60
“Now everyone, do you see the light on your wrists? What color is it right now?”
“Green!”
“Good! That means your status is good. You all know traffic lights, right? Think of it the same way. In the field, you need to protect your body, so always check your warning light on your wrist!”
Minjae watched Hoyoung as he cheerfully explained to the children.
A few days ago, Minjae had suggested that Hoyoung prepare content for a special lecture. His intention was to divert attention that was focused on just himself and Jihwan.
Since the Center Director’s original purpose was to maintain the Center’s image of properly managing children, highlighting Team 1 wasn’t a bad idea.
Hoyoung had prepared somewhat cute yet useful content like protecting oneself in the field and safety rules. Having younger siblings seemed to make him adept at handling children.
The children, even when distracted, would quickly focus on Hoyoung’s words. Each time Hoyoung finished speaking, camera shutters clicked from the reporters positioned at the back.
Eunjeong was sitting in a slouched, delinquent-like posture, leaning back on her chair. When Minjae kicked her chair lightly, she frowned but straightened her posture.
“What should I do…?” asked Jihwan, sitting next to Minjae.
“Play with the kids later.”
After Minjae’s response, Jihwan quietly watched the children and Hoyoung with a contemplative expression.
“Did you attend here too, sunbae?” Jihwan whispered, glancing cautiously at the reporters.
Minjae looked around the classroom. The room was decorated more neatly than usual in anticipation of photo sessions. Minjae hadn’t spent enough time in this classroom to say he “attended” it.
Though they had classes similar to regular schools, espers were raised as espers from a young age. It was a memory Minjae didn’t particularly want to recall.
“You could say that.”
“I’m curious what you were like as a child, sunbae.”
“Nothing special.”
Jihwan pouted at Minjae’s indifferent tone. As Hoyoung’s class wrapped up, the children applauded. After Hoyoung came back to sit down, Minjae stood up and went to the podium.
“What abilities do the rescued children have?”
“What will happen to these children now?”
“How are the children doing? Has there been any impact on their abilities?”
The reporters began asking questions as if they’d been waiting for this moment. They specifically targeted information about the children. This was expected since their interest would naturally gravitate there.
Eunjeong frowned and glared at the reporters. She’s about to explode. Minjae spoke up before Eunjeong could intervene.
“The Center Director always puts his heart and soul into creating a good educational environment. Would you like to take a look around while you’re here?”
The reporters murmured at Minjae’s words. About eight reporters had been authorized to enter the Center. Just getting in was something of a scoop, and now they seemed to be testing whether they could take photos of the interior.
“Photography is possible within the range of what we can disclose.”
The reporters eagerly took the bait Minjae had thrown.
Team 1 and the reporters headed to the training ground.
Inside the training ground, there were quite a few holes in the walls. The reporters peered into the holes or looked around.
Minjae picked up a small ball from the floor and pressed it with his finger, crumpling it.
“These balls are all made of special rubber. They bounce back when hitting walls or floors at a certain speed, but they don’t have enough elasticity to cause severe impact on a human body.”
Minjae guided the reporters behind the safety line in the training ground. Then he pulled the training start lever.
Bang!
At the sound of gunfire, the reporters all flinched. A ball shot out at high speed from one of the holes in the wall. The ball quickly fell to the floor and bounced up.
Shortly after, gunfire was heard again. Balls began pouring into the training ground one by one.
“…The speed is incredible.”
“Things thrown at us in the field don’t wait for us to notice them. Learning to move quickly is important for children too. It increases the survival rate.”
The reporters’ atmosphere became somewhat solemn at Minjae’s words.
“Do you lose many colleagues due to terrorism?”
“…It’s not unheard of. We just do our best to prevent such things from happening.”
“Thank you for your hard work!”
“Thank you.”
Minjae was an esper who had recently been shot down in front of numerous people. The reporters hesitated to ask further questions.
One of the reporters bowed, and Minjae smiled and thanked them.
This should make additional questions awkward. As expected, the reporters only exchanged glances. Though it felt like he was appealing to their emotions, Minjae was satisfied that he didn’t have to answer more questions.
With a friendly smile, Minjae guided the reporters outside.
***
Jihwan was lying on the bed, blinking. Thoughts of the day’s events kept him from falling asleep.
His slight expectation of seeing the space where Minjae and the other seniors had lived when they were young disappeared quickly. It was quite different from the school Jihwan had imagined.
Jihwan recalled the balls that had moved rapidly before his eyes. He hadn’t been able to properly catch the movement of the ball in that moment.
Unlike him, Minjae, Hoyoung, and Eunjeong seemed familiar with the place. There was an atmosphere suggesting that receiving such training from a young age was natural.
