Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 169

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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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Editor’s Survival Manual, Chapter 169

ep23. Liberation (2)

“I had no idea being an editor was such a noble profession.”
Cha Si-eon finally spoke after a long pause.
His expression of utter bewilderment was so transparent that I, too, simply nodded with composure.
“All professions are noble.”
“That’s not what you mean, though.”
Cha Si-eon countered with obvious exasperation.
“Are you really lumping everything under ‘editor’?”
Cha Si-eon gave up on circling around the point and asked directly.
In response, I simply nodded again, which only seemed to infuriate him further.
What could he do if that was simply how I was?
Team Leader Cha bristled at my attitude once more, then suddenly straightened up and addressed me formally.
“Seo Do-un.”
“Yes?”
“Have you read the response manual for Isolation Situations within the Special Zone?”
“I have.”
“People in isolated environments experience severe mental exhaustion. So the standard protocol when finding civilians in an Isolation Situation is to check their mental state first.”
“But Team Leader, I’m not a civilian.”
“Normally you’re obviously an editor, but you act as an operative only when you need to? What does that make you?”
Ah….
“If your editor self takes priority, then your identity is still that of a civilian.”
This was a point I couldn’t refute.
As I was left speechless, Cha Si-eon pressed on.
“So cooperate with me.”
“…What exactly are you asking me to cooperate on?”
“Explain to me how your Crisis Response Capability and your identity as an editor are even remotely connected.”
Only then did I realize what Cha Si-eon was after.
True to his role, Team Leader Cha was a stickler for procedure.
He’d tried to check my mental state by the manual, but my mindset had clearly exceeded his expectations, and he wasn’t satisfied with that.
He needed to understand everything and have it in hand before responding to the situation.
So finally he was demanding that I convince him.
With Team Leader Cha pressing this far, it was difficult to brush him off.
So I paused for a moment before speaking.
“An editor’s job is to examine and verify the cause and effect of a story. So when you see many different stories, your range of understanding about situations naturally widens. Once you’ve learned to read situations and causality that way, your response capability naturally improves.”
“And then?”
“So when you face a crisis, you can step back and judge more rationally. You’ve seen similar situations before. You can respond by thinking, ‘If I panic here, I die; if I get carried away there, I die; and this is foreshadowing and buildup for failure,’ and act accordingly.”
“You’re saying you control your own actions by taking the failures of characters in stories as cautionary examples?”
Indeed, Team Leader Cha had a talent for summarizing.
I nodded at his concise framing.
He then asked me further.
“But setting all that aside—are stories and reality the same?”
It was a question thrown out casually.
A layman’s question—someone who clearly wasn’t close to books, someone who probably didn’t even watch movies or comics—asked without knowing what he was asking.
So instead of countering with ‘Are you disrespecting our profession?’ I smiled calmly and explained.
“They’re not different. Reality and stories aren’t opposites—stories reflect reality. Moreover, masterpieces with authenticity are almost indistinguishable from reality, and sometimes they reveal reality even better than reality itself does. That’s why the right story is often more helpful than years of personal experience or a handful of relationships. A truly well-written story carries sufficient cause and effect that works even in the real world. And this world is overflowing with great stories that humanity can learn from. It would hardly be an exaggeration to say that the world’s tragedies and humanity’s reading habit are inversely proportional.”
“….”
“…Don’t look at me like I’m a strange person after making me talk.”
Cha Si-eon was watching me with a strangely guarded look, and I felt a little irritated.
Noticing my displeasure, Cha Si-eon composed his expression and asked.
“So your composure comes from the amount you’ve read?”
I nodded again.
But Cha Si-eon still looked unconvinced, so I elaborated a bit more.
“If I think of my own life as simply another story in the end, I’m not overwhelmed by situations. Only my choices in that situation remain.”
“….”
“As you said, I do feel fear. But since it doesn’t help much, I organize it: ‘Maybe I’ll die here. People die anyway. So dying is fine. Since that’s how it is, I might as well do what I want—let’s fight.’ That’s roughly the flow of it.”
“….”
“And as they say, to live is to die, to die is to live…”
“I understand, so stop.”
“Do you understand now?”
“It’s beyond understanding, so I’m moving on.”
Cha Si-eon had made me talk extensively and was now making a sour face.
I looked at him wondering what he expected from me.
Team Leader Cha seemed to think for a moment, then suddenly spoke.
“Among my team members, there are a few who occasionally do or say things that make no sense. So when I ask what was going through their head, do you know how most of them respond?”
“‘I’ll correct that’?”
“No, they ask, ‘Surely I’m not the only one acting like this?'”
“….”
“Seo Do-un is the first person to explain a rational reason right away.”
I found myself at a loss for words.
I was quite flustered at being caught off guard, and Cha Si-eon observed me before continuing.
“In any case, you don’t seem different from usual, so I’ll let it pass.”
Cha Si-eon’s voice was calm as he said this.
There was no sarcasm or condescension in it.
It was simply the tone of someone who had finished their job.
But I, for my part, felt like something had been exposed.

