Chapter 1

You Will Die Today.

Caw.

A crow cried outside the dark window.

The phone in my hand vibrated.

[(Advertisement) You will die today.... See more]

“Not this again.”

This notification had been pestering me for about a week. At first, it had said I had a week left. Then six days, three days—and finally, today.

Of course, I had never tapped it. They said clicking ads like these earned someone money.

“Kim Hanmu, don’t stand over there by yourself. Come sit with us.”

“The crow is bothering me.”

“It’s just a crow....”

True. It was only a crow. Maybe I was being overly sensitive again.

I raised my head from my phone and looked around the living room. The people calling me were wearing the same vests as I was, each emblazoned with the words DAESUNG CLEANING.

There were four of them.

“Yes, yes. I’m coming.”

After answering halfheartedly, I drew the curtains and took a seat at the far end of a sofa covered with a white sheet.

Apparently satisfied, the Daesung Cleaning employees resumed their conversation.

“When did the homeowner say he’d be here? He called us all out here in the middle of the night.”

“He’ll probably be here soon. We did arrive early.”

Why would a cleaning crew be gathered in a living room before dawn? To clean, of course. But the client who had summoned us here had yet to appear.

“By the way, this house is pretty famous. Haven’t you heard?”

“Oh, you mean those rumors?”

When the middle-aged employee brought it up, everyone except me nodded.

“I heard the homeowner’s son was a serial killer.”

“That’s not what I heard. Supposedly, this was the home of some cult leader.”

“Hey, where did you hear all that? This is the house where several people committed suicide.”

Every story was different, yet each was equally horrifying.

The senior employee who had called me over grinned playfully and added fuel to the fire.

“What’s with all these rumors? You think the place is haunted or something?”

I had remained silent until then, but I answered irritably.

“There’s no such thing as ghosts. I’m already exhausted from having to come out here in the middle of the night.”

“Why not? They could exist. Hanmu, are you scared of ghosts?”

“Why would I be scared of something that doesn’t exist?”

My senior crooked his fingers at me as if to say, Well, look at this guy, but I merely clicked my tongue.

Ghosts weren’t frightening. Making a living was frightening.

Did ghosts charge you rent? Did they raise the cost of living? It was more pathetic to fear creatures that had nothing better to do after death than scare people.

“Hanmu’s right, sir. Even if the house is haunted, who cares as long as they pay us enough?”

“True. Didn’t they pay double in advance?”

Everyone put earning a living before ghosts.

None of them had been serious anyway, and the subject quickly shifted to the homeowner.

“The owner is a little strange, though. He insisted that we begin cleaning at exactly two in the morning.”

“Ma’am, that isn’t all. Didn’t he also tell us not to start until he arrived?”

“That’s right! And he insisted there had to be exactly five of us. Not six, and not four.”

As though she had only just remembered, the middle-aged employee clapped her hands.

Five people were to begin cleaning a two-story country house at the top of a mountain at two in the morning—but only after the homeowner arrived.

None of those conditions would be completely unheard of on its own, but taken together, they are strange.

Still, people could make a story out of anything if they wanted to.

I listened to their conversation while looking down at my phone. The clock was just changing from 1:59 to 2:00.

At that very moment, a sound came from the front door.

Thump... Thump... Thump.

The employee who looked about my mother’s age sprang to her feet and headed toward the entrance.

“Oh, the homeowner must be here.”

Just as she began unlocking the door, the youngest employee’s quiet murmur reached my ears.

“...Why would the homeowner knock?”

The moment the words registered, my body moved before I could think.

“Ma’am, I don’t think that’s the homeowner. Don’t open—!”

“What did you say?”

But the door was already open.

Behind her, as she turned to look at me, stood a pitch-black mass.

Its enormous, rounded body looked as though darkness itself had been clumped together. Rows of pure-white teeth formed a hideously wide grin, and countless arms dangled from its body.

Its thin arms gently seized the shoulders of the woman who had so kindly opened the door for it.

Before she could even turn around—

Crack.

Its grinning mouth yawned wide and swallowed her from the head down to her shoulders.

Fresh blood sprayed upward, staining the ceiling. Her feet, suspended several centimeters above the floor, twitched and convulsed.

Unreal terror froze everyone in the living room. The only things we could hear were the grotesque sounds of bones being crushed and muscles being chewed.

Crunch. Crack. Smack.

The stench of blood and those sounds made it impossible to dismiss this as special effects, makeup, or some hidden-camera prank.

“Aaaaaargh!”

“R-Run!”

My senior was the first to recover. He turned and fled.

Right. We had to run.

Whether that thing was a monster or a ghost, my mind was consumed by a single thought: I had to escape from it.

“Come on.”

I grabbed the youngest employee’s hand, as she was still frozen stiff, and pulled her along after the others.

“The back door! This house has a back door!”

Following the employee who had shouted, we crossed the spacious living room and the hallway before rushing into the utility room.

The first employee to arrive grabbed the doorknob and rammed the door with his shoulder.

“What the hell? It won’t open!”

No matter how many times he slammed his shoulder against it, the back door did not budge.

It was as though we truly had been trapped inside.

Smack. Tear.

The sounds of the monster chewing a person echoed vividly from the living room.

What would happen once it finished eating her?

Would one person be enough?

“Sir, are you all right?”

The youngest employee’s clear eyes entered my vision.

Then an idea struck me like a bolt of lightning.

There was no reason we had to leave through a door.

