WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau ◈
Chapter 63: Engines and Fingers
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Jang Chae-yeon and I practically ran through the corridors.
The groans that occasionally came from beyond the walls made it clear that things had progressed further than yesterday. That only intensified my anxiety.
Every now and then, people stood in the corridor with blank expressions, looking around or staring at the walls. Some were undergoing physical changes like the ones we had seen in the theater.
“I think we're still okay for now.”
Jang Chae-yeon nodded at my words and quickened her pace.
“It has to be the two of us.”
I thought of the other two.
Song A-rin, who had told us not to look for her, and Yoo Da-on, who had been contaminated from the start.
“...”
I glanced at Jang Chae-yeon, but she hurried along beside me as though nothing was wrong.
“You said it was the engine room, right?”
“Yeah.”
There was no map of the ship. How were we supposed to find the engine room?
Fortunately, that concern was resolved sooner than I expected.
The moment we entered the lobby, a loud sound echoed through it.
-Wooooom... Wooooom...
Was this the sound Song A-rin had mentioned?
It was the low sound of a horn. People with blank expressions were walking in a set direction in time with it.
As though hypnotized, they walked with vacant faces. Among them were familiar people, including the Management Bureau employee who had spoken with us yesterday.
Sometimes, people who still seemed normal tried to pull them away, but they ignored every call and kept walking as though they could no longer understand conversation.
Then I saw a familiar face among them.
Yoo Da-on.
[Name: ? ? On]
[Age: 23]
[Trait: Immortality]
[Talent: Regeneration (Pending)]
[Background: She has already lost herself and is becoming part of that sea.]
[Weakness: It is impossible to kill her physically. Destroy her mind, or destroy the link to whatever is contaminating it.]
She too was merely walking along with the procession, her expression blank.
“Ms. Yoo.”
I called her name, but there was no answer.
“Don't worry.”
Jang Chae-yeon pulled on my arm.
“Once we solve this, it'll be fine.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Experience and instinct.”
Without the slightest hesitation, she answered and kept moving.
We passed through the luxurious lobby, weaving through the crowd toward the passage ahead.
Just like before, the back office had peeling paint and a floor of rusted steel plates.
Some people shuffled along slowly. Others walked with warped bodies or things like barnacles clinging to them.
We passed someone whose face had sprouted tentacles.
-Wooooom! Wooooom!
The further we followed them, the louder the sound became.
Soon, we found a metal staircase. Heat washed over us.
I could not tell whether it came from the engine or something beyond my imagination, but we pushed past the crowd and descended the stairs.
-Clang, clang, clang...
The sound of the stairs ringing beneath our footsteps was strangely irritating.
Soon, the engine room came into view.
“...Urgh.”
Jang Chae-yeon frowned deeply and covered her nose with her sleeve. I had no choice but to do the same.
The smell was awful.
It felt like walking into a warehouse where countless fish had been left to rot for days.
The stench made my head ache, but something else before me drew my attention.
A massive mouth was attached to the middle of the engine.
The engine was alive.
Not in a mechanical sense, but in a biological one.
Where the engine should have been was a round mouth.
The other parts were closer to living creatures than machines as well.
Some had sprouted gills. Others looked like boils that spewed strange gases.
I looked at the enormous mouth before me.
It was not a human mouth.
A terrible stench rose from its pitch-black interior, where sharp teeth were packed tightly together.
“Ah...”
A person's voice came from behind us.
Someone stared at the Mouth with an ecstatic expression, then immediately threw themself into it.
“Ms. Jang!”
Before I could finish speaking, Jang Chae-yeon swung her hand. The person who had been leaping into the Mouth was flung backward.
I quickly focused on the monster.
[Name: Mouth]
[Age: Created 3,000 years ago]
[Trait: Reconstruction]
[Talent: Sanity Theft]
[Background: This being has lived alongside humanity since its true dawn. It is one of the main reasons people feared the sea in the past, and why humanity still cannot completely dominate it.]
[Weakness: It is only a part of something enormous. You must either find the main body or feed it the wrong food.]
Wrong food? A part of something enormous? Reconstruction?
My mind raced as I looked toward the landing.
People jumping into the Mouth. Reconstruction. Sanity Theft.
Those words came together, and a single thought leapt into my mind.
Could it be...
-Splat!
The Mouth writhed, then spat something out.
The thing covered in mucus looked like a fish egg.
The thin membrane squirmed, and a long blade tore through it.
-Slash!
A monster tore through the membrane.
It had a human shape, but half its face was made of octopus tentacles. Sharp pincers, or things resembling blades, were attached to its arms.
Then information appeared above its head.
[Name: X]
[Age: Created moments ago]
[Trait: X]
[Talent: X]
[Background: Humans fashioned in the deep sea are bound to be horrifying.]
[Weakness: It has extremely high durability. Great force is needed.]
As soon as the monster awkwardly rose to its feet, I pulled out my gun and fired a bullet into its forehead.
-Bang!
Its head snapped back, but it swung its sharp arm at me as though nothing had happened.
“Urgh...!”
I rolled backward and quickly pulled out the Butane Gas I had prepared. I shook it and opened the cap.
-Whoosh!
“Graaah!”
Flames engulfed the monster. While it screamed, I quickly turned to Jang Chae-yeon and shouted.
“Ms. Jang! Block the landing first!”
Jang Chae-yeon urgently stretched out her hand and clenched her fist.
The landing bent upward in the opposite direction, rising as though to pen the people in.
