Chapter 14
Chapter 14
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 14
Chapter Title: Center Core (2)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I thought I was a bit late because I'd been on my phone, but Yoon had actually come out a little early.
So what are we doing from today? Getting beaten up like last time?
I worried, but things proceeded in a sensible direction.
First, we warmed up and went for a run. We started from the cabin, took a long loop, and returned to the cabin. Everything necessary was neatly placed where it belonged along the streets. The city was baking under the warm sunlight, and Yoon and I ran in silence.
After returning, we walked ten minutes to the gym and did strength training. The gym was spacious, filled with rows of well-maintained, state-of-the-art equipment, but there wasn't a single person there.
That was so strange I couldn't hold back from asking.
"Why isn't there anyone here?"
"Because this gym is mine."
Crazy.
"When I'm busy, just come on your own and work out. I'll register your fingerprint."
This guy is seriously rich.
I'd suspected it from seeing his car, but I hadn't realized he was rich to this extent.
Anyway, we worked out here. Yoon seemed to want to gauge my abilities, so he had me do a variety of exercises. Lower body, upper body, flexibility training, and so on.
Strangely, my body wasn't keeping up.
It had been the same while running earlier. It felt like I should be able to run faster, farther, but my body wouldn't follow. The same went for the weights and sets in strength training. My ankle flexibility felt off too. When I tried juggling, my dynamic vision was definitely worse.
How did this happen...?
Like this?
"Were you a trainer?"
I straightened my back.
"Pardon?"
"Even if you can't do the exercises well, it's clear you've been at it for years."
Yoon was squinting at me, studying me.
He shoved his hands into the pockets of his black windbreaker and frowned slightly.
"You seem like you've taken a few months off from training. But no matter what exercise I give you, you do it with perfect form and hit the right muscle groups."
"Is that so? That's a relief. I do feel like I've been off for a few months. I was just thinking my body isn't responding..."
"Don't you remember training?"
Not really.
Whenever Yoon told me to do an exercise, I just reflexively knew how to do it. How to deadlift, bench press, push-ups, pull-ups, etc.
When I told him the truth, Yoon fell silent, lost in thought for a moment.
Then he spoke.
"You even used a natural ukemi when that mushroom hit you."
Did I?
"How much muscle do you want to build?"
"I don't want to bulk up too much. That would hurt flexibility, lead to more injuries, and limit my movements."
"See?"
Yoon said.
"From what I can tell, you weren't someone who trained as a hobby. You must have done it professionally, or been in the military or police, or a stuntman."
Was I?
I still couldn't remember.
But Yoon didn't dwell on my answer. Instead, after finishing the strength training, he dragged my exhausted self to the shooting range.
The shooting range was below this gym.
How rich is this guy?
"I take back what I said about you maybe being military or police."
As soon as I finished shooting, Yoon commented flatly.
"You handle exercises well, but why are you so bad with a gun?"
Sorry.
Yoon made me practice shooting all afternoon. He didn't seem to care about wasting live ammo as he let me fire away freely, then dragged my utterly drained body to his house.
More precisely, he dragged me to the spacious lab in the basement of his house.
A cool place with a faint smell of disinfectant.
There, he showed me a 'small core' model.
A glass dome like a snow globe covered a city model.
"It's made of exactly the same material as the Breath protecting the Center Core."
"Breath?"
"The original name for the barrier is Breath. Most people call it the core. To be precise, the core refers to the entire area enveloped by the barrier, while the barrier itself is called Breath."
"I see."
"John Mullen created Breath. I commercialized it."
"Pardon?"
I was so shocked my pronunciation came out a bit off. I widened my eyes and looked at the man beside me.
"Isn't that an incredibly huge accomplishment?"
"If you want to get technical, yes."
He wasn't humble.
But now I understood why he was so rich. It must be patented. It made no sense for the person who commercialized an indispensable device for humanity not to be wealthy.
Yoon looked down at the toy-like small core and pressed somewhere on its base.
A small hole opened at the bottom edge of the semicircle. Arch-shaped, like a tiny door for little people.
Yoon pointed at the small hole with his finger.
"When leaving the core, you make a door in the core like this."
"You go outside?"
Why go out? Isn't the Breath there to protect the city from weird mushrooms and spider-like creatures?
A dry voice answered.
"Civilians don't go out. We do."
A low, even voice explained.
"We have to reclaim the lost land."
A strange feeling washed over me for a moment.
I couldn't tell exactly what feeling it was or why I felt it. I just knew that the moment I heard that flat explanation, something felt off.
It felt like a faint afterimage flashed before my eyes. Like a forgotten memory surfacing and vanishing. It was too fast to grasp properly.
I stared at my master.
"What's out there?"
The answer came lazily.
"Creatures."
Then I'll go outside once I've served my time! Outside the core must be dangerous.
"You have to enter the core once your time is up."
What?
"There are civilians inside the core."
That's true.
Yoon turned on a screen mounted on the lab wall.
