GSGW c226

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Chapter 226

An evening when darkness settled over the sky.

At the annex entrance of Daydream Inc.

Two black-suited Security Team members sat at the front desk with a carrier cage between them, responding to people who came and went.

“Corridor… 32. It’s over there……”

“Th-thank you.”

Of course, “responding” mostly meant exchanging brief greetings, opening corridor access permissions, and notifying them of precautions.

Normally the post was handled by one person, and it was rare for someone to sit there with a carrier cage beside them. Because of that, employees sometimes hesitated when they approached, or stared with cold sweat on their faces as if wondering whether this too was some kind of experiment.

And inside that particular 'exceptional case' of a carrier cage… was me.

“You okay…?”

Tap.

"Yeah… go it."

The security captain occasionally checked on my condition, but otherwise he sprawled at the front desk with the expression of someone who found everything bothersome.

Originally, the Security Team wasn’t supposed to handle this kind of public-facing work, but since they had been assigned as my designated team, they ended up doing all sorts of odd jobs.

'I’m sorry….'

“Still, it’s nice. Peaceful! Right, Roe—no, I mean, Employee?”

Tap.

I agreed with Supervisor Park Minseong.

He said that since he usually handled mental-type control duties within the Security Team, he rarely got to do peaceful tasks like this, and he seemed to quite welcome the assignment.

He was also very pleased that my attitude during communication today seemed much more stable than before.

—Looks like you’ve recovered a lot…! That’s a relief, Roe Deer.

I hadn’t told them yet that my original mind had returned. I planned to say something only after I had grown more accustomed to the bell and could completely compose myself.

'First I need to be able to control this body.'

So inside the carrier cage, I continued examining my own body.

Well… hmm. Yeah, it’s definitely squashed.

'It’s basically a lump of mush….'

I tried to categorize the crumpled mass stuffed into the Security Team suit according to the structure of a human body.

Brain, esophagus, eyeballs, ears, stomach… Parts that had pain receptors, or parts I had consciously tried to perceive before, were easier to roughly identify.

[It’s like a sliding puzzle. Excellent. Let’s piece it together.]

Braun’s advice was quite helpful as well.

Of course, if someone with real medical knowledge, like Yeongeun, helped me, I might be able to understand much more—but for now, this was the limit.

'What even is this… how many eyes do I have?'

…To begin with, some parts felt strangely foreign.

[Ah, splendid scales, my friend!]

At the end of my forepaw—no, arm—I could feel something with a bizarre texture. Something like reptilian scales and avian claws.

'This is driving me insane.'

Still, knowledge really was power.

The problem was that if my emotions had been functioning normally, I probably would have gone insane before that knowledge could help.

I was fully aware that what I was doing was extremely grotesque.

'Hmm. If I calmly move the parts I’ve identified… I might be able to reconstruct my body.'

Now that I was aware of them, it even felt like I might be able to move them. But for now, I wasn’t sure.

I might be able to attempt it after removing the suit, but the risk seemed greater, so I postponed the idea.

More importantly, I had already found what I had originally been looking for.

:恩主:

The inventory tattoo.

Fortunately, it hadn’t moved far from its original location—it was buried somewhere along my left arm beneath the shoulder.

The other tattoos seemed to be crumpled deep inside somewhere in the mess, so I couldn’t find them. Maybe once I could reorganize my body, I’d be able to use them again.

But for now, this was what I was hoping for.

Could this tattoo still work?

[Hoho. It seems you’re looking forward to the end of today’s shift, Mr. Roe Deer.]

That’s right.

'I can’t take my arm out and check while I’m inside the carrier cage.'

So first, let’s just finish my first day at the annex front desk without incident.

Fortunately, the annex operated without major issues until late at night.

…I saw quite a few familiar faces too. People visiting the annex were usually from the Field Exploration Team or the Research Team, and naturally those were people I had likely encountered while working before.

It gave me a strange feeling.

“Corridor 12… ah, Employee, could you hand it over?”

“Eek.”

For reference, when I sent smoke through the bars of the carrier cage to write words and handed over the access card, the seal-masked Field Exploration Team employee almost rolled backward trying to escape.

Ah, he was someone from the office next door.

"......"

".....”

“Sorry…!”

Watching him sprint away with the access card, I displayed some words.

Survival instinct: Excellent

—Suitable candidate for the Field Exploration Team

“Hahaha…”

Supervisor Park Minseong sounded like someone laughing because he couldn’t cry.

Well, either way, it meant I had done ordinary work again for the first time in several months.

Then around 3 a.m., a very familiar face appeared.

An unexpected heavyweight.

