Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 199
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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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Survival Rules for an Editor, Episode 199
ep28. Blooming School (1)
There is such a thing as the final puzzle piece—a word.
A word that connects scattered clues all at once, snapping them into place.
A word that makes you realize some unexpected truth was always inevitable.
“The Raven is a newborn god”—for us, that was such a sentence.
“So in the end, the Small House and the Guide are also connected to the Raven?”
Kwon Mu-seop murmured this with a hardened face.
Why hadn’t we thought of something so obvious until now?
It’s the Raven that drags me into the Special Zone.
So there’s nothing strange about the Special Zone appearing in my home being that creature’s doing.
“Then the phone call that went out to Teacher Tae-o from the phone in Seo Do-un’s house…?”
No one answered Kwon Mu-seop’s muttered question.
But everyone seemed to be thinking the same thing.
“From the start, the suppression operation at the Train Station was the Raven’s design.”
Yun U-jeong, who had been thinking, opened her mouth.
“It was also the Raven who taught us how to stop the core at the Ant Hill.”
That’s right.
The Raven drove me and Director Kwon into the anthill, forcing us to make contact with the core.
“And it was the Raven that lured us into securing fragments of the Big Cat on the Island.”
When Seo Do-un and I were waiting for rescue on the Blood-Raining Island,
it was the Raven that guided us to the space where the Big Cat was trapped.
“It was also the Raven that sent Seo Do-un to the National Museum of Korea instead of the Hotel for the core-halt experiment.”
“And there we confirmed the Fake God was our family.”
“Yes. So we were certain Lee Seob was trapped that way. And when Yeon Ga-ram went in instead and reset the Hotel, we found the core location of the Siren. Oh, and incidentally contaminated the late Director Koh.”
“We should also consider it was the Raven that manipulated Kim Ji-an.”
“Yes. The phone in Seo Do-un’s house was used then, so Seo Do-un found out about Lee Sol’s condition, and the director got struck.”
And what was pushed forward by that was the Train Station suppression operation.
Listening to the conversation between Kwon Mu-seop and Yun U-jeong, I swallowed silently.
Connecting the incidents this way, the Raven’s intention became too obvious.
As Yun U-jeong said, our entry into the Train Station itself was the Raven’s grand design.
And it’s the same cunning strategy from the Guide.
“But why didn’t the Guide just call it the Raven from the start? If it had, we would’ve acted aggressively.”
“It was waiting for the right timing.”
“Timing?”
“If the Guide had mentioned the Raven from the beginning, would we have believed it right away?”
“True, we would’ve doubted first…”
“Plus, until yesterday, only Seo Do-un could understand what the Guide was saying.”
…….
At Kwon Mu-seop’s addition, I gave a bitter smile.
Kwon Mu-seop seemed to be talking about the situation where cross-verification was impossible, but in my head, another scenario took shape.
My intentional silence.
If there were no Raven, I would no longer be dragged into the Special Zone.
If it was dying on its own, all I had to do was wait quietly.
Then I could end the symbiotic relationship with the Management Bureau and return to ordinary life.
That was my goal, my desired ending.
Was that why?
Did the Guide wait while calling itself a Zone-goer, a Zone-dweller, or other names to please the humans,
until someone other than me could explain it?
Until I could no longer conceal this fact?
While stoking the fire with the words “newborn god”?
I let out a hollow laugh at the buildup the Guide had so carefully accumulated.
If there was something to be grateful for, it was this.
It didn’t even give me the chance to deliberate whether to stay silent or speak truthfully.
Thanks to that, my conscience was spared a pointless battle.
But now I even questioned whether Yeon Ga-ram’s head flying off was truly an accident.
“Anyway, this isn’t something to let slide.”
Kwon Mu-seop spread out a photograph from the report on the table.
Inside that photograph was the Raven.
The limp Raven held in Cha Si-eon’s hands.
The Raven that had been hunted by the Big Cat on the Fog-Shrouded Bridge.
We’d rescued it partway through, but we all died in the process, so we never saw it through to the end.
The last sight I had of the Raven was the moment the Big Cat’s sister reached into my pocket and took it out.
I’d thought she was taking it carefully in both hands to heal it, but it was a false hope.
According to the Guide, the Raven is now dying at the Blooming School.
And to the Guide’s conveniently timed news, we’ve now gone into emergency mode.
“If something happens to the Raven, we’re in trouble…”
“But if Seo Do-un goes and meets it, the Raven will live? How?”
“I don’t know the details. The Guide just urged me to go meet it and deliberately avoided explaining what comes after.”
“Hmm… It seems it can’t just take you away like before, huh?”
At Yun U-jeong’s words, I nodded.
It was strange.
The Raven used to lift me up and move me around like a claw machine.
But lately it’s been quiet.
The last time I was dragged away was to the Hotel, so it’s been nearly two months since the Raven touched me.
And the Guide, who seems to be in league with it, has been whining at me for two weeks now.
Is this because the Raven is dying?
“This is just a precaution, but we can’t accept the condition the Guide presented.”
Kwon Mu-seop suddenly said to me.
