Surviving Among the Entities

“Now that you’ve arrived, would you like something to eat or drink? I can offer you cola and potato chips.”
“No, thank you.”

Asmodeus, who was sitting on the sofa and looking around my office, said:

“I am not Baal.”
“Um, how about some tea then, Ms. Asmodeus?”
“I don’t like tea either. And feel free to just call me Asmo.”
“Yes, Ms. Asmo. Is there anything else you’d like?”

It seemed she found my office very intriguing as she kept glancing around curiously.

“Do you have chocolate and cocoa? For the chocolate, I’d like dark chocolate, and for the cocoa, please add sugar and marshmallows.”
“Fortunately, I do.”

Thanks to Satoshi’s recent efforts, we occasionally had foreign guests visit, so I had prepared some global snacks for them.

“Here you go.”
“Thank you, I’ll have some.”

As she reverently ate the dark chocolate and drank the cocoa, I asked her:

“I thought you and Baal would have similar tastes since you’re both demons.”
“Even among humans, tastes differ between individuals, don’t they? It’s the same for demons.”
“Oh, I had such a narrow perspective. My apologies.”
“I accept your apology.”

She maintained a more rigid and business-like attitude compared to Baal.

“By the way, you mentioned having a message from Mr. Baal?”
“Yes, he’s currently recuperating from injuries sustained in an intense battle that will take 10 weeks to heal.”
“Oh, it seems he was quite severely injured.”
“It’s the worst injury he’s sustained since 2024. That’s why I’m here, and his message is as follows.”

Asmo cleared her throat and mimicked Baal’s tone of speech:

“‘Oh dear, Mr. Seung-hoon, you’ve incurred a debt to me. Recently, my ‘demon’s omen’ has been activated in the land where you reside. If left unattended, it seems humanity may face extinction, so I’ve been keeping a close watch. However, I’m currently recovering, so I entrust this matter to you.’ That is his message.”
“Hmm.”

I could understand everything except one part.

“What exactly is this ‘demon’s omen’ you mentioned?”
“It’s a phenomenon that occurs when a demon feels their goals are at risk of being taken away. It’s an ability that manifested after the tragedy of 2024, and it activates from time to time.”
“You mean when their goals are at risk of being taken away?”
“Yes, I’m referring to the potential loss of their goals due to angels, saints, transcendent beings, or other such existences.”

According to Baal, the demon’s omen has activated for all of humanity, and it was particularly intense in the location indicated here, so there’s a high possibility that an event occurring here could lead to the extinction of humanity or humanity’s transformation into a state beyond our intervention.”

She placed a note on the table with a map drawn on it, pointing to a specific location.

“Ms. Asmo, do you sense anything as well?”
“No, I don’t sense anything. The demon’s omen is so demonic that it mostly activates arbitrarily, so even among demons, the probability of activation and the areas where we react can vary greatly.”
“The possibility of human extinction… Are demons concerned about humanity?”

Asmo picked up a marshmallow floating in her cocoa with her fingers and popped it into her mouth.

“If there are pests infesting your garden and thieves trying to freeze it, it’s only natural as the owner to catch them. You can’t let others steal the crops you’ve painstakingly cultivated, can you? Of course, we’ve long since abandoned this dimension’s humanity, but the seed of original sin was sown by us, so we can claim ownership over it.”

I could roughly understand her meaning.

“I should investigate the location indicated on this map.”
“Then I’ll take my leave now.”

Before she left, I asked her something I was curious about:

“But don’t you feel any resentment entrusting such an important task to a human?”
“Not at all. There are many dimensions, you see. Unlike Baal, I have no attachment to this dimension. Also, according to Baal’s assessment, you’re a human with a high likelihood of joining our company, so I view this as evaluating an intern’s task performance capability.”
“You have a positive perspective on me.”
“I have to. From my standpoint, you’ve already fallen remarkably.”

Fallen, huh. According to the Karma Call Center, my overflowing positive karma guarantees rebirth in the Pure Lands after death. But according to her, I’ve fallen, suggesting the standards of good and evil differ between the two hells.

“Have I fallen?”
“Let me ask you one thing. What are your thoughts on furries?”
“It’s an excellent fetish. Since ancient times, humans have felt great excitement and a sense of depravity from violating taboos, and bestiality was one such taboo. Furries create anthropomorphic animal forms, releasing that sense of depravity while still maintaining the taboo aspect, making it a rather mainstream fetish.”

Her questions didn’t end there.

“What about tomboys?”
“I like that too. When a woman who previously flaunted her masculine charm and hid her femininity suddenly reveals her feminine side, the unexpected charm that one couldn’t sense before erupts like an active volcano, and you perceive her as the opposite sex. Yet her lingering masculine charm appeals, while her inescapable femininity amplifies her appeal, like the harmony of yin and yang intertwining and intensifying each other’s allure. Isn’t it also a mainstream fetish?”

As far as I know, Asmodeus is the demon in charge of lust.

“I can see your sexual preferences. Your sexual preferences are quite extensive, which falls under the category of depravity, so to me, you seem like an excellent prospective demon.”
“I don’t have extensive sexual preferences; I believe that as long as I build enough rapport and affection with my partner, I can share love regardless of appearance or the means of sexual intimacy.”
“But aren’t there still desires you consider impossible?”
“Can you see those as well?”

