## Chapter 64 – The Past, Present, and Future of Human Chaeryeong (1)
***
‘Trickster,’ a cadre villain affiliated with the Dark Knights.
Real name Chaeryeong.
Her surname, Chae, wasn’t inherited from her parents;
she simply has the name Chaeryeong, without a surname.
The laboratory, filled with pure white walls and mysterious machinery,
is where her oldest memories begin.
“Subject number H1789. Age 19. Female.
Current health status is very good.”
A massive test tube, so cold it felt like being trapped in ice.
Inside, a girl was asleep, connected to some kind of device.
With very fine, long black hair and rabbit-like, bright red eyes.
The girl, with truly beautiful features, slowly lifted her eyelids.
“H1789 has opened her eyes!!!”
“Report to the chief right away!”
As she, who had been in a deep sleep like Snow White, opened her eyes,
the researchers who had been watching her were very surprised and delighted.
The subject herself had no idea why she had woken up in this place,
or why these people were looking at her with such joy.
She didn’t even know who ‘I’ was in the first place.
But she didn’t ask the researchers a single word about who she was,
or why she had woken up here like this.
“This is really strange. All the previous subjects were emotionally agitated, or…
some of them even had their powers go berserk.”
She was just as confused,
but for some reason, there were no signs of great emotional agitation or a power surge.
That’s because she didn’t even have the fact that she possessed powers
in her memory in the first place.
“The results seem to be fine, but
just in case, assign a researcher to take care of the subject and monitor her condition.”
“Yes!”
She was almost an adult, 19 years old, from the moment she woke up,
but a researcher was assigned to take care of her and monitor her condition, as she had no memories at all.
“You’re H1789…? You’re really pretty!
I’m Seo Youngchae. Please take care of me?”
A neat-looking female researcher introducing herself as Seo Youngchae.
“It’s a bit much to call her by her subject number… but I can’t just call her ‘you’ either….”
Youngchae was worried about what to call Chaeryeong, who didn’t have a name yet.
“Hmm… how about calling her Chaeyoung, the reverse of my name? Or would Chaeryeong be better…?”
“…Chaeryeong is better.”
“Okay! I’ll call you Chaeryeong from now on. Got it?”
Unlike the other researchers who treated her like an object, calling her by her subject number,
Youngchae even gave Chaeryeong a new name derived from her own and always treated her kindly and comfortably.
It was also Youngchae who taught her how to communicate and use emotions,
to her who had been strangely calm and insensitive since she woke up in the test tube.
“How about this? Doesn’t it look totally delicious?
It’s a dish called Mala Tang… I heard it’s popular these days?”
“It looks super spicy… and like it’ll clear your head right out!”
She would show her things that her friends of the same age would like in the society outside the lab,
and sometimes they would exchange silly jokes, and Chaeryeong came to resemble Youngchae’s outgoing personality.
“What’s that Unni is drinking… what is it?”
“Ah, this? This is coffee. It has a slightly bitter yet nutty flavor.”
“Why do you drink something bitter…?”
“Coffee is so good! It smells amazing too… and it makes you feel more alert, I guess?”
One day, when Chaeryeong asked about the coffee in the tumbler that Youngchae was carrying around,
Youngchae kindly explained it to her.
“If you’re interested, should I teach you how to make coffee?”
Youngchae would take pictures of her coffee maker and beans and bring them,
and secretly show Chaeryeong the taste of coffee without the other researchers knowing.
“At first, I wondered why anyone would drink something so bitter,
but now I think I know why.”
“Right? I really can’t live without coffee.”
From the day Chaeryeong first tasted coffee, it became her favorite food.
Of course, the taste and aroma of coffee suited Chaeryeong’s palate and preferences well,
but it was also because she wanted to cherish what Youngchae liked.
Spending what felt like a long or short few weeks like that,
they cherished each other and spent time together as if they had become real sisters.
If you only looked at this, there would be no problems for Chaeryeong and Youngchae,
but from the researchers’ point of view, there was one very important problem for her.
“Subject H1789. Condition is good today as well.
However… there seems to be a problem with the ability part.”
The researchers took issue with the fact that Chaeryeong couldn’t use her powers,
and began to carry out all sorts of experiments on her.
