Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 7

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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 7

Episode 7. ep2. I Thought I Had Escaped (2)

“…What was the question?”

At my question, the man who had been expressionless snorted.

Hey, do you know what publishing industry salaries are like?

How many years do you think it would take me to save up that much with my monthly pay?

Besides, I got heated because this bastard claimed to be government-affiliated while spouting irresponsible nonsense.

So I was being confrontational, but if the state is showing this level of courtesy.

So this is me graciously accepting their sincerity, not surrendering to money. Yeah.

I maintained my dignity with this line of reasoning.

Then the topknot who had been snorting seemed somewhat disgusted as he moved on to the main topic.

“I asked about the circumstances of Seo Do-un using a book during the barter exchange. This is a question for updating the survival manual, so please provide a detailed explanation.”

“That survival manual, was it made here?”

“That’s correct.”

“Why did you make it?”

“Obviously for the purpose of rescuing lives.”

“Then wouldn’t it be better to just patrol instead?”

Instead of answering the question, when I asked back like this, the topknot’s gaze became even more insolent.

Hmm, that’s the look you give a malicious complainant.

So I added, as I would to a particularly sensitive author.

“I’m confused about what purpose it serves. I think I could explain more helpfully if I understood the situation.”

I said this and smiled with a face that knew nothing.

Cooperation is cooperation, but I really need to address this first.

Perhaps sensing my true intentions, the topknot answered reluctantly.

“The area Seo Do-un entered has constantly occurring fatal factors that cannot be countered. Therefore, agent entry and long-term stays are strictly restricted.”

So basically you didn’t go in because you were protecting yourselves, you bastard.

Of course, civil servants are people too.

So it would be unfair to curse them for not risking their lives.

Let me overlook this with clouded eyes for now.

But a new problem emerged.

“By uncounterable fatal factors, you mean those sirens, right?”

“Please cooperate.”

“Of course I’ll cooperate, but why wasn’t it written in the survival manual that people die when the siren sounds? You couldn’t have not known.”

I asked back, but the topknot no longer answered.

Instead, judging by how his eyes narrowed, he seemed to have no intention of yielding further.

So I speculated instead of the tight-lipped topknot.

“Since you can’t respond anyway, ignorance is bliss, is that it?”

“Something like that. Will you cooperate now?”

The topknot replied in an even lower voice.

I’m going to get hit at this rate.

I have more things I want to argue about, but since I’ll definitely lose if we fight, I should stop soon.

What was the question again?

The circumstances of using a book during the barter exchange.

As for circumstances, I didn’t have many options at the time.

First, the survival manual said this:

—

Request a barter exchange from “the one wearing old military uniform.”

Items that have succeeded in barter exchange so far.

1. Cigarettes

2. Painkillers

3. Handkerchief

4. Silver ring

5. Cross, rosary

6. White flowers

7. Burn treatment medicine

8. Raw rice

Items that have failed in barter exchange so far.

1. Pornography

2. Various electronic devices

3. Precious metals excluding silver rings

4. Food items such as snacks, chocolate, bread, kimbap

5. Various clothing and footwear

Barter exchange attempts are prohibited for safety.

1. Various firearms including replicas

2. Various bladed weapons including replicas

3. Various explosives and explosive materials including replicas

4. Living or dead humans

—

“Since the survival manual said ‘the one wearing old military uniform,’ I first assumed it was a soldier.”

Making that assumption, I noticed pornography and food among the rejected items.

I’m sorry for treating people so primitively, but these two things are generally preferred by soldiers.

“But I noticed that items a normal soldier would like were rejected. Instead, among the items that succeeded in barter exchange were white flowers and raw rice, so I thought it might be a dead person, that is, a fallen soldier.”

Rejecting pornography and food means losing sexual and food desires.

This is a characteristic of sick people, dying people, or dead people.

Then white flowers might be funeral offerings, and raw rice might be what’s put in the mouth when preparing the dead?

In the same framework, accepting painkillers and burn treatment medicine means dying by fire.

Handkerchiefs or silver rings could be items commemorating mothers or lovers.

And giving guns and blades to a fallen soldier would be clearly dangerous.

“So I thought it might accept a book. Seeing that it accepted cigarettes and crosses, it seemed to be seeking comfort.”

I thought this way, and coincidentally the book I had was worth trying to barter.

Because that book was a collection of only good sentences from novels that could provide comfort to the heart.

Indeed, “the one wearing old military uniform” showed interest in that sentence collection and tore off one page.

I don’t know which page or which sentence it tore off.

I didn’t have time to check then, and I have no way to check now.

My belongings seem to have all been disposed of by that hazmat suit earlier, citing contamination.

My explanation ended, but the man said nothing.

He just stared at me silently for several seconds.

When I stared back, the man moved on to the next question.

“Seo Do-un didn’t open the survival manual again from when you first read it until you met Lee Sol. Is that correct?”

What are you asking when you watched everything?

“Usually people check it several more times while moving, so why was that?”

“There was no need to check it.”

“Did you memorize it all?”

“Yes.”

The man looked at me with suspicious eyes.

So I responded with an expression asking what the problem was.

Then the man also tilted his head sideways and said.

“Tell me what you remember about Route C.”

