The rookie had been contaminated.

“Agent?”

Ryu Jaegwan had experienced similar cases many times before.

Agents who miscounted the final step and fell, others who held out for two days without a drop of water, only to be contaminated by a raindrop in their eye…

They just vanish.

Just like that.

No context, no warning.

That eerie unpredictability—what people often call a ghost story.

But to those involved, it always felt like a personal tragedy.

Like now.

“Bronze.”

Then his senior tapped his shoulder and quickly pulled him into a side hug.

“…!”

And wrote letters on his back with their finger.

So the rookie agent in front of them wouldn’t notice.

Stay calm.

“Grape! But we have to go now. Your hand’s about to disappear too, isn’t it?”

“Ah…”

The rookie agent, Kim Sol-eum, looked at his missing right arm and answered with surprising cheer.

“It’s okay! The mermaid princess said she’ll give me a new one. I’ll be fine!”

“…Really?”

“Yes! Look, I got this too…”

Kim Sol-eum held up a few items he got from the children, proudly showing them off.

In reality, they were all worn-out, cheap toys—something only little kids would treasure, even in the glimmering view of the Sparkling Palace.

“…Okay. Just a sec.”

The two stepped aside briefly while letting Kim Sol-eum continue playing with the kids.

“I don’t know what exactly happened, but the contamination’s way too advanced.”

Half his face is covered in tumors, and the contamination that manifests as a tail has grown far too large.

Normally, it never got this bad in just three days.

Did he actually enter the ‘Dragon Palace’? Or maybe something happened while interacting with the kids… Or perhaps Kim Sol-eum himself was abnormally vulnerable to biohazards.

Either way, it was possible, albeit rare—but it would be hard to verify now, especially since the rookie seemed mentally contaminated too.

Or maybe…

“No way… That cat….”

“…….”

Or maybe something more dangerous had intervened.

To push them forward.

Ryu Jaegwan went pale, then suddenly snapped to attention.

“The conch.”

The cure.

“We need to get it. Now!”

“Hold on.”

Agent Choi grabbed his arm.

“That cat seemed to give the cure for saving kids.”

“But Agent Grape looks like a kid too…”

“Listen. If that cat is a higher-tier phenomenon than the Goblin Prank our elder warned us about… it might not even consider that one a ‘kid’ anymore.”

“…!”

Ryu Jaegwan almost shouted, ‘So you’re saying we should just give up?’

But his superior, Agent Choi, was watching ‘Agent Grape’ with a strange look in his eyes.

“…….”

He calmed his junior, then approached Kim Sol-eum among the children again.

“Grape.”

“Yes?”

“Then, it’s okay if you stay here forever?”

“Yes!”

Ryu Jaegwan couldn’t hold back and grabbed the back of Agent Choi’s collar.

“Sir!!”

“Relax. I was just checking the level of contamination… It’s bad. Not just physically—his mindset’s completely altered…”

“…….”

“Let’s send him out immediately.”

“Then…”

“No, I mean the way we’ve always used!”

Agent Choi sighed and patted his junior’s back.

“Bronze, come on. Our extraction method isn’t based on contamination—it’s based on disappearance timing.”

“…!!”

That’s right.

According to the Disaster Management Bureau, children don’t vanish like bubbles if their disappearance hasn’t exceeded 1,000 days.

Agent Grape, who’s only been here three days, absolutely qualifies!

“We just need to convince him to go. I’ll send him out, just make sure the other kids don’t scatter.”

Then he turned back to the contaminated Kim Sol-eum and spoke brightly.

“Let’s come back to the palace next time, Grape! For now, how about we do the balloon game again? Just like when we came here—floating away~”

It was a known escape route identified by the Disaster Management Bureau.

Remember?

Children’s books with sudden inserted appendix pages detailing “How to Go to the Sparkling Dragon Palace” had reportedly been found scattered across playrooms.

In truth, there is an additional passage.

Rarely, at the very end of these books, instructions on “How to Return from the Sparkling Dragon Palace” can be found.

These pages use vocabulary and structure akin to technical manuals, making them impossible for preschool children to understand.

Every attempt to uncover the required materials for the “return ritual” from the Sparkling Dragon Palace has failed.

Thus, agents started carrying the necessary items themselves.

Fortunately, since the whole process was convoluted and riddled with obstacles, the narrative itself validated the escape method.

At least, until now.

“It’s not rising…”

“…!!”

This time, it was different.

Agent Choi almost bit his tongue seeing Kim Sol-eum clinging to the balloon, but quickly masked his reaction.

Normally, a child holding the “Going-Home Balloon” would close their eyes and float upward, eventually dropping when the balloon popped.

And they’d be found later, tumbling down a slide.

That’s how it should go…

But the balloon didn’t even lift.

It had never happened before.

No agent had ever been this deeply contaminated…!

