Chapter 43: UTG (2)

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"It's not exactly the kind of place you'd want to walk into...."

Ha-min stared up at the imposing building before him, unable to shake the strange sense of unease it gave him.

It had originally been an abandoned building left neglected for quite some time, though its location near the station was actually excellent.

Once the government poured money into a full-scale renovation, however, the place cleaned up remarkably fast.

Of course, it wasn't completely finished yet.

Only the exterior and the sections of office space intended for immediate use had been completed.

Construction vehicles loaded with materials were still coming and going, along with a steady stream of workers.

"No, sir! I told you, don't go to the basement! You can't go down there!"

Ha-min had barely arrived when he spotted Su-myeon shouting at a worker headed toward the basement and let out a small laugh.

He'd heard that Su-myeon was constantly on edge about workers accidentally wandering downstairs, and apparently it was true.

"You found the place all right. Training go well?"

Ha-min had just returned from training out in the countryside while the building was under construction.

Su-myeon led the slightly energized Ha-min inside.

The building was built in a piloti style, with the entire first floor serving as a parking lot.

"Don't go down to the basement on your own either, unless you absolutely have to. And if you see any strange tickets lying around inside the building, don't pick them up."

Su-myeon gave Ha-min a brief warning as the boy craned his neck to look around on their way upstairs.

The whole situation still felt surreal to Su-myeon, almost like some nonsensical game.

But humans were remarkably adaptable creatures. Somehow, little by little, he was accepting this reality and moving forward.

"Oh, Ha-min's here?"

"Yeah. Good to see you too, Doc."

Young-cheol, who had been given the second floor to use as a specialized medical ward, spotted Ha-min on his way upstairs and greeted him.

He was still in the process of bringing in all kinds of equipment and setting up the necessary facilities, slowly adjusting to the situation himself.

Injuries sustained inside ghost stories were extremely difficult to treat at an ordinary hospital.

Now that they had committed themselves to rescuing people in earnest, a facility like this was essential.

"The offices start on the next floor."

The office spaces beginning on the third floor were still under construction as well.

Even so, one section of the workspace had already been cleaned up and made reasonably presentable.

Beyond a single wall and door lay a space where people researched surreal phenomena such as ghost stories, separated from ordinary workers by only that thin boundary.

Ha-min felt a peculiar sense of wonder as he stepped inside.

Since everyone was gathering together for the first time in a while, Young-cheol followed them upstairs too.

Contrary to the eerie impression the building gave from the outside, its interior was surprisingly devoid of any unpleasant atmosphere.

"We're a brand-new agency, so — well, maybe that's exactly why they can get away with it. Anyway, apparently I'm a section chief and a team leader at the same time."

Su-myeon had been appointed directly as a Grade 4 civil servant.

Everyone else had found the whole thing so sudden that they reacted with equal parts bewilderment and suspicion, but Hwi-yeon hadn't seemed particularly surprised.

Considering this was an entirely new department whose existence was unknown to most people, perhaps such an appointment wasn't all that strange.

"That's how desperate the government is. From what the data shows, there are apparently quite a few suspicious vacancies among people in high-ranking positions."

Conglomerate heirs, senior government officials, members of the National Assembly, celebrities, and so on.

No matter how seamlessly a person vanished, some people left behind a void too large to simply ignore.

Dozens of such suspicious vacancies had already been identified.

Ju-hee had also left Shinseong Group and been recruited into the Unnatural Threat Governance Bureau, where she was now organizing precisely that sort of data.

She had originally joined Shinseong to help her brother, but now she had an even greater purpose.

When Ha-min asked if she was really okay with quitting, Ju-hee answered without hesitation.

"I had my reasons for joining Shinseong, but at this point, what does any of that matter?"

This is more important — people's lives are at stake.

After delivering the rather impressive line, Ju-hee seemed to grow a little self-conscious and added, half-jokingly,

"Besides, the pay here is way better."

...Isn't that because of the hazard pay?

