WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈
Chapter 47: A Deal You Can't Refuse
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Other people had acknowledged it too, but I had good eyes. Thanks to them, I had been able to get along with many people more smoothly.
One thing I had learned from living that way was that everyone showed different openings when dealing with others.
Some met new people with an open heart, while others met them with a closed one.
And this man was especially difficult.
“...Hello?”
“Yes. Hello.”
A flat voice came from his mouth.
He was a wall.
I couldn't sense even a fragment of emotion. We were talking, but it felt less like speaking to a person and more like facing a machine reciting a predetermined script.
I chose my words as carefully as possible.
A regressor.
By my standards, someone from the future. And someone whose impression of me I couldn't possibly know.
An immortal was already enough. Why did I have to meet a regressor too?
A phrase that occasionally appeared in the Weakness section above Yoo Da-on's head flashed through my mind.
‘If you had to name two ability users you should never make enemies of, they would be regressors and immortals.’
People you should never make enemies of.
I sincerely prayed that my future self, or my past self, hadn't done anything stupid before opening my mouth.
“Then, I'm sorry, but could you... move aside? I want to sit behind you.”
I spoke in the most polite tone I could manage.
Had that been too rude?
Countless thoughts flashed through my mind. What if the Kim Jae-heons of the past and future were wiped out because I had been rude?
There was no way to know.
“...”
The man stared at me.
My thoughts grew tangled. I wondered whether I needed to watch every word I said, but then I wondered whether my past or future self had thought the same thing. After agonizing over it again, I opened my mouth.
“...Could you... please move...?”
Even without intending to, my words came out extremely polite. I had no choice but to admit it.
I felt an enormous threat from this man.
“...”
The man silently looked at me, then said flatly,
“I'm sorry.”
He moved aside.
“Thank you.”
I hurried past him and sat in a seat as far away as possible.
My heart pounded, and cold sweat ran down my forehead.
I opened the window and looked outside as though nothing was wrong, desperately trying to organize my thoughts.
The first number I had seen was 326. The number I had just seen was 358.
While the other three and I had been caught up in the anomaly, that man had regressed thirty-two times.
“...Are you okay?”
At some point, Jang Chae-yeon had sat beside me. She studied my face closely as she fanned me with her hand.
“Do you know that man?”
“...”
I couldn't exactly say, I don't know him, but I might know him in another timeline.
I simply shook my head slowly.
“No. I think I'm just tired because of what happened earlier.”
“...Okay. Tell me if something's wrong. I'm right here.”
Jang Chae-yeon looked at me worriedly before turning back to her seat.
I fell into thought again.
Regression.
Thirty-two regressions in a short time.
I glanced toward where the man was sitting.
He was staring out the window with the same blank gaze.
I pieced together a hypothesis from the limited information I had.
First, thirty-two was by no means a small number.
That meant there was a high chance the man had been caught up in a similar incident while I had been dealing with the volunteer work.
Thirty-two times. His total number of regressions had been 326 when he first boarded this bus, so this was certainly not a small number of regressions.
Would it be easier to assume he had no abilities other than regression? Or perhaps, even if he did, they weren't useful enough to keep him from dying.
I remembered what Song A-rin had said on the way to volunteer work.
‘He's similar to you. When I was at another branch, there was an incident there. I heard he was the only survivor.’
The only survivor.
He probably hadn't been the only one at first.
Then where was the point he returned to?
The beginning? Or did he have a save point? Looking at his number of regressions, it seemed more likely that he did.
There was far too little information.
This was all just hypothesis, so I pushed it aside for now.
The most important question was this.
Why had he greeted me? What on earth had I done to him in the future?
My head began to hurt.
Or had I done something to him in the past? But I had never once been involved with him.
A sigh escaped me.
“...Does it hurt? Want to use my shoulder?”
“I'm fine.”
Jang Chae-yeon's voice pulled me from my thoughts again.
For now, I should be careful.
It was only an instinctive feeling, but I had a feeling I would get involved with him from time to time.
A regressor, and hospital clothes. There were too many things bothering me.
* * *
<Management Bureau.>
In the end, I spent the entire bus ride awake without getting even a moment of sleep.
Because of that, Jang Chae-yeon hadn't been able to rest properly either, since she was worried about me.
I felt bad for her.
I got off the bus with tired steps.
I should go home.
“Are you going home?”
Jang Chae-yeon called to me worriedly, and I nodded in reply.
“I'll head out first.”
“...Okay. Get home safe.”
“Take care!”
“Go on.”
After receiving several different farewells, I headed home.
For the first time in a while, I walked down the sunset-lit street alone with my bag in hand.
Soon, I arrived at the entrance to the upscale apartment building. I tapped my card key against the reader, opened the automatic door, and went inside.
It was one of the benefits of working for the Management Bureau.
Food and housing were free.
The apartment the Management Bureau provided indefinitely was nice enough to be called luxurious, and the food allowance was paid separately instead of being included in our salary.
