Chapter 79
Chapter 79
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 79
Chapter Title: Noise Curiosity Consultation!
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79.
The White Librarian stood before me, a single scrap of paper resting on her palm.
...
I hadn't expected anything grand.
But still, a scrap of paper felt a bit much...
My gaze blankly fixed on the note right in front of me, while my ears remained tuned toward the speaker.
What on earth...
Would Noise have to say about this scrap of paper.
As I stared at the note in silence, waiting.
*Chzzzt-*
A faint bit of static brushed past my ear, tickling it.
[Why don't you take a look inside. I'm sure it will hit just right in Employee Park Yeon-jeong's heart... definitely.]
A hint of amusement laced the voice from the speaker.
Come to think of it, nothing I'd ever received from Noise had been useless.
Well, there had been nothing like that...
My eyes drifted back to the librarian's palm, still standing dumbly in front of me, waiting for me to take the note.
'This... looks useless.'
But.
...*Snatch.*
I picked up the scrap of paper.
*Crumple.*
I carefully unfolded the note and checked what was inside.
What was in the small scrap of paper was...
[Noise Curiosity Consultation!]
...?
Curiosity consultation?
Was this the name of some new TV show?
The note bore the rather playful phrase 'Noise's Curiosity Consultation.'
But aside from that playful phrase, there was no mystical power or anything emanating from the tiny piece of paper.
*Wiggle-wiggle-*
I waved the paper around this way and that.
But it didn't suddenly radiate a blinding glow.
Nor did it teleport me somewhere.
Nope.
Just...
It seemed like a perfectly ordinary scrap of paper. The exact same plain white paper we all knew.
As I confirmed the note's contents and looked puzzled, Noise let out a burst of static.
*Chzzzt-*
[The plain paper Employee Park Yeon-jeong is thinking of is exactly right. Nothing special about it—a truly simple scrap of paper.]
"......"
After hearing Noise's answer in full.
My gaze shifted to the watch on my right wrist.
The second hand on the watch...
Wasn't moving.
The second hand not moving meant.
Not a single lie had been mixed into what Noise had just said.
Which meant Noise had really just played an elementary school-level prank on me.
Why?
Just as I wanted to ask if this was truly nothing more than a simple prank.
*Chzzzt-*
Noise's explanation continued.
[But the content it holds is real. It's a very, very good opportunity to resolve all the curiosities Employee Park Yeon-jeong has had up until now.]
Noise explained it as something that would answer all the questions I'd ever wondered about.
*Chzzzzzt-*
[When serious talk is in order, the atmosphere provided by the location is important too.]
[I anticipated this and prepared the venue in advance. A place with beautiful natural scenery. As an exceptional superior, I must excel in preparations as well.]
The moment Noise's voice from the speaker ended.
*Snap!*
The lighting illuminating me, along with every other light in the place, went out all at once.
In an instant, darkness swallowed the entire space, and in the pitch black where I couldn't see an inch ahead, I.
Stood silently in place.
It was obviously just another of Noise's surprise theatrics anyway.
*Snap! Snap! Snap!*
Along with the sounds of the lights turning back on.
As my eyes gradually adjusted to the sudden brightness.
The first thing that entered my sight.
Was the interior of a room made of pure white wallpaper and white flooring.
In addition, a white table placed squarely in the center.
And white chairs positioned to face each other directly, the only things exuding presence in this empty room.
Beyond that, no other furniture besides the table and chairs.
Just.
Maybe a square window, for reasons unknown.
'No door, but a window, huh.'
Whoever designed this room's layout had clearly made a primitive mistake.
But what was a bit unexpected.
Was that scenery was visible beyond the window.
The outside view was a vast plain filling the entire window.
So, this place was...
A single white cabin.
Placed atop a vast plain.
'It has atmosphere.'
Standing alone in dazed fashion in this atmospheric room, I called out the name of the one responsible for bringing me here.
"...Mr. Noise."
...
?
No answer came from Noise to my call.
Not even his characteristic static.
Just...
Me alone, standing blankly in the middle of the white house, unable to accept this bizarre situation.
I slowly turned my gaze toward the white chair.
For now...
'Sit and wait?'
Noise didn't respond no matter how I called.
And standing until Noise replied would surely make my legs ache.
So.
Until Noise arrived.
'I'll rest a bit,' I concluded.
*Step-*
I walked to the white chair and plopped right down into it.
After that.
How much time passed.
In this place where I'd been silently waiting for Noise's reaction.
*Knock- Knock- Knock-*
?
A knocking sound came, full of question.
No way it was a person...
