Black Badger

Chapter 184: Biological Data (1)

After digging diligently, they had made enough space to bury one adult man.

We buried the subordinate’s limbs so that he could crawl out on his own after about three hours.

Fortunately, the expansion work on the fourth basement level was already in progress, so it worked out. With four people working together, the task went quickly.

I looked down into the round hole.

“Breathing all right down there?”

“Is this supposed to be a sand massage?”

Jaeyeon snapped in the subordinate’s voice.

“Can’t you just hurry up and get out of here?”

We stepped into the hallway.

According to the subordinate, he was the only guard on the third basement level. Unless something unusual happened, we wouldn’t run into anyone else there.

The problem was the CCTV.

The only place without cameras was the break room where we had fallen out of the portal. The hallway cameras had no blind spots.

So, what did we do?

“Don’t lift your head.”

Jaeyeon said it casually.

“As long as we walk confidently in these black suits, no one will recognize us for a while.”

He wasn’t wrong.

After burying the subordinate, we headed without trouble to the stairs connecting to the second basement. Walking with confidence, ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) no one stopped us.

They must not have noticed anything wrong yet.

If we could just make it safely up to the first basement level, that would be ideal.

Unfortunately, the man we buried was low-ranking, which meant he had no car.

So there were no car keys to steal. The subordinate had told us to go to the first basement level. There, he said, in the records room, we could find people — and steal a key from them.

Jaeyeon also took the access card to enter the first basement.

Beep!

The stair door opened.

There was no elevator, only stairs. The thick stairwell door could be opened only by an enhanced-body user.

Luckily, we didn’t sense anyone nearby.

We went up to the first basement.

“What the hell.”

We’d barely reached the level when Jaeyeon cracked the door open, and I muttered under my breath.

“Why are there so many guards?”

They were all the Elder’s subordinates.

The first basement level was swarming with them — a stark contrast to the nearly empty third basement. The men in suits stood with their hands clasped behind their backs, motionless like mannequins.

They were all guarding what appeared to be the records room door.

There was no way all three of us could slip in quietly.

Unless one of us went disguised as the subordinate — like Jaeyeon.

“Why don’t you go into the records room?”

Maybe thinking the same thing, Yun spoke quietly as soon as Jaeyeon shut the stair door.

“We’ll cover you from here.”

“You expect me to trust your cover? I’d be lucky if you didn’t shoot me in the back.”

“Then should I have Hildebert cover you instead?”

“I’d rather not have a bullet in the back of my head.”

“Hey.”

I gave Jaeyeon a flat look.

“I’m not that bad, am I?”

Jaeyeon stared at me with the subordinate’s face.

Oddly enough, it was less unpleasant than when he looked at me in his own.

He watched me a moment longer, then shook his head.

“I’d rather entrust my fate to my fiancée’s hands.”

Yun ignored him.

Or rather, he was visibly restraining himself from punching him.

Even when he took the gun from my waistband, his face stayed tightly drawn.

“What a romantic setup!”

Jaeyeon quipped meaninglessly and stepped into the hallway.

His heavy footsteps echoed as he walked toward the records room entrance. The guards didn’t react. They glanced at his face, then turned their eyes blankly back to nowhere.

Smooth so far.

Jaeyeon stopped confidently in front of the records room door.

We stayed tense, ready to run the moment things went wrong.

I could barely hear.

What if he got caught?

But against all worries, Jaeyeon entered the records room without incident.

“Oh.”

That went more smoothly than expected.

“Now all he has to do is get back out safely.”

“There are too many of them.”

Yun muttered quietly.

I was thinking the same thing.

The hallway was narrow, the door singular, yet there were too many guards. Even accounting for proximity to the ground level, it was strange to have so many stationed where there were almost no blind spots.

Even if they weren’t particularly skilled, the sheer number was excessive.

There had to be something important in that room. That was why it was in the main building.

Supposedly, half this floor was a parking area, but I didn’t even see the entrance.

Boom!

A deafening crash tore through the hall as the records room door exploded.

[Code 9. Experiment subject escaped from Records Room 1.]

[Code 9. Experiment subject escaped from Records Room 1.]

An alarm blared through the air.

The guards jerked simultaneously.

“What the—?”

“Son of a—!”

“Fire!”

They aimed their guns toward the room and opened fire.

Smoke filled the entrance; we couldn’t see inside. The best we could do was narrow our eyes and watch them shoot blindly into the haze.

Ratatatatatat! Ratatatat!

The sharp gunfire mixed with heavy thuds.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Footsteps.

Definitely not Jaeyeon’s. The heavy stomps grew louder.

Even under that hail of bullets, the sound didn’t stop.

And then something enormous burst out of the room.

The floor trembled as it landed.

It crashed through the over-two-meter-tall doorway and threw back its head in a roar.

“GrrraaaAAAAAHHH!”

What the hell.

That’s huge.

