Chapter 185
Chapter 185
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 185
Chapter Title: Biometric Data (2)
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“It's fine!”
Ami replied brazenly.
After lamenting the regret of dropping her frappuccino due to that voice, she added seriously.
“But it felt like they deliberately avoided stabbing a vital spot.”
“What?”
Ska asked back.
Ye-hyeon narrowed his eyes and looked down at Ami.
“I'm not living that carelessly, you know.”
It was the patient's assertion.
Everyone in the hospital room looked at the owner of those round eyes. Her face looked perfectly fine, as if it were a lie that she'd just come out of surgery.
The one who had been the eldest in the hospital room until Ye-hyeon arrived.
Ami said solemnly.
“The culprit was pretty skilled. I didn't even sense them approaching.”
“It's okay~... People can get distracted by a frappuccino...”
Ricardo grinned.
Ami got angry.
“No!”
“Ami. Don't move too much.”
Ye-hyeon urgently pressed down on Ami's shoulders as she tried to raise both hands.
“Your wound will reopen.”
“Ska didn't notice either! And they vanished like a ghost!”
Ami lowered her arms and insisted vigorously.
“That kind of movement isn't from an amateur!”
Ska was silent for a while.
He just sat in the chair, stroking his chin. Ye-hyeon and Ricardo quietly waited for him to make his judgment.
The tall aide uncrossed his legs.
“That's a pretty valid point.”
Silence fell over the hospital room.
Everyone sank into their own thoughts. Some kept their eyes downcast in silence. Only Ami stared with wide, vacant eyes, waiting for people to snap out of their thoughts.
The silence broke only when she couldn't stand the boredom anymore and smacked the blanket.
“Already bored!”
“Let's call Hilde here first and talk more.”
Ye-hyeon muttered while stroking Ami's head.
“I don't know why he's not picking up.”
***
I stared blankly at the monitor.
I looked at Ye-hyeon's photo and the sentence written next to it.
The sentence at the very top of his personal information caught my eye.
‘During the Center Core zombie-type creature outbreak, received X's biometric data from Falcon.’
What the hell is X.
What is this zombie-type creature outbreak?
I was staring down at the incomprehensible sentence.
Then, I felt a chilling killing intent from behind.
I flung my body sideways in shock.
Kwang!
Jaeyeon's fist smashed the computer's screen.
The screen cracked, but the frame didn't break.
Cracks spread from where the fist had slammed down.
It was still operating, but it wouldn't last long.
Jaeyeon kept swinging his fist.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The computer screen went completely black.
Why the fuck again?
The shattering screen. Glass shards sticking to Jaeyeon's hand and red blood dripping onto the fragments.
I watched the rampaging Jaeyeon in utter disbelief.
What's the problem?
Jaeyeon only lifted his head after completely smashing the computer screen.
Like when he'd smashed the serum in Eric Airhart's museum, he was breathing roughly.
“Why the sudden freakout again?”
It couldn't be because he saw Ye-hyeon's face, right?
“Why the random outburst?”
Kwang!
Yoon's shoe kicked Jaeyeon's side.
Jaeyeon's body flew back and crashed into a pile of documents. Thud! With a heavy sound, stacks of papers as tall as a person floated into the air.
In the rapidly changing situation, I lost my words and let out a “Huh.”
Yoon walked toward Jaeyeon, who was slowly getting up.
“Psycho bastard.”
The master muttered, stopping at Jaeyeon's feet.
“If you're gonna have a fit, at least target the right culprit.”
Anger mixed into his low, subdued voice.
The master fixed his cold gaze on the other man.
His rage-boiling voice continued.
“You can't even wag your tail at my master.”
Jaeyeon let out a short scream.
His eyes rolled back as he lunged at Yoon, making sounds unlike a human. Even though I'd anticipated this, I was taken aback by the overwhelming momentum.
The anger and resentment had surged all the way here.
But Yoon didn't panic.
The gun fired.
Bang!
The bullet grazed past his ribs.
