Chapter 62: Chapter 62- Malicious Intentions

Even though Talon was still in the middle of descending, he found himself falling to the ground. So, as a last resort, he quickly pulled his arms away and jumped in the air.

"This is going to hurt!" Clenching his teeth, Talon got ready for the impact.

*BANG*

Falling on his feet, Talon rolled on the ground to reduce the pressure from his legs. Finally, he landed on his back. Looking up in a daze, he saw the ladder falling right in his direction.

"Shit!" Cursing, he quickly rolled to the side, barely avoiding the heavy ladder as it smashed against the ground.

"Hah... Hah... Hah..." Heaving up and down as he looked at the ladder, Talon felt relieved. That was way more dangerous than he expected, somehow.

'This ladder almost killed me twice!' He thought to himself.

"Talon!" Hyun-Jae rushed toward him.

"I'm fine, ouch! Ugh, my skin has some burn marks on it." Looking at his arms, Talon saw multiple burn marks left by the hot metal. Some were light while others were swollen and bleeding. He didn't know what part of his body was the most affected though.

Seeing that he was fine, Hyun-Jae exhaled a long breath as her eyes finally moved up to the sky. The military jets had vanished completely from the area as if they were fleeing. She assumed that it was because the two missiles were destroyed mid-air.

What they left behind, however, was nothing but destruction and chaos. The sight of flames burning everywhere was intimidating and depressing. Most of the campus was wiped out of existence in a matter of minutes, leaving behind merely a few buildings here and there.

"The entire university... is gone," Talon murmured with a sad look on his face.

The place he studied in for the past three years was completely destroyed beyond recognition. He felt his heart ache greatly just seeing this sight. The same could be said for Hyun-Jae if not more.

The memories they both created there were numerous and beautiful. This place was their second home in a sense.

A myriad of emotions flashed across their eyes as they looked around them. In the end, Talon sighed as he wiped the dirt off his face. Sniffing with his nose, he stood up slowly.

Then, he looked at Hyun-Jae who was still on the ground, clearly devastated by what happened. He would've been lying if he said that he didn't mind seeing her in that state. So, he extended his hand toward her.

Hyun-Jae lifted her eyes to look at him. Her usually calm and composed face was worn out and gloomy. Seeing his extended hand, Hyun-Jae felt complicated emotions.

"Hold your head high, Hyun-Jae." He said. "We can't let this break us."

Hyun-Jae blinked a few times as she looked at him before she nodded her head. It was true, she couldn't let this break her, not when they were merely at the start of this long, arduous journey.

In such a cruel world, losing something or someone you cherish is always one mistake away from them. That fact was painful but it was the truth and they had to adapt to it, work as hard as they could to avoid it, and try to thrive in this environment.

So, slowly, Hyun-Jae extended her hand toward Talon and grabbed it as he pulled her up slowly.

Seeing that her gloominess lightened a little, he smiled with a sad look.

"They knew we were here. I'm also sure they knew exactly how many of us were inside that building." Hyun-Jae explained.

Hearing that made the trio's faces change.

"How could that be...?" Mo Shin asked.

Neither Talon nor Hyun-Jae spoke for a good few seconds. They knew the reason why it was indeed the case.

'When I destroyed the first missile, they went ahead and threw a second one. That means that they received direct orders to destroy the gymnasium even though something abnormal had happened.' Talon thought to himself.

If the government's goal was to save the people there, they would've stopped the bombing when that weird occurrence happened. With their advanced cameras, it wouldn't be hard for them to identify the students there.

However, they didn't do that and instead tried to bomb it with a second missile. That meant that this was their goal from the very start. However, that naturally raised one single question.

"Why would they try to intentionally kill us?" Go Young-Soon asked.

That was the mystery that Hyun-Jae and Talon were in. They had no plausible reason for such drastic actions.

Running his hand through his hair, Talon looked up. "I don't know. But, it's certainly something that we can't ignore."

"What can we even do about this? This is the government of South Korea we're talking about. How can we fight such a force alone?" Mo Shin asked.

Talon stared at him coldly for a second before he replied. "Simple. We just become stronger than the government itself."

"Become stronger than the government?"

"Yeah, unless we want to be under their mercy, getting stronger than them is our only choice."

After that, Talon started walking, heading back to the gymnasium, he wanted to check the state of the ceiling from the inside after all the flames.

However, his mind was still really bugged with questions. If the entire government was trying to kill them, then what was the purpose of them trying to enter the research center to get in contact with them?

All of their efforts would've been for naught. However, there still remained a little hope in Talon's heart that this was simply some kind of procedure they were forced to take.

'If we reach the research center, I can definitely get in contact with my parents.' He mused.

Whatever happened back in his hometown, Talon wasn't ready to think of the worst-case scenario.

"It seems that monsters won't be our only enemies," Hyun-Jae said to his side.

"Yeah... Monsters aren't the biggest threat. It's other people trying to take us down." Talon replied.

(A//N: Thanks to everyone who supports the book with power stones and golden tickets, you guys are the best:) )