Chapter 51

35. Alma Mater (2)

I couldn't trust Minhee, so I tried to communicate from a desolate wasteland as far away from my territory as possible.

"Wait there. I'll send someone."

After Kukweon left for Jeju Island, the fate of those left behind seemed bleak.

Indeed, the once-promising Kim Daran had gone missing.

I searched for her name on PaleNet, but even in that vast sea of information, I couldn't find any details about Kim Daran.

Minhee was different.

She still had power.

A helicopter appeared at the agreed location just to pick me up.

"Are you Mr. Park Gyu?"

"Yes, that's me, but—"

"Please get in. Director Woo Minhee is waiting."

So, she had a position after all.

I was curious about which organization she headed, but seeing the soldiers' tight-lipped expressions and evasive eyes, I thought it would be better to ask directly.

The helicopter took me to Incheon.

Currently, Incheon is the de facto capital of South Korea.

Almost all infrastructure has moved here instead of the destroyed and abandoned Seoul.

Most importantly, the sea must have drawn people to Incheon.

The port was filled with numerous ships, and on each deck, people were welding, loading luggage, and preparing for departure.

The destination was none other than Jeju.

While the side that had taken control of Jeju Island had not revealed any stance on this, the government planned to send a massive fleet of dozens of ships.

Countless people stood by the docks, watching the work or wandering aimlessly.

At the end of the dock was a research facility without a sign.

"Here it is."

This colorless concrete building seemed to be the institution Minhee headed.

Inside, bright white lighting and spotless white tiles greeted me.

"Are you Mr. Park Gyu?"

A woman I had never seen before, wearing glasses, greeted me.

"Yes, that's me, but—"

"I'm Kim Sujin. I'm here to guide you on behalf of Director Woo Minhee, who gave me instructions."

"Where is Director Woo Minhee?"

"She's currently out. She probably won't return today, so I'm here to handle things."

I followed Kim Sujin into the research facility.

Inside, people in white gowns were busy with papers and laptops.

I couldn't tell what they were so busy with, but they were constantly on the phone and typing furiously on their keyboards, filling the screens.

However, if you turned your head slightly, you could see people gathered in corners, sipping coffee and joking around or sitting in chairs, dozing off.

Was it a place with a lot of work, or a place where they had to pretend to be busy?

As we went further in, we came to a room with middle school-aged children. They looked at us curiously as we passed.

I waited for their gazes to shift before asking Kim Sujin.

"Why are there so many kids here?"

"They are new recruits for the Guard."

"The Guard?"

"Yes."

"I heard the old school is being demolished tomorrow."

"That's the old school in Seoul. A new one has opened in Jeju, where they are training new hunters with Awakened abilities. Our facility is responsible for finding, recruiting, and protecting talented children for that purpose."

"Will these kids all go to Jeju?"

"Some will, after several tests."

"Like mental sensitivity tests?"

"Yes, you know about it."

Kim Sujin, who hadn't looked at me once, glanced at me.

Her gaze was filled with a clear discomfort, indicating she didn't want to say more.

I didn't want to cause a fuss, so I let it go.

After that, we walked a considerable distance in silence.

The deeper we went into the facility, the stronger the smell of disinfectant became, and a faint smell of corpses wafted through the air.

"Here it is."

She led me into a dark room.

A few researchers were staring at monitors with blank eyes.

They didn't even turn their heads when we entered.

In one corner of the room, medical beds were packed, each with a corpse covered by a sheet.

"They are zombies."

Kim Sujin said without looking at me.

It could be.

But why do those cold, stiff hands look so small?

The face of the boy who had given me the laptop flashed before my eyes.

Beyond the room filled with corpses was a eerily quiet corridor with many doors, each with a small bench.

The only person sitting in the corridor was a tall girl who looked like a high school or college student.

The girl bowed her head when she saw Kim Sujin.

"Do you have a car?"

In response to Kim Sujin's question, the girl shook her head with an awkward smile.

Kim Sujin opened the door next to her.

"Here it is."

A man was sitting at a desk in a proper posture.

I recognized him immediately.

"Instructor."

It was Instructor Jang Gi-yeong.

Unharmed and intact.

But something was off.

He didn't respond even when the door opened or when I called him.

"Instructor?"

I called again.

His sharp eyes, which had earned him the nickname "Tiger Instructor," were still there, but the pupils behind them were dull and hazy.

"..."

My mentor was writing in a notebook as if he had no soul.

His thoughts were not transferring to the paper.

Rustle, rustle

The pages of the notebook were already full, and the pen he held had run out of ink.

"Hah."

Kim Sujin, standing beside me, sighed.

"Indeed, there's no response. Let's go back."

"Can you explain a bit more?"

My gaze, which had been glaring at her, must have been quite fierce.

The fear in Kim Sujin's face, which had been stiff all along, was evident.

*

Jang Gi-yeong on the closed-circuit screen looked perfectly normal.

He was sitting at his desk, flipping through a book, occasionally standing up to pace the small room, and sometimes lying on the bed, staring blankly at the ceiling.

"So that's what happened."

Jang Gi-yeong had actually carried out the crazy idea he once told me about.

Death - mutation - resurrection.

Unfortunately, his experimental attempt yielded no results.

"This is the result."

Kim Sujin handed me a sheet.

Black.

The same color as Su and me.

I looked at my mentor in the low-resolution screen.

"At first, he was in good condition. He spoke and ate. But then his condition suddenly worsened and he became like this."

"Is it dementia?"

"It's more serious. He is neither alive nor dead."

As I listened to Kim Sujin's explanation, I noticed something.

