Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 88
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
Editor’s Survival Rules Episode 88
ep15. Edit! National Museum of Korea! (4)
Seo Do-un, what’s wrong with you?
I asked myself once, following Teacher Kim Woo-in’s advice.
The answer came immediately.
-Is there anything that’s not a problem right now?
-Even if the situation has improved a bit, my circumstances are still the same.
-I never know when I’ll be dragged back to that hell again.
-Besides, too many people have died.
-Heads flying off, being compressed, split in half, crushed, falling, exploding, shot, stabbed by trophies, grabbed and swung around, bitten on the neck, stabbed with knives, suffocated.
-Do you think enduring all this is easy?
Hmm, that’s right.
I have experienced a lot of harsh things.
Enough to develop PTSD without it being strange.
So is that why my stomach is twisting right now?
-…
No answer.
I waited for a moment, then changed the question.
Has it always been the worst until now?
So you’ve just been forcing yourself to endure it?
This question seemed easier, as an answer came back again.
-Not really.
-I’m getting paid a lot, aren’t I?
-The people I’ve met here aren’t bad either.
-They’re people who have been fighting battles unknown to anyone while I lived an ordinary life.
-They’re hoping we’ll all be freed from this nightmare together.
Yes, I understand this feeling too.
That’s why I can say I’m getting by reasonably well.
It’s difficult, but it’s not only difficult.
Because enduring in this position isn’t meaningless.
Good. I understand up to this point.
So why exactly is my stomach twisting?
-…
My mind became quiet again.
I really don’t understand.
But thinking about it, it was like this before too.
Back when I was still eating school meals.
When my stomach twisted so much it was hard to breathe.
Back then, I thought it was just because of academic stress.
In reality, it wasn’t such a simple problem, but I could only find out the real cause much later.
That’s how people’s hearts are.
They deceive themselves as naturally as eating.
No, they fail to recognize themselves.
They don’t really know what kind of person they are, or what emotions are controlling them.
They live creaking along in that state, and when they fall hard, they belatedly search for what the problem was.
Then they face the already enormous distortion and despair.
I don’t want to repeat such mistakes, but it’s not easy.
But let’s not be impatient.
Even if not right now, I’ll surely find out.
That’s what I need to realize, and if I want to know it.
* * *
-Beginning the 5th entity response test.
Baek Sa-ra’s voice echoed through the speakers in the Situation Control Room.
-Test subject. One neutral entity “Employee” inside the “Member-only Warehouse-style Mart.”
The main screen in the control room showed the interior of the “Member-only Warehouse-style Mart.”
Inside, Exploration Team 1, including Baek Sa-ra, was confronting a barcode-headed “Employee.”
Beep-beep-beep-beep-!
The “Employee” irritably emitted mechanical sounds.
What this “Employee” was hostile toward was Baek Sa-ra.
However, other agents from Exploration Team 1 were holding it down with equipment, so it could only struggle without being able to attack Baek Sa-ra.
The reason the “Employee” ignored the agents blocking it and only showed hostility toward Baek Sa-ra was simple.
The other agents possessed membership cards for the “Mart.”
But Baek Sa-ra hadn’t brought a membership card, and was instead holding an elongated box.
It was a block-shaped box made by connecting three small boxes with lids.
-Ring number 1.
Baek Sa-ra spoke monotonously as she opened the left lid of the box.
Beep-beep-beep-beep-beep-!
The “Employee” that had been desperately trying to rush at Baek Sa-ra suddenly retreated backward.
Because the “Employee” changed its direction of movement, the Exploration Team 1 agents had no choice but to let the “Employee” go.
After confirming the “Employee” had retreated far away, Baek Sa-ra closed the lid.
Then the “Employee” rushed at Baek Sa-ra again.
-Ring number 2.
This time Baek Sa-ra opened the middle lid of the box.
The “Employee” that had been charging at Baek Sa-ra at almost lightning speed retreated again, creating distance.
Baek Sa-ra closed the middle lid as well, and finally opened the right lid.
-Ring number 3.
When Baek Sa-ra opened the lid of the last compartment, the “Employee” was already right in front of her.
Crash-!
But the one who attacked wasn’t the “Employee,” but Baek Sa-ra.
Baek Sa-ra tripped the “Employee” that had reached her, hooking her foot around its barcode neck and throwing it to the side.
The Exploration Team 1 agents pounced on the “Employee” that had been slammed to the floor again.
Beep-beep-beep-!
-Confirmed avoidance reaction of the “Employee” to rings 1 and 2.
Baek Sa-ra said, looking down at the struggling “Employee.”
Han Ji-su handed Baek Sa-ra a card.
It was a membership card for the “Warehouse-style Mart.”
Beep-!
When Baek Sa-ra held the membership card, the “Employee’s” sound changed.
Soon the “Employee” stopped struggling and became quiet.
Baek Sa-ra approached the “Employee” while keeping the lid of the box with ring number 3 open.
But the “Employee” made no sound and remained docile.
The Exploration Team 1 agents slowly released the “Employee.”
Then the “Employee” passed by Baek Sa-ra and the agents as if nothing had happened, returning to its work area.
-No reaction to ring number 3.
“Confirmed.”
Cha Si-eon, sitting next to me, responded to Baek Sa-ra’s report.
Yesterday, the rings made by processing fragments of “The Big Cat” were completed.
So Baek Sa-ra and Exploration Team 1 were testing the effects of the newly crafted rings.
-I guess I’ll have to keep ring number 3 as just a souvenir, Otter.
Baek Sa-ra threw a light joke my way.
As if he could see me, smiling brightly toward the camera.
I should feel honored that the instructor is smiling at me.
Throb-
I held my breath at the feeling of a knife stabbing inside my solar plexus.
