Chapter 17
D-XX: White and Fat Ball of Fur (1)
“Me……”
I hesitated for a moment.
Three names tangled in my mind.
The Soot-stained Violinist, The Disassembled Portrait of God, and the White and Fat Ball of Fur.
The last one looked especially harmless.
And that was exactly why it might be the most dangerous.
But I still spoke.
“I’ll go with White and Fat Ball of Fur.”
Silence.
For a moment, every team member looked at me at once.
Section Chief Myeon smiled with all seven of his faces, and Deputy Section Chief Mok gave a slight nod.
“Good choice.”
With a heavy resonance, Assistant Manager Son—no, his fist—no, his head—no, a fist-like head—nodded like it was a natural extension of his neck.
There was a strange firmness in that large, straight-moving gesture.
“Let’s verify things one by one.”
At Deputy Mok’s words, the team began moving toward the extraction room entrance in turn.
I followed behind them, carefully scanning my surroundings.
Everyone was mobilized.
For all of Extraction Team 1 to move together was clearly unusual.
“Why…?”
The question lingered in my head.
Finally, I spoke quietly.
“I have a question.”
The five supervisors didn’t all stop at once, but each reacted in their own way.
Chief Clerk Shik let out a low, guttural growl like “krrrrrr…,” Assistant Manager Son tilted his head, Section Chief Myeon looked back at me with a face on the back of his head and nodded slightly as if to say he was listening, Deputy Mok turned his gaze toward me, and Manager Batory smiled faintly.
“…Is it really okay for the whole team to move together like this?”
“It’s necessary. It’s also for training purposes,” Deputy Mok replied.
His voice was always damp and quiet, yet it carried a strangely convincing weight.
“Detailed information about dimensional entities isn’t fully grasped by the Coordination Department. Extraction Team 1 observes directly and completes the final record.”
He stopped walking and slowly turned toward me.
One of the roots protruding from his knot-like body swayed slightly in the air.
“What we see, hear, and feel today—those senses become the standard for Extraction Team 2, the Refinement Division, and the Fusion Division.”
“So…”
“In other words, everything from now on is data used to judge whether it can become a product of inevitable fate.”
Not just extracting energy from a monster, but evaluating its “value.”
Section Chief Myeon added gently with a smile on the back of his head.
“Extraction isn’t only about taking things out. It’s also about deciding what to leave behind and what to take. Please organize that well in your tablet.”
I mulled over the words.
What to leave behind, and what to take.
It sounded a bit like Batory’s gesture of craving memory—lifting pieces of a body and pulling something out from within, leaving only an empty shell behind.
We started walking again.
The extraction room was getting closer.
And the “White and Fat Ball of Fur” was waiting inside.
“…I thought I could just follow the manual.”
The word “Extraction Room” repeated itself in my mind as I walked down the corridor.
A long passage lined with layers of iron doors.
Open one door, and another appears. Pass through it, and a sloped corridor appears with mechanical hums. Go down that slope, and another long hallway with red lighting stretches on.
There was oxygen, but the air was heavy.
The residue left by dimensional entities drifted through it all.
A strange scent seeped into my lungs, making it feel less and less like this world.
“We’ve arrived.”
Section Chief Myeon stopped.
At the very end of the corridor, a red warning light slowly rotated.
Beyond reinforced glass and thick metal framing, a faint cold mist spread like white fog.
Something was slowly moving inside.
At first, it was invisible.
Just a subtle disturbance in the haze.
“Hek… hek… hekhekhek…”
A strange breathing sound came from inside.
A high-pitched, damp kind of respiration.
Thud.
Then something round and red suddenly appeared against the glass.
Two bright red, perfectly round eyes like droplets.
And beneath them, a long, bright pink tongue.
“Hek… hekhek…!”
When I first saw it, I instinctively stepped back.
Not because I was truly shocked—but because it was so unexpected.
White fur.
Extremely fluffy, thick, long fur covering its entire body.
Its face was almost completely hidden except for the eyes and tongue.
The mouth wasn’t visible, buried in fur, but the tongue suggested where it was.
“…A lion?”
Its size was roughly similar.
A slightly chubby lion.
“Hek… hekhek…”
The White and Fat Ball of Fur kept panting continuously.
It sounded like a dog suffering from heatstroke, sitting on a hot floor.
But this was clearly not a dog.
“This is… the White and Fat Ball of Fur?”
I muttered unconsciously.
Assistant Manager Son nodded—his head, or rather his fist-like head.
“That’s right. Good pick, Ha-eil.”
“A good pick…?”
“Yes.”
He gave a low laugh.
“The Disassembled Portrait of God is Class A. Too much for you to face right away.”
“…Ah.”
“The Soot-stained Violinist is Class C. We’ll check that one later.”
Assistant Manager Son pointed at the creature beyond the glass.
“The White and Fat Ball of Fur is Class D. The safest one to handle.”
Then why was I even given choices?
Was this a chance to die at random?
I looked at the entity beyond the glass.
“Hek… hekhek…”
It kept pressing its forehead against the glass, panting.
Its eyes were red and round, and its tongue hung loosely, dripping with moisture.
Its fur was long, white, and denser than most animals.
And then—
“…Huh?”
The more I looked, something felt off.
“…It’s kind of cute.”
It was even more unsettling that I thought that.
But it really was.
Its eyes were too round, like a toy.
