Bailonz Street 13-Chapter 221.3

‘Hah.’

For once, Kang Yihak actually felt cold sweat trickle down her neck. She forced a smile.

And one of the yellow eyes in the smoke turned to her.

Input devices

→ Mouse (Dolphin)

→ Keyboard (Pony)

Damn.

“Yep!”

As expected, earnings come with labor!

So, Kang Yihak scrambled to grab the keyboard, dragging it down under the desk, crouching low until nearly prone.

The Bluetooth keyboard worked smoothly as well.

“I’ll pull up the desktop, so please designate the deletes, Dolphin-nim!”

Kang Yihak began hammering the Windows key + D.

She repeated it like crazy.

Sometimes a video opened first, diverting the icon click. Sometimes, just before completion, hitting the desktop key closed the deletion popup.

And the sound grew clearer.

EEEEEEEEEUUUUUUUUOOOOOOOOOODDDDOOOOOOOOOONTEEUEEEIIIIIIDEEEEEEEEEEEELEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAEEEEEEEEEEAAUUAAAUUUUUUU

Sweat slicked their hands.

Yet Lee Seonghae stayed calm.

Relying only on touch, she adjusted the pointer, carefully learning Mr. Employee’s signals to reduce error.

They could not simply select all icons with the keyboard to delete because the Recycle Bin was among them.

They had to precisely designate the proper files with the mouse, excluding the bin.

Then, Kang Yihak would hit the ‘Permanent Delete’ key.

The timing had to be right.

Before it was too late.

Repeat.

IIIIIIIIIIIIIIDOOOOOOOOONTIIIIIIIIEEEEUUUEEAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIAAAUUAAAUUUDDDEEEEEEELLLLEEEEEEEEEEEEUUUUUUAAEEEEEEEEEAAEUUUAAUEUUU

To catch exactly the files Kang Yihak had grabbed before.

So that, in that instant, the permanent delete shortcut could be triggered.

And in a single moment.

Tap.

“…!”

Lee Seonghae realized.

“……Ah.” 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

Kang Yihak’s delete key had struck at the perfect timing.

And she remembered.

The popup on the unseen monitor Mr. Employee was watching but she could not see.

Are you sure you want to

permanently delete these 6 items?

Was it correct?

Tap.

Yes.

Lee Seonghae immediately set her hand on the keyboard Kang Yihak held, mashing Enter.

And the mouse she held in her own hand, she slammed it against the floor, smashing it.

So it could never ‘accidentally’ double-click and play a video.

Then she smashed the keyboard too.

Crunch.

The sound of ragged breathing and silence filled the editing room.

…

……

“Is… it done?”

But Mr. Employee was still surrounding them in black smoke.

The monitor was hidden.

Something else had to be done…

Tap.

At that moment, a hand in a black glove extended from the smoke, pointing lightly toward the editing machine’s main unit.

Ah, the USB!

“…!”

Nearly collapsing forward, Kang Yihak rushed to the unit and yanked the USB out.

Only then did the black smoke surrounding them finally recede.

“……Huu.”

With vision restored, they straightened. The editing monitor now showed… only the blue desktop background.

No recording, no man, no bizarre lag or voice.

It was over.

The ‘Man in the Screen’ phenomenon was successfully contained inside the USB.

“Ha!”

Kang Yihak dropped to the floor.

Alive, and with money earned.

Dopamine shot through her brain’s reward center, pounding her heart. This was happiness…

But the next instant, she jolted up so hard her head struck something.

“Aahh, my apologies. I left the original files on this computer midway, that’s why it dragged out the time!”

At times like these, it was best to admit it up front. That way it passed lightly, without bigger losses or expenses later.

‘Still, I cleaned it up well enough.’

She rolled the small magnet still held in her left hand.

It was her custom equipment, which she obtained as a free perk with her promotion to supervisor. It was a tool with the ability of ‘Once per day, a 50% chance of instant unlock’.

Its flaw was that no matter how much time you poured in, if you yourself could never break the lock, this tool wouldn’t either.

But overall, it was a satisfying item.

And this time, too, it had performed!

‘If I hadn’t been able to open the case right then, I might have died, huh?’

Huuu! High risk truly does mean high return!

“And to think it ended so quickly regardless. It must be thanks to working with such capable people… and we even made extra earnings, what a blessing! I’m glad it wrapped up well!”

It was at that moment…

Mr. Employee, silent in the transport case until now, responded.

Tap, tap.

That’s a ‘no’.

Kang Yihak swallowed.

“…You don’t mean you’re displeased with the extra earnings, do you?”

Tap, tap.

“……”

“……”

Then.

What the Security Team Special Division’s Employee was denying…

“…The task isn’t finished.”

……

“We misunderstood something, didn’t we?”

Lee Seonghae’s calm voice sent a chill up Kang Yihak’s spine.

“There’s something we missed. Right?”

Tap.

“…!”

Before she could even ask what that meant—

“…Could it have been film, back then?”

“…Pardon?”

“The variety show recordings. Even into the mid-2000s, they sometimes still used film, right?”

Suddenly, Lee Seonghae spoke as she gazed into the USB.

Or rather, into the data stored within it.

“Even if it wasn’t film… the footage would never have left this place, right? Since proper editing couldn’t be done outside the editing room.”

“…Yes. That would make sense.”

Lee Seonghae raised her head.

“But now, it has left.”

“……”

Kang Yihak understood the meaning.

She had just experienced it firsthand.

The ‘man in the screen’ reacted to the act of deletion itself.

If so, if the trigger wasn’t the editing room as a place, but the act of ‘editing recorded footage’ itself, then…

– As for editing… Only urgent work that absolutely requires the equipment in here is done, and only during the day. Otherwise, we try to do it outside, either in other studios or remotely from home.

Then, every personal computer of the PBS Variety Department’s production staff that had ever handled editing.

The ‘man in the screen’ was in all those places.

As they left the broadcasting station, they began frantically calling for the Security Team.

Salt Goblin

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