The security sergeant handed me a towel so I could clean the blood off my stained cleaning uniform.
I mechanically wiped it down, making sure not to look to my side.
Over there lay the grotesque corpse of the Church of the Luminous Unknown cultist, their head crushed by the sergeant.
– Hmm. Certainly not a pleasant sight! It lacks any aesthetic refinement as it stains the floor… Oh! Mr. Roe Deer, something interesting is happening!
“……??”
I instinctively turned my head.
The bloody mess of flesh and the crushed head that had been lying there was now melting away.
As if time were being rapidly rewound, the bloodstains on the floor dried up and transformed into the desiccated body of someone completely dried out and unrecognizable.
From the gaping mouth of the shriveled corpse, a tightly curled, aged piece of paper fell out.
The Mimicry Sect’s Scripture, Verse 4
Story Usurper
“……!”
A sacred law.
In essence, it was like a ghost story generator for the Church of the Luminous Unknown.
Initiates could swallow fragments of the sacred scripture and, through ritualistic offerings on an altar, gain access to the corresponding powers.
The security sergeant slowly approached and crouched down, seemingly intending to collect it.
“Fourth-rank, huh… Hey, do you want it?”
Pardon me?
“The company… I think they buy these at a pretty good price. Just say you found it somewhere else and sell it later.”
“…Jay-ssi, you were the one who dealt with the situation, so is it really okay for me to keep this for personal use?”
“It doesn’t matter…”
“……”
“I don’t really… have any use for money.”
Actually, what I meant was whether it was appropriate for me to keep it after a company security intervention, but… since he was offering it, I quickly took it.
“Thank you.”
Several immediate uses came to mind, even beyond selling it to the company.
‘The more cards I have to play, the better.’
Besides, after all this suffering, I deserved to leave with something.
To be safe from any possible effects, I wrapped the item in ‘Wrapper 12B357나’ before pretending to put it in my pocket and slipping it into my inventory instead.
‘Huu.’
“Thank you again for saving me. I owe you my life.”
“No prob…”
Meanwhile, the memories of the past two days slowly began to return.
The mundane, uneventful routine.
Days that passed in a blur, with nothing noteworthy enough to write in a journal.
Days that, in a year’s time, I likely wouldn’t even remember—what you might call ‘skipped narration’ in a novel.
It gave me chills.
It felt like time had been drained from me.
‘Church of the Luminous Unknown… They’re the worst.’
There was a reason I least wanted to be involved with this particular faction out of the three major ones.
‘Creepypastas blending seamlessly into reality.’
I never thought I’d encounter one while cleaning.
Sure, I knew the Church of the Luminous Unknown had infiltrated Daydream Inc., but I never expected to come across a rogue entity from the isolation room without any preparation.
‘I’m lucky to be alive.’
I let out a long sigh of relief.
I just wanted to go home and rest…
“Oh, here he is. In the corridor.”
Screech.
Beyond the door to Isolation B, which the security sergeant had opened, a man in an orange cleaning uniform collapsed unconscious onto the floor.
The other cleaner who had come in with me.
“…Supervisor Badger!”
Ahhh!
So he was here on the third day, too!
Fortunately, Supervisor Park Minseong regained consciousness not long after being moved to the break room.
“…Huh? What? Over there… Someone pushed me though…”
“There was an escape incident involving one isolation room.”
“Huh?!”
I explained everything I had experienced so far.
The security sergeant, by the way, occasionally nodded when asked but otherwise showed no interest in questioning me about my knowledge of the Church of the Luminous Unknown.
It honestly looked like he just didn’t want to deal with it.
‘Well… He’s a tenured employee, so I guess I can’t blame him.’
I understood.
After hearing my explanation, Supervisor Park Minseong’s expression darkened.
“Now that you mention it, I really don’t remember much about what you did on days one and two… Just that we cleaned up without any issues. That’s what’s left in my memory.”
“……”
“Creepy. That cult is terrifying.”
“Exactly.”
The Mimicry Sect cultist of the Church of the Luminous Unknown had absorbed and nullified even the very incident it caused.
As if it had never happened. Calm and mundane.
‘And that’s only at rank 4?’
A form of reality manipulation, in other words.
To be honest, if I were to compare it to Daydream Inc.’s classification, it would be somewhere between a B-grade and C-grade—not exactly low-tier.
The problem is, there are countless fanatics within the Church of the Luminous Unknown who possess creepypastas classified as ‘powers’ ranked 4 and above.
Recalling the Mimicry Sect cultist from earlier, which barely resembled a human, I swallowed hard.
Please, I hope I don’t cross paths with them again until I’ve collected all my wish-granting points.
“Um… Since the cleaning is finished, you should change clothes too.”
“Ah, right. I’ll go get changed quickly, Roe. Just give me a moment!”
“Yes.”
I bid farewell to Supervisor Park Minseong as he left the room.
Beside me, the security sergeant was sweeping up the papers that Park Minseong had dropped and tossing them into the trash bin.
Among them was that strange work tip sheet.
“……”
“By the way, this tip sheet…”
The security sergeant spoke first, as if he had been waiting to bring it up.
“I was going to ask about it anyway—it’s too suspicious. Was this really a tip circulating within the Security Team?”
“Yes… it is. But… we would never have given it to that person.”
“…What?”
“To Supervisor Badger…”