Moreover, the severity of contamination usually matched the disappearance year—meaning every escapable child had always floated upward.

But now, a new irregular had emerged.

“ – If the subject is severely contaminated, the balloon cannot rise at all, rendering the escape method useless.”

Like a parasite refusing to let go of its host.

The ulcerous, tumorous tail sprouting from Kim Sol-eum writhed heavily, anchored to the ground.

‘…It’s practically fused to the mass of ulcers.’

Agent Choi frowned, recalling the strange hive-like organism thought to be the Dragon Palace.

Still, he spoke lightly.

“Oops~ I must’ve not blown it up enough! Let’s use a different method, okay?”

“Okay…”

And the moment the two returned empty-handed, Ryu Jaegwan began moving.

“Bronze.”

“We need to go get the cure right away. Prepare…”

“Bronze!”

Agent Choi hesitated for a moment, then slowly said…

“Have you ever thought that, if Grape were in his right mind, he would’ve given up his spot for a child?”

Ryu Jaegwan stopped in his tracks.

“I have.”

“…!”

“It’s exactly because most agents are like that that we must prioritize them. Otherwise, they’ll throw away their lives too easily…”

“…….”

“Saving one agent means saving more lives in the long run.”

His senior fell silent, seemingly out of words.

Then let out a quiet sigh.

“I don’t know… Putting ranks on human lives… Shouldn’t we just want to save a comrade, plain and simple?”

“…….”

“Was our bureau… always like this? I feel like it used to be different… But at some point, everyone started living and dying by that principle.”

“They’ve all come to realize it’s necessary.”

“…….”

Ryu Jaegwan knew that Agent Choi’s silence leaned closer to denial than agreement.

Still, Agent Choi surrendered with a soft sigh.

“Either way, yes. We have to save Grape.”

“…!”

“Let’s go meet those cult-company bastards.”

But first.

From the remaining eleven conchs, subtracting one for the agent.

“We need to choose ten.”

“…….”

Agent Choi’s eyes dimmed, but he approached Grape anyway.

“You said you sorted the kids by era, right? Could you show me?”

“Yes!”

Agent Grape diligently categorized the children.

Somehow, he had gathered over twenty children scattered across the city.

‘…Did the contamination create a network that let them communicate?’

Shoving the chilling thought aside.

“These kids know the same songs!”

The children were sorted.

From kids of the 2010s to those from the 1960s.

And a few were explained differently.

“These ones… feel like they came from somewhere else.”

Six fingers, no sclera in the eyes, or claimed to be from countries that don’t exist on Earth.

Agent Bronze immediately placed them lower in priority—since they likely weren’t ‘citizens’.

…It didn’t feel good.

Ranking human lives.

Ryu Jaegwan felt a deep fatigue he had momentarily forgotten.

…He was tired, as always.

And so, he silently prioritized the children who had disappeared more recently.

Based on current intel, they had the highest chance of making it out.

“…Still, we’ll take them all with us for now.”

“…….”

Ryu Jaegwan nodded slowly.

“Alright, Grape. The kids might get scared now, so how about we play while we walk? Let’s meet the Mermaid Princess tomorrow—today, let’s just hang out with me.”

“Okay!”

They decided to hide Agent Grape among the children, to protect him from Daydream Inc. as much as possible.

If they found out he was an agent, it’d become a weakness—especially since Daydream’s elite probably knew the Bureau prioritized agents over civilians.

‘A contaminated agent… makes for an easy target.’

At least until they retrieved the conch and administered the cure.

So they hurried their steps.

And soon after.

“Ooh! Over here!”

They saw the pony-mask-wearing employee waving at the designated meeting point, with the others eyeing them warily.

‘So they didn’t run.’

Ryu Jaegwan confirmed that the tracking signal Agent Choi had placed on the conch was still working, and rejoined the Daydream Inc. group.

They flinched at the sight of dozens of “baby mermaids,” but perhaps due to the lingering influence of the cat, they didn’t act rashly.

They simply kept their distance.

–This way.

The two groups exchanged a few short written messages, then moved on, still keeping each other in check.

Down into the depths of the city.

“This is… a place kids rarely go.”

Even through the Sparkling Dragon Palace’s lens, it wasn’t beautiful or notable.

A shadowy space beneath an overpass.

In reality, it was beneath a rusted iron bridge that had miraculously not collapsed—next to a black, contaminated stream—stood a small door.

However…

“We can’t see it.”

To the contaminated children, the door was completely invisible.

Just like how they couldn’t see the conchs.

“…….”

Then…

Aware of the Daydream agents eyeing him for weaknesses, Agent Choi calmly closed his eyes and reached out.

…Yes. It goes through.

“Ah, so it’s about tricking your senses. Just close your eyes to enter.”

The only problem, they’d have to get 28 kids to do it.

“Hey kids! Let’s play a game, see who can walk with their eyes closed the longest!”

