Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 13

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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 13

Episode 13. ep3. Hunting Humans (4)

“Fucking hurts… just kill me…”

Rescuer 12 kept muttering like a broken radio.

Thanks to that, I suffered along with him as I pushed his wheelchair.

I’m currently going around the hospital with Woman, Rescuer 12, and Tall.

Wandering around a space with monsters was incredibly stressful in itself.

In the midst of this, Rescuer 12 kept groaning, making my nerves even more on edge.

Still, he’s a patient so I was enduring it, but then Rescuer 12 suddenly picked a fight with me.

“Hey, Otter. What did you do to end up here?”

“What’s it to you.”

“I was just asking, but you’re fucking annoying. Everyone except you has told their story, you pathetic bastard.”

When has this guy ever seen me to act like he’s my personal bully?

Doesn’t he realize I could flip his wheelchair over?

It was absurd and I didn’t want to talk long, so I gave a half-hearted response.

“So what did you do?”

“Me? Hey, you’ll be shocked when you hear this. There was a storage box where I was that converted items into money.”

As soon as I heard that, chills ran down my spine.

But Rescuer 12 didn’t know that and kept bragging.

“At first I put in things like watches, then when someone died flat, I tried putting them in? And quite a bit of money came out. Crazy. So I tried putting in a properly dead human and money just poured out. I copied money like crazy with that. I probably made about a billion won back then.”

So it’s you, that piece of trash Lee Sol mentioned.

I felt nauseous and clenched my jaw.

Setting everything else aside, I couldn’t understand how he was saying this like it was something to brag about.

This bastard did something deserving divine punishment, so why is he so shameless?

Perhaps thinking similarly to me, Woman tried to reason with Rescuer 12.

“Rescuer 12, we’re being punished for doing bad things right now. So we should reflect a little.”

“Bullshit.”

Rescuer 12 snorted.

What a shameless bastard.

Woman was the first to take care of him when he got hurt, and he’s not even grateful?

That shameless bastard came after me again.

“Hey, now tell us your story.”

I didn’t want to exchange words with this guy.

Just then, Woman raised her hand.

Then she pressed the wheelchair against the corridor wall and whispered.

“Look, Moving Gun is going that way.”

My heart sank.

As Woman said, there was Moving Gun slowly moving beyond the corridor corner.

The distance from us was only about 30 meters.

I grabbed Rescuer 12’s wheelchair, ready to run away immediately.

But then Woman whispered again.

“Should we follow it?”

“What?”

“If we follow from this distance, it won’t notice. That monster is slower than I thought.”

I was so flustered I used formal speech.

Instead of me who was dazed, Rescuer 12 reacted hysterically.

“Why would we follow that thing, you idiot! Don’t you remember everyone dying when that thing went crazy?”

Rescuer 12 was right about this.

Just before, Moving Gun went berserk and killed 3 people.

Besides, you guys don’t even know the conditions that make that monster go berserk.

Then instead of being careless because it’s slow, shouldn’t we avoid it as much as possible?

But Woman had different methods than a coward like me.

“That’s exactly why we should follow it. If we know the location of dangerous things, we can prepare for them.”

Damn, this makes sense too.

Even Tall, who had been quiet the whole time, agreed with this.

“That’s right.”

“Right? What do you think, Otter?”

I… don’t want to…

While I hesitated, Rescuer 12 made a metallic sound as he got furious.

“Are you ignoring what I said? If your head’s empty, just shut up, you stupid bitch! Don’t you know what happens if I die?”

At Rescuer 12’s verbal abuse, Woman let out a deep sigh.

I thought the situation would end like this.

But at that moment.

Crash-!

Woman suddenly grabbed Rescuer 12 by the collar and slammed him down.

Then she jumped down from her wheelchair and pinned Rescuer 12 down.

“Gaaaah…!”

Rescuer 12 let out a pathetic scream.

It was because Woman had grabbed his vocal cords with her hand.

Rescuer 12 struggled but couldn’t shake off Woman, who was half his size.

