I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

I stared fixedly at the bright yellow exclamation mark [!] floating above Leo’s head as he flicked his tail by my feet.
Okay—so far, so good. A quest had appeared.
But… how was I supposed to accept it?

It’s not like Leo would suddenly speak fluent human language and pour out his worries like Hanbit or Han Sora.
Still, I asked anyway.
“Leo… do you have something on your mind?”

I just stood there, blankly staring at Leo, trying to figure out how to trigger his quest.
And then—almost like he could read my mind—Leo stepped forward, coming closer to me.
And in that moment, a translucent system window gently appeared before my eyes.

[Leo trusts you.]
[Leo would like to visit the laboratory with you.]
“Oh…”
Thankfully, the quest window kindly translated Leo’s intention for me.

The laboratory, huh. Just to be sure, I asked Leo directly.
“Leo, do you… want to go check out this place called the laboratory with me?”
The moment I said it, Leo’s eyes went wide in surprise, and he ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) let out a high-pitched "Grrng!"—a tone I rarely heard from him.

As if to say, How did you know?
Judging from his reaction, the quest info had been accurate.
But… there was one problem.

Where the hell is this laboratory supposed to be?
Leo couldn’t tell me that, either.
The quest window only had the word “laboratory” floating on its own. No hints. No directions.
I stared at Leo again.

Was I supposed to rely on him to lead me there?
“But still…”
[Leo trusts you.]

I couldn’t take my eyes off that first line for a while.
Only now he trusts me? After everything we've been through? After all this time together?
I couldn’t help feeling a little hurt. I looked at Leo with a pout, but he just wagged his tail as if wondering what the problem was.

“Kang.”
I turned to look at Daeho, who was sprawled belly-up on the living room floor.
That guy hadn’t even known me that long, and he was already acting like all his walls were down.

…Or maybe he let his guard down too quickly?
It’s not exactly easy for a monster to open up to a human, after all.
Maybe Leo was the normal one.

“The laboratory, huh…”
Setting the location issue aside for now, I suddenly remembered something about how I met Leo that had always bothered me a little.
Leo wasn’t a stray I randomly found and took in off the street.

After arriving in this world and settling in, I’d adopted him from a man I met online while dealing with loneliness.
At the time, I thought it was just a normal cat adoption.
But…

“Leo was a monster.”
Which meant—that man might’ve known something about Leo’s true nature.
Maybe even something about the laboratory.

I quickly grabbed my phone and pulled up my old message history.
Luckily, my conversation with that guy was still there. My hands trembled slightly as I typed out a short message to him.
[Hello. I’m the person who adopted the cat from you some time ago. I just wanted to ask you something related to the cat—would it be possible to meet briefly when you’re free?]

And while I was at it, I contacted another potential source of information.
Choi Yerim.
[Ms. Choi Yerim, do you happen to know anything about a place called “the laboratory”? I believe it’s related to monsters.]

Honestly, the message I sent to Yerim was a shot in the dark.
But with her massive pool of information, I thought maybe—even with just that vague word—she might be able to dig something up.
With messages sent to both sources, I stroked Leo’s head as he sat quietly by my side.

His quest was now my next target.
Since it was late in the evening, I didn’t expect replies to come immediately.
I let Leo’s quest rest for the moment and drifted off to sleep, enjoying a rare, peaceful night of mind and body.

It wasn’t until the next morning that I got a reply—and it was only from Choi Yerim. The man who had given me Leo still hadn’t responded.
[Which laboratory?]
Just one line. But it felt more reassuring than anything else.

The way she said it—it was as if she already had a complete database of every secret lab in the city.
Bolstered by her confidence, I tried to recall every detail I could about the day I adopted Leo. I sent her everything that might help narrow things down.
[It’s somewhere near the Dongto company. And it might be related to animals. That’s all I’ve got to go on. Does anything come to mind?]

That was the most I could give.
I waited for her next message, half-expecting nothing.
But soon enough, she replied—as if she’d been waiting for the cue—with two addresses.

