Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 113
—————
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 113
ep17. Circulating (9)
I looked at the short-haired Cha Si-eon with bewilderment.
However, Cha Si-eon standing in the corridor wasn’t alone.
A person standing in front of Cha Si-eon with their head slightly bowed.
It was Baek Sa-ra with black straight hair.
This really was inside Cha Si-eon’s “biography.”
“Huh…”
It’s nice to see familiar faces, at least.
I approached Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra.
The two were frozen like specimens.
Cha Si-eon looking down at Baek Sa-ra expressionlessly.
Baek Sa-ra silently keeping her head bowed.
It looked like when they were on the same team.
I sighed again at that unfamiliar scene.
To think I’d be kicked out of my “biography” and end up here.
Then did Cha Si-eon also enter his own “biography”?
If so, it would be Cha Si-eon, not me, who could escape from here.
Then what should I do?
There’s no way I could reconstruct Team Leader Cha’s memories by myself.
As I was feeling troubled while looking at the past Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra.
Creak- Crack-
I felt a subtle vibration beneath my feet.
Looking around to see what it was, small debris was falling from the space.
It was a signal indicating the time limit was approaching.
—
■ “Circulating Library” Manual Production Meeting
Cha Si-eon: There is a time limit for reconstructing fragmented memories. If reconstruction isn’t completed within the time limit, the personnel inside are expelled to the “Circulating Library.”
Jo Eun-bi: It says here the time limit ranges from a maximum of 2 hours 42 minutes to a minimum of 1 minute 34 seconds. Is this correct?
Cha Si-eon: According to the records, yes.
Jo Eun-bi: Has it been determined what criteria cause this time variance?
Kim Ji-an: It seems to be due to the quality of memories. Looking at field exploration records, it says “cheerfully expelled after 2 hours 42 minutes,” and whenever spaces lasted over an hour, the expression “cheerfully expelled” was always used. On the other hand, when expelled between less than an hour but more than 10 minutes, it just says “expelled,” and in records of expulsion under 10 minutes, profanity like “expelled damn it” was written.
Jo Eun-bi: Profanity?
Kim Ji-an: It’s judged to be a roundabout expression used to avoid record deletion.
Jo Eun-bi: Is this Team Leader Moon’s doing?
Moon Ho-san: I don’t remember anything.
—
According to the Management Bureau’s estimation, the time limit for memories within “biographies” varies depending on the quality of the memories.
For comfortable and good memories, it’s leisurely at about one to two hours.
The more uncomfortable or bad the memory, the faster the collapse progresses.
If this is true, this must not be a very good memory for Team Leader Cha.
Seeing how the space is already about to collapse.
Then will I be expelled back to the “Library”?
That would allow me to return to my “biography.”
However, what’s still concerning is this wire connected to Cha Si-eon.
What if this causes unnecessary problems?
Should I cut the wire in advance just in case?
No.
Right now this is the only connection with Cha Si-eon.
Once cut, it can’t be reconnected, so I first needed to see what happens when this space collapses.
Creak- Creeeeak-!
The space’s trembling intensified.
I waited for the space to collapse, and with time to spare, I looked back at Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra.
If Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra were on the same team, it would be about 3-4 years ago.
Perhaps because of that, both looked quite younger than now.
Plus, I heard Baek Sa-ra was Cha Si-eon’s direct junior.
So he really did call her aside to scold her like this.
Hmm…
Since I have nothing to lose anyway, should I try it once?
I looked back and forth between Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra, whose atmosphere wasn’t very good, then casually muttered.
“Cha Si-eon is in the middle of disciplining his direct junior Baek Sa-ra who transferred from another team.”
-What’s with you picking fights over every little thing.
I got it right!
When I estimated the situation, the frozen Cha Si-eon began moving his mouth to speak.
—
However, if one is not the person involved in that “biography,” fragmented and distorted memories cannot be interpreted.
↳ Kim Ji-an: Even if not the person involved, someone who understands the owner of the “biography” well can interpret fragmented memories.
—
No way.
I don’t want to become someone who understands Cha Si-eon well.
-If you transferred here after causing trouble, act accordingly.
But regardless of my wishes, the memory before my eyes was already interpreted.
-Do you think this ends with just you getting scrapped?
Cha Si-eon pressing his junior with a voice suppressing anger.
-I’m sorry.
And Baek Sa-ra reflecting with her head bowed.
Wow, so this was something I could roughly guess correctly.
But getting this right isn’t that surprising.
Both Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra are already familiar figures to me.
Plus, the current situation was somewhat obvious.
If I couldn’t read this much context, I wouldn’t be an editor. Yeah.
Cha Si-eon’s disciplining continued for a while.
Acknowledging her mistake, Baek Sa-ra kept her head bowed and only responded occasionally.
Then, some kind of statement flowed from Cha Si-eon’s mouth.
-Get your act together. No one’s going to go easy on you because you’re a woman.
Such a stereotypical discriminatory remark.
I looked at Baek Sa-ra’s reaction with feigned surprise.
But then, Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra stopped moving again.
Like a paused video.
Does this mean the ‘Cha Si-eon disciplining’ part I mentioned ends here?
As expected, it wouldn’t be solved this easily.
Getting lucky once wasn’t enough.
I thought without much regret, then recalled the photo I saw yesterday.
Hmm, maybe…
“Baek Sa-ra made Cha Si-eon’s nose bleed.”
-Ha.
Baek Sa-ra lifting her head with a breathy laugh.
Crazy, I got it right again…
I covered my mouth, getting goosebumps at myself.
And the Baek Sa-ra in the memory spoke to Cha Si-eon with a bright smile.
