Chapter 7

Chapter 7. I Thought I’d Escaped (2)

I do not know what it was that I experienced.

Not the identity of that grotesque space.

Not the true nature of this organization that claims to belong to the government.

I do not even know how I am alive right now.

There are only three things I can vaguely guess.

That I got caught up in some grotesque incident.

That it is a top-secret matter not disclosed to ordinary citizens.

And that the government organization managing that incident has a strange nature, one where it is hard to distinguish good from evil.

And in the middle of all that, a huge amount of cash suddenly appeared.

Is this really a good sign?

I tried hard to hide the sense of wrongness and suspicion that rapidly filled me.

Then I asked the man back.

“……What was the question?”

“I asked about the circumstances that led you, Mr. Seo Do-un, to use a book during the barter exchange. This is a question for updating the Survival Rules, so please explain in detail.”

The Survival Rules.

Come to think of it, the leaflet I received had also said it was a “Special Zone managed by the Government of the Republic of Korea.”

“Did you make those Survival Rules here?”

“That is correct.”

“And you make them to save people?”

“That is correct.”

“Then wouldn’t it be better to simply patrol the place?”

At my series of questions, the man let out a short sigh.

Then he opened his mouth in a reluctant tone.

“In the zone you entered, Mr. Seo Do-un, fatal factors our agents cannot counter occur at all times. Therefore, entry and long-term stays by agents are strictly restricted.”

……So in the end, isn’t he saying they didn’t go in because they were protecting their own skins?

At the man’s answer, I deliberately looked bewildered.

Then the man urged me on in a stiff voice.

“Now, please answer.”

He used the word please, but his tone was closer to an interrogation.

At that blatant pressure, my nerves began to stand on edge too.

If I had met him somewhere else, I would have simply thought, Ah, he must be emotionally unbalanced, and let it go.

But I had only just survived death a few minutes ago, so I did not have the composure to calmly laugh off this kind of treatment.

“Do I need to remind you what the question was?”

“…….”

I swallowed my anger for now.

The question this man had asked.

The circumstances that led me to use a book during the barter exchange.

As far as circumstances went, I had not had many choices back then.

First, the Survival Rules had said this.

---

Request a barter exchange from the 「Thing in the Old Military Uniform」.

Items that have successfully been bartered so far.

1. Cigarettes

2. Painkillers

3. Handkerchiefs

4. Silver rings

5. Crosses, rosaries

6. White flowers

7. Burn medication

8. Uncooked rice

Items that have failed in barter so far.

1. Pornography

2. Various electronic devices

3. Precious metals except silver rings

4. Food such as snacks, chocolate, bread, gimbap, etc.

5. Various clothing and footwear

For safety, barter attempts are prohibited.

1. All firearms, including replicas

2. All bladed weapons, including replicas

3. All explosives and explosive devices, including replicas

4. Living or dead humans

---

I repeated the memory to myself, then opened my mouth.

“Since the Survival Rules called it the 「Thing in the Old Military Uniform」, I assumed for now that it was a soldier.”

Once I made that assumption, pornography and food among the rejected items stood out to me.

I felt bad treating people in such a primitive way, but those were two things soldiers generally tended to prefer.

“But it caught my attention that items an ordinary soldier might like had been rejected. Instead, among the items that succeeded in barter, there were white flowers and uncooked rice, so I thought it might be a dead person. In other words, a soldier killed in action.”

Rejecting pornography and food meant it had lost its sexual desire and appetite.

These were characteristics of someone who was sick, someone dying, or someone already dead.

If so, could the white flowers be flowers offered at a funeral, and the uncooked rice something placed in the mouth when shrouding the dead?

If viewed within the same frame, accepting painkillers and burn medication meant it had burned to death.

A handkerchief or silver ring could be an object commemorating its mother or lover.

And putting a gun or sword in the hands of a soldier killed in action was obviously a dangerous thing to do.

“So I thought it might accept a book. Since it accepted cigarettes and a cross, it seemed like it was looking for comfort.”

That was how I had thought, and as it happened, the book I had was worth trying as a barter item.

Because that book was a selection of good lines from a novel, lines that might offer comfort to the heart.

Sure enough, the 「Thing in the Old Military Uniform」 showed interest in the Collection of Lines and tore out one page from it.

I did not know which sentence on which page it had torn out.

At the time, I had no chance to check, and now I had no way to check.

Because it seemed that protective suit from earlier had disposed of all my belongings.

My explanation ended, but the man said nothing in particular.

He simply stared at me for a few seconds.

When I stared back, the man moved on to the next question.

“Mr. Seo Do-un, after first reading the Survival Rules, you did not open them again until you met Lee Sol. Is that correct?”

He watched everything, so why is he asking?

“Usually, people check several more times while moving. Why did you not?”

“There was no need to check.”

“You memorized all of it?”

“Yes.”

The man looked at me with suspicious eyes.

A consistent rudeness.

“Tell me what you remember about Route C.”

