Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 186

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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 Rules for Survival, Chapter 186

ep26. Bodies Switching (4)
“Aaaaaahhh!”
“Ahhhhh!”
“Gaahhhhh!”
Yeon Ga-ram’s screams—from a headless body—tangled with the shrieks of the Control Team 4 agents.
It was the moment the Control Team 4 agents panicked even further as Yeon Ga-ram hauled himself upright in that chaos.
Thwack!
Jae-gyeom lunged forward from behind me and kicked Yeon Ga-ram’s body.
Crash!
Yeon Ga-ram flew backward, and the Control Team 4 agents groaned from behind Jae-gyeom’s back.
“Is he… is he dead…? Did he die?”
“Uuuh…”
Then Yeon Ga-ram hauled himself up again.
The sight of a person staggering forward—with his left eye and the crown of his head simply gone—was horrifying beyond mere grotesqueness.
As the Control Team 4 agents shrieked again, Jae-gyeom clicked his tongue and planted his feet firmly.
Just as Kwak Jae-gyeom was about to kick Yeon Ga-ram’s head away—
“Hey, wait a minute! What are you doing…!”
Yeon Ga-ram threw his arm up to block and shouted.
“…?”
The clarity of his human speech made Jae-gyeom freeze in place.
Even the Control Team 4 agents, pressed against the wall, flinched and looked back at Yeon Ga-ram.
“Yeon Ga-ram, is that really you?”
“What are you talking about, all of a sudden…?”
Yeon Ga-ram rubbed his chest where Jae-gyeom’s kick had landed, muttering indignantly.
Then his hand moved toward the left side of his face.
It looked like he was trying to rub his eye.
But Yeon Ga-ram’s left eye wasn’t in its original socket.
His left eye, along with a chunk of missing skull, had already detached from his face—so his hand found nothing but empty air.
“Huh…?”
When his fingers sank into the void above his cheekbone, Yeon Ga-ram’s confusion deepened.
“What?”
Only then did Yeon Ga-ram seem to realize something was wrong. He began feeling his face frantically.
Smooth—
“Wh… what…!”
His fingers found the jagged edge of missing skull.
Yeon Ga-ram’s face drained of color, and he bolted to his feet and ran for the restroom.
And moments later—
“Aaaaaaahhhhhhh!”
A horrible scream echoed from inside.
* * *
Roughly thirty percent of Yeon Ga-ram’s head had vanished.
From his left cheekbone, through his forehead, crown, and the back of his skull.
It looked like a bite taken out of an apple.
What was remarkable was that Yeon Ga-ram was still very much alive.
And the excised area bore a clean, glossy black surface—like shattered obsidian.
Even when the black surface was touched, Yeon Ga-ram felt nothing.
The only symptom he was complaining of now was that his left eye wouldn’t open.
Yeon Ga-ram sat in a daze while the Control Team 4 senior agent demanded an explanation.
“What on earth happened? What did you do?”
“What? I didn’t do anything!”
Yeon Ga-ram reflexively denied all accusations.
He did nothing, and his head just flew off?
That’s when Kwak Jae-gyeom tugged my collar.
“…?”
When I turned around, Jae-gyeom pointed his chin at the notebook.
On that notebook’s screen was a query I had no memory of typing.
「What’s so special about Seo Do-un that asshole?」
「It is true that my master falls into a minority category in certain domains when considered within the bounds of the human species. However, ‘specialness’ is a relative concept, and it is difficult to define my master as perpetually exceptional!」
What is this…?
I turned back to Yeon Ga-ram in bewilderment.
“Did you type a question into the notebook, Yeon Ga-ram?”
“No? What would I be doing typing?”
Yeon Ga-ram denied it loudly—almost excessively.
Since I didn’t even understand why he was deflecting, I pressed further.
“There’s a newly entered question here. Didn’t you do this?”
“How could I be stupid enough to touch that when I obviously know not to go near it?”
Yeon Ga-ram began insisting stubbornly, unable to discuss or debate the matter rationally.
