Chapter 144

■ This Week’s To-Do List

1. Write 「Hotel」 exploration report

2. 「Hotel」 post-exploration meeting

3. 「Railway Station」 operation meeting

4. Health checkup

5. Designate legal representative

6. Write will, organize belongings

7. Na Bit

---

“Your contamination level is normal this time too.”

Kim U-in said today as well, rattling the candy in his mouth.

At those orange-scented words, I swept a hand over my chest.

“That is a relief.”

“It really is. This is a real blessing too. Some people are fine even after several days, while some get contaminated after only one or two hours. Individual differences are really huge, but fortunately, Do-un, you seem to have a good immunity.”

At Kim U-in’s words, I nodded.

Contamination inside Special Zones is a kind of disaster.

Some people luckily avoid contamination even after doing actions that guarantee contamination, while others become contaminated out of nowhere despite having been careful.

Fortunately, I seemed to be the former.

Contamination values were checked through a brainwave test and a blood test.

Once contamination began, abnormal brain activity was detected, inflammation markers rose throughout the body, and the red blood cell count exploded.

The Bureau saw this as a sign of bodily deformation.

And there was still no treatment for it.

Aside from quarantining the person until the values fell on their own.

“In any case, you really went through a lot this time. The members were historically strange.”

“Haha…….”

At Kim U-in’s words, I let out a dry laugh.

“Manager went through far more.”

And Kwon Mu-seop’s hardship was still ongoing.

Yesterday, Kwon Mu-seop, Director Go Hong-sang, and I safely escaped from 「Hotel」.

The time we returned to reality was 11 p.m.

We had entered around 2 p.m. that same day, so we had stayed for nearly 9 hours.

Deputy Director Kim Seon-ung, who had escaped earlier than us, had also come out safely and received treatment.

In any case, the result was good, but it seemed the Bureau had once again had its blood dried up by this incident.

The Bureau’s upper leadership had been dragged into a Special Zone one after another, so that was natural.

So Baek Sa-ra said this about the situation.

-Why do you always get caught up in increasingly more horrifying situations?

As if I wanted this…….

In any case, that dizzying situation ended after 9 hours, and as a result, all of us returned alive.

We had also obtained a considerable amount of information from inside.

But there was still a problem that had not been resolved…….

-I cannot permit the 「Railway Station」 matter, so understand that.

That was the blow Director Go delivered to the back of our heads.

It was what Director Go said after rescue, while we were waiting for the brainwave test.

They say the mind one has going into the bathroom is different from the mind one has coming out.

Director Go, after leaving 「Hotel」, quickly recovered his sense of reality.

Not only that, he wanted to deny everything that had happened inside.

It was understandable.

I had not known, but Director Go was someone who identified himself as a “dignified and capable high-ranking public servant” and “an elite of the bureaucratic world with a shining career.”

So having appealed while crying, panicked unsightly, lost emotional control, and snapped at people were all tremendous disgrace he could not accept.

In the end, Director Go shamelessly changed his attitude.

The goodwill he had shown us at the end, to the point that he seemed ready to adopt us as sons, appeared to have been offset by his bad memories, becoming plus-minus zero.

So about 30 minutes after coming outside, Director Go returned to the fastidious appearance he had shown when I first saw him in the Director’s office.

However, Kwon Mu-seop seemed to have known Director Go would come out like this.

Judging by how calmly he fired back without being flustered at all.

-Did you not already permit it?

-I said I would think about it. I did not permit it.

-You made the judgment, and you gave permission. If you block the operation here, it is breach of duty.

-Breach of duty? Watch your words.

-Director, you personally explained the necessity of this operation in detail. Failing to carry it out while knowing that is clearly breach of duty.

-Do you have proof that I said that?

-I do.

-Are you saying you recorded me? Are you threatening me with that right now?

-No, I intend to use this recording as the basis for our actions if a problem arises later.

-What did you say? Manager Kwon, you are the one committing breach of duty. Breach of duty and abuse of authority.

-It will be more advantageous for you too, Director, if the static does not get out.

Unfortunately, my bed was in the middle at that time.

Neatly lying with Mu-seop on my left and Hong-sang on my right, I had to listen to two superiors twelve years apart activate trap cards against each other.

Director Go, greatly displeased, exploding with aged crankiness.

Manager Kwon, unexpectedly boneheaded, as if saying, bark all you like; I am still going.

How did this fight end? Director Go became contaminated.

His brainwave test results showed his contamination values rising dramatically, and Director Go was quarantined.

He ended up in a state of unable to leave the Bureau, a state of being trapped in Kwon Mu-seop’s home base.

The Bureau’s help was also absolutely necessary to resolve the status abnormality called contamination.

Ah, what a small-fry villain ending…….

In the end, Director Go changed his stance again, and this chest-shrinkingly petty fight was slowly ending in Kwon Mu-seop’s victory.

“It is not easy to accommodate the Director’s temper.”

“Still, I think the 「Railway Station」 operation will be approved soon.”

“It probably will. Manager Kwon’s stubbornness is no joke either.”

Kim U-in rolled the candy in his mouth as if this was not particularly surprising.

I must really have been here a long time.

I too was not very surprised by this farce.

“Do-un, this is your first time, right? Preparing in advance and entering a danger zone.”

“Ah, yes. Now that I think about it, it is.”

I had been dragged in unprepared many times, but this was certainly my first time personally stepping forward into a dangerous operation.

“The pressure will feel different.”

I suppose it would.

