There Are No Humans in the Monster Company

I stood in front of the old front door, unable to grasp the doorknob for a long time.

The moment I opened that door, I would have to step back into the nest of those grotesque monsters.

‘Will I be able to treat them the same as always?’

Director Won’s words about how Manager Batori’s tentacles had stirred my brain, erasing my fear and planting trust.

The cold calculations hidden behind Manager Myeon’s benevolent faces.

If all of that was true, then every emotion I had felt toward them up until now was nothing more than values implanted by Manager Batori.

As I hesitated, it drew closer and closer to work time without mercy.

Feeling the pressure of the second hand on the clock as though it were strangling me, I finally let out a long sigh and turned the doorknob.

Click.

Instead of the old hallway of my apartment building, the company’s corridor appeared as always, so colorless that it looked almost sickeningly pale.

A sharp headache seemed to drive itself deep into my nerves.

I pressed firmly against my trembling temples.

Today, the company’s warm air felt unbearably unpleasant.

My mind kept circling without finding an answer to the question of how I was supposed to face those monsters called my ‘family’ waiting beyond the office door.

“Hey, Haeil. You’re here already?”

The playful voice that sounded behind me made my heart sink.

As I slowly turned around, the first thing that filled my vision was an enormous, rough hand.

Assistant Manager Son.

By reflex, I almost stepped back in alarm, but I forced my feet to stay firmly planted.

‘Now that I’m seeing him again…’

He really does look terrifying.

He had the body of a huge, muscular adult man, topped with grotesquely oversized hands.

As those grotesque fingers wriggled above my head, I forced my facial muscles to move and put on the same dry smile as always.

“Ah, Assistant Manager Son. You’re here early.”

“What’s with that expression, Haeil? Did you have a nightmare?”

As usual, Assistant Manager Son smiled naturally and heavily draped one of his thick arms over my shoulders.

A friendly gesture, exactly as always.

“Starting today, we’ll be working together in Zone C. The ones there are on a completely different level compared to Zone D, so be careful. Just trust Supervisor Shik and me. Got it?”

The weight of his arm pressed down on my shoulders.

And the cold, rigid touch that passed through my clothes, utterly devoid of a living person’s warmth, sent a chill down my spine.

Director Won’s torn lips overlapped my vision like a hallucination.

That hand belonged to a monster capable of twisting my neck at any moment.

That thought pulsed in time with the frantic beating of my heart.

Even so, I forced a smile and replied energetically.

“Yes, Assistant Manager. I’ll be counting on you again this time. I’ll do my best to learn.”

Even to me, my voice sounded strangely cheerful.

Satisfied, Assistant Manager Son patted me on the shoulder and started walking ahead of me.

I followed him while forcibly burying that unpleasant suspicion that refused to disappear deep inside my chest.

When you have no other choice, thinking too much only makes things worse.

Especially when the place you’re heading to is Sector C of the Extraction Room, at the end of that dark corridor, where the real danger awaits.

**

When we arrived in front of the enormous security door to Sector C of the Extraction Room, Supervisor Shik was already waiting there.

His gigantic figure, wrapped in rags and heavy chains, was as imposing as a colossal beast.

That overwhelming body and his breath mixed with the pungent smell of blood, which had long since become familiar and even reassuring to me, now awakened an instinctive fear.

Suppressing the distrust lodged deep within the folds of my brain, I greeted him cautiously.

“Good morning, Supervisor Shik.”

Supervisor Shik looked me over with the yellowish gleam of his eyes and replied, as always, with a rough, incomprehensible growl.

“Grrr… kuh! Grrrr…”

As I shuddered at that strange sound, like a throat clogged with phlegm, Assistant Manager Son, standing beside me, simply nodded as though he were listening to a perfectly ordinary conversation.

“Supervisor Shik thinks the same thing too? He noticed right away that Haeil doesn’t look well. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to take good care of you today.”

