I’m flustered.
I infiltrated Daydream Inc. as a researcher and ran into Baek Saheon.
Complication: he recognizes me as “the agent I met in Jisan Village.”
[Oh, but astonishingly, it’s the truth, isn’t it?]
Exactly.
In principle, I am that agent, sure.
Cold sweat breaks out.
But if I reveal here that I’m Kim Soleum too, this will get messier, right?
Screw it.
At this point, I’ll just patch it over and push through.
I deliberately put on a slightly firm smile and spoke to him.
If I’m a decent agent, this is the line.
“No. I wasn’t trying to get help. I saw you were safe and, for a moment, greeted you without thinking.”
“......”
“You’re right, citizen. I shouldn’t be doing this while undercover.”
Ding.
In the meantime, we reached Baek Saheon’s floor.
“Well then....”
“Hold on.”
Instead of getting off, Baek pressed the Close button.
What?
Then he hit the number I’d pressed and brought the elevator to a full stop, folded his arms, and looked at me.
“What are you here to do?”
“It’s better if you don’t know.”
“Why do you get to decide that? No, for all I know you came to blow up the company. If your words make me nervous and I botch my work today, will you take responsibility?”
Is he insane?
“I said, take responsibility for speaking to me.”
I haven’t dealt with this kind of trash behavior since the roommate, when meeting as Kim Soleum.
This troublesome brat....
I nearly considered just revealing I’m Kim Soleum and telling him to shut it.
But better to go naturally than make another risky move.
I’ll circle it to scare him a little.
With a tone like “maybe I can say this much,” I opened my mouth.
“...For today, it’ll be safer for you if you pretend not to know me.”
“......”
“That’s as much as I can say.”
If I say this much, a self-preservation-first guy like Baek Saheon will quickly cut ties with the “paper boat agent.”
...or so I thought.
Instead of leaving the elevator, Baek flinched and kept talking.
“So, are you going to steal info or items or something?”
“Rather than steal, there’s something I’m trying to find out.”
He gave me a subtle look, then spoke like he’d let it slide once.
“Fine, we’ll do it half-and-half.”
“Pardon?”
“Share what you figure out here. I’ll roughly write off what you owe me.”
“......”
Why would I?
I swallowed the answer rising to my throat and probed back.
“So... you mean you’ll help?”
It’s code for: I know you won’t help, so get lost.
But—
“Call it mutual aid.”
Oh?
“If you need something, say so.”
[Astonishingly, your ordinary ex-roommate does not seem to be dreaming of double-crossing you!]
That’s what I’m saying.
In the end, I got off on the 20th floor with Baek Saheon’s promise of help.
He told me to contact him if I needed anything. He’d be standing by.
—I’ll be at the company all day, so contact me by paper boat.
I thought I misheard.
Is this really Baek Saheon?
But (unsurprisingly) he left a few choice lines, too.
—If I get caught, I’ll say you threatened me or controlled me with an item.
Do as you please....
The Disaster Management Bureau doesn’t know any of this. If word comes up later, it’ll end with “That was an impersonator.”
—What should I call you?
—Ah, I’m Researcher Park Kyunghwan.
—That doesn’t suit you at all.
—......
If the real Park Kyunghwan were here, he’d be doing his best to dump you into a high-grade darkness with zero briefing....
Whatever....
I’m not him anyway.
More than that, I can’t believe he’s cooperating of his own accord. He listens like this without me pulling rank.
Since I affected his post-hire trajectory, there’s been a slight divergence from the “Viper Section Chief” I knew from the Darkness Exploration Record.
But his character was the same.
He doesn’t care if others live or die as long as he survives.
And yet he’s especially cooperative with this “paper boat agent.”
No—rather than cooperative... his attitude shifts strangely.
Goodwill? Trust?
...Familiarity?
...Did something change because of the incident in Jisan Village?
Hard to know unless I pry it out of him directly.
For now, I’ll be content with one more card in hand.
I retraced today’s objective and moved my feet.
To the 20th floor gathering spot.
“Hello~ Not many people yet.”
“Right.”
I entered the large conference room with the new researchers and sat for a while.
I traded small talk just enough to kill time, but the tension wouldn’t leave my body.
After a while—
At exactly nine, the person assisting with “orientation” during the researchers’ probation walked in.
And then—
[New researchers! You are the future of our company—today is your fifth day of probation!]
...!
A familiar face.
The orientation presenter....
Day one.
When I first opened my eyes as a new hire at Daydream Inc.
—Welcome to Daydream Inc.!
