Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 60

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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 60

 

ep11. Depriving the Five Senses (5)

 

“Hngh…”

 

A pure white mass groaned in midair as if it had been beaten.

 

I couldn’t tell what it was at all until I heard the sound.

 

That the thing caught in the thread was a person.

 

No, could you really call that thing a person?

 

“Please… help me…”

 

A woman wrapped tightly in white “Ant Thread.”

 

But she was too small.

 

Only her torso and head maintained human form, while her lower half had unraveled into thread.

 

So she looked disheveled like a half-knitted scarf hanging loose.

 

Is that the contamination from “Ant Thread”?

 

“Please save me…”

 

The woman pleading to be saved was still young.

 

And she was already exhausted.

 

“Mom…”

 

When the woman finally began to sob, Kwon Mu-seop spoke in a calm tone.

 

“I’m sorry. You are already contaminated and rescue is impossible.”

 

“What do you…”

 

“Instead, I can help you find peace. Do you want that?”

 

Kwon Mu-seop’s voice was solemn.

 

To the woman, that would be even more despairing.

 

“I want to live…”

 

“We plan to stay here for 28 hours. Once we leave, you may have to spend a very long time in that state.”

 

“No, sob…!”

 

“I’m sorry we can’t rescue you. I’ll come back 3 more times around every 9 hours. Please make your decision by then.”

 

“Wait, don’t go! Don’t leave me alone, ahhh…!”

 

Kwon Mu-seop finished speaking and passed by the “Ant Thread.”

 

The woman thrashed about and wailed.

 

She sobbed, begging not to be left alone, but Kwon Mu-seop silently continued walking.

 

I looked at Kwon Mu-seop’s back as he walked ahead.

 

For some reason, his retreating figure looked like a cliff enduring storms alone.

 

* * *

 

A voice came through my comfortable slumber.

 

“Can you locate the mercenary entities?”

 

Manager Kwon Mu-seop’s voice coming from outside the tent.

 

“Please report immediately if any birds are observed.”

 

As soon as I realized this, I opened my eyes with a start.

 

What time is it now?

 

6 AM. Time to get up.

 

I forced myself to shake off drowsiness and got up sluggishly.

 

When I opened the tent and came out, Kwon Mu-seop greeted me with a morning greeting.

 

“You’re up?”

 

A greeting like an affectionate mother would give to a lazy son.

 

Manager Kwon Mu-seop who said this was sitting with a foil blanket wrapped around him, rifle against his shoulder.

 

Ugh…

 

Seeing Kwon Mu-seop who had stood watch alone, I felt terribly sorry.

 

Kwon Mu-seop himself spoke as if this was natural.

 

“It hasn’t been 4 hours yet, you can sleep more.”

 

“No, I’ve slept enough.”

 

“Good job. Here.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop poured something from a thermos and handed it to me.

 

It was warm soup.

 

I received the soup with indescribable feelings.

 

Manager Kwon Mu-seop no longer looked like a Christmas tree.

 

All the gear he had been carrying so ridiculously was used for me to wear and cover myself.

 

If I had been dragged here alone, I would have been shivering under just one foil blanket.

 

Ah, Manager. Please forgive this faithless person…

 

I asked Kwon Mu-seop with great gratitude.

 

“Don’t you need to sleep, Manager?”

 

I asked to offer to take turns on watch, but Kwon Mu-seop smiled and asked back.

 

“Will you protect me?”

 

My will is abundant.

 

“Or are you trying to get the Deputy Manager promoted?”

 

“Of course not…”

 

At my dismay, Kwon Mu-seop burst into laughter again as if it was a joke.

 

“I’m fine. While you were sleeping, I caught 11 more ‘Ants.'”

 

The “Ants” caught before I fell asleep were numbers 6, 8, and 7 and 9.

 

It seems the next numbered “Ants” came after that and he caught them all diligently.

 

The “Ants” caught so far total 15.

 

Now 13 remain.

 

“I’ll catch all but 8. At this rate it’ll take about 2 hours, and after that we’ll have to keep going to find the ‘Stone Towers.’ For 22 hours, until we escape from here.”

 

I nodded at Kwon Mu-seop’s explanation.

 

Since we have firepower, why not kill all the “Executioner Ants”?

 

Absolutely not. That would be tantamount to suicide.

