CH 417

“That is why! I told you! To evacuate everyone!” Jo Gyu-Min roared into the phone.

His voice was threatening, forceful. With his vocal pitch tuned a little higher than usual, Jo Gyu-Min was in his most optimal state to threaten and coerce the other party.

- B-but, we can't do something like that without…

“Oh? And what do you need, then?!”

- I need permission from my superiors, you see...!

“What the hell? Are you making fun of me? You think this is a joke?” Jo Gyu-Min growled like a wounded beast. “You goddamn incompetent idiots...! Don't you understand what will happen to your own goddamn company if there are casualties from this incident?! Which one do you think will bite you more later down the line? Evacuating everyone out of there without waiting for permission from your superiors or when someone dies inside your park?”

- W-well, obviously…

“Listen to me!” Jo Gyu-Min shouted into the phone as if he was declaring war. “We, in the name of Jaegyeong, have provided you with crucial, life-saving information regarding the situation in one of your premises before anybody else. However, if you still drag your feet in evacuating people and someone ends up dying, then I promise you, I shall take the recording of this conversation, plus all the info we have, and release them to the public! And it'll be done under the name of Jaegyeong, no less!”

- P-please wait, Chief Jo!

“Do you think I'm talking to you in a personal capacity? Do you think I have the necessary authority to call you on the phone with information like this? We are trying to assist you as a fellow corporation here! Even if I were a civilian with no affiliation, you should be focusing on the evacuation and investigation after receiving a report like this, yet you are still unconvinced when I'm talking to you as a representative of Jaegyeong? Is that how you conduct business on your side?”

- Please calm down first, Chief Jo. It's just that… We're not sure how to proceed since a situation like this has never happened before!

Jo Gyu-Min groaned loudly.

'Son of a b*tch!'

Why did that amusement park's operator have to be a corporation infamous for being the most inflexible and backstabbing hellhole in the whole country! Its corporate culture was such that people found it hard to call it a true global player despite its scale, and it was even famous for blaming its employees if something bad happened. No wonder the person on the phone was so reluctant to make the decision on his own.

“Let me give you a piece of advice! Jo Gyu-Min yelled into the phone.

- Yes, I'm listening.

“If someone dies from this crisis, things simply won't end with you getting fired. The media will pounce on you like a pack of vultures. And your rival companies and the government waiting with bated breaths for a chance to swallow you up will never let you go. Never! In that case, what do you think your superiors will choose to do? Even a moron can tell that they will dump all the responsibilities on your shoulders and play victims themselves. I'm sure you can imagine that scenario far better than I can.”

- Yes. You're right on the money, Chief Jo.

“Which means I don't need to explain what needs to be done, yes? Since you'll be on the chopping block either way, let's try to minimize the casualty as much as possible!”

- ...I'll issue the evacuation order right away.

“Thank you! I'll leave it to you!” Jo Gyu-Min ended the call and shot up to his feet. “What a bunch of idiots...!”

When there was a crisis, people sometimes responded in an illogical manner. Today seemed to be one of those occasions. From the park operator's perspective, evacuating every visitor and shutting down the operation would lead to enormous losses.

Logically speaking, though, the right thing to do was to put people's lives first instead of counting one's losses. Anyone who wanted to argue against that needed to get their humanity card revoked.

The problem with this particular amusement park was that it was run by a subsidiary of the infamous corporation, and the head of the subsidiary lacked the actual authority to shut the park down. If he used his discretion to do just that, his superiors would pin the blame on him.

Those blinded by years of this effed-up corporate culture would attack the head of the subsidiary like a pack of hyenas. And making the counterargument of 'Saving lives taking priority over protecting investment' would be most unwise in this case.

If the head of the subsidiary said that, he'd have dug the perfect trap for himself… A trap in the form of, 'If that was your belief, why did you neglect the rides until they deteriorated to the point of causing serious accidents?!'

Choosing either way would still lead to losing his position. When driven to a dead-end like this, a cornered rat would prioritize minimizing the losses above all else since that was the only way it could potentially survive the fallout.