The superior who ran orientation.
The one who did the performance of drinking a Wish-Voucher and becoming younger—he’s holding the mic with the same face, taut skin without a single wrinkle.
[All right, follow me!]
.......
Suddenly the memories from then surge in like a tide.
That’s where everything started.
The Abyss Transit Authority ghost story, Baek Saheon with the eye torn out, the unflappable Ms. Ko Yeongeun, the new hires who survived the ghost story only to vanish at that presenter’s declaration of “free-riding”....
The onboarding gift.
And....
───
If needed
010-0153-24865
───
Didn’t I... receive a business card then?
Wait.
Gwak Jegang recognized that number too.
—...New hire Kim Soleum, by any chance didn’t you get a business card?
—If you want to earn points faster, contact that number.
So much happened after that that I’d completely forgotten.
I casually leaned to the person next to me as if the thought had just occurred to me.
“Ah, come to think of it—which department did he say he’s from?”
“Uh, well.... Not sure.”
They shrugged.
“Probably research? He can’t be field staff, surely.”
“......”
Look at that researcher superiority complex.
If you’d been caught in the disappearance incident, your head would’ve turned and you’d be dead....
But at that moment, the spectacle I saw at Afternoon Station flashed up and my breath caught.
“......”
“Mr. Kyunghwan?”
“Yes. Coming.”
Hoo.
I need to be careful.
Thinking like a person means the mental trauma and impact people take shows up exactly as is.
The cold pain in my chest felt almost like an electric shock.
...Still, today we won’t be entering a ghost story.
I’ll be facing a more realistic fear. I stole someone’s identity and infiltrated a conglomerate.
Put like that, it just sounds like a ghost story too.
Anyway, I followed the orientation—
[Well now, rather than that title, how about the simpler, more fitting “Presenter”?]
...the Presenter, as we moved.
Staring the whole time.
[Good. Friend!]
The new researchers’ steps left the main building and stopped as we entered the next building.
Here again.
“This is the Annex. You heard the explanation the day before yesterday that the basement stores supply-grade darknesses and darknesses with vastly higher production value in isolation, right?”
“Yes!”
“Correct. And on the upper floors of the Annex....”
The Presenter’s hand pointed past the front desk to the elevator’s floor display.
“Is our company’s core facility.”
A place not easily permitted to the Field Survey Team.
“Shall we go?”
We moved.
I started to give a slight nod to the guard team member at the front desk, dressed head-to-toe in black—and stopped.
None of the new researchers so much as greeted them.
It wasn’t neglect so much as a reaction closer to queasiness or fear.
...So they’ve already been told about the guard team and security team.
Reflexively, I briefly recalled the special department where I’d worked. My assigned security team personnel.
J3 Guard Captain and Chief Park Minseong.
“......”
“Aren’t you getting in the elevator?”
“Ah, sorry.”
I boarded the elevator.
...Thinking it was fortunate that the researcher whose identity I stole hadn’t made any close researcher friends yet.
[Going up.]
The elevator headed to the upper floors of the Annex I’d never seen.
And when the doors opened on the 10th floor, what appeared was....
“A dream-solution processor. It manufactures potions.”
There were no rooms.
In the wide-open floor where everything had been knocked out, gigantic machines stretched in rows.
“...!”
Unlike what I’d seen with the Dream Cultivator, there were no visible pipes or conduits.
Everything finished in a clean white exterior looked, to anyone’s eyes, like the fruits of modern science.
But the form still left hints that made you think of the Dream Cultivator....
“Now, look. This is the dream-solution.”
I looked at a machine where golden dream-solution rippled.
Missing.
There was nothing the size of an egg at the center of the tank.
And there were no emoji-like buttons. Instead, a sleek electronic panel sat within arm’s reach.
“You punch in the number corresponding to the potion on the panel and manufacture the product. Newly developed potions are assigned new codes. I doubt anyone here can’t understand that.”
“Hahaha!”
“......”
Except for one thing.
One button remains.
Bottom-most slot.
O
Only that was, strangely, attached in a similar shape....
“That is the Wish-Voucher button.”
“...!”
I snapped my head around.
The Presenter was smiling at me with that tautly youthful face.
“Name is... Researcher Park Kyunghwan! Well, are you interested in Wish-Vouchers?”
“...I was staring because it’s fascinating! I’m sorry!”
I shot to my feet like a braced new hire and answered.
Chuckling, the Presenter patted my shoulder.
“No need to apologize!”
“Ah, thank....”
“I asked if you were interested in Wish-Vouchers.”
“......”
