How to Survive Restructuring - Chapter 22
Chapter 22: Self-Development (1)
[Come in.]
The massive doors swung open, revealing a secretary in a crisp suit.
The secretary, whose face betrayed not a shred of emotion—like their meticulously styled hair—granted them entry with a blank expression.
The air was thick with an oppressive tension that clung to their skin.
Seung swallowed nervously, following quietly behind Harona.
[Manager Harona presents herself before the Director.]
A towering ceiling, tightly packed bookshelves, and a cavernous office that stretched like a corridor.
At the far end, he sat.
The one who was like the heavens to Seung, Harona, and countless other managers.
Harona gracefully lifted the hem of her skirt and curtsied slightly toward the head of the Administration Bureau.
And then—
[Very well.]
A heavy voice reverberated through the space.
[I hear you authorized support for an unselected individual.]
The tone was anything but friendly, even at a passing glance.
[It was merely a trifling gift, Director.]
[On top of that, you independently carried out a mission in violation of company policy.]
Harona, who was always poised, found herself in an exception this time.
Her body trembled slightly, and her voice wavered just as much.
Seung found a faint sense of solace in not having to bear this tremendous pressure alone.
[This individual is unique. They use even their modest skills aggressively and possess both intellect and physical prowess—]
[How dare you.]
Harona gestured and explained fervently, but it was no use.
The Director, cutting off her words mid-sentence, appended his own.
[Do you intend to break the rules for the sake of a mere subject?]
The moment Harona noticed the latent anger in the Director’s level, even tone—
the floor beneath them, unnoticed until now, began to consume their bodies.
— Ssssssshh!
[!!]
The ground crumbled like a sandy beach, and a vortex erupted simultaneously.
It was as if they were sinking into quicksand—first their feet, then their shins, knees, and thighs, were slowly engulfed.
Below, a rough sandstorm pulled them downward; above, an unseen force pressed them down.
[H-Harona…!]
Struggling to breathe in the sand that had risen to his chest, Seung barely managed to open his mouth, but after uttering a single word, it clamped shut again.
The sand filled his mouth faster than his words could escape.
Still, his single utterance was not entirely in vain.
The proud Harona quickly added a hasty, almost desperate clarification.
[He is… extraordinary!]
[And which fool of a manager would call someone with a mid-tier rating “extraordinary”?]
[If you were to see him yourself, Director…]
However—
[Mission 17.]
[!!]
[That should be fair enough.]
[But that’s…!]
Mission 17.
A task that incited deadly competition among subjects.
It was immensely popular among spectators seeking sensational content, given the ceaseless chain of eating and being eaten.
But that was only when there were few participants left.
If it were implemented in the current situation…
[All the surviving subjects will gang up on him. That would hardly be fair—]
[Still ruled by emotion, are you?]
[It’s not that, Director…]
It was excessive.
That was what Harona wanted to say.
[Foolish child. Will you repeat the same mistakes?]
Yet she bit her lips hard and endured.
She understood that the Director’s preemptive measures were intended to prevent such “same mistakes” from recurring.
[…Understood.]
Whoosh!
The ground that had been swallowing Harona and Seung spat them out.
Seung desperately wanted to spit out the clumps of sand in his mouth immediately, but now was not the time.
With a flick of the Director’s hand, their bodies were flung out of the office.
— Creeeeak—! Boom!
The massive doors closed.
Only after they had walked some distance and neared Harona’s office did Seung finally spit out the sand.
[Ptooey!]
Wiping his mouth with a handkerchief, Seung called out to Harona, who was walking ahead of him.
[He’s going to die.]
Harona stopped abruptly.
[In that case, the points lost will be massive. What should we do, Harona?]
It was clear that this mission was doomed.
And Harona had already invested in the candidate.
Seung couldn’t bear the thought of dealing with his mentor’s inevitable hysterics if their investment went unrecovered.
[Besides, his strength lies in intelligence, not combat. He doesn’t stand a chance.]
