Chapter 33
Chapter 33
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Translator: MadScientist
Chapter: 33
Chapter Title: Management Bureau Tour & Mystery (1)
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A tense atmosphere hung in the air, as if either side might lunge at the other at any moment.
I narrowed my pupils threateningly, glaring at the Crescent Moon Head.
A tour of the Management Bureau...?
I couldn't trust it one bit.
They might call it a tour and then jab some weird drug into my neck, or catch me off guard and hit me with some space-compressing technique.
"...Hmm. No interest in going?"
The Crescent Moon Head tilted its head when I didn't respond positively.
"You know that the longer you hold out like this, the more harm it brings to your family, right?"
"......"
"Glare all you want; it won't change anything."
I'd hoped it wouldn't come to this.
"...Is it really just a tour?"
"Yep~. Just a tour. Even I, as Bureau Chief, have a lot to lose if I lie~."
With only a floating crescent moon head where a face should be, I couldn't read its expression.
Was it really just a tour, or some high-level bluff?
"...Fine."
"Great~. Glad we could talk it out!"
In the end, I chose to go along quietly.
If it had just been me facing it alone, I might've run or fought, but now there were people I had to protect.
"Lua...!"
As I started toward it, my sister suddenly grabbed my shoulder to stop me.
"Sis, I'll be okay. It's just a quick tour, they said."
I gently guided her hand from my shoulder to my cheek to reassure her.
"I'm just popping out for a bit, so don't worry~. I have no intention of making my Thousand-Year Rock sad?"
The Crescent Moon Head giggled and waved its hand, opening a portal to the Management Bureau.
Even as a sight defying common sense unfolded before my eyes, I couldn't marvel at it.
Beyond the portal was... the Management Bureau headquarters, the very place I'd been avoiding like the plague.
"Shall we go in, little dragon?"
"...Hmph."
Not wanting to engage with it, I clamped my mouth shut and strode into the Management Bureau.
"I'll go too!"
"Sorry, granddaughter... Only authorized personnel can go there... ."
Mira Sis tried to stay by my side, but Grandfather blocked the way and shook his head.
"What if something happens to Lua...?! Please, let me go with her!"
"She'll be fine... Even though he looks lighthearted, the Bureau Chief is not one to lie."
Grandfather blocked Mira Sis with a helpless expression and watched me cross through the portal with complicated eyes.
With that, the portal closed, and I arrived in the middle of the Management Bureau lobby.
"This is where you'd normally gasp in awe~? Isn't it amazing? Isn't it!?"
Aerial drones zipping through the air without propellers, walls that glowed on their own to adjust the lobby's lighting.
And the near-futuristic interior with exposed silver steel framework.
As the Crescent Moon Head said, the Management Bureau was truly a hub of advanced science.
Only now did I truly feel how humanity had advanced from 2025 to 2071.
"This is the Management Bureau lobby~!"
"......"
"Hmm... Not impressed? Want a welcome drink?"
"Get lost."
"Gasp! No swearing inside the premises!"
I held back from causing a scene in the Management Bureau, rife with unknown threats, and sniped back politely instead. Knowing that, the Crescent Moon Head giggled even more teasingly.
"Anyway, this is the Management Bureau headquarters, the pinnacle of South Korea's scientific prowess!! Anyway, let's move~! Where to first?"
"......Somewhere less dangerous."
"Less dangerous? Analysis Division it is."
The Crescent Moon Head pulled over a floating hologram monitor and started fiddling with it.
"What about the higher-ups ordering you to capture me...?"
When I asked if it was okay to hang out peacefully despite orders from above to grab me, it casually patted my head.
"Gotta go there eventually. If I don't, my position's at risk."
"......Your position's not just at risk—may it go bankrupt and leave you penniless on the streets."
"Ouch... But I built this place, so it's not that easy~."
"...Grrr."
As anger boiled over from the head-patting, I growled, and only then did it pull its hand away and start walking.
