## Chapter 125 – Attraction
“…Th-thank you…”
“…”
“Are you okay? If you’re hurt anywhere, we should go to the hospital first…”
I dust off my fist, looking down at the men who are sprawled out with their faces buried in the sand. Behind me, the woman who was about to be kidnapped by them keeps bowing and expressing her gratitude. I glance back at the unfamiliar woman, nod in acknowledgment, and then subtly signal Iran to take her away.
Iran understands the signal, calms the startled woman, and leads her away from the beach.
“…What the hell are these guys?”
After confirming that the human woman and Iran are moving away from the beach, I crouch down and examine the thugs. They’re wearing outfits that are similar to, yet different from, the men in black iron masks who have been chasing us. I’ve only seen these things in Seoul once, but I can tell something’s off. I double-check that there are no other humans around before pulling one of the guys out of the sand. Sand and black fragments fall from the limp body of the man as I lift him. To make it easier to see, I slam the man down on the ground and kick him over with my foot, turning his body face up.
“…Crazy bastards.”
The man’s body, now flipped onto its front, hangs limply, and my eyes naturally fall upon the mask. Unlike the steel masks used by those guys in Seoul to hide their identities, this one is made of glass and steel, completely covering the face and head. Moonlight shines on the mask. The moonlight from the sky is split by the shards of glass from the mask I broke, and within the large crack where a person’s face should be, there’s nothing to be seen. Instead, there are multiple wires and broken mechanical parts crammed inside, and no matter how I look at it, it doesn’t seem like a human head could possibly fit in that cramped space.
“I felt like something was different, but I never thought they wouldn’t be human…”
What the hell are these ‘men’—or rather, these things in the shape of men—doing here? Even if it’s a dark night, how can they brazenly kidnap humans like this? They can’t be stupid enough to think they wouldn’t get caught doing this. They must be operating under the assumption that ‘it doesn’t matter if we get caught.’ Because if they do get caught, they can just deal with the person or kidnap them too.
…I think I know what they’re planning to do by kidnapping humans.
The female of our kind who fought me in Seoul said they were creating bio-weapons using our kind and humans. These things are trying to kidnap a human woman, too. It doesn’t seem like I need to think too hard about it.
I kick the can-shaped human man at my feet and think. …Since they’re robots, detailed information might be stored in their heads, right? Hmm…
Well, they’re not human anyway, so it probably doesn’t matter. I pick out the one that’s the least broken from the ones stuck in the ground. Then, I grab the robot’s head with both hands and pull with all my might, and it pops off with a ‘pop’ sound.
“Got it.”
Wires dangle from the bottom of the round head-shaped machine in my hand. …Some kind of black liquid is dripping out, too. Other people might misunderstand…
“…I roughly erased the human’s memories and sent her away. How was it? Did you find out anything… Whoa…”
Iran, who had just finished escorting the human woman, makes eye contact with me. Her mouth hangs open, making a dumbfounded noise at the somewhat shocking sight. …It’s definitely a situation that could be misunderstood if someone didn’t know the context.
“It’s not what it looks like, so don’t give me weird looks. These things aren’t human.”
“Huh? …What, a machine?”
Iran hears me, slowly approaches, and kneels down to check the identities of these things. After confirming that they’re machines and not people, she looks at the robot’s head in my hand.
“…Um, even if we dig through what’s in that head, we might not get the information we want.”
“…Huh? Why?”
“I just checked them out while touching them. They’re the type that erases all the data in the device when their activity is forcibly stopped. Plus, you broke the head, so even the data that was left is probably gone.”
“…Shit.”
“But that’s just what I’ve figured out with my powers, so it might not be accurate. We can’t check it here anyway, so let’s take it back to the hotel and connect it to my laptop to check.”
“…Isn’t your power more accurate than a laptop?”
“No, it’s a little awkward to say it myself, but my power is outdated. The knowledge and power I had were useful in the past, but they’re not very useful in modern times like now. But the knowledge in my head as a human named ‘Song Iran’ is very useful in the modern world.”
Iran smiles, taps her temple with her index finger, takes the robot’s head from me, and excitedly runs out of the beach. Come to think of it, I heard that the human ‘Song Iran’ is a hacker? If so, I should leave this to her and report this to Chanwoo first.
“…That said, how do I clean this up and take it with me? Since they’re machines, will they sink if I throw them into the sea…”
Leaving Iran, who’s already far away, I decide to clean up the scrap metal one by one.