There, Jihwan felt like an outsider. He felt that way even though no one treated him as such.
‘Survival rate.’
Jihwan hadn’t given much thought to that term in the field. He had thought survival rate only applied to citizens. However, recently Jihwan had experienced the survival rate of heroes acutely. There were moments when he felt close to death.
All things considered, Jihwan wasn’t a team member with a high survival rate. If what had been pouring down in the training ground today had been bullets instead of balls, Jihwan didn’t know how many minutes he would have lasted.
Jihwan recalled the moment when a gun was aimed at him, and Minjae had blocked it with his hand. What if it had been somewhere other than his hand? What if they targeted a spot that would take a life before it could be treated?
Jihwan sat up. His chest felt tight, making it hard to breathe. The time that felt like an eternity when he had held the dying Minjae and flown through the air flashed through Jihwan’s mind.
Jihwan got up completely and left the dormitory. He wanted to spend time in the training ground until morning came. Jihwan walked along the quiet, dark dawn path toward the training ground.
Bang!
When he got close to the training ground, a loud sound rang out.
What’s going on? Jihwan looked around and then lifted off to circle the outside of the training ground building once. However, he didn’t sense anything unusual.
Bang!
Once more, a loud sound rang out. It seemed to be coming from inside the training ground.
There must be others training at this hour. Feeling a bit embarrassed, Jihwan entered the training ground.
Irregular loud noises continued to echo. What kind of training is this? Curious, Jihwan decided to find the training ground where the sound was coming from.
As Jihwan walked down the corridor, he caught sight of blazing flames. A flickering shadow appeared and faded. Jihwan walked toward it.
Inside the small window was a sea of fire. Fires were burning everywhere, making the internal structure hard to see. Additionally, bullets or something like sharp arrowheads could occasionally be seen striking the floor.
Who’s in there? Jihwan frowned and looked for any figure appearing between the smoke.
Bang!
A small bomb exploded near the center of the training ground. It was quite powerful for a training device, causing the glass window in front of Jihwan to shake.
“Waaahh!”
A baby’s cry came from inside. Simultaneously, several doll-like objects wrapped in swaddling clothes appeared on the floor and disappeared after a certain time.
A bundle appeared near the window where Jihwan was watching. Then Jihwan saw something flying through the smoke ahead. It was a bomb. It seemed to be aimed at the doll wrapped in swaddling clothes.
A person jumped into Jihwan’s field of vision. Red laser lights followed behind him.
He seemed to have detected the danger of sniping, moving quickly while twisting his body. He lunged, embraced the child, and rolled.
Bang!
The bomb fell a little late.
Huh. Jihwan unconsciously inhaled. Whether due to the impact, the esper in training couldn’t get up right away.
Why isn’t the alert sound ringing? The fact that there was no mission complete message even though the child had been rescued meant that simply rescuing wasn’t the mission completion condition.
The esper picked up the doll as if handling a real baby and laid it down in the corner of the training ground. Then he stood up.
The figure of a man aiming a gun at a frightened woman appeared. Red lights swarmed across the training ground floor. The esper’s profile was revealed and disappeared by those lights.
Sunbae Minjae? Jihwan moved closer to the window. The profile that appeared and disappeared in the light was definitely Minjae’s.
At that moment, more figures aiming guns appeared behind Minjae. There were three in total.
In the blink of an eye, gunfire rang out. Laser guns were fired from several places at once. Several laser lights pierced through Minjae’s shoulder.
“Sunbae!”
Surprised, Jihwan shouted. But his voice was drowned out by the gunfire and explosion sounds.
Minjae quickly moved his body to strike down the joint of the man’s arm, then twisted the gun barrel that had been pointing at the woman to face the man’s face. He then caught the woman who was quickly falling sideways. There was a sound like a bullet hitting somewhere.
Ding!
A notification sound for mission completion rang. Light emanated from Minjae’s body.
Jihwan noticed blood flowing down Minjae’s arm. The side of his clothes was also soaked with blood. The guns used in the simulator were electric guns made with lasers, unlike real bullets. Being hit rarely caused life-threatening situations.
However, the electrically-made bullets were like small sparks. They cause wounds when hit. Jihwan had been hit by those bullets before. So he knew the pain of skin being pierced.
Jihwan recalled the image of Minjae grabbing and twisting the gun barrel with his hand to save Jihwan when he was held hostage at school. Minjae now showed no hesitation, just like then. Had it always been this way?
The training ground brightened.
Minjae took out a mop from the corner of the training ground and roughly wiped up his blood that had fallen to the floor. His face was serene as if nothing had happened.
Jihwan flew up to leave the corridor without being detected. He didn’t have the confidence to face his senior right now.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
