By Zephyria Eui-jae listened intently to the voice on the phone. He faintly heard a groan of pain. Was it Sa-young’s voice? Eui-jae gritted his teeth. He roughly swept back his hair and glanced at his younger brother, Mackerel. Then, he pointed to the door with his thumb. Mackerel widened his eyes, pointed at himself with his index finger, and then slumped his shoulders.
“I’ll go for now. Please text me a summary of the situation.”
Bae Won-woo, too mentally exhausted to say more, just repeated “Yes, yes” before hanging up. Eui-jae anxiously tapped his foot. Wasn’t today’s disguise operation over? What could have suddenly made his condition worse? Doomsday? He cracked his knuckles until they popped, then looked at Mackerel.
“Did anything strange happen?”
“Strange things? Like what?”
“Anything is fine.”
“There really wasn’t anything. The fact that Prometheus people are gathering civilians is something the Director and the higher-ups know, so it’s not special… Well, if I had to pick something, maybe coughing? But that seems like an overreaction. A virus could suddenly be spreading.”
“…….”
“I think there’s a high chance it’ll just end up being a common cold.”
“…….”
“It doesn’t seem like Prometheus would do a biochemical terror attack either. If they were going to do it, they’d do it to the Awakened, not civilians, right?”
His younger brother, Mackerel, skillfully twirled a pen between his fingers. Eui-jae wanted to believe that too. Coughing was a common thing, and it was easy to get infected in a confined space. But strangely, his fingertips were cold. Anxiety kept rising. Eui-jae rubbed his neck. The rubbing grew rougher, and soon he was scratching his neck with his nails. His younger brother, Mackerel, hurriedly grabbed his arm.
“Stop it, Hyung! You’ll hurt yourself.”
“…Ah.”
Eui-jae took his hand away from his neck and examined it. His fingertips were red. Only then did he feel the stinging sensation. Eui-jae blankly blinked, then bit his lip. He was glad his expression was hidden by the mask. He barely managed to nod.
“…Take me. I need to get to Incheon as quickly as possible.”
Next time he went, he would grab Hong Ye-seong and shake him upside down to get a few emergency escape papers. His younger brother, Mackerel, whispered something in his ear, then took out the car keys from his Inventory and shook them.
“I’ll take you there safely. How about you get your license when things calm down a bit, Hyung?”
Eui-jae nodded without thinking.
“I’ll think about it.”
Black liquid splattered onto the white floor. Sa-young’s shoulders twitched. Sa-young, on all fours, wretched and vomited up something black. Cough, cough, black blood splattered with each rough cough. The black mass began to writhe slightly, as if it had a will of its own. Sa-young gasped, his breath trembling, and tried to push himself up from the floor. But his hand slipped on his own blood, and he couldn’t get up, just gasped for air.
Bae Won-woo, maintaining a safe distance and holding up his Shield, shouted to Hong Ye-seong behind him.
“Why is this really happening? Wasn’t today’s work over?”
“What’s coming is coming. It’s a wonder he lasted this long.”
“What? What does that mean….”
Sa-young, having finished his work for the day, had been personally escorted to his bedroom by J and had fallen soundly asleep in bed. Until then, he had thought that he had somehow made it through another day. Until Lee Sa-young suddenly woke up and staggered back down to the basement. Sa-young, pale as a ghost, couldn’t even enter the darkness and collapsed on the floor, vomiting blood.
The golden Emotional Eye rotated rapidly. He stood in front of Sa-young and bent down.
“Lee Sa-young, can you hear me?”
Sa-young slowly nodded up and down. It felt like his heart was burning. His throat was sore, and he couldn’t breathe properly. Hong Ye-seong unhesitatingly grabbed Sa-young’s chin and made him lift his head. Black liquid dripped down his chin. Hong Ye-seong, scrutinizing Sa-young’s face, clicked his tongue.
“It hasn’t even fully started yet. It seems like it’s just a test.”
If he was like this when it hadn’t even fully started, what would happen when it really came?
“Tsk, at this rate, it’ll be hard to even hold on. I’ll go to This Body’s Workshop, so hold on tight. Don’t lose your mind!”
“Hey, if you leave like that…!”
Bae Won-woo tried to grab him, but The Artisan was agile. As if he had disappeared in an instant, Hong Ye-seong collapsed next to Sa-young like a puppet with its strings cut. Soon, the original Hong Ye-seong rubbed his eyes and lifted his head.
“Huh? Where am I again….”
