Chapter 9

“Then I’ll be counting on you!” At the entrance leading to the outside of the Foundation, as Imari arrived, one of the agents waiting in advance called out.

The Foundation basically provides three agents to support an external field researcher. The rank of the agents assigned to an external field researcher is Level 4. They aren’t completely disposable like Level 5 agents meant to be treated as mere meat shields, but they aren’t useful enough to hold rank Level 3 or higher either.

When external field researchers determine that an anomaly can be “contained,” they mobilize the assigned Level 4 agents to escort the anomaly back to the Foundation. In that process, Level 4 agents occasionally die due to a researcher’s poor judgment, but neither the Foundation, the external field researcher, nor anyone else paid it any mind. They didn’t need to be mindlessly fed into a grinder like Level 5 agents, but losing a few of them wasn’t a massive loss like losing Level 3 or higher personnel.

Since the Level 4 agents knew this fact well, no particularly bright expressions could be seen on their faces— That agent over there is a bit special. A Level 4 agent greeting her with a wide, cheerful smile. Was he barely an adult now? His bright expression was enough to trick anyone into feeling slightly better just by looking at it.Well, whatever, I suppose. No matter an individual’s disposition or personality, as long as they performed their role well, that was all that mattered.

Having settled her thoughts, Imari spoke up. “Everyone, you’ve all heard the briefing on the anomaly we need to retrieve this time, right?” “Heard it loud and clear-!” At Imari’s question, that exact agent raised his hand high and shouted. Even though the agent next to him frowned at the sudden outburst, he didn’t care at all. He just kept flashing his cheerful smile.

Imari shook her head at their minor friction—not quite a fight—and continued. “The anomaly we’re containing this time isn’t particularly dangerous. The Foundation has already fully mapped it out, so we just need to go in and retrieve it.”

The subject name: 【The Smiling Doll】. That was the name of the anomaly Imari was tasked with retrieving this time. Its danger rating was Level 5. Though it was widely known to many people in the form of urban legends, it was assigned such a low rating presumably because the conditions required to manifest its true form were so demanding that victims were surprisingly few.

So, there shouldn’t be any major issues. With that thought in mind— “Alright, let’s move out.” Imari walked past the door leading outside the Foundation. The three Level 4 agents followed right behind her.

“Fascinating. To think there was a Foundation right in the middle of Seoul.” The moment they slipped out of the Foundation and stepped into downtown Seoul, Han Seong-jun’s voice drifted over. With not a single footstep or sign of presence preceding it, the sudden voice made Imari instinctively flinch. Glancing to the side, she saw Seong-jun standing there, though she had no idea when he had appeared.

“Is it really okay for you to just pop up out of nowhere like this…? No, is it?” “Honorifics or casual speech—pick one. And besides, it doesn’t particularly matter.” “R-Right. Well, if you say so.” Imari replied awkwardly to Seong-jun’s words. Still, it doesn’t matter?

Imari covertly glanced back at the Level 4 agents trailing behind her. Two agents wore the rigid, stiff expressions typical of Level 4s, while one possessed a liveliness and cheerfulness entirely unbefitting a Level 4. Despite Seong-jun suddenly materializing out of thin air, the three of them showed no particular sign of agitation. Was this also due to some measure Seong-jun had taken?

As Imari looked at him with that thought, Seong-jun nodded and said, “Into their stories—or rather, into the narrative of the ‘Korean Foundation’—I have added the setting: ‘Han Seong-jun is Imari’s assistant’.” “What kind of—!” Imari’s eyes flared wide at how casually he said it. She couldn’t grasp the full meaning behind Seong-jun’s words, but she understood this much: Han Seong-jun had just rewritten the memories of the humans belonging to the Korean Foundation.

The number of personnel inside the Foundation alone must easily exceed several thousand. To tamper with the memories of every single one of those people? No matter how much of an anomaly he was, wasn’t that an utterly absurd feat? Wait, if that was the case—

“It is impossible.” …? Before she could even voice it, Seong-jun flatly declared it “impossible.” As expected, did Seong-jun possess the power to read human thoughts—an ability commonly known as mind-reading? In response, Seong-jun shook his head this time. “I do not possess mind-reading. It is simply that I could foresee what you were about to say.” “Isn’t that the same thing?” “It is different. Reading someone’s thoughts versus anticipating what someone will think of. Besides, did I not just say it is impossible?”

Nod. Imari nodded. Seong-jun continued. “The stories I can intervene in are limited, for now, to the ‘Korean Foundation’. Of course, even that has only become possible because I have already recovered a significant number of ‘stories’ belonging to the ‘Korean Foundation’.”

It meant he had spent a long time reading the life records of people within the ‘Korean Foundation’. That was why Seong-jun had forged an assistant named Imari. Imari, too, realized what Seong-jun was implying. The human memories he could interfere with were strictly limited to those belonging to the Korean Foundation. Furthermore, that power— Does it grow stronger the more stories you collect?

