Chapter.7 Masquerade (26)
***
“So… he’s alive?”
“okay!”
“What I’m talking about right now is not ‘Professor Park created from Professor Park’s memories,’ but the real Professor Park?”
Gulp-gulp-
“That’s the eighth time I’m saying it!”
“Then what are those arms? “Don’t type 3 mutations only occur in healthy corpses?”
“But, as I said earlier, my case is a bit different-”
“Then it’s a corpse!”
“Oh shit! “You really are a stone-headed bastard!”
“What the hell! So does it make sense from common sense? “A healthy, living body turned into a Type 3 mutant’s arm!”
Empty! Hollow!
The professor irritatedly threw the defense-colored plastic container as the conversation had been at a standstill for several minutes. An oil can that was fastened to something like a luggage compartment at the rear of an armored vehicle. After draining all of the remaining fuel from the armored vehicle, Professor Lee Ahn and the others went around the area, meticulously distributing it to ensure that no one was not covered in oil.
“Please consider it…. Please consider it….”
Ian kicked away the hand holding his ankle. I recklessly chased after Sol’s armored car, but the situation turned into a sea of blood. There were many things I wanted to ask.
“Let’s go to the hospital later and get a checkup.” Is it alive or dead? By the way, why did you come all the way here? That’s the guy with all his teeth shattered in the daytime, right? “The executive agent was either Jack or Sam.”
Haaaak-
“Oh, that’s right. Why did you come? Since I finished all my official work, I came here to do some private work. Is there any other place for the defeated executives to come to? There were a few other candidates, but no matter how much I thought about it, if the power had gone out as originally planned, all the door opening and closing devices at other facilities would have been ruined, so the executives could have opened or manipulated something in advance and used emergency equipment in their own buildings. It seemed like he had prepared it. They came to kill my mom. “Why did you come?”
“Oh, this guy killed my wife and daughter.”
“Oh my.”
“Oh my.”
Despite the heavy content, Ian couldn’t help but laugh at the extremely calm voice. Because I felt like they were both thinking the same thing.
“Revenge as dry as possible. Right?”
“Of course. I thought about hanging it on something like a pillar and cutting off a piece of its flesh and stuffing it in my mouth, but I thought that would cause a big problem with my head. My mother’s will was to survive, but how heartbreaking it would be if my child went crazy and died in revenge. “It’s a bit disappointing, but let’s follow the wasteland rules and go in a direction that is good for our mental health.”
“You know how to say dignified things in an unusual way. You’re all grown up. “I’m holding back because I’m worried that I’ll burn out if I go crazy because there are so many people I can kill besides him.”
“They act like they’re old even though they’re not even a few years older. “At most, we’re only 11 years older, right?”
“At 11 years old, it’s almost 1/3 of the average lifespan in the wasteland, you idiot.
It’s hollow.
I sprayed about 4 square oil cans, so there will be no shortage.
The two men decided to take a moment to catch their breath among their enemies, covered in blood and grease. The top of the armored car had less oil on it and was higher than the surrounding area, so it was a good place to see the execution team and the surviving raptors.
“Now that I think about it, I couldn’t even hold a ancestral rite for my mother. “After my mother passed away, my father’s side couldn’t do anything either.”
“ancestral rites? Look at this guy. “You act like a dutiful son like no other in the world?”
“It’s not like that. Until last year, whenever I thought of my parents, I would unconsciously look around to see where my pistol was. “It’s only recently that I’ve been able to look at it a little more calmly.”
“You may say that all people in the wasteland are like that, but your personality is truly amazing, Professor Park.”
“Are you the only one who will do it? Why do you have so many people to kill? “How many people are there?”
“How many people…”
Ian, who took out a fancy-looking cigar and frowned, entered the armored vehicle, wiggled, lit it, and came out. In his hand was a red-hot car cigarette lighter.
“I’m not sure? “I’ve never counted how many Raptor members there are.”