“Escape through the 「Recycling Bin」. Recommended when escape through Route A or B has failed, or when evacuation to the 「Circulating Library」 is impossible. If the inside of the railway station is dirtied by a person’s saliva or similar substances, the neutral entity known as the 「Cleaner」 appears. At this time, the 「Recycling Bin」 dragged around by the 「Cleaner」 is connected to reality and can be used as an escape route. However, upon entering the 「Recycling Bin」, the parts the 「Cleaner」 judges to be dirty will be randomly removed. Those parts may be unrelated to maintaining life, such as hair, fingernails, or limbs, or they may be directly connected to life, such as the heart, lungs, brain, and so on…….”

“That is enough.”

When I recited the contents of the Survival Rules exactly as written, the man cut me off as if he had confirmed it.

I did not know whether he was a soldier or with the National Intelligence Service, but his way of conversing was something else.

No, was it like this because it was an interrogation, not a conversation?

Either way, it was not pleasant.

I did not know why I had to be interrogated like this either.

The one fortunate thing was that this man did not seem to have any other objective.

I had been suspicious when he suddenly took out that huge amount of money.

But it did not seem like he intended to scam or coax me with the money as bait.

If that had been the case, he would have been kinder than this.

Then this man really was a government official affiliated with the government, carrying out official duties.

……Was that not a problem in its own way?

Forget it. I just wanted this unpleasant interrogation to end already.

As I was thinking that, the man asked me again.

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

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, was it an action taken with a rational alternative in mind?”

“…….”

“Was it an action taken without any plan?”

“Is there some problem?”

“There is no problem. The compensation assessed for you, Mr. Seo Do-un, includes a share for saving a human life.”

Then what the hell are you asking?

“You seem to think quickly, so I asked to confirm whether you had some other calculation. If not, that is fine.”

While I was at a loss for words, the man concluded the matter on his own.

So I enjoyed the feeling of having become a reckless idiot, then let out a hollow laugh and answered.

“Yes, my calculation was lacking. There wasn’t a manual telling me to protect myself first, either.”

At that moment, the man’s hand, which had been writing something down, stopped dead.

The man stayed still with his pen stopped, then looked at me and said stiffly,

“Then you may learn on this occasion.”

“No, I’m fine. Why go out of my way when it isn’t anything good?”

I answered with an ordinary smile, and the man looked at me for a while.

I did not avoid his gaze either, so an unintended staring contest continued for a brief moment.

As expected, this man made me uncomfortable.

He was probably thinking the same thing while looking at me.

The man swallowed a sigh and opened his mouth again.

“Lastly, do you have any suggestions regarding the Survival Rules we provided?”

Suggestions, my ass…….

I was about to say no, then changed my mind halfway through.

“There were a lot of errors. I think you need to have them reviewed.”

“By errors, you mean?”

“It is difficult to understand from the very beginning. Suddenly telling someone not to forget they are human—what help does that give, when emphasizing a fact a person naturally recognizes only makes them confused? Especially when that person has been dropped into an unknown place out of nowhere. If there is a special need to emphasize it, you should at least provide a minimal explanation so the reader can accept it.”

At my criticism, the man’s eyebrow twitched.

But I did not care and continued.

“And there was a sentence that said, ‘Within the Special Zone, all acts of consumption, including eating, drinking, or reading, are strictly prohibited.’ Is it correct to group ‘eating and drinking’ and ‘reading’ into a single category? If you do that, how is the reader supposed to infer the remaining acts abbreviated by ‘including’? The price of violating the warning is not something else, but damage to the body and mind, so should you not convey the meaning more precisely? Before that, you need to resolve the contradiction of leaving the Survival Rules there for people to read while warning them not to read anything.”

Using softening phrases is a basic virtue for editors.

Because if an editor decides to carve up sentences in earnest, the author dies.

But this topknot was not an author, and he seemed to need to learn something called mutual courtesy.

So, hoping this unfriendly public servant would become a little kinder, I continued chewing him out.

The Storage Locker was not even practical, so why did you bother writing about it?

Do you know some bastards used it to kill people, cut them up, and sell them?

Did you not know that could happen? Are you stupid?

How can you just name things like 「Railway Police」 and 「Severed Station Attendant」 based on your own impressions?

If someone who does not know anything sees that, would they not think, ‘What the hell is that, you fucking nerd?’

Then when they see it in person, they look like they will freeze in terror with their brains shutting down. Are you trying to get everyone killed?

I said everything I wanted to say while enjoying the way the man’s face twisted.

I had already been sorry I could not underline the Survival Rules.

Since he was giving me an opportunity like this, I could only be grateful.

“Of course, I understand that you worked hard to make it.”

After that, when I added this, the man’s eyebrow twitched.

His expression said, Are you giving me the disease and the cure?

No.

I smiled as if to say there was no cure and added,

“But it seems you need to work harder, so you should learn well on this occasion.”

I gave back a suitable imitation of what the man had said, and the man’s face ultimately crumpled in a very satisfying way.

He looked at me with strength in his jaw, then finally muttered reluctantly,

“I will take that into consideration.”