Chapter 303
Chapter 303
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Ready Action
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"Mmph! Mmph!"
I clamped my hand over Song Arin's muffled protests and sank into thought.
Crowd Psychology.
Ah, it feels like I've heard that somewhere before.
Where was it?
I racked my brains amid the hazy memories.
"...Ah..."
I remembered.
It was right—
"Ack!"
At the same moment, Song Arin bit my hand. It didn't hurt, but I flinched and pulled away in surprise. She spun around, glaring at me with heaving breaths.
Her flushed face.
What happened all of a sudden?
"Tell me... what you're... going to do...!"
So that's why. I'd just been silently covering her mouth.
"Sorry. Was it hard to breathe?"
"That's not it...! Ugh, forget it. No more talking."
Song Arin muttered under her breath, shot me a dirty look, then scanned the crowd of people.
"So, what is this?"
"Want to try brainwashing them?"
"..."
Song Arin closed her eyes for a moment, then opened them and looked up at me.
"Isn't this consciousness a bit off?"
"Yeah."
"So, what is thi— Ack...!"
Before she could finish, the crowd started pressing in on us again.
Song Arin leaned against me with a grunt.
"We're gonna get crushed...!"
"You think?"
The people pressed so hard that Song Arin and I were practically fused together.
The silver lining was that I'd shoved her toward the elevator wall first, so I was the one taking the brunt.
With her build, she'd have been flattened already.
"Should we think fast? I don't think I can hold a spot for you much longer."
"...Yeah."
I'd expected her to snap, but she nodded with a serious expression.
"Brainwashing won't work first off."
"Figured as much."
"...That pisses me off?"
It wasn't that I'd never seen her brainwashing fail perfectly before—it just seemed like it wouldn't work on group consciousness.
Ignoring her pursed lips and sulky mutter, I kept thinking.
The easiest way out.
Pushing with brute force is best.
"...Hng...!"
But no matter how hard I pushed, the crowd didn't budge an inch.
Of course. To make that work, I'd have needed Jang Chaeyeon or Ye-eun along.
"Ugh...!"
Instead, the backlash started pushing me back.
"Eek...!"
Song Arin got plastered to the wall as my body shoved against it.
Isn't there some way out of this?
Someone who could magically cut through a situation like this...
There was.
"Team Leader!"
I shouted loud, and a grumbling voice came from somewhere.
"What!"
"We gotta get out!"
"Hey! I wanna get out too!"
"Find us a path!"
"How am I supposed to do that!"
"People keep pouring in...! If we can't find it here, we're all dead!"
I whipped my head around to look at the others.
Some faces were turning purple.
In other words, they were trapped here with us, drawn in despite not being able to breathe.
"We're dead...!"
The Team Leader muttered, and soon the crowd twitched and rippled like waves.
At the same time,
"Pha!"
The Team Leader poked his head out and looked at us.
"Made it out before dying!"
"No way that actually worked."
He reached out to me and Song Arin, who stared at him in bewilderment.
"Come on, let's go!"
I grabbed the Team Leader's hand, and Song Arin clutched my collar.
"Wait, no wa—!"
No way could you just pull people out like—
"...Huh?"
Our bodies got sucked out like magic.
Song Arin and I passed straight through the crowd, emerging outside the elevator with our torn clothes and disheveled hair intact.
"...How'd you do that?"
"You told me to."
The Team Leader answered my question like it was obvious.
"No, you do everything I say?"
If I asked him to catch an aestheticist, he'd do it.
"We almost died, so it worked out, idiot."
Does that even count?
"Is that the priority right now?"
"Oh."
The Team Leader tsked with a sigh, hands on his hips as he eyed the elevator. I followed his gaze.
"So, what do we do with these people now?"
"What else?"
Crowds aren't that tough.
I recalled the weakness I'd seen.
[They will crumble when they cease to be a crowd.]
In other words, just pull them out one by one.
The biggest problem with anything is when it's jammed up.
Once the jam clears, things sort themselves out somehow.
I shrugged off my half-shredded suit jacket.
"Team Leader, help me out."
"With what."
"Gonna pull people out."
If we've got strength, we can make it work. Probably.
*
"Huff... huff..."
"Haa... haa..."
"Hek... hek..."
Drenched in sweat, the three of us sprawled on the floor.
"So tiring..."
Song Arin muttered, squirming uncomfortably. I deeply agreed, staring up at the ceiling.
Exhausting.
Pulling people out had been easy except for the first one.
The problem was how much strength it took.
Thanks to that, the Team Leader and I had sweated bullets rescuing people, while Song Arin pitched in beside us, sweating right along.
"...Should've brought Chaeyeon..."
"..."
