## Chapter 19 – Beginning (3)
“…Was I a bit too harsh?”
“Not at all, Master.”
I was thinking I might have gone a little too far, seeing Seorin’s legs trembling slightly as she rinsed her mouth with water at the sink.
After regaining her usual composure, she was rinsing away the fishy liquid and its smell to fulfill her role of detecting pursuers.
We’ve spent more time than expected, so we need to move a bit faster.
“Then, let’s begin.”
As if understanding my urgency, she wiped the water from her lips and stood up. Like Chaeyun yesterday, she tilted her head and began to sniff.
‘Is this really going to work?’
Just as I was thinking that, she turned to me and said,
“This way.”
Without needing more words, I gestured for her to continue. Seorin nodded and took the lead, and I began to follow her.
————————
“Let’s withdraw.”
“Huh? Senior, there’s still time left in the operation…”
“Eh, it’s pointless to stay here anyway.”
Staying here any longer would just be a waste of time.
I don’t know how they figured it out, but they found a way to avoid detection by this radar. So, this is what it means to be a highly intelligent species.
Still, I don’t think they’ve run away or are hiding.
They’re lying in wait.
They’re definitely lying in wait for us. There’s no way they’d let the ones who threatened them go so easily.
At least, if I were them, I’d try to figure out the identity of the ones who pushed me this far.
“Sitting here like this, it’s not like they’re going to show up now. It’s unfortunate, but the operation is a failure.”
“Then, the report…”
“No, you can write that after we get back. Let’s start by recovering the radar.”
“Yes, understood.”
After issuing the radar recovery order, I got out of the trailer and put a cigarette in my mouth.
“Ugh, seriously, I smell musty…”
The afternoon spring breeze blew through my matted hair, making me feel good, and I blew out the cigarette smoke.
I should ask for a shower room next time.
I looked up again and examined the university buildings.
“A way to find them, a way to find them…”
An idea flashed in my head.
“Could this work? I think they’ll throw a fit upstairs…”
————————
Following Seorin as she sniffed and walked quickly across the school, we gradually approached a secluded parking lot.
It’s far from the lecture halls and close to the professors’ offices, so it’s a parking lot that only professors really use.
It’s definitely a place where students don’t easily go.
“…That car.”
Seorin, who had been walking quickly, stopped and pointed to a truck parked far away. It looked like an ordinary cargo truck.
“The smell is coming from there?”
“Yes.”
I took a trembling deep breath.
Calm down, this is finally an opportunity to find out what those guys are up to.
At least those guys don’t know about the existence of ancient humans.
I have the advantage.
“You’ve done well, you can go now. I’ll take care of the rest.”
“Understood.”
Seorin bowed politely and turned away from me.
If things get too violent, I’m not confident I can protect her and escape. Sending her away in advance will make things much easier.
“Alright, then…”
The moment I took a step towards the truck, the headache I had felt before ran from my head down my spine.
It was just as intensely painful, but it disappeared before I could even scream.
Just like when I thought of that handkerchief, an image flashed through my mind along with the pain.
‘School outskirts.’
‘Danger.’
‘Light.’
“…What was that?”
I couldn’t move my feet any further.
Their identities are in that truck, but I seemed to have remembered something even more important than that. But I don’t know what it is.
…Also, it’s dangerous to go there now. There’s no evidence, but it’s definitely dangerous.
“…”
I gave up on getting closer, took a deep breath, and looked at the truck.
‘Seven people.’
‘Five men, two women.’
‘One of them.’
“Ah, shit… What’s been going on since earlier?”
I rubbed my temples to reduce the pain from the images that were messing with my head.
‘One of them is dangerous.’
A man in a noticeable white coat near the truck.
Without realizing it, I quickly crouched down and hid myself.
“This isn’t the place.”
I don’t have the strength right now.
The place I need to go is…
‘School outskirts.’
I don’t know why I’m doing this.
When I told Chaeyun yesterday, she didn’t seem to know much about it either.
Unlike yesterday, I was being swayed by the images that were messing with my head like crazy, and I left that place.
