WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈
Chapter 46: Closing Ceremony
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Fortunately, after hearing my plan, Jang Chae-yeon didn't seem all that opposed to it.
If I had to interpret her somewhat muted expression, it was closer to welcoming it with open arms.
Jang Chae-yeon hugged me from behind and asked,
“...Will this work?”
“It will.”
The child was still following behind me in quick little steps.
It was an impossible situation.
One monster I wasn't allowed to run from, and another I had to run from. How was an ordinary person supposed to solve this?
No, perhaps they couldn't.
I remembered the countless skeletons I had seen in the nest.
Many people had wandered in here. How many of them had lost their lives here?
“Are we really doing this?”
“Don't scream.”
At my words, Jang Chae-yeon poked her head out from behind me while still hugging me.
“Are you worried about me?”
“Of course I'm worried we'll both get caught.”
“...”
Jang Chae-yeon looked at me with a sulky expression before grabbing hold of me again.
“As you know, I can't keep flying forever.”
“I know.”
I knew the details of Jang Chae-yeon's ability and its time limit well. I'd fought her myself.
“You aren't restricted from using your ability because you've gotten younger, are you?”
“A little.”
“How much?”
“I could normally lift about as much as a compact car. Now, probably about half that.”
“Then there shouldn't be a problem.”
Fortunately, I weighed less than half a compact car.
She slowly shook her head.
“Good. Then let's begin.”
The plan was simple. Jang Chae-yeon would cling to my back, turn me into a human rocket, and fly us through the air.
She would push us forward with her power as though skating through the air, then bring us down, repeating the process.
That way, we could pass through quietly.
Perfect.
I tapped the arms Jang Chae-yeon had wrapped around my waist.
“!”
An overwhelming force of gravity slammed into my back.
This wasn't flying. I was being launched.
We leapt an enormous distance, and before I could kiss the floor headfirst, Jang Chae-yeon somehow succeeded in lowering me quietly to the ground.
“...It's not going very well.”
“Yeah.”
I looked back at the child.
Far in the distance, the child was still chasing after us in quick little steps.
“But this should be enough. Shall we keep jumping like this?”
“I'll hold on tight.”
Wasn't that what I was supposed to say?
As if to keep her promise, Jang Chae-yeon tightened her arms around my waist.
Though she still only had the strength of a child.
Soon, we were flying through the school hallway again.
It felt like I was soaring through the air with Jang Chae-yeon strapped to me like a jetpack.
The old, desolate classrooms kept passing by around us. When I looked back, the child had disappeared from sight.
This was too easy.
After several jumps, Jang Chae-yeon and I found ourselves standing before the doors of a huge gymnasium.
Fortunately, the doors were half-open. Inside, Yoo Da-on and Song A-rin were quietly discussing something.
“So, what I'm saying is-”
“No, but-”
What were they discussing with such serious expressions?
I opened the door and stepped inside. At the sound, Song A-rin quickly turned around and held out her hand.
A faint migraine began to form, but I waved my hand and pressed a finger to my lips, telling her to be quiet.
“...Nothing happened to you.”
After confirming it was me, Song A-rin let out a long breath as if all her strength had left her and approached me.
“Shh. Quiet.”
“...Why?”
After calling over the blunt Song A-rin and Yoo Da-on, who was smiling brightly and waving, I began explaining Arachne.
“...It responds to sound.”
“But don't we need to sing?”
“...”
At Yoo Da-on's words, all of us looked at each other awkwardly.
Could we sing quietly?
If we were discovered while doing that, it would be a serious problem.
The more I heard, the more this escape method felt like cruel false hope.
They placed contradictory objects here, then expected us to sing while burning its hair at the end?
“Song A-rin, give me the escape instructions from earlier.”
Song A-rin took out the escape instructions and handed them to me.
[Escape Instructions]
First, gather its hair.
Go to the gymnasium and burn its hair.
If a child follows you on the way, shake them off somehow.
Physical impacts are not properly effective.
After burning its hair, open the doors to every classroom and sing the hide-and-seek song.
If everyone does not gather in one place, those left behind will wander here forever.
The more I understood about this school, the more that sentence seemed full of malice.
“You're worried it might be fake, right?”
“I'm not worried about that.”
The more I read this and learned about this place, the more certain I became that these escape instructions were close to the truth.
Because they were far too malicious.
If they had been absurdly easy, that would have been different. These instructions felt as though the malice of their creator had been carefully carved into them.
They made people think, I might be able to do this, then led them to death.
It was so easy to understand that it made me feel sick.
[Cr, itical: 1]
Something flickered before my eyes, then vanished.
It happened too quickly for me to read it.
“...Let's do it first.”
As before, I borrowed a lighter from Yoo Da-on, took the hair from my pocket, and set it on fire.
Black smoke rose from it, carrying a foul smell.
Soon, all the hair had burned black and disappeared. The moment I confirmed it, I looked at the others.
“From now on, let's open the classroom doors.”
“What about the hide-and-seek song?”
“I think we can sing after opening all of them.”
The final sentence still bothered me, so the four of us decided to open the doors together.
Relying on the moonlight, we quietly walked through the silent hallways and opened the locked doors.
The hallways were so silent that even our footsteps couldn't be heard.
From the first floor to the third, not a single incident occurred as we made the rounds through every area.
After opening the last classroom door, I turned and looked at the other three.
“Should we sing here?”
“...Should we go to the gymnasium, just in case?”
