There Are No Humans in the Monster Company

“…Huh?”

Beside me, Lee Seong-hoon let out a stunned exclamation.

The corridor on the left was the same as the ones we had traveled through so far.

A continuation of that hell filled with black rust running down the walls, crushed chunks of flesh, and dampness mixed with the smell of blood.

However, the corridor on the right was so clean that it was unsettling.

“Hyung, look… look over there! It’s a normal path!”

Hope lit up Lee Seong-hoon’s eyes.

As if drawn by a magnet, he tried to take a step toward the corridor on the right.

“Seong-hoon.”

“…Yes? Hyung, it’s that way! If we go there, maybe we can get out!”

“Calm down and step back.”

I stopped him with a cold, firm voice.

I looked at the corridor on the right.

Fluorescent lights flickering at regular intervals.

A spotless floor.

And an orderly atmosphere.

It looked so perfectly normal that it made one forget we were inside an eroded distorted zone.

But the necklace hanging around my neck told a completely different story.

‘…Something isn’t right.’

The pendant hidden beneath my shirt began to emit an unpleasant sense of presence.

Its weight increased.

Pulses and heat seeped through it.

Under the vision it granted me, that clean corridor did not appear as a beautiful white color.

It was an artificial red.

So faint it seemed transparent.

Yet permeated with a chill capable of wearing down bones.

“H-hyung… that place really looks safe… why are you acting like this?”

“When something looks that perfect, it usually means there’s an even bigger problem.”

I answered quietly while holding the necklace.

Lee Seong-hoon looked at me with a frightened expression.

“Think about the prison guards we saw earlier. Every corridor we’ve passed through was filled with blood, flesh, and corpses. Because they’re spaces used by prisoners.”

I pointed at the obsessively clean corridor.

“But this is too clean. Too normal. Too orderly.”

“…And why is that…?”

“If it’s a space maintained that perfectly, it means whoever manages it must use it frequently.”

Lee Seong-hoon swallowed and lowered his head.

The hope that had appeared in his eyes was once again replaced by deep fear.

He looked back at the corridor on the left.

That horrible path filled with pools of blood and the stench of decay.

“It’d be nice if some sort of rule manual or something showed up, but for now, let’s keep moving.”

I smiled bitterly and stepped forward first.

The path on the left was still covered in the yellow warning haze displayed by the necklace.

But at least it was more honest than that deceptively perfect corridor on the right.

In this place, the only survival rule I could choose for myself was to trust a familiar mountain of corpses more than a beautiful hell.

Behind me came the trembling footsteps of Lee Seong-hoon.

The sound of our feet sinking into the sticky floor echoed loudly.

We turned one corner.

Then another.

And another.

For a long time, we walked without speaking.

Eventually, we practically stopped talking altogether.

When we breathed, the stench entered our lungs.

When we looked away, the figures inside the cells stared at us.

Simply walking felt as though it were slowly wearing down our minds.

The air itself seemed alive, pressing against the backs of our necks.

The floor was viscous.

And the sensation of our ankles sinking into flesh and bones repeated itself over and over again.

“…There are bars.”

Lee Seong-hoon finally spoke.

At the end of the corridor stood a single iron gate embedded in the wall.

Unlike the countless cells we had seen so far, there was no prison behind those bars.

Only darkness.

It was rusted.

And dried bloody handprints remained on it.

But we had no other choice.

I grabbed the bars and slowly opened them.

And at that moment—

The space changed again.

The gate we had entered through vanished.

And before us appeared—

“…A library?”

Old bookshelves were arranged at regular intervals.

It was a small library.

Perhaps one belonging to a middle school.

Or maybe a high school.

Most of the bookshelves had collapsed.

The books had been torn out and scattered across the floor.

But there weren’t only books.

Between the shelves.

On the chairs.

And all over the floor.

There were corpses mutilated so badly that it was impossible to recognize their original forms.

The blood had hardened around them.

One still slumped over a desk wearing glasses.

Another remained frozen in front of a bookshelf with a broken neck.

“This place…”

“First, let’s rest for a moment.”

I interrupted Lee Seong-hoon.

“There are no signs of prison guards. At least for now.”

It looked like a school library.

Or rather, an imitation of one.

A recreation covered in blood and flesh.

The shelves had collapsed.

And torn books were mixed with severed arms on the floor.

I stayed near the entrance for several seconds, sniffing the air.

Decay.

Moisture.

Death.

But nothing moved.

It wasn’t a very large place.

If a prison guard were nearby, we would have noticed immediately.

And above all, I wanted to get away from those unbearable cell corridors filled with aberrant voices as quickly as possible.

After checking the area once more, I walked deeper inside.

I chose a chair and sat down.

I brushed away the dust.

Subtly pushed aside some bloodstains.

And leaned back.

‘It’s ridiculous to feel something like this in the middle of a field of corpses.’

But still.

For the first time in a long while, I felt the accumulated tension loosen.

Lee Seong-hoon also approached and sat down cautiously.

He tried to lean against the backrest.

Then he noticed the blood smeared across it and flinched.

But even that seemed like a luxury at the moment.

“…We’re still alive.”

Lee Seong-hoon whispered.

I didn’t turn my head.

“Hyung… do you really think we’ll be able to escape like this?”

“To try escaping, you first have to stay alive.”

“I guess that’s true, but…”

Lee Seong-hoon muttered to himself.

“This place is too scary… This isn’t a dream, right…?”

I didn’t answer.

I simply closed my eyes and pretended I hadn’t heard anything.

I also pretended not to hear the words that came next.

