Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau - Chapter 60

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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

Chapter 60: A Play at Sea?

──────

I had heard that the cruise would travel around the country for a week.

Normally, I would have been enjoying the scenery, cutting myself off from the everyday world, and getting some proper rest...

But as I climbed the stairs, I could think of only one thing.

The Management Bureau should go bankrupt.

What a crazy, exploitative company. I was on a cruise vacation, so why did I have to deal with this again?

If this cruise trip was ruined, I really should go find the branch manager or something.

Barely calming my boiling anger, I walked with Yoo Da-on.

“Just when things seemed to have settled down lately...”

“I know... Still, isn’t it good that we’re together?”

Yoo Da-on spoke brightly as we walked.

I should learn from her positive outlook, but I just couldn’t.

“By the way, did something seem strange?”

“Hmm... I smelled something fishy, and I saw something too.”

“Fishy?”

Following behind me, Yoo Da-on leaned forward and sniffed.

“All I can smell is you, Jae-heon.”

“Do I smell?”

At my words, Yoo Da-on froze. Her eyes widened, and she hurriedly shook her head.

“No! How should I put it? It’s a really calming scent.”

“So there’s no bad smell, right?”

“No!”

Yoo Da-on shouted before I had even finished speaking, and I shrugged.

Right. That was a hundred times better than being told I smelled.

I raised my head again and looked at the person climbing the stairs ahead of us.

After being deceived by my eyes and experiencing all kinds of dangers firsthand, I had learned something.

Not seeing a name at all and seeing only part of one were completely different.

For example, when I saw the branch manager’s name, it appeared as [-].

But the person I had just seen had their name displayed as [X X-min], which meant that, for some reason, they had lost their name.

In other words, someone had lost their name.

I had not seen that happen often, but there had been one case...

My gaze turned toward the theater with the <Preparing> sign.

Could this be Red Lady, Part Two? If it was, at least there would be a way to deal with it.

I tried to think of a connection between the Red Lady and the fishy smell, but nothing came to mind. If I had to describe it, it smelled like the revolting stink of the sea.

I climbed the stairs and followed the person.

“...Ah, I can smell it now.”

Yoo Da-on wrinkled her brow as she sniffed.

“It’s fishy. Faint, but I can smell it.”

“...I can’t.”

I sniffed as well, following her lead, but I could not smell anything.

“Then I’ll lead the way.”

Yoo Da-on expertly followed the smell and walked ahead.

What was she, a tracking dog?

I followed behind her and looked around.

Once we passed through the extravagant stairs and corridors into the back, a black hallway and rusted walls appeared, as though the splendor had never existed.

“It must be the back office.”

“I think so.”

Yoo Da-on came beside me, muffling her footsteps as she whispered.

Only then did I begin to smell a faint fishy odor as well.

We followed quietly, suppressing our footsteps. When I heard the sound of water splashing, I reflexively drew my pistol.

Yoo Da-on, still wearing her gloves, led the way.

The smell grew stronger near the corner at the end of the long hallway.

“...”

Yoo Da-on stopped briefly with her fist clenched, then quickly turned the corner.

“...Huh?”

She came to an abrupt stop and muttered in bewilderment.

“Is something there?”

“There is, but... no, maybe there isn’t...?”

I walked behind her and examined the situation with her.

“What is this...?”

“I know...”

At the source of the overpowering fishy odor, there was only a puddle of foul-smelling water and the wet clothes of the person I had been following earlier, scattered across the floor.

I quickly looked around, but I could not see anything.

“...The person didn’t turn into water, did they?”

Yoo Da-on crouched in front of the puddle and sniffed at it intently.

“What if the water comes alive and attacks you?”

“Then I’ll die, I guess.”

I sighed as I watched Yoo Da-on say something that would horrify anyone else as though it were nothing, then stared at the clothes.

Should we leave these here? Or take them with us?

“Let’s just take the clothes.”

“Yes.”

At my words, Yoo Da-on gathered the clothes and hurried off. I followed her again.

* * *

“...That smell.”

