WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈
Chapter 54: The Morgue
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After rubbing my arm a few times, Yoo Da-on began stretching to loosen up.
“I really didn’t think you’d come to save me, Jae-heon.”
“Really?”
“Wanting something and having it happen are different things.”
A question came to mind as I watched her stretch with a smile.
“But how did you get here so quickly?”
“The team leader drove us here.”
“If we make it back safely, we should have a team dinner.”
“Sounds good.”
The team leader was not someone who would refuse a team dinner.
Apparently finished stretching, Yoo Da-on gave a long stretch and looked at me.
“Shall we go?”
“Sure. What about the rest of you?”
“I’m ready.”
“I’m ready too, okay.”
“...?”
Yoo Da-on looked at me with a puzzled expression.
“Just accept it.”
“Okay!”
As if she had lost even the slightest interest, Yoo Da-on went back to loosening up.
“Should I take the lead?”
“Will you be all right?”
“I’ll be fine!”
Yoo Da-on smiled brightly and raised one arm high.
She seemed happier than usual. Watching her, I opened the door.
Fortunately, the path continued.
“We’re running from here. You all understand, right?”
The three of them nodded at my words.
“Then let’s go.”
As always, Yoo Da-on took the lead and got ready.
Then all four of us began running at once.
The walls of the Hospital passed by like a panorama.
Soon, sounds began coming from behind us.
-Scrape, scrape.
-Thump! Thump!
Along with the sound of something being dragged, heavy footsteps began ringing out behind us.
Yoo Da-on glanced back and clicked her tongue.
“Oh dear, it’s chasing us!”
What was?
I looked back at Yoo Da-on’s words.
“This is insane.”
It was a massive human.
A huge figure swung both arms wildly as it chased after us.
A transparent window appeared before my eyes.
[Name: Sunflower]
[Age: Manufactured 10 years ago]
[Trait: Superhuman Strength]
[Talent: Superhuman Strength]
[Background: Patient No. 1 of Gangseo University Hospital lost its sense of self after a long period of treatment and succeeded in obtaining a new body. However, only the patient itself would know whether that treatment was truly a success.]
[Weakness: Its soul is relatively weak. If you can attack its soul, you should be able to defeat it easily.]
“Run!”
An attack on the soul? No one here could pull something like that off.
“Chae-yeon, just stall it for a little while at a time!”
Without even answering, Jang Chae-yeon turned around and held out her hand.
-Bang!
The floor shattered, and the recoil pushed Jang Chae-yeon backward as well. But it only hesitated for a moment before starting to run after us again.
“Song A-rin!”
“Got it, okay!”
This time, Song A-rin turned and held out her hand.
A sharp pain stabbed through my temple. The thing stumbled back a few steps, then fell over.
But only briefly. It soon got back up and began chasing us again.
“It’s no good, okay!”
“When are you ever useful, Song A-rin?!”
“Do you seriously want to die, okay?! Have you forgotten everything I’ve done for you, okay?!”
As Song A-rin bared her teeth in anger,
-Thud!
Yoo Da-on’s waist bent at an unnatural angle, and she rolled across the floor.
“Da-on!”
A huge rock was embedded in her waist.
Jang Chae-yeon quickly waved her hand and removed the rock. Yoo Da-on groaned as she got up and started running again.
“I’m... okay! I’m alive!”
-Bang!
This time, Jang Chae-yeon barely managed to deflect another boulder flying toward us.
“It’s too strong...!”
“Can you stop it?”
“I can’t!”
We ran madly through the corridor.
Boulders crashed down around us.
Jang Chae-yeon desperately deflected them, but she seemed to be reaching her limit. Blood dripped from her nose, and all she could do was barely keep batting the rocks away.
And naturally, we were the first to run out of stamina.
All four of us began gasping for breath. Jang Chae-yeon, as always, was the first one panting heavily.
The pounding footsteps grew closer.
If this kept up, it would catch us.
If only we could ride something, anything, and fly away-
Then I remembered what had happened in the Cube.
“Chae-yeon!”
“Yeah!”
“When we broke through the monsters in the Cube!”
“Yeah!”
“Like you did with Da-on!”
“Got it!”
“Okay! Huh? Huh?”
Jang Chae-yeon quickly grabbed Yoo Da-on’s left arm as she nodded.
“Uh, Jae-heon? Is this... right?”
Realizing what we were trying to do, Yoo Da-on cried out as if screaming.
“Are you serious?!”
“Da-on, I’m sorry. Song A-rin!”
“You fucking lunatic, okay!”
Assimilated with me and fully aware of what I was thinking, Song A-rin cursed as she grabbed Yoo Da-on’s right arm. Finally, I clung to Yoo Da-on’s waist in an embrace.
Yoo Da-on shuddered, letting out a small squeak.
Jang Chae-yeon stretched an arm behind her. At the same time, a massive shockwave burst out, and we were launched forward.
Tremendous acceleration engulfed us.
It felt like dropping from a roller coaster.
The impact was so great that we could not even breathe as we flew through the air. Only then did the other three begin screaming.
“Aaaaah!”
“You’re completely insane, okay!”
“...!”
The four of us flew through the air amid screams.
The distance between us and the monster rapidly widened.
Before we hit the ground, Jang Chae-yeon quickly held out her hand and slowed us down. We landed on the floor all at once.
-Thump!
“Eek!”
“Argh, okay!”
“...!”
This is going to kill me.