The fingers of Jang Gi-yeong in the low-resolution screen were missing a few.

It seemed he had lost them to frostbite during the recent cold snap.

"So he's both human and a zombie."

What's the difference?

I had decapitated countless zombies but didn't strictly distinguish between humans and zombies.

If a dead thing stood up and attacked people, it was a zombie.

The zombies I knew were corpses that moved and tried to harm people.

Kim Sujin's distinction was clearer than mine.

"A human corpse that continues abnormal life activities due to mutations in the brain and organs caused by the mutation factor, while the heart and brain activity have stopped. That's the current definition of a zombie."

She showed me a few images.

"As you can see, mutations caused by the mutation factor are observed in Jang Gi-yeong's brain and organs. Do you see the protrusions here?"

"Yes."

"But he is alive. His heart is beating, and his brain waves are normal. Whether you take the brain death theory or the cardiac arrest theory, Jang Gi-yeong is a living human. But as you can see, he's in this state."

I looked at Jang Gi-yeong in the closed-circuit screen.

He was sitting in his trademark upright posture, staring into space with sunken eyes and gnawing on his lips.

Is he angry?

If he's angry, what is he angry about?

If I were him, I would be confused.

The one he should truly be angry at is himself, for walking down the path of destruction without achieving the power he desired.

Kim Sujin looked at me.

"We called you because you are a friend of Jang Gi-yeong. Director Woo Minhee specifically mentioned you."

She turned her gaze back to the file and sighed weakly.

"But there's no response. It seems even you couldn't bring back Jang Gi-yeong's lost mind."

"Is that so?"

"Don't be discouraged. Did you see the girl sitting in front? The tall one."

"Yes."

"She's Jang Gi-yeong's daughter. He cherished her so much that he even assaulted his ex-wife over custody. But he doesn't recognize her."

I asked for a moment.

I had a question for the girl.

She was still sitting on the bench, looking at her phone.

I wondered what she was doing, and then I saw the PaleNet logo.

Jonnaeron.

His influence extends even here.

She was looking at the "Famous Celebrity Updates" board.

"Hi."

I greeted the girl.

She stared at me blankly, then tilted her head and soon looked surprised.

"Ah?!"

"What is it?"

"Are you Dad's student?"

"I know him well."

She tapped her phone and showed me a photo.

"The person standing next to Dad?"

The photo showed Instructor Jang Gi-yeong, who still looked young in his 30s, and his students standing beside him.

"He called them his proud students."

Looking at the photo, I couldn't help but chuckle.

Not only was my posture next to Jang Gi-yeong overly stiff, but Kim Daran's awkward pose, Lee Sanghoon's insistence on standing next to the prettiest female classmate, Woo Minhee's model-like stance, and Gong Gyeongmin's unique fighting pose all made the photo quite amusing.

At the edge of the photo, far from Jang Gi-yeong and me, stood Kang Hanmin, his head slightly bowed, a shadow of worry on his face, and his shoulders hunched, standing apart from the others.

This guy.

He came for the group photo that day.

I thought he didn't come.

"So you know my name, then."

I said, looking at the photo for a while.

"No, I don't. Dad showed me photos of his students, but he never mentioned their names. The savior Kang Hanmin must be one of them!"

She suddenly lit up.

"Hey, hey, are you Kang Hanmin?!"

"No, I'm not that great person."

"Of course, someone like that wouldn't come here."

I had a question from the start.

It was that I couldn't detect any sadness in her.

"Are you okay?"

I asked the girl.

"About what?"

"Aren't you worried about Instructor's condition?"

"Not really. I haven't seen him since elementary school. You know, Dad's students? His temper."

"......He was a pain in the ass."

"Tell me about it. We had it worse. Really. Ugh. You wouldn't understand unless you experienced it."

The girl made various expressions of joy, anger, and sorrow, lightly tapping her chest.

"Why are you here?"

I asked, even though I knew the answer.

"The communication is good here, and the food is good, but really, I want to go to Jeju."

She handed me a sheet.

A mental sensitivity sheet.

Unlike her father, who remained black even in his current state, her sheet had turned a faint pink.

"Oh, it can change to this color too."

"Black - Blue - Red - Gray - White, you know?"

"The whiter, the better, right?"

"Right!"

"Where are you?"

"Between red and gray, I think. Gray is definitely the safe zone, but in my case, with Dad here..."

She smiled bitterly and looked at the closed door.

"They said they would admit me as an exception if Dad wakes up. Director Woo Minhee said so."

"Isn't she more like an aunt than a sister?"

"She looks fine, but she's so casual about it."

"......"

After saying goodbye to the nameless girl, I returned to Kim Sujin.

"What will happen to Instructor now?"

In response to my question, Kim Sujin rolled her eyes, looking for an excuse.

"Please be honest. I'm prepared for any outcome."

Kim Sujin then said,

"We plan to dispose of him."

"......Dispose of him."

"Even if we don't, he'll turn into a zombie soon. He hasn't eaten or drunk anything for four days."

Kim Sujin sighed and added,

"Wouldn't it be better for him to close his eyes forever rather than wander like a ghost?"

I never met Minhee.

I spent the night in the excellent accommodation she provided and had a good meal, which allowed me to reflect on myself.

I realized that I wasn't a particularly important person to her.

She just called me on a whim.

To her, I was just that kind of existence.

"Professor......"

Lying in bed with sunlight seeping in, I muttered the callsign everyone once spoke with respect.

The person who gave me that name will soon be disposed of.

Coincidentally, Jang Gi-yeong's disposal time is the same as when my alma mater will be demolished with dynamite.