Chapter 22
Those who could not accept fading remained here.
The seasons change, the river flows, and people grow old.
But we alone could not.
So do not seek us. Do not call us. Do not enter.
You live amid change,
while we shall remain unchanging.
Please, turn back.
***
[But doesn't the Bureau stop newbies from messing around in the gallery?]
Author: Uadeulidae
Come on, it's just not right that a rookie who's only just gotten here
spends every day staring at a smartphone and tapping away at the screen,
how does nobody in the office say a word?
Wouldn't it be better to memorize one more entity report and work out than to mess around in the gallery?
Don't they know that raises survival rates? Pathetic. So pathetic. Tsk tsk.
[Comments]
EntityFetish : The guy who spends all day looking for women is giving us a lecture, lmaoㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋㅋ
SettingTweaker : This bastard's gotten vicious ever since women started appearing in the newbie photos.
OrphanCrusher : If he hadn't come to the gallery, the newbie would've been dead long ago.
Hound : Exercise my ass lolㅋㅋㅋㅋ one wrong breath and your head's goneㅋㅋㅋ Which department are you in?
HomeConfined : If you're gonna start a duel, at least get permanently banned and take it to the callout tab, you asshole.
Uadeulidae : Pushy? You mean a girl?
HomeConfined : Do you seriously have a dick for a brain?
ManageManagement : Please refrain from baseless slander of users.
And of all people, the first post was written by that old guy.
I had a feeling my luck wouldn't be great today.
The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning.
Search the gallery for 'newbie' by post + content.
Ego-searching.
You could say it's like an author searching the community for abbreviations of their own work to gauge the reactions.
Those guys must be dead or something, because they never sleep and are on the gallery 24/7, so even if I watch closely there are still plenty of posts I miss.
Nine times out of ten it's crap, but every so often something you can't afford to miss slips by as if nothing happened.
For example….
[I kinda like the newbie's field response team leader]
Author: DadIsAMartialArtist
If a Level 2-or-higher entity won't do, isn't Level 1 enough?
That's freakin' true, though.
The knack for managing them is like a muscle; if you don't use it, it atrophies.
That's why even section-chief-level guys who go back into management after a while die off quickly.
Quick judgment and response are what matter.
The team leader probably sent him there so he'd be ready for that.
And if possible, it's better for the team leader to choose.
It's easier than having headquarters shove some idle staff member at you and tell you to put them to work.
As long as the newbie isn't a troublemaker, they'll send him somewhere with a higher survival rate.
It's odd the branch doesn't have any Level 1 entities.
Usually they'd be used for household goods at least.
Anyway, make sure everyone tightens their sphincters and turns them into canal muscles.
[Comments]
Hound : If not for the last line, I'd have upvoted. Old-man vibe is freaking strong.
AutoSaveIsMandatory : In Seoul, you can pretty much assume there’s nowhere for Level 1 entities to go; the isolation rooms are already full.
PostingForCash : Since the 606 Treaty, it's standard to dump easy-to-manage entities in the provinces where land is cheap.
ㄴSettingTweaker : Can anyone explain why civil servants hate the provinces, but Bureau staff actually like them? G-
You can probably guess why the team leader had no choice but to assign work to a subordinate he actually treasures.
Even aside from that, I didn't really feel anything about it.
How could I hold a grudge for being made to work when I was below the threshold the counselor recommended anyway?
If it's not bad enough to go to the hospital, then in a company you go to work even if you're sick.
Of course, in reality, if you're that sick you still have to go in first.
If I can just get this done well, maybe they'll let me rest for a few more days somehow.
I read through the dawn posts and headed to the cafeteria.
Would be nice if I could mess around in the gallery there too.
++++
1. In the cafeteria, mobile phone use is prohibited except for answering calls.
++++
When I asked Section Chief Kwak Chun-bong, he said you only get to ignore the cafeteria rules if you use a special meal voucher.
Using a special meal voucher every time just to mess around in the gallery is a bit much.
Three hours to eat? I'd definitely be late for work.
“Good morning, Section Chief.”
“Oh, it's you. Korean today? Japanese? Chinese?”
“I'm on a business trip, so I'll just keep it simple. Western food.”
“I see. Have a good trip.”
“I'll bring back a gift.”
“Lovely.”
Greeting the section chief had become a routine by now.
[Thank you as always.]
When I pressed the button, the chef appeared and dragged away the oi-sobagi tray with the section chief's head in it.
He didn't give me a special meal voucher.
[We will keep track of the number of times.]
They say they start keeping track once you hit around ten times.
Have the others reached ten yet?
Looking around, I saw a few employees pecking at their breakfasts.
Their expressions, however, were not bright.
It felt less like they were eating and more like they were being made to eat.
More like being force-fed.
I should ask the section chief about this later too.
“Thank you for the meal.”
[Please come again.]
I finished breakfast with an over-easy egg, bacon, and syrup-drenched pancakes, then left the cafeteria.
As I stepped into the building lobby, the guard in charge of entry approached.
An old man wearing the shabby security uniform you'd expect to see at a neighborhood apartment complex.
This was the fourth time we'd met: once when I joined, twice during the trip to Eternal Life General Hospital.
Though on the hospital trip, we only exchanged greetings before my senior sent me outside, so this was actually our first real conversation.
“Hello.”
“Oh my, hello there~.”
A kindly smile returned my greeting.
