Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 114

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Editor’s Survival Rules Episode 114

ep17. Circulating (10)

“Cha Si-eon is disciplining team members who made mistakes during the concentration suppression period mission.”

Correct.

“Cha Si-eon is particularly intensively disciplining Kwak Jae-gyeom, who can’t get his act together and is being careless.”

Correct.

“Cha Si-eon finishes disciplining his team members, goes to Kwon Mu-seop, and gets disciplined in return…”

Correct.

With this, I safely passed through the third memory.

“Hah…”

Why are all of these correct?

Am I perhaps a psychic?

…Of course not.

This wasn’t something like psychic powers, but closer to just knowing.

I knew much more about Cha Si-eon than I had thought.

So just by looking at the memories of this place, I could roughly predict the situations.

…Even so, to get this many right.

No wait, there’s no need to feel uncomfortable about this.

The reason I’m getting all of Cha Si-eon’s memories right is simply because there are many hints.

First of all, Cha Si-eon had simple behavioral patterns.

Like a middle manager, he was busy between superiors and subordinates, and his range of activity was limited to either the Management Bureau or Special Zones.

Moreover, I had a fairly detailed understanding of the missions Cha Si-eon had carried out.

You know how even with the same report, you feel pleased when familiar names appear?

I too would take a closer look when I saw names like Cha Si-eon or Kwon Mu-seop while reading Management Bureau manuals or exploration logs.

This background knowledge combined with an editor’s skill at matching plausibility resulted in exactly this.

So this was a natural result, if you think about it.

Plus, the fact that Cha Si-eon’s memories were particularly clear also played a part.

Unlike my memories, Cha Si-eon’s memories had maintained their complete form from the beginning.

So there was also a lot of information I could obtain from those scenes.

What if Cha Si-eon’s memories had been clumped together as a mass of errors like the memories in my “Biography”?

Getting them right like this would have been completely impossible.

It’s fortunate in many ways, but I don’t know what makes the difference.

Does it mean Cha Si-eon’s inner self is much more stable than mine?

…Hmm, surely not.

I’m a person in the literary field.

As someone who handles threads of writing, my mental world is bound to be complex.

On the other hand, Cha Si-eon is a civil servant.

So he would have cleaner circuits.

That must be it, yes.

I thought this way deliberately and opened the door that appeared in the air.

Crossing through that corridor, the next memory unfolded.

And my mental victory was immediately denied.

Bzzt- Bzzzzt-!

Strong static noise.

Graphic errors shaking frantically from all directions.

“…!”

For a moment I wondered if I had crossed back over to my side’s “Biography”.

But it wasn’t.

The feeling I had in my “Biography”, like I already knew everything, wasn’t here.

This wasn’t my memory.

Bzzzzt-! Zzzzzt-!

The space shook wildly without giving me time to examine it properly.

I looked around frantically and saw the crackling noise flicker for a moment.

A landscape revealed for an instant, thickly covered in fog.

Fog? If fog was that thick, was it winter?

No, if it’s such a chaotic memory, there’s a high probability it’s not reality.

This is probably inside a Special Zone.

There are four Special Zones thickly covered in fog.

Among them, the Special Zone that Cha Si-eon had entered since last year was…

“This is the ‘Fog-Shrouded Bridge’.”

With my words, the surrounding noise cleared.

Instead, white, dense fog filled my surroundings.

A large bridge completely submerged in thick fog with no visible end.

This was the Type 1 Special Zone “Fog-Shrouded Bridge”.

And in that fog, there was something still shaking chaotically in the form of noise.

“‘Alpha’ and ‘Beta’ attacked the Management Bureau’s explorers.”

I recited the contents of the report I had read exactly as written.

Bzzt-!

At that moment the noise cleared and the carnage was revealed.

Blood was flowing beneath the white fog.

Abundantly and thickly.

And standing above it, “Alpha” and “Beta” covered in blood.

Had they feasted like when “Delta” had bitten into my neck?

Their jaws and chests were still glistening with blood that hadn’t dried yet.

I stepped back from that bloody scene.

Then I realized something was standing right behind me.

“…Team Leader Cha Si-eon.”

With my call, Team Leader Cha Si-eon and Response Team 3 also revealed themselves.

Cha Si-eon was watching.

The sight of monsters that looked exactly like him massacring the exploration team.

Cha Si-eon’s face wasn’t visible because of his helmet and mask.

But I could tell.

The desperation he must be feeling.

“…’Alpha’ and ‘Beta’ fled, and Response Team 3 recovered eight damaged corpses.”

The frozen memory began to move.

“Alpha” and “Beta” fled as soon as they realized the difference in firepower.

Response Team 3 discovered in the fog.

The Management Bureau’s fallen, miserably torn apart by those beasts.

Bzzt- Bzzzzt-!

The world shook again.

In that twisting space, Cha Si-eon moved.

And he began to clean up the scene without showing any emotion.

I turned my eyes away for a moment, not wanting to watch that.

* * *

The fact that the form of memories was completely broken.

That meant they were memories that were not intact.

So the form of memories wasn’t simply individual differences, but was affected by the quality of the memories.

So I felt some, no, considerable respect for Cha Si-eon.

