There Are No Humans in the Monster Company

Both the violinist and we held our breath.

The interior of the containment cell was silent.

Behind him came Director Mok, Manager Batori, Assistant Manager Son, and Supervisor Shik.

Manager Myeon entered first.

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The heat and the smell of ash clung to the skin like a sticky layer.

Even the air was different from outside.

And finally, me.

The metal door slowly closed as the sound of depressurization echoed through the room.

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Crackle.

Every time I inhaled, it felt as if the roof of my mouth were burning.

A spark of residual heat jumped somewhere across the floor.

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Instinctively, I turned my head away from the flames.

The Broken Violinist.

And then, it moved.

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Holding the burned violin against its left side, it lifted the bow with its right arm and slowly bowed.

It raised its blackened fingertips and offered an elegant and courteous greeting.

That figure resembling a charred corpse, as if it had learned the manners of some aristocratic dance.

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It was, without question, a proper bow.

Its grotesque body bent with smooth grace, completely free of pain.

Fwoosh!

Ashes fell from the burned suit while embers scattered through the air.

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Assistant Manager Son’s fist-shaped head slowly tilted.

Beyond its ruined form and its hollow, charred eye sockets, traces of elegance learned somewhere still remained.

An elegance that was strangely polite and deeply unpleasant.

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Manager Batori smiled.

‘Why is everyone…?’

One of Manager Myeon’s faces slightly thrust its snout forward.

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Burned eye sockets.

The violinist slowly raised its head again and swept its gaze in our direction.

I narrowed my eyes while pretending to remain calm.

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Embers glowing where eyes should have been.

Those embers seemed to slide toward me.

The moment Director Mok spoke.

“We’ll begin.”

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The performance began.

It was completely different from what we had heard before.

——Screeeeeeeech.

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A note that seemed to deliberately peel away skin, lick the insides of ears, boil blood, and tear bodies apart.

A chill ran down the back of my neck.

The first movement of the bow sounded like metal scraping flesh.

This sound was intentional.

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Notes without melody.

——Skreeek.

An irregular rhythm.

——Screeeen, Skreeech.

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It was not music, but rupture.

It felt as if wedges were being driven into the dark space between my ears and my brain.

I understood immediately.

Every sound stabbed like a blade.

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Still dressed in that burned suit, The Broken Violinist wielded its bow as if it intended to end its own existence once the performance was over.

This was not a sound humans were meant to endure.

Screech—— Boom.

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No one followed.

Living particles of heat and vibration reacting to the flow of the music.

I took a step back.

One by one, embers began floating throughout the containment cell.

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Everyone remained where they were, observing the violinist.

Assistant Manager Son rested his chin on the interlocked fingers growing from his head.

Manager Batori slowly swirled her drink while smiling with interest.

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Director Mok remained motionless, silently watching The Broken Violinist.

Manager Myeon stood with his arms crossed, completely accustomed to the scene.

Supervisor Shik rattled his chains and blinked.

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‘Am I the only one who’s nervous?’

The music continued.

Even the saliva on my tongue trembled when I tried to swallow.

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Screeeeeeeech.

Or rather, the profanation of sound.

Fragments of emotions crying, twisting, and tearing apart somewhere beyond perception.

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If there truly was such a thing as grotesque music—

I felt that if I closed them, the sound would penetrate even deeper.

I opened my eyes wider.

This was grotesqueness itself turned into music.

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I carefully brushed it away.

Ash settled on my shoulder.

An ember passed in front of my nose.

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The music was speaking.

In a language I could not understand.

Even so, the performance did not stop.

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As if the flames had taken form.

As if the melody itself had become a living existence.

Expressing terror and madness with torn flesh instead of notes.

Whenever the violin’s melody intensified, the mask on my face squeezed my cheeks while transmitting Manager Myeon’s low laughter.

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“Hmm. arch It seems that performing is its primary purpose.”

Screeeeeeeech.

Manager Batori spoke softly.

The Broken Violinist was consuming itself within reality through music.

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Her tone was calm as always, almost playful.

But the instant she spoke.

The hand absentmindedly stirring the straw came to a stop.

Thud.

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The Broken Violinist’s bow stopped moving.

More precisely, every note was interrupted with unsettling perfection.

The embers suspended in the air froze.

All sound vanished.

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Stunned, I stared at the dimensional entity.

‘It stopped?’

The room became so silent that I could hear residual heat cooling.

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The only thing that had changed was its posture.

The Broken Violinist remained in exactly the same place.

Its head.

Slowly…

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Its rigid, charred neck creaked as it rotated toward Manager Batori.

Turned.

Very slowly…

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“……”

Its blackened reddish fingertips stretched forward.

Then the hand pressing against the strings began to move.

Directly toward Manager Batori.

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She merely tilted her head slightly while holding her tumbler, exactly as she always did.

Manager Batori did not move.