“Um…”

“That sounds scary.”

Normally cheerful and eager to play, some kids hesitated awkwardly.

As if something deep inside them rejected the idea.

‘Damn it.’

…A chilling thought crossed the agents’ minds, will they have to leave behind the ones who don’t follow?

But then.

“Are you a scaredy-cat?”

“…!”

“N-No!”

“Then close your eyes!”

Kim Sol-eum began nudging the kids along.

“You see those sparkly things when you close your eyes? Can’t you see them?”

“No, I do!”

“Good, just walk a bit more if it doesn’t show up right away.”

Amazingly, he managed to get all the kids to walk with their eyes closed.

“…….”

“Agent.”

“…Ah, let’s go.”

Agent Choi, who had been watching the scene in a slight daze, quickly pulled himself together.

He tapped the anxious Agent Bronze on the shoulder and started moving.

“Let’s go!”

The children with closed eyes safely passed through the “wall” and stepped inside.

And then.

“Huh.”

A place that wasn’t the Sparkling Dragon Palace revealed itself.

From the perspective of Daydream Inc. In other words, through the lens of the ghost story “Mermaid’s Grave”—it was merely a less rusted, yet brutal-looking metal passageway.

It looked like a hastily constructed emergency corridor for staff.

But to the eyes of the children…

‘Nothing.’

Just a white, rectangular path.

As if all the original textures had been wiped away.

It seemed this place was beyond the reach of the Dragon Palace’s illusion.

If one were to guess, it was a semi-isolated space, separated from the contamination.

‘…It’s becoming more and more symbolic.’

A veteran knew. The more meaningful it seemed, the likelier it was the right path so he picked up the pace.

“Should I keep my eyes closed?”

“Will I see something cool if I open them?”

Fortunately, none of the kids cried or froze in fear. Grape soothed or distracted the few who wavered.

“…….”

The end of the passage comes into view.

Through the sun catcher, an item that captures light, their true destination was revealed…

“Ha…”

A sloppily constructed terminal, as if built in haste.

It seemed this was once the site of seven escape pods.

The places where the other alien-looking escape pods had launched now only held dust, grime, and dried contamination fluids.

But one remained. A giant, capsule-shaped pod soaked in blood.

As they approached, a device on the door lit up with a message.

[Please ■confirm elimination of contamination■■.]

Hmm.

– So we just have to show it the severed tail, right?

When a few people from Daydream Inc. only nodded passively and gave no response, Agent Choi quickly added another line.

–50,000 won for the awesome person who answers fast, hehe

–I thought it was to prove you contributed by hunting contaminated creatures to prevent the spread! That’s how you gain access to the pod, hehe.

At the prompt response, Agent Choi nodded and handed over the cash immediately.

“Yay!”

Then, ignoring the giggling employee in a pony mask, he turned back and spoke.

“Alright. Then… Grape, come here? Let’s bring the friend you were just talking to too!”

“Yes!”

Kim Sol-eum, standing with the children, took one of them by the hand and approached the escape pod.

Thankfully, the Daydream employees didn’t seem to realize he was an agent.

Ryu Jaegwan, standing guard, yanked a few conchs from Baek Saheon’s bag and handed them to Agent Choi.

“Th…”

Baek Saheon’s grumbling curses, stifled by regret, never made it out.

Agent Choi smiled, lifted a conch, and approached Grape.

“If you just close your eyes for a moment, Grape…”

Just then.

“What’s that?” 

“Wow! A real white spaceship!”

The child beside Grape ran toward the escape pod.

“…!”

“I’m coming too!”

Grape followed the child and ran to the front of the pod.

“Wait…!”

If a contaminated child is forcibly boarded onto the escape pod, acute shedding will occur, leading to systemic ulceration and loss of vital signs. Do not attempt under any circumstances.

To make matters worse, the Daydream Inc. staff immediately took aggressive stances and Agent Bronze stepped in front to block them.

“Grape!” 

“Huh?”

In that moment, Grape turned around at the call, his tail naturally brushed against the pod’s device.

“…!” 

The message reappeared.

[Please ■confirm elimination of contamination■■.]

“Wow! You were right! It just sparkled!” 

“Right?”

At that moment, Agent Choi rushed in and pulled both of them back.

Watching through the sun catcher, Agent Bronze let out a short sigh and eased his threatening stance toward Daydream Inc.

A suffocating tension lingered briefly.

“Phew… at least the pod doesn’t attack. That’s a relief.”

Before he could even wipe the cold sweat from his brow, Agent Choi lifted the conch.

But then… 

“…….”

Agent Bronze felt something odd from the scene he had just witnessed.

The device had reacted again the moment a living tail touched it.

And then his senior’s words.

“– The pod doesn’t attack, thank goodness.”

“…!” 

No way.

