There Are No Humans in the Monster Company

“…What is the reason for all this?”

My voice came out strained.

The sensation of having just been decapitated was still far too vivid.

The torn corners of Director Won’s mouth trembled as he let out a mocking smile.

The four pale hands sprouting from his temples continued to press tightly over his eyes and ears, as if trying to crush them, and yet he tilted his head slightly, as though he could see me with absolute precision.

“Jeong Haeil. There’s no need to rush, is there? After all, this is the first time we’ve spoken alone.”

When he moved one of his long fingers, a teacup came walking out of thin air on its own and stopped in front of me.

Inside the cup swirled a liquid far too thick and far too red to be called tea.

“How has life at the company been treating you? Extraction Team 1 is full of individuals with very strong personalities. It must have been difficult to adapt.”

“It’s not going badly.”

“Really? Well, Manager Myeon has always treated his subordinates as if they were his own children. I’ve also heard that the rest of the team takes very good care of you.”

Without even lifting the cup, Director Won continued speaking as damp air slowly escaped from between his torn lips.

“What did you have for lunch yesterday? Our company pays close attention to the well-being of its employees. I wonder whether the menu is to your liking.”

“I ate at the company cafeteria. It wasn’t bad.”

“I’m glad to hear that. We do our best to offer dishes that humans enjoy as well, although unfortunately there aren’t many humans left who can evaluate them. I suppose it’s the wish of a father who only wants to give his children the very best.”

His fur-covered fingers tapped the table in a steady rhythm.

Tap.

Tap.

A regular vibration reminiscent of the rattling of the train, slowly eroding my nerves.

“And where do you live? I wonder whether your apartment is too old or whether the neighborhood is safe enough.”

“It’s enough to live in.”

“That’s a relief. After all, the company’s assets retain their value better when they rest in a clean and stable environment.”

It was a completely ordinary conversation.

Trivial.

And yet, even those insignificant questions, spoken in that metallic voice, sounded like a curse disguised as courtesy.

The feeling of discomfort finally became too much for me.

I let out a short sigh.

I wanted to leave that grotesque purple space as soon as possible.

“Could you get to the point?”

At my direct question, Director Won became completely motionless.

After a few seconds of silence, the corners of his mouth began to tremble.

His lips, torn all the way beneath his ears, twisted into an unnatural angle, forming an enormous smile.

“Hehe, you have quite a straightforward personality. I like that.”

I heard the fingers on his temples digging into his own head, as though they were causing him unbearable pain.

But his laughter did not stop.

“Jeong Haeil. Do you really believe you’re nothing more than an ordinary new employee who was lucky enough to join this company?”

To be honest, joining this company had been an enormous misfortune for any human being.

But I didn’t feel the need to correct him.

One of his long, fur-covered fingers slowly pointed at me.

“You’re quite special, Jeong Haeil. That’s precisely why you were assigned to a department as dangerous and as impure as Extraction Team 1.”

His voice began piercing my mind, as though it were scraping across my neurons one by one.

“Do you really believe they value you as much as they pretend to?”

Director Won leaned back against the sofa as a damp smile escaped his torn lips.

“Are you truly convinced that your colleagues in Extraction Team 1 are on your side? Don’t trust them too much, Jeong Haeil. They aren’t the kind neighbors you imagine them to be.”

The fingers growing from his temples twitched around his eyelids, producing a sickening scraping sound.

Veins began bulging beneath the thick fur on the backs of his hands.

“Allow me to ask you a question. Jeong Haeil, doesn’t it strike you as strange that, at some point, you stopped feeling fear or disgust toward them?”

What…?

“What happened to the overwhelming fear you felt the first time you saw those monsters?”

Fear?

Fear…?

I was human.

And the superiors of Extraction Team 1 were monsters.

But now.

Those monsters were the only people I could call my comrades.

My own family.

Of course I had been afraid of them at first.

But after spending several months working alongside them.

Was I supposed to still fear them?

Eventually, even fear becomes routine.

“After Manager Batori put her hands inside your brain like that, it would have been strange if you had remained the same.”

The instant those words penetrated my mind.

A sharp metallic sound exploded inside my head.

“Argh…!”

I didn’t even have time to scream.

Unbearable pain shot through my temples.

It was as though someone had driven a red-hot wedge into the center of my brain and was twisting it.

My entire field of vision turned white.

Within those flashes, emotions I had forgotten began to surface.

Or that someone had forced me to forget.

The sensation of Manager Batori’s tentacles stirring my brain.

The stench of blood emanating from Supervisor Shik’s breath.

Assistant Manager Son crushing a human being’s head without the slightest hesitation.

And that primal fear I had felt when Manager Myeon’s seven faces stared at me.

That wasn’t a feeling of belonging to a family.

It was the carefully engineered peace of a domesticated farm animal.

“Stop…!”

I clutched my head with both hands as I rolled across the floor.

It felt as though my skull was about to burst from within.

Every cell in my body trembled violently.

Every fold of my brain screamed in pain.

“In the end, all of them only think about using you. If you want to survive, you’d better think very carefully about which side you choose.”

Director Won’s monstrous voice sank even deeper into my head together with that unbearable pain.

Curled up on the floor, I let out a groan mixed with blood.

My vision remained distorted within a purple haze and reddish static.

Among the remnants of my reason, only one question continued spreading like poison.

‘Since when…?’

Since when had I stopped being afraid of them?

I couldn’t explain it simply by saying I had gotten used to them.

