Chapter 4
The Fixer Gallery's head mod is an incredible person.
Maybe they keep an eye on me all day, because the instant I break a rule, they kick me off the gallery.
As a result, I get tracked down and banned every day.
Whenever that happens, I ask Gode, the internet phantom and the head mod's nemesis who knows the answer to anything, to get me a new account so I can goof off on the gallery again.
[GOD : I'll make you another account at midnight tonight]
[GOD : Your IP got exposed, so I think I'll have to set up a new route around it]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : You absolute god]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : Damn, I didn't see the IP exposure coming]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : I thought the protection app was invincible!]
[GOD : I told you any program can run into errors at any time…]
[GOD : And why not just browse the gallery normally without getting banned?]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : I'm out here riling up those piece-of-trash fixers, and the head mod keeps banning me]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : Is the head mod actually taking money from the fixers or something?! Was it true they get paid 500 credits a month!?]
[GOD : No, the head mod got 1,216 credits last month]
[GOD : They also get 1,000 Contribution Points every month]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : ?]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : Wait, that's a ton. Maybe I should be head mod too]
[GOD : You idiot, that's only for the Fixer Gallery]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : Just being head mod gets you into downtown automaticallyyyyy!]
[GOD : As if they'd let an anomaly be head mod of the Fixer Gallery]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : Ah]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : …Anyway, that thing I asked you about before is still downtown, right?]
[GOD : Yeah, it's doing fine]
[GOD : It doesn't have legs, so it's not going anywhere. Don't worry]
[Anomaly Living Its Best Life : Then we're good]
But today, of all days, Gode's anonymity app crashed while I was posting an ad, and my IP got exposed.
So I followed Woo Cheonyeop outside without putting up a fight.
I couldn't even browse the gallery anyway, so I thought maybe something interesting would happen if I went out.
“Oh, I'm so sorry!”
“…”
“Um… there's a 1-Minute Laundry nearby. How about taking it there? I'll cover the cost. I'm really sorry.”
And something like that actually did happen.
It happened when Woo Cheonyeop's suit got stained with coffee, and we headed for the crowded 1-Minute Laundry.
As I stood there in a daze, something flew over and stuck into the back of my neck.
It was a Sephira-based substance said to knock even a giant monster unconscious with one shot.
It was a sedative extracted from anomalies, effective against most anomalies that take the form of living creatures, especially monsters.
But my body was completely immune to foreign substances.
At least, as long as I hadn't willingly swallowed them.
My immune system was astonishingly precise. Like a water jet, it sent foreign substances right back where they came from, and in the process, a drop of my own blood went along with them.
I call this little thing a “Bell.”
Like a bell on a cat, it tells me where the other person is.
It actually has a few other functions, but to mention the one that just activated….
“Wow, the Team Leader was right. Someone really did attack me. Unbelievable.”
Just like this woman who fired a sleep dart at me, any living thing that touches the Bell is guaranteed to pass out.
For most humans, the default is that they die as soon as I attack. But I can't cause trouble in the city, so I set it to the weakest setting possible.
“…Didn't you say your ability was vampirism?”
“If I remotely control blood and drink it, I guess that's still vampirism… Eek.”
Startled, I hunched my shoulders and turned around. Woo Cheonyeop was standing there.
I knew he was pretty fast, but this fast?
He'd closed in almost as quickly as I can move by swapping places with the Bell.
I only meant to take a look at his face before heading straight back. I didn't expect him to catch up so quickly.
“Setting aside remote vampirism, how did you find the sniper's location?”
“Well~ I got attacked, so it happened automatically~.”
“We'll have a lot to talk about when we get back.”
I was flustered.
I didn't have the power to see the future, but I could see what was coming.
Wow, I'm totally getting kicked out for being unsafe, aren't I? 200% chance.
No way. My happy shut-in gallery life… is going to disappear?
“I invoke my right to remain silent!”
Woo Cheonyeop pointed a finger at my neck.
Disobey an order and you'll be expelled from the city immediately.
No!
After all the time I spent goofing off—or, no, holding out—for half a year!
“I'll tell you….”
“I'll judge objectively, so don't hide anything. Tell me everything later.”
Looking miserable, I mimed slitting my own throat.
“But according to the rules, if an anomaly attacks a human, doesn't it get expelled immediately—or, you know, killed?”
