81. Destruction
81. Destruction
"The Chairman has the Contract ability?"
I quietly turned to look at Seo-yoon.
Contract ability.
I thought it was a good ability since I first met Seo-yoon and acquired her, but I didn't know the Chairman had the Contract ability.
"Why?"
"I don't know."
"Ah, fuck, just think about why the Chairman has Contract and tell me."
"Because it's the only ability that grants immunity to mental abilities while perfectly controlling humans in a sane state."
"Controlling in a sane state... how?"
"Other mental abilities like brainwashing, hypnosis, or cognitive manipulation each have slight side effects."
That makes sense.
Hae-il Han was like that right away.
"But Contract is different. It's an ability that can control subordinates perfectly while adjusting the line."
"So that's why you can make them die too if you die?"
"Yes."
"And they fucking agreed to that?"
"Those who didn't agree couldn't rise above a certain rank."
"Is power that important?"
I guess so. If you put something like absolute obedience on them, they have to follow no matter what.
No, fuck, then.
"So that means most of the high-ranking people are dead? The Chairman died because of the serum anyway. If Contract means dying when the Chairman dies."
"That is what I expect."
Then IN Company is no longer a group running toward a single goal.
The headquarters got wrecked for some reason, and the Chairman died. And the higher-ups died along with him.
Then it means mutant Infected like the Cheonan Hive appeared all over the world, and the remaining IN Company personnel have entered a state of every-man-for-himself.
"Then why are you alive?"
"I am a Branch Manager. Everyone with a rank higher than Division Manager has died."
"Where is the Division Manager?"
"The head of the Cheonan Branch was the Division Manager. After he died, they sent a support request here, and we accepted it."
"Ah, so the Division Manager is definitely dead?"
"Yes."
"Don't they have a Branch Manager there?"
"They all died during the Hive incident. All that's left are INSS, INRS, and some researchers."
I understood.
Finally.
Let's organize this.
Back in February, the extraction and high-compatibility transplant research had errors but finished successfully.
The Chairman probably acquired the Contract ability there.
Afterward, the Chairman caught Infected to level up the Contract ability, and to control himself perfectly, he placed Contracts on most high-ranking personnel.
Even making it so that if he died, everyone who received the Contract would die too.
However, the subsequent experiment.
During the experiment to extract superpowers from humans, a powerful Infected appeared, and after the Chairman died due to some accident, IN Company, with the Division Manager and higher-ups all wiped out, is living in a state of every-man-for-himself in various places.
And now, various powerful Infected that they didn't expect are popping up all over the place.
What a fucking mess.
So isn't one of them the Hive?
Stronger than Abomi and Hunter.
"So that's why you cooperated with the warlords?"
"Correct."
"So is the Cheonan Hive that powerful Infected?"
"Correct. An abnormal Infected, a mutant. Internal confirmation is impossible. It's just that I came up after receiving a support request from there. The Cheonan Branch was completely annihilated."
"Why abandon Sejong?"
"I didn't abandon it. The internal facilities are fine."
"Is there a bunker there too?"
"No. This is a bunker made by the Division Manager's ability here."
The conclusion is, well...
"They spread it themselves, got fucked themselves, what a fucking mess. So in the end, IN Company didn't create Nexus?"
"Yes, to be precise, IN Company created the Nexus Core, but the Nexus Energy, which is the subject, was not created by IN Company. We are just a group trying to control it."
"And you ended up like this while experimenting with it. It wasn't even controlled? You fucking idiots?"
"Correct."
Amazing.
Truly amazing.
"Now this country is ruined. Or maybe the whole world is ruined. We were the last hope."
"What kind of bullshit are you talking about? You have your company. IN Company, and there must be other branches or surviving countries."
"I wonder."
Cheol-woo Lee laughed.
"Mutants are increasing. And they are expanding their numbers and increasing their intelligence. They will become increasingly intelligent and threatening. We sacrificed everything to modify the vaccine to stop it, but you destroyed it."
"Vaccine?"
"Yes."
"You can just make it again."
"That was the last vaccine brought from the Cheonan Branch. The vaccine on which the future of this country, perhaps this world, depended."
Ah, fuck, something else is coming out again.
"Explain."
"Each country's headquarters has a vaccine. A vaccine to be spread to the world after establishing a new order. A vaccine that can return things to before the incident, eliminating only those with negative compatibility."
"That's that?"
"Yes."
"And that was at the Cheonan headquarters?"
"Yes."
"How many places are there in Korea?"
"I don't know."
"Why don't you know that either? You're a Branch Manager, don't you know anything?"
"I cannot say I know what I do not know."
Ah, sure you would.
Well. But even if it exists, I don't think it would work.
"If something like that existed, they would have spread it already. China, Russia, or the US. And wouldn't they have returned already? At the time the Chairman died? They probably already spread it and it didn't work."
"......"
Cheol-woo Lee closes his mouth. His face turns red.