Ha-min gave Ju-hee an awkward smile and nodded.

Since he was still a minor, his provisional contract explicitly prohibited him from personally entering any ghost stories.

However, the possibility of formally joining the agency once he became an adult remained open, and Hwi-yeon had already explained the general terms to him.

On top of that, the benefits he had been granted meant that, if he wished, he could also apply for other civil service positions outside the Unnatural Threat Governance Bureau.

For the time being, though, Ha-min had no interest in doing so.

"But seriously! 'Biwitong' is a bit much, don't you think?!"

[TL Note: The Korean name 비자연적 위협 통제국 abbreviates to 비위통 (Biwitong), which sounds like "stomachache."]

Du-pal, who had likewise quit his old job at a mid-sized company and transferred here, grumbled exactly as expected.

Long institutional names in Korean inevitably ended up abbreviated to their first syllables, but no matter how they shortened this one, it simply refused to sound impressive.

"Well, it is the kind of workplace that'd give you one."

Ha-min quipped in response to Du-pal's complaining.

Even Su-myeon agreed the abbreviation was terrible, so he offered an alternative.

"How about 'Bitong'? Just 'Bitong.'"

[TL Note: 비통 (Bitong) means "grief" or "bitter sorrow."]

"That's not much better...."

The sudden upheaval in his life had been difficult to process, but Su-myeon was slowly growing accustomed to it.

He had survived several ghost stories crawling with monsters and, for the first time, succeeded in bringing a living person back to reality.

On top of that, he had given the government definitive proof of something it had only suspected for years.

And he had done so by rescuing Hyeon-seok — a member of a conglomerate family — and returning him safely to the real world.

"I was only planning to become a Grade 9 civil servant, you know."

Young-cheol chuckled at Su-myeon's remark.

From the very beginning, Young-cheol had suspected that Su-myeon was already affiliated with some sort of organization.

And now that suspicion had, in a sense, become reality.

"Seems more like you've finally found where you belong."

Su-myeon merely waved a hand dismissively at Young-cheol's words.

It had already been nearly ten days since they had all gathered in this new place and started working together.

And during that time, they certainly hadn't been sitting idle.

After four entries, they had mapped out most of Baekya Land's elements and even brought back useful materials from inside.

<Prince's Tongue Tip>

<Little Mermaid's Breath>

The safe was lined with jars packed to the brim with candies of various colors, including ones bearing those familiar names.

"Honestly, the first time really was terrifying."

They had grown so accustomed to Baekya Land that they had reached the point of farming candies there.

"Du-pal played a big part in that."

"Ahem."

At Ju-hee's remark, Du-pal proudly puffed out his chest.

As they had confirmed, as long as they followed the rules, they could move quietly through Baekya Land and return without incident.

Most notably, whenever Su-myeon wasn't with them, there had been no incidents involving the Clover staff from Ellis Hotel appearing.

"Looks like they still haven't fixed the tape they use for the background music, either."

Thanks to all of this, the group had managed to gather a considerable stockpile of supplies.

In the process, they had even happened upon and rescued two more people, both of whom were now receiving treatment downstairs.

Everything seemed to be progressing smoothly, one step at a time.

Ha-min, who had been listening to the adults' discussion and nodding along, finally spoke.

"So now the important thing is deciding which ghost story to enter next, right?"

Just as Ha-min said, they couldn't remain focused on Baekya Land forever.

Of course, rescue operations in the areas they had already mapped needed to continue, but pushing any deeper into Baekya Land right now required far greater caution.

Every time they pulled someone out, something within Baekya Land seemed to shift, little by little.

That probably meant the Pied Piper was already aware of what they were doing.

"Since the tape is broken, I can't help thinking we should rescue as many people as possible while we still can."

Han-su, who had been quietly working on a report, spoke up.

Technically, he was still a police officer, but on paper, he had been transferred to some remote station out in the countryside.

His old precinct had actually been worried that he'd gotten himself into some kind of trouble.

