EST Ch 8

—Crackle. Crack…

—Drip, drip…

Various noises mingled and echoed through the space. The sound of sparks flying. The sound of thick liquid dripping and pooling. The noise of something breaking, collapsing, and crumbling. It was disturbingly and eerily foreign, as if it wasn’t just the sound of objects. Faint screams could be heard, along with the sound of someone pounding on a flat surface.

In a space filled with the chill unique to a rainy day, Gijun’s blurry vision gradually began to focus. The first thing he saw was a ceiling that looked as if it had been mercilessly scratched by a large predator’s claws. Dangling wires swayed from the ceiling, and something was piled up on the stairs. Debris from a collapsed wall, and what appeared to be human shapes.

But he couldn’t examine it closely. His head felt like it was about to burst, and his vision was confused by the glowing mass right beside him. A lump of pale yellow light shimmered like fog.

Oddly, it was hard to blink. It felt as though a sticky liquid was covering his eyelids.

“…time… twelve times…”

Around that moment, he heard someone’s voice above him. It was a short sentence, but he couldn’t make it out clearly. He tried to piece together the disconnected words, but it was difficult.

Who is it?

He lifted his head. He tried to identify the speaker. But just as his eyes moved, darkness abruptly descended, shattering his vision into pieces. The pitch-black darkness cracked and spread, reflecting like glass.

‘…me?’

Hae Gijun faced his own blood-soaked image. His pale, expressionless face looked as if he were dead. The feeling of gazing at his own corpse was bizarre and chilling. It was like the uncanny valley.

He couldn’t breathe.

The blood flowing from his head dyed his vision red and slowly suffocated him. Blood gushed from his mouth, making it hard to breathe, as if something was pressing down on him. Gasping, his entire body felt drowsy.

“…Juna! Gijun!”

Hah, the sensation of taking a deep breath was unfamiliar as it passed through his windpipe. Gijun blinked blankly, still in a daze. The faint dawn light spread. The space was brighter than the last time he saw it. His accommodation…

And Baek Sunwoo was staring at him.

His light brown eyes were filled with worry. Gijun instinctively checked his neck. It was clean, without a scratch. Only then could he slowly grasp the situation.

Oh, I fell asleep without realizing it…

It was the first time. Was this round peaceful enough for him to let his guard down? Holding Baek Sunwoo’s hand at dawn, he must have felt relieved and fallen asleep. He didn’t know if he had slipped and lay down while sleeping, but it seemed like he had been resting on Sunwoo’s knee.

Gijun groped for his phone. It was one minute before the alarm went off. Feeling irritable, he canceled the alarm. Baek Sunwoo worriedly asked,

“Did you have a nightmare? Were you paralyzed?”

A cautious hand brushed his forehead, wiping away the cold sweat. Gijun tried to push him away but felt too lazy and just blinked blankly. Sunwoo’s voice seemed strangely unfamiliar.

Gijun answered weakly,

“Yeah… it was a strange dream…”

“You seemed like you couldn’t breathe suddenly, so I woke you up. You must have been really tense to have a nightmare.”

Baek Sunwoo meticulously wiped away his cold sweat with a towel. It was odd to be worried about by the fragile Sunwoo, but the feeling of being cared for wasn’t bad. It was oddly reassuring.

What kind of dream was it?

The memory was clear. But the content and flow of the dream were so vague that it was hard to interpret. Still, he couldn’t dismiss it as a random dream because of that one phrase that stuck in his mind.

‘Twelve times.’

He didn’t know who said it or in what situation. But that one number particularly bothered him.

Now is the eleventh round…

And the last thing he saw, his blood-soaked self, still lingered in his mind. Was that really ‘me’? Was it a prophetic dream, indicating that he would struggle and bleed before finding a clue in the twelfth round? Or was it a warning to solve it within twelve opportunities? Gijun was confused.

It was the first dream he had since repeating cycles. Maybe it was really just a nightmare from being exhausted, as Baek Sunwoo said. He had been on high alert all along.

“…”

Blinking blankly, Gijun absentmindedly touched Sunwoo’s neck. The white and smooth neck brought him comfort, becoming a habit at some point. His neck was fine, and his chest wasn’t pierced, staining his white knit with blood. He looked perfectly fine and tidy.

Gently tracing Sunwoo’s neckline with his thumb, he could see Sunwoo’s embarrassment. But considering his poor state, Sunwoo was as calm as possible. Gijun knew he was flinching every time his hand touched him, but he didn’t stop. Was Sunwoo enduring this because he was kind? He thought absently.

As Sunwoo’s neck reddened, Gijun withdrew his hand and sat up. Fully conscious now, he let out a short sigh and ran a dry hand over his face. His hair tousled at his fingertips.

“Hah. At least, even if it was sleep, it was somewhat better.”

