Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 158

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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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Survival Rules for an Editor Episode 158

ep21. Shrouded in Mist (8)

Some things simply happen.
Like the second hand moving from twelve to one.
What is destined to unfold does so without ceremony.
A dozen cold chunks of metal fell as the door shattered.
Once that descent began, it was too massive, too filled with malice to stop.
No human strength could arrest its fall or gather it back again.
So we simply watched as it screamed past our heads.
The black metal debris vanished into the spiral opening.
The thick mist swallowed it whole.
But what we could not see had not ceased to exist.
What followed moments later was a flash of crimson light.
And then vibration.
Boom—
A heavy tremor shook the ground beneath our feet.
Boom— Bang— Bang—
It sounded like a giant stamping the earth.
A sound that rendered humans insignificant, powerless as dust.
Wind came rushing.
That hot wind carried the smell of steel and fire.
The atmosphere trembled with the echo of warfare, and the mist began to scatter.
Beyond the fog that cleared in an instant lay the ravaged path of bombardment.
The narrow corridor we had crossed was shattered completely, blown open wide.
Water around it cascaded down like a waterfall.
And beyond lay ruins.
“…….”
Every bridge on the far side had been destroyed.
Like a shattered planet, only debris remained, floating in the void.
I could not imagine anyone had stood there.
Even less could I imagine that those who had been there still lived.
We felt that truth in our bones.
So we could not even breathe.
Some things simply happen.
Indifferent to human plans, convictions, and desperate wishes.
And in that indifference, humanity goes mad.
“……We can save them.”
In the crushing shock that felt like my mind was collapsing, I forced the words out.
“If we cross the door, we can save them. Here, we can.”
This madness happened because this place was equally mad.
If here was the Primordial Special Zone where time flows reversed and tangled, then we could exploit that advantage.
I had saved Director Go Hong-sang this way more than once.
At my words, Cha Si-eon and Baek Sa-ra turned to look at me.
Their gazes lingered briefly on the Raven I held in my hand.
But they voiced neither question nor objection.
Instead, they began to move.
As the mist cleared, the door above became more distinct.
Hundreds of doorframes had been shattered, creating a vast opening.
Beyond that opening lay a sky so cruelly blue and clear.
As if their purpose was already achieved, the doors that had been opening and closing frantically now stood silent and closed.
We would enter one of those doors.
Then the agents—thirteen seconds before death—would be waiting for us.
But to do that, damn it.
Raven.
If you’re not dead, get up.
Get up and do what you’re supposed to do.
You dragged me into this; don’t just lie there……!
Clang—!
Cha Si-eon roughly shoved the railing, and it bridged across to the far span again.
This would be our last crossing.
We had reached the very top of the spiral.
Now we had only to follow the path to the door.
Baek Sa-ra and I stepped onto the railing first and crossed to the other side.
It was as Cha Si-eon followed after us.
Clang— Clang— Clang—
The railing trembled under his footsteps, metal ringing against metal.
But when he was nearly across to us.
Crack—!
The sound changed.
The trembling ceased; a solid, stable sound.
The moment we noticed the change.
A hand shot up from beneath the railing and snatched Cha Si-eon’s ankle.
Cha Si-eon immediately aimed his gun downward.
Rat-a-tat-tat—!
But the force pulling his ankle was stronger than expected, and Cha Si-eon lost his balance.
“Ugh……!”
Baek Sa-ra and I were too close.
Cha Si-eon released his grip on the gun.
He fell, and something surged up to fill the void he left.
“……!”
I recoiled with something close to revulsion.
What emerged had the same face as what had just fallen.
The monster from below that wore Cha Si-eon’s form.
Alpha.
Alpha rushed toward us.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—!
Cha Si-eon, fallen into the river, fired upward from below, but it was too late.
In just two strides, Alpha vaulted the railing and reached us in an instant.
Baek Sa-ra pushed me back with her body and held Alpha in check with her longsword.
Alpha could not match a longsword with just a knife.
As Baek Sa-ra pressed forward, Alpha focused on evasion.
Whoosh— Clang—!
The sound of blades cutting air and metal colliding came without pause.
I went to the railing and threw the wire.
Whip— Splash—!
I heard Cha Si-eon thrashing in the water below, having spotted the wire immediately.
