By Zephyria 216
“If you come with me, you can go save J, so what are you going to do?”
Shut up.
“Ah~ don’t look at me like that~…. It was all his choice, you know.”
Shut up.
“I just helped him. If he had stayed there, he would have withered away. Well, I got something out of it in the process. A win-win situation, you could say?”
Shut up!
“It would have been really nice if he was alive…. I would have reunited him with J.”
…What?
In an instant, the strength drained from Eui-jae’s body. Ga-young muttered as if she felt sorry, then looked at J. She put her hands together and smiled.
“Ah, there was a bit of an accident at the lab where he was…. Um, so everyone died? The researchers, the test subjects…. But some data remained.”
‘Could it be that she doesn’t know Lee Sa-young is that kid?’
Could that be possible? His mind raced. Jung-bin and Bae Won-woo went to the lab after receiving intelligence, and they rescued Lee Sa-young, who had melted the lab and escaped…. Could Ga-young not know that? Or is the truth he knows different?
Eui-jae pretended not to know and asked.
“…What kind of accident was it?”
“Um, I heard it was an explosion~ I was lucky to be somewhere else and survived. The Awakened Management Bureau was guarding it so strictly that I couldn’t take a closer look….”
“……”
“If that hadn’t happened, I would have shown you. What a shame. But~ this nice friend was created based on his data.”
It slowly turned its head and stared at Eui-jae. Black Poison dripped down from under the filter. The hideously distorted and crushed skin must be due to the side effects of the Poison. Lee Sa-young was like that too.
Was this person someone’s family too? Wouldn’t someone be desperately looking for him? But there was no reason or ego in his hazy eyes. He only remembered how to obey and fight….
“Aren’t you happy? You’re looking at the gift he left behind.”
“……”
Ga-young continued to provoke Cha Eui-jae. Gently touching his most vulnerable spot, as if hoping he would get angry. Expecting him to react more violently. If he hadn’t met Lee Sa-young, he might have been swayed by her silver tongue. Lee Sa-young is Cha Eui-jae’s weak spot.
But….
Eui-jae glanced around. He was glad he had learned how to identify the location of cameras at the Hangover Soup restaurant. Before he knew it, lenses were aiming at him from all over the place.
‘I’m glad I didn’t attack recklessly.’
Well, he did grab her by the collar, though.
‘I still have a long way to go….’
Eui-jae didn’t answer and took a step back. Then, after placing the spear horizontally on his shoulders, he asked.
“What did you call him?”
“…Huh? What did I call him?”
Ga-young chuckled.
“What, you weren’t expecting a cute name or nickname, were you?”
“……”
Ga-young took a step back with a bored face. She raised both hands as if she was losing interest and answered.
“I called him Number 4. He was the fourth experiment I brought in… no, the fourth person.”
“……”
Number 4.
Number Four. Eui-jae savored the title Number Four. He thought of Lee Sa-young, who answered and reacted to the name given to him without his consent. His heart ached strangely. Ga-young, who glanced around, said.
“You’re more patient than I thought? I’ve got a new perspective on you.”
“Did you want me to kill you?”
“Well, I was hoping you would attack~ a little more violently than grabbing my collar.”
Ga-young smiled as she smoothed out her crumpled collar.
“But I’ve achieved my goal~”
“What is your goal?”
“Why, it’s to have a conversation with J. A very deep conversation.”
The moment Eui-jae put strength into his body to grab Ga-young, it also put strength into its body. The amount of Poison dripping down was increasing. It touched the asphalt with both hands. The asphalt where its hands touched began to melt in the shape of its hands. A gurgling sound came from its throat.
“……”
It intends to devastate the surroundings if attacked. With Poison. Eui-jae frowned and glanced around. As it was a main street, many civilians had evacuated to buildings in a hurry….
“Hehe, it’s so nice to see you after so long. We’ll have another chance to see each other later~”
Ga-young snapped her fingers. It grabbed Ga-young with one arm and jumped, disappearing from sight. Only the deeply gouged asphalt and black puddles announced its existence.
‘…Still, it would be better to chase after them.’
They will return to their base. Eui-jae let out a short sigh, then took a stance to jump after it. At that moment.
“Oh? It’s J-nim!”
Red hair landed lightly in front of him. It was Kang Ji-soo. Her hair was disheveled and blood splattered all over her clothes, as if she had just fought a battle. Kang Ji-soo roughly wiped the blood from her face with her sleeve. He was glad to see her today. Because he needed to think about something else. Eui-jae adjusted his mask in an awkward posture and asked.
“Did you come from fighting?”
