The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low - Chap 308
Lee Sa-young couldn’t possibly be here.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
I know that.
Tap, tap, tap, tap.
But he couldn’t stop his legs from running. Cha Eui-jae chased after the faint trace of Lee Sa-young’s energy, as if possessed. It led him deep into the facility. He passed through several long corridors and descended many flights of stairs. Since a gathering was in progress, he didn’t run into anyone.
Eventually, a corridor filled with iron bars— strikingly similar to the one he had seen at Prometheus’ headquarters— came into view.
“…”
Cha Eui-jae walked slowly. Unlike the other place, this prison held mutated humans instead of test subjects. Some were completely transformed into monsters, while others had only partially mutated— like a human with an animal’s limb. Most of them seemed to have lost their minds, blankly staring up at the ceiling.
‘They must have been drugged…’
He felt sick. Cha Eui-jae closed his eyes and focused on the energy. It was coming from behind a thick reinforced door. Blasting through it would draw too much attention. As he felt around the door for some kind of mechanism, it happened.
“…Who are you?”
A small, cautious voice asked. Cha Eui-jae turned his head. A boy, his body partially turned white, was gripping the bars. His right leg had transformed to resemble that of a carnivorous animal, signs of advanced mutation. The boy glared at Cha Eui-jae through the bars.
‘…Should I say anything?’
The test subjects wrapped in white cloth never spoke. Cha Eui-jae kept silent and continued what he was doing. The boy spoke again, suspiciously.
“You’re not a guard. Guards never come this far.”
“…”
“And they’re not small like you.”
“…”
“If you don’t say anything, I’m going to call someone.”
The boy looked slightly older than Park Ha-eun. Kids these days were sharp. Cha Eui-jae let out a small sigh and squatted in front of the cell.
“Come on, it’s obvious I’m not with the people who locked you up. Just look the other way, yeah?”
“What do you do?”
“Hunter.”
“You’re a Hunter?”
The boy’s voice rose. Cha Eui-jae quickly reached into the cell and covered the boy’s mouth. The narrow bars bent to fit the shape of his hand.
“Be quiet. I’m sneaking in. Help me out, yeah?”
The boy nodded. Cha Eui-jae withdrew his hand and bent the bars back into place. The boy pressed close to the cell.
“H-Hunter, then you came from outside, right? Right?”
“Yeah. What happened to you? Why are you here?”
“My mom brought me… said I needed treatment. They said they could cure the whitening disease if we prayed hard enough. So we kept praying…”
The boy’s shoulders trembled. Fear filled his black eyes. He suddenly gripped the bars and shook them.
“Please, please get me out! I don’t want to be here! I’m scared. It hurts!”
Cha Eui-jae’s lips parted slightly. The boy, overlapped in his mind with the bandage-wrapped young Lee Sa-young, was crying, his small hands trembling with tears streaming down his face.
“Mom… I want to see Mom… it hurts too much here, I’m scared… all they do is hurt me… I want to go to Mom…”
Lee Sa-young hadn’t even been able to say it hurt. He could only express it through tiny finger movements.
[When will you come again?]
Cha Eui-jae reached out and gently stroked the boy’s hair. The boy sobbed, tears falling freely. Cha Eui-jae stared at him quietly, at this boy, this younger Lee Sa-young. Had Lee Sa-young cried alone too? Because it hurt, because he was scared?
Had he cried… because he missed me?
Cha Eui-jae nodded slowly.
“…Alright. I got it.”
“…Really?”
“Yeah. But first, I just need to check what’s behind that door. Do you know anything about it?”
The boy wiped his tears with the back of his hand.
“I don’t know… but the people who go in there wear weird clothes. Like space suits.”
“Space suits?”
Probably hazmat suits. The boy continued in a shaky voice.
“Yeah… and then the door slams shut… and I hear screaming sometimes.”
“Did you see how they open the door?”
“There’s… a thing on the wall. You press it, and then pull something. On the right wall.”
“Got it. Thanks.”
Cha Eui-jae grasped the boy’s hand through the bars and whispered,
“I’ll be right back. Wait for me.”
The boy nodded quickly. Cha Eui-jae began feeling along the wall next to the iron door. Then, he felt a slight misalignment. Pressing on it with force, a panel slid down, revealing a red lever. Without hesitation, Cha Eui-jae pulled it.
Clunk.
The heavy door began to rise slowly. A dizzyingly sweet and pungent scent hit him like a wave.