-I never asked you to look after me, so what are you talking about.
-You right now….
Just as Cha Si-eon was about to press Baek Sa-ra again.
Crack-!
Baek Sa-ra’s hard forehead slammed into Cha Si-eon’s face.
-…!
Cha Si-eon staggered backward from the strong impact.
Drip drip-
And a nosebleed poured out as intensely as the impact itself.
Good heavens.
Baek Sa-ra’s headbutt had completely different destructive power from what I had received from Ryu Dan-a.
But Cha Si-eon wasn’t someone to be taken lightly either, as he immediately grabbed the back of Baek Sa-ra’s neck.
Baek Sa-ra also had no intention of ending it with just one headbutt, as she kicked off the floor and wrapped her legs around Cha Si-eon’s neck.
Thud-!
Baek Sa-ra intended to slam Cha Si-eon into the ground.
But her opponent was Cha Si-eon, who could withstand weight with pure body mass.
Cha Si-eon, who seemed quite pissed off, slammed Baek Sa-ra, who was hanging on his arm, straight into the wall.
Boom-!
With the impact, Baek Sa-ra’s legs came loose from Cha Si-eon’s shoulder.
Meanwhile, Cha Si-eon still had a firm grip on the back of Baek Sa-ra’s neck, pressing her against the wall.
-Are you crazy?
Cha Si-eon gritted his teeth while blood dripped down.
But the well-mannered Baek Sa-ra didn’t use harsh language.
She simply stomped on Cha Si-eon’s foot without warning and hung onto the arm gripping her neck to break his balance.
This time, unable to prepare properly, Cha Si-eon’s upper body swayed.
Just as Baek Sa-ra was about to strike Cha Si-eon’s face with her elbow.
Stop-!
Their movements froze again.
Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra were suspended in mid-air as if time had stopped.
Even so, their appearance was menacing, and I sighed, feeling a bit sick of it.
“Huh….”
Even Kongjwi and Patjwi didn’t fight this intensely….
But why did they stop here?
Don’t tell me I have to guess who won?
Hmm… I really can’t guess this one.
It wouldn’t be strange for either of them to win, but neither of them seems like they would lose.
Physically, Cha Si-eon would obviously dominate.
But in terms of ferocity and aggression, wouldn’t Baek Sa-ra be overwhelming….
Rumble rumble- Crack-!
While I was pondering, the space shook again.
At this rate, should I just guess randomly?
I looked around the gradually crumbling space while wondering what to do.
Then, a suspicious figure caught my eye.
There was someone secretly peeping at this side from the other end of the corridor.
Who is it?
I went over there to examine the person.
He was a man in his early to mid-thirties, wearing Management Bureau work clothes.
From his physical condition, he seemed like a field agent, but he was a face I didn’t recognize.
And for some reason, that man was filming Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra with his phone.
Aha.
So this is how the photo I saw yesterday was taken.
But why is this person filming those two?
As a joke?
A senior who came to watch the rookie discipline of Cha Si-eon, who used to be the youngest?
No. If it were someone like that, he would have already gone to stop them when Baek Sa-ra headbutted.
Then this person’s identity is….
“…A janitor and trespasser from the Field Department who secretly followed Baek Sa-ra because he thought she, who had rejected him, was getting along with some other young guy?”
Stop-!
The space’s vibration ceased.
And I couldn’t help but admire my own guessing skills.
Time flowed again as Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra continued scuffling.
Baek Sa-ra, who was seriously trying to knock out Cha Si-eon’s molars.
Cha Si-eon, who was barely blocking it with his arm and was genuinely pissed off.
Then the two people discovered the janitor and trespasser.
They soon realized they had been photographed too.
Ah, they started running.
Cha Si-eon, Baek Sa-ra, and the janitor and trespasser too.
With their chase, the memory finished its reconstruction.
* * *
Is this for real.
I had succeeded in reconstructing Cha Si-eon’s memory by myself.
There was quite a bit of luck involved, but still, isn’t this an amazing feat….
When I opened the door and went out, another memory unfolded.
This memory was also set in the Management Bureau.
Cha Si-eon still had short hair.
And in front of him was Kwak Jae-gyeom in Management Bureau uniform.
I observed Jae-gyeom facing Cha Si-eon for a moment.
A cheerfully excited expression with a face more youthful than now.
Jet black hair without any dye, and a uniform that looked completely new.
This scene is probably….
“Cha Si-eon is handling an excited Kwak Jae-gyeom after his appointment ceremony.”
At that moment, Kwak Jae-gyeom, who had been frozen, shouted toward Cha Si-eon.
-Hyung!
Cha Si-eon made a sour expression at that.
-Who’s your hyung.
-Ah, Team Leader.
Kwak Jae-gyeom immediately corrected his address after being scolded by Cha Si-eon.
But his embarrassment was brief, as Jae-gyeom spoke energetically again.
-I’ve been assigned to Response Team 3 as of today, Team Leader. Please take good care of me!
After that, time stopped again.
Hmm….
Cha Si-eon still looked displeased even though a new employee was greeting him.
Is he trying to discipline Kwak Jae-gyeom?
No, it doesn’t seem like that kind of atmosphere.
It’s more serious and uncomfortable….
“Cha Si-eon didn’t approve of Kwak Jae-gyeom joining the Special Management Bureau, so he kept giving him a hard time…?”
-You came in on your own feet, so do well. I won’t bother looking after you if you can’t keep up, so follow along properly on your own.
-Yes, Team Leader!
Cha Si-eon giving cold encouragement and Kwak Jae-gyeom answering brightly.
Hahaha.
Maybe I’ll actually escape at this rate?
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————