There Are No Humans in the Monster Company

The moment the silver door closed, the cold was instantly cut off.

Although the pressure that had seemed capable of freezing even my lungs had disappeared, I remained with my back against the doorknob for quite some time, breathing heavily.

“You came back alive. Well done.”

Moon Ara, who was leaning against the wall at the end of the corridor, turned her gaze toward me.

Her carefully braided white hair rested over her shoulders, and her left heterochromatic eye still shone with a light that was impossible to interpret.

She slowly walked toward me.

“What did Executive Director Seol tell you?”

It wasn’t the attitude of someone who was worried, but rather of someone checking whether an interesting test subject had successfully passed an inspection.

I forcibly moved my stiff neck to answer.

“…She said she’ll be watching me.”

“Really? That’s a relief.”

Moon Ara stopped in front of me and lightly patted my shoulders, as if brushing the frost clinging to my clothes away.

Even that gentle gesture conveyed an overwhelming authority that was impossible to refuse.

“The greetings can wait.”

The figure standing like a shadow on the other side of the hallway spoke.

It was Director Go Gyeol.

He was still dressed in an immaculate white suit, his indifferent gray eyes fixed on a set of documents.

An absolute silence surrounded him, as though it wouldn’t permit the slightest stain.

“We’re moving.”

He turned around without even looking at me.

His voice was dry and devoid of emotion, as though it belonged to a dead man.

I remembered the obsessive image I had seen in the Prototype Storage Room, where he desperately cleaned his desk in an attempt to erase something that could never disappear.

“Director Go Gyeol, don’t be so stiff. Employee Jeong Haeil has just returned from death’s doorstep, hasn’t he?”

Moon Ara smiled as she walked behind Go Gyeol.

Without stopping, he answered coldly.

“Team Manager Moon. Save your personal feelings for your own team members.”

“How cruel.”

Moon Ara shrugged slightly and looked back at me.

“Congratulations. It seems the company has finally decided to invest in you.”

“Whether it’s an investment or merely inventory liquidation will be determined by the results.”

Go Gyeol’s dry voice scraped through the corridor.

The hallway of the Order Control Room remained almost blindingly white.

However, the farther we walked away from Executive Director Seol’s office, the more the piercing cold gradually turned into damp, heavy air.

“Follow me. You must’ve been tense in front of the Executive Director. My office is a little more comfortable.”

Moon Ara spoke calmly as she led the way.

She no longer carried the formal demeanor she had shown before Executive Director Seol.

As she walked, the skin coat she wore swayed gently.

Her back radiated complete relaxation, but that very calmness created a strange sense of oppression.

Director Go Gyeol followed us silently.

His footsteps couldn’t even be heard.

The only thing noticeable was the obsessive way he constantly checked that not even a trace of frost remained on the white sleeves of his suit.

“This way.”

The Security Room we arrived at had an atmosphere completely different from Extraction Team 1’s office.

It was a relatively orderly office.

Except for the countless monitors covering the walls, displaying every corner of the company while pulsing in an unsettling manner.

“Alright, here.”

Moon Ara pointed with her chin toward two silver hard-shell briefcases placed in the center of her desk.

“These aren’t mere prototypes. They’re some of the company’s flagship products. There are humans who would sell part of their souls just to get their hands on something like these.”

The moment the tips of her slender fingers touched one of the briefcases, the latches released with a mechanical click.

Whoosh.

A hiss of escaping pressure echoed as a faint white mist seeped from the opening.

I swallowed and carefully lifted the lid.

“…!”

Inside was a completely black blazer and a perfectly folded pair of dress pants.

It looked as though someone’s shadow had been cut away and preserved inside the briefcase.

‘…What is this?’

It wasn’t ordinary fabric.

Instead of reflecting light, it seemed to absorb all the illumination around it.

Inside the other briefcase rested a black ceramic tactical knife.

Its shape resembled the military knives I was familiar with, but the unpleasant chill radiating from the blade’s tip awakened an instinctive sense of revulsion.

As I stood there absorbed by the strange equipment, Director Go Gyeol, who continued reviewing documents beside me, spoke in a cold voice.

“The name of that suit is Shadow Shell.”

Go Gyeol casually brushed the suit’s collar with one gloved hand.

There wasn’t the slightest hint of appreciation in his empty gray eyes.

Only the cold gaze of an inspector searching for flaws.

“The energy embedded within its fibers disperses physical impacts. An ordinary traffic accident would leave you with little more than a few scratches.”

Go Gyeol looked at me indifferently.

Then he took a pen from inside his suit and wrote something in the file he was holding.

Moon Ara took the knife from the briefcase, lightly tossed it into the air, and caught it again.

The black blade danced gracefully between her fingers.

“This one’s called ‘Dark Spike.’ Its effect is very simple. If you manage to slash or stab your target properly, there’s a high probability they’ll die.”

“What?”

“Because it’s coated with a lethal poison. Of course, it has the drawback of only working against living beings, but it’s enough to leave even most Rank C Dimensional Entities on the verge of death.”

She held the knife out to me.

The instant I gripped the handle, a terrifying chill traveled from the palm of my hand straight to my heart.

The air surrounding the blade seemed to ripple strangely.

“From now on, stop doing nothing but scratching paper with that pen and start working a little more like someone in the field.”

Rather than concern or kindness, Moon Ara’s heterochromatic eye shone with a strange anticipation.

