Ch.44Unknown Villain! (2)

#044

Returning from Judy’s house, Dexter picked up a small package box left in front of his doorway.

“What’s this package?”

The recipient field had Dexter’s name and Honeygood Springs address, but the sender’s address and name were completely unfamiliar to him.

When he put his ear to the box, it made no noise, but when he shook it, something inside rattled against the sides.

‘It’s not that heavy, what could it be?’

When Dexter opened the box, he found a brass knuckle and a silver knuckle wrapped in paper, along with two battery-shaped metal pieces.

Dexter chuckled as he checked the business card-sized paper attached to the bottom of the box.

[Use them well. -Eliya]

After reading Eliya’s brief message, Dexter slipped the brass knuckle with four holes onto his four fingers and inserted the battery-shaped metal into the empty space on the palm area of the knuckle.

-Kiing…!

As soon as he inserted the metal into the knuckle, it transformed into a brass metal gauntlet that covered the back of his hand and fingers like a fighting glove.

The peculiar feature was that there were two small gun barrels attached to the joints connecting the back of the hand and fingers.

‘It’s been a while.’

What Dexter had put on was a gauntlet-type plasma blaster.

It was a plasma weapon with firepower comparable to or greater than combat rifles used on Earth, and it was the type of weapon Dexter had favored most during his time in space.

However, when he returned to Earth, he hadn’t brought it along, thinking he wouldn’t need to use it here.

Dexter aimed the plasma blaster at a dead tree nearby and clenched his fist tightly.

-Peeng!

With a peculiar firing sound, the plasma shot out at lightning speed, hitting the tree. Where it struck, a fist-sized portion had disappeared, and the edges of the impact area were scorched.

Dexter nodded and stretched out all five fingers, causing the plasma blaster to gradually shrink back into the brass knuckle from before.

He then removed the plasma magazine—the battery-shaped metal—put it back in the box along with the silver knuckle, and went inside his house.

With a mind set on using them well, Dexter sat down in front of his alien computer, thinking that things were going rather smoothly today.

When he turned on the computer and launched the body corrector’s configuration program, an ominous red warning window popped up.

Dexter stared blankly at the screen in disbelief before unconsciously opening his mouth.

“Huh?”

The “huh?” that ranks first on the list of things a professional should never say in front of a non-expert had escaped his lips.

This sound meant that something had gone seriously wrong.

[Body corrector not found.]

“It’s right here. Why can’t you find it?”

Dexter said, shaking the silver body corrector sitting on his desk.

‘Let me try again….’

Dexter closed and reopened the program, but the same warning window appeared.

“Ah, what the hell is this?”

After trying to close and reopen it several times, and even restarting the computer, the program still couldn’t recognize the body corrector.

He thought about hitting it to see if that would fix it, but if that actually broke it, he’d be in big trouble, so he decided to look for another solution.

Dexter began searching for the error occurring in the body corrector on the most famous search engine, Deep Thought.

The advantage of Deep Thought was that it knew everything, but the disadvantage was that there was so much information that it wasn’t easy to find what you needed.

Finding the search results from Deep Thought was like looking for a needle in a desert—you had to go through them one by one.

So Dexter carefully read through the search results.

[Power comes on, but buttons don’t work. – Triplanet Electronics Service]

[When it works but doesn’t transform, a simple self-diagnosis guide…]

[Repairing your body corrector yourself? It’s not difficult!]

[Complete collection of body corrector errors many people have been curious about!]

‘This one looks good.’

If it compiled all the errors, it would likely present solutions well too.

Upon entering the site, there were short texts accompanied by a bald character that looked familiar from somewhere.

[Lately, the sun’s magnetic field has become increasingly unstable, making you reluctant to go outside due to concerns about solar flares, right?]

[Many aliens use body correctors, a space must-have item!]

[In times like these, a body corrector is obviously essential, isn’t it?]

[The advancement of technology truly brings tears to my eyes. (sob sob)]

After seeing the image of the bald character crying despite the lack of substantial content, a vein popped on Dexter’s forehead.

“Are they crazy? So where’s the solution?”

