Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: D Zone (3)
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The building was far larger than the Library of Beginnings. A square structure with monotonously placed windows. What had it originally been used for?
The supply depot in F Zone used the library, but this building in D Zone had an unclear original purpose. It was obvious, however, that it was far more heavily fortified than anything in F Zone.
For starters, the building was enclosed in something like a transparent dome.
That must be the Breath.
I pulled the battered military vehicle up to the spot Ami indicated. Beyond the dome, the solid iron walls surrounding the building came into view.
I stopped the vehicle in front of the iron-walled main gate.
Ami, sitting in the passenger seat, reached out and picked up what looked like a radio.
A locked female voice came from the radio.
[Royal.]
“Jeep.”
It seemed to be a passphrase. Clunk! A heavy sound echoed from beyond the shattered car window. The iron gate began to move slowly.
The door slid open sideways with a heavy rumble. Behind me, the seniors prepared to disembark.
The clatter of firearms. The sounds of them readying themselves.
The iron gate fully opened, revealing the building’s main entrance.
But the barrier outside the iron gate was still there?
“You’ve never seen a Breath open before, right?”
Ami said breezily.
“Watch. I still find it amazing every time.”
A massive sound rang out.
It was an eerie noise. Like soap bubbles popping, or a balloon rapidly inflating. It resembled a computer boot-up sound or the hum of a magnetic field.
As my ears went numb from the sound, a small core in the shape of a door came into view, opening.
It was round, just like the one Yoon had shown me in his home basement.
I turned the wheel and drove the vehicle inside the iron gate.
“Park it near the entrance.”
Green ordered.
I parked parallel to the left side of the iron gate as commanded. Driving it reminded me how to parallel park. Ah, that two-tone-haired scientist’s (probably a scientist) voice kept echoing in my head.
‘Parallel parking gets easy once you’re used to it.’
But now wasn’t the time to dwell on these fragmented memories popping up.
I jumped out of the driver’s seat, following the seniors as they piled out with a rumble. The vehicle was a mess in every way. The rear was splattered with blood, and the front windshield was half gone.
No one paid it any mind, though.
Leaving the keys inside, I hurriedly grabbed the duffel bag I’d tossed in and followed the seniors.
Someone was slowly walking out from the building’s main entrance.
Ami called out the person’s name in a bright voice.
“Sylvia!”
Ah, that silver-haired senior.
The one I’d run into the first time I went outside the core. One of the people with Jason Tvein. We hadn’t exchanged names back then.
They hadn’t seemed interested in introductions anyway.
So she was the one who’d given the passphrase over the radio? We stopped in front of the silver-haired Black Badger with her cold demeanor. I silently observed the senior woman, who seemed to have pale pigmentation overall.
A sniper rifle slung crossbody. Skin as pale as Ye-hyeon’s. Sky-blue eyes. Long, light eyelashes.
Her expression was almost as icy as my master’s.
“No anomalies.”
Sylvia said in a locked voice, making eye contact with Green.
“Current personnel: Sylvia Kif, Barbie Winter, Lee Ho-chang.”
“Got it.”
Lee Ho-chang was here too.
Then the one named Barbie must be that blonde senior I’d bumped into before? Swallowing my curiosity, I followed the seniors into the building.
A new building unfolded before my eyes.
The iron gate and Breath had been quite modern, but the building itself was crude. Traces of time were etched everywhere. A musty air. A lobby with cracked floors and crunching gravel.
I followed Walker and Tvein, dropping my duffel bag on the floor.
“No way. What the hell is this lineup?”
Lee Ho-chang’s voice came from inside the building.
“Did you conquer some territory or something?”
“Lee Ho-Lee Ho.”
Aki’s retort.
Lee Ho-chang was the same as ever. He still looked exhausted, wearing drab-colored fatigues today too.
Ami let out her signature laugh at Aki and Lee Ho-chang.
“Lee Ho-Lee Ho-rae.”
“Hey, I told you not to call me that in front of the seniors. …But seriously, what’s going on? Why are you guys teamed up like something out of a core expansion op?”
“Ye-hyeon’s orders.”
“That bastard’s lost it.”
As Green replied bluntly, Tvein snarked back.
“It’s time for a change. Huh? Haven’t you been at it long enough? Don’t you think so, Richard?”
With a bored look, I watched Tvein rattle off complaints about Ye-hyeon, while the others ignored him, set down their gear, and headed inside.
Knowing nothing, I eagerly observed with my eyes and mimicked the seniors. Set down personal items with daily necessities, took off the outer combat uniform and placed it on the duffel bag. Headed inside without setting down weapons.
That’s when I realized the building’s original purpose.
This building had been a museum.
***
Once you reach D Zone, it’s not easy to return inside the core.
That was Ami’s explanation. That’s why rations become even more crucial from D Zone onward. It’s what Black Badgers do every time, she said. Transporting supplies from the F Zone supply depot to E Zone, then D Zone.
But we hadn’t brought even one box of supplies.
Ye-hyeon had rejected Richard Green’s offer to bring some along as a bonus….
“Potato.”
“Yes.”
