Chapter 8
Chapter 8
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 8
Chapter Title: The Men #1
-----------------------------------------------------------------
I came to my senses, and everything around me was pitch black.
"Uh, ugh..."
I couldn't even speak properly.
In this space without a single speck of light, I couldn't tell if my eyes were open or closed.
My body wouldn't move either. Was I lying down right now? Or sitting? Maybe even standing. And when I was grabbed, it felt like my limbs were twisted... Were my arms and legs intact?
After drooling and slumping there for a while.
—Flash!
A sudden burst of bright light erupted.
"Ugh!"
The whole world was blindingly white. My eyes felt like they would burst. As I writhed in agony, my vision slowly began to normalize.
"Are you with it now?"
"Uh, u-uh...?"
The first thing I realized.
Was that it felt like I'd been brought into some secret interrogation room. A small lamp illuminated the dark room. It was literally just a small light, but it had felt like an enormous flash to me.
And... I was tied to a chair. There was a desk in front of me, and sitting across from it was a suited man in sunglasses, utterly emotionless.
No way, a National Intelligence Service agent?
Was this the underground facility at Namsan?
Or the Yongsan detention center?
"Huh, so the vampires were the ones controlling the country?"
"Hey."
"Huh?"
"You think I'm your buddy?"
What the hell?
"Answer."
"Wh-what."
"Answer."
"What are you talking about?"
"Answer."
"Friends...? Of course not."
"Then why are you talking like we're pals?"
What the fuck?
"And vampires? This bastard still hasn't come to his senses."
The man stood up from his seat. Then he grabbed a baton from the side and swung it straight at me.
—Crack!
"Aaaaagh!"
One hit, and I was rolling on the floor. But tied to the chair, I couldn't even twist properly.
—Crack!
—Crack!
"Aaagh! I was wrong! I'm sorry!"
This crazy fucker was beating the shit out of me right from the start...!
Each time the baton struck my body, pain exploded. I screamed for a while, and only after he stopped the violence did he right my chair and sit me back up.
"Kuhk...!"
"Name."
"..."
"Name."
W-wait.
Name?
He wanted my name?
"You're telling me to say my name...?"
"Name."
My mind cleared in an instant.
I couldn't reveal my identity. No matter where this was. Giving info to this vampire bastard would let him find my mom and dad in no time. I absolutely couldn't let that happen. I couldn't let my parents die again.
"Name. Say it."
"Lee Cheol-su."
I blurted out a name I'd made up on the spot.
And then.
"This bastard. This won't do."
"Huh?"
"Hey. Lights out."
"Y-yeah! Yeah!"
Suddenly the door flew open, and men poured in. Before I could react, they beat me senseless with their batons.
—Thwack! Thwack!
"Kaaaagh! Aaaagh!"
Bound and beaten in the dark, the pain and terror amplified. I couldn't even predict where the next hit would land, and I felt my body becoming drenched in blood.
—Flash!
The lights came back on.
I was sprawled on the floor. Teeth rolled around in my mouth. The fishy taste of blood revived memories of when the vampire killed me.
The horrific pain of gutting myself.
The hellish memories of being killed over and over.
"Name."
"H-hee."
"Name."
"Hee-bal-rum."
"Huh?"
"M-my name. Hee-bal-rum. Heh heh..."
Saying it made me laugh.
It hurt so much I thought I'd die, but it was better than being torn open alive. These fucking vampire bastards. You think I'd answer obediently? I'd already resolved to go down fighting.
"This won't do. Hey! Let's do waterboarding!"
—Boom!
At those words, the door opened again, and men poured in. They roughly grabbed my body, and I was dragged off somewhere.
The next course was water torture.
"Guha! Keuk, puha! Uuup!"
They grabbed the back of my head and dunked my face into the tub. When my lungs felt like bursting and I swallowed water, they finally pulled me out. After two breaths, back in I went.
"Kuhuuugh!"
In this hellish agony, my hatred and rage faded. All I wanted in that moment was for the pain to stop.
Please...!
Anything...!
Just make this water torture end!
"Puhaaa! Hek! Heok!"
"Hey. Take him back."
"Ugh!"
Was it finally over?
I was dragged back to the original room. The sunglassed man sat across from me and spoke arrogantly.
"I'm Section Chief Kim Jo-hak."
Section chief?
