I Activated Cheat Mode in a Bizarre Game

With the man collapsed on the floor, it seemed that all threats in this bizarre workshop had finally disappeared.
At that moment, the girl-like monster, who had been quietly watching everything unfold, slowly rose to her feet.

Then she started walking toward Leo, who was next to me. I instinctively stepped in front of her to block her path.
The girl monster looked at me with clear, curious eyes and asked:
"You're really... trying to protect a monster?"

She had never intended to attack Leo in the first place.
She just wanted to confirm if I was really trying to protect him.
I nodded without hesitation.

"Leo’s more like family to me than just some monster."
At my answer, the girl looked at Leo with eyes full of envy.
"Family… I see. I’ve always just been treated like a tool in this place. Even though we’re both monsters, I’m kind of jealous that someone calls Leo family."

"Treated like a tool… So you knew they were using you?"
The girl simply smiled brightly and nodded.
"Yes! Of course I knew. And I’m proud that I could be a useful tool for the humans."

Does she really… like humans that much?
Her response, so naive it bordered on madness, left me a little shaken.
There was something deeply unsettling and sorrowful about her feelings toward humans.

While we talked, Leo quietly moved toward the cages piled up on the other side of the room.
Then, stretching out his shadow, he bit through the thick locks that had looked solid, crack, breaking them in an instant!
"No, don’t!"

The girl shrieked.
"Those are bad monsters that hurt humans! You have to run away now!"
But before she even finished speaking, the animal-shaped monsters inside the cages came flooding out.
Yet, contrary to her fear, not a single one attacked anyone.

Not me, not even the man collapsed on the floor.
In fact, some of the dog-shaped monsters even licked the man’s face gently where he lay.
This, despite the fact he had just tried to turn them into dolls.

"Uh…"
The girl looked shocked beyond belief.
She stared at the scene with a trembling voice, murmuring in disbelief.

"They’re… not bad monsters…?"
It seemed the man had been lying to her all along, telling her that the animal-like monsters locked in the cages were "bad monsters that hurt humans."
Just like how he called me an obviously evil guy at first glance.

She had believed him completely—and thought she was doing the right thing by turning them into dolls.
I let out a quiet sigh.
"I trusted him…"

As the girl muttered, shaken, the atmosphere around us began to change—responding to her emotions.
The colorful spools of thread, the warm fabrics, the stuffing that had made this place feel like a cozy wooden workshop—all of it began to burn away like deteriorating film.
And in its place, cold steel walls, murky glass tanks filled with unknown liquids, and surgical tables with eerie designs began to appear.

The true form of the lab was finally revealed.
"…The lab."
Now I understood why this place had always been called that. It had always been a lab.

Until the girl monster reshaped it into a workshop to fit her own wishes.
The girl sat down, clutching her head in both hands, muttering to herself.
Her voice was heavy with despair.

"I just… I just wanted to believe what the humans told me… That I was turning bad monsters who hurt people into cute dolls so they could experience being loved by humans…"
But there had been no bad monsters here.
Only powerless animal-shaped ones trapped inside cages.

And judging from how the staff treated them, not a single one had ever felt that “love from humans” the girl had believed in so deeply.
Like the teddy bear who’d just tried to kill me—they were probably treated like disposable items and discarded after being used.
Suddenly, I became curious.

Why did this girl, unlike other monsters, cling to humans so blindly—so desperately want their love?
When I asked, she answered in a weak voice.
"Maybe… it’s because I was originally a doll, not a person."

I looked at her again.
A doll? No matter how closely I looked, she only appeared to be a young, ordinary human girl.
If it weren’t for the red dot on my map revealing her identity, I would’ve thought she was human to the very end.

Still seated on the floor, the girl monster continued her story.
She said she was the first and last success of the lab—a test subject.
"This lab was for experimenting on turning items into monsters."

According to her, the researchers here had started from the idea that items and monsters shared many similarities.
They wondered if it was possible to artificially create a monster from an item. It aligned with what Choi Yerim once told me—the theory that all items are just objects imbued with monsters.
"The experiment… only succeeded once. That one success was me. I used to be a normal, doll-shaped item."