He thinks so too, but he won't say it. Funny.
"You think so too, right?"
"Ugh... yes."
Looking despondent.
I said.
"And those kinds of people kidnap people and extract superpowers?"
Cheol-woo Lee sighed and said.
"It's an unavoidable sacrifice. It's more efficient for us to gain powerful abilities than uncontrollable personnel."
Sure.
Unavoidable sacrifice.
An unavoidable sacrifice for me to survive.
While doing that, they only think of themselves.
Well, I think I've heard enough.
"Besides the personnel there, are there any INSS or INRS-like guys who will come looking for you?"
"None."
"What about the soldiers?"
"The soldiers are controlled by Colonel Young-ho Park."
Young-ho Park.
Ah, fuck, Young-ho Park is dead.
"Is there anywhere else besides that bunker? A place where your family is?"
"My family is all dead."
"...? Why?"
"Each researcher's family was transferred to the bunker inside the headquarters in various places at the time of the destruction. To the bunker inside the IN Company Cheonan Branch."
Then their families must have all died during that incident too.
Well, it's their own fault.
"Then why do water and electricity keep coming out? The bunker too."
"That's level 1 classified information, so I don't know."
"Well, sure. Your guess?"
"I am guessing that there might be an ability user."
'......'
Somehow.
Even though I grabbed this guy's head and got information, it seems nothing has been solved.
No, rather, it's like things have become more complicated.
'...Nexus Core.'
IN Company did create the Core itself. However, the Nexus Energy, the energy that turns people into Infected or grants superpowers, was not created by them.
Then what on earth is it?
'I'll have to go to IN Company headquarters for that.'
But it's an American company, would I know anything if I went there?
Division Manager. He said headquarters. Not a branch, but headquarters. Then I wonder if I'll find something if I search and enter each regional headquarters.
'The vaccine is there.'
They say there's a vaccine at each headquarters. They say they're all destroyed, but it's better than having none, right?
'The only fortunate thing is that it's been confirmed that transplantation to higher abilities is impossible.'
It's a relief I didn't transplant it to the kids without knowing.
If even the Chairman mutated, then there's no answer other than the predetermined compatibility.
So now, what to do with this guy.
No matter how much I think about it, keeping him alive is the right choice.
With Seo-yoon's ability, there's no worry of betrayal. The Contract ability that requires absolute obedience.
That means I can use this researcher's ability to my heart's content.
I can use the bunker ability too.
It would be impossible alone, but if I threaten and bring other surviving IN Company researchers later, I can make them do vaccine-related research away from those shitty guys.
Besides, since he's a smart human, I'll be able to get more information.
'Information related to IN Company, that is.'
"Keu, keu-heu-heu-heu."
Cheol-woo Lee laughed.
I asked.
"Why are you laughing?"
"The way you're thinking is obvious. It won't go your way."
"What?"
"Because time is up."
And at that moment.
Blood poured out of the mouth of Cheol-woo Lee, who had said something incomprehensible.
"Eun-bin!"
"Kueeeeuk...!"
"Ah, no...!"
What, he died breaking through the Contract and even healing doesn't work?
However, I know this situation.
The INSS guys who collapsed when I kidnapped them at Future Girls' High School before. They died like this.
Is there something that makes people die immediately?
'Then why didn't they use that on us?'
No, it's different.
Unlike the INSS guys who died immediately, he died after some time.
There's some kind of criteria.
Cheol-woo Lee, who collapsed and died.
I narrowed my eyes while looking at his corpse.
Is he escaping the command of absolute obedience and no self-harm?
Did IN Company find a way?
No, he would definitely be caught by the no self-harm rule.
Plus, this man said time was up.
Then...
It's true that they took measures beforehand, before I came here and placed the Contract.
To die after a certain amount of time.
They must have set it up using some code, command, or ability.
To die instantly.
What I wrote in the Contract was absolute obedience and no self-harm.
But does that mean what was written before the Contract is meaningless?
'......'
No, it would have been fine if I had given more detailed orders.
Or asked a question.
Like, is there any restriction or something on your body?
'Since they're the ones who made the superpowers, do they know all the details?'
No, didn't they say the ability that Chairman Sinclair or whoever acquired was Contract? They must have experimented with it here and there.
And found the loopholes in that ability.
'Amazing. Truly.'
There was more to ask.
It's a shame.
But I consoled myself that it was okay because I gained more.
'Well, I can just catch other bastards.'
Also, seeing as they didn't use this for offensive purposes, it must be something that requires preparation.
I looked at the fallen Cheol-woo Lee.
The dead man.
The Branch Manager of the IN Company Sejong Branch.
'.......'
What he said is the truth he knows.
But I know the world isn't that easy.
I also know that Contract isn't a perfect ability.
I can only know what the target believes is the truth, but I don't know the real truth.
In the end, I have to check it with my own eyes.
Everything he said.
Powerful Infected, compatibility, IN Company and Elias Sinclair... and even the Contract.