There Are No Humans in the Monster Company

As soon as I typed the final period of the report on the monitor, a notification appeared indicating that it had been registered in the system.

I massaged the back of my aching neck as I stretched, and the sound of my joints cracking echoed through the silent office.

‘Time to get off work.’

Just thinking about being able to leave that hellish place made part of my chest feel lighter.

I hurriedly packed my belongings into my backpack and was about to grab the coat I had left hanging behind my chair when a calm, chillingly gentle voice brushed against the back of my neck.

“Your complexion is terribly pale. It seems today has been an especially difficult day for you.”

There was only one person in the entire company who spoke like that.

I felt my heart drop to the floor.

I slowly turned my head and saw that, without my noticing when she had approached, Manager Batori was standing right behind me.

Her skin, so white it looked sickly, and her grotesque red eyes stood out in my vision more vividly than usual.

‘Could this woman have been manipulating my brain…?’

Director Won’s words resurfaced in my mind.

He had said that she had erased my fear and planted confidence in its place.

The more warmly Manager Batori smiled at me, the more I could imagine those tentacles savoring every fold of my brain.

I held back my breath and forced a smile.

“Manager. You startled me. Were you heading home already?”

My voice sounded as cheerful as I could possibly fake.

But Manager Batori narrowed her eyes even further as she looked at me.

Every time her gaze lingered near my temples, I felt my brain throb with an unsettling warmth.

“A dark shadow has fallen over your eyes once again. Was the work in Zone C too demanding? Or is there another concern tormenting you?”

I kept my expression composed and answered,

“Not at all. I left the window open for a while last night. I guess that’s why I had a nightmare.”

Crack!

The instant I finished speaking, a horrifying tearing sound exploded beside my ear.

The impact made my eardrums vibrate.

I slowly turned my eyes and saw a red tentacle embedded in the wall just millimeters from my ear, writhing slowly.

The plaster had shattered into pieces, crumbling into a cloud of dust.

‘…What exactly did I step on?’

I had triggered something.

That certainty struck me hard.

I slowly turned my head back forward, my entire body stiff.

Manager Batori was no longer smiling kindly.

Her crimson eyes burned with a terrifying intensity, as though they were about to pierce straight through my retinas.

I had overlooked two things.

The first was that Manager Batori could detect lies with supernatural precision.

The second was that she hated lies with a pathological intensity.

“Falsehood does not suit you. It seems that when I repaired you, I neglected to polish the virtue of honesty.”

As she spoke in that low, serene voice, dozens of blood-colored tentacles emerged from behind her back, raising their heads like serpents and undulating grotesquely.

“It seems we have much to discuss. Let’s go to the break room for a moment.”

“Manager, wait…!”

I didn’t even have the chance to respond.

The tentacles that sprang up behind me immobilized my limbs in an instant.

Those cold, viscous membranes wrapped around my entire body as they slid across my skin.

The next moment, completely bound by the tentacles, I was dragged across the floor without my feet even touching it.

I already knew resisting was pointless.

I only had one option left.

‘Director Won… you damned bastard…’

Suppressing a groan, I allowed myself to be dragged away in silence.

As the fluorescent lights in the hallway passed one after another above my head, I caught sight, through the office door, of Assistant Manager Son’s and Supervisor Shik’s surprised expressions, as though they were afterimages etched into my memory.

***

I hate the break room.

I’ve never come here for something as ordinary as needing sugar.

To me, this place has never been a break room, but a torture chamber and interrogation room.

Thud!

The moment I was thrown onto the floor of the room, the cold pressure imprisoning my limbs disappeared.

“Cough…! Cough…!”

I braced myself against the floor, trying to catch my breath, and attempted to stand.

But before I could even get completely back to my feet, the blood-colored tentacles wrapped around my arms and legs again, violently slamming me against the wall.

“It seems I was too considerate with you. If you won’t speak, I’ll find out myself.”

Beyond her gentle voice, one of the red tentacles floating at the edge of my vision raised its head like a serpent, pointing directly at my ear.

Seeing it writhing as though it were about to rummage through my brain, I shouted in a panic.

“W-wait! I’ll tell you myself! I’ll talk!”

My desperate struggle, so pathetic it bordered on humiliating, made the tentacle stop just before touching my ear.

A moment later, it slowly withdrew.

Manager Batori remained motionless, watching me with cold, utterly expressionless eyes.

I rubbed my neck now that I was free while carefully studying her expression.

I was certain there wasn’t a single excuse or improvised lie that could get me out of this situation.

She was my superior, a manager.

I was only a new employee.

‘Even so, I hate being manipulated, even when I know it’s happening.’

If I wanted to prevent those tentacles from digging through my brain again, I had no choice but to reveal my most dangerous card and pray for her mercy.

I swallowed before speaking.

“…I met Director Won.”

The moment those words left my mouth—

Booom!!!

A killing intent erupted from Manager Batori with an intensity I had never felt—or even imagined.

The cups on the shelves exploded with a deafening crash.

The fluorescent lights burst apart, scattering violet sparks.

“How dare he…?!”

The dozens of tentacles thrashing behind her back began writhing frantically, driven mad by bloodlust.

“How dare that filthy monkey lay his hands on one of my own blood?!”

The entire break room had already been dyed red.

The walls were covered in crimson membranes slowly creeping across their surfaces.

Manager Batori’s body swelled and grotesquely mutated.

Her skin, barely maintaining a human form, looked as though it were about to tear apart as dozens of eyes and mouths returned to their original shapes.

‘It’s over.’

Receiving a death sentence from both reason and instinct at the same time wasn’t exactly pleasant.

But no matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t find any way to survive.

