Editor’s Survival Guide — Chapter 23
Episode 5. Shopping! The Warehouse Mart! (3)
Crash, thump, bang—!
I rolled down the moving walkway to a rhythmic series of impacts.
—Left! Take shelter in the ATM area!
I hadn’t even stopped yet when Cha Si-eon shouted.
So I threw myself to the left before I had time to feel the pain.
I was looking around, unable either to sit or stand, when he spoke.
—Seo Do-un.
“Huff, yes.”
—Are you having a hard time, by any chance?
“Hah, haah, what?”
—Why is your heart rate like this?
Why, he asked? I had been agile.
For an ordinary person, I had moved really damn fast!
“I moved without stopping, hoo, for almost ten minutes, huff. How could I not be tired?”
—You were moving for four minutes and eight seconds, Seo Do-un.
Then I must have raced through time!
Too exhausted to say anything more, I collapsed where I stood.
My vision was literally turning yellow.
My heart pounded like mad, and sweat dripped from my eyelashes and the tip of my nose.
—If you lower your head, you will faint. Keep it up, breathe deeply, and take out the water and glucose-salt tablets. Consume them.
Groaning, I raised my head as instructed.
And this vest the Bureau had given me.
Honestly, I had thought it was cumbersome, but from now on I would go around carrying even more cumbersome things.
I had already lost count of how many times its contents had saved my life.
I took the water and pills from a pocket, gulped them down, and remained still for a while.
Gradually, the yellow-and-black flashes filling my vision faded back to normal.
The moment I caught my breath, Cha Si-eon noticed with uncanny precision and spoke.
—We will rest for two more minutes, then move.
“Are you the Grim Reaper……?”
—If you would like to meet the real Grim Reaper, you may continue resting as you are.
His ears were sharp too…….
I groaned and closed my mouth.
But it wasn’t long before I opened it again.
“Team Leader Cha Si-eon.”
—I am listening.
“Who was the person who died earlier?”
A moment of silence passed.
—The observation team will establish their identity.
The answer that eventually came was quintessentially Cha Si-eon.
I thought he might at least tell me their approximate age or sex, but he was as coldly rational as ever.
If I had died at the railway station, I would have been processed in the same way, wouldn’t I?
Mm. I was probably better off not thinking about that.
Had the person from earlier died without pain?
They probably had. It seemed to have happened in an instant.
……That was another thought I shouldn’t have entertained.
—Your heart rate is rising. If you are thinking about something unnecessary, please stop.
I sighed at the sorry state of having even my heart rate controlled.
Then, hoping to change the subject in my own mind, I asked Cha Si-eon,
“If this Special Zone disappears, will a new one be created?”
—That is correct.
“Then wouldn’t it be better to destroy a place like this early and replace it with a new one?”
Special Zones obeyed a law of conservation: even if one was eliminated, another would appear.
Moreover, like a random draw, its internal rules would be entirely new.
In that case, wasn’t it best to clear out something like Three Steps, One Death quickly instead of letting it remain?
—That has, in fact, been discussed several times.
“Then why didn’t you eliminate it?”
—If we engage a Special Zone in all-out war, our side may also sustain casualties. Furthermore, destroying this Special Zone would erase the seventeen percent we have uncovered thus far, so we chose to maintain the status quo.
I realized what I had overlooked.
Every safety rule was written in blood.
That held true both in society and inside Special Zones.
In other words, someone’s blood had revealed the seventeen percent known about this place too.
They could not abandon it lightly.
Especially when there was no guarantee that discarding it would produce something better.
So they had reluctantly maintained the status quo—and now they were going to eliminate it today?
To rescue me?
“How many people have died here so far?”
—Seo Do-un.
Perhaps noticing my dismay, Cha Si-eon spoke firmly.
—Focus only on escape right now. Deploying the rescue team was a Bureau decision made after considering numerous factors.
I had no choice but to close my mouth.
I was all for them working hard to keep me alive.
But if that entailed harm to other people, it was a different story.
Leaving the question of conscience aside, why?
I understood that the Bureau treated me as a kind of rare item.
