TAHBPC 05

Chapter 05

 Welcome to Extraction Team 1

“Gasp…!”

As soon as I opened my eyes with a sharp intake of breath, a ceiling different from the office greeted me.

Pure white, sterile lighting illuminated a ceiling scrubbed clean, as pristine as a dried membrane stretched taut.

It looked cold enough to suffocate.

Instinctively, I tried to sit up, but the moment I moved, my arm resisted stiffly beneath the blanket.

Something was attached to my wrist.

‘…Where is this?’

Turning my head slowly, I found a space that was both familiar and unfamiliar.

A medical examination table with charts clipped to it. Shelves neatly lined with medicine. A spotless white room and a simple bed.

It looked like an ordinary infirmary.

Except for the inexplicable objects scattered throughout.

For example, a jar containing a twitching eyeball.

A glass tube filled with something that gleamed like black blood chilled to hypothermic temperatures.

Emergency equipment embedded with something pulsing like a heart.

My gaze drifted around the room before finally stopping at the end of the IV line inserted into my arm.

The substance flowing through the tube looked nothing like a normal IV solution.

A strangely murky green liquid glowing faintly with fluorescence.

A crooked label was attached to the bag:

Vitality Potion (Industrial Grade)

Bubbles floated lazily inside it, occasionally boiling and gurgling.

It looked eerily similar to what I had seen yesterday in the extraction chamber.

A chill crawled down my spine.

I had no idea what it was, but I was certain it wasn’t a normal IV.

“No… this isn’t right.”

With trembling hands, I grabbed the IV tube.

A warning-like sting shot through my arm, but as I tried to pull the needle out—

Shrrrk.

The curtain was suddenly drawn aside.

And what emerged from behind it was no more human than the rest of the infirmary.

It wore a white lab coat.

A perfectly ordinary doctor’s coat one might see in any hospital.

But protruding from beneath the coat were dozens of black, jelly-like tentacles.

They slithered across the floor.

Some carried stethoscopes on their own.

Others carefully polished sharp forceps.

A few crawled across the floor and brushed against my feet.

‘It’s dressed like a doctor, at least.’

In this insane company, wearing a lab coat made you a doctor, and wearing a tie made you an office worker.

Having too many arms or legs that wriggled like noodles apparently wasn’t a factor in employment evaluations.

When the being rolled up one sleeve, bundles of glistening flesh resembling tongues emerged from within.

One of them flicked about and spoke.

“Pat-ient condition. Aw-akened indepen-dently. Excellent recovery. Very good.”

Every word slurred like gelatin as it left the tentacle-mouth.

Its voice was filled with unsettling distortion.

The grotesque doctor stepped closer, making wet squelching noises.

Various organs and protrusions inside the coat wriggled with disturbing sounds.

“Pat-ient. Recovery confirmed. Rest sufficient.”

A slick, transparent tentacle picked up the IV line.

With practiced precision, it removed the needle and pressed gauze against the wound.

There were no gloves.

No fingernails.

Only mucus coating its surface, carrying a scent similar to disinfectant.

“You are fin-e now. Can return to work.”

“Ah… thank you, Doctor… I assume?”

Polite speech slipped out automatically.

Just because a mass of tentacles wore a lab coat, I had no choice but to acknowledge its title.

If I wanted to survive in this company, tact and manners were essential.

The tentacle doctor seemed pleased and lightly waved one tentacle.

Whether it meant goodbye or see you at lunch was impossible to tell.

Click.

At that moment, the infirmary door opened and the sound of approaching dress shoes echoed inside.

Disciplined footsteps.

And a familiar sense of discomfort.

I reflexively turned my head.

“Oh—you’re finally awake, newbie?”

Assistant Manager Son.

Or rather, Hand Assistant Manager.

A sturdy body dressed in an ordinary suit.

Seeing the fist atop his shoulders repeatedly clench and open again sent a wave of nausea directly into my brain.

“You passed out. Feeling okay? Health management is pretty important around here.”

“Ah… yes. I think I overworked myself before joining the company. Stayed up all night preparing for employment interviews… I’m fine now.”

The lie came out so naturally that it surprised even me.

Fear had turned me into an actor.

The forced smile on my face fit almost perfectly.

“Haha, really? Young people these days work hard. I like that attitude!”

‘I really don’t want praise from you…’

More importantly, where was he even speaking from?

He didn’t have a head.

Or a mouth.

Where was the sound coming from?

When I glanced over again, the fingers of his fist-head were spreading wide and waving as if greeting someone.

