Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 202
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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 Survival Manual: Episode 202
ep28. Blooming School (4)
The long corridor was bathed entirely in red light.
At first glance, I thought it was blood and flesh, but looking again, I saw flowers.
Delicate red poppies bloomed across the corridor floor and in every crevice, their vivid color on brilliant display.
My chest lurched at the sight before me.
But that moment passed quickly.
My body accepted the sudden crisis with familiar ease.
I drew in a breath instinctively, then exhaled it slowly.
My heart, which had been hammering a moment before, soon returned to its natural rhythm.
“Exhale….”
Once I’d regained my composure, I surveyed my surroundings carefully.
A corridor in a fairly large building.
And flowers, blooming profusely in red.
I could identify the place at a glance.
This was Blooming School, the Management Bureau’s next operational site.
How did this happen?
Wasn’t it supposed to be impossible for Crow to draw me in while dying?
I thought that’s why the Guide kept pressing me to come myself, but now they’ve suddenly dragged me here anyway.
Damn it. Did we miscalculate again?
Nothing ever goes according to plan.
I raised my left arm, nerves on high alert, anxious as I was.
I needed to communicate with the Management Bureau’s Situation Room via the Smartwatch on my wrist.
“…What?”
But my left wrist was bare.
The Smartwatch I’d worn for over half a year was gone.
Instead, my wrist was exposed—bleached white from months without sunlight.
Alarmed, I looked down at the floor.
But the red flowers, which had grown to my knee height, obscured it from view.
So I got down on my hands and knees and swept my hands across the ground.
“Situation Room, do you copy? Situation Room, is anyone there?”
I called out to the Situation Room while feeling around the floor.
But there was no response.
I couldn’t find my Smartwatch either.
What’s going on? Did the band snap and fall somewhere nearby?
I was breaking off flower stems around me, searching the ground, when I decided to put on my In-ear Communicator first.
I could communicate with the Situation Room through that too.
But the moment I reached toward my shoulder where the In-ear Communicator should be hanging, I felt a chill run through me.
Gone. The In-ear Communicator too.
The device that was always hanging near my shoulder on the Management Bureau Vest was not there.
Rip!
I took off the vest I was wearing.
Then I looked for the In-ear Communicator with my own eyes.
But it wasn’t there.
Not the In-ear Communicator, not the Communication Tablet, not the Searchlight.
Everything else was there, but precisely these three items were missing.
The moment I confirmed that, I remembered what the Guide had said.
—
The newly born god is waiting for you at Blooming School. Go meet the god there! However, to meet the god, there’s something you must first observe.
1. Prepare yourself with a clean body and mind. Especially—you cannot meet the god while carrying electronic devices.
2. Meeting with the god is a wondrous and secretive event! So you must go ‘alone’ to meet them.
3. The journey to meet the god begins at the entrance. Don’t enter the place where the god dwells unprepared. Then the god won’t reveal themselves.
—
Could it be that I was dragged here with only my electronic devices removed?
Because you can’t meet the god while carrying electronic devices?
This is maddening.
It seems I was dragged into Blooming School with my electronic devices confiscated.
No, I can’t believe it.
The force drawing me in has become that sophisticated?
When it was dragging in people beside me and causing all sorts of chaos…
Facing a situation that deviated from the established pattern, I grew even more confused.
So I took a deep breath and forced myself to calm down.
“Exhale….”
Stay calm. First, assess the situation.
I’m currently in Blooming School.
The place where Crow and Big Cat are located.
The tablet is gone, so I can’t communicate with the Management Bureau’s Situation Room.
What do I need to do here?
First priority: report my location to the Management Bureau.
Second priority: secure safety.
Blooming School is a space that has successfully awakened through a Reformation Period.
Like the Blood-Raining Island, the space is expanded and distorted.
So the Management Bureau’s CCTV can’t cover every area.
I need to find a place with CCTV and let the Management Bureau know I’m here.
The next thing to do is wait in a safe zone.
Attempting to escape on my own from here would be suicide.
Going to meet Crow would be the same.
That’s something to attempt only after dealing with Big Cat first—not something to recklessly do now just because things have come to this.
Of course, whether Crow thinks the same way is uncertain.
This insane Crow, quiet for a while, and now this….
“Exhale….”
I exhaled deeply and set aside my irritation toward Crow.
First, I need to figure out exactly where I am.
The original space of the School is a university campus located in Sinchon.
It’s a complex space made up of the three oldest buildings on that vast campus and the garden between them.
And these red flowers….
I looked up at the corridor again.
Red flowers blooming indoors with not a breath of wind—it was dizzying.
They had bloomed so densely that the floor beneath wasn’t visible.
And they had already grown another foot since I first saw them, reaching up to my thigh height.
I had to move.
If I stayed in one place too long, the Rising Red Flowers would consume me.
I stepped forward before the red flowers could tangle around my legs.
