Chapter 8 - Things That Couldn't Be Conveyed #2
Things That Couldn't Be Conveyed #2
Translator : Elizabeth
[Title: I just heard something weird and came here]
First of all, if I mention my affiliation, I might get identified so pls understand yep;
Anyway, I recently went because I had some work regarding Anomaly management.
I heard some weird thing there?
Originally, to enter an Anomaly, there's a set entry path or route, right.
But they say that disappeared entirely.
↳ What does it mean disappeared?
↳ Author: I also just heard it in passing so I couldn't hear it properly.
↳ Author: It literally seemed like they were saying one Anomaly disappeared;
↳ What kind of crazy bullshit is that?
↳ I'm someone with quite some F-Rank experience in the Administration Bureau, but it's my first time hearing that kind of talk?
↳ No, what, not even escape but 'disappeared' lol.
↳ Ah, finally exterminated! Did you get EXP?
↳ Author: No; You guys don't believe anything.
↳ Would you believe it if you were us?]
[↳ Where is there a concept of disappearing or not for an Anomaly?
↳ That's originally something like an urban legend fundamentally, so it's a concept that keeps circulating in weird places.
↳ If you're judging like that just because the route you were entering right in front of your eyes disappeared, that's truly a misjudgment.
↳ Author: Why act like that to me; I also just heard it by chance.
↳ SafeToday: Are you sure?
↳ Author: Yep yep yep yep yep.
↳ SafeToday: Where is the Anomaly that disappeared?]
[↳ Author: Daycare.
↳ ??
↳ ????
↳ Don't BS seriously.
↳ Isn't that where that weird troll was in earlier?
↳ Ah, right?
↳ If it disappears like that, what happens to him?
↳ What do you mean what happens, this time he's really dead.]
[↳ Fact: Originally it was a difficulty with no dreams or hopes, but this time a nail was just driven into the coffin.
↳ Fr lol originally there was no answer anyway.
↳ He sparkled for a bit saying Awakening or whatever, then really became a star shiver.
↳ Hey hey hey.
↳ But seriously, if the entrance closes like that with just one F-Rank life, isn't it rather good?
↳ Hey you crazy bastard lol.
↳ Just listening to the words, looks like that Ghost-bro earlier sacrificed himself and barely closed it ah lol.]
"...."
User name SafeToday, real name Shin Hae-in, was silently looking at the information circulating within the gallery.
"Hae-in! What are you doing there?!"
"...Ah."
Shin Hae-in, looking at her team member who had approached before she knew it, opened her mouth.
"I think information has been leaked."
"Information?! That stuff earlier?!"
"Yeah."
"No! It hasn't even been that long since we saw it properly!"
The owner of the green bobbed hair, Yoo Ha-eun, stomped on the innocent ground several times as if frustrated.
"Anyway, those guys called Ghost-bros or whatever, I told you they're super gloomy!"
"There are many people doing it, so it can't be helped."
Shin Hae-in, having said that, turned her gaze to look at the scene of the incident.
Originally, at the point she arrived, the role of protecting and taking over agents who succeeded in escaping from the Anomaly should have been performed.
"You know, I've really seen all sorts of situations while doing this job, but this is the first time for a case like this?"
Yoo Ha-eun, who turned her head following Shin Hae-in's gaze, continued.
"I've never seen or heard of it disappearing like this. What on earth is it?"
Their gazes headed to the empty—huge vacant lot.
Originally, an abandoned building, scorched black, should have been located here.
Daycare.
A spatial Anomaly that attracts scapegoats with intervals of a week at the shortest, to several months or years at the longest.
Thanks to having already secured escape routes in abundance, it was a place where exploration operations were continuing under the strict control of the Administration Bureau.
But right now.
The Anomaly that was under the Administration Bureau's control disappeared entirely.
With the exploration and civilian entry prevention operation conducted by deploying 9 agents as the last.
Along with the deployed agents, it disappeared from the spot entirely.
"Did it really disappear?"
"The Daycare had been located here continuously for a long time. However, if there is another entry method."
