“Mr. Cheon-soo, wake up!”
“Ugh… Mom, just five more minutes…”
“It’s not mom, so hurry up and wake up! There’s been a response!”
Han Seori gave a small sigh of irritation and tapped Kim Cheon-soo’s shoulder.
Only then did the consciousness of the still-slumbering Kim Cheon-soo become clear.
He realized what he had mumbled just moments ago and squeezed his eyes shut.
Saying ‘mom’ to someone you have feelings for.
Absolutely the worst.
“We can’t go back to sleep! We have to go in!”
“Ah, yes. I’m not sleeping…”
But there was no time to dwell on such thoughts, so after slapping his cheeks, Kim Cheon-soo quickly exited the vehicle.
With a sigh, Han Seori followed behind him.
Crunch, crunch.
The two ran across the snow, where all traces had been erased.
White steam rose like smoke from their mouths.
The two eventually arrived at the entrance where 7496 – KR had gone in.
Without hesitation, they opened the door and marveled at the light shining through the passage that should have been dark.
Though they were somewhat uncertain if the problem had truly been solved, seeing the lights on made it seem like they had accomplished more than just solving the issue.
“Of course… As expected, it went according to plan. With this, it’s really… We’re definitely better than the average field agent, aren’t we?”
“Honestly, it’s hard to believe… but I agree.”
From the moment they had normalized the sealed-off laboratory, they had already reached an incomparable level.
Since it had been proven that they could resolve issues related to the Singularity on their own.
‘Thinking back to when I solved the puzzle…’
Perhaps they’re smarter than I thought.
…Or perhaps their learning ability is exceptionally outstanding.
Han Seori recalled all the actions of 7496 – KR and the Jelly Girl she had observed so far.
Finally, as she reached the entrance of the laboratory, Han Seori came to think it was probably the latter.
It’s somewhat awkward to say, but initially… they didn’t seem particularly intelligent.
It wasn’t intelligence, but they seemed like a scared child.
Maybe they couldn’t act properly because they were overly cautious?
Anyway.
Since it was all in the past, Han Seori stopped her train of thought and looked at the entrance of the lab.
The lighted entrance of the laboratory exuded a rather eerie atmosphere.
It was due to neglect, which had caused contamination.
Was it because of that eerie atmosphere?
Somehow, Han Seori felt tense and quickly approached the panel to unlock it.
With a slight noise, the lock was released, and the tightly closed door slowly opened to both sides.
And beyond the door…
“Uh…”
“…What’s this?”
The two separated entities from 7496 – KR were sitting quietly beside a dismantled fan.
Well, the entity in the doll was sitting quietly, but the miniature version of 7496 – KR… was just sprawled on the floor.
Like a factory worker collapsing after finishing their shift.
Actually, that wasn’t such an unusual sight.
It was something they saw every day.
What left them speechless was…
The sight of quite a few fans being disassembled and neatly lined up.
The dismantled fans looked like they were waiting to be assembled on a factory production line.
Han Seori looked around with a sense of strangeness.
There were no entities near the fans other than those two.
That meant…
‘…Did those two disassemble the fans?’
Though she hadn’t witnessed it with her own eyes, it wasn’t hard to imagine.
But…
If that was true…
…it seemed those two entities also possessed learning abilities, though not as much as 7496 – KR.
By the way…
‘Why are the fans disassembled?’
Could this be… the cause of all the phenomena happening in the laboratory so far?
Just as Han Seori’s thoughts deepened,
[A breach of the Singularity within the facility has been detected. Verification of unregistered entity managers in progress…]
“Huh?”
“Eh?”
The two, caught off guard, let out surprised voices and chuckled at the broadcast.
Despite being left alone, the facility seemed to be in pretty good condition.
“Let’s head to the control room first. The anomalies seem to have calmed down, so we’ll check on these things later.”
“Understood.”
As the warning sounded regularly, the two advanced towards the control room.
Since the control room was mostly located in similar areas in any laboratory, there was no need to worry about getting lost.
But what made the two feel uneasy was…
[The control room has been occupied by the Singularity. Manual process converted to automatic. Initiating the facility shutdown protocol. Occupants are advised to evacuate quickly.]
“…Eh?”
“What’s going on right now?”
“…If it’s not a malfunction, then 7496 – KR must have done something in the control room. They’re rather curious… maybe they couldn’t resist tinkering with a flashing panel?”