Dexter scrolled down to examine other sentences.

[What if such a body corrector breaks down? That would be really troublesome, right?]

‘Yes, it’s troublesome, so hurry up and answer.’

[I’ve thought a lot about body corrector errors, and contacting the manufacturer is definitely the most reliable method.]

[That concludes our complete collection of body corrector errors~.]

The bald character was shown shedding tears of joy and cheering, and there was nothing more to scroll down to.

That was all the content.

“…Are they really crazy?”

There was no solution in sight; it just sympathized with the user’s emotions when facing errors, and that was it.

Dexter, who wanted to punch the monitor right then and there, let out a deep sigh.

‘Ah, right. There’s no need to get angry at such nonsense.’

Dexter began to carefully sift through the search results again.

After checking several other articles, most answers suggested that the body corrector’s internal battery might be depleted, or it could have malfunctioned if left in a humid place for an extended period.

Come to think of it, Jesse had done things that would expose the body corrector to moisture, like showering while wearing it.

In any case, Dexter couldn’t repair it himself.

“I’m screwed.”

Dexter immediately asked the manufacturer if after-sales service was possible.

The customer service representative replied that since Earth was on the galactic periphery, shipping costs would be doubled, and it would take a long time.

‘I’m really screwed. This means I’ll have to stick with Judy and make her exercise.’

Even if he wanted to blame someone else, it was ultimately his own fault for not properly maintaining it, so he had nothing to say.

Having created yet another problem for himself, Dexter scratched his head vigorously.

‘No choice. I’ll just have to make her exercise intensely.’

Dexter sent a service request form to the manufacturer and was looking through the exercise guide documents he had given to Judy.

‘Ms. Rose certainly organized the exercise methods well… but I don’t actually know what these exercises are.’

Dexter shook his head.

‘I’ll have to search the internet and find out.’

Crushed under the workload he had brought upon himself, Dexter decided to dig through video materials related to exercise methods until his sighs reached the ceiling.

* * *

The two-day holiday began.

Dexter, who had stayed up almost all night, was doing his morning exercise while letting out a big yawn.

As he was lightly running his usual 6 miles, he was mentally reviewing exercise methods.

‘Start with light jogging, then push-ups, planks, squats, jump rope, triceps push-ups….’

Since he had already pretended to know a lot about exercise in front of Judy, he was working his brain—which he usually didn’t use much—to memorize exercise methods and how to perform them correctly.

‘I don’t think I studied this hard even for the prison written exam.’

What would happen if he was exposed for not actually knowing much about exercise after pretending to be knowledgeable?

Dexter shuddered at the thought of Judy looking at him with contemptuous eyes saying, “I’m disappointed.”

‘That can’t happen.’

Dexter picked up his running pace and started to run faster.

Apart from breathing a little more rapidly, there was no problem.

‘Start with light jogging, then push-ups….’

Dexter, who had been memorizing routines and exercise methods while running, continued to memorize them diligently even during his post-run shower.

With his mouth opening and closing, he was earnestly memorizing, and he even continued while eating cereal after his workout.

One spoonful of cereal, one routine, one spoonful of cereal, one posture—he kept memorizing because he was going to exercise with Judy early in the morning.

Last night, before parting with Judy, she had made an earnest request.

‘Mr. Hughes, could you possibly supervise my exercise this holiday?’

‘Why?’

‘Well, I’m not confident I can do it right… just in case.’

Seeing Judy hesitating, Dexter couldn’t refuse and agreed to have breakfast together and teach her exercise methods.

‘I coldly refused Himena, but I can’t refuse Judy.’

If Himena knew this fact, she probably wouldn’t be too happy about it.

Dexter picked up his phone to text Himena but couldn’t bring himself to send it and just stared at the phone.

-Are you awake?

“Whoa!”

Suddenly feeling a vibration in his hand, Dexter checked his phone in surprise.

It was a text from Judy.

>Just finished my workout and getting ready to go out.

After Dexter sent his reply, a message came from Judy as if she had been waiting.

-Oh, really? Okay. I’ll get ready quickly and head out!

