Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 167

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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 Rules Episode 167

ep22. Ⅻ(6)

“The Big Cat’s older sister.”
At Cha Si-eon’s murmur, I nodded vigorously.
I was trying to convey just how unavoidable my situation had been.
“So you proposed a deal to Seo Do-un, and on the condition that he let our team members escape alive, he agreed to stay here and be killed by this ‘older sister’?”
I nodded again.
An excellent summary.
Though I wished he’d refrain from pronouncing the word “older sister” in that particular tone.
Cha Si-eon had me sit across from him while he nodded thoughtfully, then fell silent in contemplation.
Then he looked back at me and spoke quietly, his tone tinged with displeasure.
“So you had absolutely no time to say this one sentence?”
……
At Cha Si-eon’s blatant reproach, I stopped nodding abruptly.
He might as well hit me again.
He didn’t hit me, but continued to signal his displeasure through words and eyes.
However, knowing my fault, I answered with humility.
“If I may explain, I truly had no leeway…….”
Bombs had fallen from the sky, and both the Team Leader and Baek Sa-ra were dead.
In the end, I died too, and suddenly this woman called “The Big Cat’s older sister” exposed my repeated deaths and offered a strange proposal.
“Everyone had just died and come back to life, so I thought escaping from here was the most pressing matter, and I wasn’t confident I could explain the situation adequately.”
Honestly, if I’d laid out the whole truth, would anyone have believed me?
They’d have probably decided I was contaminated, tied me up, and dragged me away.
I’d probably do the same in their position.
So I gave the Team Leader a hint—not quite a hint—before leaving, but after cooling my head and thinking it over, my actions must have been quite a shock to him.
One of his team members suddenly calls him over, grins wildly, and throws himself out of the train.
From the Team Leader’s perspective, it must have felt like a scene from a horror movie with absurd logical plausibility.
As Cha Si-eon kept thinking about it, he seemed to get more irritated, took a moment to collect himself, and spoke again.
“I have nothing to say since we all survived thanks to you, but at least from now on, consult with me before you act. And regarding that deal condition…….”
But he quickly got worked up again and exhaled sharply.
“……I understand why Seo Do-un made that judgment. But while trading one life for twelve might make arithmetic sense, considering Seo Do-un’s special nature and strategic value, his survival could actually be more beneficial in certain respects. So from now on, even if such a proposal comes, never make an independent judgment like that. Do you understand?”
“Yes…….”
“And we are people prepared to die. We’re not people whose lives Seo Do-un needs to stake his own to save, and we’ve already received many lives beyond that.”
……
“Don’t add your life to this. Not if you understand why we volunteered. We’re already sufficiently burdened people.”
That was true.
We were people who’d come to settle old debts.
People who wanted to do the role Otter would have played themselves, people willing to stake their lives to do so.
And I was about to add one more burden to their shoulders.
Realizing this, I spoke humbly.
“I won’t do anything like this again.”
At my reply, Cha Si-eon exhaled slowly again.
His irritation seemed to have eased somewhat, so I ventured to add a comment.
“And thank you, Team Leader. I survived because of you.”
“You’re not alive yet, so don’t let your guard down.”
This exacting man—here I was trying to thank him…….
“……But aren’t you also acting alone right now?”
I asked, hoping to catch him off guard.
I do bear fault and am crawling on the ground for it, but that doesn’t mean you have the position to scold me so confidently.
But Cha Si-eon only laughed scornfully.
“Do you think I didn’t know who I was? I properly handed off command to my team members.”
Wait, really?
“They just let you go?”
“When I said I’d bring Seo Do-un back, they all understood.”
……
Now that I thought about it, the Team Leader did have a large bag in addition to his personal gear.
Something that hadn’t been there before suddenly was, so I’d wondered about it.
Ah, so the team had loaded him up with equipment and rations to bring me back.
I’d thought the Team Leader was my accomplice and felt secretly relieved.
But he wasn’t.
Only I was the criminal; he was the hunter.
Looking at the large bag beside the Team Leader, I felt a fresh chill.
How long did the Team Leader plan to wander this place to pack so much?
With that much, he could survive alone for a week……?
“Anyway, we’re alive, so that’s what matters. We’ll rest for fifteen minutes, then escape.”
As he said this, Cha Si-eon looked somewhat exhausted.
Well, he’d been running around frantically hunting entities earlier.
He’d said he’d broken through twelve spaces before meeting me, and that there had been five intense brawls like that among them.
More than enough reason to be tired.
So the Team Leader set down his weapons for a moment and settled into a chair in the Waiting Hall.
