Chapter 128

I was well aware that the Trial Response Agency belonged to the Ministry of National Defense.

I also knew that while it operated under a headquarters and team system, its essence was the military.

However, the only military I knew was what I had seen in media and games.

Even though I addressed them as ‘Lieutenant Colonel’ and ‘Captain’, I never truly felt the weight of that title.

I had recently realized that I had been acting unbecoming of a trainee.

However, I had not anticipated finding myself in a situation like this.

My heart sank.

I froze, unable to even blink, before finally managing to move my lips.

"I’m sorry…"

It didn’t seem like the right answer in this situation.

But that was the only thing I could say.

As I kept my gaze fixed on the floor, a short command fell upon the top of my head.

"Get down."

I quickly lay face down on the floor.

As I looked down at the stone floor of the medic’s quarters, cold sweat ran down my spine.

I couldn’t see the expression on his face, but the suffocating atmosphere was palpable, making me even more nervous.

Kwak Hanmuk crouched down in front of me and reached out his hand.

The image of Won Taebeom being punched by him played out naturally in my mind.

I thought I was going to get hit too, but instead of a blow, my head was grabbed.

I felt a hand running through my hair.

Kwak Hanmuk was checking the wound on my head.

‘Lieutenant Won… You really did report everything…’

Actually, it was a situation where reporting was the natural thing to do.

I hesitated, then whispered.

“Uh, the wound has healed completely.”

But he didn’t reply.

Only after confirming with his own eyes that there was no wound did he take his hand off my head.

“Anyway, you really go around smashing heads in whenever you want.”

Kwak Hanmuk muttered in a low voice and looked at me. Our eyes met by accident, so I hurriedly looked away again.

Still sitting in front of me, he asked in a voice devoid of even a hint of a smile.

“Trainee Han, do you think your superiors are a joke?”

“No.”

“Why? Just do as you’re told. That’s the situation here, isn’t it?”

“No…”

“Then why do you keep lying? You think you can handle everything on your own?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Trainee Han, is there nothing else you know how to say besides ‘I’m sorry’ and ‘No’?”

“…….”

I was about to say ‘I’m sorry,’ but stopped myself.

Should I say something like, ‘I will correct it’…?

No matter how much I thought about it, I couldn’t come up with a good answer.

It seemed much easier to just tackle a six-star trial on my own.

I ended up having a petty thought.

‘Should I check the status window?’

I felt that if I knew Kwak Hanmuk’s current state, I might get a hunch.

However, I only thought about it and didn’t actually do it.

In fact, it wasn’t just the status window.

Even though I wasn’t an NPC, the role of a medic allowed me to check suspicion and affection levels.

Just as I had checked Dominic’s levels first.

The temptation to check Je Hyun-oh or Kwak Hanmuk’s levels was there from the very beginning.

But I knew I shouldn’t.

Just checking their current status through the status window from time to time was already more than enough to make me feel gloomy.

I had at least the awareness that going beyond that would make me a criminal.

…Or perhaps I already was a criminal.

I tried my best to come up with a plausible answer, but my mind was completely blank.

Sweat formed on my forehead. This time, it wasn’t cold sweat, but sweat from exhaustion.

As I stood there at a loss for what to do, Kwak Hanmuk spoke again.

“Answer properly. What is your reason for lying?”

He seemed determined not to let me off the hook until I gave him a clear answer.

My arms trembled as I racked my brain.

Why did I keep lying?

The answer was simple. Because I thought the dangerous plan I had devised wouldn’t pass.

But saying that wouldn’t work on Kwak Hanmuk.

I would only get scolded more for making decisions alone without consulting anyone.

Perhaps because the physical punishment posture was so difficult, my mind wasn’t working well, but I tried hard to come up with a slightly more plausible answer.

I think that long ago, when I faced difficult problems, I, too, used to speak honestly and ask for help.

At first, everyone was worried and tried to join forces to solve it somehow.

However, as is often the case with problematic situations, they rarely get resolved quickly.

New problems just keep arising endlessly.