If luck is bad, civilians might enter into the Daycare from somewhere again and lose their precious lives.
"It became troublesome. The higher-ups are also nagging a lot right now."
"....."
Thanks to that, the Administration Bureau was currently in an uproar.
It held the meaning that it was an unprecedented incident to that extent.
"Hae-in, that user you mentioned before. Didn't you say that person also entered the Daycare just a while ago?"
"Yeah."
"Then, he must have been included in those nine people just now."
"...."
"...Perhaps, were you close?"
"No. I just had personal interest."
"Is that so...?"
However, now he couldn't return.
'In the end... we won't even know who he was.'
A user who blossomed unusual abilities, becoming free from rules within the Anomaly and not receiving attacks from entities either.
Regarding that user's identity, now it became unknown forever.
.. ... ....
"U-eh?"
Just in time.
Inside the Daycare facility which had disappeared from the world of humans, a small existence barely regained consciousness and woke up.
"Ugh, ah..."
In the headache making my head throb, I barely regain consciousness.
I didn't feel very good. Because I had a very, very bad dream...
I suddenly became an incredibly cute girl inside an Anomaly called Daycare, and then entities inside the Daycare turned favorable toward me, and I experienced situations like a dreamland one after another.
"...Heh."
So, as my thoughts reached there—
I had no choice but to slowly open my eyes while spilling a foolish laugh snicker.
"....?"
There was an unfamiliar ceiling.
No, actually it was a ceiling I knew.
"Ah."
I sat up abruptly and looked around.
A very, very familiar scene.
It was correct—that space where I was running diligently to live barefoot just a moment ago.
Correct? It shouldn't be correct...?
"Ung-ae."
At the baby crying sound suddenly heard, I turned my head with a bewildered mind, and saw a 'Crying Child' with skin devoid of a single drop of blood.
"Ung-ae-ya!"
It was correct, that entity I used to carry in my arms!
That familiar build, the comfort that settles chak when hugged in arms.
"It's not a dream?!"
"Ung-ae."
"Then what is this?! Wh, What do I do?!"
「▶ You who just regained consciousness seem to be quite confused. Since you woke up, how about going to greet the landlord first?」
"G, Greeting...?"
Hah.
Then, like a lie, that series of nonsensical incidents I just experienced began to flash through my head.
Bang, the agent who ended his life in front of my eyes, and the figure of the Daycare Director I faced—
Even the status window with nonsensical content I saw right before losing consciousness.
"S, Status Window!"
Then, a translucent window starts to be visible in front of my eyes.
「Name: Little Lamb
- Title: Graduate of Sunshine Daycare」
"....!"
The title changed, really.
Due to the quest completion reward received by delivering the 'flower crown' to the Daycare Director at the end, it had changed from Lowest-Ranking Prey to a title with a meaningful name.
「Title: Graduate of Sunshine Daycare
▶ You who possess this title are no longer an intruder of Sunshine Daycare. Members of Sunshine Daycare are always ready to become your family and allies.」
"Ah?"
Family, can become allies? What does that mean?
"Ung-ae."
While hugging back the Crying Child coming into my arms, for now I stood up from the spot.
"Heave-ho."
And behind that, I slowly looked around the hallways in each direction dividing into three from the entrance lobby where I had fainted last.
'Something.'
Should I say the atmosphere changed...?
It no longer looked like such a terrible place where it wouldn't be strange to lose one's life at any moment.
Should I say it has settled much more calmly than then.
As if dreaming a good dream, the scene inside the Daycare felt warmer and more comfortable.
"No, it really became a new building...?"
Where did the broken windows, the hallway with scattered debris, and the broken toys lying around go?
It had transformed into the appearance of a neat building interior that one would really see in reality.
Just what is this...
With bewildered emotions, I couldn't easily take a step.
"I, what about me...?"
Then what happens to me who failed to escape at the very end?
Clearly, it's fortunate that the atmosphere of the Daycare building became peaceful, but.
It's really fortunate that I don't seem to have to worry about my life right now, but...!
