“Well, fuck. They really made a clean kill of it.”
A man who had simply thrown a shirt over his dress pants dipped his finger into the thick, clotted blood smeared on the window and spat out the words.
Inside the subway where the Monkey Dream had appeared. More specifically, the first car, directly connected to the driver’s cabin.
Unlike the other cars, where at least one survivor had appeared, not a single survivor remained here. All that was left was blood, and blood, and even more blood, along with flesh and scattered organs. At a glance, it looked as though an elementary schooler had splashed red paint everywhere.
Which is to say, it felt utterly unreal.
Park Hee-min, Section Chief of the Response Division at the Busan Branch of the Administration Bureau, squatted in front of a corpse, shaking his head, and tapped at a chunk of red flesh.
Needless to say, it was a real corpse. The cause of death was exsanguination, unlike typical Monkey Dream victims. Or shock. There were no signs of cardiac arrest.
The victims had likely died while experiencing the pain of their skin being sliced and carved away. Slowly, without being able to resist in the slightest.
It wasn’t a strange occurrence. The Monkey Dream was an urban legend infamous for inflicting extreme pain on its victims.
The problem was that it had happened exactly the same way in reality.
Originally, these things never crawled out of the dream world. Trapped forever in the Other Side, they slowly grew by devouring humans one by one. For them to appear in reality like this and cause mass casualties was unprecedented anywhere in the world.
The fact that the first such incident had occurred in Korea of all places, really.
Park Hee-min let out a deep sigh and stepped out of the subway.
“Now, you all didn’t see anything here. What did you say?”
“We didn’t see anything……”
“Very good! What a good child. Now then, go on home!”
“Yes……”
“Next?”
The blonde woman sitting on the station bench spoke to the witnesses lined up in a row. Instead of walking toward her immediately when called, the summoned witness shouted at the Administration Bureau employee standing right next to him.
“Wh-what is this! Who are you people! I’m a manager at a major corporation, a manager! I’m not someone to be treated like thi—!”
Bam!
Before the man could finish, the Administration Bureau employee pulled the trigger. The bullet grazed past the man and embedded itself in the wall.
“……”
The employee lowered the gun barrel without a word. The man who had been shouting rolled his eyes back on the spot and pissed himself.
“Ugh! Gross!”
The woman waved her hand as she looked down at him. The employee bowed apologetically, then dragged the unconscious man and threw him at the very back of the line.
After that, everything went smoothly. No one else lodged a complaint about the strange procedure.
Park Hee-min had been smoking a short distance away; he walked over to her.
“Hari.”
“Ah, Section Chief Park Hee-min.”
The woman called Hari turned her head toward Hee-min. He erased the memory of the old man standing before him, then patted the seat beside him.
“Have a seat. Your legs must hurt from standing all this time.”
“Should I?”
Hee-min smirked and plopped down into the empty seat. His massive frame settling next to the already petite Hari made their difference in stature seem even more exaggerated. The Administration Bureau staff cleaning up the scene glanced over at them inadvertently.
But Hee-min didn’t bother scolding them and instead asked Hari,
“Did you find anything out?”
“Hmm…… Not really. Everyone here didn’t even board the subway in the first place! There’s nothing substantial to go on!”
“Where are the survivors?”
“At the very back of the line. I pushed them back since they still seem to need some stabilization, but shall I start with them first?”
“I’d appreciate it if you did.”
“Got it!”
Hari smiled sweetly and sent a look toward the employee. The employee brought the man who looked the most intact among those standing at the very back of the line to stand before Hari.
“U-uuuh……”
The man’s pupils were unfocused. His whole body trembled, and cold sweat covered his face. Perhaps from gnawing his nails in anxiety, blood dripped from his index and middle fingers.
It wasn’t hard to understand. The Monkey Dream might look from the outside as though its victims had lost consciousness, but the reality was different. The minds of all those caught up in it were vividly awake. Thanks to that, they had no choice but to watch people being disassembled in real time right before their eyes.
It was only natural that their minds crumbled.
Even seasoned Administration Bureau agents sometimes couldn’t eat meat for days after dealing with entity-related affairs, so how much worse must it be for ordinary people?
Frankly, it was a miracle the man was even standing upright. If they administered sedatives and let a little more time pass, he’d probably be capable of giving a proper statement.
But Hari didn’t do that. After sending a glance toward Hee-min, she stared straight into the man’s eyes and clapped her hands.
With a sharp clap, the face of the man who had been shaking with anxiety went blank and slack.
He had fallen under hypnosis.
It was an ability she had gained through exposure to the supernatural. A unique power that had seated Hari in a high position and made her an indispensable human resource for the Administration Bureau.
It might be inferior to magic, but it was undoubtedly a powerful ability. Ordinary people couldn’t resist her power for even a moment and had their minds completely dominated by her hypnosis.
That was exactly what was happening now. The man, caught in Hari’s hypnosis, stared at her with a vacant face.