"Alert protocol's active, so stay at least five meters away, dragon kid?"
The screen doors in the lobby parted, and a square platform glided over on floor rails.
As soon as I stepped on, it entered an endless tunnel.
"It's a long way, so sit if you're tired."
"...No thanks."
"Okay? Then I'll sit~."
Thud. In a most un-Bureau-Chief-like display of dignity, it plopped down on the platform floor.
A bizarre sight with a crescent moon head bobbing around with a halo instead of hair... .
"......What the hell are you, really."
Curiosity about its true nature made me ask coldly.
"Me? Human."
"......"
It looked at me and gave the obvious answer.
"Do I look different to you?"
"......"
"Makes sense. It's understandable. ...No, it has to be that way."
It spouted some nonsense on its own, then fiddled with the MooD:iN cheer stick hanging from its shoulder strap.
"A.ny.way! Wasn't today's concert amazing? Especially Arisa-chan.... Agh?!"
Whoosh—!! It hadn't secured the strap properly, and the cheer stick flew off into the tunnel depths.
"My, my cheer stick!!!!"
It called out desperately after the flying stick with a despairing expression.
"Wahhh.... Limited edition, 367,000 won... ."
The Crescent Moon Head's actions were more human than anyone's.
But that's exactly why it felt less human.
A strange sense of kinship... no, an unpleasant familiarity kept emanating from it.
The kind of horrific sensation that made me wonder if we'd been connected in the past.
Whirr—. The platform, faster than a car, gradually slowed to a stop.
"...This is the Analysis Division... ."
Rubbing its sadly empty shoulder where the cheer stick had been, it stepped off and placed its hand on the authenticator by the massive blast door blocking the Analysis Division entrance.
"——Level 0 clearance confirmed. Door opening. Please step back behind the yellow line."
Hiss—. Massive steel bolts meshed organically, and the blast door began to open.
"Let's go in."
The door's massive, majestic movement stirred my inner sense of adventure.
Clank clank—. The peculiar echo of footsteps on the metal floor resounded at the sector entrance for a moment.
"Let me out! I said let me out!!"
Someone trapped in a triple-reinforced glass cube pounded on the glass, pleading.
...But now way too small.
"Please make me big again!! I'm not meant to live in a place like this! I'm the leader of the Arhat Nirvana Cult!!"
Like a childhood war figurine toy, the cult leader—smaller than a finger— was trapped in the glass cube, undergoing analysis.
"As you can see, that's the Arhat Nirvana Cult leader."
"......"
"He tried using some weird power when we were about to shove him into the analyzer, so we just shrank him."
"Let me out!!! Please!!!"
The Crescent Moon Head didn't even glance at the leader with any interest and slowly walked on.
"You...! You!! Catastrophe Dragon...!!!"
The peanut-sized leader recognized me and screamed wildly, but when the Crescent Moon Head hit the mute button on the machine, it went silent.
"Analysis is almost done, so we'll hand him over to the Equipment Division soon. Then they'll use the analysis data to... ."
"...Turn him into a weapon."
"Golden answer! Applause~!"
Clap clap clap—! When I quietly answered what I'd already heard from Grandpa, it cheered.
"Anyway, this boring place is the Analysis Division."
The vast sector was filled with interlocking complex machinery emitting loud mechanical noises.
"Dragon student? Questions welcome!"
"...Why's there no one here?"
"That's because! AI handles all the computations!"
"A...I...?"
A few more steps into the sector, and the narrow space suddenly opened into a cavern of incomprehensible vastness.
"........."
Beyond the railing blocking the cliff, thousands... no, tens of thousands of machines were arrayed.
"The pinnacle of human technology! Quantum computers!"
"Quantum computers... ."
"Ugh, boring. Analysis Division tour over!"
Barely time to take in the overwhelming sight before the Crescent Moon Head hurried out, dodging the machines.
"No one comes here except maintenance from the Maintenance Division now and then. Where next, dragon guest?"
"......"
