Chapter 3: Chapter 3

[Translator - Night]

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Chapter 3: The Beginning of Restructuring (3)

“Manager Park!”

Unable to bear it any longer, Jieun reached out her hand, but it hovered in the air, unable to touch him.

[Time limit expired.]

“I... I got in, right? Didn’t I?”

Manager Park’s words marked the beginning of a suffocating silence in the safe zone.

It was just like a packed subway.

People crowded around, desperately trying to reduce any physical contact with each other.

Even the man who forced his way in only to get stuck in the door.

Blink.

“Jieun! I, I... I got in, right? Didn’t I?”

Manager Park’s words stuttered as if on a phone with poor reception.

“Please grab me! Pull me!”

Thwack!

A deathly pale Manager Park clung to Jieun’s wrist as if it were a lifeline.

[Personnel outside the safe zone will be eliminated.]

Jieun pulled with all her might, as if saving someone drowning in water.

— Thud!

Manager Park’s upper body was severed cleanly, leaving Jieun to fall on her bottom, clutching his torso.

Just like losing balance after a hard tug-of-war game abruptly ends.

“...!”

At first, there was silence.

Then:

“Ahhhhhh!”

“Wha... what! His body!”

Manager Park’s waist had been cleanly cut, as if by a laser.

The stark white of his bones stood out in the middle of tightly packed red muscles.

It was a grotesque and surreal sight.

So surreal, in fact, that a chilling thought crossed Jieun’s mind: It looks just like a neatly cut piece of meat.

Blood gushed from the severed area, and the metallic stench overwhelmed her senses, making her head spin.

“Ugh... ahhh...”

Snap!

“Jieun! Are you okay?!”

“...hic!”

Jieun, utterly dazed and hiccupping, was jolted back to reality.

I carefully laid down the bleeding torso of Manager Park before turning to her.

“Jieun, look at me! Can you pull yourself together?”

Her arms were still frozen in the position she had grabbed Manager Park, and her entire body was trembling.

Following her gaze, I saw that the floor below her knees was soaked in blood.

“H-he’s... dead...”

Grabbing a wad of tissues from the restroom, I started wiping her down.

The tissues clung awkwardly to her stockings, but she was too far gone to notice.

“Jieun, snap out of it! As harsh as this sounds, we can’t guarantee we won’t end up like him.”

“If... if I’d pulled faster...”

“No. Manager Park was late to begin with. As cruel as it sounds, he wasted time messing around with pointless things and got himself killed.”

Someone had just died before our eyes.

In another situation, I would’ve prayed for the dead.

If only we had the luxury to do so.

But right now, survival came first.

On top of that, I had to deal with someone who was losing her mind from the shock.

[Mission complete. MS Tower, 1,073 individuals restructured. Survivors: 723.]

“Jieun, do you hear that announcement? Over a thousand people are gone. This is no joke!”

“...”

[Please select your mission reward.]

“Once we collect our rewards, the next mission will start. You need to stay sharp!”

“...Hic.”

She tightly shut her eyes and bit her lower lip.

Is she naturally this fragile?

No, it’s unreasonable to expect a recent college graduate to act like me.

She hadn’t undergone any resilience training like an athlete.

Nor had she watched her parents die in a car accident while sitting in the back seat.

Put any random girl off the street in this situation, and 99 out of 100 would react the same way.

If this continues...

Should I force her to come along?

She might have to witness even worse scenes ahead.

She might have to commit even more horrific acts herself.

That would require a strong mind to endure...

Wait.

A thought struck me.

“Mission reward.”

[Would you like to strengthen ‘Mental Resilience’ as your mission reward?]

That’s it!

Not wanting to risk a misunderstanding by the system, I quickly shouted, “Hold on!” and shook Jieun’s shoulders.

“Jieun! You don’t have to pull yourself together, just do as I say.”

“Eunho...”

“You haven’t picked your reward yet, right?”

Her clouded eyes turned toward me as she gave a slow nod.

As expected, someone who spent ages deciding on a lunch menu wouldn’t have chosen a reward yet.

Which meant...

“Repeat after me: ‘Mission reward.’”

“...What?”

"Repeat after me: 'Mission reward!'"

"…What?"

"Mission reward! Repeat after me!"

Shaking her shoulders to make eye contact, I enunciated each word clearly.

"…Mission… reward."

"Did a window pop up?"

She nodded.

"The reward is 'Mental Fortitude' enhancement."

"Mental… Fortitude… enhancement."

"One more time!"

"…Mental Fortitude enhancement."

…Did it work?

I glanced at her nervously.

Jieun raised her hand and covered her face.

"…Jieun?"

"…"

No response.

Just a deep, silent sigh.

Was it a failure?

"How do you feel?"

In a situation where it's hard enough to take care of myself, I can't afford to carry someone along if they can't recover.

'If recovery isn't possible…'

As I was about to stand up with a heavy heart, Jieun finally parted her cracked lips.

"Um…"

Her expression was firm.

Her eyes were unusually bright—clearer than usual, like those of a model student.

"I’ll go take off my stockings."

People grew serious.

Watching someone get cut down before their eyes—how could they not?

Groups formed in corners, huddling together to whisper.

Of course, they weren’t talking about work.

"Isn't stamina the most important thing?"

"Wouldn’t strength give you an edge? I’m planning to raise both stamina and strength evenly."

"Agility seems like it’s necessary too."

So far, we’ve received rewards twice.

Most people seem to have raised their stats as displayed on their status screens.

Nobody’s used their points to heal a limp or enhance their mental resilience.

And, apparently, nobody else is using this time to gather intel like me.

"Can we use the rewards to get immunity from elimination?"

[Not selectable.]

"What about weapons, like guns or swords?"

