Chapter 342: Into the Abnormal (2)
Chapter 342: Into the Abnormal (2)
Fuuuuuuuck.
The moment I saw that tentacle swaying in front of my eyes, staring back at me, I let out a massive string of curses in my head. I reached out to grab the thing immediately, but—
"Shh! Master! Quiet! We’ll get caught!"
As if she had anticipated my move, Baek Si-hyun blocked me. She used a bizarre vocalization technique that felt like she was screaming and whispering at the same time, perfectly timed to my reaction.
"Baek Si-hyun, that thing you just showed me is a Public Enemy. It’s something that needs to be eliminated..."
Since I didn't possess such a strange talent, I simply lowered my voice and argued back.
"The mages will react!"
As she said that, Baek Si-hyun tilted her head slightly, gesturing for me to look around.
When I followed her lead, I felt several gazes piercing toward us.
The number of eyes on us was small, but I could tell they fell into two distinct categories.
One was the look of simple curiosity, wondering what was going on.
The other was a gaze filled with a chilly sense of rejection—a feeling I had encountered quite often since arriving here.
Tsk. Nothing for it, then.
I feigned nonchalance and quietly scooped up a mouthful of my now-cold Mac and Cheese.
"So, can you tell me what the hell is going on here?"
"Yes! I’ve got everything ready!"
Baek Si-hyun shouted confidently.
...Whenever she’s this confident, something usually goes wrong.
With that thought, I turned to Un-ho and Han A-bin, who were both staring out the window, pretending to be completely uninvolved.
"Can I trust her on this?"
"...Prob...ably?"
"...It should be fine. Poyo."
Their words drifted out half-heartedly, as if they simply didn't want to think about anything anymore.
Just what on earth did these kids go through to be this soul-drained?
The atmosphere felt like they didn't even want to speak. However, unlike the mages who clearly knew something but were choosing to stay silent, these two felt like they knew everything but were just too exhausted to explain.
It should be fine, then.
Scratching my head, I decided to let the situation slide for now. Even putting A-bin aside, the fact that Un-ho wasn't showing any hostility toward that tentacle and was just leaving it alone suggested there was a reason for it.
"Is there somewhere we can talk?"
"Yes! We have a lab we looted earlier!"
...Looted?
I definitely heard a strange word just now.
Ignoring Baek Si-hyun, I asked the other two.
"What do you mean, 'looted'?"
"...I don't know anything."
"...I didn't see a thing. Poyo."
The two of them stared at a non-existent distant mountain beyond the window as they answered.
What the hell did these guys do while I was gone?
I’ll have to include that in my questioning.
"Fine, let's go there."
Baek Si-hyun called it a lab, but since she suggested going there, it seemed like they were currently living in it.
As I stood up with my bowl to move, the two disciples dashed toward the counter.
"Wait a second! I'll go grab some food!"
"Ah, Si-hyun. I'll go with you."
"Poyo?"
I was left standing there blankly, while Un-ho, who had suddenly lost his grip on Han A-bin, looked completely dazed.
I picked Un-ho up with my free hand and perched him on my shoulder. Then, as I tossed the cold Mac and Cheese into the trash, I asked him.
"What exactly happened?"
"Uuuung. It's a long story... An enemy appeared! And then crash! Tentacles!"
I was the fool for asking.
* * *
Following the lead of my two disciples, who were carrying armfuls of food in disposable containers—perhaps they only got one meal a day—we traversed the building.
The place we arrived at was a laboratory that looked perfectly ordinary compared to its surroundings.
Well, except for one slightly peculiar detail.
There was a plastic nameplate inserted into a holder designed for easy swapping.
Normally, that nameplate would have read "Dr. So-and-So’s Such-and-Such Laboratory."
However, over the part where the doctor's name should have been, a piece of green duct tape had been slapped on, with the name "Baek Si-hyun" scrawled over it in permanent marker.
The handwriting was so messy it took me a moment to register it.
The plastic nameplate read: Dr. Baek Si-hyun’s Laboratory.
