Chapter 159
Chapter 159
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: 159. Choice of Death
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I have no good memories of water.
The cruise ship was one thing, but whenever something involving water happened, it never ended well. Not once.
...
Water poured out, and people started reacting all at once.
Some widened their eyes and screamed, while others calmly assessed their situation.
And then,
...
The Manual unfurled.
[PLZ - Save the Manual]
1. The Manual is delicate. Handle with care.
2. No matter how sturdy the Manual is, please refrain from using it as a shield.
3. Treat the Manual like an old friend.
4. Do not flick the Manual on the head.
5. The first thing you received upon joining was the Manual. Do not forget that it is like the first colleague of every Management Bureau employee.
6. No matter how flawless and capable the Manual is, like anyone else, it feels bad when it gets wet.
It doesn't even seem to be trying to hide itself anymore.
I stared blankly at the wildly unfurling Manual before looking away.
"What should we do about this?"
Park Ye-eun gazed at me calmly as the water rose.
She sure isn't scared either.
"If I knew, I'd have solved it already."
No, wait. Let me think for a second.
"Can't we just take the office worker exam?"
"What?"
"Isn't this the field worker exam?"
HR is for office workers anyway. Why do we have to take this kind of test?
Park Ye-eun looked at me like I was talking nonsense.
"This is the common exam."
"Office workers take this too?"
"Yes. See that person over there?"
She pointed at a woman trembling in fear.
"That's someone from Accounting."
"When did you even learn that?"
"My affinity is pretty good, right?"
Park Ye-eun flashed a cheeky grin and made a V-sign with her fingers.
"So, are you going to help, oppa?"
"Me?"
I looked down at the water wetting my feet.
Is it right for me to be helping with this?
I glanced at the others.
People from each team were huddled together, talking intently.
Everyone had stood up from their chairs, wearing serious expressions as they discussed.
-Thud!
"The door's locked."
Someone else pushed at the exit door, trying to open it.
Guess I should help after all.
I scanned the surroundings.
Let's start by looking for potential escape routes.
If the branch manager were deciding where to go...
When I looked toward the podium, the branch manager was already gone.
...
"What?"
"Nothing."
Would the branch manager really abandon us?
No way.
A drowning in the regular employee exam?
Even a normal company wouldn't have deaths during a workshop.
The costs for workers' comp and lawsuits would be enormous.
Or... interns don't have the four insurances, so maybe it's fine?
I shook my head to clear the pointless thoughts.
The branch manager is probably watching the exam from somewhere, or has prepared a way to save us.
And since there are more regular people here, the solution must be something anyone can reach.
I looked up at the ceiling.
High ceiling.
About the height of a gym auditorium...
"We can stack up and hold out up there."
"Huh?"
Park Ye-eun turned at my mutter.
"Can you stack the chairs like a mountain?"
"Like a mountain?"
"High enough to reach the ceiling."
"Hmm..."
Park Ye-eun furrowed her brow.
"It should work."
"Then stack 'em neatly."
"Okay."
Park Ye-eun headed to the chairs and started stacking them effortlessly.
At first, she just piled them up, but once they surpassed her height, she began tossing them up lightly.
Yet, like magic, the chairs stacked into a mountain shape.
Defying the laws of physics completely.
While Park Ye-eun built her chair mountain, I watched the others.
By now, about a third of the people had vanished.
They must have found the exit already.
The water was up to my waist now.
It rose faster and faster, while the number of people left dwindled.
Everyone's getting out smoothly. As expected of Management Bureau folks.
"All done."
"Then let's go."
Park Ye-eun came down and looked at me.
"Over here!"
As I shouted, the others turned to me.
"Climb up this!"
I pointed at the chairs, and Park Ye-eun widened her eyes at me.
"We could just go by ourselves."
"You think it's decent to stack the chairs like that and sneak off?"
"Well, that's true, but..."
"And abandon all those people?"
Park Ye-eun glanced at the people staring at us.
"...We can't."
"Exactly."
Besides, this doesn't seem like a game where just surviving means you pass.
But I hadn't told Park Ye-eun that yet. It was still just my speculation.
We started climbing the chair mountain slowly.
The chairs creaked but never toppled.
I glanced at Park Ye-eun climbing beside me, then looked down.
Countless people were following us up the chairs.
The water rose even faster, now high enough that you'd need to swim.
At the top of the chairs, I looked ahead.
The water had reached halfway up the chairs, with a few people flailing about.
[You are eliminated.]
A dry announcement echoed.
"Argh!"
"Eek!"
People swimming in the water were lifted by something invisible and floated away somewhere.
As if pulled by an unseen force.
...
It felt familiar somehow.
"Oppa, over there."
Park Ye-eun, who had caught up, tugged my sleeve.
As if waiting for us to climb up, a ladder descended with a rattling sound.
...
I eyed the ladder.
Nothing suspicious visible.
I grabbed it and started climbing.
"It's safe, right?"
"The Management Bureau wouldn't set up something that kills people."
"That's true, but... aren't you being a bit too fearless?"
"After months of seeing hands popping endlessly from walls and monsters crawling out of the sea, you'll get like this too."
I gripped the ladder and climbed without hesitation.
"Hey, wait for me, oppa!"
I heard Park Ye-eun shout and grab the ladder behind me.
The place that emerged from the darkness was...
"...What is this?"
A containment room.
More precisely, inside a containment room.
Soon, countless people climbed the ladder into the room.
"Where are we..."
"What is this..."
Maybe because most of the survivors had come via the chairs, the containment room quickly grew noisy with people.
"It's a containment room."
"Senior, why are we here?"