I quickly released Yoo Da-on’s waist and looked behind us.
We had reached the end of the corridor before I knew it.
I could no longer hear footsteps.
After sighing in relief, I checked Yoo Da-on’s condition.
“Are you all right?”
“...You didn’t come to save me just to do this, did you...?”
“If we hadn’t come to save you, we would never have had to do this.”
“You wouldn’t be so annoying if you couldn’t talk...”
Yoo Da-on shot me a glare, then got to her feet.
“I only had a hairline fracture in my arm. It’s already healed.”
“I’m sorry.”
“...It’s fine. You must have had your reasons, Jae-heon.”
As Yoo Da-on puffed out her cheeks slightly and grumbled, Jang Chae-yeon spoke to her expressionlessly.
“But if I move all four of us at once, we’ll get hurt.”
“I get hurt too...!”
“You heal quickly.”
“Jae-heon! She’s bullying me!”
“Please stop fighting.”
I felt like I had heard this conversation before.
Pushing away the pointless thought, I looked ahead.
The jellyfish still floated through the air, giving off its ominous glow.
I took out the manual from inside my jacket and opened it.
[Manual for Office Workers]
[3-1. The mortuary has the lowest survival rate. However, do not lose hope yet. If your judgment and abilities are exceptional, you may be able to make it out alive.]
[3-2. There are even more things to be wary of in the mortuary than before. Beware of the jellyfish floating in the air. After that, what you must beware of are the corpses.]
[3-3. As their name suggests, corpses are people who died after failing to adapt to various treatments, or bodies whose jellyfish have fallen off their heads.]
[Corpses are easy to deal with. If you brought a firearm, you may use it from now on.]
[However, what you must be most careful of is not the corpses, but the doctors. If you have brought a patient out, be even more cautious. Every doctor will be looking for you and the patient, and if you are caught, pain beyond your imagination awaits you.]
Things must be in complete chaos.
It was not as if we had merely stolen a patient. We had taken with us a patient the doctors had hidden away so carefully after kidnapping her.
[3-4. At present, the Management Bureau has found only one exit from the mortuary. If you miss that exit, you must find another on your own. Do not forget that no one has ever found a new exit so far.]
[No matter where you are, a morgue will be generated exactly one floor below. You can escape only by finding an empty compartment in the morgue freezer, entering it, and closing the door.]
“After everything else, now we have to climb into a morgue freezer while we’re still alive, okay.”
Song A-rin, who had quietly been reading the manual beside me, sighed and grumbled.
“I think I know this area well.”
“You do, Da-on?”
“Of course. I’m a local here.”
Making a joke that was not funny, Yoo Da-on took the lead.
She walked around without hesitation.
As if she had memorized every route, she led us around corners with slow but certain steps.
“The mortuary is a little unusual.”
“Unusual?”
“It’s sort of like a dump.”
Yoo Da-on continued as she walked.
“But it’s also where the most doctors gather.”
“That’s not good.”
“Right.”
Yoo Da-on nodded and stopped.
“Those are corpses.”
She calmly pointed ahead.
Headless people stood there as though dead.
A transparent window appeared before my eyes.
[Name: Stem]
[Age: Created one day ago]
[Trait: X]
[Talent: X]
[Background: After a flower blooms and takes flight, the stem left on the ground has lost even its roots and merely sways in the wind.]
[Weakness: Aim for the heart.]
They were no different from ordinary people.
Except that they had no heads.
“They can’t hear or see, so they aren’t that dangerous. Even back then, I only died a few times while fighting them... We should be able to get past them easily now.”
Yoo Da-on spoke in the same calm voice, then turned and started walking.
“If we fight here, it’ll probably make too much noise... Let’s take another path.”
Yoo Da-on strode ahead again.
Perhaps thanks to her, we soon arrived before a rusted door.
“...Here it is.”
Yoo Da-on stopped in front of the door, speaking in a pleased voice.
-Creak...
When she opened it, the door let out a loud groan, revealing a dark stairwell.
We slowly followed her down the stairs.
About halfway down, Yoo Da-on stopped.
“...Wait.”
She moved to the front, her voice tense.
-Thump, thump, thump...
Something began bouncing below us.
The color drained from Yoo Da-on’s face.
“Everyone, get back up! Hurry!”
The moment she shouted urgently,
-Boom!
Something exploded, and something began pouring down from above.
“Watch out.”
Jang Chae-yeon swung her hand widely, and everything pouring down scattered away in the wind.
-Sizzle...
The things scattered away by the wind struck the walls and made a melting sound.
“...Acid?”
Before I could even wonder about it,
-Thump, thump, thump...
The sound drew closer.
Soon, someone appeared in the stairwell.
“...Found you, my cutie?”
It was a woman with a beautiful voice.
There was just one difference.
-Thump, thump, thump...
She had no head.
More accurately, she was simply bouncing her own head against the floor like a basketball.
Her bouncing head turned its gaze toward the four of us.
At the same time, information appeared before my eyes.
[Name: Neurologist]
[Age: 29]
[Trait: Acid]
[Talent: Neurosurgery]
[Background: She loved her older sister so much that she tried to transplant her own head onto her dead sister in order to bring her back to life. No one knows how the surgery turned out.]
[Weakness: Burst the head.]
-Thump, thump, thump...
As the head bounced, she smiled brightly.
“Four patients!”
Her gaze turned toward me.
“And one of you has such pretty eyes!”
She grinned.
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