Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 108

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Editor’s Survival Rules Episode 108

ep17. Circulating (4)

Thud-!

Tangled up with Cha Si-eon, I flew about 3 meters before hitting the wall.

No, what hit my head wasn’t a wall but a bookshelf.

A massive bookshelf packed densely with books.

Why all of a sudden…?

I looked around in a daze.

“Huh…?”

In front and behind me were truly vast bookshelves.

Like an infinitely expanding space in facing mirrors, these bookshelves had no visible end.

Is this a Special Zone?

Was I dragged to another Special Zone just before being crushed by the siren?

I tried to examine my surroundings properly and flinched in surprise.

There was no floor to stand on here.

The bookshelf I was leaning against extended infinitely not just sideways, but up and down as well.

So right now my feet were floating in midair.

“Don’t move carelessly.”

As I flailed about, Cha Si-eon in front of me spoke.

“If you’re not careful, you might drift away to a place that’s hard to return from.”

At those words, I turned my body and grabbed onto the bookshelf.

Then I took off my half-broken helmet.

“Team Leader, this place is…”

“The Circulating Library. It seems I was moved here along with you when you were dragged here, Seo Do-un.”

—

Route D. Escape to Special Zone “The Circulating Library”

“The Circulating Library” is an area under special management like the corresponding zone.

If escape from this place proves difficult, you may take refuge in “The Circulating Library.”

However, taking refuge in “The Circulating Library” does not guarantee that the situation will improve.

“The Circulating Library” is a dangerous zone where you might wander lost forever.

So please judge carefully and decide.

The consequences and responsibility are entirely yours.

—

“The Circulating Library.”

A pending-grade Special Zone with the very rare characteristic of being connected to other Special Zones.

So when escape becomes difficult from “The Siren-Ringing Train Station,” “National Theater that Detects Fakes,” or “The Bleeding Island,” they sometimes recommend “taking refuge in The Circulating Library.”

That means this “Library” is safer than the Special Zones listed above.

I realized I had narrowly escaped death and let out a long breath.

When I touched my forehead, it was drenched in cold sweat.

Earlier, I had almost been crushed to death.

Even twice.

Why? Wasn’t the “Train Station’s” siren supposed to sound every 47 minutes?

But it rang twice in succession, and both times targeted me.

No, before that.

“When we were dragged to the Train Station, we didn’t move together.”

In that survival game field, Seo Do-un and Cha Si-eon were at least five or six steps apart.

Our bodies weren’t connected by rope or anything.

“And it seems you were dragged away before me, Team Leader. Is that correct?”

“Correct. I was pulled into the Train Station first, and about 20 seconds later, you followed, Seo Do-un.”

And we were both transferred to “The Circulating Library”?

It wasn’t like we were accidentally dipped in and pulled out – what kind of situation is this?

And why Cha Si-eon? No, how?

I looked at Cha Si-eon in confusion.

Then I noticed blood flowing from his forehead.

“Team Leader, your forehead is bleeding.”

Cha Si-eon wiped his forehead with his hand to check the blood.

Then he spoke as if it was nothing.

“It seems I got injured when the helmet broke.”

Come to think of it, Cha Si-eon wasn’t wearing a helmet.

Not since he pushed me away in the “Train Station.”

“Your helmet broke?”

“The siren rang once even before you entered the Train Station, Seo Do-un.”

Then the siren rang three times in succession.

Has the 47-minute rule completely disappeared?

“That’s when the siren’s crushing force came down on me, and my helmet broke then.”

“But how did you survive?”

“Just before my neck broke, you came in, Seo Do-un. The crushing stopped then and the siren rang again.”

Cha Si-eon spoke calmly while massaging his neck.

No, why is he saying so casually that his neck almost broke?

And also…

“After that, I started getting crushed.”

“Correct. It seems the siren was trying to kill me but changed its target to you, Seo Do-un.”

“…”

What is this absurd story?

The siren was killing Cha Si-eon, but when I appeared, it left him alone and tried to kill me first?

Why?

Since when have we been in such a grudge-filled relationship?

“I can’t understand the current situation at all. Why were you dragged to the Train Station in the first place, Team Leader? Did you also like me…”

“No, that’s not it.”

“…?”

“In my case, it’s probably a side effect related to the blinded agent.”

This refers to Agent Lee Seob.

The side effect is the phenomenon of being dragged to the “Train Station” if you directly mention Lee Seob or dig too deep into materials related to him.

“Actually, I heard something like a siren sound yesterday at the pension too.”

“Yesterday, when the kids were doing fireworks?”

“Yes.”

So that’s why he pressed my head down on the bench.

“Until yesterday I thought it was my imagination, but I heard the siren sound just before this too. After that, I was dragged to the Train Station.”

Cha Si-eon spoke as if fitting together puzzle pieces in his head.

“The siren ringing repeatedly earlier is also a phenomenon that occurs when our staff enter the Train Station. When someone connected to the Management Bureau enters the Train Station, the siren keeps ringing and crushes Management Bureau-related people first.”

Right, I’ve heard this story.

The “Train Station” doesn’t have a very high difficulty level, but Management Bureau agents can’t enter it.

Because they die as soon as they set foot in the “Train Station.”

If you’re connected to the Management Bureau, the same goes for prisoners or contaminated people.

So the “Train Station” was an inaccessible zone that the Management Bureau could only monitor.

“Is this because we mentioned that person yesterday?”

I asked with half-belief.

