Chapter 11
Social Responsibility
The situation was resolved faster than expected.
Besides the branch manager who had broken through the walls and floor from the office using wood, there were rumors that several other monster-level employees had also moved.
I hadn’t seen or heard it myself, but I could easily guess what had happened in other sections of the extraction facility, and what would continue to happen.
Section B had stabilized thanks to the fierce suppression by most of the staff.
Section C and D’s dimensional entities were also easily subdued and returned to containment.
Section A……
“The order control office is in charge, so there’s no need to worry. Director Seol is there as well.”
I didn’t know exactly what that meant, but that’s what Chief Mok said.
The sirens that had been screaming as if tearing the sky apart had stopped, and the corridor warning lights had returned to their usual red blinking.
But there was something more important.
Gulp.
What I was currently holding in my mouth.
Chief Mok’s right arm—more precisely, a thick, long wooden vine extending from it—stretched toward me like a snake.
At the tip, there was a transparent, glossy cross-section, and from it, a sweet, sticky liquid was flowing out.
I was drinking it.
“…Wow.”
A cool, sweet sensation spread through my mouth.
It wasn’t like honey or syrup, but something sitting strangely between blood and tree sap.
The feeling wrapped softly around my tongue, and as it went down my throat, it was ice-cold.
Burned skin reattached, and the burn marks across my body slowly faded.
My melting corneas restored themselves, and my vision gradually cleared.
‘This really breaks common sense in every way.’
I never thought I would be drinking someone’s arm while receiving stabilization and healing.
And from a tree-made person’s arm, at that.
Well… at least it’s better than meeting the tentacle doctor again.
I looked back at Chief Mok.
He stood in a suit, calmly, as if nothing had happened, one hand resting on his chest.
He didn’t seem to have any emotion about the arm that was supplying the fluid.
“You don’t need to be too alarmed.”
His voice was still low and damp.
It sounded like wood grain speaking—soft, humid, and calm.
“The recovery fluid is a separated part of my own tissue. There will be no special charges.”
I almost protested that that wasn’t the issue, but I closed my mouth.
Because it was too refreshing.
I felt like I needed to drink more.
It felt like lying in a hospital bed with an IV drip—except the IV was a tree root.
“Thank you, Chief Mok.”
“You’re welcome. As a member of Extraction Team 1, you are someone I must take responsibility for.”
Through the knotted hole-like scars across his face, a few of his many eyes blinked at the same time.
It somehow looked like a smile.
While Chief Mok moved me to a corner and fed me the fluid, employees began gathering one by one into the extraction lobby.
At first, they were familiar faces.
Section Chief Myeon approached, his seven faces moving busily.
Professor Batory tilted her head neatly as always, scanning me with her red eyes.
Assistant Son clenched and unclenched a fist made of a head, guiding others.
And Section Chief Sik leaned against a wall, dragging chains, blinking slowly.
Even this already looked like a gathering of monsters.
“Ugh…”
Just seeing everyone else made nausea rise in my throat.
It was the first time I had ever looked at employees from other departments so closely.
Skeleton-like beings with exposed bones.
A worm-like creature made of fungus.
A man with no face, only rows of eyes on his back.
Even a pool of red mucus I had never seen before was stuck to the lobby wall.
‘They really are just dimensional entities…’
At this point, was there even a difference between emergency mode and normal life?
My head spun.
It felt like my eyeballs were rotating on their own.
“Ha-il.”
A familiar voice came through the crowd.
It blocked my view of the other teams and tapped my shoulder.
“You’re alive? Good.”
“Yeah… I’m glad… really…”
I tried to smile, but my facial muscles cramped.
The corners of my mouth twitched.
My eyelids flickered.
My mind had already left the building.
Then, in the middle of the extraction lobby—
BANG!
The floor shook with a heavy impact.
“You damn bastard—WHO! WHO pressed the release button!!”
A deep, loud voice mixed with anger and frustration.
I turned toward the sound, and sleep instantly vanished.
He stood on two legs, but his arms were so long they almost touched the ground like he was walking on four limbs.
His entire body looked like metal plates forcibly stitched together with living flesh.
Six thick cables were embedded in his back, welded into his spine and connected directly to his brain.
His head was covered with a helmet-like exoskeleton, but through the gaps, flesh and green eyes writhed.
“WHO!! WHO THE HELL manually activated the release protocol!!”
“C-section, B-section, A-section—they’re ALL OPEN!! WHO THE HELL DID THIS!!”
Assistant Son leaned toward my ear and whispered.
“That’s the team leader of Fusion Team 1. Director Geum.”
“…Ah, I see.”
“He’s basically Section Chief Myeon’s junior.”
“I see…”
For some reason, I felt like Section Chief Myeon was still a better boss.
Director Geum continued raging.
Of course, what was more terrifying than his words were the cables writhing on his back.
“Listen, you bastards!! The release button is the absolute final protocol!! It’s only for emergency-class situations!! WHO THE HELL PRESSED IT, YOU PIECE OF—!!”