But even that had limits.
What in the world did they expect from me?
—Your heart rate is rising again. Please restrain yourself.
……Perhaps I had only imagined that they expected something.
Judging by the way he was shaming me with my heart rate.
Somehow deflated, I closed my mouth and emptied my thoughts too.
Then all the little noises in the space sounded startlingly loud.
Hummmmmm—!
Clank—clank—!
Eeeee—!
Urgh. If I stayed like this, my heart rate might rise again.
To shake off the eeriness and alienness, I spoke once more.
“How long have you been at the Bureau?”
—I do not accept personal questions.
“That’s rich, coming from someone watching another person’s heart rate.”
—This is my sixth year.
Read only on MUGEX
“You’ve been there quite a while.”
I had heard that Cha Si-eon was around my age.
Then had he started working here straight after university or training?
Ah, so that was why his personality was like this!
“Is working at the Bureau bearable?”
—No.
To my surprise, he answered immediately.
And in the negative, no less.
“Then why do you do it?”
—Because it has to be done.
Cha Si-eon’s answer surprised me a little.
I remained blankly silent for a moment, and then a harsh command descended.
—Your break is over. Stand up.
What? Already?
Wondering whether I had raced through time again, I checked my watch.
But I hadn’t.
“There are still thirty seconds left.”
—You appear to have rested sufficiently, so let us get moving.
What was with this tyranny?
I tried my best to pretend I hadn’t heard.
—Seo Do-un, stand up.
……Didn’t they say the Grim Reaper took you away if he called three times?
I had no choice but to get to my feet.
—Basement level one is the grocery sales floor. It likewise contains invisible traps and hazardous entities. The hazardous entities on that floor are the 「Sample-Counter Employee」 and the 「Checkout Employee」, while the 「Woman Pushing a Shopping Cart」 appears at rare intervals.
I had descended only one floor, and the way through it was the same as before.
Using scraps of my bloodied clothing to identify traps, I advanced little by little.
Fortunately, the 「Sample-Counter Employee」 did not roam a large area like the 「Stocking Employee」.
So crossing the grocery section was comparatively easy.
No—it should have been easy.
—Stop for a moment.
Cha Si-eon brought me to an abrupt halt.
At that exact moment—
Flap-flap—clang—!
I heard something flying and the clash of metal.
It came from the direction of the 「Sample-Counter Employee」, from whom I was deliberately keeping my distance.
Clang! Clang! Clatter—!
The sound of metal striking metal rang out repeatedly from the same direction.
“What’s happening right now?”
—A bird has entered from somewhere.
“A bird?”
—The bird is flying around the area, so the 「Sample-Counter Employee」 is attempting to drive it out.
Animals could enter this place too?
Apparently Cha Si-eon had not anticipated this situation either, because he spoke with even greater caution.
—For now, put some distance—
But his sentence cut off midway.
—Get down!
A shout erupted in its place.
Along with unmistakable déjà vu.
I ducked, practically throwing myself toward the floor.
Whoosh—!
Immediately afterward, something shot past above me.
I dodged it this time!
I raised my head belatedly to see what it had been, but it had left no trace in the empty air.
Instead, a storage rack piled with cans of powdered formula and similar goods began to move.
Slowly, and at an angle.
—Left!
At Cha Si-eon’s command, I rolled first and asked questions later.
The upper part of the storage rack separated cleanly from the lower part immediately afterward and toppled sideways.
Crash! Baaang—!
The cans it sent flying poured toward me.
The avalanche of goods beat against me like drumsticks on a drum.
Even so, I was fortunate.
The formula cans were light for their volume, so I could endure it.
The problem was that their lids flew off and spilled huge amounts of powder.
But what was this?
……Sawdust?
I stared, dumbfounded, at the formula scattered across the floor.
These cans merely presented a plausible imitation on the outside.
The contents they disgorged when crushed were inedible sawdust.
Clang—!
At the renewed metallic sound, I flinched and lowered my body.
Beyond the cleanly severed rack, I saw a bird flapping its wings.
Its wings were pitch black. It looked like a crow.