“….”
I quietly took a deep breath, trying not to show it.
My vision went dark for a moment, but the pain soon subsided.
I caught my breath and raised my head again.
Then I made eye contact with someone.
With Yeon Ga-ram from Control Team 4, my comparison experiment partner.
Yeon Ga-ram was sitting in the monitoring booth today as well.
And just like before, he was staring intently at me.
The difference from last time was that he didn’t turn his head away even when our eyes met.
Not only did he not turn his head away….
“Heh.”
“…?”
Yeon Ga-ram flashed a sneer at me.
With a triumphant and ambitious face, like a concubine who had given birth to a son.
That person is really peculiar too.
But why?
The moment I saw Yeon Ga-ram, I felt my mind becoming more at ease instead.
What the hell am I?
To feel stability from someone who picks fights with me for no reason.
Was I such a twisted person?
I felt quite unsettled by my own physical reaction.
Even so, I couldn’t reject the peace that Yeon Ga-ram gave me.
So I stayed like that, looking at each other for a while.
At that fox-like man who was dying to look down on me.
* * *
June 3rd.
The day of the operation arrived without incident.
However, my nervous gastric spasms still hadn’t been resolved.
No, they were actually getting worse.
But it wasn’t to the point where I couldn’t move, so the experiment proceeded as scheduled.
In front of the underground stairs connected to the “Hotel that Selects the Real,” Cha Si-eon asked me.
“Is your condition alright?”
I looked at Cha Si-eon silently.
“It’s not alright.”
Cha Si-eon nodded on his own.
My face is probably pale right now.
I didn’t have the energy to speak, so I answered with my complexion and sighed.
Kwak Jae-gyeom came over to my side and chattered.
“Don’t worry, hyung. If you faint, the team leader will take your upper body and I’ll take your lower body.”
“…Take them to do what?”
“We’ll carry you and then wake you up in front of the core.”
How tearfully grateful.
Normally I would have laughed and replied casually, but right now I didn’t even have the energy to lift the corners of my mouth.
So I just looked at Kwak Jae-gyeom with hollow eyes.
“Uh, hyung. I’m sorry….”
“Kwak Jae-gyeom, come here.”
Kwak Jae-gyeom apologizing with his spirits dampened for some reason.
Cha Si-eon calling over that Kwak Jae-gyeom.
Yeah, just leave me alone for now….
Then Cha Si-eon’s radio crackled.
-This is Response Team 1. Successfully entered the “Hotel.”
Response Team 1, who had gone in first, seemed to have safely arrived at the operation site.
The “Hotel that Selects the Real,” the target of this closure experiment, was a Special Zone under relatively stable management.
Nevertheless, it was selected because of the contaminated people trapped inside.
In the “Hotel,” also called the twin Special Zone of the “National Theater,” more than ten citizens who had forgotten they were human and became part of the “Hotel” were trapped.
If this experiment succeeded, we could save them all.
Was that why?
Today, the day of the operation, my stomach pain was at its peak.
It seemed like the cause of my stress was this experiment.
Because people’s lives were at stake, I had unknowingly felt pressure.
That’s why my condition is like this today.
I convinced myself of this and awkwardly touched the black ring on my finger.
It’ll go well, right?
Yeah, it’ll go well.
It’s been two weeks since I came out of “The Island.”
In that time, I hadn’t been dragged to another Special Zone.
If it was the “Crow” that pulled me into Special Zones, this was a natural result.
We were following the hints that bird gave us well.
So there would be no need to interfere with us.
I still felt like I was being played with, but yeah.
Let’s consider it mutual exploitation.
And let’s not be nervous.
It’ll definitely go well.
-This is Response Team 1. Secured the “Hotel’s” core.
The radio crackled again from Cha Si-eon’s side.
It’s only been 20 minutes since they went in, but they’re amazing as expected.
“We’ll move out too.”
“Whew….”
I got up from my chair.
Then I headed toward the underground stairs with Cha Si-eon, Kwak Jae-gyeom, and the other Response Team 3 agents.
It’ll be over in 10 minutes for me too.
The hotel space isn’t that big anyway.
I just need to walk steadily on the red carpet and make contact with the core.
It’ll go well. It’ll definitely go well.
I kept repeating this to myself as I went down the stairs.
After continuing down the stairs for a while, I felt a change in space along with mild dizziness.
My vision suddenly brightened as I entered the Special Zone.
I lightly looked around.
But.
“…?”
There was no one beside me.
No, there were incredibly many people.
But they weren’t Response Team 3 who had been walking with me, or Response Team 1 waiting in the “Hotel.”
About a hundred people I didn’t know were kneeling on the ground, prostrated.
What’s going on here?
Is this really the “Hotel”?
I swallowed nervously as I looked around.
It was a spacious area with high ceilings, a clean and luxurious space with floors and outer walls all made of marble.
But the scale and atmosphere were definitely not hotel-like.
As I looked around, I spotted a structure standing tall in the middle of the corridor.
That thing, a stone pagoda?
But something was tangled around that stone pagoda.
White, hard fragments.
Something like a snake’s skeleton was coiled around it like chains.
The skeleton wrapped around the stone pagoda and raised its remaining upper portion high into the air.
I lifted my head to see its end.
My gaze went up, even higher.
I craned my neck back completely to look up at the ceiling.
And thus I barely managed to see it.
A hideous and massive skeleton looking down at people from the ceiling.
That’s when I realized for certain.
That I had been dragged to the wrong hell.
—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————
YOU MAY ALSO LIKE
Sleepy0Clock
Not only is he breathing like he’s in labor because of the period cramps, he then proceeded to get dragged to another special space at the height of his pain, his suffering never ends😭