Chapter 113
Chapter 113
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Orphanage
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Team Leader guided us to a small room with no one inside.
"Kim Chanho—do you remember him by any chance?"
Team Leader vanished for a moment before handing us a single file, and Eileen looked at me while flipping through it.
"I remember."
Kim Chanho.
It was a name I couldn't forget.
There had been three instances so far where Critical hadn't worked, and the reasons were all different each time.
In Yoo Daon's case, after she'd fully matured, no weak point vulnerable to Critical had been visible at all.
In the Aestheticism case, the weak point had been visible via Critical, and I'd even been able to shoot it, but it felt like something was covering the weak point or Critical had been "overlaid" on it.
In contrast, Kim Chanho's case was starkly different from those two examples.
His weak point had been clearly visible, and the bullet had undeniably lodged into his body.
But afterward, it had looked like he'd "resurrected."
If my memory was correct, that had happened when the cross he possessed was destroyed.
Coming back to life after dying wasn't surprising.
I myself had a spare life granted by Aestheticism, and the person right beside me was someone completely distanced from death.
"Is something wrong?"
"No."
I looked at Yoo Daon, who was tilting her head, then turned my gaze back to Eileen.
"There must be a reason you suddenly requested access to this file. And a reason you called all three of us here too."
"Actually, I called the HR Team Leader as well."
Eileen rubbed her eyes, looking fatigued, and continued.
"But he stubbornly refused."
"...He said his instincts weren't good?"
"He didn't say that."
Eileen shook her head and opened the file to show me.
"As you can see, this man never caused any issues."
There was a photo of the man I'd seen at the amusement park.
"He lived quietly, resigned, and vanished from people's memories along with the memory wipe."
"..."
"But recently, there've been sightings of this man."
Eileen stared intently at the man's photo.
"Where?"
"First, the 'church'."
'Church'.
I recalled the background above Eileen's head.
['After losing her entire family at the 'church'']
Her gaze was fixed on the man in the photo, but like she was reminiscing about something, her focus was directed far away.
"Next."
She pulled out her smartphone and handed it to me.
It showed the man entering an orphanage.
"..."
"The orphanage."
The Management Bureau-affiliated orphanage.
"It's mainly for children of Management Bureau employees who lost their parents to anomalies."
"..."
"Probably here... since it's the Gangseo anomaly zone... the biggest example would be Gangseo University Hospital."
"...University hospital."
Yoo Daon murmured in a much lower voice, and in my mind, the image and voice of a certain man surfaced.
A man with no lower body, gunfire sounding from outside the door.
And,
"Your expression looks bad."
"There's something I'm worried about."
"...Is that so. Anyway, this man's trail ends here."
"Is the orphanage okay?"
"That's why we're here."
There was the sound of paper crumpling.
Eileen gripped the paper tightly as she looked at me.
"Contact with the orphanage has been cut off since this morning."
"..."
"I heard a Special Team member has been dispatched."
"Special Team?"
"The traitor execution unit."
Jang Chaeyeon, who'd been listening to the conversation, spoke up bluntly.
"The team that executes Management Bureau employees judged to be traitors."
"Normally, the Response Team has no authority to get involved in this incident."
Eileen stared straight at me.
"But this man... I think he has the information I need most."
"Information?"
It's about the church, probably.
"There's a place I absolutely have to break through, a place I have to find."
Eileen continued, clenching her fist tightly.
Her voice was trembling.
"There's a family I have to save, and if I can save them, I don't care if my body gets torn into ten pieces and I wander hell for eternity without ever dying."
"..."
"This is a clue. Like a single ray of light shining on me after years of groping in the dark."
A certain man overlapped with her as she desperately grabbed me and explained.
'I'm leaving my daughter, Ye-eun, in your hands.'
Her words brought back the image of a gaunt man speaking to me with a resolute expression.
Eileen looked at me, fist clenched, and continued.
"So please—"
"It's fine."
I reached out a hand to cut off Eileen's words.
I didn't need to hear more. I'd already decided what to do.
"Just tell me what needs to be done."
"...You sure you're okay with this?"
"I have a promise I need to keep too."
"...Thank you."
Eileen brushed back her hair.
Her faded blonde hair caught the light, dull but revealing a youthful face.
Her face was heavily marked by exhaustion, but her eyes burned with a strange fervor.
"Wait."
And then Song Arin cut her off sharply.
"We haven't said we're in yet."
Song Arin stared at Eileen, and Eileen blinked back at Song Arin.
"If you don't want to come, you don't have to."
"...What?"
"I'm asking Kim Jaeheon's opinion right now too. I have to respect everyone else's as well."
"...What about you all?"
Song Arin turned to look at the others after hearing her, and Yoo Daon pondered for a moment before speaking.
