Chapter 186
Chapter 186
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 186
Chapter Title: Interrogation (1)
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Yoon told me to calm down since he couldn’t find any personal info on the zombie creature, but I ignored him.
I ignored the growing crash of collisions too. It seemed the test subjects or their retainers were struggling to open the closed door.
I had no spare attention for that.
It wasn’t in this file either.
Nor in that one….
The info on Ye-hyeon displayed on the monitor.
Who knew what I’d find if I read it to the end.
I lifted my head from rummaging through the pile of documents.
I saw Yoon with narrowed eyes and Jaeyeon smirking.
Kwang!
“Could I take the hard drive?”
Yoon looked me in the eye without changing expression.
He’d apparently been observing me as I maniacally pored over the files.
“What for?”
“I want to look it over.”
“No. Even if you don’t care, if I actively go wandering, it’ll blow up into a big deal.”
I thought he’d obediently say okay, but surprisingly, my master refused my request.
He snorted at my shocked look.
“Do I look like someone who lives without any strings attached?”
“A little.”
Kwang!
“You won’t find anything worthwhile digging around here.”
I shifted my gaze to Jaeyeon.
Her eyes curved in a sulky pout.
“You’d have to ransack Yates’s office for info that important, right?”
Yoon elbowed Jaeyeon’s ribs.
Even after the harsh blow, she kept pouting with her head down.
“Hey.”
As I stood, my master snapped in irritation.
“Cut the stupid ideas.”
“I’ll go alone.”
I had to untie the knot.
Thud! Thud! Thud! The pounding on the door grew louder and faster. I let it flow past like background noise as I walked toward the men.
If I untied them right away, they’d grab me and try to knock me out.
I still lacked confidence in beating Yoon in a straight fight.
I loosened the ropes just enough.
“Don’t expect any help.”
Yoon spoke coldly, realizing he couldn’t stop me.
I grinned.
In three minutes, I’d have the ropes fully off.
But keeping these guys tied for even three minutes was something. I’d have to hightail it during that short window.
I picked up the gun I’d kicked away earlier and tucked it into my waistband. I hung Jaeyeon’s ID badge, which had been around her neck, around mine.
Once prepared, I headed for the thumping door.
The moment Yoon and Jaeyeon freed themselves, I’d kick the door open and bolt.
My master’s voice laced with annoyance.
Jaeyeon smirking and retorting something.
The sound of the loosened ropes hitting the floor….
I flung the door open.
“Kraaaaargh!”
“Uwaaaaargh!”
The test subject spotted me and let out a shrill scream, so I bellowed right back.
The startled test subject.
I dashed past it into the hallway.
“Save me! Save me!”
Screaming, I headed for the stairs.
From behind, I heard Jaeyeon grumble something like “That screeching is rotting my ears,” but I ignored it. I ignored Yoon saying something like “Even if she ditches us, I thought she wouldn’t ditch that bastard,” too.
With those two on them, the test subjects were as good as dead.
They’d handle it themselves.
I flung open the stairwell door and raced up the stairs.
“The test subject!”
“In the basement!”
Men in suits came charging down the stairs in a group.
I answered their shout and kept climbing.
Some got pissy at me going against the flow.
“You punk! Where you going!”
“Weapons!”
Good thing the test subject was drawing their eyes.
“That test subject doesn’t go down to bullets!”
It wasn’t wrong, so no one grabbed me.
I reached the fifth floor in a flash. I burst through the fifth-floor stairwell door into the hallway.
The hallway was a world apart from the basement. Heavy wood scent and chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
The elder’s room was obvious.
Two retainers stood before the heavy wooden door.
“What.”
The blond man, eyes closed, cracked one open to look at me.
“A rookie? Why’d you come up here?”
So laid-back.
The commotion from basement one felt like a dream. I walked the hall, assessing the situation.
Jaeyeon’s piercing screech still had them fooled, so I planned to keep up the act until caught.
