As we stared at the tightly sealed entrance, Oh Minhyuk stepped forward and held out his hand.
"I'll break through the entrance."
Whoosh, a massive flame appeared before our eyes. It burned fiercely enough that we could feel the searing heat.
Then the flame compressed into a single point. The forcibly condensed fire grew smaller in size, but its raging motion became far more intense.
"Back."
As Han Sehee and I retreated, the exploding inferno incinerated all the flesh blocking the door. The entrance was blown wide open, and the remaining scraps of flesh around it were charred black.
"Damn, that's refreshing."
Without anyone needing to say it, we stepped through the entrance.
"It's dark."
With the exterior covered in those disgusting things, the interior couldn't help but be dark.
At the very least, it would have been nice to have brought a flashlight in our inventory. We had been thrown straight into cleanup the moment we met Yoo Sangcheol, with no time to prepare.
"I'll light it up."
Oh Minhyuk created several small flames, illuminating the surroundings.
"Is it because the contamination level is low? This seems more manageable than expected."
Han Sehee said in a slightly softened tone. It wasn't just her. Oh Minhyuk and I also felt our tension ease.
The mucus creatures in this contaminated zone were weaker than expected, and Oh Minhyuk possessed far greater power than I had anticipated.
"I'm not sure if Han Sehee's ability will work."
"We won't know until we try… damn it, even saying that is scary."
With a sloshing sound, the mucus creatures were approaching us once again. It was hard to count them all, but there had to be dozens.
Then, slowly, Han Sehee drew in a breath. In that instant, white smoke-like wisps flowed out from the mucus creatures and were sucked into Han Sehee's mouth.
"Oh, it works!"
The mucus creatures stopped and quivered as if they had lost their purpose. They were completely out of it now.
That made things easy. Without exchanging any signals, Oh Minhyuk and I launched our attack.
A wave of flames swept over the mucus creatures. Those that still writhed afterward were pierced by the bullets I fired.
"Ah, wait a second."
There was one more thing I needed to do. I pulled out a specimen bottle from my inventory and collected the scattered remnants of the mucus from the floor, storing them away.
"Now let's move again."
With the specimens secured, there was nothing holding us back. We rapidly erased the monsters while continuing to search for anything suspicious.
♩♪♬♩♬
"Do you hear that sound?"
I heard it clearly. Singing. It didn't seem like a human voice, but the melody and rhythm were distinct. And just listening to it carried an eerie feeling, as if it were slowly grinding away at the human mind.
Any sane civilian wouldn't head toward a place emitting such ominous sounds. It was practically advertising danger.
But we weren't civilians.
"It sounds like it's coming from underground."
School basements usually have large public parking lots. It was a policy implemented long ago to provide parking space for citizens, and nowadays it's become commonplace.
We slowly made our way underground.
The underground parking lot had transformed into a space where massive, white bones rose like pillars, arranged as if in worship. A low, throbbing heartbeat echoed throughout.
Wriggling veins stretched out like a carpet laid before a king's audience chamber.
At the end of that carpet, wrapped in a thin membrane and submerged in liquid, was a single horrific form resembling a fetus.
— Ah, uh…
And beside that membrane stood something shaped like a woman.
Both eyes were sewn shut with veins used like thread, and countless arms sprouted from her back like a peacock's feathers.
A vertically split mouth opened and closed repeatedly, and a purple tongue split into three writhed.
From her abdomen protruded something like intestines, connecting to the membrane encasing the fetus-like thing. What was it, the fetus's mother or something?
— Wh, o… are… you?
We flinched at the sound of that voice. Was it speaking human language? While everyone stood frozen in dread.
One of the arms spread across her back grabbed its own neck.
With a crunching sound, something was torn free and clenched in its hand. Then another hand shoved itself back into the torn neck.
— Eun… hee. Please save me.
"Holy shit, those are human vocal cords!"
Han Sehee shouted as she realized it too late.
The countless arms spread across that monster's back were each holding human vocal cords.
What the hell, was it using human vocal cords like a recording device? With a crunching sound, the multitude of arms on the monster's back began to move.
"..."
Was there any reason to stand there watching that? None. I switched the selector to automatic and pulled the trigger.
With successive gunshots, explosive rounds scattered and blew apart its arms.
Military gear really was something else. Long live the mighty Republic of Korea Army.
— Aaaaaaaah! Aah! Aah! Uaaaaaaaahhhgagagak!
At that moment, the fetus-shaped monster wrapped in the membrane let out a scream. In an instant, my vision was washed white and the mind controlling my body went numb.
"Ku… guh."
The baby's cry smashed into our minds. Strength drained from my entire body.
And then, the countless arms lunged at us.
"Hh… uh…"
At that moment, white smoke poured out from the screaming fetus and was sucked into Han Sehee's mouth.
With its concentration completely drained, the fetus stopped crying, and I regained control of my body.
"Well done!"
I shouted that and immediately opened fire again at the lunging arms.
Arms burst apart without pause. Han Sehee continued breathing rhythmically, siphoning away the fetus monster's focus.
I held back the surging arms with automatic fire, while Han Sehee blocked the fetus's cries.
And we still had one more person.
"Mister, run back!"
Oh Minhyuk shouted at me. The moment I heard it, I threw myself backward. A mass of flames the size of a midsize car engulfed the arm-covered monster's body.
