Chapter 125

Knock, knock.

“Come in.”

Once Kwon Mu-seop’s permission was given, Cha Si-eon opened the door to the manager’s office and entered.

Cha Si-eon immediately found me, who had arrived first.

He did not show it, but he seemed a little surprised that I was here.

“Sit.”

At the manager’s suggestion, Cha Si-eon came over and sat without knowing why.

Kwon Mu-seop stated his business at once.

“Properly explain the 「Railway Station」 suppression operation you mentioned before.”

“You mean the 「Railway Station」 suppression operation?”

Cha Si-eon asked back as if he had heard wrong.

Until only recently, this was a topic Kwon Mu-seop had not even let him bring up.

Now that he was suddenly telling him to explain it, Cha Si-eon seemed rather startled.

Kwon Mu-seop nodded, and Cha Si-eon glanced toward me.

As if asking, what did you do?

What do you mean, what did I do? I only had a rational conversation.

The fact that Manager Kwon Mu-seop looked a little tired was merely my imagination.

“I am saying in advance that I am only going to listen for now.”

Amid that, Kwon Mu-seop warned him not to get his hopes up for nothing.

Cha Si-eon still looked as if he had not grasped the atmosphere.

“The goal is the neutralization of 「Giant Siren」, the main dangerous entity of 「Railway Station」. It is an operation that uses 11 convicts and drones.”

But as if he understood that this was an opportunity, he immediately began explaining.

“A total of 12 people including me will be deployed in the operation, and to avoid the siren, they will be arranged in 4 groups of 3. 3 groups will be attack teams, and 1 group will be an escape team. The attack teams will directly attack 「Giant Siren」 using drones, and the escape team’s role will be to secure a Ticket in advance in preparation for operation failure.”

The siren in 「Railway Station」 attacked one person at a time.

That attack could also be nullified if one left its range.

So he was saying they would form groups of three, have the members on both sides rescue the person targeted by the siren, keep nullifying the siren’s attacks like that, and carry out the operation.

In theory, it was plausible.

But theory and practice were different things, and Manager Kwon Mu-seop immediately revealed skepticism.

“You are saying you will carry out this complicated operation with convicts…….”

“If you permit it, I will receive recommendations for convicts from the Team Leader of Exploration Team 1 and train them for 3 weeks.”

He was saying he would pick the relatively capable figures among convicts and prepare them.

Would that really be as easy as it sounded?

In 「Railway Station」, the siren sounded every 20 seconds, and when one became its target, the fear of one’s body being crushed swept over them.

Unless one had considerable mental strength, it would be difficult to endure.

Cha Si-eon knew that too, which was probably why he was saying he would accompany them instead of sending only convicts.

“You can roll them hard and make them usable, I suppose. Even assuming that, it makes no sense for you to control 11 convicts by yourself.”

“Their own lives will also be at stake, so they will follow orders. I will strengthen their motivation by putting up prize money and sentence reductions as rewards.”

“No, that only works when they are in their right minds. What will you do if even one of them has other ideas?”

Convicts were fundamentally antisocial figures.

On top of that, they would have strong hostility toward the Bureau.

If things became unfavorable during the operation, there was plenty of possibility that they would think it was do or die and defy Cha Si-eon’s orders.

“I will prepare a means to remotely control the convicts from the operations room. Then I will not have to control the convicts alone.”

But Cha Si-eon did not yield and obstinately prepared countermeasures.

In the end, the one swallowing a sigh was Kwon Mu-seop.

I was starting to understand why Kwon Mu-seop had not let him even bring it up.

“Do you have a basis for saying you can neutralize 「Giant Siren」?”

“The Research Division said there is a high probability that the contaminated Lee Sol and 「Giant Siren」 are of the same nature.”

“…….”

“In the process of subduing Lee Sol, we confirmed how to stop the siren sound. If it has the same structure, we will be able to stop 「Giant Siren」 as well.”

“That too is only an inference.”

“If it fails, we will escape with the Ticket secured by the escape team.”

“What about the strength of 「Giant Siren」’s outer layer? Do we not need to at least make some estimate?”

“That can be measured through Lee Sol. There is no guarantee they are exactly the same, but we will be able to narrow the estimated range.”

“…….”

“……?”

At Cha Si-eon’s firm answer, Kwon Mu-seop reluctantly nodded, then abruptly stopped.

I too had been listening quietly when I realized something strange and looked at Cha Si-eon.

He means he will hit Lee Sol to estimate 「Giant Siren」’s strength?

Team Leader Cha, who would not even shy away from being a yaksha against a 15-year-old if it meant saving her.

Such warm? ice.

At Cha Si-eon’s rational forcefulness, Kwon Mu-seop let out a long sigh.

I had been the one to persuade Kwon Mu-seop to listen to Team Leader Cha’s opinion.

Because for these people, the closest thing to smooth speaking was an operation meeting, and if even that was blocked, what would be left?

But now that I had actually heard it, I also understood why Kwon Mu-seop had been covering Cha Si-eon’s mouth.

No matter how I thought about it, that was a gamble with lives at stake.

A gamble whose success probability could not even be measured, truly a hopeless gamble.

---

Kwon Mu-seop said he had something to discuss with Cha Si-eon separately, so I came out first.

Since the morning schedule was already ruined, I headed for the lodging first.

Last night, Kwak Jae-gyeom had given me an explanation that was not quite an explanation.

