## Chapter 73 – Size (11)
“…Finally, we meet like this.”
“…Who the hell are you? How do you know my name…”
The man, holding my hand and shaking it as if pleased to meet me, is wearing an eye-smile.
And the man, grabbing the hand I offered for a handshake, helps me up.
“I’ll explain that later, the situation is urgent.
To cut to the chase, I have a proposal.
Will you help me subdue that woman?”
“…What?”
What is he talking about? I was about to ask the man who suddenly appeared and requested cooperation out of nowhere for an explanation,
but before I could even open my mouth, he spoke first and cut me off.
“What Chanwoo wants is the power source… that fruit,
and what I want is the woman who is fighting your friend over there.
We cooperate for each other’s purposes, right? How about it?”
“…I don’t think I need to listen to you.
I already got the fruit, and even if I help you, who I don’t even know, I don’t get anything…”
“I’m the one who’s been attacking you so far.”
I’m startled and raise my head.
The man is still wearing a bright eye-smile.
His eyes were piercing through my eyes, which shouldn’t be visible beyond the helmet.
“I’m the one who sent you Number 3,
and I’m also the one who attacked you at the university before that.”
“…So? How does that make me want to help you?”
I don’t know what this man’s intentions are.
Just looking at the current situation, this man in the white coat is also an enemy.
If I help him catch that woman,
wouldn’t that be helping the enemy?
He seems to know me,
but I don’t know anything about him.
Should I help someone like that?
Moreover, someone who confessed that he was trying to kill me?
The man’s tongue continues to move for persuasion.
“But, I don’t have any intention of doing anything to you anymore.
Because originally, leaving it as it is is beautiful.”
“…What are you talking about?”
“I’m sorry for putting you in danger so many times.
But that’s all because of orders from above.
Chanwoo will understand when he gets a little older and gets a job.”
The man takes off his gas mask after seeing the disappeared gas.
And Jung Ah-woon takes out glasses from the inside pocket of his gown and carefully adjusts them.
“…So, instead of rambling on, can you tell me what you want to say?
Didn’t you say you didn’t have time?”
“That’s right, I didn’t have time.
Then, unfortunately, we’ll have to talk later,
and if you help me, about those guys’ purpose,
and you seem to be interested in the fruit…
I can tell you the location of the fruit.”
“…Information…”
“I was a pretty high-ranking person before I got fired.
I know a lot.”
Honestly, I don’t need information about that organization.
I can find out from that woman who was being chased by them.
But I’m starting to get a little interested in other information about the fruit.
And through the conversation now, I was able to ease my suspicion of this man a little.
I was concentrating on whether there was anything in the conversation that could be a threat to me through danger detection,
but there was nothing that caught my attention.
“…Okay, then what should I do?”
“I’m so glad you finally understand.
What you have to do is not that difficult.
Just stop her from moving.”
I grab his shoulder as he walks ahead, excited and smiling, changing the ammunition in his gun.
“Wait a minute.”
“Yes? What’s wrong?”
“One more condition.”
“…Yes, what is it? I’ll listen to anything.”
A strange tension flows.
“I don’t know what you want to do,
but please don’t chase me anymore.”
“…Hahaha! Even if you didn’t say that, I have no intention of chasing you anymore.”
The man smiles as he finishes reloading the magazine and connects some equipment to the gun.
‘What is it?’
From his smile, a little, just a little, danger detection was activated.
A very faint something that danger detection couldn’t completely detect yet rang in my head,
and I roughly pushed away his shoulder that I was holding and walked out in the lead.
“…You’ll die if you go ahead.
You really know the location of the fruit, right?”
“…Of course.”
“Then that’s fine. Keep your promise.”
The man with the strange device connected to the gun nods and smiles.
…What a strange man.
“…I can’t study a creature that doesn’t even know what it is yet. Hahaha..”
———————————-
“Ugh?!”
I barely twist my body to avoid the shining club that grazed my shoulder and punch her in the stomach.
“…!!”
The pushed-back woman spits out blood,
but wipes it off with her hand as if it’s nothing and walks towards me again.
“…What the hell.”
I received a call that my father was in danger and came straight here,
but I didn’t expect the opponent to be a fellow species…
Was that woman the one being referred to as a fellow species being controlled by humans, which I saw in the warnings conveyed by other fellow species?
I’m trying to get into a stance, but my broken left shoulder hasn’t regenerated yet, so it doesn’t move.
I leave my drooping left hand and take a stance with my right hand.
“Hey, are you really a fellow species?”
“…”
The woman is increasing the voltage of the club she’s holding.
I guess she doesn’t want to talk.
I can’t shake off this dirty feeling at all.
Clearly, I landed more effective hits.
Her organs would be torn and her bones would be broken.
But the woman is walking as if nothing happened.
She erased the wounds with regeneration that far exceeds mine,
and even if I break her bones again, she regenerates again.
As a result of that process of fighting repeatedly,
I’m gradually regenerating slower and covered in wounds.
The woman is dusty but has no noticeable wounds.
How much have humans touched you?
“…!!”
The woman, who instantly dug into my arms, swings her arm greatly and flies the club towards my face.
I have to avoid it here first…
“Cough?!”
The woman twisted her wrist at an unbelievable speed.
In response, the trajectory of the club also changed, and cold metal was embedded in my stomach.
The cold sensation is only temporary, and soon the current surrounding the club begins to flow through my entire body.
“Kyaaaaak?!”
“Female subject, suppression complete.”