I swallowed.
Honestly, it wasn’t even acting.
“I am interested, but to be frank the points are so high that for us to collect... it seems, uh, difficult.”
Then, watching his reaction, I asked:
“...Sorry, but how should we address you...?”
“Ah, me? Haha, just call me Team Leader Kim.”
Team leader.
There are so many teams that it’s hard to gauge the rank.
“May I ask which department you’re team leader of?”
“Mm~”
The Presenter winked.
“Ever heard of the branch office?”
......!
“Right, right—these days young folks all love Seoul, and if you say go to the provinces they all quit and transfer.”
Shrugging, the Presenter rubbed his hands as if regretful.
“Still, if you want to rack up points, there’s no place like it. Hm? If you go to a branch office, you don’t just get promoted—you can go straight into management.”
.......
Was that business card I got right after the hiring exam actually a route into a high position at a branch office?
Fortunately, the Presenter didn’t seem overly interested in “Researcher Park Kyunghwan,” and with a shrug turned his attention to another researcher.
Whew.
...The explanation for probationary researchers continued for about twenty more minutes.
Patents for the dream-solution processor, emphasis on confidentiality oaths, the work done in the potion development room, the value of dream-solution....
“So in the end, the work done by every team you’ll be assigned to—diligently developing darkness, recording manuals, managing potion production....”
Tap, tap.
“It’s all in this processor.”
Tapping the dream-solution machine, the Presenter grinned.
“Which means security is very important, right?”
.......
He pointed to something on the wall like a recorder.
“Now, what did we say this was?”
“A security team call button.”
“That’s right!”
Phew.
“Inside this area, calls typically go to the guard team. If anything happens, call immediately. And even if not.... Ah, perfect timing.”
Ding.
The elevator doors opened and two figures appeared in full-body special uniforms.
Security team.
“The guard team will be patrolling this space periodically.”
.......
I recognized one of them by distinctive features.
Whether they recognized me, I couldn’t tell, but we didn’t meet eyes.
“All right, today you’ll assist senior researchers and learn the basic operating procedures.”
We began following the senior researcher, observing potion manufacturing.
Hmm, the security looks rather tight. What do you think, Mr. Noru? Will you pull some mysterious trick like a professional thief in a detective novel? Or....
[Will you take help from that acquaintance over there?]
“.......”
[Oh, from that has-been.]
I didn’t look at J3.
That dried-out staffer wearing attire similar to when I was in the special department.
No.
[Hooh.]
If they’ve been seconded to Ho Yuwon’s project and are here, this might be part of preliminary work to spirit a machine away.
Which means cooperation is out.
We need a diversionary operation.
And listen.
I wasn’t planning to steal what’s here in the first place.
[Hm?]
Just wait and see.
I spent the morning quietly, scouting the internal zones.
Because the real work, I planned to do after lunch, in the afternoon.
So I blended in among the new researchers, holding my breath so as not to stand out... and waited.
And the moment we finished lunch and returned to the Annex 10th floor—
Ding.
The elevator doors opened, and shrieks and hyperventilating sounds rose....
An unforeseen situation hit.
“Security team! Calling security team. Something strange happened inside....”
One dream-solution machine had vanished.
There was a bald, glaringly empty spot where the entire unit had been neatly lifted out, traces and all....
“All researchers over here! From now on, everyone is to be isolated!”
“B-but our work....”
“Drop everything! No one leaves this building until the interrogations are over!”
[Oh my goodness! They jumped the gun!]
“......”
Oh, come on.
Ho Yuwon, right?
That bastard got in first, didn’t he? Please let it be so. If that’s the case, we just pivot posture and let that side get away safely with all the aggro on them....
Ding.
......I turned my head; in the other elevator the security team was coming in to take the researchers away.
The Guard Captain was just there, too.
“......”
“......”
Why are you standing right there.
You’ve got to be kidding me.
If that’s the case, this looks like a third party’s doing, not Director Ho’s.... Don’t tell me this wasn’t Ho’s move?
My brain spun taut under survival pressure as I looked at the empty machine slot.
Fine, if everything’s possible, then....
“Researcher Park Kyunghwan, move to the interrogation room!”
“......”
No choice.
I changed the plan.
Do both.
[What do you mean, friend?]
This is what I mean.
The moment I entered the interrogation room, I spoke up.
“There’s a bomb in the elevator.”
“...?!”
“I saw it.”
I’ll pull ridiculous aggro like a madman—and steal, too...!
Sorry, Researcher Park Kyunghwan.
You’re getting fired today....