Ziiiiikk.
On the rooftop filled with the sounds of gongs, cymbals, and bells, another, more dissonant tearing sound rang out.
The sound of me ripping paper.
What foolish…
Director Cheong stopped speaking.
Dozens of eyes simultaneously fixed on the torn paper in my hand.
They must be familiar with it.
After all, this is what was written on it.
Contract
The subject hereby enters into the following contract.
The subject (hereinafter "Party B") transfers the exclusive and complete ownership of the Core to Cheong Dallae (hereinafter "Party A"), and shall permanently forfeit the right to use the Core.
Party A shall grant Party B a new role, and Party B shall comply with the rules of employment for said role and faithfully perform the duties assigned.
(Party A): Cheong Dallae
(Party B): Yellow Dragon
Clauses so far from legal formality they bordered on tyranny.
This was the standard contract Director Cheong used to seize the Core from a Dragon.
And the designated subject was already written.
'Yellow Dragon.'
The Core of the Yellow Dragon, the one who possessed the 'Authority of Contract.'
This very contract was the repository of all of Director Cheong's contracts, the anchor of her absolute authority.
And as if to prove that this contract itself stemmed from the authority of that 'Yellow Dragon's Core,' it had a faint, circular pattern.
Just like my contract had.
And so, a three-part syllogism emerges.
1. Director Cheong's contracts derive their power from the Yellow Dragon's Core.
2. I edited the Wiki, turning my contract into the Yellow Dragon's contract, the very proof of the Authority of Contract itself….
And I tore it.
3. Therefore, all contracts held by Director Cheong are, at this moment, null and void.
This logic holds.
And at this moment, Director Cheong's eye in the sky is watching.
....
....
A furious tremor descends upon the rooftop.
The pupils within the transparent lens dart about erratically, bulging and popping like inflammations inside the eye.
The Dragon's Cores, having lost the foundation of their authority.
Come back! You ■■ things who have no place to go after being ■■by me! Re■urn and keep your pl■ce!
A sound no human can withstand echoes.
The festering Azure Dragon wraps itself around it's people on the rooftop, trying desperately to shield them.
They didn't die.
I feel Agent Choi — blood streaming from his eyes, nose, and mouth — grabbing me, trying to pull me back to the rooftop.
But my lower body is already gone, and my organs and chest have collapsed.
And this was not what he should be doing right now.
With an arm that is little more than a skeleton, I struck the pole Agent Choi was holding.
Jingle.
"..."
Agent Choi flinches for a only for a moment, then lifts his head.
To Gwang-cheol.
And to his own magic weapon, the one that must perform the final rite.
"..."
He avoids looking at the giant eye with dozens of pupils bulging out in all directions, and with staggering effort, takes a step forward….
Tuk.
He shakes the bell at the end of the pole.
The moment a droplet splashes from it and touches the inside of the lens–
(Unintelligible sound)■■■■■■■■■■
The sky closes.
The great Disaster departs.
The resolution of the rolling eyeball with its dozens of pupils gradually blurs.
Agent Choi collapses, vomiting blood.
At that moment–
■■■■■■■!
The Azure Dragon opens its mouth and soars.
Its claws curl around and grasp the disappearing giant eye.
!!
The surface of the lens cracks slightly, and one or two pupils, unable to withstand the pressure, pop out.
A golden something, one of the Dragon's Cores, a wish-fulfilling orb, disappears into the Azure Dragon's mouth as if drawn by gravity.
And….
■■■…
The sky had closed.
"..."
"..."
In the silence, everyone on the rooftop realized:
The 'Chasing Ggwangcheol' ritual had succeeded.
Woooooo-
The Azure Dragon descends.
Agent Choi and I slide off its body as it lands softly on the rooftop.
A divine light flashes.
Its streamlined body, shimmering with gold, indigo, and blue, coils tightly around the rooftop, and its massive face draws near to the people there.
It drops something in front of me.
Thud.
… a cracked, golden orb.
Yellow Dragon's Core
Cheong Dallae's 33rd pupil.
It symbolizes the Authority of Contract.
Cheong Dallae was able to store her collected Cores and Divine Powers as a file cabinet through this pupil.
However, due to certain circumstances, it has now been ejected from the lens and drawn to the body of its original owner.
It flickered for a moment, then burrowed into my crushed body.
And it vanished to a place unknown.
"Agent Grapes."
