Outside the underground bunker of the Mumyeongchanran Church.
The deserted Jisan Village was already half-destroyed.
Likewise, the moment he burst out of the shattered underground bunker doors, Ryu Jaegwan nearly bit his tongue at the sight before him. And then—
“Oh, you’re out!”
A voice spoke right next to him.
...!
Leaning casually against the doorway was Lee Seonghae, Deputy of Baekilmong Corporation’s Elite Team. She turned toward him and waved.
Ryu Jaegwan, about to speak, hesitated for a moment.
How...
...could she be this nonchalant?
Two people had just escaped from a bizarre supernatural disaster that had imprisoned them for decades—trapping its victims inside and slowly digesting them alive.
It had been certain death.
He’d heard it emphasized over and over: once the box closed, it never opened again. Even he, having come out, was still confused as to how this was possible.
“Why...”
“You’re not surprised?”
...!
“Well, you went in there with the employee, didn’t you?”
She looked at the “Agent Grape” in Ryu Jaegwan’s hands.
Light reflected in Lee Seonghae’s pupils.
“Because the Mascot is stronger than that box!”
“......”
Mascot?
Even the unfamiliar title carried something strange about it...
And Ryu Jaegwan, hearing that word applied to Kim Soleum, instinctively looked down at him and asked himself:
How did I get out?
...That sound from earlier.
There had been something violently, mechanically twisting the Box-Seated Seeker as it spat out its eerie words. That...
......
...Agent Grape?
“Anyway, are you looking for your fellow agent?”
“...!”
He shook off the strange thoughts.
“Yes.”
Drawing in a breath, Agent Cheongdong forced his focus back to the situation.
So then—what about Agent Choi’s whereabouts...
“They’re all over there.”
Boom.
Just then, another deafening crash echoed out.
Ryu Jaegwan snapped his head toward the sound.
A pair of massive, gleaming guillotine blades were whirling in the air, gripped in human arms and moving with manic vigor.
It was Agent Choi.
The blades plunged toward the ground again without hesitation—
Aimed at their target.
...That!
“Mm. I think they might be angry.”
As Ryu Jaegwan started to run, Lee Seonghae’s voice reached his ear again.
“At first, that agent seemed to be trying to figure out how to open the box again. Maybe trying to find some kind of weak point.”
Ryu Jaegwan could picture it easily—
Someone staring at the box in disbelief, then forcing themselves to think, to act, to dismantle the closed box no matter what it took.
He’d seen many agents like that—people who’d somehow regained their composure, then taken reckless action if it meant finding a way to get through and save someone.
“They were trembling so badly, looked completely spent, so I tried to help, but that’s when Director Ho started saying the nastiest things.”
“...!”
—What a pity. And with Roe Deer going in, too.
—Still, it can’t be helped, can it? Two people went inside, so this box will be safe for the next few decades. Congratulations!
—The Disaster Response Agency must be thrilled.
“He really was awful about it—especially since he’s the one who pushed them in.”
Ryu Jaegwan felt his mouth twist.
A mix of anger and worry.
“And after hearing that, the agent stopped touching the box, then pulled something out from inside their coat.”
And then—
“The door broke.”
Boom.
Another crash sounded nearby.
Dust blew all the way over to them.
“...!!”
As the dust settled, a shape emerged faintly.
Someone pinned to the ground, skewered through by guillotine blades.
“Oh, they got him.”
It was Director Ho.
Two massive ceremonial guillotine blades were buried in the suited man’s chest.
“I didn’t want to interfere with the agent while they were angry, but I guess I should go help with the cleanup now... huh?”
Ryu Jaegwan sprinted forward.
No.
Because he saw it.
Ink was seeping up from the ground where the dust had settled, drawing letters.
The letters stained red and blue, forming a circular pattern.
He began to hear the sound of gongs, drums, and rattles.
A ritual...!
And there was only one type of ritual done like this—
A Sacrificial Rite...!
A procedure the Disaster Response Agency knew all too well: the offering of a powerful supernatural object in order to summon a divine being.
The plan was to offer up this Baekilmong Corporation director in his entirety, call forth some godlike entity, and smash the box...
Their anger and purpose were aligned.
But—
“Agent!”
Choi shouldn’t be the one performing it!
Agent Choi sat on the ground, eyes closed, doing something.
His lips moved as if in prayer.
It was definitely an incantation.
And even with his eyes closed, the voice was clear—and it was a voice Ryu Jaegwan knew very well.
“Agent!”
Choi stopped what he was doing and turned his head.
Their eyes met—and Choi’s pupils widened.
Surprise.
Suspicion.
Joy.
Relief.
And... a swell of emotion.
“Jae—”
“Agent!!”
Ryu Jaegwan lunged forward, grabbing him by the collar and hauling him up.
“You know you’re not supposed to do a Sacrificial Rite!!”
“......”
“If you try that without even a name to put down—”
“Cheongdong.”
Scarred hands gripped Ryu Jaegwan’s shoulders tightly.
“Thank you...”
“......”
Choi’s collar slipped from his grasp as the agent slumped back down to the ground.
Seeing the way he was breathing heavily, Ryu Jaegwan understood instantly how tightly wound and mentally cornered this man had been.
What it must have felt like for a senior agent to realize that every single team member, except himself, had been swallowed in an instant by a supernatural disaster—facing decades of torture before dying.
