Surviving as an Office Worker at the Anomaly Management Bureau - Chapter 9

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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

Chapter 9: An Office Worker with Keen Eyes

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What happened afterward did not exactly go smoothly, but it moved forward somehow.

Maybe because the adult form had died or been neutralized, all the other larvae and monsters died on the spot. Apparently, that was considered a successful containment, because the internal containment procedures were lifted.

I also heard that the Management Bureau staff who arrived fully armed from outside were surprised to find the surroundings far calmer than expected.

Yoo Da-on and I were carefully escorted away as the ones who had successfully contained the situation.

Maybe because it was an emergency, we were not given time to rest.

Though Yoo Da-on was issued a fresh set of clothes.

"...Explain yourselves."

Yoo Da-on and I ended up sitting there awkwardly in a room with a desk that looked like something out of a Hollywood film.

The only difference was that a couple of people were watching us.

A man and a woman stood there in that order, staring at us with serious expressions.

I slowly looked them over.

First, the man on the far left.

He looked exactly like a secret agent.

A short crew cut, a muscular build, a square, intimidating face, sunglasses, and a black suit. There was no need to say more.

The person beside him, however, was different.

I looked at the woman staring intently at me.

Her wavy purple hair reached her shoulders, and her violet eyes tilted slightly upward. Her face was cute despite not matching her gaze at all. She wore tight jeans and a white tank top, her waist narrow beneath them.

She looked like someone who had come out to have fun.

She opened one eye wider as she looked at me.

A slight migraine came on.

As I pressed my temples to ease it, her other eye opened wider, and she began staring at me even more intently.

Seriously, this was making me uncomfortable.

I subtly avoided her gaze and tried to check above the man's head, but...

"Let's begin."

The man spoke, forcing me to focus on him. If he had called Yoo Da-on and me in as soon as the situation ended, he probably already had some information. There was no need to let him know I was checking his information.

"First, let us confirm this. ...Yoo Da-on. You joined the Security Team... one day ago. Your ability is Immortality. Is that correct?"

"...Yes, that's correct."

Yoo Da-on answered while visibly tense.

The man nodded and turned toward me.

"Next... Kim Jae-heon. You belonged to the Human Resources Team, and you possess eyes capable of partially identifying a person's information. Correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

His questions were forceful, but his voice carried more of the tone of someone asking because it was a necessary procedure.

"Confirmation complete. First, I would like to offer my thanks on behalf of the Management Bureau."

The man briefly bowed his head. The woman did not bow. She was still staring at me. No, her gaze was even more intense than before.

Why did she keep looking at me? It was genuinely scary.

"It would be a lie to say nothing like this has ever happened in the Management Bureau's long history. But to be honest, we usually fail. If one hundred incidents occur, there are not even ten cases where we resolve the incident internally before outside personnel need to intervene. The other ninety have to be dealt with from outside."

"..."

"And you even subdued that containment object. When I heard it had escaped, I was so busy thinking about having to cleanse this branch and the nearby city that I could not even eat."

The man removed his sunglasses and rubbed around his eyes.

They were the exhausted eyes of a middle manager.

"Thanks to you, things became much easier. I could never thank you enough."

"We only did what we had to do!"

Yoo Da-on answered stiffly and straightened her back again.

"I'm grateful you see it that way. So..."

"Before that."

The woman, who had remained silent until then, spoke as she looked at me.

"Doesn't this kid seem like he's hiding something?"

"Me?"

She meant me?

When I pointed to myself with my index finger and asked, she narrowed her eyes and brought her face right up to mine.

Her violet eyes met mine, and another migraine struck. I frowned without thinking and pressed my temple.

"What are you doing? I can't hide something if there's nothing to hide."

"Mister. That guy keeps pushing me away."

She opened her eyes wide and glared at me. I rubbed my throbbing temple and met her gaze.

[Name: Song A-rin]

[Age: 21]

[Trait: Hypnosis]

[Talent: -]

[Background: Because she possesses incomplete hypnotic abilities, she cannot help but be sensitive about everything. Even so, the Management Bureau is the only place where she can belong.]

[Weakness: When she gets on your nerves, just give her a good knock on the head.]

Ignoring that insane weakness, I checked Yoo Da-on.

Was she being hypnotized?

"?"

Yoo Da-on tilted her head with a puzzled look as she watched me.

It did not seem like she was.

"Did you see that? He looked at me, then checked the woman next to him. He definitely knows something!"

Purple Hair, no, Song A-rin, shouted while pointing at my face.

The man sighed, pressed between his brows, and looked at her.

"I would rather ask you, Song A-rin. When did I say you could use your ability? Do you think we are conducting an interrogation? We came to offer our thanks."

"Don't make me laugh. If we were here to offer thanks, would we have come ourselves? We would have sent the department head from another branch."

She stared at me, and I stared back at her.

Should I really knock her on the head once?

While I was seriously considering it, the man acted first.

"Enough. If you keep spouting nonsense, I'll throw you out."

"..."

At those words, Song A-rin narrowed her eyes into crescents again, stepped back a few paces, and leaned against the wall.

"...My apologies."

"No, it's fine."

The man bowed his head, and I waved a hand.

"Let me say it again. We came to express our gratitude. No matter what that friend says, you need not worry about it. In truth, it would be proper for the higher-ups to come and commend your efforts, but... the situation is not good."

The man let out a long sigh.

"But one question has been answered."

"A question?"

"I'll be honest. How much do you know about the object you contained?"

"..."

I fell into thought for a moment. How much should I tell this man?

Maybe he noticed my hesitation, because he shook his head.

