WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈
Chapter 53: Yu Daon
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Did jellyfish have eyes?
I was a humanities major, so I didn't know much about things like that. But if they didn't have eyeballs, wouldn't that mean they couldn't see?
“It's coming this way...!”
Song A-rin whispered, tapping my arm repeatedly.
I didn't know whether it could actually see us, but it was slowly approaching where Song A-rin and I were.
Even if we ran, where would we go?
“Song A-rin, does Hypnosis work on it?”
“I've been using it this whole time. It works, but... it feels like drinking the ocean through a paper straw. It's too weak.”
Song A-rin answered quietly, her brow deeply furrowed.
“I'm ready.”
Jang Chae-yeon calmly raised a hand and whispered.
“Wait.”
We needed to see what we were dealing with first. What if it was an enemy that exploded when struck?
Besides, the fact that the Manual specifically told us to avoid physical combat kept bothering me.
I turned my gaze toward the patient.
[Name: Flower Bud]
[Age: Manufactured 2 weeks ago]
[Trait: Variability]
[Talent: X]
[Background: Where do the limits of medicine lie? Until now, common knowledge held that medicine could reach even the mind. Here are the victims of those who sought to challenge that common knowledge.]
[Weakness: You have no choice but to blow its head apart. However, you must bear the aftermath yourself.]
This was incredibly unsettling.
I opened the manual.
[Manual for Office Workers]
[2-17. While walking, you may encounter a long corridor. From this point onward, you must rely entirely on your own luck.]
What a completely useless entry.
So it was up to my judgment after all.
“Let's avoid it as much as possible.”
The two of them nodded.
“How?”
“As best we can? If it comes down to it, Chae-yeon, you... blow its head apart.”
Jang Chae-yeon nodded slowly.
I looked at the patient, or perhaps Flower Bud, again.
Standing in the middle of the narrow corridor, it wouldn't be easy to get past.
“Let's stick to the wall.”
In the end, all three of us had to move along the wall as though we were in a stealth game.
In suffocating silence and darkness, we began walking with our bodies pressed tightly against it.
When I looked up at the ceiling, or perhaps the sky, jellyfish were still drifting through the air.
Had they finally escaped the suffering of the flesh, only to be trapped in a cage of the mind? I couldn't tell.
Fortunately, the three of us passed it without much trouble.
“...”
Holding our breaths, all three of us looked back at it.
It was still moving slowly, wandering around nearby.
“Looks like it doesn't know.”
“I think so.”
“That was easier than I expected.”
Song A-rin let out a relieved sigh and began walking ahead.
At that moment,
-Crack!
Something made a sound above us.
I quickly looked up.
Two jellyfish collided in the sky, sending sparks like electricity flying.
“...Ah.”
The patient we had just passed grabbed the tentacle that seemed to be its head and began screaming.
“Aaaaaah!”
It could scream? How?
There was no time to consider whether a jellyfish had a mouth to scream with.
“Chae-yeon!”
“Okay!”
At my call, Jang Chae-yeon immediately stretched out her hand, then clenched it into a fist.
-Thump!
As its head burst apart in a blue light, memories came flooding into me.
“Gasp...!”
I didn't know this person's name. But I felt the despair they had experienced here, the pain of the surgery, and finally, even their very origin...
Before I realized it, I had dropped to my knees and doubled over.
As I felt this person's pain,
“Ghk...!”
The pain stopped, and a migraine began.
Had my Mental Barrier activated?
Then what about the others?
I hurriedly turned to look at them.
Jang Chae-yeon and Song A-rin were both on their knees as well.
Jang Chae-yeon broke out in a cold sweat and gasped for breath. After shaking her head a few times, she stood up.
“...Vile.”
“...Are you all right?”
She wiped away the cold sweat and nodded.
“Ah, urgh...!”
Song A-rin was in even worse condition.
Her face twisted with pain, she began clawing at the floor with her nails as though she couldn't breathe.
“Kh, ngh...!”
“Song A-rin.”
I quickly grabbed her shoulders.
She shook her head.
“...Stop...!”
She didn't seem capable of holding a conversation at all.
What should I do?
I glanced to the side.
[Method: 1]
Even if I connected Method to Jang Chae-yeon now, she had been shocked too. Would it even work?
...Could I use it on myself again?
It hadn't worked during the Mountain God incident, but there was no way to know if it would work now.
In the end, I had no choice but to try.
Once again, a line trailed down from above Song A-rin's head.
I connected the purple line to myself.
Just as before, without bounc...ing away, the line pierced my chest.
Before I had time to wonder why, it felt as though someone had shoved ice into my head. A chill ran through me, and at the same time,
“...Hic... sniff...”
Song A-rin's sobs began to subside.
“...Song A-rin.”
“...I'm listening, okay.”
Oh, right. That was how she spoke when she was connected to me.
