Chapter 14
Chapter 14
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 14. Memo
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When I was a kid, I used to scour the internet for videos of people exploring abandoned cities.
They looked so fun back then.
“Aah... Ah...!”
“Come on, follow properly!”
Yoo Daon was huffing and puffing as she pulled Jang Chaeyeon along from the front, while I pushed Jang Chaeyeon from behind.
But actually doing the exploring myself? It was pure hell. And now I had to drag around someone who wasn’t even half-witted anymore—she was fully out of it.
“Huff... huff... If we keep dragging her like this, we’ll never get anywhere!”
“Yeah.”
How the hell was I supposed to carry her again?
We stopped for a moment, and Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon both stared at me blankly.
“Anyway, this isn’t working. We’re not even making a kilometer an hour.”
“That’s true, but... what do you plan to do?”
“We’ll have to talk it out.”
I bent my knees slightly and made eye contact with Jang Chaeyeon, who was muttering to herself.
“Let’s talk. What’s up there that’s got you so scared?”
“...Nothing’s there.”
“Huh?”
“I’m scared because there’s nothing.”
What the hell did that mean?
But whatever it was, we had to move forward to check it out.
“Sitting here whining won’t change anything. If you want to get out, help us a little.”
“...I left it behind.”
Her responses were getting more and more nonsensical, giving me a headache, but I had no choice but to listen closely to what came next.
“I left it back there.”
“Left what?”
“Important things. I need to find them.”
“What are they?”
“Don’t know.”
Jang Chaeyeon answered with a dumb look on her face. God, if only someone could find her intelligence and stick it back on—while leaving the aggression behind.
“But I’ll know it when I see it.”
“...”
“Help me find it. ...Then I’ll follow quietly.”
Was she actually a genius? Pretending to be an idiot to make me and Yoo Daon do the work?
But I couldn’t exactly refuse.
In the end, I nodded in agreement.
“Fine. But follow quietly. And help when we ask.”
“Okay.”
Jang Chaeyeon nodded calmly and started walking on her own legs, as if she’d never whined at all.
Yoo Daon sidled up to me, watching her, and whispered.
“She’s pissing me off a little. Is she normal?”
“She’s normal. But we’d lose in a fight, so let’s forgive her.”
Even like that, she’d beat both me and Yoo Daon combined. What would be the point?
Yoo Daon made a dissatisfied face for a moment but soon shut her mouth and followed along.
*
“...This is tough.”
Walking through the ruined city was harder than I’d thought.
Stones jabbed at my feet, and the ground was uneven.
“It’s tough, yeah.”
Yoo Daon wiped her face with her sleeve and spoke as if it wasn’t so bad.
And then...
“Heek... heek...”
Jang Chaeyeon just kept gasping in and out rapidly, like she didn’t have the energy to speak.
“...You okay?”
How could her stamina be this bad?
“Heek... heek...”
Guess she didn’t have the breath to answer.
She kept gasping like that for minutes until her breathing finally slowed.
“...Weren’t you on the Containment Team?”
“Tired.”
“No, I mean, weren’t you on Containment?”
“...Tired is tired.”
She glanced away from my question.
“On the flip side, you seem fine, Daon.”
“I might not look it, but I’m Security Team.”
Yoo Daon flexed her right arm into a mock muscle pose and grinned.
“Pretty good stamina for a girl my age, right?”
“Come to think of it...”
I recalled when I first met Yoo Daon.
“What does Security Team even do?”
“Security Team?”
Yoo Daon hummed thoughtfully.
“Well... security stuff, I guess?”
I guess? What kind of answer was that?
Catching my look, she shook her head vigorously.
“Don’t give me that look. I’ve only worked one day. Honestly, I spent more time with you in HR.”
“You handle a gun pretty well for that.”
“I got training first. Shooting was the first thing they taught when I joined Security.”
“So what did you do before coming here?”
“Well... just went to school or whatever... ...that sort of thing?”
Her voice trailed off at the end. Was it something she didn’t want to talk about?
I couldn’t pry forever, though. Everyone has their privacy.
“...We’re here.”
Jang Chaeyeon’s low voice drew my eyes forward.
“...Whoa.”
Up close, it was overwhelming—a massive ruined city sprawled right in front of us.
“Do you know how to find the exit?”
Sadness spread across Jang Chaeyeon’s face at my question.
“No exit.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“We can’t leave without permission.”
“From who?”
“...From it.”