Woman was completely neutralizing Rescuer 12 in a strange mount position.

Honestly, it’s satisfying!

But thinking this wasn’t the time, I tried to stop Woman.

But Tall grabbed me and shook his head.

Meanwhile, Woman spoke gently.

“Rescuer 12, it’s true that we’re all in trouble if you die. But if you want to threaten us with your life, you need to have the courage to die first. You just have a loud voice but don’t want to die. In the end, all you can do is be protected, so why don’t you know your place?”

“Guh!”

“Rescuer 12, don’t you remember why you got the injection? You were chosen by majority vote for being the most useless. Even though I’m here with an injured leg, you got all the votes. Don’t you understand what this means? Even your own gang abandoned you.”

“Uh, uh!”

“Now that you’re useful, we’re taking care of you, but what if you throw tantrums like this? If you keep this up, we might tear off your remaining limbs too. After all, you just need to be breathing. Do you understand?”

“Huu…”

Woman’s voice was monotonous like a lullaby.

But the content was cruel enough to make Satan applaud.

Eventually, Rescuer 12 went beyond whimpering and started sniffling.

Woman left him like that and got back on her wheelchair herself.

Then she said to me and Tall.

“Sorry, but could you help Rescuer 12 sit back up?”

They said the darker the armband color, the more dangerous the person.

That’s probably bullshit. These people are just all crazy.

I watched Woman worriedly, afraid she might really chase Moving Gun.

But then Tall looked at his wristwatch and said.

“It’s been 5 minutes since we came out, we need to go back to switch shifts.”

What welcome news to hear.

Fortunately, Woman agreed with this too, and we returned to the surgery room.

Just then, Seo Do-un and Muscular Build came out, so Woman told them.

“The monster went toward the children’s hospital.”

“Really? It’s not particularly chasing Rescuer 12 or anything?”

“No, it seems like seeing his face doesn’t mean it can detect his location.”

“Got it, we’ll also keep track of the monster’s location as we move around. We marked the completed areas on the totem pole.”

With a simple exchange of information, we switched roles.

Rescuer 12 had to keep moving around, so Seo Do-un and Muscular Build took him along.

They looked at the dejected Rescuer 12 strangely for a moment, then left without a word, pulling the wheelchair.

After that, Woman, Tall, and I began excavation work beneath the 999 Totem Poles.

The goal was to dig out what might be clay or flesh and find intact organs.

Scraping together that squishy stuff was quite grueling work.

So I desperately tried to think about other things.

Like Rescuer 12’s true identity that I’d heard about earlier.

‘Cruel but charismatic villains’ are fantasies only possible in fiction; real villains are generally pathetic and incompetent.

Because truly capable people don’t become villains in the first place.

Even knowing this, the reality of the Train Station villain I’d actually seen was absurdly pathetic.

Far from charismatic, just a deficient fool who put on cheap airs only to meet with failure.

That was the reality of the villain who had committed terrible atrocities.

“Otter.”

“Gasp…!”

Lost in thought, I jumped at the sudden call of my name.

Looking back, I saw Woman tilting her head as she looked at me.

“Wh-what? Why?”

“Earlier, you were startled because of me, weren’t you? I guess I’ve become a bit sensitive from being here so long.”

Woman laughed softly as if embarrassed.

Not at all, it’s fine, please spare me.

I held back what I wanted to say and calmly asked back.

“How long have you been here?”

“About 3 hours now.”

Much longer than I had thought.

So she’d already experienced Moving Gun’s active and dormant periods twice each?

Come to think of it, there were 12 prisoners total listed in the directive.

But only 5 people remained now.

…As expected, the Management Bureau guys seem to be the real deal here.

Hey, so this is what they meant by “manual in production”?

But if they were going to use us like this, they could have at least told us something about Moving Gun.

Why didn’t they tell us anything?

Were they afraid we’d get distracted if we knew too much?

Afraid we’d fight over choosing sacrificial lambs?

Still, wouldn’t this approach make both survival rates and efficiency too low?

