Chapter 57
The weekend one week into my vacation, right at its midpoint.
I lay on my bed, tossing a single golden apple into the air and catching it.
The reward they had said they would give me at the disciplinary committee—one grade higher than usual.
+++
[Entity Report]
Golden Apple
Grade: Level 1
Classification: Entity-type
‘Golden Apple’ is a fruit-type entity harvested once every five years from the ‘Golden Apple Tree’ discovered on Mount ■■■■ in Greece.
The Management Bureau awards this entity only to executive-level personnel or employees who have achieved outstanding results.
When the ‘Golden Apple’ is consumed, the subject’s physical condition is restored to the healthiest state the body can currently reach.
The confirmed effects are as follows.
Recovery from bodily defects, removal of chronic illnesses, removal of bodily contamination caused by entities
, recovery from chronic fatigue and nerve damage, etc.
However, the ‘Golden Apple’ does not appear to reverse the subject’s age itself.
The effect of this entity is limited to restoring the “optimal state of health based on the subject’s current age and physical condition”; no rejuvenating or life-extending effects have been confirmed.
※ As cases of older employees consuming it incorrectly and filing complaints have occurred repeatedly, the personnel responsible for issuing it must inform recipients of this fact.
The ‘Golden Apple’ is currently not used for general treatment because its harvest is extremely limited.
Whether to issue the entity is decided after review by Management Bureau Headquarters, and unauthorized transfers and sales are prohibited.
.
.
.
+++
[I got this—is it any good?]
Author: GalleryingIsEasy
[Photo of the Golden Apple]
I didn’t do anything special; they just gave it to me after I went on a few missions. Is it any good?
I did hear an explanation, but all they told me was that there’s no medicine for the passage of time. Sob sob.
I’d like the gallery bros to explain it to me ^^
[Comments]
Oh,PushItIn: Ah, why is that last line making my heart flutter?
ㄴEntityFucker: Get a grip. That bastard’s a dick.
ㄴOh,PushItIn: If all you’re looking at is the typing, then anyone who talks femininely could be a woman, right?
BlackMagicSurgerySurgerySurgery: They gave you that? You can’t even see one unless you’re branch-director level.
WhiteHacker: You can craft a Golden Apple by placing an apple in the center of a crafting table and surrounding it with gold ingots!
SettingFanficModder: Living tip—the Golden Apple has the same effect but tastes better if you blend it.
ㄴI’mTrappedAtHome: How do you know that, Brother Namgung?
PaidToPostOnTheGallery: I managed several Level 4 entities just to get one of those, and they wouldn’t give it to me, but they’re putting it in that guy’s mouth….
LastGentleman: My back is aching,,,, so,,,, would you be willing to share some,,,,?
An extra life in a situation where my life could be lost at any moment.
It would be unavoidable if I died before eating it, but simply having an extra life guaranteed felt like an enormous insurance policy.
The problem was that even with a Golden Apple, my life didn’t seem likely to get much longer.
“It’s a shitty little company….”
Even taking the human-rights-waiver track into account, I had received virtually none of the basic training a new hire was supposed to get.
From the moment I joined, the overall picture the Management Bureau had presented was….
It was utterly unlike anything a bureau managing countless entities should have been capable of showing.
People were dying in rituals, yet they demanded an infiltration and offered only half-hearted support on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
Even when the Entity Liberation Headquarters’ involvement was all but certain, the Management Bureau took no action and merely watched the hall master.
It had even displayed its incompetence during the surveillance, failing to discover what had killed the hall master.
It was strange even now: despite confirming the true nature of Bonhyang Haewondang through Yoo Se-chan’s report, they still hadn’t taken action against the remaining branches.
At least according to what Yuna had told me, that was the full extent of the Management Bureau’s response.
No… even a shitty little company wouldn’t do this, would it?
That was what I’d been thinking until yesterday. I’d even left a post in the gallery moderator’s guestbook.
Bzzzzzt—!
[Team Leader Imina: I left the spare computer on and went home~. The passwords for the encrypted files are stuck to the monitor~.]
[Me: Isn’t security pretty lax?]
[Team Leader Imina: Sometimes analog methods are better~. Don’t connect it to the Internet, okay? I spent an entire day typing everything out by hand, one piece at a time~.]
And now it was time to find out how far my suspicions were on the mark.
[Report of an explicit image uploaded to the gallery that violates the Child Sexual Abuse Prevention Act]
Author: GalleryingIsEasy
I’m writing this here because if I post it in the gallery, you’ll just say “secret post” among yourselves again and leave me out.
I get that there’s a problem with the Seoul-area Management Bureau, like WhiteHacker said.
I get that the Management Bureau Gallery wasn’t created by coincidence.
And I get that you’re helping me because you want something.
So explain what the problem is and how I’m supposed to cooperate.
But if it’s some “do it for the sake of the world” bullshit, I’m not doing it.
I don’t care about noble causes. I’ll just keep living like this.
Reply in the guestbook with a private post, not in the comments.
***
A conversation I’d had with Imina at Yeondoo High School.
‘Could you explain the scientist Madnificent to me?’
‘Unfortunately, I can’t say it in my own words.’
‘But after we get out, I might accidentally leave my computer on this weekend, so remember that, okay?’
