## Chapter 231 – Bait
“…This can’t be happening.”
I felt Teresa’s last bit of energy at the research institute’s botanical lab on the outskirts of the city.
Passing through the lobby, which bore the marks of a fierce battle, and the corridor of mangled scrap metal,
“…This can’t, be happening…”
I find the hidden underground lab, doubting my eyes as I push through the darkness.
I step over the corpse of a human man lying in a pool of dried blood and approach a large computer.
The faint light illuminates the research institute’s headquarters blueprint and several files on the large screen.
There was the serum that stimulates the Creator’s cells to regain their original power, along with its manufacturing method, and…
The blueprint of the research institute’s headquarters, the form of a woman beneath the roots of a tree in the center.
I knew it instinctively. Iriada, Iria’s body was there.
“…Are you sure there’s anything useful in a place like this? I’m pretty sure Teresa was here… Kin?”
“Ha, hahaha!! Hahaha!! Unbelievable…! It was there…!”
“Kin? What’s wrong? Did you find something?”
“Nigeum, Teresa is alive. She left traces here, it seems she was captured by that man.”
“…What? Really?!”
I told a suitable lie to prevent Nigeum, who followed me into the lab, from getting any closer.
I can’t share this with a muscle-bound idiot who only has strength and useless loyalty.
“…It seems like quite some time has passed since she left traces… Damn, I don’t know if she’s still alive.”
“Kin, leave Teresa to me. It’s too dangerous for you to fight that guy with your injured body.”
“…Are you sure about that?”
I frowned appropriately, pretending to worry about Teresa, and Nigeum fell for it.
What a stupid pig, I burst out laughing at the sight of him seriously offering himself as bait.
I was wondering where to use this fool, but it seems like a use for him came up quickly.
“…Then I’ll leave it to you. I’ll hide here, so be sure to come back with Teresa.”
“Don’t worry about anything and rest.”
“Wait, Nigeum, take this with you. It’s the serum that will help us regain our power.”
I took the serum written in the file from the small refrigerator next to the computer and threw it to Nigeum,
I smiled and waved at him as he grinned and left the lab. Ha, haha…
“…Hahaha!! Hahahaha!! It’s you, you found this. You were excellent for a human!”
After confirming that Nigeum’s presence was completely gone, I burst into laughter,
I stepped on the corpse of the man who seemed to have created this serum and found the blueprint of the research institute’s headquarters.
“I sincerely praise you. You’re much more useful than that idiot. Hahaha… Then…”
Im Chanwoo, that man came here before me. The remaining golden aura tells me.
He also came here and realized where Iria’s body was,
But it seems he only knew the location and didn’t have the means to get to the research institute’s headquarters.
If so, I’ll release Nigeum as bait to prevent him from chasing me and return to headquarters.
Tomorrow, I will welcome Iria’s body as my partner and reopen our… no, my era.
I barely suppressed the endless laughter, took one of the serums, and left the lab.
———————————————-
“Were you guys watching the news too?”
“Oh, you’re awake.”
After putting on the clean new clothes that were casually thrown on the floor, I went out to the living room,
I saw Nabi and Iria sitting side by side on the sofa watching the news on TV.
I approached the two people who were alternately looking at the news screen and me with sullen faces.
“…Things have gotten bigger than I thought. The news is only talking about you.”
“…”
I approached Iria, who was trying to talk to me with a forced smile, and Nabi, who had a somewhat complicated expression.
I carefully sat next to them and watched the news they were watching together.
As expected, the TV screen was reporting on the murder case that occurred at the university,
But instead of talking about the perpetrators of the incident, the announcers were talking about me.
The confusing content of putting up the name ‘Im Chanwoo’ and my picture and issuing an arrest warrant.
If my mom, dad, or younger sibling saw it, they would be so surprised that they would fall backward.
In a situation where my head hurts in many ways, what came out was not anger or tears, but laughter.
“…Well, I guess this is inevitable. I’m already under suspicion, and I beat up the police and ran away.”
I’m a little wronged and dumbfounded, but this is inevitable.
The scene of me talking to the man who caused the incident was left on video and spread on social media,
Because of that video, I was already under suspicion, and I subdued the police and fled.
Even a three-year-old baby would think I was doing something suspicious, so who would think I was innocent?
“Even if you beat up the police and ran away, isn’t something strange about the situation?
They say that the two men caused the ‘murder case,’ but why are they only chasing you…”
“That’s how people are everywhere. They put everything they can’t handle on someone else.”
The announcer blatantly ignored Kin and Nigeum and continued to mention only me.
Then Nabi frowned and looked at me, as if she had noticed the sense of incongruity in the news.
I don’t know much about politics or how the country works, but this is a natural response in a way.
In broad daylight, four students died at a university in the middle of Seoul, a large city.
Perhaps because there were many eyes watching around, the news spread quickly through social media and portal sites,
As fast as the news spread, public interest in the incident was focused at once.
As such, the police needed to deal with this case quickly, and they must have moved really quickly.
But the perpetrators of the incident were two unidentified men whose names, ages, nationalities, and everything else were unknown.
