Chapter 67: Response Team
"So, what do you think? Not a bad idea, right?"
"No, it's terrible."
Song A-rin cut me off sharply as she answered.
"Hey, why should I go on a filial piety trip?"
"Shh...!"
I covered Song A-rin's mouth as she spoke without hesitation. She glared at me while making muffled noises.
According to the Team Leader, even though the workshop had failed spectacularly, which was a shame, the Gangseo Branch Chief had allocated a fairly large budget for us.
It was an amount that couldn't possibly be wasted on something like a company dinner.
The rest was said to be given out as a bonus.
While sharing this happy news, I wanted to try an experiment.
"Pff...! So, why are you making us do an experiment that you could do yourself?"
"Well, I can't do it, so who else should I ask?"
"Look at how shamelessly he says that?"
The point was this.
In a short period of time, we had been caught up in too many anomalous phenomena.
Then, a thought struck me like lightning.
That's right. Maybe the problem is me?
So, if I send the other four on a trip without me, wouldn't that solve it? That was the idea I proposed.
"...Well... if that's what Jae-heon wants..."
Yu Daon smiled awkwardly.
"...Is it really necessary...?"
Jang Chae-yeon blinked as she spoke.
And Song A-rin, who gave the same answer as before.
To resolve this, sending someone else besides me should work.
"No, then why not just send them for a company dinner? Why an amusement park...!"
Song A-rin protested as if it made no sense.
"Anomalous phenomena don't happen at bars."
They hadn't happened to me either, after all.
"The way you spout such nonsense with such a straight face actually makes it believable."
Song A-rin stared at me intently, let out a low sigh, and then turned her gaze to Yu Daon and Jang Chae-yeon.
"..."
"..."
"..."
The glances of the three women crossed uncomfortably. Finally, Song A-rin let out a deep sigh and looked at me.
"...Just this once. We won't be long. We'll just go for a little while and come right back."
"...Should I go and tell him...?"
"Do that."
Yu Daon, gauging the mood, subtly asked us. When Song A-rin nodded, Yu Daon scurried over to the Team Leader and began talking to him.
"..."
Jang Chae-yeon came and stood next to me with a displeased look on her face before speaking.
"Will you come to pick us up?"
"That's not allowed either."
What if an incident breaks out while I'm going to pick them up?
"..."
Jang Chae-yeon leaned her chin on her hand sulkily. Yu Daon, having finished her conversation with the Team Leader, walked towards us with quick, short steps.
"He said... it's fine...?"
"Well, then we should go..."
Song A-rin answered with a sigh and then glared at me.
"Seriously, I'm only doing this because I'm worried about you. I wouldn't have agreed otherwise."
"Yes, thank you."
"Ugh. We'll go tomorrow, then."
And so, our day ended. The next day, the four of them, including the Team Leader, went to work at the amusement park.
The messengers from Song A-rin, Yu Daon, and Jang Chae-yeon were ringing on my phone, but since I had nothing else to do either, I was actively chatting and playing along with them.
After saying they were going to get lunch, contact from the three of them was cut off.
Just like that, no one contacted me until sunset.
<The connection could not be established->
"..."
I looked at my phone worriedly.
Outside the window, the sun was already setting.
"This won't do."
I got up from my seat.
I need to report this first.
I picked up my phone and called the Sunglasses Man.
<...What is it?>
"Are you at the Management Bureau?"
<Of course.>
I explained the whole situation to the man, and he fell silent for a moment.
<As a matter of fact, a case suspected to be a disappearance incident has been reported there, and the Response Team is about to be dispatched.>
"...What?"
What is he talking about?
<I'll connect you.>
Without even asking my opinion, the call ended.
*
The Response Team.
Those who enter regionalized or otherworldly areas, risk their lives, and create manuals or guides for those who flow into such places.
Overshadowed by the Isolation and Management Teams, it's not a place where people with exceptional abilities go.
But if you were to ask who the most stubborn people in the Management Bureau are, this team's name is always mentioned first.
Of course, when the Management Bureau selects people, they heavily consider the person's talent.
Like the Isolation Team, which selects outstanding individuals, or the Management Team, which selects those with good observation skills or who are calm—they place people where they can best utilize their abilities.
But the Response Team is different.
It's a place for those who have lost family or loved ones in other realms, for those whose beloved have been murdered, who plunge in carrying boundless grief and hatred.
A place entered based on pure will, completely unrelated to one's personal talent. A place from which you emerge either with your loved one or as a corpse.
Unfortunately, most emerge as corpses.
Lately, the name of one team had been circulating constantly within that place.
"No, so what the HR Team did was—"
"Does that even make sense? According to the story of the kid who survived the intensive care unit, that's impossible."
"But they did survive and come out."
"That's what's strange. Are you sure they really came out alive? What if their brain was completely remodeled and they've actually become a plant who's infiltrated the Management Bureau without us knowing?"
"Then would the Management Bureau have just left them alone?"
"But it doesn't make sense. Unless they have some special equipment attached to their eyes or telepathy, how is that even possible?"
"No, what I mean is—"
"So—"
"Stop it, both of you."