At first, they started by saying things that would upset Chaeryeong,
or taking away or breaking things she cherished.
However, Chaeryeong knew how to use and control her emotions well, as she had learned from Youngchae,
so even if she felt a little depressed, she didn’t get too emotionally agitated.
“This won’t do. We need to increase the intensity little by little.”
Not satisfied with this, the researchers exponentially increased the intensity of the experiments.
They held weapons to Chaeryeong or cut her body with knives,
and crushed her fingers or toes using blunt instruments.
Even so, Chaeryeong failed to manifest her powers as the researchers had hoped.
Youngchae always comforted and embraced Chaeryeong, who had to endure such harsh experiments,
and even said that she would help her get out of the lab someday.
“In this world… there are heroes who protect people from evil villains.
Someday… a hero will come to save you.”
‘Yes… someday I’ll be able to get out. Together with Youngchae Unni.’
Firmly believing that a hero would come to save her and Youngchae Unni someday,
Chaeryeong endured the harsh experiments as best she could.
But despite Youngchae’s comfort and encouragement,
the intensity of the experiments only grew more and more severe.
They locked Chaeryeong in a place with ferocious beasts and made her face them,
and not only her fingers and toes, but also her arms, legs, and face were crushed, leaving her covered in wounds.
Chaeryeong, whose body and mind were already tattered,
was no longer even allowed to meet Youngchae.
‘Where is Youngchae Unni…?
Save me… help me….’
A life of being monitored 24 hours a day alone in a cold solitary cell.
It seemed like things couldn’t get any worse.
But she learned that the saying that there is a bottom even at the bottom
not long after she was locked in the solitary cell.
– Creakㅡ
“Hey! Drag subject number H1789 out here.”
“I’m… not H1789, I’m Chaeryeong!”
“That doesn’t matter. Just drag her out here!”
“What… what are you going to do to me! It’s time to stop now!
Please… please let me out… I’m telling you!”
After providing only a small amount of water and food and locking her up for several days,
the researchers suddenly opened the door to the solitary cell and forcibly took her somewhere.
The place they arrived at didn’t look much different from the solitary cell she had been locked in,
but there was one thing that was different.
“Let go of me…!”
They forcibly sat her in a chair and made her gaze fixed in one direction,
and then a shutter that looked like a wall began to rise very slowly.
– Whirringㅡ
Beyond that shutter was Youngchae, tied to a chair like Chaeryeong, unable to move.
“Unni…?! Why are you tied up there!”
Youngchae was shedding tears, looking at Chaeryeong’s face with a very sad expression.
“What are you saying? Please untie this quickly! Hurry!!”
Youngchae was clearly saying something to Chaeryeong,
but there was a transparent glass wall beyond the shutter, so she couldn’t hear Youngchae’s words.
Chaeryeong tried to understand what she was saying by looking at Youngchae’s lip movements,
but she couldn’t understand at all.
After a short time passed like that,
a gun was pointed at Youngchae’s head.
“Unni!!! What are you trying to do to Unni!! Do it to me instead…
You can tear my flesh… you can break my fingers… please!!”
Chaeryeong tried to break free from her body tied to the chair in any way she could,
and begged the researchers who were watching the situation.
But her wishes were not fulfilled.
– Bangㅡ!!
The gun pointed at Youngchae’s head eventually pierced through her head,
and a huge amount of blood splattered around her.
The glass wall, which had seemed sturdy, was cracked by the aftermath of the shooting,
and the voices of the researchers beyond the wall could be heard through the cracks.
“Unni… Unni?! Unni!!!!”
Chaeryeong shook the chair wildly and screamed in an agitated voice.
In that short period of time, she had taught her so many things that she had no memory of,
and Youngchae had become the most precious person in the world to Chaeryeong.
But that precious person was killed by the hands of a fellow researcher, not anyone else.
For the reason that she had to manifest her powers.
As Chaeryeong was screaming, covered in blood and watching Youngchae die,
she saw the figure of another person among the researchers who had come to collect Youngchae’s body in her eyes, which were blurred by tears.
It was a man wearing something like a strange suit, not a white gown.
And the conversation that was faintly heard beyond the broken wall was truly shocking.
“How did it go? Is there any progress in the experiment?”
“Ah! The hero has arrived. Unfortunately… there is no progress.”