So, he tried to dissuade her somehow.
[Well, in that case…]
[What?]
[A protagonist standing alone against the world. Doesn’t it paint a picture?]
[A picture, you say? Surely not…]
Harona smiled brightly, like a child who had just come up with an amusing idea.
And what she said next was,
[If we push them to the brink of death, we might get more donations.]
Was she suggesting deliberately putting someone in danger to provoke sympathy from viewers and encourage donations?
It was exactly the kind of plan Harona would come up with.
[But… it’s too dangerous. Every human being in sight will become his enemy. You know that, don’t you?]
[It’s something he’ll face eventually. If this is the limit of his ability, then there’s no helping it.]
She shrugged her shoulders with a calm expression.
Seung furrowed his brow deeply at her words, but Harona only smiled faintly in response.
[You never know. He’s the kind of person who might find an unexpected opening and turn the game around, even in ways I didn’t foresee. He might survive on their own.]
[Well, that’s true so far, but still…]
[Enough retorts. Send your eyes back down.]
Swish.
The twin tails of Harona’s hair, which had been drooping all day like wet seaweed, suddenly bounced lightly for the first time.
* * *
“Did the skill data increase?”
“Sigh… It didn’t go up…”
Jieun, sitting heavily on the train floor, answered in a gloomy voice.
Her arms were sore from throwing a heavy dagger hundreds of times, and she rotated them as if to ease the ache.
“Why isn’t the data increasing? I did the exact same thing as before.”
“Hmm… That must mean something wasn’t exactly the same.”
“I don’t know…”
Let’s go over it again.
What exactly were the conditions earlier?
What are we missing right now?
‘Inside a KTX train. Jieun. A dagger. Throwing power and angle. We replicated everything.’
But Jieun hadn’t heard any alert notifications this time.
Which left only one possibility…
“Do you want to try throwing it at me?”
“Excuse me?”
The target.
“Earlier, you didn’t throw it at a chair—you threw it at Ogre. Let’s do the same and try it on me.”
“What? Are you seriously asking me to throw a dagger at you? That’s ridiculous!”
“That’s the only condition left. Don’t you want to unlock your skill?”
At my suggestion, Jieun frantically waved her hands, horrified, as if I’d just asked her to kill me.
“No, no way! I’d rather—! You’re far more important than some skill!”
“Did you forget about my ability?”
Raising her voice uncharacteristically, Jieun suddenly froze, her face showing she’d just realized something important.
If she just kept her focus, there wouldn’t be any real danger.
After all, I could dodge with acceleration.
“Jieun, if you unlock your skill, it’ll make things easier for me too. Fighting alone is hard.”
“…!”
“Let’s try it once. If it doesn’t work, we’ll stop.”
Honestly, it wasn’t as hard as I made it sound—I was just saying it to push Jieun, who had a strong sense of responsibility.
Though reluctant, Jieun hesitated and eventually picked up the dagger.
Even then, she kept lifting and lowering it, her expression troubled.
“I’ll throw it… But you have to dodge!”
“Don’t worry.”
Despite her anxious expression, her eyes and posture were steady as she threw the dagger.
— Swoosh!
Every time, I can’t help but admire it.
Those eyes.
Pure eyes that focus entirely on their target.
Though, “pure” might be the wrong word when considering the sharp edge of the dagger hurtling toward me.
“Acceleration.”
Slide.
I moved my feet, avoiding the dagger that was heading straight for me.
Unlike before, I had ten whole seconds to spare.
Tick.
The clock sound only I could hear ticked as the frozen world resumed its motion.
“!!”
“It worked, right?”
“It really was this…”
[Calculating the data required to unlock the skill.]
Jieun must have heard the same message I did.
Now that we knew how, it was time to take action.
“Let’s go again.”
* * *
8:00 PM.
Leaving Seoul Station and walking toward the lodging.
Jieun, who had been quietly walking alongside me, suddenly asked,
“Uh, Eunho.”
