Chapter 162 - Chapter 162

Chapter 162

===================

Translated by Jinmu

Read more at hivetoons.org

===================

Thinking about it, it was a strange thing.

The tragedy that occurred previously when a Disaster Management Bureau agent forcibly boarded an infected child onto the escape craft, that is.

Acute shedding occurs, ulcers grow all over the body, and life signs are lost.

Death due to rapid spread of contamination.

Rather than an action committed by the escape craft to eliminate an internal danger, was this not too much... the action of the infection source?

Yes.

It was correct to interpret it as the doing of the 'biohazard-mermaid.'

A disposal of a host that dared to move away from, or tried to escape from, the colony.

Retrieval of energy.

However, only the Disaster Management Bureau agents knew about this matter, and conversely, only the Daydream Co. employees possessed more detailed information regarding the escape craft....

Fragmentation of information.

Hence, this situation where it was impossible for anyone to reasonably anticipate it.

“Uh.”

A child raised its hand.

“It's the Mermaid Princess!”

Boom!

With a roaring sound, a mass that crashed down through the ceiling smashed the station.

Kyahahahaha-!

The sound of the ulcer colliding, which resembled the laughter of a young child, filled the station.

And numerous strands of tumor masses like tentacles spat out horrific mucus, stepping on the space like feet.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud.

Thud thud thud thud thud!

As if a spiderweb were hanging, the mucus-secreting mass of flesh extended tentacles like stretching limbs to all the walls of the shattered station, hanging and revealing its form.

The horrific shape that had been coiled in front of the 'Dragon Palace,' the largest tumor mass in the massive colony of infection.

Kyahahahaha-!

Overrunning the station, it slammed down its flesh.

Thud!

“Damn it!”

Baek Sa-heon stood blankly and screamed, then pushed back the employee who tried to push him, quickly backing away.

The sound of the employee being caught by the mass of flesh, having his head crushed, and his blood and mucous membranes sucked out echoed.

‘Let's get out!’

Gritting his teeth, he tightly gripped the bag containing the conch shells and tried to run straight toward the escape craft.

But at that moment.

Someone grabbed the back of his neck.

“…!”

A baby mermaid.

No, the true identity that he had already confirmed through the halo but had been holding back and never speaking aloud was....

‘Kim Sol-eum!’

The infected Kim Sol-eum grabbed the back of his head and slammed it onto the floor.

“Argh!”

At that moment, a mass of flesh flew over his head. Baek Sa-heon swallowed his saliva.

‘Running recklessly means death.’

That mass of infection was overtly coiled with the escape craft in the center.

At that time, whatever his thoughts were, Kim Sol-eum began to look up at the grotesque mass of infectious flesh with a strange face.

‘What is it.’

“Why are you...”

The surroundings were strangely quiet.

“…….”

Baek Sa-heon hurriedly looked around.

...The baby mermaids, without exception, were looking up at the sky with the same expression, raising their hands.

“Princess!”

“It's the Princess!”

The gazes of the two agents also landed on the massive thing that crashed through the ceiling and appeared in the station.

In an instant, both of their eyes went blank.

Come here

The dazzlingly beautiful figure of a giant mermaid appeared from the station ceiling as if sunlight were pouring down, filling the empty white space.

It was beautiful.

As if a statue of the Mermaid Princess had come to life, a giant mermaid with an overwhelming glowing halo existed there.

Overwhelming awe and admiration, which should naturally be directed toward a great existence, and fascination with beauty occupied their minds.

Come here

TheemptywhiteholesofnothingnessspacearecoveredwiththebeautifulTwinklingDragonPalace.ThesmallivorysquareflashingingoldlooksjustlikeaprayerroomLookupatyourmasterwithpraiseandworshipandaffectionchildButtheescapecrafttheescapecraftthereisnosuchthingThisplaceisaprayerroomPraytotheMermaidPrincess

“Damn it.”

