## Chapter 74 – Size (12)
“Kyaaak?!”
While secretly approaching the location,
the ground began to shake violently.
And soon, a sight that was hard to believe unfolded before my eyes.
“…What is this…?”
At the end of the rising stem, fresh green leaves sprouted, creating a small forest.
Is this even logically possible?
I tread on the asphalt floor, which doesn’t match the densely packed trees, and navigate through the bizarre forest.
And beyond the trees, light pours in.
I’m confused about where I am right now.
As I push through the grass towards the light, I can’t tell if I’m in the middle of a jungle
or in the middle of a road.
And finally, I emerged from the thicket.
Finally, the scene before my eyes began to appear.
Two men were standing there.
No, to be precise, one man was collapsed.
—————————–
“…Is that good enough?”
I awkwardly looked back at the Doctor.
I saw a blue light, and I pulled it.
I didn’t expect it to create a forest in the middle of the city.
“…Amazing.”
The Doctor was clapping like a seal.
His face was flushed, as if he was genuinely moved, and turning bright red.
The Doctor approached me with a crazed look in his eyes.
I climbed down from the roof of the car and approached him.
“Calm down.”
It didn’t seem easy to calm him down as he clapped madly, so I wondered if I should slap him,
but I worried for nothing as the Doctor lightly tapped his shoulder, adjusted his glasses in surprise, and coughed.
“I’m sorry, it’s like an occupational hazard…”
“Never mind that, is it okay to leave her like that now?”
I lightly tapped the Doctor’s shoulder, who had regained his senses,
and pointed to the woman tied to the stem in the corner, unable to move.
Only then did he say, “Ah, right,” and quickly walk towards her.
…Is that kind of person really a high-ranking member of that organization?
“…Ms. Min-jeong, do you know who I am?”
The Doctor took out a gun connected to a device from his pocket and asked the woman a strange question.
So, that woman’s name was Min-jeong.
It seemed like she was an acquaintance.
“…Jeong A-un, the team leader of the Biological Weapon Team,
and currently a target with a kill order.”
“That’s right, she seems fine.”
The Doctor smiled happily, aimed the gun at her forehead, and pulled the trigger.
“Ugh?!”
But this time, it wasn’t a live bullet that was fired.
It wasn’t even a capsule this time, so what was it?
The woman was hit by something invisible.
“…Ah?… Error occur…ring? Re, acti…vating…”
The woman made strange noises and then dropped her head as if a machine had been turned off.
“…What did you do?”
“Forced initialization. I turned off the computer that was moving her body through a special ultrasonic wave.”
“…Do you know her? I heard you talking earlier.”
“Yes, she was a coworker.”
He dusted off his hands and stood up.
I approached the Doctor, who left the collapsed woman and detached the device from the gun.
“…Then, you have to keep your promise now.”
“…”
“Hahaha, don’t look at me like that.
I always keep my promises.”
To be honest, I didn’t think he would keep his promise.
So, I was gathering blue light towards him, but I decided to listen to him first.
“What was I going to say…
Ah, that’s right. I have to tell you the locations of the fruits.
First, I’ll tell you the locations of the ones we’ve recovered and are storing.
I wish I could tell you everything, but I only know a few.”
“Go ahead.”
“The domestic research institute has a total of three.
A blue, a green, and a purple fruit.
The blue and green ones were here in Seoul,
and you took two of them, right? The other one is currently at the second research institute in Busan.”
“….”
The danger sensor isn’t reacting.
What he’s saying seems to be true.
“…Can I ask a question?”
“Of course, that’s the promise.”
I focused my danger sensor on the Doctor, who was smiling brightly.
And I didn’t forget to aim the blue light at him, just in case.
“Where did you guys find the fruits?”
“I don’t know.
That information didn’t come down to me.”
…That’s true.
“How much have you investigated about the fruits?”
“What we’ve investigated is that each fruit contains tremendous energy and that there’s a biological reaction occurring to it, to some extent?