“Did you attack them?”
“No, I just knocked them out in self-defense….”
“Anomalies aren't protected under self-defense. But if there's no physical injury, it should be fine.”
Does the tiny hole where the Bell pierced the skin count as an injury?
What's the right answer, Team Leader?
“…No, actually, I can't be sure yet either. We can discuss it after we've dealt with these people.”
What am I supposed to do if even you aren't sure, Team Leader?
…My anomaly life is over!
* * *
Before long, the three members of the Cheong Clan Alliance gathered in a secluded corner of an abandoned building.
Since they could easily catch them if they ran, Woo Cheonyeop began questioning them without bothering to tie them up.
Perhaps because the Management Bureau was a government agency, Woo Cheonyeop naturally took the lead in the conversation.
“So, you're saying the anomaly accompanying me obstructed your work? You happened to find them, detained them, and tried to get a confession.”
“Yes! Take a look at this. They posted a doctored photo as if it were real, and citizens who believed it came over and obstructed our work for half a day.”
Their reputation must've been awful for a single photo to cause all that.
Now that I think about it, they screwed up and then tried to pin the whole thing on me!
And they call themselves fixers.
I muttered directly into the terminal connected to Woo Cheonyeop.
“That's all bullshit. They really did sell the equipment. The photo I posted is definitely legit—I got it from Gode.”
Before the questioning started, Woo Cheonyeop had said:
“Hide somewhere, listen in, and tell me everything that sounds suspicious.”
My peaceful life as an anomaly was about to end, so I was desperate.
I had no idea whether the fact that my information came from Gode, who was on the Management Bureau's blacklist, would work in my favor or against me.
I just had to blurt it out and hope for the best.
Woo Cheonyeop glanced at the wooden crate I was hiding in, then asked the Cheong Clan Alliance:
“…Is that all?”
“What do you mean, that's all? We worked our tails off calming down the citizens.”
“Even if citizens know very little about fixers, there's no reason they'd all come swarming over like that. Have you considered that your usual reputation might be the problem?”
The man who seemed to be the Cheong Clan Alliance's leader trembled with anger and shouted:
“Team Leader Woo… Are we supposed to take what you just said to mean you believe an anomaly over us?! Humans should help each other! Why are you defending an anomaly that's no use to humans and does nothing but stir up trouble on the gallery?”
What ridiculous black-and-white logic.
But in this day and age, that sort of thing worked surprisingly well.
People even said that when you're losing an argument, you should start by asking, “Are you an anomaly collaborator?”
The Cheong Clan Alliance leader was trying to corner Woo Cheonyeop with a little trick of his own.
“No use, you say?”
“It's a Hesed, isn't it? An anomaly that just eats up food.”
But they'd underestimated Team Leader Woo.
Even I, after living through countless ages, am overwhelmed by his silver tongue.
The Cheong Clan Alliance made a mistake the moment they thought they could win an argument against him.
“How did you know that? Information on an anomaly in isolation is classified. Someone must have leaked it, right?”
“…!”
The Cheong Clan Alliance leader finally realized his mistake and looked away.
His scarred hand clenched tight.
Woo Cheonyeop didn't miss the signal.
“An internal investigation will catch whoever leaked the classified information soon enough. But after what you just said, you won't be able to avoid suspicion of leaking state secrets either.”
For a while, the only sound filling the space was water dripping through a hole in the ceiling….
The two others exchanged glances and nodded to each other, then whispered something to their leader.
They were acting suspiciously, like they were about to try something.
Strong guys always try to settle things with force when they don't get their way.
I tossed Bells at all three of them without hesitation.
It didn't take long for them to react.
“I'm sorry!”
“If only you'd keep your mouth shut…!”
Just as the three of them drew their weapons and aimed them at Woo Cheonyeop in unison,
I used the Bells I'd planted to restrict blood flow to their brains.
The three of them staggered, suffering a moment of dizziness and blindness.
Woo Cheonyeop disarmed them in an instant.
As if he'd expected me to do just that.
The gun parts and magazines came apart and scattered across the floor.
Holy crap, he's fast. I can barely see his hands.
Before long, a crowd of heavily armed people wearing black gloves rushed in and took them away….
Only then did Woo Cheonyeop approach me where I was hiding.
