Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 115

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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 115

ep17. Circulating (11)

Deep and profound silence.

I gathered my confused mind and opened my eyes.

The space had been reconstructed at some point, and I was lying face down on the floor.

“Hah…”

I took shallow breaths and raised my body.

The surroundings were very quiet.

And completely empty.

Earlier, it seemed the “memory flood” had stopped with that final explosion.

I was swept around frantically, but where is this place again?

As I looked around, I realized that the end of my wire was no longer attached to thin air.

That line was stretched out long, leading somewhere.

I followed that wire with a hopeful heart.

Crackle- Bzzt-!

After taking a few steps, noise began occurring again.

Had I entered another memory overlaid with errors this time too?

I continued walking, passing by blurred memory fragments.

And soon I discovered him.

Cha Si-eon sitting on the floor.

Cha Si-eon had his knees up, with his head buried between them.

His arms were casually resting on top of his knees.

“Team Leader.”

At my call, Cha Si-eon raised his head.

From his behavior, his body seemed to be fine.

Though he looked somewhat tired.

Cha Si-eon looked at me and muttered with a weary face.

“You again?”

“Don’t casually drop the honorifics.”

“Phew…”

Cha Si-eon let out a long sigh at my correction.

After catching his breath like that, Cha Si-eon gathered himself and asked back.

“How did you get all the way here?”

“I came here roughly guessing my way.”

Cha Si-eon looked at me with a dubious expression.

“What’s with that look?”

“Hah…”

Cha Si-eon sighed again and pulled out his notebook.

Then he began scribbling something.

As if he hadn’t been sprawled out just moments ago, he was functioning normally again now that he had work to do.

“We seem to be almost there now, right?”

“Probably so. What was the last memory you saw, Mr. Seo Do-un?”

“The memory of Response Team 3 breaking through the transformed corridor at Animal Farm School.”

Cha Si-eon also asked me about the previous situations.

I answered truthfully, and Cha Si-eon silently wrote it all down.

Riiip-!

Cha Si-eon tore out the pages he had written with his hand.

Then he folded them in half and put some in his own pocket and some in mine.

Knowledge gained through “Chronicles” cannot be taken outside the “Library.”

So it seemed he was using his own workaround to circumvent that.

I looked around while Cha Si-eon organized his records.

This space we were in.

This place also had all its graphics corrupted and was full of noise on all sides.

“When is this memory from?”

“February 2nd of this year.”

The answer was very specific.

Did that mean it was a day that remained memorable?

Wait, February 2nd of this year?

“That’s correct.”

When I looked at him in surprise, Cha Si-eon nodded.

“It’s a few hours before Mr. Seo Do-un was drawn into The Siren-Ringing Train Station.”

That’s right.

The first time I was dragged to the Special Zone was around 1 AM on February 3rd of this year.

That means…

“This is the waiting area of the corridor connected to The Siren-Ringing Train Station.”

Along with Cha Si-eon’s words, the veil covering the space was lifted.

A space isolated in hangar form.

In one corner of that vast space, I could see a black tunnel with railroad tracks laid down.

“I was monitoring the internal situation of The Siren-Ringing Train Station with Management Bureau staff.”

On one side of the hangar were Management Bureau agents with equipment spread out.

They were all looking at a large screen with serious faces.

I also went over there and checked the scene reflected on the screen.

At the same time, I came to understand Cha Si-eon’s gloomy atmosphere.

“You were watching this the whole time?”

“…”

What the screen showed was the internal scenery of The Siren-Ringing Train Station.

There was a girl in school uniform running down a corridor.

It was Lee Sol.

And two men chasing after her.

I immediately recognized one of those men.

It was Rescuer 12.

Hah…

I swallowed a sigh at the situation on screen.

The two men were chasing the girl like they were hunting.

Was it just my imagination?

That those bastards’ movements seemed quite excited.

No, it wasn’t my imagination.

Their faces were gleaming with superiority and excitement.

Disgust welled up.

Not because Lee Sol was someone I knew, but because that situation itself was revolting.

Grab-!

Then one man snatched at the back of Lee Sol’s neck.

Lee Sol took off the padding she was wearing over her school uniform and threw it away, barely escaping from his grasp.

Then she started running away again, but how long could she hold out?

Then one of the Response Team 3 agents shouted.

-Team Leader, where are you going?!

I turned my head at that sound.

A little distance away, there was the February 2nd Cha Si-eon gathering equipment.

Without any protective gear, he was only taking a silver ring, rule book, and one gun as he said.

-I’ll be back within 15 minutes.

-No. You won’t last 15 seconds, let alone 15 minutes. You know that, don’t you?

-Come out.

-Absolutely not!

Cha Si-eon silently glared at the agent blocking his path.

As if telling him not to interfere.

The agent hesitated for a moment, then stood even more firmly in his way.

-Absolutely not.

Instead of continuing the argument, Cha Si-eon ignored him and walked past.

The agent grabbed his arm, but he shook it off immediately.

-Stop the team leader!

At that shout, other team members joined in.

But not everyone came to dissuade Cha Si-eon.

In the hangar, besides Response Team 3, there were also on-duty personnel keeping watch.

So about a dozen people were monitoring the situation, but only four or five of them were trying to stop Cha Si-eon.

Some of the remaining ten couldn’t bring themselves to grab Cha Si-eon.

Others seemed to be contemplating whether they should step forward too.

