Chapter 143

Episode 143. Nanami’s Greatsword (4)

****

Foundation employees were gathering the remains of Blue Rose-4 and Black from the corners of the abandoned factory. It felt like they had been thrown into a blender and scattered across the floor.

It was less like they were sliced and more like they had exploded.

“Wow, this is insane. If you’re going to kill them, at least do it cleanly. This is on a whole different level.”

“They should’ve left something for us to research. What are we supposed to do with this kimchi pancake mess?”

The on-site personnel, wearing protective suits and gas masks, were scraping Blue Rose’s traces off the floor. The Foundation’s Special Incident Follow-Up Team.

They were commonly referred to as the Cleanup Team.

The Cleanup Team leader, Choi Ui-hyeon, clicked his tongue. Of course, given the nature of the job, he was used to seeing bizarre and horrifying entities on a daily basis.

But a scene like this was rare.

Mimic corpses were scattered everywhere. At the end of today’s site was something with black blood splattered across the floor. It looked like a burnt kimchi pancake.

Scattered around were tentacle fragments, blood clots, and eyeballs. On second glance, it resembled spaghetti more than a kimchi pancake. Tentacles and entrails were strewn about.

What kind of action could result in something like this? Did they crush the monster against a concrete wall and make it explode? It was a reality he didn’t want to know about.

Knowing wouldn’t do any good.

It was better to quietly do his job, go home, play games, and feed his fish. That was the best for his well-being. What was the point of knowing?

It wasn’t that he wasn’t curious. But the reality was that knowing would only make him uncomfortable and put him in danger. The Cleanup Team leader almost scratched his head.

Ah, but there’s some kind of grotesque liquid, possibly blood, on the head part of the protective suit. He couldn’t scratch his head until he left the site.

“Even monsters care about appearances.”

The Cleanup Team leader pondered.

What does that mean?

“Why appearances?”

“Well, you know. Like, who was it? Hasti subdued them without a single scratch on her face, the Returnee was the same, and Cosmos was in a similar situation.”

Even if others didn’t know. Hasti had a monkey wrench stuck in the back of her head, got shot in the back, and went through all sorts of ordeals.

“Not really, right? There was also that Kairos guy, and I heard it was the aide who killed this one.”

“Thinking about it, you’re right.”

“How would we know… Let’s just quickly clean up this disgusting mess and go home. These tentacles are gross.”

“On the other hand, what about humanoid supernatural phenomena that look dull? They just get crushed like cockroaches under a textbook.”

“It’s completely smashed. How would we know if it originally looked dull or not.”

“Whether to kill or spare them is up to the Director.”

“……”

The Cleanup Team stopped chatting and resumed their work. They had to clean up the finely ground remains of Black. Normally, they would transfer them into labeled sample containers, but this looked more like a slushie. They just had to wipe it up and clean.

“By the way, didn’t we fight something here last time too? That clockwork device thing.”

“Ah. Clockwork devices are better because they don’t smell as much.”

“Idiot, what are you talking about? If you can smell anything, doesn’t that mean your gas mask is broken?”

“Ah. Was that it?”

The Cleanup Team members looked at each other.

“Raise your hand if you think you smell something.”

A few hands timidly went up. The Cleanup Team leader sighed. These idiots, I should make them get health checkups.

****

Situation resolved. Two Blue Roses have been eliminated.

Spring was easy to sweep up. Black, being of the pitch-black category, was crushed and embedded in the floor, making cleanup a bit more challenging.

“This is Kim Bari. Two hostile Blue Rose entities have been eliminated. Requesting a situation report from the Command Center.”

The Support Department Head cleared his throat.

[Uh, yes. Only some of the known Blue Roses attacked the abandoned factory. If all the Blue Roses are moving as one team, we have no idea what the remaining entities are doing.]

What does that mean?

“So, you’re saying we don’t know where the remaining Blue Roses are? They haven’t appeared anywhere else either.”

[That’s correct for now.]

“Understood. We’ll return shortly.”

“Right.”

“Let’s just go home early. I’m exhausted.”

Early dismissal? With today’s incident, we’re looking at three days of all-night shifts. Nanami was sitting next to me, putting down her gear.

“Once Black’s body is cleaned up, let’s go. What were you thinking, crushing it like that?”

“I didn’t know it would be that weak. I was planning to destroy the whole building… I thought it would hold out a bit longer, but it just popped like a water balloon.”

We even called in a science vessel—no, a science helicopter—to dissect it, but now it looks like we’ll just be taking back a bunch of dark red spaghetti sauce.

