Chapter 51
Chapter 51
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 51
Chapter Title: Alma Mater (2)
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I couldn't trust Woo Min-hee, so I attempted communication from as far away as possible in the wasteland outside my territory.
"Stay put. We'll send someone."
After the National Crisis Committee members departed for Jeju Island, the fate of those left behind looked bleak.
In fact, even the ever-capable Kim Daram had gone missing.
I searched for her name on Failnet, but amid that vast sea of information, there was no trace of Kim Daram.
Woo Min-hee was different.
She still wielded real power.
A helicopter showed up at the rendezvous point just to pick up me alone.
"Are you Park Gyu?"
"Yes. That's me."
"Please board. Director Woo Min-hee is waiting."
So she really had pulled some strings.
I was curious which organization she was directing, but seeing the soldiers' tightly sealed lips and evasive eyes, it seemed better to ask directly later.
The helicopter took me to Incheon.
Incheon was now the de facto capital of Korea.
With Seoul destroyed and abandoned, nearly all infrastructure had shifted here.
Above all, what drew people to Incheon was the sea.
The harbor was filled with countless ships, their decks buzzing as people welded, loaded cargo, and prepared for departure.
Their destination was none other than Jeju.
The National Crisis Committee, which had seized Jeju Island, hadn't commented on this, but the government planned to send not one ship, but a massive fleet of dozens.
Innumerable people lined the docks, watching the work or wandering aimlessly.
At the end of the pier stood a research facility without a sign.
"This is it."
This drab concrete building must be the organization Woo Min-hee directed.
Inside, bright white lights and spotless white tiles greeted me in a meticulously ordered space.
"You're Park Gyu, right?"
A woman in glasses I'd never seen before greeted me.
"Yes. That's me."
"I'm Kim Soo-jin. Director Woo Min-hee instructed me to guide you in her place."
"Where is Director Woo Min-hee?"
"She's out on business. She probably won't return today, so I'll be handling things instead."
I followed Kim Soo-jin deeper into the research facility.
Inside, people in white lab coats hurried about with documents and laptops.
I had no idea what kept them so busy as an outsider, but they were constantly on phone calls and pounding keyboards furiously to fill screens—it sure looked demanding.
Yet, a quick glance around revealed clusters of them in corners, sipping coffee and trading jokes, or dozing in chairs.
Were they genuinely swamped, or just pretending to be?
Further in, we passed a room with middle-school-aged kids gathered.
As we went by, curious eyes turned our way.
Once their gazes moved on, I asked Kim Soo-jin,
"Why are there so many kids?"
"They're new recruits for Guard Academy."
"Guard?"
"Yes."
"I heard it's reopening tomorrow."
"That's the old Seoul campus. They're opening a new one on Jeju Island to train kids with Awakening aptitude as new hunters. Our facility scouts, recruits, and protects talented ones for that purpose."
"So all these kids are heading to Jeju?"
"Some might. They have to pass various tests."
"Like psychic sensitivity tests?"
"Yes. You know your stuff."
Kim Soo-jin, who hadn't glanced at me once, shot me a quick look.
Her eyes plainly showed irritation—she didn't want to say more.
Not wanting trouble, I let it drop.
After that, we walked a long way in silence.
The deeper we went, the stronger the disinfectant smell grew, laced with a faint whiff of corpses.
"Here we are."
She led me into a dim room.
A few researchers stared blankly at monitors, sunken-eyed.
They didn't even turn as we entered.
One corner was crammed with medical beds, each covered with sheets over faces—bodies lay there.
"Zombies."
Kim Soo-jin said without looking at me.
Maybe.
But why did those coldly stiffened hands look so small?
The face of the boy who gave me his laptop flickered in my mind.
Beyond the body-filled room stretched an eerily quiet hallway lined with doors, each with a small bench.
The only person there was a tall girl, looking like a high school or college student, sitting in the hall.
She nodded to Kim Soo-jin.
"Any progress?"
The girl shook her head with an awkward smile at Kim Soo-jin's question.
Kim Soo-jin flung open the next door.
"Here."
One man sat rigidly at a desk.
It didn't take long to recognize him.
"Instructor."
Instructor Jang Ki-young.
Unharmed, intact.
But something was off.
The door was open, I called him, but no response.
"Instructor?"
I called again.
His fierce, bulging eyes that earned him the "Tiger Instructor" nickname were the same, but beyond them, his pupils were cloudy and dull.
"......"
Like a soulless face, my old mentor scribbled in a notebook.
But his thoughts never transferred to paper.
Scratch, scratch.
The pages were already full, and the pen in his hand had long run out of ink.
"Sigh."
Kim Soo-jin sighed beside me.
"No reaction, as expected. Let's go."
"......I'd like some explanation."
My glare must have been a bit menacing.
Terror shadowed Kim Soo-jin's stiff face.
*
On the CCTV feed, Jang Ki-young looked perfectly normal.
Sitting at the desk flipping through a book, occasionally standing to pace the narrow room with hands behind his back, or lying on the bed staring vacantly at the ceiling for a while.
"So that's what happened."
Jang Ki-young had actually carried out that insane idea he once mentioned to me.
Death—mutation—resurrection.
Unfortunately, his experimental attempt yielded no success.
"This is the result."
Kim Soo-jin handed me a test sheet.
