## Chapter 130 – Attraction (6)
“So? Is this really the right place?”
“It’s definitely here, but… I don’t feel anything.”
Making a rustling sound, I step on the sand grains that scatter with each footstep, approaching the building that stands alone on this large, wide sandy beach.
A place where you can hear the sound of waves crashing from the sea right next to the sand.
Unlike the amazing scenery, there are no other buildings around, not even people.
A building standing tall on a vast and deserted beach.
Feeling strange at this bizarre sight, Seohee asks if we’ve come to the right place.
“This is definitely the place… right? Minjung Noona.”
“…Yes, this is the Busan branch research lab of the association.”
She bows her head to me, answering with cold eyes firmly closed.
…I glared at Minjung, who was completely different from when I saw her at the hotel earlier.
But even she, who has been here before, couldn’t solve the secrets of this lab.
All that appeared in her memory was a vague image of this place.
“The presence of other fruits is also felt near here…”
“…There’s nothing inside.”
As I was resting my chin on my hand, deep in thought, I heard a voice from the entrance.
It was Sua and Nabi, who had gone into the lab first to check the inside.
Sua and Nabi coming down the stairs, and me, Seohee, and Minjung waiting.
We gathered, excluding Chaeyoon and Iran Noona, who don’t have abilities helpful in a fight…
“…They’re hiding better than I thought.”
I thought we’d be thrown into a fierce fight as soon as we stepped into the lab,
but what we ended up doing was a treasure hunt that I hadn’t expected at all…
It’s definitely near here, but I can’t see it.
“What are you going to do now?”
“…Wait a minute, I’m looking for anything strange.”
I use my green power to boost my insight. I consider the building’s shape, location, and size.
I put everything about this vast space into my head and consider all the possibilities.
After resting my chin on my hand and thinking for a while, I accidentally noticed a trivial problem.
I found the only difference between their lab in Seoul and this one.
“…This building seems smaller than I thought…”
It’s a really trivial and insignificant problem, but it strangely bothers me.
The lab I saw in Seoul was so large and tall that it was divided into several buildings.
But this lab is like a large mansion built on a beach that doesn’t stand out to people.
Unlike the Seoul lab, which was tall enough to pierce the clouds, this one is only about 5 stories high.
Of course, it’s not a small scale at all, but… it feels smaller than Seoul…
I jump up the luxurious stairs in front of me.
“What? Where are you going?”
“I have something to check, wait outside.”
Surprised by my sudden movement, Seohee tried to follow me in,
but I stretched out my hand and shook it left and right to signal her not to follow.
What I’m about to do now would only be hindered by having too many people.
I reach out and open the firmly closed glass door,
revealing a darkened lobby with no lights on and a gray floor that feels deserted.
Could it be that it hasn’t been cleaned in a long time? There’s a noticeable amount of dust on the floor.
I kneel down on one knee and dust off the floor with my hand.
“…Hoo…”
I take a deep breath, looking at the white marble floor revealed by the cleared gray dust,
bring my body close to the floor, and put one ear to the floor. And…
“…Ugh?!”
I expand the range of my danger sense to the limit, beyond the limit.
Sharpened nerves, all kinds of noises coming through my hearing hit my eardrums.
The sound of dust fluttering in the air and then falling to the floor, and the sound of water.
The sound of waves crashing against the sand and the sound of fish swimming under the sea.
“….Machine sound?”
Following the widely spread range of my danger sense, I sent all my nerves down.
While enjoying the sounds of nature without any particular gain,
an alien sound that couldn’t be heard in nature entered my ears at the edge of the range.
I couldn’t reach the exact identity of it, but there was definitely something there.
“…It was below.”
Is it because I stretched my nerves too much? I barely manage to straighten my legs that aren’t moving properly.
I’ve heard that one of the important things for a person to maintain balance is hearing,
and I’m experiencing that firsthand right now. My vision is swaying, everything is swaying because of my overworked ears.
“I didn’t want to use this because of this.”
…This will recover if I leave it alone, so I need to find a way to get down there first…
‘Above.’
‘To the left!’
“…!!”
As I was staggering, putting my hand on my knee to support myself and barely getting up,
a danger sense that echoed loudly in my head, which was already dizzy enough to die.
Again, without having time to see the approaching threat with my own eyes, I roll my body.
A black shadow and a shiny blade reflecting sunlight quickly pass by the end of my vision.
I quickly rolled my body to avoid it, but because of my still unrecovered sense of balance, I got cut a little.
I couldn’t avoid it completely, and a long red wound appeared on my right arm.
I press the wound with my left hand to stop the blood from leaking out until the wound regenerates.
