WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

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

Chapter 13: The Cube, or...

──────

I pressed hard against my temples.

"...Give it back."

Jang Chae-yeon was still holding out her hand toward the Cube, while Yoo Da-on was nowhere to be seen.

Let's think this through based on what I've learned so far.

The moment Jang Chae-yeon lost the Cube, she lost the will to fight. Sure, she had dropped me from a building, but there had to be some reason she wasn't twisting my neck like a wooden chopstick right now.

Did merely holding the Cube, or not holding it, change a person? But there had been nothing about mind control in the Cube's information.

Still, the migraine washing over me was starting to make me suspicious.

I'd felt this ever since the butterfly incident. Whenever I got a migraine, someone, or my surroundings, would become strange.

The first time was when Yoo Da-on was seeing something different from me. The second was when Song A-rin tried to hypnotize me.

But my own information contained nothing like that, so I couldn't be certain. This was entirely speculation.

For now, let's assume my theory is correct. Let's say I get allergy-like migraines in response to some kind of mental influence.

Then this Cube must be causing some kind of mental contamination or effect.

Was I already seeing something wrong myself?

I looked at the Cube again.

[Name: Cube]

[Age: Manufactured in the 1900s]

[Trait: Reality Alteration]

[Talent: X]

[Background: This Cube is an object whose method of manufacture in the 00s is unknown. Was it really made in that era to begin with? Or do you merely think it was made in the 1900s? This Cube can overturn, cement, and sometimes erase the common sense you believe in. Extreme caution is required when handling it.]

[Weakness: You will not be able to destroy this Cube. Probably. No matter what happens, even if you begin to question your own existence, do not doubt yourself. You are yourself exactly as you are.]

No, I shouldn't doubt myself. Even the Weakness section told me not to doubt myself.

Then was Jang Chae-yeon being mentally controlled by this Cube?

But her actions earlier had been too clever for that. I couldn't say she had lost her intelligence.

I raised the Cube in my hand above my head.

Jang Chae-yeon's gaze followed it upward.

I lowered the Cube.

And Jang Chae-yeon's gaze came down again.

Looking at her like this, maybe she had lost her intelligence after all.

No. I should stop messing with someone strange right now.

So what was I supposed to do with this?

I couldn't hand over the Cube without any basis. It did seem as though every problem led back to the Cube, based on what I could see and what I thought.

And for some reason, her ability to fight seemed to have been stripped away.

"...Come with me first. Then I'll give you the Cube."

"...Okay."

Jang Chae-yeon nodded meekly. It was hard to believe this was the woman who had twisted Yoo Da-on's neck 180 degrees only moments ago.

"Now... if you want the Cube back, we need to find someone first."

"Who?"

"Longish black hair... thin... wearing pink clothes... um, a kind of cute-looking face?"

Trying to describe Yoo Da-on made me realize just how limited my powers of expression were.

"...That one?"

Jang Chae-yeon pointed to one side.

Flailing wildly, something presumed to be Yoo Da-on was stuck upside down in the rubble with only her lower body visible, kicking her legs desperately.

Why hadn't I seen that?

"Could you pull her out?"

"If I do, will you give me the Cube?"

"I'll think about it."

"..."

Jang Chae-yeon looked at me unhappily. Still, she raised her hand toward Yoo Da-on.

With the sound of rubble collapsing, Yoo Da-on struggled to her feet.

"Wow... I really thought I was going to die. Or did I? Maybe I died once already?"

She made a joke only she could make, then began dusting dirt from her hair and upper body.

"But how did you... Ah!"

She looked at me, screamed, and quickly stepped in front of me.

"You're in danger!"

Jang Chae-yeon looked at Yoo Da-on as if she were an idiot.

"..."

"It's okay. She probably won't hurt us. For now."

Yoo Da-on looked at me with a puzzled expression, then back at Jang Chae-yeon.

"What did you do? Did you destroy her brain with a bullet or something?"

"You really will say anything, won't you?"

If I had an ability that dangerous, would I have jumped out of a hotel?

"Then what did you do?"

I briefly explained the situation to Yoo Da-on, who still looked confused.

"So you're saying she became an idiot once you took the Cube away?"

"...Well, in short, yes."

"But the Cube wasn't there originally."

"What do you mean?"

I looked at Yoo Da-on, who was casually saying something unbelievable.

"Jae-heon, when you first saw her, did you see the Cube?"

"...Huh?"

Come to think of it, Jang Chae-yeon hadn't been holding the Cube when I first met her. If she had, I would've known.

"I saw clearly. Both her hands were empty. And the Cube is too big to hide under her clothes."

Surely something that big... No. Don't go there.

Without realizing it, I stole a furtive glance at a certain part of Jang Chae-yeon's body that made its enormous presence known. Don't have insane thoughts.

Thankfully, she didn't seem to notice where I was looking. Yoo Da-on began speaking excitedly.

"If my memory is right, the Cube popped out when you shot her. It wasn't visible before that."

Come to think of it, that might be true.

There had been no sign of the Cube when she grabbed me by the collar and lifted me up, either.

In other words, the Cube had popped out when I put a bullet between Jang Chae-yeon's eyebrows. I didn't know what connection there was between those things, though.

"Anyway, we've recovered the Cube, and Jang Chae-yeon is docile now. Isn't that enough? Let's just call the Management Bureau."

Yoo Da-on was stating the obvious as if it were common sense. Jang Chae-yeon stared at me.

"...Will you give me the Cube?"

We could call them now, but...

Was it right to end things here?