“Haha… That’s quite a joke…”
It’s not a joke.
Han Seori felt a bit uncomfortable, but there was no time to dwell on it.
If the facility shutdown protocol was activated, all the efforts of suppressing the anomaly would be for nothing.
“Hurry up and go. Regardless of the reason, the protocol has started.”
“…Yes.”
From that point, the two began running.
The two proceeded without hesitation and managed to reach a place presumed to be the control room.
Once again, Han Seori operated the panel to open the door leading to the control room.
As expected, it was the control room, so she quickly entered and canceled the shutdown protocol.
[Situation terminated.]
Han Seori thought she could let out a sigh of relief but felt something was off.
Because the figure of 7496 – KR, whom she thought would definitely be in the control room, was nowhere to be seen.
Remembering the device she had attached to the neck of 7496 – KR,
Since they were back inside the laboratory, the remote connection should be re-established.
Thus… when Han Seori checked the location of the now back online necklace,
…the lower half of 7496 – KR dangling from the vent came into view.
For some reason, 7496 – KR dangled lifelessly from the vent.
As Han Seori stared at its unusually wobbly figure that felt distinctively soft today, she suddenly snapped out of it and ushered Kim Cheon-soo out of the control room.
Kim Cheon-soo looked somewhat aggrieved, but Han Seori felt like she should do this.
After sending Kim Cheon-soo out, Han Seori approached the vent with curiosity, puzzled by why 7496 – KR wasn’t moving.
“Um… It can’t be dead… why is it doing this? Trying to escape? Indeed–”
Up to this point, Han Seori couldn’t help but be impressed.
Understanding all the stiffly automated messages and finding a way out through the vent instead of trying the door was impressive.
Indeed.
My assumption was right.
Han Seori smiled warmly as she observed 7496 – KR dangling from the vent.
Looking at its unusually bright figure,
“Since it’s safe now, you can come down, alright?”
The motionless 7496 – KR finally wriggled its body.
Contrary to the expectation that it would simply drop, 7496 – KR crawled into the vent.
Then it pushed the Jelly Whale aside inside,
And began observing Han Seori from inside the vent.
As Han Seori watched the Jelly Whale floating about, she scratched her cheek, puzzled by why 7496 – KR wasn’t coming out.
“…Why is it doing this? Is there still some kind of threat?”
With a serious expression, Han Seori approached the central panel in the control room and brought up the facility management status on the screen.
After checking the status by manipulating the panel, Han Seori felt even more perplexed.
No matter how thoroughly she checked every corner, there was nothing particularly threatening.
The neatly lined-up fans at the entrance were just a bit creepy, but that was all.
“Hmm…”
Unable to find the cause, Han Seori rummaged through the drawers in the control room and found a screwdriver.
After setting up a stepping stool, she moved closer to the vent.
Inside the vent, she saw 7496 – KR crouching like it was crushed.
The Jelly of this 7496 – KR was strangely bubbling.
Thinking that something might have gone wrong, Han Seori quickly unscrewed the vent cover and reached towards 7496 – KR.
Though she was worried about being rejected, 7496 – KR allowed her to grab gently and bring it out.
Once brought outside,
…for some reason, it seemed to want to hide its sight with its soft hand covering its face.
At the same time, it flailed its legs as if annoyed.
Confused by why 7496 – KR was behaving this way, Han Seori felt somewhat puzzled,
But since the movements were quite cute, she decided to leave it be.
It wasn’t any unusual movement anyway.
After flailing around like this for a while,
7496 – KR finally stopped when other entities arrived at the control room.
*
…Nothing happened just now.
One… two… three…
Was I supposed to forget what just happened? Bullshit.
Anyway,
Thanks to Han Seori and Kim Cheon-soo stopping the something protocol,
The loud announcement broadcasts stopped.
Shortly after.
Han Seori and Kim Cheon-soo, who were apparently considering reusing the place, took me to the control panel.
Then they…
[Exceptional entity registration complete.]
Registered me and Dae, Joong, Sosik as exceptional entities.
Frankly, I had no idea what that meant…
So I had a blank mind.
Just… okay.
…It was closer to being unable to think about it because of something else on my mind.
So I wasn’t really thinking about it…
But after completing the exceptional entity registration,
Daily life was…
Not quite as I had imagined.
