TL/Editor: raei
Status: 5/week mon-fri
Illustrations: posted in discord
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The old man and the Club mbers moved quickly. They sent the injured person to the ergency room after so first aid, while the ordinary mbers returned to their regular jobs.
The old man and the mber who had received all the good luck headed together to a certain building.
Since the luck bestowed by the dice was temporary, they planned to start the exploration right away.
"We have high hopes for you. This is no small task. The Club Chairman himself will be watching," the old man said.
"Leave it to . I've got the luck of three people, right? Even if we don't find gold, I'll discover sothing valuable. Sothing that'll turn a profit," the mber replied confidently.
Their conversation continued inside the smoothly running car.
The mber chosen for exploration sat up straight, brimming with confidence. Not only was he surrounded by good luck, but the survivor's luck he had absorbed as insurance boosted his confidence even more.
He was certain he'd complete the exploration safely. In other words, he felt he had nothing to lose.
'As long as I co back in one piece, it's all good.'
The old man looked at the mber with satisfaction. Sotis opportunities lay within dangers, and a courageous attitude was important.
Still, out of concern, the old man started offering various pieces of advice, like a nurse telling a patient their shot might sting.
"I've done dinsional exploration a few tis myself. The first few seconds after you land in another dinsion are the most crucial. If it seems dangerous, co back imdiately. But if the environnt looks okay-"
They had a serious conversation in the warm car. The old man spoke, and the mber listened attentively, while the driver focused silently on driving.
The cheerful sound of the navigation system's alerts occasionally chid in.
"Turn right in 300 ters."
So ti passed as the driver glanced sideways while driving.
The old man, whose throat had gone dry from talking, took out so water to drink. He suddenly looked out the window.
Perhaps because of his age, every road seed familiar no matter where they went. Similar-looking buildings, roads, and traffic lights. Busy cars and people on the sidewalks.
Things might have changed, but the old man couldn't tell the difference.
Maybe he'd seen so many strange things that ordinary scenery no longer moved him.
"Life is..."
The old man, suddenly feeling sentintal, carefully put down his water bottle.
That's when it happened. The old man sensed sothing was off. He quickly lifted his head to look ahead.
"..."
The driver spoke with a trembling voice.
"Branch Manager, sir."
Sweat glistened on the back of the driver's neck and the side of his face, visible at a glance.
"There's a problem with the navigation system."
"What kind of problem?"
The old man frowned. The mber who had received all the good luck hugged the dashboard and leaned forward, looking at the strangely broken navigation screen.
The map itself was fine. Only the map was fine.
"Looks like an error. The data's weird."
The current ti was off. It was past lunchti, but the screen showed 35:68. The current location was also garbled, showing as "Xy#92*" or sothing similar.
That wasn't all. A strange warning popped up.
Ding dong-
"This is an anomaly outbreak caution zone."
"..."
"..."
Silence fell inside the car. The situation was clear.
An accident had caught up with them. They were facing an anomalous phenonon. And this was before they'd even started their dinsional exploration.
The old man glanced at the mber for a mont. He wondered if he might have brought the person who had received all the bad luck by mistake. But it was clearly the mber who had received all the good luck, and the old man tried to think as rationally as possible.
"Is this good luck? Could this be helpful to you?"
Luck.
It was hard to understand, but maybe this had happened because of good luck? Who knows, this might be an opportunity.
Not just the mber, but even the driver seed to think so. The mber stared at the navigation system with a troubled expression, while the driver regained his composure and focused on driving again.
"I'll keep driving for now."
"Hmm, alright."
Well, they did have good luck on their side, after all.
So they didn't take it too seriously at first.
But as ti passed, their expressions darkened.
The navigation system wasn't guiding them to their destination. They were going in circles. Right turn, right turn, right turn, right turn. They were driving in a square, going nowhere.
The old man looked outside and said, "I've lost count of how many tis we've passed that building. Ignore the navigation and just drive."
"I'll use the navigation app on my phone," the mber said.
The mber tapped on his phone to open the navigation app. There were many ways to find directions.
"Turn right in 300 ters."
The driver ignored the navigation system's instructions and went straight ahead. The car accelerated down the road just as the mber opened the app, and both navigation systems gave instructions at the sa ti.
"You have deviated from the route."
"You have deviated from the route."
"..."
The mber's hand trembled as he looked at his phone, then turned to the old man.
"My phone's broken just like that navigation system."
"At tis like these, analog is best. There should be a map in the glove compartnt in front of you. Let's use that to find our way."
The old man spoke casually, as if reminiscing about the good old days, which helped keep the mood from getting too tense.
The mber contorted his body to reach into the glove compartnt and pulled out a crisp new map.
Luckily, or perhaps due to their good fortune, the map was intact.
'Right. What could go wrong?'
The mber relaxed. Maybe they had faced a life-threatening situation, but thanks to their luck, it had ended with just this minor inconvenience-
That's when it happened.
The navigation system belatedly spoke up.
"Recalculating route."
"You have entered a human enforcent zone."
Beep, beep, it sounded a warning alarm, the screen flashing red.
