Chapter 56: Experint Site (1)
How could he forget that number?
He had lived continuously without a na, like that.
Hyeon-yul looked at them.
Just the ntion of 'experint subject' changed the atmosphere.
Though hidden by protective suits, their expressions unseen, he felt their gazes towards him change.
“……Experint subject?”
Soone spoke up.
Gazes followed, ticulously examining him as if looking at a product.
“Yes. They called a successful experint subject.”
“…Successful?”
“How did they succeed?”
“He just… looks like a person?”
The murmuring, starting with one or two, gradually increased.
Looks like a person.
Countless words stemd from this part.
“You. Right now… is that true?”
“Is there any reason for to lie, having co all this way?”
One of Hyeon-yul’s eyebrows rose.
Judging by the atmosphere, it seed no one in charge who knew him was present.
Hyeon-yul rolled up his left sleeve.
REX—03333.
It was engraved there.
“Living from child to adult, haven’t I lived quite long?”
“W-Wouldn’t you give us a chance?”
“Right. Give us a chance.”
“What kind of chance?”
Hyeon-yul asked.
“Surely, there must be sowhere misaligned in your body. I, no, we can take a look at that.”
“Refining it more precisely. We can stabilize any instability.”
As if forgetting how tightly they had ford ranks monts ago, the guys beca disorganized, so even stepping forward slightly.
It was fortunate their faces weren't visible.
His already non-existent appetite might have vanished completely.
“I’ll ask one last ti. Is there anyone here who knows ?”
Hyeon-yul asked again and waited.
Only useless conversation continued.
“If anyone knew you, they would have popped out imdiately! You’re a masterpiece!”
“Right! Perfection itself! With this, humanity can take another step forward!”
Sounds close to admiration flowed from the guys.
Saying he was amazing.
Saying he was perfect.
Words that dirtied the ears poured out.
“Is that so?”
Hyeon-yul readjusted his grip on the dagger.
His gaze towards them sharpened.
“Wh-What are you doing?”
“What do you think I’m doing? If no one knows , shouldn’t you die?”
Hyeon-yul walked towards them.
Despite the light steps, the atmosphere changed.
He looked ready to devour everything.
“St-St-Stop!”
Hyeon-yul didn’t stop even at those words.
He approached nonchalantly, grabbed the protective suit of one of them, and tore it with the dagger.
A human face erged from between the protective suit.
“To think you look like this. Strangely, I thought you looked like a person.”
Hyeon-yul reacted as if seeing a person for the first ti.
The man whose eyes t his trembled uncontrollably.
It felt exactly like a beast was standing before him.
The mouth that had moved so well just monts ago froze up.
“I was always curious about what was beyond the protective suits you always wore. What you looked like, what expressions you had. I thought about it countless tis and even imagined things arbitrarily.”
Maybe they were actually the sa kind of experint subjects as him.
Not wanting to suffer alone, they must have committed these acts out of revenge.
Maybe they weren't human but a new species.
He continued with such nonsensical thoughts.
Back then, he had to think that way to endure.
Did it make sense for humans to commit acts that humans shouldn't commit, over and over?
But they were human.
“Various thoughts swirled in my head, but strangely, now only one cos to mind.”
Hyeon-yul’s gaze lowered as he gripped the guy’s neck.
The guy caught by him couldn't even struggle.
The overwhelming killing intent was imnse.
“Whether you are monsters or not, let’s kill you all. Without leaving any behind, let’s wipe out the seeds. Just like that.”
Hyeon-yul’s eyes curved, and the guy’s complexion turned deathly pale.
“If it’s revenge, it’s revenge. But it’s not so grand goal for all those who died. It’s just for , who lost mories and even my original na because of you. It’s really, quite botherso.”
“…W-Wait a mont. Don’t get excited. Now is the ti to think rationally.”
“I only plan to kill those directly involved in this matter; I have no intention of touching your families or other people. How can I be more rational than this?”
He could do more but didn't.
He could make them suffer more, but he had no intention of crossing that line further.
Offering them a peaceful death, how could he be more rational than that?
“Isn’t it you, not , who isn’t being rational right now?”