The moment Jang Chae-yeon saw the clothes we had brought back, she covered her nose and muttered.

Song A-rin still seemed busy going around warning Management Bureau employees.

“There are two things bothering me.”

At my words, both women looked at me intently.

“First, this whole situation feels too staged.”

“Staged?”

“Yes.”

Jang Chae-yeon looked at me in confusion.

“The fishy smell appeared as though it had been waiting for me. Someone passed right by me as though they had been waiting for me. Then they left behind clothes like a clue.”

“You mean it feels like a rehearsed play?”

“That’s right.”

“Hmm...”

Jang Chae-yeon scratched her cheek as she thought deeply, then nodded.

“All right. What’s the second thing?”

“It comes from what I just said. ...The word play reminded me of something bad.”

“The Red Lady we got caught up in before?”

“That’s right.”

Jang Chae-yeon’s expression immediately darkened.

“Should I destroy the theater?”

“If destroying the theater would solve it, I would like to destroy it too.”

But based on the play I had experienced, destroying the theater did not seem like it would help much. It had felt more like a phenomenon.

“And if you destroy it, Ms. Jang, you’ll literally smash it to pieces.”

“...Yeah.”

Jang Chae-yeon slowly nodded at my words.

“If the ship collapses, everyone will really die, so let’s try to finish this while destroying as little as possible.”

Not destroying things? Could that really be possible?

The Management Bureau would cover it. Whatever. I didn’t care anymore.

With that irresponsible thought in mind, I looked around.

People were still enjoying themselves.

Song A-rin was probably gathering the Management Bureau employees well.

I took radios from my pocket and handed them to the two women.

“Oh, you brought radios?”

“Just in case.”

Just in case, I had brought radios and a gun.

“Here. Take one each.”

I distributed one radio each to Jang Chae-yeon, Yoo Da-on, and myself. For the remaining one, I took out a pen and wrote a note.

I left it in a corner.

“...Will that work?”

“If it’s the Song A-rin I know, she’ll find it and come here as if by instinct.”

She was the sort of woman who was unmistakably sharp and decisive.

“But where are we going?”

“Over there.”

I pointed with my index finger at the theater sign marked <Under Inspection>.

“...Is that okay?”

“Are you worried?”

“I’m worried you’ll get hurt.”

I was reminded once again that Jang Chae-yeon sometimes threw frighteningly direct comments at people.

“Then...”

-Boom!

The ship came to a stop with an enormous noise.

People began murmuring, and some even screamed in fright.

Soon, a man dressed elegantly in a suit appeared, holding a wireless microphone as he began to speak.

“Everyone, please do not worry. There is no problem with the ship, and you have absolutely nothing to be concerned about! Please relax and enjoy your first day!”

The people who had been murmuring began talking again.

But the mood around us was clearly more subdued than before.

Perhaps noticing the atmosphere, the man lifted the microphone again and continued loudly.

“Everyone! We have just received word that preparations for the play, which was originally scheduled for midnight, have finished early and it may begin ahead of schedule!”

I had not expected this.

Whether he noticed my flustered expression or not, the man gripped the microphone and shouted urgently, as though trying to smooth over the situation.

“It is the recently popular... B, b, what was it...? ...Uh. ...Uh... Anyway, there is one! It is a famous troupe that performed that play! We thoroughly guarantee that you will be satisfied!”

-Whoosh!

As though it was only natural for the performance to begin, the <Preparing> sign vanished, leaving only the pitch-black entrance of the theater to greet the people.

The people looked around with bewildered expressions, then shrugged and headed toward the theater.

Did I have a headache?

I quickly checked my condition, but I did not feel anything.

But if the play had already begun, we shouldn’t go inside now.

I remembered what had happened with the Red Lady.

Thinking about everything I suffered through back then made me feel as though I was about to throw up.

Should I at least stop the other people from entering?

As I thought that and was about to tell the two women to stop,

-Rush!

Along with the sound of water pouring from the theater entrance, screams erupted in a hellish pandemonium.

The people murmured and stared at the theater entrance. Our gazes turned there as well.

“What on earth...”