Chapter 22
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 22
Chapter Title: Three Injections
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Guu and Kim Nari followed Cheon Doun out and sat beside him.
Nam Giseok, who had woken up, also watched the confrontation in front of the garden with a look of fascination.
“Mister, shouldn’t you stop them?”
Kim Nari asked.
Despite hearing her voice, the snake and the Mandragoras, focused on each other, didn't notice they had an audience.
“They don’t seem to be in any danger. Let’s just watch for now. Aren’t you curious who will win?”
At Cheon Doun's words, the group nodded. They certainly wanted to witness this battle of the century.
The Mandragoras and the snake sized each other up, the tension never letting up. A suffocating suspense. Amidst it all, the yellow snake was the first to move.
-Piyak!
The yellow snake jumped, extending its chick-like claws.
Its target was the smallest Mandragora. A simulation played out in the yellow snake's mind.
It would pin down that tiny Mandragora and peck it three times with its mouth.
The root would be terrified by the intimidating attack and faint. Then, it would tear off the smaller roots one by one and gulp them down.
Just the thought made it drool, but reality was not so simple.
-Huuung!
The remaining two Mandragoras blocked its path. They spread their leaves to hide their youngest from the snake's view and simultaneously swung their small roots.
Thwack. One root struck the yellow snake's side.
-Piyak!
Startled by the ferocious root attack, the yellow snake twisted its body away.
Tumble, tumble. The snake rolled on the dirt ground. The Mandragoras, having successfully landed an attack, panted heavily.
-Huung… Huung….
-Piii… Piii….
The yellow snake, hit on its side, also gasped for breath, backing away as if it hadn't expected this.
A small root swung by a ten-centimeter-tall weed.
At most, it was just a sting. The only variable was that the yellow snake was just one day old.
The snake suffered a great mental blow from this first-ever attack. This wasn't in its calculations, and its spirit wavered.
-Piyak…!
Thud. In the end, it was the yellow snake that admitted defeat. With a dramatic groan, the snake collapsed onto the dirt. It shivered, under the illusion that its side, struck by the root, was in pain.
-Huuung!
-Huung, huung!
The three Mandragoras let out a roar of victory. They celebrated by shaking their leaves up and down.
“That was… um, epic.”
“Mister, my hands are sweaty from the tension.”
-I've never seen such a tense confrontation. It seemed trivial, yet it was a strangely suspenseful battle.
Cheon Doun's group nodded as if they had enjoyed it. Only then did the yellow snake and the Mandragoras realize they had an audience and turned their heads simultaneously.
-Piyak!
-Huung, huung!
The three roots and the snake ran toward Cheon Doun at the same time.
Pitter-patter. In an instant, they gathered at Cheon Doun's feet and began to cry while jumping in place.
One side piyak-ed, and the other huung-ed. It was as if they were tattling on each other, claiming the other was the bad one.
Cheon Doun picked them up in each hand, separating them.
“Hyungnim. These guys seem like natural enemies. Is it okay to keep them in the same space? They’re like this now because they’re both young, but when they grow up, I think one will end up eating the other.”
“Judging by today’s duel, they won’t be in danger for a while. Let’s leave them be for now. They’ll probably grow fond of each other after bickering a bit.”
“Can natural enemies become friends?”
“They’re probably not true natural enemies. Their habitats are different.”
One is a creature from a volcanic region. The other is a creature from a high-altitude mountain region.
Mandragoras, in particular, dislike heat, so they couldn't be found near volcanic areas.
Normally, they are species that would never cross paths.
Cheon Doun returned the Mandragoras to the garden. Having calmed down in his palm, the Mandragoras went back into the soil.
Their leaves were spread majestically, as if celebrating their victory. In contrast, the snake's body was slumped dejectedly.
“The things in this garden are not for eating. Be careful from now on.”
-Piyak.
Even if it couldn't understand human words, it could read the atmosphere. The yellow snake lowered its head, seeing how dearly Cheon Doun treated the Mandragoras.
