Chapter 19
Kwak Hanmuk, Mo Haein, Samra, and the others all resembled what I had imagined while looking at their pixel-art characters.
I had even marveled inwardly at how well their distinctive traits had been captured in pixels.
But Je Hyuno had never revealed his face in the game.
He had never even removed his goggles.
Now, across both game and reality, I was the first person to see even part of Je Hyuno’s face.
And without his goggles, he looked nothing like I had imagined.
‘He’s tall and well built, so I imagined a ruggedly handsome man. But this is more….’
Dark-purple eyes set within long, horizontal eye shapes stared at me beneath dense lashes.
His irises and pupils were different colors. The pupils were gold with a metallic sheen.
Altered by the infection, those pupils clearly announced that he had become something beyond human.
Unlike me, frozen with my eyes wide in astonishment, Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein showed only mild surprise.
Their reaction amounted to wondering why he had unexpectedly removed his goggles.
They must have seen his face several times before, so there was nothing remarkable enough to shock them.
As I tried not to stare too intently, Je Hyuno’s eyes curved.
Only then did I realize I had taken several steps closer.
Apparently, I had unconsciously approached in order to examine him.
‘Now that we’ve come this far, it would be nice if he removed the gas mask too.’
If we ever grew closer, I wanted to ask him.
“Recruit.”
Lost in admiring his face, I came to my senses at Je Hyuno’s voice.
“What’s your name?”
“Han Goyo.”
“Goyo.”
His terribly low voice and smiling eyes didn’t suit each other at all.
It was as though someone had joined two completely different things together.
“Do that one more time, and I really will kill you.”
…A chill ran down my spine.
“I’m sorry.”
I apologized immediately.
Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein probably thought he was warning me about the dangerous stunt where we used him to kill the zombies.
But I knew.
Je Hyuno was talking about .
‘He’s telling me not to pretend I know things so carelessly.’
Despite holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Je Hyuno was the youngest of the Trial Response Agency’s Team Leaders.
Unlike Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein, who were in their thirties, he was only twenty-eight.
The event that marked the beginning of his repeated, absurdly rapid promotions was .
Je Hyuno had originally been a promising talent, but after he entered , everything changed.
Having become a rational infected being, he became the Trial Response Agency’s most powerful weapon.
It was no exaggeration to say that thanks to Je Hyuno, the Republic of Korea recovered from a crisis that had brought the nation to the brink of collapse because of the Trials.
Some among the Compatible even entered voluntarily in the hope of gaining power as great as his.
But not one emerged alive.
Je Hyuno was ’s sole survivor.
The Trial Response Agency wanted to know how he had cleared , but Je Hyuno never submitted a report.
Even Director Jang Seokyun had personally pressed him and failed to draw out a single word.
Afterward, the attempts to extract information about from Je Hyuno continued.
In response, Je Hyuno began attacking anyone who mentioned to him.
After one researcher from the Research & Analysis Headquarters was killed as a result, speaking of before Je Hyuno became an unspoken taboo.
Even now, the Trial Response Agency knew absolutely nothing about what kind of Trial was.
And I had prodded Je Hyuno about it.
Still, I had my own side of the story.
“Will you accept me as a teammate now?”
Honestly, Je Hyuno was the one who had tried to kill someone the moment they met.
No matter how violent he tended to be toward Trials and the Compatible, he had never been this aggressive without cause toward a soldier belonging to the Trial Response Agency.
Instead of answering my question about whether he would stop trying to kill me, Je Hyuno turned toward Mo Haein.
“Captain Mo. What is this?”
“He is a Recruit who enlisted recently. His assignment lasts one month. A new Special Mission Team under the Director’s direct command was formed around Recruit Han Goyo, who possesses specialized knowledge of the Trials.”
“Hmm. And I’m assigned to it too.”
“That’s correct.”
Mo Haein paused briefly, then looked directly at Je Hyuno and added,
“…He is your teammate, Lieutenant Colonel Je.”
Je Hyuno slowly closed and opened his eyes.
“Recruit Gwangbam closed HSF. His knowledge of the Trials is considerable. You should find him useful as a teammate.”
Kwak Hanmuk diligently joined in, emphasizing Recruit Han Goyo’s usefulness.
And while both Captains worked so hard, I sent a Message too.
Please trust me.
Je Hyuno looked at the System Window floating before him, then back at me.
An instinctive chill passed through me.
Je Hyuno still wanted to kill me. I couldn’t understand the source of that murderous intent.
But at the same time I sensed it, I felt certain that he would never kill me.
At least, not while we were inside DZD.
‘If he intended to kill me, he would have done it already.’
There was no possibility that rolling across some asphalt could have left Je Hyuno unable to move.
Even after his final attack failed because of Restriction, he had countless opportunities to sever my neck.
Yet Je Hyuno had left me alive.
‘Probably… because he doesn’t know the full extent of my abilities.’
Je Hyuno didn’t know that my abilities were still insignificant.
All he knew was that I could send System Windows and briefly place restrictions upon him.
It was only natural for him to suspect that I was hiding something even greater.
And I did possess Execution. Now that Je Hyuno was registered, his life was in my hands.
When our standoff dragged on, Mo Haein began to look slightly uneasy.
Only after a considerable length of time did Je Hyuno speak.
“Can you achieve the True Ending here too?”
His meaning was clear.
If I failed to prove my worth in DZD, he would dispose of me immediately, strange System-Window ability or not.
In truth, I still hadn’t confirmed whether the True Ending remained possible.
‘But that’s my problem.’
If I wanted to keep my arms and legs, I had to make the impossible possible anyway.
I answered with conviction.
“I will succeed, no matter what.”
Something apparently amused Je Hyuno, and laughter spread through his eyes.
Curving them like crescent moons, he abruptly called my name.
