Team Leader Lee had learned more than a thing or two during his ten years at the Management Bureau.
Among them was the fact that human intuition was far more helpful than one might think.
Tingling.
Emptiness.
A chilling cold.
Why?
All of a sudden, the sensation he had felt that day, when he became a lost child of the universe, was coming back to life.
He looked around, but there was nothing.
Why was this sensation—the one he hated to recall—blooming anew?
“Hoo. Hoo.”
“Team Leader, are you alright?”
“No, I’m not alright.”
“Pardon?”
“…We need to get out of this space quickly. My gut is bad.”
He couldn’t tell where this feeling originated from, but it seemed best to hurry out of this “Deep Warehouse.”
There was no reason. His instincts were simply telling him to.
And Team Leader Lee, who had saved his life several times thanks to this intuition, wanted to escape right this instant.
“Understood.”
Lee Gyeongseong felt puzzled by Team Leader Lee’s words, but soon nodded obediently.
In the first place, now that there were injured people, they needed to go outside at least once.
The two exchanged signals and jumped out from between the cabinets.
However, it was strange.
“Team Leader.”
“…Fuck.”
There wasn’t a single sphere-human in the vicinity.
Not one of the various sphere-humans that had been finely shredded was visible.
It was as if the tide had pulled far back from the beach before a tsunami; not a single sphere-like thing could be seen around them.
It was an obvious anomaly.
Warning bells clamored wildly in Team Leader Lee’s head.
But he immediately fired his gun into the empty air a couple of times.
Bang! Bang!
Then.
…Bang! Bang!
“It’s the other team members!”
“You’re alive. I don’t know what’s going on, but we’re joining you now!”
The space that had been hostile to them just moments ago had grown silent.
He didn’t know the reason, but this was their chance.
Soon, Team Leader Lee’s team was able to join up with two team members who had suffered bruises from the sphere-humans. And they went back to the previous cabinets to bring the unconscious elementary school students.
They found the entrance they had come in through, but a problem arose.
“Where’s Agent Kim Seoyeong?!”
“I don’t see her!”
Kim Seoyeong, who should have been waiting right near the entrance, was nowhere to be seen.
If she had retreated early due to some situation, that would be fine… but the problem was that there were several bloodstains nearby.
“…Damn it.”
“Team Leader.”
“…Deputy Lee Gyeongseong. Take everyone and return to Headquarters. And request a backup team. I’ll go look for Agent Kim Seoyeong.”
“Huh? But…”
“If this space were still hostile, that would be one thing, but since it’s quiet like this now, I think it’s a chance worth trying to save her. So get out, fast!”
“Understood. I’ll come back as quickly as possible.”
The three team members supporting the two elementary school students and the severely injured person exited through the entrance.
As the six people left, the interior was instantly filled with silence.
“…I must be crazy.”
If this were the past, he might have left her behind even though she was a team member.
Perhaps it was because he still felt somewhat guilty toward Seo Yuna, who had once been a new recruit, but he found it difficult to abandon Kim Seoyeong.
In the end, Team Leader Lee turned his back on the entrance and began tracking the bloodstains presumed to have been left by Kim Seoyeong.
Crossing through several zones, Team Leader Lee continued following Kim Seoyeong’s blood.
Even then, not a single sphere that had covered the floor was visible.
‘Where did you go, Agent Kim Seoyeong?’
Wasn’t this insubordination?
Once he unconditionally saved her and brought her back to Headquarters, he’d make her write an incident report.
Team Leader Lee told himself this, trying his utmost to forget the bizarre chill wrapping around his body.
The sensation that had been weighing heavily on his instincts still remained.
The atmosphere of this “Deep Space” was more than eerie enough, but still, it couldn’t compare to the sensation of having his existence erased.
As he advanced, Team Leader Lee began to hear what sounded like bustling noise at some point.
At the same time, Kim Seoyeong’s bloodstains gradually grew clearer.
“….”
Chik.
Before entering, Team Leader Lee surveyed the surrounding cabinets where he could conceal his body.
If he used them well, he could move outward without drawing their attention.
After crossing a few more zones like that.
Team Leader Lee was able to discover Kim Seoyeong collapsed on the ground.
She was bleeding, perhaps having taken a heavy blow to the head.
At that level… even if she received treatment immediately after getting out, the aftereffects would be severe.
So he had to take her and leave immediately, but the problem was that she wasn’t alone.
A girl was standing in front of her.
He couldn’t properly read the expression of the girl in the snow-white one-piece dress.
It was an anomalous entity.
‘…The last missing person?’
As expected.
In a way, that anomalous entity might be the cause of the “Deep Warehouse.”
If so, the fact that the entity was in front of Kim Seoyeong likely meant it was connected to the sacrifice the elementary school students had gasped about.
“I can’t let that happen.”
As someone who had become a superior, he couldn’t simply watch his subordinate become a sacrifice.
So Team Leader Lee took out a flashbang from among the various items in his bag and threw it at the girl.
