Chapter 65: The End of the Whale
Chapter 65: The End of the Whale
Somewhere in the East Sea.
Above the sea, rippling with blue light.
Several helicopters could be seen heading somewhere, making a heavy sound.
Soon, in the direction where the group was heading, something like a black dot began to appear.
A foreign silhouette that can be called an island.
The silhouette of the black dot that looked like a speck became clearer as it got closer.
The identity of what looked like a black dot was a giant whale precariously lying on the island.
*Splash, swoosh…*
No warmth is felt from the whale, and it does not stir even as it receives the waves.
But that didn’t feel strange.Because when seen up close, the whale’s body was covered in wounds of all sizes.
Those who followed the whale fleeing the sky wondered how the whale was able to move despite such wounds.
But soon, they erased the question.
It would be strange to expect common sense from an anomaly in the first place.
Soon, as Han Seori, supported by Kim Cheonsu, got off the helicopter, those who were feeling curious while looking at the whale began to unload things from the helicopter.
What they took out of the helicopter were protective suits and equipment to dissect the whale.
Looking at those brutal-looking pieces of equipment, you’d think they’d feel pity for the whale, but the faces of those putting on protective gear and preparing the equipment were extremely placid.
Perhaps they had already experienced similar things many times and had become numb to it.
It might seem rather cold-hearted, but to them, it was just something they obviously had to do.
They couldn’t just leave an anomaly that was surely already dead like this.
Since moving something that big whole would be very inefficient, they can’t be called cold-hearted.
It was unavoidable.
If it were alive, it would be a different story….
Like that, the whale dissection began while Han Seori watched from a distance.
“Hmm?”
But from the beginning, they faced a slightly troubling situation.
The whale, which according to the data hadn’t died long ago… was dried up to a strange degree.
It’s not that the whale’s volume has decreased, but the things that should come out of a creature that was alive until a little while ago are not coming out.
Speaking of which, the sea that should have been dyed red by the blood flowing from the wounds is also boasting its blueness.
No matter how much of an anomaly it is, if it had the structure of a living thing, that was strange.
That was the reason they brought protective gear, too.
The man performing the dissection approached, took off his protective suit’s mask, and asked Han Seori.
“Something seems strange… Shall we continue?”
At his question, Han Seori seemed to have a headache as she pressed her temples and was lost in thought.
But soon, with a slightly brightened face, she signaled to resume the work.
The man felt a bit of doubt, but since it was a job that had to be done anyway, he turned around without a word and returned to the dissection site.
In any case, as long as he followed the safety rules well, it wouldn’t be his fault, even if something went wrong.
*Whirr! Chop chop!*
Soon, the dissection work that had been paused for a moment began again.
*Thud!*
A piece of flesh fell to the ground along with the skin.
The chunks of meat rolling on the beach had no blood at all.
As if someone had sucked out all the blood from the whale.
*Gulp.*
The man who had asked Han Seori about continuing felt a tinge of unease at that bizarre sight.
It seems like there will be something else inside in addition to the whale that’s already dead.
The man glanced at Han Seori, who was supported by Kim Cheonsu, after looking at his teammates who were still conducting the dissection.
‘Seeing as she came here in person…’
She doesn’t seem to be a bad person, even if she is annoying.
He sighed inwardly as he thought of the so-called ‘doctors’ of the branch he belonged to while looking at the man and woman who came from the Metropolitan Branch.
*Chop chop!*
*Thud!*
Meanwhile, the dissection proceeded smoothly.
Work that progressed as if ants were eating prey.
Fortunately, what the man was worried about didn’t seem to happen.
… However.
The man and the others were soon shocked in a different sense.
As they dug deeper, things presumed to be traces left by humans poured out.
Steel frames to support something.
An iron door covered in rust.
…Even cans that are presumed to have been left behind by someone eating.
Those dissecting the whale frowned upon seeing those traces, sensing what had happened to the whale.
The common thought was that those who did this didn’t seem to be in their right mind.
The dissection continued in a slightly heavy atmosphere.
The solid sound that shouldn’t be heard from a biological entity was heard in succession.
“This looks like a stomach.”
“Bring something to put it in, just in case.”
In the middle of the dissection that continued in a rather somber atmosphere,
*Chop chop!*
The eyes of the one who reached the deepest part saw something strange.
