Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 171

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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 Rules, Episode 171

ep23. Liberation (4)
Honestly, I panicked.
When my composure was called out.
When I remembered that woman’s words—that I was afraid of death.
When it first occurred to me that my reaction was strange.
I felt that something was wrong.
So I explained.
I tried to explain everything, to fit it all into the category of understanding.
Because that was the only way I could feel reassured.
Boom—!
Water surged violently with the crash.
“Hngh……!”
I was swept halfway downstream, but I gripped the wire and barely struggled against the current.
It felt like being a fish trapped in an aquarium.
And the aquarium we were in was shaking wildly now.
Every person has their own narrative.
Or rather, I keep hoping they do.
Because that way I can understand.
When a narrative is complete, I can eventually make sense of each person’s ending.
Understand why the world is so suffocating, so cruel.
But what if we are not stories that must be completed?
What if all of this is a performance—a play we’ve staged because we cannot bear our own worthlessness?
The water level rose higher and higher.
When the glass ceiling was nearly touching our heads, Cha Si-eon shouted.
“Seo Do-un! We’re heading for the meadow!”
“Yes……!”
We changed course.
If we just waited here, we would actually drown.
It seems my dream was just a simple daydream after all.
Still, I’d tied a wire to the door leading to the meadow—prepared for this.
If we dive to the meadow, at least there’ll be no ceiling…….
I lifted my head to take a deep breath.
And then I saw it—an unexpected shadow.
A massive shadow cast down from the glass ceiling overhead.
Some vast form visible beyond the translucent glass.
Something enormous, drawing closer and closer to the ceiling.
As if peering into an aquarium.
Or as if about to break through the glass and swallow us whole.
There’s no reason humans shouldn’t be crushed like insects.
Humans are the kind that squash insects on sight.
If a superior species—something greater than gods or men—appeared and treated humanity that way, what right would we have to complain?
No.
Even this is excessive meaning-making.
Would a god actually trouble himself to torment humans?
It could be that humans package their own desperation as grand tragedy, usurping the name of god.
Splash—!
We dove into the water to escape that shadow.
Above our heads, fragments of the collapsed ceiling rained down.
Churn—!
Steel beams that fell into the water dragged countless air bubbles with them.
The water grew murky, and vision swam.
Above that, glass shards fell like rain.
Splash—! Churn—! Splash—!
Ceiling fragments falling in succession.
And behind them, something massive whose form we could not identify.
Its shadow darkened even the water.
That wall-like thing bore down on us, crushing.
And then the roar sounded once more.
That’s it.
I don’t know.
I don’t know what anything is anymore—not a single thing, completely.
I’m tired of asking why this is happening to me, tired of searching for meaning.
So I’ll accept that reality and story are different.
That reality is not a game.
Stories are still kind, at least.
Every device is used rationally and written out.
Every character meets an ending befitting their station.
Games are even more human-friendly.
Every mountain can be climbed, and every problem has a solution.
But reality is not like that, and the unlucky vanish without trace.
They never know what their existence meant.
Or perhaps there was never any meaning to begin with.
Perhaps all of this is just the pathetic flailing of contemptible creatures.
……Yet if there is a god, I beg you to look at least once.
At the plight of one human isolated far too long.
At the desperation of those watching, who would rather die than turn away.
“Gasp!”
Floundering in murky water, I suddenly found air.
“Huh—huff……!”
I gasped and looked around desperately.
Somehow I was above the surface again.
What held my body up was something unknown—a mass of twisted metal, thick and heavy.
Looking to the side, Cha Si-eon was also catching his breath, dripping wet.
What happened?
We were trapped under that massive wall-like thing in the water.
Did that wall pull us out?
While I looked around in confusion, Cha Si-eon was staring at one place.
After a moment, the team leader spoke.
“The water is draining.”
The water is draining?
I hesitated at his words, then lifted my head.
The water that had been pouring from the ceiling had stopped.
No—the ceiling was gone.
The completely collapsed ceiling was wide open now, and I could see only sky.
That sky was blue and clear, without a single cloud.
Because the water was no longer pouring from above, the pooled water below had calmed.
