WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈
Chapter 26: Before My Breath Stops
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“Ah, damn it. Try harder.”
“What do you want me to do? It won’t work.”
Song A-rin held my head and strained as she snapped at me, but I was just as irritated.
“My migraine is killing me...!”
“Why can’t you turn your Mental Barrier off and on...?!”
After a brief discussion, Song A-rin and I reached one conclusion.
We couldn’t run away for now.
They had said we could leave during intermission, but we didn’t know the limits of that, and there were still people here.
In the end, the best option was for the two of us to enter the play together. Two heads were better than one.
We were doing our best to cooperate based on Song A-rin’s theory that my mind needed to be assimilated with hers, but my temples hurt so much now that they felt ready to split apart.
Song A-rin sweated profusely, swore as she shook her head, then stepped back.
“Damn it, it won’t work! Your barrier is ridiculously strong for no reason!”
“I only found out recently that I even have a Mental Barrier, you know?”
This was seriously unfair.
Song A-rin began muttering under her breath.
She was probably trying to find another way.
This wasn’t really a problem I could solve anyway.
Then I should think about what I could do once we entered.
First, the setting.
A road, a small village, and a forest.
The biggest problem was that I could be wrong about all of it.
There was no point in struggling to remember the locations if that was the case.
Then what had I actually seen there with my eyes?
Surprisingly, nothing.
I had encountered beings that hid their information, and beings that spoke using information. But this was the first time I couldn’t see the information itself.
“...”
What if information simply couldn’t be seen inside?
“Hey, Song A-rin.”
“Be quiet. I’m thinking.”
What an attitude.
Should I leave her behind?
After her sharp reply, I got up and left Song A-rin to mutter to herself.
I needed information on what we were facing.
Times like this called for the Manual.
I took the Manual from inside my jacket and began reading.
[Manual for Office Workers]
G. Containment Objects Without Physical Form
1. The Management Bureau manages and monitors a variety of containment objects.
2. Naturally, some of these have no physical form. Such objects are far more difficult to handle than those with physical forms.
3. In such cases, please contact the Containment Team. If there is no Containment Team nearby, take the following three precautions.
3-1. Do not let your guard down. Before you even realize it, you may already have been tainted by or devoured by the containment object.
3-2. Remain calm. A level-headed mind is essential to resolving a containment object that cannot be seen.
3-3. Doubt everything. There is a high chance that what you think is correct is not. Doubt every situation, and do not jump to conclusions.
Snap.
I closed the Manual.
“Something unseen... Something unseen...”
A being that could harm me even though my eyes couldn’t see it.
Something without physical form. Then was it an information-contamination phenomenon?
My eyes had done their job so far because every target had possessed some kind of physical form. The Cube, the Adult Form, the Basement.
On the other hand, this “musical” might not have a physical form.
Because a musical was a script. Even if I could see the act of performing a script, there was no way anything would show up.
“...A script?”
Why hadn’t I thought of that?
I sprang to my feet and looked around.
If I could find the script, I might discover a more meaningful solution.
“Excuse me...”
I called the employee whose neck was twisted ninety degrees.
“Gueeest?”
“This play is so interesting. Do you happen to have the script?”
“...”
The employee stared at me for a long time.
“Excuse me...?”
“Guest, there is no script.”
The employee suddenly spoke in a normal voice.
“Our Red Lady is a musical without a fixed script. Its unique nature is why it has received so much love from our guests. Let me repeat, we have no script.”
“...I understand.”
“Thaaank yooou...”
I slowly nodded. As though they had never spoken properly at all, the employee drew out the last syllables again as they walked away.
I didn’t know whether there really was a script, but they clearly had no intention of showing it to me easily.
<Two minutes remain until the end of intermission.>
A voice came from the speakers.
“...Damn it. I guess there’s no helping it.”
Song A-rin, who had been muttering with a grim expression the whole time, sighed and grabbed my sleeve.
“I’ll match mine to yours.”
“What?”
“I’ll align my mind with yours.”
“With your mental age? Think you can pull that off?”
“Do you really want to die?”
Song A-rin raised her fist. But she was childish. Had I said anything wrong?
“Just tell me. What do I need to do?”
“Nothing.”
Song A-rin sighed and continued.
“I can handle all of it myself.”
Soon, Song A-rin began explaining with gestures.
Difficult words swirled through my head, but the conclusion was simple. The original plan had been to use the “easy method” to assimilate my mind with hers. The problem was that my Mental Barrier was too strong.
So we decided to use the “difficult method,” completely aligning her mind with mine before assimilating them.
“So I just have to stay still?”
“Yeah.”
She frowned deeply and muttered something. Then she placed a hand behind my head and pulled me closer until our foreheads touched.
Song A-rin pressed her forehead against mine, met my eyes, and muttered something.
Her violet eyes looked just like Hypnosis. As I was having that pointless thought,
<The performance will begin. Audience members, please take your seats.>
The world went dark.
* * *
“...Ugh.”
I opened my eyes and looked around.
I was in a forest.
Dim light shone through the trees, and thick fog filled the gloomy woods.
“I’m going to die...”
A familiar voice came from beside me. Song A-rin got up while rubbing her head.
“Are you okay?”
You probably aren’t, I thought as I asked. She widened her eyes and glared at me.
“You just thought, ‘You probably aren’t,’ didn’t you?”
“...How did you know?”