'Assistant Manager Jin Nasol!'

She wore a butterfly mask, her hair neatly tied back, dressed in a sharp suit with manicured nails.

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol of Elite Team A.

“Hm.”

Seeing Supervisor Park Minseong slightly bow his head, Jin Nasol—who had been inspecting her nails—finally seemed to recognize him.

“Team D?”

“Ah, that’s right.”

“I heard you transferred to the Security Team. Looks like you’re still alive.”

“Haha…”

Usually people who recognized Security Team members either pretended not to know them or treated them politely with a hint of fear. But as expected, this person was different.

And then, at exactly that moment, another Elite Team member came to the annex.

“Hellooo~”

It was Assistant Manager Lee Songhae, whom we had worked with just yesterday.

In her hands was a large snack set wrapped in recycled paper, which she energetically plopped down on the front desk.

“I heard you three were stationed here! Thought you might enjoy something while working together, so I brought this!”

“Hm… thank you…”

For the record, it was gamtae oranda.

/tn. gamtae oranda, a snack combining a type of Korean seaweed and rice puffed grains

I couldn’t eat it… but well, the security captain looked interested, so that was fine.

But surprisingly, Lee Songhae didn’t stop there. She lightly tapped the carrier cage I was sitting in and whispered.

Uh…?

“Hey, wouldn’t it be okay if you came out? There aren’t any civilians here anyway!”

“Come out? What?”

At Jin Nasol’s questioning tone, Lee Songhae awkwardly scratched the back of her head.

“Oh! Assistant Manager, you were here. I didn’t buy a separate oranda for you…”

“......”

The security captain—who had already sniffed the oranda and stuffed one into his mouth in a single bite—slowly turned his head toward them and lazily pointed at the box.

“One…?”

“No thanks.”

He didn’t ask a second time.

Jin Nasol seemed unconcerned with that and looked at Lee Songhae with an incredulous expression.

“You’re suggesting we take the Darkness that’s deliberately locked inside a carrier cage and let it out? Are you out of your mind?”

“I’m not saying it’s locked up! It just seems like they’re staying in there because it’s comfortable! Right?”

Partial agreement.

—Currently adapting to public-facing duties.

"......"

After seeing the smoke letters I wrote from outside the carrier cage, Assistant Manager Jinna Sol looked like she had a lot to say— but unexpectedly, she apologized immediately.

“I’m sorry.”

No… that was a perfectly reasonable thing to say.

Supervisor Park Minseong hurriedly cut in with a gentler tone, addressing Assistant Manager Lee Songhae.

“Um, thank you. The teammate you were with was taken by the Disaster Management Bureau… so you must be worried, but you still came to check on us like this.”

“Huh? Oh, you mean Pony.”

Lee Songhae smiled brightly.

“She’s not actually on the same team as me.”

“Ah.”

…No wonder it suddenly went quiet.

“Elite Team?”

“No?”

“I see.”

That was the end of the conversation.

…… Apparently, to Lee Songhae, Kang Yihak wasn’t exactly what you’d call a “nice person.”

Assistant Manager Jin Nasol didn’t seem interested at all either. I mean, the two of them had even worked together at the Mermaid Grave before…

'They’re really consistent people….'

Feeling like my mashed-up stomach might start hurting, I decided to shake the bell again.

Every time I felt a stress signal, I found myself shaking the bell. At this point it was basically like one of those pain-management toys dentists give you to squeeze… or maybe a stress ball.

“Can you hand over the access card?”

“Ah, yes.”

Supervisor Park Minseong issued Jin Nasol an access pass while chewing on an oranda.

Then, after hesitating for a moment, he asked:

“Um, our team leader… I mean, Section Chief Lee Jaheon from Team D— is he doing well?”

“How would I know that?”

Jin Nasol frowned, but unexpectedly answered anyway.

“Still, he’s probably better off than before. They replenished the team with new personnel this time.”

“…Ah. I see.”

“Well, it’s not that unusual for an entire team to get replaced except for the leader. I’m sure he’ll manage.”

"....."

“Oh! If it’s Section Chief Lee Jaehun, I think I heard he entered a long-term Darkness exploration the other day. Something like… a boarding school ghost story?"

She added that it would probably take four or five days. Only then did Supervisor Park Minseong nod with a smile.

“I see. Thank you.”

After the two left to attend to their own business, Park Minseong leaned closer and whispered to me.

“If things work out, you might get to see Section Chief Lee Jaehun too. If he returns from the Darkness sometime this week… I’m kind of looking forward to it. Right?”

Tap.

“Good.”

Then, while Park Minseong was smiling, I carefully and discreetly made a request.