He had been on edge the whole time, but after a bit of sleep, he felt relatively calm. He realized only after waking up that he had been pushing himself to the limit. The time lost sleeping was regrettable, but he decided to focus on the positive since it was already done.

Gijun then woke up the others one by one.

Everyone groggily woke up and checked the space, looking slightly disappointed. They seemed to have hoped that yesterday’s events had all been a dream. In fact, Hae Gijun was the one who most anticipated and was disappointed, so he told them to get ready with a calm face.

Everyone looked drowsy, except Baek Sunwoo, who was as composed as ever. Whenever they spent a night, Sunwoo was always the first to pull himself together. He seemed to fall asleep tense, waking up as soon as touched.

But this time, Gijun had fallen asleep, and Sunwoo woke him up, so Gijun asked to confirm.

“Nothing happened while I was asleep?”

“Yeah, mm-hmm. Everything was fine.”

“…What? Why do you sound so awkward?”

Feeling uneasy, he moved closer, and Sunwoo hastily shook his head.

“No. Nothing happened.”

“Then why do you seem so out of it?”

“Huh? I guess I didn’t sleep much.”

Baek Sunwoo casually explained as if it were nothing, but his answer was enough to shock Gijun.

“What? You couldn’t sleep?!”

Gijun panicked and looked him over. They had managed to find a safe place to stay, so why couldn’t he sleep?

Although it was just one night, and he himself had done it countless times, Gijun couldn’t tolerate Baek Sunwoo losing sleep. He worried that Sunwoo might get a nosebleed and collapse from exhaustion, or worse, suffer from a heart attack or a stroke from lack of sleep.

Gijun interrogated him, but Baek Sunwoo evaded the questions, his gaze unstable and his neck turning red. Gijun sighed, thinking that Sunwoo was already showing signs of illness due to sleep deprivation.

While there was a commotion on one side, Ahn Youngah looked over and muttered blankly. Her bobbed hair was a mess, sticking up in all directions.

“Why does he seem worse off after just one day…”

“Even if Baek Sunwoo killed someone, Gijun wouldn’t react like that.”

“So, Gijun has always been like this…”

Lee Donghun and Shim Dokyung chimed in with their opinions. Whether they were still the same or if Gijun had become more overprotective was debatable. Waking up in the training center was still distressing, but seeing their reactions made Gijun chuckle.

Surprisingly, thanks to this, everyone was able to prepare more comfortably.

Meanwhile, Hae Gijun rummaged through the other kids’ bags and found some emergency medicine. Only after making sure Baek Sunwoo took the cold medicine with his own eyes did Gijun finish preparing.

The day started ominously.

“Just in case, pack everything you can. We might not be able to come back.”

To shake off such a feeling, they moved busily. The kids were startled by his words, but the warning was sincere. The movement of the monsters was unpredictable, and if they occupied the hallway at night, they might not be able to return to their lodging.

They packed what they needed without making their pockets too heavy: lighters, emergency food, and so on. Lastly, while packing the blueprints of the machine spread out on the floor, Gijun’s gaze fixed on it.

“……”

A strange sense of déjà vu.

For a moment, it seemed as if a light glimmered in his vision. Memories or illusions mixed before his eyes. It felt like he had seen this somewhere before, or perhaps it was a premonition. Although his stomach churned, Gijun focused on the memory.

As he stared seriously at the blueprints, the others gathered around him one by one. Baek Sunwoo cautiously asked,

“What’s wrong, Gijun?”

“This machine is likely inside the training center, right?”

“Probably…?”

“Where in the training center could a machine this size fit?”

Everyone fell silent at Gijun’s question. While the exact dimensions weren’t recorded on the blueprints, the machine appeared enormous in the drawings. If the machine was indeed that large…

Gijun muttered like a sigh,

“The basement.”

Whether he saw this in a dream or it was a realization from long contemplation was unclear, but Gijun was astonishingly certain.

“I think there’s a basement in this building.”

The hallway was silent.

The morning chill lay heavy in the space. Carefully, they left the room and cautiously looked around, but saw nothing. The empty space felt eerie.

Lee Donghun muttered bitterly,

“Are the kids doing okay?”

“Come to think of it, none of our classmates have returned to the lodging…”

Ahn Youngah voiced her concern. They had stayed in the second class boys’ lodging, hoping to open the door if any classmates came looking for them. But in the end, no one came. Although not close with all their classmates, they couldn’t help but worry.

Ahn Youngah looked at Hae Gijun, seeking agreement, but he remained stoic. Seemingly uninterested in small talk, he stared intently at the machine blueprints, muttering “basement…” and bringing her back to focus.

The immediate priority was finding that machine. Shaking off her thoughts, Ahn Youngah asked in a deliberately bright voice,

“Do you know where the basement is? You almost know the building layout by heart.”

