Ch.12Framed! (2)

#012

“Why are you here?”

Jesse’s eyes widened as she looked at Dexter.

“…Ms. Yelena called me.”

Dexter said as he sat down on the bed where Jesse was sitting.

“Ah, you’re so big… could you move over a bit?”

“I’m too big, there’s no room beside you. How did you break your arms like that?”

“Moving tires… Hey, wait. Why should I tell you everything straight up?”

Jesse raised her eyes with a disgruntled expression.

“When will your broken arms heal?”

“Left hand about two months, right hand probably a little less than a month… Oh shit! Hey, are you not going to answer me?”

“Two months, huh.”

It seemed like the recovery time could be shortened with a body correction device.

“What kind of asshole is this?”

“Can you eat with your hands right now?”

“No, I can’t! Why?!”

“I have to stay with you until you’re healed anyway. So just give up.”

“Give up what?”

“Being prickly.”

“Bullshit!”

Jesse tried to kick him, but Dexter skillfully dodged.

“Oh ho, dodging?”

“Why are you such a violent kid?”

Jesse got angry at Dexter for not answering her questions while only saying what he wanted to say.

“Since when did you start talking to me like that?”

“Starting today. I told you I have to stay with you until your arms heal completely.”

“Who ordered that?”

“Chief Correctional Officer Raymond and Ms. Yelena.”

Jesse hung her head low.

“You’re like one of those creepy ghost dolls from a haunted house.”

“Shut your trap, seriously.”

“Shuuut yooour traap, seriouslyyy~”

“Don’t mimic me.”

“Dooon’t miiimic meee.”

When Dexter’s childish teasing began, Jesse couldn’t take it anymore and screamed.

“Teacher!!! Please take this bastard away!!!”

“Oh, Ms. Yelena just went to have her meal.”

“Aaaaargh!!”

Jesse wanted to grab her head in frustration, but couldn’t because of the casts on both arms.

“What, want me to hold your head for you?”

“Get ouuuuut!!!”

As Dexter burst into laughter looking at Jesse and left the hospital room, a nurse who had been watching the two nearby said:

“He’s really annoying…”

“Thank you for the compliment.”

Dexter said, giving the nurse a thumbs up.

“Hey, for someone on probation, you should at least arrange meals in advance… Oh, hello, Ms. Rose.”

Dan, who had come to complain to Dexter, greeted Nurse Rose respectfully.

“Huh? Did you bring food? I was just going to pick up a chocolate bar to eat.”

“Are you a beggar? Picking up food to eat? Here.”

Dan threw a plastic bag containing something to Dexter.

“Thank you, but what is this?”

“BLT. I’m busy, so I’m leaving now.”

After Dan coolly left after just giving him the sandwich, Rose looked at Dan disappearing in the distance and said:

“Is he always like that?”

“I think he’s really busy. Anyway, he’s a good senior. Wow, this sandwich looks great. Want to share?”

“Ah, thank you.”

After giving Rose part of the sandwich, Dexter took a bite and said:

“Do you know Jesse by any chance?”

“Blueberg? I don’t know her well, just rumors.”

According to Rose’s explanation, Jesse was like this:

Jesse did have the nickname “crazy girl,” but she wasn’t actually mentally ill.

When she was outside, she was quite popular among her peers aside from her excessive confidence, and she was often invited to street racing events.

“But why is she like that to me?”

“Maybe she’s trying not to appear vulnerable? Even if it’s a women’s prison, it’s still a prison.”

Dexter added to Rose’s interpretation:

“So she’s pretending to be crazy on purpose to avoid looking vulnerable? Even talking back to guards?”

“That’s what I think. Unlike the rumors, she was quite compliant when she was admitted to the hospital room. She couldn’t help cursing because she was in so much pain.”

Rose took a bite of her sandwich after finishing her explanation.

“By the way, this conversation can’t be heard in the hospital room, right?”

“No. The soundproofing is good, so they won’t hear us.”

Dexter nodded at Rose’s answer.

* * *

“Yaaawn.”

Dexter opened his mouth wide and yawned.

Finishing work and heading home, Dexter was tired for the first time in a while.

