## Chapter 29 – Yeji (3)
Sunlight streamed through the swaying branches, illuminating the dust motes swirling in the air with violent gestures, making them vividly visible.
And within those dust particles, several strands of thread reflected the light, shining white.
I understood.
I knew what that child’s unidentifiable attack was.
To be more certain, I dodged the oncoming attacks, twisting and turning my body while heeding the warnings in my head.
Thanks to the sunlight, though only slightly, it became a bit easier to see and avoid the attacks. While dodging, I glanced at the girl.
“….”
Indeed, a girl who could attack simply by standing in place and staring at me without taking a single step. However, there was something awkward about her.
This place was a small hill in a neighborhood, hardly worthy of being called a mountain, but it was so rarely visited by people that the path wasn’t properly cleared.
All that could be seen around were trees and more trees, nothing but trees.
In this place, where even a wisp of wind struggled to penetrate the dense foliage, strangely, the girl’s hair fluttered gently.
And after watching her for a while, I realized that she was attacking very honestly.
If she could attack with her hair, wouldn’t it have been much easier to catch me if she had attacked all at once with those tens of thousands of strands?
And since earlier, the incoming slashes were one, or at most two attacks at the same time, but she never attacked with more than that.
To summarize, the attack’s identity was her hair, and my conclusion was that she couldn’t use multiple strands of hair in a single attack.
“Ah, Big Bro!”
While I was thinking, my foot slowed down a bit, and because I had briefly reduced my speed, the fabric of my pants tore at my thigh, drawing a vivid red line across my skin with a *jiik* sound.
“Damn it!”
I pressed down hard on the wound with one hand, trying to suppress the pain, but the girl, not allowing even that brief respite, continued to launch attacks.
Not being able to attack simultaneously meant that if I timed it well, I could approach her, but…
As if saying, ‘Try if you can,’ the girl unleashed attacks at a frantic pace.
The time between one attack and the next was too short, impossibly short.
Even if I managed to time it right and dodge the first attack, it was obvious that my body would be cut in two by the follow-up attack that would come immediately after.
“Alright, screw it!”
“…!”
Having only dodged until now, I bent down, placed my hand on the ground to gain momentum, and then dashed towards the girl in an instant.
‘Left.’
Following the direction indicated by my danger sense, I twisted my head to avoid a single strand of thread cutting through the air, then regained my posture, balanced myself, and ran with all my might.
The distance between me and the girl was almost nothing.
Leaving a distance where I felt like I could reach her if I took just two more steps and extended my hand, the second attack flew straight towards my face.
“…Ugh!”
“…Eep?!”
I took out a stone from my hidden right hand and threw it at the girl.
A stone I had picked up while touching the ground when I first charged at her.
Perhaps surprised by the stone flying towards her with frightening force, she let out a groan and immediately split the stone into two pieces with her hair.
But I didn’t slow down and charged straight at her.
Having used her hair to block the stone, she now had no means to protect herself.
“Got yo—!”
I felt nothing in the hand that touched her.
To be precise, my right hand, which should have touched her body, disappeared from my sight.
And as I lifted my left leg, my right leg, which should have been touching the ground to support my body, didn’t touch the ground, so I fell forward and slammed my chin into the ground.
“Ugh?!”
“…..”
Still maintaining her silence, the girl looked down at me, who was planted face-first in the ground.
I frantically looked around, trying to find the source of the burning pain that was surging up.
My right hand, which should have been at the end of my right arm, was gone, and blood was gushing from the cleanly severed surface.
Turning my head back, I saw that the leg that should have been below my knee was gone, and blood was pouring out in the same way.
I wish I hadn’t known.
Finding the source of the pain caused me to writhe in agony as the pain washed over me all at once.
“…Ugh… Aaaaaargh!!”
Why…
Was I wrong?
As I was unable to come to my senses from the pain I was experiencing for the first time in my life, she bent down, brought her face close to mine, and whispered.
“Hide until it’s dangerous. Tease when winning.
Get angry if teased. Are you angry?”
Dozens of soft strands of hair caressed me.
She was hiding it.
Damn it, damn it.
They had intended to play with me from the start.
Even though they could have easily caught me from the beginning.
Breathing heavily to regain composure from the pain, I looked up at the girl.
“….Hoo, hoo…”
Had I lost too much blood?
My consciousness was fading.
“Then, let’s go.”