Then, he met the gaze of Lee Sa-young, who was glaring at him as if he wanted to kill him. Sa-young kept spitting out black blood while continuing to glare at him. Hong Ye-seong screamed and scurried towards Bae Won-woo’s Shield.
“Help me!”
“Hey, where did the other Artisan go?”
“Huh? Who are you talking about? I’m The Artisan. But Lee Sa-young doesn’t look good. Is he okay?”
Hong Ye-seong blinked with an innocent face. Damn it, Hong Ye-seong without intelligence. Bae Won-woo prayed with a pitiful face for Sa-young, who was enduring the pain without even letting out a loud scream. He hoped J would come quickly. Or that The Artisan with intelligence would return. That someone would alleviate Sa-young’s pain.
At that moment, the elevator arrival chime sounded. The moment the door opened, a black figure rushed in like the wind. It was J. His gray hair was wildly disheveled.
But J, who had rushed in so quickly, stopped in his tracks as he looked at Sa-young, who was vomiting blood and thrashing around.
That appearance, strangely enough. Even though his expression couldn’t be seen….
He seemed terrified.
Rustle…. He turned a page of the worn-out notebook. The tip of the trembling pen touched the paper, cough, cough…. He burst into coughs. After a long bout of coughing, the man took his hand away from his mouth. Blood stained his dry palm. The gaunt man gripped the pen again with his trembling hand. Ga-eul was watching the man’s back. She asked worriedly.
“Are you okay?”
“I’m fine…. This much is nothing.”
“…….”
Perhaps because he didn’t have the strength in his hand, the letters he carefully wrote in the notebook were terribly shaky. He wasn’t a good writer to begin with, but now it was almost impossible to read. Ga-eul slowly approached and covered his thin shoulders with the cleanest blanket she could find, and also tidied up his thinning white hair. Meanwhile, the man’s trembling hand didn’t stop. Even in a world facing destruction, he was constantly leaving something behind. Ga-eul looked at the paper filled with black letters and suddenly asked.
“What if no one remembers?”
“…….”
“What if even the fact that you left these records is forgotten….”
“You’re being pessimistic. Not like you….”
“…I’m sorry.”
“There’s nothing to be sorry about.”
The sound of the pen rubbing against the paper was clearly audible. The man coughed roughly again. Red drops of blood splattered on the desk. But not a single drop splattered on the notebook. Because he was holding it with both hands. Haa, the man, catching his breath, blinked. His white, burnt-out eyes stared blankly at the notebook. Strangely, that appearance looked so sad.
The man closed the old brown notebook and secured the cover and thick papers with a rubber band.
Yoon Ga-eul, what do you want to tell me?
What do you want me to do?
No answer came back. Ga-eul barely suppressed the urge to vomit and tried to remember the appearance of the notebook. There must be a reason why she was being shown this memory. Definitely.
The man, Nam Woo-jin, slowly turned his head and asked.
“How are the patients doing?”
“…It finally worked. The condition of people who hadn’t started Mutation is much better, and the progress of those who were mutating has stopped. Thankfully….”
Mutation?
“But it’s too late.”
“…….”
“I lost too many people because of it….”
The man closed his eyes with a tired face. Soon, a small breath could be heard. He seemed to be asleep. Ga-eul now knew how to wake up from a dream. She roughly bit her thumb.
Yoon Ga-eul opened her eyes. The orange lamp light next to the bed illuminated the ceiling. Was it still night? It was hard to gauge the passage of time in a room without windows. Ga-eul sighed and raised her body.
“Did you have a good dream?”
A voice was heard.
Gasp, Ga-eul inhaled sharply. Her small shoulders jumped. Ga-young was sitting on a chair right next to the bed, with her legs crossed. Her eyes sparkled behind her glasses. It wasn’t a good sign.
How long had she been watching? Did I talk in my sleep? Ga-eul subtly averted her gaze. Her neck, wet with cold sweat, felt sticky. Ga-young kindly offered her a glass of water.
“When you wake up sweating like that, it means you saw something.”
“…How long have you been here?”
“Hmm, since you started tossing and turning? I saw it on the CCTV.”
Ga-eul didn’t take the glass of water. Instead, she snapped back a little sharply.
“…Don’t you have anything else to do?”
“All the experimental subjects under my jurisdiction have been transferred over there~ So now I have nothing to do.”
Yoon Ga-eul gripped the sheet tightly under the blanket. Ga-young smiled brightly.
“We made a promise, right? To tell each other everything.”
“…….”
“We agreed to cooperate.”
Ga-eul bit her lip. She got up from the chair. Her glasses gleamed strangely in the dim room.
“Tell me. What did you see?”