'I, I have a place to return to?'
Somehow, I missed the slightly dirtier and cheaper original Earth more than the warmed Daycare.
Ugh, I want to take a warm shower and dive onto my bed.
I missed the scenery of the dorm where I usually stayed.
Since it was a place supported by the Administration Bureau, I was living while receiving benefits at a nonsensical price!
"No, that's not what's important."
In conclusion, can I get out of here?
Still holding the Crying Child in my arms, I slowly approached and stood at the 'exit door' of the Daycare.
Rattle.
Holding the handle and pulling with a hopeful heart, as expected, the door didn't budge.
Pushing it just in case, this too doesn't move.
"I."
I'm trapped, here?
"Th, That I don't want."
An anxious heart surges up with a thud.
At this rate, what if I live here forever?
My life outside...?! Am I going to live here in this form forever...?
"Sniff."
A distant yet despairing aura weighed heavily on my chest.
"Ah... Ga, Gallery."
However, I lifted my phone with the feeling of grasping the last straw.
Although the signal frequency in the phone is off, I could still access inside the gallery tab.
It was thanks to a very peculiar ability capable of partially transcending time and space permeating inside the gallery.
Tap tap tap.
As I tapped the phone tok tok with my fingers that had become small, the Crying Child, losing interest, crawled eong-geum eong-geum somewhere.
[You do not have permission to access.]
[Reason: Deceased]
"...Uh?"
I can't enter the gallery.
Even pressing the back button and trying to enter again, I was bounced out with the same reason.
"Uh-uh-uh-uh-uh?!"
Clearly I typed the ID correctly?! It, It's my account correctly...?!
As a result of analyzing the situation diligently with a flustered head, one conclusion was derived.
"I, I'm fucked."
Can't enter the gallery, the door is locked rattle rattle and won't move...!
'Do I really have to live here...?'
Ghost-bros to save me, really urgent. Really...
"...."
My head goes blank for a moment.
Suddenly, the information of the status window that flashed by before losing consciousness came to mind.
「Anomaly, 'Sunshine Daycare' is deactivated.」
"...Deactivated."
Did that, mean that?
"I, What about me?"
I haven't gone out from here yet? I couldn't escape...?
Flomp!
"...Hiiing."
Lying down on the floor, I had no choice but to leave my body to the onrushing powerlessness.
Looking blankly at the shape of the ceiling, body trembling momentarily as anxiety surged, then soon feeling calm for some unknown reason, I sat up again.
"F, For now since it seems safe..."
The Director who threatened me disappeared somewhere after receiving the flower crown, and the facilities inside the Daycare have become a new building as if having received new interior design.
"Mi, Might be okay..."
The instinct of capitalism still remaining in my heart raised its head slowly.
Seems much better than the house I lived in...? Even if I work for ten years at the Administration Bureau, I don't think I can live in a house of this level...!
"....."
I moved my body as instinct led for now.
Originally in the Daycare, structures of various rooms like the Audio-Visual Room, Cafeteria, Shower Room, and others were arranged.
Then does it mean those structures have all changed neatly like this?
"...Gulp."
The emotion of exploring an unknown territory knocked thump thump on my chest.
"Ju, Just a little taste...?"
「▶ You seem to have become a little smarter than before due to active thinking. How about rolling your head a little harder?」
"Ge, Get lost!"
Eventually, after standing up huffing, I began to explore the newly changed Daycare interior again.
「A Quest has arrived.」
**「▶ Try using the Cafeteria (Incomplete)
▶ Try using the Bathroom (Incomplete)
▶ Try using the Bedroom (Incomplete)
▶ Try using the Wardrobe (Incomplete)
▶ Visit the Director's Office (Incomplete)」**
"Uh-uh...!"
Around the time I was passing the hallway like that, a window floated up in a corner of my vision.
It was quest content blatantly urging me to try using various facilities.
「▶ A special gift seems to be waiting in the Director's Office. Visit it last after using other facilities first.」
"What."
Special gift?
...Gulp.
Once again, saliva went down my throat.