Chapter 138

“What do you mean, we cannot get out!”

Anger mixed into the Director’s voice again.

“We found the core, but it could not be destroyed by ordinary methods.”

“So? So what are you going to do?”

“I think we must watch the situation for now.”

“Is that an answer right now? What are you going to accomplish by just watching without any countermeasures!”

Director Go Hong-sang’s brief obedience had been due to hope with conditions attached.

But when the only escape route was blocked, Director Go immediately began flying into a rage.

“What exactly are you capable of doing!”

“I apologize. If you wait, I will devise a method.”

At the Director’s sharp criticism, Kwon Mu-seop only lowered his head.

When the Director grew so unable to overcome his own anger that he seemed on the verge of collapse, the Deputy Director took the Director and moved upstairs.

Kwon Mu-seop, who had endured one round of humiliation, said nothing.

He merely settled down in front of the stairwell’s metal door.

Leaving the door open, he began watching the continuously moving scenery of B1.

As if trying to somehow create a countermeasure that did not exist.

Another hour passed in that state.

But we still had not found an answer.

---

In the suffocating silence, I felt pressure in my own way.

I have to find a method.

I have to read 「Crow」’s intent and escape from here.

Since this happened through me as the medium, I have to find the clue.

But is it really right to trust 「Crow」 this blindly?

For this attempt to be valid, 「Crow」 has to be a question-setter who gives us only rational problems.

But it did not feel that way to me at all.

Until now, 「Crow」 had merely driven me to the edge of a cliff.

The fact that I survived there had been the product of my struggling and chance.

Perhaps even that had been 「Crow」’s intent.

However, for that to be true, it had to be at least one of two things.

Either 「Crow」 knew my thoughts better than I did.

Or 「Crow」 was controlling me without even my knowledge.

And when my thoughts reached that far, certain words unfailingly came to mind.

“Because I made you.”

I bit down on my molars without a sound.

If this proposition is true.

What am I supposed to do now?

If I throw myself into that core, will 「Crow」, which made me, reveal itself?

“Do-un.”

“……!”

Startled by the voice calling me, I reflexively raised my head.

Then Kwon Mu-seop instead asked me with startled eyes,

“Are you all right?”

“Yes?”

“Your face has gone white.”

At Kwon Mu-seop’s words, I wiped my face with my hand.

I could not check my complexion with that, but I could tell my fingertips were as cold as a glass window in midwinter.

“I am all right.”

“If there is something wrong, tell me honestly. Do not hide it or push yourself.”

Kwon Mu-seop said this while examining my condition.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop, however, looked strangely fine instead.

I could not tell whether he was truly fine, or merely trying hard to act that way.

Because I could not know which, I also pretended to be calm to an appropriate degree.

“I really am fine. I think I am just a little tired.”

“Yes, moon exploration is hard by nature.”

“Moon exploration?”

“Ah, do people not use this phrase these days? Exploration of an unexplored Special Zone. We called it that because it felt like being dropped on the moon.”

Exploration of an unexplored Special Zone.

I had heard only rumors of it.

The exploration method from the old days, when convicts could not be used.

In the early days, the Bureau had possessed an ethical framework roughly similar to other public institutions.

Moreover, at the time, there had not even been criminals inside Special Zones.

So back then, they said agents packed food as if climbing the Himalayas and carried out explorations by blindly camping out in Special Zones.

And if they met citizens along the way, they took those citizens with them too.

It was an exploration method possible only in an era when they did not know how frightening contamination was.

And Manager Kwon Mu-seop was a person who had survived from those days until now.

I respected Manager Kwon Mu-seop’s career.

But unfortunately, the current situation was more brutal than that old “moon exploration.”

This was not an unexplored Special Zone, but an unopened Special Zone in its nascent phase.

It was an isolated place where we did not even know if an escape existed, and we only had enough food to barely last a day.

Could we avoid starvation or contamination until the nascent phase ended and a rescue team came?

So we had to find a way out somehow, but…….

I did not know.

Just thinking about 「Crow」 tangled my head.

Furthermore, I was not a creator but an editor, and I was clumsy at building something from a void this perfect.

While I swallowed bitter water with the feeling of being trapped in a maze, Kwon Mu-seop suddenly said,

“Do-un, you do not have to take responsibility alone.”

“Yes?”

“It would be another matter if you were isolated alone, but right now, you do not need to solve everything by yourself. So relax your shoulders a little.”

Surprised by the unexpected words, I looked at Kwon Mu-seop.

Then Kwon Mu-seop suddenly murmured gloomily,

“Though I suppose it is not trustworthy when a superior shattered down to the level of crumbs says something like this…….”

“No, that is not.”

“I am sorry for being inadequate. But do not spread rumors when we get out…….”

Kwon Mu-seop was self-deprecating in a way that sounded half joke and half serious.

Whichever it was, I was quite flustered and hurriedly denied it.

“I did not think you were not trustworthy. It is only…….”

“Only?”

“I felt something like the sorrow of a breadwinner…….”

“Puhah.”

Kwon Mu-seop burst into laughter at the vocabulary I had chosen with difficulty.