I don’t know, a small citizen like me can’t understand the thought processes of those demons… wait, huh?

Wait, could it be?

I swallowed nervously at the thought that crossed my mind.

Then I glanced at Woman’s armband and said nonchalantly.

“If you’ve been wandering around that long, you must know the layout here pretty well?”

“Roughly, yes.”

“Then draw me a map.”

“Pardon?”

“So I can learn the geography too.”

At my request, Woman looked at me for a moment.

Woman’s eyes visible through her mask traced gentle curves like a deer’s.

I waited for her answer, hoping that gaze wouldn’t suddenly change.

A few seconds later.

Woman’s eyes curved into thin crescents.

“You’re right, it would be terrible if you got lost.”

Woman smiled brightly and began drawing a cross-section on the back of the directive she’d handed me.

“Here you go.”

Woman handed me the cross-section she’d quickly completed.

I took it and bent down, pretending to work again.

And when Woman turned her back to me, I secretly unfolded it to look.

Ha, seriously?

A sigh escaped me involuntarily.

The ‘Special Advice!’ written in handwriting at the bottom of the directive.

And the explanation written on the cross-section Woman had just drawn.

The handwriting of both was identical.

* * *

10 minutes later, Seo Do-un’s group returned.

Seo Do-un and Woman shared information just like before.

After repeating this process several times, 30 minutes had already passed.

Nothing special happened during that time.

Except for Rescuer 12’s ear disappearing.

It happened when Seo Do-un’s group was taking Rescuer 12 around the hospital.

Suddenly the wall was pierced and Rescuer 12’s ear flew off, they said.

Anyway, nothing else happened besides that.

Moving Gun was still wandering around alone.

We still hadn’t found any intact organs.

And I was now in an extremely anxious state.

Moving Gun was really slow, so it hadn’t hunted anyone yet.

So at this rate, it would go berserk soon.

How should I get through this?

Should I run away now that surveillance is loose?

Even if I ran, could I avoid that great disaster by myself?

Isn’t there any luck of the rescue team arriving a few minutes earlier?

Should I tell the others about this instead?

Or should I sacrifice someone?

…Just thinking about it made me feel suffocated.

Many people want to see bad guys punished.

But if you told them to personally carry out that execution, most would hesitate.

Because it’s normal to feel burdened about another person’s life, whether they’re a heinous criminal or not.

I felt the same way, and I didn’t want to cross that line if possible.

I absolutely didn’t want to become a broken human like Rescuer 12.

I agonized second by second while cornered.

But I wasn’t the only one with ulterior motives.

I was on my way back to the operating room after finishing hospital rounds with Woman, Tall, and Rescuer 12.

Woman and Tall, who had been walking beside me, suddenly stopped and muttered to each other.

“What should we do?”

“Well.”

But Tall was using formal speech while Woman spoke casually.

Just as I was puzzled by their change in speech patterns.

Something jumped out from between the chairs and rushed at me.

As I stumbled back in surprise, Tall grabbed it and slammed it to the floor.

Thud-!

“Ugh, get off!”

The man who’d been thrown down by Tall and had his arm broken shouted.

It was none other than Muscular Build.

Ignoring Muscular Build’s resistance, Tall shouted at me.

“Behind you!”

I reflexively dodged my body at the ominous feeling.

Clang-!

Right after, a steel rod struck down where I had been standing.

“Ha, he actually dodged that.”

The one who swung at my back was none other than Seo Do-un.

He was holding some plumbing pipe he’d picked up from somewhere.

Seo Do-un waved the pipe and spoke to Tall.

“Tall, move aside. There’s a reason for all this right now.”

Tall didn’t listen and continued pinning down Muscular Build.

Then Seo Do-un sighed and spoke to me.

“You, there’s something you didn’t tell us, right?”

Seo Do-un pushed up his glasses and smiled coldly.

“For that monster to stop, one person has to die, right?”

Damn, he figured it out.

But I figured something out too.

So it was you after all, the Archimedes of the Railroad Station.

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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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