Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 93

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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 93

ep15. Edit! National Museum of Korea! (9)

“I need to find a new escape route.”

-You’re going to explore that place alone?

Kwon Mu-seop asked back as if he didn’t understand what I said.

His tone already implied that it was a reckless act.

“Yes, I’ll try to find a way myself.”

-You can’t do it alone.

“Section Chief.”

-No, you can’t. Don’t think about moving recklessly.

“It’s not exactly reckless. It’s the same as when we explored the ‘Ant Nest’.”

-When we were in the ‘Ant Nest’, I was right beside you, and we had the option to destroy the core if things went wrong. But there, we haven’t even figured out where the core is. I can’t allow you to explore alone in that state.

“If things go well, we might discover a new escape route like we did at the ‘Sports Stadium’.”

-Do-un, you were unconscious for three days back then. Don’t you remember?

“Anyway, I recovered. So I want to try once more. I think that would be more advantageous for my survival than waiting here indefinitely.”

-That’s… Yeah, I understand you’re frustrated right now. But when we were at the ‘Sports Stadium’, Jae-gyeom was also beside you. But now you’re alone.

Kwon Mu-seop was more firm than I expected.

No, strictly speaking, I’m probably the one who’s rushing things right now.

Waking up after fainting and immediately saying ‘I need to find an escape route’.

Moreover, this is a quarantine-grade Special Zone that hasn’t been properly explored.

It was a nightmarish area for the Management Bureau, where agents sent in the past had died miserably.

So Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop’s reaction was natural.

-First, calm down. And think carefully. Are you feeling any strange impulses, or hearing unfamiliar voices in your head?

Moreover, Kwon Mu-seop was even suspicious of my mental state.

In the past, Team Leader Kang Seung-cheol, who had explored this place, also experienced cognitive distortion.

Since I was saying such things in an area with such precedent, this wasn’t an unreasonable accusation either.

But I don’t think I’m distorted.

I’m still afraid of that mountain of corpses piled up over there.

The ‘False God’s’ giant head is also normally disgusting.

Nevertheless, the reason I felt I should move was due to some intuition that’s hard to explain.

The intuition close to certainty that I felt when I made eye contact with the ‘Raven’ on the ‘Blood-Raining Island’.

But if I say this, I’ll be suspected even more.

Maybe this really is the early stage of cognitive distortion.

I pondered for a moment and then spoke.

“Section Chief, you once said that ‘Special Zones seem to have a concept of clearing’.”

-What?

“You said that before. ‘I don’t agree that Special Zones are games made to be cleared, but there still seems to be a concept of clearing’.”

-Why are you bringing that up now?

Kwon Mu-seop asked back warily at my sudden question.

So I explained step by step.

“I know you’re suspicious of whether my current state is normal. So I’m trying to explain my thought process. If I’m making too many leaps or my logic is twisted, please tell me. I’ll doubt myself too.”

-…Alright, let’s try it once.

Kwon Mu-seop reluctantly agreed, and I continued speaking.

“To escape from a Special Zone, you need to achieve certain conditions. I compared that to a game and called it ‘clearing’.”

-Right, that’s correct.

“Then Section Chief, did the ‘Sports Stadium’ originally have the clear condition of ‘people inside are let out when the game-ending whistle blows’?”

-What do you mean by that?

“I’ve been thinking about it continuously. Whether our escape back then was truly legitimate. Whether the escape route called ‘game-ending whistle’ was really originally in that Special Zone, and we miraculously reproduced it exactly. Or if not…”

-…

“Whether our actions were newly judged as conforming to escape.”

Kwon Mu-seop sighed quietly.

It seemed he felt my question was worth considering.

“Back then, we didn’t have time to examine anything. We were desperate to try anything and get out.”

And even after coming out of the ‘Sports Stadium’, there was no opportunity to calmly review it.

Since I was unconscious for three whole days after that.

“But when I thought about it alone later, I wondered if this was really right. All the other escape routes there had complex and difficult conditions. But could it really be possible that the actions we cobbled together luckily satisfied all the undiscovered escape conditions?”

-So you’re saying that wasn’t an originally existing escape route, but rather a newly developed route because your actions received a passing grade?

“Yes, that’s right.”

-If that’s the case, what’s the conclusion?

“So the conclusion is that Special Zones might not be ‘spaces designed meticulously with some intention’ but rather ‘rough imitations of reality’.”

Kwon Mu-seop sighed again.

Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop was someone who said ‘you can see Special Zones thinking’.

But what I just said directly contradicts that.

-I’m not really convinced, so how do you explain Special Zones threatening humans?

Sure enough, Kwon Mu-seop immediately countered.

-Dangerous entities clearly antagonize humans, so can we say there’s no intention behind this?

“What if even that is imitation?”

-Imitation?

“What if the things we feel as threats, and thus define as ‘hostile reactions toward humans’, are all clumsy imitations of reality?”

-How could those systematic acts of slaughter be merely…

Kwon Mu-seop stopped mid-sentence.

Like someone with good instincts, he seemed to have caught on to what I was saying.

The rules of Special Zones are truly absurd.

Like a train ticket costing 15.87 million won.

Or being torn to pieces and kicked out without a mart membership.

Or having to put corpses weighing as much as yourself into the goal.