Perhaps it seemed absurd for a person whose complexion was seriously pale to make such a quip.

As if it was still funny even after thinking about it again, Kwon Mu-seop chuckled a few more times.

I watched him, then lowered my voice and asked,

“Manager, do you think we can escape from here?”

“I do not know the result either.”

“…….”

“Do not look at me right away like you are looking at an irresponsible bastard.”

At Kwon Mu-seop’s remark, I lowered my gaze.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop laughed quietly again, then continued speaking leisurely.

“How many things in this world have certain results? The only place where every action is followed by a reward is in a game. Reality is 70% luck and 30% spirit. So first, you fill up the 30%, then pray.”

At Kwon Mu-seop’s calm voice, I was inwardly flustered.

Unexpectedly, Manager Kwon Mu-seop did not blindly believe in 「Crow」.

Rather, he was closer to being grateful for all possibilities.

When I realized that misunderstanding, I felt a strange sense of liberation.

So I chewed over Kwon Mu-seop’s words, then exhaled the breath I had been swallowing full.

“Whew…….”

As Manager had said, my shoulders must have been tense.

After breathing out, I felt much more comfortable inside.

Yes, let us put that bastard 「Crow」 aside for now and focus on the phenomenon.

There is no need to believe blindly.

Let us keep an appropriate distance and look for fragments of possibility.

First, there was something unexpected about the Special Zone in its nascent phase.

I had thought Type 1 Special Zones only possessed memories of war.

So I had imagined on my own that, like a volcano erupting, the horrific memories buried in this space tore through the strata and came out as a Special Zone.

But unexpectedly, this space possessed ordinary daily life as well.

Then what exactly is it?

Do Type 1 Special Zones possess all memories equally, but extract only memories of war among them and open?

Moreover, the number 13 that 「Crow」 kept showing.

Was this merely coincidence?

If 「Crow」 knew about me, then it would also know that I would think of Author Na Bit when I saw that number.

If there was some clue here…….

Something immediately came to mind.

“Manager, do you perhaps know the concept of the ‘Akashic Records’?”

Author Na Bit’s new work.

The Akashic Records, its main subject matter.

“What is that?”

“It is an occult concept of a library where all information is stored.”

Kwon Mu-seop showed interest in my words.

“If text is in a person, it is memory, but if it is moved to a library, it becomes information. So in the Akashic Records, all information in the world and memories of every moment are stored. But does that setting not seem similar to the situation visible outside?”

“So?”

“So…….”

I tried to continue, then stopped when I saw Kwon Mu-seop’s face.

Kwon Mu-seop was looking at me and smiling. With a rather pleased expression.

“It seems we are thinking along similar lines. I was actually going to call you over to talk about that.”

“Yes?”

When I opened my eyes wide, Kwon Mu-seop nodded as if pleased.

I also gave a hollow laugh at the strange sense of kinship, then spoke seriously again.

“There is something to confirm before that.”

“I have already confirmed it.”

“Could it be that the reason you were continuing to look outside the door…….”

When I asked back half in doubt, Kwon Mu-seop nodded again.

And at that sight, I felt a sense of déjà vu.

That was right.

I already had a record of distrusting Manager Kwon Mu-seop and then being hit in the back of the head once.

“So I am thinking of trying it immediately, but before that, there is an issue to resolve.”

As I felt a subtle sense of betrayal, Kwon Mu-seop gestured with his eyes toward the upper floor of the stairs.

It was where the Director and Deputy Director were.

“To be honest, I think this is a one-of-a-kind opportunity.”

“…….”

……I had forgotten this too.

Right, Manager Kwon Mu-seop was a serpent type pretending to be the neighborhood punching bag.

To be fooled despite knowing that.

I had needlessly pitied Manager Kwon for being chewed out by the Director.

“So I thought about it a bit, and since you shouldered the gun barrel earlier, I would like you to divide the roles.”

Kwon Mu-seop lowered his voice and spoke to me.

Ah, as expected.

This person was calculating the opening for the kill while taking insults…….

After hearing Kwon Mu-seop’s proposal to the end, I said with a worried face,

“But Manager, I am not good at defying superiors.”

At my honest confession, Kwon Mu-seop looked at me for a moment.

Then he gave a broad laugh and replied,

“Do not lie.”

---

“I think we have figured out a way to escape from here.”

At my words, Deputy Director Kim Seon-ung showed interest.

On the other hand, Director Go Hong-sang had a suspicious face.

As if refusing to swing between joy and sorrow after having already been deceived once.

Even though we were in a situation where we had to escape together, he was still maintaining the attitude of receiving reports and giving approvals.

Thinking that if that was a skill, then it was certainly a skill, I continued speaking.

“However, before we move, I would like to negotiate with the Director.”

At the word negotiate, Director Go looked at me as if I were a madman.

I was of the belief that elders should be treated as elders.

So I really was not used to going up against a superior.

But if necessary, there was no choice but to do it.

“As a condition for getting you safely out of here, I would like you to grant permission for the 「Railway Station」 special operation.”