1:46 a.m
The elevator hissed open.
The moment the doors hissed open, the stench hit them like a wall—a mix of sulfur, spoiled meat, and the acrid sweetness of rot, thick enough to taste.Han Daejun eyes squinted with his lip riding as he got a wiff of the stench. He placed a black half mask on which slid and tighten around his jaw to the back of his head.The red emergency lights barely reached the grime-smeared floors, flickering against steel walls now overtaken by vein-like root structures, black and pulsing, threading across the ceilings like arteries.
The Silencers moved first—dispersing with silent precision.
Then, one of the five cloaked operatives raised a hand. Without words, he pointed at another to remain behind.
A silent command.
The chosen one nodded, stepping back to stand at Han Daejun's side. A silent escort.
The rest pressed forward, black cloaks grazing the roots on the floors.
As they advanced deeper into the hallway, the sickening squelch of their boots echoed. The roots below felt soft—like they were stepping on skin.
Then—
Movement
Something limped toward them from the far end of the corridor.
A figure. Human-shaped. Shambling, its steps dragging unevenly. Growling
One of the Silencers raised his weapon. Voice emotionless.
> "Halt. Identify yourself or be terminated."
The figure didn't stop.
It came closer, groaning, something wet dangling from its jaw.
> "Final warning—halt or—"
"Fire," Han Daejun ordered flatly.
Crack!
A single shot rang out, punching into the figure's shoulder—but it didn't flinch.
It kept moving.
More shots. Three. Five. Seven.
Bullets tore into the thing, chunks of flesh splattering across the corridor—but it didn't fall.
Its head turned unnaturally,like it was trying to sniff. Then it screeched, a sound somewhere between a dying animal and a child crying.
"Enough," Han muttered.
"All units: suppressive fire."
They unleashed hell.
The creature's torso exploded under gunfire—but even as it dropped to its knees, its limbs twitched, struggling to crawl forward.
Han Daejun scowled and tapped his comm.
> "Delta. What the fuck am I looking at?"
A moment passed.
Then Delta's voice came through—still her mature, regal version, though tinged now with uncertainty.
> "Visual confirmation suggests… an anomalous bioform, once human .Technically, it is dead."
"Then how's it moving "
> "Lack of neural activity. No pulse. But external scans show movement originating from a fungal structure—mushroom-like growth located at the cranial apex."
She paused.
> "X-ray scan shows invasive fibers extending from the spore into the spinal column—controlling the body like a puppet. The host is non-viable. The parasite is dominant."
Another pause.
> "It feeds. On flesh. On neural tissue. Infection is achieved through contact. Then replication. Then control."
Han Daejun's eyes narrowed behind his glasses.
"Origin?"
> "Unknown. I need further study. The mutation has diverged from known strains. It may be… learning."
The cloaked operative besideHan Daejun turnedhis head—just slightly.
Almost like he was listening.
Han didn't notice. Or chose not to.
Instead, he stepped closer to the twitching corpse. The mushroom growth on its head had slightly ruptured, black spores leaking like blood.
1:50am.
The thing didn't stop.
Even after being riddled with bullets, it dragged itself forward on splintered limbs, gurgling wetly, jaws snapping at the Silencer nearest to it.
Then—
CRACK.
A single, bone-crunching stomp split the air.
One of the cloaked operatives—Nyx-3, the one who had stayed beside Han Daejun—drove his boot down, crushing the skull with surgical force. The mushroom crown splattered like a burst fruit, sending black sludge across the floor.
The body went limp instantly.
"No head," Han Daejun muttered behind him, pulling a sterilized cloth from his coat pocket to clean his glasses.
He simply stepped back into formation, his cloak dragging across the corpse like a death shroud.
Han turned to the remaining Silencers.
> "New objective. Delta confirms **Eun Bi is alive**. Find her. Retrieve her. Preferably alive.To me."
"I'll be the one to execute her"
The squad moved forward, sweeping through the biomechanical corridor—shooting as they advanced, bodies falling with wet, hollow thuds, black blood splashing across roots and walls like oil.
Then—
A motion blur to the left.
Eun Bi.
She bolted from the shadows, hair matted with sweat and grime, a bleeding gash running down her temple. Her lab coat was torn, and she limped slightly, but she was fast.
Too fast.
"Target spotted!" a Silencer barked.
"Stop!" another yelled, raising his weapon.
She didn't.
She dashed down a side passage and vanished behind a crumbling bio-door sealed with roots.
The soldiers fanned out, but Han Daejun raised a hand.
"Wait."
A voice echoed from beyond the barrier, ragged and defiant:
> "Han Daejun... So you did come."
His eyes narrowed.
"Eun Bi," he said flatly.
"You going to kill me now?" she asked bitterly. "Right here on the spot?"
"Yes," he replied with clinical honesty. "But not before you answer a question."
A pause. Shuffling. She was repositioning herself.
"Am interesting with what you've created care to share it secrets."
There was venom in his tone now—rare for him.
Her response was quiet.
But cutting.
> "Not ready to feed your delusions"
Han didn't blink.
> "Fire."
Gunfire ripped through the barrier. Splinters of moldy steel and fungal root burst apart as she screamed. A single round caught her leg left calf and she dropped hard, face twisting in pain as blood pooled beneath her.
She crawled.
Tried to get up.
Didn't make it.
Han Daejun stepped forward as the Silencers fanned out in a semicircle.
