Chapter 13
The size of the 5th Underground Tactical Training Ground's Area 3 was that of a large apartment complex.
The setting of the implemented field was post-apocalyptic.
The atmosphere was relentlessly grim.
As soon as I set foot in the training ground, I ran toward the target.
But Do Minyeong, who had started with me, was gone in a flash, and Hong Dahee, unable to just watch, urged me on through her smartwatch.
─Cadet Ji Seokhyeon, are you crawling right now?
“I’m doing my best, you know.”
─Cadet Do Minyeong has already approached the building. Move faster!
My strength and stamina were slightly below the average for an awakener of one month.
No matter how untalented Do Minyeong was, she moved several times faster than me.
“She’s just hiding in a building doing nothing.”
Hong Dahee continuously relayed instructions based on the location information broadcasted by the smartwatch, and after a full five minutes, I finally arrived at the target building.
As soon as I arrived, Do Minyeong spoke as if she found me pathetic.
“Did you really crawl here?”
“Hah…… haah……. You think I would……. Can’t you see I’m exhausted right now?”
“I’m asking because I can see. Crawling is quite tiring too. And that would be more convincing.”
In that moment, I felt a sense of self-loathing that I could not deny.
My low, paltry stats.
I was genuinely afraid I might be expelled for being physically unfit.
“If you’ve caught your breath, shall we enter? I wasn’t waiting for you, I was waiting for your shield.”
“Hoo…….”
I moved toward the building's stairs, holding the full-body shield used for riot control.
The suspect Lee Eunho’s location was the 5th floor.
Do Minyeong was supposed to accompany me up to the 3rd floor and then use a rope to enter through a window, but…….
“Ji Seokhyeon…….”
“What is it?”
As soon as we reached the 2nd floor, she grabbed my coattails.
“Can’t you hear something right now?”
Of course, I could.
Do Minyeong’s breathing, which was rougher than before.
Considering she was not in a physically taxing situation, it was probably because the poison was slowly spreading.
I replied dryly.
“The suspect is in the same building, so isn’t it natural to hear sounds?”
“No, I hear a more unusual sound.”
“……For example?”
“Something like the cry of an insect……. It sounds like it’s coming from the basement below the stairs.”
Was she more sensitive because she was not in a normal state?
When I focused on the sound for a moment, I could hear something, but if I thought of it as the sound of dirt from shoes falling through the gaps in the stairs, there was nothing strange about it.
More importantly, from my position of knowing she was poisoned, delaying any longer was a burden.
“I do hear it.”
“Really?”
“Yeah, the sound of our evaluation score dropping due to the time delay.”
“…….”
Do Minyeong let go of my coattails and pushed my back.
Just as I reached the 3rd floor, plagued by her breathy urging to ‘hurry up’…….
An electric shock suddenly flew from behind me and accurately hit both my and her vests.
─Team 40, Cadet Ji Seokhyeon is dead.
─Team 40, Cadet Do Minyeong is dead.
“Sorry, ah! I’m sorry.”
We simultaneously turned to the owner of the voice.
“…….”
“…….”
Lee Eunho.
He was scratching his head with an awkward look on his face.
“The tactical instructor instructed me to try an ambush from the opposite direction. Hahaha…….”
Do Minyeong immediately shot me a resentful glare.
Since tactical training gave extra points just for completing the objective, it was an understandable situation for her to be disappointed.
But wasn't there no hope from the moment Lee Eunho was chosen as our opponent?
There was no way that model student had any flexibility in him.
Well, whatever the case, since it ended as anticlimactically as in the original story, it served its initial purpose.
I pointed to my smartwatch with my head, as if to assert that it was not my fault.
“The instructions were like this, so what.”
“Making excuses is easy, isn’t it?”
“It must be easy for you to make excuses about me too.”
“I shouldn’t have teamed up with you.”
“The corners of your mouth were turning up in joy when I said I’d give you points.”
“……Shut your mouth.”
Lee Eunho showed an awkward smile and tried to lighten the mood.
“Um…… But I believe the tactical operation is supposed to end if the two of you are killed first, regardless of the support cadet.”
“So?”
“Why isn’t there an announcement?”
“…….”
A light silence.
Lee Eunho and Do Minyeong checked their smartwatches and tactical equipment, then soon wore dazed expressions.
“I’m not getting a signal…….”
“Not only that, but the multi-channel signal connected to the tactical instructor is also dead.”
