Chapter 18
Chapter 18
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 18
Chapter Title: Challenge, Failure (4)
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As the success message flashed on the electronic board, a chilling silence enveloped the space.
Success? What success?
There's a spy among us?
"Really... a spy?"
"Ah, no..."
Rahee glanced at the employee, and the pointed-out male employee—Choi Employee—had gone from pale white to a sickly blue.
He alternated between staring incredulously at the electronic board and the Team 12 leader, then quickly shifted his gaze to check on me and Rahee.
His pupils trembled faintly.
"You bastard... because of you... all of us...!"
The awakened Team 12 leader trembled with rage as he approached Choi Employee.
Having just come to from fainting, his steps were awkward, but his momentum was anything but ordinary.
His eyes blazed with fury.
'That guy's... a spy?'
I was confused.
The image of him from the start—confessing he'd pissed himself out of fear of the monster—and the word "spy" that the team leader was hurling at him now didn't connect at all.
How could such a coward pull off something so bold...
I was quite the coward myself, so it was hard to believe he was the spy.
"Hmm..."
I pondered, tapping the sword hilt with my fingers.
Choi Employee, glancing between the furious approaching team leader and me fiddling with the sword at my waist, finally collapsed in a heap.
Thud, plop.
He sat on the floor, shaking violently, and began confessing everything.
"...Y-yes, it's true! I... I'm the spy! I-I'm sorry!"
His sudden confession made me and Rahee swallow hard.
The team leader halted for a moment and glared at him fiercely.
"I... leaked Dongto's monster management data and item info to the rival corporation White Tiger... over the past week, just as they requested..."
"Why, why the hell!"
At the team leader's bellow, the employee shrank back.
Unable to even meet his eyes, the employee stared at the floor and cautiously continued.
"They promised that after my final mission, they'd guarantee my current exploration team salary and transfer me to White Tiger's marketing team, where I wouldn't have to face monsters... I... I didn't want to be on an exploration team anymore..."
The male employee sniffled as he spoke.
So that was the deal.
It was tempting enough for a scaredy-cat like him.
"And... the final mission was to get every question from the 'Interrogating Slab' we were assigned today wrong. That way, they'd observe some... special reaction..."
He sighed, eyes on the floor.
"I just did what I was told... but then the slab suddenly went berserk, the room changed like this, and the team leader and senior collapsed... I didn't know! The guys who hired me... they were going to dispose of me like this! I don't know how they knew, but they deliberately made the slab rampage to kill me!"
His desperate voice echoed through the empty space.
It was the moment all the mysteries unraveled.
Why today of all days, and why this monster rampaged like that.
And why the electronic board had asked if there was a spy.
Everything connected back to the rival corporation's scheme and betrayal.
In my eyes, the male employee was just a pawn used and discarded.
Not that he was blameless.
I just sympathized a little with his mindset.
Rahee frowned uncomfortably, and I watched the sobbing Choi Employee with complicated feelings.
The Team 12 leader stared down at Choi Employee, fists clenched tight.
Deep disillusionment filled his eyes. The root of this entire fiasco was betrayal by a subordinate he'd trusted.
He seemed to have known already, but hearing it straight from the horse's mouth stirred different emotions.
The Team 12 leader approached as if to strangle the employee with his trembling hands, but instead delivered a resounding slap to his cheek.
Smack!
The sharp crack echoed through the empty space.
The male employee collapsed without even screaming, sobbing on the floor.
"I'm sorry..."
"T-Team Leader..."
Rahee swallowed softly.
Surprisingly, though, the team leader didn't press the fallen Choi Employee further.
Instead, he turned to me.
Standing before me, his voice still laced with unquenched anger but somehow pleading, he said,
"I'm sorry for dragging you into this... That bastard did something unforgivable... but he was still my team member. Please... forgive him..."
"...What...?"
"I'm sorry for getting you wrapped up in this... But if we join forces now, we can escape—"
Then the team leader trailed off, looking at the electronic board.
"Wh-what...? Why is success... so high...?"