She glared at him through blood and tears.
"You always hated me," she hissed.
Han Daejun simply knelt beside her.
No emotion. No pity.
"Can't blame me it's my default feeling."
He lifted his tablet and scanned her—checking vitals, spore saturation, infection level.
Then he spoke into his comm.
> "Delta. Target secured. Leg injury. Confirm status—infected or not?"
Delta's voice came through the static.
> "…Working on it."
"You have sixty seconds," Han Daejun replied. Then, almost to himself:
"After that, I cut her open to find out myself."He grinned.
1:55am
Delta's voice returned—soft, regretful.
> "Confirmed. Eun Bi… is infected."
Han Daejun didn't hesitate. He pulled a sterilized sidearm from his coat pocket and stepped forward, leveling it at her skull.
"Termination authorized."
Eun Bi clenched her jaw, defiant even in pain.
But then—
".....Biiiiiii...iiiii"
The voice was warped—squeaky, cracking, like broken speakers mimicking speech. All heads turned toward the source.
Above them, at the far end of the corridor, a figure emerged from the shadows—twitching, staggering, its skin pale and wet like it had been peeled and left out in the cold.
A bald man, streaks of blood trailing down from his scalp. Only a few stray strands of hair clung to his head. His eyes were a foggy white, milky and dead.
Eun Bi's eyes widened in horror and disbelief.
"Kang… Daehyun…"
Her voice trembled.
Before anyone could react—
CRACK!
A clean shot from a Silencer's rifle punched through Daehyun's forehead. His head snapped back violently, body collapsing.
"Threat neutralized," the soldier muttered, stepping forward to confirm the kill.
But as his boot touched the corpse—
Daehyun jolted upright.
A bladed tendril—formed from his own sharpened ribs—whipped forward, slicing the soldier's head clean off,blood spraying in a wide arc. Daehyun caught the body mid-fall and sank his teeth into the neck, devouring it like a starved beast.
"OPEN FIRE!" someone shouted.
Gunfire erupted—but Daehyun kept advancing, now twisting, cracking, and realigning his bones. His spine snapped back into place with loud pops, and his jaw stretched wider than any human's should.
When he stood straight again, his voice had changed.
Clear.
Human.
Louder.
"EUN BIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!."
Eun Bi, still bleeding, took the chance. Her eyes burned with terror and guilt, but survival kicked in.
She ran.
Dragging her leg, she vanished into the corridor's fungus-veined darkness as the soldiers were too busy engaging the beast.
"SHE'S RUNNING!" one shouted.
"Forget her!" another barked. "Priority threat!"
The facility shook as Daehyun roared—a deep, layered sound that echoed through the root-veined halls.
Suddenly, the walls twitched.
The roots pulsed and started growing more.
Then the sound came—
Footsteps. Shuffling. Screeching.
The infected were coming.
All of them.
Kang Daehyun had called them somehow.
From every corridor, from behind shattered doors, from vents—they surged, eyes glowing faintly, black veins crawling across their flesh.
"Contact on all sides!" a Silencer shouted.
The group began firing in every direction. The hallway became a war zone of gunfire, shrieks, and smoke.
Then—
For the first time,
one of the cloaked five spoke.
His voice was low, gravelly, and final.
"Fall back. Get the manager out of here."
"But—" one soldier started.
Han Daejun raised a hand.
"You heard him. Leave the work to the five of them."
Without waiting, he turned and began moving toward the elevator, pushing past soldiers, covered in blood but untouched.
The rest hesitated, but followed.
Gunfire continued, but the five did not move yet.
They just stood—watching.
2:00am
The flickering red emergency lights danced across the rotting walls, casting grotesque shadows of root-like fungal tendrils. The air was thick—putrid with the scent of blood and rot.
The five stood still.
The infected surrounded them—dozens at first, then hundreds. The things shambled in uneven gaits, their eyes white and lifeless, their bodies dripping with fungal growth. But they didn't charge.
They just stood.
Waiting.
Watching.
Their heads slowly tilted in unison toward the bloated corpse at the center—Kang Daehyun.
He lay still—bullet-riddled, eyes open and pale. The one who'd screamed "Eun Bi" moments before being gunned down. But the black growth on the walls began to shift—writhing, twitching, slithering toward him like worms drawn to rot.
Then—his body twitched.
The infected dropped to their knees like worshippers before a god and suddenly they all rushed unto Kang Daehyun. They started to tear each other apart molting and molding like forming something.
The growths spiked into his corpse from all directions—flesh split, bones cracked—and something began to grow.
Faster.
Larger.
Kang's body expanded grotesquely,stretching into a form no longer human. His head ballooned, jaw unhinged, his torso splitting open like overripe fruit. Fungal masses writhed within. A monstrous thing began to rise—its head nearly scraping the ceiling. its mouth still spewing those same broken words:
"EUN ...,...BIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!"
The five finally moved.
With perfect precision, they formed a loose circle—each taking a stance.
This wasn't panic.
This was preparation.
It was time.
Time to test the gear.
2:10am
Eun Bi limped alone, blood dripping from her leg where the shot had pierced her. Her breath came ragged, her body coated in sweat and dust.
"Monsters," she muttered, stumbling down the corridor. "All of them…"
She dragged herself along the wall, using whatever strength she had left.
"The Board… the Silencers… Han Daejun…"
Her voice shook, not with fear—but fury.
"They won't get their hands on this…"
She vanished into the dark.