Its tongue hung helplessly, almost pitiful.
And its fur looked so soft I wanted to touch it.
“Is this okay…?”
That thought scared me more than anything.
The moment something in this strange company starts to look “cute,” you can’t tell whether it’s your guard slipping—or whether you’ve been changed by this place.
Batory stood quietly beside me.
Looking at the creature beyond the glass, she smiled faintly.
“Jeong Ha-eil.”
“Yes.”
“Remember that feeling.”
“…Pardon?”
“What you feel toward this dimensional entity.”
She took a sip from her tumbler, crushed ice cracking between her teeth.
“From now on… that is where it begins.”
I nodded silently.
At that moment, the thing inside tilted its head slightly.
Our eyes met.
Or rather, its two red, round eyes looked directly at me.
“Hek?”
Then it stuck its tongue out a little further.
Originally, I thought today would be simple.
Go to work, read the manual, write reports, and if extraction was needed, stand in position and follow instructions.
That was it.
Operate within the manual.
But now… we were making the manual?
What we had to do now was initial data collection.
No one knew anything yet.
First contact. First observation.
No manual, no standards, and no way back if we failed.
My mouth went dry.
My fingers trembled slightly.
The tremor spread up my arm, across my shoulder, and settled deep in my chest.
“…It’s normal to be afraid. That’s right.”
Of course it was scary.
Rather, it would be wrong not to be.
The White and Fat Ball of Fur looked harmless.
But things that look harmless are often the most dangerous.
Like someone approaching with calm eyes instead of brute force.
Harmlessness simply meant ignorance.
“……”
Batory suddenly stopped walking beside me.
She turned her head slowly.
“You are afraid again.”
I looked up reflexively.
She held a different tumbler today, filled with a slowly swirling red liquid.
“Just a little,” I admitted.
She smiled.
As always, it was a strange, seamless expression.
Then she placed a hand on my shoulder.
“It is precisely because you are a human who can fear… that you were more delicious.”
“…Pardon?”
“No, no. A slip of the tongue. Fufu.”
Her fingers tapped my shoulder lightly.
The cold touch snapped my focus back into place.
“It is fine. We are here.”
“…”
“The first observer always takes the most risk—but gains the most.”
“Yes.”
“So do not worry. I will stand beside you as your first set of eyes.”
She stepped forward first.
The liquid in her tumbler swayed.
The footsteps of the others followed behind her, strangely reassuring.
I took a breath.
The trembling hadn’t completely gone, but it was manageable.
Even if they were monsters… I wasn’t alone.
The door opened.
A cold wind flowed out from inside the containment room.
It wasn’t really wind, but something closer to presence itself spilling out.
I wanted to step back—but I couldn’t.
The five supervisors moved forward without hesitation.
“One by one, we go in,” Section Chief Myeon said calmly.
First Myeon entered.
Then Deputy Mok, slowly retracting his roots.
Then Batory with a graceful smile.
Then Assistant Manager Son, expressionless.
Finally, Chief Clerk Shik dragged his chains inside with heavy steps.
Last was me.
I bit my lip.
Right before stepping into the room, something deep inside me began to spread.
Fear, uncertainty, dread.
“I’m… writing the manual myself.”
To experience first, define first, record first.
To observe a dimensional entity for the very first time.
That was what I had to do.
One step.
Another step.
I entered.
The moment my foot touched the metal floor, the air changed.
The heavy sound of the door closing behind me felt like the world being cut off.
“Hek… hekhek…”
It was still there.
The White and Fat Ball of Fur.
More precisely, a biological entity made of fur.
Two red eyes and a dangling pink tongue peeking through dense white fur.
And it was looking at me.
Specifically—only at me.
“…Hek.”
A small sound.
A short, breathy exhale.
Its gaze was too honest, which made it more unsettling.
It wasn’t analyzing. It wasn’t threatening.
It was simply looking.
‘It recognizes me.’
Then, from behind—
“Grrr—!!”
“…Huh?!”
Suddenly, it started barking.
Not exactly barking—more like a broken, distorted sound of something snapping.
At the same moment, its fur exploded outward.
Like static-charged cotton candy, it expanded in all directions.
Its body doubled in size in an instant, like a creature puffing itself up to intimidate.
“Grrrrooo…”
Chief Clerk Shik growled deeply.
The air vibrated with his breath.
The atmosphere froze.
“Phew…”
Assistant Manager Son shook his head slightly and stepped back.
I also instinctively took half a step back.
“Woof! Woof! Woof—!”
The fur ball kept barking.
Its red eyes narrowed, its tongue flopped violently.
The weight of its presence shook the air.
Then the two supervisors in front spoke calmly.
“Where did you bring this from?” Section Chief Myeon asked.
“There,” Deputy Mok replied. “Fantastic Island.”
“Ah.”
Myeon gave a short acknowledgment and immediately changed the subject.
“It seems to like Jeong Ha-eil.”
At that, I turned toward him blankly.
“It didn’t just react to him the first time. And—”
He paused briefly, looking at the fur ball again.
“The moment it saw us, it showed this level of hostility… so it’s likely a matter of temperament.”
The fur ball kept barking.
“Hek… hek…”
Still, its eyes remained fixed on me.
I swallowed.
‘Why me…?’
Whether that was good or bad, I couldn’t tell.
I steadied my breathing.
The rising anxiety pressed against me again.
Now it truly began.
