episode_0023

My hands and feet were completely bound to the cold operating table.

A strong light shone on my entire body, making my eyes feel numb.

Beyond that light, a familiar voice could be heard.

It was one of the facility’s researchers.

“Subject name: Anna Danilova. 17 years old.”

“Facility grade: Potential S-class.”

They had been observing me closely.

Even during life-and-death battles with other survivors.

Even when enduring hellish training alone.

After such observation, it seems they have finally found the answer they were looking for.

That I am superior to others and worthy of being used as their test subject.

I knew I would end up like this sooner or later.

I had heard rumors that subjects who performed well in the facility were used for experiments.

But even with those rumors, we had no choice but to excel in our performance.

Otherwise, we might have died before being used in experiments.

It’s just my turn now.

One of two outcomes awaits me.

The man approaching me right now holds a syringe.

Either I will go berserk after receiving the green injection and be disposed of, or if my body barely withstands it, I will be transported somewhere else.

In the past, I would have simply accepted my fate humbly after receiving the injection.

But now, there is someone on my mind.

Someone who always smiled at me first, waved her hand, and shared her food one by one.

The girl who gifted me memories in this hellish place.

Sunnye.

Will I be able to remember her even after receiving this injection?

The intense light that illuminated me fades away.

Gradually, the man with scars on his head reveals himself.

His bulging eyes uncomfortably scan my body from head to toe.

From my toes to my forehead, he examines me with his eyes, his lips twitching.

“Truly… beautiful. If a specimen like this can endure my sample…”

He contorts his body grotesquely.

“A perfect masterpiece will be born!”

His yellowed teeth flash.

Before releasing the injection, the man stares intently at my face.

Then, as if puzzled by an unexpected situation, he furrows his brow.

“Wait…”

“This is strange.”

“I heard emotions were almost absent in this subject?”

He grabs my face with trembling hands.

Then, as if in disbelief, he rolls his protruding eyes.

“What’s this fearful expression for?!”

The man yells into the air.

He begins to curse at the researchers watching him from somewhere.

“I told you… I said this is an S-class subject and should be handled carefully!”

The man was the director of the facility.

A scientist who administered his experimental drugs to countless humans, leading to their deaths.

It seems he regarded me as his top experiment.

Seeing him in distress involuntarily makes me smirk.

His panicked face is quite comical.

The director’s eyebrows twitch.

He rushes out of the operating room in disgust.

Soon after, he returns with a gray syringe in hand.

“Director, administering drugs simultaneously to the subject is risky.”

Desperate voices of the researchers observing from outside are heard.

But the mad scientist, having lost trust in his assistants’ advice, pays them no heed.

“It’s because of you… Because of you, this beautiful child has developed something like emotions!”

“I’ve always waited for this day. To combine the best human genes with the finest woman…”

“But… But all because you couldn’t handle such a simple task properly?”

He approaches me panting.

Then, forcing a smile, he leans towards me, his lips curling.

“Well then, what should we do, remove it, right?”

Remove what?

My emotions?

My calm heart starts to tremble.

All the emotions I had barely recovered thanks to Sunnye are now lost in just one injection.

Unbelievable.

“You’re trembling… pitifully!”

The director looks down at me with concern, as if he could read my mind.

And leaning in with his eerie face, he whispers to me.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make you perfect.”

The sharp needle, reflected in the light, aims for my throat.

“Now, even those filthy emotions tormenting you will soon disappear.”

No…

The needle slowly pierces my flesh.

My bound body writhes back and forth.

However, the securely locked surgical table remains motionless.

Eventually, the sharp needle digs into the flesh.

I feel a cold liquid being injected into my veins.

The sensation quickly travels up the back of my head and spreads throughout.

And then, I felt it.

The chilling sensation of my mind freezing.

Unable to think as if every fold of my brain had been paralyzed.

Just gasping for air with my mouth agape.

Seemingly satisfied by my groans, the researcher smiles ecstatically.

“Yes, these eyes… so deep without a hint of life.”

Trembling, he retrieves a prepared syringe.

A green injection.

Please, no more…

He grabs my wrist without hesitation.

Gracefully holding the green syringe with his long fingers.

“How do you like this color, beautiful, isn’t it? Like an emerald. Soon, it will become one with your body.”

He proudly displays the syringe to my eyes as if showcasing a gem.

But at that moment, I couldn’t see such things.

My body contorts in an arch, feeling like my spine might snap.

Softly, like putting a baby to sleep, the researcher requests towards the empty space.

“Music.”

With his words, a faint sound of a piano fills the room.

The violin harmonizes softly, enveloping the operating room with a beautiful classical melody.

The researcher gently swirls the syringe as if conducting that piece.

Before the music reaches its climax, he plunges the needle into my vein.

“You will be pleased too. Your strength will surpass a man’s, and your beauty will exceed a woman’s.”

After setting down the syringe, he caresses my cheek.

As the injection enters my body, each muscle tears apart in agony.

Soon, that pain spreads like venom throughout my entire being.

“The composer Rachmaninoff said humans are beautiful because of their emotions.”

Frowning in disagreement with the composer’s words, the researcher gazes at me.

I couldn’t recall Rachmaninoff.

Although a composer from my homeland, now my mind draws a blank.

Painful, like insects crawling through the folds of my brain.

“But I don’t think that way. Emotions make humans despicable. I won’t let them mar this pretty face.”

