Chapter 98
I stared at Kwak Han-muk, dazed.
I heard Kwak Han-muk’s words and Dominic’s words clearly, but I found them hard to process.
As I stood there frozen, Kwak Han-muk thrust his left arm toward me.
My eyes moved instinctively toward the forearm he offered, as if telling me to take a closer look.
A blue thunderbolt etched into his upper arm.
I remembered when we first entered Deadzone.
While the standard outfit consisted of a short-sleeved top and military pants, Kwak Han-muk alone had somehow obtained and worn a varsity jacket.
I hadn’t thought much of it then, but now I realized it must have been to hide the tattoo.
Unlike me, who was half out of it, Dominic continued his explanation calmly.
His tone was like a teacher using a textbook for a lesson.
"He took a god into his body but could not digest it; he merely managed to seal it. And he finds it so burdensome that he has to draw patterns on his body and use accessories, does he not?"
He continued, explaining that the man was struggling without gaining any benefits.
"The reason he cannot hear my voice or touch me is the same. Since he cannot use the divine power contained within his body, only his eyes have been opened."
Then, he made a polite suggestion to me.
"If he were to digest the god, he would become a powerful vassal. His rank would rise, making him useful in many ways and I can help with that."
He was subtly tempting me, offering to help his vassal digest a god.
I couldn’t even manage a reaction to Dominic’s suggestion.
Seeing me speechless, Kwak Han-muk asked again.
"Goyo, do you have nothing on your body?"
My lips parted.
"I don’t have anything like that."
Because I was so out of it, I ended up blurting out whatever came to mind.
"You can come to the bathhouse with me and check for yourself.."
Kwak Han-muk let out a brief laugh at my answer. Then, narrowing his eyes into a smile, he spoke.
"So you’re answering because you know what this is."
I realized I had fallen into Kwak Han-muk’s trap.
To an uninformed observer, it was just a peculiar tattoo.
However, I had shown a reaction that went beyond mere surprise.
It was pure bewilderment.
It was difficult not to be surprised when a slime was whispering right in my ear that there was a god inside this man.
Shrugging his shoulders, Kwak Han-muk sat down in a chair.
He leaned an arm over the chair next to him and said.
"I’m not trying to interrogate you. I just wondered if you were like me."
He smiled, saying he was curious if Goyo also had something inside him.
He was already certain that I was connected to a divine entity.
In fact, from the moment I started handling the system window, it was a reasonable guess since I couldn’t possibly be normal.
I looked at the blue tattoo again.
Blue Lightning..
Whether it was Mo Hae-in or Kwak Han-muk, I realized I knew nothing about them properly.
The developer had truly only shown me the parts of the game that looked good.
But I wanted to know more.
All of it, even the unpleasant parts.
Without realizing it, my lips moved.
"How did you end up getting that tattoo?"
I wanted to know the reason why a god was sealed inside his body.
When and how it was sealed, and what kind of god it contained.
Whatever expression I was making, the smile on Kwak Han-muk’s lips deepened.
He slipped on the jacket he had taken off, but only through the sleeves.
With all the buttons undone, Kwak Han-muk looked like a very delinquent soldier.
"Goyo, you know..."
He spoke, tilting his chin slightly.
"You keep everything about yourself hidden, yet you try to learn everything about me, don’t you?"
And then, he fell silent.
I felt a sense of anxiety.
I didn’t know why the god inside Kwak Han-muk bothered me so much.
The reason the system window stopped me from registering Kwak Han-muk in the first place must have been because of that god, right?’
Once my thoughts reached that point, my impatience grew.
I felt a slight heat rising around my eyes....
Suddenly, I thought of the Status Window.
As my abilities developed, an entry had been added to provide the current state of those registered in the Status Window.
Currently, it only showed simple levels like ’Joy,’ but if the ability developed further, wouldn’t I be able to know more in detail?
Like knowing exactly what kind of god was inside him.
I wanted to look into what was mine.
"Goyo."
"...Yes?"
"Your eyes are sparkling."
"Ah."
I blinked humbly.
I didn’t know why, but it felt like my eye color was about to become strange again.
Since I couldn’t control it at will, it was hard to hide.
’I don’t even know what triggers the change.’
However, Kwak Han-muk looked closely into my eyes and said something strange.
*...The color changed a bit? Oh, it’s back to normal."
The color retumed before he could confirm it properly.
But in this situation, my eye color wasn’t important.
