Chapter 50
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 50
Chapter Title: The Wrongly Accused Little Monster
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"The dead Angel came back to life!"
It was on the second basement floor of the research building, where the freezer unit had long since broken down and everything was a total mess.
"The Angel...? You mean that thing with just the legs?"
"Yes! The National Disaster Monster that was subjugated ten years ago!"
"And it's alive now?"
"Exactly! Director, it suddenly shot up, passed right by me, punched through the wall, and escaped outside!"
Exactly thirty minutes prior, Lee Hee-jung was explaining what had happened after the Angel's lower body—which should have been long dead—suddenly stood up on its own.
"A dead monster came back to life..."
Sure enough, just as she said, one of the outer walls in the corner of the second basement floor's cooling chamber—built with special equipment—had a massive hole punched through it.
That hole connected straight to the middle of the asphalt road above ground, and even just looking at the CCTV footage from the road made it clear: it was unmistakably the Angel's lower body.
...But how on earth?
'That was just a lump of meat, nowhere near something I could revive.'
Lee Jin-ah could only tilt her head at the inexplicable situation.
Right then.
"Director. I believe the cause of this incident is that little monster over there."
"M-Me?"
Seizing the moment, Lee Hee-jung subtly pointed at someone.
The kid in question was Eve, little monster No. 2, who had been hiding behind Lee Jin-ah this whole time.
"She's the culprit, Director."
"I-I'm not!"
"Interesting. Hee-jung, if Eve really is behind this, can you show me the evidence?"
"Of course."
The research building was back to being an isolation zone like last time, due to the escaped monster.
Lee Hee-jung felt a twinge of regret that there were no other researchers around on this empty second basement floor to help sway public opinion.
But still.
"The truth is, I've been tracking that little monster."
"You were tracking Eve?"
"Yes."
Gaslighting one dumb little monster was more than easy enough to handle solo anyway.
"You have no idea how much trouble she's caused! Every time she comes down to the research building, the researchers can't get any work done because of her! I was trying to tell her to quit interfering, but she bolted, so I chased after her."
"Is that true, Hee-jung? Eve, were you keeping the researchers from working?"
"Th-That..."
Lee Hee-jung deliberately strung out vague responses.
It was true that Eve wandering around the research building had distracted the researchers from their duties at times.
She wove a subtle truth into the lies, making it impossible for the immature kid to respond properly.
She'd done this kind of opinion-molding a million times on community sites after work.
"I didn't..."
"See, Director! She's stammering! That proves I'm right!"
"......Let's hear the rest of the story first."
She slammed the door shut on the fidgeting kid's mouth with a loud declaration.
Once Lee Jin-ah seemed fully convinced to trust only her, Lee Hee-jung wasted no time slipping a red herring into the original story.
"That's when I chased her all the way down to the second basement floor. There's so much valuable research material here, so I was going to tell her to be careful, but she went berserk..."
"I-I was just standing there!"
"Oh, come on. When we were talking earlier, didn't you suddenly start radiating killing intent the moment I brought up your mom?"
"...! B-But that was..."
"Killing intent?"
She flinched!
At the word 'killing intent,' Lee Jin-ah's tone shifted.
No matter the reason, a monster under human control must never show killing intent toward a human—not even by accident.
That was the rule of human society, and for a monster to bare its murderous urge toward someone affiliated with the Hunter Association, the very creators of that rule...
"Eve. Is what she said true?"
"Th-That..."
Lee Jin-ah asked in a calm but forceful voice.
Eve, head bowed and trembling, hesitated for a moment before mumbling.
"Y-Yes..."
She answered cautiously.
Slap.
She immediately took a stinging slap that snapped her head to the side.
"Go to Mommy's room on the top floor right now."
"Yes..."
"The second you get there, take off your skirt and panties and prepare for your punishment. Today, your calves and butt are getting hit until they bleed. Got it?"
"......Got it."
Eve had plenty she wanted to say.
But she had broken the one thing Mommy had strictly forbidden.
With no choice, she swallowed her grievances and trudged off as ordered.
She covered one eye with her arm, sniffling as she shuffled out of the second basement floor of the research building.
Now alone with Lee Jin-ah in the wrecked cooling chamber.