“We used a special IV, so you should be full of energy now. Let’s go. Lunch ended ages ago. Manager Myeon handled the morning work for you.”

“Yes. Thank you. I’ll be ready shortly.”

Following Assistant Manager Son out of the infirmary, I carefully stood from the bed.

My legs trembled slightly, but sheer determination not to faint a second time kept me upright.

The tentacle doctor lightly tapped my cheek with one tentacle before leaving.

After that, I successfully escaped the infirmary.

Assistant Manager Son was already leaning against the wall outside.

The fist atop his shoulders twitched once more.

“Too bad about lunch. Our cafeteria is great. The menu’s always fresh.”

No matter how I thought about it, there was no way this company’s cafeteria served fresh bibimbap or duck salad.

“That’s unfortunate.”

“Or are you the type who packs lunch like Manager Batori?”

“Yes. I actually prefer bringing my own lunch.”

The answer came out instantly.

At the very least, packing lunch would give me an excuse to avoid both Hand-Head and the company cafeteria.

At my answer, his fingers snapped sharply.

“That’s why! Our newbie’s a diligent one! Then let’s get to work quickly.”

The infirmary door clicked shut behind us as I walked into yet another nightmare.

“By the way, Haeil, what was your major?”

Walking beside me, Assistant Manager Son casually squeezed and flexed his giant hand-head.

Crack. Pop.

Every syllable that entered my brain was accompanied by the sound of his knuckles grinding together.

Each time his fist opened and closed, it felt as if some unknown joint inside my own body was creaking in response.

Never in my life had I imagined I’d be getting interviewed by a monster.

“I majored in psychology. I dropped out when I became a non-commissioned officer, so my highest education is technically high school.”

I answered while keeping my head slightly lowered to avoid eye contact.

Not that there were any eyes to avoid.

“Oh, that’s unusual. I like the psychology part. Mental resilience is pretty important in our line of work.”

I felt that truth deep in my bones.

Assistant Manager Son shrugged his fist.

“Anyway, welcome to the team. Extraction Team 1 is a pretty good department.”

“…Yes. It seems that way.”

I tried my best to make it sound sincere.

At the end of the hallway, fluorescent lights flickered faintly through the uneven space.

The floor gleamed from excessive polishing.

Yet it felt as though someone else’s shadow was following me in the reflection.

Ignore it.

Getting used to things was the key to survival.

“Most of us are highly capable, and our team has the best performance records. Sure, some people resent us for that, but extracting successfully from Dimensional Entities is a pretty impressive job.”

“Extracting… from Dimensional Entities?”

Whenever I repeated the unfamiliar term, Assistant Manager Son nodded—or perhaps flexed his wrist. It was hard to tell.

“Right. We extract the source of their energy. Most of them are kept isolated under controlled conditions.”

Controlled conditions?

I’d made eye contact with them. They’d touched my skin.

“Basically, our job is drawing a stable amount of energy from those isolated Dimensional Entities every day. Like… milking a cow?”

“Ah…”

“Confusing, right? Don’t worry. We’ll teach you everything. We normally do field assignments too, but things are quiet at the moment. The Aberrant Disaster Management Department has been stirring things up lately.”

The stream of incomprehensible terminology made me force another smile.

“The extracted energy gets sent to the Refinement Team. They remove impurities and pass it on to the Fusion Team. The Fusion Team uses it to…”

Assistant Manager Son rubbed his fist lightly.

The motion of that palm—despite lacking sweat or warmth—made the back of my neck itch.

“Actually, no need to explain that much. Got any questions?”

“Then… Dimensional Entities…”

“Yeah?”

“Never mind. I was just curious about how they’re handled.”

I swallowed the rest of my questions.

The baby monster in Human Resources.

Manager Myeon with seven faces.

Assistant Manager Son with a fist for a head.

The tentacle doctor in the infirmary.

Why weren’t they considered Dimensional Entities?

They looked just as monstrous as the things I saw in the extraction chamber.

No.

If anything, they were even more grotesque.

Yet they had names.

Job titles.

Conversations.

They even laughed.

Something was different.

Definitely different.

But I couldn’t figure out what.

“We’re here.”

Assistant Manager Son spoke.

I looked up.

Before us stood the massive steel door I’d seen yesterday.

The red letters reading Extraction Chamber D Sector glowed faintly overhead.

Beside the door was a scanning panel large enough to accommodate something much bigger than even Assistant Manager Son’s hand.

He tilted his head—his hand—and pressed it against the scanner.

