Chapter 174. Beneath the Surface (5)
It was 9:00 PM, an hour too late to be calling people out or answering someone else’s summons. Perhaps that was why those who trickled in were filled with confusion and suspicion.
A man and woman from Brazil tilted their heads as they asked some questions.
“What’s this about?”
“We’re all gathering tomorrow anyway. Why are you calling us in tonight?”
[All training courses have been completed.]
[Tomorrow morning at exactly 9:00 AM, the Job Market will open to determine the departments of all new employees.]
[Please select your desired department in advance!]
Since a big event was happening tomorrow anyway, they couldn’t understand why they couldn’t just gather then and decide together.
“Yeah, it’s already late.”
“Is there some kind of announcement?”
Those arriving one by one began nodding in agreement.
However, Eun-Ho knew this had to be tonight. “There’s something you need to know before choosing your departments.”
“What is it? Don’t make us nervous!”
“Yeah! Tell us. What do we need to know?”
Eun-Ho carefully observed those entering late in casual clothes. “We’ll start in one minute. Looks like most people are here.”
Among them was a woman who came in still wearing her outdoor clothes, biting her nails.
“Why do you keep dragging people around—huh?!” She lifted her head anxiously, then shouted in shock and ran forward. “Ben!”
That man was one of the people taken to the Operations Bureau along with the Swear-Master. He was a member of the American group, with dark blond hair and green eyes. However, he was not particularly large for a Westerner.
They look alike, Eun-Ho thought.
Judging by their similar features, Eun-Ho thought that they had to be family. The woman seemed utterly disheveled, drenched in sweat, as if she’d been searching nonstop for those who hadn’t returned.
“Ben?! Is that really you, Benjamin?!”
The Americans who ran after her were just as soaked with sweat.
“What’s going on?! Why do you have Ben?!”
The woman rushed to his side, urgently assessing his condition. She checked his breathing, felt for a heartbeat, and lifted his eyelids.
Then, the next moment, all eyes turned toward Eun-Ho.
“Huh? What happened?”
“Did the new employee representative do something to him?”
Small murmurs gathered, growing until the Banquet Hall was filled with noise. Three people laid stretched out on the reception-room sofa Ji-Eun had moved here. People formed a circle around them.
Latecomers hurried in, wondering what was going on.
“Looks like almost everyone’s here, Hyungnim,” Jae-Hyuk whispered.
Eun-Ho nodded, lifted his head, and said, “Thank you for coming.”
“Answer us first! Why are these people like this?”
“These three failed today’s trial and were transferred to the Operations Bureau.”
“... I knew it.”
“And—”
The blond woman bit down again on her already torn, bloodied lower lip. “If they were at the Operations Bureau, then...”
“So they must have failed the trial.”
“But then how are they here?”
After a brief hesitation, Eun-Ho decided to tell them what happened, as everyone would find out eventually. “They were about to be subjected to acts so horrific I don’t even want to put them into words.”
As soon as he finished, unrest rippled through those who had been half in doubt.
“The video!”
“What?”
“The one that went up on the anonymous board earlier! You showed us!”
“So that was real?”
“So that’s why they’re unconscious?”
“That’s insane.”
“That could have happened to us too!”
Countless what-ifs and fears spread like small waves.
Then, from the center of those ripples, the woman asked, “Then how did they come back?”
She wasn’t asking whether the corruption was real or not, so Eun-Ho answered plainly, “I brought them back.”
It was just those words with no embellishment. After a brief silence, the woman bowed her head. “I owe you.”
With that, the truth of what had happened and the expose video swept through the Banquet Hall. Shock poured over the once-quiet area.
“What?!”
“There are lunatics like that?!”
“Holy shit, was it just those guys, or are there tons of people like that at the Operations Bureau?”
Despite knowing there were trial penalties, no one had imagined anything this extreme. Understandable, as that penalty hadn’t been attached to every OJT trial.
“Up until now, only two trials had penalties.”
“Two?”
“That’s right! Only the Investigation Bureau and the Management Bureau!”
The first was the Investigation Bureau trial, the very first department they’d been assigned to during OJT.
[Trial: Copy the Regular Observation Report.]
[Progress: 0/100 copies]
[Rewards: 1 Point and 1,000 Welfare Points]
[Failure Consequence: Department Transfer(Personnel → Operations)]
Perhaps because it was their first trial, it was designed to be foolproof. If they just followed instructions, they would succeed.
Eun-Ho himself had nearly caused a disaster when that scheming jackass destroyed the copier, but everyone else had been different. They were responsible for cleaning, making coffee, and typing reports, which were all ordinary tasks.
Then, the second was the trial at their final department, the Management Bureau.
[Trial: Identify Observer Needs and Activate an Appropriate Trial.]
