Chapter 114

“Cha Si-eon is putting team members who made mistakes during an Intensive Suppression Week mission in line.”

Correct.

“Cha Si-eon is especially focusing on putting Kwak Jae-gyeom, who is laughing foolishly without coming to his senses, in line.”

Correct.

“Cha Si-eon finishes putting his team members in line and goes to Kwon Mu-seop, only to be put in line in reverse…….”

Correct.

With that, I safely passed through the third memory as well.

“Huh…….”

Why am I getting all of these right?

Could I perhaps be a psychic?

……Of course not.

This was not anything like psychic power. It was closer to simply knowing.

I knew far more about Cha Si-eon than I had thought.

So by seeing the memories here, I could roughly predict the situation.

……Still, to get this much right.

No, there was no need to regard this as unpleasant.

The reason I was guessing all of Cha Si-eon’s memories correctly was simply that there were many hints.

First of all, Cha Si-eon’s behavior patterns were simple.

Like a mid-level manager, he was busy between his superiors and subordinates, and his range of activity was limited to either the Bureau or Special Zones.

On top of that, I had a fairly detailed understanding of the missions Cha Si-eon had carried out.

You know how, even in the same report, you feel glad when a familiar name appears?

When I looked at Bureau manuals or exploration logs too, if Cha Si-eon or Kwon Mu-seop’s name appeared, I would look a little more closely.

The result of this background knowledge combining with an editor’s plausibility-matching was this.

So if it was natural, then it was natural.

Moreover, the fact that Cha Si-eon’s memories were exceptionally clean also played a part.

Unlike my memories, Cha Si-eon’s memories had complete forms from the start.

So there was a lot of information I could obtain from those scenes.

What if Cha Si-eon’s memories had been clumped together as masses of errors like the memories inside my 「Life Chronicle」?

Guessing them like this would have been completely impossible.

It was fortunate in various ways, but I did not know what this difference meant.

Did it mean Cha Si-eon’s inner world was far more stable than mine?

……Mm, surely not.

I am a worker in the literary world.

A person who handles threads of text, so my mental world is bound to be complex.

On the other hand, Cha Si-eon is a public servant.

So he probably has a somewhat cleaner circuit.

That must be it, yes.

Thinking that with effort, I opened the door that had appeared in empty space.

When I crossed through that passage, the next memory unfolded.

And my mental victory was immediately denied.

Hzzzt— hzzzzzt—!

Loud static.

Graphic errors shaking madly in every direction.

“……!”

For an instant, I thought I had moved back into my own 「Life Chronicle」.

But I had not.

The feeling that I already knew everything, the one I had felt in my 「Life Chronicle」, was not here.

This was not my memory.

Hzzzt—! Hzzzzzt—!

The space shook violently without even giving me time to look properly.

I looked around in a hurry, then saw the crackling noise flicker briefly.

For a moment, a landscape covered in thick fog appeared.

Fog? If fog was spread that thickly, was it winter?

No, if this was such a chaotic memory, there was a high chance it was not reality.

This was probably inside a Special Zone.

There were 4 Special Zones covered in thick fog.

Among them, the Special Zone Cha Si-eon had entered after last year was…….

“This is 「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」.”

Along with my words, the noise around me cleared away.

Instead, white, dense fog filled my surroundings.

A great bridge sunk deeply in thick fog, its end invisible.

This was the Type 1 Special Zone, 「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」.

And within that fog, something still in the form of noise, shaking chaotically.

“「Alpha」 and 「Beta」 attacked the Bureau’s explorers.”

I recited the contents of the report I had read exactly as it was.

Hzzzt—!

At that moment, the noise cleared, and the terrible scene was revealed.

Blood was flowing beneath the white fog.

Wet and thick.

And standing above it were 「Alpha」 and 「Beta」, covered in blood.

Had they devoured them as 「Delta」 had bitten into the back of my neck?

Their jaws and chests were slick with blood that had not yet dried.

At that bloody sight, I stepped back.

Then I realized something was standing right behind me.

“……Team Leader Cha Si-eon.”

Along with my call, Team Leader Cha Si-eon and Response Team 3 also revealed themselves.

Cha Si-eon was watching.

