Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 205

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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 205

ep28. Blooming School (7)
A graduate student.
A student pursuing advanced research in a specific field of study at a graduate school.
An explorer who has set foot on the path of knowledge.
A seeker of truth dedicated to the pursuit of understanding.
And a beacon of this age burning away money and youth in pursuit of that goal.
I cannot fully comprehend your suffering.
But I can wish for your peace.
Bang!
“Guh…!”
The Graduate Student slammed me against the wall.
I barely dodged and rolled my body, immediately getting back on my feet.
Then, pretending not to be frightened at all, I taunted the Graduate Student.
“Over here…!”
Boom!
As I sprinted down the corridor, the Graduate Student overtook me in a single stride.
As a result, I found myself trapped between its two legs.
But that was exactly what I had been waiting for.
At last, the Graduate Student that had cornered me reached out as if to grab me.
I waited for that motion, then forcefully opened the door beside me.
Creak! Thud!
The moment the black door swung open, the Graduate Student froze mid-motion.
Its gleaming eyes began to dim, and soon it started to emit a low whimper.
Ah… Ah… Ah…
The Graduate Student stared into the open doorway, trembling.
Then from inside the room came a low scratching sound.
Grrrrk…
A sound I could not fathom.
But then—
Aaaaaaah!
The Graduate Student covered its face in agony and began to shrink.
Aaaaaaah!
It grew smaller and smaller until it reached human size.
An invisible force began to drag the Graduate Student into the room.
Screech… Screech…
The Graduate Student resisted, but it was useless.
It was pulled further and further in, until it was completely swallowed by the room.
Aaaaaaah!
The Graduate Student’s final scream echoed in the hall.
And the black door that had consumed the Graduate Student sealed itself shut once more.
Boom!
The explorer of an age, the seeker, and a beacon.
Weary graduate student, may you rest in peace.
And I pray you were never truly human.
“Whew…”
I finished sealing the Graduate Student and let out a long breath.
Then I stared at the firmly closed black door for a moment.
Phenomena in the Special Zone mimic reality.
And the room that the Graduate Student had just been dragged into was none other than a Professor’s Research Office.
* * *
Ugh, I’m exhausted…
Even as I complained of fatigue, I pushed through the flowers and continued moving.
With the Graduate Student gone, walking through the corridor was not as difficult as before.
So time passed without major incident, and I began to recover the memories I had lost, one by one.
And for that reason, I began to suffer from a kind of side effect.
Stop.
I halted mid-step.
I had remembered the image of a gigantic hand pressing down on me.
I had never felt pain, but the despair and terror of that moment came back vividly.
So I flinched and sighed, muttering to myself.
It’s already past.
As if mocking that thought, another death came to mind.
So I shook my head and murmured again.
It’s over now. Memory is not reality. That’s just an afterimage lingering in my mind. So let it fade, let it fade away.
I told myself this every time I remembered a death I had experienced.
And then, finally, I saw the stairs.
“Whew…”
There were no flowers around the Central Stairs.
Grateful for the chance to finally rest, I collapsed onto the stairs.
Thump.
From where I sat, I looked around and spotted a Management Bureau security camera installed in the corner.
Ah, finally.
“I’m still alive.”
I waved at the Control Team that was surely watching me.
“My memory was lost, but it’s slowly coming back. Team Leader Cha is on the way, right? There’s nothing blocking the entrance or anything like that?”
The fact that the Rescue Team hadn’t appeared yet made me uneasy and suspicious, but I deliberately spoke as if everything were fine.
Then I added:
“I’ll rest here for a moment and then move to a safer location.”
The Big Cat prowls through the Blooming School.
The blessing was that it hadn’t appeared while I was making a scene with the Graduate Student.
I didn’t know whether it was absent from the building or occupied elsewhere.
But it could have tracked the source of the commotion later.
So I couldn’t just sit here indefinitely—I had to move again.
Building A had several locations marked as relatively safe zones, so I’d head in that direction first.
Even as I was thinking this through, my memories continued to resurface.
The weight beneath my feet trembling.
The enormous shadow bearing down on my back.
A colossal monster overwhelming me in every way.
Standing before it, I was like a crayfish on a counter—even if I managed to escape, I would only fall from the cutting board into the sink.
“Mm…”
My stomach turned, so I closed my eyes.
Then I muttered to myself again.
It’s already past. That’s all over now.
As I was muttering alone, an old memory surfaced.
Now that I think about it, back when I was a graduate student, I was like this too.
It’s already past, it’s all over now, I would mutter, trying to focus on reality.
It was during the time when I was desperately trying to become human.
Perhaps because of the place, those memories came back to me.
There was a time when I struggled to catch up belatedly with what most people learned naturally as children.
It was when I was alone, during my graduate years.
I had to learn everything in a hurry.
How to take care of myself.
How to meet someone’s gaze as an equal.
How to listen to others attentively, laugh naturally, and fit in with friends.
Trying to teach myself with no one around came with its own difficulties.
Especially whenever I realized that the universality of humanity I had learned through books was closer to the author’s ideals than to reality, I was quite shocked.