* * *

A massive heap of scrap metal appeared in my vision.
Rusted iron piled haphazardly in a mountain of scrap.
That mountain-like heap was slowly approaching me.
Screech—screech—
Its form, threatening to spill onto me at any moment, was menacing.
Fortunately, it moved slowly enough that I could escape if I wanted to.
But I stood rooted to the spot, simply watching the scrap heap bear down on me.
Then, pinned beneath the scrap metal, a man came into my view.
A person I could now claim to know.
It was Lee Seob.
—…please…
Lee Seob was saying something to me.
But I couldn’t hear it clearly.
What was he saying?
I stepped forward to catch his voice.
—help…
The moment Lee Seob tried to speak again.
Boom—!
A deafening sound rang out.
Thinking the scrap heap was collapsing, I flinched and looked up.
But that sound was not from the dream.
Boom—!
This was a sound from reality.
I woke with a start.
“It’s that sound.”
As I opened my eyes in alarm, Cha Si-eon spoke from beside me.
“You can sleep for another 40 minutes.”
“….”
At his words, I calmed my shock.
Then I buried my head into my coat and closed my eyes again.
It had been 12 hours since we were isolated here.
To ensure we got enough sleep, we were taking turns standing watch.
And that inexplicable booming sound kept repeating.

* * *

24 hours since we became trapped in the Train Station Waiting Hall.
Cha Si-eon had entered the tunnel connected to the door and was examining its interior.
Because of the continued vibrations, we decided we needed to secure an evacuation route.
If actual bombing started, we’d be finished.
So we were now exploring through a door near the Waiting Hall.
The space we were exploring was a “railroad-lined tunnel,” which looked manageable enough but felt just as oppressive as anything else.
Cha Si-eon had been in there for 15 minutes with a wire tied around him.
But it seemed he still hadn’t found the end of the tunnel.
Because of that, I was experiencing the bleakness of isolation with my whole body.
Then it happened.
Boom—!
A booming sound echoed from far away.
Followed by vibrations.
Again….
“Sigh….”
I flinched at the sound, then let out a breath.
That sound had no set intervals; it returned just when you were starting to forget about it.
The unpredictability was quite stressful.
But it was just a sound, after all.
…That’s what I was thinking.
Roooaaaar—!
What was that?
Where did that water sound suddenly come from?
The sound of a waterfall suddenly filled my ears.
But from where I was standing, I couldn’t see anything.
Since I couldn’t leave the door unattended with Team Leader Cha inside, I shouted down the tunnel.
“Team Leader!”
I pulled the wire a couple of times, worried my voice wouldn’t reach him.
“Come out! There’s suddenly water pouring in!”
Then the wire began to retract.
About five minutes later, Cha Si-eon came charging out of the tunnel.
Then, without asking what was wrong, he frowned sharply.
“Water?”
We sealed the tunnel door and moved back to the center of the Waiting Hall.
Then we looked around for the source of the water sound.
Our search didn’t take long.
The floor of the corridor branching off from the Waiting Hall was slick with water.
Moreover, that water was steadily flowing toward the Waiting Hall.
It looked like a flood from a downpour.
“What the—”
We splashed through the water and ran down the corridor.
And we saw it.
Roooaaaar—!
A torrent of water pouring out of a door.
What’s happening?
Did the door open when that boom sounded?
But even if it did, why would water suddenly pour out?
All manner of things had come through that door until now.
But they hadn’t invaded this area on their own.
Questions multiplied, but I had no leisure to puzzle them out.
“The door!”
Cha Si-eon shouted and ran, and I followed.
We threw all our strength at trying to shut it.
But blocking water pouring from a door with just the two of us was impossible.
“The water pressure is too strong!”
The water was pouring down like an absolute waterfall.
Stopping it by force was impossible.
So should we just let it fill and then shut the door once the pressure equalized?
Since resisting the water pressure directly was impossible, it might work once the water levels matched.
But this was the Waiting Hall on the 2nd floor.
For this entire space to fill with water, the water would have to pour down the stairs to the Platform below.
Because of the large space, drowning right away wasn’t a danger.
But once the water filled, we’d have no way to drain it again.
As the water rose, our range of movement would shrink accordingly.
Roooaaaar—!
Soaked through, I looked around desperately.
Boom—!
That booming sound again.
Bang—!
Two more doors opened.
Water started pouring madly from those openings too.
We turned to look at the other doors with a sinking feeling.
They were shut, but they looked like they could open at any moment.
And if water poured from those doors as well…
“….”
It seemed this space had already decided our end would be a water burial.

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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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