Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 78

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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 78

ep13. Blood Rain (10)

A crow…?

That pitch-black bird that flew in through the broken glass window flapped its wings on the floor.

Unable to fly again, it struggled desperately, looking somehow urgent.

I quickly exchanged glances with Cha Si-eon.

A crow wandering around the Special Zone, especially circling around me.

This bird seems to be that one, but what should we do?

Should we catch it?

As I looked back and forth between the crow and Cha Si-eon.

Caw-!

The crow stretched its neck and suddenly vomited blood.

Is it injured somewhere?

Cha Si-eon nodded toward me.

It meant we should capture it.

Right, we need to catch it first before we can investigate or treat it.

Cha Si-eon took off the combat shirt he was wearing.

It seemed he intended to use it like a net.

I also took off my work jumper and spread it out.

We slowly spread apart and approached the crow.

Eventually the crow was positioned between us, and we exchanged glances again to pounce simultaneously.

The crow was no longer flapping and sat quietly on the floor.

Does this mean it wants us to capture it?

Then, I made eye contact with the crow.

“…”

It was looking at me with coal-black eyes.

Not at Cha Si-eon who had approached closer, but only at me.

“Wait a moment, Team Leader!”

I shouted without realizing it.

At my restraint, Cha Si-eon, who was about to pounce on the crow, stopped abruptly.

“Don’t catch it.”

I said again.

It was something I said purely on instinct, without knowing the reason or purpose.

“Why shouldn’t we catch it?”

“If we catch it, we won’t be able to find out why this crow came here.”

Did I really think this through before saying it?

I don’t think so.

Even I only understood the reason after saying it.

Right, we need to get a hint.

To do that, we need to leave this bird alone.

Whether accepting my intention, Cha Si-eon lowered the shirt he had spread wide.

I also put away my jumper and observed the crow.

The crow looked at me for a moment, then staggered to its feet.

Then it flapped its wings with still labored movements.

The crow that barely managed to take off flew straight to the 2nd floor.

We chased after the crow up the stairs.

But when we reached the 2nd floor, the crow was no longer there.

Instead, space was broken.

“Huh…”

It was a sight I’d never seen in my life.

A crack in mid-air that looked like broken glass.

And through it, a completely different space was visible.

It looked like someone had roughly cut out a photo of another space and stuck it in mid-air.

“Isn’t that something from games?”

“It often appears in movies too.”

Right, I’d seen it often in games and movies.

What they call a portal, a dimensional hole.

“That looks like a corridor…”

“Probably.”

“Do you think it was made for us to enter?”

“Phew…”

At my question, Cha Si-eon let out a long breath.

I felt the same way.

Really, what should we do?

Listen here, bird. What are you doing suddenly presenting something like that to people already exhausted from long-term drifting?

Then Cha Si-eon put his shirt back on and said.

“I’ll go in and take a look. Please wait outside, Seo Do-un.”

“You’re going to enter that place?”

Just like that? Without even knowing what it is?

I asked in surprise, but Cha Si-eon didn’t repeat himself.

He attached a wire to his belt like a miner entering a coal mine.

Then he entrusted the wire case to me and stepped into the rift.

The rift was as large as a gate.

And the space beyond it was pitch black.

So much so that I couldn’t tell if it was darkness or the deep sea.

Cha Si-eon entered with his searchlight on, and I watched the scene from outside.

At some point, Cha Si-eon’s light disappeared.

Judging by how the wire kept unwinding, he seemed to have turned sideways.

The wire unwound smoothly.

About 10 minutes passed.

The wire stopped unwinding.

Another 2 minutes passed.

Bang-!

…Gunshot?

The sharp explosive sound characteristic of a pistol hit my eardrums.

It wasn’t from far away, but from quite close, from inside that rift.

Immediately after, the wire began rewinding rapidly.

Is he coming back? But the speed is too fast?

Don’t tell me the rope broke?

As I watched anxiously, Cha Si-eon appeared from the darkness.

Cha Si-eon ran straight out of the rift, and after coming out, caught his breath for a moment.

“What is it? What’s inside?”

At my question, Cha Si-eon wiped his forehead.

As if he had seen something troublesome.

When I looked at him puzzledly, Cha Si-eon spoke.

“Inside was like a maze. But the shape and texture of the space didn’t look like part of ‘The Island’. No, it didn’t seem like a Type 1 Special Zone.”

It doesn’t seem like a Type 1 Special Zone?

Having only entered Type 1 zones, it was an expression I couldn’t readily understand.

I had seen it in the manual though.

That depending on the type, the unique atmosphere or texture that space has is different.

And the unique characteristic of Type 1 Special Zones was that they were almost identical to reality.

“And then?”

“If you keep going inside, there’s quite a spacious area. The Big Cat was there.”

“…What did you say?”

“It seemed to have been attacked by something – its outer shell was damaged. It was in much worse condition than when I last encountered it.”

What the hell, suddenly the Big Cat?

Various thoughts flashed through my mind.

The roaring that echoed all night.

The crow that was injured and coughing up blood.

The passage that crow had opened.

