Chapter 19

Kwak Hanmuk, Mo Haein, Samra, and the others looked quite similar to the image I had imagined from seeing their pixel sprites.

I even found myself silently admiring how accurately the game had portrayed their features.

But Je Hyuno was different.

Throughout the entire game, he never showed his face.

Not even once did he remove his protective goggles.

And now, for the first time in both the game and reality, I was about to see at least part of his face.

However, Je Hyuno was completely different from how I had imagined him.

‘With that height and build, I thought he’d be a very handsome man, but…’

Beneath thick eyelashes, a pair of narrow dark purple eyes stared directly at me.

His iris and pupil were different colors.

His pupil was a metallic gold.

That color, altered by the infection, made it clear that he was no longer completely human.

As I stood frozen in surprise, Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein barely reacted.

They simply seemed to think.

‘Huh, he actually took off his goggles today.’

They had already seen his face many times.

It wasn’t anything new.

I tried not to stare at him too intently.

Then Je Hyuno’s eyes curved slightly.

Only then did I realize that I had unconsciously taken several steps closer.

I must have walked forward without realizing it just to get a better look at him.

‘Since we’re already here, I wish he’d take off the gas mask too.’

If we ever got along, I wanted to ask him to let me see his face.

“Recruit.”

Je Hyuno’s voice pulled me out of my thoughts.

“What’s your name?”

“Han Goyo.”

“Goyo.”

That deep, gravelly voice didn’t match the smiling expression in his eyes at all.

It was as if two completely different people had been stitched together.

“If you do it one more time, I’ll really kill you.”

A chill ran down my spine.

“I’m sorry.”

I apologized immediately.

Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein would probably think he was warning me for using him to eliminate zombies.

But I knew the truth.

Je Hyuno was talking about Zero.

‘He’s telling me never to pretend I know about that again.’

Although he held the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Je Hyuno was the youngest team leader in the entire Trial Response Agency.

While Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein were both around thirty, he was only twenty-eight.

The turning point that led to his impossible promotions was Zero.

He had already been an exceptionally promising soldier before then.

But everything changed after he entered that Trial.

After becoming an Infected who retained his sanity, he became the Trial Response Agency’s most powerful weapon.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that South Korea survived the threat of national collapse thanks to Je Hyuno.

There were even Compatibles who voluntarily entered Zero, hoping to obtain the same power.

None of them returned alive.

Je Hyuno was the only survivor.

The Agency wanted to know how he had cleared that Trial.

But he never submitted a report.

Not even Director Jang Seokyun could get a single word out of him.

They continued trying to gather information about Zero afterward.

Then Je Hyuno started attacking anyone who mentioned that Trial in front of him.

After a researcher from the Research Analysis Division was killed because of it, talking about Zero in front of Je Hyuno became a forbidden subject.

To this day, the Trial Response Agency still had no idea what kind of Trial Zero was.

And I had just brought up that exact subject.

Though I also had something to say.

“So… will you accept me as a member of the team?”

If anyone had tried to kill someone from the very first meeting, it had been Je Hyuno.

No matter how violent he was toward Trials and Compatibles, he had never attacked an Agency soldier like that without reason.

Instead of answering whether he would stop trying to kill me, Je Hyuno turned his gaze toward Mo Haein.

“Captain Mo. What’s this?”

“He’s a new recruit. Han Goyo. He’ll be with us for one month. Because of his special knowledge about Trials, the Director created a new Special Mission Team under his direct command.”

“Hmm. Then I’m assigned to it as well.”

“That’s right.”

Mo Haein paused briefly before adding as she looked directly at him,

“…He’s a member of the team, Lieutenant Colonel.”

Je Hyuno slowly closed his eyes and opened them again.

“Recruit Crazy Night closed the HAZPAC Trial. He possesses extensive knowledge about Trials. He’ll be useful to the team.”

Kwak Hanmuk also spoke up, doing his best to convince him of my usefulness.

While both captains were doing everything they could to defend me, I also sent a Message.

Trust me.

Je Hyuno’s eyes shifted toward the system window that had appeared before him.

Then he looked back at me.

An instinctive chill ran through my body.

Je Hyuno still wanted to kill me.

I had no idea why he harbored such killing intent.

But at the same time, I was convinced he wouldn’t do it.

At least not while we remained inside Dead Zone Delivery.

‘If he’d wanted to kill me, he would’ve done it already.’

There was no way someone like Je Hyuno would remain immobilized just because he had rolled across the asphalt a little.

Even after my Restriction had stopped his last attack, he had had countless opportunities to tear my head off.

And yet he had left me alive.

‘Probably because he still doesn’t fully understand my abilities.’

Je Hyuno didn’t know that my powers were still quite limited.

He only knew that I could display system windows and restrict his movements for a few seconds.

It was only natural for him to imagine that I possessed far greater abilities.

In fact, Execution did exist.

Now that I had registered him, Je Hyuno’s life was literally in my hands.

The silence between us began to stretch on.

Mo Haein started showing signs of unease.

Finally, Je Hyuno spoke.

“Can you get the True Ending in this one too?”

The meaning was obvious.

If I couldn’t prove my worth in Dead Zone Delivery, it wouldn’t matter that I could use system windows.

He would eliminate me.

The truth was, I still didn’t know whether the True Ending was even possible anymore.

‘But that’s my problem.’

Either way, if I wanted to keep my arms and legs, I’d have to make it possible, even if it seemed impossible.

I looked at him with determination.

“I’ll do it. No matter what.”

I didn’t know what he found so amusing.

But a smile appeared in his eyes.

With his eyes curved like a crescent moon, he suddenly said my name.

“Goyo.”

“Yes!”

“You’re going to die young.”

“…Huh?”

After throwing out that completely unprovoked curse, he put his protective goggles back on.

Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein were speechless for a few seconds.

Finally, they protested on my behalf.

“But, Lieutenant Colonel, how can you say that to the team’s most valuable rookie? Goyo is only twenty-four years old! Twenty-four!”

“Lieutenant Colonel, that was going too far.”

Naturally, Je Hyuno didn’t respond.

Instead, an irritating emoticon appeared on his goggles.

> <

‘What does that emoticon mean this time…?’

In the end, I decided to give up trying to interpret his emoticons.

In any case, that wasn’t what mattered.

Je Hyuno had finally joined the Special Mission Team!

With my heart overflowing with excitement, I looked at Je Hyuno, Mo Haein, and Kwak Hanmuk.

I never imagined that I would end up on the same team as the people I had always considered the best members of the Trial Response Agency while playing Archive.

Ever since I became a System and had been living with the constant fear of losing my limbs, this was the happiest moment I had experienced.

“I look forward to working with you from now on, Lieutenant Colonel.”

I respectfully bowed to Je Hyuno.

At the same time, a small wish crossed my mind.

‘Maybe someday I’ll get to meet my favorite character too.’

I liked the Agency members, but my favorite character in Archive wasn’t part of the Trial Response Agency.

Even so, they were also a Compatible.

Surely, we’d meet someday.

Of course, first I had to survive an entire month without losing my arms or legs.

At that moment, the silence of the night was broken by the growls of zombies.

The remaining Dead Zombies seemed to have tracked our presence.

“The jeep!”

Kwak Hanmuk was the first to react.

“I’ll go hide the jeep.”

It was far too valuable a means of transportation to use only once and abandon there.

But if they hid it poorly, the Dead Zombies would eventually destroy it.

Unlike normal zombies, they possessed far greater destructive power.

That was precisely why Dead Zone had become nothing more than a mountain of ruins.

At the very least, they’d have to drive the jeep all the way back to Red Zone to hide it safely.

But then it would lose all usefulness as a vehicle.

“Captain Kwak. I think it’d take too long to move the jeep somewhere safe.”

I pointed at the roof of the laboratory.

“How about leaving it on the rooftop?”

Mo Haein gave me a look that clearly said.

‘This crazy recruit is at it again.’

Even though she looked utterly incredulous, she still asked,

“And how do you plan to get it up there?”

“By flying.”

A little later.

We were successfully flying through the night sky.

More specifically, Je Hyuno was carrying the jeep through the air while Kwak Hanmuk, Mo Haein, and I sat inside it.

Each beat of his metallic wings produced a cold metallic sound that served as background music.

Sitting behind the wheel, Kwak Hanmuk rested his arm on the open window while calmly enjoying the flight.

“The Lieutenant Colonel is really convenient.”

He seemed completely satisfied with the performance of that unusual “aircraft.”

“Captain Mo. How about making Big Brother Goyo the leader of the Special Mission Team? Then we could travel like this all the time.”

As Kwak Hanmuk laughed and joked, Mo Haein still wore an expression of disbelief.

She still seemed unable to accept that we were flying inside a jeep.

“Stop talking nonsense, Captain Kwak. You’re making me want to bite you.”

She wore articulated handcuffs around her wrists.

It was a precaution in case the infection suddenly made her aggression increase.

She also sat in the front passenger seat so she would always remain within Kwak Hanmuk’s field of vision.

Thanks to that, even though I was the youngest member of the team, I ended up sitting in the back seat.

As I listened to the two of them bickering, I looked out the window.

Below us, countless Dead Zombies had already surrounded the laboratory.

Fortunately, none of them could climb onto the rooftop.

‘Please let everything stay this way.’

If we could quickly achieve the True Ending, everything would be perfect.

Je Hyuno circled the building once to judge the position.

Then he carefully set the jeep down on the rooftop.

Thud.

With a light jolt, the vehicle landed.

Several Dead Zombies hidden in a corner of the roof lunged at us.

But there wasn’t even any need to intervene.

Je Hyuno finished them off in an instant.

As Kwak Hanmuk removed Mo Haein’s handcuffs, a system window appeared.

◆ Main Quest: Explore the laboratory and find the researcher who survived to develop the vaccine.

You have accomplished an incredible feat using an impossible method.

Although you have achieved the unimaginable, this is only the beginning.

You believe that if you find the researcher capable of developing the vaccine, there may still be new hope.

However, there is no guarantee that everything will go well.

Because too many things have already changed.

Finding the researcher responsible for developing the vaccine had also been a mission in the game.

Although the description was slightly different, the objective remained the same.

I took a deep breath and began the briefing.

“As soon as we enter the laboratory, the first thing we—”

“Recruit, wait a moment.”

Mo Haein interrupted me before I could continue.

“Have you fully recovered your hunger and thirst levels?”

“Yes! They’re completely full now. I’ll be more careful from now on so it doesn’t happen again.”

“……”

Mo Haein frowned slightly.

Then, all of a sudden, Kwak Hanmuk threw an arm around my shoulders.

I looked at him as he practically crushed me.

“Listen. We take clearing Trials very seriously. Very, very seriously. But that doesn’t mean we’re heartless bastards.”

“Exactly, Recruit. You’re only a recruit. You haven’t even received official military training yet.”

Mo Haein looked directly at me.

“To be precise, right now you’re not even a soldier. You’re a civilian.”

“Ah… I’m sorry.”

Just as I was about to step back, thinking I might have gone too far…

Mo Haein took out a piece of cloth from somewhere, dampened it with water, and handed it to me.

When I just stood there holding it without understanding, she pointed at my face.

Only then did I realize.

I wiped my face.

The cloth was completely soaked with blood.

Mo Haein sighed before quietly saying,

“…What I’m trying to tell you is to learn to take care of your physical condition while you’re doing all this.”