At that moment, I turned to Assistant Son and asked.
“Was it really that dangerous?”
“Yeah. Pressing that opens all containment entities at once. Seriously, who even pressed it?”
“Why does something like that exist?”
“For final disposal before shutting down a zone.”
I decided it was better not to ask further.
Assistant Son tilted his fist-head slightly and smiled.
“Still, lucky for you, Ha-il. You met Chief Mok just in time.”
“Yeah… really. I’m glad you’re safe too, Assistant Son.”
Director Geum suddenly turned his head and shouted.
“COME OUT. WHOEVER DID IT—COME OUT RIGHT NOW!! EXPLAIN IT TO MY FACE!!”
His rusty cables twitched like electric shocks.
All corridor lights went out at once.
Assistant Son shrugged.
“But if you had met another team first, Ha-il, you might’ve been in trouble.”
“…Pardon?”
As the darkness briefly swallowed his roar, silence pressed down on the space.
His spine-like metal back twisted like a spring, then stretched again with a scraping sound.
The cables behind him wriggled like worms, scraping the walls and sparking on the floor like electricity.
“Seriously, who did it?”
“Doesn’t seem like our department.”
“Did someone sneak in?”
“Industrial spy?”
Murmurs spread through the staff.
A massive stone-skinned creature, a transparent being split in half, even a Möbius-strip-shaped red line entity.
Dozens of monster employees filled the lobby, whispering.
Then—
Creeeeak.
From the end of the corridor, a door beside the entrance slowly opened.
“…Huh?”
One person.
Then two.
Humans.
Disheveled suits and sweat-soaked shirts.
Completely ordinary humans.
Yes. Humans.
The atmosphere in the lobby instantly froze.
The humans walked carefully through the sea of monsters.
More precisely, they were trembling with every step.
The man in front lowered his head, holding his glasses in his hand.
The woman beside him bit her lip, eyes darting around.
The young man behind them looked like he might collapse at any moment.
“W-we’re sorry… we… we don’t really know what happened…”
They knelt on the floor, shaking as they spoke.
Their hair was messy, ties disheveled, faces pale with panic.
Everything stopped for a moment.
It was clear.
They weren’t dimensional entities.
Not monster employees.
Not even something pretending to be human.
They were real humans.
“……”
It was the first time since Ji-hyun left.
The first time I had seen the face of another human being.
When our eyes met, something strange rose inside me.
It felt like my stomach was twisting.
Like something was stuck in my throat.
I reached out toward them.
I felt like I had to say something.
Something we had to share—
“…This is why I hate the inspection department bastards.”
A low growl came from the right.
I turned my head.
Assistant Son.
His head-fist slowly clenched with a grinding sound.
“Assistant?”
But he wasn’t listening.
He strode forward, reaching them in an instant, and bent down.
CRACK!!
It sounded like the world was being crushed.
No—it was the head.
Specifically, the human head.
Assistant Son grabbed it.
Simply.
Casually.
Like a grip strength test.
“Ugh!!”
A choked breath.
Then—
SQUISH.
A dull, heavy sound like a watermelon bursting.
Blood, brain matter, bone fragments spilled through his fingers and dripped to the floor.
Red and gray mixed together, falling slowly down his hand.
“……”
My body froze.
My vision stopped.
My breath stopped.
What did I just see?
No—I knew.
I knew perfectly.
He crushed a head.
A human head.
A living human being.
Just because he “grabbed it.”
I stood there, silently staring.
No scream came out.
I didn’t even know how to scream.
And then Director Geum kicked another of the humans aside.
Its spine exploded, leaving a stain on the wall.
Heads kept exploding.
Human lives bursting like bubbles.
My legs wouldn’t move.
My head wouldn’t turn.
I stared at Assistant Son’s blood-covered head and felt a deep fear I had forgotten.
Blood, flesh, shattered skulls.
I am human.
In this place filled with these beings,
I had forgotten that I was human.
“….”
I slowly lowered my head.
‘Then… what am I?’
The thought struck like lightning.
‘Why am I in Extraction Team 1 instead of being with those humans?’
I tried to speak, but stopped.
Why does no one call me “human”?
Why does no one question me?
Why do these monsters not reject me?
I had worked with Assistant Son.
Walked with Section Chief Sik.
Met Professor Batory’s eyes.
Talked with Section Chief Myeon’s seven faces.
None of them ever called me strange.
Instead, they praised me.
-You adapt well.
-Surprisingly tough.
-You fit in.
-Perfect for this place.
And just now.
Chief Mok said:
-A fine ambition. I heard it well.
I trembled and inhaled sharply.
There was still the smell of human blood in my mouth.
Something cold dripped down my chin, which I wiped away.
In this bizarre world… did they all not realize I was human too?
But that couldn’t be right.
If they knew… then why?
“Let’s go back, Ha-il. The cleanup will be handled by the order control office.”
I had no choice but to stop thinking.
As Assistant Son spoke casually to me, wiping blood from his head
