbled upon the shredded remains of
two students in the backyard.
"..."
He had no choice but to quietly stow away the large hammer he had
prepared in his wardrobe.
By then, he had realized the truth.
Someone else had been preemptively killing the victims.
It was maddening.
And now, on the final day, someone had even gone so far as to set up this
elaborate dismemberment scene.
His head throbbed from the sheer absurdity of it all.
Still, his tasks hadn’t changed.
Despite the chaos, he had to complete his duties, step by step. That was the
Bureau’s way.
"Hiieek..."
His recollections came to an end as he looked down at his next victim.
The woman’s eyes were wide with fear, but she was too paralyzed to resist.
He sighed, feeling the weight of his exhaustion, and raised the knife.
At that moment—
"Agent 007."
"..."
A voice interrupted him.
He turned to see someone leaning casually against the second-floor railing,
looking down at the living room.
It was the office worker.
The seller he had met through Salmon Market.
"You don’t have to kill her."
Kim Soleum looked down at him.
This individual will firmly believe that they are inheriting the legendary
murderer’s legacy and undergo mental and physical transformation.
In every way, the agent fit the description of a Disaster-appointed serial
killer.
The black raincoat, the gleaming butcher knife—his appearance screamed
’killer’.
But Kim Soleum knew better.
’Despite how he looks, he’s someone you could reason with.’
– Are you certain, friend?
Yes, he’s certain.
’Agents from the Disaster Management Bureau come prepared for these
kinds of scenarios.’
For instance, like the holster barely visible beneath that civil servant’s
raincoat.
========================
Dark Exploration Records / Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau
/ Items
Tether Handler
A black holster-shaped equipment-type item.
When equipped, it grants resistance to supernatural mental
disturbances of Hollow-sanctioned level or lower.
Usage Condition: Must be a Grade-8 or higher official of the
Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau.
========================
It was mental defense equipment.
They wouldn’t send agents unarmed into a Disaster capable of transforming
someone into a brainwashed serial killer.
’No way they’d send them in with a clear head.’
Agents were regularly deployed into high-risk supernatural Disasters where
death was often an assumed outcome.
’Imagine running into a devious pharmaceutical rep using items like smiley
stickers for manipulation.’
Kim Soleum observed the agent standing silently before him and spoke.
"You really don’t need to kill anyone. All the groundwork has already been
laid."
"..."
"I’ve already done everything."
A moment of silence.
"Are you saying you’ve killed them?"
Well, it was true that this Disaster wouldn’t end without a series of murders.
According to the <Dark Exploration Records>, if no killings occurred even
through external intervention, things would spiral into chaos during the
inheritance fight, ending in mutual slaughter.
’That’s why the Disaster is designed for the agent to kill directly.’
To ensure the agent doesn’t die by accident, they’re designated as the serial
killer and managed accordingly.
That was the rule. Commit serial murders, or...
"No."
"...!"
"I just made it look like they died."
...or convince everyone that they did.
"But there were corpses."
"That’s true... but they weren’t my doing."
"...!"
"Did you know this lodge has a basement?"
Kim Soleum recalled part of the poem inside the golden frame.
It wasn’t just foreshadowing murder methods.
There were other hints as well.
Boing, boing, the sound of hopping with laughter
The wooden floors beneath go bam, bam
The table, full
Humming, in the air
This stanza hinted at something.
A sound beneath the wooden floor. An echo from a hollow space below.
And...
’That verse alluding murder to food...’
The table is bountiful.
Something abundant, possibly related to the serial killings.
Sure enough.
"In the basement, there’s a collection of preserved body parts and organs on
display."
"...!"
It was a workshop.
"Apparently, this lodge has seen serial killings before. I nearly fainted when
I saw it."
Honestly, he nearly did. The sight of those grotesque artifacts from past
killings was horrifying.
But more importantly, Kim Soleum had found a new use for those bizarre
props.
The agent caught on.
"All the bodies we’ve seen so far..."
"Exactly."
Kim Soleum grinned awkwardly.
"Not one of them was intact, right?"
Because the corpses were made using the preserved parts from the
basement, pieced together to look fresh!
That’s why Baek Saheon had to be the first victim.
’...I couldn’t have done it without help.’
Handling preserved body parts to recreate murder scenes in the dead of
night was a task so revolting it made him want to give up on life altogether.
But Baek Saheon, faced with a binary choice between collaboration or
death, begrudgingly became an excellent assistant for Kim Soleum’s
morbid creativity.
Together, they painstakingly staged the crime scenes.
