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Illustrations: posted in discord

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Traces of the doomsday cultists\' terror attack still lingered on the streets. Burned buildings, police tape blocking doorways, and people walking around with gloomy expressions.

As they stepped onto the street, Jae-min glanced around nervously before asking in a low voice:

"How are we going to investigate?"

Yeonwoo, who had been walking absentmindedly, suddenly stopped. A realization struck him, and he let out a quiet exclamation.

"Oh. I should\'ve contacted someone at headquarters first. Why did we come out right away? We could\'ve just called from the office."

He had acted before thinking. It was an embarrassing mistake, if you could call it that.

Yeonwoo scratched his head awkwardly, while Jae-min eyed him suspiciously. Suddenly, he wasn\'t so sure about Yeonwoo.

But then Jae-min\'s face brightened.

\'Maybe failing the investigation would actually help the baby.\'

If they found traces of an anomaly while talking to the grandmother who left the baby, it could end badly. Isolation, experiments, exclusion, and such.

However, Jae-min\'s expression quickly darkened with worry as his thoughts went further.

\'But still, what if that baby is dangerous? ...Nah, it can\'t be. That grandmother brought it, after all.\'

If it had been killing people or causing bizarre phenomena, she wouldn\'t have left it at an office-like place.

"Yes, it\'s me. I need some help-"

At that point, Yeonwoo called Mark Jung. The other end seemed extremely busy, so the call ended quickly, but Yeonwoo managed to get help from the Intelligence Department.

Gathering CCTV data, the company\'s advanced AI tracked the person\'s movements.

A route was drawn in real-time on a map. The trail ended at a nearby apartment complex.

Yeonwoo shook his phone after zooming in and out of the map. He turned his head in a certain direction and strode forward energetically.

"Let\'s go."

It was close enough to reach in about 40 minutes on foot.

And so Yeonwoo moved ahead without much thought, while Jae-min\'s face alternated between darkness and light as he was lost in complicated thoughts.

------

They stopped at the entrance of a five-story building. It was the apartment building the grandmother had entered, her home.

The Intelligence Department had provided excellent support. They had obtained the suspected grandmother\'s personal information and extracted accurate data by comparing things like property records for each unit in the building.

Although the Intelligence Department had given them the answer, Yeonwoo and Jae-min hesitated to enter.

"..."

"..."

They shuffled their feet in front of the grimy glass door, their faces a mix of uncertainty and tension. They shared the same concerns.

\'How should we start talking? How should we have this conversation? What if she doesn\'t even open the door?\'

It was their first time doing something like an question or investigation. Plus, it didn\'t seem like the grandmother who had left her child would cooperate easily.

"Ah. Um..."

It was a high-difficulty problem. Yeonwoo, not confident in his conversation skills, felt it was as difficult as a house where you die if you ██. Jae-min also looked like he had hit a wall.

Jae-min was the one who gathered his courage.

"Let me try."

Just as Jae-min, with his lips tightly pressed, solemnly grabbed the door handle, Yeonwoo stopped him by grabbing the back of his neck.

"No, wait, just a second."

"We can\'t just stand here doing nothing. Let\'s just go in-"

"No, I have a way."

As Jae-min was arguing, he turned around. A fluorescent light flashed across the grimy glass door. Yeonwoo pulled out a natural fluorescent vest from his bag.

Yeonwoo shook out the vest with a thwack and said:

"We can use equipment."

What did it matter if he couldn\'t talk? He could just borrow the power of anomalous equipment. Besides, it was for the baby\'s sake, so the cause was good.

Jae-min\'s eyes widened. He was so taken aback that he could barely speak.

"That, that. We\'re supposed to keep that in storage-"

Suddenly, a realization struck Jae-min. He shouldn\'t learn everything this person taught him. He was practically a lawless person who ignored rules and lived as he pleased.

But such confusion soon disappeared.

"It\'s fine. Let\'s go."

Because it was a natural thing. Yeonwoo wearing the fluorescent vest, them being here, visiting someone\'s home.

Creak, the building\'s main door opened. Yeonwoo went down the stairs. Towards the grandmother\'s basement room.

It only took a few words to open the tightly closed door.

"We\'re here for an inspection. Please open the door."

------

The door opened. Through the gradually widening gap, they saw a hunched grandmother. The deeply wrinkled grandmother looked up at Yeonwoo, holding a tattered rag in one hand.

"Welcome."

Yeonwoo reflexively assessed the environment beyond the door first.

Near the entrance, trash was neatly organized. A garbage bag mixed with a few empty formula cans, baby diapers, and such.

The house, which seemed to be inhabited by the grandmother alone, was filled with a musty smell, and an old refrigerator struggled to operate, groaning.

\'It\'s not... dangerous, is it?\'

Yeonwoo stepped inside, taking off his shoes. He bowed his head slightly in greeting.

"We\'re here to do an inspection and ask a few questions."

"Mmm. Alright. Come on in."

The grandmother welcomed Yeonwoo without suspicion. Because it was natural.

Just then, Jae-min hurriedly caught up and opened the door that was about to close. He smiled awkwardly and bowed. There was a faint trace of blood at the corner of his mouth.

"Hello, grandmother!"

The grandmother looked at Jae-min. As Jae-min tensed up, about to stammer out some excuse, Yeonwoo added:

"He\'s a new employee who just started working. Is it okay?"

Although the fluorescent vest\'s effect didn\'t apply to those words, the grandmother nodded vaguely. She seemed uninterested in most things.

"You look so young. That\'s admirable. Come in, come in."

The two followed her inside.