“Director, you must step back. The subject might go berserk soon.”

However, the director pays no heed.

Merely whispering close to me.

“Those ignorant fools won’t understand. Do you realize how beautiful you are now?”

My limbs contort violently.

Almost convulsing rather than just twisting.

Nerves protrude as if about to burst out of my face.

I scream wildly, shaking the surgical table.

The screws binding my wrists rattle.

Seeing this, the staff outside who were watching the director rush in urgently.

“Director… It’s dangerous!”

Led away by heavily armed personnel, he is dragged out.

Yet, even as he leaves, his gaze remains fixed solely on me.

“…”

I think.

That face is irritating.

The creatures clinging to my brain whisper.

Get rid of that face from sight.

Urgent piano keys resonate in my ears.

In sync with the sound, I release the screws binding my limbs.

Startled, the staff point their guns at me.

Their barrels spew fire.

I feel an anesthetic dart pierce my side.

But it doesn’t matter.

I’m not getting drowsy at all.

Instead, energy overflows within me.

Guided by that power, I move my legs.

One step turns into ten in an instant.

Thanks to this, I swiftly approach the staff who were far away.

And then, I tear off one man’s arm.

“A monster tranquilizer gun…”

Murmurs the remaining staff member who was firing the gun.

I struck the noisy man’s mouth.

As I did, his face twisted as if turning a lid.

“…”

The manager looks at me with a vacant expression.

I approach him.

The closer I get, the more a smile blooms on his face.

“This…! That figure true to instinct. Finally completed…”

I grab his noisy throat and twist it.

But I don’t kill him right away.

I want to see his face contorted in agony for a moment.

Starting from 1 to 100, I begin to increase the strength of my hand little by little.

His face swells up like a balloon.

Soon, his features begin to deform like clay.

The bulging eyes seem like they will pop out of his face soon.

That appearance must be the ‘beauty’ that the manager was shouting at me about.

The music reaches its climax.

I intended to burst him at the climax.

But I couldn’t.

The brightly lit operating room had become completely dark.

The shadow gradually grew, completely obscuring the area where I stood.

“—!”

A massive fist swoops down.

I am crushed under that fist and crumple to the ground.

The barely alive manager staggers backward.

Then someone, with a deep voice, tells him, “Tolkin Manager, I warned you not to use the sample because it’s dangerous.”

Crushed to the ground, I roll my eyes.

And I look up at the silhouette overwhelming me.

A naked man.

But he is covered in black muscle fibers all over his body, making him look like he’s wearing a suit.

A strange body.

And strong.

Too much for a body pumped with drugs to handle.

“Haha… Who is this? Isn’t he our invited Ranker? What could such a prestigious guest be doing in such a filthy place?”

The manager exclaims, “You came just in time.”

Steam rises from his tomato-red face.

“Don’t beat around the bush.”

As if not in the mood for jokes, the Ranker grabs my head.

“Did you use the specimen without permission again? If you turn a blind eye even for a moment…”

“Don’t worry. That child will be my masterpiece. Just a bit more training here, and it will be perfect…”

Seemingly fed up, the man slams my head tightly gripped by him onto the ground.

It hurts.

“Thanks to you, only two inexperienced employees died.”

He slams my face into the ground repeatedly.

Does this man want to avenge the dead employees?

It’s not something he killed.

Why does he interfere when he’s neither family nor related?

Disgusting.

I want to kill him.

But I can’t.

He’s a stronger opponent than me.

Still, I will kill him someday.

Thinking so, my head is completely driven into the ground.

I lose consciousness from the shock.

However, I didn’t care about that shock at all.

Because what’s happening now is more important.

Something impure is filling my body.

And at the same time, another ‘something’ is leaving me.

I couldn’t define it.

“…”

Turned into a rag, I was sent back to the confinement facility.

I returned safely to the ward and lay down on the bed.

But my body doesn’t seem unharmed.

There are bruises and sore spots everywhere.

That’s it.

There’s no sense of injustice or sorrow.

Rather, that feeling seems to belong to Sunye, who watches me worriedly.

“Tolkin… why…”

She collapsed with a thud and hugged me lying down.

“Anna, say something. Are you okay?”

Sunye’s eyes welled up with tears.

But I couldn’t understand them.

So I ask.

“If it’s about my body, I think I’m fine. But why do you ask?”

Sunye’s face paled upon hearing my question.

She pulls me close with trembling hands.

Her soft skin sticks to my body.

The touching parts feel warm.

“Why do you ask?”

I asked persistently.

But Sunye just lowered her head without saying anything.

Her unresponsive attitude annoys me.

I even considered pushing my roommate off the bed.

But soon, I changed my mind.

It’s warmer to have our bodies pressed together than to deal with the thin blanket.

So, I maintained that position.

How long had we been holding each other?

Sunye fell asleep.

It’s the 289th time she and I are sleeping together in my bed.

Yet, it feels like the first time.

I gazed down at Sunye.

The girl with short hair squirmed in my arms like a small animal while resting her head on my chest.

Watching her, I suddenly pretended to bite the thin neck of the child with my hand.

It would look very satisfying like a deer being bitten on its neck.

Why do I feel this urge?

I pondered for a moment.

Then, I soon realized the reason.

This impulse stemmed from betrayal.

Because I realized that Sunye is not just an ordinary prisoner.

Among the captured survivors, no one knows the name of the laboratory director.