"...Si-hyun, do you even have a doctorate?"
"Nope!"
Then you should have fixed the front part too. I don't see why you felt the need to leave the "Dr." part.
Anyway, it wasn't a major issue.
Since my hands were free, I opened the door and stepped inside.
Contrary to my expectations, the interior of the lab was filled with the unmistakable scent of people living there.
The walls and ceiling were intact and undamaged, but various pieces of lab equipment and stacks of paper that looked like research results were shoved haphazardly into a corner. In the center, eight folding cots had been pushed together in pairs to form four large beds.
On the headboard of one of those beds—one that looked particularly filthy with cracker crumbs, food scraps, and various scraps of paper—sat a laptop, its screen flickering with power.
In another corner of the room, a radio emitted nothing but static, and a television spat out white text reading "Out of Range" against a black background.
And then, I saw a cell phone, cluttered with strange antennas larger than the phone itself, resting on what appeared to be a charging dock.
"...What is that?"
"...Si-hyun picked up some junk and tinkered with it. She called it an 'External Signal Connection Recorder'?"
My head is starting to spin.
However, no matter how I looked at it, it didn't look like "junk" as A-bin claimed.
Specifically, on one corner of the television...
Personal property of Dr. ■■■■. Please return to address ■■■■.
There was a tag attached.
The parts corresponding to personal information had been scribbled over with marker, making it impossible to know the original owner's name or address.
Seeing that, I stepped out of the room for a moment, peeled back a bit of the tape, and compared the name on the nameplate with the name on the tag.
I could infer that the owner of this lab and the owner of the television were likely two completely different people.
"...Junk?"
When I reacted like that while holding the tag, A-bin replied, once again looking toward the distant horizon as if it had nothing to do with her.
"...Si-hyun claimed it was junk when she brought it in."
The cafeteria at least had windows; this place didn't even have that.
Si-hyun, the person responsible, had disappeared into a small side room connected to the lab to organize the food as soon as we arrived, so there was no one else to ask.
Un-ho was also acting like he had no idea, simply rolling around as he fused with his bed.
...They either stole it from another lab or knocked someone out and took it.
That suspicion flickered through my mind for a moment, but I soon brushed it aside.
If we don't get caught, it's not a problem, right?
Truth lies in the hands of the powerful.
A mage lost something because they were defeated by force, so this is ours now.
While the mages' way of thinking doesn't usually interfere with property or the minimum necessary human rights of a target...
Seeing how those guys fight over budgets, this could probably be categorized as "distribution of research materials for emergency situations." In other words, budget allocation.
If so, the only lingering unpleasantness was the physical evidence.
Therefore, I ripped the tag off the television and incinerated it with the Afterburner flames erupting from my hammer.
"...I didn't see a thing."
"I don't know what you're talking about, A-bin. Nothing happened."
Of course, nothing happened.
We simply utilized the materials left behind in an empty laboratory.
Just as certain illegal acts are excused during an emergency evacuation, we have done nothing wrong.
"I'm asking this in advance, but how did you get this lab?"
"...After we left the hotel, Si-hyun was idling in the lobby when she suddenly acted like she’d received a divine revelation. She said this place had the best signal, declared that might makes right, and then threw the people inside out."
"...."
I didn't hear that.
With that thought, I went back out the door, smashed the name part of the nameplate, and replaced it with more green tape.
With this, the evidence was erased.
This room had always been Dr. Baek Si-hyun’s laboratory.
The lab of an important mage with a doctorate in magic.
Indeed. What does it matter if the name on the nameplate belonged to some council-level old Hero? Dr. Baek Si-hyun needed it.
Since it was originally Dr. Baek Si-hyun’s lab, all the items here belonged to Dr. Baek Si-hyun.
No problem at all.
Next, I noticed a room number engraved on the bed frame that was completely different from this room's number.
I summoned my hammer, used the grinder to sand down the serial number until it was smooth, and confirmed that no problems existed in this room.