"Now you know we let actions speak louder than words. So let's talk. Yeah? Vampire hunter. What abilities do you have?"
"Abilities...?"
"You think we don't know?"
"Know what?"
"Ever thought about it while living your life?"
Was it because I was out of it from the torture? It was hard to grasp the point of what the man was saying. What the hell did he want?
"Whether coins or stocks will go up or down. If you knew that, you'd be rich, right?"
Wait.
No way.
"Our vampire hunter here made a killing on crypto lately. Cleaned up top to bottom, every last bit."
"..."
"Like you knew it all in advance."
My heart felt like it stopped.
"Wh-what."
What the hell?
What kind of bastards were these guys? No way they'd manipulated every crypto swing and stock fluctuation?
"Saw the future or something?"
"The future...?"
"It's all a trap. A trap to weed out bastards like you."
My whole body went cold, goosebumps rising.
These fuckers exceeded my wildest imagination. What... where did it all go wrong? No, who the hell were these guys from the start?
"And our vampire hunter fell right into it. Calling it coincidence is boring. We've already checked. You barely touched stocks or coins before, but from that day, you swept them all? Man, if I'd known that stuff, I'd be rich too."
"..."
"Anyway, to the point. Our little Geunhong."
Ah.
Hiding my personal info had been pointless from the start.
"Your dad's Kim Geunbon. Weird name. No idea what kind of family that is. Grandpa's Kim Geun-eom—strict? And all the Kim Geuns. Mom's Lee Soo-hee. Pretty normal."
"..."
"How'd we get all that info? Hey. Look me in the eye."
The man's eyes were hidden behind sunglasses.
But feeling his gaze, it was creepier than the vampire's hypnosis last time... Like every part of me was being dissected. This man knew everything about me.
"Saw the future? Or something vampire-related?"
Future sight and vampires.
They knew about those too.
"Wh-what are you guys...? H-how? How do you know all that? And how are you messing with crypto too!"
"Ever thought about it?"
"About what...?"
"You met a vampire. You know the world has abnormal shit."
So what?
"Management Bureau."
Management Bureau?
"An organization that serves humanity."
Serves humanity...?
"Not vampires?"
"You still haven't snapped out of it."
"N-no! I thought the vampires grabbed me to eliminate me!"
Not vampires, but this Management Bureau? No, still weird. Why would an organization serving humanity torture me like this!
"No way! You serve humanity, but torture me like that!"
"How do we know if you're human or not."
"Huh?"
"Can a human see the future? Come on, be honest. Abilities. What happened. Write it all here."
The man slid over a pen and paper.
I looked down at it.
"Your right arm's fine."
"..."
"Write how you knew the coin prices too."
How?
It was just because I regressed and knew.
But wait.
This bastard was talking like my power was definitely future sight, but mine was just plain regression. Did that mean they didn't know about regression?
Instinctive caution kicked in.
No. I absolutely couldn't tell them this. Even in my confusion and fear, this much was clear. I could never tell these Management Bureau bastards that I could regress.
Yeah.
Future sight it is.
"After meeting the vampire. Suddenly I started seeing the future..."
"Hmm. Write it there."
"Yes..."
I gripped the pen with effort and began writing.
I nearly died to a vampire, went insane, and suddenly gained future sight. I decided to use that power to survive.
Finishing up.
—Beeeep!
—Beeeep!
"Huh!"
Suddenly, an alarm blared in the room, red lights flashing!
Lie?!
They caught me?!
"This really won't do. Protocol Seven. Commencing scan."
"Pr-what?! Wait!"
The door opened, and men entered again. Was I about to get beaten to death? Before I could scream, a syringe plunged into my neck.
"Ughk..."
My mind grew hazy.
The boundary between dream and reality crumbled, and I fell into the delusion of watching myself from a third-person view.
The men lifted me onto a gurney.
Moving down the corridor.
Moving.
Riding the elevator.
Moving down another corridor.
Finally, we entered a white room, and the movement stopped. People started stripping off my clothes. Then they sat me in some device, and something covered my head.
—Whirr.
An unpleasant noise right by my ear.
"Ugh."
No voice came out.
O
h
...
s
o
...
un
p
l
e
a
s
a
n
t
...
f
e
e
l
i
n
g
...
[You have died after having your brain extracted.]
[Death Count 4 → 5]
[Restarting.]