Being pushed off and falling is different from deciding to jump off oneself.

“If you feel like your condition is not good, say so immediately. Do not hide it for no reason. This is not only about you, Do-un. It is common to the other agents too. Now only experienced people are left, so they go in and out like they are taking a stroll, but in the past, there were many new recruits who got nervous before operations and caused accidents.”

“Ah, I saw it on the will form.”

“Right, it should be written there too. No deserting, no fighting, no impulse purchases, no confessions.”

Kim U-in muttered while looking into the distance.

The clouded gaze visible beyond his glasses seemed to say that truly many things had happened.

Yes, all rules are written in blood…….

But among these, are impulse purchases not relatively fine?

A delivery box waiting for you when you return from hard work.

No, that is not it.

That only applies if I return alive. If things go wrong, someone might have to receive and dispose of a dead person’s package.

“Do-un, you wrote your will in advance, right?”

“Yes. I wrote it as soon as I was appointed.”

Though calling it a will was something of an exaggeration; it only said, “Please dispose of my assets this way,” and, “Please keep the funeral simple.”

“Originally, we write one again every time we go out on a dangerous operation. But you kept getting dragged in with no time to prepare, so I suppose you wrote it once and have not done it since.”

That was true.

For me, writing a will had been a rite of passage for Bureau appointment, and after that, I had not even thought about it.

To me, Kim U-in said,

“Take this chance to write one again. As a way of preparing yourself mentally.”

---

To write a will, one must first imagine one’s own death.

And one must also consider all the direct and indirect effects that death will cause.

So the first will I wrote had inevitably been simple.

There would be people saddened by my death, but no one would suffer, take responsibility, or claim rights.

My life was free in that respect.

That was still the same now.

So there was no need to revise anything in the will I had already written, but.

Since my attending physician recommended it, I should try writing it once again.

Then when is the best time to write a will?

Among dawn, when the mind has just awakened; evening, when the day’s work is done; and night, when emotions grow honest.

Writing it at night, revising it in the evening, and reviewing it at dawn seems good.

Right now, it is still daytime.

To write a will, I had to deal with today’s work first.

“I am glad to see you again. Yesterday, I really thought the Bureau was finished…….”

The Head of the Research Division sighed toward Kwon Mu-seop.

Perhaps because he had suffered quite a bit yesterday, his face looked more tired than usual.

At that, Kwon Mu-seop smiled and said,

“In any case, it seems the 「Crow」 side wants us to carry out the 「Railway Station」 operation, does it not?”

Kwon Mu-seop was treating even the Director’s contamination as one of 「Crow」’s tricks.

If that was true, it was a truly insane bastard.

Because it meant it had dragged him into a Special Zone and repeatedly revived him after death in order to contaminate him and plant him inside the Bureau.

At Kwon Mu-seop’s words, the Head of the Research Division nodded and added,

“And the 「Big Cat」 side seems to deeply dislike us entering 「Railway Station」.”

“Yes, 「Alpha」 is not an entity that moves for no reason. Ah, this time, aside from 「Alpha」…….”

Kwon Mu-seop stopped mid-sentence and looked at me.

Then the gazes gathered on me, and the atmosphere somehow turned strange.

For some reason, everyone seemed to fall into a peculiar dilemma.

After a short silence, one researcher spoke up.

“Should we decide on the identification code for Agent Seo’s 「Fake Human」 too?”

Why is that phrased as a question?

Another researcher answered,

“Let us make it 「Otter」.”

“What is that?”

“An otter. Otter.”

The others are 「Alpha」 and 「Delta」, but only mine?

“Should we create a distinguishing mark for Agent Seo as well?”

Wait, is 「Otter」 confirmed?

“Let us have the Field Division judge this.”

During the brief moment when I could not bring myself to speak, the Head of the Research Division told the Field Division to decide, and Cha Si-eon looked at me.

His eyes said, is there really a need?

“If Agent Seo eats well and exercises, the distinguishing mark will appear on its own.”

I am being looked down on terribly again today…….

Whatever exactly the Deputy Director had gone around saying, 「Seo Do-un」 was already being treated as a Type 1 Special Zone’s mistake, an error, a stroke of luck that would never come again.

So they did not seem to feel much need to give it the numbering 「Epsilon」 in place of Jae-gyeom’s 「Fake Human」.

Should I dislike this or be glad……?

For my part, it would be best if that entity never appeared again.

But had any misfortune the Bureau confidently declared would never happen truly never happened……?

“In any case, returning to the main point.”

In the end, you could not even become the main topic, 「Seo Do-un」.

Because of yesterday’s sudden exploration of the nascent-phase 「Hotel」, the Field Division and Research Division had urgently gathered.

However, today’s agenda excluded matters regarding Agent Lee Seop.

That was because they had judged that even discussing it could become a trigger for arbitrary entry into 「Railway Station」.

So today, the meeting was to proceed mainly around the internal situation of the nascent-phase Special Zone.

“You said it seems 「Crow」 was the one who revived the Director…….”

During the meeting, Oh Tae-o abruptly opened his mouth.

“Is this 「Crow」 not too omnipotent……?”

Omnipotent?

“The same goes for controlling Ji-an outside the Special Zone, and continuing to revive a dead person, even if it was under special circumstances…… On top of that, the targets touched by this 「Crow」 measured high in contamination level. Whether Ji-an or the Director.”

Oh Tae-o tapped on his tablet and muttered, then suddenly looked at me.

Then he said,

“But why is only Agent Seo still normal?”