[Time Limit: 1 hour]
[Donation Goal: 10,000 Points]
[Rewards: 2 Point and 2,000 Welfare Points]
[Failure Consequence: Department Transfer(Personnel → Operations)]
The trial was to use the Eye to grind down temporary contract workers and draw donations from the observers. Unlike the Investigation Bureau, this one clearly carried the risk of failure, which raised an obvious question.
“Why were those two trials the only ones with such terrifying penalties?”
There wasn’t any penalty for the Audit Bureau nor at Sales, people thought.
“Yeah... What makes them special?”
“They seemed similar to the others.”
Yet from the company’s point of view, there was something special about them.
“The Investigation Bureau trial was the first task we received after joining the company. It was simple work anyone could do, which was meant to filter out those who wouldn’t follow the company’s guidelines,” Eun-Ho explained.
It was just like those ridiculous questions during the Character Evaluation. There was a time when they asked if they ever wanted to set something on fire. Also, they made interns and new hires do grunt work instead of important tasks, just to test their attitude.
“T-then what about the last trial? Why was that one so important?”
“Because that’s the core of what the company wants from us,” Eun-Ho explained.
More precisely, that was the kind of people the company wanted them to become.
“They want employees who can do anything for results, even if that means driving people they shared meals with a week ago straight to their deaths.”
A heavy silence fell over the room. Some flinched when their eyes met his. Dry swallows echoed here and there.
“Anything...”
“And they wanted us to feel that this is what happens when we drop in rank and when we become temporary contract workers.”
On top of that, the company probably wanted them to taste the sweet authority that came with rank.
“They want to turn us into people just like those administrators.”
Ding!
The moment the words left his mouth, his title activated.
[The Multi-Level Marketer title effect has been activated.]
[Your voice gains increased credibility.]
A gentle breeze stirred inside the sealed hall. The air flowing from Eun-Ho’s mouth spread like a thin ribbon of smoke through the crowd.
“Yeah. That makes sense.”
“Right? I feel like I’ve already started getting numb...”
“Honestly, we were inputting trials like we were possessed.”
It’s working, Eun-Ho thought.
Whether it was the title effect, or the shock of the video they had seen earlier, he didn’t know. Either way, now was the moment to share the words he’d been wanting to say all along.
“Up until now, we were being coerced with our lives on the line. But that’s over. There’s no need to follow the company’s wishes anymore.”
“But if we don’t, the system will punish us!”
“Not necessarily.”
What the company wants from us and what the system wants look the same at a glance, but they’re completely different, Eun-Ho thought.
Otherwise, there’d be no reason for him to unlock a trait like Rebel, which was of no benefit to the company at all. Also, there was also no reason for an order to punish corrupt employees to come down as a hidden trial.
That means one thing: the system is not the company, Eun-Ho thought.
“So you’re saying don’t do what they tell us?”
“Then what are we supposed to do?”
“We can’t just not do the trials!”
Of course, Eun-Ho couldn’t expect to convince everyone. He hadn’t even hoped for that much. They weren’t naïve enough to follow him just because he said a few convincing words.
“So, which department are you planning to go to?”
“Yeah! We need to know where it is before we decide whether to follow you or not!”
There is a way. A plan that would make two-hundred percent use of that voucher. But, now is not the right time, Eun-Ho thought.
[Department Selection Ticket(Single Use)]
- Write the name of the department you wish to join and submit it. Then, you will be assigned accordingly.
If the company caught wind of it, they would block his options in advance.
“It won’t be easy. You might get branded a troublemaker and face sanctions. You may even regret choosing a harder path,” he said calmly, but with as much conviction as he could muster. “But even so, If you want to live like a human being instead of dancing to the company’s tune, it won’t be a losing choice.”
Another gentle breeze swept over the murmuring crowd. He knew the road ahead wasn’t neatly paved and ready to walk. A tempting murmur rippled through the hall like a wave.
“What? You want us to follow you to your department, Young Man?”
“Well, I’d be fine with that.”
“I’m in, Hyungnim!”
“Me too!”
“That’s because—”
Just as Eun-Ho was about to drive the final nail, Oliver cut in with an objection. “How can we trust that? I find you more suspicious. You’ve taken every benefit there is including the Employee of the Year and all that.”
It was the Giant he’d encountered before, during the relay trial at the training center and again during the siege.
“Come on, think about it. That title suggests he’s the one who followed the company’s orders best. And now he’s saying we shouldn’t follow orders? Something’s not right.”
No wonder the man had seemed displeased for a long time. Clearly, he’d been waiting for the right moment to push back.
“Ah.”
The crowd parted, opening a path between the Giant and Eun-Ho.
Then, down that path, Eun-Ho answered without hesitation, “You don’t have to trust me.”
“See? Even you admit—”
“Because someone who stabs others in the back only ever sees backstabbers.”
“What?”
