The CEO's office of Generos.
Jin Seo-yeon ran a hand through her hair and let out a low groan.
What she was looking at was Instagram.
It wasn't that any unpleasant comments or messages had come in.
It was just... something felt off.
'Why hasn't a single thing been posted?'
Currently, Generos had advertising and promotional contracts with a total of eleven influencers.
Seven of their Instagram accounts had been silent for three days now.
Under normal circumstances, if it were just one or two, she would have assumed they were running a bit late and waited.
If it were just the Generos contract posts that weren't going up, she would have thought there was some kind of misunderstanding and contacted them.
But seven people all disappearing at once, as if they had made a pact?
People who posted at least a dozen stories a day?
No matter how she thought about it, it was strange.
'And they're not answering their calls either.'
She had tried contacting them directly, but there was no response.
When she asked their acquaintances, all she got was that they didn't know.
Knock, knock.
"CEO. It's the PR director."
"Yes, come in."
Moon Joo-hyun entered the CEO's office and gave a slight bow.
Jin Seo-yeon had asked Moon Joo-hyun at yesterday morning's meeting to look into the surroundings of the missing influencers.
"I wasn't able to find out where they went or why they went silent. However, I did hear something a bit concerning."
Moon Joo-hyun searched for something and handed over a tablet.
Jin Seo-yeon took it and furrowed her brow.
"Cheonil Church...? Isn't that the cult that was in the news?"
"Yes, that's right. It died down quickly, probably because they made a move. But the families and acquaintances of the missing influencers mentioned Cheonil Church. They said that at some point, the influencers started talking about going to religious gatherings, and then their contact gradually became less frequent."
"They've been out of contact for three days, and no one reported it?"
"All the missing influencers lived alone. After they started going to the religious gatherings, there were times they were out of contact for three or four days, sometimes even a week, so everyone just assumed it was the same this time."
"But it's the first time nothing has been posted on Instagram."
"Yes. When I told the families that, they were surprised too. They said their child never put down their phone and posted on Instagram wherever they went, so it didn't make sense. And one more thing. They said there was an influencer the missing ones became close with around the time they started attending the religious gatherings. It's someone you know, CEO."
Park Ji-hyun.
Jin Seo-yeon stared at the name.
A friend she used to be quite close with, but who had drifted away at some point.
Seeing the name brought back a memory she had forgotten.
She had definitely asked Jin Seo-yeon to study the word of some god.
As soon as she refused, the contact stopped, as if they had never been close.
"Are there any influencers who aren't under contract with Generos who have also disappeared?"
Moon Joo-hyun shook her head.
"From what we've confirmed so far, it's only those connected to Generos."
Jin Seo-yeon leaned back in her chair.
Of all people, it had to be only those under contract with Generos who were disappearing.
She felt an inexplicable unease.
"What about the police?"
"They said they'd look into it, but they didn't seem to take it very seriously. It's only been three days since an adult went missing."
"...I see."
Jin Seo-yeon tapped her fingers for a moment, then stood up.
"CEO?"
"I have a hunch about something. I'll go check it out for a bit. Director, please look into it a little more within your means."
"Understood."
She let out a sigh as she left the CEO's office.
She could only hope.
That this wasn't an arrow of twisted jealousy or revenge gone astray.
* * *
Incheon, West Sea, Baekya Island.
Jin-hyuk and his friends sat in a circle, rubbing their chins.
In the center lay the seed brought from the crater of the Mythical Tower.
"How about we just plant it right now!!"
"Hey, Momo-dari! You dug it up five minutes ago and planted it again, did you forget already?!"
"No! I'm planting it better this time!"
"How, exactly?"
Momo, with a deadly serious face, extended a chubby finger.
"First, we go to the owner's house and kidnap Torong-jwa! He's a total expert at planting and growing things!"
Twitch!?
"Momo-dari! What did you eat that's making you talk nonsense?! That's the most plausible plan I've heard so far!"
"How's Momo's systematic plan?!"
Momo puffed up with pride, shrugging his shoulders, while Kancho packed a butterfly net, ready to go kidnap Torong-jwa right away.
It had been a while since his last appearance, after the Toto grandfather chase.
Elia, sitting nearby, clicked her tongue.
"Chubby, you'll end up in hell if you just go around kidnapping people like that. Owner, please give him a lecture..."
"Kancho. Shouldn't we also bring a bamboo fishing rod? Just in case Torong-jwa tries to escape."
"As expected from the Commander-in-Chief! We don't allow even the smallest exceptions!"
Cold sweat dripped down Elia's back.
She had forgotten for a moment.
That the complete form of the Kancho-Momo duo was the Jin-Kancho-Momo trio.
Kancho lifted the fishing rod.
"I'll temporarily release Nia, who was hung up... Huh!?"
For some reason.
Kancho's twitching ears were moving erratically.
Carefully, she placed a hand on his fluffy shoulder.
"Kancho, where's Nia?"
After a moment of full-brain processing, Kancho suddenly ran off somewhere.
Not long after, he returned with Nia, wrapped tightly in seaweed.
"I hung her up to dry when I went into the sea, but I forgot!"
"Take better care of her. What if she floats all the way to the Atlantic Ocean?"
"If you just leave her, she'll go that far?!"
Jin-hyuk swallowed dryly.
They looked like they might actually do it one day.
"Elia, what do you think? Can we use this seed right away?"
