Chapter 282
Chapter 282
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Translator: crow
Chapter Title: Riverside
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It had been quite a while since the Butterfly's Dream incident ended.
Time really flies. It felt like just yesterday that I'd discovered something inhuman right in front of me.
"But why there, though?"
"Just because."
"There's no way it's just because."
The elevator doors opened, and Song Arin shot me a glare.
"Did you hear something from somewhere, or what? Or did someone tell you to go?"
"Someone did ask me to, yeah."
"And you're actually doing what they say."
"But you still came along. Thank you."
"...You really don't miss a beat."
She let out a deep sigh as she stepped out, and Yoo Daon and Jang Chaeyeon arrived at the containment chamber too.
"Wow, it feels like it's been forever since I was last here."
"It has been a while."
"I really thought I was gonna die back then."
"You did die, actually."
"Ugh, just thinking about it gives me the chills."
I walked along, chatting with Yoo Daon.
"But, Daon."
"Yeah?"
"After that incident, you haven't felt... anything weird with your body or anything, right?"
"Hmm... I think I already told you last time that nothing's wrong."
As she said that, Yoo Daon started poking and prodding at her own body.
"Doesn't seem like it!"
"...Still, if anything comes up, let me know."
"Okay!"
Yoo Daon nodded with a smile, and at the same time, Song Arin, walking beside me, let out a deep sigh.
"I was floored back then, seriously."
"Pardon?"
"We suddenly get called out to assess the situation, and they tell us one Security Team guy and one office worker stopped the branch takeover."
She narrowed her eyes.
"And I had no idea they were these weirdos."
"Now we're on the same team as those weirdos."
"I'm a weirdo too."
She shrugged.
...
Jang Chaeyeon was the only one walking quietly without a word.
She looked a little pouty.
"Chaeyeon, everything okay?"
"...Tell me the story I know."
Oh, right. That makes sense.
Jang Chaeyeon hadn't even participated in the Butterfly's Dream incident.
"You're the one who wasn't there."
Song Arin raised one eyebrow, and as Jang Chaeyeon started to say something with an indignant look,
"Here it is!"
Yoo Daon's bright voice made us all stop.
...
...
"It's not cleaned up well."
Song Arin and I stayed silent as Jang Chaeyeon gazed at the containment chamber and spoke calmly.
She was right.
The containment chamber was still cordoned off with black tape, completely untouched.
There were no bloodstains anymore, but the scorch marks on the ceiling from when I'd used butane gas and the holes in the walls from where Yoo Daon had flown into them were still there.
"...Can we go in?"
At my mutter, Song Arin and Jang Chaeyeon casually stepped over the black line like it was nothing.
"Wait, you can just cross it like that?"
"Hey, you snuck into the Gangdong Branch for a stakeout behind the Gangseo Branch Chief's back, and now you're scared of crossing a no-entry line?"
"Good point."
Once we crossed the black line, the pitch-dark room greeted us, not a single light on.
"They cleared out all the bodies here?"
"What kinda stupid question is that?"
Yoo Daon muttered in wonder, and Song Arin scolded her with a bitter expression.
"Thanks to that, the Gangseo Branch is still short-staffed. A ton of people died here. Especially Security—they were basically wiped out. Probably everyone except the ones off-duty and the blackheads survived."
"What about the office workers?"
"They didn't lose many."
"Really?"
"HR Team handled it."
"Huh?"
First I'd heard of that.
I made a confused face, and Song Arin blinked.
"You didn't know? Team Leader got everyone out safely, so hardly any office workers died."
"News to me."
"Seriously? He didn't tell you?"
"Nope."
"Huh..."
So that's what happened.
I nodded and stepped further inside.
Damp air enveloped my whole body.
Was the air this musty back then?
"Wow, look at this, Jaeheon! This is the dent I made in the wall!"
Yoo Daon excitedly pressed her body into the human-shaped crater in the wall.
"Wow! Perfect fit!"
"...Is she really older than me?"
"What are you waiting for? Call me unnie already."
"The day I call her unnie is the day I bite my tongue and off myself."
Song Arin muttered in annoyance as she stared at Yoo Daon matching her body to the wall.
"...Huh."
And beside me, Jang Chaeyeon was blankly staring off somewhere else.
"Chaeyeon?"
"What's that?"
She pointed at something with her hand, and our eyes—mine and Song Arin's—followed her finger.
"...What is that?"
Song Arin narrowed her eyes.
A small honeycomb-like thing was hanging there.
It reminded me of those charred beehives you sometimes see on TV or in videos after a fire—exactly like that.
I stared at the beehive, but nothing reflected in my eyes.
"Should we take it down?"
"...Is it okay to just grab it?"
