NOVEL NEXT WORLD In a dark room…
In a corner of a warehouse stacked high with various boxes and random items, a man was quietly holding his breath, desperately covering his mouth with his hand.
———
He swallowed nervously.
It had been several years since he joined the Abnormal Phenomena Management Office.
He thought he had gotten somewhat used to facing all sorts of bizarre and terrifying things.
But the countless monsters he had seen marching just moments ago were far too overwhelming for him to handle.
No matter how many flashes erupted from the guns, they quickly closed in on him and his fellow members, literally ripping them apart.
— — — Thud, thud, thud
He heard the sound of those things prowling the hallway.
Only he had barely managed to escape.
The image of his fellow members joking just this morning still vividly lingered in his mind.
Why had he cowardly abandoned them and fled here while they screamed in agony?
…No, he couldn’t help it. It was unavoidable.
This was reality, and he was not the protagonist of some novel.
The only thing he could do against these unidentified monsters, which bullets were useless against, was to pray to God to be saved.
———Kiiiiiik
“…Hup!”
The warehouse door began to creak open.
Surely, one of those monsters must have reached here while rummaging for prey.
The man desperately hoped the one who opened the door wasn’t a monster, but the heavy footsteps that followed only filled him with despair.
‘Please, just go away, please, just go away…!’
A frantic prayer.
He had already exhausted all his ammunition and had no means left to resist against the monster.
If he was found, only certain death awaited him.
The monster began to ransack the room.
It was as if it knew someone was hiding inside.
As the warehouse items crashed and clattered, his heart raced violently.
Finally, the heavy footsteps came right up to the boxes he was hiding behind.
His heart was pounding so hard he thought it might explode any moment now.
The monster, whether aware of his hiding spot or not, stood there for a while—
———Kiiiiiik
Perhaps, feeling a change in mood, it did nothing but leave behind the sound of the door closing and vanished.
“…Haah.”
The man let out a sigh of relief.
After holding his breath for so long, the air felt surprisingly sweet.
Of course, the outside was still swarming with monsters, and he had no idea if he could escape safely, but still…
He was alive, that was what mattered.
Just that one fact.
He gratefully reflected on his life when—
———Kiiiiiik
A sound echoed right in front of him.
He felt a shock as if his heart had stopped.
A monster’s face suddenly pushed through the boxes he had hidden behind.
Its artificial face, oozing discomfort and disgust, was covered with the blood and flesh of someone he was sure he had killed.
“———Ah.”
His lips, unable to scream, released a feeble groan.
The man tried to flee from it, but soon realized he was frozen in place from fear.
Even if he did try to run, he thought he could never escape this creature, and so his murky eyes accepted his fate.
The monster’s head shook violently.
Was it excited from finding prey, or was it mocking the one who had given up on life?
That face, as if it had been forcefully torn apart, shook violently before him, and soon, with trembling, it extended upwards—
——Thwud!
With a sound like something being forcibly ripped, it separated from its own body.
The intense movements from moments ago came to an abrupt stop, as if they had been a lie.
“———?”
The man’s mind was filled with countless questions over the incomprehensible scene.
The monster’s face, which had seemed about to devour him, suddenly began to convulse and tear itself apart.
What was this? Did it just sever its own head? Or was it merely toying with him just moments ago?
The monster had stopped moving, but the paralyzed man’s body still wouldn’t budge.
As time went by and his wildly beating heart began to steady, he finally caught sight of someone perched on the monster’s back.
“You…”
It was a little girl with brown hair.
She looked young and fragile, like a child who couldn’t survive without protection.
Yet, in this situation, her appearance felt utterly out of place.
Seeing an unscathed rabbit standing among a pack of hungry lions was just as bizarre.
“Come with me. It’s dangerous here.”
With a swift motion, the girl threw something she was holding.
The man cautiously scrutinized the sudden appearance of this mysterious girl, who seemed not to care about his wariness at all.
After sending him an indifferent remark, she started walking towards the exit of the warehouse.
“Wait, stop—”
As the girl stepped outside, the man hurriedly got up to follow her.
Although he still hadn’t fully grasped what had just happened, he was acutely aware that countless monsters were roaming outside.
Was it out of pity, or a desire not to stir up trouble that would attract more monsters?
He instinctively rushed out to warn the girl of the danger, even though he sensed she wasn’t an ordinary human.
As he opened the door to step outside, he was met with—
“…Good heavens.”
The hallway filled with the scattered remnants of monsters.
His eyes were mixed with fear and awe.
The very monsters that had marched unyieldingly despite countless bullets were now grotesquely shredded and strewn about.
He couldn’t even fathom how much power would have been needed to accomplish this.
It looked as if an armored battalion had swept through.
Lost in the overwhelming sight, he momentarily forgot to breathe until—
—Tap tap
He felt a tiny finger poking his thigh, snapping him back to reality.
Looking down, he saw the girl staring back at him.
“Over there is safe. Just run straight.”
The girl pointed her finger down one side of the hallway.
Though the area was a wreck, with walls likely to collapse and countless monster remains covering the ground, he realized that this gruesome scene was actually a testament to safety.
After all, there were no monsters left over there.
“Hey, who are you—”
The man’s attention shifted from her finger to her face.
But the girl, who had been right there moments ago, had already disappeared.
As he quickly looked around in panic, he could only see her silhouette reaching the end of the hall.
“Hey, wait…!”
He called out to her with a hurried voice.
He still had many questions for her.
Like who she was, how she defeated all those monsters alone, and why she was heading in the opposite direction of the safe place she had pointed out.
But when the girl turned back at his call, he floundered with his words, unable to find something suitable to ask.
“…Um, thanks.”
Eventually, he could only stammer out an awkward expression of gratitude.
The girl let out a soft chuckle as if to say “What’s that?”
Then without looking back, she rounded the corner of the hallway and vanished from sight.
After charging through the corridors, smashing the dolls blocking his path and hearing the screams of people, some time had passed.
‘I found it.’
He spotted a doll with distinctive features unlike the others, a spiral spear lodged in its chest.
Convinced this peculiar doll was the source of the incident, he charged toward it without a moment’s hesitation.