Stay calm, stay calm.
I propped my chair back up and sat down, acting like I’d just been dozing off and muttering in my sleep.
The officer cleared his throat to draw everyone’s attention again, then continued.
“Now, I’ll go on with the explanation. Before we begin full-scale subway reconstruction, some preliminary work is required. We’ll need your help, and our plan is—”
Listening to his long explanation, it didn’t sound like he was bluffing.
Come to think of it, who is this guy anyway, and what department is he from?
I’ve never seen his face before.
“Then, with the exception of the one person who didn’t raise their hand, everyone else, please move to the next room. There, we’ll proceed with the formal—”
That’s a bit cold.
A Korean should ask at least three times.
There’s no way subway reconstruction will go smoothly.
If everything they tried worked out that easily, they’d have already restored the level of civilization people only talk about from the old days.
Still, if I get in on this project early, I might at least get a chance to ride a subway during a test run.
For now, it’s better to participate.
If it turns out to be lousy, I can always back out later through Director Bae.
Click.
The last person stepped out and closed the door.
Meanwhile, the officer had taken out a radio and was talking to someone.
“Since it’s extremely dangerous work, we’ll offer the maximum delivery fee. Yes, it’s just a letter, so if it’s lost it can be rewritten… Yes, we’d appreciate that.”
A blue radio.
It’s a rental device that only works within Headquarters.
Not something just anyone can borrow. He must have some rank.
“Then tomorrow, I’ll personally go to entrust the letter to the postman… Yes.”
Is he placing a delivery request?
After ending the call, the officer began getting ready to leave.
Now’s probably a good time to speak to him.
“Ahem.”
But he didn’t even glance my way.
“Ahem.”
Still no reaction.
“Ahem!”
“If you have a respiratory issue, go get it checked. And don’t go spreading viruses around.”
What’s this guy’s problem?
Is he sulking because I was the only one who didn’t raise my hand?
“On second thought, it actually sounds like a decent job. Should I head to the next room too?”
“No.”
Look at this guy.
“I was ordered to deliver the mission to you in private, Woo Jung-kook-nim. It worked out nicely since you were the only one who didn’t raise your hand.”
So he came here already knowing my face and name.
I’ve got a bad feeling about this.
“I was also told you wouldn’t respond easily. Just as expected.”
Who’s the cocky bastard who thinks they can predict what I’d do?
“Who told you that?”
“I simply carry out my duties.”
“So you’re not going to tell me.”
The way he adjusted his glasses and dodged the question was irritating.
He looked about thirty at most, maybe a year or two older than me.
His hair lay flat, making the round shape of his head stand out even more.
Very punchable.
“Then I’ll begin the explanation.”
“The hell, out of nowhere?”
“Subway Line 5 will be—”
“Huh?”
As if he couldn’t hear me, he just kept going.
Maybe he’s obsessed with explaining things.
“Woo Jung-kook nim, you will be assigned to this area—”
Listening to him, I could see why this had to be delivered one-on-one.
There were several operation zones marked on the map, and the one he was explaining to me was Geumcheon District.
A place tightly controlled by settlements cooperative with the government.
A magical kind of place where the difficulty of any mission drops by two or three levels.
Places like that usually have people fighting over them. And yet they’re assigning it specifically to me.
I can guess what’s going on.
– Maybe that’s why they’ve invited you to a special mission briefing, Jung-kook-ssi!
Director Bae must’ve pulled some strings.
From his position, skimming off my performance, he can’t just push me into special missions by offering more points.
Those kinds of missions are usually dangerous.
If I end up dying, it’s like killing the goose that lays golden eggs.
“…That concludes the explanation.”
He still looked displeased.
It seems he doesn’t like the idea of me slipping into a safe area.
Whether he likes it or not, I’ll just focus on my own work.
“Sounds good. Then shall we start right away?”
“No. I’ll be assigning this task to someone else.”
What kind of nonsense is that?
“After you just spent all that time explaining?”
“That’s because I was ordered to explain it to you personally, Woo Jung-kook nim.”
“You were probably also ordered to persuade me to take part in the mission.”
“That’s correct. However, personnel assignment is my exclusive authority.”
“So you’ll explain it to me, but you won’t actually assign me to it?”
“That’s right.”
What kind of asshole is this?
“Woo Jung-kook-nim, I looked into your background. It’s remarkably clean.”
Of course it is.
I may have committed a few minor offenses, but nothing major.
Probably.
“The problem is that it’s too clean. It’s as if you didn’t exist at all before becoming a postman.”
Even if my record is empty, it’s not something just anyone can access.