“I’ll give you something much tastier than that.”
Saying so was pointless; it couldn't understand him.
*I even got hit by a root, so why aren't you on my side?* Such sorrow made it feel the illusion of a throbbing pain in its side where it had been hit.
“Mister. The yellow snake looks down.”
“If we leave it like this, I think it’ll attack the garden again when we’re not looking. By the way, what on earth is that plant? It looks just like a Mandragora.”
Nam Giseok looked at the garden with fascination.
He had seen pictures of Mandragoras before. However, the pictures known to people were of Mandragoras forcibly cultivated in the human world.
They were photos of shriveled plants with surfaces cracked like a drought-stricken land.
Therefore, he failed to connect them with the wild Mandragoras, which had plump roots and fresh leaves.
Cheon Doun, having no intention of explaining, handed the snake to Nam Giseok.
“You take care of it from now on.”
“M-Me?”
“It’s not hard. It seems to be a gentle species. Since we have a new youngest, you should look after it.”
“The youngest…!”
At the word ‘youngest,’ Nam Giseok’s eyes lit up. The joy of escaping the position of the youngest spread across his face.
“Leave it to me! I will whip the new youngest into shape!”
“How about we each come up with three names for the youngest by tomorrow? We can pick the best one from the list.”
“That’s a great idea, Mister.”
Kim Nari agreed. Nam Giseok and Guu also nodded.
With the four of them putting their heads together, a good name was sure to come up. And so, a new youngest member joined Cheon Doun's home.
* * *
Late at night, under the moon.
After the bloody battle between the snake and the Mandragoras, everyone was asleep.
The only one not asleep and out of the house was Cheon Doun. He looked at the garden before perching on a nearby rock.
The cool breeze, the sound of insects, the rich scent of earth. It all felt wonderfully atmospheric.
Who would have thought he would end up living a life like this? Cheon Doun smiled, enjoying the fresh night air.
-Why are you out here instead of sleeping?
Guu asked, trudging out of the house.
“Can’t sleep. Maybe it’s because I witnessed that epic battle?”
Guu chuckled at Cheon Doun's playful words. Guu hopped up and sat next to Cheon Doun.
“Something you want to say?”
-There is something I'm curious about. I'm not sure if it's my place to ask.
“What is it? Go ahead.”
After a brief silence, Guu began to speak.
-It's about what you said to Kim Nari during the day. About wanting to live freely, even if it's only for a day before dying.
*Is that your story?* That's what Guu wanted to ask. He didn't say the last part, but Cheon Doun understood and smiled.
“Not me. I'm the type who believes it's better to live, even if it means rolling in a field of dog crap. It's all pointless if you're dead, right?”
Guu nodded at Cheon Doun's words.
From what he could see, Cheon Doun didn't seem like the type to risk his life crying out for freedom.
If his given circumstances were tolerable, he was the type to find the most comfortable spot within them, stretch out his legs, and lie down. That's how Guu saw him.
Guu didn't know exactly what kind of place the TDA Research Institute was. But he had a feeling that Cheon Doun would have gotten along just fine even there.
In fact, he even thought the researchers might have been the ones walking on eggshells around Cheon Doun.
-Then may I ask whose story it is? The one who wanted to live freely, even if only for a day. Was it a friend?
“Not a friend. Just a roommate who shared the same room.”
Cheon Doun said, dredging up an old memory.
“There was this one guy who was always trying to escape the institute. I think I was thirteen. He escaped again back then and disappeared from the lab.”
Cheon Doun retraced his past memories. A boy whose name he couldn't even remember now, it had been so long.
[I will escape this place, no matter what.]
His roommate always had those words on his lips.
He was a boy whose head had turned bird-like due to the rapid monsterization of his body, a side effect of the experiments.
The last image Cheon Doun remembered of him was his head, from the shoulders up, having turned into that of an eagle.
One day, he returned from training to find his roommate gone.
[Looks like he escaped again.]
He'd be caught in less than a day anyway. It was a common occurrence, so Cheon Doun didn't pay it any mind.