Watching a monster that looked exactly like him annihilate an exploration team.

Because of the helmet and mask, Cha Si-eon’s face could not be seen.

But I felt as if I knew.

The anguish he must have felt.

“……「Alpha」 and 「Beta」 fled, and Response Team 3 recovered 8 damaged bodies.”

The stopped memory began to move.

「Alpha」 and 「Beta」 fled the moment they recognized the difference in firepower.

Response Team 3 found them in the fog.

The Bureau’s fallen personnel, torn and eaten horribly by those beasts.

Hzzzt— hzzzt—!

The world shook again.

Within that twisting space, Cha Si-eon moved.

And without showing anything, he began to clear the scene.

I turned my eyes away for a moment so as not to see it.

---

The memories whose forms were severely broken.

That meant they were memories that were far from intact.

In other words, the form of a memory was not simply an individual difference, but was affected by the quality of the memory.

So I felt a little, no, considerable respect for Cha Si-eon.

After 「Great Bridge Sunk in Fog」, I broke through 2 more memories.

All of them were memories inside Special Zones, full of noise.

So I came to agree again with Cha Si-eon’s first claim.

That it would be easier to go through my memories than through his.

Cha Si-eon’s memories were, objectively from my standpoint and subjectively from Cha Si-eon’s, nothing if not horrible.

Even so, the Cha Si-eon inside them was not greatly shaken.

He simply did what he had to do in silence.

So it felt as if I might come to respect Cha Si-eon a little…….

But I would probably forget all of this too once I left 「Library」.

Creak—

When the memory reconstruction ended, a door appeared in empty space.

I opened that door to move on to the next memory.

It was then.

WHOOOSH—!

The moment I opened the door, a strong wind pushed out through the crack.

As if a typhoon was raging beyond that door.

“……!”

Startled by the gale, I tried to close the door again.

Rrrrrrk—!

But the ground beneath my feet began shaking again too.

Noise also burst wildly here and there throughout the space.

What is this? 「Memory Flood」?

I hurriedly stretched out my arm against the strong wind trying to sweep my body away.

Then I closed the door again with all my strength.

But as if that effort were meaningless, the very space where I was standing began to disassemble.

What the hell, is it really 「Memory Flood」?

Does this always happen this abruptly?

“Ugh……!”

Everything around me scattered.

All that remained was the wind raging madly, and the memory fragments scattering along with it.

Unable to overcome that violent storm, I was hurled into empty space again.

Clank—!

But my body stopped abruptly before long.

It was because of the wire tied to my body.

The opposite end of this wire was still fixed in empty air.

……Could it be.

Did 「Flood」 occur on Cha Si-eon’s side?

And its influence crossed over to my side through the door?

WHOOOSH—!

At another surge of wind, my body rose high, then fell back down.

It felt like I was riding a Viking ship, and my frail heart also swelled greatly before shrinking back.

Feeling as if I might die suddenly of a heart attack if this continued, I gritted my teeth and pulled on the wire.

If I let the line extend long like this, I would end up dancing like a kite in empty space.

So to reduce the impact, I moved toward the end of the wire fixed in the air.

“Uuugh……!”

ROOOOAR—!

The gale kept striking so hard it was difficult to breathe.

Hzzzt— hzzzt—!

The noise fluttered wildly.

One memory fragment that had been whirling like a fallen leaf finally grazed my cheek.

“Is he all right, sunbae?”

“I am sorry. I am truly sorry.”

“What do you mean, delete all the photos?”

“Are you telling us not to even remember this person?”

WEE-OOO—!

“That does not make the fact that we stood by disappear.”

“He was no one else. At the very least, we should have tried to save him. Am I wrong?”

“Si-eon.”

“Cha Si-eon.”

“I know. I know how you feel too.”

“Think of it as paying back with this.”

“It is not a gesture of sincerity. It is paying a price.”

“You too. Me too.”

“My calculations were insufficient.”

“There was no manual telling me to protect myself first either.”

WEE-OOO—!

“I want to stop now.”

“Hold out a little longer.”

“No.”

“No.”

“I will kill them all.”

“Dad, please save me.”

WEE-OOO—!

“Uncle, I am sorry.”

“It is all right.”

It is all right.