 

—

 

If you kill all 28 “Executioner Ants,” the “Anthill” will hatch the next generation of “Executioner Ants.”

 

The next generation will also maintain 28 ants, and they will recognize you who exterminated their predecessors as a serious threat.

 

The reborn “Executioner Ants” will not stop attacking until you die or disappear, and this fierce assault will continue through repeated generations.

 

So do not carelessly exterminate the “Executioner Ants.”

 

—

 

The “Ants” not only retaliate but continue to be born.

 

And they attack endlessly until their natural enemy disappears.

 

Because of this behavior, massacring the “Ants” is absolutely forbidden.

 

The next generation of “Ants” won’t appear one by one sneakily like now, but will swarm all at once.

 

It would be good if we could keep just one “Ant” alive and confine it somewhere.

 

But there’s no way to do that.

 

Dig a pit to confine it?

 

Why are ants called ants? Because they know how to dig tunnels.

 

Tie it up somewhere?

 

Those fangs that can snap human bones will cut through everything.

 

The “Ants” are very strong entities.

 

Like most living creatures, they’re just helpless before firearms.

 

So Manager Kwon Mu-seop’s plan was to moderately reduce the number of “Ants” to eliminate the risk of being surrounded, then use the “Stone Towers” to hold out.

 

I agreed with this strategy too.

 

Of course, it won’t be easy.

 

We’ll have to keep searching for “Stone Towers” and traveling the hill paths for 22 hours.

 

Moreover, the “Stone Towers” might be on pleasant trails, or they might be on treacherous cliff sides.

 

“Still, shouldn’t you get some sleep too, Manager…”

 

“Hahaha, I’m getting sleep here and there, so don’t worry. I got plenty of rest before coming in here too.”

 

I was surprised by Kwon Mu-seop’s answer and asked back.

 

“By any chance, were you staying on the sofa the whole time to conserve your energy…?”

 

“No, that was because the Deputy Manager told me not to make you stand as punishment.”

 

Though my guess was wrong, I somehow felt touched.

 

This is how a common soldier ends up dying out of loyalty to their superior.

 

Unable to forget such kindness.

 

Don’t be swayed, don’t be swayed.

 

…What should I do. I think I’m already swayed.

 

A halo began to shine behind Manager Kwon Mu-seop’s head.

 

I stared blankly at that radiance before suddenly snapping back to my senses.

 

Then I hurriedly looked around.

 

“What are you looking for?”

 

Kwon Mu-seop asked as I looked around.

 

Manager, you really can’t see it, right?

 

“I was wondering where the surveillance cameras are.”

 

“Need to use the bathroom?”

 

“No, I was just wondering if our current appearance is showing up on the control room screen…”

 

Because it would be somewhat painful to think of my moved expression toward Kwon Mu-seop appearing on a large screen.

 

“The control room can’t pay attention to us right now. Only the Deputy Manager and the off-duty control team members are probably watching our side.”

 

“That’s a relief.”

 

“Do you have camera phobia?”

 

“Wouldn’t anyone feel burdened if they knew they were being filmed in real time…”

 

Kwon Mu-seop burst into hearty laughter at my honest confession.

 

“It’s okay, it’s okay. Everyone doesn’t bother looking unless it’s their own area. What good scene would they be watching anyway.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop just speaking kindly.

 

If that’s the case, it’s fortunate, but it doesn’t feel convincing at all.

 

“For that being the case, the Management Bureau people knew my every move too well.”

 

“Well, they do share information when there are special circumstances.”

 

It seemed like a vague excuse, but since it wasn’t particularly important, I was going to let it slide.

 

Then a question suddenly occurred to me.

 

“Was my wandering around in the 「Train Station」 also shared?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“I remembered how Baek Sa-ra recognized me right away.”

 

When Baek Sa-ra was disguised as a prisoner in the 「Hospital Hunting Humans」.

 

She had acted familiar with me, calling me ‘Seo Do-un who pays back anyone later’.

 

This meant she had observed very detailed information about what I did in the 「Train Station」.

 

“Hmm, sharing was necessary back then. For boosting employee morale.”

 

And with Kwon Mu-seop’s following answer, I felt it again.

 

This person’s strange opacity.

 

Kwon Mu-seop sometimes glosses over explanations like this.

 

Like a snake slithering over a wall.

 

If he were someone naturally built that way like Cha Si-eon, I would just accept it, but doing this after speaking well made it even stranger.

