Chapter 7: Department of Paranormal Affairs

Perhaps because she smelled another woman’s scent, the Bride of the White Face strongly insisted on following me this time.

“I want to follow you too, husband…”

“No. The wife of the house must protect the home.”

“But…”

If she follows me and catches me raising favorability with another anomaly, it’s going to be troublesome!

Squeeze!

“Ah, ouch!”

“I want to go with you…”

But the Bride of the White Face’s tantrum was too strong to refuse. She was holding my hand so tightly that I felt like she would cause another scene if I didn’t take her, so I had no choice but to take her with me. This one is surprisingly stubborn.

“Haah. Alright. But you have to stay quiet inside the ring, okay?”

“Yes…!”

And so, with the Bride of the White Face, I began to search for the anomalies in the seven ghost stories of the Fixer’s office building.

‘A quest has appeared.’

[Investigate the 7 Ghost Stories of the Building. (1/7)]

I’ve already met the woman in the elevator, so it seems one has been completed. I guess it will be cleared when I check the remaining six. In that case, the next place to go is the 4th-floor women’s restroom. According to the information tab on the Wall of Doom gallery, there were many rumors that something was seen in the mirror of the 4th-floor women’s restroom.

[Title: Am I the only one who thinks this is weird?]

(Picture of a restroom)

I think something is reflected in the mirror of the 4th-floor women’s restroom, am I the only one who sees it?

====

└It really looks like there’s something in the mirror.
└It’s an element that wasn’t in the game.
└But why did you go into the women’s restroom?
└Because I’m a woman.
└Where do you live and how old are you?
└There was a girl in the sausage fest of Wall of Doom Gallery.

So women get sucked into the world of Wall of Doom too. For now, I’ll make a separate note of the female gallery user…

‘A hazy figure. Does it rarely show its full form?’

After cross-verifying several reports, it’s clear that there’s something in the mirror of the 4th-floor women’s restroom.

“It’s not coming out.”

Even after waiting for a long time, the mirror ghost didn’t show itself. Is there no way to make it pop out like the woman in the elevator? There was a way to make the woman in the elevator appear for sure, but I had no idea how to make the mirror ghost appear. The gallery users didn’t seem to know a way either. In the end, there was no other way, so I stared at the mirror, and information popped up.

___________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Name: The Woman in the Mirror]
[Danger Level: Warning]
[Classification: Thought Form, Object Parasite Type, Illusion Ghost]
[Origin: An anomaly created from the fear of mirrors.]
[Extermination Method: Break the mirror as soon as it appears.]

___________________________________________________________________________________

So there was an anomaly hiding in the mirror. But why didn’t it show itself?

‘No way…’

When I held out the ‘Token of Pure Love’ on my left ring finger towards the mirror, the favorability changed drastically.

___________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Favorability: 0% → -120%]
[The anomaly has fallen into a state of extreme fear.]
[It is afraid of the being next to you.]

[Its existence is fading.]

___________________________________________________________________________________

So it was afraid of the Bride of the White Face! I thought it was strangely quiet, and soon after the message that its existence had faded, it completely disappeared. It seems that when a catastrophe-level anomaly appeared, it just vanished. To think it was purified just by bringing the Bride of the White Face near…

‘Since anomalies kill each other if their territories overlap, I guess it’s possible. But the effect is too good.’

Just because they were anomalies didn’t mean they were all friends with each other. In fact, you could say they were on very bad terms. Because they are such self-assertive beings, if their territory is invaded, they try to kill each other and fight like crazy. The representative evil ones who used this to their advantage were the Sorcerers. Anyway, the anomaly dwelling in the 4th-floor women’s restroom had its favorability drop to negative and completely disappeared. Still, it wasn’t a complete waste. This time, I learned a new fact that if the favorability drops to around -120, it is automatically exorcised. Either raise the favorability and make them an ally, or drop it completely and chase them away.

“Is this considered a successful exorcism?”

[Investigate the 7 Ghost Stories of the Building. (2/7)]

Seeing the number of the quest go up, it seems this is considered resolved as well. But this surprising event didn’t just happen to the mirror ghost in the 4th-floor women’s restroom.

“Excuse me?”

“Ugh!?”

The cleaning lady anomaly I happened to run into.

“Is this the empty room on the 2nd floor?”

–Kyaaa!!!

The anomaly that was causing a ruckus in the empty room on the 2nd floor. “You’re saying there are bloodstains on the rooftop?” And all the bloodstains in the rooftop warehouse. They all cleared out.

“This is like auto-hunting.”

When I bring the Bride of the White Face to a place where an anomaly appears, anomalies below catastrophe-level foam at the mouth and die. Except for the woman in the elevator, they were all exorcised on their own.

[Investigate the 7 Ghost Stories of the Building. (6/7)]

“What? When was the knocking sound outside the office purified?”

I didn’t even encounter one of them, and it disappeared on its own. I was trying to gather some anomalies to guard the building, but none of them could stand up to the overwhelming power of the Bride of the White Face and died.

‘Well, it makes sense.’

The Bride of the White Face has the ‘lingering spirit’ trait. In other words, if the Bride of the White Face settles down and takes root in my office, this building will soon become her territory.

Either crawl on their own or clear out. Anomalies below catastrophe-level may have been forced to choose between two options.

‘Still, I never thought they would all disappear except for the woman in the elevator.’

Now there is only one ghost story left. The mysterious underground parking lot.

“A staircase has appeared.”

