Ch.121Chapter 121. El Paso (1)

“Look, look at this, Jinsoo. It says El Paso was ranked as the safest city in America!”

“Really? Then we don’t need to worry about drug gangs or anything!”

“Ahaha! That’s right!”

Cuss looked up at Jinsoo and Juliane, who had been awkwardly laughing, with an expression of disbelief.

Ever since hearing about drug cartels operating in Texas, the two had been frantically searching the internet for evidence that El Paso was a safe city.

“There’s a military base nearby too.”

“Oh, and it says it has the highest police deployment of any city.”

“Couldn’t that mean it’s dangerous enough to need that many police?”

“……”

“……”

As soon as Cuss spoke, cold stares were directed at her.

Jinsoo’s large hand reached out and rested on the confused Cuss’s head.

“Cuss. El Paso is a safe city. Got it?”

“Umm…?”

“Repeat after me. El Paso is a safe city.”

“El Paso is a safe city……”

“Nothing bad will happen in El Paso.”

“Nothing bad will happen in El Paso……”

“That’s right.”

Jinsoo has finally lost his mind.

Cuss shook her head in pity.

“It’s almost time for our train. Let’s go in.”

“Wow……”

Cuss followed Jinsoo and Juliane inside.

When the large dome-shaped interior came into view, Cuss let out a gasp of amazement.

Though it wasn’t her first visit, it was still impressive.

The Hyper Bullet LA Station.

The second largest building in LA by area.

“How long will it take, Jinsoo?”

“Including the transfer time at Phoenix, about an hour and a half.”

“Hmm……”

She thought it would take much longer since they were crossing two states.

But it only took about three times her school commute time.

This must be the pinnacle of human technological achievement.

“Wow, El Paso has a station too? We can go straight from Phoenix.”

“Yes, it was built three years ago.”

“The world has really advanced……”

Just before he went to prison, the Hyper Bullet had just started operating with only a few stations.

Now there were stations across the entire country, almost like a railway system.

Jinsoo felt the magnitude of his lost decade and gave a bitter smile.

Unlike airplanes, security checks for the Hyper Bullet were much simpler.

As Jinsoo headed toward the platform with relief—

“Hmm?!”

He froze as soon as he spotted the security checkpoint.

All passengers were passing through metal detectors.

“What’s that?”

“Oh, they started doing simple metal detection checks last year.”

“Damn it……”

Biting his nails, Jinsoo looked down at Cuss.

He was about to find out whether there was metal inside those tentacles.

Of course, when he had cut one off before, there was nothing that looked like metal.

But the problem would be if there was some soft metal-like substance inside.

“Cuss. If you hear a beeping sound there, turn around and run immediately.”

“Why?”

“Because if they catch you and take an X-ray, you’re dead.”

“……”

Even if she got caught, there would still be a way out as long as they didn’t take an X-ray.

After whispering to Cuss, Jinsoo stepped forward with a grave expression.

“Please pass through one at a time.”

Beep-beep-beep-beep!

“……”

“……”

As soon as Juliane passed through, the metal detector went crazy.

But Juliane, seemingly used to this, didn’t panic at all and approached the staff, showing her wallet.

“I’m an investigator with the US Attorney’s Office. I’m carrying metal items necessary for official duties.”

“Ah, I see. You may pass.”

The alarm turned off, and Juliane naturally passed through the checkpoint.

She could have said she was a cyborg and blamed it on her prosthetics.

But then the staff would annoyingly ask her to remove them for inspection.

This was the method she had chosen.

Strictly speaking, as a Justice Department investigator, she was always on duty, so saying it was necessary for official duties wasn’t exactly an abuse of power.

“I’ll go first, Cuss.”

“Okay.”

Jinsoo took a deep breath and slowly crossed the metal detector.

No alarm sounded.

He had placed all his belongings in a basket to pass through the X-ray, and he had no electronic implants, so this was the expected result.

He soon retrieved his belongings, and the inspection was quickly over.

Now it was Cuss’s turn.

Nervous, she curled her tail between her legs and stiffly moved forward.

First, she extended her foot.

There was no reaction from the detector.

Jinsoo was nodding from the other side.

Right. Surely she wouldn’t get caught.

Gaining confidence, Cuss passed through the detector in one go—

Beep-beep-beep-beep!

The alarm blared fiercely.

Startled, Cuss froze in place.

“Just a moment. Please stay still.”

“……”

A staff member approached with a handheld metal detector and brought it close to her face.

She definitely had no metal items besides her phone, which she had already removed.

Could it really be her tail…?

—Run, you idiot!

Jinsoo was urgently mouthing the words.

But her legs wouldn’t move.

Cuss could only tremble as the detector scanned her upper body and moved down to her lower body.

Then she remembered the principle of metal detectors she had looked up yesterday out of boredom.

Metal detectors emit magnetic fields and use electromagnetic induction to generate eddy currents.

To reduce electromagnetic induction, she needed to reduce magnetic flux, which meant…

‘I need to straighten my tail!’

She realized she needed to straighten her curled tail to reduce the conductor’s area.

But if she fully extended her tail, it would show below her skirt.

Still, to be sure, she needed to make it a straight line.

After brief consideration, Cuss decided to take a gamble.

She extended her tentacle just slightly so it peeked out from under her skirt.

“Ugh, that little sh—”

“Jinsoo?!”

Seeing this, Jinsoo grabbed the back of his neck and collapsed.