Oh, and that it doesn’t break no matter what physical force you exert.
And most importantly, we’ve finished the research on injecting the energy extracted from the fruit into biological weapons. The reason your friend is like that is because she fought No. 4, who has the power of the blue fruit.”
The Doctor pointed to Soo-ah, who was unconscious behind him.
Injecting the power of the fruit…
“…What is your purpose?”
“That’s a rather unpleasant question.”
The Doctor, who wasn’t smiling for the first time, adjusted his glasses.
And then, he smiled again and said.
“Don’t think of me as the same as them.
My purpose is different from theirs.”
“…Then what is your goal?”
“What I agreed to tell you is their purpose.
I won’t answer that question. Hahaha…
Their purpose is to create weapons using petals and sell them to other countries,
and furthermore, they’re pathetic third-rate villains who believe they can conquer the world. Ew, isn’t that gross?”
I ignored the Doctor, who pretended to gag and then straightened his back and laughed at his own joke, and sank into thought.
“A weapon using petals, then that woman…”
“Yes, Ms. Min-jeong, No. 4, is the first successful case.
You’ve probably fought No. 3 as well.”
He must be talking about the butterfly.
The Doctor had been looking down at his watch since earlier.
He urged me as if to hurry.
“So, do you have any other questions?”
“This is the last one, the reason why they and you are targeting me.
You have to explain that.”
“…It’s nothing special.
Simply because you’re the first male individual to appear.
That’s all. The appearance of an unprecedented test subject.
That’s the only reason they’re chasing you.”
‘Lie.’
‘Black.’
The danger sensor was ringing like crazy.
Just what was he hiding in those words that was causing a danger sensor that threatened my life to go off?
“…Weren’t you going to not lie?”
“…I didn’t make that promise?”
The Doctor scratched his head with the gun.
Me and him, the only two people in the city’s forest.
A strange tension collided with the densely packed trees, unable to find a way out and bouncing around in all directions.
I felt confused.
An unknown unpleasantness crawled down my spine.
I had to kill him here.
I just felt like it.
“…!!”
I reached out towards the Doctor.
And I grabbed the light.
I was going to pull out the stem and split his body in half.
That’s what I was thinking.
‘Dangerous.’
‘Don’t touch.’
‘Get it off quickly.’
“What…?!”
I sensed danger from the hand I had reached out towards him.
I hurriedly lowered my hand and looked at my palm,
and there was a small thing emitting a strange light attached to it.
“This is…!”
I hurriedly tried to pick it up and remove it,
but it was too late.
The electric current emanating from that small thing enveloped my body.
“Kuaaaaak?!”
I felt my strength draining and smelled the burning of my muscles.
And a trap began to wrap around my ankles.
“This, when did it…?!”
“Mr. Chan-woo, have you ever seen someone enter a safari with their bare hands? How could you do that.”
The Doctor approached me.
“I can’t do that. If I’m going to enter a lion’s den, I always have to be thoroughly prepared.
Look, if you prepare like this, even lions are nothing special.
That’s why planning is always beautiful.
It feels good when it’s thorough and fits perfectly.
Oh, and I have to answer the question of when I prepared this.”
The Doctor took off the helmet I was wearing and looked into my finally revealed eyes.
“Earlier, when I first met you.
We shook hands, right?”
“…Damn it…it was then…!!”
Why didn’t the danger sensor go off then?
While I was wondering that, a short phrase he had said to me flashed through my mind.
‘…I’m not going to do anything to you.’
“No way…”
There’s no way, right?
Even as I thought that, the only reason he didn’t trigger the danger sensor was that.
“As I said earlier, I won’t touch you.
That’s a really uncool thing to do as a biologist.”
An action that didn’t have any malice towards me at all.
This action didn’t contain any malice.
“Originally, all research begins with observation.
Killing you now or putting you on the operating table right away is like cutting open the belly of a goose that lays golden eggs.
