WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈
Chapter 18: How to Escape
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Apparently, the threat to kill us had been serious, because the inside of the Cube began to shake.
Yoo Da-on was the first to react, getting to her feet and pointing at the exit.
“Over there!”
Debris rained down wildly. Jang Chae-yeon waved her hand to stop it, and the falling stones crashed to the floor.
Rumble!
The Cube’s exit began to cave in. Yoo Da-on rushed through the gap and braced the debris with her back.
Sounds no human body should have been able to make came from her, but she paid them no mind. She turned to look at us, and Jang Chae-yeon quickly waved her hand to push the debris away.
“Are you okay?”
“For now! Keep moving!”
Yoo Da-on shouted as she hurried ahead.
Once we got out of the Cube, we saw a city collapsing before us.
Buildings crumbled with deafening roars, as though they were falling into a bottomless hole. An ominous black light flowed from its depths.
Where were we supposed to go?
Cross the collapsing buildings like this? That was insane.
Yoo Da-on, Jang Chae-yeon, and I were not superhumans straight out of a movie.
If we got buried under debris even once while crossing, we would die on the spot.
Thud...
The Cube’s entrance collapsed behind us. Yoo Da-on and Jang Chae-yeon looked around in alarm.
They had to be thinking the same thing I was.
Was there anything I had missed?
Something about the Cube that I had overlooked.
A deafening roar echoed as if we had little time left.
I desperately looked around.
Soon, the Cube’s description, which I had seen enough times to be sick of, appeared before my eyes.
[Name: Cube]
[Age: Year of Manufacture XXXXXXXXXXX]
[Trait: Reality Alteration and Absorption]
[Talent: X]
[Background: The Cube, created far away, possesses the functions of reality alteration and absorption. Whether it absorbs by altering reality or alters reality by absorbing it, the order has not yet been decided. What the Cube has currently absorbed is a city.]
[Weakness: //////////////////]
The Weakness section was still unreadable.
Thinking alone would not get me anywhere at a time like this.
I quickly turned to Yoo Da-on and Jang Chae-yeon and shouted.
“Absorption through alteration, alteration through absorption! What the Cube has currently absorbed is a city! How do we get out of here?!”
“What kind of nonsense is that?!”
“Pardon?!”
Jang Chae-yeon and Yoo Da-on responded in turn. As expected, neither looked like they had any idea.
“Quickly!”
Rumble...
The sound of something collapsing grew even louder.
“...I don’t know...!”
Jang Chae-yeon shook her head with a frustrated expression.
“It’s not even a vacuum cleaner. What is it absorbing, and what does it do with it?!”
Yoo Da-on grabbed her head with both hands and cried, “Aaaah!”
Wait, a vacuum cleaner?
[What the Cube has currently absorbed is a city.]
“What do you do when a vacuum cleaner is full?!”
“Have you lost your mind, Mr. Jae-heon?!”
“Quickly!”
“Why are you asking me that?! You throw out the garbage bag!”
Yoo Da-on shouted her answer, and an absurd hypothesis suddenly came to mind.
The Cube altered reality by absorbing it.
This city was altered by being absorbed.
Conversely, this city was absorbed because reality had been altered.
Then when it emptied something it had absorbed this way, how would it throw it out?
Would it simply cast it into an empty void?
Even if that was the case, would it not need some kind of “packaging” to throw it into the void?
Like how, when emptying a vacuum cleaner, we did not simply dump its contents on the floor. We emptied them into a garbage bag, tied it up, and threw it out.
What if this was the process of disposing of the garbage all at once?
How could we survive that process?
“A hole!”
“Pardon?!”
I looked at the sinking buildings.
“We need to make a hole in the garbage bag and get out!”
“What does that even mean?!”
“We have to sink with it, then get out!”
Yoo Da-on’s face filled with horror.
“Do you have any basis for that?”
“No! But I can’t think of a better plan than this!”
Please, someone come up with a better idea than mine.
“Hah... Fine!”
But it did not seem like anyone would.
Yoo Da-on clicked her tongue, then rolled up her sleeves with a fierce smile.
“...I trust you.”
Jang Chae-yeon muttered softly, standing still as she looked at me.
“So we’re just waiting to sink like this?”
“That’s right.”
I pulled out my pistol.
[Critical: 1]
“I’ll fire my gun and share my vision. Ms. Chae-yeon, tear that spot apart with everything you have.”
“Okay. Even if it kills me, I’ll do it.”
“Try not to die.”
Jang Chae-yeon calmly nodded.
“What should I do?”
“If we get lucky and make it out alive, Ms. Da-on, retrieve the Cube. I doubt it’ll let itself be taken quietly.”