“If it’s all the Raptors… Hey, if you die, I’ll give you a commendation in hell?”
“Hehehe! “It’s better than nothing!”
“Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu at… I can’t die like this
. It’s a familiar face. Because it was the face clearly stated in the file handed over by Professor Ruwil Bartos’ old comrade. The name must be…
“Theo? “Are you Theo Lusker, the Executive Director?”
Slap!
The professor jumped out of the armored vehicle and approached him as he crawled out of the garage. It was a screening to see what was so unfair.
Jiik- Jiik-
The guy was crawling desperately as if he could survive if he just got out of this garage.
Until the professor squatting in front of him blocked the path.
“Do you want to live?”
The professor asked sincerely. Why does this man try so hard even though he clearly knows that he has no intention of saving her?
“Huh oh oh oh oh! Professor Park… Yes, it’s you. You ruined everything. “That petty vengeance ruined this whole great cause for the trivial reason of wasting the life of an old mother!”
Kagak!
The blade that Theo swung with all his might was caught in vain by the professor’s left hand. It was an attack that seemed more like an expression of intent rather than a swing to kill.
“It’s a big job… aren’t you a little embarrassed to say that? I didn’t betray you because I wanted to survive because you were pushed out of the election. “You sell your dome and your conscience.”
“Why don’t you know that that election was wrong!”
Theo lifted himself up using the knife hanging between the uppers as support and clung to the professor’s hand with difficulty.
“If you served in the Executive Department in the past, you will remember. “The executive branch originally had the authority to operate exosuits!”
“yes. “I’ve also ridden the exosuit a few times.”
“Okay, isn’t that normal? The original purpose of the inspection department was to search for and remove dangerous elements inside the dome, and the enforcement department was in charge of external risk factors! But what happens now? All authority to use the exosuit has been transferred to the Inspection Department! The executive branch, which has lost most of its real power, has been reduced to an auxiliary organization that uses street fighting tactics and training as a last resort!”
The man cried out to the professor, as if he was vomiting blood, or indeed he was vomiting blood.
“That proud democracy! Dom has embraced the useless remnants of the past and has become a trash group where political power decides everything! Every time the Inspector General’s venomous tongue coils around Congress, the right to test the latest exosuit tactical weapons and even limit the number of people in the mission area! One by one, the real power of the executive branch began to be transferred to the inspection department! The incompetent Executive Director couldn’t stop it! No, I had no intention of stopping it! It’s been a long time since I took bribes from these guys to build a private dome on the outskirts of the city and fell into the forest of land! Don’t you think it’s strange? huh? “Isn’t that strange!”
The man, who was trying to get up on his broken leg while holding the professor’s left hand, slipped on the oil on his hand and fell to the floor. Tears flowed from his eyes, which were covered in blood and oil.
“Now that the world is ruined, shouldn’t the standards of morality also change? Only by throwing away what needs to be thrown away can you move forward! The ideology of the Dom is nothing more than a means to enrich the stomachs of the superiors by turning the residents into puppets! So I betrayed! Before the people living in this dome are sucked out to the last of their blood and collapse! Accept the Raptor, who is perfectly adapted to the post-apocalypse world that truly strives to survive in this world-”
“Wow, this is so new.”
“I know. When I was there, you didn’t do dirty tricks like this. “It looks like the Raptor is also on fire.”
It’s an ideological debate to say that you’re on the verge of death like this. Isn’t this exactly it?
Clap clap clap.
Even though he was injured, the professor interrupted Theo’s long speech and applauded him. Rather than being angry, I was dumbfounded.
“Ideological indoctrination…. Not the North Koreans of the old days.”
“Even when I was in Raptor, there were quite a few people who advocated war using propaganda. They say it’s a red army or a black army. “I thought he was a cute asshole, but seeing how it turned out like this, I guess he wasn’t such an asshole at all.”
“I thought there must be some reason, so I listened to it, but it was sophistry that wasn’t worth listening to. I only listened. Ugh, it’s dirty. “I have to go out and wash it off in the rain.”
