Editor’s Survival Guide - Chapter 95
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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 95
ep15. Edit! National Museum of Korea!(11)
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■ Final Communication Record #7 of the Late Team Leader Kang Seung-cheol
That’s all I have to tell you.
I’m sorry. I couldn’t produce any meaningful results.
Return seems unlikely.
I can hardly call myself human anymore either.
I’m truly sorry for not being able to come back, Section Chief.
I’m going to explore the inside of the 「Fake God」 one last time.
The core of this space is definitely inside the 「Fake God’s」 body.
So I’m going to take explosives and let the 「Fake God」 devour me.
For that purpose, I kept consuming 「Fake Rice」 and deliberately spent time with the 「Exhibition Docent」.
An ordinary human body would die from just one bite, but a Contaminated Person should be able to endure a bit longer.
The sensation of becoming a Contaminated Person isn’t too bad.
It feels like discovering and moving muscles I’ve never used before for the first time.
But if I drag this out any longer, this too will become dangerous.
I’m starting to feel grateful to the 「Fake God」 that distributes 「Fake Rice」.
Before this faith grows any stronger, I’ll carry out the final operation.
No, Section Chief.
Section Chief, Section Chief!
Don’t let our family’s sacrifice be in vain.
You can’t collapse now.
Hold out until the end.
If there’s resentment, I’ll express it directly when we meet later.
So for now, please wish me luck.
I’ll also wish luck to you and the Management Bureau, Section Chief.
—
Crash-!
With a thunderous sound, fragments of what had been a wall scattered in all directions.
The wall I blew up wasn’t a concrete wall but a partition made of wooden boards or something similar.
So it broke through more easily than expected, and thanks to that, I had three spare bombs left.
I carefully packed those bombs again and headed to the Donation Gallery.
Since the 「Exhibition Docent」 here was already dead, there was no one to stop me from touching the artifacts inside.
I grabbed a large painting scroll from there.
Then I hung it over the hole in the wall I had blown up.
With this, the basic setup was complete.
The current time was 9:03 AM.
Three hours until noon when the 「Fake God」 awakens.
Nineteen hours remained until 4 AM when it devours people.
If my plan failed, my remaining lifespan would be at most 19 hours.
“Section Chief, preparations are complete.”
-Yes, good work.
Section Chief Kwon Mu-seop’s voice responding to me was lower than usual.
So I asked, half-jokingly, half-seriously.
“Do you have a bad feeling about this right now?”
-No, the feeling isn’t bad. It’s actually pretty good.
“That’s a relief. Actually, I feel the same way.”
-Haah…
When I deliberately acted playful, Kwon Mu-seop let out a deep sigh.
-This must be mirror therapy. You and Cha Si-eon both, just…
-You gave permission yourself, so who are you blaming?
Yun U-jeong’s cold rebuke followed Kwon Mu-seop’s lament.
Kwon Mu-seop just groaned as if he had nothing to say.
“There are still 19 hours left. If you’re really worried about me, please break through the corridor in the meantime.”
-You call that something to say now…
Kwon Mu-seop groaned again.
Scolding him again was Yun U-jeong’s job, and I headed to the 3rd floor while listening to that sound.
I went to the 3rd floor cafe and gathered all the cushions and seat cushions.
I carried them back down to the 2nd floor and stacked them neatly in front of the wall where I had hung the scroll.
When noon comes, I’ll have to endure ‘gazing down’ again.
For a full 16 hours.
If I lie prone on the bare floor like I did the first time, my joints and muscles will all stiffen up.
That would also restrict my movement when the ‘gazing down’ ends.
So I made a soft nest with cushions and seat cushions.
With several layers of seat cushions and even cushions arranged on top, it made quite a decent bed.
I lay down on it immediately and attached a wire to my wrist.
That wire was connected to the scroll covering the wall.
Now the setup was truly complete.
“I’ve finished all preparations and am lying down. I’ll wait in this state until 4 AM tomorrow.”
-Alright.
Kwon Mu-seop muttered bitterly.
I was about to ask him to ‘wish me luck’ but closed my mouth.
Wishing you luck.
It’s a well-wishing phrase that Special Management Bureau agents often use.
When Cha Si-eon first said this, I really thought it didn’t suit him.
I thought it was strange that people who coldly only followed manuals had unnecessarily sentimental greetings.
But my impression these days is somewhat different.
It felt somehow poignant that steel-like agents would crave luck at the final moment.
As much as that greeting has been used for a long time and frequently, many people’s memories must be tangled up in it too.
So I couldn’t readily ask Kwon Mu-seop for luck.
But Kwon Mu-seop spoke first.
-I wish you luck, Do-un.
“…Thank you.”
I also closed my eyes, hoping that luck would follow.
How long did I wait in that state?
Crrreak-!
The 「Fake God’s」 stretching sound announced noon.
* * *
I felt my body stiffening under the 「Fake God’s」 ‘gazing down’.
I had finally prepared a place to lie down.
But being unable to move even slightly made it feel like being trapped in a coffin rather than cozy.
The 「Fake God」 that subdues humans just by gazing down.
It makes humans offer the person next to them as sacrifice, and drops rice in return.
And then it makes those who ate that rice subordinate to itself again.
It was an utterly vicious existence.
