“Damn it, what a clean kill.”
A man in simple dress pants and a shirt dipped a finger into the thick bloodstain on the window, muttering.
This was the interior of the subway where the Monkey Dream had manifested, specifically the first car, directly connected to the driver’s cabin.
Unlike the other cars, where at least one survivor had been found, this one contained no survivors at all. There was nothing but blood, more blood, and even more blood, along with scattered flesh and organs. At first glance, it looked as if an elementary school student had poured red paint everywhere.
The sheer unreality of it was striking.
Park Heemin, the section chief of the Busan Branch’s Response Division, shook his head, then squatted before a corpse, poking at the crimson flesh.
It was, of course, a real corpse. The cause of death, unlike typical victims of the Monkey Dream, was exsanguination or shock. There was no trace of cardiac arrest.
The victims had likely perished from the agony of their skin being sliced and gouged, dying slowly without any means of resistance.
This was not unusual. The Monkey Dream was a notorious urban legend, infamous for inflicting extreme suffering upon its victims.
The true problem, however, lay in its identical manifestation within reality.
These creatures ordinarily never crawled out of the dream world. Trapped eternally in the other dimension, they slowly grew by devouring humans one by one. Their appearance in reality, causing such widespread casualties, was an unprecedented event, unmatched anywhere in the world.
Why this first incident had to occur in Korea was truly baffling.
Park Heemin sighed deeply and stepped out of the subway car.
“Now, none of you saw anything here. What did you say?”
“We saw nothing…”
“Excellent! Such good children. Now, off you go home!”
“Yes…”
“Next?”
A blonde woman, seated on a bench at the station, addressed the line of witnesses.
Instead of walking directly towards her, the called witness shouted at the Agency staff member standing beside her.
“W-what is this?! Who are you people?! I’m a department head at a major corporation, a department head! I’m not someone to be treated like—!”
탕!
Before the man could finish his sentence, the Agency staff member pulled the trigger. The bullet narrowly grazed the man and embedded itself in the wall.
“…”
The officer lowered their gun without a word. The man who had been yelling rolled his eyes back and wet himself on the spot.
“Ugh! That’s disgusting!”
The woman waved her hand, looking down at him. The officer bowed apologetically, then dragged the unconscious man to the very end of the line.
After that, things proceeded smoothly. No one dared to question the strange procedure further.
Park Heemin, who had been smoking a cigarette a little distance away, walked towards her.
“Hari.”
“Ah, Section Chief Park Heemin.”
The woman called Hari turned her head towards Heemin. Having just erased the memories of the old man standing before them, she tapped the seat next to her.
“Have a seat. You must be tired from standing so long.”
“Shall I?”
Heemin grinned and plopped down onto the empty seat. With his massive frame beside the already petite Hari, their disparate sizes appeared even more exaggerated. Even the Agency staff tidying up the scene inadvertently glanced their way.
Yet, Heemin paid them no mind, turning to Hari instead.
“Have you found anything?”
“Hmm… not really. None of these people were actually on the subway, you see! There’s no valuable information from them!”
“Where are the survivors, then?”
“At the very back of the line. I postponed their turn, thinking they still needed to calm down. Should we start with them?”
“I’d appreciate that.”
“Understood!”
Hari offered a bright smile and cast a glance at an officer. The officer then brought forward the most outwardly composed man from the very end of the line, presenting him before Hari.
“U-ugh…”
The man’s pupils were unfocused. His entire body trembled uncontrollably, and cold sweat plastered his face. Perhaps from anxiety, blood dripped steadily from his index and middle fingers, where he had chewed his nails.
This was not incomprehensible. While the Monkey Dream made its victims appear unconscious, the reality was starkly different. The minds of all caught within it remained vividly awake. Consequently, they were forced to witness people being dismembered in real-time before their very eyes.
It was only natural for their minds to break.
Even seasoned Agency agents sometimes found themselves unable to eat meat for days after dealing with anomalies, so what could be expected of ordinary civilians?
Frankly, the man’s ability to stand upright at all was a miracle. With a sedative and a bit more time, he might even have been capable of providing a coherent testimony.
Hari, however, did not wait. After sending a glance towards Heemin, she fixed her gaze on the man’s eyes and clapped her hands.
*Clap!* With that sharp sound, the man’s anxious face slackened into a vacant stare.
He had been hypnotized.
This was her ability, gained through exposure to the mysterious. It was her unique power, the one that had elevated Hari to a high position and made her an indispensable asset to the Agency.
Though not on par with true magic, it was undeniably a potent ability. Ordinary people could not resist her power even once, their minds completely dominated by her hypnosis.
This was precisely the case now. The man, under Hari’s hypnotic sway, stared blankly at her.
Hari forcibly moved his body this way and that, giggling, before finally beginning to ask proper questions.