Beep—

An absurdly cheerful electronic tone rang out.

The door slid open.

“Welcome, newbie. This is where we’ll be spending most of our time.”

I stepped into the extraction chamber.

A place that felt like a fusion of metal, glass, and living flesh.

Countless containment cells lined the walls.

Inside them writhed things beyond description.

Their forms had all changed since yesterday.

One floated in midair, pulsing like a giant heart.

Another was a mass of bones, fur, blood vessels, and flesh muttering to itself while continuously multiplying.

Yet another rolled across the floor as something neither liquid nor solid, constantly reconstructing its own shape.

Each containment chamber was connected to intricate tubes.

Through those tubes flowed a reddish, viscous fluid.

The liquid gathered in a transparent tank positioned at the center of the room.

Inside the tank it thickened and churned into a substance that looked equally capable of being fuel or blood.

This was the extraction chamber.

And those were the Dimensional Entities.

The place where I would work.

The job I would perform.

Dizziness washed over me again.

My vision swayed.

Then, through the blur, something strange caught my eye.

‘What is that…?’

My gaze landed on it.

Amid the overwhelming grotesqueness of the extraction chamber—

One person stood there.

A woman in a white lab coat.

Pure white hair flowed down to her waist.

Her skin was so pale it seemed transparent.

Her ruby-red eyes were vivid and brilliant, yet somehow lonely and hollow.

Cold.

Beautiful.

A breath escaped me unconsciously.

It felt almost sacrilegious to even look at her.

Her appearance seemed as though all the beauty in the world had been gathered into a single being.

Her very existence was a mirage of salvation.

A balance restored.

The simple fact that a living human being existed here—and one so noble and dignified at that—caused something inside me to collapse.

My legs trembled.

“…Haeil?”

Assistant Manager Son’s voice reached me from somewhere nearby.

It sounded distant, as though filtered through water.

I could only look at her.

She didn’t even turn my way.

She simply stood quietly before a massive containment chamber, reviewing some kind of record.

Whatever she was doing didn’t matter.

Not right now.

At this moment—

I was overwhelmingly relieved by her existence.

And exactly three seconds later, that feeling shattered completely.

“So you have arrived. You are late.”

She spoke without turning around.

Her voice was clear and beautiful, like jade beads rolling across polished stone.

Yet from beyond the tablet she held, drops of crimson liquid fell one by one.

Not ink.

The metallic scent of blood.

“Ah, Manager Batori. The newbie collapsed this morning. We stopped by the infirmary for an IV.”

At Assistant Manager Son’s report, she slowly turned her head.

Pale white skin.

Red lips.

Perfect features.

But the instant my eyes caught the crimson stain at the corner of her mouth—

Riiip.

A horrifying sound echoed through the room.

Her cherry-red lips split all the way to her ears.

Skin tore apart, revealing razor-sharp shark-like teeth, exposed gums, and a massive crimson maw.

The beauty from moments ago vanished.

In its place was the gaping mouth of a predator.

“Ho… So this child is the new bloodline I was told about?”

A tongue long as a serpent slithered from between her torn jaws and licked away the red liquid around her lips.

“Ah…”

I had been relieved.

Certain that I wasn’t insane.

Overjoyed at seeing something noble.

But the moment those beautiful cheeks split open—

It felt like glimpsing the true nature of a biblical angel hidden behind its mask.

The beauty had been a lie.

The truth melted my spine from my feet upward.

Staring at her grotesquely torn face, all I could do was cling desperately to consciousness and avoid fainting.

Beneath her elegant voice lingered a gentle metallic vibration, like classical music playing from an ancient gramophone.

“You seem terribly fragile. Such a pitiful and oppressed face. The taste of your blood… ah, I mean, your expression… is exquisitely delicate.”

The subtle tone at the end of her words.

She was definitely smiling.

But it was the smile of a beast savoring anticipation before a meal.

I froze.

With every word she spoke, my certainty that I had found a fellow human crumbled further.

“Yes… Your name was Jeong Haeil, was it not?”

Creak. Creak.

Beneath the graceful curve of her neck came the sound of vertebrae clicking together like gears.

Her head twisted nearly one hundred and eighty degrees, staring directly at me.

A dizzying sensation swept over me, as though reality itself had slipped out of focus.

“I shall remember you. Since you have become one of my bloodline, I hope you survive for a long time.”

It wasn’t encouragement.

It was a prophecy.

A curse.

And perhaps…

The wish of a gourmet savoring the sight of fresh blood.