Even as blood burst out, Jaeyeon didn't stop.
“What do you know!”
Jaeyeon tackled Yoon, pinning the master to the floor and raising his fist.
He seemed too excited to feel the pain from the gunshot.
“What do you! Know about anything between him and me!”
Thwack! Thud! Thud! Jaeyeon's fists rained down on Yoon's face. Even under the barrage of punches, Yoon didn't blink.
He reloaded the gun amid the fist storm.
The gun barrel aimed at Jaeyeon's wrist, raised in the air.
Bang!
If I left them like this, would one of them die?
Probably Jaeyeon with high odds? Yoon had the gun, and only Yoon was keeping his sanity. Of course, thanks to completely losing his reason, Jaeyeon was displaying insane strength. Enough that Yoon couldn't shake off the guy on top of him.
But if I just left them, Jaeyeon would die first.
I sighed and looked around.
Alright.
Found another pipe wrench.
Kwaaang!
The pipe wrench shattered.
Pipes can't withstand impacts after all.
I tossed aside the broken tool. But unlike last time, I didn't just stand there. I rushed to the men who had flown apart and kicked away the gun rolling on the floor.
I also usefully employed the nylon ropes clearly meant for binding test subjects. I bound Jaeyeon first, then Yoon's hands too.
And positioned them so they faced away from each other, back-to-back.
“Why tie me up?”
Yoon spat out blood and asked.
I grinned at the men whose clothes and hair were all disheveled.
“Looks like you forgot, but this time too, Senior threw the first punch.”
“That bastard had it coming.”
“What did he do?”
Ignoring Jaeyeon who was still thrashing and snarling, I asked.
This binding rope wouldn't break anyway. I'd tied it with all my strength, the material was what it was, and above all, I knew how to tie hands so they couldn't slip free.
Yoon narrowed his eyes.
I quietly waited for one of them to answer.
At this point, I had the right to know and move on. I couldn't keep just stopping their psychotic violent outbursts forever.
Silence blanketed the lab.
Yoon was the one who spoke first.
“You probably don't know about the zombie-type creature outbreak.”
“Yes.”
“Humanoid creatures similar to the test subject we just encountered once rampaged inside the Center Core. It became a huge problem because they infected humans like zombies.”
Wait a minute. I'd seen a similar disease in my previous world.
The fact that they were humanoid also bothered me.
Jaeyeon's struggling grew more violent. Since they were bound together, Yoon's body shook along with it.
The master stopped talking and glared at Jaeyeon.
“Give him a smack.”
“I'll listen to the end and smack him.”
“The infectivity was so high it was a huge issue. People's fear ramped up to dangerous levels, and there were even rumors the Center Core might collapse.”
It must've happened after the Second War ended.
“The elders recognized the severity and took action.”
“I saw earlier. That Falcon provided Ye-hyeon with X's biometric data.”
I said it without much thought, then asked.
“Who's X?”
It might be my data.
That was my thought as I asked. My biometric data, or that of my kin. Maybe they handed over info on us, who look human but aren't.
I'd asked with half-certainty.
But the answer was completely different.
Unexpected.
“Jaeyeon.”
I widened my eyes.
I looked down at the bound men, who hadn't moved for a while.
“Him?”
The guy with his back to you right now?
“Why his?”
“Because he's not human either.”
I stood rigidly straight.
Jaeyeon had gone dangerously quiet now. Eyes downcast, not moving. The calm before the storm.
The problem was I was so shocked I couldn't think straight.
Still, prepared to counter if he rampaged, I muttered to myself.
“If not human, then what.”
“The one who arrived here before you guys.”
Yoon said flatly.
“Not a Titan, not human. Didn't you guess? Even before you passed on your youth to him, Jaeyeon maintained his youth at Falcon's side.”
Ah.
Memories of the past flooded in.
Red lipstick. Upturned eye corners. Flowing black hair.
Rose lipstick, high nose bridge, blonde hair swaying above the collarbone.