Do you understand what I’m saying?”
“You’re crazy…”
“Hahaha, how can someone who loves humans more than anyone else not go crazy when they see you?
I knew it before, but today it’s become even clearer.
You can’t die in a place like this.”
The Doctor, who had been looking down at me, turned around.
And he picked up the green fruit a little ways away and was playing with it by throwing it in the air.
“This is just a gift from me.
I don’t know what you’re going to do with it,
but if I see what happened today, I think you’ll surprise me again.”
He brought the fruit towards me.
Just a little bit, just a little bit more…
“The trap will lose its effect in 5 minutes, so
you’ll be able to move soon. The fruit is here…”
The moment he bent down to put the fruit in front of me,
I squeezed out the last of my remaining strength and pulled the blue light…
————————–
“What, what…! The atmosphere is a little bad…”
I looked back and forth between the two men.
The two men who saved me are fighting?
Why? Weren’t they on the same side?
“This is just a gift from me.
I don’t know what you’re going to do with it,
but if I see what happened today, I think you’ll surprise me again.”
The man in the white coat was saying that while picking something up.
…That’s.
“…A fruit.”
I swallowed hard.
Looking at it closely here, the man in the white coat was Jeong A-un, whom I had seen in the records room before.
That psychopath, and the man tied up over there… I don’t know.
Ah, damn it, what should I do? What should I do?
Should I just run away? Even if I don’t have that fruit, I can still sell the information and get money…
Calculations were running quickly through my head.
No matter how much information I handed over, it wouldn’t exceed the price of one fruit, which is the energy of a large research institute…
…
“Okay…!”
I made up my mind and took out a stun gun from my waist.
It’s all or nothing, let’s just steal that and run away.
Yeah, that’s what I’ll do.
Crackling electricity sparked from the stun gun.
“The trap will lose its effect in 5 minutes, so you’ll be able to move soon. The fruit is here…”
That psychopath was about to put the fruit down.
Now’s the time, now!
“…!!”
I jumped out of the bushes and ran towards the fruit.
And I swung the stun gun at Jeong A-un, who was turning to look at me…
“Kyaaak?!”
“Ugh?!”
A large tree sprouted from under my feet.
Ah, what is this again?!
Both me and Dr. Jeong A-un were thrown back.
“Ugh, ugh…!”
My whole body hurt so much.
Damn it, I should have just run away…!
As I was barely getting my body up,
a round object rolled and fell in front of my eyes.
The green, beautifully shining fruit filled my vision.
Without even having time to be surprised, I quickly picked up the fruit.
And I got up and ran.
What a windfall!
“Stop.”
Jeong A-un, who quickly regained his senses, shot something,
and it passed by my leg and stuck into the ground. And boom.
“Kyaaaak?!”
Something stuck in the ground emitted a shockwave, knocking my body backwards.
“Ouch…!”
“That wasn’t for you.”
Jeong A-un was approaching me, who had fallen over.
Wow, he’s even scarier when you see him up close.
“D, don’t come closer!!”
“I usually like to solve things with conversation if possible,
but I’m a little angry right now. Who are you?”
The man brushed his hair up and aimed the gun at me.
If it comes to this…!
“D, don’t come closer!! I’m going to eat this!”
“What?! Hey, don’t eat it!!”
Jeong A-un, who was the target of the threat, wasn’t surprised,
but the man tied up behind him shouted out of the blue.
“…Huh? Pfft…”
“What’s so funny? Do you think I’m joking? I’m really going to eat it…!!”
“Yes, eat it.”
“…What?”
“Do you really have the courage to eat that?
You don’t look like you do, so if you hand it over now, I’ll solve it with conversation.”
Jeong A-un was striding towards me.
My heart started beating like crazy.
The distance between him and me was now very short.
I quickly rolled my eyes and looked back and forth between him and the fruit.
“…I don’t know anymore!!”
Just before his hand reached me,
I bit into the fruit in my hand.
