Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau - Chapter 43

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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

Chapter 43: Night Duty

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I stared at my reflection in the mirror and racked my brains.

How the hell had this happened?

I recalled what had happened only a little while ago.

* * *

The duty room was on the third floor.

“Damn it, why do we have to pull night duty?”

Song A-rin grumbled as she arranged the blankets in the duty room.

“Do all four of us really need to be here?”

“True.”

Now that I thought about it, that was kind of funny too.

I looked around the cramped duty room.

Did elementary schools even have facilities like this?

After a brief tour of the school, we were shown the duty room where we would be staying. It was like a tiny studio apartment.

Two bunk beds stood on either side, and a single microwave sat at the far end of the room.

There was a wall where a window should have been. The conditions were terrible.

“The blankets aren’t moldy, are they?”

“They said we were on duty. Why are you only thinking about sleeping?”

“Weren’t we supposed to take turns keeping watch?”

Song A-rin looked at me as if I had asked something obvious.

“That’s right.”

“Fine. Since you’re the patient, go first or last. White Hair, Black Hair, any complaints?”

“No!”

“...None.”

The two nodded at Song A-rin’s words, and she looked at me smugly.

“That settles it. Help with the bedding.”

Without giving me time to argue, she briskly went back to arranging the blankets.

Unlike Yoo Da-on, who worked carefully but slowly, and Jang Chae-yeon, who simply could not do it, Song A-rin shook out the mattresses and spread the blankets without hesitation. Anyone could tell she was an expert at housework.

“Ms. Song A-rin.”

“What?”

“You’re good at housework.”

“Yeah. I’ve lived alone for a long time.”

She answered as if it were nothing, then turned back to look at me with a mischievous grin.

“What? Is a woman who’s good at housework your type?”

“You won’t get anything out of teasing me.”

“How boring.”

She clicked her tongue and went back to tidying the bedding with practiced hands.

Thanks to Song A-rin, we finished much sooner than expected. The four of us simply stared at one another in silence.

In the end, I had to brief everyone again.

I cleared my throat to get their attention, and they all looked at me.

“I’ll go over what we need to do first.”

I began organizing the instructions we had been given.

“First, we need to lock the front gate. Then please check whether each classroom is locked.”

The other three nodded.

“It’s a small, three-story school, so it should be over quickly.”

Let’s see, what else had they told us to do?

“Right. Apparently students and outsiders occasionally climb over the fence, so we just need to talk them into leaving.”

“So does the person on watch keep checking for that the whole time?”

“We don’t need to patrol the school continuously. Make one round, wake the next person, or sleep a little longer if there’s time.”

“Yes!”

I wondered whether all of us really needed to patrol once.

“But just in case, let’s all be careful.”

The three of them nodded.

“Then, since you’ve been considerate, I’ll gratefully take the first watch.”

The three nodded and lay down on their respective beds, looking at me.

This felt like I had reenlisted for no reason.

“Have a safe trip~”

“Be careful.”

“Turn off the lights when you leave.”

“Yes. I’ll be back.”

I turned off the duty room lights and stepped outside, carrying a pistol and a ring of classroom keys inside my jacket, with a flashlight in one hand.

There was no harm in being careful.

I walked through the dark school hallway, shining my flashlight ahead.

I had never realized it as a child, but elementary schools really were built to match children’s height.

Everything was low. The doors were low, and so were the drinking fountains.

And I had not known that a school at night could feel this eerie.

I walked through the dark hallway, fit for a horror movie, relying on a single flashlight.

I recalled what I needed to do first.

Check the classroom doors.

I started with the classroom right beside me.

The lock was firmly secured.

Good.

After confirming that every classroom door was locked, I went down to the first floor and stepped out onto the playground.

Why did every elementary school look the same?

A small playground, a statue, and another strange statue.

I swept my flashlight across every corner of the playground, looked around the area, and began closing the front gate.

-Creeeak.

Perhaps it had not been oiled. The gate closed with an unpleasant metallic sound. After locking it, I checked the time and found that only twenty minutes had passed.

Did this really need four people?

After working in something close to field operations, I had started approaching every task with suspicion and distrust.

Still, even if I asked to bring guns better than a pistol because I was scared and anxious about volunteering at the Management Bureau armory, who would listen to me? I wasn’t even on the Containment Team.

There was nothing in sight, either. No warning signs.

I looked at the clock outside the school.

Eight o’clock.

I could go in, rest a bit, and wake the next person.

I opened the first-floor hallway door and stepped inside.

“...Huh.”

A young child’s voice.

The overwhelming sense that something was wrong made my body freeze.

Everything had become taller.

And the school hallway I had seen earlier was gone.

I had definitely seen a modern hallway made of concrete, but now an old wooden first floor stretched out before me.

Something was wrong.

At some point, my clothes had changed into a black T-shirt with a cartoon character on it and jeans.

What was this?

I reached into my back pocket at the heavy sensation there and found a pistol so heavy I could barely fire it while holding it with both hands, along with the Manual for Office Workers, which was still exactly the right size for me.

I had a bad feeling about this.

I grabbed the doorknob to go back outside, but...

-Rattle!

The door would not even budge.

Should I shoot it?

I drew the gun, and just as I was about to fire...

-Patter patter patter patter patter!

At the sound of something running across the floor, I froze with my finger on the trigger.

I listened closely.

-Patter patter patter patter patter!

Someone was running.

But it was not the sound of someone running in shoes. It was the sound of bare feet.