And the Big Cat collapsed there…

“Did that thing see you too, Team Leader Cha?”

“Yes, I almost got caught.”

So that’s why he fired his gun and ran out…

“Didn’t it chase after you?”

“The passage was too narrow for the Big Cat to come out. It seems to be trapped inside.”

I was about to nod, then realized something didn’t add up and asked back.

“But why did you almost get caught, Team Leader?”

“I tried to approach it to secure a fragment.”

“…”

This guy was making such a fuss about how dangerous the Big Cat was.

But as soon as he saw it, he went straight in thinking about stealing fragments…?

“So did you get any?”

“No, it was too alert so I couldn’t approach properly.”

It wasn’t a surprising result.

Approaching a Named Dangerous Entity that was injured and trapped – it was impressive enough that he came back alive.

Bang-! Bang bang bang bang-!

Then the sound of gunfire echoed again.

The sounds coming from this distance were most likely from the Management Bureau’s rescue team.

The situation had become quite strange.

The rescue team was diligently rushing to rescue us, and inside there was the Big Cat trapped as if telling us to take its fragments.

“We should… take the fragments, right?”

“That’s right.”

“Of course it would be dangerous for just us, so the best option would be to go in after joining up with the rescue team.”

“That’s true.”

“The problem is whether that passage will remain until the rescue team arrives.”

“That’s also correct.”

Cha Si-eon stopped agreeing with me and dragged two chairs from the cafe area.

It wasn’t a consideration for me to sit down.

Cha Si-eon placed those chairs at the left and right ends of the rift.

Then he went to the bookshelf on the cafe wall, gathered books, and stacked them on the chairs.

Finally, he even split a perfectly good book in half, making the height of the stacked books match exactly with the height of the rift.

“Seo Do-un, what time is it now?”

“9:20.”

“I’ll measure the size of this rift every 5 minutes from now on.”

Right, that’s about all we can do for now.

But this was only a half-measure response.

If that rift had a time limit, we couldn’t know whether it would gradually shrink and disappear, or suddenly snap shut and vanish at some point.

Cha Si-eon probably knew this too, but he had established a baseline for now.

Then he came back to my side and said.

“For reference, the number of rooms in this Special Zone is estimated to be approximately 8,400.”

“8,400 rooms?”

“I calculated it at dawn. The areas here are assigned through restoration extraction. Setting aside the forms from A to J, considering that during our 129 breakthroughs so far, duplicate areas appeared only once, the probability of rooms being extracted as duplicates here is only 0.77%.”

“…”

“If we apply our breakthrough count and duplicate probability to a birthday problem formula similar to the current situation and reverse-calculate the parameters, we get approximately 8,400.”

“…?”

When I kept my mouth shut and stared blankly, Cha Si-eon asked me.

“Any objections?”

“No, none.”

Honestly, I didn’t understand it.

So what kind of mathematical formula did he use?

Team Leader Cha, I didn’t see you that way, but you were a science person…

As a humanities person, I decided to humbly accept Cha Si-eon’s logical estimation.

So I was faced with a new problem.

If there are approximately 8,400 areas here, how long would it take for the rescue team to reach us?

Bang bang bang-! Bang bang bang bang-!

From the faint sounds in the distance, it seemed they had no intention of following the rules.

If they just smashed through everything, wouldn’t it still take at least 5 minutes per area?

It’s a very rough estimate, but 8,400 multiplied by 5 minutes would be…

42,000 minutes, 700 hours, 29 days…

Of course, this would be if the rescue team reached our area dead last, so they’d arrive faster than this.

At least faster than 29 days…

“There should be agents who have finished their break time by now. The rescue team’s scale will gradually expand, and search time will be shortened accordingly.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“The problem is that even within the rescue teams, the advance and follow-up groups can’t share information. Communication issues will make coordination and supply difficult.”

“I see.”

“Still, there shouldn’t be any problems breaking through each area. The other agents will quickly recognize the downgrade of this Special Zone.”

“That’s fortunate.”

“The problem is if the rescue team reaches the area with this Special Zone’s core before reaching us. If they destroy the core, we’ll all be expelled.”

“I see. Team Leader, 5 minutes have passed.”

When I announced the time, Cha Si-eon headed toward the rift.

Then he took out his knife and began measuring the changes.

“Left, right, and height have each decreased by about 1.5cm.”

Ah, these guys keep making the humanities person do calculations.

“So every 5 minutes, the width decreases by 3cm and the height by 1.5cm.”

“This rift is about 3m wide and 2.5m high.”

“Since the width shrinks from both sides, it’ll close faster.”

“The time it takes for the horizontal width to completely close is 500 minutes, 8 hours and 20 minutes.”

“But there’s no guarantee this will close at a constant rate.”

“The closing speed might be proportional to area instead of distance, and for a person to pass through, we need at least a 30cm diameter secured.”

“30cm might be difficult for you, Team Leader.”

“That’s true.”

“…”

“…”

Cha Si-eon and I exchanged gloomy looks.

As if I understood his feelings, he seemed to understand mine.

About 20 minutes later.

We were cursing as we leaped into the rift.

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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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