As the situation repeated itself, everyone looked sick and tired.

‘The atmosphere just got worse.’

In that case, it was much better to lie and handle it on my own.

Because I didn’t want to make the people around me anxious.

I always solved things on my own, and as long as the results were decent, others liked it.

The majority tacitly condoned my behavior and accepted the peace.

But now… everyone except me was pointing out my actions.

Kwak Hanmuk’s words fell on the back of my head again as I lay hunched over.

“Acting like this means you don’t trust your superiors, right?”

Ruminating on Kwak Hanmuk’s words, I finally realized a plausible answer.

Feeling the sweat trickling down my temples, I opened my mouth.

"It’s not that…"

I hesitated for a moment, finding it difficult to speak, before continuing.

"I did it because I didn’t want anything to happen to the team…"

If I had to keep overcoming trials in the future, I wanted to stay part of the Special Mission Team.

That seemed to be why I wanted to do even better.

All while thinking that, in the end, everyone would be pleased with the outcome.

Upon hearing my answer, Kwak Hanmuk remained silent for a moment.

Soon, he slowly opened his lips and asked.

“Then what about you?”

His voice was colder than ever.

At that moment, I wondered what kind of expression Kwak Hanmuk was making as he asked me.

But I couldn’t lift my head, so I just answered while looking at the floor.

“I just… thought it would be okay. I thought it would work out somehow.”

This was the truth.

Once again, it was a move I had calculated in my own way.

If it had been life-threatening, I would have chosen a different method.

‘My arm hurts.’

I straightened my body, which kept threatening to collapse, and glanced at Kwak Hanmuk.

He seemed to be deep in thought. He showed no sign of telling me to get up.

I stealthily shifted my gaze to check on Je Hyun-oh.

“…!”

And then our eyes met squarely.

I could feel a gaze staring intently through the goggles. It seemed he had been watching me all along.

Just as if he were observing me.

I felt a strange and unfamiliar sensation.

That was because I was the one who had been observing him all along.

I had always wanted to know more about Je Hyun-oh.

I was curious about the face beneath the gas mask, curious about his past, and simply curious about everything I didn’t know.

That is why I had always observed him with a heart full of curiosity.

But now, it seemed as though Je Hyun-oh was observing me.

As I glanced at Je Hyun-oh, my arm twisted, and I nearly collapsed.

I straightened my posture as if nothing had happened, but I was immediately caught by Kwak Hanmuk.

He looked at me with eyes mixed with a mixture of disbelief and bewilderment.

His gaze seemed to ask if I was really struggling over something so trivial.

As someone who, despite the hardship, was still capable of handling it, I felt a bit wronged, but I quietly kept my mouth shut.

“Get up.”

Of course, I wasn’t so wronged as to refuse the order to stand, so I quickly rose.

Kwak Hanmuk looked down at me silently. With my face flushed red from the blood rushing to my face from lying prone, I merely averted my eyes.

After staring like that for a while, Kwak Hanmuk turned to look at Je Hyun-oh.

“Lieutenant Colonel Je.”

At that, Je Hyun-oh, who had been standing back and watching until now, stepped forward and stood in front of me.

As Je Hyun-oh and Kwak Hanmuk sat side by side in front of me, it felt as though a wall had formed.

I looked up at them with eyes filled with respect and deference toward my superior.

Je Hyun-oh, who had been looking down at me, whispered as if to himself.

“He’s doing this again…”

As soon as I heard those words, the moment he threw me at Sla2Plate and slammed me into a tree flashed through my mind vividly.

I was watching with tense eyes when, as if to make matters worse, Je Hyun-oh made me even more anxious by clinking his metal hand.

Then, he said something unexpected.

“You shouldn’t do anything dangerous, Goyo.”

Whispering in a rough voice, his words sounded at first glance like affectionate concern.

However, I knew.

The meaning of what Je Hyun-oh was saying was clear.

I had promised to enter <Zero> with him.

It meant that it would be troublesome if I died before then.

To Je Hyun-oh, I was now someone who had to be saved at all costs.

