Chapter 07
Friedrich, Final Erosion Rate: 14%.
The securing of the mental image of Anomaly ‘No.101’ had ended in failure.
For an anomaly classified as dangerous, it was a possible outcome, but for an anomaly of this small scale, it was an almost unheard-of event.
Friedrich rubbed his still-tingling back of his head, accepting Colette’s ministrations as they were.
“What day is it today?”
“Bloody Wednesday.”
“Your name?”
“Friedrich Paine.”
“Your occupation?”
“Do I have to include the cover identity? That’s a bit much.”
“Fortunately, you seem sane. Erosion stopped at the current rate of 14%. First exploration time: 8 minutes and 32 seconds. What was it like inside?”
“It looked like a crude theater born from a typical form of childhood trauma. There didn’t seem to be any objects particularly hostile towards ‘guests.’ However, that doesn’t mean it inherently lacks destructive urges.”
Friedrich tried to banish the vivid ‘thwack’ sound that still lingered in his ears.
Anomalies tend to take an aggressive stance against external intruders, while accepting elements they consider their own.
But the space Friedrich had just entered wasn’t just maintaining a defensive posture against intruders; it seemed intent on destroying even the entities belonging to the phenomenon itselfāin other words, the marching paper dolls.
Regardless of whether that was possible, such things don’t usually happen. That was the norm.
“The danger level is expected to be the lowest, Class 5, Lupe Ī»į½»ĻĪ·.”
Following the safety class, where civilians wouldn’t sustain injuries even upon contact, the next most dangerous was the Lupe class, categorized as the so-called ‘Class 5′ anomaly.
Colette let out a sympathetic sigh.
“So it wasn’t a safety class.”
“If it were, my head wouldn’t have exploded after I went in.”
“Unless it’s a Class 4, Pesa įæ¬Ī·ĻĪ¬, or a Class 3, Hubris į½Ī²ĻĪ¹Ļ, I think I could go in alone, but going in without detailed mental image information is a bit…”
“Are you saying that because you’re a regular employee of the Foundation United Council, your life is precious? And I’m just a pig used for truffle hunting?”
“That’s essentially why you were hired, but that’s not what I meant. More importantly, please do something about that head. Why on earth did you bring it out?”
Colette pointed at the damaged head. Friedrich replied.
“It’s absurd for an object that isn’t an intruder inside the anomaly to have such an intact form.”
“That is true, I suppose.”
“It was clearly connected to the phenomenon itself. Anomalies in the autopsy room are slightly different from other phenomena. To confirm why it’s different, how it’s different, and whether this anomaly might have been caused by the Red Witches’ intentions through detailed investigationā”
Seeing him almost spit out the words without pause between them, Colette raised a hand and lightly tapped the in-ear monitor in her own ear.
After frowning briefly and listening to something, she shook her head.
“That won’t be possible. Reinforcements arrived at the entrance of the research wing 3 minutes ago.”
“What? Are you planning to just let it dissipate like this? Didn’t I tell you? This is a special phenomenon!”
“I’m an employee of the Foundation United Council, Mr. Friedrich. I have to do as I’m told from above. I’m affiliated with the suppression side of phenomena.”
As she finished speaking, the sealed door of the research wing slid open.
Two teams of three each.
Colette, who had been crouching in front of Friedrich, stood up.
Field operatives in black uniforms approached and rendered a neat salute to Colette.
The sound of combat boot soles hitting the solid laboratory floor echoed, and the operative at the front handed Colette a bulletproof vest.
Zzzip. The zipper went up, clearly revealing the white foundation logo reading ‘H.C.F.’ Binding even her hair back, she secured suspenders and Glock magazines, replying kindly to Friedrich as she moved.
“If we don’t know anything about the mental image, it’s better to just smash everything inside the phenomenon, right? Code Name Colette, entering with additional reinforcement operatives.”
Friedrich screamed internally.
Crazy woman! These military types just think destroying everything solves everything!
But Colette was a woman of action. Since the first exploration ended in about 8 minutes, she was probably planning to finish everything and come back within 5 minutes.
She hadn’t entered to secure the mental image, the core of the anomaly.
Rather, her intention was to completely destroy even that and fully eliminate this phenomenon.
5 minutes.
What can I do in 5 minutes?
Friedrich looked back and forth between the operatives entering the autopsy room and the vacant-eyed man’s head, then suddenly stood up.
There was no time for deliberation. He had to do whatever he could.
***
The last thing Raimund remembered was the moment the red number changed from 1 to 0.
Sensing his own death, he closed his eyes, and after that, there was nothing.
It was truly bizarre. Nothing at all. No sight, no smell, no hearing, no touch, no taste.
For him, whose thoughts and consciousness had vanished completely, speaking of existence was futile.
He knew that. He didn’t know *how* he knew, but he just knew.
However, just as he was about to let go of the existence called Raimund Geppert and prepare to forget everything,
he suddenly realized that he was being shaken violently. And he was startled.
Shaken? Why? How? Is death originally this uncomfortable? Like riding a bicycle over gravel, making you feel nauseousāis that death?
They say everyone can rest in eternal peace after death.
All he felt was an unpleasant sensation, as if someone had put him in a barrel and rolled him down a hill.
When he finally opened his eyes, he found a pair of piercing blue eyes staring intently at him.
*Huff.*
“Can you hear me?”
What? Where is this?
