Chapter 158

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Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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Jin Na-sol raised her head.

Beyond the alley, something peeked its head out and stared at her.

A tail-less baby mermaid.

It threw something at her.

Swish.

The projectile glittered in the light.

Without hesitation, Jin Na-sol reached out, grabbed the back of the neck of the employee who had run toward her as if fleeing, and blocked it.

“Eek!”

The moment the employee hit by the fragments screamed shrilly, soap bubble-like glass burst all over his body, trapping his head and hands, binding him.

And over it, a geometric traditional pattern emerged as if a stamp was pressed.

‘…The Bureau!’

[Warning. You are currently obstructing a rescue mission in a paranormal disaster.]

[Stop obstructing official duties and surrender. Surrender. Surrender….]

A recorded warning began to ring out from the pattern.

It was a broadcast that the Paranormal Disaster Management Bureau always announced when they began to subdue civilians obstructing official duties.

It was also an item. Hearing that sound made combativeness disappear, and one felt an authority that they felt they had to obey.

That is, for an ordinary person.

‘It’s troublesome.’

Veins bulged on the temples of Jin Na-sol, who wore the golden mask of the Elite Team.

To think they weren’t mermaids, but bastards from the Bureau disguised as special entities.

“How annoying.”

“Gaaah,”

Jin Na-sol kicked the bound employee, and at the same time, magically put on a monocle to identify the agents.

Two beyond the alley.

‘Should I fight?’

No, it wasn’t that. The important thing was to quickly finish the mission and accumulate points. It was to produce the maximum effect with the minimum physical consumption, and to raise work efficiency.

In this case, it was only right to stop the troublesome item search and quickly board the escape craft to clear the mission.

But….

“It’s irritating.”

The detached nails rushed forward and embedded themselves beyond the alley.

“…!”

The irritation index, which had crossed the threshold, combined with her chronic headache and eventually made Jin Na-sol move.

The nails dug violently into the wall with a rattling sound and caught on the corner.

Along with a few strands of Agent Choi’s severed bangs.

“Agent!”

“Oops, she’s quite tough.”

However, the opponents were Black Tortoise Team 1, who were adept at interpersonal combat. Even though they had become children, they skillfully avoided the attacks out of sheer habit.

“We pursue when she retracts the wire.”

Just as they moved….

The assistant manager in the butterfly mask held the wire and shot backward in reverse.

The two agents of the Bureau immediately rolled to the side and fired back.

Glass Hand Cannon.

“Argh!”

Jin Na-sol pulled the bound employee with the wire on her index finger to block it.

Struck by the bullet designed by the Disaster Management Bureau to subdue evil-doers, the Daydream employee screamed.

“Aaargh! A baby mermaid! A mermaid!!”

The stupid bastard was making a huge fuss just because he got hit by a single Bureau bullet that wouldn’t even leave a scratch, let alone kill him.

Moreover, to think he still saw that as just a baby mermaid, his brain must have holes….

……Hmm.

‘It is indeed there?’

Jin Na-sol peered through her monocle.

Behind the two Disaster Management Bureau agents, there was one more.

A baby mermaid.

……!

At that moment, one of the special entities assumed to be ‘agents’ who had a slightly larger build moved slightly.

To better conceal the baby mermaid.

“Aha.”

The Group A Assistant Manager narrowed her eyes.

Then, she threw the bound employee at the agents and shot the wire from her nails again.

Toward the baby mermaid behind the agents.

“…!”

Ping.

Along with a cheerful sound, the nail was deflected.

The Disaster Management Bureau agent had moved.

“Ha.”

Jin Na-sol took advantage of that gap, slipped backward and escaped the confrontation.

Her mind, which had even forgotten the headache, felt a brief thrill. If a Disaster Management Bureau agent had gone out of his way to protect it… there was only one truth.

‘Is the baby mermaid a civilian?’

This was….

-Information worthy of a manual update!

It was a massive amount of points.