Without telling me to come out, he said:
“I'll tell you what I've figured out. Just answer whether I'm right or wrong.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Besides drinking blood by physically using your mouth, can you do it remotely?”
“Yes….”
“And you haven't drunk blood even once since coming to Earth.”
“Yes!! I've never drunk human blood!!”
“You can remotely control blood, not just drink it?”
“Yes….”
“So the sniper passing out and those three staggering just now were both because of that.”
The last part sounded like he was talking to himself, so I didn't answer.
I guess all that was left now was to wait to be expelled—.
“Try it on me too.”
“Heh… I guess I'm being released back into the wild after all… Huh?”
“Try knocking me unconscious too.”
“What? Why? I mean, if I attack you, I'll be expelled immediately….”
Beep.
The light on my choker, which had been blinking periodically, went out.
The immediate expulsion function had been temporarily disabled.
“Is it safe now? Go ahead and try to knock me out.”
“Uh, um… damn it, I don't know!”
I had no choice. Just like I'd done to the Cheong Clan Alliance, I scattered Bells and manipulated Woo Cheonyeop's blood flow to try to knock him out, but—
“Ah. So this is what it feels like.”
“?”
Woo Cheonyeop was perfectly fine.
What? Did my power not work properly?
‘No, it did. I definitely felt it.’
Did he come to his senses as soon as he passed out?
Is he really not human?
Aaaah! It's an anomaly!
“Why didn't you tell me you had this ability from the start?”
“Well…. I thought an anomaly with a strong attack might seem threatening…. You only let safe Sephira into the city….”
“That depends on the anomaly. In the first place, anomalies who can communicate as well as you are rare cases. The Management Bureau's policy is to isolate and observe them without exception.”
“Even if you can talk, we can't trust you…? Half a year ago, you said some of the anomalies who approached us first had done bad things….”
“That was a lie.”
Wait, a lie?
“I was testing you. Do you really think an anomaly would approach people by deceiving them like that?”
“I-I guess it could go either way~.”
“An anomaly would try to induce a mental breakdown or brainwash people instead. That's an extremely human way of doing things, and you reacted as if you felt guilty about the story.”
“I-is that so?”
“I hate to admit it, but sometimes you're more human than humans, to an irritating degree.”
I was drooling with a vacant expression, and he gave a dry laugh before speaking.
“Well, setting that aside, there's something important we need to talk about.”
“Oh, right.”
“The current director of the isolation facility will be removed from their position. They've committed a serious crime, so they'll be punished severely under city law.”
“Huh? Was the director the one who leaked my information?”
“Only the director and I had access in the first place. Your information was restricted because you're a special case.”
Holy crap, that fat bastard.
I never would've guessed. He sold me out?
A leak of classified information by an agency employee is probably punishable by death. Serves him right.
“The problem is, that means we have to let you leave the isolation facility too.”
“What? Why? The director's the one getting kicked out!”
“There won't be anyone to look after you while the isolation facility is being thoroughly investigated.”
“But you're the one looking after me, Team Leader. You're not involved in the investigation, are you?”
“I'm the one in charge of it.”
I couldn't help poking my head out of the wooden crate.
There wasn't the slightest hint of a joke in Woo Cheonyeop's expression.
As always, he was completely serious.
“Wait, so you were actually with the Buksabu (辟邪府), not the Management Bureau~? Were you a Buksabu officer?”
“You're remarkably perceptive about that sort of thing. Actually, I was busy with other work, so I slept through half the time I was supposed to be watching you.”
The Buksabu?
That special task force people on the gallery only ever talked about as an urban legend?
The organization that follows every order from the Five-Person Council, Seoul's leadership, and beats the hell out of anyone or anything—anomaly or human—that gets in the way of the city's survival? It was real?
“Wait, this is actually real…?”
So this is where my best life ends.
Why would the Buksabu reveal their identity?
If no one who knows the secret is left alive, the secret stays safe!
So they weren't going to expel me. They were going to dispose of me. That's why he never said I would be expelled.
‘No…!’
Even if he decided to dispose of me, I wouldn't die—but I still didn't want to face him head-on.
All the effort I put into making him think I was a harmless anomaly would go to waste.
As I stared in shock with both hands covering my face, Woo Cheonyeop continued:
“So, until all this is sorted out, how about staying at a fixer office?”