Because they were human, they were driving on a road where humans shouldn't be. Such rules applied to them, and it was hard to guess what the consequences of breaking these rules might be.
The old man gripped his cane tightly.
"This seems like a dangerous anomaly."
To encounter an anomalous phenonon that couldn't even be sold as a product. Was this really what good luck looked like?
'Did Yeonwoo cheat us? No, we saw the luck and bad luck with our own eyes.'
The old man, wearing a sour expression, made a decision before the situation could worsen further. An anomalous entity that only brought losses? They just needed to abandon it and run.
"Stop the car. Whether we take a taxi, use public transport, rent a car, or borrow soone else's, we should be fine if we just ditch this machine. Leave your phone in the car too."
Even if they couldn't turn it off, wouldn't it be okay if they physically distanced themselves from it?
The driver and the mber acted imdiately.
The car smoothly pulled over to the shoulder with its hazard lights on, and the mber turned off his phone completely.
The car with flashing hazard lights gradually slowed down.
Then, the navigation system spoke up.
"No stopping allowed in this zone. Please increase your speed."
The foot on the brake pedal loosened, and the car crept forward like a turtle. The driver licked his dry lips.
"Branch Manager, sir. What should we do?"
"..."
The old man closed his eyes tightly. He needed to make a quick decision. It seed that strange rules were piling up one after another.
An unknown danger.
"We'll have to risk it. Keep the speed as low as possible, and we'll jump out of the moving car."
"I'll be fine, but what about you, sir..."
Concerned that the old man might get hurt due to his age, the driver's words trailed off, but the old man shook his head.
"It's better than being at the rcy of that possessed navigation system."
Better to break a few bones than face an unknown anomalous phenonon. With that resolve, the Club mbers prepared themselves, and a few seconds later, they flung the doors open and threw themselves onto the road.
Bang!
The old man and the driver rolled towards the road. The mber was lucky enough to land on a pile of soft garbage bags and stood up unscathed.
"Move quickly!" the old man shouted.
He leaned on his cane without showing any sign of pain. Whether his designer suit was scratched or his joints ached, now was not the ti to stop moving.
"Where do we go? How?" the mber asked.
"Just get away from that anomalous entity for now! Let's get off this road!"
After all, wasn't this supposed to be a human enforcent zone?
And then, the mber's good luck helped them. They managed to leave the road without any problems.
The old man, the mber, and the driver sat side by side on a park bench, catching their breath. As they caught their breath, they were gripped by doubt.
Was this really good luck?
"This won't do. Maybe it's a sign that you shouldn't go on the exploration," the old man said.
Fate, whether good or bad luck, was hard to interpret, and they interpreted it subjectively within their own understanding.
What was the aning of encountering an anomalous entity they couldn't even profit from? Wasn't it trying to prevent the exploration?
But the old man's misinterpreted words gave the mber an idea.
'Wait a minute, could this be...'
A mory surfaced. The things that had happened when he absorbed Yeonwoo's luck. Dropping the straw, coughing, feeling short of breath. As if warning him not to do it, that it shouldn't be done.
The mber's face turned pale as he finally grasped the truth. Trembling, he asked, "Old man, about the company's investigators. What does the company look for first when recruiting investigators? Isn't it survival ability or luck for staying alive?"
"Survival? That's sothing you develop over ti."
The old man, having caught his breath, gave the mber a puzzled look, wondering why he was asking such a thing.
"What's an investigator's job? Isn't it to seek out anomalous entities? If anything, they're people who experience a lot of accidents."
They used people who were good at encountering anomalous entities for thorough investigations. For example, they might scout ordinary people who had faced anomalous phenona.
That was also why investigators were seen as masters of survival. It ant they were humans who had survived encountering so many anomalies. Those with poor survival skills would die after just a few investigations.
'Then, then. What I absorbed was-!'
It was a disaster. He had absorbed sothing he shouldn't have. At this rate, good luck wasn't the issue. Surely there must be a limit to good luck.
Maybe the good luck had already run out. Because he had absorbed sothing like bad luck.
"Old man! Actually-"
In the end, the mber confessed honestly. He wanted to receive even a temporary seal.
The old man, who had taken back the straw, wore an expressionless face. This fool had ruined no ordinary project on his own whim.
"Unfortunately, the stamp is single-use. So you'll have to endure it. Even if you absorbed it, it's not permanent."
"But there must be so way-"
That's when it happened.
A person wearing a helt staggered into the park where they were resting. They walked with zombie-like, clumsy steps, flailing their arms.
A gurgling, phlegm-filled sound ca from behind the helt. The blood-stained helt created an ominous atmosphere.
"Looks like an anomalous entity. It's co for you. You handle it. I need to go back and revise the project," the old man said.
"No, wait!"
The old man and the driver left without hesitation.
The mber tried to chase after them, but he was caught by the helted stranger who lunged at him with a "Waaagh!" The mber kicked and struggled, tears streaming down his face.
It wasn't like he had so kind of anomaly-attracting air freshener, but accidents kept chasing after him.
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