Jin Na-sol’s eyes gleamed fiercely.

Irrespective of anger or anything, she had to board the escape craft immediately and return. A clear priority had emerged.

‘If worst comes to worst, I’ll take the baby mermaid hostage.’

Jin Na-sol naturally broke off a part attached to her nail and threw it forward.

Smoke billowed up.

Exploiting the gap in the obstructed vision, Jin Na-sol narrowly escaped through the alleys again.

Her head came up with the most violent and simple method, but her persistent goal-oriented mindset for points brought a more effective and intelligent method out of her mouth….

“Hey.”

Jin Na-sol pulled in a rookie employee who was eyeing a chance to escape while peeping at this place through a wire.

A woman wearing a pony mask.

“Ye-yes?”

“Draw their attention.”

“Me?”

The pony mask, Kang Yi-hak, pointed to herself as if startled, her eyes wide.

“At most, they’ll just bind you, lock you up in a holding cell, and then release you. Since you’re still a rookie and have no record of obstruction, they have no justification to throw you in prison.”

“Oh….”

Kang Yi-hak looked back and smiled brightly.

“That’s a wonderful plan, Assistant Manager! Then let’s make Mr. Goat over there do it! He’s secretly hiding there as quiet as a dead mouse….”

“One don of gold for every day of detention.”

“I will go.”

The worshiper of mammon smiled brightly and immediately raised her thumb.

Smilingly.

“But Assistant Manager! If you’re lying, I’ll spill all your personal information to the Disaster Management Bureau and take out a loan using your organs as collateral on my way out.”

“Do as you please.”

Jin Na-sol left the rookie behind as an obstacle, backed away and began to run for a swift escape….

Keeeeeng—

Blades poured down.

“…!”

Fodder cutters adorned with bells poured down in all directions, blocking the escape route and embedding themselves in Jin Na-sol’s legs.

‘…!’

Horrible pain climbed up her legs, paralyzing them.

Most of the Disaster Management Bureau’s anti-personnel equipment was intended to selectively kill evil-doers when a minimal death was autonomously required within a paranormal disaster situation.

In other words, armaments that subdued the target so they could be killed in the necessary manner.

“Ah, seriously!”

The Disaster Management Bureau agent, in the form of a special entity—a tail-less baby mermaid—was running toward this direction, pushing Kang Yi-hak aside with a laugh.

‘That son of a bitch.’

He was targeting the Elite Team.

Sometimes there were such agents among the veterans.

Since the Elite Team’s exploration records and testimonies were useful information.

In addition, they were fundamentally convinced that anyone who worked at Daydream Co. and rose to become an elite was an evil person.

Someone whose tail could be caught by any means once they were thrown into prison.

‘Should I kill him?’

Whoever he was, he was a guy who would have obstructed her at every turn.

Jin Na-sol crawled along the floor, reaching her hand inside her suit to pull out lethal equipment—

B O W Y O U R H E A D S

A G I A N T W I L L

Struck the entire alley.

Everything froze.

Violence without context.

The fleeing Daydream employee, the goat mask who had been bowing his head, the baby mermaid, the Disaster Management Bureau agent, and the pony mask who had raised her hand.

All of them rolled only their eyeballs, looking up.

A giant eye was watching.

No, it was language.

■■ ■■ ■■ ■■ ■■■■ ■■■ ■■■■

The sound of reciting evil passages became a gaze, staring at the humans. An indescribable, extra-dimensional language that humans could not understand from beyond, which could not be explained conceptually, poured down.

Give thanks for the inability to understand! The moment you understand, there is no turning back!

One of the Daydream Co. employees collapsed on the floor foamed at the mouth, had a seizure, and then strangled himself.

S P E A K

The baby mermaids laughed and fainted.

B O W Y O U R H E A D S

Kang Yi-hak stood with her mouth blankly open, staring into the air, and then slammed her head onto the floor.

A muttering sound.