The test subjects' bodies were engraved with location-tracking spells.
There was also an explosion spell engraved on them, which would kill them if they left without permission and didn't return to the institute within three days.
Escape meant death. Cheon Doun couldn't understand his roommate, who kept trying to escape despite having no way to solve that problem.
[He'll probably be caught and brought back by tomorrow.]
The moment he thought that, his ears, which surpassed human limits, caught the voices of distant researchers.
[It's about test subject 502. Let's just dispose of him now.]
Room 502. That was Cheon Doun's room.
[That one, number 33, his body's monsterization has already progressed. It's at a point where he can't control it himself.]
[That's right. He can't even return to his human form anymore.]
The number 33 they were talking about was Cheon Doun's roommate, the one whose head had turned into an eagle's.
[In the worst-case scenario, he'll become a man-eating monster. I hear he escaped the institute again. Let's just dispose of him.]
The researchers' decision was made. He could also sense the instructors picking up their weapons.
Cheon Doun glanced at the locked door, then went to the window. He opened it and pulled on the iron bars.
Crack. The bars came away, along with a chunk of concrete. With a nonchalant expression, Cheon Doun tossed it aside and jumped out the window.
* * *
Finding the escaped roommate was easy.
He had left a trail of uncontrollable magic, so all Cheon Doun had to do was follow it.
[Found him.]
A mountain north, far from the institute. His roommate, the bird-headed boy, was collapsed in the mountains, seemingly from exhaustion.
In his arms lay an unconscious girl with a bob cut. It was his younger sister, who had been kidnapped and turned into a test subject with him.
[You psycho, what are you doing here…!]
The bird-headed boy froze upon seeing Cheon Doun. *Did the institute send him to capture me?* The thought crossed his mind for a moment, but he dismissed it.
‘There's no way the researchers would order that guy to do something like that.’
Cheon Doun. Test subject number 17.
Among the researchers, he was considered the best test subject, but at the same time, he was also the most avoided.
The defining incident that led to this happened two years ago.
A researcher was giving Cheon Doun an injection in his arm. It was a preparatory step for a monster cell transplant.
The problem was that the researcher wasn't paying attention because he was on the phone with his girlfriend.
Distracted by the call, the researcher failed to find the vein properly. As a result, he missed with the thick experimental needle three times.
[Ah, why is this so annoying… No, I wasn't talking to you, sweetie. Anyway, I have my hemorrhoid surgery scheduled this week. I don't think we can go to the movies.]
The moment he administered the first shot and turned to get the second one.
Cheon Doun picked up the empty syringe that had just pricked him. He was going to stab it into the researcher's butt like a knife. That was the plan.
[Huh? Mister. You're not supposed to move right now.]
The syringe needle, aimed at the right buttock, missed slightly as the researcher moved.
Another spot. Between the butt cheeks. The very place he'd said was scheduled for hemorrhoid surgery next week.
That day, the emergency alarm blared through the institute. A researcher, pale and sobbing, was carried out on a stretcher.
It was a syringe needle tainted with monster cells. It had pierced that place. Pierced it deep. Pierced it three times. What, one wondered, would be the result?
Perhaps that researcher would live the rest of his life with hemorrhoids that had the regenerative power of a monster. The researchers felt both fear and fascination.
‘W-What a terrifying guy.’
At the time, the bird-headed boy had been in the same room getting an injection, so he had witnessed the entire sequence of events.
‘That bastard definitely did it on purpose.’
Someone like Cheon Doun could have stopped his hand when the researcher turned around. The fact that he didn't stop and stabbed him anyway was as good as intentional.
Moreover, it was a three-hit combo so fast it was invisible to the naked eye.
After that day, a few of the researchers started walking around covering their butts with their hands whenever they were in front of Cheon Doun.
Number 17, called an unprecedented psycho even in an illegal research institute full of mad scientists.
His own roommate, who had once protested and demanded a room change because he seemed too much of a lunatic.
He was standing right in front of him.