And then—

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It climbed her legs.

A single crimson line cut through the air.

Flames.

A flame as thin as a thread began at Manager Batori’s feet.

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Her waist.

And in an instant engulfed her entire body.

Her shoulders.

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Too precise to be an explosion.

Too silent to be ordinary fire.

Fwoooooooosh——!!

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The crimson light and black soot devoured her completely in a single instant.

‘Fire? apron Is she really burning?’

Too hot to be an illusion.

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No one moved.

Manager Batori was spontaneously combusting right in front of me.

Director Mok was taking notes.

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He was smiling.

Supervisor Shik did not even growl.

Manager Myeon.

And Manager Batori?

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She calmly straightened herself in the middle of that strange crimson inferno.

Whoosh.

As if dusting off her clothes.

She raised one arm and lightly brushed off her shoulder.

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The smoke.

The fire.

The flames disappeared from her fingertips.

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The smell of burning.

Manager Batori said quietly.

“It seems it truly hates it.”

Everything vanished.

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And survived.

Right beside me, Manager Batori burned.

Her unsettling crimson eyes remained fixed on The Broken Violinist.

“…When someone interrupts its performance.”

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Melted flesh, charred skin, swollen veins, and pulverized joints.

After hearing the performance, all I felt was the unsettling certainty that I, too, could be set on fire at any moment.

All of it began twisting and reconstructing itself as though flowing backward.

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Flesh reformed.

Muscles restored themselves.

Skin crawled back over her body.

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Behind those bright red eyes and her relaxed smile, it was unmistakably clear.

When she opened her eyes, I understood immediately that she was truly furious.

Even the fingers adorned with delicate rings were perfectly restored.

And in an instant she completely regained a human form.

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This was dangerous.

Riiip—

The sound of flesh tearing.

Her back split open and dozens of tentacles emerged from within.

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Not Manager Batori.

Each tentacle glistened wetly as it writhed with grotesque teeth and claws, sharp and menacing.

The Broken Violinist.

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Silently.

Manager Myeon raised a hand.

And just as everyone was about to lunge forward—

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Completely silently.

Only that right hand slowly emerging from the sleeve of his suit.

He gave no order.

He spoke no warning.

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At that simple gesture, Manager Batori stopped.

The air became calm again.

And the strange gaze of one of his seven faces.

The tentacles writhed in the air for a few seconds, then trembled slightly before sliding back into her body.

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“……”

And immediately leaned back against a wall of the containment cell with the same calm expression she always wore.

Without a single black mark remaining.

Manager Batori let out a short sigh.

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I couldn’t even breathe.

I could only endure as my face stiffened behind the mask.

I couldn’t turn my head.

I couldn’t say anything.

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The strings stretched across the reddish air once more.

And resumed its performance.

In the center of the room, the figure dressed in the charred suit lowered its head once again when the flames disappeared without any meaning.

Screeeech!

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More twisted.

This time it was deeper.

Screeeeeeeeeech.

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And I kept staring at Manager Batori.

‘What the hell is that woman…?’

And even more grotesque.

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Forget it.

The moment Manager Batori slightly turned her head and our eyes met, she gave me a gentle smile.

No.

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The Broken Violinist’s performance had been echoing for quite some time.

But now it felt strangely unpleasant.

As always, that smile was calm and lazy.

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The strings seemed to pierce my skin.

My heart beat irregularly.

My stomach churned.

It coiled around my brain like rusty wire.

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That strange skin attached to my face continued suppressing my senses and keeping my mind clear.

And the embers continued to brush against my lungs.

Thinking about it, screaming would be the end.

Even so, thanks to the mask Manager Myeon had given me, I could endure it.

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I carefully kept my lips shut.

If I interrupted that performance, I would undoubtedly burn to death.

I wouldn’t.

Maybe Manager Batori would survive.

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Listen.

Right now, I only had one task.

And watched The Broken Violinist continue playing.

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And finally.

Nothing more.

Thud.

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The charred bow slowly lowered.

Only the echo of that terrifying performance remained floating above the ashes on the floor.

The performance ended.

The temperature remained the same, but the heat vanished from the air.

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The Broken Violinist slowly raised its head and looked at us.

And that red, charred face without eyes looked at us again as if expecting something.

The blackened collar of its suit crumbled into ashes.

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Then Manager Myeon gave two soft claps.

What was it waiting for?

Expecting?

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Assistant Manager Son also began clapping.

I turned my head.

The sudden applause startled me.

Clap. portal Clap.

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Director Mok gently tapped his root-covered arms together.

Thump. alert Thump.

Even Supervisor Shik struck the floor in rhythm.

Manager Batori held her tumbler with one hand while clapping with the other.

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I awkwardly raised my hands and applauded.

‘I don’t know what’s happening, but…’

So I did too.

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With its burned body bent halfway over.

