193 Chapter
193 Chapter
I rolled to avoid the descending guillotine blade.
But one had already pierced my foot.
“…!”
At that moment, Agent Choi lunged toward me with terrifying speed, pulling something from his coat.
A rounded object.
A glass bead catching the light of the dream-solution glow.
A portable Glass Prison.
The instant that hit me, I’d be restrained and transferred to the infamous Glass Prison of the Paranormal Disaster Control Bureau.
And with it—the end of everything.
The spy mission. The wish token.
“No.”
Gritting my teeth, I yanked the guillotine from my foot and rolled sideways.
Ting, tiding…
The glass bead I barely dodged hit the floor with a cheerful clink.
But the prison had already activated.
“…!”
The convict—
Is called—
To receive chains.
Is called—
To receive chains.
From the glassy void, countless hands emerged to seize me.
I clung to the edge of the desk, but it was no use. I was dragged in. Fingernails shattered as my hand scraped the floor.
No time to reach for an item.
“Brown!”
–Oh, my dear friend is desperately calling for my devoted assistance!
–But I’m afraid it won’t be possible.
What?!
–This is all for a more thrilling development, so I know you’ll understand, my friend. Ah, but it breaks my heart! It really does!
–Your suffering wounds me!
My blood ran cold.
And then—I was trapped in glass.
Chara-rang…
The glass resonated with a clear, sharp chime. Like gazing through a cracked mirror, I was isolated from the outside.
“Brown?”
No answer. Fuck!
No.
I clenched my jaw.
If the agent contacts the Bureau now, it’s all over.
And Agent Choi is exactly the kind of guy who would.
“He’s already starting.”
In his hand, the glass bead spun—an impromptu ritual to summon the Glass Prison’s warden.
“Damn it. Damn it!”
How do I stop this? How do I talk him down? He’s a principled guy, sure, and sometimes his emotions get the better of him, but only when there’s a crack to slip through.
Now that he knows I’m a spy, his first move will be to lock me up and then ask questions—
…
Wait.
Instead of looking at the glass bead in Agent Choi’s right hand, I turned to his left.
The crumpled slip of paper.
…
Found it.
“Is that the note I gave you? You solved the riddle recently, didn’t you? Is that how you found this place?”
He didn’t reply. Just kept rolling the bead in his hand.
But I didn’t give up.
“When you first got that note, didn’t you believe I was really asking for help? That I needed it to help someone else?”
“No.”
“…!”
“I figured it was a setup. Given your background.”
…!!
“What’s with the look? You applied under the ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) same legal name you used at Daydream Inc., and you really thought no one would notice?”
The blow landed like a hammer to the skull.
Of course.
It had felt off.
Back when K. Lee from Team C didn’t exist, and when Assistant Manager Lee Seong-hae claimed never to have met me.
There was a simple conclusion—
They never existed in the first place.
Someone had been impersonating Daydream staff to extract information.
That person.
They’d known from the start who I was.
“But you know…”
Agent Choi’s voice softened into emptiness.
“You were really good at your job. …Worked hard.”
“…….”
“You tried to help everyone. Kids, jerks, whoever. You’d throw yourself into it even if it got you hurt or cost you something.”
His voice caught.
“That’s not something you can fake. Most Daydream employees can’t stand personal loss. So I thought… maybe what you told Jaegwan was true. That you faked your death and ran away.”
…!
“I figured maybe, if we kept you on the team and managed things well…”
He gripped the glass bead tightly.
“I let myself believe what I wanted. God, a veteran like me making such a rookie mistake.”
“…….”
“Sure, humans move for personal gain, but if the reward’s big enough, anyone will bite. I forgot how people from your company would stake their lives over a wish token.”
But then—
Agent Choi’s eyes darkened.
“Tell me, Nohru. Are you even human?”
“…….”
“What was that form earlier? And this place—what is it? What the hell did you do to the Bureau that Daydream's granting wishes for you? Speak.”
I said nothing.
He held my gaze for a moment… then chuckled bitterly.
“Pointless, right?”
“…….”
“Fine. You can explain all you want—in prison—”
“Prison?”
A voice came from above his head.
“…!”
A black shadow loomed.
A massive beast, like a wolf, jagged teeth and glowing eyes—
The Security Captain.
He was back.
I clenched my teeth and shouted.
“Go for the glass bead!”
“Motherf—!”
Agent Choi scrambled for the guillotine at his waist—but he was too late.
The jaws closed.
CRACK.
