Ch.23White Russian 5

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

A light so bright it stings my eyes illuminates my entire body.

Beyond that light, I hear a familiar voice.

It’s a researcher from the facility.

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

“Facility evaluation: Potential S-class.”

They’ve been observing me constantly.

Even when I fought life-or-death battles with other survivors.

Even when I endured hellish training alone.

After all that observation, they seem to have finally gotten the answer they wanted.

That I’m superior to others and worthy of being their test subject.

I’ve known this would happen to me for a long time.

I’d heard rumors that subjects with good performance at the facility would be used for experiments.

But despite those rumors, we had no choice but to strive for good results.

Otherwise, we would have died even before being used in experiments.

It’s simply my turn now.

It will be one of two outcomes.

The injection the man approaching me is holding.

Either I’ll go berserk after receiving that green injection and be disposed of.

Or if my body somehow endures it, I’ll be transferred somewhere else.

In the past, I would have humbly accepted the injection and embraced my fate.

But now there’s someone on my mind.

Someone who always smiles and waves at me first.

Who shares her own food with me.

A girl who gave me something called memories in this hellish place.

Seon-ye.

Will I still remember her after receiving this injection?

The intense light shining on me disappears.

Soon, a man with stitches on his head appears.

His protruding eyeballs unpleasantly scan my body.

After visually devouring me from toes to crown, he twitches the corner of his mouth.

“Truly… beautiful. If such a specimen can withstand my sample…”

He twists and contorts his body in a grotesque manner.

“A perfect masterpiece will be born!”

His yellowed teeth flash.

The man stares intently at my face before administering the injection.

Then he frowns as if witnessing something completely unexpected.

“Wait…”

“Strange.”

“I was told she was in an almost emotionally deficient state?”

He grabs my face with his trembling hands.

And bulges his protruding eyes in disbelief.

“What is this fearful expression-!!”

The man shouts into the air.

He begins cursing at the researchers who are watching me from somewhere.

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

The man was the director of the research facility.

A scientist who had injected his new drug into countless humans and killed them.

He seems to have considered me his finest test subject.

I can’t help but smile at the sight of his screaming.

The panicked man’s face is quite amusing.

The director’s cheekbones twitch.

He frantically runs out of the operating room.

And shortly after, he returns with a gray injection.

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

The researchers watching from outside speak urgently.

But the mad scientist who had already lost trust in his assistants wouldn’t listen to their advice.

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

“I’ve been waiting for this day. To combine the finest human genes with the finest female…”

“And then… and then you ruin everything because you couldn’t manage one simple thing?”

He approaches me, panting.

And with trembling lips, he forces a smile at me.

“So what should I do now? I need to remove it, right?”

Remove it?

My emotions?

My once calm heart begins to race.

To lose all the emotions I’d barely recovered thanks to Seon-ye with just one injection.

That’s absurd.

“You’re trembling… poor thing!”

The director looks down at me with concern, as if reading my mind.

And with his grotesque face close to mine, he whispers.

“Don’t worry. I’ll make you perfect.”

The sharp needle, reflecting the light, targets my neck.

“Those filthy emotions troubling you now will soon disappear.”

No…

The needle slowly presses into my flesh.

I twisted my restrained body desperately.

But the firmly locked operating table didn’t budge.

Finally, the sharp needle penetrates my skin.

I feel the cold liquid being injected into my neck.

That sensation soon travels up my nape and spreads throughout my head.

And then I felt it.

The sensation of my head freezing over.

As if every fold of my brain was paralyzed, I couldn’t think at all.

I can only moan with my mouth open.

Satisfied with that sound, the researcher makes an ecstatic expression.

“Yes, these eyes… Deep eyes without any vitality.”

The director, trembling, immediately takes out the new drug he had prepared.

The green injection.

Please stop…

He grabs my wrist without hesitation.

And elegantly holds the green syringe with his long fingers.

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

He shows me the syringe like he’s showing off a jewel.

But there’s no way I could see such things now.

My body is completely twisted into an arch, feeling like my spine might break.

The director requests something in a small voice, as if lulling a baby to sleep.

“Music.”

As he finishes speaking, a very soft piano sound can be heard.

Beautiful classical melodies fill the operating room as violin sounds blend gently.

The director gently shakes the syringe like a conductor of the piece.

And before the music reaches its climax, he inserts the needle into my artery.

“You’ll be satisfied too. Stronger than a man, more beautiful than a woman.”

He strokes my cheek after administering the injection.

The moment the injection enters my body, my muscles ache as if being torn apart one by one.

Soon that pain spreads throughout my body like poison.

“Rachmaninoff, who composed this piece, said humans are beautiful because they have emotions.”

The director frowns as if disagreeing with the composer’s words.

I couldn’t remember Rachmaninoff.

Even though he’s a composer from my homeland, no thoughts came to my mind now.

It’s just painful, like centipedes crawling between the folds of my brain.

“But I don’t think so. Emotions make humans ugly. They crumple and ruin this pretty face.”

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

But the director pays no attention.

He just keeps whispering to me, still close.

“Those foolish people won’t understand. How beautiful you are right now.”