I can’t put strength in my legs.
I can feel my upper body touching the asphalt right away.
What the hell is that regeneration…
“…Th, that’s…?!”
The woman’s eyes begin to shine blue.
A blue light flows through her blood vessels, and soon even the small scratches she got in the fight with me are regenerated.
That’s definitely my father’s…
“We will now begin the capture of the male subject.
Please transport this female subject to headquarters.”
The man wearing an iron mask starts running towards me.
“Damn it…! Let go of me…!”
Strangely, I can’t put strength in my body.
Is it because of that strange current from before?
No, if this continues, my father…!
I struggle with all my might.
If I get caught like this, not only my father,
but other fellow species will be in danger.
“…Yes, the female subject is now at headquarters… Ugh?!”
I can feel the strength of the man’s grip making a strange noise weakening, so I raise my head and look up at the man,
but there is no man there and a strange sight is unfolding.
A large motorcycle ran into the man,
and the man hit by it was floating in the air.
I turn my head and look in the direction the motorcycle flew from.
“Oh, Chanwoo, nice shot.”
“Shut up for a while instead of adding a word from earlier.”
There was my father and a man in a white coat.
—————————-
“…Are they all gone?”
I lift my head and look around to see the situation.
…What, they’re really all gone.
I was pretending to be unconscious, but I didn’t even need to.
Weren’t they all chasing after me to catch me?
The man in the white coat and the man wearing the black helmet who saved me disappeared somewhere a long time ago.
“…Well, it’s good for me.”
I pick up the fallen bag and check if the laptop is okay first.
Important things are in it, so it shouldn’t be broken…
“…Looks like it’s okay, fortunately.”
The laptop with the screen on.
After checking the laptop, I turn my head towards the direction where the loud noise is coming from.
“Wow, what is that…”
It’s not a sight to see in the middle of the city.
I can hear the sound of things breaking and being destroyed,
and black smoke rises from the aftermath.
And before I knew it, the people surrounding the area are busy pressing the shutter of their cell phone cameras towards the center.
“…It’s none of my business.”
I looked for a bag to put the laptop in,
but the bag was torn to shreds.
“Ah.”
I rummage through the bag that has just become a piece of cloth.
No way, no way, it can’t be? It has to be there?
“…It’s not here.”
The fruit is not there.
Where did it go? Did it roll somewhere in that chaos?
I bend down and look under the car and put my hand in my pocket for no reason, but it’s not there.
“Ah!! Seriously!!”
I slowly turn my head towards the center of the commotion.
“Haa…”
I guess it’s there…?
——————————
“Father, be careful…!! That woman is something strange…”
Sooa, limping and approaching me, collapses.
I run to her and support her.
Blood is flowing from the torn flesh,
and she groans as if in pain when I touch her.
“…Rest here.”
“Yes… Sorry…”
Sooa can’t speak because she’s struggling to catch her breath.
I lean her against the stopped bus.
“…What’s that woman’s weakness? You said you made her.”
“Hahaha, that’s right. But it’s a bit difficult to say it myself, but she has no weaknesses.”
“…Then what are we going to do.”
I turn to look at him, but he shrugs his shoulders nonchalantly.
I’m thinking about punching him when a warning rings.
‘Behind.’
“Chanwoo, behind you.”
“Ugh, damn it!!”
The woman who rushed in savagely passed the spot where I was,
and slammed into the bus. The large bus shook,
and the surface of the bus she hit was crushed to the point where it looked like it had been hit several times with a hammer.
I put my hands on her body and turn my body in the air to avoid her.
“Ah, Chanwoo, be careful of the current in that club.
It degrades the parasitic organism’s physical functions.”
“Tell me that kind of thing sooner!”
I shout at the doctor who is already far away.
I’m struggling to avoid the woman who is running towards me without missing the gap.
“Keuk…!”
It won’t end if I just keep avoiding it like this.
But Sooa, who is stronger than me in terms of skill, is in that state, so if I use my skills halfway, it will end right away.
It’s ambiguous to try to win with strength.
Let’s say I’m lucky enough to narrow the distance,
it’s clear to anyone that she has the advantage with a weapon.
I’m running around here and there on the car, avoiding the shining hammer heading towards me.
The hammer she swings turns everything it touches into rags.
How am I supposed to tie something like that up!
‘Virzilrago.’
‘The one who gives love.’
‘Life force.’
“…Huh?”
Blue colors my eyes.
No, to be exact, when I saw something shining under that woman’s feet, my head rang.
‘It’s yours now.’
I reach out my hand towards that blue light.
This is…
I grabbed that light and pulled it.
“Ugh?!”
Something that came out through the asphalt.
Something that looks like a large tree trunk tied the woman’s legs and both hands.
“…Wow.”
Jung Ah-woon admires.
“What?! Start shooting!! Rescue Number 4…!!”
The men pull the trigger without hesitation.
I extend the blue light towards those men, the helicopter flying in the sky,
and the armored vehicle.
I pull again.
The stem that stretched out from the ground at a fierce speed tore them apart.
“…This is…”
The man’s voice I heard at the beach earlier.
“…Is it that person’s power?”
Leaves began to bloom on the stem with a refreshing blue light, creating a lush forest in the middle of the city.
The helicopter and armored vehicle hanging like birdhouses on that large tree are burning, creating a landscape that makes it difficult to distinguish whether this is reality or not.
I turn to look at Dr. Jung Ah-woon.
“…Is this enough?”