The guillotine shattered. The glass bead was crushed in his hand.
“Ggh!”
And the moment it shattered between those teeth—
The prison shattered too.
I burst free immediately.
Then charged into the opening—and tackled Agent Choi.
Aiming for the slowest-responding point.
His neck.
“…!”
I intentionally targeted his scar.
A jolt of guilt or nerves surged down my spine.
Thud.
Pinned to the ground, Agent Choi groaned.
From the wolf-beast’s shadowy muzzle, teeth and a tongue-like mass emerged, preparing to rip into his arm—
“Don’t.”
I gasped out the words.
“Don’t kill him.”
“…….”
The monster slowly retreated, fading away—
And there stood the hollow-eyed Security Captain again.
“…Wasn’t gonna… kill him… just scare him a bit….”
Whew.
“That kind of scare tactic won’t work on someone like him.”
I looked down at Agent Choi.
My heart pounded.
Now what?
Was my mission totally blown?
What about the wish token?
How do I recover from this?
How do I—
“Soleum.”
“…….”
“Ahem—Kim Soleum. Hey.”
A raspy cough and a strained voice beneath me.
Agent Choi was smiling.
“You didn’t even flinch when that guillotine hit you, did you?”
…!
“That thing—once it hits your foot, you shouldn’t be able to move like that. You saw it too, remember? When one of your company’s elite agents took a hit.”
I had seen it.
In the Shining Shimmering Dragon Palace ghost story.
The moment Assistant Manager Jin Nasol collapsed with a stifled groan the instant the blade was driven into him.
And the fact that it didn’t hurt me all that much—meant….
“Means you’re not such a bad person after all, right?”
“…….”
“Podo. You can still turn back.”
…!
“I don’t have to report this upstairs. I can handle it quietly on my own. It’s not like Disaster Control hasn’t had a few oddballs before.”
“…….”
“Let’s just cover it up. Then you can keep living just like you said you were—a rookie who escaped a cult of a company and joined the Paranormal Disaster Control Bureau.”
Agent Choi’s gaze was calm, piercingly clear.
“Just keep working with us. As the junior agent of Hyeonmu Team 1, helping people.”
“…….”
“I don’t know what that cursed company has on you, but be honest—it’s been way better working with our team, hasn’t it?”
“…….”
“And who knows, maybe we can grant your wish instead.”
That soft voice spun warm words.
“I’ll help you, Soleum.”
…….
I moved my hand.
“Agent-nim.”
“Yeah?”
“Please stop lying. It won’t work on me.”
“…!”
I twisted Agent Choi’s left arm behind his back.
Clatter.
From beneath his left elbow, the emergency call device fell. I snatched it and crushed it in my hand.
From beneath his left elbow, the emergency call device fell. I snatched it and crushed it in my hand.
“You—!”
Exactly as expected.
“Agent Choi.”
Pressing both his arms firmly behind his back, I declared clearly,
“I know you.”
“…….”
“You have a habit of hiding a call device under your left elbow for emergencies.”
His eyes widened.
“When you’re unable to retrieve it, you tend to try subduing your opponent instead. Usually with your Goblin Lantern, or sometimes with a book you bought from Ijeong Bookstore.”
“…….”
“But that’s only when you’re protecting someone. So this time, you’d choose to flee. Captain J, please check his pants pocket—there should be an inner pocket with shoelaces. Take it out.”
The security captain did as I asked.
Agent Choi paled when he saw the escape item in my hand.
“I know who you are. Whatever you try—I’ll predict it.”
“…….”
“Don’t do anything foolish that’ll endanger yourself or others.”
“Ha… You little shit.”
His voice trembled.
“What are you?”
“…….”
“Who are you?”
I couldn’t answer.
Because this was all meant to stop him from doing anything reckless—to instill that sense of danger.
I confiscated all his equipment one by one, then stored them in my inventory tattoo.
That finished the first round of neutralization.
Huff…
But I didn’t feel safe at all. My mind was racing.
Next… what now?
We need to get out of here.
Staying with Agent Choi in this place was too risky. If the Bureau tracked this place, it was over.
Motel.
We had to move to a neutral location for now.
“Walk. Quietly.”
“…….”
“Don’t try anything.”
I stood Agent Choi up and held onto him. With the Security Captain supporting from the other side, it looked—for all the world—like we were helping a drunk coworker home.
As we exited the Dream Incubation Chamber, I began thinking of what to do next—
“Soleum.”
“…….”