And below it was something swinging a long blade.
The 「Sample-Counter Employee」.
It too had a barcode scanner for a head.
But the body below it was riddled with errors, like a badly drawn picture.
Its clothing and skin being tangled together was the least of it. Huge tongs and scissors had fused to its hands.
“Team Leader Cha.”
I saw the monster and called Cha Si-eon urgently.
“Team Leader?”
But there was no answer.
……My earpiece had fallen out.
Only then did I notice it was no longer in my ear.
I hurriedly looked at the floor, but damn it……!
The floor was a disaster, heaped with spilled sawdust.
On the off chance, I checked my watch.
But because the earpiece was still connected, the watch no longer played Cha Si-eon’s voice aloud.
Damn it!
I dug through the sawdust in search of the earpiece.
Praying that the 「Sample-Counter Employee」 wouldn’t turn this way, I desperately swept my hands across the floor.
Something soon caught against my glove.
It was the earpiece I had dropped!
I quickly shook it clean and put it back in.
At the same time, Cha Si-eon’s voice rang out loudly.
—Seo Do-un, behind you!
I flinched and started to retreat, then stopped.
Moving backward was “back.”
Then what was I supposed to do with “behind you”?
Puzzled, yet acting almost on instinct, I turned around.
And met its eye.
The eye of the barcode scanner “looking down” at me.
Immediately afterward, my body was yanked backward.
That hazardous entity.
The 「Stocking Employee」 that was supposed to be on the first floor had seized my ankle and hoisted me up.
Hanging upside down, I kicked its head with my free foot.
Bam—!
But it didn’t budge.
Instead, its beam of light swept across my face.
Beep—beep—beedididididididididi—
—
■ General Precautions for Hazardous Entities Classified as 「Employees」
Among the hazardous entities roaming this Special Zone, individuals whose head region takes the form of a “barcode scanner” are classified as 「Employees」.
The 「Employees」 confirmed to date are as follows.
1. 「Information-Desk Employee」: Stationed at the information desk in front of the first-floor sales-area entrance
2. 「Stocking Employee」: Patrols the first-floor merchandise-display section
3. 「Sample-Counter Employee」: Stationed at the sample counter on basement level one
4. 「Checkout Employee」: Patrols the checkout section on basement level one
5. 「Parking-Attendant Employee」: Patrols the parking areas on basement levels two and three
If an 「Employee」 discovers you, you will be dragged to the entrance of the first-floor sales area and forcibly expelled.
During this process, your body will be dismantled into pieces the size of one hand of the 「Employee」. This will continue until your screams cease.
No method of evading the forced-expulsion measure of an 「Employee」 has yet been confirmed.
An 「Employee」 will pursue you to the very end if you flee, and you cannot resist an 「Employee」 by any means.
Therefore, never allow an 「Employee」 to see you.
If it is already too late, consider a less painful option while you are being dragged away.
—
The world shook violently while turned upside down.
Cha Si-eon kept shouting.
But my screams were louder.
My struggles knocked over shelves.
Kicking did no good.
Even the knife I pulled from my vest was eventually knocked away.
Before I knew it, the 「Sample-Counter Employee」 had joined us at my side.
I had gone through every kind of hardship to get downstairs, yet being dragged back to the first floor was far too easy.
And now we were in front of the sales-area entrance.
It was too late.
I had dropped the knife earlier, so I couldn’t choose a less painful option.
What do I do?
What do I do?
What do I do?
What can I do to make it painless……?
No. I don’t want to die!
Foolishly refusing to give up until the very end, I clawed at the floor.
But the monstrous strength of the 「Employee」 made a mockery of my resistance. Only the cut-resistant gloves I wore slid off from the friction.
The instant I saw that, I remembered belatedly.
Wait. Maybe……!
Once I had finally been dragged to the entrance, I hurriedly pulled off the glove still covering my hand.
Then I spread my hand before the 「Employee」 that was truly about to tear me apart.
Halt—
At that instant, the 「Employees」 stopped moving.
What I was wearing on my hand right now.
It was the ring Baek Sa-ra had given me.