“Escape through ‘recycling bins.’ Recommended when escape via Routes A and B has failed or evacuation to ‘The Circulating Library’ is impossible. When the interior of the railroad station is dirtied with human saliva, etc., the neutral entity ‘Janitor’ appears. At this time, the ‘recycling bin’ that the ‘Janitor’ drags around is connected to reality and can be used as an escape route. However, if you enter the ‘recycling bin,’ parts that the ‘Janitor’ judges as dirty are randomly removed. These parts could be hair, nails, limbs, etc. unrelated to sustaining life, or they could be heart, lungs, brain, etc. directly connected to life…”

“That’s enough.”

When I recited the contents of the manual exactly, the topknot man cut off my words as if confirming.

I don’t know if he’s military or National Intelligence Service, but what a way to have a conversation.

No, is this not a conversation but an interrogation?

Either way, it wasn’t pleasant.

I found that topknot man quite uncomfortable.

So I only wanted to finish this interrogation quickly.

But perhaps noticing that I was thinking this way, the man suddenly caught me off guard.

“Were you maintaining your rationality when you handed the ticket to Lee Sol?”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean whether you had any rational alternatives or other measures.”

What kind of question is this again?

When I remained dumbfounded for a moment, the topknot man asked again.

“Was it an action taken without alternatives or measures?”

“Is there some problem?”

“There’s no problem. The compensation allocated to Mr. Seo Do-un includes a portion for life-saving.”

Then what exactly are you asking?

“You seem quick-witted, so I was just checking if you had some other calculation. If not, that’s fine.”

…This was just that guy’s personality problem.

I couldn’t tell if I was being insulted indirectly or directly, and felt inwardly irritated.

So I forced a smile and replied to the man.

“Yes, my calculations were insufficient. There was no manual saying to save myself first either.”

At that moment, the topknot man’s hand, which had been writing something, stopped abruptly.

He stayed like that with his pen stopped, then looked at me and said stiffly.

“Then you can learn from this opportunity.”

“Why bother with something so good?”

I answered while still smiling, and the topknot man stared at me for a while.

I didn’t avoid his gaze either, so an unintended staring contest continued briefly.

As expected, I find this man uncomfortable.

Probably he’s thinking the same thing looking at me.

“Haah…”

Eventually the topknot man openly let out a sigh.

“Lastly, do you have any suggestions regarding the manual we provided?”

You really need to learn some manners.

I was quite dumbfounded but instead smiled broadly.

Then I spoke to the topknot man who looked puzzled at my smile.

“There were quite a few errors, so you should probably do some proofreading.”

“What do you mean by errors?”

“It was confusing from the first part, wasn’t it? Suddenly telling people not to forget they’re human – when you suddenly emphasize facts that people naturally recognize, it just causes confusion rather than helping. Especially for someone who’s suddenly dropped in an unknown place. If there was a need to emphasize it specially, you should have provided at least minimal explanation that readers could understand.”

At my criticism, the topknot man’s eyebrows twitched for the first time.

Seeing that, I pretended not to notice and continued speaking.

“And there was a sentence saying ‘All acts of consumption such as eating, drinking, or reading are strictly prohibited in the Special Zone,’ but is it right to group ‘eating and drinking’ with ‘reading’ in one category? How would you infer the other acts abbreviated with ‘etc.’? If the penalty for breaking the warning is nothing other than physical and mental damage, shouldn’t you convey the meaning more accurately? Before that, you’d need to resolve the contradiction of telling people to read the manual while warning them not to read anything.”

Why else would there be a saying about killing people with tongue and pen?

Sentences are another soul of the person who wrote them.

That’s why using cushioning language is a basic quality of editors.

When an editor decides to butcher sentences, writers die.

Of course, this topknot man isn’t a writer.

But seeing the topknot man’s rigid expression, one thing is clear.

This guy got scratched.

Right, you feel bad too when others speak annoyingly, don’t you?

That’s why people maintain courtesy with each other.

I kindly continued grinding him down, hoping this topknot man would learn well from this opportunity.

The Item Storage Locker had no practicality either, so why did you bother writing it down?

Do you know that some bastards used it to kill and cut up people to sell them?

You didn’t know such things would happen? Are you an idiot?

“Railroad Police,” “Severed Station Worker” – how can you name things based on your own feelings?

Wouldn’t people who don’t know think ‘what the hell is that, you otaku’?

Then when they see it directly, they’d be so shocked they’d freeze up – are you telling everyone to die?

I said everything I wanted to say while enjoying watching the topknot bastard’s face contort.

I was already regretful that I couldn’t underline the manual.

Since you’re giving me this opportunity, I’m truly grateful.

“Of course, I understand you worked hard to make it.”

When I added this afterward, the topknot man’s eyebrows twitched.

His expression said ‘giving poison then medicine?’

Not really?

I smiled brightly and added, meaning there was no medicine.

“Separately, it would be good to structure the manual more rationally, so you can learn well from this opportunity.”

I roughly mimicked what the topknot man had said and returned it to him, and the topknot man’s face finally crumpled nicely.

He looked at me with tension in his jaw, then finally muttered reluctantly.

“I’ll take it into consideration.”

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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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