At that moment, The Broken Violinist slowly lowered its head and performed an elegant bow.

Clap. adopt Clap. admire Clap.

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I sighed inwardly.

And one leg extended behind it as though it had just finished a performance on stage.

The charred bow resting at its side.

‘What the hell is this?’

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Had we just watched a show?

Seriously?

Was this extraction?

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The metal door opened once more.

Hiss.

While that atmosphere of strange madness and peculiar order lingered, Manager Myeon stepped forward and pressed the exit button for the room.

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Behind me, The Broken Violinist remained motionless in its bowing posture.

And we left the room with calm steps.

“Just as Manager Batori said. acoustic There are others of a similar category whose essence is performance.”

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As we passed by the glass, Director Mok spoke quietly.

I nodded.

“The Frozen Pianist. matrix The Decayed Cellist. artist Both are Rank B dimensional entities.”

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“Yes. athlete Most likely, The Broken Violinist will also be reclassified as Rank B.”

Those words made my heart tremble.

“Then The Broken Violinist belongs to that category as well…”

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The Frozen Pianist.

The Broken Violinist.

The Decayed Cellist.

And if each member on their own was this dangerous.

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What would happen if they were all together?

Back at the office, we finished the records and basic maintenance.

‘Forget it. amber Don’t even think about it.’

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Assistant Manager Son was drawing figures in a notebook using the third hand growing from his head.

Manager Batori continued swirling her tumbler while watching the monitor.

Director Mok completed several notes.

Supervisor Shik remained lying on the floor with his chin resting on it.

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Manager Myeon turned his head toward me.

“Yes, Manager.”

“Employee Jeong.”

Then—

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“Observing should not be a problem. august Learn everything you can until the very end.”

Several of his faces smiled gently.

“It is still too early for you to participate directly in work involving a Rank A dimensional entity, but…”

I automatically straightened my posture.

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I replied firmly.

“Thank you. august I will observe and learn as much as possible.”

‘Rank A.’

The final dimensional entity of the day.

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The name alone was enough to ruin my day.

The Portrait of a Dismantled God.

‘What kind of terrifying thing will it be…?’

I sighed inwardly.

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==========

Toward an unknown territory I had never set foot in since joining the company.

Section A of the Extraction Hall.

And shortly afterward, the entire Extraction Team 1 began walking at the same time.

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Type: Biological

Code: B-97

Dimensional Entity Name: The Broken Violinist

[Dimensional Entity Management Profile: B-97]

Content of There Are No Humans in the Monster Company - Chapter 20: C-XX The Broken Violinist (2) published by TrungTu Reads.

(Reclassified to Rank B after field observation)

[Details]

Risk Level: B

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It is presumed that the embers and ashes generated during the performance are not the product of conventional combustion, but the result of converting sound vibrations into thermal energy.

Sensory Ignition

Resonant Performance

It regards its own musical performance as proof of its existence. antique The sound waves produced by scraping the strings do not affect hearing, but directly affect cognition, distorting the senses, causing mental contamination, and generating emotional fractures in the target.

Content of There Are No Humans in the Monster Company - Chapter 20: C-XX The Broken Violinist (2) published by TrungTu Reads.

Against any target that interferes with the performance or provokes its displeasure, it fires thread-like guided flames with the intention of immediately incinerating them.

During the performance, the resonant frequencies produced within the containment cell are collected to extract high-dimensional sound energy suitable for refinement.

[Extraction Mechanism]

Content of There Are No Humans in the Monster Company - Chapter 20: C-XX The Broken Violinist (2) published by TrungTu Reads.

The entity understands basic rules of courtesy.

It is mandatory to use Rank C or higher cognitive filters, or equipment with integrated curses.

Listening to the performance without protection causes rupture of the eyeballs and nasal mucous membranes.

[Management and Extraction Manual]

Content of There Are No Humans in the Monster Company - Chapter 20: C-XX The Broken Violinist (2) published by TrungTu Reads.

At the end of the performance, applause is mandatory.

Interrupting its concentration through conversation, noise, or other distractions during the performance is prohibited.

Failing to applaud or booing may trigger an explosive ignition of extreme temperatures throughout the containment cell.

Content of There Are No Humans in the Monster Company - Chapter 20: C-XX The Broken Violinist (2) published by TrungTu Reads.

[Special Recommendations]

In particular, if the interruption comes from an entity with a powerful presence equivalent to a manager rank or higher, the entity will consider its performance insulted and unleash an indiscriminate flame attack.

Symptoms of dehydration due to extreme heat and mental exhaustion may occur after the operation.

Content of There Are No Humans in the Monster Company - Chapter 20: C-XX The Broken Violinist (2) published by TrungTu Reads.

It is estimated to share the same origin as B-31 (The Frozen Pianist) and B-75 (The Decayed Cellist).

Immediate stabilization of the nervous system is recommended.