Eun-Ho had been waiting for this.
Employee of the Year Channel Not Recommended
This channel kept getting recommended, so I checked it out, but honestly, it wasn’t very fun. If you want to watch a death game, I’d rather recommend other rookie channels. The contract employees bashing each other’s heads in and killing each other are way more intense, and time flies by.
#EmployeeOfTheYear #Boring #NotRecommended
#RookieChannelRecommendation #DeathGame
#E13-OLV-19
Oliver was the guy who’d shamelessly manipulated review posts to promote his own channel. The letters OLV from #E13-OLV-19 suggested Oliver.
[Subject Oliver]
- Gigantification(Lv. 12)
- Hardening(Lv. 5)
It was a name Eun-Ho clearly remembered from using the Third Eye, right before dumping him into the Sand Swamp during the siege.
“If you want to watch a death game, I’d rather recommend other rookie channels,” Eun-Ho quoted a line from Oliver’s post.
Oliver, the Giant’s eyes widened then quickly narrowed again.
“The contract employees bashing each other’s heads in and killing each other are way more intense, and time flies by,” said Eun-Ho.
Oliver wavered for a moment, then forced his composure back.
“So what?” Oliver even let out a scoff as he countered. “Do you have proof that I wrote it?”
“Do you really need proof?”
“Of course I do! Maybe I just thought it was boring as hell!”
“Hmm. Well. You sure know a lot, considering I never said it was a post.”
Oliver flinched, struck clean through. His lips trembled and his face went pale like a rat cornered with nowhere left to run. Under the weight of accusing stares, he seemed ready to lunge forward. “You bastard!”
“What should we do, Eun-Ho?”
“I’ll drag him out. Leave it to me.”
“No.”
It didn’t matter.
“If Oliver hears it straight from Ben, he will believe it.”
***
“... Pyeong!”
Blazing sunlight poured down yet the air was dry, not sticky in the slightest. The streets were packed no matter where one looked.
“Tae-Pyeong!”
Amid the noisy bustle, he opened his eyes. “Huh? Mom?”
Tae-Pyeong looked up at the woman calling his name as she grabbed his hand. For some reason, he had to crane his neck far higher than usual. The sensation felt familiar and yet strangely foreign.
“Why does he look so spaced out?”
“Haha, let him be. As long as he doesn’t get lost, we’re good.”
“Still!”
The memory of looking up at his large, easygoing father followed naturally.
“Wow, look at that! The Hollyweed sign!”
“Should we take a picture?”
“Sounds good! Tae-Pyeong, come here!”
They took photos beneath the HOLLYWEED sign. They walked along streets embedded with handprints, his parents’ hands clasping his on either side.
“Well, Honey, Tae-Pyeong says he wants to be a film director someday.”
“Oh yeah? What kind of movies?”
“Something with heroes in them. He loves heroes, superheroes and all that.”
His young, healthy mother lowered her gaze shyly. “He says he likes heroes who are cool like you.”
His father, just as young and healthy, asked with a grin he could barely suppress, “What? Is that so, Myung Tae-Pyeong?”
Tae-Pyeong hesitated. “Um...”
He tilted his heavy head slightly, then straightened it again.
“Was it because of Father?”
It was strange. That was true but why did it feel like something was missing? There was something he had to remember, something important.
“Oh my, what’s wrong with him? He said he liked heroes because they’re like you, honey.”
“Haha, this kid. So when did you start having such adorable thoughts?”
The boy thought for a moment, then said, “Well, it all started when...”
He groped for a memory that felt both his and not his own. Then, as the words left his lips, a piercing warning sound stabbed into his ears, tearing his thoughts to shreds.
Beeeeeeep!
He flinched.
“J-just now... That sound was...”
Panic set in and his mind felt like a tangled ball of yarn abandoned by playful cats.
“Tae-Pyeong.” His father said, but he sounded old now. “Your friend is calling you.”
“Friend?”
Then, a violent wind swept through.
Swoooooosh—
It tore away his father, his mother, the Hollyweed sign, every shop and street around him leaving only him behind.
Whooom—
Then, he fell in front of a vast, circular building. There were people who seemed like they belonged strolling through Hollyweed streets. At the center, one person was standing upright.
“Swear Mast—no, I mean, Myung Tae-Pyeong.”
There was a stranger collapsed in a red chair.
Ah. That was me, Myung Tae-Pyeong thought.
[You are facing the Ghost Butcher.]
“I don’t need trash items. Take them back.”
[You are responding to the Butcher’s edict]
Clack!
The man’s words clamped onto Myung Tae-Pyeong’s ankle like weighted shackles. Then, they dragged him down. He was growing heavier by the second.
“And.”
Just as the weight became unbearable, just as he turned to flee, the man’s eyes snapped open at those final words.
“... Fuck. I really thought I was going to die.”