Chapter 10
Chapter 10
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 10
Chapter Title: New Employee First Day — Rules (2)
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The time was 8:57 a.m.
She tried to say something, but there was no time for that.
“Talk later. Run now.”
“Huh?”
As soon as the elevator doors opened, I grabbed her hand and bolted down the hallway.
I ignored the flustered voice coming from behind.
Last night, I hadn’t just been playing games.
Before the match started, I’d squeezed in time here and there to investigate the rule anomaly, also known as the “Rule Anomaly.”
I couldn’t confirm if what I found was the true original, but the story that circulated went like this.
One day, a customer walked into an ordinary pasta restaurant.
But inside the shop, strange rules were posted.
At the entrance: “Always greet when entering.”
On the menu: Red graffiti reading, “Do not order the dish on the third line.”
And when ordering, you had to make eye contact with the server.
The customer followed the rules and safely left the shop.
The last thing he saw was the empty seat of another customer who had broken the rules,
And a plate of cold food.
The dish he had ordered that day was “Neapolitan spaghetti.”
That’s why people started calling rule anomalies “Rule Anomalies” or “Neapolitan Anomalies”—meaning you’re in danger if you break the rules.
Rules aren’t just what the shop sets.
They include all the etiquette a customer must naturally follow.
In other words, every anomaly name hides invisible rules.
And the one we were caught in right now was
The “New Employee First Day Anomaly.”
The name itself blatantly spelled it out.
What a newbie shouldn’t do.
Being late on the first day.
‘This is an instant out.’
The time was 08:59:55.
I gripped her hand tight and sprinted at full speed.
When I saw the door, I ignored the handle.
I kicked it open with my foot and shoved my body inside.
Bang—
A loud crash echoed through the office.
The clock’s hour hand was pointing exactly at 9.
“…9 o’clock.”
Safe.
***
Hoo—
As the tension released, the surroundings finally came into view.
It looked like an ordinary office.
People bustling about, phones ringing, papers shuffling and piling up.
The typical daily grind of any company.
The only strange thing was
That despite the commotion we’d just made, no one paid us any attention.
And the massive shadow beside me.
I hadn’t noticed it approaching.
An animal face on a human body.
A monster like an orangutan face crudely grafted onto something else.
Its grotesque, pieced-together form loomed over us on two legs.
The fact that something that size had approached without a sound sent chills down my spine.
It held a thick binder in one hand, mimicking a human.
I quickly stopped her as she instinctively went to swing the knife she was gripping.
A brief standoff followed, then the monster’s mouth slowly opened.
“New… recruit?”
Its voice was filled with unfamiliar resonance.
But the people around continued moving as if nothing was wrong.
“Your… number is… 13. And you… seat 27.”
The voice was clearly human-like, but laced with an unpleasant animal rasp at the ends, like it was forcing a human imitation.
When its gaze shifted away for a moment, I whispered to her.
“Fighting it seems impossible. For now, let’s each do our thing and share what we learn when we get a chance.”
A quick exchange of glances.
After parting with her, I headed straight for the desk with my name on it.
13… 13…
[13. Intern Kang Do-yoon.]
Found it.
But when I approached the seat, someone was already sitting there.
Familiar facial features.
Familiar body outline.
Familiar hand movements.
The colleagues next to it chatted with it casually.
As if it, not me, was the original owner of the spot.
Our eyes met.
Its lips curled up crookedly.
Little by little.
Until they reached a height no human mouth could.
The mouth slowly opened wide.
Nothing friendly was about to happen.
I clearly needed to run—
‘…What was I doing just now?’
Ah. I remembered.
Hurry, we need to become one again.
I’d forgotten.
It’s not drifting away.
I need to approach.
Somewhere in my head, a cracking sound echoed.
***
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[Moving to the last save point.]
[The most recent save point is AUTO SAVE 0.]
[New Employee First Day Anomaly]
[Death Type]: Replacement.
[Tip]: Punctual arrival is the basic virtue of a company employee. Arrival after 9 is not permitted.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Company lobby.
High ceiling, gleaming marble floor.
As if everything from moments ago had never happened.
But in contrast, my heart pounded wildly.
Red-tinted vision.
The other “me” grinning grotesquely.
The cracking sound splitting my mind.
The sensation of my existence slowly fading.
I’d just been wholly devoured by it.
Not just my body, but my entire being.
I immediately tried to organize the rule I’d just experienced.
Ding!
The moment I thought of recording the rule,
Time seemed to freeze, and the “Recorder’s Pen” appeared before my eyes.
No time to panic—knowledge of the pen flooded my mind.
Ah.
I understood the pen’s purpose.
It wasn’t for writing by hand.
It was a tool to record actual experiences.
You can’t record without experiencing it firsthand. That’s why it’s “permanent.”
The pen moved in an instant, transcribing the info from my head into the rulebook.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
[New Employee First Day Anomaly]
Rule 1. Arrival Time
1-1. New employees must arrive at the office before 9 a.m.
1-2. The moment 9 hits, the seat automatically goes to the “Replacement.”
1-3. If someone else is sitting in your seat, absolutely do not make eye contact with it.
1-4. If spotted, assimilation of existence occurs.
Rule 2. [Undetermined]
Rule 3. [Undetermined]
*The Recorder’s Pen can only be used in “safe zones.”
*Recordings have a time limit; exceeding it ends the session immediately.
[Time Remaining: 00:30]
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
The timer ticked down.
[Time Remaining: 00:01]
When the timer hit zero, my frozen body relaxed, and the world regained its color.
I set aside my thoughts on using the Recorder’s Pen for now.
First, I stepped one pace to the left.
Soon, she passed by me and entered the lobby.
This time, I’d avoided the collision before it happened.
Black mask, black hat.
Military knife in her right hand.
Unlike the previous loop, the initial contact was gone.
But some things stayed the same.
Her footsteps ahead halted.
“…If you don’t want to die, stay in the lobby.”
Her cold voice nearly made me burst out laughing despite the mood.
The tone and content didn’t match at all.
First things first—gain her trust.
***
The conversation proceeded as before.
Explaining the anomaly, introducing myself as “Alpha” from now on.
But this time, one thing was added.
As we boarded the elevator and I pressed the button for the third floor, I spoke up.
“We’ll have to run the moment we get up there.”
Staring straight ahead, I continued.
“Only invite-holders can enter this building. Standing here alone means… you’re the only team member who made contact.”
When she said nothing, I took it as agreement.
“If you got an email like I did, you saw the arrival time listed.”
“That was just a job application, and I got the Antigen—”
“…Antigen isn’t a cure-all. Break the rules, and the seat goes not to ‘us,’ but to another ‘Replacement.’”
She narrowed her eyes.
“Replacement…? What does that mean?”
I brought up a name I could trust.
“It’s an anomaly the Anomalous Management Corporation has been monitoring for a long time. Confirmed through investigation records. Mind if I explain further?”
She nodded, so I calmly continued.
“If a new employee doesn’t sit at their desk by 9, the seat automatically goes to a being called a ‘Replacement.’ It’s another entity that perfectly mimics you—appearance, habits, behavior, everything.
Think of it as a doppelganger. If someone else is in the seat with your name, abandon it without hesitation. Most importantly…”
I paused and looked at her.
“…never make eye contact.”
She asked in a low voice.
“What happens if you do?”
“You get eaten. And you become one with it completely.”
Click—the elevator stopped, and the doors opened.
I flashed a brief smile to wrap up.
“It’s a well-documented anomaly from long ago. Follow the rules right, and you survive.”
Just before the doors fully opened and I dashed out, she quietly spoke from behind.
“…Kang Su-ji. My name.”