“Yeah. I’ve never seen a basement…”

Hae Gijun trailed off as he moved.

In reality, despite wandering around the training center several times, he had never been to the basement nor found a way to get there. He hadn’t searched the entire facility, but he never even imagined the existence of a basement.

Reaching the central hallway, Gijun gripped the railing and looked down. The training center had an open central area, allowing a view of the first floor from any level. The others followed his gaze and drew short breaths.

“Blood, there’s blood…”

There were bloodstains on the stairs and scattered around the first floor. There seemed to be more blood than the day before, and everyone turned pale. It seemed there had been a commotion during the night.

However, Gijun looked at the scene expressionlessly. He had experienced this several times before and even found the bloodstains less severe than the previous time. Expelling the monster early yesterday seemed to have helped.

“There must be a door to the basement somewhere…”

“Should we just break through the floor and go down?”

“…”

“Donghun, Gijun won’t respond to unnecessary remarks, so keep that in mind.”

Ahn Youngah kindly comforted Lee Donghun, who was embarrassed by Gijun’s silence. Of course, her attempt to be friendly wasn’t exactly comforting, causing Lee Donghun to retort. He awkwardly explained that he considered the possibility after seeing the floor dented when the fox monster attacked yesterday.

Shim Dokyung cautiously suggested,

“Maybe it’s hidden like the administration room yesterday?”

“That’s the most likely. There might be a hidden door in the wall, or perhaps a new door in one of the rooms. We should even consider the possibility of it being on the floor…”

Even as he spoke, he knew the search wouldn’t be easy. Narrowing it down to finding the basement door was an improvement, but the task was still daunting. Moreover, they had to be especially cautious on the first floor, where the monsters roamed most.

The kids turned pale, but eventually, they resignedly followed Gijun’s lead.

They had set out at dawn, so the space was still dim. Relying on the blue dawn light, they moved cautiously. While they heard no sounds, the silence only made the space more eerie.

Their quiet search continued for about thirty minutes.

As they started to relax, Baek Sunwoo suddenly stretched out his arm to block their path before turning back a step. Hae Gijun reflexively moved back with him. Since they were at the front, the others also stopped abruptly.

“What, what…”

Lee Donghun began to ask but swallowed his words.

At the end of the straight hallway visible after turning the corner, there was a fork. From the left path, they could hear the growling of a monster. The sound of a beast’s heavy breathing.

Gasping, everyone held their breath. They didn’t move an inch, worried that any sign of life might be detected. They kept their eyes wide open, glancing at one another. The sound of the monster’s footsteps echoed, heightening the tension in the space.

At that moment, light footsteps could be heard from the right side of the fork in the road.

“Hmm, hmm—.”

The sound of someone humming a tune surprised everyone. They expected the monster to react immediately or for the person to panic upon encountering the monster, causing a commotion.

However, surprisingly, even as the humming grew closer and the monster’s heavy footsteps overlapped, nothing happened. Clearly, the two must have crossed paths, yet there was no reaction from either side.

Hae Gijun immediately tilted his head to check the situation. Although Baek Sunwoo tried to stop him in surprise, he eventually resigned and watched as well. Sticking close to the wall, they observed the scene, and everyone was shocked.

‘What is that…?’ 

Ahn Youngah mouthed silently, expressing her astonishment. It was an unbelievable sight.

In the hallway ahead, the monster and the person had indeed crossed paths, but they continued to walk in their respective directions, completely oblivious to each other’s presence. The man’s black robe fluttered lightly as he walked.

Gijun stared intently at the man’s back. They were members of LINK.

Only after the monster’s footsteps faded completely did Lee Donghun lean against the wall and sigh.

“Does LINK not get attacked by monsters? Are they not even detectable?”

“T-that seems to be the case, right? Even yesterday, when they summoned in the auditorium, they were fine…”

“It would be great if we could figure out how they do it.”

While the conversation continued, Gijun tapped the hallway floor with a long rod. Judging by the lack of return of the monster, it seemed to have moved quite far away.

“Let’s check the direction they moved. It might lead us to the basement.”

It would have been better to follow them earlier, but the monster was in the way. For now, they decided to explore the direction the man had headed.

However, even after thoroughly searching that path for a while, they found nothing. The only thing they discovered was a staircase leading up to the second floor. Despite Gijun’s focused search, he couldn’t find any distorted walls like the one from yesterday.

Lee Donghun sighed and muttered,

“Is it impossible to find if too much time has passed since the artifact was activated…?”

“If we’ve searched this thoroughly and found nothing, it’s likely that it doesn’t exist.”

“Then, how about we look at the path LINK took?”