His obstinate attitude frustrated me, and I pushed harder.
“Then why…?”
But I couldn’t finish the sentence.
A new question and answer had appeared on the notebook.
「There’s a newly entered question here. Didn’t you do this?」
「You hit the nail on the head again, Master! Very precise. The question above was indeed asked by Yeon Ga-ram. Though it was closer to a complaint, it was processed as a question when it reached me!」
What?
I didn’t type anything. Why is it appearing automatically?
I stared at the notebook, then noticed the new equipment that had appeared around it and caught my breath.
“Did you install a voice recognition device on the notebook?”
I was asking the Control Team 4 agents.
But Echo’s response came faster.
「Yes, Master. Thanks to it, I can hear everything perfectly now!」
“…”
“What’s happened, then?”
“The voice recognition device was active, and it seems Yeon Ga-ram was muttering to himself in front of it.”
“Muttering?”
The senior Control Team 4 agent echoed my words.
I nodded in response.
“That muttering was recognized as a question, so a body loss penalty was applied.”
The Control Team 4 senior stared at me blankly for a moment, then his face twisted unpleasantly.
Then he rounded on Yeon Ga-ram with a roar.
“Hey, Yeon Ga-ram! What did you say?”
“I didn’t say anything!”
“Don’t give me that crap! You didn’t say anything but your head flew off anyway?”
“No, I’m telling you I didn’t!”
This wasn’t the moment to stubbornly deny everything…
But Yeon Ga-ram insisted like a child caught in a lie.
The Control Team 4 senior, as if this wasn’t his first time dealing with such behavior, shouted back with equal force, and when words finally failed to penetrate, his face flushed with exasperation.
Then he turned to me and asked.
“Agent Seo Do-un, what’s written in the question window?”
Do I have to read this out loud…?
I hesitated for a moment before asking the Control Team 4 senior in return.
“You’ll be filing a report on this, right?”
The Control Team 4 senior nodded with a stern expression.
Accepting the necessity, I recited quietly.
“…’What’s so special about that asshole Seo Do-un.'”
“Pardon?”
“A question was entered: ‘What’s so special about that asshole Seo Do-un,’ and Echo’s response was…”
As I read the exchange verbatim, every eye in the room fixed on Yeon Ga-ram.
“That’s… that’s not me! I never said that!”
The moment cold stares turned on him, Yeon Ga-ram screamed again.
At his transparent lie, the Control Team 4 senior’s expression twisted once more.
“So you’re saying Echo is lying?”
“It could be! Sure it could! Everyone knows AI has a tendency to go haywire sometimes!”
“Is that really AI, you bastard!?”
“Why does everyone keep blaming me?”
“What the hell have you done right that you can shout like that until the end…!”
The Control Team 4 senior shouted in fury.
Yeon Ga-ram, his skull fractured as it was, did nothing but plead his innocence.
The background being our house made the whole scene so surreal that I wondered if this was a dream.
What made it worse was that Echo was reliably responding to their shouting.
「The Special Zone’s master does not lie.」
「That’s right. I simply maintain an AI template for your convenience. I should be understood as a fundamentally different being from those electronic data compilations!」
「The criticism Yeon Ga-ram is receiving now is karma produced by causality. Since one reaps what one sows, adopting an attitude of humble acceptance, a posture of learning, would benefit both your mind and your relationships!」
“Agent Seo, please read the answer that just appeared on the Special Zone display. We’ll take notes.”
The Control Team 4 agents came to me, leaving the senior and Yeon Ga-ram’s explosive clash behind.
They wanted to document the information for their situation report.
That’s when the senior’s sharp rebuke cut through again.
“What the hell do you have in that head of yours that makes you act like that!?”
「Ah, so you’re curious about the motivation contained within Yeon Ga-ram’s head? Wonderful! Let me explain in detail!」
Echo’s response was swift and inevitable.
So detailed did the explanation promise to be that a long answer poured out below.
I read through it, and without thinking, I sighed.