His own chest tightened in response.
This guy...!
Always taking the most dangerous shots alone!
Still, that heat faded quickly.
At least both Agent Grape and himself had made it out unharmed.
Instead, his eyes fell on the small bead hanging from Choi’s belt.
Someone was already inside that makeshift glass prison.
The man who had introduced himself in Jisan Village as a reporter.
The employee with the strange name “Mr. Peregrine.”
“...Did you put him in there on purpose?”
“Yeah. Didn’t want an unlucky civilian to get hurt, so I stashed him like this for now.”
Without saying it outright, Choi hinted he’d been cooperative, then finally cracked a grin and stood up.
And Ryu Jaegwan could only manage one line:
“From now on, please—please—stop doing reckless things.”
“Haha...”
Choi gave no reply.
“My, how touching.”
The supernatural disaster pinned under the two guillotine blades—Baekilmong Corporation’s Director Ho—was smiling.
Not a single wince from being impaled, not a single pained groan.
Instead, he calmly raised his hands and placed them on the flat surface of the blades splitting his chest almost in two.
Even as the hiss of burning flesh filled the air, the smiling eyes didn’t change.
...Really.
You’d almost wonder if he’d been subdued at all.
“Now then, will you give our company employee back? You’ve been holding on to him for quite a while.”
“...!”
Ryu Jaegwan immediately stepped back.
The eyes of the nearby Agent Choi darkened.
The habitual smile vanished completely as he brought a hand to his mouth, leaning over the collapsed “Kim Soleum” and nodding as if listening.
“What’s that? Grape. Mm-hm, that’s a good idea.”
Then he looked at the fox-plague entity skewered by the guillotines and grinned.
“Grape says he’s quitting.”
“Oh? If he says so himself, I guess there’s no helping it. Why don’t you wake him up, then?”
“Don’t want to.”
Blue sparks danced in Agent Choi’s eyes.
“Why wake up a sleeping kid? We’ll take care of him just fine, so you can go rest in a cell yourself.”
He glanced at his colleagues.
“Right, Cheongdong...?”
“......”
But Ryu Jaegwan didn’t answer.
Agent Choi noticed the hesitation.
And in that moment—relieved enough to have put off some important questions—one surfaced again.
Just how...
...had they gotten out of the box?
“Cheongdong.”
And why, when they’d both escaped the same way, was Kim Soleum still lying there unconscious in the middle of this chaos?
“Looks like... he’s not waking up.”
“......”
“Want me to try?”
“Shut up.”
“Employee 130666, it’s time to wake up and stand by for duty.”
At that moment—
130666 rose to his feet.
Black smoke.
It billowed thick from beneath a black uniform, yellow lantern-light flashing, a strange presence pressing heavily down on the dusty ground.
The horned figure stood motionless, coat hanging limp, shadow stretching deep.
......
Something was wrong.
This is...
Different from before.
Earlier, even through the eerie, inhuman silhouette, there had been something in there—
A sense in the way it moved and reacted, something that made you call it Grape without hesitation.
But now...
It was like something forcibly packed into a human silhouette.
That shiver down the spine—a field agent’s inductive instinct.
A supernatural phenomenon.
Still, the words came out:
“...Grape?”
The smoke turned first.
Slowly, the black dimness pooled at its feet caught the flare of a gas lamp.
The gaze beneath the horns—
Inappropriate designation.
Reason: Informal.
“......”
Agent Choi was at a loss for words.
After opening and closing his mouth a few times, he finished:
“Then what should I call you?”
No official designation.
Recommendation: Registration number 130666.
“...You want me to call you by your number? You—”
“Wait.”
Ryu Jaegwan cut in urgently.
“Agent Grape, what’s your current condition? Do you still feel constant pain, or are you still hearing strange whispers?”
The smoke didn’t move.
The black-clad Special Division employee stood still for a few seconds, then displayed text:
Unknown.
“......”
“Well now.”
Director Ho’s chuckle carried over.
“Seems like it’s not quite what you were expecting?”
“You...!”
“Employee 130666, since a company executive is currently restrained, would you mind pulling these out for me?”
The black smoke surged toward the guillotines.
“...!”
Clang.
The ceremonial guillotine blade was wrenched free, falling to the ground with a sharp, ringing clatter.
The moment Director Ho rose, now freed, Agent Choi drew another means of restraint and tried to rush him—
But the smoke blocked him.
“...!”
Warning: Security risk behavior.
Further attempts will result in escalation of restraint measures.
“......”
Danger.
The prickling on the back of the neck you only got when facing something truly dangerous.
“...You—”
Through the smoke, his trembling eyes caught something foul.
“What have you done.”
“Nothing at all.”
Director Ho’s voice was feigned sympathy.
“Seems the box left an unfortunate mark. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“The box? More like something you and your cult company did.”
“Who knows.”
A laugh.
“But here’s the problem—I have no intention of answering you. So you can just stay curious forever.”
“......”
Agent Choi lowered his guillotine.
Looking at the being that had once been his coworker...
“One thing’s for sure.”
The blade pointed through the smoke at the foul presence.
The Black Tortoise 1 Team agent made the declaration:
“Baekilmong Corporation’s Director Ho Yuwon is a supernatural disaster.”
A target designation.