My limbs twist.

Beyond twisting, they begin to convulse violently.

Nerves protrude as if about to burst through my face.

I screamed madly, shaking the operating table.

The screws binding my wrists begin to tremble.

Seeing this, staff members who had been watching the director from outside the operating room rush in.

“Director… it’s dangerous!”

He’s dragged out by heavily armed staff members.

But even as he’s being taken away, the director keeps his eyes fixed only on me.

“…”

I think to myself.

That face bothers me.

The centipedes clinging to my brain whisper.

To get rid of that face so I don’t have to see it anymore.

Urgent piano key sounds pound in my ears.

To their rhythm, I break free from the screws binding my limbs.

The startled staff members all aim their guns at me.

Their gun barrels spit fire.

I feel tranquilizer darts piercing my side.

But it doesn’t matter.

I don’t feel sleepy at all.

Rather, power overflows from my body.

I move my legs following that power.

In an instant, one step becomes ten.

Thanks to this, I could immediately approach the staff members who were far away.

And I tore off one man’s arm.

“The monster tranquilizer gun…”

The remaining staff member who was shooting mumbles something.

Annoyed by the noise, I struck his mouth.

His face twisted like a cap being unscrewed.

“…”

The director looks up at me with a dazed expression.

I approach him.

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

“This is it…! That instinct-driven appearance. Finally completed…”

I grabbed his noisy neck and twisted it.

But I don’t kill him right away.

I want to see his face contort in pain for a moment.

I start increasing the strength of my grip very gradually, from 1 to 100.

His face swells up like a balloon.

Soon his features begin to smear like clay.

His protruding eyes dangle as if about to completely pop out of his face.

This must be the “beauty” the director had been shouting about to me.

The music reaches its climax.

I was going to burst him at the climax.

But I couldn’t.

Because the brightly lit operating room suddenly went completely dark.

That shadow grew larger, completely covering the area where I stood.

“—!”

A massive hand swoops down.

I was crushed by that hand and collapsed to the ground.

The barely surviving director steps back.

Then whoever pinned me down speaks to him in a heavy voice.

“Director Tolkin, I told you not to use the sample yet because it’s dangerous.”

Pinned to the floor, I roll my eyes.

And look up at the silhouette overwhelming me.

It’s a naked man.

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

Strange body.

And strong.

Too strong to handle even with my drug-injected body.

“Haha… who do we have here? Our first-ranked ranker? What brings someone who should be on TV shows to such a gloomy place?”

The director chatters on as if welcoming him.

Steam rises from his face, which has swollen red like a tomato.

“Don’t change the subject.”

The ranker, not in the mood for jokes, grabs my head.

“You used another test subject without upper management’s permission? Every time I look away…”

“Don’t worry. That child will be my greatest masterpiece. With just a bit more training, she’ll be perfect…”

As if not wanting to hear any more, the man slams my head, which he’s gripping tightly, to the floor.

It hurts.

“Thanks to you, two innocent staff members are dead.”

He repeatedly smashes my face into the floor.

This man, does he want revenge for the dead staff members?

It’s not like he killed them.

Why is he interfering when they’re not even his family?

Detestable.

I want to kill him.

But I can’t.

Because he’s stronger than me.

Still, I’ll kill him someday.

As I was thinking this, my head was completely smashed into the floor.

I lost consciousness from the impact.

But I didn’t care about that impact at all.

Because that’s not what’s important right now.

Something impure is being filled into my body.

And simultaneously, something else is leaving me.

I couldn’t define what it was.

“…”

I was sent back to the detention facility like a rag.

I safely returned to my room and was laid down on the bed.

But my body doesn’t seem to be okay.

There are bruises here and there, and it aches.

That’s all.

I don’t feel wronged or sad.

Rather, those emotions seem to belong to Seon-ye, who is looking down at me with concern.

“Tolkin… why…”

She collapses and embraces me as I lie there.

“Anna, say something. You’re okay, right?”

Seon-ye’s eyes waver.

But I couldn’t understand it.

So I ask.

“If you mean my body, I think it’s fine. But why do you want to know?”

Seon-ye’s face turns pale at my question.

She pulls me into a tight embrace with trembling hands.

Soft skin clings to my body.

The point of contact is warm.

“Why do you want to know?”

I kept asking.

But Seon-ye just shakes her head.

Her refusal to answer irritates me.

I even thought about pushing my roommate off the bed.

But I soon changed my mind.

It’s warmer to have our bodies pressed together than to use the shabby blanket.

So I maintained that state.

How long had we been holding each other?

Seon-ye fell asleep.

This is the 289th time we’ve slept together in my bed.

But it feels like the first time to me.

I stared down at Seon-ye.

The short-haired girl snores softly like a small animal, her head resting on my chest.

As I looked at her, I suddenly made a gesture of twisting the child’s thin neck with my hand.

She would look quite nice, like a deer with its throat torn out.

Why am I having such impulses?

I pondered for a moment.

Soon I could guess the reason.

The impulse stemmed from a sense of betrayal.

Because I realized Seon-ye wasn’t just an ordinary prisoner.

No captured survivor would know the research director’s name.