>You can take your time.

-No, it’s fine. I’ll get ready and come out soon!

After checking Judy’s message, Dexter put on stretchy pants and a short-sleeved shirt, then looked at the plasma blaster on his desk.

‘Should I take it?’

Dexter put the silver plasma blaster in his pocket instead of the brass one and headed to Summerlin, where Judy lived.

In the center of Summerlin, between golf clubs, ‘Tivoli Village’ is a popular spot among Summerlin residents.

With a stronger European than American atmosphere, Tivoli Village is frequented by locals living in Las Vegas rather than tourists.

‘Is Summerlin like this everywhere?’

Unlike the Strip and Fremont in downtown, Summerlin has a predominantly relaxed and gentle atmosphere.

Especially on weekdays, there are hardly any people in the Summerlin area.

Only occasionally do you see what appear to be retired elderly people and those presumed to be full-time housewives taking a brief break after dropping off their children.

This meant that the probability of seeing a young, handsome man like Dexter in Summerlin in the morning was significantly low.

When Dexter arrived at the brunch café that Judy had informed him about earlier, the first thing he saw was a woman in light makeup and casual attire welcoming him.

“Mr. Hughes, over here!”

Seeing Judy looking at him with a bright smile, Dexter also smiled lightly and greeted her.

“Good morning.”

“Good morning to you too. Ah, I ordered breakfast in advance. Is a panini okay?”

“Yes, sure. Panini sounds good.”

Soon, food was placed in front of Dexter and Judy, and the amount of food in front of Judy was visibly about twice what she would normally eat.

A turkey panini with brown grill marks, a tuna-spinach panini, and an avocado salad—because vegetables are a must.

When two cups of Americano also arrived, Dexter nodded and pointed to the tuna-spinach panini.

“May I have the tuna?”

“Of course. Go ahead.”

With Judy’s permission, Dexter took a bite of the tuna-spinach panini.

“Mmm, mmm. This is quite delicious.”

“Right? There aren’t many cafés open this early in the morning, so I come here occasionally on holidays.”

Dexter nodded at Judy’s words as she smiled broadly.

Watching Judy nibble at the turkey panini with her small hands, Dexter imagined to himself.

‘It feels like I’m here with a niece rather than a colleague.’

Seeing this, Dexter almost unconsciously patted Judy’s head but naturally reached for the mug of Americano instead.

Dexter took a sip of the Americano and immediately got to the point.

“There’s a nurse at the infirmary named Ms. Rose, do you know her?”

“You mean that gentle person?”

“Yes, that’s right. She introduced me to a gym that has clean facilities and reasonably priced memberships, so it’s worth visiting frequently. Would you be interested in going?”

“Oh, really?”

Dexter nodded at Judy’s question and said.

“Since it’s nearby, it would be convenient to go work out after finishing work.”

As Dexter was speaking to Judy and taking a bite of his panini, he accidentally spilled some sauce on his shirt.

“Oh, I spilled some.”

As Dexter was about to wipe his shirt with a tissue from the table, Judy quickly took out a wet wipe from her bag and started cleaning Dexter’s chest.

“Goodness, you should be more careful.”

Dexter felt strange as he watched Judy focus solely on cleaning the sauce without blushing, despite touching his firm chest muscles.

This was unusual because most women he had met would be startled and blush when they saw or touched his muscles.

‘She’s treating it so nonchalantly, it’s almost motherly.’

“You can’t just throw away your shirt. When you get home, make sure to hand wash it first and then put it in the washing machine. Understood?”

With the added nagging, Dexter scratched his cheek slightly.

“Yes, I will.”

‘She really is like a mom.’

Judy was the first person to point out something about Dexter’s lifestyle, which made the motherly feeling even stronger.

Normally, he would have planned to make her run on a treadmill under the pretext of building her stamina, working her until she collapsed from exhaustion.

But seeing Judy like this made his heart soften a bit.

‘I’ll just teach her thoroughly.’

Judy, completely unaware of what Dexter was imagining, was grinning as she looked at his now relatively clean shirt.