Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 35

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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 35

ep7. The Corpse Runs(7)

“Team Leader, one of the missing persons is sending us a signal?”

-Don’t make contact and evacuate the area.

It must be a rescue request.

Cha Si-eon’s response to it was ruthless.

-The principle is not to make contact with missing persons who cannot be rescued.

He doesn’t even give me a chance to ask questions.

We had no choice but to get up and move to the indoor area where we started.

-The rescue plan for Seo Do-un and Kwak Jae-gyeom has just been decided. For a stable escape, we plan to deploy one agent and two prisoners.

As expected, they’re using prisoners.

-The weight of the two prisoners exceeds that of our three agents, so you can escape using the same method as before with these two.

What is this, Hansel and Gretel…?

They’re sending in fat prisoners to be devoured.

“How many people are here in total right now?”

-6 people.

“Then how about sending just one prisoner to evacuate one citizen and clean the stadium?”

—

Route A. Escape through Stadium Cleaning

This method can be attempted when there are 5 or fewer survivors in the Special Zone and 100 or more “Running Corpses” in the stadium.

■ Stadium Cleaning Procedure

1. Drag the “Running Corpses” outside the stadium. “Running Corpses” that come outside the line will no longer move.

2. Seal the “Running Corpses” with black plastic bags provided in the cleaning supply closet.

3. Move the sealed corpses to the iron shutter gate on the left side of the cleaning supply closet.

4. The black plastic bags moved to the entrance gate will disappear on their own when no one is watching.

5. Repeat the above process until all “Running Corpses” are cleaned from the stadium.

※ Precautions

-The “Running Corpses” will extremely resist being dragged outside the stadium line. Be careful of injuries or death at this time.

-We don’t know where the black plastic bags discharged through the entrance gate disappear to. Be careful not to let valuables or children get mixed in.

-If silver rings are put into black plastic bags and discharged, snow falling in the stadium has been observed. This snow has no effect on the human body, so don’t panic even if it occasionally snows.

—

It’s certainly not an easy process.

But it’s the most economical.

Since prisoners are also important resources of the Management Bureau, use one instead of two.

And evacuate other people while we’re at it.

-That won’t work.

But Cha Si-eon cut down my opinion with one stroke.

-As mentioned earlier, the time needed to clean 147 “Running Corpses” in the current situation is about 3 days. Meanwhile, the citizen influx rate for that Special Zone is 0.8 people per day.

…Then at least 2 more people will come in during those three days.

If the number of people increases, the stadium cleaning route will be blocked again.

“Have there been any cases of escape through stadium cleaning so far?”

-Management Bureau agents have attempted it for verification purposes. 5 equipped agents cleaned 100 corpses set up and escaped over 8 hours and 41 minutes.

Even with equipped agents, it took almost 9 hours.

And this would be 9 hours with the resolve to escape quickly and collapse.

If the work time is longer than that, and for ordinary people like me, we’d have to include rest and sleep time too.

Wrong. This seems unavoidable.

“Are there any other escape routes by chance?”

…Still, giving up like this feels unsettling.

No, honestly speaking, I want to minimize the aftermath as much as possible.

If I leave like this, I’ll remember the jacket that was waving asking for help.

I don’t want to carry this burden.

So let me at least create an excuse for myself.

The convenient excuse that I at least tried.

“These two routes are what the Management Bureau knows, but they’re not the only ways out, right?”

-Are you saying you want to find a new route now?

“Yes.”

Will he criticize me for being stubborn for no reason?

-Then I can give you about an hour.

“What’s the occasion?”

-59 minutes and 54 seconds left. Let’s move.

This guy really has a strange personality.

Be either cold or warm, pick one – what kind of personality has stages like burnt rice?

Anyway, I got the chance to look for another method.

Jae-gyeom and I decided to look for clues in this indoor space first.

The first place we examined was the 1st floor conference room, the location for ‘Route B. Escape through the “White Shadow with a Pierced Chest”‘.