[With those conditions, that narrows it down to two places. One is an animal hospital in the alley behind Dongto. The other is an old-fashioned handmade doll shop. Those are the most suspicious based on your info, so I’ll also attach some posts from the Monster Gallery that led me to suspect them.]
She sent me not only the addresses, but also the gallery posts that had helped her identify the locations.
Once again, I was glad I’d brought her in as an informant.

Still… sending full gallery references from just one question?
“This is what it means to be a pro.”
Yerim was so good at this, it felt like there was no stopping her from showing up at my house one day.

Sorry, Leo. Sorry, Daeho.
The animal hospital and the doll shop.
Now that I had leads, the only option was to visit both.

Conveniently, our company had given us another day off. The four-day workweek was a beautiful thing.
Thanks to that, I could focus entirely on Leo’s quest without distractions.
I threw on some light clothes to head out.

But unlike usual, Leo clung tightly to my leg, refusing to let go.
As if he somehow knew I was leaving to fulfill his quest, he looked up at me insistently, as if to say, Take me with you.
“You can’t, Leo. You stay home.”

I initially intended to put my foot down.
It might be dangerous, after all.
But Leo ignored me and used his big front paws to climb up my pants with surprising skill.

Before I knew it, he’d scaled all the way to my shoulder, and then slipped neatly into the hood of my hoodie.
Peeking out just enough to meet my gaze—his eyes clearly asked, Still gonna leave me behind?
There was no way I could turn him down after that kind of determination.

“…Fine. You’re a monster too, after all.”
I still thought of Leo as an ordinary cat, somewhere in the back of my mind.
But Leo was a monster.

Bringing him along should be okay.
If anything happens—I’ll just protect him.
“…Stay glued to my side, alright?”

With a deep sigh, I surrendered to his stubbornness.
And so, hiding Leo in my hoodie, I set out for our first destination—the animal hospital.
Feeling Leo’s weight squirming around inside my hood, I actually thought this worked out better.

It’d look way more natural for some guy to enter a vet with a cat than to barge in alone.
“This is the place?”
I took a cab to the address Yerim had sent me: the animal hospital tucked in the alley behind Dongto.

As the familiar Dongto buildings passed by outside the window, I let out a dry chuckle. Every place near Dongto seems to have a bad reputation.
And it wasn’t just rumors.
People really had been imprisoned and exploited in the café basement across from Dongto.

And now—this time—it was an animal hospital tied to a lab?
At this point, every shop in the area felt suspect.
More importantly—what did Leo even want to do once we reached the lab?

Just visiting the place probably wasn’t the entire quest.
Maybe the next part would appear once we arrived?
Mulling over those thoughts, I stepped out in front of the clinic. It had a sign reading “Clear Skies Animal Hospital”—and honestly, it looked surprisingly ordinary.

Exactly what you'd picture when you think of a typical vet clinic.
Bark bark!
“Shh! Yeppi, quiet!”
I could hear dogs barking occasionally inside. A few pet owners were waiting their turn with their animals.

But thanks to the gallery posts Yerim had sent me, I already knew—what I was seeing on the surface wasn’t all there was to this place.
I reached into my hood and gave Leo a quick pat, then steeled myself and opened the door.
“Welcome! Is this your first time here? …Oh? But where’s your pet…?”

Perfect timing—Leo poked his head out of my hoodie. The nurse at the counter smiled warmly and handed me a form.
It was one of those intake forms—asking about symptoms, how long the pet had been sick, what kind of animal it was.
Not too specific. Just general stuff—dog or cat, that kind of thing.

Monster, I thought.
I hadn’t intended to fill it out anyway, but even if I had—I couldn’t.
Feigning a trip to the restroom, I walked down the hall—and sure enough, just like the gallery post said, there was a stairwell beside the bathroom.

Leo sniffed the air with interest.
“This the place?”
“…Grrng?”

Looks like even Leo wasn’t sure.
Well—only one way to find out. Let's head down.