"You're the one who said to come in first."
Song Arin grumbled with a reluctant expression at Jang Chaeyeon's words, and as Jang Chaeyeon eyed her provocatively, Song Arin gritted her teeth.
"Hey, did I say I was worried? Ugh, whatever. I'm not scared of crap like that."
"Then catch."
"What—kyaa!"
Before Song Arin could finish, Jang Chaeyeon swung her hand, and the beehive dropped precisely onto Song Arin, who screamed and caught it.
"You said you weren't scared."
...
Jang Chaeyeon spoke to Song Arin in a voice laced with amusement, and at the same time, she suddenly raised her hand and started smacking her own head wildly.
"Ow, ow. Ow. Ow."
"Fine. Today, it's you or me. Let's dig a grave for one of us right here."
Song Arin glared at Jang Chaeyeon with axe-like eyes, while Jang Chaeyeon kept punching her own head.
"Quit it and hand that over."
I snatched the beehive-like thing from Song Arin's hands and examined it. Thud! Song Arin's scream came from beside me, but I ignored it and inspected the beehive.
"You wanted me to see this?"
Naturally, the manual didn't respond to my question.
"Uh, what's this?"
Yoo Daon, who'd been looking around, approached me, sniffing the air.
"It smells intense too."
"Smells?"
I sniffed, but I didn't smell anything.
Yoo Daon furrowed her brow slightly.
"What is it... like protein burning?"
...
What does that even mean exactly.
"The smell of burning bodies."
"...Thanks for the apt description."
Maybe I didn't need to know that precisely.
I thanked Yoo Daon, who corrected herself, stared at it intently, then extended my hand.
Does she want it?
I handed the beehive to Yoo Daon, and she started turning it this way and that.
"But, Daon."
"Yeah?"
Yoo Daon looked at me curiously while examining the beehive.
"Where do you think this came from?"
"This? The beehive thing?"
"No. A more fundamental question."
Where did this Butterfly's Dream come from? How did the Management Bureau contain something like this, and why did it get loose?
For that matter, why did the manual call me here?
Expecting me to do something?
If so, what exactly is that 'something'?
"Dunno...?"
"Anything you're sensing or whatever?"
"Hmm... ...Doesn't seem like it."
Thankfully, Yoo Daon answered my ridiculous question without much fuss, so I gave her a slight bow of thanks and turned to Song Arin.
"Arin."
"Hah... hah... what...?"
Song Arin and Jang Chaeyeon, their hair now a mess from fighting, looked at me.
They'd really gone at it.
"Is the containment chamber interior easy to escape from?"
"If it were that easy, the world would've ended thousands of times over."
Seemed pretty easy to me.
But I didn't voice that thought.
"Then do you know where this Butterfly's Dream came from?"
"This thing?"
Song Arin furrowed her brow with a hum, then pulled out her smartphone and started tapping away.
"What're you doing?"
"Texting the old man. Hold on."
She typed furiously, then shoved the screen in my face.
[Found near the river. Thirty years ago? The Gangnam Branch Chief caught it and put it here.]
"That's what he says."
"Near the river..."
"Uh, uh...!"
While Song Arin and I talked, Yoo Daon's voice made us both whip around to her.
"That crazy blackhead is causing trouble again...!"
Song Arin glared at her like she was a mischievous kid, and at the same time, the beehive in Yoo Daon's hand burst into flames.
-Whoosh!
"Ah, hot!"
Yoo Daon hurriedly dropped the beehive to the floor, and Jang Chaeyeon reached out, catching it midair before it hit the ground.
"...What?"
Jang Chaeyeon looked at me and Yoo Daon, and Yoo Daon shook her reddened hand—it was already back to normal.
"Daon, you okay?"
"J-Jaeheon. I didn't do anything. Really!"
"Got it."
I quickly checked above Yoo Daon's head.
[Name: Yoo Daon]
[Age: 23]
[Trait: Immortality]
[Talent: Regeneration (Undefined)]
[Background: She has no clue what just happened. At least she doesn't think she did anything wrong, but she's racking her brain wondering if maybe she did.]
[Weakness: Just say it's her fault once.]
Looks like nothing major happened.
"Why'd it catch fire?"
"Maybe it's seeking a host and leaving traces?"
Jang Chaeyeon replied to my mutter.
I hoped not.
The moment I thought that,
-tap, tap, tap...!
Someone started walking toward us.
...
The four of us tensed up and stared in the direction of the sound.
"Found you."
Eileen was standing there.
"Come here a sec. They need help."
She looked at us.
"With what...?"
"Something about going to the riverside."
At her words, Jang Chaeyeon and Song Arin's bodies froze solid.