Hyeon-yul’s gaze turned to the other guys.
Terrified, they stepped back.
“This… is a leap that can change humanity anew!”
“Right, a leap!”
“If you wanted to leap so badly, why didn’t you do it yourselves?”
Hyeon-yul sneered and tightened his grip on the neck.
“Leap or whatever, have I ever once said I was interested? Did those you killed, those you butchered, ever say they wanted to be part of that leap?”
“…Keok.”
“What exactly are you trying to justify? Sublimity? You and I are just the sa kind of murderers.”
Hyeon-yul didn’t make excuses.
Even if being lumped together was disgusting, the fact that he was a murderer didn't change.
“…You. Do you know what this sublimity is? Do you know how the Empire beca the Empire?”
A voice ca from behind.
Perhaps seeming quite brave, but it was just a coward trembling behind a protective suit.
“I’m not interested.”
Empire or whatever, why did he have to listen to such grand talk?
The Poison King, the Crimson Witch, and even these guys, why did they keep bringing up the Empire?
“It was the Empire that created the power we now take for granted.”
“Is that so?”
It was a story that would make anyone else freak out, but Hyeon-yul spoke nonchalantly about this too.
The Empire created power.
What would change by knowing this?
“How many sacrifices do you think it took for everyone to possess power? You say this value isn't subli? How can you say that?”
Hyeon-yul laughed at those words.
As he tightened his grip, a ‘crack’ sound was heard, and the body went limp.
‘If I do this, they won’t be able to say anything anyway.’
Tossing the guy aside, Hyeon-yul took another step forward.
“What do you think you’re doing now?”
Hyeon-yul didn't understand their question itself.
Appearing in front of the guy who asked, he stabbed him in the chest.
Even the scene of blood splattering looked like a very natural action.
“Why are you asking that? I don’t understand.”
“…The Empire, trampled other nations with that power.”
Along with rough breathing, condensation could be seen inside the suit.
“Since the Empire did it, you can too. Is that what you want to say?”
“You… must beco the blade aid at the Empire.”
“I don’t know about such nonsense, but I will return the favor clearly. Since you did it, I will too.”
Hyeon-yul showed a smile.
Black power coiled around the dagger held in his opposite hand.
Just looking at it was ominous.
But the guy marveled.
“Th-This power… it could reach the heart of the Empire.”
It felt too beautiful to face as his last sight.
It was like a black fla that would burn everything.
“……You have to put everything back.”
Hyeon-yul didn’t reply to those words but swung his hand wide.
As thick darkness, seeming to cut through space, was drawn sideways, nurous necks were severed simultaneously.
Blood spurted towards the sky, raining down blood.
Hyeon-yul smiled without batting an eye.
“You haven’t changed at all, back then or now.”
Whether they lacked the perception that experint subjects were human, they just obtained what they wanted by any ans necessary.
Therefore, what he had cut down were villains.
Hyeon-yul looked at the blood-soaked experint subjects.
What was the difference between them and him?
Broken by drugs, yet unable to live even a single day without drugs, were they like that too?
Hyeon-yul cleanly wiped the blood off his body with darkness, then took out his cell phone.
“Doctor.”
“No. It’s not here either. I found two people. I’ll bring them ho.”
“Later. I want to talk later.”
Hyeon-yul hung up the phone and looked at the experint subjects.
He didn't know if even Jeong-min could save experint subjects.
He had rely swum in the sea and reached a lighthouse.
He got to live because so luck, whether a divine prank or sothing else, activated.
They kept saying he was complete, perfect, but how was he different from them?
“If you can’t endure it, don’t force yourself.”
Hyeon-yul said, covering them with shadow.
“Even if you live, hope doesn’t exist.”
He was the future they desired.
Perhaps he was like a fantasy they could embrace because they didn't know what lay at the end if they endured, if they held on.
“I’ve lived, and this place isn’t much better than there.”
Hyeon-yul looked at the place swallowed by darkness.
“Still, if you want to live, try holding on a bit longer. A mont when you feel happiness will co eventually.”
Slowly raising his gaze, he looked around the experint site.
He needed to know what data was here.
Hyeon-yul walked towards the computer.
He needed keys.
