Chapter 103

Cha Si-eon must have come because of the post-event interview.

To share Ryu Dan-a’s condition, or to ask about the questions and guesses I had made.

Thinking this as a matter of course, I followed Cha Si-eon outside.

But when I actually arrived, the place was not a conference room, but a terrace where the artificial sky could be seen.

Under that unexpected sunset, Cha Si-eon abruptly asked me,

“Do you smoke?”

“No, I quit.”

“I will give you one if you need it.”

Cha Si-eon held out a new pack of cigarettes with even the packaging unopened.

I looked at it briefly, then shook my head.

I was somewhat tempted, but if I put a cigarette in my mouth right now, I felt it would look a little pitiful.

“How is Ms. Ryu Dan-a’s condition?”

At my question, Cha Si-eon put the cigarettes back and answered.

“No. 71 is unconscious. They say the examination results show no special findings, so it seems we will have to observe her for a while.”

“Did they find the cause of why she suddenly collapsed?”

“No. Abnormal brain activity was observed before she collapsed, but the cause is still unknown.”

“Maybe that was what Ms. Ryu Dan-a meant when she said she would die if she said it…….”

At my vague guess, Cha Si-eon nodded.

“Is Acting Team Leader Oh all right now?”

“He is somewhat out of it, but he should be all right. And Analysis Team 5 plans to analyze the recording again later.”

“Is there even anything to analyze……?”

“They decided to compare the original recording, the contents No. 71 conveyed, and No. 71’s brainwave data. They say they will extract patterns from that and try to directly decode the recording.”

“Is that possible?”

“Acting Team Leader Oh said he would do it, so he will bring something somehow.”

They called him an irreplaceable genius, and that was not empty praise.

I nodded in small admiration.

Then I waited for Cha Si-eon’s real business and the main topic.

He would probably ask why I had interrogated Ryu Dan-a that way.

But what actually flowed from Cha Si-eon’s mouth was entirely unexpected.

“One of the Bureau’s important principles is clear reward and punishment. And Mr. Seo Do-un’s contributions are already highly valued.”

“……?”

“So there will be no instance where the Bureau treats Mr. Seo Do-un as No. 72 or No. 73.”

I looked at him again, wondering whether he had eaten something wrong.

Cha Si-eon had the same calm expression as always, and as I doubted it, I slowly realized.

The mid-level manager with psychopathic tendencies, once called Kongjwi, was currently doing this as if it were consolation.

“…….”

That was right.

This was exactly what it felt like to be slapped when you wanted to cry.

But Team Leader Cha certainly said it with good intentions, right?

I do not know about goodwill or kindness, and it was probably a work-related duty, but in any case, it must have been a remark meant to reassure me, right?

So I should respect Team Leader Cha’s intent…… right?

“What is that expression?”

I had not said anything.

I had truly done my best to hold back what I wanted to say, but Cha Si-eon got scratched all on his own and asked.

When I awkwardly avoided his gaze, Team Leader Cha crumpled his eyebrows and added,

“I said it with the intent that there is no need to be anxious about No. 71’s words.”

“I have not particularly been anxious.”

“During the interview with No. 71, there were significant fluctuations in Mr. Seo Do-un’s heart rate.”

“……You look at that extremely often, do you not?”

“Even if I do not look at it deliberately, an alarm comes when a fluctuation occurs.”

I understand why Ryu Dan-a caused a disturbance.

I should rip this damned watch off too…….

I simply sighed at Cha Si-eon’s behavior, which I could not tell was management or surveillance.

Cha Si-eon spoke to me again.

“And among No. 71’s remarks, the words ‘because we made you’ are…….”

Bzzzz—!

At that moment, a vibration rang from Cha Si-eon’s pocket.

Cha Si-eon stopped talking, took out the whining smartphone, and glanced over it.

Then, as if there was no particular need to hide it, he showed me his smartphone screen and said,

“Please explain why this is happening.”

---

Otter Agent Heart Rate Increase!

♥ 67bpm → 102bpm ♥

Check Otter Agent’s safety!

---

Yes, it seems there will be no instance where I become No. 72 or No. 73.

Because I am already the Otter……!

“What are you asking me to explain out of nowhere? No, more importantly, what is that app? Why is the UI so pointlessly cute? Is the official name even ‘Otter Agent’?”

Seeing the app adorably decorated with an otter character, I questioned him in disbelief.

It was a work of S.O.C.H. that was no longer surprising, but this time, I simply could not let it pass.

“And Team Leader, do you think it is right for you to use that app? Just seeing that screen turned on feels incredibly photoshopped and uncomfortable, you know?”

“Do you think I use this because I like it?”

“If you dislike it, you can ask them to improve it. Why are you enduring something that does not suit you?”

“If you want to argue, argue with the managers. S.O.C.H. activities are carried out with approval from the manager line.”

At Cha Si-eon’s rebuttal, I was left speechless.

Managers, at this point, are you not simply enjoying this yourselves?

Are you not pretending you allowed it for the employees’ sake?

No, perhaps all of this might even be propaganda to suppress employee dissatisfaction.

“In any case, please answer.”

While I was dumbfounded, Cha Si-eon found the main point that had left home.

At that, I asked back in a somewhat gloomy mood.

“What exactly do you want me to answer?”

“Please explain why Mr. Seo Do-un continues to be shaken by the words, ‘because we made you.’”

“I see. Team Leader Cha, that might be a difficult part for you to understand.”

