Chapter 19

Chapter 19 . Welcome to the Special Management Bureau (4)

Baek Sa-ra was as elegant as if she had been drawn in a painting.

How elegant, you ask? There was a work uniform that Cha Si-eon and Kwak Jae-gyeom wore.

It looked outright like a special agent uniform.

A black, assertive outfit with straps and belts hanging all over it.

When Cha Si-eon wore it, he looked nothing short of ominous, and even Kwak Jae-gyeom looked strangely cold when he kept his mouth shut.

But when Baek Sa-ra wore that vicious-looking work uniform, it simply looked neat.

No, she even looked fresh, like someone who had just come back from a light run.

Despite the bandages and adhesive bandages stuck here and there.

Was this the importance of the clothes hanger?

While I was admiring that by myself, Baek Sa-ra took out a tablet PC and placed it on the table.

Then she spoke in an official tone.

“I will proceed with the rescued person post-incident interview. You have done this before with Team Leader Cha Si-eon, so I ask for the same cooperation.”

I nodded and sat up straight.

But Baek Sa-ra herself did not conduct the interview and only stared at me.

Wondering why, I looked back at her, and Baek Sa-ra smiled softly and said,

“Actually, that’s just an excuse. I came to meet you, Mr. Otter.”

“Pardon?”

“I was curious after hearing about you, Mr. Otter, and I wanted to thank you too. I’m glad you look healthy.”

At Baek Sa-ra’s smooth words, I blinked, then smiled back.

This was the first time I had spoken with Baek Sa-ra face-to-face.

But perhaps because we had shared life and death together, I felt oddly glad to see her.

“You seem to have been hurt quite badly, Ms. Baek Sa-ra.”

“It only looks that way. It’s nothing serious.”

“Mr. Han Ji-su is doing well too, right?”

“Ji-su is, yes. They say he’s all right now. Fortunately, he got through the critical point.”

“Was he badly injured?”

“You remember, don’t you? In the hospital Special Zone, when Ji-su shouted for you to get down before the floor collapsed.”

Of course I remembered.

Right after that, I had fallen together with Black in the wheelchair.

“That happened because Mr. Orange was hit by a high-powered bullet and exploded.”

It was only one sentence, yet I did not know which part I was supposed to be shocked by.

Orange was a person, so why did he explode?

A person exploded, so how did the floor collapse?

And if such an explosion occurred, then what about Han Ji-su, who had been close to Orange at the time?

“When I saw the scene, it was an absolute mess. Ji-su almost got cut into pieces.”

Even while talking about pieces, Baek Sa-ra’s voice was pretty and gentle.

So I flinched, then belatedly remembered.

That this person was very skilled at both verbal poison and violence.

Right, that was true. I almost got surprised for no reason.

When I nodded awkwardly, Baek Sa-ra smiled brightly and asked back,

“It’s horrible, isn’t it?”

“Yes, it’s horrible.”

“Then why did you come into such a scary place again? You made it out alive with so much effort.”

It seemed Baek Sa-ra already knew everything about my situation.

Well, since rumors had spread everywhere, it would be stranger if she did not know.

“It wasn’t my intention.”

When I complained honestly, pity mixed into Baek Sa-ra’s smile.

For some reason, Baek Sa-ra had a complicated expression.

“I was truly grateful in the 「Hospital」. Thanks to you, Mr. Otter, we were able to complete the mission without casualties.”

“Not at all. I was the one who received help.”

“And since I came using the interview as an excuse anyway, I’ll show you briefly.”

Baek Sa-ra suddenly operated the tablet.

Then she brought up one screen and held it out to me.

“It’s our exploration report.”

---

■ 「Hospital That Hunts Humans」 Exploration Report

Exploration round: 17th

Exploration date: February 18, 20XX

Exploration personnel: 2 members of Exploration Team 1, 10 convicts / total 12 people

Exploration objective: Investigate the activation conditions and response methods for the 「high-powered bullet」 among the attack patterns of the primary dangerous entity, 「Moving Gun」

---

What is this?