“The window. Let’s go out through a window. Follow me!”

I led her out of the utility room and dashed into the nearest room.

It appeared to be a guest room, furnished with a small bed and a desk. Its large window looked spacious enough for a person to climb through with ease.

I grabbed the old, unlocked window frame and pushed, but it would not budge either.

Crunch....

Crack.

The sounds coming from the living room gradually slowed and then stopped.

Please open. Please.

I shook the window as if it were my lifeline when someone shouted behind me.

“Hanmu, move!”

I instinctively threw myself aside just as the senior who had followed us smashed a chair against the window.

Crash!

With an ear-splitting shatter, the window finally broke apart.

At last, we could get out.

Who cared about paying for a broken window? Staying alive came first.

“Climb through carefully. There are shards of glass.”

“Sir, wait...!”

The youngest employee tried to grab his wrist as he began climbing through, but he had already planted a foot on the windowsill and hurled himself outside.

Shhk.

What followed was a bizarre sight.

Everything that crossed the boundary of the window—his head, shoulders, and chest—vanished as if invisible blades had ground it all away.

The strengthless remains below his chest collapsed back into the room. Things that should have remained inside his body spilled across the floor, and blood poured from the raw cross section, soaking the toes of my shoes.

Thump, scrape... Thump.

The sound of something setting down one heavy foot, dragging it, and then taking another step drew closer.

I squeezed myself beneath the bed, barely large enough for one person, driven by pure survival instinct.

“Shh....”

The youngest employee, whom I had shoved farther beneath it, nodded and clamped her mouth shut.

The footsteps slowly approached from the living room and entered the room.

Scrape... Splash. Thump.

All I could see from beneath the narrow bed were its hands.

Pitch-black hands planted themselves against the floor and dragged its body forward. Every time it moved, it left dark crimson smears across the wooden floor.

Thump. Thump.

My heart was beating so wildly that it felt as though it had climbed into my throat.

I hurriedly covered my mouth, afraid it might hear my ragged breathing. Then its white teeth entered my field of vision, and it bit down on my senior’s corpse with a snap.

Crunch... Crack. Tear.

It lifted its head, making it impossible for me to see what it was doing, but I could imagine it well enough.

It would tear him apart just like the woman at the entrance, chewing every bite thoroughly before swallowing.

I did not know how much time passed while I barely dared to breathe.

What finally dragged me out of my terror-induced stupor was a child’s voice, chillingly innocent.

“Five... Two.... Where did the other three go?”

I recalled the employees’ conversation.

The homeowner had adamantly insisted that there had to be five cleaners.

Of course. There was no such thing as a reward without a price.

None of this was a coincidence. The entire situation had been deliberately arranged to kill every one of us.

I was going to die.

That monster would find all of us and devour us.

What can I do?

Bzzz.

The faint vibration of the phone in my vest pocket nearly stopped my heart.

Who could possibly be contacting me at two in the morning?

[You will die soon. Do you want to live?]

That was what the notification illuminating the darkness beneath the bed said.

I could no longer ignore the suspicious alert.

Of course I want to live. I want to live.

When my trembling index finger tapped the notification, an application installed itself on my home screen.

A single line of white text appeared against a black background. My eyes read it without resistance.

[1. Only one person may be served at ■■’s table.]

For something claiming it would save me, the message was far too vague and abstract.

A small countdown appeared above the numbered text.

[Kim Hanmu’s remaining lifespan: 33 seconds]

I thought I knew what I had to do.

Even if I was wrong, it was better than doing nothing.

I looked at the youngest employee, who had pressed herself so tightly against the wall that she almost seemed embedded in it.

“Get out.”

“...What? Right... now? But that monster is right in front of us.”

“This is our only chance.”

Plop.

My senior’s severed finger fell to the floor.

The pain crushing my heart made me feel as though I was about to vomit, but I shoved her out with all my strength.

“Now!”

The youngest employee slid out, planted a hand in the pool of blood, scrambled upright, and ran for the door.

I pushed myself out from under the bed without hesitation.

Two.

I should not have looked, but our eyes met.

Or rather, my eyes met the neat rows of blood-red teeth that looked almost human.

Without even swallowing the human flesh already inside its mouth, the creature stared at me while ostentatiously crunching my senior’s little finger.

“Sir, hurry!”

Someone seized my wrist and dragged me from the room. The moment I regained my senses, I slammed the door shut.

Thud!

The door shook as something heavy rammed it from the other side.

Only after we tilted a table from the hallway and firmly wedged it beneath the doorknob could I release the breath I had been holding.

“Hah... Haaah....”

It had been a gamble based on nothing more than a guess, but I had succeeded.

“Only one person may be served at its table.”

It really had meant that the creature could only eat one person at a time.

“Sir, what you just did... How did you know?”

I could not answer easily.

While I searched for the right words, the app’s screen refreshed with a faint vibration.

Bzzz.

The countdown wagering my life disappeared, replaced by a completion condition.

[Completion condition: Cleanse ■.]

Only one person may be served at ■’s table.■ loves prayers offered in its name.For ■ to return, the altar must always be kept clean.

The first rule had been true, so the others could not be nonsense either.

“Haebin, let’s go.”

“But what if that monster breaks down the door and comes after us?”

“That’s exactly why.”

A sound even worse than the monster breaking through the door and attacking us began.

Scrape. Scrape.

Having devoured two of the five people, the monster did not try to break down the door.

Instead, it began gnawing its way through.