Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 21

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Editor’s Survival Rules Episode 21

ep5. Shopping! Warehouse-style Mart! (1)

I think I blacked out for a moment.

Everything around me was red and my eyes stung.

-Seo Do-un, can you hear me?

Cha Si-eon’s voice rang out from the smartwatch.

When I tried to move my head to respond, something warm flowed down.

It was my blood.

-Please respond, Seo Do-un!

I wanted to answer but no voice came out.

The blood covering my face was warm.

It felt like being submerged in a bathtub.

* * *

Ten days ago.

It was the third day since I became a Management Bureau agent.

“Special Zones are classified into 4 types.”

I was receiving tutoring from Cha Si-eon in the small classroom.

“This classification is based on the form, nature, and operating principles of the Special Zones. For reference, both ‘The Siren-Ringing Train Station’ and ‘Hospital Hunting Humans’ belong to Type 1.”

He told me to ask questions whenever I had them, so I quickly raised my hand.

“Who came up with the names of the Special Zones?”

“They were decided through meetings.”

“Ah, I see…”

Honestly, they’re pretty lame.

Both the Special Zones and boss monster names like “Moving Gun.”

Wouldn’t more sophisticated naming be better?

“We use the most intuitive names possible so citizens can easily identify the targets.”

I was just thinking to myself, but Cha Si-eon went ahead and elaborated.

It wasn’t particularly kind, but rather an arrogant tone pointing out my ignorance.

What am I going to do about that personality…

“Type 1 Special Zones make up the largest proportion with 16 zones. They’re characterized by realistic, sophisticated structures and clear aggression, with a current exploration rate of 52%.”

“What’s the exploration rate?”

“It’s the nature of Special Zones and countermeasures that the Management Bureau has uncovered. This includes escape routes, characteristics and patterns of dangerous entities, methods of interaction with neutral entities, and so on.”

I see.

52% is kind of ambiguous, isn’t it?

“Type 2 zones appear realistic at first glance but have dream-like distortions. They’re characterized by seductive atmospheres, and people drawn into these zones feel an urge to stay there continuously. There are 12 Type 2 Special Zones total, with representative examples being ‘Rainbow-Colored Cake Shop’ and ‘Alien Slaughterhouse.’ The current exploration rate is 39%.”

Wait, didn’t you say Special Zone names are made as intuitive as possible?

But the name is “Alien Slaughterhouse”? Really?

“Type 3 Special Zones evoke the afterlife or religious utopias. So people are often overwhelmed by awe or terror upon entry. There are 8 total, including ‘Palace of Dead Kings’ and ‘Messiah’s Banquet Hall.’ They’re the most dangerous type of Special Zone, with an exploration rate of only 11%.”

This keeps getting better.

Does the afterlife mean things like heaven or hell appear?

“Finally, Type 4 Special Zones.”

Gulp-

I swallowed dryly at the increasingly extreme difficulty levels.

But the explanation that followed was anticlimactic.

“Type 4 is still unknown.”

“Unknown?”

“Yes. Almost nothing is known about Type 4 Special Zones. Unlike other Special Zones, they don’t draw in citizens, so we only assume they’re in a dormant state.”

“Then how do you know they exist and classify them?”

I asked the obvious question.

But Cha Si-eon looked at me and answered a beat slower.

“The deceased agent mentioned earlier was once dragged to a Type 4 Special Zone.”

The deceased agent.

The person who was dragged to Special Zones more than twenty times.

“That was the first and last time we confirmed the existence of a Type 4 Special Zone. According to that agent’s testimony, the Type 4 Special Zone was ‘a columbarium so vast you couldn’t see the end.'”

Wow, my vision is going dark again.

Not just dreams, but pseudo-heaven and pseudo-hell.

A columbarium of enormous scale confirmed only once.

And apparently the Train Station and Hospital where I nearly died are relatively normal.

I was lamenting the harshness of the world when something suddenly occurred to me.

Come to think of it, there was something I wanted to confirm about the Train Station.

“Have you ever been to Yongsan Station?”

When I raised my hand and asked, Cha Si-eon looked at me.

But this guy, it’s a habit of his.

Not answering difficult questions and stalling for time.

“The internal structure of Yongsan Station and ‘The Siren-Ringing Train Station’ were identical. Didn’t you know?”

“I know.”

“Then do you also know about the bombing that happened in that area?”

“I know.”

When I asked back, Cha Si-eon finally answered.

As expected, the Management Bureau was aware of it too.

I wasn’t the only one who thought it was strange.

I pondered this curious situation and carefully began to speak.

“Perhaps Special Zones are created by the victims of those places…”

“That’s impossible.”

But Cha Si-eon’s immediate response cut off my words.

“Special Zones are phenomena that require scientific explanation, not matters for superstitious imagination. Such connections are not only contrived but insulting to the victims.”

…Ugh, this is irrefutable.

I was thoroughly defeated by Cha Si-eon’s cold criticism.

So I awkwardly closed my mouth, but Cha Si-eon coldly added:

“The currently confirmed facts are only these three: Type 1 Special Zones are copying specific spaces, the copied targets are places that suffered great damage during wartime, and Type 1 Special Zones contain numerous dangerous objects symbolizing war.”

“…That’s still a connection, isn’t it?”

No, this is just blatant foreshadowing.

It’s a plot thread that’ll cause big trouble if not resolved!

My editor self screamed inside my mind.

But the Management Bureau civil servant didn’t listen.

“I’ll keep the possibility open, but I can’t make definitive statements.”

