Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Two-Person Night Guard Team (4)
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--
Please close the open front door. Do not check inside the house under any circumstances.
A call came from Room 101, so I closed the open front door.
--
The resident is upset because the elevator isn't working. Go straight to the apartment elevator and press the button once.
A call came from Room 401, so I pressed the elevator button.
--
Take the cat food bowl from the guard post and place it in front of the door to Room 501.
A call came from Room 501, so I brought the cat food bowl to the door of Room 501.
--
Knock on the door of Room 803 three times.
A call came from Room 801, so I knocked on the door of Room 803 three times and returned to the guard post.
"These Room 1 residents keep calling nonstop."
Today alone, we'd gotten calls from the guys in the Room 1 units five times in a row.
"Wonder who it'll be next."
"...Only 601 or 1001 left."
As we predicted the next call would also come from a Room 1 and held our breath quietly in the guard post,
Beep-
"1001. ...Is there some kind of pattern here?"
As expected, we saw the call come from Room 1001, so I immediately turned to check the rulebook.
--
Pick up the receiver and let the resident commit suicide. However, if the resident jumps to their death and the body lands in the courtyard, put the body in the food waste bin.
I felt a bit relieved that this one didn't seem to put us in any real danger either.
"At least it's not too bad. Would've been a real pain if it was 601."
From the moment the call comes, the door to Room 601 will be open. Enter Room 601 and open the closed inner door. Do not look at the ceiling of the house at any point during this process.
"I thought checking out the apartment's interior layout might help us figure this place out, so it's a bit disappointing."
"...Quit saying stuff that's freaking me out."
"Picking up the receiver."
"Hoo... Let's do this."
When I picked up the receiver to answer the call from Room 1001.
- "...Hello."
"?"
- "You're not gonna say anything today either... right?"
"..!"
- "...It's been three days already. Someone's listening over there. Please... please... just say something... I feel like I'm really gonna die like this..."
A voice speaking in perfectly normal language began coming through the receiver.
"..."
- "...Why, why... why won't anyone come save me..."
"..."
- "I don't wanna... I don't wanna get eaten... 'You'll get eaten if you fall asleep.' What does that even mean... 'Don't fall asleep'? ...'Wait until someone comes to rescue you'... Why is that a rule...?"
I glanced over at Anonymous 1.
Anonymous 1 was also focused on the voice from the receiver, so we were hearing it together.
- "Getting eaten and dying... ...I can't... die like that..."
In the midst of this sudden inexplicable situation, Anonymous 1 and I froze like statues, unable to move or speak.
Thud...
Suddenly, the call cut off, and at the same moment...
"Uh..."
"..."
We saw a black figure jumping from the 10th-floor window.
"..."
"..."
We stared blankly for a moment, but snapping out of it at the sight of the black figure that had fallen into the courtyard, we slowly stood and left the guard post.
Soon, we came face-to-face with the black figure that had jumped from the 10th floor to commit suicide.
'This is... a monster...?'
It made me question whether the corpse lying there was really a monster.
"B-Blood..."
"...Red..."
The fishy metallic scent rising from the red blood soaking the courtyard.
As that scent put our entire bodies on edge, we first followed the rulebook and began dragging the fallen corpse toward the food waste bin.
When we finally stopped in front of the food waste bin.
'What the...?'
I felt something in the pocket of the corpse's pants and immediately pulled it out.
A wallet came out in my hand.
'...A wallet?'
I wanted to open it right away and check the person's identity, but I worried the other guards might see us acting suspiciously.
After Anonymous 1 opened the food waste bin and we stuffed the corpse inside, we hurried quietly back to the guard post.
Clack...
After closing the guard post door and confirming no one else was inside,
I sat in the guard chair and opened the wallet we'd just obtained.
"...No wonder it felt so heavy. It's got coins in it."
There was a compartment in the ordinary wallet for holding coins.
"Yen?"
"Yeah?"
"That's... Japanese money."
Anonymous 1 recognized it as Japanese currency the moment he saw the coins.
"...He was human."
"...Yeah."
We realized the man who'd just committed suicide wasn't a monster that had perfectly learned human language—he was truly human.
"..."