She looked down at her own hands with sorrow in her eyes.
"When I was a doll, I was treated very preciously by a human. That memory stayed with me. That’s why… I became a monster in the form ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) of a human girl. And also why I believe what humans say so easily. This is what it led to…"
Hearing her story, I finally began to understand why she was so obsessed with humans.

"Grrng."
"Woof..."
"Meow..."
While we listened, Leo and the animal monsters let out soft cries of their own.
Then, led by the dog-shaped monster, all the animal-form monsters—except for Leo—began walking out of the lab.

I worried for a moment, but they weren’t ordinary animals. I figured they’d manage just fine on their own.
Leo glanced back at me as he watched them leave.
[Leo suggests destroying this lab.]

"...It’s a follow-up quest."
Leo's goal seemed to be the same as that vet at the animal hospital.
Free the other monsters trapped in this place—and destroy the lab itself.

Leo had already freed the monsters.
Now only one thing remained.
How do I destroy it? My mind wasn’t coming up with any fancy methods.

So I chose the most straightforward and certain one.
I began stomping on every visible computer and suspicious-looking file until they were all crushed.
I shattered the glass tanks and everything that seemed carefully preserved.

"...Urrgh! Y-You idiot…! Stop that, right now…!"
The man, pinned earlier by the door, slowly rose to his feet and screamed.
I thought he’d be unconscious longer—turns out the guy was sturdier than he looked.

His reaction confirmed for me that this method was exactly right.
I didn’t stop.
I shredded every file on the shelves and smashed the phone and watch that had fallen from his pocket.

"…"
The man shut his mouth.
Honestly, smashing the watch was just out of spite.

Hearing the girl’s story had left me a little pissed off.
Anyway.
After venting my frustration thoroughly, I looked up to see the girl monster standing dazedly in front of the wreckage.

She stared blankly at the broken lab where she had been born—and used.
Her face showed no sadness or happiness—only the emptiness of something completely over.
"It’s really… all destroyed now."

At her sorrowful words, Leo quietly stepped forward and gently tugged at her sleeve with his mouth.
The girl lowered her head and made eye contact with him.
Maybe monsters can communicate even without language, because when Leo let out a low “Grrng…”, she nodded and seemed to exchange a few quiet words with him.

Then she looked at me.
And with a slightly awkward smile, she said:
"...Someone went and destroyed the whole lab, so I don’t really have anywhere to go anymore."

I felt a tiny pang of guilt. I mean, I only did it because of the quest—what else was I supposed to do?
She added softly, "At this rate, I might end up getting fooled by some bad human again, someone who treats me like a tool…"
She had a point.

If this innocent girl monster, who believed everything humans said, were left alone—something just as horrible could happen again.
There was no helping it. I gave in to her words.
My fear had gotten better, but my meddling nature hadn’t changed.

I sighed and asked her:
"...Then, do you wanna come to my place for now?"
At that, the girl beamed so brightly it was hard to believe she’d ever looked close to tears.

"Really?! Have I finally been chosen by a human?!"
"...Chosen?"
That’s… not quite how I’d put it.

There were a lot of things that probably needed clarification, but first, I had to clean up this strange situation.
I glanced at the man collapsed on the floor, then at the other animal monsters still wandering near the lab entrance, unsure of where to go.
Then I left the lab, taking the girl—who might become a new member of my family—with me.

With the animal monsters trailing behind us, it became one hell of a procession.
"...Eh?"
The moment we stepped out into the doll shop, the part-timer saw the parade and dropped her broom in shock.

Clunk.
We walked outside, said our brief goodbyes to the animal monsters, and they each went their separate ways.
Some to the mountains, some to the city, some to the skies.

And the rest of us caught a taxi and headed home.
Now, my house had become a literal small-scale monster phenomenon—home to a cat monster, a tiger monster, and now a doll monster girl too.