Ch.82Graffiti (4)

A completely disheveled house.

Everyone else is writhing with their eyes closed.

As if they’re being chased by someone in a dream.

Is there no one who’s okay?

I checked the AI’s condition.

As I approached, it quickly sat up.

“What? You could move?”

“Just now. I’m a bit dizzy, but I can manage.”

It stands up, dusting itself off, then staggers heavily.

“That looks more than just ‘a bit’.”

“I suppose so.”

It still doesn’t seem normal.

Though it can move somewhat, it’s barely mobile at best.

So even if I want to do something, I have no choice but to move alone.

“Then you stay here and watch the others. I’ll keep looking for a solution.”

I tried to go back out through the front door.

“…Wait.”

“What is it? Did you figure something out?”

“Yes.”

The graffiti is ordinary.

It’s one sentence that kept repeating.

Until now, I kept fixating on the ‘graffiti’ itself, but couldn’t figure anything out.

So this time,

“Can you search if there’s any document about ordinariness? Can you do that now?”

“Yes.”

It closes its eyes while sitting against the wall.

“Is this it? There is one, though it doesn’t seem very relevant to our current situation.”

“Let me see it anyway.”

“Okay. Take out your phone.”

I took my phone out of my pocket.

When it flicked its hand, the screen moved by itself and a document appeared.

[Thoughts on Ordinariness]

– Author: Foundation Council Member, ‘Professor’

“The beginning is about participants and background… The experiment details start from here.”

It pointed at the air with its finger.

The phone screen automatically scrolled down and stopped somewhere in the middle of the document.

“Here.”

“Hmm…”

“What do you think? Does it make sense?”

The experiment’s content was quite long and complex.

Plus, parts of the document were erased, so there were few readable sentences.

I carefully read each sentence.

[Experiment on the Application of ■■■]

***

[Experiment on the Application of ■■■]

Experiment 1-1

A female Bengal tiger named ‘Lucy’ from the Indian ■■■■ Zoo was placed in the middle of a flock of sheep at the ■■■■■■■■ farm located in the same region.

– Lucy appeared tired from long-distance transport, but soon regained energy and explored her surroundings.

– In a hungry state, Lucy recognized the sheep as prey and showed a reaction.

– The sheep immediately fled back into their enclosure. Lucy was retrieved using a tranquilizer gun.

After applying ■■■ to ‘Lucy’, she was placed in the middle of the captive flock of sheep.

– ‘Lucy’ immediately showed a reaction to the prey.

– However, the sheep felt no sense of discomfort at all and didn’t even think of running away. This tendency continued even after one of the flock was eaten.

– Foundation personnel were deployed to retrieve ‘Lucy’, but they couldn’t find her among the sheep.

– Through the suggestion of the supervisor on site, the field personnel successfully retrieved an animal that didn’t have white fur like sheep, didn’t have teeth suitable for herbivores, and didn’t bleat like sheep.

– ‘Lucy’ was retrieved while caged with maggots, a sheepdog, and a Foundation supervisor.

Thanks to Lucy being very full, the supervisor was able to return safely, though terrified.

“Safely? Does this look safe to you?”

– In subsequent investigations, they said all animals appeared to be ordinary sheep.

– Additional anomalous phenomena were confirmed at the ■■■■■■■■ farm where the experiment was conducted and ■■ nearby farms.

They no longer had any vigilance against predators.

– The farm owner no longer expresses hatred toward predators as before.

Even when watching predator attacks through surveillance cameras, they react as if nothing is wrong.

– The sheepdog ignored predators attacking the flock and instead tried to herd the sheep into the enclosure even during the attack.

The sheepdog was severely injured when an excited wolf bit its leg.

– The sheep move as usual without avoiding predator attacks.

Predator attacks on farms in the area increased significantly, with more than 20% of sheep being eaten by wild predators.

For damage control, the Foundation deployed personnel to erase the memories of nearby farm owners and animals.

Amnestics were administered to ■■■ humans and ■■■■ animals.

Experiment 1-2

■■■ was applied to a D-class personnel of the Foundation.

Currently, this person is missing, but traces of them are being found in various places.