Then, I turn my head towards what landed on the floor.
A man pulling out the blade stuck in the floor and looking back at me as well.
The man is only wearing black suit pants, revealing his upper body covered in tattoos.
He sweeps back his long bangs and points a blade that looks about 40cm long at me.
“…Lize told me to just send you away without doing anything, but I guess that won’t work.”
“…I don’t know who you’re talking about, but if that person asked you to, why don’t you listen?”
“That child wanted to talk to you, but you don’t seem to want to.”
“…Are you even listening to me, mister?”
The man wipes my blood off the end of the blade with a white cloth he took out from somewhere.
The man doesn’t listen to me and keeps talking to himself with incomprehensible words.
“She’ll be sad, won’t she? That I didn’t grant that child’s request.”
“…I thought he had a head injury, geez.”
The man puts the sword back on the floor and is holding his head in pain.
What the heck? Can I just leave this man alone and pass by?
Wasn’t he trying to fight me? Looking at him like this, he’s just a madman…
‘Right in front.’
‘Duck!’
“….Ugh!!”
The moment I closed my eyes for a second because sweat got in them, the danger sense rang.
What I saw right in front of my eyes was a sharply honed blade.
It’s already too late to duck and avoid it, so I lean my head back as if doing the limbo.
The distance between me and the man was greater than I thought.
He narrowed the distance in an instant and aimed precisely at my head.
…What is this man? Is he a case like me who gained the power of flower petals?
No, I don’t feel the presence of flower petals. Then what the heck…?
The man, who was holding his head in pain until just now, regains his composure and pushes me.
…What the man said earlier, he definitely said it as if someone was waiting for me down there, right?
There’s someone who knows about my existence down here right now. Whether it’s Jung Ah-un or a third party…
It’s clear that I don’t have time to be doing this here.
‘Minjung Noona, help me here.’
“Ah, forgive me, forgive me…! I’m sorry! Sorry… Keuk…?!”
“Yes, I understand.”
Minjung breaks the glass door of the central entrance in an instant and rushes in.
With that momentum, she lightly steps on the blade the man in front of me was holding,
and swings her other leg to kick the man’s face.
“…Are you alright?”
I wave my hand to Minjung, who is supporting me and checking my condition, as a sign that I’m okay.
Soon after, Seohee, Sua, and Nabi, who followed Minjung in, assess the situation.
“Noona, can you handle it here?”
“Yes, if you leave it to me, I’ll take care of it.”
“Good, mess him up. You guys follow me!”
“What? Where are we going?”
“Those guys are hiding under here, we need to find a way to go down and go down!”
I leave Minjung in the lobby and call Seohee and the others to start running down the empty hallway.
Minjung, who is getting further and further away, bows to me,
“You can’t gooooo!!”
And kicked the face of the man who started rushing in like crazy once again.
————————————
“NO. 3 has started engaging with Im Chanwoo and his party.”
I was taking a shower in the bathroom and changing my clothes when I heard NO. 1’s voice from outside the door.
“What? …Haa… I told him not to fight like that… Then what is NO. 2 doing? What is he doing right now?”
“He is currently monitoring Dr. Jung Ah-un. Shall I bring him back?”
“…Hmm… No, tell him to keep monitoring. And prepare to welcome the guest.”
As expected, the situation is flowing in a complicated way. That Jung Ah-un guy also has something fishy going on.
But I don’t have time to pay attention to that guy right now, so let’s leave the monitoring to NO. 2.
I open the closet and take out a shirt decorated with pretty frills, put it on, and button it up.
It’s been a long time since a precious guest is coming, so I have to dress up nicely and go out.
“…But Im Chanwoo doesn’t seem to want to talk to Lize-nim, I will accompany you.”
NO. 1, who is always worried about me, starts to overprotect me again this time.
If it were normal, I would have given in to his stubbornness and allowed him to accompany me, but… today is different.
“No, it’s okay. If that happens, this friend will protect me. Right?”
“Yes, that is correct.”
My past friend standing behind me with her hands behind her back while I’m changing clothes.
She definitely had a precious name, but it’s gone now.
Her, her name, and everything she cherished.
She is wearing a black suit that fits her body perfectly and clothes with lots of belts.
Her eyes were dyed an unpleasant purple color,
and a barcode for identification purposes was engraved right below her eyes.
The number and the letter ‘A’ are written small below the barcode.
“…Hehe, it’s a commemorative letter. Please take care of me in the future?”
“Yes, I understand.”
A, who stares straight ahead instead of me with her dried-up eyes and salutes.
I look back at her through the mirror and start drying my hair.