Agent Choi, sweating, gave a crooked grin.
“So what are you going to do? Dump me somewhere? Or hand me over to Daydream Inc.?”
“…….”
“But you know how terrible those bastards are. You saw them with your own eyes—those kids we barely rescued from the Dragon Palace, how they were going to be used as test subjects.”
We walked.
“You really gonna hand me over to them? For real?”
“…….”
“Why don’t you just tell me what you were trying to do in the Bureau? I’ll help you.”
I couldn’t say it.
And—I knew he wouldn’t help.
He was just probing for a moment of hesitation—a single crack in my resolve.
And the moment I wavered, this experienced agent would either drag me to the Glass Prison or escape and return with reinforcements.
That would be the end. Or rather—
It’s already over, isn’t it?
A hollow nausea rose in my gut.
The feeling that I’d passed the point of no return.
What I thought would be a simple job—quietly retrieving a document at Director Ho’s request—was now never coming back.
I was slipping into a swamp I couldn’t escape.
I wanted to throw up.
What do I do?
What options were left?
The memory-erasing or vow-sealing potions from Daydream wouldn’t work.
He’d get caught in under a week.
Agent Choi had a self-imposed weekly medical check to verify he wasn’t infected or tampered with. It’d show up there.
So maybe, maybe—
“Um….”
“…….”
“Excuse me.”
I turned to look at the Security Captain walking alongside me.
He glanced down at Agent Choi, who he was half-dragging along.
“This guy… he’s from the Bureau?”
“…Yes.”
“Hmmm… I don’t really know what’s going on, but…”
Something seemed to dawn on him.
“You guys… seemed to know each other? You were talking, at least.”
“……!”
“So maybe… try talking it through? For now?”
But what could I even say?
I couldn’t talk about what kind of spy work I was doing, or exactly what Daydream wanted from me—those were the core truths.
Director Ho’s Geumje bound me.
Without breaking that, the only thing I could talk about was…
…
Not the spy. Just me.
Kim Soleum.
What I wanted.
What I thought while working for the Disaster Bureau.
Whether or not I ever intended to deceive them.
“…….”
Maybe… maybe that much, I could say.
If I could just prove that I didn’t mean to hurt anyone at the Bureau—maybe we could find some kind of compromise.
For now… that’s the best I could do.
“…Okay.”
After turning out into the alley, we emerged onto the street. I spotted a taxi idling at the curb and quietly told Agent Choi,
“We’re getting in the cab.”
“…….”
“Don’t cause a scene.”
“Sharp, as always, Nohru.”
He wouldn’t dare make a move with a civilian present. He’d worry the cab driver might get hurt or even die.
If anything, it would help prevent an outburst.
Even though manipulating the situation that way made my stomach twist, I had no choice.
“Let’s go.”
The three of us climbed into the back of the cab. To keep up appearances, we kept up the charade of supporting a drunk friend—
“Soleum-nim!”
“…!!”
The driver turned around.
It wasn’t the cabbie.
The one who looked back at me, his voice full of regret—
Director Ho.
What the hell is this.
How did he get here?
Why—why here?!
But before I could process it, shock overtook me.
Because Director Ho announced—
“Oh dear, I see you’ve been discovered.”
“…….”
No.
“But you captured him immediately, excellent. I came to pick you up to spare you the trouble.”
His gaze moved past the Security Captain as if he weren’t even there.
To the center of the backseat, where the man pinned between us—
Agent Choi—sat in enforced silence.
“Hello.”
Not a human.
Something that had always shown hatred and hostility toward the Bureau stared down one of its agents.
A tense smile formed on Agent Choi’s face.
“…Doesn’t really feel like a hello situation.”
“Oh no, I disagree.”
A smile also bloomed across Director Ho’s face.
“You’ll be quite at peace very soon.”
No.
“Please wait.”
I quickly leaned forward, blocking Director Ho’s line of sight.
Cold sweat drenched my back.
“He’s set up alerts to the Bureau in case of death, disappearance, or transformation. It’s guaranteed.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Which is why imposing a Geumje and letting him return to normal life would be the most efficient and safe—”
“Soleum-nim.”
Director Ho gave me a smile full of apology.
“Given how quickly your identity was exposed… I’m afraid I can’t trust your judgment any longer.”
I felt chills from my scalp to my toes.
“I’ll take care of it myself.”
“…….”
I slowly turned my head.
Above Agent Choi’s face, a perfect ripple began to spread.
Director Ho’s incantation.