“Alright, then we’ll treat the kids, give them severed tails, and board them…”

“No.”

“…Bronze?”

“This… isn’t what we think it is.”

Agent Bronze re-read the message on the device. 

[Please ■confirm elimination of contamination■■.]

It read more like: eliminate the contaminated—the mermaids—and prove it.

But still…

“This is already a fallen city. Judging by this hastily constructed pod zone, it was built in the final hours as a last resort escape.”

“Then what?”

“They must’ve assumed most who’d reach this pod were already contaminated.”

“…!”

Agent Bronze turned his gaze back to the last remaining pod.

“If this was truly the last remaining means of escape, it wouldn’t be strange for them to assume everyone was already contaminated.”

“…You’re right.”

Agent Choi’s eyes sparkled.

“Then, as a minimal measure—to prevent the contamination from spreading to other places…”

“Yes.”

The two agents’ gazes turned toward the tail.

A grotesque growth that secretes infectious mucus.

“It seems the intent was for contaminated individuals to cut off the source of contamination—the protrusion—before entering the pod.”

In that case, the device’s message takes on a completely different meaning.

[Please confirm removal of contaminated protrusion.]

‘It’s not telling us to hunt and kill other contaminated—it’s telling us to remove our own source of contamination—the tail!’

Only an individual without a tail, who could verify they had removed it, would be allowed safe entry.

“Wait, so that means…”

“Yes.”

A faint smile of relief appeared on Agent Bronze’s face for the first time that day.

“They don’t need to be fully cured. If the children simply cut off the tail and verify it, they can board without the conch.”

“…!”

“And if we reserve the conchs only for the children at risk of bleeding out when their tails are cut…”

As long as we distribute them properly.

“Then we can all make it out.”

Not a single child left behind.

They could be rescued from this supernatural disaster.

----------------------------------

‘That’s it!’

I clenched my fist quietly, trying not to show it.

Though I was among the children and unlikely to be noticed, I still held back the sighs of relief and joy trying to escape my lips.

‘We did it.’

To lead everyone to a conclusion similar to mine—by subtly blending Daydream Inc.’s knowledge with that of the Disaster Management Bureau.

How much effort had I poured into nudging them toward that conclusion—without raising suspicion!

It had been an utterly exhausting day.

I swallowed hard.

‘…Getting contaminated—was a wise decision.’

I’d be lying if I said it wasn’t horrific and disgusting.

But the benefits I gained from being contaminated were too valuable to give up.

From using the tumors to hide my identity from Daydream Inc. staff, to planting the final clue—that cutting the tail grants access to the escape pod.

It was the one perfect solution that let me bypass every obstacle without suspicion.

And then…

‘…I might even get off the suspect list, too.’

That cat.

Agent Choi knows I can turn into a “stray animal”—he’s the one who recommended the item.

Of course, the fake Necronomicon’s effects make it hard to connect the two, but once we escape, suspicion might return.

‘It’s better to cover that up with something even more impactful.’

That’s why… I pushed my contamination just far enough—where my sanity could still hold.

Bit by bit, I increased the intake of contamination slime—on purpose.

‘This was the limit.’

This state—half my face covered in tumors.

Able to sense the hivemind’s will and the children’s strange telepathy—yet still retaining my own identity.

…Strangely enough, the goblin prank that turned me into a child might have helped—it fixed me into “my child form.”

Either way, I had planned to take a Nostalgia Candy if things got too bad… but it looks like I won’t need to.

‘Perfect.’

I believed in you, agents…!

As expected, the Supernatural Disaster Bureau is leagues above that damn psycho potion company!

It was… a little touching.

‘It’s that old-school Bureau-style resolution we haven’t seen since the Chronicles of Darkness Exploration got big…!’

Trying their best to save everyone—and actually succeeding.

Maybe it’s because I’m in a child’s body, but my chest felt so full I could cry. 

Sniff.

Of course, in most ghost story, attempts like this usually lead to everyone dying—but this time, everything was going smoothly.

Now, if we just coordinate the escape…

Zzt. 

‘…Huh?’

That’s when it happened.

A strange sensation crawled up my tail.

Zzt.

‘Above?’

I quickly looked up.

…Beside me, a child in a blue dress mumbled,

“Something’s wrong.”

She was right. 

“Something’s wrong.”

No, it wasn’t just her.

All twenty-seven children around me were looking up at the sky.

Every single baby mermaid… still bearing their tails.

“The Mermaid Princess… is angry.”

It seems so.

The host—was somewhere none of us could detect.

A threat to its survival.

It had been searching—where was the danger coming from?

And now, the Mermaid Princess knew.

Zzt. 

“Grape?” 

“Now.”

A chill ran down my spine.

My mouth moved on instinct.

“The Mermaid Princess is coming.”

Boom. 

The ceiling collapsed as hundreds of tumor-like tendrils poured down.