Whisper-whisper—whisper-whisper—
The flowers around my knees shook in disarray as I passed.
The area was so red it made me dizzy.
It was as if the memories dwelling in this space were writhing, trying to reveal themselves in the form of red flowers.
But to Jae-gyeom’s eyes, this would just look like grass.
“….”
Imagining him thinking, “Oh, grass. What happens if I set it on fire?” suddenly made all that vivid red seem dull and pitiful.
It became much easier to step on the flowers and pass by.
I never thought swapping bodies with Jae-gyeom would help in a way like this.
I swallowed a bitter laugh and carelessly trampled the bright red flowers as I went.
After crossing the unnaturally long corridor, I spotted a bulletin board.
I pushed through the red flowers that now reached to my waist and hurried toward the board.
The spacious board was covered with all sorts of promotional materials.
But up close, they were fakes—scattered abstract images and broken characters barely maintaining appearances.
Ignoring the pain in my eyes, I scanned all the papers on the board.
Then I found a large poster.
On that white sheet of paper, words I could read were densely written.
—
Greetings, fellow students.
In response to the sudden Abnormal Phenomena, the Student Government informs you of a safe method to return home.
Before we proceed, please first familiarize yourself with the following precautions.
First: This is a real situation. For the sake of your precious life and safety, please act with caution.
Second: Do not harm others. Certain unavoidable circumstances for the protection of your own life are subject to some consideration, but all other malicious criminal acts will be punished equally under South Korean law.
Third: Do not forget that you are human. Only humans can return to the human world.
You are currently in the Main Building, 3rd Floor of Blooming School.
The Student Government always supports your school spirit and academic passion; however, if you remain here too long, you may be buried by the Rising Red Flowers and permanently lose your way. Please evacuate quickly after reading this poster.
■ Evacuation Method from the Main Building of Blooming School
1. This building has no exit for evacuation. Please exit the building and move to either Building S or Building A on either side of the garden path.
2. You can exit this building using the Central Staircase and the Main Gate. However, our building is currently undergoing interior renovations, so the corridors are somewhat distorted. You may end up circling the same corridor repeatedly, but don’t give up—please find the exit.
3. As you move through the corridors, you may encounter strangers or strange phenomena. They are all proud alumni of our school, but there’s no need to greet them. If you see something unfamiliar when turning a corner, turn back and return to your original corridor. After counting thirty seconds, turn the corner again, and a new corridor different from before should appear.
※ If the current date you remember is January, February, July, or August, please be especially careful.
The beings remaining at the school during these periods are very likely Graduate Students preparing their dissertations, and they are more aggressive than you might expect.
—
In summary: ‘Navigate through random corridors to reach the exit.’
Stay too long in one place and you’ll be trapped by the Rising Red Flowers.
But wander recklessly and you could be caught and killed by Hazardous Entities like Graduate Students.
In short, this was a place where everything came down to luck.
“Exhale….”
I took another deep breath.
While I was reading the board, the red flowers had grown to my chest.
I quickened my pace before they reached my head.
Soon the corridor ended, and I pressed my back against the wall, turned to the side, and examined the state of the next corridor.
There are quite a few Abnormal Phenomena in this place.
So rather than memorizing every type of Abnormal Phenomena, it was better to move carefully until I found a corridor with nothing.
So I carefully examined the state of the next corridor.
But at the far end of it, an impossibly enormous flower had bloomed.
A giant red flower large enough to completely block the corridor.
“….”
I humbly turned my head back.
I can’t get past that.
As I turned my gaze back to the corridor where I’d been, the flowers that had reached my chest grew even more, tickling my cheek.
I needed to get to the next corridor quickly.
I swallowed my anxiety and counted thirty seconds silently.
…But is it just me?
This situation feels like something I’ve experienced before.
I felt an odd sense of déjà vu and craned my neck toward the opposite corridor again.
Then a column appeared right before my eyes.
I froze, then looked up along the column.
It reached all the way to the ceiling—I had to tilt my head completely back to see the top.
And that’s when I saw it.
A lanky figure with its back touching the ceiling, bent in a contorted posture.
The being had no features on its face.
Just a darkness-shadowed face and eyes that glowed with eerie light.
What I’d taken for a column was its leg.
And it had arms just as long as its legs, bringing a fist like a sledgehammer down at me in one motion.
* * *
The long corridor was bathed entirely in red light.
My chest lurched at the sight before me.
But that moment passed quickly.
“Exhale….”
I calmed myself and looked around.
How did this happen?
Wasn’t it supposed to be impossible for Crow to draw me in while dying?
“…What?”
I tried to contact the Situation Room, but my Smartwatch was gone.
This is maddening.
It seems I was dragged into Blooming School with my electronic devices confiscated.
Stay calm.
First, assess the situation.
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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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Lulabyyy
OMG, he died again and again, thats why he got dejavu because thats not the first time. i feel so bad for him 🙁