A massive explosion of fire swallowed both the many-armed monster and the fetus monster.
"Ugh… aah."
"Got them."
The shockwave from the explosion washed over me. Han Sehee caught me as I was sent flying.
"Are you okay? How many fingers is this?"
After setting me down, Han Sehee held up a V sign with her fingers in front of me.
"Twenty?"
At my answer, Han Sehee chuckled softly and looked toward the site of the explosion in awe.
"Leaving the big finishing blow to that kid seems perfect."
"That was insane."
Two blackened lumps of charcoal lay there. One was huge, the other small.
They were the monsters we had been fighting just moments ago.
"Hegh… khegh…"
"Hey! You okay?"
The condition of Oh Minhyuk, who had created that result, didn't look good. Every time he opened his mouth to breathe, intense heat shimmer poured out.
Did using excessive power raise his body temperature? Oh Minhyuk stayed hunched over, one hand raised as he kept gasping for breath.
"It's over… right?"
Once he seemed to calm down a bit, Oh Minhyuk asked Han Sehee and me.
"Yeah. What we fought just now was the contamination source."
I pointed to a swirling black hole that had appeared in midair.
"A real drain shows up."
Han Sehee muttered.
A drain. A black vortex that appears when you successfully destroy the contamination source.
The remnants of the monsters scattered on the ground, along with the charred debris, floated up and began to be sucked into that drain.
That was the reason it was impossible to collect samples from a contaminated zone. Once the contamination source was eliminated, everything composing the zone ignored distance limits and got sucked into that hole.
"It's really… over."
I nodded with a weary expression.
"Everyone did great."
We had successfully completed our first cleanup. In our own way, we had each fulfilled our roles.
Without me, we wouldn't have been able to hold back the countless arms.
Without Han Sehee, we would have been overwhelmed by the fetus's cries and had our vocal cords torn out.
And Oh Minhyuk had delivered the finishing blow.
"Now I get why so many sanitation workers are heavy drinkers…"
Han Sehee said as she ran a hand through her hair. After something like this, craving a drink made sense.
"Let's go back."
The cleanup was over. Though our bodies were tired, we headed toward Yoo Sangcheol with lighter steps.
At this level, wasn't it reasonable to expect some praise? Thinking that.
And then.
What we saw was…
"Very well done. Truly excellent."
Behind Yoo Sangcheol stood more than twenty high school students, pale and trembling.
Clap, clap, clap. The sound of perfunctory applause struck our ears.
"Who cares about a few human lives? People are overflowing in this world anyway, right? A very cold, rational judgment. Keep doing that. From now on as well."
And we weren't stupid enough to hear that as praise.
"But… whether there were survivors…"
Han Sehee stammered. Yoo Sangcheol immediately pointed at me and said.
"When the gunshots rang out, they sent up smoke from the fourth floor, asking to be rescued. Smoke was flowing out between the masses of flesh. Well, maybe there was a delinquent student sneaking a cigarette."
And we had entered the school without ever seeing that.
"I'm sorry. We didn't notice it."
Oh Minhyuk said with a flustered expression.
"Oh, so you did think about rescuing survivors at least?"
No one could answer Yoo Sangcheol's follow-up question.
Rescuing survivors.
We had completely forgotten about it.
"When I headed to the fourth floor after seeing the smoke, the mucus creatures were just about to break through."
If Yoo Sangcheol hadn't moved, those kids would all have died while we were fixated on eliminating the contamination source.
What excuse could we possibly make?
Even as we stood in silence, the shattered mucus and the flesh that had covered the building were being sucked at high speed into the drain formed underground.
Finally, the pitch-black wall that had enveloped the contaminated zone shattered into pieces and was pulled in as well…
A clear blue sky was revealed. Yoo Sangcheol stared at the sky for a moment before speaking.
"The reason I followed you was to prevent and clean up the irreversible mistakes you're still capable of making because you're inexperienced."
Just like this situation, where survivor rescue was ignored.
"If circumstances don't allow it, there's nothing you can do. But if you can save them, you should."
In this situation, it was absolutely possible to prioritize rescuing survivors. There had been a distress signal, and the monsters in the contaminated zone hadn't been that threatening.
If we hadn't erased the goal of rescuing survivors from our minds, we could have saved them first and then dealt with the contamination source.
"It's your first time, so I won't chew you out any more. But eventually, you'll shed the trainee label. I hope today's incident serves as a lesson."
As he said that, Yoo Sangcheol didn't reprimand us any further.
"Check the accommodations sent to your phones and head back to rest. Be careful not to go farther than one hour's distance from your lodging."
The contamination source had been dealt with.
But without Yoo Sangcheol, even the high school students who could have survived would have all died.
I lost you to a contaminated zone, so I curse contaminated zones and burn with hatred toward those who failed to save you.
But today, I almost committed the same kind of death with my own hands.
"…Fuck."
Today's incident became a clear lesson for me.
"Oh, right."
After being dazed for a long while, something suddenly came to mind and I snapped back to my senses. The specimen bottle.
Regretting a mistake already made was fine, but… let's do what needs to be done.
I reached into my inventory.
Inside the specimen bottle was the lump of mucus I had collected.
At the very least, I now had something to say to Woo Gil-young.