“Take it easy.”

Anyway, we caught it, so it’s not a big deal.

“The cleanup is almost done!”

Eighteen plastic buckets with biohazard logos. Each bucket probably holds about 10 liters. Just eyeballing it, the recovered debris weighs over 180 kilograms.

Not to mention the fragments that were too small to collect or seeped into the ground.

Black’s body weight was conservatively estimated to be over 300 kilograms. It seems like it was indeed a being far removed from humanity.

The Cleanup Team was burning the remains of Blue Rose-4 that couldn’t fit into the buckets with a torch.

The site is done.

It’ll take a few minutes to warm up the helicopter.

The pilot kept apologizing to me, but what can you do? It’s not a toy.

Across from me sat the Cleanup Team leader. It’s been a while since I’ve seen him. I can’t even remember his name clearly… but his work is important.

“Hello.”

“Ah, hello, Director.”

“Good work.”

The Cleanup Team leader seemed to be pondering something.

“Uh, Director.”

“Yes?”

“Can I ask you something?”

What kind of question is this?

“Dealing with anomalies, doesn’t it rely on rules?”

“Like, if you look at a weeping angel, it won’t move, or if you call a red mask pretty, its mouth tears open, stuff like that?”

The team leader nodded.

“Uh… it’s a bit complicated. Entities that don’t follow physical laws might still follow their own rules. Conversely, beings born from symbols and rituals can never escape those symbols and rituals.”

“Right.”

“But there’s no need to worry. It’s best not to play by the anomalies’ rules. Whether it’s magical or physical means, if you have enough firepower, there’s no need to cooperate.”

Whether it’s a pig-shredding magic engine that sacrifices 3,600 pigs per hour, a machine gun, or a hypersonic fighter jet.

The Cleanup Team leader nodded.

****

Originally, we planned to dissect it on-site, but Black’s remains ended up in buckets.

Dissecting it here wouldn’t yield any results.

In the end.

Black’s remains were moved to the Foundation’s Supernatural Biology Research Lab. The 180 kilograms of debris were spread out on the cold lab floor.

The lab was maintained at around 7 degrees to prevent sample degradation. It’s freezing.

Dr. Kang looked at the remains.

“Uh, Dr. Kang. Why did you spread this out? Is it important for research?”

“Sort of. When it’s all mixed up like that, there’s not much information we can gather. So, we’ll spread it out on a steel plate and sort through the debris. Brain fragments here, muscle fragments there, tentacles here, and so on.”

“Ah, I see. Researcher Hasti. What do you think?”

“What. Crushing it and then analyzing it? What kind of analysis is that?”

Black is a pitch-black category supernatural phenomenon. I thought Hasti might have some insider knowledge, but her answer wasn’t helpful.

“This smells a bit like flying polyps. Isn’t that it?”

Are we talking about polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons?

It’s a substance often found in biological supernatural phenomena with non-material characteristics. It’s common in pitch-black-related phenomena and, further out, is associated with extraterrestrial microbes or asteroids.

“I see.”

“Hmm. If you want more detailed information, I can analyze it using magic. Insight magic or psychometry, for example.”

“Please do.”

Meanwhile, Dr. Kang was sorting through Black’s remains, and it seemed like he was making some progress. Bone fragments here, muscle fragments there, tentacle fragments over there.

And the most important brain fragments were there.

“I’ll put on a protective suit.”

We should share the hard work. I crouched down and started gathering the crushed humanoid supernatural phenomenon’s fragments. Head parts here, thoracic and abdominal parts here, limb fragments, tentacles, non-human fragments, etc.

The outline of a human was starting to take shape.

“It’s going faster than I thought.”

“I think… it’s just because it’s cold here. Let’s finish quickly and go.”

Dr. Kang muttered.

It was definitely cold in the lab.

****

[The Bullet That Kills]

[Author: Director Kim]

[What is that bullet made of?]

****

[The Bullet That Kills. Reply.]

[Author: Research Department Head Lee Se-ah]

[It’s information erosion. Similar to memory erasure, but instead of working physiologically, it dissolves the information itself.]

[Mechanical supernatural phenomena, paradoxically, are formed by a belief in a materialistic world, right?]

[It’s like rat poison. It’s like pouring water on cotton candy. However, it doesn’t seem to have an effect on other supernatural phenomena.]

[After all, supernatural phenomena are made of irrationality. How much they are affected by information erosion is hard to say. It probably varies case by case?]