Wow, you have to be this thorough to do government work…

When I was at a loss for words, that stubborn civil servant added:

“Separately, it’s true that Type 1 Special Zones have many war-related dangerous entities. So if you’re dragged to such a Special Zone, you can think of it as being dragged to a battlefield without much error.”

“Is that a curse?”

“It’s advice.”

When I asked back in frustration, Cha Si-eon answered calmly.

So I thought this guy was like a psychopath.

But looking back, surprisingly, nothing Cha Si-eon said was wrong.

* * *

And this morning, the 13th day since I joined the Management Bureau.

At this point, I was still having an ordinary day.

“Why is a young person’s spine like this? Didn’t your company buy you a desk? Do you work lying on the floor?”

A man in a white coat scolded me while displaying an X-ray of my spine on the monitor.

He has no idea.

Our CEO buys good stuff for employees, whether it’s desks or computers.

That way he can keep us sitting there longer and make us work.

But if I say this now, I’ll be the only one getting in trouble, right?

“Pay attention to your posture and exercise. You don’t need to be a beast like the agents here, but if you keep this up, you’ll suffer when you get older.”

“Haha, yes…”

The name of the man scolding me with a stern face is Kim Woo-in.

Every time I see him, he’s got a lollipop in his mouth like a cigarette, so I can’t tell if he’s trying to quit smoking or just likes sweets – he’s a doctor at the Management Bureau.

Right now, he was checking my physical health, mental health, and contamination levels every three days.

Kim Woo-in rolled the candy around like clicking his tongue and asked.

“Last time you said you were worried about being dragged to Special Zones again, how do you feel today?”

“I’m doing okay.”

I answered comfortably.

Actually, until a few days ago, I was suffering from considerable emotional instability.

It was exactly ten days after I returned home from being dragged to the “Hospital.”

I was nervous that something might happen on the tenth day this time too.

But that day passed without incident, and I deflated a bit in a good way.

“I decided to just think about it less. It’s unpredictable anyway, and it might just pass by without any problems.”

“Your attitude toward mental health is good. Your contamination levels are still normal too, so I’ll check on you for one more week. If there are no issues, you’ll be able to go out starting next week.”

Going out – what welcome news to hear.

I left the examination room with a happy heart for the first time in a while.

But the moment I opened the examination room door, the space changed.

The suddenly altered air made all the hair on my body stand on end.

But I didn’t have time to look around.

-Seo Do-un, get down!

Along with Cha Si-eon’s shout, something struck my head hard.

Bang-!

It was a perfect headshot.

* * *

And now.

-Seo Do-un!

I wanted to keep sleeping like this.

But it was too noisy and I was completely awake now.

I moved my arm and brought it next to my face.

Then I barely managed to whisper into the watch.

“I’m listening.”

-…Can you move?

“Yes.”

I answered briefly since my mind was still hazy.

I wasn’t sure if I could actually move. I’d find out by trying.

-Then don’t get up, crawl away from your current position. Roll to the right, 2 o’clock direction from your head. Don’t lift your head and move.

I rolled my body as instructed.

Only after lying face down did I realize I had been lying on my back.

Blood had gotten in my eyes making my vision a mess, but I crawled anyway.

Then something flew quickly over me.

-Stop and sit up now. We’ll deal with the bleeding. The bleeding area is behind your left temple. There’s hemostatic agent, bandages, and painkillers in the right bottom pocket of your vest.

I searched through the vest I was wearing as Cha Si-eon instructed and pulled out the first aid supplies.

I sprayed hemostatic agent on the hole near my left temple and wrapped bandages tightly around it.

I also poured painkillers into my mouth, chewed them, and swallowed.

As I did this, my mind gradually returned.

I had been continuously dazed as if drunk with sleep, but now I finally seemed to be awake.

-How is your condition?

“I think I’m okay.”

Whether it was because of the medicine, my body felt reasonably fine.

But my mood was the worst.

Sigh, where am I this time?

I looked around while covered in sticky blood.

High ceiling with exposed pipes.

Steel storage racks extending from floor to ceiling.

And sealed goods packed tightly inside them.

A logistics warehouse?

But there was a piece of paper attached under each item.

True to Special Zone fashion, I couldn’t read the text inside, but I could tell from the appearance that they were price tags.

This wasn’t a logistics warehouse but a warehouse-style mart.

If it’s a warehouse-style mart, could this be that place…

As I checked my surroundings and sighed deeply, Cha Si-eon asked through the watch.

-Seo Do-un, do you remember the situation just before?

“I was leaving after receiving medical treatment. I opened the examination room door and the space changed.”

-That matches what the medical staff witnessed. March 5th, 11:12 AM, confirmed Seo Do-un’s third entry into a Special Zone.

I gritted my teeth at Cha Si-eon’s confirmation.

This makes it three times.

It had finally become an established fact.

I was, as Kwak Jae-gyeom said, a human who would continue to be dragged to Special Zones.

As I sighed again, Cha Si-eon said quietly.

-Suppress the confusion. Survival is the priority right now.

Right, he’s correct.

Cha Si-eon’s coldness made me exhale the breath I had been drawing out.

“I’m calm now. Where is this place?”

-The place Seo Do-un was dragged to is a Type 1 Special Zone called “Warehouse-type Mart with Traps.”

“…Now I understand why they emphasize directness in naming.”

It was truly a transparent name.

So transparent I could see my future clearly.

I chuckled bitterly in disbelief and asked back.

“So how do I escape from here?”

-Before that, Seo Do-un.

“Yes?”

-Congratulations on your official appointment.

“…”

At the sudden congratulations, I was momentarily surprised then smiled slightly.

Then, unable to say it out loud, I responded in my heart.

Thanks, you psychopath…

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