I unnecessarily rubbed over my eyes with the back of my hand.
Kwak Han-muk laughed as he watched me.
"My tattoo is a secret, Goyo."
He said that only Commissioner Jang Seok-yun, Samra, and those at the director level knew the reason behind his tattoo.
Aside from them, Mo Hae-in and I were the only ones who knew the secret.
I promised I would absolutely keep it a secret.
The conversation on the rooftop felt like it was winding down.
But the most important thing still remained.
I hesitated as I watched Kwak Han-muk tidying up the table.
Then, gathering my courage, I spoke up.
"Captain Kwak, if justified..."
Kwak Han-muk, who was stacking empty plastic cups, looked at me.
At that moment, I realized.
Today on the rooftop, Kwak Han-muk had asked many of the things he had been curious about regarding me.
However, he hadn’t breathed a word about the thing he must be most curious about.
Given the fuss Representative Cha had made, the Agency must be rifled with rumors that I might sign a contract with Pasung.
I could vividly imagine the scene of countless people gossiping about my future.
Yet Kwak Han-muk, who was most deeply involved with me, remained silent.
He didn’t even ask for details about the slime....
Was it perhaps because he didn’t want to pressure me?
I felt a strange sensation.
"I’ll officially sign a contract with the Agency."
"Did you sign it?"
As soon as I opened my mouth, Kwak Han-muk asked back immediately.
"Not yet, but I intend to."
At my answer, Kwak Han-muk lowered his gaze for a moment.
As if thinking briefly, he asked,
"... Did the Commissioner say something to you?"
"No, it’s a decision I made."
I had heard some things from Jang Seok-yun, but I didn’t think that influenced my decision.
And I didn’t want to mention Jang Seok-yun because I didn’t want what I was about to say to feel like a demand to Kwak Han-muk.
"Um, Captain Kwak. If l enlist in the Agency..."
I hesitated a little. It wasn’t easy to say the next part. Kwak Han-muk waited for me.
"Aren’t we a team?"
In the end, I summoned my courage.
"Can’t you... keep being on a team with me?"
Honestly, I wasn’t that good of a teammate.
The result of closing the Trial was good, but in the process, I had troubled the Special Task Force in many ways.
If it hadn’t been for Commissioner Jang Seok-yun’s orders, a troublemaker like me might have been kicked out long ago.
Mo Hae-in probably didn’t have a pleasant time with me either.
As I thought about it, my already low confidence plummeted.
I couldn’t bring myself to meet his eyes, but then I heard Kwak Han-muk murmuring.
"A team.."
With my gaze lowered, I shifted my eyes slightly to look at him.
Kwak Han-muk had a peculiar expression.
I didn’t know how to react, so I just looked at him awkwardly.
For some reason. Kwak Han-muk was the first to look away.
He kept his eyes on the sky as the sun set and said, as if talking to himself,
"A regular team... that’s a fucking burden."
Well, he already had Field Team 3, so if the Special Task Force, which was temporary, became official and permanent, it would be burdensome.
I was thinking I should start worrying about how to clear Trials alone, when Kwak Han-muk called me.
"Han Goyo."
It was rare for him to use my full name, so I looked at him with a start.
Just as Kwak Han-muk opened his mouth slowly to say something.
Rumble!
"Han Goyo."
It was rare for him to use my full name, so I looked at him with a start.
"You...."
Just as Kwak Han-muk opened his mouth slowly to say something.
Rumble!
A sound like thunder violently blanketed the sky.
It wasn’t the kind of weather for rain or lightning.
[Run away!!"]
The moment the system window appeared, I reflexively looked at the sky.
A giant, bright fireball was falling, cleaving through the heavens.
A blinding flash, enough to make one go blind, flared from the fireball drawing a long trajectory.
At most, perhaps three seconds passed.
Just as I felt the ground beneath my feet surge, a thunderous roar, like a bomb exploding, struck down.
The concrete building shook violently, and my ears went numb.
Thick smoke, mixed with a pungent bum smell and concrete dust, suddenly covered the surroundings.
I was about to be hit by flying concrete fragments, but before that, the prayer beads emerged and installed a solid wall in front of Kwak Han-muk and me.
I waved my hand, coughing repeatedly.
Kwak Han-muk immediately dismantled the bead wall to check what on earth had happened.
Kwak Han-muk and I were overwhelmed by an indescribable sense of bewilderment at the sight before us.
A crater had been carved into the rooftop.