Do Minyeong, who was fiddling with her smartwatch, threw her gaze at me.
It was because I was showing no sense of urgency in the current situation.
I opened my mouth to say something, but…….
DOOM- DOOM─ DOOM!
The lights that had been illuminating the underground training ground went out with a heavy sound, and in an instant, it became pitch black before our eyes.
At the same time, rough and sharp scraping sounds could be heard from all directions.
The emergency barriers to seal off the training ground were coming down.
“What, what is it!”
“Stay calm! The power will come back on!”
I clicked on the portable LED I had received as a souvenir from the Dispel 3rd Branch.
“I wonder if it will…….”
At that, both of their gazes focused on me.
“…….”
“What do you mean by that?”
What do you think I mean.
It means a troublesome episode has begun.
“All wireless devices we have are dead, the power that was being supplied just fine was suddenly cut, ……there’s no way such an accidental incident would occur at the Hero Preparatory School, which benefits from cutting-edge magic engineering.”
“By that, you mean…….”
I stared at Lee Eunho, who was frowning.
“Yes, it means we’ve been trapped by someone’s intention. How…… mysterious, indeed.”
***
We decided to look around the training ground to assess the situation.
Partly to find Hong Dahee, who was out of contact, and partly to find a way to communicate with the outside.
We moved around as if wandering for about thirty minutes, and only after checking every single exit did we stop our search.
“Why on earth are the barriers down on the exits when the power is out.”
I sat on the bumper of a vehicle placed as a structure and continued.
“Besides, for the power to be out, isn’t the restoration taking too long? Could there be a problem with the underground power source?”
“If there’s a problem with the power source itself, it’ll take quite a while to restore…….”
Lee Eunho agreed with me, sitting on a nearby curb.
He spoke again.
“More than that, I’m worried that Hong Dahee isn’t screaming. That would be the most effective way to reveal her location…….”
“Well, either she’s become mute, fainted…… or she has another objective.”
“Another objective?”
Lee Eunho showed a questioning look but immediately shook his head and fell into thought.
He was probably thinking that Park Oseok’s accomplice might be involved in this incident.
And for good reason, as this underground training ground was now a bizarrely perfect sealed room.
A perfectly sealed room where there was no light, no drones, no communication, the exits were blocked by combat barriers that prevented outside intrusion, and the entire training ground was designed with materials excellent in mana resistance…….
Even Lee Eunho, who possessed the lightning attribute, the strongest among the attributes, would find it difficult to destroy the exits.
He could probably half-destroy them, but it was a risky choice as it could affect the building’s foundation.
I averted my gaze from the pensive Lee Eunho.
And I stared at Do Minyeong, who had not uttered a single word since a while ago.
Do Minyeong’s breathing had become even rougher than before.
Her face was noticeably flushed, and she was shivering as if enduring the cold alone.
“…….”
Symptoms of poison.
The effect of the potion Hong Dahee had given.
Depending on the type of poison, there were various antidote potions, and usually, if one was exposed for this long, it would be difficult to recover.
The toxicity was at a level that only restricted movement, so the symptoms were slow, but if it persisted longer, a complete recovery could not be expected, just like with other poisons.
Roughly another hour and a half…….
That would be the time limit for this episode.
When Do Minyeong’s eyes met mine, she dragged her heavy feet and approached me.
“……Ji Seokhyeon, I feel a little strange.”
A breathless voice.
Irregular breathing.
And the heat from her skin that could be felt even from a step away.
As expected, Do Minyeong lost consciousness and leaned towards me.
“……!”
Lee Eunho hastily stood up from his seat and asked.
“What’s wrong! Why so suddenly……!”
“Her fever is quite high. An awakener wouldn’t catch a cold, so I think it’s poison.”
“Poison?”
“……It seems the potion we received from Hong Dahee earlier is the cause.”
“That can’t be……. Wait, then are you okay?”
“Yeah, for now.”
I glanced at Lee Eunho and continued.
“Considering the timing and the situation, it seems that Park Oseok’s accomplice is involved in this, don’t you think?”
“Yes. But for Hong Dahee to be the accomplice……. she’s a newly enrolled student. Just a few days ago, she would have had no connection to Park Oseok…….”
“Well, as for the connection, let’s ask her directly. I’m sure she’s watching us from somewhere nearby.”
“Right, that would be faster.”
Lee Eunho carefully carried Do Minyeong on his back.