They placed charred legs into the stove, using Baek Saheon’s sneakers to
complete the illusion.
The ground meat and bones in the backyard? Repurposed food items from a
freezer behind the storage shed, with bits of clothing scattered for effect.
And the current bloody mess in the living room? The same method.
Although Kim Soleum had done all the actual abducting alone, aided by the
unique abilities of his plush companion, Braun.
"People were hidden away while we staged their deaths. Using real body
parts meant no one suspected anything."
"..."
"I figured the real killer might get flustered and stay quiet if I acted first."
"..."
The plan was as much a psychological play as it was an improvisation in
the face of chaos.
But then again...
"You know... someone still ended up killing people, though."
"..."
"The allergy and the landslide, for example."
Both happened before Kim Soleum had a chance to intervene.
The landslide might be written off as a supernatural catastrophe, but the
allergy? That couldn’t have been mere coincidence.
No one—not even Sherlock Holmes—could figure out someone’s fatal
allergies just by observing them for less than a day.
’Even I only learned about it by accident during a conversation.’
So the idea that someone brought an allergen, like peanuts, into the lodge in
advance specifically for murder was even more implausible.
Which meant...
Someone had to have known the profiles of everyone coming here ahead of
time and prepared for the killings accordingly.
"Was it you, Agent, who caused the allergic shock?"
"..."
The agent didn’t deny it.
And Kim Soleum...
’Hmm. As I thought.’
...wasn’t shocked in the slightest!
Shouldn’t he feel some sympathy for the loss of innocent lives?
Well, they weren’t exactly ’innocent’.
’The government doesn’t just pick random people for Russian roulette-style
sacrifices.’
The Supernatural Disaster Management Bureau uses a method known as the
’Scales of Malice’ to determine candidates for compulsory civilian
conscription.
The scales weigh against acts of ’motive-less murder’, and anyone with a
heavier weight of guilt than that is classified as eligible for conscription.
In other words, only those deemed to have committed atrocities worse than
indiscriminate killing are selected and sent into these Disasters.
’If the Disaster has to operate periodically, they choose people who deserve
to die anyway. At least it’s an attempt at ethical balance.’
A very government-like decision, maintaining a veneer of morality.
’So, this time, too, they’re all probably people who fit that profile.’
And Kim Soleum’s guess was spot on.
The ’married couple’ turned out to be an adulterous pair. The actual spouse
of one of them, along with their young child, had succumbed to despair and
financial hardship, leading to a family suicide.
The college students had been perpetrators in a bullying case that resulted
in a classmate’s death. They’d been indicted but acquitted due to lack of
evidence and had since gone on to join the same hiking club.
As for the designated driver? He was an as-yet-uncaptured child predator.
Even without knowing these details, Kim Soleum had a general sense.
’A dream lineup, I’m sure.’
Clearly, the government had orchestrated things to ensure the tapes ended
up in the hands of these individuals.
’And they sent an agent to monitor and manage it all.’
That person was standing in front of Kim Soleum now.
The agent spoke, his voice steady.
"They’re all criminals."
"..."
"Everyone in this lodge, if the law worked as intended, would be sentenced
to death in some countries for crimes of such egregious severity."
He hesitated before adding,
"Everyone except you, who doesn’t have a tape."
But inwardly, the agent wasn’t confident this explanation would land.
His prior encounters with civilians during missions hadn’t gone particularly
well.
Wearily, he raised his gaze.
But...
"Hmm, I see. That makes sense."
"...!"
Surprisingly, the office worker standing on the second floor nodded easily.
"Anyway, aside from those two, the rest of the group is alive and well, so
that’s good."
Kim Soleum spoke casually, as if the situation were no big deal.
"Even for criminals, killing them must weigh on you. This isn’t a bad
outcome, all things considered."
"..."
Finally, the agent asked.
"Who exactly are you?"
This man had gone out of his way to stage fake murder scenes, appeared
unfazed by the agent’s suspicious appearance, and even trusted him based
on rational deductions.
No ordinary person could maintain such composure.
"Hmm."
Kim Soleum let out a deep sigh.
"I’m just... someone who tends to get swept up in these situations."
"Are you affiliated with the Disaster Management Bureau?"
"Not at all. I’ve heard rumors, though. It’s fascinating to meet an actual
agent in person— Ah."
He suddenly turned his head.
Creak.
The back door to the kitchen was opening.
Just like on the first day.
"It seems the lodge caretaker has returned."
The ending scene of this Disaster was approaching.