Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau - Chapter 21

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

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

Chapter 21: Sub-DPS

──────

After sharing the manual’s contents with the other two, they both fell silent.

“...Don’t nod yet.”

Yoo Da-on, who had been about to nod at my words, quickly pressed both hands against her cheeks.

“If we’re going to look at it, the odd-numbered parts are right, aren’t they?”

“...If we look at it now, yes.”

“What if,”

Jang Chae-yeon looked at us with a serious expression.

“What if it’s lying?”

“By lying, do you mean what if it’s lying about the odd-numbered parts being right?”

Jang Chae-yeon nodded.

She wasn’t wrong.

“It probably isn’t.”

“Do you think so?”

“More accurately, it’ll be exhausting if we doubt even that.”

If we questioned and worried over every single thing, we would never reach a conclusion.

“...All right.”

Jang Chae-yeon slowly nodded.

“Then we should proceed on the assumption that the odd-numbered parts are correct?”

“That’s right.”

Yoo Da-on, who had been studying the manual closely, looked at me.

“The talking...”

“Jae-heon should do it.”

“You should do it.”

The two spoke in unison.

“...All right.”

Really, who else but me could do it?

Yoo Da-on?

It wasn’t like she couldn’t talk, but she might end up saying something unnecessary.

Jang Chae-yeon?

She might be talking, suddenly say, “Sorry,” and then hit them with Telekinesis.

Which meant that, by process of elimination, I was the only one who could talk.

When the Human Resources Team got more staff someday in the distant future, would a superhuman riding a white horse come along to speak for me?

Probably not.

“Let’s make a plan before we go in.”

I drew lines through all the even-numbered parts of the manual.

“If we only look at the odd-numbered parts, this is what we have.”

“Just these two.”

“Isn’t that too little?”

“Um... It should be fine.”

For example, perhaps it was something that could be resolved with little information. Or perhaps no amount of information would be particularly helpful, so the instructions had been left vague. It already felt as though the information was being controlled to some extent.

But if my ominous feeling was right, it definitely wouldn’t be easy.

“...Let’s go.”

“Shouldn’t we think about what to say first?”

“We don’t even know who we’ll be talking to.”

What if I brought a five-page script, only to find that we couldn’t communicate and had to prove we were human through body language?

Let’s at least get a general idea of what to do.

“We should be prepared to fight if necessary.”

“Fight?”

“If I say the wrong thing and make a mess of things, well... shouldn’t we at least be ready to fight?”

“Leave that part to me.”

Jang Chae-yeon raised her hand.

“I’ll stop them somehow.”

“I’m counting on you.”

“I’ll fight too if I can.”

Yoo Da-on raised her hand as well.

When it came to fighting, those two were definitely better than me.

“I guess... I’ll just use my eyes.”

What could I even do without Critical?

Maybe I should go get some popcorn.

After finishing our brief strategy meeting, I looked around once to see if there was anything useful nearby.

The room was structured exactly as before. The same unpleasant red lighting, even the rusty chairs.

If this were a game, this place felt like a lobby.

The same lobby you always returned to after clearing a stage.

“...”

In the end, there was nothing else we could do by staying here.

And who knew? Maybe it would be sound asleep, and we could pass through easily. Right, you never knew until you opened the lid.

I looked at the door on the left.

Once again, it was an ordinary wooden door.

“...We’re going in.”

The other two nodded at my words.

“Don’t worry too much. If it comes to it, we’ll fight.”

“That’s right! We’ll manage somehow!”

Seeing them display confidence in their abilities made me feel a little more at ease.

Right. If it came to it, we would fight.

I threw open the door and entered.

It was an operating room.

The sort of operating room that would make a perfect horror movie cliché.

Dark, dried bloodstains covered the room, and fresh-looking splatters of blood were scattered here and there as well.

At its center stood people wearing green surgical gowns.

When I turned my gaze to the right, I spotted a bloodstained handgun.

If the manual was right, that handgun was a trap.

Still... if my Critical were restored, the handgun would certainly be tempting.

But I only hesitated for a moment.

Picking up a gun had little meaning for me when I had no Critical in the first place.

And those people? Maybe we could fight our way past them if necessary.

Just judging by how they looked, it felt like Jang Chae-yeon could stretch out a hand and send them all flying.

“Are you patients?”

As hope began to rise in me, I slowly lifted my gaze toward the voice from above.

Its limbs were far too long to be human, and scalpels grew where its fingers should have been.

But it wore a surgical gown like the others, so perhaps it was human?

Still, the sight of it crawling across the ceiling like a spider was far removed from anything human.

“...My apologies. My eyesight is rather poor.”

It spoke in an unnecessarily gentlemanly voice, flicked out its tongue, and opened its eyes.

There were only two empty holes where its eyes should have been.