“Yeah, well, something like that. I roughly cleaned up the Vice Guild Leader’s accident and was on my way back.”
“There was an accident?”
“Suddenly his arm started shaking and he collapsed on the steering wheel. But it happened to be while he was driving….”
Kang Ji-soo bumped her fists together. It seems like there was an accident. And surely Bae Won-woo in the last world was missing one arm…. The face behind the mask darkened. It seems that Bae Won-woo had not recovered from the shock of Doomsday either.
“Is Bae Won-woo-ssi okay? Are there any injured people?”
“Fortunately, no one is~ I fainted for a moment too, but I woke up faster than the Vice Guild Leader.”
“…That’s a relief.”
“Anyway, strange guys keep falling from the sky, so I’m on my way back after evacuating the civilians and Bae Won-woo. Weren’t you supposed to go to the conference room, J-nim?”
“Yes, but everyone else…. Fainted. I came out to try to clean up the mess, at least.”
“Oh, really? Heh, that’s a relief. But there’s not much to clean up.”
“Yes?”
Eui-jae’s eyes widened. Monsters that eat humans are falling from the sky, but there’s nothing to clean up? Kang Ji-soo began to untangle her disheveled hair with her fingers in annoyance.
“No, strange guys are appearing and taking care of them, the Monsters.”
“……”
“They move like zombies, but they fight well? They told me to get out of the way, that they would take care of it. People were clapping and saying they were doing a good job. Hmph, it’s ridiculous.”
Kang Ji-soo snorted and shoved her hands into her hoodie pockets. An ominous premonition flashed through his mind.
‘Why, it’s to have a conversation with J. A very deep conversation.’
“Kang Ji-soo-ssi, what do those guys look like?”
“Huh? Well, they were just guys wearing white clothes. But they didn’t look like Hunters. Something like a vigilante group…. How can civilians beat Monsters? Even if I offered to help, they kept telling me to go, go.”
Kang Ji-soo pouted like a duck’s beak and grumbled. Eui-jae roughly swept back his hair. The ash-colored hair, which at first glance looked white, was a mess.
‘Was it a stalling tactic….’
To think he couldn’t even grasp such a simple scheme. His mind must have been very shaken. Eui-jae stared blankly at his broken cell phone, then spoke to Kang Ji-soo, who was still grumbling.
“Can you call the Guild Leader?”
“Waaake~ up~”
“……”
“I’m reaaally in a hurry. Wake up. Huh? You’re not waking up? This is force majeure? Don’t be petty if I get blamed later.”
Slap, the palm of his hand resoundingly struck his cheek. However, the pale cheek only turned red, and the person who was slapped showed no sign of waking up. Slap, slap, slap, slap. It was the same even after slapping him several times. Hong Ye-seong withdrew his hand and scratched his head roughly.
“Ah~…. This is troublesome. Why won’t he wake up? Lee Sa-young, where did you go?”
He was squatting in front of Lee Sa-young, who was lying down at length. Sa-young was lying still without moving. Only his slowly rising and falling chest indicated that he was alive. Jung-bin approached Hong Ye-seong, who was sitting cross-legged. He shook his cell phone with a troubled face.
“This time, we have a call from Kang Ji-soo-nim…. Shall I answer it?”
“Aish, can’t I do a voice imitation?”
“Do you think that would work…. Can’t you just answer it?”
“No, no, I’m scared to answer J.”
Jung-bin’s gaze rarely turned cold. Hong Ye-seong’s masterpiece, the Round Table Conference Room, was more deserted than before. Most of them had come to their senses and ran out after seeing the piled-up contacts. Song Jo-heon left the conference room in a hurry with a face as if he had seen a ghost, and Ham Seok-jeong also went out with a limp to direct things outside with difficulty.
In the end, what remained here was….
“Lee~ Sa~ Young!”
The Artisan, who was of no use in battle.
“If he would wake up just by calling him like that, he would have woken up a long time ago. There seems to be another problem.”
Jung-bin, who was also unable to use his strength against Monsters and was assigned to protect Hong Ye-seong because Ham Seok-jeong was in charge of the overall command. And,
“……”
Lee Sa-young, who was lying down and asleep….
“By the way, why aren’t you leaving, Gyu-Gyu-nim?”
“Hmm? Well….”
Click, click, click, the quickly assembled cube stopped perfectly. Gyu-Gyu, who instantly solved the square cube, smiled and placed the cube on the table with a thud.
“Because it seems more fun here than outside~?”
“……”
“Watch what they’re doing, I’ll rest for a bit and leave on my own~”
Gyu-Gyu began to hum a tune.