“Rotten bastards...!”

Jo Gyu-Min was already fed up with these corporate bastards paying lip service about upholding the sanctity of life but only caring about profits when it mattered the most. While groaning loudly, Jo Gyu-Min picked up his phone and dialed another number.

Regardless of his thoughts, the evacuation order should have been issued by now. So, Jo Gyu-Min needed to seek the cooperation of the related government departments next. Getting just one more rescue personnel and one more fire truck to the scene would guarantee the safety of more people.

What a relief it was that Hwang Jeong-Hu unhesitantly granted Jo Gyu-Min all the necessary authority after receiving the urgent report!

'I have to say, it doesn't feel like I'm a secretary these days…’

Being a Chief Secretary in the head office certainly was one of the top positions available in the company, but it didn't have as much authority as its lofty title suggested. Lately, though, Jo Gyu-Min felt like he had become the General Secretary of the State, with Hwang Jeong-Hu serving as the President of the country.

It was indeed a mighty honor, and the authority made things quite convenient, but that only meant Jo Gyu-Min's responsibilities had gotten that much heavier in return.

“This isn't the time to get distracted...!” Jo Gyu-Min gritted his teeth while listening to the loud ringtone coming through the phone's speaker.

His job was to do everything in his power. The rest would be taken care of by him, anyway.

***

“W-what the hell?! What is that man doing?”

“Uh? Uuuuh?!”

“I-is he even human?!”

The evacuees stopped running and turned their attention toward the ceiling. Their anxiety left them with no choice but to look up as bits of rock kept falling while the various rides precariously swayed about, seemingly ready to crash back to Earth at a moment's notice.

Something random might fall on top of the evacuees' heads, so how could they keep looking ahead while trying to escape? That was psychologically impossible.

The evacuees kept stealing anxious glances upward and eventually discovered a figure of a person dangling on the railing by the ceiling. That figure was charging forward at an unbelievable speed, too!

“Wait a minute, is he... Is he moving on the railing?”

“That's not possible! He must've attached something to the rail!”

“I think I can see something like a rope…”

“Even if that's true, is it possible to move that fast while hanging from the ceiling? Besides, should he even be on that rail? What if his weight causes the whole thing to buckle!”

“...He must be one of the safety officers?”

“Yeah, right! Which safety officer would risk his life like that? And he's not even wearing the park's uniform, anyway!”

The spectators were taken aback by shock and awe at the figure dangling from the ceiling. Anyone falling from there would have a worse chance of survival than someone getting hit by a lightning bolt! Besides, a lightning strike victim had a slight chance of walking away with relatively minor injuries and long-term side effects. On the other hand, even a moron could tell that falling from such a height would leave you in a wretched state even if you somehow managed to survive.

“T-that's incredible. Look at him!”

“He's so fast!”

While the people on the ground dazedly looked up and muttered to each other in awe, impatient evacuees quickly started appearing at the back of the lines. “What the f*ck are you doing?! Stop looking at that, and let's get out of here! Hurry up!”

“Don't you know we'll all f*cking die if this place comes down on us?! You wanna brag about seeing some weird crap to your grim reaper?!”

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“Get out of my way! Now!”

That was only the beginning. These people, who had been barely staying calm, finally lost their cool and revealed their more violent side when the evacuation ground to a halt by the folks dazedly looking up.

That was understandable, really. After all, these people had been desperately trying to stay calm while suppressing the fear of getting crushed to death by the building crumbling down on top of them. No wonder rage blinded them when some idiots held up the lines while carefreely looking up and bantering away.

“Why aren't you getting a move on already?! Ah? Will you take responsibility if I die like this?!”

The park employees guiding the evacuees tried to defuse the situation. “D-dear customer! Please calm down and…”

“Get the f*ck out of my way, you piece of sh*t!”

Reason rapidly abandoned the evacuees. The lines of evacuation trying to exit the building stopped moving and filled up the corridors like packed sardines. Terror and anxiety worked quickly to shake up people's patience.