Raimund turned his gaze here and there. Strangely, his neck was stiff and wouldn’t move properly.
Moreover, the voice he was hearing now sounded faint, as if calling from far away.
“If you can hear me properly, blink once.”
Is he talking to me now?
Raimund, not understanding the situation, blinked once. It was a man with blue eyes and long, tangled white hair.
Who is this? I’ve never seen him before. More importantly, where is this? Why can’t I move my body?
“I apologize for the state you’re in due to the urgent situation. But for now, you have somewhere to go with me.”
Where?
Raimund was troubled because his own voice wouldn’t come out properly. It felt as if he had forgotten how to move his vocal cords.
The white-haired man walked behind him. Suddenly, his field of view shot upwards.
As his surroundings came into view, Raimund felt even more bewildered.
It looked like some kind of cafeteria. There were a few tables, and a microwave for heating food on one side.
More importantly, why am I here?
Where is this?
“You might feel a bit carsick, but this is the only way. Please bear with it.”
As soon as the man’s voice ended, the world shook up and down again. Only then did Raimund realize that the man was running.
Wait, hold on. Is he carrying me and running now? He was flustered. No matter how you look at it, considering his own height and build, the man’s movements were incredibly fast.
Furthermore, Raimund was facing the same direction as the man. How on earth was he holding his body to run like this?
Even amidst the confusion, the man ran. Passing the place they were just in and coming out into the corridor, a siren blared and a red light flashed from somewhere.
Suppressing the instinctive revulsion, he tried to examine the surroundings speeding past him.
But that was short-lived.
As the man and Raimund passed by a transparent glass window, seeing their reflection illuminated by the intense red warning light, Raimund’s mouth fell open wide.
The white-haired man was running, holding a transparent glass jar. And himself… he was inside the jar.
A jar.
A head inside a jar.
A head bobbing in a transparent mucus-like fluid.
It was undeniably himself.
Even though some unknown sensors were attached among his blonde hair,
Even though it was just a disembodied head with nothing below the ears,
Even though the skin covering one side of his face was completely blown off by an explosion!
Raimund screamed. Or rather, he tried to scream, not even realizing what he was doing himself.
But he had no vocal cords. He didn’t have a neck to house them. The reason he thought his body wouldn’t move, the reason he thought he might be tied up, was all because there was nothing there to move.
Ah, ahh, ah! Of course, that makes sense!
He continued to scream silently. No tears came. He couldn’t even expel the mucus filling his nose.
A specimen. A taxidermy. Faced with an unbearable reality, he wanted to faint, but he couldn’t even do that.
Electrodes connected through his hair forced Raimund to stay awake, regardless of his will.
While Raimund struggled in the suffocating terror and unreality, the man moved swiftly.
Passing through a room where light flashed blindingly, throwing open a door leading somewhereā
A pitch-black background.
A path and fence that looked like graffiti drawn on a wall.
Smoke rose from various places, and at the charred edges, scarlet sparks flew.
The paper dolls that had been marching toward the gates of heaven were all miserably blown apart,
and along the path stretched only gray ashes.
The end of the path. The Gates of Heaven.
But from the heaven trampled by the intruders, smoke and flames rose. The acrid smoke drifted this way on a wind that shouldn’t exist in this world.
The white-haired man turned the glass jar so that the scene was clearly visible and said,
“This is where you were.”
Raimund thought. Don’t lie. When was I ever in a place like this?
“To be precise, it’s a world you might have created. It’s a hypothesis, though. I couldn’t find out anything about how you made this. And themā”
The man’s black-gloved hand pointed toward the direction where the sound of gunfire, rapid and continuous like automatic fire, was coming from.
“they intend to destroy this place while burying the truth. If that happens, the opportunity to investigate this will disappear completely. Your torso is also here, aside from your head, but if this place disappears, that will vanish too.”
My body is here?
Raimund’s common sense couldn’t keep up with the man’s story.
But the man seemed unconcerned. He said,
“The time you can think like this… is now only about 3 minutes.”
3 minutes? What happens to me when that’s over?
“You’d better think of what to say to those who are demolishing this world in the meantime. I hope it can change their minds.”
With that reply, the man ran again. Following the path where smoke, sparks, dolls, ash, everything was burning.
During that time, Raimund thought blankly.
3 minutes. So I really was dead back then. Looking back now, it was a truly ridiculous amount of money. It was an act committed out of greed for gold, even knowing this could happen.
No, it wasn’t gold. It was the desire for what gold could buy.
Peony, Olive, Hazel.
I just, for you,
Without thinking, simply…
A faint explosion sound came again. In the smoke-filled sky, a hand obscured by clouds twisted and contorted in agony. Raimund felt he had seen that hand somewhere before.
In front of the collapsed gates of heaven, people were standing.
Heaven was ablaze, accompanied by the horrific screams of the paper dolls inside the black cabinet, a symphony of agony.
As the white-haired man approached, a woman with her hair tied high up, who had been pulling down her balaclava covering even her nose bridge, turned around.
“Mr. Friedrich?”
The man silently held out the Raimund in the glass jar.
The woman’s gaze fell on Raimund. Her expression was utterly unreadableāwhether cold or just superficial.
But Raimund realized that this was the moment the white-haired man had spoken of.
So he said what he most wanted to say at this moment.
*- Please save me.*
The woman’s eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of his parched lips moving.