At the same time, as if he felt the heat from her back, he let out a question in a rather low voice.
“Hong Dahee…… she would have the antidote, right?”
I draped the outerwear I was wearing over Do Minyeong and replied.
“……At least we’ll be able to find out what kind of poison was used.”
“Yes…….”
We started moving again.
We had been running for about five minutes in search of Hong Dahee.
Suddenly, a woman’s scream echoed.
“What was that sound……?”
“…….”
I wanted to ask the same thing.
A scream was a completely unexpected situation.
“It’s close. Let’s go, Seokhyeon.”
I followed Lee Eunho, who was ahead of me.
The place we soon arrived at was the rooftop of a low-rise building.
There…… Hong Dahee was lying unconscious.
Like a madman, I approached Hong Dahee and shone the LED on her.
“……She’s stopped breathing. Her skin is withered and lifeless. But…….”
But right now, this context was simply not registering in my head.
Hong Dahee, who was supposed to be tormenting Lee Eunho with poison-laced bullets, had suddenly died?
And in such a grotesque manner?
I turned my back to Lee Eunho and used my Demonic Eye.
But I could not see any mana from Hong Dahee.
It was as if all her mana had been taken away by someone.
If she had died just a moment ago, there should have been at least a little mana remaining in her body…….
“…….”
Suddenly, a thought occurred to me. I deactivated my Demonic Eye and searched Hong Dahee’s belongings.
I was looking for the antidote.
Just like in the original work, there had to be an antidote to use on Do Minyeong, but no matter how much I searched her pockets, I could not find it.
All that was there were a few broken potion vials…….
“Let me take a closer look.”
Lee Eunho sat down with Do Minyeong still on his back.
He examined Hong Dahee’s corpse in various ways and soon uttered words filled with conviction.
“……It’s a Ghoul.”
“What?”
“The whites of a human’s eyes don’t turn black after death. ……It’s a symptom of Demonic Beings and Ghouls.”
Ghoul.
A minion permanently dominated by a Demonic Being.
The fact that Hong Dahee was a Ghoul was consistent with the original work.
But that fact made my head even more complicated.
No matter how I thought about it, there was no reason for the Ghoul Hong Dahee to die at this point.
For now, I spoke as if I had just realized something.
“The fact that Hong Dahee is a Ghoul means that Park Oseok’s accomplice is a Demonic Being.”
“Yes, they’re surely involved in this incident, hiding secretly outside the training ground.”
“But isn’t it a bit strange? If the Demonic Being is outside the training ground, that means there’s a third party inside the training ground who killed Hong Dahee.”
“……It could be suicide. It’s said that Ghouls sometimes make extreme choices to escape the domination of a Demonic Being.”
Suicide…….
There were characters with such narratives, but this case was different.
“No, I don’t think it was suicide.”
“……?”
I illuminated a section of the rooftop railing with the LED.
A sniper rifle with a night vision scope was perfectly set up there.
The gun that, in the original work, should have been tormenting Lee Eunho for a while.
“There’s a perfectly suitable object for making an extreme choice, so there’s no way she would die in such a bizarre way.”
“That’s true, but…….”
Lee Eunho’s Adam's apple bobbed.
“Then who on earth killed Hong Dahee?”
“……It must be a being that was hiding in the training ground before the tactical training even began, surely.”
“So what is that, exactly…….”
As if I would know.
From the moment I discovered a deviation from the original work, I had been adrift in a vast ocean.
With nothing but the old raft called the setting manual.
I parted my lips to give a quick answer.
But at that moment, a bustling sound began to be heard from all around.
BUZZZZZ…….
I shone the LED toward the noise.
Insectoid monsters were gathering in swarms and approaching the vicinity of the rooftop.
To be precise, wasp-shaped monsters with bodies the size of a basketball, excluding the wings…….
“……Dead Bee.”
Undead monsters that obtained mana by absorbing moisture, the Dead Bees.
Just then, a system message appeared before my eyes.
[The difficulty of the main episode will be adjusted in proportion to the amount of Remake Coins used.]
[Remake Coins used up to this episode: 18,625]
[Applied setting intervention rate: 18.625%]
“…….”
Not a change in development based on actions, but an episode variation unilaterally applied in proportion to the coins.
The meaning of those words was simple.
The devoted reader intended to intervene in the development according to their own taste.
I belatedly saw the emerging message and clenched my jaw firmly.
[Then, I wish you good luck!]