No murder weapon that could be used as evidence was found, and the corpses seemed to have been blown up and killed with bare hands.
Even if all of humanity’s means, such as autopsies and forensic investigations, were mobilized, the culprit could not be caught.
Because the things they are chasing are comfortably far away from human common sense.
Anyway, the police and the country, who had no way of knowing that, were in a difficult position. They couldn’t catch the culprit.
They couldn’t catch the culprit who committed murder in broad daylight and ran away. If the public found out about that,
It was obvious that all kinds of aftereffects would rush in at the same time as proving that they were incompetent.
So, the breakthrough that the police and this country chose was to turn all the arrows at me.
They judged that it would be much easier to catch Im Chanwoo, a 20-year-old Korean man,
than to catch an unidentified culprit who they might not be able to catch.
It wouldn’t be a problem to catch me and put the blame on me for something that didn’t happen,
and they intend to put out the fire ignited in the public’s eyes by saying that they caught an accomplice of the ‘culprit.’
And they’re probably waiting for the real culprit to slowly fade away among the people.
Thinking about it that way, I understand the attitude of those two detectives who were so coercive at the hospital yesterday.
Saying they would make it like nothing happened, all of that was bait thrown to easily coax me.
“…Honestly, I’m not saying I haven’t done anything wrong so far, but this is a bit unfair.”
I jokingly said something and lay down on the sofa in a comfortable position,
but Iria and Nabi didn’t laugh and just quietly watched TV.
“You must be worried about many things, I was also anxious until just now.”
“…Is noona okay now?”
“Yeah, I’m okay now, so don’t worry. More than that, we need to sort out the situation first.”
Suddenly, Iran noona, who had been in the quiet living room where only the TV sound could be heard, came out,
Slowly approaching this way, she slammed her hand on the table in front of her and continued to speak.
“First of all, Kin wasn’t after Iria. And it’s not like he had a clear purpose for you either.”
“And he said that man came to find me. That can’t be true.
There’s no way that a selfish man who only knows himself would come to check on my life or death.”
Teresa, who came out to the living room with noona, added an explanation about Kin.
“I don’t know what Kin is thinking and why he came all the way to this country,
but I didn’t fail to get information at all. I even found out that Nigeum has been resurrected.”
“Are you talking about that strong, big man?”
“That’s right. The lump that Master fought is Nigeum. Unlike Kin, who is black inside,
He’s violent, but he’s much easier to deal with because he’s a little too honest.”
“…As she said, Nigeum is an easy opponent. It’s true that he’s unbelievably strong,
but to put it nicely, he’s simple, and to put it badly, he’s stupid, so his movements are very honest.
You’ll die if you get hit once, but it’s not difficult to avoid the attack. That’s all I can say about Nigeum.”
Teresa and Iran noona are putting their heads together and spitting out information about the remaining enemy.
Certainly, my arm bone was crushed as it was with one punch from that big man.
“Then what about Kin? What about that chuunibyou guy?”
“…Kin, honestly… we don’t know either. You’ve experienced that ‘prison’ yourself, right?
That’s all there is to that guy. It’s about trapping the target in a transparent and solid space.”
“…That’s the end?”
“Yes, that’s the end, but if you’re trapped in the prison, that’s the end.
You can’t move as you please without Kin’s permission.
So far, Hir, Iria, and Master are the only ones who have been able to get out of there.”
“That’s the most difficult thing…”
To be honest, I didn’t realize I was trapped until I entered the prison he created.
The power to trap the target in a strange prison in an instant. Honestly, I can’t break that prison either,
but it takes too much power to break that prison. I poured out all the gold and red light and broke it…
It’s not difficult to escape from there, but the point is that you have to pour all your fighting power into breaking that prison.
That’s more annoying than I thought…
“…There’s no weakness or anything like that, right?”
“Yeah, there isn’t. Honestly, I don’t know much about the man named Kin either.”
“Me too. I know he’s arrogant and annoying, but he doesn’t tell his colleagues about himself…”
“…Then that’s it for now. I’ll do something about it, so let’s put that problem aside for now…”
I decided to think about Kin slowly and solve the current situation first.
I sat up again and looked up at Iran noona, and she nodded as if she understood,
“…Don’t worry about Chaeyoon and Seohee. They said they’re okay.
They’re being watched because of the witness testimony that you’re especially close to them,
but Minjung is secretly taking care of them so they’re safe…”
Iran noona, who realized what I wanted to say, explained before I could even say anything.
It was Nabi who interrupted noona’s words.
“…Oh, wait a minute… First of all, I think you should see this first…”
At the end of Nabi’s finger, who was pointing at the TV with a slightly raised voice,
There was a video with the appearance of an announcer who seemed somewhat urgent.
‘Yes, yes? Ah, so, breaking news. The prime suspect in the murder case we were reporting on until just now…
He appeared in the city… and is… causing a riot. Evacuation order in XX neighborhood…’
“…That’s not just a riot.”
In the TV screen, a man was lifting up a car with one hand and throwing it, turning the city into a mess,
The scene of Nigeum, who had run away with Kin, shouting was captured on the shaking screen.