*Knock- Knock- Knock-*
A steady tapping echoed from somewhere.
The sound came from.
The direction of the white wall.
*Knock- Knock- Knock-*
It came again.
Not from anywhere else.
But precisely from beyond the wall surrounded by white wallpaper.
But.
'What am I supposed to do about it?'
I'd figured out someone was beyond the wall, but there was nothing I could do.
At best.
Wait for whatever was out there to notice the one window letting in outside light.
No need to help some unknown ally or foe.
But.
The entity beyond the wall entered the room in a way I never could have imagined.
*Creeeak-*
!!
'What the!'
The wall that had been fine just moments ago...
Opened.
More precisely, like opening a door and coming in.
It strode confidently into the room.
The sight of opening a solid wall like a door was novel, but right now, something far more important mattered.
The identity of the figure.
Who had opened the wall and entered this white room.
I quietly opened my mouth.
"......Who."
Are you?
It was someone I'd truly never seen before.
Not any ghost story or person I'd encountered in life.
An unknown...
Woman.
Her long, jet-black hair cascaded down. Her eyes brimmed with melancholy as she stared at me.
The Victorian-style black dress, adorned here and there with lavish lace and ribbons, captured the eye.
-Jet-black hair cascading down.
-A woman in a lavish black dress.
Who are you really?
Undeterred by my wary gaze at this new character.
*Click-clack-*
!
The sharp click of high heels narrowed the distance between us.
Her approach was truly.
Graceful.
Which only reinforced the sense that she was no human.
In just a few steps.
In merely a few steps, when the distance to the melancholy-eyed woman was down to about one step.
The one to speak first.
Was the woman.
Her glossy pale pink lips parted, and the first thing to brush past Employee Park Yeon-jeong's own ear was.
...*Chzzzt-*
Static.
And at a volume all too familiar.
The kind I'd heard to the point of nausea.
Static so familiar.
And.
The woman's gaze settled on me, the one who'd recognized her existence at a glance, with a warm smile curling her lips.
"...Employee Park Yeon-jeong. I'm truly delighted to finally meet face-to-face like this."
*Hee-hee-*
A chuckle brushed my ear.
In this situation, I had only one thing to say.
"......N-No, Mr. Noise?"
You...
Were a woman?!
This was shocking.
No, culture shock.
Up until now, the thick male voice from the speaker had made it obvious.
No, so obviously, I'd assumed he was a man like me...
*Grin☺.*
In contrast to her melancholy eyes.
A bright smile bloomed on the lips of the woman who'd indirectly revealed herself as Noise.
*Swish-*
The woman before me fluttered the hem of her dress as she circled around me.
Then she spoke again.
"Were you surprised, Employee Park Yeon-jeong? Because I look so different from what you imagined? Or... because I'm too beautiful?"
"......Yes, a little. I was surprised."
No. Actually, very surprised.
Somehow, learning you're a woman feels like a betrayal, Noise.
Even witnessing the situation with my own eyes, I still couldn't adjust.
I had no idea how to treat the one before me.
But.
*Hee-hee-hee-*
The woman before me—no, Noise—seemed to revel in the moment, her lips brimming with laughter.
"Looks like my surprise worked perfectly."
*Chzzzzzzt-*
In that instant, intense static assailed my ears.
And the woman who'd been standing before Employee Park Yeon-jeong moments ago began to be engulfed in violent bursts of noise across her body.
The faint static that had lingered around my ears swirled endlessly.
*Chzzzt-*
With that final burst of noise.
In the spot where the black-dress woman had stood.
"As expected, this form is the most comfortable."
*Chzzzt-*
Dressed in the same black suit as me.
His face and body parts appeared severely glitched in places, catching my eye.
The phenomenon was like.
Static visualized.
And before me stood not a woman.
But a sturdy man once more.
Towering well over 2 meters, looking down at me.
*Chzzzt-*
"How was it, Employee Park Yeon-jeong? Satisfied with my surprise?"
"......"
"Seems like you're so satisfied you can't even speak."
*Chzzzt-*
Noise continued explaining the situation step by step.
Gazing at me as I stared at him blankly.
"Then, let's take a seat. The talk might get long."
"...Yes, understood."
Noise and I sat in chairs facing each other.
We looked at one another.
And once again, the one to continue speaking first.
Was Noise.
"Very well, let's get to it. The story Employee Park Yeon-jeong has been curious about."
And.
*Chzzzt-*
The next voice from Noise.
Pierced my eardrum and struck my brain like a direct hit with a massive reverberation.
[You get only one question. So choose wisely, calmly... I trust you won't disappoint me, Employee Park Yeon-jeong.]