Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 189

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

The Editor’s Survival Manual — Episode 189

ep26. The Meditation Center Where Bodies Change (7)
—
Survival Manual for the Missing: The Body Transformation Meditation Center
You are currently in the Body Transformation Meditation Center, managed by the Government of South Korea.
As you face real dangers including isolation, disappearance, bodily injury, memory loss, and contamination, please familiarize yourself with the survival protocols below and evacuate promptly.
■ Escape Protocol for the Body Transformation Meditation Center
The Body Transformation Meditation Center is a Special Zone combining a stream path and a three-story isolated meditation building, inhabited by an entity known as the Body Thief.
The following are the methods of escape from this place; please refer to the information below for safe evacuation.
—The Following—
1. Track the Body Thief.
The Body Thief is a canine-form creature reaching four meters in body length.
Though it may appear at first glance to be a single organism, its true nature is a composite made from multiple human body parts.
However, this reality remains hidden beneath black fur, rarely exposed.
2. Dismantle the Body Thief’s form and complete the body of the Scattered Ones.
Based on current analysis, the Body Thief’s composition includes human body fragments from fifteen individuals.
The bodies of those called the Scattered Ones are divided into as few as nine sections or as many as twenty-eight.
Disassemble the Body Thief’s form and secure the body fragments of the Scattered Ones.
Then reassemble the fragments and complete them into the whole form of a single person.
3. Once the Scattered Ones’ bodies are complete, place them in the Prayer Room of the meditation center.
The Prayer Room contains personal effects belonging to the Scattered Ones, laid out in rows.
Place the personal effects judged to belong to that person upon the body of each Scattered One, and pay your respects in your own manner.
Should the completed body and personal effects match, the Scattered Ones who have found peace will return you to reality.
—
There are three things you must do to escape the Body Transformation Meditation Center.
Hunting, assembly, and funeral rites.
The Body Thief you must hunt here is a four-meter-long monster.
And quite a formidable one at that.
Yet no one here has ever lost their life to an attack by the Body Thief.
This was because of a safety mechanism unique to this place.
—
■ Additional Information for the Body Transformation Meditation Center
1. Do not be frightened by the Body Thief’s appearance.
The entity cannot attack you.
When cornered, it may display threatening behavior, but should the Body Thief attempt to cause you actual harm, a bell will sound and the Body Thief will be subdued.
2. Possible side effects for those who hear the bell sound.
When two or more people are together and hear the bell, you may switch bodies with the person beside you.
But rest assured.
The switched body will be restored to normal when you return to reality.
Therefore, we recommend you cherish the borrowed body and avoid future liability for damages.
—
Thus the Body Thief cannot cause harm to people.
Unless cornered, it will not attack first.
But there was one fact I had overlooked.
The Body Thief possesses memory but lacks the capacity to learn.
This Meditation Center is a C-rank Special Zone; whenever citizens wander too much inside, the agents themselves initiate rescue operations.
Moreover, Jeong Jin-u comes here every time he’s on duty, consistently and methodically hunting the Body Thief.
Perhaps for that reason, the Body Thief rushed at Jeong Jin-u the moment it saw him.
At that moment, a bell rang from somewhere, and the Body Thief convulsed as though electrocuted before fleeing.
And now.
As a side effect of that bell sound, Jae-gyeom and I had switched bodies.
“Sniffle…….”
Kwak Jae-gyeom, now in my form, continued to weep.
As I watched him through bleary eyes, Jeong Jin-u chuckled and murmured,
“Looks like Seo has quite a bit of stress built up. Guess Jae-gyeom’s going to let it all out for him.”
“This situation is definitely stressful, at least.”
“I’m not really the type to just cry out of nowhere…….”
Jae-gyeom protested, my face still streaked with tears.
I pressed my forehead in response, and Jeong Jin-u simply nodded with a smile.
“Sure, sure—not your fault. But we need to move now, so cut it out.”
The way Jeong Jin-u treated Jae-gyeom made my face burn.
The generational gap between Jeong Jin-u and Kwak Jae-gyeom was vast as heaven and earth.
With nearly a decade between them in age, good-natured Jeong Jin-u treated Jae-gyeom like a younger brother.
So his behavior wasn’t unusual in itself, but the problem was that it was my body receiving this treatment as if I were a child.
And I was watching it all unfold with the eyes of a spectator.
While I felt this awkwardness, Jae-gyeom continued to sniffle, unable to master his emotions.
Then Jeong Jin-u crouched down directly in front of Jae-gyeom and asked,
“Kwak Jae-gyeom. Stop that and look here. What’s making you so sad?”
“It’s not sadness, exactly. I’m not sure what it is.”
“Pull yourself together. Try explaining why you’re doing this.”
“The world…….”
“The world?”
“It feels so vast. So I can’t seem to focus…….”
“…….”
Jeong Jin-u turned to look at me—as if to say, what is this?
I shook my head, and Jeong Jin-u turned back to Jae-gyeom and spoke.
“Kwak Jae-gyeom, forget about that. Listen to my voice. Whether the world feels vast or far away, forget it. Focus only on yourself. You are here, right now.”
At Jeong Jin-u’s words, Jae-gyeom nodded with difficulty.
“Breathe deeply. One.”
Jeong Jin-u began coaching Jae-gyeom’s breathing, and Jae-gyeom followed, inhaling and exhaling deeply in rhythm.
“Feel better?”
“Phew…….”