Its shape was roughly human, but considering its size—and the fact that it took that much gunfire without flinching—it was clearly no human.

“A Creature?”

“Ah. So it’s not a records room, it’s a bio-lab.”

Yun said calmly.

He watched the massive humanoid monster grab one of the subordinates and toss him aside, then added nonchalantly,

“Looks like the guy we buried lied to us.”

What were they experimenting on to make that thing?

One subordinate was definitely dead—snatched up, hurled, and crushed underfoot until unrecognizable.

It didn’t seem especially skilled, but I hadn’t expected the men to become minced meat so easily.

“Request backup!”

The survivors shouted frantically.

“Request backup!!”

“Damn. It’s coming this way.”

The subordinates backed toward the stairs.

Watching their retreating backs, I murmured, and Yun straightened with a simple tone.

“Let’s pretend to be reinforcements.”

Good idea.

“Or we could just ditch them.”

I smiled faintly.

It didn’t sound like a joke.

Honestly, I was tempted.

But in the end, I made the loyal choice.

“Better to let that thing and the guards go upstairs, then we head into the room, don’t you think?”

“Yeah.”

Yun straightened his posture.

“Not a bad plan.”

Now the huge thing and the subordinates were right before us.

Yun swung the stair door wide open. Light poured down the dim stairwell, blocked by the silhouettes filling it.

Things moved fast. The shooter raised his gun and fired straight into the creature’s eye. Ratatatat! Bullets slammed into its right eyeball one after another. The creature screamed, thrashing.

A punch that could have crushed a bear’s skull slammed through the air.

The moment two of the guards turned toward us, we slipped beneath the monster’s arm.

We bolted down the long hallway.

“Wow, even that didn’t kill it.”

Running toward the room, I couldn’t help marveling at the creature’s endurance.

“It’s tougher than most Creatures. What the hell is that?”

“Used to be human, probably.”

Yun said it flatly, and the words made my skin crawl.

The white, sterile corridor stretched ahead.

We sprinted through it and burst into the destroyed doorway.

Behind that door was another door—half open, like the ones leading into a portal control zone.

Thud thud thud thud thud thud thud thud!

Heavy footsteps pounded behind us.

I glanced back over my shoulder.

“Looks like it’s coming for us instead of climbing the stairs.”

“Then let’s go in.”

Yun didn’t even bother looking back.

“No need to fight it.”

He was right.

I followed him inside.

And just as I turned to close the door, our eyes met.

Bloodshot eyes, a swollen head so thick there was no visible neck.

Even if I had my sword, I wouldn’t have faced that thing lightly.

The monster let out a thunderous roar as it charged at us.

“GRRAAAHHHHH!”

Crash!

I slammed the lab door shut just as it lunged.

The impact hit a split second later with a heavy whud! The shock made the thick door tremble. For something to shake a door like that—it was terrifyingly strong.

It probably couldn’t break through, but still.

Satisfied with my timing, I turned around—

—and froze.

The space before me sent a chill through my gut.

A room as wide as a department store parking lot, filled not with cars but desks, nameless instruments, a computer the size of three tables joined together, and thick stacks of documents.

There was even a shattered glass box where the test subject had been kept.

Jaeyeon, now back in his own face, looked at me.

“You made it?”

The man brushed back his blood-damp hair and smiled oddly.

“Good work. How about we take a little look around the lab before that thing gets back?”

I was about to reply dryly—

—but then my eyes landed on Yun, already rifling through the research materials, and on Jaeyeon, whose handiwork had clearly freed the creature.

And then—

Something on the computer screen caught my eye.

A familiar face that froze me in place.

“What the hell?”

I walked straight up to the monitor.

“Why is Yehyeon here?”

***

“Mmm~ so you think it could be your stalker~?”

“Not impossible, but... I don’t think so.”

A single-patient hospital room.

Outside the window, dusk had fallen. The silence that came with it was broken gently by a man’s and woman’s voices.

After Ami finished her story, Ricardo—his tone lazy as always—asked the question.

Ami answered without hesitation.

“If it were a normal stalker, he wouldn’t have disappeared like a ghost.”

“I was careless.”

“No, you weren’t.”

She turned toward Ska, who was blaming himself with a sigh.

“You called the ambulance.”

“So you’re saying the culprit might be the same person who kidnapped Hilde....”

Ricardo murmured, voice lower than usual.

His gaze was fixed somewhere on the floor—half lost in thought. One leg crossed, both hands shoved into his coat pockets.

Ami nodded.

“Yeah.”

“Ah... and the Commander~?”

“He’s on his way.”

Ska looked down at his phone.

“Probably within ten minutes—”

The door opened.

The measured sound of polished shoes clicked against the floor as Yehyeon entered the room.

He didn’t even glance at the men straightening their backs. He went straight to the bed.

“Ami.”

Supreme Commander Yehyeon called the name of the girl he treated like his own younger sister.

“How’s your condition?”