Surviving Restructuring

“So.” Eun-Ho brushed the feathers off his clothes as he asked, “You’re the Management Bureau’s Crow?”

The crow burst into a hearty laugh with its beak wide open. “Kahahahaha! Correct!”

“You look different from last time,” Eun-Ho said.

Very different. So different that it’s absurd to even compare. The size, presence, everything. Honestly, it feels like they aren’t even the same species.

“Last time?” The crow fluttered its wings and cocked its head. “Ah! You mean the Conquest of Red Plain?”

“The Red Plain?”

“Yeah! The red field!”

Red field...? What’s that? Eun-Ho thought.

[Just win against the people standing here on this red field.]

“Ooooh!”

It was referring to the red lane of the arena during the Memory Trial, when it had possessed Eun-Ho’s body.

The crow seemed to recall the same scene, clicking its beak thoughtfully. “If only we’d taken down the Golem, it would’ve been perfect.”

“I said it wasn’t a Golem. It was a car.”

“Indeed. A Car Golem!”

“Ha...”

“Back then, only the soul moved. Of course it looks different.”

So, does that mean the soul took the form of a burly general, while the body was that of a crow? Then that explains why the crow had been obsessed with “bodies” from the start, and why it had wanted to brawl with everyone it met.

“Ha ha ha ha! Warm up? Warm up my body?”

[Is that really that funny?]

“Of course it’s ridiculous to tell me to warm up my body!”

Was that why it treated the other players like Skeleton Soldiers and mimicked every move of mine?

“He’s out of his mind. Why’d he make us wear numbers?”

“Right?! Did you see him? One guy couldn’t remember his number and he made him do push-ups equal to it.”

“God, I’m number 81. I would’ve died.”

“So what I saw back then was your true self?” Eun-Ho asked.

Having lost its body, it was probably forced by circumstance to take the shape of a crow.

“Correct,” the crow replied in an unusually subdued voice, followed by rough, clicking caws.

“... Still, you look impressive. Your feathers even have a nice sheen to them,” Eun-Ho said.

“Hmph, hmph! Of course they do! Even if I look like this, haven’t I conquered this entire forest?” the crow replied proudly.

“That’s nice. You really are amazing. You’re the best,” Eun-Ho said.

That aside, the crow had been rolling its eyes around ever since a moment ago, as if it wanted something. Therefore, Eun-Ho asked if it had something to say.

“I’m perfectly fine!” What came back was a completely unrelated answer. “So don’t worry and go ahead and ask!”

“... Ask what?” Eun-Ho asked.

“A signature, of course!”

It had likely overheard him mention earlier that he identified the client by their signature.

Well, if you’re offering, I’ll take it but still a crow offering for a signature?

On top of that, its name was Il Dong, which was surprisingly normal.

[Name - Il Dong]

“Your name is pretty cool,” Eun-Ho said.

“Indeed! If we’re friends, you may call me Dong for short!”

- Affiliation: Management Bureau

- Rank: Manager

“And you’re even a manager?” Eun-Ho asked in disbelief.

“Ha... Is that not a tragic thing? Just a measly manager.”

Actually, it sounded pretty impressive to Eun-Ho. Wasn’t the crow completely surpassing the limits of its species?

“When I see weaklings lording it over me... hmph, what can one do? A true general must endure moments like these, even when their insides burn with rage. Wouldn’t you agree?”

“Y-yeah, I guess?” Eun-Ho replied hesitantly.

“Remember this well, my friend. There are times when you must keep your enemy alive, all for the day you finally slit their throat!”

To think he’d live to see the day he received career advice from a crow. How ridiculous.

“Is this ink?” the crow asked.

“Huh? Oh, yeah,” Eun-Ho answered.

Whether Eun-Ho was lamenting his life choices or not, the crow moved briskly. Dabbing ink onto its wings feathers, it swept them across the signature form Eun-Ho handed over. Instead of a thumbprint, it left behind a feather mark.

Huh? Wait a second. This feels strangely familiar. Don’t tell me...

Eun-Ho spread the crow’s signed form next to the hand-printing form. Then, he saw the stain that both had in common. It was a smudge, as if someone had wiped across it with a sleeve or a broom.

When Yul had first handed over her coloring sheet, it had already been there, so he’d assumed it was just an accident.

So that was the crow’s feather mark?

The hint had been hiding in plain sight from the very beginning. Just not the kind of hint anyone could realistically guess.

Eun-Ho let out a hollow laugh.

“Looks like the sharp little kid didn’t notice that either, huh?” the crow teased.

As Eun-Ho chuckled to himself, the researcher calmly puffed on a freshly lit cigarette. “I had no idea at all. If you were trying to surprise us, you succeeded.”