“We can’t accept the condition that you go into the School alone, with no communication devices. Not because of you, but because of the Field Department’s principles.”
…….
“You need to answer.”
When I just stared blankly, Kwon Mu-seop laughed while clenching his teeth.
Still, I couldn’t answer readily.
I couldn’t decide what was right.
“You said it would be difficult if something happened to the Raven.”
“An employee who acts without a plan is even more difficult.”
Kwon Mu-seop spoke firmly, but I still couldn’t answer.
My head was chaotic.
Is it true that the Raven is dying?
Then should I save it? Or should I hope it dies as is?
Can I just pretend not to know and keep watching? Or must I do something?
But when I try to do something, the condition presented to me is basically coercion to suicide.
To go alone into that dangerous place.
I’ve learned now that I’m not a lucky person, and the help that made me think I was lucky no longer exists.
Even the Big Cat, a monster, roams the space where the Raven is.
So why am I being told to go in alone?
And why can’t I shake off this absurdity and just say it?
As my silence dragged on and Kwon Mu-seop’s laughter began to fade,
“There’s something to handle first.”
Cha Si-eon, who had been listening to our conversation, spoke for the first time.
“The Big Cat is also in the School right now. And the reason the Big Cat prowls the School might be because of the Raven.”
At Cha Si-eon’s assertion, Kwon Mu-seop swallowed a sigh and turned.
“The Raven and the Big Cat are hostile to each other. If the Raven is truly dying, the Big Cat won’t want to miss this opportunity.”
“The Big Cat is waiting to hunt the Raven?”
“Yes. So right now, catching the Big Cat takes priority over anything else.”
Cha Si-eon spoke in a calm voice.
It was a rational argument.
If left alone, the Raven, already dying, might be killed by the Big Cat.
And for me to meet the Raven, the Big Cat—the greatest threat—must be dealt with anyway.
In this regard, Cha Si-eon’s thinking was the most rational among us.
But still.
It looked rational on the surface, but Cha Si-eon’s real purpose seemed to lean much more toward killing the Big Cat than saving the Raven.
* * *
The winner of this meeting was Cha Si-eon.
He was already gauging angles to strike the Big Cat, and now that a pretext had conveniently appeared, Team Leader Cha wasn’t about to let this chance slip.
Kwon Mu-seop agreed that the best option right now was to dispose of the Big Cat first,
and the School, which had been handed to Apophysis only to suffer an accident, needed re-exploration and stabilization work anyway.
And above all, since the success of the Train Station suppression operation, the operatives had been waiting for the next mission.
In this situation, the Command Division seemed to be settling on hunting the Big Cat first.
Discussion had apparently already begun on whether to deploy the Response Team for this operation or compose a special unit separately, as with the Train Station.
Thanks to this, the Management Bureau, which had been flowing quietly for once, began to bustle again.
And amid all this, there was one person who was happy alone.
“It’s a good thing I’m here, right?”
His name was Yeon Ga-ram.
“Without me, you couldn’t have confirmed this. And it’s hard for the agent alone to convince people anyway.”
Somehow we’d become inseparable, my dedicated Small House roommate.
“Really fortunate, yeah.”
Yeon Ga-ram appeared with a happy face today, just like yesterday.
And without hesitation, he made small talk while subtly expecting my agreement, affirmation, and echo from me.
“Huh?”
…….
Subtly—no, it was outright expectation.
So I nodded with a vague smile.
For better or worse, Yeon Ga-ram seemed completely unaware that he’d been used by the Guide.
Now that seemed a bit pitiful, so I nodded for him a few more times.
I brought Kwak Jae-gyeom and Yeon Ga-ram back into the Small House.
Then I pestered this pseudo-AI filled with deception again.
“Why didn’t you say ‘newborn god’ is the Raven until now?”
“It was to deliver information effectively to you, Master. Was it helpful?”
It wasn’t our interpretation.
This bastard truly was peeking at human gallbladders and selectively revealing information.
“You said the Raven was dying as of yesterday. How’s its condition?”
“It began dying steadily from that day onward and has already lost more than half its life. It would have been better if you’d hurried a little more, Master…”
“How much time does the Raven have left before it dies?”
“580 hours remain.”
“…580 hours, how many days is that?”
“24 days. 24 days and 4 hours. By date, September 3rd.”
That’s quite a generous amount of time for something supposedly dying.
But then, if it were about to breathe its last right now, it couldn’t have rambled on about a “newborn god.”
“Is making me meet the Raven your real purpose?”
“That’s only a process, Master. I exist for you, and my only purpose is to be of service to you.”
“So you’re telling me to go into the School alone? If I do as you say, is there any guarantee I won’t die?”
“Such a guarantee can only be given by a god.”
“The Raven?”
“No. How could a god save itself when it can’t even save itself and is dying?”
This bastard…
“So you want me to gamble with my life on the line?”
I swelled up and pressed for an answer.
Then an even crazier response came back.
“Don’t worry, Master.”
“The preparations are done, and what must happen will happen.”
“You will meet the Raven soon.”
“Even if you die.”
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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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