Chapter 160

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

Translated by Jinmu

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net

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

The Disaster Management Bureau agents turned their eyes.

“Wow!”

In an instant, the wire attached to the ornate nails shot out and wrapped around the baby mermaid’s clothes.

The exclusive weapon of the Group A Assistant Manager.

“Huh? It’s a firecracker!”

The child laughed.

Listening to the laughter of the contaminated baby mermaid, Jin Na-sol sliced off the most critical part first.

The part that secreted paralytic and infectious fluids.

Slice.

“Aaaaack!”

The giant tail attached to the baby mermaid fell away.

Blood and mucus burst out.

“It hurts! It hurts!”

By a hair’s breadth, the agent’s attack grazed her.

Without delay, Jin Na-sol pulled the baby mermaid—which had been neutralized with its tail severed—using the wire and held it under one arm.

“Argh!”

And she declared.

“If you come any closer, I’ll kill it.”

“…!”

It was a perfectly rational choice.

‘My legs are not normal.’

Since the calf she had been hit on by the bell-adorned fodder cutter earlier was still paralyzed, Jin Na-sol had to use items even as she ran all the way here, chasing after the ominous cat.

Confronting two Disaster Management Bureau agents in this state while packing items to escape would have been foolish.

Jin Na-sol loathed foolish acts.

Therefore, she chose.

“I told you not to come.”

“…!”

Even if words do not translate, some communications function through gestures alone.

“Bronze, wait a moment.”

Agent Choi, who valued every single human life, immediately raised his hands as if surrendering to Jin Na-sol, quickly running his brain to find an alternative.

However….

That was not the standard response of the Disaster Management Bureau.

‘A hostage.’

A textbook figure of the Disaster Management Bureau, Agent Bronze looked at the villain before him with dark eyes.

Those human scums were planning to run away after taking the item that could save twelve children for their own selfish desires.

‘Even though they can escape without taking it.’

If they let them go like that, twelve children would die.

And the Bureau’s priority was clear.

Minimum sacrifice, maximum survival.

-If sacrificing one citizen allows us to save more citizens.

‘We do so.’

“…Bronze?”

Agent Bronze made a swift decision.

Then, he raised his Glass Hand Cannon and pounced.

“Hey…!”

But at that moment, another creature also moved simultaneously.

Jingle.

“Huh? No, wait….”

Amid Baek Sa-heon’s flustered voice, the cat stepped on his shoulder and leaped down silently.

Clamped in the cat’s mouth was a conch shell tied with a golden string, ‘Angel’s Sigh’.

It was something it had taken from Baek Sa-heon’s bag.

“Huh? A cat doll….”

The cat dashed straight toward Jin Na-sol.

“…!”

Jin Na-sol reflexively readied herself to kick and shoot her wire, but the cat’s target was not that employee.

Instead, the cat headed slightly more to the side and downward.

“Huh? A cat doll….”

The baby mermaid Jin Na-sol was holding hostage.

The cat pressed the conch shell, still clamped in its teeth, fully against the baby mermaid’s ear.

“…!”

A faint voice echoed from within the shell.

Humming.

It was like the song of an extremely beautiful singer, or like a lullaby hummed by one’s parents while embracing them in childhood.

It was like a passage of a powerful national anthem, or a hymn overflowing with cheers and vitality.

Yet it was only a single passage taken from there.

Only a single melody emerged softly and gently from inside the conch shell, tickling the child’s ear.

“…Ah?”

The baby mermaid with its tail severed froze its body.

Mmm, mmmm, mmm, mmmmmm.

The bleeding decreased.

The inflammation on the face and limbs covered in ulcers subsided, the syndrome of infection that twisted the limbs vanished, and the vocal cords returned to their original state.

Of course, it did not completely revert to the perfect appearance of a child as if reversing time.

However, the rapidly spreading infection lost its momentum, and the human life that the child originally possessed flared up like a flame meeting kindling.

The next moment.

“Phew….”

The child, breathing a deep sigh, regained the appearance of a sick child.

“…….”

“…….”

A moment when the people paused briefly out of human instinct at the marvelous sight.

“W-What is this? Mom…!”

The child began to burst into tears fitfully.

As the infection subsided and the hallucinations cleared, the Twinkling Dragon Palace vanished, and they began to see the grim reality with their bare eyes.

“…!”

‘It even allows them to escape the brainwashing…!’

But while the young child, expelled from the ecstatic and beautiful ‘Twinkling Dragon Palace,’ continued to cry.

Remarkably, the cat went inside and cuddled up to it!

“M-Meow meow….”

It sat still without moving a muscle even though its head was pulled by the child’s rather rough hands.