“It’s not sophistry! We will do everything for the people-”
“The people. Haha this is true. I cursed at God on a bad day, and here he was. Selecting the ‘people’ who must survive, and selecting and sacrificing the ‘leftovers’ who cannot. “Don’t you think your words are a bit disgusting?”
“….For the greater good, small sacrifices are always necessary. We keep saying that since the world has changed, moral standards must also change-”
“The gangs of Underdom you run. From the people who are addicted to the drugs they spread and who live like slaves to the canned debt collectors at the shilling workshop. When I was there, Underdome was just a bad neighborhood. When I went this time, it turned out to be some kind of slum opium den. As far as I know, the people living in the Underdome are about 20% more than the people living in the Upper Dome. Even if we set a really generous standard, wouldn’t it be too much to call the sacrifices of more than half of the people ‘small’ sacrifices?”
“You shouldn’t get caught up in numbers! Even though what we did may seem wrong! Far future! Looking into the distant future when the dust of this wasteland has disappeared, it is like a counterfire to stop a big fire – ugh!”
The professor ripped off the torn military uniform from Theo’s left arm and stuffed it into Theo’s mouth, who was talking nonsense in an attempt to somehow survive.
“It’s sad. “I can’t believe my mother, Ruwil, died at the hands of such insignificant people.”
It was revenge I had been waiting for for several years, but it felt more vain than refreshing.
“That’s what revenge is. So, I advise everyone to handle it as calmly as possible, thinking that they are just doing their job.”
Slush –
ugh! Sigh!
At that time, I saw Ian coming out from inside the garage, listening to the professor, dragging something loud and loud.
“Calm? “Do you know that words and actions are consistent?”
“then. I am extremely cold-hearted. “I’m trying to cold-heartedly kill this guy.”
The man who was dragged out was Sol Amar, covered in tears and snot.
“Ugh! Save me! Please save me, Ashfield! Yes, thinking of old times! When you taught me how to shoot with your own hands! “You said that back then!”
“Ah, I remember. “Did you say you have a lot of meat so you can stabilize the recoil?”
“yes! Yes! After hearing that, I became obsessed with shooting! How much time have you been together since then! As a member of the same pack and as the personal guard of Swarm Alpha! I help Ashfield with my excellent shooting skills and always-”
Squeak
!
“Oh my!”
“Okay, okay. “It’s not a very good memory, but I also have quite a few memories with you.”
“Then…!”
Sigh!
Ian, who dragged the battered fan brush out of the armored car onto the broken armored car, opened the hatch, crumpled the creature inside, and sprayed plenty of the remaining oil on it.
“Why did you take it out if you were going to put it back in?”
“I was just planning on killing him, but as I was thinking about the past, something suddenly occurred to me.”
“What?”
Ian, who raised his head and laughed as if recalling old memories, patted the armored car where Sol, who had a broken leg, was trapped, and said,
“When Molly cooked the pig, she always put it in the oven and roasted it.”
“Oh, no! What are you thinking! Take it out. Take it out! please!”
Looking at that fitful reaction, I guess I could hear everything Ian was saying inside. It might have been done intentionally.
“Oh, I guess you heard me? “They say that stressed meat has poor quality.”
Snap, slap, jerk, jerk.
After passing the armored vehicle with the sound of pounding and banging, past Theo, who was making suppressed moans, and arriving at the entrance to the garage, I could hear the refreshing sound of rain that had been drowned out by the noise inside.
Now is the time to end it.
“hey.”
“why.”
“Give me a cigarette.”
“Smoke?”
“Not me.”
The professor pointed with his thumb at Theo, who was desperately crawling out of the garage, which was filled with the sound of an armored car, groans, and a garage full of oil.
Ian’s face frowned.
“Those guys? “Why do you light incense on the way to the garbage?”
“Don’t get lost and go somewhere safe. “It is my warm heart that wants you to go straight to hell.”
“Shit. “This is Raptor’s finest hour…”
Ian grumbled, but without hesitation, he lit the fire and handed it to him.
“Uuuuup! Shut it off!”
Theo has already reached the entrance to the garage. He alternately looked at the lit cigar and his oil-covered body and stretched out his hand frantically. Blood sprayed from his fingers, where all of his nails had fallen off.
“There was no need to come pick me up. Anyway, it was nice to meet you, Theo Lusker. “Be kind in the next life, and this is a pretty high-end product.”
Tick-
“Keuuuuuuuuu!!”
“Share it with other kids.”
A cigar with the Raptor logo clearly engraved flew towards Theo, who was screaming.
Theo’s eyes followed it.
The cigar fell past his shoulder and hit his arm, with red embers falling from the impact.
Grumble!
“Off! Kwaaaaap!”
The fire that instantly spread throughout his body was not satisfied with burning him, but ran inside, following the traces he had crawled through.
Fuwaaaaak!
“Aaaah!”
“Ahhhh! Boo fire! “Fire!!!”
Thump thump thump thump!
“It’s hot! It’s hot!!! Please take it out! who! please! Argh!”
A hellish scene that combines the sound of people crying as they are burned alive and the voice of a man suffering in an armored vehicle that is getting hotter in the flames.
‘They say revenge is vain… but it’s not like that.’
It felt a bit empty, but it still made me feel relieved to see him in so much pain.
The professor, who was watching the scene from a distance in the rain, bowed twice toward the burning garage.
“…Was there a custom of human sacrifice in Korea?”
“That’s not true… Well, I guess I burned a big incense stick. Actually, I thought I’d report it because one big thing is over.”
“Hehehe strange guy.”
After getting up from the floor, the professor looked around at the executive building, which was spewing out black smoke as the garage fire spread, the bluish dome shield exposed by raindrops, and the huge valley where steam was still spewing out.
“It’s over.”
“okay. “What started when I went out for a walk by mistake is now over.”
Clang, clank, clank!
The professor opened his mouth as he saw the fire suddenly rising behind him and the exosuits of the inspection department running towards him in a huff.
“Ian. “Are you okay now?”
“Just counting the hole in my thigh that was covered with whipped cream, the melted sand and glass fragments that bounced up from the artillery fire and getting stuck in my face, and the shell fragments, there are quite a few, six or seven…” “So, I was exposed to
the toxic gas with my bare body. “You’re saying you’re better than me, who broke through and got electrocuted right next to Zeus, and whose arm looks like this?”
“Uh… um….”
Shake it off!
Seeing Ian unable to continue speaking, the professor lay down on the ground.
“You can explain it yourself.”
“what? hey! You know most of the overall situation! “It’s obvious that if you do any post-processing, the administration will flock to you like a pack of dogs!”
“If I pinch you, you’ll faint too.”
The professor closed his eyes, listening to the sound of Ian and the exosuit’s loudspeaker echoing through his fading consciousness. The pouring raindrops fell on his heated body like soft velvet.
***
A week later,
the professor was lying in a hospital bed with his entire body bandaged.
Knock. Knock.
A mixture of fluids, nutritional supplements, and various other drugs connected to an IV slowly flowed into his body, and
wires
from a machine that looked very complicated at a glance were attached to his body, and doctors with serious expressions were looking at charts. I was frowning as I compared the graphs displayed in real time.
The doctors filled the large special room, almost as if they had brought in all the hospital’s state-of-the-art equipment, and there was no space between them.
Was the professor’s condition really serious enough to warrant such special care?
….Quick!
“Oh fuck! Let’s stop now! yes!”
That wasn’t it again.
The first thing the professor heard from the doctor when he opened his eyes about two days after being taken to the hospital by the Inspection Department was, ‘I’m in better condition than I thought.’ It was.
======
“Hey doctor. “How’s the professor’s condition?”