"If you wish, I will ensure this information is not disclosed. Surely we can do even this much for someone who saved an entire branch. It is merely pure curiosity."

"..."

Honestly, I did not have to tell him.

"All right. But may I ask you one thing as well?"

There was something I wanted to ask too.

"Of course. As long as it is something I can answer. So, how much did you know?"

The man readily agreed and leaned back in his chair.

"...It was the adult form of Dream of a Butterfly, or Life of a Butterfly."

"...Huh."

The moment I said the names aloud, the man stared at me.

"Where did you learn those names?"

"I saw them."

"...No wonder hypnosis didn't work."

The man gave a bitter smile as he looked at Song A-rin. She was also staring at me with a dumbfounded expression.

"If you know that much, you must know its traits as well. To elaborate, the object you contained is not particularly strong if you judge the combat ability of an individual adult form."

Not particularly strong?

I thought of Yoo Da-on, who must have died well over a dozen times. Yoo Da-on seemed to have had the same thought, judging from her strange expression.

"The terror of that object is not its strength. It is the terror of taking over society before anyone even realizes what is happening. Before I know it, the people around me have been parasitized. Before I know it, I have been parasitized as well. In a city where people live... it is a being no different from a disaster."

The man drew a deep breath and continued.

"But fortunately, you and that friend succeeded in carrying out the internal containment very quickly. Thanks to that, the external suppression did not take long. Otherwise, we were prepared to wage a war inside."

"We were prepared to eliminate all internal personnel if necessary," the man muttered, sighing.

He spoke of something truly terrifying with remarkable ease.

"But then, what do you know, someone had defeated the adult form. And not trained containment personnel, but someone who had been granted proxy authority. What was even more surprising was that one was a Security Team employee who had joined only a day earlier, while the other was a non-combat employee, an office worker."

"We did try in our own way. You know, we even set off butane gas canisters."

At my words, he laughed aloud.

"Ha ha! How could such a containment object be harmed by weapons made by mere humans? If guns and fire could solve the problem, such an emergency would never have occurred in the first place!"

Then why had they given us those things?

"Which is why it is all the more impressive."

The man stared intently at me.

"Rather than thinking of fighting with the fire you were given, you chose to activate the emergency trigger."

His eyes gleamed strangely.

"You have talent."

I knew someone who had eyes like that.

They were the eyes of a professor who had found a prospective graduate student.

That man was planning to work me to the bone somehow.

He was going to work me like a graduate student!

"No."

"I have not said anything yet."

"Either way, no. No matter what proposal you make, I have no intention of accepting it."

"Well... all right."

Looking disappointed, he smacked his lips and leaned back in his chair again.

"So, what was it that you wanted to ask?"

"..."

I stared at the man.

"When I set the ceiling on fire, something came down upon this branch. ...No, it revealed its presence. And it devoured the adult form."

"..."

"What was that?"

The man stared at me.

Song A-rin also watched me with a hand over her mouth.

After a long silence, the man spoke.

"...You really do have exceptional eyes, don't you?"

"Can you tell me?"

"A promise is a promise."

He looked around the room. Song A-rin nodded, then walked over and leaned against the door.

Thud.

Yoo Da-on staggered, then collapsed face-down onto the desk.

"I put her to sleep for a moment. It is not something she would benefit from hearing."

Song A-rin looked at Yoo Da-on and tucked her hair behind her ear.

The man looked at me.

"How do you think the Management Bureau can manage so many containment objects?"

"...Talented people?"

"That is not wrong."

The man nodded.

"But it would be impossible with our strength alone. Yet we could not borrow the strength of others. Therefore, we had no choice but to devise a method."

"...What is it?"

"That is..."

Just as the man was about to speak, the lights in the room flickered off and on.

Then a chilling sensation spread through my entire body.

"...My apologies."

The man bowed his head.

"If I say any more, my head will roll. Ha ha."

Did he mean he would be fired in the workplace sense, or have his head physically cut off? I could not tell.

"Anyway, I'll be going."

The man scraped his chair back and rose.

"By the way, I would like to make one suggestion."

"No."

Those eyes searching for a graduate student again.

"...All right. Then I will send you back to the Human Resources Team."

He smacked his lips and opened the door.

"Let's go."

"...Hmph."

Song A-rin frowned at me as though wounded in her pride, then followed the man out.

"Tomorrow, no. You will need some leave. You can start working again in about three days. Just return to the office you used before."

That was all the man said before waving and walking out the door.

"Thank you for the interesting story."

Then he and Song A-rin soon walked out of sight.

When the man turned his back, I quickly checked above his head.

[Name: ? ? ?]

[Age: ? ? ?]

[Trait: ? ? ?]

[Talent: ? ? ?]

[Background: Pay respect to all that he has devoted to humanity.]

[Weakness: ? ? ?]

Literally nothing could be read.

* * *

"...Is it okay to just let him go?"

As they left the branch, Song A-rin looked at the man.

"What can we do when his own will is so strong?"

"That's not what I mean. I don't know what it is, but that man is too good to rot away as an office worker. No, he cannot be allowed to rot away there."

"I hate to admit it," Song A-rin muttered, and the man gave a hearty laugh.

"That's right. That woman and that man are both quite something."

"Then why didn't you recruit him?"

"I did not recruit him."

The man said it casually.

"But I set the stage for him."

"?"

Song A-rin's face filled with confusion. The man nodded as he looked at her.

"You'll see."

* * *

Three days later, as the man had said, I returned to the Human Resources Team.

The only difference was that the team's name had changed slightly.