Prompted by Baek Sunwoo’s explanation, Ahn Youngah quickly offered a suggestion. Hae Gijun responded immediately. The man in the black robe had moved from right to left, so perhaps the hidden room was along the right path.

Following Ahn Youngah’s suggestion, Gijun managed to find ‘it’ on the right side.

“Ha. Here it is.”

It was a card reader.

There was a small, rectangular protrusion on the white wall. Once Gijun pointed it out, everyone recognized it and marveled at how it looked slightly off. It was like finding hidden objects in a picture game; once you knew it was there, you could see it clearly.

Gijun took out the black card he had obtained from the man in the administration room of the annex yesterday. He was confident this was the key to unlocking the door. However, just before he placed the card on the reader, he asked,

“Ahn Youngah. Do you think it’s safe to open this door?”

“Hmm, I’m excited we found the reader, but I’m not sure…”

Ahn Youngah suddenly looked around at the ceiling. After confirming that there were no CCTV cameras, she knocked loudly on the door.

“Hey, there’s a door here! Is it really a door?”

Her tone was theatrical. Gijun stared at her in bewilderment, wondering what she was up to. But when he saw her press her ear against the wall, he understood. She was making a fuss to check for any sounds from the other side. Since it was a hidden door, anyone inside would be startled if they realized someone had discovered it.

After confirming there were no sounds from inside, Ahn Youngah nodded. Gijun let out a small laugh at her determined expression and placed the card on the reader.

Silently, the word LINK lit up on the previously white wall. It meant they had the correct key.

“Oh…”

The wall smoothly slid open, revealing the shape of a black door.

Everyone marveled silently. The training center had seemed like an ordinary building, but now it felt like they had entered a high-tech facility. Lee Donghun muttered that it looked like a scene from an SF movie, and Ahn Youngah corrected him, calling it a thriller.

When the door opened, it revealed a large room.

Unlike other parts of the training center, the room was brightly lit, with several whiteboards lined up, and tables arranged in a circular formation in the center. The walls were covered with documents.

“Is this a laboratory…?”

Thankfully, as Ahn Youngah had predicted, there was no one inside. Still wary, Gijun held Baek Sunwoo back and took a step inside.

One by one, the others followed Gijun and looked around. Their faces showed a mix of curiosity, caution, and shock at the unusual space. It was clear that LINK had been preparing for this for a long time, which sent chills down their spines.

Lee Donghun approached a whiteboard in front of him and sighed.

“What is this? Why are there red dots on the map…?”

“It looks like they’ve marked where the monsters have appeared so far, and the routes they took.”

Baek Sunwoo, who had been observing with him, answered. It seemed LINK had been calculating the monsters’ positions, based on the annex administration room’s CCTV and their observations in the main building. Gijun nodded in agreement, as Sunwoo’s guess seemed accurate.

Ahn Youngah and Shim Dokyung also examined the map. They looked closely, hoping to glean any information from the marked locations, but the patterns were too irregular to discern any specific features. Connecting the locations of the monster appearances didn’t yield any clear results, and predicting future occurrences was equally vague.

One thing was certain, though, and Ahn Youngah shuddered in disgust.

“Those insane people were just watching this whole time…”

The realization that they had been observing and documenting the students being chased by monsters and struggling in chaos was shocking. Although they had anticipated this from the moment they heard Hae Gijun’s hypothesis, seeing it marked on the map was chilling.

To LINK, the students of Shin High School were merely tools to be used in their search for the prophesied one.

“We can’t stay here for long. Take photos of everything.”

Hae Gijun’s calm voice broke their thoughts. Everyone quickly took out their phones and started taking pictures. The space was vast, and there were too many documents to analyze individually, so they decided to photograph everything and review it later.

Leaving the photo-taking to the others, Gijun headed towards the walls. There might be a hidden door leading to the basement here. As he and Baek Sunwoo carefully examined the walls and floor, Ahn Youngah called out urgently from behind.

“Hey, Hae Gijun! Look at this.”

She was holding a file folder with the word LINK inscribed in white on a black background. She gestured for him to come over, and Gijun approached with a puzzled look.

Thinking she wouldn’t call him over for a trivial reason, he tilted his head to look at what she found, and his eyes widened. Seeing his reaction, Ahn Youngah smiled proudly.

“My luck has done it again.”

What Ahn Youngah had discovered by chance was a photo of the machine they were looking for. It showed the round capsule they were searching for, along with a larger rectangular machine attached to it.

It looked like a ‘door’ of sorts.

Realizing what it was, Gijun sighed softly. The words he had repeatedly pondered over and over again while traversing this space came to mind. The words spoken to the students by LINK in the auditorium where all the chaos began, the language imbued with mana. In other words, the words muttered by the otherworldly being.

‘In the direction pointed by the horn… the true… key to the door… will be there…’

The door referred to in that prophecy, the door they sought to open, seemed to be this one.