I forced myself to look away from Jang Chae-yeon, who was staring at Song A-rin and me with wide eyes, and checked Song A-rin's condition.
“Are you all right?”
“...Thanks to you.”
She wiped the corners of her eyes with the back of her hand.
“Were you crying?”
“Shut up, okay.”
I waited until Song A-rin's breathing settled.
Once she had recovered somewhat,
“If you're feeling better-”
Before I could finish, she grabbed my wrist.
“...Let's stay like this for a little longer, okay.”
“...All right.”
I got to my feet.
We continued walking in strange silence.
Song A-rin walked some distance away from me, looking in the opposite direction. Jang Chae-yeon walked beside me with an uncomfortable expression. And then there was me.
We passed countless black doors.
“Are all the people here like that?”
“I don't know.”
Jang Chae-yeon replied calmly as she walked beside me.
“But there's no harm in being careful.”
“The Manual told us not to open them in the first place, so we won't.”
Curiosity? Anyone who indulged their curiosity here would either have the confidence to survive anything, like Yoo Da-on, or the confidence to make it out of a place like this alive.
After what had just happened, I had no intention of doing anything else.
So this was what it meant for something to be so unpredictable.
Relying on the faint glow of the jellyfish, we walked through the endless corridor.
“But what are you going to do once we save the black-haired one, okay?”
“What else? Run away.”
“Have you looked for the exit?”
“I'll start looking now, okay.”
I could feel Song A-rin's sharp glare, but I ignored it and opened the manual.
[Manual for Office Workers]
[2-18. From the moment you enter the intensive care unit, escape through Building B becomes impossible. You must escape through Building C, the morgue, and the process is highly likely to be extremely painful.]
[Once you find the person you want, leave the room and run immediately. Naturally, the ‘Hospital’ does not take kindly to its patients disappearing.]
[If you see a cliff as soon as you leave the room, commit suicide immediately. Killing the person you saved there would also be the greatest consideration you could offer them.]
[If you are fortunate enough to find a path, then no matter what the place you are running through looks like, run toward wherever feels the least like a path.]
[While running, what you saw in the operating room may pursue you. You are not forbidden from using force against the object, but it is highly likely to have little effect.]
[Good luck.]
I could fully understand why the Management Bureau had scrapped the intensive care unit.
There was barely any proper strategy for dealing with it.
Just walk down the path. We don't know exactly what might appear afterward either.
It was a structure that relied entirely on luck. The Management Bureau would have hated it, and there was no way there hadn't been many victims.
“...Isn't that it?”
Jang Chae-yeon pointed ahead with her index finger, pulling me from my thoughts.
After passing countless doors, we could finally see the end.
A hospital-room door, the only one with an ordinary color among the black doors.
“Let's go.”
I couldn't stop myself from quickening my pace.
“Hey, slow down a little, okay...!”
“...”
I heard the two of them behind me, but I couldn't help feeling rushed.
I moved nearly at a run, placed my hand on the doorknob, and
-Creak.
opened the door.
“...Ah.”
Yoo Da-on was there.
Wearing a hospital gown, her face thin and gaunt, she lay on the bed and looked at me.
“...Jae-heon?”
Her expression was full of confusion.
“Huh? Am I dreaming? How?”
Then Yoo Da-on vigorously pinched her own cheek.
“...It hurts...?”
She muttered blankly, then looked at me.
“Is it really you, Jae-heon?”
“It really is.”
“How did you know about this place? No, why did you come here?”
For the first time, Yoo Da-on's expression held both worry and anger.
“Do you know how dangerous this place is...!”
“I do.”
“Then why-”
“Because I wanted to.”
Yoo Da-on closed her mouth, then opened it again.
Her voice trembling, she continued.
“Just someone like me-”
“There's no ‘just’ about you.”
‘I can die for you about three hundred times for free.’
‘That sounds good.’
‘It might sound funny, but you staked your life on me.’
‘Then I should stake mine on you too.’
The conversations I had shared with her came to mind.
Yoo Da-on looked blank for a moment, as though she hadn't expected to hear those words.
Her clear eyes trembled sadly.
Her lips moved several times before she finally closed her mouth again.
“Why... why...”
Following the faint movement of her hand, wrinkles formed in the bedsheet.
Soon, a few drops of tears began soaking into it.
“No one has ever told me... that they needed me...”
“I wouldn't be here without you, Da-on.”
“...Thank... thank you...”
“...”
At my words, she began to cry without saying anything else.
After crying for some time, she slapped both cheeks hard and looked at me.
“...Let's talk after we get out.”
“Let's do that.”
“I really have a lot to say.”
“All right.”
Still wearing her hospital gown, Yoo Da-on rose from the bed and looked at the three of us.
She was a little thinner, but she still had the same confident smile.
“...Let's go.”
Yoo Da-on lightly took hold of my arm.
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