The Chairman's Offer
I want to go.
After bursting Team Leader Ju's head and killing her, I had been carried on the woman's back, then collapsed.
She had killed the guards blocking the way and the researchers hiding under the desks with one hand holding me and the other blocking the path.
Since my breathing was shallow, I was extremely worried that I might faint, but luckily, it seemed she hadn't left the rabbit mask behind when she abandoned me in the lab basement.
The place I woke up was just a normal house.
I got up from the spot and felt a free feeling along with a slight dizziness.
When I looked around, there was a large TV, a clock, a cup with a cute dog character drawn on it, and a table attached to the wall.
The faint coffee aroma and the smell of something baked with honey suggested that someone had left it after drinking coffee.
“As expected, I made it out.”
Due to the overwhelming feeling, I grabbed my face and cried a little.
But that was all. I still didn't know where I was.
Nevertheless, I walked towards the curtained wall, freely moving my limbs that I had always wanted to move, having escaped from that horrific basement where I always wanted to get out.
Dragging my legs slightly, I walked over and lifted the curtain, revealing a quite gorgeous city night view.
Countless cars were jammed on the wide roads, and the shining skyscrapers seemed not to care about the darkness.
But was I feeling sadness because the one who saved me from there wasn't Seojun?
As if to pour out the tears I hadn't shed for months all at once, tears were flowing from my shriveled eyes.
No matter how many times I wiped them, they wouldn't stop.
Although I had escaped from that horrific place and now I was fine even without pain, I was only...
That's right, only because my childhood friend hadn't saved me, I was this sad.
Actually, for me, that is, for Harin, being locked in the basement and experimented on, having limbs cut off, was probably fine.
It was just an unnecessary, trivial secondary issue.
Whatever is called a reason to live can become a wonderful reason to die at the same time.
When my parents left me first to go to the world, the village people who treated me so kindly, and the village uncle who sometimes came to the house suddenly turned violent, the gangsters who came saying my parents had light in them and when I become an adult I'll sell my body to earn money under us.
Yes, it was to meet that kid who poured abuse on the village people, beat the village uncle who tried to pounce on me to a pulp, held my hand and ran somewhere to comfort me.
Perhaps that's why when I became Harin, she was very relieved.
After all, I am me, so I will find that kid.
Dead or alive, no matter how changed.
“It seems you're awake.”
When I turned around, an old man without a right ankle was standing with a cane.
I didn't know if he was in his middle age or old.
With white hair, he might be an old man with many wrinkles, but since it was dark, his face wasn't clearly visible.
Anyway, there was no way I wouldn't have heard the sound of something being leaned on the floor, so why didn't I hear it?
Perhaps I was captivated by the scene unfolding before my eyes.
Or I had sunk into my thoughts.
Looking at the scene, the world is indeed beautiful.
People like me are all locked in the basement or taken somewhere and used as experimental animals by those bastards who are overflowing.
In the original, Harin might have died before seeing this.
Or after.
If it was dying in the lab...
Clearly, she wouldn't have done even the trivial revenge like me.
She would have been very obedient with the thought that the experiment was going well and soon she could meet her only friend.
If her head hadn't been twisted so much, she probably would have.
She was a very kind and gentle child, as she said herself.
She wouldn't have thought of killing those horrific people who locked me up for revenge.
Because her personality was very tender.
She was a child who endured such pain just because she could meet her only friend someday.
I couldn't endure it and ended up with the trivial revenge.
But even after a long time, since the old man didn't speak again, I spoke first.
“Are you going to lock me up somewhere?
You don't need to tie me up.”
I reached out to the cold window and continued looking outside as if it would fall off like that.
Only the white fluorescent light filling the white room and the light from the ridiculous lamp on the operating table appeared.
Nausea rose up, so I covered my mouth with the curtain.
I didn't particularly want to show weakness to anyone.
“If you show me this kind of night view every day, I'll give you a finger or toe if you ask for it.”
“No one will do such a thing to you.”
“How can I believe that?
Even so, the 11th subject was quite a successful experiment.
Even if I cut a few guards, I couldn't dispose of them and kept their life lines.”
“If you don't like looking at people, I won't show myself for a while.”
At that word, I turned around.
The man wearing an eyepatch was looking at me with great pity.
“Uncle, what is your name?”
Since he called me uncle, his voice brightened a bit, perhaps he is an old man.
“Kim Giseong, for now.”
“I'm the 11th.”
At that, Kim Giseong cleared his throat and continued.
“11th, don't say that. I want to hear your name.”
“I don't want to say it yet.”
Seeing the unexpected reaction, the man fiddled with the cane handle awkwardly.
“Did that kid who brought you bully you?
Though her nature is kind, she's a mischievous one...”
She looked at me, not bullying at all, but her face hardened and she trembled all over, then got angry.
“It's not that bad.
Just, why did you save me, what kind of people are you.
I don't know any of those things.”
At that, the man pondered for a long time and then answered lightly.
“Just, people who often appear in the news.”
“...I think I've seen a bit in the newspaper too.”
There was a phone, but no share, and I hadn't used data.
It was an old phone that was used only occasionally, that is, only for contacting when Seojun didn't come first.
So, when I contacted the world or recent news, it was always the newspaper.
Sudoku and hidden picture searches inside it always relieved my boring life.
Looking back, the man's face sometimes appeared with a wanted poster with a bounty.
Perhaps.
And intuition is usually right.
“Villains? People who kill people, take what they want, and disturb the society.”
“Not wrong.”
The protagonist I really want to meet, whom I love and somewhat resent, is probably a capable awakened one.
They are called heroes.
The one who fights the evil disturbing the world and saves everyone, but here I am facing the opposite side, so should I act like that kid?
But since I haven't done any action, am I eventually a villain?
I killed good citizens working in the lab, tormented and killed them.
“But kid.
Locking up a child who hasn't grown up yet in the basement, putting poor without abilities in prison sometimes, not caring if general people die to awakened or not, does the society need to maintain order?”
Cruelly, no one would believe even if you say it's unavoidable.
They were just being faithful to their own work.
“Some disorder is necessary to change.
I don't wish for it to collapse. Just, since the world is a bit tight, I hope it becomes more spacious.”
If Seojun knows the truth, he might hate me.
“So now that I've found the base, what happens to me?”
“Nothing. You can go home, or stay here.
We have to sometimes fulfill what you want, but you can tell us what you want too.”
Then we can meet and clear the misunderstanding.
It was unavoidable.
Or hiding the truth.
After all, I'm not that kind of person, so it should be fine.
And at that moment, things started to go well.
As many fingers and toes as in the bucket.
The metaphor is a bit strange, but.
“Although I haven't given you anything yet, is it okay to tell me what you want?”
The man nodded.
And I answered with a bright smile.
“I want to go to school.”