I placed a peeled potato on Walker’s massive hand.
The potato plopped into the giant tin pot. Standing in front of the steaming haze, I mechanically peeled another potato.
“Chop onions too.”
“Yes.”
I quickly peeled an onion.
We were cooking. Walker and I were amicably wearing aprons (Walker’s looked ready to burst) and cooking in the kitchen.
Up to D Zone, you could maintain some semblance of human life at safe points. From C Zone, it’s straight-up survival camping, apparently. Once you clean up C Zone and secure the safe point, that’s when it shifts from C to D Zone.
In other words, this was the last place with electricity and running water.
But there was no one else to clean or cook. Inevitably, the grunt work fell to the rookie.
I pushed the knife-sliced onions toward the pot.
“Smells good.”
My body jolted at Aki’s voice from behind.
Whipping my head around, I saw the bob-haired senior peering over.
“Curry?”
“Yes. We’ll have it ready soon.”
“Need help?”
Aki turned to meet my eyes.
“Nothing else to do.”
“No, it’s fine. It’ll be done soon.”
“Alright then.”
The senior acquiesced.
But she didn’t leave.
Instead, she stood there watching me for a while. Pretending not to notice the senior—while keeping a smile plastered on my face—I kept my hands moving.
Walker stirred the curry pot beside us without glancing our way. Another senior poured the onions into the pot. Yet another senior narrowed her eyes, staring at me.
Smells great.
Only after the onions were all chopped did Aki get to the point.
“What did you do to end up here?”
Yeah, I figured she’d ask that.
“Sorry if it’s too direct. But are you from the underworld? Your recovery’s weak, you don’t even have a license on purpose, it all fits perfectly. Plus, you took all your classes online, right?”
“Uh….”
“Or not?”
Get out of it. Gotta dodge this smoothly too, Hildebert!
Peeling a carrot quickly, I replied.
“What exactly do you mean by underworld…?”
“C’mon, it’s obvious. Fixers like this guy, mafia, drug dealers. Places doing illegal Enhanced Body implants or illegal Anti-Aging surgeries.”
“Ah. I had no connections to those places.”
Probably not, past me.
I believe it. The Hildebert Talib of the unremembered past. I believe it.
I evenly sliced the peeled carrot and smiled brightly.
“I was just a shut-in with no social skills.”
“Oh, really?”
Aki blinked once.
Then she stared at me intently before apologizing.
“I see. Sorry. That was too blunt.”
She shoved her hands into her windbreaker pockets.
“There are a lot of people with weird side effects from illegal implants. That’s why I wondered. I don’t hate or look down on the underworld, so don’t misunderstand.”
“It’s fine.”
“Illegal surgeries don’t leave you with a body that intact.”
Walker cut in bluntly.
The man’s sharp, keen eyes rolled toward me.
“Besides, this kid looks like he’s got zero ties to that world.”
Really?
What a relief. If someone from the underworld says so, it must be true. I looked at the giant man with eyes mixed with hope and goodwill.
His thick features and deep-set eye sockets. Short-cropped black hair and sinewy forearms. Nothing about William Walker matched the red apron he was wearing.
I quickly placed the sliced carrots on Walker’s beckoning hand.
The bubbling sound pleasantly filled the air. Staring at the curry with rising bubbles, I sank back into thought.
I recalled what Ricardo and Ro had said on the first day.
Didn’t you get some illegal surgery or something?
Watching Walker stir with a large ladle, I broke the silence.
“Even knowing the severe side effects, some people still go for illegal Enhanced Body implants, huh.”
“Tons of them. It’s a social issue that hits the news every time you forget about it.”
“Ah, yeah, now that you mention it….”
“Only idiots who can’t plan long-term do that crap.”
“Will’s never felt the need for an Enhanced Body, so he wouldn’t get it.”
A young voice chimed in.
I whipped my head around in pleasant surprise. Ami was coming in through the silver kitchen door.
She must’ve washed up.
Everyone’s re-equipping in their zones. Smiling, I looked down at Ami as she approached us.
Ami met my gaze with mischievous eyes.
She grinned and blurted out.
“Hilde, you know this?”
“Yes?”
“Will got tricked by the HR Director into becoming a Black Badger?”
…What?
What the hell is this all of a sudden?
Standing there dumbfounded, Ami’s impish smile widened.
“It’s one of HR Director Joo’s legendary achievements. Bringing in William Walker. And talking him into joining Black Badger. He’s the first and last one the HR Director personally scouted like that.”
“Ah, I remember. There were crazy rumors about an amazing rookie joining.”
“Damn it.”
Thwack! William Walker threw a dishcloth.
But Ami’s impish smile remained. No intention of changing the subject.
…Weirdly reminds me of Choi Yoon.
Anyway, it was intriguing, so I perked up my ears as the salt and light of my life continued.
“The HR Director was in a real rush back then too.”
“Ah. Short on manpower?”
“Nah, not that. Around that time, Ye-hyeon was so pissed at the HR Director he told him to step down.”
Ami dove into an even juicier story.
“Even dropped that famous line: ‘All you do here is cause scandals, Joo.’”