Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau - Chapter 56

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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

Chapter 56: Temporarily Closed

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Song A-rin was annoyed.

She had carried out countless coordinated operations during her time at the Management Bureau, but of all people, she had to coordinate with the person she least wanted to work with.

-Bang!

After firing the last loaded round into the torso of the monster whose head had been cleanly severed, she leaped back and fired her pistol as though to keep it at bay.

Click!

When she racked the shotgun, a shell casing flew out, and she felt its heat against her cheek.

“You Management Bureau dog...!”

“Cover!”

“Ghk!”

As Song A-rin shouted and retreated, Jang Chae-yeon immediately raised her right arm and drove it down as though slamming it into the floor.

-Boom!

Terrifying gravity swept past her and planted the Neurosurgeon straight into the ground.

“Reload.”

“Like I need you to tell me.”

Jang Chae-yeon passed by her with those emotionless words, clenching her fist.

-Zzzzt...!

“You piece of trash...!”

-Crack!

With the sound of compressed air, its body twisted and tore apart.

Blood and bone fragments scattered around them, but neither of them thought it was over.

Song A-rin quickly loaded pellets into her shotgun and gave herself a suggestion.

She was a veteran of the Containment Team at the Gangdong Branch of the Management Bureau.

Her hands naturally moved faster as she loaded the shells, and their trembling eased.

After quickly finishing the reload, she calmly fired at its torso again.

-Bang!

Its body shook from the impact, but neither of them paid it any attention.

They had already realized it would not die like that.

“Sis! Help me!”

As it screamed and pulled itself free, headless corpses came running from outside the mortuary door and charged toward it.

“Damn it...!”

Jang Chae-yeon swept her hand, and invisible force once again swept them away. Song A-rin carefully drove bullets into them, clicked her tongue, and shouted.

“This will never end!”

“I know!”

In the end, one of them broke through the barrage and rushed at it. At the same time, a headless corpse picked up its head and looked at the two of them again.

“Die!”

With a sharp splash, a large amount of green fluid surged toward them.

“...Ah!”

Jang Chae-yeon reached out, but a headless corpse lunged at her from the air at that moment. As she fell, her Telekinesis fired in the wrong direction.

There was no time to stand there in a daze.

Song A-rin instinctively turned her body and braced herself for the pain to come.

As long as her vital organs did not melt, she could keep fighting.

She gritted her teeth.

“...?”

Nothing happened.

“Just in time.”

A familiar voice rang in her ears.

She cracked open her eyes, raised her head, and looked behind her.

The fluid that had stopped motionless in midair soon lost its force and fell to the floor.

She looked toward the voice.

A woman with straight black hair, dressed in a patient gown, stood there with one hand extended and a composed expression on her face.

Behind her stood a tired-looking man holding a pistol and staring ahead.

His gaze was slightly unfocused as always, yet his weary expression never changed.

-Bang!

He raised his hand and fired behind him.

The monster they had been struggling against since the hallway collapsed from that single shot.

There really wasn't something strange about that gun, was there?

“Let's finish this.”

“How did you do that?”

“Well... I managed somehow.”

He shrugged and pointed behind him with his thumb. Song A-rin spotted the enormous monster lying there as though dead, the same one she had seen earlier.

She did not ask how.

The man she knew was more than capable of doing something like that.

Before she knew it, the white-haired one was standing beside him as though it were natural, while the black-haired one stood on his other side with their fists clenched.

That one wasn't actually a teleporter, was she?

“Can you still fight?”

“What do you take me for?”

Song A-rin looked at him, pushing aside her pointless thoughts.

“If it's too much, stay back.”

“Seriously.”

A fierce smile appeared on Song A-rin's face.

“What do you take me for? This is nothing.”

Her legs trembled from muscle pain, but she forced them to move and stood up.

“Just give the orders already.”

“Certainly.”

He drew his pistol and took a step forward.

Now we could finally fight at an advantage.

Song A-rin also took her stance, unconsciously relieved.

* * *

To be honest.

Things had definitely become easier.

Ever since Yoo Da-on learned the Joint Skill, we could coordinate our defense much more smoothly.

Jang Chae-yeon had felt more like someone who knocked away incoming attacks with brute force than someone who defended.

“...Will it be okay?”

Yoo Da-on worriedly looked toward where the Orthopedic Surgeon had been.

The Orthopedic Surgeon had already disappeared when I tried to shoot him after finishing the Entry in the manual.

Had he sensed a threat, or was there another reason?

I glanced at the translucent window.

[Chronos's Shield: remaining time 1.5 seconds]

So it could calculate down to half a second.

“From now on, we move in coordination. Ms. Da-on, take the attacks at the front. Only take as much as necessary.”