The team leader looked quite shocked at the current count.
He must not have seen it after waking from his faint.
We were still trapped inside the monster, so it was dangerous, but not as hopeless as it seemed.
Just three more correct answers needed.
And besides—
'...Forgive him?'
It struck me as absurd.
I didn't harbor any ill feelings toward the male employee specifically.
To begin with, forgiveness or not, I was just an employee— that was for the company or team leader to handle.
Had I given the wrong impression by tapping the sword hilt?
Honestly, the spy thing didn't matter to me.
Sorry, but I had no loyalty to Dongto.
Company info leaking to rivals didn't faze me.
If anything, I thought monster info should spread widely so people could prepare better.
Choi Employee contributing to the monster rampage was annoying, but he seemed like a victim used and discarded by the other company too.
'The spy's handled... I just want out of here.'
I muttered inwardly, turning my gaze from the sniffling Choi Employee on the floor and the Team 12 leader blankly staring at the board in shock.
I gripped the hilt of the Returning Sword at my waist again and silently glared at the electronic board.
A wordless pressure to hurry up with the next question.
Having one weapon made me feel this secure.
At least against monsters that looked pushover-ish on the outside, I could stand tall like this.
Whether reading my demeanor or because the spy fiasco ended anticlimactically, the electronic board shifted to entirely different questions.
It seemed to have given up trying to divide or test us.
[Can you promise not to destroy me using this incident as an excuse?]
[Red button: I promise / Blue button: I refuse]
"...?"
What now.
Me, Rahee, and even Choi Employee—who had pulled himself together and was sniffling—exchanged glances.
No reason to refuse this one. We pressed 'I promise' without hesitation.
The next question appeared right away.
[For stable function maintenance, can you promise a minimum weekly power supply?]
[Red button: I promise / Blue button: I refuse]
We hit 'I promise' again.
Power supply was the company's job anyway.
'Now it's just securing its own welfare through questions?'
I stared at the electronic board in disbelief.
Where did those vicious, bizarre questions go? Now it was demanding better treatment.
It must have decided it couldn't do anything to us with its power.
The final demand appeared on the electronic board.
[Can you promise that Kim Minjun will not return to this room afterward?]
[Red button: I promise / Blue button: I refuse]
"...Huh?"
"...Oppa, you must really be hated."
After the string of easy questions, Rahee patted my shoulder comfortingly, her tension eased, a light smile on her lips.
Even monsters could hold grudges, huh.
We pressed 'I promise', and the success count hit 10 in a flash.
"No way..."
"...We're alive...!"
The team leader gaped at the absurdity, and a faint smile crept onto the lips of the male employee who'd been sitting and crying on the floor.
[Success 10/10 | Failure: 2/10]
[All challenges completed! Opening escape route!]
[Distributing rewards!]
Finally.
Pollen-like particles burst from the sky—who knows where from—and grandiose music briefly played from the electronic board.
Then, gift boxes dropped for me, Rahee, and the fallen man.
Small boxes just the right size to fit in one hand.
As the final success message appeared on the electronic board, the exit revealed itself on the wall once more.
"Minjun!"
Before we could even exit through the opened door, Park Team Leader and our team members rushed in first.
Rahee and the Team 12 leader let out sighs of relief.
I felt my tension melt away, a natural sigh escaping.
"...Good work, everyone."
My quiet words drew nods from all.
The Team 12 leader hoisted his still-fallen team member and exited first.
The male employee followed beside him.
Park Team Leader glanced at the passing people and approached me.
"A lot must have happened... but reports can wait. For now, let's get some rest."
Park Team Leader looked back and forth between the weary me and Rahee.
"Huh... where'd the slab go..."
Han Sora eyed the slab-turned-electronic-board curiously, while Seo Ji-hyun silently jotted notes, gazing at the room scattered with pollen-like particles.
"For now, the Team 12 member should head to the employee lounge too."
"...Whew, yeah. Let's go together, Oppa."
The bizarre quiz show was over.
We dragged our weary bodies and minds toward the employee lounge.