"But you saw what happened yesterday. The moment we went in, the parade started, and we had to get out immediately."

Han-su had a point, but Ju-hee countered with one of her own.

Their fourth entry had taken place just before dawn the previous day.

Ju-hee, Han-su, and Du-pal had entered Baekya Land once again, only to come back empty-handed.

Whenever the Pied Piper appeared in person — as he had during the Parade of Radiance — the risk of unexpected complications rose dramatically.

Su-myeon watched the group debate the issue with a strange feeling.

His teammates — no.

The people who were now his subordinates.

The larger this operation grew, the more clearly Su-myeon began to understand the role he now occupied.

"For now, I'll decide which ghost story we should enter next as quickly as possible."

Su-myeon was still in the middle of organizing the Heartphone Script.

He had practically been tearing his hair out trying to compile it into something that would allow the others to enter ghost stories beyond Baekya Land without him.

Once he began laying everything out like a game walkthrough and listing the rules one by one, however, the task turned out to be less overwhelming than it had initially seemed.

A more intuitive, more accessible version, built from everything he already knew, was gradually beginning to take shape.

"If anyone needs anything else, or has any requests, let me know."

Hwi-yeon, who seemed to have adjusted reasonably well herself, watched Su-myeon plunge straight back into work and gave a rueful smile.

To Hwi-yeon, Su-myeon's appointment looked less like an honor and more like the government putting him to work.

Having lost her brother inside a ghost story, she could hardly view Su-myeon's life — endlessly throwing himself into those places — as anything remotely easy.

Even Baekya Land, which they now spoke about so casually, was an utterly horrifying place in Hwi-yeon's eyes.

The grotesque forms of the staff she had witnessed during their second entry had haunted her dreams for days afterward.

The fact that Su-myeon and the others had endured all of that and still agreed to take on this mission left Hwi-yeon with nothing but gratitude.

She stopped in front of the coffee machine just as, the instant she passed it, the machine dispensed a cup and began brewing.

"......Does this coffee machine have motion sensors or something?"

A rich aroma filled the air as pitch-black americano streamed into the cup.

Just how much coffee did everyone drink for them to install a feature like this?

Feeling both amused by their quirks and a little sorry for them, Hwi-yeon couldn't help smiling.

"What are you talking about?"

Ju-hee immediately shot back as though Hwi-yeon had just said something absurd.

At Ju-hee's reaction, Han-su's brow furrowed slightly.

"......It doesn't?"

I thought it had something like that too....

At Han-su's response, Du-pal scoffed.

"What are you all talking about? Why would a coffee machine have motion sens—. Huh?"

Du-pal stopped abruptly in the middle of his sentence.

"......Now that I think about it, the coffee did come out before I pressed anything...."

Even Su-myeon's expression hardened as he listened.

He had never given it a second thought before, but now that someone had pointed it out — every time he went near the machine, it simply started brewing coffee without him pressing a single button.

And that wasn't the only strange thing.

"Come to think of it, who's been refilling the beans in this thing? I drink seven cups a day, and I've never once seen a low-bean warning."

At Su-myeon's question, everyone simply looked at one another.

Han-su and Du-pal also drank several cups a day, yet neither of them had ever refilled the machine.

"......Nobody?"

Nobody had been refilling the beans, and yet the machine somehow managed to churn out dozens of cups every day without ever running low?

At his words, Hwi-yeon opened the bean compartment.

It was completely full.

Anywhere else, they might have dismissed it as someone's idea of a prank.

But this was a building whose basement connected directly to the entrance of Baekya Land.

"......"

This was a place where they had no choice but to be wary of anything even slightly unusual.

Everyone silently hoped that someone would step forward, laugh, and admit it had all been a joke — that they had been the one refilling the machine.

But when they looked around, all they found were deadly serious faces staring back at them.

As the atmosphere suddenly turned cold, Su-myeon gestured toward Hwi-yeon.

"...Don't drink that coffee for now."

Hwi-yeon immediately set the cup back down.