My awakening was far from a welcome event.
The sky was dark, and both the Team Leader and Choi Seong-min’s family slept soundly, seemingly undisturbed.
Yet, a faint sense of déjà vu was enough to prickle my senses, setting my every nerve on edge.
Though all I could perceive was an endless grassland bathed in the pale glow of the moon, I knew I should, in reality, be inside a house.
And yet, a breeze stirred.
The Team Leader had explicitly stated that all windows and doors were secured, yet an inexplicable chill relentlessly assailed me.
This was undeniably anomalous.
Especially considering the urban legends were running rampant outside.
But for something to have happened, it was far too quiet.
Before, only the sounds of destruction could be heard, but now, even that had ceased.
Could it truly be this silent?
Hadn’t the response team been clashing with the urban legends just before I fell asleep?
I focused my gaze on what had been Choi Seong-min’s Mother.
The doll that had been circling her was gone without a trace, and beneath where it had been, dozens of mutilated corpses lay strewn.
Given that countless people had exploded earlier, the presence of corpses was not surprising.
However, mutilated corpses should not exist.
Something had gone terribly, catastrophically wrong.
I needed to escape from here immediately.
“Everyone, wake up quickly!”
“Mmm… Uncle, what’s wrong?”
Yu-na was the first to stir, then slowly rose.
And then came the next voice.
“Good children should go to bed early, shouldn’t they?”
Ha.
How I wished that voice had come from any other monster.
Unfortunately, it was the Team Leader’s voice.
The aura emanating from him felt distinctly different, as if another entity had taken possession of his body.
“It’s time for bed now!”
“Yu-na! You need to sleep early to grow into a healthy adult!”
Then, one after another, Choi Seong-min and his wife began to rise.
It was obvious they were not in their normal state.
“Mom? Dad?”
I couldn’t comprehend why only Yu-na remained unaffected, but my immediate course of action was clear.
“Yu-na! Climb onto my back!”
Yu-na’s attachment to her parents seemed profound, yet I couldn’t afford to wait for her to overcome it.
The chilling house, the vanished doll, the mutilated corpses, and the people possessed by something sinister.
Numerous pieces of evidence pointed to the gravity of the situation.
However, my deductive reasoning was not sharp enough to grasp the full extent of this predicament in such a short time.
After all, the Team Leader was always the one in charge of strategic thinking in our department.
While I could make a simple deduction—that something had infiltrated through an open window and was controlling people—it offered no explanation as to why Yu-na and I remained unscathed.
Recalling the house layout I had memorized, I swiftly exited the building.
With the response team likely defeated, there was no safe haven left.
My best course of action was to flee from the entity responsible for the mutilations until the Urban Legend Management Bureau found a solution.
Having learned my location with the Team Leader’s help earlier, I could navigate most places even without clear sight.
This was because I had roughly memorized the village’s geography.
****
It wasn’t long before I realized the source of the mutilations.
It was the dolls.
Suddenly appearing, these dolls, much like those from a horror film, clutched kitchen knives and pursued me with murderous intent.
Their speed wasn’t exceptional, but it certainly wasn’t slow either.
Had my vision been clear, I could have easily outrun them, but it was difficult when I was simultaneously dredging up memories and recalling the terrain in real-time.
Sweat streamed down my back, and it felt more than just damp.
Yu-na, I suspected, was crying.
‘What should I do?’
I couldn’t just keep running indefinitely.
My stamina was not limitless, and without the Team Leader, my endurance had its bounds.
The thought of fighting those dolls crossed my mind, but it would be the most foolish decision imaginable.
If the response team, specialized in suppressing urban legends, had all fallen, how could I possibly win?
‘Still, I have to try as long as I can.’
I kept running, greeted only by an unchanging landscape and fallen figures.
As I fled, finding solace only in the slowly shifting sky, a light gradually entered my vision, soon filling it entirely with a brightly glowing sunset.
In any other circumstance, I felt I could have watched it for hours.
As if sensing my thoughts and granting me time to admire the sunset, the dolls pursuing me collectively halted.
‘Despite their murderous intent, they’re surprisingly peaceful, giving way for a scenic view.
Perhaps they’re capable of such concessions after all.’
“It’s morning! Let’s do our morning exercises now!”
‘Well, that was clearly not the case.’