But that conference room was completely empty.

“I guess it doesn’t appear at all because we’re not qualified.”

The “White Shadow with a Pierced Chest” helps people who have shown devotion to the country, social contribution, practicing sharing, etc.

But I have something to say about this too.

“I saved people at the Train Station.”

“You also received a lot of money for it.”

“You’re going to brush it off like that…?”

Compensation is compensation and rescue is rescue!

But there’s no point arguing this with Kwak Jae-gyeom.

More than that, a new question just occurred to me.

“You said before that Special Zones are spaces hostile to humans.”

-The main characteristic of Special Zones is hostile reaction to humans, and they operate with the purpose of drawing in unspecified citizens through unknown methods to kill or recruit them.

That’s what Cha Si-eon said before.

“But for something that’s just hostile, isn’t it structured too complicatedly?”

-What do you mean by complicated?

“There are elements that are subtly favorable to people, and above all, there are too many rules.”

-That Special Zones are hostile to humans is a fact we’ve already proven. The Special Zones Seo Do-un experienced are only that mild because the Management Bureau is suppressing them – fully grown Special Zones are never moderate.

Cha Si-eon firmly refuted.

Management Bureau suppression, grown Special Zones.

These are concepts I’m hearing for the first time today.

It seems there’s some complex history, but I continued to argue.

“But if they were truly only hostile, there would be no need for such rules, hints, help, and escape routes.”

-So what’s your point?

“It’s surprisingly logical and kindly structured. Like a game made to be cleared.”

At my words, Kwak Jae-gyeom interjected as if absurd.

“But they make you play soccer with corpses?”

“Still, they follow the rules of getting into the goal.”

Winners and losers are divided through sports games and winners are rewarded.

When the stadium gets messy, they make you clean it, and when work is done, you get off work.

It’s logical anyway.

Though the details are devilish.

And this kind of quiet common sense is the same for other Special Zones too.

To escape from the railroad station, you have to board a train.

To get out of the mart, you have to shop.

They’re all common-sense and clumsy imitations of those spaces.

So what about this sports stadium?

“There are more spectators than athletes or janitors in a stadium. So wouldn’t there also be an escape route for spectators?”

Kwak Jae-gyeom sighed in confusion at my hypothesis.

“How do you obtain spectator status?”

“There must be some condition like the mart membership. Maybe holding a ticket, or having your athlete qualification revoked.”

-Ha Yu-ju with her severed wrist was still recognized as an athlete.

“Because there are Paralympics too.”

“Even dead people are treated as athletes?”

“Here, you can run even when dead.”

-….

“….”

“No, think about it seriously. Athletes or janitors are at most twenty or thirty people, but spectators number in the thousands or tens of thousands. So there should be spectator-only escape routes too.”

I know, I’m making huge leaps here.

But this space itself is the ultimate champion of leaps, so what can I do?

So let’s think in tune with that rhythm.

Conditions for athlete disqualification that this space would accept.

What comes to mind immediately.

“Doping?”

“We’re out of drugs now, the hippo used them all earlier.”

“School violence.”

“I only studied when I was young….”

“Drunk driving?”

“I hardly drink alcohol.”

This guy, only his hair is delinquent but everything else is incredibly diligent?

Then Cha Si-eon muttered.

-Sex crimes.

A heavy silence settled.

I was a bit flustered but didn’t show it and countered.

“Sex crimes occur in situations where one party’s consent is absent. So whatever we try among ourselves wouldn’t constitute that. It would be consensual between adults.”

Good, that was an appropriate defense.

I looked back at Jae-gyeom, satisfied with my statement.

But Kwak Jae-gyeom, why is your hand on your gun?

-Fortunately, it seems there won’t be consent.

“Why is that fortunate? He’s holding a gun right now. Gun aside, never mind me, but Kwak Jae-gyeom is your subordinate – is it right to treat him like this? It’s not like you’ll never see each other again, you work together, so there should be human courtesy and minimal respect, and before that, that man earlier also talked about sex crimes but remained qualified as an athlete until the end, this has already been confirmed.”

