Chapter 111 – Evacuation (Part Four)

Il-hyeon and Seo Jeong-hwa stepped into one of the elevators.

A colossal, circular shaft with a seemingly endless staircase descended majestically, but naturally, one couldn’t walk the entire depth of this place.

“How do you handle feeding the prisoners in a place this big?”

“Meals are replaced with pills containing nutrients, distributed once a month in minimal quantities. Thanks to that, excretory issues are almost nonexistent. A few die, but most of them, being Awakened, seem to endure it well.”

Hearing the guard’s blunt words, Seo Jeong-hwa’s expression soured.

From the looks of it and the sound of it, this was a place devoid of any human rights.

As Seo Jeong-hwa continued to pepper the guard with questions, Il-hyeon, who had been listening silently, leaned in slightly and spoke in Korean.

“What are you, here on a field trip?”

“Isn’t it fun? It’s a little creepy, too. I only came here because I was bored in the first place.”

“Geez… Just don’t go wandering off on your own.”

“What am I, a child?”

Seo Jeong-hwa scoffed.

In the meantime, the elevator arrived and came to a stop.

The doors opened, and as they stepped out, both instinctively clutched their heads and winced.

Though invisible to the eye, a wave that nullified the abilities of the Awakened permeated the entire underground space.

Even though Il-hyeon and Seo Jeong-hwa were wearing protective gear, the wave was so strong that even indirect exposure caused headaches for Awakened like them.

“Ugh, what is this…”

Seo Jeong-hwa groaned, squinting her eyes.

Il-hyeon didn’t say anything, but the pervasive waves caused a mild headache and a wave of nausea.

Now he understood what Jeong Jin-seong had been talking about.

The intensity of the emitted waves was far greater than he had anticipated.

“People can actually live locked up in a place like this?”

Seo Jeong-hwa muttered in disbelief.

As she said, if an Awakened were trapped here for even a day, it wouldn’t be strange at all if they went half-mad.

On the floor where they had disembarked, a long corridor stretched out before them, lined on both sides with sturdy iron bars behind which prisoners were confined. Most of them lay still as if dead, unable to move.

Aside from those who were nearly dead from being directly blasted by the electromagnetic waves, a few seemed to have adapted, sitting upright and staring blankly at the walls, or watching Il-hyeon and Seo Jeong-hwa as they entered with the guard.

Others, however, were writhing in agony and screaming.

Though their voices were already completely hoarse, to the point of coughing up blood, so their cries couldn’t properly echo.

These were said to be prisoners who had been incarcerated here only recently and were still in the process of adapting.

It was a cruel sight that made one frown, but from the prison’s perspective, it was a necessity.

Though it seemed excessive, there was no conventional way to contain the Awakened. If security were lax or the wave output was moderately adjusted, and even one of them regained their powers, it would be nothing short of a catastrophe.

The enormous number of prisoners filling this underground prison could all escape into the outside world.

“We’re not going to the lowest level, are we? I hear the EMP output is twice as strong as it is here.”

“We’re just here to see Kim Do-hoon.”

To be more precise, they were here to see Kim Do-hoon and the researchers involved in this incident.

There weren’t many non-Awakened who were confined here under special management, and Kim Do-hoon was one of them.

It wasn’t just criminal organizations that wanted to uncover the technology for Awakened procedures; countless others did too. He was imprisoned here to prevent anyone from breaking him out.

Of course, given the current situation, it seemed that intention hadn’t been very successful.

“This way.”

The guard stopped walking and pointed to one side, and Il-hyeon and Seo Jeong-hwa’s gazes followed.

Unlike the cells of the other Awakened prisoners, which were open structures with iron bars, this was a solitary cell with solid walls and a door.

*Click!*

The guard unlocked the door with a key, and the three of them stepped inside.

Kim Do-hoon, who had been sitting absently on a cot with his head bowed, flinched in surprise at the sudden entry of people.

‘It’s definitely Kim Do-hoon… At least it doesn’t seem like the prison authorities are lying about him being here.’

Il-hyeon thought as he studied Kim Do-hoon’s face.

Il-hyeon then requested a moment alone, and the guard nodded and stepped back.

After all, every area was under strict 24-hour surveillance by cameras, and if there was even the slightest hint of suspicion, they could simply disable the protective coats’ functions remotely.

The door closed with a thud, and Il-hyeon approached him, sitting down in the chair opposite.

“Mr. Kim Do-hoon, we’ve come because there are some things we need to discuss.”

“Who are you people?”

Kim Do-hoon’s voice was hoarse and cracked, as if he hadn’t spoken in a very long time.

But Il-hyeon paid it no mind and answered his question.

“We’re Awakened from Aegis. An illegal organization conducting Awakened procedures has been discovered, so we would appreciate your cooperation with a few questions.”