I put on the Shadow Shell and held the Dark Spike in my hand, remaining deep in thought for a few moments.

I wasn’t sure whether that black equipment was meant to protect me or if it was simply the shroud the company had prepared for me.

“Now that you’ve got new clothes, how about we run a performance test?”

Moon Ara sat on top of the desk while staring intently at me. Her braided white hair glowed faintly beneath the light of the unnervingly pulsing monitors.

“Congratulations, Mr. Jeong Haeil. Starting today, you’ll officially be assigned to handle Rank C Dimensional Entities. Of course, this has already been approved by Manager Myeon.”

“…Rank C?”

I felt my heart sink.

There was only one criterion used to determine a Dimensional Entity’s rank its level of danger.

Rank D entities were those whose extraction methods were relatively simple or that posed no significant physical threat.

But starting at Rank C, they became truly dangerous entities, capable of causing physical harm and contaminating perception.

‘And that’s by the monsters’ standards.’

For a human like me, it didn’t matter whether it was Rank D or Rank C. One mistake meant ending up torn apart by one of those monsters.

Seeing that I couldn’t hide my bewilderment, Moon Ara smiled sweetly and leaned toward me.

“What’s with that expression? Don’t you think this is a bonus for doing your job well? We’ve equipped you with flagship products that others would kill for. It’s only fair that you prove you’re worth what they cost.”

Her tone was gentle, but behind those words lay unmistakable pressure that left no room for refusal.

Beside me, Director Go Gyeol, who continued organizing documents, added indifferently,

“Try not to waste that equipment. Take good care of your life.”

Then he obsessively straightened his jacket collar once more and turned toward the hallway.

“You may return to Extraction Team 1. Our gift ends here.”

Moon Ara waved her hand in farewell.

As I left the Security Room, I had the unsettling feeling that every eye displayed across the countless monitors was following my every movement.

The elevator doors reflected my image.

A man dressed in a completely black blazer that absorbed all the light around it, with a life-devouring knife fastened at his waist.

I tightly gripped the employee ID card hanging around my neck.

In the end, I had never been given the right to choose within this company.

***

“You’re back already? I’ve been waiting for you.”

The first to react was Manager Batori.

As always, she was holding a thermos filled with blood. When she turned toward me, she narrowed her red eyes.

“Well, it suits you quite well.”

“Thank you very much, Manager.”

On the other side of the office, Supervisor Shik, who was chewing on something, abruptly turned his head.

He sniffed the air as he approached.

After taking in my scent several times, his gaze stopped on my new coat and the knife at my waist.

“…Grrrr.”

Seeing Supervisor Shik bare his enormous fangs as he let out a brief growl, I gave my usual response.

“Yes, understood, Supervisor Shik.”

“Oh, Haeil!”

Assistant Manager Son cheerfully walked over and was about to pat me on the shoulder, but the moment he touched the fabric and felt the cold radiating from it, he jerked his hand back in surprise.

“Whoa… It’s freezing. Aren’t you cold? Even if someone gave me something like this, I wouldn’t wear it.”

“It’s not that bad. Besides, it’s company-issued equipment after all.”

At that moment, Director Mok’s wooden face appeared above one of the monitors, and the green eyes embedded between the knots scanned my figure.

“Executive Director Gu already mentioned it to me, but it seems they gave you even better equipment than I expected. Congratulations, Employee Jeong Haeil.”

“Thank you very much, Director Mok.”

Beyond the reactions of the rest of the team, a chair slowly began to rotate in the deepest corner of the office.

Manager Myeon.

His seven faces were looking at me, each wearing a different expression.

One was smiling.

Another looked saddened.

And the one in the center was watching me with a gentle smile.

“I’m glad you’ve returned safe and sound, Employee Jeong.”

Manager Myeon’s voice calmed the atmosphere in the office.

“Receiving Executive Director Seol’s recognition means you’re no longer just another employee of this company. You’re now an important asset. Congratulations.”

One of his seven faces formed an unsettling smile.

“Don’t worry about the Rank D Extraction Room. Senior Hong Na-gyeom and Senior Rang will take care of it.”

“Senior Rang…?”

“Ah, starting tomorrow, Extraction Team 2 will also be returning. The extraction duties will be distributed a bit more evenly. Soon you’ll see an Extraction Room full of activity.”

The central face of Manager Myeon continued speaking with a benevolent smile that, for some reason, was terrifying.

“In any case, I have great expectations for you. Besides, Assistant Manager Son and Supervisor Shik will be with you, so you have nothing to worry about.”

I looked at each of Manager Myeon’s seven faces one by one.

Each displayed a different emotion.

But deep down, they were all looking at me with the same intent.

An expectation bordering on absolute certainty.

I had no idea what exactly gave them so much confidence in me.

“Yes. Understood, Manager.”

I respectfully lowered my head and returned to my desk.

Once seated, I idly toyed with the face mask resting on the desk.

Until recently, it had been the only piece of equipment I possessed.

Now, compared to the overwhelming presence of the new equipment I had been given, it seemed incredibly insignificant.

The same was true for the Relics of the Smiling Martyr, the Mercy of the Holy Mother, and the necklace.

‘…Starting tomorrow, they’ll be Rank C entities.’

I stared at my reflection in the monitor’s black screen.

A person who absorbed every color around him and existed only as a completely black silhouette.

Another day at Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts Co., Ltd. slowly came to an end.