Agent Choi raised the suncatcher and barely managed to block his vision. Beside him, his junior made a similar motion while spitting out blood. He had bitten his tongue to briefly regain his senses.

Yet that great gaze looking down once again....

Come...

“Elder!”

A flash of light burst from Agent Choi's hand.

A flame blazing brightly inside a lantern.

The red and blue light drove away the ecstatic golden halo of the mermaid.

Dokkaebi House.

Dokkaebi Fire blazed, creating an illusory domain.

In the place where the light shone, a tile-roofed house shimmered, and the shadows of dancing and singing goblins flickered.

A brief moment of driving out an anomaly with another anomaly.

“I can't hold out long, in the meantime...!”

They had to cut the children's tails as much as possible and put them into the escape craft.

The mermaid—no, the mass of flesh—struggled and tried to attach itself near the escape craft again, but it was hovering near the ceiling as if space were distorted. Taking advantage of this gap....

Swish.

The adults in suits rushed toward the escape craft in a flurry.

The ones wearing animal masks.

The epitome of Daydream Co. humans.

“…….”

Agent Choi's gaze sank.

And at the same time.

‘I must follow...!’

Baek Sa-heon gritted his teeth as he watched the same scene.

He should flee at this timing, but the problem was that Kim Sol-eum was still tightly grabbing and pressing down on his head.

‘Damn it.’

Cunningness dwelled in Baek Sa-heon's eyes.

Is there no way to push him off?

This bastard... if he is in the form of a child, wouldn't his physical strength be weaker than mine? No. Since he is contaminated, he might be stronger.

But what was certain was that contaminated individuals usually lacked human intelligence in many cases.

Since madness and bizarre rules dominated their minds!

“Excuse me. Shouldn't you pay more attention to that giant one up above than me? It can't enter right now. Shouldn't you be cheering it on?”

He was trying to lure him away.

Ah, did he become a baby mermaid and couldn't understand my words? In that case, let's write on the floor!

But the moment he tried to write the same content on the dusty floor with his finger, the pressure pressing down on his head vanished.

“…!”

It worked!

Just as Baek Sa-heon sprang up and tried to run, Kim Sol-eum pressed down on his back again.

“Ah!”

‘Why again!!’

And he wrote on the floor.

-Carry me on your back.

“…?!”

-Carry me on your back and run.

“What kind of dog...”

Pulling himself together, Baek Sa-heon asked back before he knew it.

“Where to?”

Kim Sol-eum turned his gaze.

The opposite side of the escape craft.

Toward the passage leading outside.

“…?!”

* * *

At the same time.

“Aren't they idiots?”

Jin Na-sol twitched her temple as she watched the general team employees sticking to the escape craft frantically.

Even if they boarded it now, how on earth did they plan to get out? That filthy mass of biohazard was blocking the passage through which the escape craft would launch.

It was a judgment typical of bastards who had come in blinded by the collateral benefits rather than the actual points.

“Oh! Isn't there something like a place to shoot laser beams on the escape craft??”

Ignoring the words of the rookie who was crazy about money, Jin Na-sol grasped the situation.

‘...Why do I have to do this kind of thing?’

She felt dirty as if she were providing an opportunity for the general team employees to get a free ride, but she had no choice if she wanted to escape.

‘It seems that mass of flesh is spasming because we brought the baby mermaids.’

Hmm.

For a test, she grabbed a baby mermaid by the neck and attempted to throw it into the biological colony....

Slap.

“You're out of your mind.”

“Whatever.”

The agent with sharp blue light flashing in his eyes stopped Jin Na-sol.

Agent Bronze. He had quickly conducted a simple ritual while Agent Choi was defending, ending the Dokkaebi Prank and returning to his adult form.

It was because the situation was turning out unusually, and it was an excellent judgment.

Gritting his teeth, he spoke to the employee in the butterfly mask as if spitting the words out.

“You must have clearly seen that they were originally young children!”

“If they can't use the conch shell, they're just contaminated monsters, aren't they?”

