Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 230.1

The Cheerful Research Institute office.

Director Ho.

A black roulette.

Something dangerous.

“Soleum—”

Instinctively, I shrouded Director Ho’s face in smoke.

The man wearing a Cheerful Research Institute employee badge vanished into the black fog, his silhouette swallowed. I tried to read its nature and parameters, to erase him…

“Did you know? Killing me would violate company regulations.”

……

“Maybe, if you had proof I was a threat to the company… but do you?”

……

I dispelled the smoke.

Emerging from it, Director Ho still wore that unchanging smile.

Leaving a trace of smoke around his neck as a precaution, I conveyed my words.

Request for explanation of situation

“Ah, I was making rounds to check Security Team operations… and I just happened to see the button for Basement Floor 29. So I pressed it.”

……

Liar

“Yes?”

I raised my hand and flicked the ID card hanging from his neck.

Prepared in advance.

“Ah.”

Glancing down at the badge, Director Ho’s lips curled in a crooked smile.

“Still sharp as ever. Even after ending up like this?”

He swept his gaze over me, as if mocking the security uniform prototype he himself had given me, before continuing.

“That’s right. I come down sometimes too, looking for a certain Darkness. With this badge, I can wander this hell in relative safety.”

…Hell?

A strange choice of words.

But what was more important…

Origin of employee ID

“Sorry, but I don’t see any reason to tell you… Ah, unless you’d like to borrow it? Want to try wearing it?”

Director Ho whispered kindly.

“If you put this on, you’ll be able to see the employees of the Cheerful Research Institute. Just for you, Soleum-nim, I’ll let you see them.”

……

I turned away and resumed my search.

“Soleum-nim?”

‘No need to get dragged in anymore.’

I’d found at least one upside to being bound to Director Cheong while no longer in a human body.

I didn’t have to flinch or answer to this guy’s words anymore.

“Soleum-nim?”

I slipped the roulette into the pocket of my uniform and kept inspecting the office.

“Why are you taking that? Is it a Darkness… Ah, I thought so. I suspected it too, but I guess you spotted it right away.”

Director Ho’s tone was almost casual as he went on.

“Maybe Darknesses created in the Cheerful Research Institute can recognize each other?”

I froze.

Just now.

“I know you were born from the Cheerful Research Institute’s last Dream Incubator, Soleum-nim.”

……

Question : Time of discovery

“Of course, from our very first meeting.”

…!

“But I suppose you made a bad wish, seeing how you ended up contracted to Director Cheong.”

I turned to look at Director Ho.

He grinned at me with a smile that’s like a painting.

“Still, this is better for you. Daydream Inc. will take things in no matter what form they’re in. As long as there’s value to exploit… Like you, Soleum-nim.”

Twisted logic.

And that name.

Request : Change of address

Do not call me by my real name.

“But Soleum-nim is still Soleum-nim, right?”

Was it deliberate?

Hearing my real name spoken in the middle of a Darkness made every nerve stand on end.

Especially here, in the Cheerful Research Institute.

And even more so because it was coming from Director Ho.

“If it bothers you so much, I can change how I address you. How about Roe Deer-nim?”

I stared at him.

“Silence means yes, then, Roe Deer-nim!”

Question : Things you know about me

“I know you’re someone very special. Special enough that the last remaining researchers of the Cheerful Research Institute risked everything to summon you and smuggle you out, and…”

Director Ho’s voice flattened, stripped of all expression.

“Special enough that, despite never running any intelligence operations, you could tell me information about Sekwang Special Metropolitan City as if you already knew it when I asked.”

……

‘So he was suspecting me.’

When I handed over intel and claimed my Wish Ticket, I hadn’t cared if he found me suspicious.

I never imagined I’d run into him again like this.

But I realized something.

‘He doesn’t know who I really am.’

That I’d come from a world without ghost stories, where this world existed only as the <Dark Exploration Records> wiki.

Even if he’d seen the experiment logs I had read while rummaging through this underground Cheerful Research Institute, he didn’t have the full picture.

Which meant…

He wanted information from me.

And I had no reason—nor intention—to give him any answers.

I resumed my search.

“How about a trade? We exchange what we know. About who we really are.”

Not necessary.

“Could I come with you? I get scared walking alone…”

Statement of fear

→ Grounds for disqualification as a Daydream employee

“…It’s fine. That only applies to regular employees.”

Director Ho once again smiled kindly, like a simple-minded staffer.

“I’m a contract worker, so it’s fine. …Just like you.”

……If being permanently bound and having your life mortgaged could be called ‘contract work’.

“Roe Deer-nim?”

I stepped out of the office.

Footsteps followed behind me.

So did his voice.

“Roe Deer-nim?”

……

“Please, let me come with you, Roe Deer-nim.”

Warning 1

Reason : Obstruction of duties

Cumulative warnings : 1 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 2

“…Are you saying you’re going to discipline me?”

Warning 2

Reason : Obstruction of duties

Cumulative warnings : 2 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 1

“Did someone tell you you could treat me this way? Director Cheong Dallae? Researcher Kwak Jekang? Guard Sergeant J3? Supervisor Park Min—”

Warning 3

Reason : Obstruction of duties

I turned around and grabbed him by the neck.

“…!”

Cumulative warnings : 3 / Strikes left until disciplinary action : 0

Execution

The smoke coiled around Director Ho’s neck surged upward, covering his face once more. Director Ho reached out his hand, but…

‘Nope.’

I seized that hand with my other hand, crushing it as if crumpling paper.

……

……

“Ah, I touched it.”

[Goodness. Careful there, Friend!]

Director Ho’s fingers bent at unnatural angles. His hand gripped the zipper at the wrist of my security suit—

Ziiiiiip.

—and pulled it down.

“You shouldn’t say such things while wearing the shroud I crafted for you. While the covenant you made with me is still in place, you shouldn’t say such things.”

His long fingers, joints twisting, reached for the amorphous flesh exposed as the zipper came undone.

Blisters rose on that flesh.

“Man. You dare lay your hand…”

An attempt to invoke a binding.

But the blisters swelled slower than before, his hand twisting unnaturally.

Barely restrained.

‘How dare you.’

I engulfed him entirely in smoke. And before he could recite the binding’s incantation, I read him first.

The record of Director Ho, employee of Daydream Inc.

Salt Goblin

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