They’re all half-crazy.

But despite that, they’re all strangely fitting behaviors for those spaces.

So would dangerous entities be any different?

“Type 1 Special Zones imitate spaces that suffered great damage during wartime.”

-…

“Just as neutral entities like the ‘Railroad Police’ or the mart ‘Employee’ imitate elements of those spaces, dangerous entities like ‘Moving Gun’ or ‘Executioner Ant’ might just be imitating war situations that occurred in those spaces. They’re just classified as neutral and dangerous entities by human standards, but their essence might be the same.”

The bombing inflicted on the railroad station became siren sounds that crush people.

The massacre at the university hospital became monsters that hunt humans.

The fierce urban warfare became rampant gunfire and explosions.

Is this all there is?

All Type 1 Special Zones are related to war.

The Management Bureau has compiled all wartime incidents that occurred at those locations, and I also looked into what happened at the Special Zones I entered.

The prototype of ‘Zombie Sports Stadium’ is a sports stadium located not far from Yongsan Station.

Before the sports stadium was built, that place was a wide hill.

During wartime, it was a high ground where North Korean forces deployed artillery, and also a place where countless corpses piled up after fierce battles.

The prototype of ‘National Theater that Detects Fakes’ is located below Namsan.

In the past, Seoul was occupied by North Korean forces and then recaptured with American help, repeating this twice.

Each time the ruling power changed, people who remained in Seoul were dragged away and massacred for being ‘evil landlords’ or ‘collaborators’.

People killed that way were also buried in Namsan.

‘The Hill of Ants Deprived of Five Senses’ is the same.

That mountain is adjacent to the notorious prison in Seodaemun-gu.

People imprisoned in the prison were collectively executed in the back mountain with their eyes covered and wrists bound, without trial, using wartime as an excuse.

‘The Bleeding Island’ goes without saying.

In one place, dozens died, hundreds died, thousands died.

All of this consists of memories carved into the ground we stand on.

Considering this fact, couldn’t the threatening aspects of the Special Zone also be seen as imitations of that?

Without malice or goodwill, they might simply be mimicking a series of events that humans have committed.

“I know there are entities like ‘Big Cat’ and ‘Alpha’ that move with intention.”

Since it seemed like Kwon Mu-seop was about to object again, I struck first.

“But are those mercenary individuals and other dangerous entities really in the same category? If so, there shouldn’t be cases where ‘Alpha’ gets attacked by ‘Ant.'”

But in the “Ant Nest,” Alpha was attacked by Ant.

Just like us, according to the rules of that place.

“So they’re different. The mercenary individuals including ‘Big Cat’ and other dangerous entities are different. ‘Having intention to antagonize humans’ and ‘simply being faithful to imitation’ are different from each other. That’s the only way it makes sense.”

-Well, even if we accept that?

“If my prediction is correct, we don’t necessarily need to understand everything.”

-…?

“The exploration conducted by the Management Bureau so far has proceeded by observing heterogeneous elements within the Special Zone and finding countermeasures. By risking lives and trying until meaningful results emerge.”

Like a primitive person in an elevator, they unconditionally pressed anything suspicious.

Since lives could be lost at any moment, they even mobilized prisoners and tried again and again until they found answers.

“If the Special Zone was created by some designer who structured everything from A to Z, then that method would be correct. Like playing a game, following predetermined gimmicks to reach a survival ending would be the only answer. But if this is an imitation of reality, we no longer need to find predetermined strategies. We can leave suspicious things as they are and derive answers that this space will accept.”

I don’t know what the subject is that accepts and judges this.

It’s equally strange and unfamiliar to me that I’m pouring out these words as if I had prepared them in advance.

However, I still don’t feel that I’ve been distorted.

When I woke up again, my head felt clear for some reason.

Along with the feeling that the tangled circuits in my brain were being aligned, I felt certain.

Certain that I could break through this place.

-First of all.

Kwon Mu-seop, who had been listening to my words, slowly began to speak.

-I’m relieved that you seem fine. Your explanation is sufficiently rational and worth discussing together.

Fortunately, Kwon Mu-seop no longer suspected me.

Not only did he not suspect me, but he spoke as if he had gained trust instead.

-Since your condition seems good, I suppose it’s okay to share the outside situation.

-Section Chief….

Yun U-jeong’s voice followed after Kwon Mu-seop’s calm murmur.

It sounded like she was trying to dissuade him, but Kwon Mu-seop continued speaking without concern.

-Actually, we’re having difficulties breaking through the path right now. The object blocking the corridor is strangely solid, so we haven’t even dug out 10cm yet.

“….”

-We’re currently considering methods to dissolve it with chemicals, but we can’t guarantee whether this will take hours or days.

So that’s why they told me to examine the rooftop directly.

Yes, that’s why they didn’t mention Response Team 3’s estimated arrival time.

I quietly understood.

-So, what can you do right now?

Kwon Mu-seop asked me.

-Even if your assumption is correct, the danger remains the same, and that’s an area where we’ve already failed in exploration. So what can you do there?

Kwon Mu-seop’s question was pure.

He wasn’t being sarcastic, nor was he expressing doubt or concern.

He was asking about the possibility I had discovered with genuine curiosity.

So I answered clearly as well.

“Editing.”

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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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