And now I’m heading towards the outskirts of the school, which is on the opposite side of the parking lot, but there’s really nothing there.
Just a path leading to the grassy fields and hills.
The reason I’m heading there is so ridiculous that it’s just a simple thought that can’t even be called intuition, and I can’t even laugh.
Even now, when I think about it, what’s important is to reveal their identities, or at least grab their ankles.
Leaving that behind, I’m pushing through the grassy fields.
“What am I doing right now…”
‘Crouch.’
My legs, which had been stepping on the grass and moving forward, suddenly bent at the knees and hid my body.
“…So, we have to do the recovery too, is that what you’re saying?”
“But we’ve decided to withdraw now. Hey, the Alpha team was wiped out before, so isn’t this better?”
I heard voices.
Black men wearing black iron masks and armed with protective gear, they seem to be the same team as the pursuers who were chasing us before.
They were touching a black, large device in front of them.
“…Okay, detector number FLE – 1 is deactivated. Start the recovery.”
The device, which was about the size of a small car, made a loud noise once, and the light it was emitting turned off.
I looked up at the sky as the light that had been shooting into the sky subsided, and the dome that had been covering the school in white was gradually disappearing.
‘That thing.’
‘Light.’
‘Inside that.’
That machine.
There’s something inside that. Something so important that it can’t even be compared to their identities.
I took out a mask from my bag and put it on, then jumped down from a height that seemed to be about the second floor of a building.
“Stop, who are you?”
It was obvious that it would make a loud noise, and the four men surrounding the machine immediately turned to me and pulled out pistols that I had never seen before from their waists.
“…Are you a student? You’re not allowed to enter here right now.”
One of the men kindly advised me to leave in a very polite tone as he approached me.
But even so, it felt like a threat to me.
The man who came right in front of me.
“…Teacher?”
In an instant, I snatched the hand trying to grab the pistol and twisted it as hard as I could in the opposite direction. The man’s hand twisted into a bizarre shape, and a sound of something hard breaking echoed.
“Aaaaargh!!”
“Situation! FLE – 1 is under attack!”
The remaining men shot at me.
Something blue that wasn’t a real bullet.
A sharp sound cut through the air, emitting a dazzling light.
Is it an electric bullet?
It seems they still think I’m human.
To block the bullets that were flying only at me, I grabbed the collar of the man who was writhing in pain from his broken arm and lifted him up to make a shield, then charged through the bullets.
“What the..?!”
I’m running at high speed while holding an adult man.
The men who saw the absurd sight in front of them were flustered, but they continued to shoot blue lightning.
So, people who have been trained are different.
I ran to the point where I was close enough to them, and threw the man, who had already lost consciousness a long time ago, at the man shooting a gun on the left.
“Ugh?!”
He seemed to have been knocked out by the impact of colliding with the man I threw.
I picked up a stone at my feet and threw it with all my might at one of the remaining two men.
It crushed the man’s iron mask and lifted his body into the air.
“Don’t move!”
A shout from behind me.
I raised both hands and slowly turned around.
The last one I hadn’t seen was pointing a gun at me.
“Take off your mask.”
“…..”
“I said take off your mask!”
As the man pointed the gun at me from a distance, I kicked the ground with my leg as hard as I could.
A large amount of dirt and leaves obscured the man’s vision.
“Damn it…!!”
I bent down in a way that wasn’t cool at all, dodged the bullets that the man was shooting randomly, ran through the dirt, grabbed the man’s collar, lifted him up, and slammed him into the ground.
“…I think I heard the sound of his neck breaking…”
I calmed my tense chest and let out a sigh.
“Should I learn something like boxing…”
I crushed him with unbelievable physical abilities, but the fight itself was a childish fight that even an elementary school student could do.
Anyway, support might be coming soon.
What the hell is inside the machine that brought me here?
As the message in my head told me to, I broke and broke the outer part of the machine, and when I tore off the hinges, there was a round object emitting a blue light.
“…This is…”
An organism that came out of a machine made of wires and steel.
“A fruit?”
It was a fruit that was emitting light abnormally.
