WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving Among the Anomalies ◈
Chapter 61: Karma
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I didn’t remember what happened because I passed out midway through.
“The signal is this way……”
“……Hurry! His condition is critical!”
“Status…… External Special Advisor……”
Still, from the voices I heard half-asleep and the fact that I woke up in a hospital, I could tell that Foundation agents had rescued me.
“Is there anything causing you discomfort?”
“No, I’m fine.”
That was what the doctor told me as well.
“That’s a relief. Your condition was extremely serious when you arrived. Blindness in your left eye, a fractured skull, cracks in every bone in your body, a ruptured spleen, a slightly torn lung, damage to your liver……”
Those injuries were severe enough that an ordinary hospital likely couldn’t have treated them. Even if it could, I’d still be unconscious in the intensive care unit.
“But you’re completely fine. Even after surgery, recovery is supposed to take time, isn’t it?”
“Haha, this is the Foundation. We can treat most injuries without aftereffects or rehabilitation periods.”
The Foundation hospital was clearly no ordinary hospital.
“We can treat many conditions here, including missing body parts, brain death, multiple organ failure, terminal cancer, AIDS, and fatal genetic diseases. Treatment is free for agents and External Special Advisors, so please make frequent use of it in the future. Ah, though not needing to use it would be best, of course.”
My treatment had already been completed while I was unconscious, and I could have been discharged immediately. Still, I remained hospitalized for a day so they could monitor my condition just in case.
“Can ordinary people use this place too?”
“Immediate family members of Foundation employees can. We secretly treat their illnesses while making it look like they’re receiving ordinary checkups at ordinary hospitals.”
“There were so many people outside, so I thought I’d ask.”
“A lot, right? The first round of recruitment for new agents ended yesterday. The second round includes medical examinations, so all the agents in this area have gathered here.”
“Ah, so those people are……”
Countless people were entering the hospital outside the window.
“What happens if they fail? I thought the Foundation’s existence was a secret.”
“We have a useful thing called a Memory Eraser.”
As I watched the new agents and asked the doctor various questions, I spotted a familiar face.
‘That person is……?’
It was Kim Go-deuk, the martial artist who had appeared in the world after the Dial TV prophecy. He was looking around while stroking the long white beard that didn’t suit his black suit at all. Curious about what he was saying, I focused my hearing and listened in.
“Hoho, what an interesting facility. To think such a place existed beneath the surface of the world. It is indeed a mysterious sect! Did they say the world is filled with every kind of evil? Protecting the good from evil is righteousness, and carrying it out without hesitation is chivalry!”
“What are you muttering about by yourself again?”
“Disciple, remember this well. Righteousness and chivalry are the foundation of a martial artist!”
“Enough of that and teach me more Martial Arts. Since things have come to this, I want to learn quickly and go around on my own.”
The woman beside Kim Go-deuk also had a familiar face.
‘Kim Mi-ri.’
The high school student who had nearly become a victim of The Troupe in the Dream.
Her college entrance exams must have ended by now, so perhaps she was a university student rather than a high schooler. Seeing her with Kim Go-deuk, though, it seemed she had eventually been unable to refuse his request and become his disciple. For some reason, she had also joined the Foundation.
“Haah, if it weren’t for the money……”
“Silence! How can you be blinded by wealth? Did I not say that worldly possessions cloud the mind and should be kept at a distance?”
“Didn’t you join because they said they’d give you an elixir? You didn’t even listen before that, then suddenly your eyes lit up.”
“Ahem. It was an unavoidable choice for the sake of nurturing a promising disciple.”
Interesting. I thought she might learn Martial Arts, but I hadn’t expected her to join the Foundation.
‘Well, it was about time the Foundation stepped in. Kim Go-deuk drew far too much attention wherever he went.’
When I searched on my smartphone, every photograph of Kim Go-deuk had been erased from the internet. The bizarre things he had done were explained away as rotten trees, doctored footage, or similar fabrications.
‘Hm?’
I had expected to see only those two, but I spotted one more completely unexpected person.
『Really, really! You’re not going to perform exorcisms, seal me away, or conduct weird experiments on me, right?』
“Why are you, a ghost, so scared?”
『In movies and novels, they seal ghosts in strange places, turn them into evil spirits, and use them for curses…….』
“You don’t need to worry. Most of that is fake.”
『Ahaha, r-right? Huh? Most? Then some of it is real!?』
It was Shin Yeong-mun, the first ghost I had ever met.
‘I hadn’t seen him lately. Don’t tell me Foundation agents had been chasing him?’
Was there anyone besides the doctor I could ask?
Fortunately, someone who could answer came to visit me.
“Are you feeling better?”
“Haha, we’re here!”
They were the two agents I had become deeply acquainted with through the Foundation.
Seong Yu-ra, an S-grade agent and Administrator, and Kim Dong-uk, a C-grade agent.
“I got promoted this time. I’m a B-grade agent now.”
“Congratulations. I knew you would rise quickly, Mr. Kim Dong-uk.”
“I can finally have subordinates. I won’t have to drive myself anymore!”
Since driving came up, I casually asked him about that day.
“By the way, do you remember the day you gave me driving lessons?”
“Huh? Ah, I remember. You drove well, didn’t you? You did exactly what I told you, followed the signals properly. You had talent.”
“……What about the destruction of the independent dimension?”
“Huh? Destruction? Ah, wasn’t that because a gas line malfunctioned and exploded in the independent dimension? That’s what Sephirot said.”
Kim Dong-uk remembered being hospitalized after a gas line suddenly exploded while he was giving me driving lessons.