Looking closely at the photo, Gijun sighed. The round capsule machine alone seemed quite large, leading him to speculate it was underground, but seeing the rectangular machine attached next to it, he was convinced. Moreover, the photo showed not only the machine but also the background, further reinforcing his certainty. There was definitely an underground.

“This seems like the door mentioned in the prophecy.”

“What?!”

Ahn Youngah was startled by Gijun’s words. She was the one who found it, yet she was surprised. Seeing that the reactions of the other kids were the same, she understood. While Gijun had been conscious of the prophecy throughout this repeated space, they had dismissed it as nonsense and ignored it. He had felt the same way at first.

“That’s right. They said they were looking for the key to the door…”

“What kind of door are they trying to open?”

“Then this isn’t a device to summon monsters?”

Questions poured out. Since Gijun had only understood that it was the door from the prophecy, he couldn’t answer any of them. He could only make a few guesses based on the structure of the machine.

“First of all, this capsule seems to be a machine for storing the materials needed to open the door.”

“Oh, since Baek Sunwoo said yesterday that it looked like a device for concentrating mana, that’s the most likely possibility. A battery or an energy storage device.”

Lee Donghun agreed, and Ahn Youngah enthusiastically searched the desk again. Meanwhile, Gijun flipped through the documents in the file folder. He hoped there might be an explanation of the machine, but he found nothing.

Disappointed, he turned his head and saw Baek Sunwoo still staring at the photo with a serious expression. Curious, Gijun approached and asked,

“What’s wrong? Did you figure something out?”

“…This might sound strange…”

Baek Sunwoo hesitated several times as if uncertain. Gijun waited patiently, and eventually, Baek Sunwoo found the courage to speak. He whispered to Gijun, not wanting the other kids to hear.

“I was thinking that this might function as a ‘gate.'”

“…You mean open a gate?”

Baek Sunwoo nodded silently.

A gate, or ‘Gate Break,’ as it was known globally. In cultures that used Chinese characters, it was often described as ‘the gate has opened.’ Connecting to another world, where beings from that world came to invade and break ours. A disaster raining from the sky.

The exact nature of the other world was still unknown. It was only known that various types of monsters poured out each time a gate opened, suggesting that the other world was not singular. Even the time and place of gate appearances remained a mystery.

However, it was discovered that about half a day before a gate opened, the mana in the surrounding area would exhibit abnormal fluctuations. Thus, the world united to deploy satellites to monitor these mana fluctuations and promptly relay the information.

Even with global coordination, responses to gates were reactive…

“Haha, opening a gate first sounds ridiculous, doesn’t it?”

Baek Sunwoo awkwardly tried to brush it off. Embarrassed by Gijun’s silence, he turned red and mumbled, “It was just a thought…”

But Gijun shook his head.

“No. It sounds plausible.”

“…What? Really?”

“The situation is extremely abnormal. There’s no phone reception in the building, monsters are appearing, and they even ignore certain humans.”

And I keep repeating this space.

Given the bizarre circumstances, it wouldn’t be surprising if someone intentionally opened a gate. Although the implications would be significant if true, it actually made sense.

“A lot of strange things happen when a gate opens…”

In places where gates had burst, peculiar phenomena were often observed. It was common for GPS signals to be disrupted even when people were present, for gravity to temporarily disappear, or for water to flow backward, among other things that defied normal laws.

Considering this, it could be assumed that the gate here was partially open. Every time he returned, he woke up on the bus and saw a transparent barrier shimmering outside the window, which might be the boundary of the gate.

Moreover, satellites were post-event detection systems for recognizing gate signs, so they might not have detected the act of opening a gate beforehand. That’s why students were struggling without rescue.

In other words, while LINK succeeded in partially opening the gate, they couldn’t fully open it, so they sought the key to the door. The explanation was entirely plausible.

Baek Sunwoo’s eyes widened at Gijun’s serious reaction. He asked in a flustered voice,

“Don’t you think it’s far-fetched?”

“No. Because you said it.”

Gijun speculated that perhaps Baek Sunwoo, too, had sensed the gate while being caught in the repetition. Even if not, since H.N. conducted various training for gate situations, what he learned there might have subconsciously influenced him. He might have sensed a familiar energy.

Nodding to himself, Gijun thought it quite reasonable. Suddenly, he heard laughter beside him. Baek Sunwoo was chuckling softly, covering his mouth with his hand. Even in a windowless room, his smile felt like morning sunlight pouring in.

Gijun found his reaction puzzling but didn’t inquire further. He assumed it was pleasing to have his hypothesis validated. Although he didn’t see why it was so joyful…

Around that time, Lee Donghun called out loudly from afar,

“Hey, Hae Gijun! Should we mess with the information on the whiteboards to confuse those guys? It’s a good plan, right?”