Jang Chaeyeon pointed at the city with a gloomy expression.
“...You mean the Cube?”
She nodded.
She talked like the Cube had a mind of its own.
“Then how did you get out? Hell, why did you come in?”
“...Don’t know. I can’t remember.”
“...Got it.”
Pushing her when she couldn’t remember wouldn’t help. We just had to keep monitoring her condition.
“You still don’t feel anything weird, right, Daon? Like an itch in your head or...”
“...That’s what it felt like when I was possessed.”
Yoo Daon muttered grumpily but closed her eyes and opened them, checking herself.
“...Not sure yet. But what worries me is... even if I’m under mental control, I might not realize it.”
“If it gets bad, I’ll notice. Probably.”
I just hoped my eyes would work when it mattered.
And so, we got to know each other a bit, chatting about things we hadn’t before, and successfully entered the city.
“You have a little sister?”
“Yeah, though we don’t meet often.”
“How old?”
“There’s an age gap. She just started college this year.”
I shared a bit about my family.
“Only child?”
“Yeah, circumstances and all...”
Heard about Yoo Daon’s family.
“Me too. Only child.”
“...Ah, okay.”
Even got Jang Chaeyeon’s family info.
We traded small talk like that, but I found myself scanning the surroundings without realizing it.
[Name: Cube]
[Age: Manufactured in the XX00s]
[Specialty: Reality Alteration]
[Talent: X]
[Background: This Cube’s origins from the 00s are unknown. Was it even made back then? Or do you think it was from the 1900s? Is what you’re seeing now reality? Or inside the Cube? Only the Cube knows.]
[Weakness: Some unknown force cracked the Cube, putting it in self-repair mode. Even so, don’t forget: you are who you are.]
Honestly, seeing that text everywhere was getting on my nerves.
What if I missed something important or failed to react to a threat in time?
My eyes were even starting to hurt.
I kept blinking, and Yoo Daon looked at me with concern.
“You okay?”
“...”
Should I tell Yoo Daon?
I trusted her, but saying it would just bum everyone out...
“I’m fine.”
She put a hand on my shoulder and met my eyes.
“I’ll believe whatever you say, so don’t bottle it up. Don’t worry! I won’t spill even under torture.”
“...No need to go that far.”
In the end, I had to explain the situation to her.
She hummed along, listening intently.
“So this whole place is basically inside the Cube, and that’s why your eyes are acting up.”
“That’s the gist.”
“Then I’ll keep a sharper eye out!”
Yoo Daon declared confidently. It probably wouldn’t help much, but her saying it was comforting.
“...Found it.”
Jang Chaeyeon, who’d been walking quietly, muttered and headed somewhere.
“Where you going?”
“Found it.”
Despite our puzzled questions, she strode off steadily.
“...Should we follow?”
“Yeah.”
In the end, me and Yoo Daon just trailed after her like we were entranced.
Soon, she entered a building.
It was one of the more intact ones amid the shabby structures.
She hopped over piles of debris with familiarity and stopped somewhere.
Amid the ruins, neat writing on a white piece of paper stood out.
Jang Chaeyeon picked it up and handed it to me.
“Read it.”
“Me?”
She nodded.
“I can’t read it.”
“...Okay, sure.”
I took the paper from her and read it aloud.
[Day two adrift here. I was looking for an item with reality-alteration risks. How did I end up here? First, I need to get out. My abilities work fine, but I have a bad feeling. Are my team members okay? What if something happened? If others are stranded like me, I need to find them first. I’m the only one with abilities, so it’s on me.]
“...”
Jang Chaeyeon, who’d been listening with her eyes closed, opened them.
“I remember now.”
“What do you remember?”
She looked at me.
“The past... ...not sure exactly. But I’ve been here before. And... I made a deal. With something. It said it’d let me out if I solved the Cube completely. ...That’s how I got out.”
She paused, then continued.
“And as part of that deal, I wagered my memories... ...and something else. Coming back here now... it’s because I failed.”
“Failed? A bet? With who, the Cube?”
The Cube wasn’t alive, right? At least that’s what my eyes said.
She nodded at my question.
-Rumble...
Thunder rumbled from somewhere,
-and whoosh...
rain started falling.
Pitch-black, tar-like rain.
“I need to find more of my memos. If we learn the deal details and what’s causing this, we’ll be one step ahead.”
Jang Chaeyeon met our eyes amid the downpour.
-Boom!
Thunder crashed in response to her words.