It was a massive success because his scalp still felt numb.

As Eun-Ho unconsciously furrowed his brow, the woman curled her lips into a grin. “Let me properly introduce myself again. My name is Ayasa. Nice to meet you, kids.”

Swear-Master, who had been staring at her in disbelief, exploded. “Ayasa? That’s not the same name as the informant!”

“It was all bullshit, dumbass.”

Swear-Master clutched the back of his neck. “D-dumbass?!”

Honestly, just looking at her, it’s obvious she is out of his league, so why poke the bear? Eun-Ho thought.

“T-then was everything a lie from the start? Did you even have a reason to tip us off in the first place?”

“No, that part was real. My kids were having a rough time because of those money-grubbing pests, so they reported it behind my back. I only found out later, and when I heard it was you, I figured it worked out just fine and came myself.”

My kids? Behind her back?

“Are you really a researcher?” Eun-Ho asked.

Ayasa shrugged, a cigarette butt pinched between her fingers. “I am. Well, it’s not like I’m at a rank where I run errands for others.”

Her casual attitude seemed to set Swear-Master off again. “But you made us do the errands!”

“Kid, shut it.” She blew smoke straight into Swear-Master face, before turning to the crow. “I’ve been here since this place was first created. And as karmic retribution, I’ve been stuck managing a stupid fledgling bird ever since.”

“Who are you calling a fledgling bird?! Do you wish to die?!”

“Hey! Stop flapping around! You’re kicking up dust!”

“Anyway. You called us all the way here. Does it have anything to do with the remaining one percent purification?” Eun-Ho asked.

Ayasa and the crow, who had been bickering nonstop, froze at the same time.

Eun-Ho said lightly, “Since we’re here anyway, let’s just clean it all up.”

[Purification Rate - 99%]

There wasn’t any grand reason behind it. Ayasa’s side obviously had their reasons for putting on an elaborate act and leading them here, and from Eun-Ho’s perspective, it was better to collect the purification rewards as well. It was a simple and rational choice.

“Follow me,” Ayasa said.

***

Only one percent away from completion, the trial should’ve been over with just a few swings of a sword and a few bursts of gunfire from Ji-Eun. At least that was what Eun-Ho had thought.

“This child is....”

Since they followed a crow instead of the bluebird[1], no paradise awaited them in the end. Instead, they arrived at a cylindrical chamber choked with hazy fumes.

Inside it floated a chestnut-haired child who did not breathe. A black, oil-like substance clung in thick, pulsing clumps around their heart. The kid looked to be around twelve years old. Dark blotches bloomed all over them like spreading age spots. The skin had already necrotized, with mold and insects wriggling openly in places. The sight alone made Eun-Ho’s stomach churn.

Ji-Eun, who arrived a beat later, clapped a trembling hand over her mouth. Jae-Hyuk’s shoulders shook as he clenched his fists so hard that blood seeped from his palms.

“Fuck.” Swear-Master lowered his gaze. “I-is the child alive?”

The words barely made it past his lips.

Ayasa moved her cigarette away and answered with a bitter expression, “That’s what we believed for a hundred years. And because of this child, we couldn’t clear this ward or the illusion barrier around it.”

Now it all made sense. Even if Eun-Ho and the others were strong for rookies, these people were clearly veterans themselves. Yet they had left this abandoned ward untouched.

They weren’t neglecting it.They were guarding it, so much that the lower staff had reported it without Ayasa knowing.

“No, that part was real. My kids were having a rough time because of those money-grubbing pests, so they reported it behind my back. I only found out later, and when I heard it was you, I figured it worked out just fine and came myself.”

There was a child standing on the boundary between life and death. The child was closer to death than anything else and yet, they couldn’t bring themselves to let go.

“Why me?” Eun-Ho asked quietly.

Ayasa answered, “Guk Ryang said he’d feel at ease if it were you. Besides, this idiot agreed too.”

Most likely, it was because Eun-Ho stood against the company and posed no risk of spreading word about it.

“But even so, this is—”

“I’m sorry, my friend,” the crow said. Its wings were folded low. “Please end it.”

It was a plea.

“We can’t do it ourselves. We really can’t.”

The chestnut-haired child, whose fingernails had rotted away and fallen off, was trapped inside a cylinder. Who knew how long they had been left to float there, covered in dark scabs and dead skin.

Eun-Ho looked at the child who had long since lost all signs of vitality. Without realizing it, he stepped closer and reached out. The surface of the cylinder was painfully frigid against his fingertips, so much that he was worried about the child inside.

Fwoosh—

Particles of light seeped in from where he touched, and a message rang out.

[Test Subject #9999 is responding to the Owner of the Hour Hand.]

What?