His right hand on the steering wheel, he rotated his left shoulder to relieve the stiffness while driving.

“That’s strange. Not many people dislike me, so why is she barking at me like that?”

Dexter, who had been busy teasing Jesse throughout his shift, was exhausted by her still-closed heart.

“Once I get home, I need to download some body correction device presets first… Huh?”

Arriving at the road in front of his house, Dexter saw an unfamiliar black SUV parked in front of his home.

“No one should be coming to my house.”

The SUV’s headlights were still on, suggesting someone was still inside.

After roughly parking in front of his house and getting out of the car, Dexter headed toward his home when three men simultaneously exited the SUV.

“……”

Dexter approached slowly with his hand on his waist.

A three-section staff was attached to Dexter’s left waist.

As Dexter approached the three men dressed in black suits similar to OSA agents, he heard one of them making a strange sound.

“Shook.”

It was a bizarre sound like air escaping.

“Shook, shoo-shook.”

“Who are you guys?”

“Shoo, De, Dexter. Hughes.”

“I asked who you are, bastards.”

They were speaking but their mouths weren’t moving.

Dexter felt a tingling sensation as soon as he saw the three men.

“I’m seeing you for the first time, but my instinct tells me this isn’t our first encounter.”

Dexter said as he unfolded the three-section staff from his waist.

“So tell me who you are. Quickly.”

When Dexter showed his will to resist, the voice came from the three men again.

“De, Dexter Hughes.”

“Stop just saying my name and tell me who you are.”

Dexter’s brow furrowed at the slow progress.

“Money.”

“Money what.”

Two of the three men, excluding the one standing furthest back, approached Dexter and said:

“Cal, calculating Dexter Hughes’ loan amount…”

“Calculation, complete. 1.5 billion th, th, three hundred million, Ducats.”

“Re, repay the debt.”

‘Shit.’

Dexter’s face turned ashen.

They were space debt collectors.

These aliens traveled around various planets demanding debt repayment, and were a terror and disaster for debtors, arriving in their spaceships.

Dexter had also fled to Earth with a spaceship bought with money he had scraped together and loans.

While Dexter had expected debt collectors to come after him, he thought they couldn’t reach Earth.

The reason was simple.

In movies Dexter had watched as a middle school student, the main plot often involved sending viruses to defeat alien spaceships invading Earth.

‘I thought we’d defeat aliens with brilliant ideas!’

Making a mockery of such thoughts, the three men in front of Dexter seemed to have entered Earth with OSA’s permission.

“Repay, the debt.”

“If, not paid, shoo, shoo-shook.”

“Pay, with death.”

“Pay, with death.”

The two men said simultaneously.

“When did I say I wouldn’t pay? I need to earn money first!”

One of the two men responded to Dexter’s words:

“Debt settlement, deposit deadline, passed.”

“As of current time, by order of creditor Tenpenny, collection will be executed.”

One of the two men rushed at Dexter with an expressionless face.

“You speak so slowly but move so fast!”

Seeing the man suddenly lunging at him, Dexter swung his three-section staff at the man’s head.

“Why are you so fast!”

With a cracking sound, the man’s neck snapped and he collapsed.

Dexter smirked at the sight, but the man with the broken neck used both hands to twist his head back into place in the opposite direction.

He wasn’t human.

The man, who had been moving awkwardly before, now looked even more grotesque with his temple caved in from the three-section staff and his slightly misaligned neck.

“Of course, something making those ‘shook-shook’ sounds couldn’t be human.”

Dexter was holding his three-section staff again, contemplating how to subdue them.

One of the two standing men started twisting his opposite wrist with one hand, then pulled off his hand.

In place of the removed hand was an energy gun.

“Ah, come on. Please. An energy gun, really?”

Meanwhile, the man whose neck had been broken once suddenly moved quickly, bending down to grab Dexter around the waist.

“Urgh.”

Dexter tried to escape by kneeing the man’s chest, but he couldn’t move properly due to the strength of the arms gripping his waist and the man’s weight.

“You’re, freaking, stroooong!”

Dexter struggled with all his might to break free from the man, but couldn’t move as he wanted.