He’s got more influence than he looks.
But the fact that it came up blank means he doesn’t have access to my real background.
“Someone whose identity is concealed this thoroughly is usually one of two things: either extremely capable or backed by immense power.”
…Aren’t those basically the same thing?
“And I absolutely despise people who throw their weight around relying on connections.”
Look at this guy.
“Are you saying that to me right now?”
“Oh, I’m not saying that’s what you are, Woo Jung-kook nim. I’m just introducing myself. I simply dislike that kind of sly person. You seemed curious about what kind of person I am, so I thought I’d explain.”
So he just doesn’t want to assign me the mission.
No matter how much authority he has, refusing to assign me anything is going to put him in a difficult position too.
Director Bae won’t just let it slide.
So he’s willing to take that risk.
What a rigid guy.
“If you block my path, you won’t come out of it unscathed. You’ll be lucky if you even make it out alive.”
“Woo Jung-kook nim, that sounded like a threat—”
“Oh, I figured I should introduce myself too. Since you seemed curious about me, given that your search didn’t turn up much.”
“…Thank you for the introduction.”
There’s a standard way to deal with someone like this.
Stick to the rules.
“In any case, you’ve seen my record since I became a postman, right?”
“I have. You’ve never once lost your top performance ranking.”
“So you do have eyes.”
“You’ve never missed a chance to take the easy assignments.”
“You’re pretty observant too.”
“This operation is reserved only for the very best. Even if the assignment is in a safe area, the principle doesn’t change.”
“So you don’t trust my abilities because I’ve never taken on dangerous work?”
He met my eyes, parted his lips slightly, then closed them again.
After a brief pause, he said,
“Then I’ll take it that you understand.”
That wasn’t what he really wanted to say.
He probably meant something like, “We don’t need cowards.”
The guy obsessed with explaining left the room just like that.
“What a rigid guy.”
To be fair, there wasn’t a single thing he said that was wrong.
I really had avoided every dangerous assignment just to stay alive.
In a way, he was simply doing his job properly.
He’s not a bad guy.
Just too proper for his own good.
In that case, I’ll just have to show him properly.
– Since it’s extremely dangerous work, we’ll offer the maximum delivery fee. Yes, it’s just a letter, so if it’s lost it can be rewritten…
He was definitely trying to request a mail delivery.
I’ll show him exactly what express delivery means.
***
It’s rare for me to have violent dreams two days in a row.
Maybe that’s why the images from the dream were still so vivid after I woke up.
– The probability of surviving but being left with severe disabilities…
[99.6%]
“Haah… you’re more stubbornly alive than I expected…”
“Shut up.”
Just a number.
A probability.
Is there no way to overturn it?
If only I could reverse probability.
A dreamlike ability where the harder something is, the easier it becomes.
A nightmare.
It’s probably because of the bloodstained letter I left in the cabinet.
According to a superstition among postmen, if you have mail from the dead that you have no intention of delivering, you shouldn’t keep it. You should burn it.
Otherwise, you’ll keep having nightmares.
I think I had the nightmare because I knew about that superstition.
Nothing gets under your skin quite like a superstition.
Director Bae looked troubled by my request.
It was the first time I’d ever asked him for something like this.
“An already assigned job? And a tough one at that. Does it even make sense to take it away just to do it yourself?”
I spent the entire morning asking around and found out which postman had taken the delivery job the explanation fanatic had requested.
That job he’d asked for over the blue radio.
– Then tomorrow, I’ll personally go to entrust the letter to the postman… Yes.
I met the postman in charge of the delivery and arranged to take over in his place.
We made it look like he had a stomachache and couldn’t help it.
All that was left was Director Bae’s paperwork.
Of course, Director Bae didn’t believe my explanation.
A stomachache was a pretty flimsy excuse.
If he were dumb enough to buy that outright, he wouldn’t have made it to director.
Still, he’d have no choice but to approve it in the end.
“Take it away? You could also put it more nicely. Like helping out a colleague who has unavoidable circumstances.”
“No, that part’s already strange. He was perfectly fine this morning, so why would he suddenly get a stomachache? We all eat the same rations.”
“Maybe he secretly caught and ate a rat. There used to be one that showed up often at the end of this hallway, remember?”
“…Was there? I never saw it.”
“Exactly. He ate it, so of course you wouldn’t see it anymore.”
In reality, what he’d consumed was coffee I’d gotten through a trade at the settlement.
A little coffee goes a long way in getting things done.
His act of having a stomachache was impressive, but the real deciding factor was the medical note Doctor Myung wrote.