“I'm Park Seong-bin from the Field Response Team. I'm here on an entity management assignment.”
“Mm-hm. Just a moment.”
The old man pulled a notebook from his chest pocket and scribbled something down.
“You're headed to the village where time stopped, yes?”
“How did you know that?”
I had said I was going on a business trip, but I hadn't said anything about the entity.
“Well, hearing it from the employee is just part of the verification procedure.”
The old man said that and tapped his own head twice with a wrinkled finger.
“The employees' schedules are already all in this old man's head.”
“You have a good memory.”
“Heh heh. If I didn't have a little trick like this, would anyone still hire me at my age?”
I wondered whether he really needed to write it in the notebook, but let it go.
There was no reason to nitpick how other people did their jobs.
If it works for him, that's enough.
“Travel safely.”
“Thank you, sir. You take care of your health too.”
After exchanging warm farewells, I stepped outside.
A massive building near the Seoul Express Bus Terminal.
That was what the Bureau building looked like from the outside.
Though inside, the Bureau was only two stories tall and ridiculously wide.
The sight of it sitting shamelessly in the middle of the city while harboring countless dangerous things left a bitter aftertaste.
By the time I got used to that sort of thing, I'd probably be a proper Bureau employee myself.
Still, I like the Bureau.
And for rides, I can choose only the good ones—deluxe, premium, whatever.
***
Fortunately, the bus wasn't suddenly dragged into some location-type entity or phenomenon-type entity and wrecked, so I slept soundly.
Andong.
The way foreigners answer questions about Korea with Kimchi! Bulgogi! Bangtan! Psy! and the like,
since it was my first time here, the only things I knew were Hahoe masks! Guksi! jjimdak! soju! salted mackerel! and that was it.
Could the village where time stopped be something like Hahoe Village?
[Me: Team Leader, is there no entity report for the village where time stopped?]
[Team Leader Lee Mina: There isn't one in the Seoul Bureau.]
[Me: Why not?]
[Team Leader Lee Mina: The village says it hates Seoul. So the report won't go through.]
[Me: I see.]
[Team Leader Lee Mina: When you get there, our team member who was sent ahead will be there, so say hello.]
[Me: Understood.]
This is weird.
How on earth are they even policing what gets recorded?
I'd find out once I arrived anyway, but every time something beyond common sense happened, it still threw me off.
Is it a bit much for an entity to step in and censor things too?
I looked at the bus timetable. The bus to Gilan-myeon, today's destination, wouldn't leave for another three hours.
Should I take a taxi, then?
With my transportation fully reimbursed, it'd make me sound like a total bastard if I said I was late because I waited for the bus.
Just as I was about to open the messenger to ask my senior what I should do,
“You're the one who came to help today, right?”
“Pardon?”
“You came from Seoul, didn't you?”
A woman with blond hair tied into a ponytail was looking at me with a bright smile.
“You're employee Park Seong-bin, aren't you?”
“Ah, yes, that's right. Did you come from the site?”
“I heard a new support person was coming, so I came out to meet you.”
Her thick Gyeongsang-do dialect with its rising lilt came straight into my ears.
“I drove, so hurry up and get in!”
The woman, brimming with enthusiasm, grabbed my arm and tugged.
It was hard to say anything, so I followed along as if being dragged unwillingly.
“Hop in!”
The vehicle she'd brought was a blue Bongo truck.
It was covered in a lot of dirt, and dents pocked the body here and there.
“Looks like the place we're going today is pretty rough.”
“Huh? I don't think so? It's a support mission.”
“Yes.”
“Then it's a total cakewalk. Thanks to that, I'll have it easy today too.”
She hummed to herself as she got into the driver's seat.
Of course, I followed her and climbed into the passenger seat of the truck.
The truck drove along a quiet road.
Warm sunlight and peaceful scenery combined to present an open, refreshing view.
“Mm-mm, mm-mm~.”
With her hands on the wheel, she kept humming something, as if she were enjoying herself immensely.
Her voice was nice enough to listen to instead of the radio, but I wanted to get some information from the gallery, so I spoke up first.
“Um….”
“Are the team leader and that girl Yu-na doing well?”
The moment I was about to ask my question, the name of a Field Response Team member popped out of her mouth.
“From what I heard, you've only met those two, right?”
“Do you know my team members?”
“Us? We? Why 'us'?”
When I turned toward her odd reaction, she was looking at me sidelong with wide eyes.
Just as I was bewildered, my answer seemed to bewilder her quite a bit as well.
If she was a field worker handling entities, wasn't she affiliated with the Gyeongsang Branch or the Andong Branch….
“Ah.”
[Team Leader Lee Mina: When you get there, our team member who was sent ahead will be there, so say hello.]
“Could you be my senior?”
“Didn't the team leader explain that I was coming to meet you?”
“She only said you'd be at the site….”
“Good grief, I told her not to pass along things so roughly….”
She shook her head back and forth and sighed.
“You don't even know my name, do you, employee Park Seong-bin?”
“W-well, not really…?”
“Oh my word… and Yu-na isn't the type to say things ahead of time either.”
The truck's speed slowed a little.
“A little late, but let me introduce myself!”
The presumably senior woman smiled brightly, revealing neat teeth.
“I'm Kang Chaeyoung from the Gwanak Branch Field Response Team~.”
“I'm Kang Chaeyoung from the Gwanak Branch Field Response Team~.”