Hari forced his body to move this way and that, giggled, and then finally began asking proper questions.
“Tell me everything you saw and felt! Without lying!”
“It was the weekend, and I was getting some good rest. But around lunchtime, I suddenly got a call from my section chief. He told me to come in because there was an urgent matter this afternoon. I told him I couldn’t, but he got so angry—”
“Beep beep! The incident on the subway! I mean, only tell me things related to the entity!”
Once the proper command was input, the man stopped talking and began a different story.
“The subway ran for ten minutes but didn’t arrive at the station. The moment I found this strange, an unknown force suddenly compelled me to sit down in my seat. I tried to get up because of the sudden situation. However, while my mind was awake, my body wouldn’t move.”
“Mmm-hmm.”
“All sorts of thoughts began to dominate my mind. Had I been kidnapped? Was something wrong with the subway? Was someone going to set a fire—”
“Skip!”
“Shortly after, small monkeys holding blades began entering the car where I was sitting. They chatted amongst themselves, then suddenly hacked a woman to pieces. Those same ones who killed her while she was alive killed the man sitting right next to me in the exact same way.”
“It’s definitely the Monkey Dream, Section Chief Park Hee-min.”
“Then, they reached for the man sitting next to me. But the moment before the blade touched him, the man pulled a knife and a book from the bag he was holding and killed the monkeys right back.”
“Huh?”
Hari’s eyes went wide at the completely unexpected story. Section Chief Park Hee-min shot up from his seat and spoke to the man.
“Keep talking.”
“He killed the monkeys, then drew something somewhere while crying out God’s name before moving to another car. And a few minutes later, he came back and left the moment the subway stopped. That’s also when I came back to my senses.”
The man said nothing more after that.
Hee-min muttered the word “God” and asked again,
“Describe what was drawn.”
“I’m not sure exactly. I couldn’t turn my head, so I couldn’t see.”
“Shit.”
Hee-min spat a curse and turned his head toward Hari.
“He’s a Mage. The book he was carrying is definitely a grimoire.”
“Really……?”
“I’m sure of it. Judging by how he cried out God’s name, he probably picked up a grimoire written by old Christians and became a Mage. He might not be the culprit who caused this incident, but the fact that a new Mage has been born in Korea is a problem in itself. No doubt, issues related to entities will erupt around him in droves.”
Mages possessed the power to attract the supernatural. Perhaps this incident had occurred precisely because a Mage had boarded the subway.
Hee-min confirmed the CCTV camera hanging from the station ceiling and turned his head.
“Hari, has the Video Analysis Team arrived?”
“Yes! They went in a short while ago, so they’re probably reviewing the footage right about now.”
“Good. I’m going to head over there, so wrap things up and administer the memory erasure serum.”
“Yep.”
Hari answered, and Hee-min moved his feet. He barged into the security room managing the subway’s CCTV and looked around at the analysis team that had already arrived.
“……Ha, goddammit.”
The analysis team members were all lying on the floor, blood streaming from their ears, noses, and eyes. Hee-min scrunched up his face and shifted his gaze to the monitor.
[……Young man, why do you wander so? Come here and wash away our grudge.]
What was reflected on the monitor wasn’t CCTV footage, but a blood-soaked woman in a white hanbok. Hee-min let out a deep sigh, lined up the spread-out monitors, and equipped a golden knuckle duster.
And then.
Crunch!!
He threw a punch and destroyed them all.
They were knuckles that destroyed both spiritual and physical bodies without distinction. The evil spirit had its face caved in and died before it could do anything. A pathetic end, but she had faithfully fulfilled her role.
“……”
A video or footage possessed by an evil spirit wasn’t purified just because the entity was killed. Instead, all the data was consumed, leaving it completely empty.
The CCTV footage was no different. Hee-min searched for the footage just in case, but nothing remained in the storage space. All that was left was cursed footage capable of resurrecting the evil spirit.
“……I don’t think this is a coincidence.”
An evil spirit appearing out of nowhere at the very place the Administration Bureau had come to? And in the security room of the subway station where footage of a Mage had been caught on camera?
It absolutely couldn’t be a coincidence. Someone was definitely hiding his identity.
Hee-min let out a deep sigh and slapped the cheeks of the analysis team members collapsed on the floor. However, they couldn’t wake up. They only trembled intermittently and muttered unintelligible words.
They were thoroughly cursed. It was evidence that they had dealt with a high-level evil spirit. He had to admit it was impressive that the curse had been tuned so they wouldn’t die.
“These guys will need purification……”
Hee-min cursed inwardly, sat in a chair in the security room, and took out his phone. Then he called someone.
The short dial tone cut off and the other party answered. Hee-min got straight to the point without any preamble.
“Branch Chief, a new Mage has shown up in Busan. Check whether any grimoires related to Christianity have gone missing in Israel or nearby recently.”
*
“Oh, the ghost died.”
“What?”
“Nah, it’s nothing. Continue.”