Until they received memory erasure treatment, researchers in the same facility developed a disgust for using D-class personnel in experiments.

“This is murder!”

“No matter how much it’s for humanity, we shouldn’t use humans like ourselves as subjects for live experiments!”

[Data Expunged]

Experiment 1-3

After applying ■■■ to CREEP-702, D-class personnel were asked to describe the anomalous properties of 702.

Then [Data Expunged]

Dr. Failover, who led the experiment, was scheduled for immediate termination but was demoted to D-class after a disciplinary committee review.

The opinion of the council member ‘Professor’ was significantly reflected in this process.

The Foundation is preparing new containment procedures for CREEP-702.

For damage control, ■■■■■ doses of amnestics were administered to Foundation personnel.

***

The document ended.

In the dark house, the others were still writhing with their eyes closed.

Sitting in the middle of it all, the AI calmly shared its thoughts.

“No matter how I look at it, this doesn’t seem related to our current situation.”

“Why do you think that?”

“Well, our current situation is because of that graffiti. It keeps replicating and eating away at people’s bodies. It doesn’t seem to have anything to do with ordinariness.”

I shook my head.

“No. There’s more to it.”

I scrolled back up to find a specific line.

It was about the experiment record of CREEP-702.

After applying ■■■ to CREEP-702, D-class personnel were asked to describe the anomalous properties of 702.

Then [Data Expunged]

“This. Couldn’t you find any information about CREEP-702?”

“No. Nothing at all.”

If we could have known about this, it would have been a definite clue.

Unfortunately, there’s no remaining information.

All we can do is deduce. Or rather, make an educated guess.

“Still, it probably wasn’t an extremely dangerous entity. Experimenting with such dangerous entities would be too burdensome.”

“Is that how it works?”

“Yes. They experimented with an entity that had simple properties, but it led to unexpected results. We can think of it this way. A simple property they didn’t think was dangerous… For instance, self-replication… Wouldn’t they have thought this was worth experimenting with?”

“I don’t think people would be that careless.”

In my opinion, this is the right answer.

But it remains indifferent.

“It still feels like a stretch to me.”

“There’s one more thing.”

This time I scrolled all the way up to the beginning of the experiment record.

[Experiment on the Application of ■■■]

“The subject of the experiment mentioned in this document. What do you think its property is?”

“Hmm… Making the applied subject appear ordinary? Or hiding dangerous properties? And since it mentions ‘applying’, it might have been some kind of drug or spray?”

“No.”

I shook my head.

“Not making it appear ordinary, but actually making it ordinary. Even by distorting reality.”

“Oh. Then what you’re saying is?”

“Originally there was graffiti that kept copying itself. But they applied this thing to it. To make it appear ordinary.”

“Yes… that’s right…”

“This also explains why reality seemed strange earlier. What do you think?”

After finishing, I observed the AI’s reaction again.

Even after all this deduction, it still shows a cold response.

“There are a lot of gaps in your logic.”

“Of course. We don’t know much.”

“Are you betting your life on this?”

Still looking disgruntled.

I patted its head firmly.

“This is how we make educated guesses here.”

Because there’s no other way.

Finally, I showed the phone screen one more time.

“And the solution was right here too.”

“…Amnestics.”

“That’s right.”

The graffiti is gone, but its influence remains.

Just like the Indian farm owners who continued to show abnormal symptoms even after the tiger ‘Lucy’ was retrieved.

In the end, the only solution is to erase memories.

Choi Serim’s ability can erase memories too, but…

“Dabin? Where are you?”

Right now, Choi Serim is writhing on the floor with her eyes closed.

The graffiti covering her body has disappeared, but the spaces where flesh was torn away remain.

I can’t expect help from someone in that condition.

In the end, I have to do it myself again.

I saw amnestics on the third floor.

An endlessly extended corridor.

And vending machines densely lined on both sides.

I can get amnestics from one of them.

I don’t know what it’s like now though.

“You stay here and watch the others.”

“Okay.”

I slung my bag over my shoulder and picked up the golf club I had been using earlier.

I’ll go down to the third floor and find the amnestics.

I’ve done this before.

I can do it.

Behind me,

The front door closed with a thud.