“Th-the test subject… bullets aren’t working….”
I stammered, wiping sweat.
“We’ve got one casualty! It’s too much even for Enhanced Body!”
“Yeah? And?”
“You need to evacuate now!”
The retainers burst out laughing.
The blond and the black-haired woman, who’d been staring ahead indifferently, laughed in unison. Their laughter echoed through the cold, silent hall.
They laughed for a good while before looking at me.
Sharp gazes tracking my movements.
If they both drew guns at once, I’d lose.
But I stubbornly kept up the dumbstruck face.
“Where’d they dig up this moron?”
The blond sneered, scanning me up and down.
“They gave Enhanced Body to a chump like this?”
“…It’s not exaggerated.”
“Did the first floor get bombed or something?”
The woman rasped back.
“Didn’t hear anything like that. You didn’t just chicken out alone?”
Yeah, exactly. It’d be nice if they caused a little chaos.
As they said, the fifth floor was quiet. I sharpened my senses, taking stock. I couldn’t sense humans like kin, but our five senses were definitely keener than humans’.
I wiped sweat from the back of my hand and took a step toward the retainers.
I made my hand tremble faintly on purpose.
“Th-then… could I at least have some ammo….”
The retainers, hands behind backs, showed no sign of moving.
The blond replied.
“Come get it.”
“Yes?”
“Come get it, I said.”
What a personality.
“Why hesitate? Don’t you need ammo?”
But that suited me fine.
I pretended to waver a bit, then walked toward the blond.
The blond arched one brow, watching me approach. Like he’d see how far this clueless rookie would go.
The clueless rookie planned to knock you out and your buddy beside you too.
I reached for the man’s waistband.
The retainer immediately piped up with “This guy, really?”
“The punk’s actually doing it….”
Ppak!
I smashed his jaw.
Perfect hit. The snap transmitted flawlessly from wrist to fist. A sound like firing a pistol rang through the hall.
“Crazy bastard!”
The woman aimed her gun at me.
But I’d anticipated it and was faster.
Ppak!
Tang!
This time, I nailed the spot where jaw met ear precisely. The retainer fired as she went down, but the bullet lodged uselessly in the ceiling.
Chunks of ceiling fell on my shoulder.
I brushed my shoulder and walked to the elder’s study door.
It was unlocked.
‘No one’s here.’
I dragged the knocked-out retainers into the study.
I locked the door, then stacked them like stepping stones in front of it.
It wouldn’t buy much, but another two or three minutes at least.
I straightened and scanned the quiet study.
Pretty antique. Two monitors, two towers. Desk piled mountain-high with files. Three or four manila envelopes. Solid wood drawers clearly for documents.
The PC would need fingerprint auth for sure.
I started digging through the desk files and manila envelopes.
“Ah.”
Nothing but territorial recovery reports, then suddenly a familiar face popped up.
It was a file on Eric Airhart.
More precisely, on his famous retainers.
Redhead and blond.
Shashinsky and Ravi.
So the blond who always grinned but hated my guts was Ravi.
There was even a photo of the full-banged female retainer I’d first run into hours ago. I skimmed the file and set it aside. Nothing particularly helpful.
If anything, stuff I hadn’t wanted to know.
Shashinsky was Eric Airhart’s oldest connection, a triathlete who fell into depression after an injury, only for Airhart to pull him out.
Ravi was an orphaned pickpocket who stole Airhart’s wallet, then got anonymous sponsorship (obviously Airhart) until becoming a retainer.
The full-banged glasses woman was named Rachel, abused by control-freak parents, ran away, got saved by Airhart, etc.
And that among those mired in despair who grabbed Eric Airhart’s hand to climb out, the ones who became retainers were those with fierce love for him and exceptional skills.
Stuff I hadn’t wanted to know.
After fruitless desk search, I went for the drawers.
Dying kin from disease.
