novelraw Chapter 163 : Intern Jae-hee (4)
Chapter 163 : Intern Jae-hee (4)
The next day, Jae-hee raced to the new mission site on the outskirts of Gyeonggi Province.
“Ten seconds late, newbie.”
A long-haired woman with an eyepatch was waiting for him—the Hunter known as Miss Never. She adjusted the massive sniper rifle on her back, and her one good eye narrowed playfully.
“I’ve always had a thing for bad boys who can’t keep a schedule…”
“From now on, I’ll never be late again no matter what!” Jae-hee yelped, breaking into a cold sweat.
It wasn’t just about Miss Never’s taste in men.
Every single mission he participated in as an intern was a test for joining the New Five Heroes. He needed to be on his absolute best behavior, and being ten seconds late was a major screwup.
Jae-hee started to stammer out a lame excuse. “On my way here, I saw this really cool toy… and I couldn’t decide whether to buy it or not…”
But no one was listening.
“You’re here, newbie.”
Chosen One had already arrived. He lowered the binoculars he’d been using to survey the area and nodded at Jae-hee. “With you, everyone for this mission is accounted for.”
“Good morning, sir!”
While Jae-hee offered an awkward salute, Chosen One’s sidekick, Mu-gung, smiled and handed him a pair of binoculars.
“You made it just in time,” she remarked.
“Hehe. A little late, actually. My apologies…”
Jae-hee took the binoculars and scanned the operation zone. He’d raised them to his eyes backward, and Mu-gung had to gently turn them around for him.
“This mission’s target is over there. The abandoned hospital.”
The massive building’s sign, which read “XX Hospital,” was eerily rusted. It had once been a large general hospital bustling with patients and doctors, but after the Gates appeared, the local population had rapidly declined.
The surrounding area had devolved into a slum, and the hospital had been shuttered for over a decade—a relic in the heart of a ruined city.
And now, a new Gate had opened there.
“This is basically a haunted house…”
The place was deserted, and the overcast sky lent the abandoned hospital a particularly creepy atmosphere.
Miss Never, having finished her own reconnaissance, wrinkled her nose and shook her head. “I hate ghosts. Can’t you swap me out with someone else for this one?”
Jae-hee blinked. “Oh, you don’t like ghosts?”
“Kid, who likes ghosts? I’m especially weak when it comes to scary stuff…”
You have a lot of weaknesses, Jae-hee thought. Weak to bad boys, weak to ghosts…
Chosen One sternly shut down her request. “Not happening. You’ve been put on a time-out for swapping missions too often.”
“Tch.”
“You have too many weaknesses in the first place. Use this as a chance to overcome them with grit!”
“This isn’t something you can overcome with grit…”
While Miss Never grumbled, Mu-gung summarized the situation. “The Gate is estimated to have appeared approximately twenty-four hours ago. All civilians who approached the area have gone missing. We have yet to identify the type of monster inside. A cautious approach is required.”
Miss Never jutted her chin out. “Where’s Captain Nerd? He’s the best at recon.”
“An anomaly was detected on Jeju Island, so he was dispatched there.”
“Ugh, seriously.” Miss Never squinted, peering at the hospital as she complained. “A Gate opens in South Korea an average of three times a week. Does it make any sense to expect the five of us to handle all of them?”
Chosen One crossed his arms and nodded gravely. “Nevertheless, it is necessary work… to manage the Erosion Rate and, ultimately, for the future of Joseon!”
“I’d kill for an extra pair of hands right now, seriously…” Miss Never whipped her head around to look at Jae-hee. “You better pull your weight during this internship, kid! We desperately need every person we can get.”
“Ah, yes! I’ll do my best.”
Mu-gung gave him a “Fighting!” gesture. Jae-hee clenched his own fists in response.
“Well, judging by the Gate particle readings, there probably isn’t anything too formidable inside.” Chosen One, unable to spot any monsters through the binoculars, finally handed them back to Mu-gung and stood up. “I’ll take the lead and push through.”
Miss Never clicked her tongue. “Another one of your brilliant, brute-force strategies…”
“We can’t just sit around twiddling our thumbs until they decide to crawl out. I’m sturdy, so I’ll go in first and stir things up. Miss Never, you’ll pick off anything that comes running out from a distance.”
Chosen One then gave orders to Mu-gung and Jae-hee.
“Chosen Two, you’re with me.”
“Yes, Captain.”
“Boy, you stay with Miss Never and provide support.”
“Yes, sir!”
Among the New Five Heroes, Chosen One had the best breakthrough power. Having him clear a path from the front was one of their most frequently used tactics.
“Let’s go!”
Drawing the Twin Dragon Swords from his back, Chosen One kicked off the ground and shot forward. As his traditional armor clanked, his massive frame tore through the ruins, and in an instant, he had breached the hospital.
Mu-gung, clutching her rifle, followed close behind.
“You know, for a guy like that, he can be pretty considerate…” Miss Never, who had been dreading entering the hospital, let out a relieved chuckle now that she was assigned to long-range support.
“All right, kid. Let’s get comfortable over here and enjoy the sweet life.”
“Huh? Are we allowed to do that?”
“Of course we are. The best part about pretending to be a sniper is getting to lounge around during a mission.”
True to her word, Miss Never actually spread a blanket on the ground. After setting up her enormous sniper rifle in front of it, she grunted and lay down on her stomach.
“C’mon, you too!”
She patted the spot next to her, and Jae-hee, doing as he was told, lay down beside her and raised his binoculars.
As he scanned the hospital, he let out a little “ooh.”
“Being like this makes me feel like… what do you call it? The assistant shooter who sticks by the sniper?”