Hee-hee-hee.
'I shouldn't laugh yet...!'
That filthy little monster bitch was in for a beating until blood splattered tonight.
Thinking that, Lee Hee-jung could barely hold back her victorious grin.
A perfect win!
The only downside was that the monster was still the director's servant monster.
'A few more gaslighting sessions like this, and the director will hand that brat over as my test subject, right?'
Time was on her side anyway.
Lee Hee-jung had a track record of witch-hunting celebrities and politicians into oblivion on community sites.
'Just you wait!'
To her, an immature kid was nothing more than tasty prey begging to be bitten.
Meanwhile.
"Hee-jung."
"Yes?"
"So?"
"...So what?"
The whole situation should have been wrapped up already.
"The rest of the story you were going to tell me."
Lee Jin-ah wanted every last detail.
"Why the Angel's lower body revived because of Eve. Go on, tell me."
Lee Hee-jung had assumed she'd steered the conversation so far off-track that it was forgotten, but seeing the director still fixated on it left her flustered for a moment.
Well, she wanted it, so fine.
"It's simple, Director!"
Half-joking, half-serious, Lee Hee-jung packaged her brain-fart theory as convincingly as possible and laid it out for Lee Jin-ah.
"This monster Eve is the offspring of the individual named Angel, right?"
"Right."
"So when I said something to that little monster, it resonated with its dead parent's corpse and temporarily revived it!"
"...Revived it?"
"Yes! You know how some monsters can turn their dead kin into zombies and bring them back?"
She said it thinking it was a wild guess at best.
Shrugging it off lightly, Lee Hee-jung finished her spiel.
But the moment she did.
"Hee-jung. Your theory is wrong."
"W-What?"
Lee Jin-ah responded dead seriously to what was half a joke.
"First off, Eve doesn't have that ability. And revival powers aren't versatile enough to bring back a corpse that's just a lower body."
"O-Oh..."
"Even if it were turned into a zombie, you'd need at least some major internal organs intact—not the whole body, but enough. Limbs help too."
"I see..."
"Yes. Especially the 'brain' for thinking—it's essential."
The reason zombie movies have zombies with just upper bodies but never just lower bodies.
The explanation was simple.
Without a brain to send signals, it's just a lump of meat with live nerve cells.
Even zombies need some guts to absorb nutrients for energy to move.
Starve a zombie, and it can't move—just like when it was alive.
'In short...'
It was impossible for the Angel's lower body to have been revived—by Eve or anyone else—and start moving.
The Angel hadn't come back to life.
Like a car without an engine: no matter what you do inside, you can't drive it.
And the way to move such a car? Not from inside, but from outside.
Like pushing a stalled car from behind.
'Looks like something annoying has slipped into Korea.'
Lee Jin-ah walked over to the escape hole the Angel's lower body had made.
As Lee Hee-jung followed.
Swish.
She easily spotted the 'threads' presumed to have controlled the Angel.
"Finely crafted mana threads... So thin, even A-Rank Hunters couldn't see them with the naked eye."
In other words, the culprit had attached threads to the Angel's lower body and puppeteered the dead thing—like playing with a doll.
Well, at least Eve's false accusation was cleared for now.
"D-Director! Then who is the culprit?"
The urgent fire was out; now it was time to put out a new one.
With that in mind, Lee Jin-ah turned back to her junior researcher—who had just tried to subtly deceive her—with a smile, but broached an entirely different topic.
"Hee-jung."
"Y-Yes, Director!"
"Remember that U.S. dispatch I mentioned before? It's almost approved now."
"R-Really?!"
The Hunter Association's sole headquarters: the U.S. main branch.
Getting a researcher position there was Lee Hee-jung's dream, unchanged from the original story or now.
Her eyes sparkled at the thought it might actually happen.
"Just help me with a few more tasks. Then I'll send you to America."
"Th-Thank you! Director."
Dreaming of the American Dream!
Imagining escaping this tiny Korean market that was too small to contain her, Lee Hee-jung felt like she could fly.
Lee Jin-ah placed a hand on her newly loyal subordinate's shoulder.
"Hee-jung. I promise."
She smiled brightly as she made her vow.
"I'll make sure you get out of this land for good. So just follow my words and behave."