Watching the monster struggle in flames, I became nearly certain of my deduction.
The people were writhing after losing their sanity. The human-shaped monster had just been spat out.
If my deduction was right, what the Mouth had spat out used to be a person. We could not let more people enter it.
-Whoosh!
The burning monster swung its arm.
I quickly dodged backward again, but a long gash was left across my left arm.
“Ghk...!”
Blood sprayed as sharp pain shot through my arm.
-Boom!
The monster was hurled into the distance and crashed into the floor. Jang Chae-yeon rushed to my side and checked on me.
“Are you okay?!”
“I’m fine.”
I barely used my left arm anyway. It was not a problem.
Before we could check each other properly, the round Mouth opened and revealed its sharp teeth, then sprayed mucus at us.
Jang Chae-yeon quickly held out her hand and blocked it.
I glanced at the window.
[Critical: 0]
“Ms. Jang.”
“Yeah.”
Standing back-to-back with Jang Chae-yeon as she faced the Mouth, I spoke in a whisper.
“I don't have a way to take that Mouth down in one blow right now.”
“...You mean that strange thing you sometimes show us won't work?”
Critical probably did seem mysterious to her.
“That’s right.”
“Then I'll take care of both of them.”
“No.”
With Butane Gas in my left hand and a pistol in my right, I looked ahead.
Open flames were probably forbidden in an engine room, but it should be fine to set fire to something that was no longer an engine.
The monster rose and walked toward us.
“I'll hold that monster off, so tear the Mouth apart first.”
“Okay. I'll tear the Mouth apart quickly and come back.”
I just had to stall for time.
I aimed at the monster's legs and fired.
-Bang! Bang!
The bullets struck its legs, but the monster did not even flinch as it approached and swung its arm.
-Whoosh!
I barely avoided the incoming arm and fired into its torso.
The goal was not to do meaningful damage. I only needed to stop it as much as possible.
I had to keep its attention on me until Jang Chae-yeon tore the Mouth apart.
-Click!
After confirming that I was out of bullets, I opened the cap of the thoroughly shaken Butane Gas and held it against the monster's body.
Flames immediately surged up, and the monster began to burn.
In the meantime, I quickly changed the magazine.
-Click!
A sharp pain ran through my left arm, but I ignored it and stepped back again. With the pistol in my right hand, I fired three shots at the monster's forehead.
All three bullets struck it squarely in the forehead.
Yet once again, the monster only twitched before continuing toward me as though nothing had happened.
-Rip!
At that moment, I heard something tear, and the monster's head was driven straight into the floor.
-Boom!
“Keek!”
“I’m done.”
Jang Chae-yeon stood beside me with blood flowing from her nose.
“Already?”
“I'm strong, you know.”
“Good. Then...”
“Show me.”
Jang Chae-yeon closed her eyes as I looked at the monster.
[Coordinate Ripping: 3 uses remaining]
Graph paper unfolded before my eyes, and my gaze settled on the monster's waist.
We did not need to speak.
Jang Chae-yeon stood beside me, clenched both hands, then spread them apart as though tearing something open.
“Kii...!”
I could see the air compressing. Just as it felt like I could see space twisting under her power,
-Slash!
The monster's waist was split in two, spraying green fluid everywhere.
“Pant... Pant...”
Jang Chae-yeon breathed heavily, her face pale.
Drops of blood from her nose fell to the floor.
“Are you okay?”
“...I used too much strength.”
She staggered as though her head hurt, then barely steadied herself.
“I’m okay. If I rest for a bit... I’ll feel better.”
She stood still, catching her breath, while I tore my clothes and began wrapping the gash on my left arm.
This would leave a scar.
“...Is it over?”
“I hope so, but...”
I looked up at the landing.
Countless people stared at us with emotionless eyes.
Their gazes were not directed at us, but behind us.
Following their gaze, we both turned around.
-Splash... Splash...
I heard waves crashing.
Beyond the Mouth, torn in half, I could literally see the sea.
“...What?”
It felt as though I were looking at a beach through a window.
Then I heard a song.
-Screech! Screech!
The difference was that it was not the sweet song I had heard in my dream. It was a terrible sound that shook my eardrums.
“Argh...!”
“Ghk...!”
Jang Chae-yeon covered her ears. I covered mine as well and stared at the beach.
-Splash!
The tide surged in.
Then seawater washed over us again.
The moment I was submerged, the terrible screeching I had heard until then became the sweet song from my dream.
I knew this song was the same awful sound I had heard just now, yet my body, my soul, was drawn toward it as though it craved it.
That's right. Just once more. Only once more.
As I headed toward the window with that thought, the Manual drifted through the water before me and opened.
[Manual for Office Workers]
[Break a finger right now!]
A finger? Why?
I only had that question for a moment.
-Crack!
My left pinky bent in a grotesque direction.
“...!”
The terrible pain of bone breaking coursed through my body.
The pain brought me back to my senses, and I quickly turned toward its source.
Jang Chae-yeon stood with her hand outstretched, looking at me.
Her left pinky was bent in a grotesque direction as well.
She looked at me with resolute eyes. I nodded back.
Soon, her figure vanished from my sight as though it had been erased.
Even if I die, I will die as a human.
Gills sprouted, and my lungs disappeared.
I was nothing more than a fish.
Something called to me from below.
I bit my tongue again.
I must have used too much force. Blood poured out, but it let me regain my senses.
With fins that were becoming familiar, I swam downward.
Because there was something I had to find out.
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