“Even without that! If we just cut their tails, they can board. So right now...”

“Hey.”

Jin Na-sol barely suppressed her irritation and cut off the civil servant's words.

“What do you plan to do after boarding them? Can you rip that thing off from the escape craft's launcher?”

“…….”

“I'm asking if you brought a mortar or something. You didn't, right?”

They had none.

In the first place, it wasn't even certain if human firearms would work. Even if it was a biohazard rather than a ghost.

“I'm saying we should just throw a few outside to disperse its attention and get out of here. Or we can take the rest.”

“Assistant Manager! But that cat told us to take them all, didn't it? If we don't take them, we might be cursed or fail to receive the pay we should get... there is also a saying like the Cat's Repayment... Argh!”

“We're about to die right now, so who cares about a curse? Think about it after getting out.”

At any rate, that cat was not showing itself. It meant there was a high probability it was just a one-off irregular phenomenon.

“So, cat or whatever...”

“Please cooperate in rescuing citizens.”

The binding rope shot out from Agent Bronze's hand. Jin Na-sol snorted and grabbed her custom equipment.

‘There is no time.’

He had to neutralize the opponent as quickly as possible. Agent Bronze gritted his teeth as he watched Agent Choi's flame. The call of the infected colony was gradually breaking through the spatial distortion and invading the flame.

Come here

The ecstatic golden light seized the children again.

Somehow, please hurry, no—even if they cut all of the children's tails, they couldn't see a way to escape from here....

...Did they have to make a selection?

Agent Bronze reached out his hand with dark eyes.

F O U N D Y O U

An ominous gaze struck the space.

The description of a horrific and powerful presence occupied and swirled through the space like a majestic descent.

Yes. It descended.

It descended!

“Mr. Cat!”

A voice of madness, soaked in joy, emerged from the pony mask.

Every human froze.

Bells,voices,laughter,deception,thecalltothatfardistantbeautifullandeternalrotdecaymindlessservice!

B E H O L D The children who had been bewitched by the biohazard stumbled and bowed their heads.

The collective mental confusion of the hosts shook the infected colony, and the grand image of the Mermaid Princess faltered.

And telepathy.

S E V E R I T Coercion.

S E V E R I T The children began to tear off their own tails.

Faces full of madness and terror screamed while looking up at the sky, crying as they tore off their tails.

Blood and mucus splattered, presenting a sight like a picture of hell.

"...!"

An anomaly was devouring another anomaly...!

Ryu Jae-gwan barely managed to raise his body and stopped the bleeding of several children.

However, his mind began to slightly understand the extra-dimensional language, and did he not want to know the terrible truth of this other world?

Madness will set you free, shaking his thoughts.

....... What? So right now, this world....

“Bronze!”

Ryu Jae-gwan jerked his head up.

Before he knew it, the sound of the evil scripture had vanished.

What remained were the children standing straight from mental shock, bleeding from where their tails had been, and....

Kyahahahaha-!

The massive, writhing tumor mass.

That monster, completely severed from its hosts, let out a scream, expressing something that could be anger or the instinctive reflex of an entity whose survival was threatened.

Agent Choi's Dokkaebi House began to collapse....

'No.'

Priority.

Agent Bronze quickly checked the personnel.

In other words, the agents first....

Grape was gone.

"...!"

Where did he go?

He tried to find the agent among the children, but indeed he was not there.

'No way.'

At that moment, the sound of someone running from over there was heard.

Whether he had fled to the passage on the opposite side of the escape craft, a Daydream Co. employee was running from there.

A black goat mask.

"...!"

And Kim Sol-eum, whose tail had been completely torn off, was slung over the employee's back, covered in blood and limp.

Dripping blood, the employee screamed.

“Out of the way!”

What?

“Move, damn it!”

Swish. Drawing a parabola, something shiny thrown from the goat mask's hand sliced through the air.

Ryu Jae-gwan turned his head.

