Chapter 20 - Basement's 5th Floor (3)

Chapter 20: Basement’s 5th Floor (3)TL: SHW

It’s a bit embarrassing to say it myself, but the ten-year-old me during this time was a bit… how should I put it?

A creepy kid.

No, I wasn’t a gloomy or uncontrollably violent child. I was just… quick-witted.

The children who were kidnapped cried for their mothers, but those from the orphanage did not. I wasn’t one of them either.

Those kids quickly assessed the situation and acted accordingly. They tried their best not to provoke the researchers, knowing that no matter how cheeky a child was, being thrown into an underground space with no windows would scare them.

But I was different.

I went a step further.

The researchers who constantly observed the children playing and took notes were quite unpleasant. Sometimes, they would curse at the kids who refused to take their medicine or snatch away their toys and scold them. But watching them closely, one had to realize one thing.

They didn’t inflict violence on the children.

They would make them sit quietly in a chair during playtime or write letters of reflection, but they didn’t deprive them of food, keep them from sleeping, or physically punish them.

Why?

I guess they couldn’t let the children get hurt.

The reason didn’t matter. The fact that they didn’t hit us was what mattered.

There were a few other kids besides me who noticed this.

Gathering those kids… what I did was,

I incited them.

It sounds strange to say incited, but I didn’t do anything that grand. We just demanded new toys or snacks. Eventually, they couldn’t win against the kids and ended up putting a TV in the room and showing us movies.

Of course, I got caught soon enough since we were under 24-hour surveillance.

But what could they do? If the precious samples demanded it, they had to give us more snacks.

So the head researcher hated me immensely. If he could, he would’ve hit me. Luckily, before he could hit me, the old man hit him instead.

Seeing this room brings back a flood of old memories.

“What are you looking for?”

As I wandered around the room, Kim Chae-min stepped over the broken glass and approached me.

“I think… it might be here.”

Evidence that the younger me was here.

“What is it?”

“Here…”

Among the children kidnapped and engulfed in emotional distress, there were a few peculiar ones. One of them claimed her father was a lawyer.

Saying evidence was important in such matters, she started writing a diary on paper used for coloring games. She said it would be useful in court later.

The researchers didn’t care that much. To them, it was more important that the kids didn’t whine, stayed healthy, and took their medicine well.

She hid the diary under the mattress. Honestly, I can’t even remember her face properly now, and back then, I just thought she was a weird kid. But it was fun to give her advice sometimes.

Write this. Write that.

I’ll testify, so write that the head researcher hit the kids.

‘Dad said witnesses mustn’t lie.’

‘Then write that he hit them.’

‘But we don’t get hit.’

‘Sometimes other researchers kicked us, right?’

‘Well… that’s true, but.’

‘Just write that the head researcher keeps hitting people and it’s scary. That way, it’s not a lie.’

I don’t know if that diary actually helped in court later. I just hated the head researcher so much that I wanted to give him a hard time in any way possible.

Anyway, most of the diary was written by her, but sometimes I added a few lines. This is important.

‘…The director is getting irritated. He says something’s gone wrong in the dungeon. Why am I writing this?’

‘Because if the head researcher runs away later, we need this kind of information to catch him.’

As I keep saying, I really hated the head researcher…

Among the kids at the research lab, few stayed as long as I did. Thanks to that, I knew more than the others.

So if little Woo Hwijae was here, he would have definitely written it down. What kind of shit the head researcher pulled on the day the lab was abandoned.

I walked towards the bunk bed attached to the wall. It hit me only then how naturally I was moving.

Should I have hesitated a bit?

No. It’s too late to turn back now. Let’s push through confidently.

I searched under the mattress. It was easy to find since it was obvious where the kids would hide things. Sᴇaʀᴄh the n0vᴇl(ꜰ)ire.ɴet website on Gøøglᴇ to access chapters of nøvels early and in the highest quality.

Why did the researchers leave this alone? They probably thought it wouldn’t matter whatever the kids did. Idiots.

Kim Chae-min subtly approached me.

“Did the kids write this?”

“What did the kids write?”

Hong Seok-young, who had been scanning the room with a displeased look, belatedly came over.

I spread the papers on the floor and said,

“There was a kid who wrote a diary.”

“Your younger brother?”

“No.”

Where is it? Where? It should be here. It has to be here.

……

“There it is.”

“What?”

My childhood handwriting.

I used to be confident about my handwriting, but now it looked messy and crooked.

I was here too.

That’s enough.

“What is it? Wait, oh, this…”

“What is it?”

“Hunter Hong, take a look at this.”

Kim Chae-min pointed at a page of the diary. I belatedly looked at the diary Kim Chae-min was indicating.

The lawyer’s kid’s writings were of no substance. That’s not what Kim Chae-min was pointing at. She was pointing at the small writing in the corner, written by my younger self.

Hong Seok-young frowned.

“…The head researcher smashed the TV. He couldn’t break the computer because it was expensive, but he had to come here and break the TV. Annoying. The kids were scared. I had just calmed them down. They said the dungeon failed. What does that have to do with us?”

Dungeon?

I don’t remember writing something like that.

When was this? What’s the date on the diary entry?

“Why does it matter to us what happens to the Myeong-dong dungeon? I just wish they would replace the TV quickly.”

The date written on the paper.

April 5th.

