Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau - Chapter 10

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Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈

Chapter 10: Dispatch

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"You made it?"

"You're alive?"

"Is that all you have to say to a team leader you're seeing again after so long?"

Surprisingly, the one who greeted me when I opened the door was my balding team leader. Yoo Da-on standing naturally beside him was a bonus.

"No, I heard our branch was destroyed."

"It was destroyed. But there were still plenty of survivors. We've spent enough time in this shithole to have some experience. The people who knew to hide probably hid pretty well."

"That's easier said than done."

"I've got good instincts."

Remembering something, I looked over the team leader's head.

[Name: Heo Chan]

[Age: 49]

[Trait: Complacency]

[Talent: Crisis Detection]

[Background: As the head of his household, he works overtime again today to provide a meal for his family.]

[Weakness: Take away his job.]

So that was what it meant.

"Anyway, your team assignment may be a little different now, but you still have work to do."

The team leader handed me a bag as if it were only natural.

"I kept your things for you."

"Ah, thank you."

For all that his profile was a mess, he apparently was still an office worker.

Thinking that, I sat down and opened the bag. The moment I saw the handgun inside, I closed it again.

"What's this, Team Leader?"

"A handgun. Didn't you serve in the military?"

"I was discharged as an enlisted soldier. I don't know how to use a handgun."

"Should I ask Procurement to replace it with a rifle?"

"Is that what you think I meant? You should be giving me a laptop. Why are you giving me a handgun?"

I'm scared, okay?

"The laptop is at that desk."

The team leader pointed at my seat.

"But you don't need to write paperwork anymore."

"Didn't I join as an office worker?"

"You're still an office worker."

Was he trying to turn this into some kind of Zen riddle?

When I looked at him with obvious annoyance, he awkwardly waved his hand.

"I'm joking, joking. You are still an office worker. Your duties have just changed a little."

"...What are they?"

"Now you'll need to go on patrol sometimes."

"...Patrol?"

"Yeah. It's nothing major. Think of it as a business trip. Nice, right? Go out there and, you know, have a little fun."

"Isn't this a dispatch, not a business trip?"

Wasn't that what they called sending out containment personnel?

"Ahem. I said business trip. A business trip. The travel allowance is generous, too. And this friend who transferred to the team will be going with you."

"We ended up on the same team, Jae-heon!"

Yoo Da-on beamed and waved. When we had first met, she had seemed somewhat displeased with me. When had she become someone who smiled that happily?

"She's such a cheerful one."

The team leader looked at Yoo Da-on fondly, and she smiled just as brightly at him.

Still, having a woman around did make the atmosphere feel a little brighter.

"So what exactly am I supposed to do?"

"What else? Sort through the dead. Hurry up and open the charts."

"Yes, sir."

Right. I had to pay salaries, so I needed to sort out the personnel list again.

As I sat at my desk typing away, someone tapped my left shoulder.

Yoo Da-on was staring at me while holding her laptop.

"What is it?"

"...Are you okay?"

"About what?"

"Are you hurt anywhere... Did you wake up and find something terrible had happened... Do you feel like you're not yourself, or like your brain is itchy..."

"Were you parasitized, by any chance?"

"No! Nothing would show up even if you looked!"

I tried to glance over Yoo Da-on's head, but she quickly covered the top of it with both hands and shouted. Her black hair swayed over half her face.

As if that would stop me from seeing it.

"I was just worried."

"Why worry about me? You were the one who got beaten up, Ms. Da-on..."

"Da-on, please."

"...Da-on was."

Yoo Da-on quickly cut me off, so I corrected how I addressed her.

"Why? I might not die even if I get hit, like you said, but Jae-heon, you'll die if you get hit."

"That doesn't mean you don't feel pain."

I didn't think the pain of having the bones in my neck broken ten times would lessen just because I couldn't die.

"That's true, but... Hmm."

Yoo Da-on's gaze wandered.

"Well, it was bearable."

"Don't push yourself too hard. Your body, no, your mind will wear down."

Yoo Da-on nodded repeatedly at my words.

"By the way, Jae-heon, did you know we're going on a business trip tomorrow?"

"What?"

I hadn't heard that.

I looked at the team leader over my monitor.

Whether he hadn't heard or was pretending not to, he was humming as he typed on his keyboard.

"Um, where was it again? They said they needed help with paperwork somewhere in Gangdong."