Boom!
Piiiiii—
The moment the flashbang scored a direct hit, Team Leader Lee immediately dashed out and hoisted Kim Seoyeong onto his back.
“Wh-who are you?!”
“Her superior!”
“That’s my sacrifice!!”
“Kuh!”
The girl blocked her eyes from the flashbang with both hands, yet charged at Team Leader Lee with the hem of her white dress fluttering.
Outwardly, she didn’t seem to have any weapon, but for some reason, an extremely ominous aura could be felt from the girl.
Then, the girl took something out from her bosom.
A P.E. textbook.
Team Leader Lee realized in an instant that this was the source of the ominous feeling.
‘…Has it become a grimoire?!’
On the cover of the P.E. textbook was drawn a picture of humans devoted to athletic activities with their limbs torn off and skin flayed.
And the inner pages were dyed red, dripping blood drop by drop.
It was clearly a grimoire.
The Management Bureau referred to books containing extremely malicious content, such as blasphemy and wickedness, as grimoires.
Come to think of it, he had sensed a few auras similar to grimoires at that Mystic Library as well.
They had been faint, but it seemed they dealt in grimoires there too.
Anyway, what was certain now was that the P.E. textbook was extremely dangerous, girl aside.
And as if agreeing with Team Leader Lee’s thoughts, the book opened and several chunks of human corpses burst out with a fountain of blood.
Splorch. Splorch.
The chunks of corpses that appeared accompanied by the sound of moist meat falling twitched and gathered together, transforming into the shape of a skinned human.
It wasn’t a perfect human form.
Because it looked like parts had been forcibly cut from several corpses and stitched together.
The skinned corpse clenched and unclenched its hands to check its condition, then immediately charged at Team Leader Lee.
“Kuh!”
Team Leader Lee had no choice but to set Kim Seoyeong down for a moment and barely dodged the corpse’s punch.
Looking closely, the corpse wasn’t attacking blindly.
It had properly taken a boxing stance, lightly bouncing as it glared at Team Leader Lee.
‘Does a P.E. textbook cover boxing too…!’
But when it came to martial arts, Team Leader Lee had something to say as well.
Sruk.
He took out a dagger from inside his clothes and held it in a reverse grip, assuming a stance as well.
Naturally, field agents of the Anomaly Management Bureau were required to undergo martial arts and weapons training.
And Team Leader Lee had shown quite outstanding scores in dagger-based weapon arts.
Shhhhk!
Team Leader Lee dodged the corpse’s punch and slashed its arm.
But the problem was that the corpse continued its attack as if it didn’t care.
And that wasn’t all.
“Mister, mister, play with us too! This warehouse is cozy and it’s good for avoiding the teachers’ gazes!”
“Kuh…!”
As the girl muttered something and approached, his head began to hurt as if it would split open.
“There are lots of friends in the art room and the music room too! We have music and art textbooks prepared as well, but looking at your athletic ability, mister, I’ll put your corpse in the P.E. textbook!”
The girl said this and pulled out another corpse from the P.E. textbook.
Now there were two things he had to fight, and with the girl’s mental attack added on top, Team Leader Lee was finding it increasingly hard to endure.
‘Still, if I just hold on a little longer, the backup team will arrive…!’
By the time he had set out from the entrance, the team members would have already gone outside and contacted Headquarters.
And the backup team would be rushing here at full speed.
So, he just had to hold on a little longer.
Then both he and Agent Kim Seoyeong would survive.
But to do that, the corpses’ martial arts were far too excellent, and the mental attack was overwhelming.
Thud!
“Kuh…”
In the end, Team Leader Lee, having allowed a blow to a vital spot, collapsed.
Then, as if they had been waiting somewhere, spheres began rolling in from all over.
They then surrounded the collapsed Team Leader Lee and Kim Seoyeong.
‘Kuh…’
“Now, let’s all become one.”
And, as the girl reached out her hand—
Nothing
happened.
“Huh?”
“So you’re here.”
Clack. Clack.
“J-just who are you……”
Shiver, shiver, shiver.
The pitiful girl begins to tremble.
“Ah, nooo. I don’t want to shiverrrr.”
The girl said that, but she was shaking with such terror from below that she might wet herself.
With each step the newcomer took toward her, she faltered and her posture collapsed.
“Hic, hic, hic.”
The girl whimpered and looked at her friend, the P.E. textbook, but it had closed its mouth long ago.
“Aah, aah.”
The girl smiled at the face of the approaching person like a broken doll.
Black hair, neat clothes, a beige cardigan.
Ancient books held in her arms along with the sound of flat shoes.
A girl who did not match this space at all stood before the kneeling girl.
Team Leader Lee had been staring blankly at that existence since a moment ago.
He now thought he understood why his instincts had shaken so wildly.
He couldn’t help but know.
Librarian.
The librarian of the Mystic Library.
That girl librarian who had erased his existence in an instant, and then brought him back to life.
She had descended upon this place.