WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈

Chapter 32: Reserve Forces Survey

──────

Several weeks had passed since Baal disappeared. Fortunately, he had not come looking for me again.

[If you ever need anything, please contact us at any time. If there is anything we can help with, we will be happy to assist.]

I looked at the business card he had left behind.

「666」

Three red digits.

‘The number of the beast.’

He had said that tearing the card was enough to use it. Since I had no intention of using it if I could avoid it, I tucked it into the very bottom of my card case.

‘Though I wonder if I’ll ever need it.’

Wait, what exactly did he mean by help?

‘Would they deal with Anomalies for me? Give me the information I need? Or perhaps provide items?’

I did not know. If the need arose, I would find out then.

‘More importantly, it looks like no one else is coming today.’

I had sent a large number of Transferees to the Otherworld not long ago, so things had been quiet lately. I could have gone home, but I opened my laptop to do a little more work.

‘Time to gather information.’

Events in Surviving Among the Anomalies were basically random, but information could sometimes be used to predict their time and location.

‘It would be nice to get help from an Anomaly like Dial TV for You, but that comes down to luck. Information from the news or the internet was often more useful.’

The ability to identify information related to Anomalies hidden among useless posts, joke posts, and false information was practically the standard for judging one’s skill at Surviving Among the Anomalies.

“Hmm.”

I put off leaving work and immersed myself in the sea of the internet.

[Miracle Diabetes Treatment ‘Parinoma,’ Diabetes Patients Cured in Droves.]

[Alden & Sweets Pharmaceutical Company Stock Soars Following Parinoma Development.]

[Up 150-Fold Two Weeks After Release, Enters Guinness World Records as the Fastest-Rising Stock in the Shortest Time. Expected to Rise Further.]

‘Diabetes, huh.’

I searched for the number of diabetes patients in each country.

[Diabetes Patients in China (Estimate): 141 Million]

[Diabetes Patients in India (Estimate): 101 Million]

[Diabetes Patients in the United States (Estimate): 30.3 Million]

[Diabetes Patients in Japan (Estimate): 10 Million]

[Diabetes Patients in Korea (Estimate): 6 Million]

‘Then I won’t have to worry about money anymore.’

It was a good thing I had bought more stock along the way. From now on, I should save the gold bars for trading with Golden Omnipotence Corporation instead of converting them into cash.

[Alarm Clock Terror Attack on College Entrance Exam Day, Who Is the Culprit?]

[BJ Ddyuttyai, a Super Rookie Who Surpassed 5,000 Average Viewers Just One Month After Starting Their Broadcast.]

[French Chef Georges Guichon Captivates Customers with a New Seasoning Blend. Let’s Explore His Food on a Gourmet Journey.]

There was nothing particularly interesting.

‘Let’s look a little further.’

I checked YouTube news channels.

[Hardest College Entrance Exam in Ten Years, Controversy Over Record-Breaking Difficulty Spreads to Legal Battles.]

[“Is This Even English?” Even Native English Speakers Shake Their Heads at the 2024 College Entrance Exam English Section.]

[Only One Perfect Score Across All Subjects, Perfect Scorer Emerges Despite Record-Breaking Difficulty.]

The college entrance exam season had just passed, so most of the news was about the exam.

‘Found it.’

As I continued scrolling, a headline finally caught my eye.

[Another Reservist Missing? Already the Eighth Disappearance.]

I clicked the video. It was a short, one-minute clip.

[On the 7th, Mr. Kim, who had completed Reserve Forces training and left the facility, was walking down the street. The moment he turned into an alley, Mr. Kim could no longer be seen.]

On the screen, a man in a military uniform with a slovenly air turned into an alley and suddenly vanished.

[This marks the eighth Reserve Forces disappearance this year alone. The disappearances have continued since Mr. Lee’s initial disappearance three months ago.]

Three months ago. That was around when the game had become reality.

‘Was this an Anomaly’s doing?’

What Anomaly could be responsible? The keywords were military personnel and disappearance.

‘I think I know, but I need a little more information to be sure.’

Just then, someone knocked on the office door.

“Excuse me, is Fixer Lee Seung-hoon here?”

“Yes, I’m here.”

The person who had come looking for me was a police officer.

“I came to request your cooperation with an investigation.”

＊＊＊

My reputation as a Fixer spread quickly across the internet. For about a month, I occasionally saw people arguing about me in online communities, but even that had become rare lately.

‘Did doubling the advertisements work?’

I never expected the police to approach me first.

“Constable Lee, may I see the CCTV footage?”

“Ah, yes!”

I was currently at Icheon Police Substation, the substation in the area where the latest reservist had disappeared.

“Here it is. It is a rural bus stop, so the image quality is not very good.”

“No, this is clear enough to make things out.”

As I focused on the low-quality, choppy footage, the constable spoke.

“Um, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon?”

“Yes.”

“But can you really solve this? It’s just, something came up during the internal discussions…”

Perhaps my mysterious position as a Fixer inspired faith similar to that placed in clergy, because the constable even told me about the investigation’s progress and the contents of their meetings.

“The police from every area where reservists disappeared gathered to share information. But the more we shared, the more unbelievable the stories became.”

“What kind of stories?”

“Well, it wasn’t caught on CCTV, but there were several actual witnesses.”

The constable repeatedly rubbed the back of his neck.

“They all said someone had been conducting a survey.”

“Surveys?”

“Yes. Someone suddenly appeared and approached the missing person.”

“Was it the same person?”

“No. Eight men have been seen so far, but not once have the composite sketches matched.”