That said, Doctor Myung didn’t accept something like coffee as payment.
He took a cigarette instead.
“Hmm… This mission is dangerous…”
The reason Director Bae looked troubled wasn’t because of the paperwork.
He was worried I might die.
A man in his fifties making that pitiful expression again.
It suited him strangely well.
“Then I’ll assume you’ll take care of it and get going.”
“Jung-koo-ssi! At least have a cup of hot water—”
I held up my residential area access card.
“I’m busy. The time limit’s almost up.”
I immediately gathered my gear.
Given the high difficulty of the mission, they provide a well-stocked survival bag, but only a fool would rely on that alone.
The harder the mission, the more variables there are.
At the postman standby station, bartering goes on around the clock.
I traded a few rounds of ammunition for freshly issued food and water.
Just in case, I grabbed an extra magazine for my hunter-grade pistol.
As a rule, it’s impossible for a postman to carry military or hunter-grade equipment into headquarters.
If you’re caught, it’s immediate execution.
But there’s always a way around it.
“Personal equipment received.”
I put the hunter-grade pistol, extra magazine, and the officer folding shield mounted on my arm into a bag and handed it over to the checkpoint staff.
“Have a great day today, Jung-kook-nim!”
Then the woman at the checkpoint called my name and gave me a wink, signaling that she confirmed my identity.
A sign that everything will be handled as agreed.
Combat equipment is subject to special control.
So before the body search, it has to be handed over to a separate inspection station.
After that, once my body went through several rounds of searches and I reached the headquarters lobby,
“Equipment inspection complete. All clear.”
No matter what’s inside, the equipment bag I handed over always gets cleared and comes out on the conveyor belt.
It’s the same process when entering headquarters.
I also picked up the red core I had stored in the core repository.
Any core that hasn’t been appraised has to be securely stored there.
Even after scrubbing it thoroughly, it still seems like the core carries Kyung-soo’s scent of blood.
Finally, I spotted today’s client.
“….…”
The explanation fanatic noticed me and immediately avoided my gaze.
“Hello. Seeing you again today?”
“…Yes. Hello.”
He greeted me while staring off into the distance.
“That letter you’re holding. It’s what you want delivered, right?”
“I’m busy right now, so I’d appreciate it if you didn’t concern yourself.”
“I’m busy too. So just hand over the letter already.”
“….…?”
I showed him the delivery request form stamped with Director Bae’s approval.
“Oh?”
“Hurry up and give it to me.”
Whoosh.
He quickly pulled the letter back, dodging my hand.
“What are you doing?”
“No, no, no… No, I clearly checked the name of the postman who was supposed to handle this delivery, so what is all this?”
“It means that person had unavoidable circumstances, so I’m the substitute.”
“Huh?”
“There’s no need to go into every little detail, is there? The approval was properly granted. Ah, don’t tell me you’re unhappy about me taking the job?”
But you won’t be able to refuse.
“It was changed through proper procedure, you see. Call it following the rules.”
“……”
“Wow, anyway, this is a really dangerous assignment. If someone could finish this about two days before the deadline, they’d be incredibly skilled. What do you think?”
He’s a rigid, by-the-book type.
Which means that if you prove your ability, he’ll have no choice but to acknowledge you, even if he doesn’t like you.
That’s how stubborn he is.
“…What’s the reason? Pride?”
“I’m not sure what you mean. It’s just work, that’s all.”
With a displeased expression, he handed over the letter and adjusted his glasses.
The brightly colored envelope had the required details written on it in cute handwriting.
“Mail accepted.”
The job had begun.
I hurried toward the exit.
It had taken a while to get fully geared up for the first time in a while.
Just before stepping out, several unmanned scanners swept over my body in sequence, each playing its preset message.
—Woo Jung-kook-nim, your authorization to remain in the residential zone expires in 33 minutes. If you do not exit the zone within the time limit, an apprehension unit will be dispatched.
—Hello, Woo Jung-kook-nim. This government building is secured by the Republic of Korea…
Even the explanation fanatic tossed out a line that was nothing special to me.
“Let’s see each other alive again.”
A customary courtesy to those leaving headquarters.
I could hear the sharp clacking of his shoes as he returned to his post.
Soon, the automatic doors at the exit opened, and the sunlight high in the sky dazzled my eyes.
Clank.
The automatic doors shut behind me.
Then the final scanner’s voice followed.
—The Republic of Korea wishes for the safe return of Postman Woo Jung-guk.
—If you do not return within 48 hours of the work deadline, you will be presumed dead, and all personal belongings remaining in the building will be transferred to the state. No objections will be accepted…
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