Agent Haegum tries to support me, but I just slide down.
I can see the Azure Dragon's eyes looking down at my mangled form.
Its gaze lingers as if it wants to help more, as if it wants to tell me something more… but in the end, it has no choice but to lift its head.
Because the time had come.
The Azure Dragon leaves the rooftop.
But the festering shape of its body was no longer the same.
Parts of its flesh glowed as flesh and scales filled in.
As if it were taking on a complete silhouette.
Woooooo-
Rain begins to fall.
The Azure Dragon, having reclaimed its Core, cuts through the rain, engraving its mystical and divine form in the air.
The brilliant, shimmering waterway disappears back into the swimming pool covering the roads of Segwang Metropolitan City.
Without a splash, without a ripple.
Woooooo-
The swimming pool of Blue Dream Water Park vanished with the ebbing tide, sucked back into the Fire Hydrant.
Only the quiet sound of rain remains.
"..."
This should have been a scene so mystical and moving it brought tears to my eyes.
But I felt nothing.
"Grapes-ie…!"
I knew.
My final attempt had succeeded.
Managing Director Cheong Dallae would no longer have the luxury of bringing hell upon the ritual participants.
Because she would need time to fully control the Dragon's Cores, the pupils she had managed so stably, organized in a file cabinet, the Authority of Contract.
Because all the special contracts she had made with her workers had lost their binding force and effect.
She would need time to recover.
A year.
Perhaps even more.
Director Cheong Dallae would surely find another way, but until then, there would be a sufficient grace period.
And in return for that….
I am no longer here.
"You did it."
"..."
"You did it, Kim Soleum? You…."
"Stand back."
I no longer have a form.
I am disappearing.
My cognitive abilities remain, but they are refining into something inhuman.
The protrusions of personality and emotion melt away, leaving only their traces.
I feel no fear at the end of my ego, which I had tried so hard to protect, to maintain until the very last moment.
What remains now is pattern recognition, situational analysis, and a vague consciousness.
I can perceive something indescribably great or terrible head-on without going mad or being wounded.
Because everything that could be wounded has disappeared.
Or.
Because I have become such a thing.
"Mr. Roe Deer."
Section Chief Lee Jaheon, 'We Help,' looks down at me.
I look back at them.
I read the intention to trade for the Yellow Dragon's Core from that alien, plural entity.
But I know that because of this Core, I am showing signs of life, a collapsed form that has not died….
For the sake of survival, I can't make a trade.
Even so, the single entity inside "us" that is inhabiting Section Chief Lee Jaheon's identity does not leave.
"Can you hear me?"
Everything except my right arm has melted away.
I try to affirm by nodding but realize I have no spine to support my head.
"Agent Grapes!"
My head slams onto the floor.
Tinkle.
I hear the sound of the Jade Drop.
....
....
It has no effect.
It brings me no enlightenment.
To return the way I came, there must be a path.
But I have no path.
It's all gone.
Because if I had left one, I wouldn't have been able to edit the Wiki.
Tinkle.
"Snap out of it, Kim Soleum! Snap out of it and…."
A hand grabs the collapsed pile of flesh. Bone fragments, contaminated golden blood clots, and organ tissue ooze between its fingers.
Smoke rises.
"Agent Choi!"
"Wait, so…."
I pushed the person who was about to be contaminated away with smoke.
A voice comes from within the Black Smoke.
"You said you wanted to go home."
....
"Huh? You remember, right?"
Home.
...Ah.
I realize the last of my willpower, a single grain of sand-like crumb of emotion that had been scraped from the bottom.
With that strength, I flick something out of the pocket of the suit jacket lying on the floor.
A cylinder.
A Dream Collector.
What had been my last hope pops out of the pocket and rolls across the rooftop floor.
Clang!
Clatter, clatter, clatter….
"..."
It was empty.
I had ended the Supernatural Disaster in Segwang Metropolitan City.
And driven away Managing Director Cheong Dallae.
I had succeeded in all of it.
The possibility that an incredible, high concentration of Dream Essence might have been produced all at once, enough to make Children's Paradise Syrup in one go.
That possibility….
Ended as a possibility.
Because only humans can collect dream essence.
"…Soleum."
My body has completely collapsed.
A lump settles onto the rooftop floor.
I no longer have a form.
My humanity, regained and built up through countless attempts and countless realizations, hits rock bottom, revealing the true identity of my flesh.