“I assimilated with your mind. Your thoughts pop up in my head like they’re the right answer.”
“This is why I didn’t want to do it,” she grumbled, brushing off her pants.
“Do you see anything?”
I narrowed my eyes and looked around.
Not a single translucent window appeared.
“...No.”
“Just as I thought. Your eyes probably don’t work against a conceptual containment object because it has no physical form. Fine.”
Song A-rin clicked her tongue and began bending her fingers backward.
“What are you doing?”
“A reality check. We committed suicide earlier because we were in a hurry, but we need to consider whether this might be a dream.”
Unfortunately, her fingers didn’t bend in any grotesque way.
“So it’s not a dream. Then an otherworld?”
“If it were an otherworld, we wouldn’t have been able to return after dying.”
“You’re right. A strange space that’s neither a dream nor an otherworld.”
“Is something like that even possible?”
“It has to be, or we wouldn’t be in this state right now.”
It was all well and good that she kept agreeing with every hypothesis, but I really wished she would do something about that tone of hers.
I should seriously smack her someday. Or maybe have Yoo Da-on do it. Last time, it looked like she had nearly killed Jang Chae-yeon.
“...”
“...”
So what now?
“I don’t know either.”
“Stop trying to infer my thoughts. It’s creepy.”
“Then you should have lowered your Mental Barrier better. I don’t want to hear your thoughts either.”
Bickering with Song A-rin, we eventually began walking without any destination.
“Let’s organize what we know about the Red Lady first.”
“It’s scary. If we meet it, we’ll definitely be completely screwed. Is there anything else?”
“No.”
In other words, our goal was to escape without meeting the Red Lady. Or find an exit from this place.
But how were we supposed to find an exit?
“The exit...”
Song A-rin rested a hand on her chin and sank into thought. I told her to stop inferring my thoughts.
“Let’s just walk for now. It’s not like we have another option. Do you have a gun?”
I searched my inner pocket.
All I found was the Manual.
“...Why do you have that?”
“What?”
“I brought mine too, but I don’t have it.”
Song A-rin replied while patting herself down.
“Why is that?”
I wanted to know too.
“You don’t know either, so let’s move on. But that’s strange. Remember it.”
Song A-rin started walking after saying that, and I had no choice but to follow her.
But the forest path didn’t end.
That was strange.
“Shouldn’t we have reached a new place after walking this far?”
“Hm?”
Song A-rin sounded puzzled.
“That didn’t happen to me.”
“Really?”
“I only wandered around near the cliff the whole time.”
“...That’s strange.”
The moment I finished speaking, the forest changed.
We were at the foot of a mountain beside a stream.
The fog was still thick, and the oppressive feeling was even stronger than before.
“Oh, it changed.”
“What? It really changes?”
As Song A-rin muttered while looking around in fascination,
Step. Step.
Footsteps began to approach.
“...!”
Song A-rin and I looked at each other as though we had planned it.
“Run!”
I shouted, and Song A-rin nodded before running in the opposite direction of the footsteps.
Step. Step.
No matter how far we ran, the footsteps didn’t disappear behind us.
Should I take a look?
Maybe my eyes would show something.
“Are you seriously doing that?!”
Song A-rin, having read my thought, shouted sharply.
“You don’t even know what it is!”
“I don’t have a choice!”
If I looked, I could know.
If I didn’t look, I couldn’t know.
That was the strength and weakness of my eyes.
I quickly turned around and stopped, staring in the direction of the sound.
The Red Lady appeared...
[Name: ]
[딹돍긹찕뻵껡쒫떩낄꿣뿷뚫깛찘꽧쫂낋딿꽧뚫깫빣욿읋긇늜뜷뚫뀷뜛떓뜛땷꿣뿷뚫깛찘꽧쫂낋딿꽧뚫깫빣욿읋긇늜뜷뚫뀷뜛떓뜛땷꿣뿷뚫깛찘꽧쫂낋딿꽧뚫깫빣욿읋긇늜뜷뚫뀷뜛떓뜛땷꿣뿷뚫깛찘꽧쫂낋딿꽧뚫깫빣욿읋긇늜뜷뚫뀷뜛떓뜛땷]
Everything before my eyes turned bright red, and something began to flow.
The pain came a moment later.
Soon, I couldn’t see anything.
Someone grabbed me by the nape and began running.
In the darkness, all I could do was writhe in pain.
-Thud.
How long had I been dragged along? Someone threw me down and panted harshly.
“I told you... not to do that...!”
It was Song A-rin’s voice.
“...”
I heard a sigh, then something climbed onto my stomach.
I could hear hot breathing.
Soon, slender hands wrapped around my neck and began to squeeze.
“Cough, hack...”
“Hang on a little. This isn’t suicide.”
Song A-rin’s voice reached me.
What about her if I died?
“I’ll survive on my own.”
There was laughter in her voice.
It was obvious bravado.
“I’ve been at the Management Bureau longer than you. Do you think I can’t handle something like this?”
“Cough...!”
My breath was failing. Death drew near.
Wait.
Step. Step.
I heard footsteps.
‘Don’t forget the exit.’
The voice of the child I had met earlier came to mind.
Only then did I understand.
The musical, the script, and the exit.
What she had pointed at wasn’t empty space.
To bring the script to an end...
“Die already... Please...!”
Along with her desperate voice, my consciousness soon stopped amid the pain.
Just before I died, I thought I heard someone scream.
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