If so, was she truly doing the right thing by helping this entity retrieve books? Was she unwittingly cooperating with something that would eventually become a disaster for the Earth? Having unconsciously entertained such thoughts, Imari shuddered violently.

The manifestation conditions for the anomaly, 【The Smiling Doll】, were demanding. First: It must be the Ja hour (子時)—the period between 11:00 PM and 1:00 AM among the twelve traditional double-hours. Second: There must be absolutely no humans within a 100-meter radius. Third: The location must be heavily saturated with human traces. Fourth and final: It must involve a doll shaped like a human.

In other words, to summon 【The Smiling Doll】, one had to be completely alone late at night or in the early hours of the morning. Yet, it couldn’t be a deep mountain or an abandoned house where human footsteps never fell; it had to be a place frequently used by crowds, utilizing a human-shaped doll.

Perhaps because of those strict conditions— Arriving late at night in front of a securely locked high school, Imari was relieved by the surprisingly low number of victims compared to other anomaly-driven phenomena. From the moment the Foundation had first taken notice of the anomaly up until now, the total number of known casualties was a mere six people.

Anyway— “Why did you even come along?” Imari asked, looking toward Han Seong-jun standing beside her. Could it be that this anomaly, too, had stimulated the collection urge of 【The Story-Devouring Grimoire】? As Imari looked at him with eyes full of curiosity, he replied nonchalantly, “Are you and I not in a cooperative relationship? You helped me collect the last story, so this time it is my turn to help you.”

The “last story” Seong-jun mentioned was presumably 【The Singing Grimoire】. However, Imari harbored a lingering doubt: How on earth did I help Seong-jun retrieve that? No matter how much she thought about it, she couldn’t recall contributing anything to his collection of it. Well, since Seong-jun had stated of his own accord that he would help her, she had no particular reason to refuse his offer. Therefore, Imari simply— “Fine, let’s head in then.” She turned her gaze from Seong-jun back to the high school.

Their current location was Jiun High School, situated in Yeongdeungpo-gu. Someone had triggered 【The Smiling Doll】 here. The ‘Guide Compass’—one of the few tools crafted by the Foundation utilizing anomalous phenomena—was pointing directly at Jiun High School, so it had to be correct.

Climbing over the perimeter wall like a tardy student and making her way inside the building through a door that—for reasons unknown—was unlocked, Imari… “What is this?” She winced involuntarily as a chilling sensation swept right through her. Something didn’t feel right. Could the doll have already manifested? “Everyone, be care—!” Trailing off as she turned back to warn them about the unidentifiable dread, Imari’s mouth snapped shut.

“What? …What is going on here?” Why am I……already on the third floor? Imari muttered with trembling pupils. She had only just passed through the main entrance. Why on earth was a third-floor hallway stretching out behind her back? Furthermore, a corridor so long its end was entirely invisible. And— “Where did everyone go?”

The three Level 4 agents. Han Seong-jun. Everyone had vanished. She was left entirely alone in a gloomy, oppressive darkness within a corridor of endless, unknowable length. A grim expression twisted across her face at the terrifying reality.

“Well, we’re completely screwed.” Every single one of these phenomena was undoubtedly the work of the anomaly, 【The Smiling Doll】. To think the Foundation had so severely misjudged the danger of the anomaly. The information handed to her by the Foundation had listed its danger rating as Level 5. But an anomaly capable of constructing a domain of this massive scale—just looking at this phenomenon alone suggested its danger rating might be Level 4, or perhaps even higher.

“This is genuinely driving me insane.” Imari muttered under her breath. What should she do now? Should she just stay put and wait until Han Seong-jun came for her? Or should she turn the tables and walk around looking for Seong-jun herself?

Common sense dictated that rather than wandering around this perilously dangerous place, holing up somewhere in a corner and waiting for Seong-jun to find her was the correct choice. After all, Seong-jun was an anomaly too. However— “Ah—.” Suddenly, a low gasp escaped Imari’s lips.

A corridor stretching out so long its end was lost to sight. From the murky gloom blanketing that hallway, something came slithering out. The very first thing to punch through the darkness was a hand. Except, it was not the hand of an ordinary human. The fingernails had grown so long they warped and twisted in every direction, and each finger easily exceeded a meter in length.

Next to emerge were withered arms, skin stretched taut over bare bone. And following that came the face of a doll, sporting a terrifyingly bright smile beneath snow-white teeth smeared thickly with human blood and flesh.

The moment Imari locked eyes with the doll’s button-like pupils, she knew. That was the anomaly she had been dispatched to retrieve: 【The Smiling Doll】. And— “We are genuinely screwed.”

If she didn’t run away right this second, she was going to be ripped to shreds by that thing and die.