Chapter 2: The Basement Level, and Isolation
There’s a certain feeling in the air.
The unease you feel when you go to a place that’s just a little too quiet.
I felt it too.
“Ugh, what is this…?”
An instinctive fear. It felt as if something invisible was pressing down on me.
If I had to put it into words, it was a sense of pressure.
“What in the…”
Before I could even finish my sentence, I was shoved by an unknown force, and while I stood there dumbfounded, the elevator door swiftly closed.
“…”
Is this right?
I opened the manual again.
[Manual for Office Workers]
2-1. Proceed. No matter what is there, you must proceed.
“…”
To be honest, sometimes I wonder if this manual has a consciousness of its own. Frankly, if I were a regular office worker, I would have laughed it off as nonsense. Unfortunately, my life is far from that of a regular employee.
But these thoughts were brief, and I soon began to slowly walk forward again.
Soon, the scenery before my eyes began to warp slightly. I was clearly walking straight ahead, but my feet and body were veering to the right on their own. What was even stranger was that I perceived myself as walking straight.
It was undoubtedly an incredibly bizarre situation, but even though I’m an office worker, I am still a human working for the Management Bureau. I have a few points that are a bit different from others, too.
I closed my eyes and took step after step after step. There was no point in opening them; it would only make my senses feel more bizarre.
Thud!
“Ack!”
How long had I been walking? I ended up hitting my forehead against something solid.
I opened my eyes blearily, and the winding path was gone. All that remained before me was a single, heavy-looking iron door.
I quickly opened the manual.
[Manual for Office Workers]
2-2. Only those recognized as members of the Management Bureau through proper procedures may pass through this door. Those not recognized as members of the Management Bureau cannot open this door.
â» Attempting to force it open will result in an irreversible outcome.
“Just you wait until I find the bastard who wrote this damn manual.”
They could have just written that only authorized personnel can open it. Why did they have to add that unnecessary footnote that only serves to make you anxious?
Worry needlessly crept in.
What if I’m not an office worker of the Management Bureau who went through the proper procedures?
What if office workers, unlike field agents, are considered disposable, number one on the list, and aren't properly registered, leading to a fate worse than death?
If that's the case, wouldn't it be right to just wait here until this is all over? It's not like anyone else is going to come down to the basement anyway.
-Ding.
Then, the sound of an elevator arriving echoed from far away, and a sudden ominous feeling washed over me.
I glanced back, but perhaps because I had walked a considerable distance, the elevator wasn't visible.
But why does the sound seem so loud? A sense of unease swept over me for no reason.
“…Aish…”
No, but I’m a Management Bureau employee who even received an ID card. There’s no way I’m not an authorized person, right?
Of course I am.
I closed my eyes firmly and pushed. A bright light shone on me.
“Huh…?”
Did I screw up? Am I becoming a test subject for the Bureau’s rumored Heaven Replication Experiment?
That thought was fleeting, as what unfolded before my eyes was an ordinary office that felt completely different from the corridor.
“Ughh…”
“Are you alri— Oh, a person…?”
The only differences were a man collapsed covered in blood and a black-haired woman with a bewildered expression looking at me.
“…!”
Before I could even react, the straight-haired woman pulled a pistol from her waist and aimed it at me.
“I’m human! Human!”
Naturally, as an office worker, I wasn’t carrying any weapons. I quickly raised both hands to show I was harmless.
“Stop, rookie.”
“Team Leader…!”
“Anyone who can enter here is human. That’s how it’s designed.”
The man clutching his side took a deep breath and continued speaking. Only then did the woman hesitantly lower her gun.
“Uh, sorry about that.”
“No… I had no idea either.”
It was my first time coming down to the basement, after all.
I accepted the apology with an awkward expression and then observed the man holding his side. Seeing the blood soaking through, it looked like he’d been hit or shot by something.
I focused my eyes on the man, and a semi-transparent window soon appeared.
[Name: Park Woo-ju]
[Age: 37]
[Trait: Quick Reflexes]
[Talent: Marksmanship]
[Background: Having lived as the Security Team Leader of the Management Bureau, this man is dying after a fierce battle.]
“…”
He is dying.