“A spotter, you mean? Heh.” Miss Never peered through her rifle’s scope, a lazy grin spreading across her face. “I’m not a proper sniper, and you’re not a proper spotter, but I guess we look the part. So, go on, spot properly.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Jae-hee panned the binoculars, searching for Chosen One and Mu-gung. He fumbled a bit with the unfamiliar equipment, but after sweeping his view back and forth, he finally found them.
The two had been advancing like a tank, but as they stepped through the hospital’s main entrance, they both flinched and froze. Then, they spun around and began waving their hands frantically toward the sniper team.
«Retreat! Retreat!»
“Huh?”
«Fall back now! The hospital itself is the monster’s—!»
The next moment, space warped, then flipped inside out.
“Wha—?”
Chosen One and Mu-gung were flung from the hospital. In their place, Miss Never and Jae-hee were dragged inside.
One moment, they were on a hill overlooking the abandoned hospital.
The next, they were sprawled in a dark, gloomy corridor inside it.
Lying stunned on the floor, Miss Never and Jae-hee exchanged a look.
Her lips trembling, Miss Never muttered, “Well, we’re screwed…”
***
If he had to say, Jae-hee had pretty strong nerves.
It made sense, given that he’d spent most of his life growing up in a village of abandoned houses. The kind of spooky neighborhood people would call a haunted spot was just another Tuesday for him.
Broken and flickering lights, the creak and groan of wooden structures with every gust of wind, a shadow flitting across a dark alley…
…Jae-hee had grown up seeing things like that every day. He knew most of them were harmless.
Fear was just the mind blowing small things out of proportion. Poverty, on the other hand, was a real and present threat.
Jae-hee was more afraid of not knowing where his next meal was coming from than he was of any ghost.
“Whoa…”
So, even after being dropped inside a grotesque, abandoned hospital, Jae-hee wasn’t particularly fazed.
The red chemicals spilled on the floor, the bedsheets stained with some unidentifiable black substance, the wrecked and overturned operating table, the blurry shape visible through a fluttering curtain (it was just a standing sign)…
Jae-hee could take it all in stride.
The problem was Miss Never.
“Ugh, uhhh, ugh!”
Lying prone on the floor, she had her arms wrapped around her head and was shaking uncontrollably.
Jae-hee cautiously approached her. “Miss Never, are you okay…?”
“I… I… I…” she stammered, finally forcing the words out. “I’m scared of the dark…!”
“You are?”
“Y-y-yes, the dark! It’s scary…!”
Jae-hee quickly tried flipping the light switches on the wall, but none of the corridor lights turned on. They only flickered ominously.
Is there anything I can use for light?
Just as Jae-hee was about to rummage through his pockets, he heard it.
Shuff… shuff…
It was the sound of something moving down the hall. The sound of cloth dragging across the floor.
Jae-hee flinched and looked up. At the far end of the corridor, figures were shambling toward them.
He knew instinctively.
Those weren’t people.
“…”
Miss Never was in no condition to fight. The first priority was to get away from those things.
Jae-hee practically dragged the near-catatonic Miss Never to the end of the hall, pulled her into the smallest room he could find, and quietly closed the door.
But Miss Never just curled into a ball and continued to tremble.
“I… I’m also scared of small spaces…!”
She has so many darn weaknesses…
Jae-hee opened the room’s only window. It should have still been daytime, but the sky outside was dark, as if covered by storm clouds.
He gently stroked Miss Never’s trembling shoulder. “Don’t worry too much. Chosen One and Mu-gung will be here to rescue us soon.”
“I-I-I’ll be dead before then,” she said, her voice choked with tears. “Daddy… Daddy’s going to come punish me…”
“Huh? Your… daddy?”
As if Jae-hee weren’t even there, Miss Never began to hiccup and sob, muttering to herself. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’ll practice my shooting properly… Please… don’t punish me, Daddy…”
“…”
“Don’t lock me in here all by myself…”
Jae-hee hesitated for a moment, then his eyes lit up.
“Ah!”
He pulled something from his pocket and held it out in front of Miss Never.
“Miss Never, look at this!” he announced, a carefree smile on his face. “It’s a glow-in-the-dark dinosaur!”
“…?”
The unexpected combination of words made Miss Never look up in spite of herself.
He was serious.
Incidentally, this was why Jae-hee had been late today.
A glow-in-the-dark dinosaur toy, the kind sold by a trinket vendor at the market, was now glowing brightly before her eyes, a stark beacon in the darkness of the abandoned hospital.
“Cool, right?”
“…But why is it glowing…?”
She stared at the cheap, fluorescent toy, shaped like the fossilized skeleton of a Triceratops.
“…Why is it a dinosaur?”
The situation was so absurd that Miss Never found herself focusing on it, her panic momentarily forgotten.
“I saw it at the market on my way here today, and I wanted it so bad, but I didn’t have any cash on me, you see? So I hesitated, then I used my ability to run back to Hero Tower at top speed, borrowed some cash from Rain Man, ran back, and bought it… Anyway, that’s why I was late.”
As Jae-hee showed off the dinosaur with a huge grin, he paused with a thoughtful expression.
Then, he offered it to Miss Never.
“It’s for you.”
“Huh…?”
“A gift from your intern…? No, it’s a bribe!” Jae-hee beamed. “A bribe to ask you to please give me a good evaluation on my intern test!”
Staring blankly at his smile, Miss Never… she couldn’t help but laugh.
“…Hah. Ahahaha!”
That weak, fluorescent light was no match for the darkness.
Yet absurdly, she found it vividly warm.