I couldn’t rely on the durability of the Shadow Shell.

The only thing I could do was close my eyes and accept that I was about to die.

However—

“…?”

The pain I had expected never came.

The deafening roars and vibrations that had seemed intent on shattering my ears vanished as though they had never existed.

I cautiously opened my eyes.

Manager Batori was still standing there, breathing heavily as she restrained her fury.

Several tentacles were still twitching restlessly behind her back, and thick red veins grotesquely bulged across her pale skin.

But even so, she was making an enormous effort to regain her usual appearance.

“…I must calm down… I must calm down. Mastering anger is a virtue.”

As she exhaled deeply to suppress her bloodlust, I took the opportunity to carefully get to my feet and brush the dust off my clothes.

My fingers were still trembling.

But at least I no longer felt like my head was about to be torn apart at any moment.

After a few moments, even the last of the tentacles disappeared beneath her clothes.

Manager Batori once again looked like the elegant and beautiful woman she always was before speaking to me.

“Forgive me. Even after you performed such a beautiful act of repentance, I was unable to reward you.”

“…Huh?”

The word caught me completely off guard.

I had expected a torture session with tentacles rummaging through my brain.

Or an interrogation.

Or a merciless reprimand for having come into contact with Director Won.

I had never imagined I would receive an apology.

Perhaps noticing my bewildered expression, Manager Batori smiled with obvious bitterness and took a step toward me.

Her cold fingers gently brushed against my cheek.

“I never intended to frighten you. It’s just… that repulsive name polluted my ears, and I lost my composure for a moment. Did I scare you that badly?”

It was the same gentle tone as always.

But after witnessing that overwhelming killing intent, that kindness felt even more chilling.

“N-No… I’m fine.”

“Good boy. Now tell me everything. What sweet words did that snake, Director Won, whisper to you? Don’t leave out a single detail. I will personally dispel all the confusion he has sown within you.”

I could only hope that didn’t mean she intended to rummage through my brain again.

As I felt a sharp pain in my temples, I tried to calculate how much I should tell her.

But I quickly gave up.

If I hid something and ended up with tentacles piercing my head—

It was much better to be honest.

***

I told Manager Batori everything essential about my conversation with Director Won.

From the fact that my brain had been manipulated according to Manager Batori’s will.

To his warnings about Extraction Team 1.

And his attempt to persuade me to take his side.

When I finished speaking, a cold silence fell over the room.

Manager Batori was no longer smiling.

With a completely serious expression, she absentmindedly nibbled on the nails of her slender fingers while remaining lost in thought.

Tap.

Tap.

The sound of her nails clicking broke the silence.

Meanwhile, I carefully watched her reactions, wiping the cold sweat from my palms onto my pants.

‘Did I do the right thing by telling her everything?’

Director Won’s warnings crossed my mind once again.

But if I hid anything, those red tentacles would immediately begin rummaging through my brain again.

Compared to the fear of a possible future caused by Director Won—

The very real pain that Manager Batori could inflict on me here and now was far more terrifying.

After a long silence, she finally spoke.

“…I knew you were afraid of us.”

That truth was too heavy to either deny or admit.

Without giving me time to react, she continued.

“The trust shared between members of the same blood runs deeper than any bond of kinship. However, you are, by nature, a human being. I thought it was perfectly natural for you to feel instinctive rejection and fear toward us, who are not of your kind.”

Under the cold lighting of the break room, Manager Batori narrowed her eyes with a melancholy expression.

“But here, in Extraction Team 1, a single moment of hesitation means death. If fear caused you to lose your composure and diminished your ability to work, it would only mean you would be far more likely to die. I didn’t want to see you disappear.”

Her voice was especially quiet.

“Perhaps my consideration seemed like an overbearing intrusion to you. But all I wanted was for you to remain calm and survive for a long time, even in an environment as hellish as this. That was my way of doing it. That was how I chose to show my affection.”

It was her confession.

According to her, all of this had been for my sake.

As I listened to her, something inside my chest stirred strangely.

It was a completely abnormal method.

But I could also sense that, deep down, her feelings went far beyond simply protecting one of the company’s assets.

However, before emotion came another thought that was much clearer.

Should I understand and accept someone manipulating another person’s brain in the name of consideration?

“For the time being, it would be best to keep this conversation a secret from Manager Myeon.”

Manager Batori remained thoughtful for a few seconds as she brushed her pale fingers across her lips.

“As for Director Won, that wretch… and also that strange dream you said you had, I think we need to discuss them in greater depth.”

“With whom?”

I asked cautiously.

She didn’t answer.

She simply gave my shoulder a few gentle pats.

“Leave it to me. For now, go home. Tomorrow, during lunch break, I’ll call you aside. Until then, try to calm yourself.”

In the end, I couldn’t ask anything else.

I bowed my head.

My steps still felt heavy.

But breathing was much easier than it had been just a few minutes ago.

“Then I’ll be going, Manager.”

When I turned around one last time to look at her, Manager Batori seemed much smaller and more fragile than usual.

Watching me as I walked away, she whispered in a voice so gentle that it was as if she were speaking to something extremely delicate.

“I’m sorry, Jeong Haeil. I truly am.”

My name slowly escaped her lips.

“But remember this. To me, you are more important than any other member of my own blood… and the only life I wish to protect in this cold place.”

I left behind that farewell steeped in melancholy and stepped out into the hallway.

The office grew farther and farther away.

So did the killing intent emanating from the containment chambers.

When I caught my reflection in the elevator mirror, I still looked pale.

But Manager Batori’s final gaze had taken root deep within my heart, like blood vessels.

Perhaps the gentlest contamination wasn’t fear.

Perhaps it was a sincerity like hers.