Therefore it appeared even more eerie, but at any rate, it was a clear signal.

That thing is friendly to children.

‘Is this a ghost story where rules differ based on the age group?’

Jin Na-sol did not let go of the hostage she was holding, even as she analyzed it like a member of the elite field exploration team.

However, she no longer subdued the child overtly. This was because it was impossible to predict how that danger in the form of a cat would react.

But….

“These guys are really out of their minds.”

There were also those who precisely targeted that gap.

“…!”

Bullets flew.

Jin Na-sol saw it. The opposing agent shot the Glass Hand Cannon targeting her leg, while the guy who had already approached tried to bind her upper body.

‘Ha.’

Jin Na-sol fell backward on purpose.

Her body, losing its balance and moving in an amorphous shape, narrowly avoided the agents’ subjection.

And at the same time, she tossed the hostage forward with one hand.

Toward Agent Choi.

“…!”

The moment Agent Choi caught the child who was holding the cat.

‘Hostages are scattered all over the place outside anyway.’

Jin Na-sol made a cold judgment and prepared to kick open the door.

‘Retreating.’

The other Daydream employees who witnessed the situation also moved their feet to slip away, and just as Baek Sa-heon tightly gripped his bag containing the remaining eleven ‘Angel’s Sighs’ and was about to run out.

[This way]

The cat stared.

“…!”

The ominous cat quietly walked out from the arms of the child held by Agent Choi.

“Why are you…”

The four-legged beast walked between the frozen people. And passing everyone, it stood in front of something.

The baby mermaid’s tail that Jin Na-sol had sliced off.

A cord of ulcer masses.

[This way]

Glitching, the cat’s form turned to look at the people.

“W-What do you want us to do with that…”

[This way]

Crimson eyes peered into me.

A gaze that felt as though it already knew every story about me.

“…….”

Damn it.

Baek Sa-heon quickly picked up the tail with his gloved hand, trying to stuff it into the front of his waterproof bag.

But before he could, Agent Choi swiftly snatched the tail.

“Ah…!”

Firmly gripping and subduing the tail that was still writhing and struggling to parasitize him despite him being a ‘child,’ Agent Choi spoke to the cat.

“Did you induce the attack because you needed this?”

Silence.

“Where is this tail useful?”

The cat did not answer.

But it did answer.

[This way]

By staring at the Daydream Co. employees.

“…!”

Agent Choi stored the tail in a sealing container, then hurriedly began to write text on the floor with the chalk he carried around.

A single means of connection through which the gazes of the Twinkling Dragon Palace and the Mermaid Tomb were shared.

-‘You guys use this tail, don’t you?’

“…!”

-‘If you tell us first how and where you use it, we won’t fight anymore until we leave here~ I swear on an agent’s honor!^^’

-‘By any chance, do you use it when escaping? We already know you escape using escape crafts. Where and how do you use it?’

‘Crazy bastard….’

But Agent Choi had a corner of faith.

-‘It seems the cat also wants us to talk?’

[10]

“Ah, seriously!”

Sick of the cat starting the countdown in sync, Baek Sa-heon looked around.

‘I don’t want to take the lead….’

Fortunately, Kang Yi-hak quickly bent down and began to write an answer.

-‘Ah, how much will you pay if I tell you? Haha’

‘There’s another crazy one here.’

-‘We are beggars T_T You rich folks bear with it! You don’t want your heads to burst because of the cat~’

“Geez.”

‘You sons of bitches…!’

Ultimately, under the pressure of the countdown, Baek Sa-heon tactfully wrote the answer himself instead of his money-crazy peer.

-‘You already know everything anyway… The tail is needed in the process of escaping.’

-‘But we have never savagely severed a baby mermaid’s tail, we only minimally severed the tails of ordinary infected entities that were already fully infected. Because we have to survive too…’

‘It’s obvious he’ll throw a fit if I say we killed a child!’

That was why he phrased it as nicely as possible, but Agent Choi didn’t even bat an eye.

-‘In what manner is it used? Fuel? An entrance ticket? A sacrifice?’

Was it okay to spill this much?

[6]

Damn it.

-‘An entrance ticket.’

As he wrote, Baek Sa-heon reflexively glared at the spot where the cat had been. ‘Squeezing me as if to kill me with the countdown, are you satisfied now? You psychopathic bastard….’

But the cat was no longer there.

“…!”

Before long, it was standing in front of the window.

That is, on two legs.

[This way]

The cat’s posture was bizarre.

As if someone were forcibly controlling the cat, it stood like a ghost on two legs by the window, suddenly raised its left front paw, and pointed somewhere to the west.

