Getting Approval from Otherworld Clients - Chapter 18

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

Chapter 18.
Mercury’s Orbit
Drawing Close . . . ★ (5)
I want to cry!
Tears are coming!
But what choice do I have? Right now, the only one who can save me is myself!
…Or can Seo Gwan-yul save me too?
But what I’m about to do… I can’t ask anyone else to do something so reckless.
Because.
…I’m about to go outside the ship with nothing but my clothes.
To retrieve an Oxygen Cartridge…!
‘How many seconds?! Exactly how many seconds can I last?!’
Curiosity was driving me mad, but I don’t have time to ask Bantabot anything else.
Even now, that cartridge is drifting farther away!
So I grabbed hold of the railing near the Airlock, tied a Wire around my waist with the one installed nearby, and shouted.
“When I grab the cartridge, pull this line!”
“What?!”
…For once, that usually calm robot looked genuinely panicked.
My heart was pounding so hard I thought it would burst—don’t you dare panic too!
“Lee Hyun-ah! It’s dangerous…!!”
I know, I know!!!
Ugh, either I suffocate sitting here or I die out there—what’s the difference?!
I decided not to hear the rest of what Seo Gwan-yul was saying.
Then I threw myself forward with all my strength and acted on it.
……This enormous, reckless resolve to launch myself into the void beyond the ship!
“…!”
One second.
Suddenly… everything went silent.
The spaceship’s alarm, the voice of Seo Gwan-yul shouting—all of it.
Everything fades away like a distant, half-remembered dream.
Two seconds.
My body drifts closer to the cartridge bit by bit. Fortunately, my velocity seems fast enough to catch it.
It’s cold.
I feel like I’m floating alone in this hollow, frozen ocean.
Five seconds.
I stretched out my arm. My fingertips brush against the cartridge.
Just a little more, just a little more and I’ll have it….
My body… feels numb. A tingling sensation spreads across my entire frame.
Seven seconds.
I’ve got it!
I’ve got it!
I’ve successfully grabbed the cartridge.
I wrapped my arms around it protectively, as if cradling something precious.
But my consciousness is fading… growing dim.
No, not yet, I need to hold on a bit longer….
Ten seconds.
Ah….
I don’t know anymore.
The stars embedded in the black canvas around me, those stars….
They’re beautiful.
My vision narrows to black, and I, I…….
Whoosh—!
[Closing outer hatch. Adjusting Airlock pressure.]
“Gasp-!”
As I gasped for air, my consciousness, which had been drifting on the far shore, seemed to return to me.
My body trembled in spasms as I blinked my eyes.
“…Hyun-ah!”
“Lee Hyun-ah! Are you conscious?!”
Ah.
I…… made it back safely.
I must have lost consciousness for a moment.
My body lay on the spaceship’s floor, and both the open Airlock and the missing Oxygen Cartridge had been restored to their proper state.
……So Seo Gwan-yul managed to handle it safely.
“Ah, thank goodness. Really, truly, thank goodness….”
The bleached-blond figure bowed his head as if in prayer, his hands clasped tightly together.
From the trembling in his palms, I could see he’d endured just as harrowing an ordeal as I had.
“…….”
Honestly… I’m grateful. He must have been terrified too.
‘If he hadn’t pulled the Wire in time… I’d be dead.’
Perhaps because we’d brushed with death together, the walls between us crumbled all at once.
“…You’re okay now. You didn’t get hurt, did you?”
I pushed myself up and leaned against the wall, trying to calm him as we began to talk.
We checked each other’s condition, and as we rested, the mood softened noticeably—we fell into easy conversation.
“…Extraterrestrials really mean that much to you? When the spaceship is full of dangers like this?”
“Well… I’ve been seeing UAPs since I was a kid.”
“You said UAP is like UFO, right? Weren’t you scared? When people think of aliens, they imagine abductions and things like that.”
“I was scared at first, of course. Everyone is—the unknown is always frightening.”
“…….”
“But then I thought, maybe the people aboard those flying objects aren’t necessarily bad. After that, I started to like them.”
“…So you took an extended leave and traveled all the way to Peru searching for extraterrestrials? Leaving your team with just Pascal and Hena?”
“Ha, I know. Now that I think about it, I feel bad toward both of them.”
We exchanged a bit more casual conversation—nothing particularly important.
Without putting up the walls that come with workplace professionalism.
It felt surprisingly good to let everything out.
‘Talking like this, I understand now.’
He’s a mess, that’s true, but there’s no malice in him.
‘…Right, this is his first job, isn’t it.’
At this chaotic Agency, he probably had no ordinary human colleagues to learn from. There may have been no one to teach him the attitudes necessary for navigating professional life.
My heart loosened a little.
The things I’d been nursing in silence felt lighter once I’d spoken them aloud.
‘It’s been so long since I’ve had a conversation like this.’
…My connections with friends had gradually dried up during my long job search.
And yet this easy, casual chat felt surprisingly good.
‘My physical condition seems to have improved too.’
Good. I think I’ve rested enough.
I pulled myself to my feet. Let’s get out of this spaceship and go home where I can collapse into bed!
“Now let’s find a way to get back to the Conference Room.”
“Right. You sure you’re okay? Want me to support you if you need it?”
Hmm, I don’t think that’s necessary.