Their attitudes and atmosphere were different, but they had something in common.

They all looked pale as if they had drunk poison.

-Team leader, if you go in now, you’ll die! Please come to your senses!

The team members shouted again.

Anyone connected to the Management Bureau will definitely die if they enter the Train Station.

He must know that fact.

He must know well that going there would only result in a meaningless death.

I couldn’t understand Team Leader Cha’s behavior at all.

No matter how agitated he was, was he really such an emotional and reckless person?

I was puzzled by myself when I looked at Cha Si-eon’s face and was somewhat startled.

Contrary to my assumption, Cha Si-eon on February 2nd was not agitated.

He wasn’t being emotional either.

He was moving to do what he had to do, as always.

“…Don’t tell me you were planning to hand over the manual to Lee Sol and then die?”

“…”

I remembered how past Cha Si-eon had been carrying the manual and asked.

Present Cha Si-eon didn’t answer.

That silence was an affirmation.

That was right.

Cha Si-eon would definitely die if he went in there.

But the time from when the siren sounds until the crushing occurs – only about 20 seconds.

He was planning to use that time.

In that time, he intended to shoot and kill those chasing Lee Sol, and deliver the survival method to Lee Sol.

Cha Si-eon on February 2nd knew so clearly what he had to do.

So he roughly twisted and subdued his subordinates.

That’s when it happened.

-Si-eon.

Kwon Mu-seop’s low voice.

At that heavy tone, Cha Si-eon hesitated for the first time.

Kwak Jae-gyeom had called Kwon Mu-seop on his cell phone.

Cha Si-eon glared fiercely at Kwak Jae-gyeom.

Jae-gyeom hung his head with a tense expression.

But he didn’t hang up the call with Kwon Mu-seop.

-Don’t go in. Please.

At the word “please,” Cha Si-eon’s Adam’s apple moved greatly.

And time stopped.

I found myself holding my breath without realizing it.

I only realized it after letting out a sigh.

“You must have known Lee Sol well.”

“No, she’s just the daughter of a senior colleague from the same team.”

Cha Si-eon deliberately denied my words.

But it wasn’t convincing at all.

Perhaps thinking so himself, Cha Si-eon belatedly added.

“Lee Sol’s father played a central role in the Management Bureau. And several agents, including myself, owed our lives to Lee Sol’s father.”

That seemed to be the case.

Even with limited information, putting together the stories I heard here and there.

Agent Lee Seob was a pioneer who found clues about the Special Zone.

He was a close friend to Kwon Mu-seop, and a senior to whom Cha Si-eon owed his life.

But Cha Si-eon and the Management Bureau couldn’t save Lee Seob.

They couldn’t even find his body.

They couldn’t even accurately determine whether he was alive or dead.

And now his daughter was being dragged into the Special Zone too.

Maybe it’s not me but them who should resent God.

“Still, it’s fortunate you didn’t go in then. If you had gone in, you wouldn’t have come back out.”

I said, recalling what I had experienced in the Train Station earlier.

Cha Si-eon looked at me with dark eyes.

Then he muttered in a somewhat reluctant tone.

“The guy chasing Lee Sol died. So the situation was temporarily concluded.”

-Over here! Everyone come look! The guy chasing Lee Sol is dead!

The agent who was monitoring shouted.

At that sound, everyone rushed toward the screen.

A pool of blood was spreading in the corridor on the screen.

Something like a tire placed in the middle of it.

Lee Sol and Rescuer 12 running away in different directions, terrified.

The siren must have sounded.

So one of the men chasing Lee Sol was apparently crushed to death.

Lee Sol ran away as she was.

But no matter where she ran, there was no way to escape from there.

Lee Sol wandered around the Train Station desperately alone like a beast trapped in a snare.

She shook the front gate that wouldn’t open at all, and burst into tears in front of the turnstile that wouldn’t budge.

Eventually, everything became frightening to her, both people and spaces became terrifyingly scary, so she went into the restroom and locked the door.

She holed up in that single-stall, miserable shelter.

And from that moment, another hell began.

* * *

Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop had said that.

When Sol was dragged there, we all felt like we were being punished by heaven.

Now I think I understand what those words meant a little.

It had been 3 hours since Lee Sol holed up in the restroom.

Monitoring continued, and during that time, three more sirens sounded.

Every time the siren sounded, the agents gritted their teeth.

And when that crushing avoided Lee Sol.

When someone other than Lee Sol was crushed to death, they suffered from a terrible contradiction.

Why are we feeling relieved every time someone else dies?

What exactly was our role?

Since when had I only been watching like this.

Meanwhile, the three men also emerged from the tunnel.

It was Rescuer 12, Muscular Build, and Seo Do-un.

When they first came out, they were laughing like idiots while carrying money bags.

Then they spotted the Management Bureau agents and looked slightly startled.

And they acted extremely docile and polite toward the Management Bureau agents.

The same when the agents put handcuffs on them.

The bastards pretended to be perfectly reasonable while trying to clear up the misunderstanding.

So the agents had to summon all their patience to avoid killing them.

Cha Si-eon also just glanced briefly at the gun he had put down earlier.

He didn’t shoot them dead.

Instead, he seemed to be quietly contemplating.

Where the line was between human and monster.

It was when everyone was unknowingly going insane like this.

-What the hell is that guy doing now…?

A new scoundrel appeared at the women’s restroom where Lee Sol was hiding.

It was Seo Do-un from February 3rd.

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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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