That place was….

‘…The direction of the escape craft!’

And it fell straight out the window.

“…!!”

The people rushed to the window and looked below, but there was nothing there….

The cat had vanished.

“……ha.”

Suddenly, the air felt lighter.

A moment when several people caught their breath, their minds racing.

“The escape craft… the escape craft!”

Baek Sa-heon clutched his head.

“Right! He was telling us to get the hell out on the escape craft!”

“What?”

“He told us to prepare for death. I wondered what that was, but now it seems to mean he will kill us if we don’t all leave on the escape craft…!”

“…!”

“We must get out quickly….”

But the Daydream Co. employees did not easily forget the danger.

In this space, there were still Disaster Management Bureau agents.

And….

Also, the influence of the behavior shown by that thing which was a cat earlier.

“…….”

At that time. Agent Choi was lost in thought.

The cat had made them remove the tail from the baby mermaid and cured it with the conch shell.

Recalling that appearance which was friendly to children to anyone who saw it….

‘Hmm.’

The agent calmly wrote text on the floor.

-‘Seeing that the cat revealed the location of the conch shells and even showed a cure as a demonstration, it seems to mean we should use them to save the kids as much as possible…’

-‘Is there anyone who wants to die in vain at the hands of a monster by being greedy for items?’

‘Damn it.’

But the agent’s words did not end there.

-‘Otherwise, shall we temporarily cooperate only until everyone gets out safely?’

“…!”

-‘Let’s take as many children as possible to safety. Using the conch shells, to that escape craft you guys are leaving on.’

“…….”

Jin Na-sol pushed Baek Sa-heon aside and strode forward without hesitation.

“…!”

And without even blinking, staring at the agent, she wrote text on the floor.

-‘If you do anything funny, you will be shot dead.’

“Okay~”

Like that, a bizarre temporary alliance was formed.

A composition that could use both the senses of the Mermaid Tomb and the Twinkling Dragon Palace, and since they had many people, could care for multiple children simultaneously even while dealing with the biohazard.

‘…Did he guide this?’

Ryu Jae-gwan twitched his eyes.

Just what kind of supernatural phenomenon was that ghost story in the form of a cat, that it caused this…… No, for now, the important thing was to escape this place safely and finish the mission.

Yes, he wasn’t even alone right now. Since the rookie had also entered…….

Wait!

“Grape!”

Ryu Jae-gwan hurriedly turned to his senior with a stiff face.

The rookie, who would still be looking for citizens capable of being rescued among the children, had been left unattended…!

“We must find him immediately. If he is left behind here by any chance…”

“Wait, wait! Let’s calm down. We were supposed to meet this evening anyway. We should be able to meet him on our way to collect the kids.”

That was the problem…!

‘I shouldn’t drag these human scums along…!’

“I’ll threaten these guys first.”

Instead of keeping the conch shells with Baek Sa-heon, Agent Choi received the tail tissues of the ordinary infected entities they had collected as collateral, and verified that they weren’t lying about the location of the escape craft.

He then secretly pretended to bicker over the conch shells while placing tracking devices on them to complete their preparations.

“It’s done.”

Lastly, they firmly decided to meet in front of a building near where the escape craft was located.

“Now let’s go gather the children.”

“…Yes.”

At any rate, the encounter between that crazy cult pharmaceutical company and Agent Grape was unavoidable.

Ryu Jae-gwan felt a chill in his chest, but thought he should be the first to spot him and have him cover his face with a hat or something.

If he argued that he wanted to protect the rookie’s identity from the cult pharmaceutical company employees, his senior would understand.

“He’s at the fountain! Over there.”

“Yes.”

However, the moment they met Agent Grape at the fountain in the center of the city.

“Agent!”

Ryu Jae-gwan realized that his plan had been a meaningless endeavor.

Through the suncatcher he kept held to his eye just in case, it was clearly visible.

The rookie agent noticing them and turning back….

“I was gathering children and sorting them by eras!”

Ulcers covered half of his face.

“…….”

Ryu Jae-gwan halted his steps.

Sweating coldly, his trembling gaze swept over his fellow agent in child form before him….

Below his upper body, a long umbilical cord-like mass of cells hung down.

A thick mass of flesh flowed from his waist, with ulcers dangling like a tail.

It was gross and horrific, but because of the characteristic of being an undersea city and the fact that it looked like a tail….

This biohazard was called a mermaid.

“But playing together is so much fun….”

The baby mermaid who used to be an agent waved its hand with a laugh.

“Could we stay just one more day?”

Seeing the rookie fully infected by the biohazard, the two agents stopped with their faces white as a sheet.