The energy gun in the position of the other man’s hand was about to emit a beam of fiery red energy.

-Zeeeeeng…!

“Think, thiiiink!”

He even vocalized his thoughts as he tried to find a way out of this crisis.

‘The shoulder!’

Dexter began repeatedly and violently striking the shoulder joint of the man holding his waist with the handle of his three-section staff.

-Thwack, thwack, thwack…!

At first, when Dexter struck the man’s shoulder, there was the sound of flesh being hit by the three-section staff.

But later, it started making a dull sound of metal hitting metal.

-Clank, clank…!

Having completely shattered the shoulder connecting the body and arm, Dexter realized that the man’s body wasn’t made of flesh and bone.

-Fwoosh!

“Wow, shit. I finally broke… Aaaah!!”

As a red energy beam was fired toward Dexter, he couldn’t even finish his exclamation before rolling on the ground.

Having narrowly avoided the energy beam, Dexter stared at the man with the energy gun.

If he had been even slightly slower in destroying the shoulder joint, the energy beam would have pierced his chest.

The man with the energy gun said:

“Th, this unit is Ten, Tenpenny’s property, debt collection unit. Unauthorized, de, destruction is prohibited…”

“I’m one step away from death and you think I care about that?”

This time, Dexter charged at the man.

Dexter was now targeting the hand with the implanted energy gun.

“De, destruction actions must, shook, shoo-shook.”

As Dexter got close, the man tried to strike him with his intact left hand, but Dexter struck the left hand with his three-section staff.

Seeing the man trying desperately to block him with his now mangled left hand, Dexter shouted:

“Where did they get such a strong piece of junk from!”

The man tried to hastily fire the energy gun, but Dexter was faster and jammed his three-section staff into the gun’s barrel.

-Clang!

“Warning, foreign object detected in barrel. Please remove foreign object promptly…”

It wasn’t a voice the man could hear, but a warning sound coming from the energy gun.

“I’ll separate the gun from your body completely.”

Dexter grabbed the forearm above the elbow where the energy gun was attached.

Then he dropped the three-section staff and slowly began twisting with both hands.

“Th, this destruction will cause serious damage…”

“Shut up!”

The man twisted his whole body trying to escape, but Dexter was already in a frenzied state.

The nanobots in Dexter’s body were enhancing his adrenaline and promoting ultra-rapid cellular recovery.

Dexter’s forearms began to turn red-hot and were gradually growing larger than before he grabbed the man.

“Nnngh… urk!”

-Crack.

The man’s forearm in his grip began to crumble.

“Ab, abnormal grip strength… Debt. Shook. Collection, requesting danger level increase…”

“Nngh… I told you to shut up!”

-Snap.

Finally, the man’s forearm separated from his body as if cut by a giant, jagged nipper.

“Re, response measures, none…”

“Thank you. So all that’s left is to crush you?”

“Guidance vo, voice error…”

“What helpful guidance.”

Dexter swung the three-section staff from the ground toward the man’s crown.

-Clang!

With a loud metallic sound, the three-section staff was embedded in the man’s face down to his brow.

“Shooo… ugh.”

Making a deflating sound, the man collapsed.

After taking down the second man, the last remaining man just stood there blankly.

“What about you?”

“A message from Mr. Tenpenny.”

Unlike the previous two men, his voice sounded normal.

“A message?”

When Dexter questioned this word that seemed out of place in the situation, the man nodded.

“If you’re going to tell me, hurry…”

Dexter fell silent at what happened next.

An aperture-like lid opened in the middle of the man’s forehead, emitting a bright blue light.

“Why do they like such bizarre things?”

The blue light displayed large particles like fireflies, gradually forming the shape of a human head.

‘A hologram.’

It was a three-dimensional hologram, something Dexter hadn’t seen in a long time.

In the holographic image, a handsome but sleazy-looking man appeared with static, then looked around.

-Where am I? Ah, here.

The hologram man said.

-Dexter Hughes. How have you been?

Dexter replied to the sleazy voice that matched his appearance well:

“Eliya Tenpenny.”

After saying that name, Dexter let out a deep sigh.