The recycled corpse of the Yellow Dragon.
The consciousness of one who has read the
A resident of a 'world where ghost stories do not exist.'
I am no longer human.
I feel no fear, anger, or sorrow about it.
I feel no joy or relief that the people on the rooftop are safe.
I feel nothing.
I cannot move.
I am just a formless lump.
Therefore, Kim Soleum does not exist.
* * *
Agent Haegum looked at the melted lump of flesh before her.
The thing that had been 'Agent Grapes.'
The agent who had charged at Gwang-cheol had now lost his form.
Only a lump remained.
From the heap of black-contaminated, golden-tinged red flesh and bone, Black Smoke rose every time the flesh pulsed.
That bizarre and strange puddle.
…Nowhere in it was there a trace of the person who had been a new employee at Daydream, the youngest agent of Team Hyumoo 1….
Only the suit and mask tangled beneath it seemed to prove that, until just moments ago, this had been a person.
Agent Haegum felt her breath catch in her throat, but she managed to suppress it.
"Agent Choi."
"..."
"From this point on, Agent Grapes is… redefined as a completely contaminated state, a ghost story entity."
Agent Haegum's cracked voice echoed across the rainy rooftop.
"Using Goblin Fire… we will first isolate 'Agent Grapes' and move him to a safe location."
"..."
"Right now… wait, there!"
Squelch.
Section Chief Lee Jaheon detached the tank from the broken Potion Maker and began scooping Kim Soleum's mangled flesh into it.
Agent Haegum, who had opened her mouth to stop him, soon closed it with a grim expression.
Because she understood.
She understood the feelings of someone who had been on the same team.
Squelch.
Having succeeded in putting the entire lump into the tank, Section Chief Lee Jaheon quietly asked the tank.
As if he believed it could converse.
"Do you need help? Indicate with smoke."
The lump only pulsed.
Still, Section Chief Lee Jaheon moved.
He searched Kim Soleum's jacket and found the Nostalgia Candy.
Then he reached into the tank, rummaging through the collapsed lump, found the digestive organs, and pushed the Nostalgia Candy into them.
The candy dissolved in an instant.
Nothing happened.
"..."
"..."
"…Agent Grapes."
These veterans, who had explored ghost stories many times, understood….
He could not be restored.
That it was a complete transformation into an irreversible state, and that all possibilities had already been exhausted.
Clatter, clatter… thud.
The empty Dream Collector, which had been rolling across the rooftop in the rain and wind, brushed past the tank and came to rest at someone's feet.
Agent Choi picked up the empty cylinder at his feet.
The thing Kim Soleum had so desperately brought with him, The Dream Collector.
"..."
Agent Choi clenched it tightly.
And he spoke to the lump.
"Yeah… you were trying to collect the solution in here, huh? To make a Wish-Granting Potion. To go back home."
....
"Soleum, I've been thinking about it for a while."
Blood streamed his face, but he didn't wipe it away. He just stared at the empty cylinder in his hand.
"You said it, didn't you? 'This situation itself, this place is a ghost story and a Supernatural Disaster to me'… you said that."
Raindrops fall into the Black Smoke in the tank.
"Why would you say something like that?"
Lightning flashed.
In the rain, the agent spoke to the lump.
"You know… when we get a rescue request from a Disaster? There are quite a few cases where a ghost story is just messing with us, you know?"
"..."
"No, actually, you should assume that's the more likely case. It's rare for a Civilian to make a rescue request in their right mind."
A drop of water slid from his hair.
"It's either a trap… or it's already too late."
....
"But sometimes… sometimes, there are cases where you can really save them."
His head bowed.
"A moment when it really was a Civilian, and you had to believe their words."
....
"You have to be good at telling those people apart, and no, even if you can't, you have to try to send them back if you get the chance."
....
"Yeah, that seems right."
The agent looks at Kim Soleum.
He tried to look.
"So, I think..."
The man in the blue jacket reached into his pocket.
And he took something out.
An object that looks similar to the one Kim Soleum had.
A Dream Collector.
"Here."
A golden light shimmered inside it.
Collected by a person who went through the Flower Golden Resort, the Segwang Metropolitan City Annihilation-class Ghost Story, and Chasing Ggwangcheol away.
"You have to go home. …Soleum-ah."[1]
The Dream Essence Liquid.
[1] I have probably missed the -ah in many of Choi’s dialogues…