S P E A K

It was fundamentally not such words! But if one were to accept only words that humans could understand, it sounded as such. Oh, whisper of the abyss. It is deep, too deepIt is so mesmerizingWe must fleeBut since we cannot flee??????Because it is truly mesmerizing and profane?????We must worship????

“D-Die.”

Someone spoke. Muttered.

“He said we are all going to die. To prepare for death, uh….”

“What does that mean?”

Jin Na-sol barely managed to grab someone by the collar. No, it was not just anyone, but the rookie wearing the goat mask.

“He told us to prepare for death! Death! The cat! The monster, Kim Sol…!”

A mouth appeared above the alley.

The shadow of an incredibly massive mouth opened as if to swallow everything.

It pronounced.

It was reading something more! It was reading! No, no….

Damn it.

“Agent Choi, feeling like biting his tongue, loaded the most powerful mental defense bullet among his equipment into the Glass Hand Cannon. Since there were only three shots, prioritization was crucial.”

What? Wait. Speech and thoughts were switching.

“Even the thoughts and speech of the Daydream employees are being understood. Agent Bronze swallowed his saliva. …The paranormal aspect of the ghost story that shows hallucinations to young children is being bypassed.”

Hold on.

“A chilling sense of crisis climbed up the scar on his neck.”

The phenomenon that had manifested now, this was….

“An Extinction Grade?”

“What on earth do you want! What do you want that you’re doing this! Why are we dying! I don’t want to die! I don’t want to die! I don’t know what I have to do, but I’ll do it! I’ll do it! Please go away—”

“…….”

“…….”

It vanished.

The Twinkling Dragon Palace and the Mermaid Tomb returned.

Flop.

The eyes of the people who collapsed on the floor were blank. As the indescribably massive ■■■ vanished, the void was very slowly filled….

And.

A dreary premonition.

“Just now, you said you would do anything…”

Gazes turning to look at the black goat mask.

Baek Sa-heon.

“That you would do anything if it went away…”

The moment Baek Sa-heon’s face turned white as a sheet.

Jingle.

“…!”

From the darkness beyond the alley, something quietly walked out.

“Uh…”

It was a black cat.

The four-legged beast with bright red eyes was mutely observing the humans.

A symbol of misfortune, a history of terror and persecution, a street animal passing by amid familiarity and a sense of daily life.

The protagonist of the most famous short horror story.

The cat approached.

“…!”

Glitching, the figure moved.

Swallowed by tension, the people halted their complex power struggles and conflicts and watched it move….

Standing before the black goat, it opened its mouth.

[This way]

“…!”

The will was spoken.

[This way]

The cat stared beyond.

Baek Sa-heon stumbled to his feet, stared at the cat with a pale face, and began to move.

The people and baby mermaids began to walk, stumbling behind the black four-legged beast that walked alongside him….

‘I-It worked.’

Even if the inside of it was Kim Sol-eum, swallowing cold sweat and tears!

-‘Are there stickers for this kind of tattoo too, like an app that reads out what you input? …Ah! You can print them instantly?’

Yes.

Kim Sol-eum had purchased a tattoo sticker with a musical note pattern that had ‘the effect of transmitting my thoughts to the surroundings like spoken voice’ from the Moonlight Tattoo Shop and attached it to the sole of his paw.

He was desperately moving his four paws, acting cool and pretending to be something significant.

Feeling relieved that things were going properly at any rate.

‘I thought I was going crazy!’

* * *

A few hours ago.

‘Whew.’

Leaving the Moonlight Tattoo Shop, Kim Sol-eum temporarily shed his cat form and returned to being a child.

He swallowed a groan as he looked around at his surroundings, which had transformed back into an ecstatic heaven.

The stamp was tattered now, so if he used it just once more, it would probably be difficult to use it any further… but it was absolutely necessary to do this task in a human body.

“I finally get to use it.”

Because there was an item to take out.

