Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 39

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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 39

 

ep8. What Do You See? (4)

 

I leaned back against the comfortable sofa.

 

Kim Woo-in sat down next to me and said,

 

“We’re going to explore your lost memories now. Do you have any questions or concerns about hypnosis?”

 

“Will I be controlled by any chance?”

 

“Controlling people with hypnosis is just fantasy.”

 

“Then I’m a bit worried I might say things I shouldn’t say.”

 

“That’s sleep endoscopy. Neither applies to you. Hypnosis is just like a state before falling asleep. It’s about eliminating surrounding noise and exploring your inner self, so think of it as something similar to meditation.”

 

Kim Woo-in immediately dismissed my foolish concerns.

 

Kim Woo-in threw the candy he had in his mouth into the trash and added,

 

No, what if that attracts ants…

 

“And there are people who are easily hypnotized and those who aren’t. So I can’t guarantee we’ll find everything out with this. We’ll only know after trying.”

 

“What kind of people are usually easily hypnotized?”

 

“People who trust others easily get hypnotized well. So there’s a high chance Do-un won’t be hypnotized.”

 

“Me?”

 

“You’re the suspicious type. You nitpick at everything here and there.”

 

I couldn’t really deny that.

 

“Close your eyes.”

 

I closed my eyes as instructed.

 

Then I heard white noise that sounded like wind.

 

Mixed with that noise, Kim Woo-in’s monotonous voice continued.

 

“Relax. Breathe comfortably and release the tension from your body.”

 

As I closed my eyes and followed along, my body gradually became drowsy.

 

“Maintain a comfortable state. And when I count to three, you’ll become much more comfortable than now. One, two, three.”

 

Along with Kim Woo-in’s suggestion, my body sank deeply.

 

My body felt heavy as if my back was stuck to the sofa.

 

But my consciousness was still awake, so I could hear Kim Woo-in’s voice and think.

 

“Now we’re going to turn back time. We’ll go back in time to yesterday. Have you arrived?”

 

“Yes.”

 

“What do you see in front of you?”

 

“Baek Sa-ra…”

 

“What does Baek Sa-ra look like?”

 

“She’s sitting and looking at me. Black clothes… her expression is dark…”

 

“What scenery do you see behind Baek Sa-ra?”

 

“White walls… there’s a door, and a clock.”

 

“What time does the clock show?”

 

“11:30…”

 

I answered slowly while realizing on one hand.

 

The time I woke up yesterday was 12 o’clock.

 

So what I’m seeing now is a scene from before I regained consciousness.

 

“Good. Then let’s go back another day. Same time. What do you see?”

 

“Team Leader Cha Si-eon is… eating an apple.”

 

“Is it the same place as before?”

 

“Yes…”

 

“Where did the apple come from?”

 

“Fruit basket… mine…”

 

That apple was bought by Manager Kwon Mu-seop.

 

Remembering that, I felt somehow wronged and muttered again.

 

“He’s eating my apple…”

 

Clunk-

 

I unconsciously flinched my leg.

 

Then Kim Woo-in calmly asked for the reason.

 

“What just happened?”

 

“The finished apple…”

 

“The apple?”

 

“He threw it in the trash…”

 

Cha Si-eon threw the apple core in the trash.

 

Food waste.

 

In the trash.

 

“Now that the weather… is getting warmer… the apple…”

 

“…Don’t worry about the apple anymore. Let’s go back another day. Forget about the apple now.”

 

I was very bothered by the trash that would become sticky, but I turned back time as instructed.

 

“What else do you see?”

 

“…Light.”

 

Light moved back and forth in front of my eyes.

 

And behind it, Kim Woo-in’s face was visible.

 

“Let’s go back 30 more minutes. What do you see now?”

 

Cha Si-eon again…

 

But it’s different from when he was eating the apple.

 

A serious face.

 

He’s calling me.

 

Seo Do-un. Seo Do-un. Can you hear me? Seo Do-un.

 

Behind him, a vast space is visible.

 

A large warehouse. A hangar.

 

The space we arrive at when escaping from the Special Zone.

 

“Let’s go back just one more minute from there.”

 

One minute…

 

“What do you see now?”

 

White.

 

All pure white.

 

Woman.

 

Womanwomanwomanwomanwomanwoman.

 

Clunk-!

 

“Seo Do-un, close your eyes.”