“It ended up looking like we hid it, but we did not know Lee Sol would change this much either.”

“The reason we did not tell you, hyung, was because there was nothing good about knowing.”

As Jae-gyeom had said, Lee Sol’s change in condition seemed to have been a bewildering incident even for the people of the Bureau.

I now understood why Jae-gyeom had described S.O.C.H. activities as an oxygen respirator.

These people were in a situation where they needed ventilation in some form.

Then what about from now on?

Even if Lee Sol “died humanely,” would they find another hobby and get along tolerably well?

I did not know.

Would Manager Kwon Mu-seop permit Cha Si-eon’s operation?

Was it truly right to risk lives on that uncertain possibility, or would it be better to judge wisely?

I did not know that either.

Because I had grown frustrated with the way things were going, I had sat them down and said we should at least hear him out, but the situation had not really changed.

What could not be helped was still what could not be helped.

“Mm?”

When I returned to the room, there was a message on my tablet.

It had been sent by Oh Tae-o.

“These are Lee Sol’s quarantine records. Please refer to them if necessary.”

What did he want me to refer to?

After hesitating for a moment, I opened the shared file.

Inside, there were a folder full of documents, dozens of photos, and several videos.

I hesitated for a moment, then opened a photo from around February.

Lee Sol, dressed in a surgical gown, was eating pizza.

Mm, at least in the beginning, she had been fairly fortunate.

When I flipped further through them, there were also photos of her playing with a cell phone or playing a board game with a female researcher.

But once it moved into March, Lee Sol’s clothes changed into a restraining suit.

Her complexion had turned pale, and the look in her eyes was different from before too.

Before long, the restraining suit changed back into a surgical gown.

It seemed that what had grown from her back tore all the clothes apart, rendering the restraining suit useless.

After that, most of the photos were taken while she was asleep.

There were many days when her face had scratches, and she was receiving IV fluid almost every day.

Looking at those photos, I murmured inwardly.

Why are you here doing this? Makes giving up the seat for you feel meaningless.

As I kept flipping through, a video naturally appeared.

I played that video too.

---

WEE-OOO—!

The siren sound rang out as soon as I turned on the video.

Inside that video, Lee Sol was in pain.

THOOM—!

Invisible pressure struck down here and there throughout the space.

THUD—! THUD—!

Someone rushed at Lee Sol, who was running wild.

It was Cha Si-eon.

Cha Si-eon twisted and broke what had grown above Lee Sol’s shoulder.

Lee Sol screamed in pain.

Cha Si-eon paid it no mind and subdued even that struggle.

He was cut and torn by the fierce resistance, but he subdued her and subdued her again.

Like that, after Cha Si-eon held Lee Sol’s shoulders and endured for a while, the rampage stopped and the siren also faded.

Only when the surroundings became quiet did Lee Sol barely come to her senses and faintly sob.

“Uncle, I’m sorry…….”

“It is all right.”

Cha Si-eon murmured as if it were nothing.

While holding Lee Sol, who was crying sorrowfully, even more tightly down, he merely murmured.

“It is all right.”

---

In front of the video that had finished playing, I pressed my forehead.

Before I knew it, a sigh slipped from my mouth.

“This crazy bastard…….”

---

Once the day’s work ended, Team Leader Cha appeared on the terrace.

I, who had been waiting first, asked Cha Si-eon indifferently,

“Was Manager persuaded?”

“Not yet.”

Then it was not “not yet.” It must have failed.

This bastard really has not given up yet.

I nodded, and meanwhile, Cha Si-eon stood beside me.

“Manager said Mr. Seo Do-un…….”

“……?”

“Had personally attacked and gaslit him.”

Cha Si-eon looked at me as if asking what the hell I had done.

No, Manager says things strangely…….

We had a rational conversation.

It was just that Manager Kwon Mu-seop kept saying narrow-minded things based on experience, so I told him, “Because of that experience, you nearly killed a perfectly fine person in 「Ant Hill」.”

Even then, he only insisted on a conservative attitude for reasons of responsibility, so I merely asked, “You said this was their everything, but is that really true?”

A few more conversations similar to that had occurred, but in any case.

I lightly ignored Cha Si-eon’s doubtful gaze.

Then I asked bluntly,

“Team Leader, you have no intention of giving up on Lee Sol, do you?”

Cha Si-eon did not answer.

It was nothing new, so I too murmured as if it were nothing much.

“I do not particularly like the phrase ‘speaking through actions.’ Words are words, and actions are actions. Why speak through actions? Speak properly first, then act. If a person does not speak, in the end, someone else has to read between the lines, do they not?”

“I…….”

“People like that always say things like, ‘I never asked you to read me,’ pissing people off. If you are going to do that, at least do well on your own.”

“…….”

“In any case, you have no intention of giving up on Lee Sol, do you?”

Cha Si-eon looked at me as if this were absurd.

As if he did not know why he had to receive this dressing-down.

So I calmly looked back at him too.

With the meaning that he was receiving it because he did not know.

Fortunately, perhaps something occurred to him, because Cha Si-eon opened his mouth after a long while.

“No.”

“Then make me one promise.”

At the word promise, Cha Si-eon looked at me again.

I endured that nonverbal expression once and spoke with precise vocabulary.

“That you will protect my life with your own on the line. Then I will help you save Lee Sol.”