Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 156

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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The Editor’s Survival Manual — Episode 156
ep21. Shrouded in Mist (6)
To the Management Bureau.
Hello. This is Seo Do-un.
The fact that you are reading this letter means I am no longer a person of this world.
First, I hope my death brings you no great sorrow.
To begin with, I am…….
No, no, no!
Another scream rose in my throat, so I clamped both hands over my mouth.
Baek Sa-ra, standing beside me, clenched her own teeth as if enduring something.
Cha Si-eon, beside her, seemed to grow grave as well, his jaw firmly set while his gaze drifted toward some distant point.
The three of us, perched upon the arch, swallowed our words for different reasons.
In that state, nearly thirty minutes passed—an eternity.
The funeral procession, mercifully, had ended.
“Careful.”
Baek Sa-ra, who had descended first, caught me as I slid down the wire.
She assessed my weight, then glanced up at Cha Si-eon, who was following down from the arch.
“I think I can carry him.”
“Take the blade.”
But he rejected the idea outright.
Baek Sa-ra shot him a protesting look.
Still, I had no desire to be drawn into their squabbling.
“Let’s hurry…….”
At my urging, Cha Si-eon lifted me and began running alongside Baek Sa-ra.
Surely they wouldn’t open my will on the very day I went missing.
They’d give me a couple of days of hope, at least.
There was a chance the higher-ups would open the wills of disappeared agents first.
But they wouldn’t immediately relay it to the addressee.
Given the gravity of the situation, they’d act with caution. Yes.
……But what if the will’s recipient was a Management Bureau agent who already knew the situation?
Cold sweat beaded on my skin at the mere thought.
I hated the idea of my will being made public after I died, but returning to a world in which my will had already been published was distasteful in an entirely different way.
If I had to choose between the two, living was the obvious answer. Still, I wanted to live with dignity, if I could.
Had this desperation finally reached heaven’s ears?
Vroom!
A familiar engine sound cut through the mist.
“Oh, Team Leader Cha.”
Then came a cheerful voice.
“Huh? Baek Sa-ra’s here too?”
It was Jeong Jin-u’s voice.
The motorcycle’s engine died, and footsteps sounded on the pavement.
“What’s with your hair, Team Leader? Filming a kung-fu movie?”
“I encountered the monks.”
“Wow, is that what aging looks like? The world’s really unfair.”
“But why are there only two of you?”
“You can’t fit three on the bike.”
Jeong Jin-u’s remark carried little useful information.
But cutting through his nonsense came another voice.
“Jeong Jin-u was looking for Baek Sa-ra.”
This was Han Seung-yo’s voice.
“Me?”
“You’re the only one without a flashlight.”
“That’s right, Sara. This is a senior’s heart.”
Han Seung-yo and Jeong Jin-u replied to Baek Sa-ra’s question.
If they were going to have a conversation, I wished they’d put me down first.
But Cha Si-eon, seemingly having forgotten my existence entirely, continued speaking while still carrying me.
“What happened to Rescuers 9 through 12?”
“9 and 11 joined up, and Seung-yo is 12. He said he was heading this way, so I gave him a ride.”
So Jeong Jin-u had ridden out on his motorcycle out of concern for Baek Sa-ra, who had no light.
He’d met Han Seung-yo, who was alone, and since he was already heading the same direction, he’d picked him up as well.
But now that he’d found Baek Sa-ra here, there was no need to continue moving.
Jeong Jin-u asked Baek Sa-ra a question.
“But didn’t you have a flashlight?”
“No.”
“The flashlight that was with me belonged to Seo Do-un. Baek Sa-ra joined us partway through.”
“Agent Do-un?”
Jeong Jin-u spotted me.
Cha Si-eon, too, seemed to remember my existence only then.
And then—ugh—this guy.
He peeled me off his back like before and held me up to show the others.
“What is this?”
Jeong Jin-u gasped dramatically at the sight of me.
Han Seung-yo didn’t show much reaction, but his gaze became fixed on me, surprise flickering beneath the surface.
“We encountered the monks, and this is the result.”
“You aged and Seo Do-un got younger?”
“Yes.”
“Wow…… their Movement Technique really is different…….”
Jeong Jin-u stared at me with pure fascination.
To escape being treated as a curiosity, I spoke seriously.
“Did you happen to see the Train Station or the Island on your way here?”
Jeong Jin-u looked at me quietly.
Then, pressing his hand against his chest, he spoke as if to himself.
“I want to get married. I want to take my son to a baseball game or something.”
Don’t take another’s transformation as your marriage motivation…….
Cha Si-eon asked Jeong Jin-u a question as the latter continued his rambling.
“Have there been any unusual occurrences up until now?”
“No, nothing. Just the same bridge the whole way.”
Jeong Jin-u finally answered the question, but this answer itself posed another problem.
Jeong Jin-u had covered considerable distance.
He’d started directly above our heads, so reaching here meant he’d traversed about half of this circular road.
Moreover, the other half held the scattered agents numbered 3 through 7.
By this point, one would expect to have discovered the end of the loop.
So why was there no sign of it?
“What was the route like as you traveled here?”
“Like taking a stroll?”
“Then let’s continue in this direction. If you find anything unusual, signal us. If not, do a full loop and rejoin us.”
“Got it. I’ll check on the others too.”
“Senior Han should move along with you.”