“Don’t be silly.”

“Oh, okay…”

Lee Donghun scratched his head sheepishly at Hae Gijun’s sharp rebuke. Gijun didn’t mind the muttering that followed, “He’s only nice to Baek Sunwoo…”

LINK must have already finished all their preparations before doing this, so changing a few numbers on the whiteboards wouldn’t cause any confusion. Besides, they didn’t even know what information was crucial, so what confusion could they possibly cause?

Telling the grumbling Lee Donghun to “find a door in the wall if you’re bored,” Gijun turned his gaze back. For some reason, Baek Sunwoo seemed even happier.

Thinking it was good as long as he was happy, Gijun whispered quietly,

“Let’s keep this to ourselves for now. It would only confuse the others.”

While he had experienced many strange things and could accept it easily, the other kids would surely be shocked. Hearing that a gate was opening would mean disaster was coming.

And the door might already be partially open. The students of Shin High School couldn’t possibly handle a gate on their own, so knowing such information could only lead to despair.

After seeing Baek Sunwoo nod, Gijun approached the other kids.

“Did you take all the photos?”

“Ugh. There are too many, it’ll take a while to get them all.”

“Just take pictures of the important-looking ones.”

“Uh, we don’t even know what’s important or not…”

Shim Dokyung, who was taking pictures next to Ahn Youngah, looked distressed. His words made sense, so Gijun couldn’t rush him. There might be clues among the things dismissed as unimportant.

Gijun moved towards the wall again to continue searching for the door. However, despite grumbling, Lee Donghun, who was already feeling the wall as Gijun had instructed, shook his head.

“No matter how hard I look, there doesn’t seem to be a door.”

“Is this not the way to the basement…?”

Since they had entered using LINK’s card key, they thought they would be able to go directly to the basement. But even after searching for documents related to the basement, they couldn’t find an entrance. The floor maps of the building on the whiteboard didn’t show a basement either.

Finding the documents alone was a great achievement, but they still felt disappointed. They considered searching until Ahn Youngah and Shim Dokyung finished taking pictures.

At that moment, they heard humming outside.

Everyone froze. It was the same sound they had heard in the hallway earlier from LINK. The bigger problem was that the sound seemed very close.

There was no time to share their shock or devise a strategy. Gijun quickly ran to Baek Sunwoo, and Lee Donghun hurriedly gathered the other two. While Lee Donghun was naturally quick to react, Gijun’s instinctive need to protect Baek Sunwoo propelled him with incredible speed.

They each dashed into the cabinets on the left and right walls and shut the doors just in time.

—Beep

The sound of the lab door opening.

“Ah, the morning has come, so it’s time to start.”

“The kids seem to be quite good at hiding.”

Four people presumed to be researchers from LINK walked in. They all wore black robes with hoods pulled deep over their heads, making them look quite sinister.

Peeking through the gaps in the cabinet, Gijun exhaled slowly. He had been so shocked that he almost ran out of breath but managed to stay calm. However, his right hand was trembling for some reason. Confused, he glanced down. It wasn’t both hands trembling, just the right one…

“……”

Only then did Gijun realize his hand was pressed against Baek Sunwoo’s chest. In his haste, he had pushed Baek Sunwoo into the cabinet and then followed, sitting almost on his lap. Since the cabinet was small, they both had to hunch slightly, making them very close. Their legs overlapped.

Baek Sunwoo, covering his mouth with the back of his hand, was staring at the wall. Seeing him trying to catch his breath, Gijun awkwardly removed his hand. How terrified must he be for his heart to be pounding so hard. He had only touched his chest briefly, but the pounding lingered in his palm.

“…It’ll be okay.”

Though he had never comforted anyone before, Gijun whispered softly. He meant to reassure him, thinking he seemed very scared, but Baek Sunwoo flinched. In the confined space, their breaths were close.

“…?”

Baek Sunwoo’s heart started beating even louder and faster. Even without touching him, it was palpable, causing Gijun to feel uneasy.

He’s not going to die from shock… right?

But he didn’t have the luxury to dwell on that. The LINK members who had walked to the central table seemed a bit puzzled and were looking around.

“Doesn’t something seem different from when we left?”

“Hmm, the position of the whiteboard seems a bit off…”

“To me, it looks the same.”

Gijun observed the table with a stern expression. They had tried to touch as little as possible, but in their rush to hide, some documents had been disturbed. The direction of the whiteboard was slightly shifted.

They won’t notice this, right? As he tried to quell his anxiety, one of the LINK members spoke.

“Well, maybe ‘he’ stopped by for a bit.”

Him?