“Huh?”
“Wh-what is it?”
A space soaked in blood appeared, unlike the dried-up whale. It was understandable up to that point, but the strange silhouette that appeared there made him perplexed.
When he shone a flashlight to grasp the situation, the figure of a blood-soaked doll was revealed.
“What the?!”
The doll’s hair, presumed to have been blonde, was soaked in dark red blood to the point where its original color was unrecognizable.
Of course, the whole body was also covered in blood, so it looked more like a lump of blood than a doll.
*Twitch!*
As if it noticed their presence, the doll that had been sitting blankly began to move.
The workers who saw the movement sensed that it was something like an anomaly and greatly retreated.
“Ah, there’s something inside!”
“… What?”
The man who was coordinating the entire operation lost his words for a moment, blaming himself for thinking it was going smoothly, and carefully went inside.
There were no immediate casualties, so he thought he would check what it was first and then report it to Han Seori.
The man frowned at the thick smell of blood that wafted from a different place than anywhere else.
‘So that’s where all that blood went.’
It was good that one question was solved, but a new question arose, so it couldn’t be said to be a very good situation.
As the man shone a flashlight,
A blood-soaked doll was seen.
It seems unable to bear the blood soaked into its body as it wobbles unsteadily.
And next to it… A small girl made of blue slime was sprawled out.
The girl lying in a puddle of blood, half-submerged, with a face that seemed to find everything in the world bothersome, was limply sprawled.
Only the small thumping of something small inside that small body let them know it was still alive.
The man who had confirmed that much realized that it was the anomaly Han Seori had mentioned.
She said its survival was unknown, but it seemed it was alive.
The man clicked his tongue and laughed hollowly at the possibility that had seemed unlikely, so he hadn’t really considered it.
The man looked around the inside more closely, feeling somewhat relieved.
‘She said it was friendly to humans, didn’t she?’
Then there’s no need to worry.
“A- are you going in?”
“It’ll probably be safe. You go tell the doctor over there that we found what she was looking for.”
“What? Yes!”
After saying that, the man passed through the cut gap and went inside.
The foul stench that occasionally wafted from other places was thick here.
‘She said there were three.’
Let’s see… Then there should be one more.
Where is it?
The man’s eyes, after passing the blood-soaked doll and the slime girl submerged in blood, saw a space that seemed to have had something huge.
And in the center of it,
A girl stood, similar to the slime girl, sprawled on the floor but much larger.
The man felt an inexplicable chill upon seeing the girl made of slime.
Unlike the other two he had just passed, the large girl emanated an unsettling aura.
From the slime girl covered in blood, looking at him,
He felt an anger headed somewhere unknown and unfathomable emotions.
Her expressionless face, devoid of emotion, evoked a feeling of fear rather than a thought of her being pretty.
The man licked his lips, feeling the cold sweat running down his back.
‘Even though she said it was safe.’
But she looks ready to kill me any moment?
He slowly backed away, feeling the cold sweat running down his spine.
The thought that he had to get out of there right now filled the man’s head.
But.
Perhaps reacting to the girl’s emotions,
The doll and the small girl that had made the man pass by powerlessly were approaching the man, making splashing sounds.
*Splash.*
*Splash.*
In front, the big girl slowly approaches.
The slippery floor.
The man, who had been backing away, slipped and fell on his bottom into a puddle of blood with a splash.
Blood splashed everywhere, wetting the beings approaching him.
At the moment when the man was about to resign himself to death,
*Splash, splash.*
Along with the sound of someone approaching from the opened entrance, the relatively large girl who had been approaching him stopped in her tracks.
The large girl who had been wobbling like jelly soon collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut, and the sound approaching from the entrance approached the girl with intense noise.
The identity of the sound was Han Seori in a protective suit.
Han Seori, with a face filled with a mixture of relief and complicated emotions, picked up the girl and handed her to Kim Cheonsu, who belatedly followed and took care of the doll and the small girl.
Han Seori, who was silently heading out, said in a low voice.
“… Now it seems we only need to finish the dissection. Please take care of it.”
“Ah… yes.”
The man replied weakly with a face as if possessed by a ghost.
… I should quit this job.
The man sighed deeply, ruminating on his retirement age.