-I see.

“….”

-I understand, so calm down. Your heart rate has increased significantly.

This is 100 percent intentional.

-The hypothesis that the Special Zone is logical doesn’t seem to fit after all. Injuries, death, and social controversies are all unrelated to athlete qualification, aren’t they.

See, it was intentional!

It seems Cha Si-eon can’t accept the idea that the Special Zone is logical.

Kwak Jae-gyeom seems quite skeptical too.

Did I get this wrong?

Or is my thinking too extreme?

Well, athlete disqualification only occasionally makes it to the social pages.

…Right?

Yes, that’s never a common occurrence.

Rather, what happens frequently and naturally is….

I looked back at Kwak Jae-gyeom at the thought that crossed my mind.

“Jae-gyeom.”

“Yes?”

“Do you still have live ammunition?”

* * *

“Team Leader, if something goes wrong with me, please make sure I’m interred at the National Cemetery. Don’t just scatter me in the ocean saying it’s classified. Got it?”

-If you come back alive, I’ll sew your mouth shut first.

At Cha Si-eon’s ice-cold remark, Kwak Jae-gyeom stopped whining and raised his gun.

Bang-!

With a single gunshot, the broadcasting room’s door handle fell off.

Jae-gyeom kicked the door open then hid behind the wall.

After waiting for a reaction, he shone his searchlight inside the broadcasting room.

This guy, he talked about the National Cemetery but it was all just dramatics.

“There doesn’t seem to be anyone.”

-Enter.

We entered the broadcasting room.

According to previous exploration reports, this broadcasting equipment functions normally.

However, what kind of interactions are possible with it hasn’t been determined.

I turned on the broadcasting room microphone and brought my smartwatch to it.

“Please turn on the sound.”

At my request, a sharp noise echoed from the smartwatch.

Peeeeeep-!

This was the whistle sound announcing the end of a match.

And what followed was music encouraging the athletes who had given their all.

Right, athlete disqualification is an incident that occasionally makes the social pages.

On the other hand, match endings are essential routines included in every game.

And when a match ends, spectators go home.

So if we simulate a match ending, what would happen to people hiding in the stands?

We held our breath and waited for the Special Zone’s reaction.

After some time.

“I think we just became the people who blew the whistle.”

“…Ha.”

Just as I was covering my face in disappointment.

Suddenly the ground beneath our feet gave way.

“…!”

Falling? No, this is….

Zero gravity.

The dismay of the ground disappearing and the bewilderment of my body floating came together.

I looked around frantically, shocked by the sensation of my body lifting.

“Do-un hyung!”

Not far away, Kwak Jae-gyeom was there against a black background.

“Kyaah!”

“Uwaah!”

Hearing screams, I turned to see people floating like us in the distance.

Four people total. They were the missing persons who had been hiding in this space.

“Hyung, grab it!”

Jae-gyeom threw a rope toward me.

As I flailed trying to grab it, something blocked my path.

It was something black that I couldn’t identify or push away.

I panicked and looked behind me.

But the people visible behind me were also gradually being obscured by some darkness.

They hadn’t disappeared.

Like the moon blocking the sun, something was restricting my vision.

When that darkness created a thin gap like between fingers, I realized.

The hand that had taken Ha Yu-ju earlier.

It was trying to grab me.

The encroaching darkness blocked my breath.

Then my consciousness plummeted into the abyss.

* * *

The surroundings suddenly became bright.

A woman was facing me.

A beautiful face.

But with a worried expression.

She’s someone I know.

“Baek Sa-ra…?”

I muttered absentmindedly at the sight of Baek Sa-ra who had suddenly appeared.

Baek Sa-ra’s eyes widened.

Then she shouted in a different direction, not at me.

“Seo Do-un has regained consciousness!”

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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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