In the small space that served as both kitchen and living room, the grandmother struggled to unfold a wooden table. She was trying to offer some hospitality to the guests who had come.

"I\'ll help you!"

Jae-min rushed over and easily unfolded the wooden table. The short legs spread out smoothly, and the faded wooden table was set up.

"Have something to drink."

The grandmother slowly opened the refrigerator door and practically climbed inside, fumbling around for drinks.

Jae-min watched the grandmother, then bit his tongue again. His eyes locked onto Yeonwoo.

\'Wake up! We came here to protect the baby!\'

They came to help the baby live as a human in society. They needed to hide its identity from the company, from Yeonwoo.

Just as a parent might display superhuman strength in the face of their child\'s crisis, Jae-min\'s willpower broke through its limits to resist the perception distortion.

Yeonwoo naturally realized this fact. He couldn\'t miss the glances. But he didn\'t think much of it.

\'An investigator should be able to do at least this much.\'

Shaking off vest-level perception distortion increases the chances of survival.

At that point, the grandmother brought out barley tea she had kept in the refrigerator, along with two cups.

"I don\'t have much for young people to drink..."

"It\'s okay! I was thirsty anyway!"

Jae-min eagerly received the glass bottle and poured the water with a gurgling sound. Thoughts raced through his mind. How to start the conversation, what to ask.

But Yeonwoo, wearing the fluorescent vest, watched the water falling in an arc and suddenly spoke:

"You left a baby, right? I have some questions about that."

Having put on the vest, there was no need to beat around the bush. He didn\'t have that ability anyway.

Splash-!

Jae-min\'s hand shook violently, spilling water all over the table. The grandmother also stepped back in surprise. Both of their eyes darted around frantically.

A brief silence fell. Just as Yeonwoo was about to speak again:

The grandmother hunched her shoulders and said:

"I did a terrible thing to that baby. But what could I do with so little life left? If I die and that child is left alone..."

"No, no!"

Jae-min waved his hands frantically. Flustered, he spoke urgently. For a moment, his gaze swept over Yeonwoo. A look that said, \'Why are you stabbing people so directly?\'

Yeonwoo also felt a pang of conscience and averted his eyes slightly.

Soon, the old woman\'s story began, and the two listened attentively.

"The baby is a bit sick, but so good. I wanted it to go to good people if possible."

------

The story was simple.

An orphan grandmother who had struggled through life found a baby in her younger days. One day, as she was barely getting by, a baby abandoned in front of her house smiled in her arms.

The moment she saw the baby\'s smile, she accepted it as her own child and raised it with devotion.

A baby that didn\'t age.

Wariness, questions, and realizations flashed in Yeonwoo and Jae-min\'s eyes. The grandmother lowered her head, staring at the corner of the wooden table as she muttered:

"I guess the baby had a disease that prevented it from growing properly. I saw it on TV. They said there\'s a disease that stops growth."

Yeonwoo vaguely remembered something like that too. Was it Highlander syndrome?

\'But can that appear at such a young age?\'

He asked:

"Didn\'t you take the baby to a hospital?"

"How could I? I looked into it. They said there\'s no cure. What if the baby just gets hurt from needless injections?"

Is that so? Doubt and wariness mixed in Yeonwoo\'s eyes. It wasn\'t incomprehensible, but it felt a bit unsettling. Like seeing something straddling the line between anomaly and ordinary.

But he couldn\'t just barge in because the baby really did seem like a simple baby, and his heart was stirring. He felt a desire to protect it.

He couldn\'t just leave, but he couldn\'t stay still either.

As Yeonwoo was struggling to find his bearings, caught between parental feelings and reason:

Jae-min wore a relieved expression.

\'It\'s not dangerous. It\'s just a baby that stopped growing. ...But what should we do?\'

Worry also mixed into Jae-min\'s expression.

It would be a problem to simply send it to a protection agency. A child that doesn\'t grow would soon be caught in the company\'s information network. Perhaps a child that can\'t live a normal life should rather be in a company institution-

At that moment, Yeonwoo\'s voice came:

"Jae-min. That baby doesn\'t have parents, right?"

It was a question asking if it was an anomaly. A chill ran down Jae-min\'s spine. Jae-min turned his head, his hands trembling.

There was Yeonwoo, frowning deeply in intense thought.

Only a short time had passed, he had only gotten a few clues, but he had reached the truth. It was the result of suspecting that he had fallen into danger, that he had been influenced by an anomaly.

\'...Did I feel these emotions when looking at other babies?\'

It was a stronger emotion than what he felt watching news or videos. As if he had become a parent and that baby was his child. An intense feeling that he needed to protect and guard it no matter what.

Of course, it might feel different seeing it in person, but Yeonwoo, who had experienced so many accidents, even doubted that emotion.

If that baby was manipulating emotions to create a caretaker for itself that couldn\'t grow...

In Yeonwoo\'s head, thought circuits ran to shake off the influence.

\'I\'m 100 percent. The baby is 50 percent. Half. If it fully inherited me, that would be a disaster.\'

He recalled the Demon of Sloth. Hadn\'t they tried to kill each other?

A sensation like being doused with ice water washed over him, and soon the emotions were pushed back. Yeonwoo raised his head and looked at Jae-min. Certainty settled in his eyes.

"Right?"

Clang-!

Jae-min dropped his cup. That reaction came back as a definite answer, and Yeonwoo smiled.

\'What? It\'s not even that dangerous. Then we can just hand it over to the company.\'

The company would take good care of it and raise it appropriately. The company wasn\'t an unethical organization that would even mistreat babies. Yeonwoo let out a sigh of relief. Anyway, it was a story ending well without any accidents.

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