"I... want to go if it's related to the hospital incident."
"...What about the white-hair?"
"What am I supposed to do if I'm left behind alone? I'm going."
"...I could stay behind."
"You're not going to."
Jang Chaeyeon stared at Song Arin, and Song Arin bit her lip slightly under the gaze before looking back at Eileen.
"Full HR Team participation."
"I'll express my thanks once more."
At Song Arin's words, Eileen gave a formal salute and began to continue.
"To reiterate, this is something the Response Team can't get involved in. It's not an anomaly—it's just following someone suspected to be a containment object or traitor."
"Ah."
"So I can't act with my team members either, and I can't get official permission."
"Wait."
A question arose as I listened to Eileen.
"If it's outside your authority, isn't it the same for the HR Team?"
"Your team's situation has changed a lot."
"Yes?"
"The HR Team fundamentally isn't supposed to get tangled in incidents like this."
Eileen held up a finger as she spoke.
"That makes sense."
"But with the recent great flood incident and all the big and small events, the HR Team's position has become incredibly ambiguous."
"Ambiguous meaning..."
"It's a team that's not strange if it's involved in any incident, and not strange if it's not."
"...So basically, we've just gotten dragged into a lot of incidents."
"Not wrong."
Eileen nodded.
"From your perspective, it must be exhausting and terrifying, but for me, it's the perfect state for guest members to tag along."
Calling the Response Team Leader guest members—office workers—what kind of people are they?
"Anyway, the HR Team getting involved in this incident won't raise any eyebrows. Probably."
A plan this haphazard actually works?
"Is it really okay to run things this sloppily?"
"You ever done company life for a day or two?"
Eileen grinned mischievously at me.
"If push comes to shove, we can leverage the branch chief."
*
Not long after, we were standing in front of the orphanage.
[Gangseo Orphanage]
"This actually worked."
"No reason it wouldn't."
Eileen flashed a confident smile as she checked her gun.
Contrary to our worries, we didn't even need to leverage the branch chief.
There was no one around to begin with.
"Is it okay for there to be no one here like this?"
At my murmur, Eileen, who was checking her gear, replied nonchalantly as she slung her rifle over her back.
"They might have already entered."
"I see."
With a click, Eileen finished preparing and turned to look at us.
"From what I hear, contact with the orphanage has been lost, and we've arrived here following traces of a man named Kim Chanho."
"Top priority is securing the safety of the people inside the orphanage, capturing Kim Chanho, or gathering intel."
"Right. If needed, we can cooperate with Special Team personnel."
"Are Special Team members strong?"
The Containment Team was the strongest, but actually the Special Team is stronger—it's a common setup.
"Nope."
"Really?"
"They're not strong so much as... they excel in other areas."
Eileen glossed over it as she handed a shotgun to Song Arin, who took it with practiced motions.
"In severe cases, the Special Team member might be dead, and if so, we'd really need to be careful."
"..."
"If not, otherworlding might have progressed to some degree, and we'd have to push through."
With the closed orphanage door before us, Eileen continued in a resolute tone.
"Like at the amusement park. I'll help with gut judgments when needed, but otherwise, we'll go with your calls."
"Got it."
I nodded at her words, and Eileen cautiously opened the door.
-Creeeak...
The door, seemingly made of old wood, opened with a loud noise.
-Hooo...
Beyond it was a narrow, dark hallway and a room leaking cold air,
And one person was literally "embedded" in the wall.
There was no blood, no gruesome scene.
Just a person existing in the wall as if it were the most natural thing.
"Wow, what's this now."
Ignoring Song Arin's murmur, the person embedded in the wall fell out with a thud.
-Squelch, crunch...
With horrific sounds, his body twisted,
And...
It turned into a single lamp attached to the wall.
A translucent window appeared above the lamp.
[Name: QKRANSRB]
[Age: X]
[Specialty: X]
[Talent: Absorption]
[Background: This is alive.]
[Weakness: Being alive means it can be killed.]
As if mocking our shock, the lamp was sucked into the wall,
And
-Splat!
It burst into a mass of flesh.
"..."
Seeing that, Yoo Daon murmured awkwardly.
"The house seems alive?"
I had no choice but to agree.
"Song Arin."
"Yeah."
At my words, Song Arin nodded and closed her eyes to concentrate.
"There are people. Not in the walls... ...Ugh, there's a feeling of unstable signals mixed in, but they're there anyway. Alive and unharmed. In a highly agitated state."
"What about the situation?"
"No clue. I don't have clairvoyance."
My eyes met Eileen's, and she took a step forward.
"I'll take point."
Without hesitation, she moved ahead.
-Step, step.
"Follow me."
Like a faint light piercing the darkness, her dull blonde hair glowed in the narrow hallway.