I silently examined the wallet further.
Paper bills, a business card that read in Korean but had a Japanese vibe, and an ID that read in Korean but I'd never seen in Korea.
I was grateful the non-functional Status Window was still providing translation... Wait a second.
"Huh? Why... is it translating?"
"Because the Status Window's translating it."
"No, that's not it..."
"Huh? What do you mean?"
"We can't use the Status Window here right now. So why is it providing the translation function?"
"...You're right?"
Clearly, the Status Window doesn't work here.
Can't use crafting, can't use Return... but the translation keeps working?
Doesn't that mean the Status Window is functioning normally here?
"...Is someone jamming it?"
"Keeping us from opening the Status Window? Like... an EMP or something? Blocking us from using electronic devices...?"
"Yeah, something like that. If we take out whatever's causing it, we can turn the Status Window back on."
"Ooh, that makes sense. But... can we fight it safely...?"
I don't know why a Japanese guy was in Room 1001, but thanks to him, we learned the Status Window was working fine.
And if the Status Window was working fine...
"And if the Status Window's working normally... that means my items will work normally too."
The items I had that used Sanity would function properly.
"Got a good way to turn this situation around?"
"Surprisingly... ...yeah."
"You do?"
"Yeah. From now on, can you do exactly what I ask?"
"Sure."
So...
...
Take a photo of me with the camera.
Apply corrections to the photo of me.
Even using Sanity copies, the max corrections I could use here per day was only 6-7 times.
Wanting to save some Sanity for other monsters, I only used about 5 corrections.
The moment my corrections were done,
"See that?"
"Yeah."
I gave Anonymous 1 the camera and the ring compressed from flesh, then had him apply corrections to me.
"Done."
Like this.
Me 5 times, Anonymous 1 5 times.
Total of 10 corrections on me per day.
Each correction raised total Sanity by 1.
My last Sanity before coming here was 218, so now it should be 228.
If we repeated this for about 17 more days?
"Just two more weeks here. Then... I can use the Delete function."
"Delete... that thing, right? The one where Big Whale killed his roommate. The remote murder ability?"
"Yeah...!"
A path to escape was starting to form.
And it wasn't just us who could do this, right?
Around 3 p.m., we'd meet the other survivors here at the third guard post.
If we asked other survivors who could use their Status Windows to apply corrections?
"Might be even faster than two weeks."
"Whoa... seriously, just... awesome. Big Whale really... whoa... the best."
The more survivors, the better.
Our chances of clearing this place would skyrocket.
"From now on, we should find as many survivors as possible."
That made gathering the maximum number of survivors for the 3 p.m. third guard post meeting the top priority right now.
"Time to use that Hitomi method?!"
"...Can we call it something else?"
"Time to use that Hitomi tag method?!"
"...Anyway, not using that."
"Something more reliable?"
If items worked normally here and the camera was functioning,
From the perspective of seeing their true forms blurred by black figures through the camera, finding survivors wouldn't be that hard.
"?"
"Hello."
"??"
"These are the survivors I found."
"???"
"About seven of them were still here. I confirmed they were human through proper procedures."
"Did a sort of Hitomi test."
"????"
At the 3:10 p.m. survivor meeting,
When I brought the seven survivors I'd found with the camera during night patrol to the meeting, the person who looked like the host who'd invited me here seemed extremely flustered.
Of course, I couldn't actually see their expression.
"No way... you... you're really human...?"
"It's fine, it's fine. I was the same when I first saw Big Whale."
"...What's Big Whale?"
"He cranks out items like crazy. That's the nickname we gave him."
"He makes items?? You mean... the ones from the forge? That sell for 60-80k stones each? Super expensive?"
"Yeah, those."
"And he's human?"
"Yeah. Human. Normal guy from South Korea."
"...I've seen something like this before, Haruto."
"...What?"
"Koreans don't play games. They them."
"This isn't a game, though..."
"Still Korean."
"...Anyone out at this hour has to be human, at least."
"Oh, monsters can't roam around at this time, huh?"
"See? He's trying to it."
"...Just shut up, Asahi. Next thing you know, that Big Whale guy's gonna say he beats monsters too."