An open glass bottle struck the biohazard's tumor mass, and a viscous, magenta liquid poured from the mouth.

Children's Surprise Syrup (Grapefruit Flavor) ★★★★

The potion that Kim Sol-eum had drawn under the advice of the Security Team Leader seeped into the tumor mass with a spectacular sound.

Substituting it with a Daydream potion, its effect was....

Revelation Potion: The target briefly loses their reason, and in a neutralized state, reveals their most emotional and honest secrets.

Neutralization.

Kyahahahaha-! Covered in syrup, the Mermaid Princess's figure collapsed.

Twisting its body, it clung to the floor.

Numerous tumor strands wriggled in the ulcers and called the children, but the connection link with the children was already gone.

However, the potion in question was manufactured targeting humans.

Hence....

“They say that effect doesn't last very long!”

A very short gap.

“Run!”

The agents ran toward the escape craft carrying the children.

And.

“Seriously, what a nuisance.”

Surprisingly, the elite team of Daydream Co. moved swiftly, picking up several children and beginning to run toward the escape craft.

"...!"

And she even barked at the other employees.

“Grab them.”

“Yes. Yes?”

“Yes!”

Seeing the crazy situation that had just unfolded, they upgraded their evaluation of the possibility of being screwed if they left the children behind, swiftly changing their judgment.

“If you launch the escape craft first, know that you guys will be dead meat as soon as I return.”

At the elite team's shout, the employees inside the escape craft also gritted their teeth and helped the children enter the escape craft as quickly as possible.

Pressing the conch shell to children with severe bleeding, the minimum situation was settled, yet things moved urgently.

“There are still some left outside!”

“Right now....”

[Verified.]

“Everyone has boarded!”

“Okay!”

Agent Choi, who had also consumed his Dokkaebi Prank and returned to his adult form, rushed in last and quickly closed the escape craft door.

[Boarding Confirmed]

And.

[Starting Transfer to Destination]

Chshhhhh.

Along with the sound of steam venting from the machinery, the massive escape craft began to exit the launcher.

“Ah...!”

Through the window of the departing escape craft, the giant mass moving to cover the launcher once again was visible.

Thump!

Hundreds, thousands of ordinary infected entities swarmed and poured into the station.

But it was already too late.

The escape craft exited the station by a hair's breadth and shot outward from the city.

[In Transit]

“Phew....”

We survived. The moment people briefly relaxed their tension and collapsed into their seats.

“Over there!!”

Beyond the landscape of the city laid out before them.

“It's moving...!”

The massive colony that was parasitizing the castle, which appeared as the 'Twinkling Dragon Palace,' poured forward.

Thump.

The vibration echoed even to the escape craft.

The biohazard colony's size visible on the surface was not everything.

“W-What is that?”

It dug deep into the underground and spread throughout the entire city.

Crawling relentlessly onto the ground, flesh covered the entire central part of the city and overflowed.

“Argh...!”

The monster, exposing its massive lump of flesh to the ground, shattered the castle it was parasitizing and poured toward the escape craft as if in a frenzy.

Pressing its thick flesh heavily on the floor, it twisted its massive body and crawled toward this direction.

As the grotesquehorriblegreatbiohazard lifted its body, the oral cavity attached to the floor was exposed.

A hole heavily encrusted with countless giant teeth opened as if roaring and rushed toward them.

Spraysfleshclingsclingscaught...! Thump.

"...!!"

Struck by the sprayed flesh, the escape craft shook.

“Aaargh!”

“Quiet!”

But it did not crash.

Gasp.

Agent Choi gagged the mouth of an unnamed employee and looked outside the window again.

“It's not as close as it looks. Everyone calm down!”

And those who gauged the size of the biohazard realized.

...It was so massive, a size of astronomical figures that could not be understood by human senses, to the point that their sense of distance was lost.

“...Phew.”

“Panting, panting....”

Ultimately, the massive biohazard colony collapsed, unable to leave the city's entrance.