“……You are picking many fights today. Unless you are doing it on purpose, moderate yourself.”

When I murmured faintly while looking at the sunset, Cha Si-eon warned me through clenched molars.

Team Leader Cha was right about this.

Because my mood was gloomy, I was actively nitpicking more than usual.

I acknowledged that I was shaken and exhaled a long sigh.

Cha Si-eon asked me again.

“How is Mr. Seo Do-un interpreting those words?”

“I have not interpreted them…….”

“Then?”

“I am only imagining.”

“What exactly are you imagining?”

At Cha Si-eon’s persistence, I sighed again.

If it was imagination, I had many things.

But all of them were stories embarrassing enough to say out loud.

So it was difficult to speak readily, but because Cha Si-eon waited stubbornly, I reluctantly opened my mouth.

“What does it mean that they made me? Maybe the real Seo Do-un is already dead, and I am a fake created by those monsters. Things like that.”

At my answer, Cha Si-eon’s gaze dropped downward for a moment.

Then he looked at me again and said,

“Perhaps you have read too many novels.”

“I have read many, yes, and that is my job…….”

I muttered quietly, feeling pointlessly humiliated.

No, putting my job aside.

Are you in any position to talk about novels?

Do you think a government agent with unkempt hair who monitors unidentified murder-spaces is more realistic?

When I bristled, Cha Si-eon spoke again in a businesslike tone.

“To tell you the conclusion first, the current Mr. Seo Do-un is Seo Do-un himself.”

“How can you guarantee that?”

“What do you think constitutes a human being?”

“Lack and longing?”

“Cells.”

“…….”

I wanted to turn back time.

I wanted to go back exactly 10 seconds and firmly clamp my mouth shut.

“If Mr. Seo Do-un were a fake like 「Alpha」, or were already contaminated, distortions or traces of contamination would have to be discovered in your body. However, among the examinations conducted so far, not a single such abnormal finding has been confirmed. So you may be at ease. Mr. Seo Do-un is certainly himself at the cellular level.”

“I see. That is a relief…….”

I nodded as calmly as possible, as if nothing had happened in the middle.

“And the ‘lack and longing’ you mentioned midway……”

I had hoped he would just let that pass…….

“I do not think it is wrong. For now, I will respect it.”

“Yes, truly, thank you very much…….”

“Is that enough now?”

“Yes?”

I looked at Cha Si-eon in confusion.

Enough for what?

If he was asking whether all the ominous delusions triggered by Ryu Dan-a’s words had ended, then no. Not at all.

Only one of my vague imaginings had been moderately explained away, and the mystery still remained as it was.

But if he asked “is that enough now?” to this, what was I supposed to do?

No, before that…….

“Team Leader, what are you doing right now?”

“What do you mean, what am I doing?”

“Is this a post-event interview?”

“No.”

“Then?”

“Grievance handling.”

Grievance handling.

In disbelief, I pointed at myself with my index finger.

Nod—

At my gesture, Cha Si-eon affirmed it without addition or subtraction, and I felt another quiet shock.

“My grievance right now is not ordinary discomfort.”

“That is correct.”

“It is psychological conflict caused by the fact that the problems related to my personal safety have become impossible to grasp and only keep growing more complicated.”

“I see it that way as well.”

“And the one who came to handle that is Team Leader?”

“……Did you decide to pick fights today?”

I turned the direction of the finger pointing at myself toward Cha Si-eon and muttered.

Then Cha Si-eon somehow instantly recognized that this was mockery aimed at him and flared up again.

But I was truly surprised by this situation.

He dragged me to the terrace and offered me a cigarette, then used my heart rate as a pretext to demand that I reveal my grievances.

I could not believe that Cha Si-eon was doing this, so I laughed foolishly to myself.

“Haha…….”

“What is funny?”

“The many-sidedness of humans.”

When I answered like this and chuckled, Cha Si-eon’s expression grew even more serious.

It seemed he was confused about whether I was giving him grief or had lost it and was talking nonsense.

I felt his gaze worrying about my mental state, but I kept laughing like that for a good while longer.

One reason I needed to live long had just disappeared.

Because I had confirmed that Team Leader Cha had an ordinary human heart.

I laughed for a long while because that fact was funny, then gathered my breathing before Cha Si-eon became even more serious.

Then I asked lightly,

“If not No. 72 or No. 73, what other classifications are there?”

“……?”

“If I become a monster.”

I had gone to the trouble of asking lightly, but what returned was heavy silence.

So I asked again in a casual tone.

“The possibility is not low, is it? Right?”

“Is that why your condition has been bad recently?”

“Yes, well.”

At Cha Si-eon’s question, I obediently admitted it.

It was probably after I was dragged into and came out of 「Island Where Blood Falls」.

Before I saw 「Big Cat」 directly inside, I had been all right.

Rather, I had even felt a sense of elation.

I had attached meaning to my special situation and even drawn hopeful futures.

But after facing 「Big Cat」, and while preparing for the Special Zone closure experiment, I had slowly come to realize it.

No, I finally began to feel it in reality.

That something was strange.

That the things happening to me were far stranger than I recognized.

“I wondered if I too might become a monster at this rate.”

I calmly revealed what was inside me.

The sky where the sunset had burned out was now dark, so it felt like I could say at least this much.

Then Cha Si-eon, who had stepped forward for my grievance handling, asked me back.

“Your life is not precious to you, but you are afraid of becoming a monster?”

Mm, I had let my guard down.

Right, the one in front of me was Cha Si-eon.