Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 212.1

A familiar name.

Someone I already knew.

For a moment, it felt as if something inside me was surging up again…

But I did not react.

“Mr. Employee?”

Because I knew it would be unwise to reveal anything here.

……

‘Why is that?’

Suddenly, a strange sensation began to form in my mind.

It felt like dragging up an anchor from the depths of the ocean by force.

With my previous sensations lost, my scrambled brain and consciousness struggled to think as before.

‘Jang Heowoon…’

Dead.

The image of the corpse collapsed on the floor of a room in a resort.

But… Right…… As a resort staff member, he was reconstructed in a contaminated state, and Jang Heowoon was brought back.

And I…

‘I handed over the Wish Ticket.’

If the Wish Ticket really did successfully reach Jang Heowoon, and that’s why he survived.

If I was now seeing him live as a human being again.

‘……’

My broken mind reached a conclusion.

I very slowly realized that what I was feeling was relief.

A direct emotion felt for the first time in far too long, it was almost like a dull ache.

“How did you feel hearing those names? Lee Jungin, Park Yonghae…… Jang Heowoon.”

And the judgment, painfully pieced together, that letting the notorious researcher in front of me know about this would never be a wise decision.

“How is it?”

I stared at him in silence.

Kwak Jekang’s expression, so full of expectation, finally soured as my silence dragged on.

“Once again, ‘no response’, huh. I guess the memories of the sacrificial medium we used as an intermediary are meaningless… Haha, sorry about that. But as a scientist, I just have to ask these things, you know? Hahaha!”

Kwak Jekang gave an awkward little laugh, then muttered to himself as if carelessly.

“Still, I got to see something interesting today, Mr. Employee. You’ve acted just like a machine with no reactions for half a year now…”

……

Half a year?

“I hear if you have a fun event like this every six months, it keeps you from wanting to quit. Isn’t that right?”

I realized it.

It had been no less than half a year since I’d been shut away here on Basement Floor 13.

No. Had it really already been half a year?

“Eeyah~ It must have been fun. Three-person teams of obvious new hires… exploring the annex basements, with your help…!”

Kwak Jekang pressed on, subtle and persistent.

“Didn’t you feel any déjà vu? Seeing that scene, did any similar work or experience come to mind…”

Silence.

“Did you feel any sympathy?”

Silence.

“Goodness me, you really are the silent type. But then…… Why exactly did you help them?”

……

“Your assigned work area is clearly Basement Floor 13, after all. Well, I understand you used a loophole by not leaving the elevator, but still…”

Kwak Jekang’s eyes glittered with excitement.

“What was your reason for going so far to help?”

……

“Was it just because you ‘felt like it’? Or out of a sense of duty to save people?”

……

“Haha, silence is a meaningful answer too. Or is it due to confusion? I wonder if similar results would appear even with just a slight change in variables… hmm?”

I raised my hand and pointed to Room 666.

More precisely, to the old-fashioned TV in the ceiling corner.

Where the employee training video played.

“…Oh.”

And I formed a sentence with smoke.

Work Rule #17 : Cooperate with your fellow employees.

A line from the training video.

Kwak Jekang recognized it immediately, even the font.

“Aha, I see!”

The sound of the researcher hurriedly scribbling on a tablet PC filled the air.

“So it’s because of the training video. That’s… Haha, goodness. Well, shall I say gentle, or generous, or perhaps that rules and order are important keywords! I understand, Special Division Employee… Haha, yes, I get it.”

Then his pen stopped, and his voice became subtle.

“But you know, it was a bit pointless, wasn’t it? The participants you helped…”

He raised both hands in a mock surprise gesture.

“Weren’t actually fellow employees. Haha!”

……

I know.

“They weren’t new hires. They were just test subjects!”

From the start, this wasn’t even a real orientation for the Field Exploration Team.

It was a research experiment project inspired by the format, with the same name.

Experiment Name : New Employee Orientation

They were not real new employees.

Strictly speaking, they were people who had applied for entry-level positions but, for various reasons, failed the hiring process.

But the company sent them emails as if they’d passed, deceiving them.

The reason being…

“They were basically just temps recruited as samples for the experiment!”

Supplementing the civilian exploration records.

Planned in order to collect significant additional data from Darknesses in cases lacking precedent of exploration by ordinary people with no prior knowledge. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

From among the unsuccessful applicants, those whose aptitudes matched were selected and put through a simulation in a form similar to the orientation given to successful new hires.

It’s difficult for the company to arbitrarily release the Darknesses under its jurisdiction to the civilian sector.

Therefore, the company’s records of exploration are built up by the Field Exploration Team, experts in Darkness exploration.

There was, at least, the orientation program where new employees, those closest to being civilians, were exposed to Darkness. But even then, only those Darknesses that could be used to test the employees’ skills were selected.

That’s why one researcher came up with a brilliant idea.

– Let’s recycle the applicants!

There was no need to separately recruit subjects while avoiding the attention of public authorities, making it a particularly convenient time to secure experimental participants.

Of course, it’s not all just a scam.

There is a compensation that is somewhat deceptive.

Any unsuccessful applicant who successfully completes the mission in this experiment can be specially recruited into the Field Exploration Team as a regular employee.

Thus, the company’s official justification is as follows.

‘Let’s generate additional successful candidates and give them a chance to join the company.’

So, in other words…

“Well, you may end up meeting them again later as colleagues, but…”

Anyone who survives by completing the ‘mission’ in this experiment is given an opportunity to join the company, so in a sense, it essentially becomes an orientation after all.

And I know.

‘Jang Heowoon’ passed.

……

But was it really Jang Heowoon?

“Hmm. Would you like to meet again?”

Salt Goblin

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