"No preference? I'll pick! Combat Division next!"
We passed the sector's blast door and settled back on the tunnel platform.
...Combat Division.
I knew Grandpa was the Combat Room Manager there.
The place where people directly fought anomalies, so I ramped up my tension.
"No need to tense up. The Combat Division folks are nice, just a few with loose screws."
"...Thanks a bunch."
Loose screws? Its explanation only heightened my tension more.
Come to think of it, it'd be weirder if people fighting unfathomable beings were sane.
About a few kilometers into the tunnel, we reached a sector blocked not by a blast door but a screen door brimming with human warmth.
"Hum de dum~."
The sorrow over the lost cheer stick was gone; humming happily, the Crescent Moon Head placed its hand on the authenticator.
The same mechanical voice confirmed clearance, and the screen door opened.
——Crash!!
Then, a man flew in from afar, smashing into the wall.
"Ugh... ."
He got up unscathed from the solid wall.
"Damn, that hurts... ."
Popping his dislocated shoulder back in casually, he muttered curses for a moment.
"Hi~."
"...?!! Bureau Chief!! Loyalty!"
"Yeah, yeah. At ease."
Spotting me and the Crescent Moon Head beside it, he snapped to salute instantly.
"What're you fighting over now. Huh~? Regs say no fighting between Combat Division members unless training."
"It was bu-meok... ."
"Huh? Bu-meok? Why bring up sweet-and-sour pork?"
"That bitch poured sauce on the sweet-and-sour pork I got for late-night snacks!!!"
The man pointed accusingly across the way, venting his grievance.
"I... I just... thought it'd be easier to eat... ."
Shifting my gaze, I saw a woman whose face was half-hidden by her hair like a virgin ghost, trembling and holding the sauced-up sweet-and-sour pork bowl.
The Crescent Moon Head glanced at her, then back at the man.
"And you fought over that?"
"Didn't fight... I lunged and got bounced back!"
"Write an incident report and send it up."
"...Yes, sir!!!!"
He saluted as if writing the report was no big deal, then eyed me wide-eyed.
"Don't touch her; I brought her."
"Yes, sir!! Sorry!"
The light atmosphere nearly turned threatening, but the Crescent Moon Head handled him deftly.
"Hii... Hiiik! Stay away...!!"
As the man turned back, the woman fled, trembling, clutching the sweet-and-sour pork bowl.
"......"
These were the Management Bureau's Combat Division people?
"Training room deeper in; wanna see?"
"...No."
"Okay! Combat Division done; now to the main event, Containment Division!"
No more business here, so it headed out of the sector.
"What're you doing? Coming?"
Containment Division? Was it really planning to lock me up?
"Worried we'll contain you?"
"......"
"Relax. No containment. Just sit facing the wall for twenty minutes."
"...That's what containment is."
"You could break out if we really locked you up, right?"
Seeming to account for my escape potential, it even bragged first.
"Sorry, but we have no intention of locking you up. Or rather, we couldn't even if we wanted to."
"...Who knows if that's a lie."
"Not a lie. The Management Bureau wasn't founded to contain anomalies. Our main job is analyzing them, dismantling, turning into weapons to take down other anomalies."
It hopped on the platform and extended a hand to me.
"Containment Division's just for temporarily holding them pre-analysis."
"...If you're thinking of turning me into a weapon, I'll smash this place right now. Got it?"
"No such plans~. Just like getting an ID made."
I haughtily swatted the offered hand and boarded the platform.
Whirr—!
Containment seemed farther; the platform sped through the tunnel several times faster.
"———Warning. Biological anomaly hazard."
The bright tunnel turned into a hellish red-lit warning zone.
"Don't worry, it's not because of you; goes off every time someone enters."
I suspected the security system detected me, but nope.
"Super tense vibe here, so stick close?"
No sooner had the Crescent Moon Head spoken than the platform slowed.
"Alright, this is the Management Bureau's core... well, mid-tier core: Containment Division!"