“Yes?”
“The skill data… Why isn’t it going beyond 99%?”
Just as I expected.
Jieun had quickly trained her skill data up to 99% through repetition, but it wouldn’t rise any higher.
‘It was the same when I unlocked my acceleration ability.’
It stayed stuck at 99%, only to suddenly unlock when I was on the verge of dying in a fire.
Clearly…
‘It seems the final breakthrough requires some kind of trigger.'”
“A trigger…”
Jieun’s side profile looked serious as she sank into thought.
As we silently walked beneath the darkening sky and through the deserted city, a clear announcement echoed through the air.
[Attention survivors in the Seoul Station area.]
[The next mission is scheduled to begin promptly at 9:00 a.m. tomorrow.]
“Tomorrow’s mission starts at 9 again.”
“It’s starting to feel like going to work. Strictly on time.”
I laughed at Jieun’s half-joking comment, despite myself.
If this was work, it would be the worst company imaginable—one with work shifts but no clock-out time.
[Project evaluation grading has been completed.]
A company that throws people into life-threatening situations and grades them like products.
“Evaluation grades, huh.”
I had received an S grade during the mid-term evaluation.
This time…
[Reorganization candidate ‘Lee Eunho,’ evaluation grade S+. Congratulations!]
“S+?”
I tried to figure out what S+ could mean.
S was already high, so what was this “plus” about? But the cryptic announcement didn’t stop there.
[Candidate ‘Lee Eunho,’ due to project selection completion, your rank has been updated.]
[Please check your status window!]
Rank?
Did such a thing even exist?
Curious, I opened my status window.
A hologram displaying my figure appeared, along with text filling my vision.
〔Lee Eunho〕
Affiliation: District 13, ROK-SEO-106
Rank: Reorganization Candidate → Preliminary Selector (S+)
Stats:
Health (12), Strength (11), Intelligence (10), Judgement (15), Agility (15), Endurance (31)
Traits: Unlocked
Skills: [Acceleration (Lv.2)], [Petrification (Lv.8)]
“The only changes are my affiliation and rank… huh?”
Agility at 15?
I was certain it had been 1 before.
There was no mistake—I had bitterly stared at my pathetic 1 agility stat, recalling how my physical disability had likely reduced it.
Had the stat naturally recovered, or was it thanks to the rewards I’d used, even if unintentionally?
‘I made good use of the rewards. Not that I meant to.’
This system clearly had many exploitable features for those who understood it.
Even things like sending messages through gifts.
There had to be more.
‘If I dig further, I can squeeze even more out of this system.’
[You have earned 1 point as a mission reward.]
[Incentives based on your evaluation grade have been added.]
[Evaluation grade S+: You have received 2 additional points and 1,500 welfare points.]
I vowed to extract everything I could from it. I’d need to, to stand a chance against those up above.
And once I became strong enough to confront them, I would surely…
‘I’ll pay it all back in kind.’
The system continued its announcements, indifferent to the way my clenched fists dug into my palms.
[Choose your special incentive!]
Whoosh!
A brilliant light erupted like a flare, filling my vision.
Startled, I reflexively closed my eyes, but the sheer intensity of the brightness was still overwhelming.
As a faint ringing buzzed in my ears, I shook my head to regain focus.
Swishhhhh!
Two paths began forming from my feet, steadily extending toward two strange “doors” in the distance.
[Choose your path.]
The paths were narrow, just wide enough for one person, yet each had a sign marking its destination.
“What does it say…?”
← Path of Training’s Beginning │ Path of Training’s Completion →
“The beginning and the completion of training?”
Would stepping through one of the doors lead to a different place?
Since it was a rare reward, I had to choose carefully.
[Choose your path.]
“I have no way of knowing what either will bring.”
If I had to guess, perhaps one was a “growth-type” reward and the other a “completion-type.”
In that case, I…
Step.
I moved forward without hesitation.
———