“Hmm… First of all, the most noticeable thing is the internal burns caused by electric shock. Fortunately, the current flowed through my hand and out through my toes. It’s not that serious, so if you stay at our dome’s recovery facility, you’ll get over it in no time. “We are checking whether the unusual material of the left hand helped.”
“Umm…. This place….”
“Anything else than that?”
“Other than that… there are some symptoms of poisoning, skin burns, chemical burns inside the lungs, abrasions, overwork, etc. However, contrary to what was expected, there was no abnormal recovery speed.”
“Ian… water… some water….”
“No, keep going. “I was curious about that too. What on earth is that thing on my left arm?”
“We are not sure because this is our first time seeing it, but… we believe it is a type 3 variant. “Type 3 has so many different forms and different characteristics.”
“Type 3? “Isn’t Type 3 a variant with a separate will?”
“I’m so thirsty… someone give me some water…”
“Actually, while Professor Park was unconscious, ‘that thing’ attempted to communicate. We talked with pen and paper, and when we were bored, we played chess with our research doctor. Since they clearly have separate intentions, we decided to classify them into three types.”
“Hyde… Is it really him…”
“Hyde? Do you know anything! If you could write down everything you know because it might be needed for that treatment-”
Wow!
“water! Cough for some water! “You bastards…!”
“The city experiment is running wild! Security! Security!!”
.
.
.
.
========
Well, I knew this would happen from the moment I came here. I knew right away that Dom was crazy about new technologies.
“Woe to you, patient! “Calm down… the treatment is not over yet, so take it easy…!”
“What’s not over is that it’s not over! “I heard that everything will get better if you rest at home after the treatment!”
“Did you…hear everything?”
Gossip!
Noisy!
“Isn’t there anyone next to the patient who talked about the condition?”
“Of course. I told you so! It must have definitely affected not only the arms but also the body! “He must have overheard what we were saying with his amazing hearing!”
“Innovation, innovation! The optimal technology for humanity to survive in this wasteland! “To see with my own eyes a type 3 mutant and a human hybrid, the most adapted form of life to the wasteland!”
“What can be done? “Is there a way to keep him here for 3 years…or 5 years?”
“You’ve seen the records. What can we do with that monstrous fighting power…”
“Shh! Professor Park is listening!”
‘I heard it all, you guys.’
I killed it to silence my voice, but there should only be one or two people whispering. The doctors and researchers filling this spacious special room are all talking, so you can’t hear them.
The reason the professor knew about his physical condition was not because he had any special abilities. A nurse who secretly visited me on the night of the fourth day of hospitalization secretly tipped me off. He said he was a fan and asked if medical workers could join BDSM.
‘It seems like there’s some strange rumor going around outside… but since I’m stuck here, I should be able to find out.’
So far, he had just quietly observed without doing anything, and he was also curious about the left arm, so he held back and participated in the treatment-experiment. Until today.
Toaduk toukduuk!
“Bah, Professor Park! Treatment isn’t over yet! If you go that way…”
“Oh, I don’t know! I’m so sore that I can’t sleep any longer. Please organize all the research data so far and hand it over. “If necessary, you can formally request BDSM later.”
Rumble!
“Are you sure you’ll come if I ask you to?”
“Then go to our biotechnology department!”
“no! What kind of nonsense! They say a creature called Hyd was born in GG! Of course, we should bring you to our Data Consciousness Exploration Department!”
“Stop saying crazy things! “It’s a new type of type 3 variant, so of course it’s called our newspaper’s Ecological Research Department!”
“Hey! How many major papers do you have? To the extent that I report on Bio magazine every month…”
“Ha! Bio, don’t start a campaign just because it was featured in a magazine! “I thought I had been a professor at Harvard’s Department of Biotechnology for several years!”
“Everyone below the Nobel Prize, shut up!”
Wow!
Uddangtangtang!
“Uh…just organize it yourself and send a message!”
The professor left the hospital room, leaving the researchers who had started fighting among themselves.
First, I planned to go to the intensive care unit and meet Bex first.
***