Prominent Adam's apple, clear veins, short black hair.
Jaeyeon was a master of disguise.
That talent had eaten away at his mind. Like suffering from schizophrenia, his identity crumbled often. A drifting self. No one knew his true form.
Probably only Colton did.
The one we'd called a shapeshifter.
From the moment he remembered, he was Colton's limb.
Jaeyeon laughed.
“I was gladly his.”
The human form laughed venomously. I witnessed dizzyingly deep emotions in his eyes.
Betrayal, rage, servility, pleading, hatred, love, fear.
“I served him while he devoured me. And this is the reward!”
Even after decades knowing Colton, I never learned Jaeyeon's true identity to the end. Probably no one did.
Until Colton handed Jaeyeon's biometric data to Ye-hyeon.
“What a, what a grand finale!”
“Your master betrayed you, so point that blade of hatred at your master.”
Yoon growled at Jaeyeon.
“Why point the tip at Ye-hyeon?”
“That bastard demanded my biometric data!”
“Bullshit. He asked for helpful info, not yours specifically? He might not have even known you weren't human?”
“Yoon. He's not capable of normal thinking anyway.”
Even as I tried to calm the master, I was half-dazed.
My mind was spinning with the new info.
Now I get it.
Things that felt off but unimportant suddenly made sense.
Why Jaeyeon had freakishly smashed the blood-filled vial.
Why Jaeyeon hated Ye-hyeon.
Why Yoon had created the 'creature detector' so quickly.
The root of it all was that zombie incident from before.
Jaeyeon couldn't bring himself to hate Colton, who gave away his data, so he hated Ye-hyeon, who merely received it. Yoon had been researching using the zombie-type creature and Jaeyeon's biometric data all this time.
“So what was it in the end?”
I said to no one in particular.
“That zombie-type creature?”
Truthfully, I was a bit scared to hear the answer.
I regretted asking the moment I did. Since it was all over, I felt an impulse to just forget it.
But spoken words couldn't be taken back.
Yoon answered coldly.
“A diseased Titan.”
My stomach hurt.
Thinking that, I tried to accept the new information.
I couldn't tell what disturbed me most.
Was it shocking that kin remained in the Center Core? That the remaining kin didn't meet a happy end?
Or that it caused Jaeyeon to unjustly hate Ye-hyeon, and Ye-hyeon to keep suffering?
The disease had arisen around when the World Tree began to sicken. Those blessed with fortune rarely contracted it.
A disease whose cause was never pinpointed.
Staring blankly at the floor, I said.
“So that's why Ye-hyeon was so sure there was a Titan inside the Core?”
“Who knows. Back then, the command staff and I thought it might've crawled in from outside the Core. Sometimes spatial rifts open portals connecting inside and outside the Core. Most creature appearances inside are due to that.”
This was new info too, but I had no bandwidth to think deeply.
I looked at Jaeyeon, whose rage had cooled to ice, and Yoon, getting angrily cold in kind.
The incident where a diseased kin threatened the Center Core.
“You said you started researching the Titan detector before I appeared.”
I muttered, looking at Yoon.
“Was the sample from that Titan?”
“Yeah.”
“There are specific ways to kill those infected with that disease.”
I pressed my temples against the oncoming headache.
“We went through hell to figure it out. If we'd known, it would've ended as a minor disturbance...”
Why do I keep missing the timing?
I frowned at the tinnitus from the headache.
If I'd been in the Core then.
If I'd stopped it before it blew up...
Kwaaang!
Something slammed into the lab door.
Yoon and Jaeyeon turned their heads, but I didn't bother looking.
Instead, I bent down and rifled through the scattered lab documents.
“What was that Titan's name?”
I muttered, and the men looked at me.
Ignoring their stares, I kept going.
“There must be more info here.”
My goal had changed.
“It might be a name I know.”
I wouldn't leave this place until I'd extracted every bit this elder knew.
I wouldn't leave until I'd wrung out all the information.
Like a junkie desperate for a fix, I began ransacking the lab.