“…”
It was Lee Sa-young’s scent. Cha Eui-jae slowly stepped past the door. Beyond the corridor was another door, half-open.
The room inside resembled a dark laboratory. The first thing that caught his eye was a massive glass tube. The violet liquid inside bubbled and boiled. Cha Eui-jae stared at it, dazed. He could tell right away— it was poison. The source of the sweet scent was that tube.
‘It looks like the antidote Lee Sa-young gave me…’
On the front of the glass tube, a sheet of paper was stuck, with a bright red skull symbol stamped on it.
[HANDLE WITH CARE]
– Do not approach without protective gear.
– Always carry the antidote when entering.
– Always work in pairs.
– Only one person is allowed inside at a time; the other must remain by the door with a walkie-talkie.
– If the person inside collapses, immediately lower the barrier and evacuate.
If you ignore this and barge in, you’ll seriously die~ Not even Hua Tuo could save you 🙂
The last sentence seemed to have been added by someone else, there were smudged ballpoint pen marks left behind.
And then,
Thud!
Something inside the glass chamber slammed against the wall. Cha Eui-jae stepped closer. Through the thick, dark liquid, he caught a glimpse of a grotesquely distorted figure. For a brief moment, their eyes seemed to meet. Eyes, muddled and half-melted, wandered in search of movement. Submerged all the way to the crown of its head, the figure thrashed inside the poison-filled chamber. Thump, thump, thump…
‘That’s…’
Wasn’t this the test subject that Ga-young had been keeping around? Cha Eui-jae hesitated. Should he let it out? Was it worth risking a fight here? But leaving it like this, watching it struggle in pain, didn’t sit right either.
‘Damn it… there’s gotta be some kind of control panel, right?’
He couldn’t break the chamber recklessly, it was full of poison. There had to be a safe way to release it.
Cha Eui-jae frantically scanned the area, and finally spotted a screen hovering beside the chamber. Thankfully, it wasn’t locked. He quickly scrolled through it, searching for any useful information.
[…Modified based on Test Subject No. 4’s data…]
[Upon injection with strong poison, the body could not withstand the effects and began to collapse. Used boosters to reconstruct the body; regenerative capabilities were also enhanced. Structural changes to the body ensued…]
[The more the process was repeated, the more powerful it became…]
[Note: Awakened being Lee Sa-young is said to regularly ingest poison. Whether it’s to recharge or to strengthen themselves remains unclear.]
[Purchased the same types of poison Lee Sa-young used.]
[Planning to enhance and intensify the poison step by step, using the same method as was done with Subject No. 4.]
[Lead researcher: Ga-young]
A fist burst through the boiling liquid and vanished. The chamber began to shake more violently. Gurgle. Gasp. Gk. The sounds of choking and struggling filled the space. The thing inside was desperately fighting to survive. To live. Its whole body convulsed in the venom.
Test Subject No. 4.
‘…No way. Is that Lee Sa-young?’
Ga-young had mentioned the test subject was modified based on “that child’s” data. Then the horrifying sight before him…
Trapped in that suffocating, poison-filled chamber…
He had guessed. He had suspected that while he was away, Lee Sa-young had been subjected to all kinds of experimentation. Unspeakably cruel ones. Enough to make his body freeze at just the sound of Ga-young’s voice. But the weight of reality was far heavier than anything he had imagined.
The thrashing inside the chamber began to slow. The poison gradually settled. The gasping and the desperate struggle ceased. Silence fell.
Cha Eui-jae placed his hand against the surface of the glass. It was so cold it made his skin ache. There was no sign of life. Squelch. He clenched his teeth. An indescribable fury rushed through him, yet his mind cooled.
Had they soaked that torn-up body in poison so it could regenerate itself?
Had they force-fed poison to that child?
The one who had gone blind from poison, who had lost even the ability to speak?
His vision turned red. Cha Eui-jae pressed his forehead to the glass and took a deep breath. He clasped his hands behind his back, afraid he’d shatter the chamber if he squeezed too hard. His short-cut nails dug into his calloused palms. He didn’t even feel the pain. This pain—this was nothing compared to what Lee Sa-young must’ve gone through.
Cha Eui-jae let out a shallow breath. His chest heaved. His eyes were wet. He clung to the glass chamber, trying to calm his breathing. But then,
Hrrgh—
A sob escaped despite him trying to hold it back.