Black.
The same hue as mine and Su's.
I stared at my mentor on the CCTV.
"At first, he was fine. He talked, ate. Then suddenly he worsened and turned like that."
"......Dementia?"
"Worse. He's neither alive nor dead right now."
Only then did I notice, from her explanation.
A few fingers missing on Jang Ki-young's low-res hand.
Probably frostbitten and amputated during the last cold snap.
"So he's human and zombie at once."
What separated the two?
I'd slaughtered countless zombies without strictly differentiating.
If a dead body stood and attacked people, it was a zombie.
That was a zombie to me—something corpse-like moving to harm humans.
Kim Soo-jin's distinction was clearer.
"A human corpse where heart and brain activity have stopped, but mutation factors cause changes in the brain and organs, sustaining abnormal life signs. That's the definition of zombies so far."
She showed images.
"As you see, Jang Ki-young's brain and organs show mutation changes. See these protrusions?"
"Yes."
"But he's alive. Heart beating, normal brainwaves. Whether brain death or cardiac arrest theory, he's a living human. Yet look at him."
I watched Jang Ki-young on CCTV.
He sat ramrod straight—his trademark posture—staring hollow-eyed into space, chewing his lips.
Anger, perhaps?
Anger at what?
If it were me, I'd be confused.
The true target of his rage should be himself—for gaining not a shred of the power he sought and walking into self-destruction.
Kim Soo-jin turned to me.
"We called you because you're Jang Ki-young's acquaintance. Director Woo Min-hee specified you."
She glanced back at the files, sighing faintly and adding limply,
"But no reaction. Seems even you weren't enough to restore his lost mind."
"Is that so?"
"Don't be discouraged. You saw that tall girl?"
"Yes."
"His daughter. He loved her so much he beat his ex-wife over custody, but he doesn't recognize even her."
I requested a moment alone.
Something to ask the daughter.
She was still on the bench, staring at her phone.
I peeked—Failnet logo.
John_nenon.
His influence reached even here.
She was browsing the [Famous Celebrities Update Board].
"Hi."
I greeted the girl.
She stared blankly, then tilted her head, soon looking shocked.
"Ah?!"
"What."
"Are you Dad's student by any chance?"
"You know well."
She tapped her phone eagerly and showed a photo.
"The one standing next to Dad?"
The photo captured Jang Ki-young, still youthful in his thirties, with his students beside him.
"He said they were his pride and joy."
For some reason, seeing that photo made me chuckle.
My rigid pose next to Jang Ki-young was one thing, but Kim Daram looking so shabby, Lee Sang-hun glued to the prettiest female classmate, Woo Min-hee striking a detached model pose, Gong Kyung-min crossing arms in an X for a quirky fighting stance—our old crew each showing their quirks, it was hilarious.
At the edge—farthest from me and Jang Ki-young—stood Kang Han-min, head slightly bowed, face shadowed with worry, shoulders hunched apart from the others, awkwardly positioned.
This guy.
He had come for the commemorative photo that day.
I thought he hadn't.
"Then you know my name."
I said after gazing at the photo awhile.
"No, I don't. Dad showed pictures of his students but never named them. Even that savior Kang Han-min must be one of you!"
Her eyes sparkled suddenly.
"W-W-Wait, are you Kang Han-min?!"
"No. Not someone that great."
"Yeah, a legend like that wouldn't come here."
A question nagged me from the start with her.
No trace of sadness.
"You okay?"
I asked the girl.
"Huh?"
"Aren't you worried about the instructor?"
"Nah. Haven't seen him properly since elementary school. You're his student—you know his temper."
"......He was a pain."
"See? He was worse to us. Seriously. You wouldn't get it unless you've been through it."
She mimed various emotions, lightly thumping her chest.
"Why are you here?"
I asked, though I knew.
"Good signal, good food, but mostly to go to Jeju."
She handed me a test sheet.
A psychic sensitivity sheet.
Unlike her father, who stayed black even in that state, hers had shifted to faint pink.
"Oh. It can turn this color too."
"Don't you know? Black—blue—red—gray—white."
"Whiter the better?"
"Yep!"
"Where are you?"
"Between red and gray? Gray's safe zone, but with Dad here."
She gave a wry smile, glancing at the sealed door.
"They'll enroll me specially if he wakes. Some Woo Min-hee sister said."
"More like aunt than sister?"
"You look fine and talk casually like that?"
"......"
I parted from the nameless girl and returned to Kim Soo-jin.
"What now for the instructor?"
She rolled her eyes, thinking up excuses.
"Be honest. I'm prepared for any outcome."
Then Kim Soo-jin said,
"We're planning to dispose of him."
"......Dispose."
"Even if not, he'll turn zombie soon. Four days without eating or drinking, like that."
She sighed and countered,
"Better to close his eyes forever than wander like a ghost, right?"
I never met Woo Min-hee after all.
After a night in the fine lodging she provided and a decent meal, I gained some self-objectivity.
I wasn't that important to her.
She'd just summoned me on a whim.
To her, I was barely that much.
"Professor......"
Lying in the bed with sunlight slanting in, I murmured the callsign everyone once said with respect.
The man who gave me that name was soon to be disposed of.
Coincidentally, Jang Ki-young's disposal was set for the same time as my alma mater's demolition by dynamite.