“If it comes down to it, I'll take them with my body.”

“Ms. Chae-yeon, focus only on attacking. Just make it expose its head once.”

“Got it.”

“Ms. Song A-rin, provide support and watch for anything flying in from the sides.”

“Sure.”

After watching the three of them prepare, I drew my pistol as well.

Acid sprayed around us, but it could not outrun my eyes.

Yoo Da-on rushed forward and reached out her hand.

A translucent barrier unfolded, stopping the acid dead. Then, with both arms crossed, she ran forward again.

As though supporting her, Jang Chae-yeon pressed her lips together, pulled her arm back, and thrust it forward.

The rocks scattered across the floor gathered together and shot forward in response to her movement.

With the sound of tearing through the wind, a mass of stone shot past Yoo Da-on's head and embedded itself in the Neurosurgeon's upper body.

-Thud!

With the sound of something hard breaking, the Neurosurgeon's body bent into an L shape, and acid poured down.

Acid rained over Yoo Da-on's crossed arms, accompanied by the horrible sizzling sound of flesh melting. Yet she did not hesitate and ran straight toward the Neurosurgeon.

“You...!”

The Neurosurgeon raised its left arm.

That wouldn't do.

I raised the pistol in my hand and aimed at its left arm.

I pulled the trigger without the slightest tremor, and the bullet lodged in the Neurosurgeon's shoulder as though it had been drawn in.

While its arm flinched, Yoo Da-on, having finished Regeneration, closed into its guard and drove her fist into its solar plexus.

“Gah...!”

As it screamed, countless headless corpses began rushing at us from all around. Song A-rin sprang to the side and skillfully began taking them down one by one with her shotgun.

“Mr. Jae-heon!”

Yoo Da-on extended her free hand and grabbed its head.

“Let go!”

It screamed as though having a seizure, but Yoo Da-on ignored it, lifted its head, and threw it toward me with all her strength.

“Here!”

The screaming head flew through the air.

[Critical: 1 -> 0]

The world turned black and white and slowed down.

Shooting a round object flying through the air with a pistol would be impossible for anyone without special training.

But I was confident.

Confident that I could hit it no matter what.

A red glow lingered at its temple.

Unfortunately, Critical did not seem any different on its own. It had been the same when I took down the giant monster earlier.

With that thought, I pulled the trigger.

-Bang!

I did not even need to check whether I had hit it.

Its temple was pierced, and blood spurted out.

“Gah... ah...”

Thud.

Its head fell to the floor, and it soon went quiet.

“...”

I let out a sigh of relief.

Looking around, the entire place had been utterly destroyed.

The ceiling had collapsed, headless corpses were scattered everywhere, and holes riddled the walls.

Yoo Da-on stood beside me.

“...Now we can really say goodbye to this dreadful Hospital.”

She let out a deep sigh.

“You worked hard.”

“I'm not the one who had it hard, Mr. Jae-heon.”

Yoo Da-on looked at me and smiled softly before turning toward the freezer.

“Shall we go?”

After looking at her relieved expression, I looked over at my colleagues as well.

“Is everyone ready to leave?”

“Yes.”

“Yeah. Let's get out of here quickly.”

“...”

All three nodded in agreement.

I opened the freezer.

We really could get out if we went in here, right?

I never thought I would live long enough to put myself into a corpse freezer.

“...”

Lying in the freezer, I propped myself up and looked at the others.

“You're all okay, right?”

“It's cold, so hurry up already!”

Song A-rin immediately snapped at me.

“Close the door, and see you on the other side!”

“Yes!”

Hearing Yoo Da-on's energetic reply, I put myself inside the freezer, grabbed the upper edge, and pulled myself in.

A brief wave of dizziness washed over me.

Then, when I opened my eyes to the sound of blaring car horns,

“Over here!”

The team leader was waving at us.

Several people in body armor stood behind him.

* * *

After that, everything was resolved without any major issues.

According to the man in sunglasses, we came out before the rescue team could enter.

Then why even call for them if they were going to arrive this late?

As though he had read my thoughts from my expression, he explained that preparations normally took a long time and that we had simply been fast. Then he gave us two days of reward leave.

Apparently, because we had torn the Hospital apart so thoroughly, its influence had weakened. Gangseo University Hospital would not appear for the time being.

For at least several years.

“It's no different from a closure. A hospital without patients cannot stay in business.”

That was what the man said.

I thought everything had ended well enough.

Until I heard this.

“The branch head wants to see you.”

And then.

“...”

A brown-haired woman stared intently at me.

Her eyes were narrowed so much that I could barely see her irises. I could sense no emotion from her other than a smile.

My instincts sounded an alarm.

But more importantly,