Song A-rin looked uneasy. I understood how she felt. After all, she and I had been chased by that thing the most.
In the end, we had no choice but to remove our shoes and head to the gymnasium in quick little steps.
“Come to think of it, why are all of you wearing those clothes?”
It occurred to me as I looked at the three of them.
There was no consistency to their clothing at all.
“...I wore this a lot when I was young.”
“Me too.”
Come to think of it, I felt like I had worn this a lot as a child too.
At Song A-rin and Jang Chae-yeon's words, I looked at Yoo Da-on.
“...Haha...”
With a dry laugh, Yoo Da-on held one shoulder as if trying to cover her hospital gown.
“I was sick a lot when I was young.”
“You don't die.”
“...”
At Song A-rin's sharp response, Yoo Da-on firmly closed her mouth and looked away.
“...All right. That's enough.”
A horrible thought passed through my mind, but I forced myself to ignore it and hurried onward.
* * *
Did time pass here too? The moonlight seemed stronger than before.
Earlier, it had shone softly. Now, it felt as though clear moonlight was pouring down on us from the sky.
We stood around the blackened remains of the burned hair and looked at one another.
“Then let's sing for now. If something comes, Song A-rin and Chae-yeon will deal with it.”
“How long do we sing?”
“Until we get out?”
The hide-and-seek song only had one line to begin with.
After a brief additional discussion, the four of us began singing together.
“Hide well, your hair is showing...”
“Hide well, your hair is showing...”
Under moonlight bright enough to hurt our eyes, four people sang while keeping their nerves on edge.
-Patter, patter, patter!
It came even though we were singing this quietly. Perhaps singing really was what called the monster.
We continued singing and signaled to Jang Chae-yeon and Song A-rin. Both of them turned their attention toward the gymnasium doors.
-Bang!
“Delicious!!”
Arachne burst in with a loud noise. As though she had been waiting, Jang Chae-yeon reached out and pushed it back outside.
Then Song A-rin warped its perception as it rose and flipped it over once more.
Their coordination flowed smoothly.
“Hide well, your hair is showing...!”
Arachne rose again and swung its hair, only to be twisted by an invisible force, slammed into the innocent wall, and trip over its own legs.
Damn it, when would this end?
Along with Yoo Da-on, who was singing with her eyes tightly shut, I sang even louder and prayed for this to end quickly.
But there was no sign that we were going back.
“I'm being... pushed back!”
Jang Chae-yeon shouted through clenched teeth as she pushed Arachne away, but it charged toward us without caring.
“...Oh!”
Yoo Da-on, who had been singing diligently, opened her eyes wide.
“What is it?”
“It came back!”
“What did?”
“Regeneration!”
She spoke hurriedly and looked at me.
It came back?
I quickly looked above its head.
The translucent window I had been waiting for appeared above it.
[Name: Arachne]
[Age: Manufactured 20 years ago]
[Trait: Speed]
[Talent: Cannibalism]
[Background: This school was surely a place where people could reflect on their past and find happiness for everyone. Until this was created.]
[Weakness: Sadly, its way of thinking is still similar to that of a human.]
[Critical: 1]
I gripped the gun tightly.
We had won.
I lowered my gaze.
“Da-on! Keep singing!”
At my words, Yoo Da-on began singing again. I quickly raised the gun and aimed it at Arachne.
Its way of thinking was human. What an easy weakness.
“Chae-yeon!”
At my words, Jang Chae-yeon pushed it away again. I looked at Song A-rin, who was covered in cold sweat.
“Song A-rin. Make it think it can see.”
“...Seriously.”
After saying that, Song A-rin looked at it again. Soon, it began looking around in shock.
People always panic when they lose something they have. Especially if they had once been ordinary humans.
I held the gun with both hands.
[Critical: 1 -> 0]
A red light appeared around its torso.
As I pulled the trigger, I fell into thought.
What exactly was Critical? It was an ability I used, but there was still so much I didn't know.
At first, I thought it struck vital points. But it didn't seem to be something that simple.
It was an ability that struck something more fundamental, but it didn't necessarily kill...
While I was thinking, the bullet lodged in its torso as though it had been drawn in.
“Aaaaaaagh!”
It screamed and collapsed.
“Hide well! Your hair is showing!”
In response, Yoo Da-on was no longer singing, but screaming the words.
With a flash, the four of us suddenly found ourselves back in the duty room.
“...”
I looked down at the floor.
The familiar height.
I looked around and saw the other three staring at each other with dazed expressions.
“...Ha.”
“...Hngh...”
“I'm dying.”
“...”
As though we had agreed on it, all four of us collapsed onto the beds.
“Let's rest for a moment.”
Rubbing my aching temple, I fell back onto the bed.
With the quiet chatter of the other three as background noise, I sank into thought.
What crime had I committed in a past life to suddenly encounter containment objects so often?
More importantly.
I thought of Yoo Da-on in her hospital gown.
What was she hiding?
I made up my mind. When we got back, I would meet that man in sunglasses.
At least once this job was over, nothing should happen.
* * *
On the bus ride back, a thin man blocked my path, stared at me intently, and opened his mouth.
“Hello.”
My gaze naturally moved above the man's head.
[Name: Kim Wan-woo]
[Age: 28]
[Trait: Regression]
[Talent: -]
[Background: 358th iteration]
[Weakness: You have already been warned.]
A chill ran down my spine.
Footnotes:
The hide-and-seek chant is a familiar Korean children’s song. Its lyric warns that a player's hair might give away their hiding place.
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