Just as I was feeling relieved, having confirmed that our team's Original Sin had been washed away by my sweat...
Clack.
The door in the corner of the lab opened.
"Mmm-hmm. Mmm-mmm..."
Baek Si-hyun appeared, holding food in both hands and chewing on something fried.
No matter how I looked at it, it was a rude display.
However, Han A-bin had either grown used to it or given up; she said nothing to Baek Si-hyun as she took her and Un-ho’s portions and returned.
After handing over the food, Baek Si-hyun sat cross-legged on her filthy bed and began shoveling her own food into her mouth.
Sauce splattered all over the bed as a result, but she didn't seem to care.
Meanwhile, a tentacle popped out from somewhere and began poking at Baek Si-hyun’s food like a snake. Baek Si-hyun, for her part, pulled her laptop closer and started tapping away at the keyboard.
Is this what a portrait of surrealism looks like?
At this point, even I wanted to turn my gaze toward a non-existent distant mountain.
But one cannot turn away from reality.
"Si-hyun."
I spoke to her gently.
"Mmph-mmph? Mmph-mmph-mmph!"
With her mouth full of food, Baek Si-hyun let out strange grunts as if trying to answer me.
"...."
At that absurd behavior, I shot a look at A-bin, pleading for help, silently asking her to do something about this.
A-bin looked at Si-hyun blankly, as if exhausted.
She shook her head and buried her face back into her food.
Nothing for it, then.
"Si-hyun. Let's finish eating first, then talk."
"O-way."
Baek Si-hyun let out a bizarre sound and nodded, seemingly in agreement.
About three minutes passed.
After devouring her food, Si-hyun pushed the bowl, which still had a bit of food left, to the edge of the bed.
The small tentacle detached itself from Baek Si-hyun, moved toward the bowl, and began poking at the leftovers.
...My head hurts.
What is that thing, and why is it eating? It doesn't even have a mouth, so how does it...
No, never mind. Those things eat conceptual stuff anyway, so I'm sure it'll manage.
Anyway, it seemed she was finally ready to talk.
The first thing I had to ask was...
"Si-hyun."
"Yes!"
She’s certainly energetic.
Unlike me, who feels like I'm dying.
"I have a lot of questions, but let's start with this."
"Ask me anything! Master!"
"That tentacle. What is it? It's a Public Enemy, isn't it?"
Even now, alarms were blaring inside my head.
"Yes! It's The Enemy of Master's story!"
No, that's not the kind of fundamental answer I was looking for...
"Then why do you have an enemy of my story with you?"
"Because I determined it poses no danger!"
"And the reason for that?"
I mean, at a glance, that specific terminal doesn't look very dangerous.
But I've been backstabbed more than once or twice by things like that, so why?
"First of all, Un-ho can communicate with that tentacle, so we talked to it. Also, after hacking and reading the Mage Council's meeting minutes, I became certain that this would be a clue for Master to defeat it when you arrived!"
...Right. Right... ...Wait, what? A lot of shocking information just poured out at once.
"Un-ho can talk to it?"
"Ah, that's right. It seems mentally young, so its vocabulary is limited and its grammar is hard to understand, but we can communicate regardless."
The voice of our pig-parrot, mixed with the sound of chewing, drifted from behind me.
That crazy pig-parrot bastard is only telling me this now?
No, fine. Let's move past that.
"...Meeting minutes?"
"Ah, for the record, the tentacle is currently saying 'Ihara-nim is scary. Delicious. Scary'..."
"Shut up, you useless Un-ho."
I'll interrogate you thoroughly later, so stay still.
"Yes! Communications are down, but the internal intranet is still working! They had a lot of security on it, but it was nothing! You mages really look down on IT too much!"
...I'm going crazy, seriously.
"I'll look into that later. Anyway, for now, that tentacle is harmless, and keeping it alive will help me defeat the Main Body, which is my enemy. Is that it?"
"Yes!"
"Then let's hear the details."
And so, I began to listen.
I listened to the story of the week my disciples had spent in that cramped laboratory.