“Hah…”
I suspected, but is it really true…?
So he was walking around like this all along…
“What does it say, hyung?”
“It’s too personal…”
I was trailing off in response to Jae-gyeom’s question when the Control Team 4 agents pressed me from the side.
“Tell us too, Agent.”
“Is it personal information about Yeon Ga-ram that the Special Zone revealed?”
“How did you know that? What’s the content? If you tell us, we can verify the facts.”
I was deeply conflicted by the Control Team 4 agents’ demands.
But since I couldn’t make an arbitrary decision, I ultimately gave up making the call and chose only to perform my role as translator.
“…What Yeon Ga-ram muttered while looking at me—’What’s so special about that asshole Seo Do-un?’—wasn’t simply an expression of envy. It is a single sentence that pierces the heart of Yeon Ga-ram’s true feelings toward you. Yeon Ga-ram’s feelings toward you are truly ‘powerful’ and ‘immense.'”
“Don’t tell me Yeon Ga-ram is in love with you?”
“No, it’s not like that…”
I flatly denied it.
Then I swallowed a sigh and read the answer again.
“Yeon Ga-ram’s uncontrollable ‘passion’ is constructing this thought in his brain: ‘Why does it have to be Seo Do-un, why that asshole, I could do that much too, so why doesn’t he give me even a chance, the world is so unfair damn it I worked hard to get here too, why does that lucky bastard dangle in front of me, he went to a worse university than me but here he is, that Seo Do-un son of a bitch, that lucky bastard, what’s so great about him, I want to join the Response Team too, I want to be close to Baek Sa-ra too, not Seo Do-un, take my side instead.'”
“…”
“…”
“…”
Silence fell.
And I came to understand how far my interpretation of Yeon Ga-ram aligned with reality.
Not at all. I had read into every detail completely wrong.
So I felt rather sad.
I couldn’t bring myself to believe that I had spent my emotional energy on such petty reasons.
So I wanted desperately to create some rational justification, but reality, as always, refused to be as orderly as my thinking.

“That… that’s a lie! That’s all lies!”
In the silence, cornered, Yeon Ga-ram shouted again.
“That doesn’t make sense! How could the Special Zone know everything inside a person!?”
But the Control Team agents, rather than engage Yeon Ga-ram, turned to me.
“What’s he saying?”
“She says she can know because she consumed him.”
“Consumed? What consumed! If we ate a pig, would we know everything a pig thinks?”
“Echo, what’s Yeon Ga-ram’s phone password pattern?”
“Yeon Ga-ram’s phone password pattern is one where a circle is drawn from the top center point going leftward.”
As I read Echo’s answer, the senior reached into Yeon Ga-ram’s pocket and pulled out his phone.
The senior drew the pattern directly.
The phone unlocked immediately, and the senior stared at Yeon Ga-ram in silence.
Then Yeon Ga-ram turned to me with an expression of pure grievance.
I had no idea anymore…
That’s when it came.
-Jae-gyeom, summarize the situation.
Cha Si-eon’s voice rang from my smartwatch.
“Yes, sir. Control Team, please calm down for a moment. A person’s head has gone missing, right? I think we should handle that problem first.”
As Jae-gyeom stepped in, the attention on Yeon Ga-ram softened slightly.
-We’ve received the situation report. We’ll assess the situation first to rescue Agent Yeon. Seo Do-un, please ask Echo about Yeon Ga-ram’s condition, the whereabouts of his head, and how to recover it.
Following Cha Si-eon’s instruction, I asked Echo directly.
As the words appeared, I read the answer slowly.
「As a penalty for asking a question without authorization, Yeon Ga-ram has surrendered his right eye and left temporal region to me. Yeon Ga-ram is still alive because I am in the process of digesting the body parts I received. Digestion will take seventy-two hours, and after digestion is complete, Yeon Ga-ram is expected to expire due to the nature of the lost body parts!」
At Echo’s death sentence, Yeon Ga-ram’s already pale face turned even more ashen.

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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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