I was looking at the screen without much thought when I stopped.

Then Baek Sa-ra asked in a calm voice,

“Is something strange?”

“The exploration objective written here.”

“What about it?”

“It’s completely different from the order you showed me before…….”

The Exploration Order that Baek Sa-ra, as the convict “White,” had given me.

That order had listed bizarre and complicated missions.

If they completed one mandatory mission and two optional missions among them, they would return alive.

The convicts had clearly been clinging to their missions under those conditions.

On top of that, their missions had contained nothing about the 「Moving Gun」 or the 「high-powered bullet」.

Those were rather obstacles interfering with the missions.

At my point, Baek Sa-ra smiled.

Then she gestured with her eyes as if telling me to keep reading.

---

■ Exploration Details (Chronological)

00:01 Mission begins

00:07 Type “A” Mission succeeds

00:08 Encounter with the 「Moving Gun」

00:14 Type “B” Mission 「Bottomless Sandplay Box」 attempted

00:25 Stayed in Psychological Testing Room for 11 minutes 6 seconds, encounter with the 「Moving Gun」

00:36 Stayed in Psychological Testing Room for 10 minutes 55 seconds, encounter with the 「Moving Gun」

00:41 Type “B” Mission 「Self-Playing Piano」 attempted

00:42 Convict “Purple” dies in the 1st floor lobby from the 「Moving Gun」’s bullet

00:43 「Moving Gun」 enters dormant phase in 1st floor lobby

00:59 Convict “Green” dies buried in the 「Bottomless Sandplay Box」

01:16 Type “B” Mission 「Incomprehensible Area Angiography Equipment」 attempted

01:21 Convict “Sky Blue” witnesses the 「Distorted Angel」 in the 「Incomprehensible Area Angiography Equipment」

01:22 Convict “Yellow” dies after being bitten by Convict “Sky Blue”

01:23 Convict “Sky Blue” is killed by Agent Han Ji-su

01:26 「Moving Gun」 resumes activity

01:30 Type “B” Mission 「Nurse with Split Arms」 attempted

01:36 Convict “Orange” receives subcutaneous injection of the Black Ampoule from the 「Nurse with Split Arms」

01:38 Convict “Orange” complains of fever and removes mask

01:55 Type “B” Mission 「Coughing Young Man」 attempted

02:03 Convict “Orange” exposes his face to the 「Moving Gun」

02:03 「Moving Gun」 fires first 「high-powered bullet」

02:09 「Moving Gun」 goes berserk

02:31 Convicts “Yellow-Green,” “Pink,” and “Red-Purple” die from the 「Moving Gun」’s bullets

---

This was a record of what the convicts had experienced before I joined them.

The record was endlessly dry.

Because of that, the spaces between the lines read even more desperately.

The convicts, distinguished by colors, had struggled for their missions.

They had failed and tried again.

And then they died.

With an indescribable feeling, I asked Baek Sa-ra,

“Were the missions the convicts were doing fake?”

“We didn’t make them do things that didn’t need to be done.”

“But mission success and return alive were impossible from the start, weren’t they?”

Because White and Blue’s real objective was to investigate the 「high-powered bullet」.

So they must have needed to induce the 「Moving Gun」 to fire it.

They would have needed a target for that bullet too.

In the end, the convicts’ missions had not been given for them to accomplish.

They were devices meant to turn the convicts into targets for the 「Moving Gun」.

“It’s too cruel, isn’t it?”

Baek Sa-ra spoke as if she had looked inside my thoughts.

“But don’t waste your heart on it. That would be a waste.”

“A waste…….”

“They only have the shape of people. Every one of them is a vicious murderer. If you pity people like that, how would the victims who died without guilt, or their families, feel?”

At Baek Sa-ra’s words, I naturally remembered Lee Sol.

The girl who had been hiding in the restroom of the railway station.

That child, who was only in middle school, had told me.