The mysterious underground parking lot, true to its name, is an underground parking lot that shouldn’t exist. In the first place, this building doesn’t have an underground parking lot. But sometimes, a staircase leading down appears at night.

‘Just like today.’

If you go down this staircase, you’ll find a dilapidated underground parking lot, and if you step into it, a gray sedan without a license plate will attack you. A merciless attack from a haunted gray sedan with no license plate and no driver.

Rather than a scary anomaly, it was a very dangerous anomaly because it attacked physically.

–Kyaaaaa!!!

-Yoon Yowon! Don’t come this way!

-Section Chief Park! Help me!

But what is this sound? This information wasn’t written on the Wall of Doom gallery. It was written that you had to have a chase with a car in an empty underground parking lot, so why are people’s screams coming from down there?

“What the.”

I went down to check the situation, and it was a spectacle.

“Kyaaaaa! Section Chief Park, help me!”

“Ugh! Yoon Yowon! Hold on a little longer! I’ll escape and call for backup soon!”

A man with a ponytail in a black suit and a woman with short hair were running away from a gray sedan in the underground parking lot with terrified expressions.

‘Where did those people come from?’

I didn’t sense anyone approaching the building. While searching for anomalies, I was also constantly checking outside in case someone came. I thought most visitors just had coffee at the 1st-floor cafe and went back, but how on earth did those two get into the underground parking lot?

___________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Name: Park Jaehyun]
[Job: Anomaly Scout]
[Affiliation: Anomaly Management Department, Seoul Branch, Section 2]
[Description: A field agent of the Anomaly Management Department]
[Status: Fear, Despair, Frustration]

[Name: Yoon Haseo]
[Job: Anomaly Scout]
[Affiliation: Anomaly Management Department, Seoul Branch, Section 2]
[Description: A field agent of the Anomaly Management Department]
[Status: Fear, Anger, Panic]

___________________________________________________________________________________

An agent from the Anomaly Management Department. For now, those two were poor civil servants.

The Anomaly Management Department, unlike other organizations, is a state agency and an organization that manages anomalies for the safety of the citizens of the Republic of Korea.

It seems they entered the underground parking lot through another route, but they got trapped and couldn’t find a way out. The way to get out of here was surprisingly simple.

‘I just need to find the car key.’

If you find the key to the gray sedan that attacks people, the anomaly will stop moving, and a way up will appear.

“Ugh! I’m gonna get hit!!!”

“G-get away! Go for Section Chief Park first!”

While the two agents were busy attracting the attention of the gray sedan, I searched for the car key that must have been dropped somewhere in the underground parking lot.

“Huh? Uh, uh, uh? Section Chief!! Over there! It’s a person!”

“Oh no! Another victim!”

Then the two agents who saw me waved and ran over. No, why are you running over. Shouldn’t you pretend you don’t know me? You’re drawing the car’s aggro to me too. No way, you didn’t do that on purpose, did you?

“You shouldn’t be here!”

“It’s dangerous! Go upstairs!”

They’re in a situation where they’re going to die because they can’t go upstairs either, who are they worried about.

“Ah, found it.”

Just then, I was able to find the car key. I held up the car key towards the gray sedan that was chasing the agents.

Click.

“Huh…?”

“What! It stopped?!”

When the car that was rushing at them came to a sudden stop, the agents of the Anomaly Management Department gasped for breath and collapsed to the floor. How long have they been wandering this underground parking lot?

“Are you okay?”

“H-here is dangerous. Quickly, quickly go up… pant. pant..”

“I feel like I’m going to die…”

They can’t even react properly and are just panting. I calmed the two of them down to let them catch their breath, and I approached the stopped gray sedan.

___________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Name: Ownerless Car]
[Danger Level: Accident]
[Classification: Possessed Object, Object-type, Murderer]
[Origin: An anomaly born from the gathering of abandoned cars.]
[Extermination Method: Find the car key dropped in the parking lot or destroy it physically.]

___________________________________________________________________________________

An accident-level anomaly was lower than a catastrophe-level but higher than a warning-level, an ambiguous anomaly. Maybe the rating was measured a little lower because it couldn’t go outside the mysterious underground parking lot.

___________________________________________________________________________________

{Status Window}

[Favorability: 0% → 50%]
[It is grateful for finding the car key.]
[It seems to want to play with you.]

___________________________________________________________________________________

As written in the Wall of Doom gallery, the gray sedan was a type of anomaly that could be tamed. I think it was said that it has an intelligence similar to a dog. Perhaps the chase with this one was a kind of tag.

From the perspective of the person who has to run away, they have to struggle not to die because the car is rushing at them, but from the car’s perspective, it might have been nothing more than a game of tag with its human master…

The standards between them were different. A sad story where humans were too weak to play tag, and the gray sedan was too strong…

“Excuse me. Who are you?”

“Me? I’m Fixer Lee Dohyun.”

“Yes. Here’s my business card.”

As I was petting the gray sedan, Agent Park Jaehyun, who had caught his breath, approached me. I took a business card from my pocket and handed it to him.

“Anomaly specialist Fixer, Lee Dohyun-ssi… Do you have time, by any chance?”

It seems he’s thinking of scouting me for the management department.

“My office is upstairs. Let’s have a cup of coffee.”

I don’t like being affiliated with or tied down to anything, but the requests that the management department brings are tempting. Should I have a talk?

The Anomaly Management Department is, how should I put it, an agency that makes a lot of mistakes and is full of clumsiness. But they bring in an overwhelming amount of work, so I don’t think it’s bad to befriend them.