I declined Seo Gwan-yul’s offer of support and resumed our exploration on my own two feet down the Corridor.
We walked in the much more comfortable atmosphere that had settled between us.
“…Oh, the Lounge?”
A spacious area appeared, connected to various rooms.
“There’s a map here. To get to the Conference Room, it says to go this way?”
Seo Gwan-yul pointed to a section labeled “Memory Storage.”
If we use the doors on either side of the storage area, we could reach the Conference Room directly.
“Yeah, if we don’t pass through here, we’d have to take quite a detour.”
…My impression of the storage area wasn’t great after what happened before.
‘Hmm… but there’s no guarantee that going all the way around would be safer either.’
What if the Airlock in the Corridor opens again? Once was more than enough to experience the vacuum of space!
The greater trauma won out. So we headed toward the door marked “Memory Storage.”
Squeeeeak—
…But we couldn’t afford to take risks.
I opened the door via the panel on the side and peered inside from outside first.
“Hmm, I don’t see that robot arm like before. Doesn’t look dangerous at all.”
“Oh~ Maybe that’s because it’s not a place that stores high-value items like artwork?”
We decided it was safe to enter and carefully stepped inside.
The shelves were lined with large Glass Flasks and Boxes.
Each Flask had an unusual structure with a button at its base.
“I’m curious—would it be okay if I just pressed one once?”
“…What? Isn’t that dangerous?”
That’s what I said, but honestly—I was curious too.
‘Memory Storage. A place where the memories of extraterrestrial civilizations gather?’
Right. What human would ever get a chance to access cutting-edge alien technology!
‘I didn’t choose the arts for nothing, at least.’
With curiosity running this deep, I’d naturally make bold choices—different from what my parents had planned.
Otherwise I’d have ended up at a business school like they wanted.
But safety came first. So I pulled out my smartphone camera and used Bantabot’s Image Analysis Function.
Memory Flask
An item that stores memories as clear video recordings. Press the button at the bottom and the stored memory plays.
It appears to be a concentrated application of Extraterrestrial Neuroscience Technology.
– Is there any danger?
– No, Master! This item carries no risk. Analysis confirms zero side effects when used for memory copying, playback, and related functions.
“Hmm, Bantabot says it’s safe. Should we take a careful look?”
“Ha, Bantabot’s really earning its keep. Alright, let’s press the button.”
We decided to test the flask closest to the gate first, just in case something went wrong.
We left the door open so we could bolt outside at a moment’s notice.
Click—
As I pressed the button, a crisp, high-definition image formed within the flask, and sound poured out.
[Congratulations on the maiden spaceship launch!]
I could see the client’s own hands clapping as they watched the spaceship lift off successfully, and other aliens beside them handed over flower bouquets.
“…….”
…Now that I think about it, there’s a pressed flower arrangement inside the box next to this flask.
Wait, this feels too personal—like a private diary. Should I really keep watching?
Unlike me, who’d grown hesitant, Seo Gwan-yul was practically vibrating with excitement.
“Hurry! Let’s see the next one!”
He immediately pressed the flask sitting nearby, practically giddy.
What started playing was… oh.
This one too seemed like intimate personal conversation between coworkers!
Aliens gathered together, chattering away—now being replayed before us!
[So you’re being assigned on a dispatch mission?]
[Yeah, got tired of doing the same work in the same place. I decided to do undercover employment on a planet called Earth in the #000255 world.]
[Oh, what’ll you be doing there?]
[Going to work at an artificial intelligence company in a country called the United States. Figured I’d take it easy while I’m there~.]
…?
You know that old joke people make, right?
When some company suddenly unveils impossible new technology, people joke, ‘Are they torturing aliens in the basement or something?’
……But what if that’s actually… mostly true?!!
[I’m heading to a smartphone company in Korea. That country has this food called chicken that’s really good?]
……Insane, no wonder!
They kept releasing these impossible products like foldable displays!
At this rate, someday they’ll release a smartphone that folds fifteen times, won’t they?
And wait—did the CEO buy chicken again this time? They sure know how to cater to foreign—I mean, extraterrestrial—tastes!
While I stood frozen by the bombshell, Seo Gwan-yul rummaged excitedly through the shelves.
“They’ve labeled everything by category! That last one was about spaceships and work stuff, and this section here is art-related.”
The broad-shouldered man prowled through the art category shelves like a kid in a toy store.
“Land art within the arts subcategory, and more specifically… Earth. Got it—these must be memories from every time they came down to Earth!”
He pressed multiple flask buttons in that section all at once, one after another.
Oh no, nothing’s going to go wrong, is it?
Uneasy, I moved closer to where he was standing.
Several images were playing simultaneously inside their respective glass vessels, chaotic and overlapping. And Seo Gwan-yul….
Stopped.
He’d frozen in front of one flask without warning.
His eyes fixed on the glass as if he could bore holes through it.
‘What’s he looking at?’
I followed his gaze to the same spot.
The image reflected in the glass wasn’t a spaceship or alien landscape like before.
“……!”
Inside the circular vessel lay the memory of a human child, captured through an alien’s eyes.
[I’ll come find you next time.]
…Within it, a familiar Korean voice emerged..
Click.
Seo Gwan-yul pressed the button again, rewinding the Memory Flask from the beginning.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————