‘Did Sephirot manipulate the incident?’
Why? Because it benefited the Foundation? I really couldn’t understand the thoughts of a multidimensional artificial intelligence computer.
“Seung-hoon, then next time, driving less…… less, less……”
“Mr. Kim Dong-uk? What’s wrong?”
The instant he brought up driving lessons, Kim Dong-uk began sweating coldly.
“Ah, no. It’s nothing. I guess I was, um, tired.”
“Well, you’ll be on leave soon, so get plenty of rest.”
“Yes, I should.”
In any case, they thanked me while visiting me.
“Thank you very much for resolving the Hell Train incident. We also dispatched several agents to resolve that Anomaly’s incident, but every one of them went missing and never returned.”
“Thanks to you, Seung-hoon, all the missing agents returned. We already have a manpower shortage, so each person is precious. It’s a huge relief.”
“If you ever need the Foundation’s help, please tell us anytime.”
“I only did what needed to be done.”
Through them, I also learned about the Foundation’s situation and where Shin Yeong-mun had been.
“The Foundation currently lacks personnel. Compared to before the Constellation invasion, we still haven’t even replenished half our numbers. With an invasion from another dimension now detected, we need to restore our forces as soon as possible.”
“It would be fine if it were some insignificant dimension, but these people are on a similar level to the Foundation. When technology is comparable, the difference in manpower determines victory or defeat, so we’re recruiting as many additional agents as possible.”
An invasion from another dimension and a lack of agents.
“We’re tracking the symbiotic Anomalies that escaped previously and requesting their cooperation again. At the same time, we’re recruiting ghosts, yokai, superhumans, and others as agents.”
“We wouldn’t have done this in the past. The Foundation’s priority was its mission for humanity. But we’re so short on personnel that we’re bringing them in even if we have to tempt them with money or favorable conditions.”
“Ghosts can be used as agents too.”
“It’s rare, but not without precedent.”
Even the Foundation could no longer be sustained solely by its mission of 「Service for Humanity」.
“So, I’d like to ask you for one favor.”
“Yes.”
“When the war with the other dimension begins in earnest, would you please help us?”
How could I not nod?
“I will.”
＊＊＊
After being discharged from the hospital, I returned home.
‘It’s been a while.’
I immediately washed up, enjoyed a short sleep, and sorted through the artworks I had obtained from the train.
[Objects Are Much More Dangerous Than They Appear.]
[The Ignorance of Empathy]
[Anger at What One Does Not Have]
[The Mouth Is the Gate of Misfortune]
I had taken four photographs. I failed to photograph The Greedy One and the conductor.
‘What a shame. I especially should have taken a picture of the conductor.’
The look of emptiness on his face after receiving that phone call contained the sorrow of every office worker. It could have become a fine artwork.
‘Should I get a job sometime soon?’
I didn’t want a lifelong career. I simply wanted to experience office life for a month or two.
‘But there’s probably no actual workplace like that, not just a short-term part-time job.’
I felt as though I’d returned home after a long battle while also returning from an expedition in search of art. For a while, I rested without even going to the office.
“Sarang-i, I’m thinking of making my own website. Can you help me?”
While I rested, I indulged in a small hobby.
『Understood. I will create the most sophisticated and stylish website possible.』
“No, just make it the way I want.”
With Sarang-i’s help, I made my own website.
[‘IAmADebater’s’ Debater’s Yard]
[This is a resting place for debaters. Fellow debaters, may you find vitality in life here, enjoy knowledge, and experience the development of reason.]
[Debater’s Yard]
[Debater’s Rest Area]
[Decorate Your Debater]
[Debater Art Hall]
[Debater Suggestions]
[Debater Free Board]
[Debater Humor Yard]
Sarang-i made the website exactly as I wanted.
『Lee Seung-hoon, this community’s style is extremely outdated. I strongly recommend changing it to a more modern style.』
“It’s fine. What I want is serious people, not popularity.”
To promote it, I placed advertisements online.
[Hey! That troll bastard IAmADebater made a website!]
[Wow! What crazy shit is that bastard trying to pull there now?]
[Who’s IAmADebater?]
└[There’s a community troll. He goes around every community causing trouble. Sometimes he posts disgusting pictures and babbles about art. Other times he floods boards with worthless nonsense or picks at people’s wording and rambles on alone with dogshit logic.]
└[So he shits out of his mouth, huh? LOL]
└[For real, he’s a guy who shits out of his mouth.]
└[Let’s raid his website with poop pictures.]
Then users from countless communities flooded onto my website.
[This site has been closed.]
Countless photographs of feces covered the website. It was reported because of them, and the site was shut down in three days.
“How sad.”
A tear slipped from my eye without me realizing it. At that moment, Spiritual Insight flashed through my mind, and I picked up my Polaroid camera to photograph the site closure notice and my face together.
“And it came out well.”
The photograph showed my face with a single tear running down it and the website closure notice on the monitor beside me. I wrote a title on the back.
[Karma]
I enjoyed this ordinary life for a week. Once I had rested enough, I went to the office, where someone was waiting for me.
“Hello.”
A tall woman, so tall I had to raise my head to look at her, handed me a business card.
“I am Asmodeus, General Manager of Lucifer Company’s Overseas Sales Department. I have a message from Baal, so I have been waiting for you.”
I accepted her card and opened the office door.
“Yes, hello. I’m Lee Seung-hoon.”
I hadn’t expected them to ask for something so soon.
“Please, come inside first.”
Still, they had helped me. I should hear them out.
Footnotes:
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