Song Arin shot me a glare the moment I spoke, but the Team Leader nodded.
"Yeah. Wouldn't have had to go through this."
"Next time, gotta balance the team better."
My mistake for obsessing over social skills and ignoring raw power.
"...My pride hurts."
Song Arin grumbled, and the Team Leader gave a wry smile.
"...Aigoo, let's get going."
I hauled myself up and checked my clothes.
Ragged jacket, wrinkled pants.
Song Arin was the same.
Mussed hair, torn jacket.
"...This sucks."
Song Arin sighed deeply, straightening her outfit.
"At least one's solved."
She stretched, then came back to my side.
"Stairs it is."
"Right. As for our looks—"
"I'll handle the bluffing."
"Good call bringing you along, Arin."
"I could hear that praise a hundred, a thousand times."
Song Arin puffed out her chest confidently, and we all eyed the stairs.
"Stairs never lead to good endings."
"Elevator's toast, no choice."
"Aigoo, stairs at my age."
"You're not that old yet."
"No respect for elders anymore..."
Grumbling alongside the Team Leader, we started up the stairs.
Hoping nothing else went wrong.
*
Inside the van after the man left.
"..."
"..."
"..."
This silence is so awkward.
Park Ye-eun let out a small sigh.
Shouldn't the older folks take the lead and start the conversation?
Do I really have to be the one?
Plus, like Yoo Daon said, the clothes were too hot.
"...Whew, it's so hot, right?"
Park Ye-eun fanned her collar with a smile.
She figured no response, but...
"Yeah. Should we take 'em off?"
When Yoo Daon actually replied, Park Ye-eun blanked on how to follow up.
"Uh, but taking them off..."
"No telling when we'll head out."
Jang Chaeyeon cut in, and Yoo Daon nodded with a smile.
"True. Wanna step out for a bit?"
"Sure."
Guess it was hot.
Jang Chaeyeon opened the van door, letting in cool-to-the-point-of-chilly air.
"Uwaa..."
"Hoo..."
"Finally..."
All three exhaled deeply.
It felt like the sweat was evaporating.
But unlike the cold air, a warm feeling bloomed in Park Ye-eun's chest.
If they're responding like this, maybe I have a shot...!
"Is, is Oppa doing okay?"
"Hmm..."
Yoo Daon rested her chin on her hand, lost in thought at Park Ye-eun's question.
Her sweat-dampened bangs sparkled in the sunlight.
"Jaeheon won't fail!"
"Even if he does, helping out's our job."
Jang Chaeyeon picked up Yoo Daon's words, and Yoo Daon nodded with a smile.
"Exactly! So—"
"No, why are you still here?"
Someone cut into their chatter.
The three turned to see a man holding a rolled-up script staring at them.
"The cameras are rolling! Get out here now!"
"Huh? What?"
Park Ye-eun sputtered in confusion, Yoo Daon looking equally blank.
"...We're janitors."
"Janitors with those faces? Whatever, you new actors or—"
No backing out now.
The three exchanged bewildered looks,
"Hurry!"
"W-Wait, don't drag...!"
Starting with Park Ye-eun being hauled off, they all had to pile out of the van.
*
The screening room.
"That damned cursed video, whatever it is... Hoo... If I find it, I might smash the whole lot..."
Song Arin panted roughly as she climbed the stairs.
Surprisingly, we'd gotten off on the third floor.
The screening room was on the nineteenth.
Meaning,
"Huff... haa..."
The Team Leader panted hard, eyes fluttering open and shut.
"Jaeheon... leave me... This is my limit..."
"Team Leader, at least warn us of dangers before you go."
"You heartless... bastard..."
Ignoring the Team Leader's mutters, I opened the door.
A sign reading [Screening Room] greeted us.
"The problem video's in here, right?"
"Yeah, or so they say."
"Hmm..."
Song Arin scanned around, then gave me a troubled look.
"Gonna be hard to find."
"..."
She was right.
Not just videos—CDs, tapes, you name it. Finding the one in a place like this was like a needle in a haystack.
"...Hmm."
Tricky.
The Team Leader seemed to think the same.
"How do you even find a video here..."
"Don't sense any dangerous-looking ones?"
"If I could, I'd be HR Team Leader."
He already had plenty of skills beyond HR.
"..."
While we looked around intently,
—Fwaa!
A screen lit up.
"What? Attack?"
Song Arin whipped around in confusion, and the Team Leader slapped a hand to his head.
I stayed tense, scanning the area—
"...Huh?"
I couldn't help letting out a baffled noise.
Yoo Daon, Jang Chaeyeon, and Park Ye-eun appeared on the screen.
All three in janitor uniforms.
"..."
The difference was,
[Ready... Action!]