Well done, Jinsoo.

Thanks to him, he caught Juliane’s attention.

The detector had now moved below her waist and scanned over her skirt.

Cuss swallowed nervously, but the detector made no sound.

Due to the staff member’s angle, the tentacle wasn’t discovered.

Soon, after checking down to her ankles, the staff member straightened up with a puzzled look.

“That’s strange. Why did it do that? Would you mind passing through once more?”

“Um… okay.”

Awkwardly, trying not to make her skirt flutter, Cuss moved back using just her ankles and passed through the metal detector again.

This time, no alarm sounded.

“Hah… Must have been an error. You can go through.”

“What? A machine error? But this is new. Strange.”

“I know, right…”

As the staff members muttered behind her, Cuss’s face brightened, and she ran past the checkpoint.

As she had feared, her tail contained quite a bit of metal, but she had used her wits to overcome the crisis.

Indeed, such flimsy human security couldn’t stop her.

Feeling superior, she opened her eyes to see—

“Jinsoo! Wake up!”

“Step back, ma’am! You’re interfering!”

“Ah……”

Jinsoo was being carried away on a stretcher.

Shocked, she ran over and saw that Jinsoo’s condition looked quite serious.

His eyes were rolled back, and he was foaming at the mouth.

“I told him not to drink so much! This guy, seriously!”

“Jinsoo… Is he dying?”

Cuss reached out with a blank expression.

There was no strength in Jinsoo’s hand.

Could he be dying because I scared him?

No, he couldn’t die.

Because Jinsoo was strong.

He always got up fine even when seriously injured.

That should be the case.

It had to be…

For some reason, tears welled up and spilled over.

“Jinsoo! Don’t die!”

“Kuheogh! Ah! We have to go on our trip!”

“…?!”

Suddenly, Jinsoo sat up and shouted.

“What’s going on?”

He casually wiped away the foam from his mouth…

The paramedics lifting the stretcher, Juliane, and Cuss all stared at him in shock.

After looking around and assessing the situation, Jinsoo jumped off the stretcher.

“Hahaha! Did I fool you all? With my method acting?”

“But you were foaming at the mouth…”

“Cuss. Let’s run.”

“Hey! Wait! You need to be examined!”

They couldn’t miss the train.

Jinsoo grabbed Cuss’s hand and ran toward the platform.

Poor Juliane was left behind, apologizing profusely to the paramedics before following them.

“Really! What is this, Jinsoo? Let’s get you checked first!”

“I’m really fine.”

“No, you’re not. You just fainted.”

“Would you not faint if an alien monster with a human face revealed itself right in front of you?”

“Well… I might?”

“See? It’s not a health issue, just a normal reaction.”

“…?”

Though she couldn’t understand what he was saying, Juliane sighed deeply and followed Jinsoo.

He wasn’t the type to listen to reason anyway.

“Let’s get on.”

“It feels similar to a bus.”

Entering through the large door, Cuss was puzzled by the not-unfamiliar scene.

Except for the lack of windows, the interior looked just like a bus.

After finding their seats, an announcement played, and the doors closed.

—We will be departing shortly.

“Huh?”

Cuss groaned as she looked around the seats.

There were no seatbelts anywhere.

And though the announcement said they would depart soon, there was no sound of movement or sense of acceleration.

After a while of complete stillness, she wondered if something was wrong, but Jinsoo and Juliane were casually chatting as if nothing was amiss.

“Jinsoo. Something’s strange.”

“What? Why?”

“The transport isn’t moving.”

“Oh, this. We are moving.”

—Ten minutes until arrival at Phoenix Station.

As if to answer her question, the announcement played.

Moving at such high speed without any vibration or sound?

Shocked and horrified, Cuss’s jaw dropped.

“We’re almost there. We have 20 minutes until the transfer, so let’s hurry.”

“Let’s go. Come on, Cuss.”

“Umm……”

As the doors opened, Jinsoo and Juliane stood up together.

Still dazed, Cuss took Jinsoo’s hand and got up to exit.

“Wow……”

Looking out through the large glass windows, she saw a yellow desert landscape.

No one was playing a joke on her.

They had really traveled hundreds of miles in that short time.

They moved to another platform and transferred to another Hyper Bullet.

After sitting for about 40 minutes again, the announcement played, indicating their arrival.

When the doors opened, the outside view had changed again.

It felt like they had just been sitting still.

It was just as amazing the second time.

—Welcome to El Paso.

Cuss held tightly to Jinsoo and Juliane’s hands as they made their way through the crowd.

As they exited through the automatic doors, bright sunlight suddenly poured down.

Shielding her eyes with her palm, Cuss was mesmerized by the exotic scene before her.

Low houses packed tightly together without a single tall building.

And all the buildings were drab and dingy, completely different from LA.

“This doesn’t look like America.”

“That’s because it isn’t. That’s Mexico. This is El Paso.”

“Ugh.”

Then Jinsoo grabbed her cheeks and turned her head to the side.

With just a slight shift in perspective, a completely different cityscape appeared.

A cityscape not much different from LA.

“Jinsoo… This is just America.”

“Of course it’s America. What were you expecting?”

“……”

She had expected a really exotic city.

At this rate, there was no point in traveling.

Cuss was greatly disappointed.

“Let’s go! To the city of chili eaters!”

“Jinsoo! Please watch your language!”

But seeing Jinsoo so excited made Cuss feel better too.

She decided to enjoy this thing called travel.