But what was even more vicious than that being’s existence was the fact that it too was merely an imitation.
July 1950.
They say the Han River banks were all white sand beaches back then.
An era when white river sand would sweetly rustle with the waves that rushed to the riverbank.
In that dazzling white sand beach pit, 40 to 50 people were killed at the same time on the same day.
It was the doing of North Korean soldiers and those who supported them.
The reason so many people were dragged away and killed was because they were public officials or local influential figures.
On the other hand, those who informed on them and got them executed were the poor who did servant work or coal delivery in Seoul.
But this shouldn’t be considered the people’s judgment against the wicked wealthy class.
The real upper class had already abandoned Seoul and fled before the Han River bridges were cut.
What remained in Seoul were people who couldn’t evacuate in time and were trapped there.
Moreover, truly ordinary people who wore no armbands, the women and children, were trembling in fear and holding their breath at the world that had changed overnight.
They hoped this harsh time would pass quickly, rather than taking the lead in executing neighbors as if their time had come.
It was such a turbulent era.
I still couldn’t understand why the gradually buried memories of this space were reviving to devour people.
What I could do now was simply close my eyes.
Just like in those harsh times, all I could do was hope for all of this to pass quickly.
* * *
Groooan-!
Along with the sound of the ground shaking, the pressure that had been weighing down my body disappeared.
I quickly got up to loosen my stiffened body.
Compared to yesterday when I was lying face down on the bare floor, my condition was definitely better.
Craaack-!
The “Fake God” that had been raising its head up to the ceiling was moving its neck bones to come down.
It descended slowly, coiling through the air like a dragon descending to earth.
And it found me.
Me, who was the only one in the 2nd floor corridor.
The “Fake God” turned its head and came straight toward me.
The moment I faced it, my breath was cut short again.
“That person!”
“That person!”
“That person!”
Then came the shouts from below.
Unhesitant voices pointing me out as today’s sacrifice.
Yes, you must be boiling too.
Dragged into this incomprehensible hell and being roasted by hellfire.
I couldn’t blame you for enduring, trying to survive somehow.
So let’s put out the fire first.
Our current era is kinder than those brutal times.
Crack-!
I faced the “Fake God” gradually approaching me.
I could feel cold sweat dripping down the back of my neck.
It was indeed a terrifying presence.
But I wasn’t dead yet.
Not yesterday, not today.
I looked directly at the “Fake God” but remained alive without dying.
That meant you weren’t a god.
It meant you were nothing but a monster pretending to be a god.
I hammered this fact into myself and barely managed to move my body suppressed by the intimidation.
Whirrr-!
I narrowly dodged the wire of the “Fake God” approaching me.
While moving my body to the side like that, I pulled hard on the wire hanging on my right arm.
Flutter- Thud-!
Then the scroll hanging behind my back fell to the floor.
What was hidden behind the scroll was a wall with a hole.
And beyond that was the real god, the “Seated Buddha Statue.”
Those who see a god must surely die.
That was a profound principle carved in mythology.
For this world that could only imitate, it would be a heavy law it had no choice but to follow.
Then what would happen if the “Fake God” faced the real god?
I had confidence but no optimism.
Since my life was the stake in this gamble, I waited for the result without letting my guard down.
That’s when it happened.
Clack-!
Clack- Click-!
Clackclackclackclack-!
The “Fake God” facing the “Seated Buddha Statue” began making bizarre sounds.
It stopped upright in mid-air making ominous bone sounds, then began loosely spreading apart its tightly woven bone joints.
Was there… an effect?
Could I hope for a victory by decision?
The “Fake God” gradually decomposing.
The “Fake God” remained fixed in mid-air even as it divided into bone fragment units.
As if displaying each of those countless bones one by one.
I kept watching that scene with tension in my jaw.
Something seemed to have changed.
But I wasn’t sure if that was really death.
The standard death or annihilation of such undead types should be the skeleton collapsing or scattering as ash.
What was that state?
The fact that it still maintained its form felt ominous somehow.
With an anxious heart, I examined the state of the “Fake God” with its mouth wide open.
But beyond that throat, through the wide-open vertebrae, I could see a pitch-black sphere.
I doubted my eyes.
“The core…”
But my mouth moved on its own, dispelling my doubt.
“I found the core!”
I shouted without realizing it.
That black sphere close to darkness.
That was definitely the core of the Special Zone.
Team Leader Kang Seung-cheol’s prediction was right.
The core of the “National Museum of Korea” that couldn’t be found anywhere was being carried inside the “Fake God’s” body.
If I destroyed that, could I escape from here?
But it wasn’t a distance I could reach just by extending my hand.
That core was embedded around the middle of the “Fake God’s” long spine.
Position-wise, it was in mid-air at the height of the 2nd floor, easily 20 meters away outside the railing of the corridor where I stood.
How do I deal with that?
The meal was all prepared, but how should I detonate that…
I was fiddling with the bomb in my pocket when I looked down at the 1st floor corridor.
People startled by this turn of events were blankly looking up at the decomposed “Fake God.”
…Right. Earlier, I said let’s put out the fire.
I took my hand off the bomb and removed my gloves.
Then I went inside the “Fake God’s” gaping mouth.
Clatter-
In that state, stepping on the spine bones like a suspension bridge, I ran toward the core.
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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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