The hour hand he had found in the desert, and the massive clock with its broken hour hand pieced back together, appeared before his eyes.

Whiiirl—

Then, time began to turn backward. His vision washed out into white. His limbs tingled, then went numb. Gravity vanished, and he floated in a hazy, colorless world.

[You are reading a memory fragment.]

Shards of the past surged into him. He saw a scorching desert that made even numb skin prickle. Several figures sat together as if they were out on a picnic.

“Hey, tell me! Tell me already!”

“Haa...”

A lively child with curly chestnut hair and long, thick eyelashes pouted as they pressed for answers.

He was pretty cute, Eun-Ho thought.

“Well, um... ahem!”

A large man scratched at his beard and cleared his throat, clearly flustered.

And he looked pretty cool back then.

Eun-Ho recognized both of them.

“Hey, the smooth talker’s coming over. Let’s ask him.”

“Yeah!”

The man they called the “smooth talker” was unfamiliar, though he was walking toward them from afar.

“See? I knew you wouldn’t know. I should’ve asked you from the start!”

“What did you say?!”

Ignoring the crow clutching the back of his neck in distress, the child dashed forward and asked eagerly.

What could they have been so curious about? What kind of question had made the crow react like that? Something silly? Like ‘How do you make babies?’ or ‘Do we have debts back home?’

As Eun-Ho’s thoughts drifted down that absurd line, it was a heavier question than he’d expected.

“But why do we have to fight?”

“Huh?”

“If we just do what we’re told, we can live here forever. So why do we have to fight so dangerously?”

The enemy they were fighting was probably the company. The child was asking why they had to oppose it at all and why not just submit, do as they were told, and live on.

“Live forever, huh...?” The man chose his words carefully, his expression serious. “Just because you’re not dead doesn’t mean you’re truly alive.”

“Huh?”

The man lowered himself onto one knee to meet the child at eye level.

“Auntie said wordplay is bad!”

“I told you, it’s Noona, not auntie, didn’t I?”

“I said I’d let you call me that if you quit smoking!”

“Tsk. You’re such a petty kid.”

The man watched their bickering with a gentle smile. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he ruffled the child’s hair. “I’ll show you what it really means to be alive.”

The child laughed, clearly used to their hair being messed up, and held out a pinky finger. “Promise?”

Their fingers hooked together, bright and innocent.

Just before the world blurred again, the man’s face filled Eun-Ho’s vision, smiling radiantly.

“Promise.”

Huh?

Eun-Ho’s sight grew hazy. Then, through the blur, he caught sight of someone unfamiliar.

I feel like I’ve seen them before...

He closed his eyes and opened them again. The shattered light had vanished.

“That was a life flashing before your eyes,” Ayasa said. “Seems like the kid really liked you.”

Her eyes were red now.

“He was a lovely child,” Eun-Ho said softly.

“Right? That’s why... That’s why we...”

That was as far as Ayasa got. She bowed her head deeply. That was why it hurt even more. Why couldn’t she bring herself to kill the child? Why were so many words left unspoken?

“Just because you’re not dead doesn’t mean you’re truly alive.”

Not dead didn’t mean alive sounded like words spoken for this child alone. Back then, the two of them could never have imagined such a future.

“That is the power source of this device.”

“So what happens if I press this button?” Eun-Ho asked.

“He’ll die,” Ayasa answered without lifting her head. “And then he’ll be reborn.”

Following that, she wiped her eyes with her sleeve and looked up. “There has to be an end for a new beginning to exist.”

“We needed someone who could bring that end.”

The crow and Ayasa spoke almost in unison.

Then, a question arose within Eun-Ho.

Do I have the right to decide the end and beginning of a life, of a soul?

“I’ll show you what it really means to be alive.”

“Promise?”

“Promise.”

Click.

Still, he pressed the button, praying that a promise that had never been kept would be fulfilled someday—whether in the heavens above, or in the next life.

In an instant, brilliant light poured from the child’s blackened face. Like a silent explosion, the radiance burst outward, stealing his sight. White light drifted through the air, circling gently.

Then, just like a fairy that had lingered briefly in this world before moving on, it whispered, “Thank you. It was fun. Let’s meet again.”

The particles of light that had once gifted him fragments of memory gathered, clustered, and finally scattered into the air.

Fwoooosh—

[Purification Rate - 100%]

The dark green miasma that had weighed heavily over the entire space vanished in an instant, along with its stench of death.

[Congratulations!]

[You have completely purified the Sealed Ward.]

[The client offers their heartfelt gratitude.]

[The client’s satisfaction has exceeded the required threshold.]

[Please check your additional rewards!]

1. The symbol of a bluebird as the harbinger of happiness is found in many cultures and may date back thousands of years ☜