[Not selectable.]

This isn’t allowed, and that’s not allowed either.

A regular person might have given up after a few questions, but not me.

I’m Lee Eunho.

I’ve jumped between temp jobs, constantly bowing and scraping to overworked, annoyed admin teams to get answers.

I’ve studied every ordinance, every Q&A post across welfare centers, public corporations, and tax offices for disability support benefits.

"Then how about clairvoyance? Or flying?"

[Not selectable in the current elimination stage.]

'…!'

"Does that mean there’s a next stage?"

[Cannot answer.]

"What does it take to move to the next stage? Do we just need to survive here?"

[Cannot answer.]

Whoever is behind this restructuring, it’s clear just surviving in the designated area isn’t the endgame.

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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[The mission will begin at 2:00 sharp.]

[Mission reward granted.]

[Recovery rate for limp: 70%.]

The current time: 1:55 PM.

I quickly used the mission reward to strengthen my right leg and walked.

— Swish, thump. Swish, thump.

The steps of a limping man.

But…

"Eunho, your leg…?"

Left foot, right foot.

Left foot, right foot.

Alternating steps, growing faster.

As if I was doing a stationary jog.

"Is it fully healed? How is this even possible…?"

"Not yet."

Just one more reward, and I’ll have my body back—just like it was in my prime.

No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t stop a smile from creeping across my face.

[Data collection for skill unlock in progress.]

At that moment, a mysterious message appeared.

"Skill… data…?"

"What?"

"Didn’t you get the message?"

Jieun looked puzzled, shaking her head.

"Skill."

"Skill?"

Just in case, I muttered "Skill" like I did with "Mission reward," but there was no response.

Perhaps it only triggers under specific conditions.

"Never mind. Let’s wait by the stairs."

I lacked information.

For now, it seemed wiser to focus on completing the mission.

Jieun, noticing my sense of urgency, spoke calmly.

"…Eunho, I think I know what kind of reward you want."

She must’ve figured it out—my change was too obvious.

"I’m going to survive."

I smiled broadly.

Jieun silently nodded.

"Let’s survive. Together."

[Mission start. Safe zones have been created.]

The nearest safe zone: 15th floor, Conference Room 2.

"It looks small."

"Twenty people will fill it to capacity."

"It looks small."

"It gets packed with just twenty people in there."

"What do we do? There are still so many people left..."

What else could we do?

Smiling, I stepped down the stairs with a slight limp.

"We run!"

Strengthening Jieun's mental resilience was an excellent decision.

"Uh... is that...?"

"What the hell is he doing?! Is that even allowed?!"

We arrived at Meeting Room 2 on the 15th floor with about seven minutes to spare.

By the time we got there, the meeting room door had already been ripped off, and people inside and outside the room were at a standoff.

If you could even call it that.

Armed with everything from wooden sticks to cement flowerpots and dumbbells, one man was blocking access to the safe zone, leaving everyone else stuck.

"Jieun, do you see that sharp object? What do you think it is?"

"...A hand axe?"

The man seemed well-equipped.

In his left hand, he held a shiny, pointed weapon, possibly a shard of a ceramic flowerpot.

In his right hand, a wooden stick, likely the leg of a chair.

Surrounding him were piles of cement flowerpots, seemingly placed there to ensure he was ready for a fight at any time.

"That guy... he’s from the Operations Support Team, right?"

"Yes. Deputy Manager Gwak Dongseok, 36 this year. He joined as a replacement when someone went on leave two years ago. His contract is ending soon—he wasn’t converted to permanent staff."

In other words, he was in the same boat as me.

I think I’ve seen him around before.

For someone with a big build, he always seemed to shrink into himself, never fitting in with others.

He reacted overly sensitively during work-related issues, which made him seem a bit prickly.

"...But I didn’t expect him to be this prickly."

Thwack! Smack!

"Get the hell out! GET OUT!"

With bloodshot eyes, Deputy Manager Gwak struck anyone who dared approach the green safety line.

The wooden stick, once a chair leg, was already stained red with blood splatters.

"You bastard! There’s plenty of space!"

"It’s my choice! Don’t come near me!"

"Why are you so selfish?! Can’t we just survive together?!"

"You’re the selfish ones!"

Gwak seemed angry, yet also frightened.

"Scared of me, huh? Thought you could ignore me...!"

But he also seemed to be enjoying it.

"Gwak! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!"

It was Oh, the Senior Manager of the Operations Support Team and Gwak’s direct superior.

Gwak froze for a moment as Oh shouted.

"Senior Manager?"

"Drop that immediately!"

Oh thundered, cautiously stepping closer to the safety zone.

"Uneducated thug! We took you in, and now you—"

Thwack!

...He never got to finish that sentence.

"You didn’t take me in, you bastard."

The back of Senior Manager Oh’s head burst open.

The sound of a watermelon splitting, the scent of blood, the sticky sensation of splattered droplets filled the office air.

Should I be shocked that Gwak mercilessly struck his superior?

Or should I be more surprised by Jieun, who whispered under her breath,

"Technically, they didn’t take him in. They exploited him under the guise of making him permanent, then discarded him."

"I knew... this day would come..."

His heavy breathing suggested he wasn’t a natural-born fighter.

But with that level of preparation...

"He's been thinking about this. How to hurt people in the office."

Gwak swung the wooden stick, flinging off faint pinkish remnants as he glared disdainfully at the silent crowd, paralyzed with fear.

[05:20]

Five minutes left.

Exhaling a small sigh, I took a step forward.

"...Eunho!"

Jieun shook her head vehemently, as if to stop me, but there was no other choice.

I had my reasons to be desperate too.

"Excuse me, Deputy Manager Gwak?"

[Translator - Night]

[Proofreader - Gun]

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