Assistant Manager Son continued speaking as naturally as ever while Supervisor Shik kept responding with growls.

I watched that bizarre conversation for a few seconds before following them into Sector C of the Extraction Room.

The moment I crossed the boundary between the hallway and the room, the first thing I felt was a suffocating murderous aura.

‘It’s definitely different.’

I had briefly visited Zone C before to observe the extraction of the Broken Violinist and to use the Universal Employee Benefits Machine.

But perhaps because this place would now be my workplace, the atmosphere felt completely different.

The energy was infinitely heavier and sharper than in Zone D.

From the containment chambers lining the walls, unsettling flashes of unknown origin and grotesque sounds continuously leaked out.

The oppressive feeling went far beyond that of a place simply used to imprison strange creatures.

Before I realized it, I had hunched my shoulders.

“Don’t be so nervous, Haeil. We’ll do just fine, okay?”

“Yes, understood!”

This time, I meant it completely seriously.

The atmosphere here was radically different from that of the previous extraction room.

It was enough just to look at those things, which exuded sinister auras and longed for the life force of everything that existed beyond their cells.

They were nothing like the Rank D Dimensional Entities, which resembled strange phenomena or dangerous creatures more than anything else.

I checked the cold feel of Dark Spike at my waist and prayed with all my strength.

I could only hope that my brain, manipulated by Manager Batori, would continue functioning normally even under that unbearable feeling of revulsion.

“First, we’ll observe the procedure. It’s quite a troublesome subject, but we deliberately chose it because, as long as you follow the guide to the letter, it shouldn’t give you too much trouble.”

Assistant Manager Son patted me on the shoulder reassuringly.

As I nodded with a forced smile, Supervisor Shik was already standing in front of the containment chamber door, readjusting the heavy chains he was holding.

“All right, Haeil. Look in there. That’s the subject we’ll be dealing with this time.”

Assistant Manager Son pointed through the thick reinforced glass.

The inside of the chamber was completely different from the company’s characteristic monochrome corridors.

Soft pastel shades of pink and blue filled the entire space, and curled up in the center was an enormous lamb that looked as though it had stepped straight out of the illustration of a fairy tale.

“…Is that a lamb?”

“That’s right. Codename C-11, Little Lamb. Isn’t it cute? It looks like cotton candy.”

As if hypnotized, I stepped closer to the glass.

It really did look warm and comforting.

Every time its fluffy pastel-colored fleece swayed, it gave off an indescribable sense of peace.

But the moment it slowly turned its head, I had to grip the hand resting against the glass tightly.

That wasn’t wool.

What shimmered in beautiful colors were tens of thousands of tiny blood vessels and grotesquely swollen bundles of nerves twisting together into a fleece-like tissue.

It had no hooves.

It floated about ten centimeters above the ground, and beneath its abdomen, dozens of small mouths continuously dripped a thick, sticky red syrup.

“That wool—or rather, those bundles of nerves—the more they grow, the more unbearable weight and pain it feels. That’s why we have to harvest them periodically. The fluid obtained during that process is an extremely high-purity energy source.”

As I listened to the explanation, a sickeningly sweet fragrance escaped through the gaps in the containment chamber.

That scent tickled my nose.

For an instant, my salivary glands started working, and I felt an overwhelming hunger.

I felt that if I tore off a handful of that wool and stuffed it into my mouth, every worry in the world would disappeardisappeardisappeardisappeardisappeardisappeardisappeardisappear.

“Haeil, snap out of it! How can you get intoxicated by the smell so quickly?”

Smack!

Assistant Manager Son’s hard slap on my shoulder brought me back to my senses.

“That syrup is poison. The moment you eat it, all the blood in your body turns into sugar syrup and hardens like glass. After that, you become a mindless little lamb that does nothing but follow that thing everywhere. Here, read the file first.”

“Ah… right. Thank you.”