 

He’s not just a frivolous person either, and for someone of Kwon Mu-seop’s caliber, why?

 

If I asked directly, he’d probably laugh it off like the 200 million incident last time, right?

 

I pondered for a moment then twisted my question.

 

“Then is this current situation also for morale boosting?”

 

“Huh?”

 

“You personally taking charge of me. I thought you might be overexerting yourself, but if I think of it as that kind of performance…”

 

“That’s a good thought, but I didn’t think that far ahead.”

 

When I deliberately made assumptions, Kwon Mu-seop burst into hearty laughter.

 

So I also continued speaking while pretending not to know.

 

“If that’s not it either, then what’s the reason for going this far? Honestly, I’m not sure if it’s right for you to leave your post too, Manager.”

 

“Do-un, as I said before, you don’t need to worry so much. I’m also acting after sufficient consideration.”

 

“You also said that basis was intuition…”

 

“Right, my intuition is really good.”

 

He said it with such a cheerful face that I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or serious.

 

Moreover, his answers kept being vague.

 

I also gradually felt stubborn and questioned him to the end.

 

“This tent and thermos were also prepared just based on intuition?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Then around what age will I get married?”

 

“You can’t get married because you can’t get a girlfriend.”

 

“…”

 

-Manager, Do-un’s expression doesn’t look good. He’s looking at you like you’re a scammer right now.

 

Yun U-jeong also seemed frustrated with Kwon Mu-seop’s evasiveness and finally intervened.

 

“Ah, is that the ‘you’re talking nonsense’ expression? Got it, got it.”

 

When Yun U-jeong took my side, Kwon Mu-seop burst into laughter again.

 

Then he seemed to compromise and began speaking.

 

“I told you before, right? That sometimes I can see the Special Zone thinking.”

 

This was something I heard when I first met Kwon Mu-seop.

 

-There really are patterns and tendencies. Sometimes you can see these guys thinking too.

 

-If being dragged to the Special Zone were truly random, more people should be dragged away during broad daylight in densely populated downtown areas.

 

Right, he had said this while suggesting that the Special Zone seemed to select its prey.

 

“Actually, suppression weeks weren’t originally this busy. But since we kept interfering with Special Zones during their transformation periods, one day the Special Zones’ transformation periods started overlapping.”

 

“They overlapped?”

 

“Yeah. We have to see it as an intention to disperse our forces. That way at least one or two can succeed in transforming. These guys have brains too. They have intentions and strategies.”

 

This was surprising news.

 

It was also completely different from what I wanted to hear about.

 

“So I tried to read their intention. Your continuous abductions probably aren’t random coincidences either.”

 

“Can you really read their intentions? I can’t at all…”

 

“I told you. There was one person before you.”

 

He was talking about Agent Lee Seob.

 

“Back then I was too busy responding to think about it. But looking back later, I thought what happened to that guy wasn’t just a coincidental occurrence either. Only much later though.”

 

So this time he read the intention and prepared accordingly?

 

As if accurately predicting I’d be dragged to this cold place, bringing a tent and even a thermos?

 

If that’s the case, Kwon Mu-seop’s claim about having good intuition wouldn’t be exaggeration or boasting.

 

However, I also had good intuition.

 

Reading others’ intentions was originally my profession too.

 

“You must have been close.”

 

“Huh?”

 

“That agent who was in the same situation as me.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop hesitated.

 

“Did he have a girlfriend?”

 

At my half-joking question, Kwon Mu-seop hesitated then smiled.

 

Then he muttered reluctantly.

 

“Not a girlfriend, he had a wife and child, and he got married early too.”

 

“How many children?”

 

“One daughter.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop answered readily then sighed.

 

“Let’s stop talking about that guy’s personal details, Do-un. It’s dangerous.”

 

Agent Lee Seob.

 

Blinded due to severe contamination.

 

Do not mention that name.

 

Do not bring it up except when absolutely necessary.

 

Though he couldn’t possibly be unaware of these guidelines, Kwon Mu-seop had surprisingly answered readily and was now regretting it belatedly.

 

Seeing this, I opened my mouth with certainty.

 

“Section Chief.”

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Is that person’s daughter Lee Sol by any chance?”

 

At my question, the smile disappeared from Kwon Mu-seop’s face.

—————
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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