The girl came closer and closer in my blurring vision, blocking the light with her body, making it impossible to see.
‘My love.’
“…Ugh?!”
My hand, already devoid of strength, moved on its own.
My consciousness gradually returned.
Without even realizing it, I reached out and grabbed her mouth with one hand, then lifted her up in a flash.
Surprised by the unexpected situation, she struggled and thrashed, continuously swinging her hair to cut off the arm holding her, but unlike before, the arm wasn’t even scratched.
The pain also subsided.
I was also bewildered by the sudden phenomenon and looked down at my right hand and leg, but they were perfectly attached in their places, as if they had never been cut off.
But at the same time, my head started to ache like crazy.
‘My love.’
“Aaaaaargh!!”
The headache was worse than before, and I screamed.
It felt like something was bursting inside my body.
Unable to keep up with the situation, the girl was caught by me, still surprised.
If I lost consciousness here, I would die.
Perhaps thinking that, I clenched my fist with my regenerated right hand, pulled it back behind my waist, and then struck her abdomen with all my might.
“Cough?!”
The girl’s body, showing a distorted expression of pain for the first time, was launched into the air and slammed into a tree.
Then, she collapsed to the ground and started vomiting blood.
“…Weeehk…!!”
“…Haa, haa…Damn it…”
Not yet, but my body, having reached its limit, sadly didn’t listen to me and collapsed as it was.
————————
“…Unbelievable.”
I was watching the situation through the body cam attached to Subject 03, but this was an unforeseen situation.
The cam must have broken from the tremendous impact, as the screen went black and 03 seemed to have lost consciousness.
What the hell was that?
That male subject, I can’t understand the reason.
“…Doctor! Doctor Jung A-un!!
What the hell is going on?! Explain…!!”
“Shut your yap, I’m concentrating.”
It’s an entirely incomprehensible anomaly.
And it’s the first time a male subject has appeared.
But just from what he showed just now, and what he showed before, he’s demonstrating results that far surpass the female subjects.
What’s so special about that man?
Or was the petal entity that parasitized that man special?
Does that man have self-awareness right now?
Is he definitely the entity that stole the power source before?
I need to check if his face was captured while he was moving around, but his height and build seem similar to the entity identified before.
“What are you saying right now?!”
The director grabbed my shoulder.
“I told you to shut up, you bastard.”
“…Wh-what…”
Leaving the old man, who didn’t realize how important this moment was and kept interfering, in the office, I started walking down the hallway.
Then, I took out my cell phone from my pocket and started making a call.
“Hello, Ms. Min-jeong? You haven’t gone home yet, have you?”
————————
“…Bro?! Big Bro! Are you awake?”
What, where is this?
When I opened my eyes, I saw Chae-yun and Seo-hee, and a light that shone so brightly it felt like it would burn my eyes.
Where am I?
I tried to ask Chae-yun, but my voice didn’t come out properly, and only a faint groan escaped my throat.
Surprised by my physical condition, I tried to get up, but an unbelievable, tremendous pain ran through my entire body.
“…Agh…”
“This is a little funny.”
“…Unni.”
“Okay, I won’t.”
Seo-hee was making jokes in front of a patient, and Chae-yun was scolding her for it.
Chae-yun sighed once and then started explaining the situation to me.
“If it’s hard for you to talk, just listen.
Do you remember what happened?”
I nodded with difficulty.
“…So, while I and Seo-hee Unni were listening to the lecture, we both felt something at the same time.
I don’t know what it was, but we felt like we had to go to the place where we felt it, so we went and…”
“You and she were passed out.”
Seo-hee added to Chae-yun’s words, gesturing with her chin towards the girl I had fought, who was collapsed in the corner.
“Don’t worry, I put her into a deeper sleep with a paralytic poison.”
“…And don’t worry about being tracked.
I checked every inch of that girl’s clothes and body and got rid of anything suspicious.”
“…By the way, isn’t it strange?
That girl is the same kind as us, but she’s somehow different.”
Seo-hee tilted her head with a questioning expression, and Chae-yun nodded at Seo-hee as if agreeing, then put a blanket over me and said.
“There are strange things and a lot of things we want to ask, but right now, it’s most important for Big Bro to recover. Get a good night’s sleep.”
Her soft voice and the scent of her shampoo gradually eased my tension.
Was that why? Before I knew it, I didn’t even notice my eyes slowly closing and fell asleep as I was.