Soon, a translucent window appeared above its head.

[Name: Hunger for Humanity]

[Age: Manufactured approximately 30 years ago.]

[Trait: -]

[Talent: Surgery]

[Background: After living as a toy for a long time, he lost his humanity. Because of that, he came to desire humanity.]

[Weakness: If the worst situation comes, scratch with all your strength. If you are lucky, you may find a way out.]

Scratch?

What did that mean? Did it mean literally scratch with my hands, or provoke it with my words?

I tucked the weakness away in my mind, cleared my throat a few times, and answered him.

“Patients? What do you mean? We merely came to look around.”

“Ho ho.”

It laughed in that same gentlemanly voice.

“Well, people often don’t know whether they are ill or not. Shall we examine you?”

It lightly descended to the floor, passed Yoo Da-on, Jang Chae-yeon, and me, then reached for the handgun.

“...You did not touch the gun?”

Its voice was full of surprise.

“Usually, when humans are placed in a situation like this, they touch the gun.”

So it was a trap.

Should I say that I knew about the gun here, or that I didn’t?

Let’s think about what kind of character I should play.

Something I was confident I could do well, and something I could say in a human-like way without causing problems.

“...I am human, yet not human.”

“What do you mean?”

“I am currently carrying out an order from our Mother.”

“Your Mother?”

“...We are a colony and follow a single will. All of this is the will of the Mother Adult Form. We are but lowly creatures who exist only for Mother’s desire.”

I continued in a solemn voice.

Yoo Da-on looked at me as if I were ridiculous.

Well, I was imitating a containment object she knew very well.

Not merely knew well, either. She had been parasitized by it herself.

“...Are you wearing human skin?”

Reverence seeped into its voice.

“Of course. Unfortunately, humans are the most prosperous beings here at present.”

“That is true. You are wise.”

It nodded repeatedly.

“Then there is no reason for you to use something like a firearm. I understand.”

It nodded as if deeply satisfied.

“My apologies. I was suspicious for a moment. How did you come to be here?”

Why had we come here?

Were we lost? Saying we were children of an Adult Form and then claiming we were lost would make us look pathetic.

What should I say?

After thinking for a moment, I recalled both this thing and the explanation of Crowd Psychology that I had seen in the previous room.

“Do you not have a mother as well?”

“A mother?”

“Forgive me. In your terms, perhaps I should call them your master.”

It flinched.

“...Do you wish to meet them?”

A faint metallic sound began to seep into its voice.

Had I touched on something I should not have?

But the die had already been cast.

“Yes. Because Mother wishes to form... a good relationship with them.”

“...Does your Mother know what kind of person they are?”

The metallic edge in its voice grew sharper and sharper.

Yoo Da-on naturally stepped in front of me, while Jang Chae-yeon stood beside me and raised her right hand.

They were ready to fight if necessary.

“She does not. Is that not why she wishes to know?”

“Your Mother is quite curious.”

“I am Mother’s lowly servant. I do not question her will.”

“That is interesting.”

It soon turned its face toward me.

“But our master just told us that the Adult Form being contained at the Gangseo Branch had died.”

“...”

“Please tell us. Who are you? Surely, you are not human?”

How had it figured it out?

I took several steps back.

I thought about the thing behind all this.

This monster, and the human Ganggangsullae circle I had seen earlier.

I had only encountered two containment objects, but if they had one thing in common, it was that they used people as sacrifices.

They captured people and used them as test subjects. Even the bastard looking at me now, and the human Ganggangsullae circle we had met earlier.

They were made by using humans as sacrifices, and they used only humans as sacrifices.

As though someone had an intense desire to treat only humans as toys.

And this thing knew about the Management Bureau too.

More than just knowing about it, it even knew about an incident that had happened only a week ago.

In other words, it had an extremely high understanding of humans, or...

“It is human itself.”

As I muttered that, a translucent window appeared before my eyes.

[Your understanding of ??? has increased.]

[Information regarding the Basement has been unlocked.]

[Name: Basement]

[Age: -]

[Trait: Repeating Type]

[Talent: -]

[Background: Why are there madmen everywhere who want to make art using humans? Even though those who blame their materials for their own lack of artistic sense can never achieve greatness, he opens a workshop to prove his own stubbornness.]

[Weakness: This space will disappear along with its master.]

[Critical: 0 -> 1]

“...”

I stared silently at the window.

Everything was fine, but why did the description sound so personally offended?

But before I could consider that, there was something I needed to do first.

I gestured to Jang Chae-yeon. Understanding my intent, she looked at the handgun and stretched out her hand.

Soon, the handgun flew into my grasp.

“Prepare for battle.”

Now that I had Critical again, I was back to being the sub-DPS.

Footnotes:

Ganggangsullae is a traditional Korean circle dance.