I had a sense of déjà vu. It felt like this couldn't be the end.

I wasn't suspicious of the Management Bureau. But that didn't mean I thought they always made the right decision.

"Wait."

I raised a hand to stop Yoo Da-on as she took out her phone to make a call.

"...Why?"

Yoo Da-on looked at me curiously but lowered her phone as instructed.

"Hold this for a moment."

I placed the Cube in Yoo Da-on's hand.

"...Why?"

She tilted her head while holding the Cube and looked at me.

"How does it make you feel?"

"How does it make me feel...?"

Yoo Da-on closed her eyes and hummed as she thought.

"...I don't feel anything."

"Not anxious? Like the world is collapsing? Like you're questioning your own identity?"

"...Why would I feel that? Is the Cube really like that?"

As if she had touched something ominous, Yoo Da-on handed it back to me.

While she did, I looked her over.

[Name: Yoo Da-on]

[Age: 23]

[Trait: Immortality]

[Talent: Regeneration (Pending)]

[Background: Unable to die, she lives while carrying out her duties at the Management Bureau. She was originally destined to become an exceptional mature specimen, but through someone's intervention, she has been able to continue unfolding her own story at the Management Bureau.]

[Weakness: Nothing is more foolish than making a regressor and an immortal your enemies.]

I set aside the changed Background section for now. Was there anything else?

"..."

"...You're looking at me right now, aren't you?"

I examined her closely, but there was nothing else of note.

"...No, what are you looking at?!"

Yoo Da-on shrieked and covered herself with both arms.

"That's not something you need to worry about."

"How would I know that?!"

Fair enough.

Leaving Yoo Da-on's sharp protests behind, I fell into thought again.

Holding it for a short time wasn't a major problem. Then what happened when someone held it for a long time?

"...Oh."

Jang Chae-yeon, who had been quiet until then, pointed blankly at the Cube.

"...It moved."

"...What?"

At her words, I looked at the Cube.

The Cube was moving, aligning itself.

"No, why is it..."

I grabbed it tightly and twisted it several times to scramble it again, but as if my efforts meant nothing, the Cube began spinning wildly.

"...No!"

Desperation entered Jang Chae-yeon's voice, which had been emotionless until now. She abruptly turned and began running in the opposite direction.

"Hey!"

Yoo Da-on and I stared blankly after her.

At that moment, one face of the Cube was completed.

Brilliant light burst from the Cube and swallowed me, Yoo Da-on, and Jang Chae-yeon.

The brightness was enough to blind me, along with the sensation that my existence was being sent somewhere else.

If souls existed, perhaps this was what it felt like for one to be sucked away somewhere else.

The feeling that seemed as if it would last forever ended. When the light faded, a completely different scene from the hotel ruins stood before us.

An empty blue sea stretched before my eyes.

"...What is this?"

Where were we? What was this now?

"Ah, ah... Aahhh...!"

The moment she saw this place, Jang Chae-yeon let out a shriek as though howling, collapsed to the ground, and hugged her shoulders with both hands.

"No...! No...! Not again...!"

"Hey! Get a hold of yourself!"

I watched Yoo Da-on run toward the wailing Jang Chae-yeon, and I was about to go to her too when...

"...Huh."

Words began appearing above the sea.

[Name: Cube]

[Age: Manufactured in the XXs]

[Trait: Reality Alteration]

[Talent: X]

[Background: This Cube is an object whose method of manufacture in the 00s is unknown. Was it really made in that era to begin with? Or do you merely think it was made in the 1900s? Is what you are seeing now truly reality? Or could you be inside the Cube? Only the Cube knows the answer.]

[Weakness: An unknown force has cracked the Cube, and it has entered self-repair mode. Even so, do not forget. You are yourself exactly as you are.]

I rubbed my eyes over and over.

Then I looked at the sea again.

The unchanged words floated above it.

I looked at the sun hanging far in the distance.

The same words were floating above the sun, too.

My mind began to grow complicated.

"...Jae-heon."

Yoo Da-on called my name softly.

"Look over there."

I turned at Yoo Da-on's words and looked where she was pointing.

A desolate city sprawled before us, the remnants of a civilization where humanity had once flourished, half-reclaimed by jungle.

The story I had heard earlier that day suddenly came to mind.

<Cube. One of the managed entities held by the Gangdong Branch of the Management Bureau. Its appearance resembles an unsolved puzzle cube. However, each completed face causes a minor or major reality alteration, and completing all faces triggers a massive reality alteration. The most recent reality alteration turned an entire city into a deserted island, causing all its citizens to starve to death.>

With the sound of Jang Chae-yeon's sobbing behind me, I swallowed hard.

This might not be a reality alteration.

A thought suddenly occurred to me.

This might be something even more dangerous.

Thud.

The Manual for Office Workers fell from inside my clothes.

Soon, as if by magic, the manual opened and revealed its words.

It was open to page three.

[Manual for Office Workers]

1. You work at the Management Bureau, and you may encounter things beyond your imagination, things that mock reason.

2. This is not telling you not to be afraid. Do not forget that humanity survived countless wars because it knew fear.

3. But do not stop moving forward. Containment objects and unknown enemies are mysteries. Precisely because they are unknown, you must press forward with an inquisitive attitude.

4. Good luck.

"..."

I knelt down and retied my shoelaces.

Yoo Da-on looked at me strangely.

"...What are you doing?"

"Getting ready to go."

"Where?"

Where else?

I jerked my chin toward the city.

"To find an exit."

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried