Chapter 22
Lee Gaon’s eyes widened.
“A cure?”
She had surely expected me to ask for a vaccine, but the request to create a cure seemed to have caught her completely by surprise.
And she was not the only one whose eyes went wide.
O O
It was Je Hyuno….
Seeing the new emoticon displayed across his goggles, Lee Gaon flinched and backed away.
I felt just a little embarrassed, but pretended not to notice and continued.
“The truth is, one of my companions is also in the process of becoming a zombie.”
“Ah…….”
Lee Gaon’s eyes immediately filled with sympathy.
“So that’s why. I thought he seemed a little strange, but it really was because of the infection.”
…And as she said that, she turned to look at Je Hyuno.
“But your companion doesn’t seem very aggressive. Is it because of the equipment he’s wearing? Or—”
“Not him. Another companion.”
“O-oh, I see.”
Restless, Lee Gaon kept stealing glances at Je Hyuno.
T T
When Je Hyuno displayed a crying emoticon on his goggles, she trembled, but her reaction was slightly better than before.
In any case, it seemed I had succeeded in establishing common ground.
Lee Gaon moved a little farther from Je Hyuno and pressed closer to me before speaking.
“I want to make a cure…. But I’m not confident. Vaccines and cures are completely different, and if Oppa were here, maybe—but on my own….”
Lee Gaon bit her lip. No one could want a cure more desperately than she did. If she was saying this much, she truly must have lacked confidence.
Admittedly, it was not something one person could accomplish alone in a short time.
‘But is there any reason she has to struggle through the research alone?’
Not when useful tools were readily available. I made a suggestion to Lee Gaon, who had grown dejected once more.
“Why don’t we recycle the trash?”
“Trash?”
“Yes.”
For Lee Gaon’s benefit, I corrected myself with greater precision.
“Human trash, I mean.”
All they had to do was descend the emergency stairs from the roof to the fifth floor.
But even that was not easy.
Mo Haein drew in a deep breath and exhaled. The fever had returned, making the breath leaving her lungs burn hot.
She had been on edge the entire time, afraid that the slightest lapse in concentration would make her bite into Kwak Hanmuk directly ahead of her.
She understood down to her bones why DZD’s rule was immediate execution upon infection.
Her teeth felt unbearably itchy. Panting harshly, Mo Haein repeatedly scrunched and relaxed her face.
“Captain Mo. Having a hard time?”
“Yeah.”
“Want me to execute you?”
“…Before I let myself be executed, I’m making sure to bite you.”
At her vow that they would become zombies together, Kwak Hanmuk cackled. He was so infuriating that she briefly forgot even the pain of her transformation.
After glaring at Kwak Hanmuk as though she wanted just one bite of him, Mo Haein suddenly murmured,
“Still, I’m glad you’re on my team for this operation.”
“Goyo Hyung is on the team too.”
“…….”
Mo Haein did not answer. But Han Goyo was already on her mind.
Director Jang Seokyun had made Han Goyo’s purpose perfectly clear.
At present, Han Goyo was neither a soldier of the Trial Response Agency nor a comrade. He was merely a tool for closing Trials.
Since he was dangerous, they would assess his usefulness for a month. If he failed to provide valuable assistance, he would be discarded and turned over for research.
Mo Haein had intended to treat Han Goyo with that same mindset.
But it was harder than she had expected.
That had also been true when she saw Han Goyo confined in the isolation ward.
It might have been considered one of the better rooms in the Trial Response Agency’s isolation facility, but it was still a prison. The door could not even be opened from inside.
She had been rendered momentarily speechless by the sight of him bowing politely the instant Kwak Hanmuk opened the iron door after he had waited for someone to release him.
Neatly dressed in his uniform and slightly tense, Han Goyo had looked at Mo Haein with nothing but clear, guileless eyes.
There was not a trace of resentment over being placed in such circumstances.
He had even smiled softly when she returned his greeting.
After seeing that, it was impossible to treat him as nothing more than a tool or a monster.
‘But inside a Trial, you’d be hard-pressed to find a bigger lunatic.’
The unfailingly courteous behavior so unlike most people his age vanished without a trace.
Living up to neither the “Goyo” nor the “quiet” in his name, he went berserk like a rabid dog. He was such a fearless madman that even Mo Haein, who had encountered every manner of human being since joining the Trial Response Agency, was appalled.
She had never imagined she would meet another person like Kwak Hanmuk in her lifetime.
Thinking of Han Goyo stirred up all manner of complicated thoughts, but one thing was clear.
‘He isn’t a bad kid. Even if he is extremely suspicious and strange.’
This situation was no different.
Han Goyo would have been fully justified in arguing for her execution once she became a zombie, yet he had not.
Would Han Goyo manage to reach the True Ending this time as well?
She was trying not to dwell on an uncertain future, but she could not help hoping.
She did not want to die yet.
No, she could not die yet.
“Hanmuk.”
Kwak Hanmuk stopped in front of the fifth-floor entrance and looked back.
The sight of him resting the iron pipe Han Goyo had picked up for him on the roof across his shoulder looked thoroughly delinquent.
Standing one step below the landing, Mo Haein asked,
“Are you okay?”
Kwak Hanmuk looked down at her as if wondering why she would even ask.
“I’m f*cking fantastic.”
“No…. Haah, never mind.”
She had wanted to hear what he thought of Han Goyo, but it was pointless.
Their top priority was clearing DZD with the True Ending.
Kwak Hanmuk whistled as he opened the emergency door.
Mo Haein frowned without realizing it.
Her hearing had definitely become sharper than usual as her zombification progressed.
Her field of vision, on the other hand, was steadily narrowing. It felt as though she had less than half her original sight.
The sensation of her body changing in real time was not pleasant.
The discomfort itself seemed to be making her more aggressive.
Thinking she might have to stuff a wad of cloth between her teeth soon, she followed Kwak Hanmuk onto the fifth floor.
Kwak Hanmuk cracked his neck and said,
“Think the researchers are here.”
Before she could ask how he knew—
“IF THERE ARE ANY SURVIVORS!! COME ON OUT!!!”
Kwak Hanmuk bellowed loudly enough to make the entire corridor ring.
A beat too late, Mo Haein clapped her hands over her ears and swallowed a curse.
Naturally, no survivors emerged. Only the sleeping zombies awoke with growls and charged them.
Suppressing the urge to join the zombies in attacking Kwak Hanmuk, Mo Haein drew the Black Moon Blade.
“…….”
A sharp pain suddenly stung her palm. The Black Moon Blade had begun to reject its master.
She could still use it for now. By tomorrow, however, she probably would not be able to hold it at all.
Feeling the Black Moon Blade express its displeasure at her transformation, Mo Haein smiled bitterly.
Fortunately, there were not many Dead Zombies on the fifth floor, and the two of them quickly disposed of them.
Read only on MUGEX
The moment they finished off the last zombie.
A sealed door abruptly opened in the now-silent corridor, and two men appeared.
A chime sounded, and a System Window appeared.
◆Main Quest: Search the laboratory.
Locate survivors and find the vaccine developer. (3/4)
They were surviving researchers.
Including the female researcher they had met earlier, this made three. One more remained.
The researchers who had just appeared looked to be in their early fifties and mid-forties, respectively.
‘They’re the wrong age to be the vaccine researcher.’
Thinking they would have to go down to the third floor, Mo Haein put away the Black Moon Blade.
The researchers trembled as they surveyed the corridor full of zombie corpses, but their faces brightened when they saw Kwak Hanmuk.
“F-finally!”
Apparently assuming he was a soldier who had come to rescue them, they darted out like rats.
Kwak Hanmuk extended one hand to stop them.
“Whoa there, Ahjussis. Hold it.”
Then he tipped his head back and said,
“We’re checking your ID cards first. Hand them over.”
The men fumbled for their ID cards.
Tak Jucheol
Paeng Sangdo
The older one was Tak, and the younger was Paeng.
As the two researchers grinned as though certain they were saved, Kwak Hanmuk narrowed his eyes with a thoughtful hum.
After inspecting the ID cards closely, he whipped around toward Mo Haein and said,
“The vaccine researcher isn’t here.”
“Did you really need to read their names to know that? We were told the researcher was in their mid-twenties.”
“Hey, maybe one of them just looks old for his age.”
Faced with Kwak Hanmuk’s impeccable logic, Mo Haein took a moment to breathe deeply. Getting worked up made it feel as though her zombification were accelerating.
“The vaccine! Are you talking about the vaccine?”
Paeng Sangdo, who had been watching the mood, hurriedly interjected. He seemed to have realized that the soldiers were not there to rescue survivors.
“The team leader here and I were researching the vaccine together. We can develop it, but we’re somewhat short on supplies….”
He hastily emphasized his usefulness. Kwak Hanmuk made a show of nodding before asking,
“What about the other researchers?”
“We’re the only survivors—”
“There are two more, Ahjussis.”
Kwak Hanmuk slammed the iron pipe into the wall in warning.
“Let’s not make this boring.”
The iron pipe was so thoroughly mottled with blood that its original color could no longer be seen.
Paeng Sangdo and Tak Jucheol looked at each other. Tak Jucheol stepped forward, clearing his throat.
“As you say, there were two others. But those people….”
“Getting casual with me, are we?”
“…There were two others.”
Tak Jucheol corrected himself, his face flushing red.
Mo Haein felt a flicker of satisfaction at seeing Kwak Hanmuk’s twisted personality directed at someone else and waited to hear the rest.
“But they left the laboratory because they disagreed with us.”
“The two of us are more than capable of developing the vaccine! We can even show you the research data we’ve compiled.”
Paeng Sangdo was frantically trying to persuade Kwak Hanmuk.
Then Tak Jucheol finally noticed Mo Haein standing behind him and screamed.
“Aaaagh! A zombie! There’s a zombie!”
Paeng Sangdo nearly fainted along with him at Tak Jucheol’s scream. As both men fell backward in a panic, Mo Haein spoke calmly.
“I’m a soldier too.”
It did no good. Tak Jucheol jabbed a finger at her, spraying spittle.
“You’re already turning into a zombie! You’ll be one in a day or two! We’re developing a vaccine, not a cure!!”
After shouting that, the two men practically tumbled over themselves as they fled back into the laboratory.
The laboratory entrance was a sealed door that opened only after scanning an ID card. Since it existed to contain viruses, they could not recklessly destroy it.
Kwak Hanmuk smacked his lips and reached a crisp conclusion.
“Let’s go to the third floor.”
But the situation did not unfold as favorably as they had hoped.
They entered the third floor, eliminated the zombies, and searched, but failed to find the last researcher.
“Could they have died…?”
Mo Haein could no longer contain her anxiety. Kwak Hanmuk, who had been opening the final door, clicked his tongue.
“Want to head back to the fifth floor? They might be with Goyo and Lieutenant Colonel Je.”
Quite some time had passed, so meeting up again and regrouping seemed best.
It was when she returned to the fifth floor with Kwak Hanmuk.
Mo Haein witnessed an astonishing sight.
“Waaaaagh!”
“Urrrrgh!”
Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo were caught in Je Hyuno’s hands, drooling as they thrashed helplessly.