Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 237.1

The underground bunker of the cult.

Dinner time, with all the converts sitting together.

A voice cut through the silence.

“Wow.”

……

“Wow, amazing.”

One of the Church of the Luminous Unknown’s ghost stories was looking straight at me.

“Only the dragon came?”

Smiling brightly, eyes flicking to the two empty seats beside me.

“The fox and Grandma Kim Bokja didn’t come. Just the dragon.”

……

“Hey. Why do you think those two couldn’t make it?”

Hypothesis : Mild forgetfulness

Reason : Natural aging

“Are you teasing the fox for being older than you? Hahaha!”

Laughter rippled through the dining hall.

“Don’t worry! They’re fine. Looked like they wanted to go sightseeing, so we let them.”

Sightseeing.

[Oh dear, I suppose we’ve been found out.]

Probably.

I tried not to let my imagination wander too far into ‘too vivid’ scenarios about what could have happened to the two of them.

But then.

“So. You want to keep eating, or go see them?”

…Ha.

Rule : Breakfast and dinner are eaten together by everyone.

“Right! But you’re not a convert, are you? So you’re an exception.”

……

“Come on, follow us! We’ll show you. Everyone else can keep eating.”

“Yes.”

The others nodded and smiled, chatting happily again with the usual ‘Let us share happiness’ and ‘Ireum-nim’s gaze’. It was as if nothing were odd.

I rose, pulling my smoke in tight around me, and followed the twins out… numbering off worst-case scenarios in my head.

‘As long as the assistant manager isn’t dead.’

And as long as Ho Yoowon didn’t just ditch me and run. Anything’s fine.

Those chances were slim. Keep that in mind…

The twins left the east side’s dining hall, walking down a dim cement-finished corridor toward the place I’d already guessed.

The great central chamber.

The site of the rituals.

And…

“Here it is.”

They pointed behind one coffin leaned against the wall.

“Want to go in?”

The older sister smiling, the younger brother expressionless.

Their obvious yet unsettling faces.

I sent a thick stream of smoke ahead into the dark space behind the coffin first.

Inside—

“Ah. You’re here.”

…Ho Yoowon, perfectly fine, and Assistant Manager Eun Haje still disguised as Grandma Kim Bokja, leaning casually against the wall.

Both intact.

‘Huu…’

I caught Eun Haje’s subtle glance and stepped fully inside.

And.

‘……Industrial equipment?’

It looked like a kind of facility.

Its size wasn’t as overwhelming as the main hall, but it was spacious enough and looked a bit larger than the dining hall. There were pipes running everywhere, and the low hum of machinery echoed through the air.

Like a tiny old factory compressed underground.

[Indeed! A bunker with production facilities.]

[Preppers sometimes build for long-term habitation, not just short-term shelter! This must be one such case.]

Steam hissed from pipes. I caught a sharp medicinal tang in the air…

“Impressive, right?”

I turned.

At some point, the twins had joined us inside.

Both were smiling now, wide and easy.

“Curious what we’re making?”

……

“Ask. Go on. The fox who came before you already saw.”

I looked to Ho Yoowon.

He glanced at the machinery, smiled faintly, and answered.

“They’re brewing liquor.”

……

……!!

“Correct. Ding!”

The twins stepped aside, revealing what they’d been blocking from view…

A massive container.

Tall as two grown adults, broad and square.

Not ceramic. It looked like cheap plastic, a giant industrial water tank.

And I realized.

That smell in the air wasn’t disinfectant.

It was alcohol.

Raw spirit was coming from that tank.

“What do you think? Cool, huh?”

Right here, beneath where Jisan Village’s guardian shrine once stood…

They’d rebuilt the brewing vat.

Exactly as before.

“Right in this very place. Long ago, there was a festival where they drank liquor brewed by the Mimicry sect using the Church’s centipede. They say everyone there heard Ireum-nim’s voice and saw their happy ending.”

……

“But someone stole all the liquor. Even took the centipede. So someone’s gotta fill it up again, right? We’re giving it a try!”

Wait.

Then what are they planning to put in there instead of the centipede…?

“We were thinking maybe dragon liquor or fox liquor.”

……!

“But hey, you two aren’t converts, are you? Then no can do.”

That’s.

“To make the liquor truly awaken Ireum-nim… you have to steep it with the Church of the Luminous Unknown’s faithful, potent Authority.”

Authority.

The Church of the Luminous Unknown’s own word for ghost stories.

“So we prepared Authority. Ah, and here come the participants.”

Footsteps behind us.

Bootfalls rolling through the vast hollow chamber, dozens of them.

“Congratulations on completing initiation!”

……

I turned my head.

Beyond the entrance.

The new converts who had finished dinner were standing there.

Those at the front, lined up before the coffins, stood perfectly still.

Not a word, just smiling as if they already knew everything, gazing inward.

A strange, shared unity.

I scanned their faces and…

……

Wait.

Question :

“Mm? Roe Deer-nim, I’ve told you repeatedly, it’s not your turn to ask…”

Question : Restriction release status for Entity 130666’s facial recognition impairment (mosaic)

“…What an odd thing to bring up.”

Ho Yoowon’s voice rang clear.

“I’ve never tampered with your binding, you know…”

……

Then.

Why can I see everyone’s faces clearly now?

From day one in this underground bunker, none of their faces had ever been mosaicked or melted.

I had simply accepted it as it was. Because I was briefly outside the Daydream Inc., because I was moving with Director Ho, and because of that ‘gain a little freedom’ line.

I just accepted it naturally.

This was what I was facing now.

And so I’d missed the truth.

“Let us spread happiness!”

The converts’ mouths opened, reciting the fixed phrase.

I looked inside.

Inside their mouths.

What moved there when they shaped the sounds…

It was not a tongue, but something else.

“Let us share happiness.”

Bugs.

Red, fleshy, wormlike things, replacing the tongue. Smooth, skillful movements, but at the tip a mouth opened and tiny teeth showed.

“Oh, did you see that? Cool, right? That Authority, they say it’s a fear derived from a fish parasite. It latches onto the root of the tongue, gradually devours it, and then takes its place. And…”

The Happy Ending Sect whispered on.

“It spreads fast. …Just talking during meals is enough.”

And I understood.

That offhand, almost snide question I’d thrown before.

– I mean, how are they even forming unity?

How arrogant I had been.

Reality isn’t a wiki.

Just because the entries look childish doesn’t mean the situation lacks coherence.

I had only been seeing the surface.

Reality always has mechanisms, reasons, a foundation.

Just because I didn’t know them doesn’t mean they’re not there.

– The little details that should make this unreasonable situation possible

They were there.

– Some small symbol that only they share

It existed.

‘Ghost story.’

Every convert here was contaminated by the same ghost story. That’s why I could see their faces.

And that ghost story is…

“Fascinating, isn’t it?”

…unknown to me.

Salt Goblin

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