“Where are your companions, hyung? Is there any way to find them?”

“……”

“And these books seem really old too… Even though it’s strange, they aren’t organized. It’s different from the corridor earlier, but…”

“……”

I didn’t even respond with single-syllable answers.

I didn’t want to prolong the conversation.

Beyond my personality, this was not the time to share emotions through words.

I was grateful that he had followed me without breaking down in tears.

But beyond that, it was something I couldn’t handle.

Even so, Lee Seong-hoon spoke again.

“Hyung, that bookshelf over there…”

“Seong-hoon.”

“…Yes?”

“Get some rest.”

I heard him hold his breath.

But he immediately fell silent again.

I rested my chin on one hand and looked around.

This prison was alive.

The spaces changed constantly.

The paths distorted themselves whenever they had the chance.

Will Director Mok and Supervisor Shik know that I disappeared?

Before opening that door, Director Mok had sensed something.

He said he felt a presence.

He said it was strange.

He even changed our direction slightly.

Could he detect my location as well?

Would the other two still be together while I was the only one separated?

Or had all three of us been scattered apart?

What if all of us had been separated?

I let out a short sigh and covered my face with both hands.

I rubbed my face once.

Then again.

A pulse.

The rosary tightened.

‘At least it helps reduce useless anxiety.’

The company’s items were genuinely useful.

In a cold way.

They allowed me to maintain only thoughts focused on survival.

I pulled the extractor from my clothes.

The device, stained with half-dried blood, rested heavily in my palm.

A red indicator glowed on the front panel.

20%.

It was still not enough.

‘Even so…’

I tried to put the extractor away again.

At that moment, Lee Seong-hoon spoke once more.

“Hyung.”

I had told him to rest.

That meant he should stay quiet.

I frowned.

Just as I was about to turn my head, Lee Seong-hoon pointed at something with a thin, trembling finger.

Without moving my head, I followed the direction of his finger with my eyes.

‘…What is that?’

Between the library shelves.

Behind the shadows.

Two figures were standing there.

One was a sturdy man who looked to be in his early twenties.

Beside him stood a woman with short hair and a physique that did not pale in comparison to the man’s.

Both appeared human.

Unlike the corpses in the library, they were standing on two healthy legs.

They were moving.

They were alive.

“…Seong-hoon, behind me.”

“Are they people?”

“There are many things that look like people without actually being people.”

I slowly stood up.

Very slowly.

And focused my attention on those two figures.

I didn’t speak to them.

They didn’t say anything either.

A tense silence.

And at the point where our gazes met, a thick tension flowed, as heavy as the very air of Gangsol Prison.

The two figures finally came into view.

A man and a woman cautiously peering out from between the bookshelves.

The man looked to be in his early twenties.

He was tall and wore sportswear covered in blood.

He carried a backpack on his back.

The woman was slightly shorter.

But her gaze was sharp.

She had short hair and wore dark athletic clothing.

And she watched in my direction with empty hands.

Instinctively, I lowered my body.

I sensed movement behind me.

It was Lee Seong-hoon.

Without making a sound or revealing his presence, he hid behind my back.

“Don’t move.”

I muttered quietly as I lowered one knee to the floor to maintain my balance.

My hand naturally slid inside my clothes.

The cold surface of the bone pen touched my fingers.

I didn’t have a proper weapon for subduing someone.

But I also didn’t want them to discover that I was practically unarmed in the middle of this hell.

Who were they?

First, I needed to understand the situation.

Then—

“Oh, wow, you scared us! It’s okay, it’s okay. Relax.”

The man slowly raised both hands and spoke with a smile.

A carefree voice.

Cheerful.

Far too light for a situation like this.

“We’re… uh… from the Anomalous Disaster Management Department. We’re from the Control Team! You know us, right? The Control Team! We’ve come to rescue you.”

The Anomalous Disaster Management Department?

That unexpected name momentarily took my breath away.

As he casually looked around the blood-covered library, he continued speaking.

“My name is Agent Min Do-hyeon. Wow, this place is really terrifying, isn’t it? Honestly, even horror games don’t go this far. Are you two okay?”

Instead of answering, I narrowed my eyes.

I felt the strange pulse of the necklace beneath my shirt.

‘How strange.’

That man who claimed to be Min Do-hyeon.

And he said he belonged to the Anomalous Disaster Management Department?

“A rescue agent?”

“Exactly! We arrived a bit late, didn’t we? The paths kept changing, so it took us quite a while. Ah, and we have some food in the backpack, first-aid supplies, and a few tools. Not much, but you’ll be safe if you come with us.”

He continued speaking completely naturally.

But I was more focused on his appearance than his words.

He wore black high-mobility tactical clothing.

And athletic shoes.

He looked nothing like the agents of the Anomalous Disaster Management Department I had seen before in the endless corridors.

Both Yeom Hwi and Seo Ryu had worn elegant formal suits and dress shoes, as though attending a funeral.

And on top of that, he was supposedly an agent exploring a distorted zone.

Yet all he carried was a knife and an expandable baton.

‘He doesn’t have a firearm.’

No matter how I looked at him, he was completely different from the genuine agents of the Anomalous Disaster Management Department I had seen before.

I slowly turned my head and looked at my own clothes.

Even though they were a mess from blood and chunks of flesh, I was still wearing a suit.

It was worth taking the gamble.

I needed to confirm the truth before deciding how to deal with them.

“Really? I don’t remember seeing you before.”

“Huh?”

“…Because I belong to the Anomalous Disaster Management Department.”

For a fraction of a second, the other person’s eyes wavered in a strange way.