The first person who came to mind was Park Inho. The LINK member who had deliberately infiltrated Shin High School. But something felt off. The reverence in their tone when mentioning ‘him’ made it seem unlikely that they were referring to Park Inho.

There must be a mastermind behind this… Could they capture and interrogate that person? Someone crazy enough to try opening a gate wouldn’t be easily subdued.

While Gijun pondered, the LINK members sat around the table. Fortunately, they seemed to have stopped suspecting intruders based on the changes in the space.

“Did the guy who collapsed in the annex office wake up?”

“Not yet. His head was pretty banged up.”

“Who would think to go to the office in that situation? I’m really curious.”

“They also seem to have entered the hidden office in the main building…”

The conversation took an unexpected turn. For a moment, Gijun noticed the cabinet across from him shake slightly. Someone at the table happened to cough, masking the sound.

“There seem to be some smart kids at Shin High School.”

“Just because their SPI is low doesn’t mean they’re unintelligent. But it is impressive that they figured all that out in just a few hours.”

As the conversation continued, Gijun became more worried. It seemed like his actions were being traced. Did they also know who did it? The fact that they had marked the monster locations on the map suggested they had a way to monitor the CCTV beyond just the office…

While he had anticipated drawing their attention by delving into the root cause, hearing them say ‘who’ implied they hadn’t identified him yet.

“Well, ‘he’ said to just watch for now.”

While pondering, they mentioned ‘him’ again. Judging by the listeners’ reactions, it seemed certain that ‘he’ was the leader of LINK. Gijun focused on their conversation, hoping for more clues. However, they didn’t mention that figure again.

They continued rummaging through documents on the table.

“Since last night, there have been changes in the monsters. It seems they’ve started to recognize the presence of the prophesied one.”

“It looks like the precursor to awakening. I wonder how the horn will manifest.”

Last night? Trying to predict what might have happened was difficult. He had gone through so much himself and had been with the student council members in the main building, so he lacked information. Throughout the multiple repetitions, the kids’ actions had varied subtly with each situation.

Though the conversation continued, most of it was trivial chatter. Some parts seemed like clues, but they were hard to grasp, so he tried to remember anything that seemed ambiguous.

After a few minutes, Gijun started to worry. How long would they have to stay here? He was especially anxious about the cabinet across from him. Even with just two people, it felt cramped; over there, three were squeezed in. Even though Ahn Youngah and Shim Dokyung were small, it felt like watching a ticking time bomb.

At that moment, one of the LINK members stood up and moved towards the cabinet.

“……!”

Gijun’s eyes widened as the person approached the cabinet hiding the three. Holding his breath, he watched, but luckily, the person opened the display case right next to it.

“Hmm, hmm—.”

It was the person who had been humming. He hummed the now familiar tune as he took out a box from the display case. Opening the lid, he smiled.

“The tablet is definitely reacting. Should we head down to discuss with the basement team?”

Gijun breathed a sigh of relief. It had been close, but they had avoided the crisis and potentially gained a new opportunity. If they carefully followed them after they left, they could find the way to the basement and figure out what that tablet was…

—Thud.

At that moment, there was a noise from the side.

It was the sound of something hitting the metal cabinet. LINK looked curiously at the display case in front of them, then slowly turned their gaze to the side. Naturally, since they hadn’t dropped anything themselves.

Gijun realized the source of the noise. The three, huddled together in their haste to hide, had shifted their positions as the person approached, causing the noise. Feeling both helpless and stunned.

Finally, with a loud crash, they tumbled out of the cabinet.

“……”

A brief moment of chilling silence followed by a surge of shock.

“What, what is this?!”

“You were hiding here? How on earth…!”

The LINK members hurriedly pulled out their mana guns. The man by the cabinet quickly placed the box back on the display shelf and joined the group.

Instinctively, Lee Donghun stepped forward and drew a hatchet from his belt, but it was no match for their opponents. Ahn Youngah, pale as a ghost, was crouched on the floor, and Shim Dokyung looked like he was about to faint.

Gijun hesitated. They were in danger.

…And they were the only ones in danger.

Hae Gijun’s black eyes slowly shifted to the side. Baek Sunwoo was still there. Maybe he could stay hidden and get through this. They were good people, so they wouldn’t reveal that someone else was there with them.

How far they had come… Did they really need to take this risk? And if LINK captured them and took them away, maybe he could follow them to the basement…

Just then, Gijun’s eyes met Baek Sunwoo’s. His light brown eyes were trembling violently. He looked like he wanted to go out but couldn’t open his mouth because of Gijun’s stern warnings throughout the night. A face torn between a promise and his nature.

His lips quivered. But in the end, he said nothing, his face contorted in distress, his gaze falling to the floor.

