By Zephyria Eui-jae shoved his hands into his pockets and looked around. This was some kind of research facility, and where he had stepped into seemed to be a lobby connected to the entrance and hallway. And from the lobby, people were dead all the way through.
The white gowns they wore were soaked in dark red blood, making it difficult to find their original color. Eui-jae looked at the ceiling. The pure white incandescent lights flickered ominously. A silent space where no breathing or heartbeat could be heard. Pure white walls and red blood.
‘I don’t want to die.’
Someone’s scream echoed. A stabbing headache came. Eui-jae bit his tongue familiarly. As the tingling pain spread, he finally came to his senses a little. There was no room to stop.
Eui-jae glanced at the corpse lying face down, its head buried in the wall. Judging from the handprints drawn vertically on the wall, it seemed he had scratched the wall, unable to overcome the pain.
When the corpse was turned over, its wide-eyed face was soaked in blood. Cold black eyes scanned the corpse’s entire body. At first, he thought Min-gi Seo had killed them all. But that didn’t seem to be the case…
‘There are no particular external wounds….’
He had never seen Min-gi fight, but dealing with a large number of people without external wounds was impossible without special ability. Didn’t he claim to be a specialist in stealth and infiltration himself? Not assassination.
Death without external wounds, yet an abnormally large amount of bleeding. Corpses that died vomiting blood. The color of the dark red blood….
It was strangely familiar. Eui-jae unknowingly touched his neck.
Yes, it was similar to the symptoms when he was poisoned by Lee Sa-young’s Poison. The sweet scent lingering in the Shield was also familiar. It was the scent that always tickled his nose when he was close to Lee Sa-young.
Min-gi Seo knew there was a guest inside. Nevertheless, he only said mild words like, ‘The inside will be a mess.’ It must be because he judged that the guest would not be a threat to Cha Eui-jae.
Eui-jae, who let out a burst of laughter, put his hand on the corpse’s neck and examined his face. There was still warmth left, and rigor mortis had not yet begun. It was clear that he had died not long ago.
‘He must still be inside.’
If he continued, he would be able to meet him. Eui-jae rubbed the bottom of his blood-stained sneakers on the floor and moved his feet.
Wave Guild and Seowon Guild, and the Awakened Management Bureau were chasing Prometheus. Lee Sa-young, who was an Experiment of Prometheus. Lee Sa-young was probably the one who made this place a mess and brutally murdered the researchers.
‘Is it because of his grudge against Prometheus?’
While walking down the long corridor, avoiding corpses and puddles of blood, his thoughts began to branch out, focusing on Lee Sa-young.
Min-gi Seo asserted. There were no survivors of the Experiment of Prometheus. Nam Woo-jin said that Lee Sa-young was from the Experiment of Prometheus. One of them must be lying.
‘Judging from the state of the inside, it seems like Nam Woo-jin is right….’
It wouldn’t be normal to kill everyone without leaving a single one alive unless it was a deep-seated grudge.
At that time, bright light leaked from inside a half-open door. Eui-jae stretched his neck and looked inside the door. It was a space like a monitoring room with several large monitors. The monitors showed a prison-like space with no one in it.
Here, too, the floor and walls were a mess, torn apart by researchers writhing in pain, but the equipment and materials on the desk were strangely clean. As if prepared for someone. Eui-jae picked up a blue file. The file read:
‘#707 Experiment Record’
“……”
He carefully opened the file and read it page by page. The main character of the file, 707, was a survivor who was caught in a Rift and rescued. The researchers injected enhancement drugs into his body, transfused the blood of Awakened, transplanted the flesh of Monsters, and conducted numerous experiments. And,
Failed.
Failed.
Failed.
Failed.
Failed.
“……”
The last page stated that it was decided to dispose of him because there was no longer any value in continuing the experiment. The last phrase of the record was,
Let us be grateful to all those who sacrifice themselves to prevent Doomsday.
His hand clenched involuntarily. Eui-jae gritted his teeth. The plastic file crumpled like paper in his grip. They kidnapped a survivor who barely survived the Rift and used him as a test subject, and if he failed, they disposed of him. Anxiety surged. He picked up another file and quickly scanned it.
Failure, failure, failure, disposal, let us be grateful to all those who sacrifice themselves to prevent Doomsday. Failure, failure, failure, disposal, let us be grateful to all those who sacrifice themselves to prevent Doomsday, failure, failure, failure…. Doomsday. Gratitude. Doomsday.
Bang!