The screen split into multiple sections, like monitoring security cameras. Then it began showing bizarre things. The backgrounds varied. Some were bluish grasslands, others gray wastelands reminiscent of apocalypse movies.
Backgrounds shifted rapidly like changing game stages, with creatures prowling about.
No trace of humans anywhere.
That's outside the core.
"The area near the core is relatively safe. Because the Badgers have cleared it out. The farther you go from the core, the more dangerous it gets, and there are areas where drones vanish for unknown reasons. We divide them by danger level. But it's hard to get a feel just from video, right?"
A bad premonition hit me.
I immediately gave a polite reply.
"The video quality is excellent, vivid like reality right in front of me."
"Explaining it won't stick in your head."
Yoon had no intention of listening to me.
He tapped the keyboard firmly, switching videos. I grew more daunted watching the rapidly changing footage.
What the hell are those unknown things on screen sometimes....
My master continued explaining, unconcerned with my expression.
"If creature danger levels are divided from 1 to 10, the areas outside the core are divided from A to F. A is the farthest zone Badgers can reach, and F is where rookies start."
"Ah. So the creature-infested place in the top right corner is A Zone?"
"That's an off-limits S Zone."
"Huh?"
Isn't A the highest?
Yoon explained without taking his eyes off the screen.
"There are places even veteran Badgers can't enter. We group them all as S Zone."
"Then how was that footage taken?"
"By drone."
Ah.
"Good thing it's S Zone. We probably won't encounter it."
"We have to turn S Zone into F Zone someday and bring it inside the core. That's why we go out."
"That's a distant future for me, so I'm relieved to correct myself."
"Let's go outside in a week."
I knew it!
I knew you'd say that! From the moment you said explaining won't make it stick, I had a bad feeling.
This guy.... I'd felt it since the mushroom creature, but he definitely believed in learning through direct experience.
Yoon glanced at me as I opened my mouth, then raised an eyebrow.
"Why the face?"
"Are you really asking because you don't know?"
"No."
What a guy.
Yoon turned off the screen.
Every action from my master felt efficient. No unnecessary movements.
He pulled out what looked like a tablet from under the desk.
"Let's build up your stamina for the week before we go out."
"Is a week enough?"
"You're not in bad shape now."
Really?
I asked in a voice that couldn't hide my joy.
"That's great. I was really worried...."
"But you're still far from field-ready."
Give the poison, then the antidote.
This time too, my master ignored my reaction.
He swiped through the tablet, explaining the training schedule for the week.
Breakfast, then training from 9 a.m. Lunch. Rest, then training again from 2 p.m. Ends at 6, then study the world online on your own. Message me on the app whenever you have questions.
More manageable than I thought. Ending at 6 meant legal internet time too.
Thinking about the self-introduction in a week made my stomach twist, but the week ahead itself seemed decent, lifting my mood.
"Considering your situation, I'll advance one month's salary. Use that to get by."
Before leaving his house and heading back to the cabin, Yoon handed me a card and said that.
I smiled and took the card he offered.
"Thank you."
Having spending money eased my mind. I should check the ATM to see how much is in it. Now with a place to live and work, I just need to buy basics like clothes and groceries.
Ah.
I'd been worried, but everything was working out. I was happy...
KABOOM!
"What was that!"
"What else? A creature."
Yoon smacked the dog-sized creature that had lunged at my face with his phone, then spoke.
The creature smashed into the ground along with the phone screen, splatting.
A phone isn't a ping-pong paddle—how do you hit it with a phone? While I stared dumbly at the twitching lifeform on the ground with that thought, Yoon walked lazily toward it.
My master bent down and checked the creature that had leaped from the ground.
"Strange. It was trying to lure me, but why'd it go for you?"
It was whale-like.
Practically a whale.
Crunch!
Yoon crushed it underfoot.
What a waste.
The thought flashed through my mind.
...Huh?
"Why is that a waste?"
"What?"
I couldn't understand why I felt that way and muttered to myself, when Yoon straightened up and asked.
I hurriedly shook my head.
"No. But can this lure people?"
"Yeah. They make sounds in frequencies humans can't hear. The creature alarm's been going off since earlier, getting closer, so I deliberately used my phone to make noise and lure it in."
Yoon said, arching his brow.
He narrowed his eyes at me.
"Why'd it go for you?"
"I must've looked easier than you."
Even if I were it, I wouldn't want to tangle with Yoon.
We hadn't been far apart, but Yoon was still eerily still in his movements, exuding an intimidating aura, hard to read.
"We weren't that far apart."
Yoon seemed oddly unconvinced by my answer.
He didn't say anything, though.
He just eyed me for a moment before sending me back to the cabin. He said if I reported the carcass, the cleanup team would handle it.
I nodded and returned to the cabin.
On the way, I kept having that inexplicable feeling of regret.
Even the thinker couldn't accept the thought itself.
But still, regretful.
A rare, hefty specimen.