With the dolls’ sudden shout, the fallen people gradually began to rise.
Most appeared outwardly normal, yet some had half their bodies missing.
Judging by their eyes, they seemed to be in a similar state to the Team Leader and the Choi Seong-min couple.
Soon after, they, accompanied by the dolls, began to advance towards me.
Frankly, while the dolls might be a challenge, I could easily subdue the people.
However, seeing them move about normally even with half their bodies gone, it seemed I couldn’t simply kill them.
Besides, if I were to kill civilians like that, my position would become incredibly awkward after this crisis was resolved.
I simply subdued the approaching people and continued to flee.
‘This isn’t going to work.’
From every direction—front, back, left, and right—dolls and people surged towards me.
As if sensing my despair, familiar figures appeared in the distance.
It was the Team Leader and the Choi Seong-min couple.
They had come for Yu-na and me too.
Yu-na, having seen her parents, was staring intently in their direction.
“Yu-na, I’m sorry, but your parents…”
“Uncle! That card in that unnie’s (TL Note: A Korean term for an older sister or an older female friend, used by a younger female.) pocket!”
“Huh?”
“The shop is safe, isn’t it!”
I didn’t know how Yu-na had suddenly developed such keen judgment, but it was certainly safer than staying here.
The problem was that the exact nature of the shop’s urban legend was still unclear, but it was better than dying without trying anything.
Pushing past the other people, I sprinted towards the Team Leader.
It felt a bit disrespectful to say, but the Team Leader’s physical abilities were merely above average, not exceptional.
In other words, subduing him would pose no difficulty.
‘Team Leader, excuse me for a moment!’
“For a pleasant morning exercise—”
*CRASH!*
As I threw the Team Leader over my shoulder, I swiftly pulled out the business card from his pocket.
He was tough, so he probably wouldn’t die.
The shop was located about a ten-minute full-speed sprint from here.
The minor issue was that I hadn’t properly memorized the area around the shop, but I figured I could manage by feeling along the walls.
I pushed off the ground with all my might.
I ran, pushing and throwing aside everything that blocked my path.
The dolls and people, clutching various weapons, surged towards me like a tidal wave.
Yet, despite their formidable speed, they couldn’t catch me, running at full tilt.
I continually checked the map on the business card.
‘From here, right.’
‘Then right again.’
‘Two blocks straight, then now left—’
“Ugh.”
I crashed into a wall.
I quickly regained my composure and started running again.
Yu-na, extremely tense, didn’t utter a single word.
‘Go about twenty meters from here, then turn now!’
‘This is it.’
Outwardly, it appeared to be nothing but an endless grassland, but in reality, a shop existed here.
It would be an unsettling and perilous adventure, but for now, this was the only safe place.
As I pondered this, my pursuers had already drawn close.
“Yu-na! Quickly, push straight behind me and go in!”
“Huh? Where is this?”
“Quickly!!”
Yu-na, heeding my frantic plea, pushed the door and entered.
Fortunately, it seemed I had found the right place, as Yu-na’s form vanished entirely.
Now it was my turn.
I checked the map again.
The map pointed to a barber shop.
Luckily, the door wasn’t far from my current position.
Earlier, with Yu-na on my back, I had needed to moderate my speed, but now there was no such constraint.
I exerted all my strength, and it wasn’t long before I arrived.
*Creeeeak—*
When I opened the door and stepped inside, I found myself in a typical barber shop.
‘What is this?’
‘Wait, this isn’t according to plan.’
‘Why couldn’t I enter?’
‘Did I mistake the building in this unfamiliar place?’
But if that were the case, I wouldn’t be feeling hairdressing tools nearby.
I recalled the last time I had fallen into the shop.
When I entered that place, the door had disappeared.
So, can only one person enter at a time?
However, a police officer and a boy had entered simultaneously before.
‘Could it be that we had to enter at the same time?’
‘If so.’
I swiftly pulled Rosa’s utility knife from my pocket.
‘I don’t know if this will work, but—’
I scored the spot where the door should be with the utility knife.
*KIIIIIIIEK!* (TL Note: A loud, sharp shriek or scream, often used for intense pain or terror.)
A powerful scream echoed from somewhere, and with it, space tore open, revealing the entrance to the shop.
“Welcome, customer.
How may I help you?”