 

Womanwomanwomanwoman!

 

All white, deadly white!

 

“You don’t need to look, so close your eyes. Close your eyes and move away from that place.”

 

Close them, close your eyes, don’t look at death.

 

“Until you’re safe, move far enough away.”

 

Moving away. Running from the pure white death.

 

“Calm your mind again. With your eyes closed, now remember. What you said in that place.”

 

What I said…?

 

“What you yourself said in that place.”

 

“Why couldn’t I… remember you until now…?”

 

My lips moved on their own.

 

“And what else did you say?”

 

“What exactly… is your identity…?”

 

Without going through thought, my lips and vocal cords recreated that moment on their own.

 

“And, what else?”

 

“What do you mean four times…? That means I…”

 

My voice won’t come out.

 

“I already…”

 

The words are still lingering in my mouth.

 

If I open my mouth, the same words I said before would flow out.

 

But for some reason, I can’t make a sound.

 

“Already, already…”

 

Just as I was struggling to get out the last sentence.

 

-It’s still too early.

 

A small voice.

 

-Take something else instead.

 

And then I was pulled somewhere by an unknown force.

 

Weeeeeeeng-!

 

A siren sound that froze my heart.

 

What is this? Where am I? The fog is thick.

 

I can’t see anything.

 

There’s something there.

 

Beyond the fog, there’s a massive hill.

 

Weeeeeng-!

 

It’s not a hill. A sparse mass like bundled steel bars.

 

It was that monster from the Train Station, crouched down.

 

I need to run.

 

I was terrified. But I couldn’t escape.

 

Instead, I was being drawn in. Something was lifting my body.

 

I didn’t want to see it, but I kept getting closer.

 

Clank- Clank-!

 

“…un! Wake up…!”

 

Some sound echoed from the sky.

 

The fog was too thick to hear properly.

 

I was finally dragged right in front of that monster’s face.

 

At last, I saw its form completely.

 

A bizarre monster with a siren-shaped head and gaunt limbs like lightning rods.

 

A creature both pathetic and enormous, too horrible to accept.

 

I instinctively knew.

 

If that thing cried out now, my body would burst into pieces.

 

So as I prepared for death again, it raised its head.

 

A terrifying scene unfolded like a hill moving.

 

What was finally revealed was… a face?

 

I saw a face beneath the horrible siren.

 

It was the face of a crying man.

 

-Save me.

 

The man spoke.

 

-Please, save me.

 

Are you asking me to save you?

 

The man shook his head.

 

He said something.

 

I heard a two-syllable name, but it scattered without being etched in my memory.

 

Who are you?

 

It answered.

 

-I am Lee Seob.

 

I remembered that name.

 

At that moment, the fog dispersed and Kim Woo-in’s voice struck my eardrums.

 

“…un! Wake up now, Do-un!”

 

“Huh…!”

 

I opened my eyes hastily.

 

Like a student caught dozing during class.

 

Sting-!

 

At the sharp pain, I looked at my left arm.

 

The bandage that had been properly attached to my arm just moments ago was rolling on the floor.

 

There was a new wound on my forearm.

 

Another letter ‘B’.

 

And my right index fingernail stained with blood.

 

What the hell happened?

 

Did I cut my arm again?

 

“Do-un, are you okay?”

 

Kim Woo-in asked with a serious face.

 

“You were struggling and in agony just now, don’t you remember?”

 

I don’t remember at all.

 

I tried hypnosis to recover memories, but my memories flew away again?

 

This is driving me crazy, really. Isn’t this early dementia symptoms?

 

“Surprisingly, I…”

 

As I began speaking in a dry voice, Kim Woo-in looked at me seriously.

 

I faced that doctor and muttered.

 

“You seem like someone who trusts others easily.”

 

“Are you joking right now?”

 

It’s not a joke, I’m serious.

 

“Never mind that, how much do you remember?”

 

“I remember up to when you told me to repeat what the teacher said, and I found myself speaking without realizing it. I think I said something like ‘what do you mean four times’.”

 

“Then, what about after that?”

 

After that?

 

I’m not sure.

 

Like having vivid dreams while sleeping but forgetting everything upon waking, there’s only a vague feeling and I can’t remember well.

 

I struggled desperately to find traces left in my hippocampus.

 

“Ah.”

 

Then I finally remembered.

 

“I remember, I saw some man. I had some conversation with him…”

 

“What kind of conversation?”

