Eleven's Nightmare
That place was a space as white as fresh snow.
A single speck of dust.
A place filled with pure white that hadn't been stained by even a single speck of dust.
When she regained consciousness, she was already bound in a restraint suit.
"Ugh⋯⋯!"
No matter how hard she struggled, the fabric was so tough that she couldn't move an inch.
"Hey! Where is this place?! Can you hear me?! Hey!!"
Lize shouted at the top of her lungs beyond the black glass wall.
"This is different from the promise! You said you'd send me out!"
When the assistant had taken her out from the livestock pen, she had definitely heard it.
But why!
Lize had been tense for a long time, to the point where her throat was hoarse.
Sweat from the tension clung to her pink hair and stuck to her.
Eventually, those who hadn't fallen for the sweet talk were right.
The rumors swirling in the livestock pen were true.
Except for the humans who were reassigned to other places, everyone here was used for human experiments.
"Heh⋯⋯."
Despair dug into her golden eyes.
Before long, a person opened the door and came in.
It was the assistant who had taken her out just a moment ago.
Lize's eyes widened.
"You bastard! Are you even human after doing this?!"
"Who told you to believe that?"
The assistant listened to Lize's curses while tapping the syringe filled with serum.
And inevitably, the microphone voice came from beyond the glass wall.
"Special clinical reagent for the 99th time, administer."
"I will administer."
The assistant in front of her answered without a flicker of guilt in his eyes.
"⋯⋯You were pretending to be kind in the livestock pen, you disgusting bastard."
"This⋯⋯. Next time, I guess I need to say that a restraint suit that covers the lower body is needed."
He shook his head in exasperation and slowly approached.
"Don't come closer?! Hey! You bastard! I'm really going to kill you!"
Lize, who was somewhat scared, cried out pathetically while shedding tears.
"If you keep thrashing like that, the success rate will drop? If it's not the exact carotid artery, I don't know what will happen to me either?"
But her body froze at the assistant's words that were no different from a threat.
She didn't know the truth of those words.
He wasn't a reliable person, or it could be that he just wanted to work comfortably.
Yet.
Yet, she couldn't let go of that thread of hope⋯⋯.
"⋯⋯Damn it. If I turn into a vampire, I'll eat you first."
"Do as you please."
The assistant shrugged once and immediately administered the serum.
The pistons of the syringe rose towards the ceiling.
"Kyaaah⋯⋯! Augh! Ugh⋯⋯!"
Every drop that entered the veins made her scream.
Vampire cells from the serum proliferated like cancer.
They destroyed existing cells and devoured whatever they touched.
Parts of the body swelled and contracted at will, causing violent rejection reactions.
"Kyaaah! Ugh⋯⋯! Huuuugh!"
Tears of blood flowed endlessly from her eyes.
A pool of blood spilled under the restraint suit.
Regeneration and destruction repeated, completing a chain of endless pain.
She was on the verge of losing consciousness, but even as she became a corpse, she kept Seowoo's figure in her eyes.
There was no way any of it would succeed.
Seowoo thought that as he swallowed hard.
But what?
As if her curse had reached the sky.
Instead of transforming into a bat, her body shrank while maintaining human form.
Her body, which had been thrashing in pain, suddenly stopped shrinking, and she soon lost consciousness.
"⋯⋯No way."
The assistant, who was summarizing the report in shorthand, clenched his fist.
The situation in front of him was similar to the cases of incomplete successes he had heard about in other research labs.
At that moment, Lize, whose head had been tilted to the side, suddenly flashed her eyes that were now red.
"Crazy."
The assistant threw away the pen and notebook he was writing with and ran straight to the door.
Knock knock!
"Director! Open the door! Director!!"
"⋯⋯."
The director remained silent.
In the meantime, Lize tore off the restraint suit and rushed towards the prey in front of her.
She hadn't regained her sanity yet, so she couldn't hold back her hunger.
"Huaak! Aaaah!"
Whether the screams stimulated her hunger more or not.
When the director entered the lab, only the tattered gown remained.
And from that day on.
The real experiment began.
"Please⋯ Please⋯ Stop! Kyaaah!"
Why did her body and mental age regress from adulthood?
Was there no way to reverse it?
She repeated sending direct electric shocks into her brain.
"Ugh⋯⋯ Mom⋯ Dad⋯ I miss you⋯ Please save me⋯⋯. Eh? What was I doing⋯?"
When the brain was damaged, she waited until it regenerated.
When her mind broke, she was healed with mental magic.
Some argued that a regressed mind was something magic could fix.
But magic could only reverse 'mental illness' at most.
