Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 61

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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 61

 

ep11. Depriving the Five Senses (6)

 

“By any chance, is that person’s daughter Lee Sol?”

 

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

 

“Who did you hear that story from?”

 

“I didn’t hear it from anyone.”

 

At Kwon Mu-seop’s confession-like counter-question, I was genuinely amazed.

 

Really surprising.

 

That I only found out about this now.

 

The Management Bureau people really keep their mouths shut.

 

If Heo Gu-yeong hadn’t accidentally let slip about the 200 million, I would never have known Lee Sol’s identity until the end.

 

Cha Si-eon and Kwon Mu-seop handed me 200 million from their own pockets when I came out of the Train Station.

 

Using their own money meant there was a personal motive.

 

There was only one reason that made sense.

 

Lee Seob, who was said to be a comrade of Kwon Mu-seop and Cha Si-eon.

 

And Lee Sol, who said her father had already passed away.

 

These two were father and daughter.

 

But for the sake of Supervisor Heo Gu-yeong’s well-being, I couldn’t say this.

 

“Then how did you find out?”

 

Kwon Mu-seop pressed me gently.

 

How should I explain this without involving Heo Gu-yeong?

 

Feeling reassured that Kwon Mu-seop couldn’t see ahead, I forced through a fabrication.

 

“Because you resemble each other.”

 

“Resemble?”

 

“I thought your smiling expressions were strangely similar, and you have the same surname and both have single-character names. Looking at single-character names, there are often cases where the parents have single-character names so they name their children the same way.”

 

“….”

 

Kwon Mu-seop’s expression looked unconvinced.

 

No! Let’s protect Supervisor Heo Gu-yeong!

 

“Lee Sol’s name was mentioned particularly often at the Management Bureau too. While other people are called ‘Rescuer number so-and-so,’ Team Leader Cha, Baek Sa-ra, Jae-gyeom, everyone calls Sol ‘Lee Sol’ by name, which seemed strange.”

 

“….”

 

“So I wondered about it, and am I right?”

 

“Haah….”

 

Kwon Mu-seop let out a sigh mixed with resignation as if he had no choice.

 

Good. I protected Supervisor Heo Gu-yeong.

 

But, what is it?

 

Even though everything was already discovered, Kwon Mu-seop remained silent with a troubled face.

 

I observed his complexion and asked back.

 

“The compensation money was also given generously for that reason, right?”

 

“…There’s nothing I can hide. Right, it ended up that way somehow.”

 

“Is there any particular reason to hide it?”

 

“It’s also a prohibited topic, and there are still things left to sort out.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop muttered weakly with a smile.

 

I now understood well the intention behind Cha Si-eon and Kwon Mu-seop giving me 200 million.

 

However, I still didn’t understand why Kwon Mu-seop kept trailing off his words until the end.

 

I wanted to know the detailed circumstances.

 

There were still more questions left to dig deeper.

 

But looking at Kwon Mu-seop’s expression, I changed my mind.

 

“I’ll ask just one more thing.”

 

“…Go ahead.”

 

“Was the Otter Rescue Association also created because of Lee Sol’s influence?”

 

“Huh?”

 

Kwon Mu-seop blinked his eyes.

 

As if he hadn’t expected such a question.

 

I didn’t react to that and continued speaking seriously.

 

“If you treat me like an otter because of Lee Sol, I think I’d rather feel relieved.”

 

“Relieved?”

 

“It’s really scary when scary people get enthusiastic for no reason, but if it’s because of Sol, at least it makes sense.”

 

At my serious explanation, Kwon Mu-seop blinked his eyes a few more times.

 

Then he finally burst into helpless laughter.

 

“That reason is quite significant too. Not everything, but still.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop’s voice was much lighter.

 

Yes, I still want to know.

 

But I don’t want to make Kwon Mu-seop uncomfortable just to dig that out.

 

I didn’t know he would be this troubled in the first place.

 

I thought he would lightly brush it off saying “Oh, you caught me.”

 

I don’t know why he’s acting like this, but it wouldn’t be right to torment a superior who’s worthy of respect for once.

 

With these thoughts, I took a step back.