I quickly lowered the gun and hid behind a wooden shelf that appeared to be a shoe rack.

The footsteps stopped near me.

Instinctively knowing that I could not let it find me, I covered my mouth and held my breath.

Bright moonlight shone through the window, and I could see a shadow in the dim light.

It was the silhouette of a woman crawling on all fours.

Strangely long hair, a beastlike long upper body, and finally...

The sound of teeth clacking together came toward me.

“Delicious, delicious, deliciousdeliciousdelicious.”

Its neck stretched as it began reaching toward me.

Should I shoot?

I gripped the unusually large pistol against my chest with both hands.

At that moment...

“Over here! Over here!”

The voice of a little girl, the kind Yoo Da-on might have had if she were younger, echoed through the hallway. Its neck whipped around, and it ran toward the direction the voice had come from.

I needed to get to the duty room first.

I quickly started running in the opposite direction.

I climbed stairs that were higher than expected, reached the third floor, and ran toward the duty room.

The stairs were old, and the hallway was entirely made of wood.

As I ran, I organized the situation in my mind.

This was an otherworld, or somewhere experiencing something similar. And judging by my hands and feet, my clothes, and the weight of the gun, I seemed to have become younger. It was a horrifying thought.

There was no time to check.

The duty room was right in front of me. What had happened to the other three?

I quickly opened its door.

This place alone was exactly the same as before. Two bunk beds and one microwave.

The only difference was...

“...Where did they go?”

The other three were nowhere to be seen.

I hurriedly looked around. Was there at least a note?

Soon, I found a torn piece of paper on a bed, with a note hastily written in neat handwriting.

Get out immediately?

At the sound of a creak, I slowly turned around.

It was a human with long black hair.

The differences were that it crawled on all fours, its mouth was torn open grotesquely wide, and the places where its eyes should have been were sewn shut with black thread.

I reflexively looked above its head.

There was nothing there.

I had only a moment to panic before its neck lunged toward me. I reflexively raised the gun and fired at its forehead.

-Bang!

“Ghk!”

The recoil sent an impact through both arms that felt like they would break.

“Kyaaaah!”

A hole opened in its forehead. While it screamed, I quickly darted past it and ran outside.

Where had the three of them gone? Were they safe?

After that, hide-and-seek continued.

Just like before, I hid while it chased me.

Fortunately, I had the ring of keys, so opening classroom doors was not a problem.

The problem was that I could not find the others.

And I could not stop thinking about the child I had seen hanging from its hair earlier.

Had someone been caught?

Even though I wanted to understand the situation better, my eyes had lost their proper function due to the severe, unwanted rejuvenation. Even firing the gun was difficult.

Let’s think of another way.

I quickly opened the manual.

[Manual for Office Workers]

[JL - In Case of Physical Abnormalities]

1. If you notice a physical abnormality, there is a high chance that it is already too late. Commit suicide. If suicide is difficult, consult [T - Methods of Suicide].

2. If you do not need to commit suicide, assess the situation and determine whether the change is physical or an overall change caused by an otherworld.

2-1. If it is a physical change that does not require suicide, seek help from the Management Bureau immediately. The Management Bureau is responsible for any resulting physical loss.

2-2. If it is a change caused by an otherworld, escaping that otherworld is the top priority. Prolonged exposure may result in permanent physical loss or alteration.

I looked around.

The surrounding hallways and building were noticeably old.

It was obviously an otherworld.

As I walked, I sank into thought.

How was I supposed to escape this otherworld?

If it was a story related to a school... then it had to be a school ghost story, right?

Did I need to fight it head-on and win? Would such a crude method work?

But seeing it walk around just fine with a hole in its forehead, that did not seem like the answer.

-Patter patter patter patter patter.

I heard the sound of running again.

The difference was that this time, smaller running footsteps were mixed in.

“Pant... Pant... This fucking...!”

A familiar voice and way of speaking.

Ignoring the pain in my arms, I drew my gun and ran toward the sound.

Long purple hair glimmered under the moonlight.

It was Song A-rin.

The difference was that Song A-rin, who now looked like a little kid shorter than me, was running while gasping for breath in a purple dress.

“Ms. Song A-rin!”

“Hey! Save me!”

“Get down!”

At my words, Song A-rin jumped and threw herself to the floor without hesitation.

I aimed the gun with both hands.

It was unbearably heavy, but I could hit it with one shot.

It swung its hair.

-Bang!

The muzzle flashed again, and the bullet pierced its forehead.

At the same time, its hair lashed across the back of my hand and sent the gun flying far away.

“Damn it...!”

Before I could finish speaking, Song A-rin twisted her body, squeezed her eyes shut, and the creature’s legs tangled up. It crashed into the wall.

In that moment, I quickly pulled Song A-rin to her feet, and we ran again.

After running for who knew how long, my breath grew ragged. By the time Song A-rin was almost gasping herself unconscious, we finally managed to hide in an empty classroom.

“Pant... Pant... What happened?”

“...Pant... Hah... Suddenly... everyone became younger...”

Song A-rin clutched her chest and continued speaking between deep breaths.

Seeing a child act like that felt strangely out of place.

“That thing... Pant... came in earlier... and the three of us... ran away together... then Black Hair... drew its attention...”

Had the one I saw in the classroom been Yoo Da-on? Anxiety welled up inside me.

“...More importantly... I found something first...”

Song A-rin took a crumpled piece of folded paper from her pocket.

“...What is this?”

“Whew... This is... strange.”

I unfolded the paper.

Written on it in rough handwriting were these words.