“Right.”
Han Seung-yo nodded at Cha Si-eon’s request.
They intended to scout the entire loop.
Jeong Jin-u turned toward the motorcycle.
But then, as if remembering something, he turned back toward us.
“Before that, stand together for a second.”
Jeong Jin-u gestured for us to pose.
Click!
Jeong Jin-u took a photo of the three of us with the Tablet camera.
He looked at the photo he’d taken and chuckled softly.
“Looks like a family picture, doesn’t it?”
At your discretion, apparently…….
I didn’t much care for Jeong Jin-u’s remark, and it seemed Baek Sa-ra felt the same way.
Meanwhile, Cha Si-eon spoke without concern.
“Send it to me as well.”
“You want it?”
“I’ll attach it to my report.”
Cha Si-eon remained unmoved by Jeong Jin-u’s continued teasing.
Age did make a difference—the barbs didn’t touch him at all.
Jeong Jin-u took several more photos.
“I can’t send it now. I’ll send you the pictures once we get out.”
“Understood.”
“Then we’re off. Be careful!”
Jeong Jin-u waved to us as he helped Han Seung-yo onto the motorcycle.
Then, as if they’d be meeting again soon, he took off running at full speed.
* * *
We were still three.
In the meantime, Jeong Jin-u’s motorcycle curved away swiftly, already meeting other lights in the distance.
At that speed, Jeong Jin-u would complete the loop in no time.
Yet still, no signal came through.
No matter how thick the mist was, a massive structure like the Train Station or the Island shouldn’t have been invisible.
I began to grow uneasy.
Was our hypothesis wrong? Or had the space itself been warped?
Why had the Crow been so quiet?
By now, it seemed time for interference, for intervention.
As the situation refused to resolve, frustration began to pile up.
I was beginning to understand the desperation of children thrashing on the ground in rage.
My still-small frame left no room for even mild stress.
Damn.
This was far from pleasant.
Becoming a helpless child who could do nothing.
Being utterly powerless, able only to watch the world move on.
I wanted nothing more than to escape this state.
Screech!
That was when Cha Si-eon, who had been running while carrying me, suddenly stopped.
He turned to look at Baek Sa-ra, who had stopped just before him.
“What is it?”
“Wait a moment.”
Baek Sa-ra retraced the path we had just crossed.
The path was indistinguishable from the bridge we’d been running across all this time.
But Baek Sa-ra had sensed some incongruity, and began examining her surroundings carefully.
After a brief moment,
“Come look at this.”
Baek Sa-ra called us over.
“Do you see that?”
Baek Sa-ra pointed toward the road surface.
It was an ordinary roadway.
Only appearing hazy and whitish because the mist was so dense.
“The lane markings are misaligned. And they’re too long.”
Lane markings?
Baek Sa-ra crossed the guardrail and stepped onto the road itself.
The road was a generous three lanes in one direction, divided by white dashed lines.
Baek Sa-ra stood in front of one of those white lines.
As she’d said, the line was about 1.5 times longer than a standard lane marking.
And the middle section was slightly offset.
At first glance, it looked like a painting error had occurred.
But Baek Sa-ra pursued the incongruity relentlessly from that point.
She crossed back over the guardrail and examined the bridge railing, speaking as she did.
“The spacing of the railings is different too. Team Leader, shine your light down toward the river.”
Cha Si-eon switched on his searchlight as Baek Sa-ra requested, directing it toward the water below.
The dense mist made it difficult to see anything even with the light.
We stared intently below, and soon we saw it.
“That…….”
“It wasn’t circular after all.”
Baek Sa-ra murmured as she gazed at the river beneath the bridge.
Blue river water flowed beneath the fog.
But directly below where we stood, the water was empty.
As if only this section had the river block removed.
Or as if the parting of the waters had occurred only here.
But that gap was neither deleted nor parted.
The space had folded inward from below, and the water’s surface was tilted.
“It looks like they layered the Train Station and the Island to make a circle, then pinched the middle in once.”
“So instead of circular, it’s shaped like a figure eight……?”
Baek Sa-ra nodded at my words.
That was right.
The long road of the Bridge didn’t simply connect to form one circle. The middle section was twisted so that two circles touched each other.
The place we were running through was one of those empty circles.
Then the other circle must contain…….
“The exit seems to be on the opposite side.”
The opposite side meant beyond where the water’s surface tilted, creating that abyss, didn’t it?
If we crossed that, we could escape this hamster wheel…….
Then it happened.
Cha Si-eon hooked Baek Sa-ra around the waist and threw himself to the side.
His sudden movement meant I, hanging from his opposite shoulder, was thrown about as well.
Just as I was being flung through the air,
Crash!
Something massive crashed down where Baek Sa-ra had been standing.
“……!”
Without understanding what it was, I rolled across the ground tangled with Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra.
But there was no time to sprawl in shock.
Cha Si-eon rose from the roll and began running without missing a beat.
Baek Sa-ra did the same.
Confused and clueless, I stared behind Cha Si-eon’s shoulder.
Something was hurtling toward us with terrifying speed.
The moment I recognized it, my breath caught.
The Big Cat.
And it was holding something in its mouth.
Something black.
Something with a beak and feathers…….
I felt my mind go blank.
What the Big Cat held in its jaws was the Raven, limp and lifeless.

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