I was beginning to feel certain.

“And then they vanished right in front of the witnesses. Both the man and the missing person.”

“A sudden disappearance.”

“To be honest, internally, we suspected this might be a serial murder case. Headquarters ordered increased patrols and stakeouts in high-risk areas on days when reservists were present. On the day of the latest disappearance, I was on stakeout duty.”

“Don’t tell me you saw the missing person?”

“Yes. And what I saw was exactly the same.”

As though unable to believe what he had witnessed, the constable rubbed his eyelids.

“They disappeared in the blink of an eye. Right before my eyes, in the instant I blinked.”

“I see.”

“I thought I might have been possessed by a ghost. This seemed impossible to solve with the police’s power alone, so I came to see you, Mr. Lee Seung-hoon.”

“Thank you for requesting my cooperation.”

A survey conducted by a man in military uniform. All the clues had come together, and now I could be certain.

“There’s no need to watch any more CCTV footage.”

“Can you solve it?”

This was a disappearance caused by an Anomaly.

“Yes. Please trust me and wait.”

＊＊＊

Many Anomalies in Surviving Among the Anomalies had been made by the developers, but even more had been created by users.

Games built around user participation had clear strengths and weaknesses.

Their strength was that they offered creative elements no single person could come up with.

Their weakness was that the overall quality dropped.

The upvote and downvote system mostly dealt with that weakness. Still, not every user was an artist, and they tended to rely on a few patterns when creating Anomalies.

Anomalies based on myths or legends.

Anomalies based on mysterious incidents that had occurred in reality.

Anomalies made by lightly twisting other works, hovering somewhere between homage, cliché, and plagiarism.

“And Anomalies based on their own experiences.”

I knew this Anomaly well, and I even remembered what its creator had personally said.

[I’ll tell you about the time a Useless soldier in the Reserve Forces made us leave late.]

The Useless soldier did not even know how to zero a rifle or put on a gas mask, and he could not do anything properly. Since I was in the same group, I ended up being the very last one to leave too.

‘It was roughly like that.’

The creator had even written on the wiki that they had used that story as inspiration.

“The Anomaly’s name is Reserve Forces Survey.”

It was a Danger Grade Anomaly that abducted reservists leaving after training and took them to an unidentified space according to their survey results.

‘If you answer the survey well, you can avoid being abducted. But if you are abducted, you can only be released after carrying out exactly what it wants inside.’

What mattered was that when someone satisfied it inside, it did not release only that person.

“In the military, responsibility is collective, for better or worse.”

With that message, clearing it once would free everyone. Of course, since Surviving Among the Anomalies was a single-player game, no one could be released unless the player was freed. Clearing it earned the achievement [You Are the Messiah of Useless Soldiers].

“Hmm.”

Reserve Forces Survey was an Anomaly threatening only to certain people. Unlike other Anomalies, it did not kill those it abducted.

‘It only makes them suffer mentally, over and over.’

That meant it was no threat to me at all. Unless I deliberately went looking for it, I would never encounter it in my life.

“But I was asked for help.”

Then I had to act.

“To know and not act is not true knowledge. To be able to save someone and not save them is the height of inhumanity.”

There was a problem, though. I took out the military uniform and boots that had been stored in one corner of my wardrobe.

A Private’s rank insignia attached above the name tag.

Beside it was my certificate of discharge.

[Lee Seung-hoon]

[Rank: Private]

[Military Specialty: 1111]

[Discharge (Enlistment) Date: 19.05.16. (19.03.16.)]

“Unfortunately, I don’t attend Reserve Forces training.”

There was one more problem.

“It won’t abduct me unless I was bad at military service, right?”

＊＊＊

I arrived in Yeoncheon, Gyeonggi Province, where Reserve Forces training was being held that day, and looked around.

‘Cold.’

Perhaps because it was in the north, the weather was extremely chilly.

‘They hold Reserve Forces training in weather like this?’

I had heard that this was the period when people who had failed to attend their Reserve Forces call-up received additional training.

‘I really want to try Reserve Forces training, but…’

Unfortunately, I could not disrupt busy people, so I decided to kill time near the Reserve Forces training ground and wait for them to finish.

“Um, sir? Were you late for entry?”

At that moment, a guard at the entrance to the Reserve Forces training center came over to me.

“If you were late, you can still go in now.”

“Wasn’t entry completely prohibited if you were even one minute late?”

I had never attended Reserve Forces training, but I had researched it beforehand just in case, so I knew the basics.

“Normally, yes, but if you miss this call-up too, you’ll have to come in December. That means we’ll have more work to do as well…”

“Ah, I understand.”

I should have refused.

“I’ll go in now.”

I could not resist an experience I had never had.

＊＊＊

“Um, sir? Why on earth did you come in?”

“I came in because I wanted to experience Reserve Forces training.”

“Ha, seriously… Um, no. Don’t ever do this again. You know this is illegal entry, right?”

“I’m sorry.”

Sadly, my illegal entry was discovered after only three hours.

“I was just about to get to shoot a gun, too.”

Maybe because I had only good memories of military service, even Reserve Forces training, which everyone else seemed to hate, was extremely enjoyable.

‘Why does everyone hate Reserve Forces training?’

I had only experienced three hours of it, yet it had been so enjoyable.

“Excuse me.”

Just as I was about to hide again and wait for the Anomaly, a man spoke to me.

“Could I ask you to fill out a survey?”

I gladly accepted the survey sheet held out by a stranger wearing an old-style military uniform.

“Of course.”

Footnotes:

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