"I didn't take this exam back in my day, so no idea."
Amid the murmurs, I turned my focus, scanning around.
"Something's off."
"What?"
Park Ye-eun, stuck by my side, looked at me curiously.
"There's no sense of wrongness."
"Isn't that normal?"
Park Ye-eun gave me a what-are-you-talking-about look.
"It would be, normally."
No sense of wrongness is normal, usually.
But not for a containment room.
"Containment rooms are supposed to feel wrong."
"Huh?"
"Think about it."
What is a containment room?
A place to lock up non-human things, or things that harm humans greatly.
In other words, a containment room must never be normal.
Since it's for non-human entities, it has to be abnormal itself.
"But this one's too normal."
"So... according to your theory, it should feel even more off, but it's too normal?"
"Exactly."
"If anyone else said that, I wouldn't even pretend to listen..."
Park Ye-eun sighed deeply and looked around.
...
My body stiffened, as if nailed in place.
"What."
"Th-there, over there."
Park Ye-eun grabbed my sleeve.
"Hospital... a hospital..."
"What?"
A hospital?
In the Management Bureau?
I whipped my head around.
I followed her gaze, but saw nothing.
"Where's the hospital?"
"Eek!"
Before I could finish, screams erupted from elsewhere.
"Spider! A huge spider!"
"What is this? Argh!"
Soon, people started screaming everywhere.
...
-Zing.
My temple throbbed.
Mental attack?
"O-oppa. Help me."
Park Ye-eun just clung to my sleeve, trembling and muttering.
Everyone was gripped by fear.
But nothing was visible to me.
Fear, and something that doesn't affect me.
Like someone cast mass hypnosis?
*
...
Park Ye-eun trembled in terror.
She had been taken to a hospital once.
Even if the memory was brief, it was intensely frightening for her, unavoidably so.
'Patient.'
'It's a patient.'
'Where should I cut open?'
"Stop, stop..."
Park Ye-eun plugged her ears and muttered.
She didn't want to hear it anymore.
She wanted to run right now.
From behind, someone covered Park Ye-eun's eyes with both hands.
Warmth spread.
"...Oppa?"
"Yeah. It's me."
A familiar voice came from behind her.
"Not now—the doctors—"
"Focus."
Park Ye-eun shut her mouth.
"Think again. And stay calm."
...
"When you see something beyond common sense, your job isn't to get swept up in fear."
"...Hoo...."
How does he stay sane seeing these hallucinations?
Park Ye-eun took a deep breath.
"Get a grip. And don't stop thinking."
"Thinking..."
"How to escape, or even how to win."
Once Park Ye-eun's breathing settled...
"...No way."
She muttered.
Feeling the warm male hands, she repeated it over and over.
"No way, no way..."
Slowly, she opened her eyes.
Lifting her head, a man looked down at her.
"Oppa?"
"Yeah."
"I-I'm okay now."
Park Ye-eun muttered.
"Good."
The man removed his hands from her eyes.
"Oppa."
"Yeah."
"Do you do this to everyone else too?"
"Do what?"
"No, just... I get why your team goes crazy now."
No wonder her teammates lose it.
Park Ye-eun shook her head.
"What."
"Nothing."
*
Park Ye-eun nodded, then met my eyes again.
"So, what do we do?"
"It won't be hard."
The first exam was crisis response, so this is probably testing how to handle encountering a Containment Object.
I approached the door slowly and turned the handle; it opened easily.
"This door was unlocked from the start."
They just couldn't think of opening it, paralyzed by their personal horrors.
"Should we wake the others too?"
"Let's try."
Park Ye-eun and I went around, trying to snap people out of it.
"Everyone, this is..."
"Aaah!"
"Get a grip..."
"Ugh, urk..."
Most ignored us, but a few thankfully listened and came to their senses.
[You are eliminated.]
Then, the eyes of those still out of it glazed over.
Slowly, they lined up against the wall.
Like the sea parting in myth, the crowd split, everyone except the清醒 ones sticking to the wall.
-Clunk...
The door opened.
...
...
Park Ye-eun and I exchanged glances.
"How was it, oppa?"
"Easy."
Honestly, after everything I'd been through, this was nothing.
"As expected..."
"Human and Containment Incident Response Team..."
"Team for all incidents except humans..."
"Team to suppress non-human Containment incidents..."
People muttered, staring at me and Park Ye-eun.
"Was our team named something like that?"
"Nope."
I answered curtly, avoiding their gazes as I stepped out the door.
We emerged into the auditorium where the branch manager had given his speech.
[The next exam is the teamwork test.]
No announcements until now?
[Choose an assistant from those here to take the exam with.]
People walked out into the auditorium.
All in suits, striking awkward poses.
All except one.
"Haha, hahaha!"
A boisterous laughing man looked at me.
"No way, Jaeheon! What a coincidence."
"Yeah."
"Honestly, you should be the mentor here, not the helper, right?"
"Yeah."
"Haha! Hahaha!"
An Sang-hyeon, who had rolled around helping us before, laughed and crossed his arms.
The others...
...
A man with half his face burned met my eyes and looked away.
Along with people I'd never seen or only glimpsed in the halls, they lined up.
...
...
...
A cute-looking woman with black hair.
A cool beauty with white hair.
And a haughty-looking woman with purple hair met my eyes.
"Why are you here?"
"That's what I want to ask."
Song Arin spoke on behalf of the three, glaring at me.
"You were supposed to be called as a mentor. Why are you standing there like this?"
"Beats me."
"Sigh."
She sighed.
[Please select your partner.]
The three women's gazes turned to me.
The most essential person for clearing this exam?
No need to even think about it.