Rubbing my aching temples, I accepted the Little Lamb file that Assistant Manager Son handed me.

==========

[Dimensional Entity Management Profile: C-11]

Entity Name: Little Lamb

Entity Code: C-11

Type: Biological

Danger Level: Class C

[Details]

Deceptive Appearance and Ecology

This entity takes the form of an enormous lamb covered in abundant pastel pink and blue wool.

Upon closer inspection, it has been confirmed that this pink wool is composed of tens of thousands of tiny blood vessels and grotesquely swollen bundles of nerves forming a fleece-like tissue.

The entity has no hooves and floats approximately ten centimeters above the ground, while dozens of mouths beneath its abdomen continuously secrete a sticky red fluid with a sweet fragrance.

Regressive Pheromones

The sweet scent of the syrup secreted by the entity directly stimulates the observer’s nervous system, inducing an intense feeling of happiness and causing an infantile mental regression.

Those who inhale the aroma experience extreme hunger and thirst while developing an obsessive urge to tear off and consume the grotesque nerve bundles (the “wool”), perceiving them as genuine cotton candy.

Infection and Bodily Crystallization

Anyone who ingests even the smallest amount of the fleece-like tissue or the entity’s fluids will temporarily forget all pain and stress, falling into a state of ecstasy and hallucinations.

Approximately two hours later, the water within the body mutates into high-temperature sugar syrup and hardens like glass inside the blood vessels.

In the next stage of the mutation, the skin tears apart and new fleece-like tissue sprouts from within, transforming the individual into a mindless “little lamb” that permanently follows the original entity.

[Extraction Mechanism]

The entity experiences extreme suffering due to the constant growth of its nerve bundles (wool).

When it lies down while bleating, specialized medical shears are used to trim (harvest) those tissues.

During this process, biological restorative energy and high-purity hallucinogenic energy are extracted from both the expelled sweet fluid and the nerve bundles.

[Management and Extraction Manual]

Personnel must wear a fully sealed Class C protective suit and a self-contained respirator at all times.

During harvesting (extraction), the entity may emit sounds resembling the cries of a newborn baby and rub itself against the worker’s legs.

This is merely a reflex caused by pain. Feeling sympathy or petting it with bare hands is strictly prohibited.

Even if the fluid splashes onto the visor of the protective suit during extraction, you must never remove your helmet to lick it or attempt to taste it with your finger.

If a coworker attempts to remove their helmet, they must be subdued using physical force, rendered unconscious immediately, and removed from the containment chamber.

[Special Recommendations]

If, out of greed, too many nerve bundles are trimmed in order to meet the extraction quota, exposing the eyeballs or the internal organ membranes, the entity will experience extreme fear and reveal the fangs of an enormous predator to devour the extractor.

Do not be greedy.

Always finish the job leaving at least three centimeters of wool.

==========

‘It’s definitely different.’

That was the conclusion I reached after finishing the file.

It was completely different from Class D Dimensional Entities.

In what way?

Although I had never failed an extraction in Zone D.

At least there, there were no monsters capable of killing a person so easily.

As if completely oblivious to what I was thinking, Assistant Manager Son opened the locker installed beside the entrance to the containment chamber, took out a protective suit, and said with his usual carefree smile,

“All right, let’s put on the suit. Make sure the face area is completely sealed.”

I put on the fully sealed Class C protective suit.

After fitting the self-contained respirator and lowering the visor, I was completely isolated from the outside world.

Inside the helmet, only the sound of my own heavy breathing echoed.

Supervisor Shik was already waiting in front of the security door, lightly shifting the enormous body of that gigantic beast.

‘Don’t feel sympathy. Don’t touch it with your bare hands. Don’t trim it too short.’

I gripped the heavy medical shears tightly as I stared at the pool of red syrup beyond the containment chamber door, which was slowly beginning to open.

It was time to listen to the broken babbling filled with screams of that Little Lamb.