"I've never seen this type of seed before, so it's not easy."
Elia, who had been tapping the seed like a watermelon, continued.
"I've seen and studied quite a few types in my life, but this is a first. For one thing, I don't think it's a naturally occurring seed. It doesn't have any of the things a plant should normally have."
A seed made by an unknown lord.
It was certainly far from ordinary.
Ding.
He looked down at his phone.
Compression ticket secured. I'll send someone to your Seopangyo house now.
He was going to go pick it up, but they were even delivering it.
Cheonil Church certainly had excellent customer service.
"Momo, can you get me a full-body raincoat? I'm going to Seopangyo."
"The owner, walking right into the frog covered in slime! What a sight!!"
"Momo, do you want to come too?"
"Absolutely not! I'll get the raincoat right away!"
Afraid of being taken along, Momo scurried off to get the raincoat.
Jin-hyuk gave a thumbs-up and then walked towards the frog.
"Commander-in-Chief! Where should we hang Torong-jwa after we kidnap him?!"
"Don't bully Torong-jwa. Just wait."
He fiddled with his twitching ears and looked at the seed.
"Let's just do what the gatekeepers said."
Mad and Od had described the situation like this.
The lord Kan Barzali appeared from the sky and tossed the seed into a dense forest.
Then, from where the trees had been, beings were born that slaughtered the Lumends.
'And the monsters on the 91st floor are the corrupted World Tree.'
Let's just toss it.
If it doesn't work, there's nothing we can do.
He walked and zipped up the raincoat.
"Owner! You don't need to give Momo's raincoat back! Just burn it right away!"
"Uh, okay."
Even Momo, who was all about material greed, seemed to hate the slime-covered raincoat.
After taking a deep breath, he stepped into the frog.
Ptoo!!
As always, the frog friend spat him out roughly.
From his perspective, I was a foreign object, so I could understand a bit.
He rolled out into the garden and lay there for a moment.
Eun Gang-seok, wearing an eye patch, came into view.
"Is this some kind of déjà vu? I think you were in this state last time too."
"Today is a bit better. I came wearing a raincoat."
He was about to take it off and throw it away, as Momo had suggested, but he stopped.
Come to think of it, he hadn't brought anything to wear on the way back.
He'd just go back in wearing this.
"I came to pick something up."
"Oh! Then I'll be upstairs, so call me if you need anything."
"You're working hard."
"Not at all."
Eun Gang-seok smiled brightly and slipped into a tent set up in the garden.
He had almost no equipment; it was practically homelessness.
It wasn't an empty compliment; he really was working hard.
Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.
Enjoying the unpleasant stickiness, he walked towards the front door.
Soon, a car stopped in front of the gate.
It was the same man who had come with Min So-yul last time.
"It looks like the Chairman didn't come."
"Yes. He was busy, so I came instead."
Jin-hyuk narrowed his eyes.
He was too busy to come?
The man who knew the slime inside him was a bomb?
"Is that so? That's surprising. The Chairman must have something he needs to receive too."
The conditions he had set for removing the slime were the current floor compression ticket and support for Cheonil Church's god in conquering the Tower of Despair.
He had just received the compression ticket, fulfilling these two conditions, but the Chairman hadn't come.
It sounded like he had something more urgent than removing the bomb from his own body.
"I understand. I'll use the compression ticket well."
"Yes. Then I'll be off."
After receiving the box, Jin-hyuk tore the sleeve of his raincoat.
Slap.
Then, using the stickiness of the slime, he attached it to the man's back.
Mo Hwang's unique trait, 'The hand is quicker than the eye.' It always came in handy in situations like this.
After confirming the car had left, he walked back to the frog.
Squelch. Squelch. Squelch.
"Gang-seok-ssi."
Eun Gang-seok poked his head out as the zipper came down.
"Yes."
"It's not certain yet, but I have a feeling that Cheonil Church is going to do something suspicious."
"If it's Jin-hyuk-ssi's intuition, then of course we need to check it out."
Jin-hyuk tore a bit more of the raincoat and attached the Yodel Compass he had taken from his pocket to it.
Then he handed it to Eun Gang-seok.
"This shows direction and distance. Please let Team Leader Jin Yun-ho know too. I think if you follow this, you might find something."
"It's a cute-looking compass."
Eun Gang-seok reached out for the Yodel Compass.
Tremble, tremble, tremble.
Eun Gang-seok subtly looked up.
Wasn't he holding it out for him to take?
Why wasn't he letting go, and why was he holding on so tightly?
"Jin-hyuk-ssi?"
"Ah, I'm sorry. This is a really, really, really, really precious compass."
Eun Gang-seok swallowed dryly at the immense earnestness.
"I-I'll make sure to take good care of it."
"Yes, please... pleaeeeease take care of it."
Jin-hyuk finally let go of the compass as if he were sending off his own child.
"Well, I'm off to conquer the Tower of Despair."
"Yes. Take care, Jin-hyuk-ssi."
Even as he entered the frog, Jin-hyuk kept stepping backward, unable to take his eyes off the compass.
He really had to take good care of it and return it.
Because if even a scratch appeared on the compass, he felt like he would cry.
Swoosh.
And so, Jin-hyuk disappeared into the frog.
Stretching, Eun Gang-seok examined the compass.
It was a good thing, since he was getting bored anyway.
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T/N:
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