Chapter 38

The Designer who made the Special Zones.

That plain sentence struck my head hard.

Did this mean there was a being that had created those monstrous spaces?

“That is not the Bureau’s official position.”

Cha Si-eon cut in at my shocked expression.

Then Oh Tae-o’s face crumpled.

It was almost the expression of someone chewing a bug.

No, he’s openly making a face like that in front of someone?

Even Cha Si-eon, perhaps used to it, ignored that top-grade contempt after seeing it.

At that antisocial atmosphere, I forgot even my surprise and looked back and forth between the two.

After simmering down by himself for a moment, Oh Tae-o continued.

“Agent Seo Do-un said it, didn’t you? That Special Zones are surprisingly common-sense, and that they seem like games made to be cleared. I agree too. The Bureau defines Special Zones as ‘spaces hostile to humans,’ but if there were truly nothing but hostility and malice, would there be exits? The fact that there are holes to escape through means they were designed that way…….”

Oh Tae-o pushed up his glasses meaningfully and said,

“And if the Designer arranged things this way, there must be a special purpose. For example, the evolution of humanity…….”

“Again, that is not the Bureau’s official position.”

Cha Si-eon cut in again.

And Oh Tae-o frowned again.

……What are these people doing right now? It almost feels like watching a skit.

“There’s no need to nitpick every single thing like that. I’m only talking about a hypothesis…….”

Oh Tae-o, who had seemed bothered since earlier, finally challenged Cha Si-eon.

But naturally, Cha Si-eon did not even blink.

“Do not convey indiscriminate hypotheses to someone with no basic concepts.”

“This is why the Field Division is…… so closed-minded…….”

As if he had no words to refute with, Oh Tae-o grumbled with his face twisted.

That monologue was nearly silent, but I heard it.

Of course, Cha Si-eon did too.

But instead of objecting to Oh Tae-o, Cha Si-eon calmly said to me,

“Until early this year, Acting Team Leader Oh Tae-o argued that Special Zones were alien invasion routes, and that humanity would be replaced because of them. However, nothing happened on the doomsday Acting Team Leader Oh had spoken of.”

Without realizing it, I looked toward Oh Tae-o.

Then Oh Tae-o faced me boldly instead, as if he had plenty to say.

“So what? It’s not as if I said something without grounds. Deductively and inductively, it was a sufficiently reasonable assumption.”

“Aliens?”

I muttered without realizing it.

Then Oh Tae-o looked at me coldly, like someone who had been splashed with cold water.

“What’s wrong with aliens……? In the Silla period, foreigners with colored eyes were aliens too. If someone talks about a fire-breathing dragon, it sounds like nonsense, right? But what about an electric eel? Both are cold-blooded animals that make elemental attacks. Don’t you think it’s actually strange to judge one as mystical and absurd, and the other as simply natural? Aliens are the same. I wasn’t simply saying something ridiculous. I was merely considering possibilities outside our common sense.”

Oh Tae-o’s rapid-fire speech almost persuaded me.

But then Cha Si-eon cut in again.

“There is no need to take him seriously. Acting Team Leader Oh Tae-o has received warnings several times for spreading needless rumors besides this.”

“What did you just say? Rumors……?”

“To add detail, 4 years ago, dangerous rumors spread within the Bureau, and an investigation was conducted.”

“That was…….”

“The content was that Special Zones were the apocalypse from the Book of Revelation. Because of this rumor, agents who held related faiths fell into a group panic, and an internal investigation began. The producer of that rumor was also Acting Team Leader Oh Tae-o. When senior officials demanded an explanation for this, Acting Team Leader Oh answered, ‘Now that I think about it again, I don’t think that was it. Why?’ and nearly got assaulted by the Head of the Research Division.”

“We, we agreed not to talk about that……!”

“However, even afterward, rumors and confusion originating from Acting Team Leader Oh were produced steadily, and Acting Team Leader Oh received warnings and disciplinary actions each time. As you can see, there has been no improvement. Therefore, it is generally advisable to filter Acting Team Leader Oh’s words.”

No, say that kind of thing before that person comes.

If you say that in front of the person involved…….

Sure enough, after having his shameful history listed out, Oh Tae-o’s face flushed red.

Good grief, anyone would think he was crying.

……No, he really is crying, isn’t he?

Astonishingly, Oh Tae-o was clenching his teeth with his eyes reddened.

He looked as if he were struggling with all his might not to shed the tears that had welled up.

This feels unbelievable, but beside me, Kwak Jae-gyeom was calmly blurring his gaze.

Seeing that practiced response, it seemed this really was believable.

More importantly, Team Leader Cha, can’t you see that? You made him cry.

But why are you only looking at me, you psychopath?

Dumbfounded, I had no choice but to step in and mediate.

“Yes, I’ll listen while judging properly. There are many perspectives in the world, and, well…… exchanging opinions itself is a good thing.”

At my Hwang Hui-like statement, Cha Si-eon nodded halfheartedly.

Oh Tae-o wiped away his tears while pretending to clean his glasses, and the sight was rather pitiful.

“Sniff, phew……. My digression got a little long, but to state only the point, I think what Agent Seo Do-un experienced this time is also related to the Designer……. When Agent Seo was missing for 144 seconds, he met someone. But now, he remembers nothing.”

Oh Tae-o, who had barely calmed down, returned to the main point.