“I’ll use the same method the Deputy Director used to escape from the Hotel in the early era.”
Based on what I’d observed while moving around, the Train Station also faithfully replicated the characteristics of the early era.
So Cha Si-eon’s plan was to find a “Train Station from the time period when the Special Zone was formed” and escape through it.
Since this was an escape method already confirmed, the judgment itself was sound.
The only problem was…….
“If we leave here, we’ll likely not be able to get back in.”
“Probably not.”
Cha Si-eon agreed readily to my words.
I understood painfully well what Deputy Director Kwon Mu-seop had meant when he said “you can see the Special Zone thinking.”
Given that it could twist space and even drop bombing runs, I couldn’t deny the malice of the things opposed to us.
And their clear sense of purpose as well.
The Type 1 Special Zone didn’t want us to break through the Train Station.
If that were the case, there was a high probability it would seal the Train Station as it was now.
Just as it had hidden the Island away and never opened it again.
This too would be a victory from a human standpoint.
After all, a few spaces that used to lure humans in and kill them would be permanently closed.
But if that happened, we’d never achieve our original objective.
Lee Sol would just be left as she was.
Noticing my thoughts, Cha Si-eon spoke.
“The top priority of this operation is everyone’s survival. And if we die, there’s no one left to protect Lee Sol.”
That too was a fair point.
“So for now, our priority is getting out alive. Besides, we’ve secured considerable information this time. Using this achievement as a foundation, we should be able to probe out the next operation.”
At the Team Leader’s words, I had no choice but to nod.
Right, too much is never good. Choose what matters and focus.
If we get greedy just because things improved a bit, we’ll likely face disaster.
Sometimes you need the resolve to cut and move on.
“The Train Station has no doors separating the space from the Waiting Hall to the Platform. So if we try to escape through the Platform, we might get attacked by the Great Siren. So this time, we’ll move to the Circulating Library, and escape by way of the Library.”
I nodded at Cha Si-eon’s explanation.
After fifteen minutes, we stood up.
To move to the Circulating Library, we first need a book.
And the place with the most books in the Train Station is the Business Center on the 2nd Floor.
There we need to find a picture that connects to the Circulating Library.
We arrived at the Business Center and opened the door.
But beyond the door, stars glimmered.
……?
Stars twinkling in a deep blue void.
And clouds scattered like feathers.
It wasn’t hard to infer what we were looking at.
“This is…… a night sky, isn’t it?”
……
Yes, it was a night sky.
The problem was that this beautiful night sky was stretched out where an interior space should be.
Cha Si-eon examined the sight carefully, then pulled a piece of candy from his pocket and tossed it outside.
Whoosh—
The candy flew sideways instead of falling down.
Then, without hitting anything, it drifted endlessly away and vanished.
Bang—!
Cha Si-eon shut the door as if he’d seen something he shouldn’t have.
Then he carefully opened it again.
……
Fortunately, the night sky was gone.
Instead, this time a blue sky appeared.
Glancing down, I could see clouds spread below.
It was a view you’d only see from an airplane.
Bang—!
This time Cha Si-eon closed the door without even testing it.
Then he spoke to me as if nothing had happened.
“Let’s try another door.”
We opened the door to the Station Security Center beside the Business Center.
Then bright light greeted us.
Fortunately, the heat didn’t spill over to our side.
Glub-glub— Glub—
What filled the space beyond the door was sluggishly moving red lava.
……
Cha Si-eon pulled out another piece of candy.
How many candies did the Team Leader keep in his pocket?
While I was having this pleasant thought, Cha Si-eon casually tossed a candy onto the lava blocking the door.
Hissss—
The candy melted beautifully.
Cha Si-eon turned to me and asked as if baffled.
“What’s going on here?”
“Why are you asking me that?”
That was when it started.
Us frantically opening and closing doors throughout the Train Station.
But every door in that place betrayed our expectations and revealed strange spaces to us.
Rocky cliffs, inside earth, the deep sea, inside the bodies of living creatures—and so on.
Spaces we couldn’t enter or would surely die entering appeared one after another.
Even the door Cha Si-eon had been using perfectly well just before now showed the same problem.
Three hours passed like that.
After opening and closing doors thousands of times, perhaps even ten thousand, we finally understood.
It seemed we were trapped here.
“Team Leader.”
“Yes?”
“Did you happen to pass on a message for me to revoke my will?”
Cha Si-eon turned to look at me quietly.
His expression asked, as if I should know the answer: would I have done that?

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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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