Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 216.3

In that instant.

[……]

[So… that’s what you’ve become curious about?]

The researcher’s voice turned exceedingly soft.

As if he wanted to act affable.

[Naturally, I should answer. But… this is the first time you’ve been curious about something not required for the task, so… is there perhaps nothing else you want to ask in relation?]

[Any question at all is fine…]

As if he wanted me to dig out something more.

[Why not ask whatever your heart leads you to? It doesn’t have to be task-related!]

……

I drew with smoke.

Cost inquiry : Task relevance present

→ Issue of efficiency

[…Eh?]

Task variations depending on cost

: Possibility of triggering caller’s aggression or sudden behavior

[Huh?]

I kindly attached an example phrase.

Sample phrase : Money’s worth

After a silence.

[……Ah.]

[That… right. Well, I suppose… so?]

The researcher’s voice, deflated and a little flustered, came through the speaker. 𝕗𝚛𝚎𝚎𝐰𝗲𝗯𝗻𝚘𝚟𝚎𝗹.𝕔𝐨𝕞

[Um… most caller-employees don’t actually understand the costs, so it usually doesn’t get to that point.]

[And the cost is rarely money. …It’s labor.]

……

[This caller will most likely be processed as working at a branch office for several years.]

A branch office?

The branch offices of Daydream Inc was a setting not described concretely in the wiki.

[Well, isn’t that fine? He’d even get extra pay for getting assigned elsewhere.]

For a moment, a spark of something like worry—or curiosity—flashed through my head, but it soon sank beneath the mush of broken thoughts.

Because in my mind, the notification that work hours had ended was already ringing.

– Your work shift has ended. Your work shift has ended. Your work shift has ended…

[…Oh dear. Has it gotten so late already? Then, I’ll see you tomorrow, Mr. Employee!]

The speaker clicked off.

And so, in an instant, the chamber I was in fell into a soundless stillness.

……

I sat on the bed.

The training videos no longer played.

In the space made to resemble a company dorm room, silence spread. On the bookshelf, a few books. On the desk, a laptop.

But all were props. Nonfunctional.

They could not be interacted with.

Here, until the next shift arrives… I cannot work.

Quietly…

Knock, knock.

…!

“Um, is it alright… if I come in?”

I turned toward the iron door.

Someone was standing outside.

Not just standing. Soon, I heard the soft sound of the iron door being opened…

Security Team.

The man in the badger mask, and the guard sergeant.

My teammates.

“Sorry we’re late. Took a while to wash up.”

From outside, other Security Team members closed the iron door.

But they did not leave.

“…Hey, listen.”

The man in the badger mask held something out to me.

A thick, heavy rectangular object.

“I got permission to bring this in! The sergeant said something like this should be fine, and yeah, it really was.”

A book.

12 Must-Read Classics for Young Adults.

“…I figured you’d be bored.”

……

I accepted it.

The people sitting across from me seemed to smile with genuine joy…

“And also… listen.”

His voice sounded slightly tense.

“I, uh, I was thinking… would it be okay if we called you Roe Deer? At least when it’s just us?”

……

“T-The sergeant said it would be fine…”

“Yeah…… if it’s not work hours, an informal designation is allowed……”

……

Affirmative

“…! Great.”

From beyond the mask came the sound of a smile.

And then he sat down beside me.

“…You did well on your first Security Team shift, Roe.”

……

The hand that habitually reached toward my head fell back down.

Because there was no form of hair to ruffle.

……

I raised both hands.

“Roe?”

A dull desire.

A desire I had not felt since signing my labor contract, surfacing dimly and coarsely from deep below…

The desire to have a similar form.

The desire to interact in the same way.

A desire that felt like it wanted to be expressed in such words.

“W-Wait just a sec. Hey…!”

I covered my form with smoke.

But I did not know how to create it.

Like how one cannot learn how to breathe, what had once been instinctive could not be reproduced artificially. I groped over my face. Bone, rubber, silhouette, and a throat that did not exist. Nostalgia Candy that could no longer be consumed…

……

Nostalgia.

Request

“Huh?”

“…What kind?”

I completed the sentence.

Request :

Nostalgia Kitty

“…!!”

The two Security Team members shot to their feet at the same time.

Because they understood the meaning implied in that request.

“W-Wait… Hold on, Sergeant?”

The sergeant was already gone outside the iron door.

And as if to disregard the immense distance to the rental storage front desk and the entire security clearance process in between, he returned in an astonishingly short time.

In his hand was the requested item.

“…Here.”

Onto my outstretched hand fell a red thread-like item, pale from the bony hand that held it.

An item in the form of red yarn.

Nostalgia Kitty

The very same item once used after rescuing Supervisor Park Minseong when he had gotten contaminated in the ‘Hungry Hangman’ ghost story.

Its effect was…

When worn, it fixes the target into the form of their body and mind at their healthiest point in the past ten years.

The more severe the subject’s mutation, the faster the yarn breaks.

I accepted the Nostalgia Kitty.

And wrapped it around my neck.

Salt Goblin

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