 

As if reading my inner thoughts, Kwon Mu-seop laughed a few more times with just his breath.

 

Then he murmured in a much calmer voice.

 

“When Sol got dragged there, we all felt like we were being punished by heaven.”

 

Punished by heaven?

 

“But then you appeared.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop opened and closed his mouth as if to say a few more words, then finally shook his head.

 

“Let’s leave it at this for now.”

 

“Yes.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop’s voice sounded tired.

 

So I couldn’t bring myself to ask.

 

Why did you all just stand by and watch instead of rescuing her, when she wasn’t just anyone but the daughter of a dead comrade?

 

“Did Lee Sol get home safely?”

 

So I asked an easier question instead.

 

My respectable superior just smiled.

 

* * *

 

We spent two more hours in the same spot.

 

According to Kwon Mu-seop’s plan, we also caught the Ant smoothly.

 

Now what remained were numbers 1 through 5, and numbers 26 through 28.

 

A total of eight.

 

We had to endure playing tag with those Ants for the remaining 22 hours.

 

-Ant 26 is moving. It’ll take about 20 minutes.

 

“Yes, I’ll start touring the Stone Towers now.”

 

At Yun U-jeong’s guidance, Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop felt around the Stone Tower placed beside him.

 

Then he rolled up his sleeve so the mark on his wrist was clearly visible.

 

“Do-un, you’ll need to check the mark from now on.”

 

“Yes, understood.”

 

This mark doesn’t have a consistent duration.

 

So while being chased by the Ants, we had to continuously check if the mark was there, and that was my job since I could see ahead.

 

Since we had some time before Ant 26 arrived, we first went to find the woman caught in the Ant Thread.

 

“Have you decided?”

 

“You’re not even human….”

 

The face of the woman we met again was filled with resentment.

 

Her voice was also full of venom, but Kwon Mu-seop calmly continued speaking.

 

“If you need more time, I’ll come back in 9 hours.”

 

“You bastard…!”

 

“In the meantime, please think about what you’d like to say to your family or friends. I’ll deliver the message.”

 

Kwon Mu-seop turned around again, and the woman broke down sobbing.

 

That’s when I realized it.

 

Kwon Mu-seop was forcing that person to accept death, almost by force.

 

“The Ant Thread is something the Ants periodically vomit up.”

 

Once we were far enough away that the woman’s crying couldn’t be heard, Kwon Mu-seop, who was walking ahead, spoke.

 

“Over time it hardens and turns white, which makes it somewhat better, but freshly spat threads are transparent and hard to see. The Deputy Manager will support you, but you need to be careful since we might miss newly formed Ant Threads.”

 

-I won’t miss them.

 

While Kwon Mu-seop was giving me advice, Yun U-jeong suddenly interjected.

 

At her consistent objection, Kwon Mu-seop smiled faintly.

 

“I’d be grateful if you could do that.”

 

-Manager, tell Do-un that story too. About the hazmat suit.

 

“That’s…”

 

For some reason, Kwon Mu-seop looked troubled.

 

“Hazmat suit?”

 

-A while back, there was someone who experimented on himself to find a way to escape from those Ant Threads.

 

“Deputy Manager…”

 

-Oh come on, what’s the big deal?

 

When I showed curiosity, Yun U-jeong started telling the story herself.

 

Kwon Mu-seop looked like he wanted to stop her, but it was useless.

 

-So he put on a hazmat suit and jumped into those Ant Threads himself, completely fearless.

 

“Who on earth would do that?”

 

-Yeah, there was someone. Some stubborn guy. Anyway, when the Ant Threads shake, the mucus flows and becomes more threads, right? It gets more and more tangled in that structure, so this person came up with his own strategy. Since the mucus flows downward, he’d step on the threads from below and use force to break free.

 

It seemed like a decent idea.

 

The mucus splashes and becomes threads, but if you’re touching the ground, there’s no reason for it to splash.

 

“So did he succeed?”

 

-What do you think happened?

 

“I wonder?”

 

-He fell over by himself while trying to forcefully step on the threads.

 

“Ah…”

 

-Because of that, the threads bounced up and got wrapped around the guy’s neck.

 

“What?”