“……”

Gijun took a deep breath. His priority wasn’t those kids. Baek Sunwoo was the most important, and he would do anything to keep Baek Sunwoo safe. If only Baek Sunwoo survived, that would be enough. If he held him down and kept him quiet now, he wouldn’t go out. Maybe they could survive this way.

But is that really living?

Damn it…

Thoughts rushed through his mind, and Gijun squeezed his eyes shut. A deep breath filled his lungs to the point of discomfort, finally released with a short sigh.

‘Why do you look like you’re about to cry.’

Thud! He opened the door and stepped out.

“Lee Donghun! Grab one of them!”

As he shouted, Gijun pulled out a gun. He was not pleased to see relief and joy on Lee Donghun’s face.

Taking advantage of the moment when the four LINK members turned around at the sudden noise, Lee Donghun charged at one of them. The sturdy Lee Donghun’s forceful attack knocked his opponent down. At that moment, Gijun fired the gun.

—Chaarrrg!

The mana bullet hit its mark instantly. It was an ambush aimed at their carelessness. They had only expected axes, batons, or loudspeakers, so they weren’t prepared for a gun.

The enemy surrounded by blue sparks let out a painful scream. Convulsing as if electrocuted, he rolled his eyes back and choked before collapsing. Gijun hadn’t expected to use the gun, saved for hunting monsters, on humans, but it felt strangely satisfying.

One was subdued, and another was unconscious. Maybe even dead.

“Y-you bastards…!”

The other two, panicking, aimed their guns at Hae Gijun and Lee Donghun. Just as the barrels glowed white and were about to fire.

“Put your hands down.”

Baek Sunwoo used his power. The man’s hand jerked downward, narrowly missing the ground with the mana bullet. The oppressive atmosphere thickened, making even breathing feel suffocating, as the space was dominated by Baek Sunwoo’s authority.

Despite subduing two instantly, Baek Sunwoo showed no signs of strain. Gijun felt relieved. Things were going more smoothly than expected. The researchers were weak after all…

“Aaaaaah!”

Suddenly, someone screamed from the right. The man subdued by Lee Donghun rose with a yell. The air vibrated with instability, and tension filled the room.

“Donghun, step back!”

As Baek Sunwoo shouted, the aura around the man surged upwards. A murky green energy rose up to the ceiling in a meter radius. The viscous energy gathered around the man, forming a shimmering shield.

Baek Sunwoo, the first to sense the man’s turbulent mana, used his power to force Lee Donghun back. No matter how good Lee Donghun’s reflexes were, it was a critical situation that couldn’t be resolved by a warning. Stumbling back several steps, Lee Donghun looked bewildered, surprised by the direct experience of submission.

But there was no time to pay attention to that. The LINK man, with fierce eyes, continued to whip up a storm of mana, seeming ready to engulf the entire space.

Gijun bit his lower lip. Damn, it had to be an offensive-type user. Baek Sunwoo’s submission ability didn’t work immediately against such a formidable opponent.

Especially the necklace around the man’s neck. As it grew redder, it likely was an artifact. Considering the operation targeting Shin High School, it was a prepared item to counter Baek Sunwoo. Whether it increased resistance or attack power, both were problematic.

There were three enemies. Baek Sunwoo excelled in 1:1 scenarios but struggled against multiple opponents. He hadn’t mastered complete control of mana. He’d only been training for a year, learning to use mana for hunting, making it dangerous to face an offensive user alone…

But seeing the determination in Baek Sunwoo’s eyes, Gijun could only sigh.

“Baek Sunwoo, I’ll hold off three of them, so first, get the kids…”

“I already granted your plea. Now it’s my turn to decide.”

Baek Sunwoo looked bewildered for a moment, as if wondering when he had begged, but Gijun suppressed the urge to argue and shouted towards the kids on the right. There was no turning back now. They had to find a way out.

“Ahn Youngah! Calm Shim Dokyung down!”

—Chaarrrg

Gijun swiftly dodged the bullet fired by LINK. Although it was a sudden attack, Baek Sunwoo bound them with his power, diverting the direction. Mana clashed in midair, trying to bind and resist.

Amidst the sound of the space tearing, Gijun continued.

“Lee Donghun, block the two at the back.”

“Huh? What do you mean ‘back’?”

As Lee Donghun looked at Hae Gijun in confusion, a lighter flew through the air and landed on the table. Papers piled on the long desk caught fire instantly.

—Boom! 

Gijun kicked the table, pushing it towards LINK. He aimed at the two, except for the man surrounded by mana.

Startled by the sudden action, the two retreated to the wall. One of them, the man who had been humming, screamed.

“Aah, the research data!”

It didn’t matter.

For a moment, Lee Donghun was shocked, but he quickly regained his composure and charged at them. As the research data burned before their eyes, they panicked and belatedly drew their guns, but Baek Sunwoo used his power to disrupt their attacks from behind.