“Tell me everything you saw and felt! Without lies!”
“It was the weekend, and I was resting comfortably. But then, around lunchtime, my section chief suddenly called. He said there was an urgent matter this afternoon and told me to come to work. I tried to refuse, but the chief got angry and—”
“Beep-beep! Only tell me what happened on the subway! That is, only matters related to the anomaly!”
As the correct command was input, the man stopped speaking and began a different narration.
“Although the subway ran for ten minutes, it didn’t arrive at a station. The moment I felt confused by this, an unknown force suddenly compelled me to sit in my seat. I tried to stand up in response to the abrupt situation. However, while my mind was awake, my body wouldn’t move.”
“Mhm.”
“All sorts of thoughts began to dominate my mind. Was I being kidnapped? Had something suddenly gone wrong with the subway? Was someone setting fire—”
“Skip!”
“A moment later, small monkeys, armed with blades, began entering the car where I was seated. They conversed among themselves, then suddenly butchered a woman. After killing her alive, those creatures similarly killed the man sitting right next to her.”
“It’s definitely the Monkey Dream, Section Chief Park Heemin.”
“Next, those creatures extended their hands towards the man seated beside me. But just before the blade touched him, the man pulled a knife and a book from the bag he was holding and, in turn, killed the monkeys.”
“Huh?”
Hari’s eyes widened at the completely unexpected tale. Section Chief Park Heemin shot up from his seat and spoke to the man.
“Keep talking.”
“That person killed the monkeys, drew something somewhere, then shouted the name of God and moved to another car. A few minutes later, they returned and left the moment the subway stopped. That’s when I regained my senses.”
The man spoke no further after that.
Heemin muttered the word ‘God’ and then asked again.
“Describe what was drawn.”
“I don’t know exactly. My head wouldn’t turn, so I couldn’t see it.”
“Damn it.”
Heemin cursed and turned his head towards Hari.
“He’s a wizard. That book he was holding was definitely a grimoire.”
“Really…?”
“Absolutely. Given that he was shouting the name of God, he likely picked up a grimoire written by ancient Christians and became a wizard. While he might not be the culprit behind this specific incident, the emergence of a new wizard in Korea itself is a problem. Anomalous events are bound to erupt in droves around him.”
Wizards possess the power to attract anomalies. Perhaps this very incident occurred because a wizard was on board the subway.
Heemin confirmed the presence of the solitary CCTV camera hanging from the station ceiling and turned his head.
“Hari, has the video forensics team arrived?”
“Yes! They went in a little while ago, so they’re probably checking the footage now.”
“Alright, I’ll go over there. Finish up here and administer the memory-erasing agent.”
“Okay!”
Hari replied, and Heemin moved. He burst into the security room, which managed the subway’s CCTV, and looked at the forensics team already there.
****
“…Hah, damn it.”
All the forensics team members were sprawled on the floor, blood streaming from their ears, noses, and eyes. Heemin’s face contorted as he shifted his gaze to the monitors.
[…Young man, why do you wander so? Come, let us wash away our grudges.]
What appeared on the monitors was not CCTV footage, but a blood-soaked woman in a pure white sobok (TL Note: A traditional Korean funeral dress, often associated with ghosts or spirits). Heemin sighed deeply, lined up the widely spread monitors, and put on golden knuckles.
And then.
콰지직!!
He punched, utterly destroying them all.
These were knuckles that destroyed both spiritual and physical forms indiscriminately. The evil spirit’s face was crushed, and it perished before it could do anything. It was a pathetic end, yet she had faithfully fulfilled her role.
“…”
A video or footage possessed by an evil spirit is not purified by killing the spirit itself. Instead, all its data is depleted, leaving it empty.
The same was true for the CCTV footage. Heemin searched for the video just in case, but nothing remained in the storage space. Only a cursed video, capable of resurrecting the evil spirit, had been created.
‘…This doesn’t seem like a coincidence.’
An evil spirit suddenly appearing in a place the Agency has investigated? And in the security room of a subway station, no less, where footage of a wizard might exist?
It absolutely could not be a coincidence. Someone was clearly concealing his identity.
Heemin sighed deeply and tapped the cheeks of the fallen forensics team members. But they didn’t wake up. They only trembled intermittently, muttering incomprehensible words.
They had been thoroughly cursed. It was evidence that a high-level evil spirit had been involved. It was quite remarkable that it had been restrained just enough not to kill them.
‘These guys will need purification…’
Heemin cursed under his breath, then sat on a chair in the security room and pulled out his phone. He then made a call.
A brief ringing tone ceased as the other party answered. Heemin, without preamble, went straight to the point.
–Branch Chief, a new wizard has appeared in Busan. Could you check if any Christian-related grimoires have recently gone missing in or near Israel?
****
–Oh, the ghost died.
–What?
–No, it’s nothing. Keep going.