——————————————-
“…Hoo.”
I leave the somewhat stuffy hotel room and lean against the terrace. The city’s night view from the high floor is small and sprawling like insects. The sea breeze cools my head, but it’s not refreshing at all. Rather, my head is overheated because too many thoughts are colliding and passing through it.
While the others are all out enjoying their trip, I couldn’t rest. I kept sitting in the hotel room, expanding the range of my danger detection to the maximum and searching the surroundings, and I even went out to find suspicious places on foot. But it was all in vain.
Rather, the increased range and heightened sense of danger only made my head hurt. So, I’m going to narrow the range of detection for a while and try to rest while getting some air.
“Where are you? I can’t find you without a clue…”
…Before, I was able to find the research lab by following the traces left by Dr. Jung Ah-un. But that made me think too easily about this. Yeah, as that human Jung Ah-un said, the opponent is a secret organization childishly plotting world domination. But even if they are a secret organization, there’s no way they’d reveal themselves so easily…
…I could increase my danger detection and go out into the streets, but it’s not like I haven’t thought about that. If I increase the detection range to the limit, my nerves become too sensitive. The sound of people talking, birds chirping, trash falling on the ground. All those sounds become like bullets whizzing past me.
“…But I can’t just keep doing this today and tomorrow…”
I lean against the terrace railing and scratch my head roughly. What should I do? I wish I had some kind of clue… Even a small one would be nice…
“…What are you doing there?”
“Oh, noona, you came back early?”
The glass door of the terrace opened behind me with a soft sound, and when I turned around at the sound, Iran noona was standing there. Beyond her, Sua was taking off her coat and tidying up.
“…I was resting for a while. Doing this all day makes my head hurt. How are you and Sua doing? Did you get closer? Did you talk a bit?”
“That’s not important right now… We found something while we were taking a walk…”
“…Yes?”
Three people barely gathered on the large bed: Sua, Iran noona, and me. A machine that looks like a human head is rolling around in front of Iran noona, and she’s sitting in the middle of us, connecting it to her laptop and typing on the keyboard.
“…By the way, I don’t see Chaeyoon and Seohee. And that girl named Nabi, either…”
“They went out to play. I think they said they were going out for drinks… More importantly, Sua caught this?”
“…Yes, somehow…”
“You did well. You really, truly did well.”
“…Ehehe…”
I leave the noona who’s displaying something I don’t understand on the screen and is focused on typing on the keyboard, and I hug and stroke the head of Sua, who brought a clue at an insane timing. I look back and forth between Sua, who’s blushing and smiling cutely, and noona’s laptop.
“How is it? Do you think you know anything?”
“…Just a moment… Got it! I managed to restore it, but don’t get your hopes up too much.”
Noona pushes the laptop screen towards me with an ominous sound. The neatly organized screen displays a large map of Busan, with red dots marked in many of the city’s bustling areas.
“…I managed to recover most of the data that was lost, but the data about their base is completely gone. There’s not even a trace left, so even I can’t restore it any further.”
“If I use noona’s power, can I check the information?”
“Well, that’s probably going to be difficult. It’s too badly damaged, and it’s been quite a while since you caught these things, so they might have already taken action on their end. Unless we catch one that hasn’t had its data erased, one that’s still alive and moving…”
“…”
Even after hearing noona’s words, I bring the green current sparking at my fingertips to the robot’s head, but there’s no reaction. I tried it just in case, but I guess it’s not going to work…
“…Then what are these red dots? They’re all in bustling areas?”
“Those dots are the places where these guys mainly kidnap people. It seems like they’re brazenly kidnapping people in tourist attractions and bustling areas where a lot of people gather… But by now, they’ve probably noticed that something’s wrong and withdrawn, right?”
“…Probably, right?”
“Don’t be too disheartened. Still, we know what they’re thinking and where they mainly show up, so we might be able to catch their tail.”
I listen to noona’s explanation and think hard. Now that we’ve caught one team, they’re not stupid, so they must have noticed and ordered a withdrawal. What should I do? At this rate, it’s like we’re back to square one… The room falls silent, and I’m touching my chin, clicking my tongue, and racking my brain.
Just then, my phone rings, breaking the silence. It’s a call from Chaeyoon.
“Hello?”
‘Oppa! Please come here right now! Seohee unni found something strange!’
I put down my phone and grab the coat that was hanging on the chair. It seems like the world doesn’t just let things fail.