“Goyo.”
“Yes, sir!”
“You’re going to die young.”
“…What?”
After suddenly cursing me with an early death, he put his goggles back on.
Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein stood dumbfounded, then chastised him on my behalf.
“No, Lieutenant Colonel Je. What are you saying to the youngest kid on our team? Goyo is twenty-four. Twenty-four. Twen-ty-four.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Je, that was a little excessive.”
Of course, Je Hyuno did not answer. Instead, he displayed an obnoxious emoticon across his goggles.
<
What did that one mean…?
I simply gave up on interpreting his emoticons. In any case, that wasn’t what mattered now.
Je Hyuno had finally joined the Special Mission Team!
With my heart swelling, I looked at Je Hyuno, Mo Haein, and Kwak Hanmuk.
I had become teammates with the people I considered the Trial Response Agency’s finest while playing the Archive games.
It was the happiest moment I had experienced since becoming the System and facing the threat of losing all four limbs.
“I look forward to working with you, Lieutenant Colonel.”
As I bowed to Je Hyuno, I also entertained a small hope.
‘I’ll be able to see my favorite someday too, won’t I?’
I liked the people in the Trial Response Agency, but my favorite character in Archive didn’t belong to it.
Still, that person was one of the Compatible, so it seemed likely we would meet someday.
Of course, first I had to survive the month with my limbs intact.
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Then zombie noises traveled through the quiet night air. The remaining Dead Zombies seemed to have followed the signs of our presence.
“The jeep!”
Kwak Hanmuk immediately took care of it.
“I’ll go hide it and come back.”
The jeep was such a useful means of transportation that abandoning it after a single use seemed wasteful.
But if we hid it poorly, the Dead Zombies would destroy it.
Dead Zombies possessed greater destructive power than ordinary ones.
That was why the Dead Zone had become a ruin without any intact buildings, unlike the other areas.
We would have to travel at least as far as the Red Zone to find a place safe enough to hide the jeep, and then there would be little point in having a vehicle.
“Captain Kwak. I think moving the jeep somewhere safe would take a long time.”
I pointed at the roof of the research facility.
“Why don’t we leave it up there?”
Mo Haein looked at me as though thinking, That lunatic Recruit is starting again.
Despite her disbelief, she asked,
“How are you going to get it up there?”
“By flying.”
A short while later…
We were successfully flying through the night sky.
Je Hyuno carried the jeep with me, Kwak Hanmuk, and Mo Haein inside.
The cold metallic sound of his flapping wings played gently like background music.
Seated in the driver’s seat with one arm resting on the wide-open window, Kwak Hanmuk leisurely enjoyed the flight.
“Lieutenant Colonel Je really is convenient.”
Feeling the cool night breeze, Kwak Hanmuk seemed deeply satisfied with the aircraft’s performance.
“Captain Mo, why don’t we make Goyo Hyungnim the Special Mission Team Leader? Would that mean we get to ride this airplane every time?”
Unlike Kwak Hanmuk, who was cheerfully joking around, Mo Haein sat in the passenger seat looking as though she still couldn’t believe she was flying in a jeep.
“Stop talking nonsense, Captain Kwak. You’re making me want to bite you.”
She wore hinged handcuffs around her wrists.
They were a precaution against the possibility that her aggression might suddenly intensify.
She sat in the passenger seat because it would be dangerous if she attacked from behind, so Kwak Hanmuk needed to keep her in view.
As a result, despite being the youngest, I sat in the rear seat.
Listening to Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein bicker, I glanced down through the window.
Dead Zombies had already crowded around the research facility. But none could climb onto the roof.
‘Let’s keep going like this.’
Everything would be perfect if we now swiftly achieved the True Ending Clear.
After flying up to the rooftop, Je Hyuno circled the research facility once to judge the space, then set the jeep down in a suitable spot.
Thump. The jeep landed with a slight jolt.
Several Dead Zombies hiding in one corner of the roof immediately attacked, but there was no need for any of us to step forward.
Je Hyuno disposed of them in an instant.
While Kwak Hanmuk removed Mo Haein’s handcuffs, I read the System Window that appeared before me.
◆ Main Quest: Search the research facility and find the surviving vaccine developer.
You have achieved an astonishing feat through an impossible method!
You have accomplished something unbelievable, but this is only the beginning.
You believe you may discover new hope if you find someone capable of developing the vaccine.
However, you do not know whether everything will proceed smoothly.
Many things have already changed.
Finding the researcher who would develop the vaccine was a Quest given in the game too.
Its wording was slightly strange, but the context itself hadn’t changed significantly.
I began a brief explanation.
“The moment we enter the research facility, the first thing we need to—”
“Recruit, wait.”
But Mo Haein stopped me almost as soon as I began.
“Your hunger and thirst stats are fully restored, correct?”
“Yes! They’re full now. I’ll be careful not to let that happen again.”
“…….”
Mo Haein narrowed her eyes. Then Kwak Hanmuk abruptly threw an arm around my shoulders with a thump.
I looked up at him while pressed down beneath his weight.
“We think closing Trials is fuuucking important, all right? But that doesn’t mean we’re sons of bitches.”
“That’s right, Recruit. You may hold the rank of Recruit, but you haven’t received any formal training yet.”
Mo Haein looked firmly at me.
“Strictly speaking, you’re currently a civilian, not a soldier.”
“Ah…. I’m sorry.”
I wondered if I had overstepped too much and was about to retreat.
Mo Haein took out a scrap of cloth she had found somewhere and dampened it with water. Then she handed it to me.
When I merely stood holding it, she pointed at my face.
Only then did I understand and wipe my face. The cloth became soaked in vivid red.
Mo Haein sighed and muttered,
“…I mean you need to manage your condition while you work.”