At least a clan name, a given name.
Yoon hadn’t found it, but he probably didn’t have full access. Jaeyeon wouldn’t tell him, and Ye-hyeon only had limited info, so he might not know.
Calling Colton Wiseman was an option, but my aversion to him had been growing lately. Memories from patrol with Kudo, slaving like dogs, were the trigger.
Didn’t know why it kept building.
I yanked open the drawers.
And finally found a familiar photo.
[Lee Ye-hyeon]
Officially an orphan.
But actually, child of Yekaterina’s retainer Lee Seung-hyun and civilian Sasha.
I stood stock-still, reading down the thick file. It was massive. The elder kept it all on paper.
Probably anti-hacking. Odds of getting hacked were way higher than someone like me breaking in.
But thanks to that, I was absorbing the info unhindered.
I wanted zombie incident details….
Hm?
My eyes snagged on a line while scanning the report.
[Weakness: PTSD from child abuse]
What’s this.
I forgot the zombie incident in an instant.
Eyes widening, I read on.
The stiff text made my heart race faster with each line.
[A, B, C, D (all deceased now, see appendix), from the same unit as Lee Seung-hyun, visited the home under pretense of helping with childcare in father’s absence, routinely abused Lee Ye-hyeon, then a preschooler]
I roughly flipped pages.
The appendix photos choked me.
I knew all their faces.
Never spoken, but recognizable from photos.
Definitely the special forces guys who trained under Lee Seung-hyun with me.
Gut sinking, I read the details.
“Anything stand out?”
Deep in the report, an unfamiliar voice reached me.
I kept reading without turning.
Only after the intruder closed the study door did I reply.
“Stomach’s churning.”
“Ah, reading about the Supreme Commander’s little secret? Understandable. Not pleasant stuff.”
“You treated a kid who went through that so coldly?”
Fury toward Lee Seung-hyun surged.
My hands shook with rage as I gripped the file.
“After something like this…. How the hell….”
“Talking about Suhoi’s retainer?”
Footsteps approached.
Lost in rage while reading, I’d missed the sounds.
I knew I couldn’t escape anyway, so I didn’t move. Or rather, couldn’t. More accurately, I’d carried guilt for not pulling Ye-hyeon from Lee Seung-hyun’s neglect. Giving him the sword brought some guilt too, but joy at my odd new disciple outweighed it.
But the emotion crashing now….
I hadn’t known about this.
Suddenly, I recalled the meds from the command staff lounge when I first tumbled here.
The ones Yoon passed to me.
Now I knew who they were for.
“Who are you?”
Patrick Yates stood beside me.
“You’re drawing retainer attention, but aside from the faked admin records, I can’t find other info.”
“Just a plain rookie Black Badger drawing unintended eyes as a mutant.”
“Hmm. What mutation?”
“Green Dream doesn’t work, but recovery’s a bit low.”
Those who got a mere ten-year sentence each died differently.
A: Drowned.
B: Suicide.
C: Car accident.
D: Fire.
All clearly Yoon’s doing. So even this was Ye-hyeon’s weakness.
Revolting scum.
“Low recovery pops up sometimes, but Green Dream immunity? First I’ve heard.”
This guy doesn’t know about Titans.
I gauged how much he knew.
No point digging more. I stared coldly at the file.
Until Yates patted my shoulder.
“But still. Green Dream-proof body? Tempting. Now it all makes sense. How greedy they’d get! You’d stick in their eyes. You’re the seed that could be Superman immune to kryptonite.”
The elder gripped my shoulder hard.
“Welcome to my mansion, Hildebert. We’ll finish the talk in the interrogation room.”
Before escaping, I’d burn Ye-hyeon’s file at least.
Thinking that, I got dragged to Yates’s interrogation room.
***
“How you feeling?”
The elder stopped before me, bound to the chair.
I squinted at the stabbing white light and grinned.
“Worst.”