"How short on people do they have to be to take office workers from a branch that was half wiped out just a few days ago?"

"Well..."

Yoo Da-on smiled awkwardly, glancing at me as if watching my reaction.

"You're still going, right?"

"...I have to."

I may have saved a branch, but at heart, I was still an office worker.

A person who, in exchange for financial compensation, surrendered their free will for a set period and did whatever others told them to do.

"That's a relief."

Yoo Da-on let out a long breath as if relieved.

"I was worried you might decide not to come with me."

"What else would I do? If you're going, Da-on, then I'm going too."

If I didn't, could I even call myself an office worker?

For some reason, though, Yoo Da-on looked strangely embarrassed at my words. She cleared her throat several times and nodded.

"Ahem! Well. That's true. We're practically a work pair, aren't we?"

"Yes, I suppose so."

Then if I wanted to prepare for the business trip by tomorrow, I had to finish today's paperwork.

I had to work overtime?

In the end, I had no choice but to stay for another two hours, letting out deep sigh after deep sigh.

But why had Yoo Da-on stayed to keep me company? She didn't even have anything to do.

* * *

The next day.

I packed light and stepped out of my apartment.

Just in case, I brought the bag with the handgun too.

Still, did I really need to pack this much just to go to Gangdong?

I remembered the team leader nagging me repeatedly the previous night to prepare for an overnight stay before I left work.

Yoo Da-on's wide-eyed reaction to that was an added memory.

"Seoul Station..."

Fortunately, Seoul Station was not far from my studio apartment.

Remembering the team leader's instruction to check the manual on the way, I opened it as I boarded the subway.

[Manual for Office Workers]

Q. Transportation Between Branches

1. The Management Bureau has prepared various means of transportation for employees constantly burdened by travel time.

At Seoul Station, proceed to the subway entrance.

2. At the Line 1 ticket gate, place your manual against the scanner instead of a transportation card. Afterward, go down the stairs. A subway for employees will be waiting.

3. There is a very low chance that you may arrive at a basement rather than the subway. If this happens, remain calm and look for the manual.

Even when the manual ended with something ominous now, I simply thought, Of course, and closed it.

By the time I finished reading the manual, I had arrived at Seoul Station. I walked to the ticket gate and tapped my manual against it as instructed.

I passed through the gate and descended the stairs.

A gigantic subway train stood before me.

"...Huh."

They called it a subway, but judging by its size alone, it was no different from an enormous temple.

And at its front was a giant steam locomotive.

It looked like the sort of train a wand-waving friend with a lightning-shaped scar would ride.

And in front of it was...

"Jae-heon!"

Yoo Da-on, wearing a pink hoodie and short denim shorts, waved enthusiastically while holding a suitcase in one hand.

Her long hair swayed along with every wave.

When I approached her, she looked at me with an excited expression, then at the train.

"Did you see it? Isn't it amazing?"

"It is."

That was one absurdly huge train.

When we entered the train, there was surprisingly no one inside.

It felt as though Yoo Da-on and I had chartered the whole thing.

"We're the only two... Eek!"

Yoo Da-on had been looking around as she spoke when the doors closed and the train immediately began to move.

Where?

I doubted my ears, but after remembering this was the Management Bureau, I decided not to question it further. Sure. It was probably really going to Australia. If I had learned anything while living as a Management Bureau employee, it was that I should simply live with the mindset that anything could happen. Going to Australia? A massive temple-like subway beneath Seoul Station? Sure, that could happen. And that train went to Australia too? Sure, that could happen.

If I thought everything could happen, there was no need for questions or stress.

* * *

"Hello. I am the Accident Response Team Leader of Gangdong Branch."

A middle-aged man smiling gently and bowing before us showed us a photograph of a woman.

Her snow-white hair flowed down her back, while blue eyes filled with a cold gleam stared straight ahead.

A high nose and lips that didn't curve upward in the slightest.

She could be called a cold-looking beauty. And, incidentally, she had a ridiculously large... Anyway, a large chest.

But that wasn't the important part.

"She is the suspect currently at large. She is carrying the Cube held by Gangdong Branch. If she escapes with it, we believe she will cause considerable damage outside. We ask that you recover the containment object and apprehend the suspect."

The man added one more sentence as Yoo Da-on and I stood there dumbfounded.

"Furthermore, the fugitive is presumed to be a Telekinesis user, so please be careful."

"..."

This wasn't something I could just accept.

Ah, this was stressful.

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