He searched the guys’ bodies with darkness, looking for keys.
One.
Two.
Three.
It only worked after inserting three keys.
Vast amounts of information were stored within.
Hyeon-yul’s eyes moved.
What he wanted to know now was the purpose of the experint.
The rest could be examined gradually.
Among the nurous reports, Hyeon-yul stopped at the na ‘Choi Ah-ra’.
His eyes moved slowly.
What was the purpose of the experint?
The answer ca easily.
‘Ah, it was an experint to save a child.’
Asan wasn't foolish enough not to know the simple principle that dead people cannot be revived.
He himself had undergone such experints, so it wasn't surprising.
But why did she do this?
It was hard to understand.
‘…Anyway, did the Empire kill that child?’
Children shouldn't be killed.
Knowing that fact, even if he didn't care about other things, he felt just a little bit displeased.
Why did that child have to die?
“Doctor.”
Hyeon-yul returned to Jeong-min’s house again and handed over the data found at the experint site.
This data would surely be helpful to Jeong-min.
“Here it is.”
Hyeon-yul paused while handing over the data and looked at Jeong-min.
If Jeong-min died, would he act like Asan too?
That thought briefly lingered.
But the answer was no.
Because dead people couldn't co back.
‘I hope the Doctor doesn’t die.’
He didn't care about other things, but he kept wishing for that.
For him to live longer than himself.
For him not to die even after he himself died.
“What’s wrong?”
“It’s nothing.”
Hyeon-yul shifted his gaze to the two experint subjects.
They would die.
All the experint subjects he rescued and brought back died.
He knew that the only surviving experint subject would continue to be him, and that would never change.
Jeong-min suddenly wore an apologetic expression.
Every ti he saw that expression, Hyeon-yul found it hard to understand the emotion.
“Whatever happens to those two, you know it’s not your fault, Hyeon-yul, right?”
Jeong-min always said that whenever he brought back experint subjects.
“I don’t expect anything. Honestly, I don’t really care if they live or die. You shouldn’t suffer either, Doctor.”
“I need to get used to it.”
Jeong-min adjusted his glasses and smiled faintly.
“Even if you say that, you don’t seem used to it.”
“This is indeed… quite difficult.”
Jeong-min touched the corner of his eye.
The fact that he couldn't save them always pierced his heart.
He just couldn't get used to it.
When would he get used to it?
“It’s amazing every ti this happens.”
“What is amazing?”
“How did I save you? That thought does co up every ti this happens.”
“Indeed. I’m curious too.”
His condition back then wasn't good.
It felt like his whole body would break apart any mont.
That's when he reached out to Jeong-min for help.
“You know, Hyeon-yul.”
“Yes.”
“Do you still not rember anything like the past?”
Shock therapy was absurd, but sotis people did regain mories that way.
Even though it was a thod that should never be used, Hyeon-yul visited the experint site today.
Wasn't that place the most shocking location for Hyeon-yul?
“Yes. I don’t rember. It’s just full of mories I don’t want to recall. I want to erase them, but these don’t get erased.”
Hyeon-yul’s gaze only deepened; it didn’t ignite.
He was like firewood whose flas had completely died down.
“I’m curious who I am. But I also think, what’s the use of knowing now? I can’t beco the person they rember.”
Jeong-min couldn't say anything to those calm words.
He knew better than anyone how Hyeon-yul had lived.
“Still, I hope you don’t let go of hope.”
“I will try.”
“Alright. Hurry up, go in and sleep.”
“Have sweet dreams.”
Hyeon-yul bowed his head and disappeared.
Watching him go, Jeong-min let out a long sigh.
Seo Hyeon-yul.
This wasn't his real na.
It was a na he and Hyeon-yul had created.
Hoping the day would co when he finds his original na again.
“Ah, Hyeon-yul.”
Suddenly, Hyeon-yul’s voice ca from beside him.
Startling, but Jeong-min wasn't surprised.
“Yes.”
“You’re moving tomorrow, right?”
“Yes. I’m moving tomorrow.”
“Okay, contact .”
“Yes. Sleep well.”
Jeong-min waved his hand and looked at the spot where he had disappeared.
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