Their true purpose was different, but their official request to enter Deparc Prison was for an interview to gather information about the illegal Awakened procedures currently taking place.

But Kim Do-hoon, looking flustered, clamped his mouth shut.

He chose to say nothing at all rather than risk arousing suspicion by speaking carelessly.

He judged that as long as he was imprisoned here, an outsider like Il-hyeon couldn’t lay a hand on him.

At his attitude, Il-hyeon spoke calmly, as if he had expected it.

“Of course, I didn’t expect you to say anything. A fake wouldn’t know anything to tell me.”

“What…?”

Kim Do-hoon scowled, glaring at Il-hyeon.

But at his defiance, Il-hyeon simply let out a laugh.

Then, he released a tiny black insect he had summoned beforehand, keeping it out of the camera’s view.

The insect flew around for a moment before entering Kim Do-hoon’s mouth.

Feeling the sudden foreign object, Kim Do-hoon started to cough.

“Cough! Cough!”

“The real Kim Do-hoon died outside. So, who are you?”

Il-hyeon leaned in close and asked.

If the double had simply changed his appearance using a transformation ability, he would have been caught long ago by the inspections conducted here.

He had anticipated there was something more to it and planned to find out by trapping him in a summon’s hallucination.

Then, with a dazed expression, Kim Do-hoon’s eyes went half-lidded as he slowly opened his mouth.

“I… I am…”

***

*Beep-beep-beep! Click!*

The locked door opened, and Hyeon-seo and Seong-won stepped inside.

Working as members of Alpha Team in place of the injured Jeong Jin-seong and the suspended Il-hyeon, they had just returned from completing dozens of assignments.

Lately, their workload had increased so much that they didn’t even bother going home, instead using the dorms at the Aegis headquarters.

“Oof!”

Upon entering, Hyeon-seo tossed her blood-soaked coat onto the floor and flopped onto the sofa. Seong-won hung his coat and jacket on a hanger before heading to the bathroom to wash up.

And through the open door, a stream of summons scurried in.

Phoenix, with a mouse perched on its back, flew in and landed on the light fixture. A medium-sized gray wolf and a red fox approached the sofa.

Hyeon-seo stroked the two approaching fluffballs before naturally pulling them into an embrace, her eyes slowly closing on their own.

While Hyeon-seo dozed off, Seong-won finished a quick shower, changed his clothes, and came out.

“Sleeping soundly.”

He chuckled as he saw Hyeon-seo dozing with the two summons in her arms.

He then went to the refrigerator and grabbed a few cans of beer from the stack inside.

He also picked out a few of the various snacks neatly arranged in the cupboard, grabbed the remote, and sat down on the sofa to turn on the television.

A variety show filled the living room with laughter, and he took a swig of beer, letting out a faint smile.

It was a pleasant end to a busy and exhausting day.

Woken by the sound of the television and the movement, Hyeon-seo watched him for a moment.

As she looked at him with her head slightly raised, Seong-won noticed her gaze and spoke first.

“What are you doing up?”

“You know, watching you, I think your personality has changed a bit.”

“What? Me?”

“Yeah, when you first showed up, you barely smiled and were like a total machine. You’re so different now. These days… you seem more human.”

Hyeon-seo seemed pleased with her choice of words after a moment of thought and smiled brightly.

“Human…”

Seong-won repeated her words, which held no particular weight.

And a question he had buried in the back of his mind resurfaced.

The two sat on the same sofa, looking squarely at each other’s faces.

“Are we human?”

“Well…”

Hyeon-seo shrugged.

It wasn’t as if she hadn’t thought about this topic before.

Their appearance, behavior, and even their possession of free will were completely identical to humans.

But to declare themselves human, no different from anyone else, they possessed a far too significant difference.

It wasn’t that they hadn’t thought about their own identity.

“If we’re not human, then what are we?”

“How should I know? It’s not like worrying about it will solve anything. But one thing’s for sure—no matter what we are, nothing’s going to change.”

Hyeon-seo gestured as if it were no big deal and spoke confidently.

Seong-won, who heard her words, didn’t seem entirely convinced, but he appeared satisfied just to have voiced this thought to someone else.

It was Il-hyeon who had first said this to her when she was grappling with her own identity.

“I miss Il-hyeon.”

She let out a soft laugh and muttered in a small voice, so no one else could hear.

She had managed to see him once, using her spatial leap ability to fly to his side when he was in danger during a recent terror attack that coincided with a Gate.

But she had been too busy with things to handle, so they had parted ways as soon as the scene was cleared, and she couldn’t stay with him as long as she had wanted.

*Fzzt!*

Just then, the television screen suddenly filled with static.

Thinking it might be a channel issue, he tried changing the channel, but the increasingly distorted screen remained the same.

*Crackle!* The screen flickered with severe static again, then went to a blank, dark screen.

And from it, a man’s face appeared.

“What is this…?”