At the very least, whenever I’ve seen those words in a [Background], I’ve never seen anyone escape that fate.
After seeing and feeling my ability numerous times, one of the conclusions I’ve reached is that the [Background] reflects the very near future, based on the past.
A simple example: if I look at the HR Team Leader, his [Background] is [As the head of his household, he works overtime today as well to provide a meal for his family.]
It’s a combination of the fact that he is working overtime and the fact that he has a family.
Of course, I couldn’t predict what would actually happen to the Team Leader at the hands of those… monsters. Whether he would survive, die, or be replaced by them was unknown.
Conversely, for this man, since it’s explicitly stated [is dying.], he probably doesn’t have much time left.
“Listen carefully.”
My reverie was cut short by the gasping man’s voice, and my gaze returned to him.
“We don’t know how many survivors are left in our branch right now. We don’t know exactly what happened either.”
He took one big, labored breath.
“Therefore, assuming the worst-case scenario, we must assume that the two of you, including yourself, are the only survivors capable of acting within the Management Bureau in this situation.”
“Team Leader, what are you saying…!”
The woman next to him tried to stop him, but he ignored her and continued.
“In that case, the two of you must carry out the isolation procedure. If that’s not possible, you must at least relay orders to off-duty and personnel who have left work so the situation can be resolved from the outside.”
Isolation procedure.
The only job among field operations where seniority and experience are strictly considered. The only team whose standards are never relaxed, despite people dying like flies every day. And the team with the highest salaries.
The Isolation Team.
And he’s asking me to do what the Isolation Team does?
“Um… I’m just an office worker from HR.”
“…I know.”
He made eye contact with me.
“I know.”
“…”
“Even so, if you don’t do it, there’s no one else who will. At least, that’s the case as of now.”
“Team Leader, if you talk any more…!”
Gurgle— Blood poured from his mouth, but he still stared intently at me.
“I beg you. Please…”
His gaze turned toward a spot on the wall, and my eyes followed.
<Humanity’s Last Bastion>
“Please…”
“…I understand.”
I nodded in response to his words, and soon, his body slid down limply.
“Team Leader! Team Leader!”
And soon after, he did not open his eyes again.
The woman shook his shoulders several times, but only silence answered.
Indeed, the window above his head no longer appeared.
“…He’s dead.”
Hearing that, the woman who had been shaking his shoulders finally removed her hands and stood up.
“…Will you help?”
“You mean the isolation?”
The woman and I made eye contact.
Only then did my eyes turn to her semi-transparent window.
[Name: Yu Daon]
[Age: 23]
[Trait: Immortality]
[Talent: - ]
[Background: Unable to die, she was recognized for her ability and joined the Management Bureau, but what awaited her from her very first day was a major incident.]
“…”
“…Hello?”
“Ah, yes.”
I had unknowingly become completely stunned.
Immortality? That immortality? As in, can’t die?
“…I’m Yu Daon. And you?”
“Kim Jae-heon….”
She looked at me with a suspicious expression.
“…We should go, I suppose.”
But as if it were nothing, she immediately brushed off her knees and placed her hand on the iron door.
“…Just like that?”
“…The Team Leader entrusted us with the isolation procedure.”
“We can’t just set off right away like this.”
The isolation procedure is no easy task.
It literally means using any and all means necessary to achieve isolation. To do that,
“Let’s share the information we have.”
At my words, she hesitated for a moment before starting to speak.
“…First of all, those… things… disguise themselves as humans. So they make it impossible to tell who is an ally and who is an enemy, and then they suddenly attack from within.”
She bit her lip tightly.
"The problem is… we have no way of knowing who they are. That’s why so many people died. The Team Leader and I barely managed to escape.”
“…I see.”
So that’s what it meant—wearing human skin.
“Then, if we just know who ‘it’ is, can we solve the problem?”
Contrary to my hope, Yu Daon shook her head.
“Not exactly… but if we know who the enemy is, it would at least make dealing with things a bit easier, right?”
“Then there’s nothing to worry about.”
Yu Daon looked at me with a puzzled expression, but I was confident.
“I have a pretty good eye for people.”
How good? Good enough to distinguish between humans and non-humans.