 

“I don’t know the content. But that man seemed to be crying.”

 

“That man, do you remember what he looked like?”

 

“Vaguely. And I heard his name. Probably ‘Lee Seob’…?”

 

The moment I said the two-syllable name, Kim Woo-in’s expression froze cold.

 

“What did you just say?”

 

* * *

 

Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop opened a photo album with a more serious face than usual.

 

“Can you find the face you saw here?”

 

I looked at the photo Kwon Mu-seop handed me.

 

It was a group photo of five or six armed agents.

 

But whether it was an old photo or from another organization, the combat uniform colors were different from the Management Bureau’s.

 

The Management Bureau’s combat uniforms are black.

 

The combat uniforms in this photo are dark gray.

 

But there was a face I recognized in the photo.

 

One was Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop, looking a bit younger than now.

 

And the other was a young Cha Si-eon with short hair.

 

So this must be an old photo from the Management Bureau?

 

I was about to look past the familiar faces to examine other people when my eyes immediately stopped.

 

“This person.”

 

I pointed to a man in the photo.

 

Next to the expressionless, short-haired Cha Si-eon, there was a man with his arm around his shoulder.

 

A person whose grinning expression looked quite cheerful.

 

Though his expression was completely different from what I had seen, I could still clearly recognize that face.

 

“I think it’s this person.”

 

It was the man called ‘Lee Seob’ that I had seen under hypnosis.

 

“Was it really this person?”

 

“Yes. It was exactly this face, but is it correct by any chance?”

 

I asked back while observing Kwon Mu-seop’s expression.

 

A strangely dark face.

 

“You said you’d never heard that name anywhere. No, of course you wouldn’t have. It’s a prohibited item.”

 

“A prohibited item?”

 

“Right, it’s something you need to know too. I was planning to tell you once you adapted more, but…”

 

Kwon Mu-seop muttered while rubbing his forehead.

 

Then, as if he had made some decision, he finally spoke after a long pause.

 

“That person is an agent whose records have been blinded due to serious contamination issues. Just mentioning his name or looking at photos can cause direct or indirect effects.”

 

“Direct or indirect effects?”

 

“Indirect ones are physical reactions like headaches or lethargy. Direct ones are transition phenomena where you get dragged to specific Special Zones.”

 

Your body hurts or you get dragged to Special Zones?

 

Just from saying that agent’s name?

 

“That’s why any mention of that agent is prohibited. Director Kim Woo-in probably already warned you, but you need to be careful from now on too. If you absolutely must mention him, leave out the name and somehow work around it with characteristics or other details.”

 

“Yes, I understand.”

 

I was nodding at Kwon Mu-seop’s warning when I flinched in surprise at a thought that flashed through my mind.

 

Something I need to know too.

 

And an agent whose name must never be mentioned.

 

“Don’t tell me…”

 

“Right. That’s correct.”

 

As if he noticed my thoughts, Kwon Mu-seop nodded.

 

Then he revealed in a calm voice.

 

“A Management Bureau agent who kept getting dragged to Special Zones like you. That’s this guy.”

 

* * *

 

I had thought it was strange from the beginning.

 

A Management Bureau agent who kept getting dragged to Special Zones like me.

 

If there was such a precedent, it would have been natural to inform me in detail.

 

That way I could learn from that person’s trial and error, or understand the phenomenon by comparing my situation with that person’s.

 

But I had never properly heard about that agent until now.

 

When I received the job offer, I only got a brief explanation through Jae-gyeom that there had been someone similar.

 

But that person was Lee Seob.

 

He was on the same team as Kwon Mu-seop.

 

And he was processed as killed in action three years ago, when in reality all his records were erased due to serious contamination.

 

After hearing this much, I understand why they hid it from me.

 

It wasn’t that mentioning him was prohibited, but that person’s fate was too terrible.

 

I’m tired.

 

In the end, I found out nothing.

 

But I decided to wait a bit longer.

 

Acting Director Oh Tae-o said he would look for other methods.

 

I deliberately emptied my thoughts and lifted my stinging left arm.

 

The nail marks newly carved into my forearm.

 

Carving something like this on my arm must mean I should notice something when I come to my senses.

 

Maybe it means only I should recognize it.

 

I smiled gloomily at my chaotic delusions.

 

Then I simply closed my eyes.

—————
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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