Since the regressed mental state had become the 'normal' and 'baseline', it was quickly dismissed.
By the time the number of experiments exceeded three digits.
Lize asked with a face smeared with snot and tears.
"Are you going to do it again tomorrow⋯⋯?"
The golden eyes that had lost their luster looked up pitifully.
"No, up to today. You'll be going to another place from tomorrow."
The director in charge of her said it flatly.
Ultimately, no matter how much time she poured into Lize, there was no result.
So the research institute decided to use her elsewhere.
Right at the end of the failed experiments.
By joining the disposal unit 'Numbers'.
"⋯⋯Hah!"
"You're awake?"
"I was wrong! I was wrong! Please⋯!"
Was it a terrible nightmare?
Lize woke up from Bold's hideout and showed typical PTSD symptoms while convulsing.
"⋯It's okay, it's okay. No one is bothering you here."
"A⋯⋯."
Despite the immense pushing force, Seowoo hugged Lize tightly.
Perhaps because of the warm body temperature transmitted.
She gradually recovered.
"Teacher⋯⋯."
"⋯⋯Yeah."
Although he didn't directly participate in the experiment,
He had a vague idea of what kind of treatment and pain she had endured.
Not being able to open her heart easily to others.
Deliberately making a strong first impression.
All because of the wounds engraved by the research institute's human experiments.
It was truly an unbearable thing.
'Lize really needs someone she can call 'Teacher' and trust.'
If that could honor the souls of the experimental subjects who had died in her hands.
If it could atone even a little for the path she had followed to survive.
"Enough, let's go back. Fortunately, there's still 30 minutes left for outdoor time."
"⋯⋯Yeah."
He gently stroked her reddened eyes and slowly raised her up.
"Bold, what was the favor you asked earlier?"
"Haha, don't worry about it, Hyung! I've prepared everything~."
He had instructed them to buy the same clothes she wore from the research institute,
But Bold and his henchmen followed without a word.
They couldn't get the exact clothes Lize wore, but since he said to buy new clothes as a gift, it was within the acceptable range.
"Yeah, today you've done me a big favor. Don't pick a fight with people walking by. Use the gold coins to bury the kids' funeral or buy them food, whatever."
"Understood. Hyung! Thank you for the grace⋯⋯!"
"And that 'Hyung' thing⋯⋯ H, no."
"⋯⋯Sorry, but Hyung. This is the ironclad rule of our industry."
Bold was clearly afraid of Seowoo,
But changing the honorifics with reverence was something that shook the foundation,
So in his own way, it was risking his life.
Status didn't matter in the fist world they lived in.
The underworld of Kamil, where '武' (power) was everything, was the law for the strong.
After breaking Bold, they became indifferent even to their subordinates dying.
Probably thinking that the weak deserved to be culled.
"Hyung, take care!"
""Take care!"
"Yeah⋯⋯."
Seowoo put on the gown Bold handed him and left the hideout.
Lize, who had regained her energy, stuck out her tongue at the now kinder ones.
⋯⋯With her middle finger sticking out, emotions fully on display.
Although they didn't kill them all, at least the bastards who had tried to humiliate her were definitely exterminated.
There was no chance Lize would come back here again,
But if there was a next time, she would be much stronger than now.
After a short while since leaving the hideout.
.
.
Thud.
Seowoo suddenly stopped and leaned against the wall, sitting down.
"Ugh⋯⋯."
"What? Why did you suddenly do that?!"
At the same time as the vampire rage subsided, a backlash came.
The remaining weak power faded.
The eyes that had been red gradually returned to their original color.
"⋯⋯Sorry, just stay like this for a bit."
"Are you okay?!"
"Yeah."
With the hard-spoken words, Lize also showed concern.
The slowly flowing time soon returned to familiar senses.
Her body stiffened like rigor mortis.
Still, she had to keep that promise, so she opened her mouth again.
"⋯⋯Lize."
"Yeah, why⋯?"
"The events of today are a secret. Got it?"
"If it gets out, it's troublesome, right? Got it."
"⋯⋯Yeah, thank you."
Was there a huge change in her mindset?
Even the smallest distance had disappeared in Lize's tone.
"I won't ask about anything else. Instead, can you tell me just this one thing?"
"What?"
"You⋯ not me, but Teacher is human⋯? A vampire⋯⋯?"
"Haha⋯ Well, at least I think I'm human."
Those who still had at least minimal humanity.
Isn't it too pitiful to be labeled a monster just because they drink blood?
'You too. And me.'
With the approaching blood fatigue.
She closed her eyes for a very short moment.