In the very center of the broken crater, embedded deep in the melted floor, was a fist-sized stone.
The stone, which had been emitting an ominous heat and making a sizzling sound like a living, breathing creature, soon regained its original color.
Glittering with a mixture of neon green and charcoal, it was.
The Meteorite of the Trial.
Just as I was staring blankly at the meteor only a few steps away.
The world melted into fluorescent colors.
Flash!
White fractal patterns were etched into the stormy night sky.
Soon, the rumble of thunder followed.
Between the sounds of rain, a heavy, low-pitched mechanical bass drone began to blend in.
While taking the full force of a fierce storm that made me not even dare to open an umbrella.
I looked up at the building in front of me with trembling eyes.
It was a maximum-security prison.
Situated on an island in the middle of the sea, this place was like a giant grey concrete tomb.
The exterior walls, turned black by the wind and rain, were stained with moss and salt, and several layers of barbed wire surrounded the building.
The light from searchlights stretching in all directions cut through the pouring rain and reached ’me.’
It was a place built to incarcerate both humans who had committed heinous crimes and creatures together.
I had been assigned here as a medical officer.
Since I had been forcibly driven here, my heart was filled with nothing but fear.
Drenched all over, ’I’ walked toward the heavy iron gate.
The camera in the control room looked down at ’me,’ and soon a small iron door opened with a mechanical sound.
The beat began to break down bit by bit, gaining speed, and a dull drum kick blended in.
It felt as if a harsh, massive noise was crushing my heart.
As soon as I stepped inside the prison, a suffocating chill wrapped around ’me.’
A distortion synth let out a roar.
Amidst a high-pitched sound that seemed to tear my ears, five prison guards stared at ’me.’
I had heard plenty of the notoriety of those who wore black uniforms, stiff as blades without a single drop of rain on them.
They were people considered to be more like creatures than creatures themselves.
Their faces were half-hidden by masks made of black metal, leaving only their mouths visible.
The guards, all of identical build and height, looked down at ’me.’
I faced them with fearful eyes; they looked to be about 2 meters tall.
Unlike the others, a guard wearing a grey metal mask spoke in a low murmur.
"Little Lamb?"
He must be the Chief of Security.
’I’ nodded, panting with wet breaths.
"Yes, I am the newly appointed medical officer, Little Lamb. The weather is much wetter than expected."
"This way."
The voice of the Chief of Security, who cut off ’my’ words, held not a shred of respect for the young doctor.
’I’ moved toward the search room they led me to.
In the middle of the narrow search room, blocked on all sides by wire mesh, stood a cold stainless steel table.
"We will conduct a search of your belongings. Step this way."
At the stem command, I doubted my cars.
"Pardon? I came here as a doctor...."
"This isn’t the mainland, Little Lamb," said the Chief of Security, tapping a baton against his other palm.
"No matter how great a doctor you were outside, as long as you have entered this island, you are nothing but a potential smuggler."
At the voice laced with clear contempt, ’I’ immediately cringed.
Another guard standing nearby roughly snatched ’my’ bag and dumped it onto the stainless steel table.
A doctor’s coat, a stethoscope, a personal notebook, and several medications rolled out with a clatter.
"It will be easier for everyone if you cooperate according to the regulations."
With a pale face. ’I’ was searched like a criminal.
When all the inspections were over, one of the guards poked the shivering ’me’ with a baton and sneered.
*Hey, Doc. Keep behaving like this in the future if you want to survive here without any trouble."
Next, ’I’ was guided to a small room for the medical officer.
Drenched from the rain, ’I’ slumped down on the floor.
The trembling of my body wouldn’t subside.
A system window appeared before me as I was left alone.
[’Han Goyo (Little Lamb)’ has entered < The Cellblock X>!]
Though I regained my free will, I couldn’t move for a while.
A system window appeared, informing me of my role.
[Little Lamb’s role is ’Medical Officer."]
Lying flat on the floor, I caught my ragged breath.
Why did the Trial Meteorite suddenly fall? Is Captain Kwak okay?
So many confusing thoughts surfaced that my head felt cluttered.
Then, the air split open, and a slime plopped down.
The pudding slime, which landed softly on the floor, was greatly surprised to see me.
"Roasted Chestnut, are you okay?"
Thanks to the sudden appearance of the slime, I was able to calm down even a little bit.
Managing my trembling body, I barely managed to continue my thoughts.
Fortunately, The Cellblock X was a Trial I knew.
But I...
I didn’t like this game very much.