There was enough to order chicken for every meal and still have money left over.
I got off the elevator and opened my front door.
The dark apartment greeted me.
I went into my room and collapsed onto the bed without even thinking about washing up.
I'm exhausted.
Before I had time to think about anything, I fell asleep as though I had passed out.
In my dream, for some reason, I was getting ready to enter a splendid theater to watch a play.
* * *
“Why do you need that man's phone number?”
The next day, as soon as I arrived at work, I found Song A-rin and asked for the man in sunglasses' number. She answered with a puzzled expression.
“I have something to ask him.”
“...I don't know if he'll answer, but here.”
I had expected her to say something like, Why? or That's a secret. Instead, she handed over the number far more readily than I expected.
“Nothing else?”
“No.”
“Then I need to sort out the bonuses, so go make your call.”
Song A-rin waved her hand as if telling me to get lost.
I went outside and called the number Song A-rin had given me.
After only two rings, a familiar voice answered.
“Isn't this Kim Jae-heon from Human Resources?”
“Could we talk?”
“I happened to be at the Gangseo Branch anyway. This works out well.”
“Then, when you're done with work...”
“Come to Basement Level 1. I'll see you in front of the elevator.”
Then the call ended.
Basement Level 1? I really didn't want to go there. That was where the Containment Chambers were.
I pressed the elevator button and went down.
When I had come down here following the manual during the Dream of a Butterfly incident, I had been terrified the whole way down.
When the elevator doors opened on Basement Level 1, the man in sunglasses greeted me with a wave.
“There you are.”
“Why did you specifically call me here?”
“If you called me, you must have had a good reason.”
The man answered a different question and began walking. I slowly matched his pace.
“Come to think of it, despite all your contributions, I don't think you've properly visited the underground level before.”
“Instead of giving us gifts like this, couldn't you just give us time off work?”
“I apologize for the workshop. Even we hadn't expected that.”
“So you knew about the volunteer work when you sent us?”
“Surprisingly, other office workers have done similar work besides you.”
Everyone else came back alive from that hellscape too?
Perhaps seeing my shocked expression, he hurriedly added,
“To be exact, they managed containment objects. Ones that would never hurt them. You brought a perfect answer to a question where you only needed thirty points.”
I had been warned so many times during military service not to come in first. I had made that mistake again!
I continued deeper inside with him.
“So, what are you curious about?”
“First, we're not actually the Containment Team, right?”
This was what I wanted to know most. Honestly, it felt like we were being worked like the actual Containment Team 2 without my knowing it.
“No. It's only because you have a tendency to seek out incidents. You are doing your best in accordance with the Human Resources Team's name. We are also trying our best to reduce your workload.”
The Human and Contained Entity Incident Response Team, he meant.
The man calmly accepted my stare and kept walking.
“I'll take two more questions. I'll answer another one later.”
What should I ask?
The existence of gods? Things about containment objects?
No.
“...How did you come to know Yoo Da-on?”
“She was rather unusual even to us. She wasn't someone who should have been at the Management Bureau. She should have been someone at the Hospital.”
The man spoke lightly and shrugged.
The Hospital?
“It's thanks to you. I'm always grateful.”
“Is that all?”
“If you're curious, ask her yourself. You're quite the coward, aren't you?”
It didn't seem like he intended to tell me.
“One last question?”
“...Are there regressors in this world?”
The man answered with another shrug.
“This isn't the second time you've seen this scene, is it?”
“Pardon?”
“Have you read too many novels?”
The man looked at me with an incredulous expression.
“For now, yes.”
The man stopped, looked at me, and smiled.
“Then I'd like you to help me with one thing.”
“No.”
Why would I agree to that if I was insane?
As though he had expected my answer, the man smiled brightly and nodded.
“If you help me, I'll tell you more about Yoo Da-on, whom you are so curious about. Including information about the Hospital.”
“...”
Nothing was ever free.
I remembered Yoo Da-on in hospital clothes, then remembered Yoo Da-on crying endlessly when I flicked her forehead.
“...Let's hear it. What is it?”
“Come to think of it, you've done the Containment Team's work, but you haven't done the Management Team's work.”
“Why on earth are you working me this hard?”
There were so many people here. Why me?
“...Someday, there will come a day when you need the Management Bureau's help.”
The man suddenly became serious.
“When that day comes, the Management Bureau will always do its best to help.”
“Give me a nuclear missile button.”
“That won't do, but I can give you a Tool-Type Containment Object Long-Term Rental Pass as a gift.”
The man spoke lightly as he stopped in front of an iron door and opened it.
Inside was a Turntable with a vinyl record on it.
“Please.”
The man bowed to me at a ninety-degree angle with an apologetic expression.
“I've always been grateful.”
“...Fine. Just keep your promise.”
“I give you the Management Bureau's word.”
Thud.
As soon as he finished speaking, the door closed, and gentle classical music began to play.
The Hospital.
As I listened to the music, my temples began to throb.
“Let's do this.”
It would be over soon.
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