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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.
[Ti 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 ! Pull !”
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 soone 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 ga 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 at.
Blood gushed from the severed area, and the tallic stench overwheld 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 ! 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 ti ssing around with pointless things and got himself killed.”
Soone 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 ca first.
On top of that, I had to deal with soone who was losing her mind from the shock.
[Mission complete. MS Tower, 1,073 individuals restructured. Survivors: 723.]
“Jieun, do you hear that announcent? 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 .
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 sa way.
If this continues...
Should I force her to co 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 .
“Mission reward.”
[Would you like to strengthen ‘ntal 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 as she gave a slow nod.
As expected, soone who spent ages deciding on a lunch nu wouldn’t have chosen a reward yet.
Which ant...
“Repeat after : ‘Mission reward.’”
“...What?”
"Repeat after : 'Mission reward!'"
"…What?"
"Mission reward! Repeat after !"
Shaking her shoulders to make eye contact, I enunciated each word clearly.
"…Mission… reward."
"Did a window pop up?"
She nodded.
"The reward is 'ntal Fortitude' enhancent."
"ntal… Fortitude… enhancent."
"One more ti!"
"…ntal Fortitude enhancent."
…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 soone 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 soone get cut down before their eyes—how could they not?
Groups ford 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 ntal resilience.
And, apparently, nobody else is using this ti to gather intel like .
"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 .
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 an 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 endga.
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[The mission will begin at 2:00 sharp.]
[Mission reward granted.]
[Recovery rate for limp: 70%.]
The current ti: 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 pri.
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 mont, a mysterious ssage appeared.
"Skill… data…?"
"What?"
"Didn’t you get the ssage?"
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 seed 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 ntal resilience was an excellent decision.
"Uh... is that...?"
"What the hell is he doing?! Is that even allowed?!"
We arrived at eting Room 2 on the 15th floor with about seven minutes to spare.
By the ti we got there, the eting 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.
Ard with everything from wooden sticks to cent 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 seed 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 cent flowerpots, seemingly placed there to ensure he was ready for a fight at any ti.
"That guy... he’s from the Operations Support Team, right?"
"Yes. Deputy Manager Gwak Dongseok, 36 this year. He joined as a replacent when soone 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 sa boat as .
I think I’ve seen him around before.
For soone with a big build, he always seed 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 co near !"
"Why are you so selfish?! Can’t we just survive together?!"
"You’re the selfish ones!"
Gwak seed angry, yet also frightened.
"Scared of , huh? Thought you could ignore ...!"
But he also seed 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 mont as Oh shouted.
"Senior Manager?"
"Drop that imdiately!"
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 in, you bastard."
The back of Senior Manager Oh’s head burst open.
The sound of a waterlon splitting, the scent of blood, the sticky sensation of splattered droplets filled the office air.
Should I be shocked that Gwak rcilessly 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 co..."
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 vehently, as if to stop , but there was no other choice.
I had my reasons to be desperate too.
"Excuse , Deputy Manager Gwak?"
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