Only Kwak Hanmuk, unaware of these underlying circumstances, looked at Je Hyun-oh with a questioning gaze.

It was a look filled with the desire to verify if this was indeed the Je Hyun-oh he knew.

Je Hyun-oh reached his hand to the side. A table was placed nearby.

The tip of his metal hand very lightly touched the statue of the Octopus Tentacle.

I could not hide my wide-eyed astonishment.

“Uh, excuse me, Lieutenant Colonel Je, wait a moment…!”

I stammered out the words in a panic, but Je Hyun-oh pressed down on my hand.

The wooden statue split silently by the black metal.

I screamed inwardly as the statue split in half.

I was trembling, wanting to grab Je Hyun-oh’s metal hand right then and there.

Je Hyun-oh stared straight at me and moved his hand very slowly; finally, the statue, split vertically, fell over to the sides with a clatter.

I couldn’t bear to look directly at that gruesome sight and closed my eyes.

Along with the chilling sound of metal clinking, a soft question was heard.

“Why, can’t you look?”

I forced my eyelids open and witnessed an even more horrific scene.

The metal hand that had split the statue was now pounding on the split wood as if playing a game.

Following the hand’s movements, the wood was being sliced ​​into pieces with a scraping sound.

‘Lord Octopus Tentacle… I’m sorry…’

Just as I was apologizing for my disrespectful behavior, if only in my heart, I heard the sound of Kwak Hanmuk sighing.

“What on earth are we going to do about that?”

While Kwak Hanmuk kept sighing, Je Hyun-oh butchered the statue to the point where its original form was unrecognizable.

Only after that did he speak again.

“Captain Kwak.”

“Yes.”

“From now on, Trainee Han Goyo is prohibited from taking any individual action. If the same thing happens again, consider it insubordination and handle it accordingly.”

“Yes.”

Kwak Hanmuk responded immediately to his superior’s order, as if he had been waiting for it.

While I felt relieved that the situation had been resolved, I also thought that if something like this happened just one more time, I might have a truly extraordinary experience.

Something far more extreme than mere physical punishment.

After vowing never to act alone again, I cautiously began to speak.

"Um, but…"

Since it was an important matter, I felt I should speak about it now that we were all gathered.

"I mean the Prison Warden, no, CEO Cha."

As soon as I mentioned CEO Cha, the atmosphere between Je Hyun-oh and Kwak Hanmuk changed instantly.

Although they had entered together, they certainly seemed to perceive CEO Cha as something akin to an obstacle.

In fact, the situation was turning out that way.

"He originally promised to support me… but it seems he changed his mind a bit. We should consider the possibility that he might not act according to the plan."

I recalled what CEO Cha had said to me.

"I don’t need a True Ending."

He possessed the ability to clear the trial with a sufficiently different ending.

Assuming CEO Cha acted unilaterally, he envisioned the standard endings the Prison Warden might see.

If it were CEO Cha, he would surely… the most efficient and fastest ending…

"Wait a minute."

Suddenly, Kwak Hanmuk blurted out. He spoke while narrowing his eyes.

"A prison guard just died?"

"…!"

The guard’s ability was ‘Connecting with Colleagues.’

He could determine how many guards were in the prison.

As his ability advanced, he could even gauge the extent of a colleague’s injury or their level of Neo addiction, and even summon colleagues.

With Kwak Hanmuk’s current level of ability, he could perceive the guards’ real-time status.

But to think a guard had died.

Just as his brain froze at this sudden, unexpected situation with absolutely no reason for it…

The system window popped up.

CEO Cha was attempting to kill all NPCs in The Cellblock X.

T/N: i saw someone on twitter making a google form to predict the stocks of all the MLs in this book, i’ll definitely be rooting for CEO Cha…

in other news, happy birthday yoo joonghyuk! if you haven’t read orv and you’re here i’m not sure what’s going on, really

speaking of, if anyone has any novel recommendations that are like BL but not BL, it’s much appreciated. hope you guys had a great monday!