A young voice stopped the two.
The man and woman, who were having a heated debate, looked at a girl.
She had faded platinum blonde hair.
With a youthful impression and a small stature, but her strangely shining blue eyes, which caught the light, were as murky as those of someone who had been through countless battlefields.
Her hands constantly touched her pistol grip as if she had obsessive-compulsive disorder, and the fact that she wore a bulletproof vest even in the office made her look either insane or like someone always ready to deploy—there was no difference.
"...Team Leader."
"Regardless of how the HR Team resolved the matter, the most important thing is that they shut down the damn Gangseo University Hospital for several years."
Fluent Korean flowed from the mouth of the girl who looked unmistakably foreign.
"That alone can be called the greatest achievement by the Response Team, can't it? Or not?"
"...Yes."
The woman who had raised suspicions about the HR Team answered in a dejected voice.
"To be honest, I don't care if their brains were remodeled or not, whether they came out sane or as cripples."
That's the Management Bureau's problem. She said this while nervously fiddling with her pistol grip and then threw down a few photographs.
"What matters is the result. The result that they killed that doctor, turned half the hospital upside down, and then escaped unscathed."
She began examining the spread-out photographs.
"The skill to identify the numerous obstacles, threats, and locations of monsters hidden throughout the streets leading to Gangseo University Hospital, and to drive in directly with a single Bongo truck."
Her gaze turned to a photograph of a man with his scalp torn off.
"And the combat prowess to fight monsters on equal footing if necessary."
Her gaze shifted to a photograph of an expressionless woman with white hair.
"The wit to fight monsters using years of experience and hypnosis-like abilities that should only work on humans."
Her gaze reached a photograph of a purple-haired girl who looked irritated.
"The courage to not fear death."
She looked at a photograph of a smiling black-haired woman, and finally turned her gaze to the last remaining photo.
"And finally, the intelligence and strength to directly command all of that, deploy people in the right places, and step in personally to resolve the situation when necessary."
Her gaze fixed on the photograph of a tired-looking man with black hair.
"It's true that for a team that just hands out paychecks, they're filled with excessively talented people."
Should I go see them? As she muttered to herself, someone slammed the door open.
"Team Leader! We've received a report of a location suspected to be a new otherworldly zone!"
"Speak."
She stood up and tightened the straps of her bulletproof vest.
"It's a place called an amusement park. The entrance hasn't been found yet, but frequent disappearances of people have been reported! The Gangbuk Response Team has already been dispatched!"
Disappearances.
Her eyebrow twitched.
"Lead the way."
"Yes!"
She walked out the door with a grim expression.
When she was young, she lost her entire family in a cathedral she visited during a trip with her family.
The Management Bureau was the place that took her in. She grew up in an orphanage for the families of the missing, and from the moment she learned about the ways of the world, she dedicated herself to the Management Bureau.
How many times did she fight and record things until she vomited blood? After all the seniors above her died, she naturally became the Team Leader according to the internal rule of the Response Team: the longest survivor becomes the leader.
For the past three years, the Team Leader position had not changed.
"Grab your gear."
"Yes!"
The team members behind her rushed out in a crowd.
"..."
Her gaze turned towards the photograph of the tired-looking man, then looked forward again.
If only I had abilities like that.
Don't think bad thoughts.
She shook her head a few times and moved her steps.
Soon, the Response Team's door closed, leaving only the bright light illuminating the empty office.
*
"...Hello?"
"What's going on here?"
And then, she came face to face with the very man she had just been talking about.
The Response Team employees buzzed as they pointed at him.
"That's him..."
"Yeah, from the HR Team..."
"Wow..."
She also looked at him.
Ordinary office attire, tired expression.
He glanced briefly above her head, twitched one eyebrow, and then returned his gaze to her face.
A strange habit.
Although his glance above her head was extremely brief, she didn't miss his action. Her observational skills were the driving force that had kept her alive and coming back until now.
"...Are you the Team Leader?"
"People don't usually think I'm the Team Leader that easily."
"I guess you could call it an aura? You have a certain presence."
"If you say so. What's your business?"
"I heard that an anomalous phenomenon has occurred at the place you're heading to."
"...That's true."
"May I accompany you?"
He made eye contact with her.
"There's something I'm worried about."
"...Do you know where we're going?"
"Yes. I know."
Should I refuse? While she was pondering, her phone rang.
With a click, she flipped open her phone.
"...A feature phone...?"
She heard the man's bewildered voice but ignored it and read the message that had arrived.
[That damn sunglasses-wearing bastard]
<Take him with you.>
She took a deep sigh and looked at him.
"Fine. I don't know what you're thinking, but this might not turn out to be an easy task."
"I know."
He answered without a moment's hesitation and pulled a manual from his inner pocket.
"...Good. Then let's get in."
With a clunk, the truck door opened and he got in.
Let's see the skills of someone who survived that hell and came back alive.
Thinking that, she also followed him into the vehicle.
The truck sped off, spewing black exhaust.
The location was an amusement park in Gangbuk.
In the darkening sky above, a single moon shone brilliantly.