Jae-gyeom, having barely calmed himself, lifted his head.
And the moment his eyes opened.
Tears streamed down.
“No, I…….”
“It’s not my fault, I swear! I’ve been here before, and when my body switched with my teammates earlier, it was fine…….”
“Mm, seems we underestimated the sensitivity of a literary mind.”
“No, why is the conclusion…….”
I started to lodge a halfhearted protest but trailed off.
The situation was simply mortifying.
So I silently watched Jae-gyeom press my sleeve against my eyes.
For some time.
“I’m fine now. I think I’m adapting.”
“You sure?”
“Yes, I’m fine now.”
Jae-gyeom raised his head with a much calmer expression.
Jeong Jin-u watched a moment longer to see if Jae-gyeom might cry again, then nodded when he saw the resolve in his eyes.
“All right, if you’ve settled down, let’s move.”
At Jeong Jin-u’s word, Jae-gyeom, who had been sitting on the ground, stood up.
“Just to be safe, let me check your physical adaptation first…….”
Jeong Jin-u was just issuing caution to Jae-gyeom when.
Thump!
Jae-gyeom, rising in my body, suddenly crumpled sideways.
Rather than attempting to get up again, he simply looked up at me with an expression of utter disappointment.
“I think I twisted my ankle.”
“Kwak Jae-gyeom, for crying out loud!”
At Jae-gyeom’s successive misfortunes, I shouted in frustration.
Then, startled at myself, I quickly covered my mouth—or rather, Jae-gyeom’s mouth—with my hand.
“I didn’t mean to raise my voice like that…….”
During the half-year I’ve lived with Kwak Jae-gyeom, I have never once raised my voice at him.
Not because Jae-gyeom is the perfect roommate, but because I am not the sort of person to grow angry and shout.
So this roar that burst from my throat felt foreign and bewildering.
At the same time, I felt a strange exhilaration and an urge to shout even more.
As I stood in alarm at this rush of excitement, covering my mouth, Jeong Jin-u chuckled.
“Jae-gyeom’s got a quick temper, doesn’t he?”
Quick temper.
Could this actually be Kwak Jae-gyeom’s emotions?
It does feel somewhat different.
This irritation and anxiety welling up from within—it was quite unfamiliar to me.
“When people with very different personalities switch bodies, adaptation takes a bit of time. Seems like personality and emotion follow not just the mind, but the body as well.”
At Jeong Jin-u’s observation, I slowly lowered the hand that had been covering my mouth.
In the meantime, Jeong Jin-u examined Jae-gyeom’s ankle, then turned back to me.
“Well, Seo. Looks like I’ll have to carry him.”
“If it were my own body, I’d just walk, but since it’s yours…….”
Jae-gyeom spoke hesitantly, reading the air.
I had no choice but to turn and present my back to him.
Or rather, to present his back to me.
When it comes to this, is my carrying Jae-gyeom, or is he carrying me?
When the experience of the body and the experience of the mind are separated, is that experience one, or two, or something more?
Feeling the onset of gestalt collapse, I waited for Jae-gyeom to cling to my shoulders.
Jae-gyeom, in my body, climbed onto his back with my body, and I awkwardly maneuvered Jae-gyeom’s form, straightening the legs that had been bent.
But then…….
“I’m holding on properly, right?”
“Yeah.”
Jae-gyeom, answering in my own voice from directly behind me.
I felt a chill at the sound of my own voice coming from the wrong direction, while also being startled by the weight on my back.
I’d braced myself for the effort of lifting someone, but my body—no, Jae-gyeom’s body—rose far more easily than expected.
In fact, I nearly staggered.
What? Why is it so light?
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s strangely light…….”
At my words, Jeong Jin-u glanced between us alternately.
Then he smiled lightly and said,
“Ah, it’s probably because that’s Jae-gyeom’s body. It’s like switching from a tricycle to a fixed-gear.”
So the physical difference made the perceived weight different.
……But a tricycle, really.
“I suppose that’s why I mistepped.”
Not missing the opportunity, Jae-gyeom downplayed his own mistake.
I felt a little surge of irritation, but instead of shouting again, I simply exhaled a long sigh.
“We need to catch the Thief, so let’s just follow the path.”
This forest path continued along the stream as a single trail.
Following it upstream, we should be able to rejoin Team Leader Cha.
Without objection, we began walking along the stream path, following Jeong Jin-u.
But then Jae-gyeom, clinging to my back, murmured,
“This feeling is really weird, hyung.”
“Could you not feel things…….”
“No, it’s just so strange. A moment ago something felt so heavy, but now that it’s passed, I feel like nothing in the world matters anymore. Is this inner peace? Hyung, did you maybe go off somewhere to do some martial training?”
“That’s not it……!”
I answered irritably, then caught myself again.
This was the quick temper…….
Not to Jae-gyeom’s degree, but I too was noticing something strange in this unfamiliar body’s sensations.
Jae-gyeom said the world felt too vast; for me, it’s the opposite.
The world feels strangely narrow.
So my body feels tightly bound.
There’s stability, but at the same time a sense of suffocation.
I wondered if Jae-gyeom’s constant muttering stems from this sensation of constraint.
It was fascinating, really.
To experience the world through someone else’s filter.
So this is how Kwak Jae-gyeom experiences the world.
While I marveled silently to myself, Jae-gyeom chose to marvel audibly.
“I never knew the stars were so beautiful.”
“Please don’t say things like that out loud…….”
“Oh, tears again…….”
“Hey, don’t cry!”
“Geez, Do-un’s violent.”
My eyes weeping again, my voice shouting at Jae-gyeom, who was marveling in my body.
And Jeong Jin-u, watching it all unfold…….
It was precisely when I felt as though I alone was suffering.
Rustle—!
At the sound of fallen leaves from across the stream, we stopped in our tracks.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————