…The day I traveled to the past. The day the Myeong-dong Dungeon Break happened.

“….Teacher Woo.”

Hong Seok-young called me quietly.

“Do you know what it means that the Myeong-dong dungeon… failed?”

“No, I’d like to know as well.”

“You don’t know?”

I couldn’t hide my confusion as I spoke.

“We don’t know what happens in other institutions…. I don’t know.”

“Really? Who wrote this diary?”

“The diary itself….”

I blinked.

“The diary itself was written by a kidnapped child.”

“This part here? It looks like it was written by a different kid.”

“Yes….”

My hesitation was brief.

“I told them to write down anything unusual.”

“…Who, your brother?”

“I just wanted to give them something to focus on….”

Hong Seok-young’s eyes softened slightly.

“Because I couldn’t always be by their side, in situations like now when we’re separated, I wanted them to leave information for me.”

“Your brother seems quite smart.”

“Huh?”

Kim Chae-min flipped through the papers.

“This looks like the last diary entry. It’s from a week ago.”

The lawyer’s kid didn’t write on that day.

But my younger self did.

[May 7th]

[Lab relocation]

[Reason unknown. Heard the head researcher talking about a dungeon incident in Songpa District]

And there was a hastily added note.

[Seems like someone escaped]

* * *

Click. Click.

“So… it’s a dead end?”

Click.

The woman, chewing gum with a snide noise, tilted her head side to side while standing at an angle.

Her appearance, dressed only in a black cloth suit, starkly contrasted with the armed Hunters standing on either side.

The woman extended her hand sideways. A Hunter standing nearby naturally took out a handkerchief from his chest and placed it on her hand. She spat her gum into the handkerchief and handed it back to the Hunter.

That sight of her treating the Hunters like her house servants. Even if you didn’t know her face, there’s only one name that comes to mind seeing such arrogance.

In retrospect, it was obvious. There’s only one woman in South Korea who treats Hunters like her private soldiers.

Lee Mi-seon.

The master of the Daseon Guild and the youngest daughter of Dayeon Group’s owner. Lee Seung-yeon’s aunt.

She was the same when she was young. If anything, she had restrained herself more as she got older.

“Well, strictly speaking, it’s not a complete bust.”

Hong Seok-young replied with a sly smile.

“The information is accurate.”

“There’s no substance, though, no substance.”

Lee Mi-seon crossed her arms with a displeased face.

“This is problematic, Hunter Hong. This is not what we agreed on.”

“If this wasn’t their research lab, that would be the case. But look around. Does this place look like just an abandoned training facility? This is the real deal. The genuine Ark research lab.”

Lee Mi-seon couldn’t deny that. Whatever deal she had with Hong Seok-young, she seemed to think she couldn’t back down now and frowned.

“If there were anything left here, I wouldn’t be saying this.”

“So….”

“Master. All the bombs have been removed.”

“Really? Good job.”

Lee Mi-seon lightly tapped her foot. Then she took out a plastic container from her pocket and tapped it on her palm. Gum.

She started chewing gum again.

“Seeing you beating around the bush… it seems like there’s something you haven’t told me. What is it?”

“Hmm.”

Hong Seok-young smirked and looked at me. Naturally, Lee Mi-seon’s gaze turned towards me.

No, I wanted to be introduced through Lee Seung-yeon. That would have been more favorable to me.

Lee Mi-seon gestured to the Hunters standing around.

“Since the adults have things to discuss, go check if there’s anything salvageable.”

“Yes, Master.”

The Hunters quietly withdrew.

“…….”

How should I put it?

How old would Lee Mi-seon be twenty years from now? Over fifty? She still gave the impression of bossing her guild members around back then, but not to this extent.

Having seen many Hunters at the Ability Management Agency, I know. Hunters are creatures who think they are something great despite having nothing in their heads. Every year, there are several Hunters who don’t even listen to the Director…. That says it all.

Sometimes, we even receive reports of guild members stabbing each other. That’s what Hunters are.

But how did Lee Mi-seon manage to keep her position as a guild master for twenty years without being stabbed even once? Even Oh Hyun-wook got stabbed twice!

Since the Director always dealt with Lee Mi-seon, I didn’t know much about her. So I hadn’t given it much thought.

But looking at her now… could it be that Lee Mi-seon is truly an exceptional talent? Born as the youngest daughter of a conglomerate family, with not bad talents of her own…. And having minions to push all the troublesome tasks onto.

“Well. Are we done now?”

“There’s a sensitive issue at hand.”

“Sensitive? How much?”

“Well….”

Hong Seok-young looked at me and Kim Chae-min.

“Have you finished sorting everything?”

I shrugged and waved a stack of papers. Kim Chae-min did the same.

“We finished a while ago.”

We handed over the selected diaries to Hong Seok-young. It included the pages written by my younger self.

Lee Mi-seon frowned.

“You said there was nothing?”

“There was nothing left by the researchers.”

“Then what’s that?”

“It’s something left by a kidnapped child. Specifically, here, Teacher Woo’s younger brother.”

“Younger brother?”

Hong Seok-young handed the problematic diary pages to Lee Mi-seon.

The one mentioning the Myeong-dong dungeon.

Lee Mi-seon read the diary with a puzzled expression.

Her face quickly twisted.

“Myeong-dong dungeon? Failure? What the hell does this mean?”