It was similar to the shock a kindergartener felt upon learning that you must cross at a green light, when they saw an adult crossing against the signal for the first time.
Fortunately, I was an adult who knew more than a kindergartener, and I adjusted each time.
So even though I wasn’t inherently a good person, I made an effort to be ordinarily good.
I think that effort paid off quite well.
At least until I joined the Management Bureau, I was affirming to myself that I qualified as a functioning human being.
That’s why I was taken aback by the recent question: “Why aren’t you frightened enough?”
Surely this couldn’t be it either?
I was frightened in my own way—what was strange about that?
I felt a twinge of concern, but even so, this seemed acceptable.
The ability to remain above average in composure in my current situation was surely an advantage.
Besides, I had already acquired normalcy in another domain, so having some peculiar aspects wouldn’t cause major problems.
So I tried to accept the abnormality I had displayed at the Management Bureau as it was.
But that bastard, the Special Zone fees counselor.
“Whew…”
I recalled what the Special Zone fees counselor had said and exhaled a long breath.
Don’t let this get to me. Otherwise it really will feel like I’m being cut open.
I took a few more deep breaths to calm myself.
I’d rested enough. Time to move.
I got up and descended the stairs.
The stairs extended straight to the first floor without any distortion.
So I passed through the main entrance without difficulty.
But when I stepped out onto the campus grounds, what greeted me was an unexpected ruin.
“What…?”
The brick ground had been torn up in places like a failed construction site.
The trees and flowers in the garden were all broken and burned, a complete mess.
And the earth was stained red wherever it had been gouged out.
At first, I thought flowers had bloomed.
But looking closer, it was blood pooling everywhere.
At the sight of what looked like a disaster, I froze.
Had the Blooming School always looked like this?
No, it hadn’t.
The garden I had seen in the reference materials was neat, a faithful reproduction of reality.
Then what was this?
Could it be…
I swallowed hard, a bad feeling creeping over me.
Could the Rescue Team have already been here?
No, wait—don’t jump to conclusions yet.
I suppressed my alarm and took a slow step forward.
Then I approached the nearest pool of blood.
What was this blood?
Could it possibly be human blood—blood from the Management Bureau people…?
No, that couldn’t be.
If a battle had occurred here, there wouldn’t be this much blood alone.
For blood to pool this thickly, at least a dozen people would have to die. And very brutally at that.
If so, there should be other traces besides blood.
But here there was only dark red blood.
I stared at this suspicious pool and dug through my pocket.
Then I pulled out my candy case and tossed it in.
Splash! Sizzle—
“…!”
The plastic candy case melted right away.
It was the Big Cat’s Sticky Blood.
Realizing the nature of the blood pool, I quickly looked around.
Could the Rescue Team have already entered?
But why is there no one here?
Did they just hunt down the Big Cat and withdraw?
…That makes no sense. Though, actually, it might.
They completed their mission and left.
Since I have to meet Crow here, they secured the minimum safety as planned and left the rest to me.
I felt my heart pounding as I ran this hopeful scenario through my mind.
Then I waited for more memories to resurface.
The scene of Cha Si-eon’s team hunting the Big Cat.
The agents saying goodbye, telling me to survive on my own.
I waited for these kinds of pleasant memories to come back.
But no such reassuring memory emerged, and I became anxious, looking around again.
Then I found it.
A scrap of black cloth abandoned among the ruins.
I immediately ran to it and picked it up.
“…”
It was a uniform sleeve severed at the shoulder.
Made of the same material as the combat uniforms worn by Management Bureau agents.
Half the shoulder section was melted, and half was cut.
Traces of being torn away by the Sticky Blood.
The moment I saw it, my hopeful scenario evaporated and my heart sank.
Then a chilling terror rushed in.
The same terror I had felt on the Fog-Shrouded Bridge—like a massive wall crashing down on me.
Could it be…
No, surely not, surely not.
I forced myself to breathe and tried to stay composed.
Then I unfolded the sleeve to check whose it was.
But something unexpected caught my eye.
“This is…”
Rip!
I tore off the patch attached to the shoulder section of the sleeve.
The circular velcro patch came away easily.
I stared blankly at the round patch.
A cute design that didn’t match combat uniforms.
The patch showing an otter curled up in a circle—it was the exact same design as Yu Ju’s concept that Jae-gyeom had shown me.
He had said this was still just a concept.
So why was it already manufactured and attached?
The moment that question arose, the forgotten memory came flooding back.
—The otter design was rejected. They said it was too cute to put on the Response Team’s shoulders…
Yu Ju coming to find me and complaining.
—Officer, the final product is here! This one’s pretty too, isn’t it?
And a few days later, she came back with a smile, showing off the finished Otter Patch.
Every scene was vivid before me.
But I couldn’t tell when this memory was from.
I fumbled through the tangled recollections and flinched again.
Then I lowered my head and looked at my left wrist.
…I remembered.
My Smart Watch.
I had removed it myself.
The reason was simple.
“Master, have you decided?”
“Master, one life and twelve lives—I don’t think it’s a bad trade at all!”

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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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