Volume 6 - CH 97.1

Discovery

Translated by boilpoil

Edited by boilpoil

He Shujün and Ding Yi reflexively turn to look at the person speaking.

It’s a man in his thirties or so, not easily discernible thanks to his sallow face and serious expression. He is looking at the two Missiontakers like he is looking at some kind of monster. He doesn’t speak too loudly, but he sure can babble, going, “what in the world… why are you even coming to some cursed place like this?!”

He Shujün replies, “we didn’t know…”

“There’s still people in this city who doesn’t know the Museum is filled with crazy people?!” The man seems amazed in a sense, and continues, “shit, shit… did the announcements from the Department of Transportation not reach everyone? Are you trying to kill yourselves coming here?!”

He Shujün rolls her eyes, and says, “please… we really don’t know what’s going on. Can you explain it to us?”

The man stares at them for a bit before slumping his shoulders and say, “come with me. I’m the doctor in the Museum.”

‘Museum,’ ‘doctor,’ sure are two words that doesn’t fit each other well, but it seems, at least, he is the only person still sane in this Museum so far.

“They’ve all gone mad,” says the doctor, right after he sits back down at his office.

He seems a pretty straightforward, even brash individual, with a bitter, harsh tone in every sentence he speaks. Given how he led the two ‘tourists’ who mistakenly entered the Museum back to his office, though, he is probably good at heart.

“What happened?” Ding Yi asks, “there was an old man we met…”

“You met the ol’ Director? Hah, that’s amazing. You actually escaped from his clutches before being guided through the entire Museum.”

“… That’s how he’s mad?”

“He believes this Museum is a record of anthropology and history and stuff, so people should all visit, and know about all the collections and relics and whatnot,” the man coldly chuckles, “call me a weirdo, but who’d actually visit a Museum every day of the fucking week?”

He Shujün is listening while also observing the office in the meantime.

It’s small, but it’s largely clean, though the things are placed somewhat haphazardly, so it can be inferred the owner of the room doesn’t hold it in that much value.

She decides to change the topic, and ask, “so what were you doing outside just now?”

The man has a bitter smile on as he answers, “that, is thanks to the new rules our ol’ Director issued after he’s gone mad,” he takes a deep breath, before saying, “he demands every single member of staff, to go to Reception at the entrance hall each hour, and report on their duties.

He thinks that people aren’t coming to the Museum because, one, the Department of Transportation and the Tourism Board is being negligent in their duties, and two, us staff members are not working hard enough. All the other staff are insane for agreeing with it, word-for-word, I say.

If you now try to head to the different sections of the Museum, dozens of staff would be lining up to show you around. It’s gonna go in their ‘hourly review,’ after all.”

The tone gets more and more sarcastic by the minute.

He Shujün thinks about it for a bit, then comes to a conclusion, “if that’s true, then the Museum… doesn’t seem that dangerous, actually?”

“Not dangerous?” The doctor rolls his eyes at her, “I’ll say this much. You will never get out once you come in. If you want out… congratulations, you’ll be the next contestant on the ol’ Director’s ‘Ten Thousand Trivia Questions about the Museum’ quiz show.”

“… And if I couldn’t answer correctly?”

“The ol’ Director will berate you for being a useless piece of shit with memories comparable to that of a goldfish, and kept here in the Museum forever until you can answer every question correctly.”

He Shujün’s jaw is on the floor, and she asks, “by kept, you mean…?”

“Exactly,” the doctor tells her, “there’s a bunch of people hard at work jamming knowledge into their memories at the back of the Museum, wanna go and see?”

He Shujün shakes her head slowly in a daze.

… So these days, just looking around a Museum requires you to have photographic memory or something?

Ding Yi then asks, “I heard the Director mention that the Museum is transferring its collections?”

For some reason, she can’t let this piece of information go.

Hearing that, the doctor goes silent for a moment, before seemingly snapping back to reality for a moment and say, “yeah, the collections are being transferred.”

“Why?”

“All the mad people around, duh,” replies the doctor, “this Museum does house some valuable artefacts, I’ll give it that, so the Director is the one who proposed for them to be moved somewhere safe.

Well, the actual trigger for that, is actually one of those people locked up in the back. One of them escaped and somehow smashed some valuable porcelain… or something else? Anyway, it was probably on purpose.

The Director must have been horrified. That’s why he’s moving the collections away.”

Ding Yi nods. She finally understands what’s going on now.

He Shujün, seeing the topic resolved for now, starts asking something else, “so besides you, is there anyone else still sane in the Museum?”

The doctor says, “I don’t know. I also act like I’m mad like them outside. The ol’ Director is too far off the deep end, and anyone who doesn’t follow his steps would be punished – in the form of reciting stuff and doing quizzes, I think… there’s no way to escape the Museum, either.

I caved, yeah, and I do whatever he wants, since I’m just an on-site doctor, and I have nothing to do. I check in, check out on time every day, and report on the nothing in my day’s work every day. The Director knows best no tourists ever comes around anyway, so I’ve got it easy.

Maybe the other staff are just like me; oh, but definitely not those in charge of the different Halls of the Museum, they are 100% certifiably, organically insane. They’re in bonkerland with the Director, so I suggest you avoid them if at all possible.

As for who’s definitely guaranteed to be sane… maybe those in charge of moving the collections, I suppose.”

He Shujün then asks curiously, “isn’t it the Museum’s staff who are moving the collections?”

“No, not all of them. Some are from the insurance company, and some are from the transport company, besides the staff of the Museum there cataloguing the relics,” explains the doctor, “I see them every hour I go to report on my work. They seem lucid enough, always looking worried and anxious.”

“Worried and anxious equals lucid?”

“Ha, you haven’t seen how the other staff who’ve gone bananas look. They have ‘I love work, work loves me’ written all over their faces. Only those that look annoyed having to move everything are awake.”

The corner of He Shujün’s mouth is twitching, but she cannot come up with anything else to say.

What the doctor has said so far has all lined up perfectly…