The desk he slammed with his fist split in half. His shoulders, which had been shaking up and down, slowly returned to their place. Eui-jae tried to slap his cheek, but stopped at the touch of the cold mask.
It was a question from the beginning. Why was Prometheus trying to artificially create Awakened? Was he upset that he wasn’t chosen by the System?
If they were people gathered because of such desires, they wouldn’t be so threatening. Ironically, those gathered for their own selfish desires tend to scatter because of their greed.
But these people were far from such desires. They believed that they were working to prevent Doomsday. Believing that small sacrifices were inevitable, like fanatics. They were not researchers or scientists. They were a group of crazy fanatics.
Creating Awakened artificially to prevent Doomsday? How could they be so stupid….
At that moment, a small groan rang out. Eui-jae raised his head sharply. The human voice was heard from beyond the door on one side of the monitoring room. There was definitely no sign of survivors. Eui-jae hurriedly threw open the door.
“Ugh, heuaaaack!”
Inside, a man in a white gown was crouching and trembling. The man covered his mouth and began to bang his head against the wall, thump, thump.
“Please save me, please save me, please save me….”
‘Where did he suddenly come from?’
There were more than one or two questions, but Eui-jae’s body was instinctively moving to rescue the survivor. He had to scan the man’s condition with his eyes and check if he could talk….
But that was only for a moment, Eui-jae withdrew his hand that had reached out to the man. The card key hanging around the man’s neck proved that he was a member of this research facility.
‘Affiliated with Prometheus….’
Failure, failure, failure, let us be grateful to all those who sacrifice themselves to prevent Doomsday.
Eui-jae leaned forward slightly, his hands in his jeans pockets, and looked down at the researcher. The man seemed to have noticed that the presence in front of him was not threatening, and slowly stopped banging his head against the wall. The black mask filled the man’s vision as he squinted his eyes thinly.
The man’s eyes filled with joy.
“T, th, that mask, J, is it J? It’s J, right? Yes, I heard you were alive. How did you get here, no, no!”
The man came to Eui-jae on his knees and grabbed his leg. His hands were trembling pathetically.
“Please save me, please save me. Please save me. A crazy bastard has turned the research facility upside down. He’s killing innocent people indiscriminately…!”
“……”
Eui-jae did not answer. The man bit his lip anxiously, then raised his head with a start, ah. His eyes, which had been filled with joy, were now shining strangely.
“I, I, I had so much to say to J, I, I’m really a fan. I really wanted to ask what it was like inside the West Sea Rift. There was a revelation that that place was connected to Doomsday, so everyone, everyone….”
“What? What are you saying now….”
It was the moment Eui-jae widened his eyes.
“Aaaaaaack! Cough!”
The researcher screamed, clutching his neck, and vomited blood. Dark red blood. The researcher reached out with trembling hands.
“Please, J, save, sav…!”
“No.”
Step, step, the sound of clear footsteps approached from the darkness. A languid voice whispered.
“You’re saying the wrong thing.”
“Save, save….”
“At least you should say I’m sorry, I was wrong….”
“Gu, gui… eu… eua….”
The movements of the researcher, who was twisting his body and scratching the floor, gradually subsided. The body that vomited blood instead of a last will, cough, slumped down. A languid voice muttered in the darkness.
“I killed everyone I could… there was someone alive.”
“……”
“I’m sorry…. Are you okay?”
A hand, only the fingertips stained black, appeared from the darkness. As the hand touched the researcher’s head, the corpse began to melt black with a chilling sound, saaak….
“Hong Ye-seong must have put a gas mask function in the mask. That’s a relief.”
Before he knew it, the corpse had become a black liquid, pooled like a puddle. And even that liquid disappeared into his hand after a while. The hand that had finished its work disappeared back into the black darkness.
Eui-jae replied briefly.
“You have to say it right. You deliberately left him alive. Only him.”
“……”
Kik, a short laugh burst out from the darkness. A voice mixed with laughter whispered.
“You’re so quick to notice this. You have no other sense.”
“……”
“Well, that’s right. I thought Hyung would be curious.”
“……”
“I regret leaving him alive. He only said nonsense until the end.”
A black Walker appeared from the darkness.
“So…. You came all the way here.”
Long legs and a black coat that came down to the middle of his calves, hands in his coat pockets, disheveled curly hair and eyes shining beneath it. Long eyelashes blinked slowly. Plump lips moved.
“Did you find what you wanted?”
Purple eyes narrowed slightly.
“J.”
As if smiling.