But the water level was dropping fast enough that we could feel it.
We watched the water drain away.
As the level dropped, the steel beam holding us up was revealed.
When all the water had drained,
we set foot on the ground and lost all words.
What had collapsed the ceiling as it came down.
What had covered us in the water and lifted us out—
It was none other than the Giant Siren.
* * *
It was shattered across its entire body.
Only one arm barely clung to the giant siren’s head.
We had been standing on the back of its hand.
Below its chest, the rest of its body was nowhere to be seen.
Looking at it, I suddenly remembered.
Lee Seob—struggling at the Hotel to send us a message, brutally punished for it.
“Ha…….”
I barely managed a sigh.
You crawled all the way here until you became like that?
Because you hated being powerless and forced to watch?
The Giant Siren remained motionless, with less than half its body left.
It did not sound its siren, nor did it attack us.
Like a machine that had already stopped, it merely rusted in the brilliant sunlight pouring down.
We stared at it for a long time.
Thud—
After a long silence, Cha Si-eon took a step.
He approached the base of the Giant Siren’s head and drew out a knife.
Then, just as Baek Sa-ra had done before, he carved beneath its collarbone.
Scrape— Scrape-scrape—
The Giant Siren’s arm trembled.
As if responding to pain.
But that was all—it did not attack us.
Cha Si-eon looked back at me.
I understood his meaning and approached where he stood.
The core came into view.
The very thing we had failed to catch.
I swallowed quietly, and Cha Si-eon handed me the ring I had dropped.
I took it and lowered my voice to ask,
“Do you have any last words?”
Cha Si-eon looked at me.
He seemed to hesitate for a moment, then finally spoke.
“I’m sorry I was late.”
Did it hear?
Probably.
This place is quiet now.
* * *
The Giant Siren began to collapse.
Like an ancient fortress crumbling.
It scattered without leaving even dust.
Then the ruined Train Station was rapidly restored.
When the Waiting Hall had regained its former appearance, Cha Si-eon’s communication came through.
-Team Leader Cha, do you copy?
An anxious voice.
The Situation Control Room of the Management Bureau.
Cha Si-eon, who had been sitting beside Lee Seob’s body, took a deep breath and spoke.
“I copy. Agent Seo Do-un is with me.”
A burst of loud noise came through the speaker.
The Control Team members cheering.
Cha Si-eon endured the sound, closing his eyes for a moment.
Then he continued.
“Giant Siren silenced. Secured the core from the Train Station. The phenomenon of the Train Station overlapping with other Special Zones appears to be resolved. Additionally, regarding Agent Lee Seob’s remains—”
Cha Si-eon’s words paused.
But they soon resumed.
“We have secured the remains. This situation requires recovery procedures. If there is personnel available at the entrance to the Train Station, we request support.”
-We’ll relay this to Command.
The Control Team operator’s voice had grown quieter, as if understanding the situation.
To that, Cha Si-eon added in a flat tone,
“Please also verify the status of the Contaminated Person Lee Sol.”
-Yes, checking immediately!
From the sounds that followed, the control room became busy.
They began reaching out to various departments, and we waited quietly for the result.
We held our breath in silence, braced to accept whatever came.
I love stories because this world is incomprehensible.
The world is chaotic, merciless, and cold.
Refining that chaos into a single book brings peace.
Watching a narrative move toward a perfectly rational ending lets me breathe.
What’s more, unlike gods, the authors are kind—they show mercy to people’s pathetic cries.
That’s why I love books and the stories they contain, yet I haven’t made the decision to live forever within them.
This world was too capricious for that.
-We’ve confirmed Lee Sol’s status with Analysis Team 5.
After an eternity of waiting, the answer came back from the control room.
-Her transformed parts are collapsing, they say.
“…….”
Collapsing?
We tried to understand what that meant through our confusion.
But the more we thought, the more bewildered we became.
Just as we couldn’t bring ourselves to speak, the control room shouted again.
-The contaminated portions are being naturally removed! She’s recovering her original form!
“Ha…….”
Only then did I release the breath I’d been holding.
Cha Si-eon did the same.
We could neither laugh nor cry, and so in silence we closed our eyes.
The world is chaotic, merciless, and cold.
Yet it was not eternally hopeless.

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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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