That I could kill her, as long as I told her mother so her mother would not keep looking for her.

“So never pity them. To begin with, the people who come to me are humans who can fall into hell and deserve it.”

Saying “even so, they are people too” here would be a luxury.

I had at least that much self-awareness.

But that did not mean I could agree and say, “Yes, human trash should be recycled even that way!”

I was an ordinary editor who had never actively killed anything except sentences that felt like unnecessary appendages.

“There will be many things like this from now on. So you need to get used to it. This is a place that does not do what is right, but what is necessary, and you are now a Bureau person too, Mr. Otter.”

At Baek Sa-ra’s realistic advice, I nodded heavily.

“I will keep that in mind.”

“And always prioritize your own life.”

“What an obvious thing to say…….”

“I’m saying it because it doesn’t seem obvious.”

Baek Sa-ra’s voice was still gentle.

But what was this? Why did I somehow feel like I was being scolded?

“Honestly, it came second, didn’t it? In the 「Railway Station」, and in front of me too. Fortunately, the results were good, but luck won’t always follow you. And there are more people in the world than you’d think who aren’t worth saving. So from now on, please make your own life the highest priority. Never gamble.”

It seemed Baek Sa-ra saw me as a child left by the water’s edge.

Well, in the eyes of a veteran agent, a civilian like me probably looked precarious.

I understood her concern.

But Cha Si-eon had once said something like this too.

-Were you maintaining your reason when you handed the Ticket to Lee Sol?

Urgh, an unpleasant memory.

Of course, I could not put Baek Sa-ra and Cha Si-eon on the same line.

But I felt a strange sense of déjà vu, so I explained moderately.

“I understand what you mean, but you don’t need to worry that much. I don’t like gambling much either. I’m also a coward.”

“You, Mr. Otter?”

Baek Sa-ra looked at me as if she had heard something strange.

Then she asked back like this.

“……If you’re a coward, why did you take off your mask?”

“Pardon?”

“You knew the gun’s dormant condition, didn’t you? If I had died then, the gun would have stopped too. Then you would have been rescued safely, Mr. Otter.”

“The rescue team was coming soon. I thought if I stalled for time, both of us could live.”

At my answer, Baek Sa-ra furrowed her brows.

It was a strange expression.

She was not angry or offended, but she looked somehow uncomfortable.

“If that isn’t gambling, then what is it?”

“It’s human decency.”

At my answer, Baek Sa-ra’s expression grew even stranger.

“You helped me first, Ms. Baek Sa-ra. It wasn’t particularly your role, and you were in the middle of doing something else too.”

At the time, Baek Sa-ra had been hiding her identity and moving with the convicts.

It was a dangerous situation where one misstep could have killed her.

But the moment she saw me, she protected me.

Even though my appearance must have ruined her plan completely, she did not care.

A person like that was about to die right in front of me, and I was supposed to leave that alone?

If I was even a half-decent bastard, I had to do something first.

“So I repaid you too. It wasn’t gambling. It was human decency.”

Baek Sa-ra opened her mouth as if to argue.

But no words actually came out of it.

“……Truly.”

After a long while, Baek Sa-ra lowered her head and sighed.

“This is troublesome.”

What was troublesome?

Her hair fell down, so I could not see her expression.

Still, she did not seem to be joking.

Was being helped by a civilian such a blow to her pride?

Not knowing why Baek Sa-ra was being so serious, I only felt bewildered.

In the meantime, Baek Sa-ra lifted her head again.

“I’ll just tell you the truth.”

Baek Sa-ra seemed to choose her words for a moment, then spoke in a voice that had grown lower.

“If you hadn’t taken off your mask then, Mr. Otter, you would have died.”

What?

I looked at Baek Sa-ra, unable to understand what she meant.

But Baek Sa-ra was strangely calm.

As if she had already resigned herself, accepting the result.

At that moment, I remembered.

When she had lost to the 「Moving Gun」.

Even then, Baek Sa-ra had been looking at me with this face.