Since no one else was around.

Request: covert transport

“…Huh?”

Then I poked at an object with my smoke.

“Oh— you want… this?”

Tap.

“Hmm… that should be fine— huh, Captain?”

“Here…”

Thank you.

I carefully pulled the various writing instruments from the front desk into the smoke as the security captain pushed them into the carrier cage.

After my first night shift at the annex front desk ended—

[Ah, the resting place! Though of course it has no windows and cannot be ventilated. But my friend is wearing a gas mask, so apparently that is not a major inconvenience.]

Back in the isolation room, I sat on the bed.

Very carefully, I began trying to perceive the inside of my body.

The parts I could recognize—I tried to move them.

'Come out.'

Outside.

Back to where they originally belonged.

Crack.

Squirm.

Strange sounds seemed to echo from inside my body, and it felt like I might vomit. But I could move.

After what felt like an eternity—long enough that if I could sweat, my entire body would have been soaked—

'…Done.'

I stretched out my arm and touched the Security Team uniform around my left arm, just below the elbow near the wrist.

Then I opened the zipper.

Ziiiiip.

Inside the opening zipper, I could see amorphous, grotesque flesh barely holding a shape.

But I could also see that I had moved it to exactly the intended position.

The tattoo.

Its color shifting as if activating.

: 恩主 :

The inventory tattoo.

'Found it.'

I pushed my hand into the tattoo.

'...!'

It worked. It still functions…!

[Ah, a passage leading to the manager’s office of the Cheerful Theme Park! I recall how that pitiful lodge keeper came to hold such an excessive position thanks to you, Mr. Roe Deer…]

Not quite that dramatic. But the space inside was definitely larger.

And unfortunately, most of it should have been empty now. I had cleared it all out before using the wish ticket.

For starters, I had left some things behind with the Disaster Management Bureau.

'And near the end, I handed almost everything else to Section Chief Lee Jaheon….'

I remembered stuffing nearly all my equipment into subway storage lockers and sending the location and password to Lee Jaheon.

Yes. It should have been empty.

But… inside it, I felt a strange presence.

Something occupying my space.

'Feels like… there’s something else in there.'

But I couldn’t keep my uniform open for long, so I couldn’t investigate further.

For now, I quickly checked only the things my hand could grab—things I expected to find.

First: Blue scales.

The item given to me by the blue dragon mascot of the Cheerful Theme Park.

I never handed this to anyone because I was worried about the consequences if its influence spread.

It had said it could be “summoned.” …But using it now would probably just add another incident to the company’s accident report list, so I decided to leave it alone.

'Just remember it exists.'

I pulled my hand away from the clear, smooth, cool texture.

Then—the thing I was really concerned about.

Second: A paper boat.

The one left behind by Baek Saheon when he escaped Jisan Village.

[Hmm. Allow me to guess, my friend. It is somewhat personal, and because its value is difficult to judge, you chose not to dispose of it by giving it to someone else.]

Correct.

And maybe—just maybe—it could be extremely helpful.

A possible way to learn what happened during the six months I spent without a self on the 13th underground floor.

And about Jang Heoun as well.

[Ah, a passage.]

Exactly.

A boat is usually a means of sending something somewhere.

And paper is something you write on.

If you combine those two ideas…

'It starts to feel like some kind of communication tool.'

I pulled the paper boat out of the tattoo.

Then quickly zipped my uniform shut and straightened my clothes.

'Whew.'

That went smoothly. Then I looked down at the boat.

Though it was made from somewhat worn paper, it had clearly been carefully preserved.

Even though it was a fragile item, it wasn’t torn or damaged.

'If I treat it like an item and think about how to use it…'

This seemed like the obvious first step.

I carefully unfolded the boat and spread the paper flat.

Then the surface that had been hidden inside the boat appeared.

[Oh—jackpot, my friend.]

Written there was a message.

Hey.

Did you die?

The writing looked like it had been done with a pencil.

It was Baek Saheon’s handwriting.

Of course, I couldn’t tell when it had been written.

But judging from the nuance of the phrase, it didn’t seem like something he wrote randomly before escaping Jisan Village.

'Feels like a question aimed at me.'

More precisely—at the “Agent Grapes" who had drawn the golden rod in Jisan Village.

'…Good.'

I rummaged through the writing tools the security captain had given me and picked out a pencil.

Then I wrote on the paper.

I didn’t die.

A moment later—

What?

A reply appeared.

Written hastily, as if the writer had been startled.

/tn. damn, bro responded so fast, I feel like he be looking at that paper like an abandoned lover lmao

 

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