Just yesterday, at the time Cha Si-eon said he heard the siren sound, we were talking about Agent Lee Seob.

“No. That wouldn’t be it. We didn’t directly mention his name, and speaking that indirectly wouldn’t get you dragged away.”

“Then what? Did you perhaps recently look at that blinded agent’s files?”

“….”

Cha Si-eon didn’t answer.

I couldn’t ask any further either.

It would be a disaster if I mentioned it carelessly and got dragged back to the “Train Station” again.

Cha Si-eon also seemed to have no intention of continuing this conversation, so he organized the current situation first.

“Anyway, the reason I was dragged to the ‘Train Station’ was due to such side effects, and it seems to be a separate matter from Mr. Seo Do-un.”

“Then how should I interpret the fact that I was dragged to the ‘Train Station’ right after that?”

“I think it might be a similar situation to what happened with ‘The Island.'”

“Ha….”

I let out a low laugh at Cha Si-eon’s speculation.

When I laughed absurdly, Cha Si-eon looked at me.

“Why are you suddenly laughing?”

“I never thought I’d be dragged to the Special Zone during my vacation….”

“This is still an area where an escape method has been secured.”

“No, that’s not it. This is outside the metropolitan area. I thought I might be safe if I was in another region, but it’s being confirmed right away like this….”

I let out a few more dry laughs.

It was absurd and funny how my faint hope had completely crumbled.

Cha Si-eon spoke to me in a businesslike tone.

“Didn’t I tell you yesterday that Mr. Seo Do-un would be an exception?”

“You did.”

“…Don’t tell me you didn’t believe it?”

“You never know what will happen to people….”

I smiled vaguely and averted my gaze.

Cha Si-eon seemed quite dumbfounded by this.

No, what’s important right now isn’t this.

Let me reorganize the situation again.

Cha Si-eon was dragged to the “Train Station” due to side effects related to the blinded employee, Lee Seob.

I was dragged to the “Train Station” because of my special constitution.

The fact that Cha Si-eon and I were dragged to the “Library” together afterward was also because of my special constitution.

How should I interpret this?

“So you’re saying that this time too, the ‘Crow’ side threw me into the Special Zone to save the Team Leader?”

“….”

“At this point, doesn’t it seem like the ‘Crow’ side considers Team Leader Cha quite important?”

“That might be the case.”

Cha Si-eon also nodded with a thoughtful expression at my speculation.

Although it’s a conspiracy theory-level speculation, it’s true that Cha Si-eon saved his life thanks to me being dragged to the “Train Station.”

And this kind of special treatment for Cha Si-eon is already the second time, following “The Island.”

It wouldn’t make sense to dismiss this as mere coincidence.

“Situation Room, can you hear me?”

I spoke into my smartwatch to relay our situation.

But no answer came back.

“The ‘Library’ is a communication-disabled zone. So we have to escape on our own.”

Cha Si-eon said while taking out a wire from my vest.

Then he hooked the loop at the end of the wire to his clothing.

It was a measure to prevent us from losing each other in this vast space.

“If we just follow the manual properly, escaping the ‘Library’ isn’t that difficult.”

Well, would that really be the case?

I looked at the endlessly stretching bookshelves with skeptical eyes.

I like books too.

I’m also someone who finds peace of mind in bookstores or libraries.

Nevertheless, I felt a fundamental fear from the scene spread before my eyes now.

We were currently in a corridor between two bookshelves.

The bookshelf itself, that is, just looking at its structure and form, the bookshelf itself was ordinary.

An ordinary collection of rectangular compartments.

Like a proper bookshelf, each compartment was packed full with books.

However, there wasn’t much consistency among those books.

Thick ones like dictionaries.

Thin and colorful ones like children’s books.

Newsprint books that would be ruined if you accidentally spilled water on them.

Heavy hardcover books.

Even thread-bound books with binding thread exposed on the spine.

There seemed to be little thought of organizing the bookshelf nicely, as it was completely jumbled.

Still, up to this point, it just looked like an ordinary avid reader’s study.

The real problems with this bookshelf were two things.

One was that the text on the books inserted in the bookshelf was completely unreadable.

The other was that this bookshelf continued on an absurd scale.

The bookshelves placed in front and behind us had no visible end.

Not just to the sides, but also up and down.

Bookshelves that stretched so far that you wondered if there was really an end.

Their scale was enough to make you imagine infinity.

So despite this space being filled with bookshelves and books, it gave the overwhelming feeling of being abandoned in the middle of the universe.

“May I try throwing the helmet?”

“Go ahead and try.”

I threw the helmet I was holding sideways with a whoosh.

My helmet flew without any resistance.

As if there was no gravity or air resistance here, it slid away from me at the same speed I had initially pushed it.

Then it eventually became a dot and disappeared from my sight.

Huh….

If we got lost here, there really would be no answer.

The total scale of the “Circulating Library” has not yet been revealed.

The Management Bureau has tried several times to observe the end of this bookshelf.

Whether by examining it with high-magnification telescopes, having agents tie themselves with wires and move directly, or tying specially made thread to arrows and shooting them.

But despite these attempts, they failed to observe the end.

So the only conclusion reached now was ‘the width of this bookshelf exceeds 240km.’

In front of the bookshelf where the expression “vast” was not lacking at all, Cha Si-eon said.

“You probably already know the escape method for the ‘Circulating Library,’ but I’ll give you an orientation once more.”

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————