If I hadn’t been sent on missions or stuck in a hospital room every weekend, it wouldn’t have taken me this long to look through the records.
It had taken time to obtain the information, but on the other hand, there was more to investigate now, so perhaps I could call it a blessing in disguise.
Creeeeak.
The office on a weekend when no one was around.
The Management Bureau did its best to respect weekends. Manager Kwak Chun-bong didn’t come in to the cafeteria, after all.
That only applied to some teams, though; apparently, the rest had rotating days-off schedules.
A Management Bureau where the Information Team took weekends off? As if such a thing could exist.
After I went a little farther inside, I could see Imina’s desk.
And the unfamiliar computer newly installed in the corner of her desk.
The monitor, its frame plastered with Post-it notes, displayed a desktop packed with folders because no one had bothered to organize it.
I wondered what I should check first, then a familiar word caught my eye. My name.
[Personnel File Park Seong-bin.pdf]
The first page of the file I opened absentmindedly was no different from an ordinary company résumé.
A page about me, along with details like my education and certifications.
The problem was that I’d never written a résumé like this.
The only document I’d received on the day a Management Bureau employee came to find me was a single sheet of paper.
A pledge explaining the human-rights-waiver track.
It said I agreed to work as a Management Bureau employee in exchange for having every problem I’d encountered in society resolved.
Then what was the personnel file in front of my eyes?
I opened the gallery, but there was nothing in the guestbook. Except—
[ManageManagement: Confirmed. I’ll upload it to the guestbook as soon as I’m finished.]
I knew that the moderator had seen it. I’d get a reply while I was in the office.
I turned my attention back to the personnel file that was mine, but somehow not mine, yet seemed like mine.
The record of my activities at the Management Bureau that poured out from the next page onward was even more absurd.
[Management Bureau Basic Training: Completed]
[Security Training: Completed]
[Mental Contamination Response Training: Completed]
[Personal Protective Equipment Issued: Complete]
[Advanced Training on Location-Type Entities: Completed]
[Field Response Team Manual: Completed]
All I had received was a brief orientation from Manager Kwak Chun-bong.
The contents of the list of operations I had supposedly participated in were even more absurd.
[Participation in Backrooms Management Operation: Voluntary]
When the hell did I do that, you crazy bastards?
The documents on this computer had been typed up by Imina herself.
Imina was the one who had personally led ten people on the human-rights-waiver track, myself included, into the Backrooms.
[Me: Team Leader, didn’t you notice anything strange while typing this?]
[Team Leader Imina: No? If something seemed strange, I would have told you beforehand. Why?]
[Me: Did I really volunteer for the Backrooms operation?]
[Team Leader Imina: Yes. That’s what it says right there, isn’t it?]
My finger stopped above the screen.
[Me: The problem isn’t what’s written. You personally took ten people on the human-rights-waiver track, including me, there.]
[Team Leader Imina: That’s right.]
[Me: Don’t you find that strange?]
Her reply came immediately.
[Team Leader Imina: What do you mean?]
Apparently, WhiteHacker’s answer that there was something wrong with the Seoul-area Management Bureau couldn’t be reduced to “one of the branch directors is incompetent.”
[Team Leader Imina: I know that something seems strange. So look carefully through the records.]
She knew only that something was off. It was strange, but only up to that point.
I thought I now understood why Team Leader Imina hadn’t been able to answer at Yeondoo High School.
She knew there was a problem, but couldn’t identify for herself what had gone wrong or how.
Rather than thinking she was incompetent, I found myself thinking once again that my team leader was different.
Because none of my seniors on the Field Response Team or anyone else in the Management Bureau sensed anything strange at all.
Feeling that looking at my own records any longer would be a waste of time, I checked the other personnel files and operation records.
The records that followed were the most recent.
[Bonhyang Haewondang Infiltration Support Personnel: 16 assigned]
[Emergency Rescue Team on-site standby: Complete]
[Seoul Hall Master’s Residence Infiltration Target: Identified]
[Bonhyang Haewondang-affiliated Branches Closed: Complete]
Judging by the paperwork alone, they’d provided some amaaazing support and follow-up.
The case of the ‘Forest of the Faceless’ was likewise packed with containment measures and follow-up actions I had never heard of before.
Not one line mentioned the Yeongdeungpo-gu Field Response Team that had died before we were sent in.
According to the documents, they had never participated in managing the forest in the first place.
The strange thing was that for operations where they had traveled to the provinces, the beginning, middle, end, and follow-up matched what I knew.
What was going on? What was the difference?
In the midst of my tangled thoughts, a seemingly unrelated conversation suddenly came to mind.
[Me: Team Leader, isn’t there an Entity Report for the Village Where Time Stopped?]
[Team Leader Imina: Not at the Seoul-area Management Bureau.]
[Me: Why not?]
[Team Leader Imina: They say the village hates Seoul. So it doesn’t send in reports.]
‘Come to think of it, senior.’
‘What is it?’
‘I heard Seoul can’t view the Entity Report for the Village Where Time Stopped.’
Just as my thoughts began chasing one another and I was on the verge of grasping some kind of thread—
Bzzzz!
The gallery app’s notification chimed. A private post had appeared in the guestbook.
[Truth]
A Pandora’s box I couldn’t possibly leave unopened.