Leaving behind a bizarre vibration like children's laughter.

The city, whose underground foundation had collapsed, began to submerge along with the biohazard.

Into the deep sea.

“Phew....”

"......."

The escape craft rapidly distanced itself from that sight and safely surged up through the sea.

Sweating coldly, people gasped for breath.

And some time later.

[Please board the capsule.]

“We've arrived...!”

The Daydream employees in an orderly fashion began to enter the capsule-type devices attached to the escape craft.

Upon boarding the capsules, they were shot up toward the water surface enveloped in a bizarre air sphere like a soap bubble, losing consciousness in the process.

And waking up again to find themselves returned to reality was precisely the 'escape method.'

The agents, who had coaxed the employees with carrots and sticks to hear this story, first put the children into the capsules, then also moved to board them.

Of course, starting with the youngest agent.

“Grape.”

Since the contamination was so severe that they had used the conch shell fearing he would die of excessive bleeding, the youngest agent had escaped death and recovered to some extent.

However, because he had gone through too many things, he appeared to have no energy.

Since he was still in the form of a child with traces of the contaminated baby mermaid remaining, it was even more pitiful.

“Was... it resolved well?”

“Of course!”

Agent Choi tightly held his hand.

“You really suffered a lot. You were startled, right? Now just sleep tight. We will return soon.”

“Yes. Thank you....”

Kim Sol-eum boarded the capsule.

And soon closed his eyes, quietly catching his breath.

* * *

It worked. The moment the capsule closed, I barely managed to hold back a sigh of relief.

‘I almost went crazy.’

He had almost lost his mind due to the aftereffects of reading the Necronomicon again.

He felt dizzy thinking of what would have happened if they hadn't used the conch shell, but...

‘By what other means on earth could I sever the kids' tails all at once, instigate the Daydream employees, and even evade the biohazard!’

It was also a relief that he was telepathically connected to the children due to the infection.

In a state where the 'Twinkling Dragon Palace' hallucination was pushed back by crazy madness and terror, yet someone yells in their heads to sever their tails? Naturally, young children would end up following along....

‘I feel a bit sorry for scaring them, but....’

This was the only way for everyone to live.

Hoping it was a shock that could be cured with proper memory removal and treatment after getting out, I smacked my bitter lips.

And... still, my heart is somewhat at ease.

Because we brought back every single child who was there.

‘And since the city itself was buried, at least it will be difficult to just kidnap kids like they did until now.’

Perhaps now the Mermaid Tomb and the Twinkling Dragon Palace are finished.

If so, that the Daydream Co. research team will make a huge fuss? Frankly, I thought, what is it to do with me.

‘Those psychos can just handle it themselves....’

I suppressed my sighs, enjoying the blurring of my consciousness.

Since success is success, after all.

‘Now, once I return to reality....’

....... Wait. Come to think of it, they said we return to 'reality,' but where exactly are we going? The beach? Well, it wasn't something for me to care much about.

‘Won't the veteran agents handle it on their own....’

I believe in you, Seniors.

Even as he felt his right arm gone, he accepted his blurring consciousness with a fairly stable heart. It was an escape.

.......

“Ohho? My!”

Hm? I opened my eyes.

All around, adults and children who had not yet regained their senses lay collapsed.

And...

One person was standing perfectly fine nearby.

A person wearing a white gown and glasses.

Standing before Agent Bronze, who had just regained consciousness, he smirked and sparkled his eyes as if extremely interested.

“You must be the public servants!”

It was a familiar face.

‘...Gwak Je-gang!’

Daydream Co.'s research team manager.

Shivers ran down his entire body.

‘Wait a minute.’

Could this place be....

I looked around.

A white office and a laboratory.

The interior of a modern, neat conglomerate building of a familiar structure.

Yes. It was familiar. Because....

‘It was the place I used to commute to until a few months ago!’

We had escaped right into the middle of Daydream Co....!