From deep within his wrist Benefactor contract tattoo, Kim Sol-eum finally pulled out an item he had purchased from the Space Shopping Mall a long time ago.

“Whew.”

That was….

A book bound with a screaming human face, made of human skin and finished with a coat of dark red wax.

Necronomicon

The Book of the Dead.

Kim Sol-eum peered at the ancient book that seemed sealed with red wax.

‘…Brown had pretended to know it.’

But, you see.

-‘It probably isn’t the Necronomicon you know.’

It was exactly as he had said back then.

He returned to being a cat and moved his front paw. It was to reduce any feelings of aversion.

If he carefully touched below the waxed part with his front paw like this… he could find it.

A hinge was attached to the corner.

Yes. This….

‘The ancient book form is just a book case.’

And when opened.

Click.

A clean and typical font and cover of a perfect-bound softcover book were visible.

Necronomicon

Easy Hangul Revised Edition Released!

It was a neat and tacky modern publication.

“…….”

Around this point, your head would be filled with ‘????’, but let us proceed a bit further.

He flipped open the cover.

Then, passing the table of contents, text like this began to appear….

Wija ey wija ey eunkruga jakaip hirigebeu someoka beuateu ni-allat hotep peurugibeu winiwikeu jaicheruge

…Did you notice?

Phonetically transcribed alien gibberish was roughly written down.

Indeed.

This book was, in a different sense, a terrible, mistranslated defective copy…!

According to the words of a researcher in the Records of the Dark Exploration, even that was awful because it had too many typos.

A level so terrible it was a shame to even call it a mistranslation, literally a version that clumsily mimicked only the pronunciation of some old edition of the Necronomicon!

‘Considering that in cosmic horror, otherworld languages are typically difficult for humans to fully understand or pronounce, this is a truly meaningless endeavor.’

Naturally, the true identity of this object, which could not possibly summon the actual power of a cosmic horror entity of madness and terror, was….

A ghost story mocking book crowdfunding scams.

Well, yes. It was that kind of item.

However, since a ghost story is a ghost story, it bound to have at least one effect that resulted in terrible consequences.

Thus, in its contents alone, there was exactly one aspect capable of producing an effect as heinous as the original.

An ability characteristic of a scam-themed ghost story.

That was… a psychological effect.

Upon reading the book, the reader falls into the illusion that a giant entity has actually descended, plunging into madness and terror.

It was also estimated to exert a similar influence on all humans within a 10-meter radius in front of them who heard the reader’s voice.

The stronger the reader’s immersion tendency as a horror enthusiast, the more concrete and definite the effect became.

-‘Anyway, since it at least lets the reader set the mood, it’s a somewhat conscientious scam.’

-Assistant Manager Lee Yeon-hwa of Research Team 1.

In short, a bluffing item for intimidation!

And, though it was slightly embarrassing….

The stronger the reader’s immersion tendency as a horror enthusiast, the more concrete and definite the effect became.

…Kim Sol-eum had judged that it could be considered an item made just for him.

‘Ugh.’

Of course, he thought he was going to lose his mind while reading it.

Perhaps if it hadn’t been solely a psychological effect, he might be bleeding profusely from every hole again. Or maybe it was thanks to the lemonade he drank at the Moonlight Tattoo Shop.

At any rate.

‘I can’t do that anymore either.’

He could no longer read the book. First of all, he felt like he would go crazy reading it, and the moment he was caught reading it in his cat form and revealed it was just an item, the plan would be utterly ruined.

However, that terrifying psychological effect only manifested when reading the Necronomicon.

In other words, currently in his cat form, Kim Sol-eum’s stats were no different from a regular street animal….

‘C-Can I deceive them?’

But he had to do it.

[This way]

Like that, Kim Sol-eum persistently pretended to be an extraordinary creature and began to guide the Daydream Co. employees and Paranormal Disaster Management Bureau agents.

‘Please, just cooperate until the escape.’

The destination was….

The place where Angel’s Sigh still remained.