Something had happened.

Something very specific.

But when?

“They repair you just enough to keep that valuable asset called Jeong Haeil from breaking, then they twist your mental processes to prevent you from feeling revulsion. Isn’t it fascinating that even your emotions are being controlled under the company’s order?”

Director Won clasped his fur-covered hands together as he spoke.

“If you choose the wrong side, you’ll end up exactly like the discarded remnants of the Department of Emotions. I only hope this warning manages to reach, even if only a little, that contaminated brain of yours.”

I let out a blood-soaked groan as I tried to steady my breathing.

The pain crushing my skull still burned like glowing embers, distorting my vision.

But my instincts forced my mind back under control.

With trembling hands, I braced myself against the floor and slowly stood up.

Trying to appear as calm as possible, I fixed my gaze on Director Won.

But he found my effort ridiculously amusing.

He burst into laughter with that unpleasant voice that sounded like metal scraping against metal.

“Hehe, what a stubborn person. With willpower like yours, it’s no wonder Executive Director Ahn is so interested in you.”

Director Won slowly rose from the purple velvet sofa.

His grotesquely tall and slender figure, well over two meters tall, cast an enormous shadow over my head.

Swinging his abnormally long arms, he walked toward me step by step until his face was directly in front of mine.

The pressure of that unseen gaze filtering through the four fingers covering his eyes.

And the sickeningly sweet, metallic stench emanating from his lips, torn all the way beneath his ears, stole my breath.

“Are you disappointed in the company? Do you want to resign?”

Director Won’s lips trembled.

“Without dying, and with your body and mind remaining completely intact, of course.”

It was a proposal forbidden within this hellish company.

Something I had never heard since joining.

Something almost impossible.

For a moment, my eyes widened as I looked at Director Won.

The whisper of that monkey-shaped monster, grotesquely smiling in front of me, sounded sweeter than ever.

As if enjoying the trembling of my pupils, Director Won lowered his voice even further and whispered.

“It’s not that such a method doesn’t exist, Jeong Haeil.”

His grotesquely long, fur-covered fingers gently brushed against my cheek.

“Besides you, there are several human employees in the company. Manager Moon and Director Go from the Order Control Room, Supervisor Hong and Assistant Manager Yu from the Extraction Team, and even the outstanding talents from the Strategic Planning Office.”

Director Won slowly traced my face with his gaze and continued explaining in that metallic voice.

“There are also the stubborn ones who survived the hell of the Department of Emotions at all costs, proved their worth, and became permanent employees. And then there are talents recruited from the very beginning for a specific purpose, like you, Jeong Haeil.”

Then why me?

As I pressed against my temples, which still throbbed as though they were about to split apart, I listened carefully to his words.

But inside my head, I broke down every piece of information Director Won gave me and desperately tried to calculate his true intentions.

The reason he had summoned me.

The reason he had revealed that Manager Batori had manipulated my perception.

And the reason he was offering me the irresistibly sweet bait of a safe resignation.

“Limited Company Where the Dead End Up with Ghosts is a reasonable place. As long as someone has ability, their species doesn’t matter.”

Director Won interlaced his long fingers and emphasized his position once again.

“And I happen to be the Head of the Management Support Division, responsible for all personnel matters in this company.”

The moment I remembered Lee Jihyun, who had gone through the resignation process while being devoured by that grotesque baby monster in the Human Resources Office, a sudden realization pierced through the fog clouding my mind.

If there truly was a door within this company called resignation that would allow me to leave with both my body and mind intact.

The only authority capable of granting it belonged to the monkey-shaped monster grotesquely smiling before me.

The one responsible for all personnel matters within the company.

That meant the only being capable of stamping approval on my resignation letter was this very creature.

“Besides, I rather like you, Jeong Haeil. Of course, I would like you even more if you were willing to cooperate with me.”

What Director Won revealed as the corners of his mouth stretched grotesquely wide was not simple goodwill.

It was a deadly invitation.

An invitation to leave behind the shelter formed by Manager Myeon and Extraction Team 1, and step onto a new game board designed by him and Executive Director Ahn.

I drew a shaky breath as I stared at his torn lips.

The only way out of this hellish company that would allow me to keep both my body and mind intact.

The elongated fingers of that monster, dangling the key to that escape, looked like snakes.

Director Won studied my expression with interest and curled the corners of his mouth even higher.

“The time will come soon when we meet again and have a much deeper conversation, Jeong Haeil.”

Finally, his metallic voice drove itself into my ears like a wedge.

“Until then, I expect excellent work performance from you.”

Snap.

The instant he lightly snapped his fingers, that office filled with purple light and suffocating fragrance shattered like breaking glass.

“Hah…!”

Once again, I jolted upright, gasping for breath.

The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was neither that grotesque train nor the mounted heads of monsters, but the old, familiar ceiling of my apartment.

Outside the window, it was still as dark as night.

But the phone ringing loudly beside my bed already read six in the morning.

“Ah… seriously.”

I turned off the alarm irritably and roughly wiped away the cold sweat covering my face.

A chill ran through me as I realized that the warmth of the blood I had touched in that dream still seemed to linger in the palm of my hand.

“…What the hell.”

It wasn’t simply that I didn’t want to go.

Director Won’s voice, lodged deep within the folds of my brain, weighed down my entire body.

The thought that I would soon have to hang my employee ID around my neck and walk back into that office where those grotesque monsters sat under the title of “colleagues” felt several times more revolting than usual.