From the get-go, hoping to evacuate all the parkgoers in a brief window of time was simply too unrealistic. And when the fear of getting involved in a deadly accident by staying here quickly washed over the crowd, people became irrational and started pushing and shoving others in front of their eyes.

“Get out of my way! Now! If you don't wanna leave, let me through instead!”

“Move!”

The safety officers desperately tried to keep things organized, but...

“Dear customer! You must stay in line! If you don't, it might cause a serious accident!”

“Please don't push! Don't push the people in front of you!”

“Stop! Don't climb up there, please! You mustn't go that way! There is no exit on that side! Come down, please!”

When the crowd at the back began raising loud commotions, the evacuees at the front also began pushing the people in front of them. Since they were surrounded on all sides by more people, they couldn't see what was going on, so they began assuming something terrible was happening behind them from all the urgent voices.

“H-hurry up and get moving already!”

“Why isn't the line moving?! Hey, officer! You bastards! Why are you letting some others leave first but not us?! Are you saying we can die here or something?”

“Tell these people to move already! Those people in front! Get them out of here already!”

Panic spread like a plague within the crowd in the blink of an eye. The evacuees at the back grabbed the people in front, pulling and wrestling them down. Screams and yells exploded everywhere, and some people even began throwing punches around, too.

The safety officers tried desperately to control the situation, but their efforts were in vain. They just didn't have enough people on their side to effectively calm the crowd.

“F*ck! I'll definitely die if I stay here! I need to get out!”

“What about the basement? Wouldn't it be safer if we go down there? Instead of wasting time here, let's go to the basement!”

With the crowd becoming more belligerent, the lines of evacuees tenuously maintaining some semblance of order rapidly wavered and crumbled. Understandably, the safety officers began panicking even more.

And that was when the decisive blow struck them.

Creeeeeeak!

The evacuees all looked up almost at the same time. The railing, which had been maintaining the 'status quo' until now, began twisting and producing that chilling metallic noise. The crowd witnessed whitish dust and debris falling from the ceiling, and their complexions rapidly ashened.

'I'm gonna die!'

Staying here any longer could really be their death! Calmly maintaining the orderly queues until everyone left the park would've been the best outcome, but... The thoughts of the people up front surviving while everyone else dying like dogs began ruling over the crowd at the back.

“Move! Move out of the way, goddamn it! You f*ckers, move!”

“Get out of my way! Right now!”

People began forcing and shoving their way forward. People unhesitantly trampled and stepped on others.

One of the safety officers urgently cried out, “No! Stop doing that, sir! If you do this...!”

“You f*cking moron! You wanna die, too?!”

“Sorry?”

“You think you'll live through this?! You think only us will die or something! No, you'll also get killed, you moron! You wanna stick to being nice and orderly and die together with us?!”

“...!”

The complexions of the safety officers grew paler. Once the railing came off, who knew what might happen? If nothing else happened other than the railing coming loose, things might end without too much trouble, but… What guarantee was there that the ceiling would remain unaffected?

“I, I'm getting out of here, too!” One of the safety officers cried out.

“Hey, man! Have you lost your damn mind?!”

“F*ck, man! I'm only a part-timer here, you know! I get paid peanuts to do this job, so why the f*ck would I risk my neck and stay here till the end?! I'm done!” The young safety officer tossed aside his uniform and hat, then joined the heaving crowd before yelling loudly. “Argh! Get out of the way! I want to get out! F*ck, if you can't even push people in front of you, let me do it!”

The situation rapidly spiraled further out of control.

“Unnie! Unnie!” One of the orphanage girls spotted Choi Yeon-Ha and urgently cried out.

“Over here! Come this way!” Choi Yeon-Ha reached out and pulled the girls being pushed around by the maddened crowd.

'This is dangerous!'

The crowd had gotten too agitated. At this rate, a terrible accident would really happen, and...!

That was when a hand reached out from the crowd and grabbed the shoulder of one of the orphanage girls.