It was a judgment befitting the demon overseeing sexual depravity.

“Yes, unfortunately, you have 54 fetishes considered impossible, including homosexuality, pedophilia, and necrophilia. If you had mastered those as well, I would have begged you to join our company right away.”
“My body is strictly heterosexual, and I’m not attracted to anyone underage, so I apologize.”
“No, it’s fine. But you’ve mastered fetishes that put you in the top three among all the humans I’ve seen, so I’m satisfied.”

Asmo left my office.

“Please continue maintaining such lewd preferences in the future.”

I gained some new knowledge.

“The East applies the ‘puberty safety clause’ to mitigate sins, but the West shows no mercy, huh.”

I checked the small note left on the table – the map Baal asked her to deliver, indicating the location where the demon’s omen had activated.

‘It’s not too far. I should investigate from home first.’

I lightly searched online. The building there was a 4-story office building monopolized by a small-to-medium-sized company.

[Sarang Industries]

“So this is where the potential for human extinction or transformation is occurring.”

Since it was only a 30-minute drive from home, I visited the location directly the next morning by taking a taxi at an early hour.

‘It’s a company with an attached factory.’

At 7:30 AM, employees who had arrived for work were gathered in front of the office building, with upbeat music playing from speakers below the stage.

『National Stretching Exercises! Let’s begin!』

Oh, how interesting. Are they really going to do the national stretching exercises?

‘But it’s not the military, why are they doing stretching exercises in the morning?’

Is this how companies normally operate? I’ve never experienced working at a company or looked deeply into it, so I don’t know.

“Trunk exercises! One! Two! Three! Four! Five! Six! Seven! Eight! Let’s have an energetic day at work today!”

The chairman and CEO of Sarang Industries, whose photo I had seen on the company’s website history section, was at the very front, leading the stretching exercises while enthusiastically moving his body.

‘I can even feel my shoulders bouncing along.’

It looked quite lively.

“Let’s all work hard today! Fighting!”
“Fighting!”

After observing from a distance, I didn’t notice anything particularly out of the ordinary.

“Deputy Kim, did you finish that?”
“Pardon? Which one are you referring to?”
“No, that thing! You know, that thing! Don’t you know that thing? You’ve been working here for years and you don’t know that thing? If I have to spell it out, you should already know!”
“Ah, I’m sorry.”

A highly professional and meticulous team leader.

“Hey, newbie! Can you carpool with me when coming to work?”
“But isn’t your house a bit far from ours, Section Chief?”
“Eh, what’s far? Just take the highway and it’s a short drive. Right? Please?”
“Ah, okay……”

A kind-hearted section chief trying to commute together with a new employee.

“Thank you for the meal!”
“Anyone who leaves food will be punished by heaven! Eat everything and don’t leave any behind!”

The company cafeteria, seemingly mindful of the employees’ health, served only vegetarian meals without any meat or fried dishes.

“Here’s the report.”
“Just one? Do it again. If you’re going to do it, you should have prepared at least three. How can a good project come from just one report?”
“But you told me to submit it by today……”
“Submit it by next Monday then. You have the weekend starting tomorrow, so you have plenty of time. Instead of playing around during the weekend, do things like this for your self-development.”

A boss who even cares about their subordinates’ skill development.

‘This isn’t going to work.’

I couldn’t provide an objective assessment at all. Ever since the desire to experience corporate life surfaced after the Hell Express Train incident, anything related to companies makes me think positively no matter what.

‘Whew, everything looks so enjoyable that I’m getting envious.’

This is the first time I’ve felt such envy since leaving the military. As much as I observed from the outside, I couldn’t figure out what was wrong.

‘I’ll sneak in after everyone leaves for the day.’

I can just use Sarang to bypass the company’s security system.

‘Why aren’t they leaving?’

It was past 8 PM. The chairman and CEO, along with the executives, had all left, but the team leaders and below were still in the office.

“Oh, I should head out soon.”

Only after the team leader left did the other employees start leaving one by one, with everyone finally gone just after 9 PM.

“Okay, Sarang, I’m counting on you.”
『I’ll disable it right away.』

After disabling the security system, I searched the entire office building for over an hour but couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.

‘Hmm, what could be the problem?’

After returning home, I pondered this issue seriously.

‘If Baal’s omen is real, I need to figure out what form this problem manifests in this location.’

I didn’t notice any immediate physical anomalies.

‘Then is it something mental?’

For example, is there some kind of mental infection or shift in perception occurring among the employees?

‘If it’s not physical, then it’s more likely to be mental or related to a specific ritual or event that triggers the manifestation. Such things are difficult to discern unless you build familiarity with those who create the entities.’

For instance, what if someone coincidentally learned a suspicious ritual individually? Or learned a spell from someone in their dreams and used it at the company? Or like an urban legend, a formless entity spreads through rumors within the company before taking physical form.

“In the end, I won’t be able to figure it out unless I become a company employee and build familiarity as part of the community.”

There’s no company that would hire me as a full-time employee for just a short period, and deceiving them by joining temporarily only to quit soon after would be inconsiderate and cause trouble. I had resigned myself to the fact that experiencing corporate life would be impossible.

“Starting now, I’m going to get a job at Sarang Industries.”

In that case, there’s no choice but for me to get a job there.