 

-From then on, he was being strangled and made a huge fuss asking to be saved.

 

“You’re not joking, this really happened?”

 

-We thought it was a joke too. So we watched for a few seconds, but he was actually dying, you know? We got scared and went to rescue him, but then we got caught in the threads too, and four or five people got tangled up all at once…

 

“So what happened?”

 

-Fortunately, no one’s bare skin was touched, so we cut the clothes and escaped half-naked. We returned after shivering in that state for several hours.

 

Geez…

 

-After returning, he got scolded terribly. The Field Team manager back then was really like a tiger.

 

I think that deserved a scolding…

 

-Do-un, do you know who that hazmat suit guy was?

 

“Is it someone I know?”

 

-Yeah, you know him well.

 

I hope it’s Cha Si-eon.

 

But seeing how they’re respectfully calling him “that guy,” it doesn’t seem to be Team Leader Cha.

 

Then who is it?

 

-Kwon Mu-seop, he got promoted to manager now, but I wonder how he’s doing.

 

Ah… Ahhh…

 

I covered my mouth and looked back at Kwon Mu-seop.

 

Kwon Mu-seop was rubbing his forehead with a very embarrassed expression.

 

Perhaps Manager Kwon Mu-seop is too great a person for me to dare respect.

 

Or maybe I’m just a shallow person who can’t embrace both respectable and pathetic aspects.

 

Even his halo seems to have gone out since I can’t see it anymore.

 

I eventually chuckled, and Manager Kwon Mu-seop reluctantly smiled too.

 

These were pitiful struggles to shake off our guilt.

 

We deliberately forgot about the woman abandoned in the Ant Thread and moved to find the Stone Tower.

 

This small mountain had well-maintained trails that were easy to walk on.

 

But we deliberately secured the Stone Towers in difficult terrain first, planning to struggle while we still had energy.

 

As we climbed up like that, we came to quite steep rocky terrain.

 

“Right above here is the summit.”

 

“There’s something like a big stone tower.”

 

“That’s the beacon tower. The Anthill is below it.”

 

So the next generation of Ants will pour out from that beacon tower?

 

Moreover, they said the core of this Special Zone is in the deepest part of the Anthill.

 

It’s a dangerous area in many ways, so it would be better not to get too close.

 

We were detouring before reaching the summit.

 

Rustle-!

 

I turned my head at the sound of fallen leaves and nearly had my heart drop.

 

An Executioner Ant was wandering around restlessly 40 meters away.

 

With its head and antennae facing our direction.

 

It wants to attack us but seems restless as if blocked by an invisible wall.

 

“An Ant has come.”

 

“Oh, number 26.”

 

It came to avenge number 25.

 

But it can’t approach because of the mark.

 

From now on, I have to walk around with that thing following me?

 

It’s really menacing.

 

Until now, we caught them as soon as they came, so I didn’t have time to look closely.

 

The Executioner Ant I was finally seeing properly was bigger than a calf.

 

Due to the insect’s characteristic segmented body, its round head was almost the size of a human torso.

 

The antennae and fangs attached to such a head were writhing toward us, which was quite terrifying.

 

“As long as we maintain the mark well, there shouldn’t be any problem. Let’s go.”

 

At Kwon Mu-seop’s encouragement, I turned my eyes away from the Ant.

 

They say the mark’s duration is up to 50 minutes at most, but it usually disappears between 20-30 minutes.

 

So we had to navigate the mountain path quite busily.

 

It was about two hours later.

 

-Oh no, Manager. Ant number 3 is moving. If you keep going in that direction, number 3 will follow too, won’t it?

 

We were on our way to renew my mark.

 

I was already thinking we’d barely make it to the Stone Tower, and now there was even a variable.

 

“That won’t work. They’re not consecutive numbers either, so it’s a bit early, but it’s better to catch number 26 here.”

 

But what was there to worry about.

 

Manager Kwon Mu-seop skillfully controlled even the variables.

 

The problem was me.

 

“Do-un, you can shoot a gun, right?”

 

I suddenly found myself on the testing ground.

 

One I couldn’t avoid and couldn’t fail.

 

It was a testing ground where the honor of military service veterans was at stake.

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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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