I watched the space beneath the bridge and Baek Sa-ra alternately, waiting for him to climb.
There was too much noise.
The sound of Cha Si-eon climbing the wire.
The sound of Baek Sa-ra swinging her longsword.
Alpha’s heavy footfalls.
So I did not hear the sound from the arch of the far span.
I missed the moment something with sharp claws ascended onto it.
But I noticed the light that suddenly brightened.
It was impossible not to—light flooded from above as if someone had flipped a switch.
I turned to look and froze.
The Big Cat, which had followed us here.
It was preparing to use Fire Breathing.
“Jump down!”
Baek Sa-ra shouted as she wrenched free from Alpha.
That demand cornered me.
Jump down, she said.
The railing was far too high.
To me now, it was a prison wall with no way down.
Baek Sa-ra must have realized this; instead of jumping into the river, she ran toward me.
Baek Sa-ra seized me in her arms.
But there was no time to leap into the water.
Boom-boom-boom-boom—!
In Baek Sa-ra’s embrace, I felt the earth itself shatter.
Sound upon sound upon sound.
Light, dark, light.
Floating, falling, impact.
It was like someone playing a recorder pressed against my ear.
The world beyond my blurred vision had many layers.
My whole body ached in a dull, throbbing way.
Just as I thought I couldn’t breathe, I realized Baek Sa-ra was pressed on top of me.
I looked past her shoulder.
Rat-a-tat-tat— Rat-a-tat-tat—
The rifle fire sounded as soft as someone tapping a book cover.
And the Big Cat.
That thing had become a wreck again.
Its limbs hung ragged as if about to tear free.
It seemed Team Leader Cha was giving it his all.
Was the one before him Cha Si-eon, or Alpha?
Both.
Then who held Baek Sa-ra’s longsword?
If it was Cha Si-eon, then Alpha bore the wound.
If it was Alpha, then the reverse.
The sight felt like a film.
Like images transmitted through a screen—something distant, unrelated to me.
So I stared blankly, when suddenly my head throbbed with sharp pain.
“Nngh……!”
At the same moment, reality crashed down on me.
I snapped awake.
At once I stopped watching the fight and shook Baek Sa-ra, who lay pressed on top of me.
“Baek Sa-ra, Baek Sa-ra……!”
Baek Sa-ra did not move.
Faced with her silence, I hesitated, then brought my hand to her lips.
“…….”
I felt no breath.
I reached tentatively for the pulse at her neck.
It was still warm.
But I felt no heartbeat.
Only stillness.
As I searched for Baek Sa-ra’s pulse, I brushed back the hair that had fallen across her face.
Her face was just as I knew it.
So intact, so whole—why wasn’t she breathing?
Confusion did not come first; question did.
Confusion is the unthinking reaction to the incomprehensible.
Question is the refined interrogation of what cannot be accepted.
What this moment gave me was question.
How could someone this strong die so suddenly?
A question close to protest against a situation with no plausibility, no logic.
But what must happen happens nonetheless.
Whether I can believe it or accept it or not.
As I examined Baek Sa-ra’s state, a massive claw entered my vision.
The sharp claws of the Big Cat.
They were buried deep in Baek Sa-ra’s back.
Clang—!
Another thunderous sound tore the air.
The Big Cat, already ragged and torn, was finally split in half.
Screee— Screee-screee—!
The Big Cat, having lost its lower body, let out a cry—was it calling for help?
Alpha dropped the sword and rushed at the Big Cat.
Alpha seized it and leaped from the bridge.
Screeeee-screeeee—!
As it fled, the Big Cat made a strange sound.
It sounded like laughter.
Cha Si-eon, who alone had repelled both the Big Cat and Alpha, approached me.
Cha Si-eon was drenched in blood.
Yet his posture, his gait—both remained upright.
“Baek Sa-ra is dead.”
I said it, but Cha Si-eon gave no reply.
He only gazed at Baek Sa-ra briefly, then grasped my arm to pull me up.
As I rose, Baek Sa-ra, who had been draped across me, fell to the ground.
But Cha Si-eon said nothing more and spoke curtly.
“The door.”
The door.
It was the only thing left for us to do.
Cross the door, and we could save them.
Baek Sa-ra, the other agents—all of them.
But would we really?
The Raven was still in my hand.
Doubt and despair began to creep through my mind.
I forced them down and got to my feet.
Cha Si-eon did not carry me further; he made me walk on my own.
His pace was not fast.
So I could follow easily enough.
But the real problem was neither his stride nor his speed.
“Team Leader.”
As I followed Cha Si-eon, I had to speak.
“You’re losing too much blood.”
I could not tell where it was flowing from.
The path Cha Si-eon had crossed lay streaked with blood like brush strokes.

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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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