After the “Fog-Shrouded Bridge” I broke through two more memories.

All of them were memories from inside Special Zones, filled with noise.

So I came to agree with Cha Si-eon’s initial proposal again.

That it would be easier to ride on my memories rather than his own.

Cha Si-eon’s memories were utterly miserable, both from my objective view and from Cha Si-eon’s subjective perspective.

Even so, the Cha Si-eon within those memories didn’t waver much.

He was just silently doing what he had to do.

So I was starting to feel a bit of respect for Cha Si-eon…

But I’d probably forget all of this once I left the “Library” anyway.

Creak-

When the memory reconstruction finished, a door appeared in mid-air.

I opened that door to move on to the next memory.

That’s when it happened.

Whoosh-!

As soon as I opened the door, a strong wind rushed out from the gap.

As if a typhoon was raging beyond that door.

“…!”

Startled by the gale, I tried to close the door again.

Rumble rumble rumble-!

But even the ground beneath my feet began shaking again.

Noise started occurring wildly throughout the space.

What is this? A “Memory Overflow”?

I hurriedly reached out my arms against the gale that was trying to sweep my body away.

Then I used all my strength to close the door again.

But despite these efforts, the very space I was standing in began to decompose.

What the hell, is this really a “Memory Overflow”?

Does this always happen so suddenly like this?

“Urgh…!”

Everything around me scattered.

What remained was the madly raging wind, and memory fragments fluttering along with it.

Unable to overcome that fierce storm, I was thrown into mid-air again.

Clank-!

But my body stopped short after not going far.

It was because of the wire tied to my body.

The other end of this wire was still anchored in mid-air.

…Don’t tell me.

Did an “Overflow” occur on Cha Si-eon’s side?

And its effects came over to my side through the door?

Whoosh-!

Another gust of wind hit, making my body rise high and fall back down.

Like riding some kind of viking ride, my weak heart also swelled big and shrank back down.

Feeling like I’d die of a heart attack at this rate, I gritted my teeth and pulled on the wire.

If I left the rope extended like this, I’d dance around like a kite in mid-air.

So to reduce the impact, I moved toward the end of the wire fixed in mid-air.

“Ugh…!”

Whoooooosh-!

The gale continued blowing, making it hard to even breathe.

Crackle- Crackle-!

Noise fluttering wildly.

One fragment of memory that had been swirling around like a fallen leaf finally grazed my cheek.

-Why did he contact Si-eon out of all those uncles?

-He thought Uncle Si-eon would take his side since he’s the youngest too.

-But Cha Si-eon immediately told his dad? Oh dear, he really misjudged the person.

-He learned the bitter taste of betrayal at a young age.

-…Did I do something wrong?

Voices of adult men.

They were somehow familiar voices.

The last one speaking respectfully and asking back was definitely Cha Si-eon’s voice.

The overly casual conversation left me feeling somewhat dazed.

Because my guard was down like that, I didn’t bother avoiding the next memory that came flying.

-Uncle, what does it mean to live?

-Why are your thoughts going that far?

-Living seems to get harder as I get older.

-What kind of talk is that from someone who just turned ten?

-Uncle, can’t you just listen without saying anything?

-This is ridiculous…

Some kid chattering away.

And Cha Si-eon responding half-heartedly.

Ha.

I couldn’t help but chuckle at the somehow funny conversation.

It seems Cha Si-eon has a very disobedient nephew.

And Cha Si-eon appears to be an uncle who handles that whining surprisingly well.

I didn’t know you had such a human side, Team Leader Cha.

I muttered absently while tightening the wire.

The gap between the mid-air where the wire was fixed and my body was only 5cm.

Thanks to that, my body didn’t flutter around wildly like before.

And thanks to this wire, I probably wouldn’t get flung far away like earlier.

I hung in mid-air, determined to endure until the “Memory Overflow” stopped.

That’s when it happened.

Crack- Crack-

An ominous sound coming from right in front of me.

Hearing the sound that pierced through the fierce wind, I looked ahead.

Cracks were forming in the mid-air where the end of the wire was fixed.

“…”

As soon as I saw that, I hurriedly loosened the wire.

I didn’t know what this absurd phenomenon was, but staying this close might lead to some disaster.

I released the lock so the wire would unwind quickly, but…

Crack- Crackle- CRASH-!

Before I could even get far away, something exploded.

Like glass shattering, something broke apart in mid-air.

Those fragments poured down all over my body.

“…!”

I felt a huge shock as if I’d looked directly at the sun.

At the same time, memories that weren’t mine began screaming inside my head.

Senioryouokaysorrysorrysorrydeleteallthephotoswhatkindoftalkisthatyouwantmetoforgetthatpersontoowaaaahhhhjustbecauseweignoreditdoesntmakeitunandoneitssomeoneelseatleastforthatkidweshouldhavetriestosavethemrightsieonchasieoniknowiknowhowyoufeelthinkofthisasrepaymentitsnotasignofsinceritybuttopaythepricewewerebothshortincalculationtherewasnomanualtoprotectourselveseiterwaaaahhhidontwanttodothisanymoreendurealittlemoreidontlikeididontlikeitwillkillyoudadpleasesavemewaaaahhhuncleimsorryitsokay.

It’s okay.

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