“So yesterday, we played the sound recorded through Agent Seo to the contaminated person who can read the letters of Special Zones…….”

The contaminated person who reads the letters of Special Zones.

Could it be that person?

The one who saw the 「Sports Complex」 scoreboard and figured out the game rules?

Brightening, I asked back,

“Did they understand the sound?”

“No…… They screamed as soon as they heard the recording.”

They screamed?

“They were completely terrified, so we had no choice but to stop the recording midway. We tried again, but their rejection response was too severe, so we couldn’t. Even when we asked the reason, they didn’t answer, but we are continuing to persuade them…….”

“…….”

They did not see anything and only heard it, yet they fell into panic?

Why on earth? What sound was recorded there?

“Then is there nothing you’ve learned about that recording right now?”

“No, not yet. But it’s an important clue, so we plan to try every possible method…….”

It was a relief that he would make an effort.

Though I did wonder if this especially odd-looking person could truly be trusted.

As I silently doubted him, Oh Tae-o opened his mouth again.

“So first, we’ve decided to try hypnotherapy.”

“On that contaminated person?”

“No, on Agent Seo Do-un.”

……?

---

We’ve decided to try hypnotherapy.

Who? Me.

When? Now.

These people really did not seem to have concepts like advance notice or mental preparation.

After notifying me of the hypnotherapy, Cha Si-eon and Oh Tae-o went out to prepare something.

In the meantime, I quietly asked Kwak Jae-gyeom, who had remained beside me.

“Jae-gyeom, are you sure that person is okay?”

“He looks like a strange person, right? You saw him properly, hyung.”

Hey, you said that person was in charge of analyzing me.

When I turned to look at him with a serious face, Jae-gyeom snickered and continued.

“You can tell at a glance he’s an eccentric. Acting Team Leader Oh also doesn’t get along very well with our Team Leader. He’s holding back because of the weight class right now. If they were similar, he would’ve already thrown a few punches.”

“Which side is holding back?”

“Mm, both?”

If so, both of them were impressive.

Cha Si-eon, for tolerating Oh Tae-o, who was a handful by his standards.

And Oh Tae-o, for trusting in the dignity of civilized people and taking a stand against Cha Si-eon.

“The two of them are complete polar opposites. Acting Team Leader Oh is a little emotional, but Team Leader is coldly rational. Team Leader is the type to work like a protractor, while Acting Team Leader Oh is loose, so he makes quite a few small mistakes.”

“That just means one side is bad at his job.”

“Uh, that’s true. But Acting Team Leader Oh is also an irreplaceable genius in his own field. So it’s also true that he does more than one person’s share, and things are somehow rolling along this way and that.”

Well, it seemed likely.

The eccentric behavior of Oh Tae-o that Cha Si-eon had mentioned earlier had been fairly serious.

On top of that, he kept causing the same problem repeatedly?

But he was still firmly keeping his position?

That meant one of two things.

Either he was the heir of absolute power, or he truly was an irreplaceable genius.

And from my position, I would very much prefer the latter. Save me. Please work properly.

“And what was that ‘Designer’ he mentioned earlier? Is that just something Acting Team Leader Oh says by himself?”

“Ah, that? It isn’t like he’s making something up out of nothing. There are several theories about the occurrence of Special Zones, and that’s one of them.”

Theories about the occurrence of Special Zones…….

“I’ve heard the Earthbound Spirits’ Counterattack theory.”

“Ah, Acting Team Leader Oh was the first one who brought that up too.”

As expected. I was not even surprised.

“Our Team Leader hates that one too. Now it’s treated as nonsense, but when Team Leader was just appointed, that was the mainstream theory, apparently. So he had to do all kinds of things.”

I had heard. With that pride of his, he had followed around and handled shamanic rituals.

Whether Cha Si-eon or Oh Tae-o, both had very clear reasons to dislike each other.

“But that’s old history. There are 2 theories about the occurrence of Special Zones that are now considered standard. One is the ‘space crevasse theory,’ and the other is the ‘Designer operation theory.’”

“By crevasse, you mean the gap in a glacier?”

“That’s right. A crevasse is formed when a perfectly fine glacier splits open. Like that, it’s what you might call the natural occurrence theory of Special Zones, where ‘Special Zones are quantum-level gaps that happened by chance in Seoul.’”

Oh, I know this.

It’s the intro setup for Korean hunter fiction.

“But for something that simply occurred by chance, there are too many meaningful points. So what came out was the ‘Designer operation theory.’ We don’t know whether the Designer is an alien, a time traveler, a neighboring country, or a huge corporation, but it says ‘Special Zones are structures intentionally created by an intelligent being called the Designer.’”

Both seemed plausible.

To think they had once believed in something like the “Earthbound Spirits’ Counterattack theory” when they were capable of thinking this sensibly.

Well, Special Zones themselves were far from common sense, so as Oh Tae-o said, perhaps there really was a need to go outside common sense.

“Preparations are complete…….”

While we were chatting, Oh Tae-o returned.

“Agent Seo Do-un, please follow me…….”

I followed Oh Tae-o to another room within the Medical Center.

The place we arrived at was a space like a counseling room, with an armchair.

And there, I met an unexpected person.

“What brings you here…….”

“What brings me here? I’m the one doing it. The hypnotherapy.”

The person who said that was none other than Kim U-in.