“Got it.”
Yoo Da-on nodded.
Rumble...
The floor began to collapse.
“Hoo...”
My heart felt like it was about to burst from the tension.
If my idea was wrong, we were headed straight for the afterlife.
No, perhaps we would be grateful if that was all that happened.
I steadied my trembling breath several times.
I looked at the other two.
Yoo Da-on was stretching, while Jang Chae-yeon blankly watched the floor fall away.
It seemed I was the only one nervous here.
“...It’s coming.”
Jang Chae-yeon muttered quietly.
The floor rapidly began to collapse.
Soon, the three of us fell into endless darkness with a boundless feeling of weightlessness.
I was already prepared.
I raised the pistol in my hand and opened my eyes wide.
[Critical: 1 -> 0]
The world slowed once again, and I saw a tiny red light below.
Bang!
As if possessed, I fired the pistol and prepared for my next move without hesitation.
[Coordinate Ripping: 2 uses remaining]
This time, the world turned into graph paper.
I looked at the spot I had just shot.
As expected, only that area was distorted like crumpled paper.
I quickly pointed at it. Jang Chae-yeon took a deep breath, opened her eyes wide, and stared at that spot before thrusting out her fist and clenching it tightly.
Blood began to flow from her nose.
Pop!
With the sound of a balloon bursting, I began to be rapidly pulled toward the sound.
I looked at Jang Chae-yeon.
Even as blood poured from her nose, she looked at me and nodded.
I looked at Yoo Da-on.
She gave me a thumbs-up as if telling me to trust her, then plunged downward.
Jang Chae-yeon fell after her, and I was the last to be pulled down.
Thud!
“Ugh!”
I landed on my back, and the impact knocked the breath out of me.
I coughed several times and pushed myself upright. Fresh air, unlike before, filled my lungs.
I looked around.
The hotel that had collapsed earlier, along with the familiar scenery around it.
It seemed we had escaped somehow.
But that was not all.
Sure enough, I saw the Cube floating in the air at the edge of my vision, glowing with an ominous hue.
At that moment, someone rushed past me.
It was Yoo Da-on.
She nimbly dodged the falling stones as she ran, then leaped toward the Cube shining in midair.
In that instant, the Cube flashed strangely and fired a beam that pierced Yoo Da-on’s forehead.
Unable to even scream, Yoo Da-on pitched forward in midair.
The Cube spun around in the air as if it were mocking me.
“Are you having fun?”
But I just sat there without doing anything.
Twitch.
Soon, Yoo Da-on’s body jerked several times before she got back up and reached out to grab the Cube.
The Cube twitched repeatedly in her grip as if startled, but Yoo Da-on paid it no mind and grabbed it with both hands.
Boom!
After struggling several times, the Cube exploded in her hands, and thick smoke rose up.
“Ms. Da-on!”
Suppressing the cough rising in my throat, I ran toward her. But when Yoo Da-on walked out of the smoke looking perfectly fine, I sank back to the ground in relief.
“This thing explodes?”
She held the Cube in her charred hand. It vibrated several times in her grip before becoming quiet.
Her hand returned to normal as though time were reversing.
“...Good grief.”
Seeing that, I flopped onto the ground.
“Are you okay?”
“My eyes hurt.”
“My hands hurt. It just exploded, after all.”
“You’re joking, right?”
“I have a nosebleed too.”
Yoo Da-on looked down at me. Soon, Jang Chae-yeon walked over and began looking down at me as well.
“...Can we rest for a bit?”
In the end, the Management Bureau once again took us into custody with the utmost care.
* * *
“You really don’t want to work for the Containment Team, right? If you keep tempting me like this, I can’t help getting confused.”
“Please stop saying insane things. Who was it that shortened the Human and Contained Entity Incident Response Team to the Human Resources Team in the first place?”
“What a shame.”
The sunglasses-wearing man I had met last time sighed as he idly tossed the Cube in his hand.
To me, that thing was a bomb. To that man, it seemed to be a toy.
“Before we talk about the Cube...”
The man clasped his hands together and looked at me.
“The Management Bureau has decided to give you a reward in recognition of your work resolving this incident.”
A bag was held out before me.
“Ah. I told you I’m not taking anything from the Management Bureau anymore.”
“Take a look inside.”
In the end, I opened the bag. When I saw the stacks of cash inside, I had no choice but to bow my head deeply.
“I only did what I had to do.”
I am loyal to the Management Bureau.
I love the Management Bureau.
I will be with the Management Bureau forever.
Footnotes:
The Human and Contained Entity Incident Response Team is abbreviated in Korean as “insa team,” which is also the standard abbreviation for the Human Resources Team.
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