# Chapter 118
Je Sano will not return.
He probably will never return.
To be fair, why would a guy who lacks nothing live crammed in Iyeon’s house? Sano stuck with Iyeon to find traces of Morpho, so once he achieved his goal, there was no reason for him to stay.
Perhaps it was an obvious fact.
This is the situation Iyeon wanted. Sano got what he wanted, peacefully departed, and Iyeon is left alone again. This was the future he had naturally expected.
But he didn’t know it would come this quickly.
As the vague imagination approached reality, a foolish thought suddenly surged up. A hidden inner feeling lifted its head without knowing its place.
Even while knowing that Sano would be happier living a life away from him, Iyeon wanted to ask him to stay here. He just wanted to ask him to continue being friends. He wanted to suggest that they at least keep talking to each other.
Finding his own thoughts absurd, Iyeon sneered internally. What conversations? What would he talk about with him? About being imprisoned and abused in the research facility? What a shameless thought.
If Sano asked why he should stay here, what would he say? He didn’t even have a decent excuse. He had come all this way unable to find even a simple pretext for conversation. There was no way he could find a justification for continuing to live together.
[You’re now…]
“I, I have an urgent matter. I’ll hang up.”
Fearing he might inadvertently say something meaningless if he kept listening to Sano’s voice, Iyeon hastily ended the call. The hand holding the phone was trembling slightly.
“…What do I do now?”
His dejected voice only echoed briefly within the empty warehouse before fading away.
It felt like suddenly losing a signpost. Iyeon, who had been staying quietly in the warehouse like a kite with a broken string, didn’t come out until about 5 minutes later.
His belated consciousness overworked his brain to squeeze out a reason. Though Sano said he found the information, maybe he might also need information about Dr. Kim. Maybe Dr. Kim might have an unexpected connection.
That was truly a desperate and messy excuse, but there was no time to worry about such things. Though he had always thought Sano would leave someday, this was too early. Not to mention how sudden it was. Ending things so abruptly like this made no sense. Let’s just ask to meet once more, just once, with the new information.
It seemed like he could be satisfied and turn away if he could just see him that one time.
Shaking his head vigorously as if to wake himself up, Iyeon checked the warehouse number. Number 63. The plan wasn’t finished yet. The goal of capturing Dr. Kim remained the same.
By now, Young, Jeongheon, and the girl would have long since escaped from the factory. The countdown was still continuing.
“Is this it?”
He found warehouse 71 quickly. Even though this place is large, Young said there were about thirty people… Iyeon tilted his head. The surroundings were strangely quiet, but that was an advantage for him.
The warehouse where Dr. Kim was located was twice as large as the other surrounding warehouses. It had a commanding presence with a couple of small containers stacked on top. This is clearly where the final boss is. Iyeon stopped briefly in front of the entrance, looking at the warehouse that resembled a castle.
But he didn’t even bother to examine the inside before entering. Iyeon walked straight into the warehouse.
“Kim Cheoljae-ssi. Are you here?”
His rigid voice echoed against the metal walls.
The interior of the warehouse had a structure with limited visibility due to various cargo stacked high. Though it was quiet as if no one was there, Hyegang’s information couldn’t be wrong. Iyeon didn’t rush. He created a white notebook and pen as he walked. Thud, thud. His leisurely footsteps sounded like he was taking a stroll.
Iyeon deliberately avoided using his main power while searching for Dr. Kim. There was likely almost no one who would be highly wary of a tier 2 who couldn’t even attack properly without drawing.
Sure enough, Dr. Kim soon revealed himself of his own accord.
“Quite gutsy.”
The familiar face had a few more wrinkles than the last time he saw him. Must have had some mental suffering while living in hiding. Iyeon first checked his weapons. As expected, he didn’t seem to have any special defenses.
Moreover, Dr. Kim was alone. Well, it wouldn’t have mattered even if there were many.
“It’s been a while.”
Young must have gone to report to Dr. Kim after tying up Iyeon. That’s why Young wasn’t beside Iyeon when he woke up.
But Young, who went to get him, was nowhere to be found, and after a while, only Iyeon entered this place. The implication of that situation was obvious.
“You were a good test subject. It’s a shame.”
Dr. Kim’s tone seemed to be sneering, but there was also sincerity mixed in. That sincerity was ridiculous. A naturally snide voice came out.
“What a pity.”
“It’s okay.”
Despite inferring that Young had betrayed him, Dr. Kim was surprisingly calm. He smiled, showing his teeth.
“Now I have you, don’t I?”
Simultaneously, there was a sharp metal sound, and something fell from above Iyeon’s head. Bang! Dirt dust flew with a huge noise. Iyeon reflexively protected his head, but soon realized that this attack wasn’t meant to harm him. He hurriedly withdrew his ability. The white sand scattered and disappeared along with the dust cloud.
This was just a prison. In the blink of an eye, Iyeon was trapped in a square iron cage.
“Is this what you were counting on?”
Indeed, this should be enough for a Mugunghwa tier 2 superpower user with drawing materialization ability. Moreover, Dr. Kim had directly experienced how inadequate Iyeon’s drawing ability was.
Instead of answering Iyeon’s question, Dr. Kim muttered with glistening eyes.
“With you alone, I can surpass Morpho.”
A life explosively popular among researchers. Even when hiding his ability, this happens—is he cursed or something? Should he perform an exorcism? Iyeon grumbled internally.
“What competition… Is there some kind of research contest?”
“Morpho is famous because of materialization ability.”
To be precise, it was the gi-ryeok he had extorted… Judging from the situation, it seems Morpho had been pretending to have materialization ability. Considering that he created a terrain setting function, it was certainly possible.
‘Seriously, how long has it been since it was extracted, and it’s still there?’
Iyeon complained. It’s enough to wonder how much was extracted to be used so thoroughly for 10 years. Honestly, he thought most of it would have been used up while creating the terrain setting function…
“If I had that raw material, the story would be different.”
“But I have drawing materialization? The classification is different.”
In reality, it was the same ability, but Dr. Kim had no way of knowing that. Officially, Iyeon’s drawing materialization ability belonged to a subcategory of materialization ability, and its tier was also classified as low. Compared to the materialization ability that Morpho had, it would have limitations in application.
However, Dr. Kim’s face showed no concern at all about Iyeon’s point. His nonchalant voice retorted.
“That’s also an excellent research subject.”
He didn’t even seem particularly disappointed.
“I thought you were friends with Morpho.”
Iyeon changed direction. Dr. Kim readily answered toward the already captured bundle of gi-ryeok.
“We were, previously.”
When Dr. Kim first established the club research facility, Morpho approached him. He taught Dr. Kim the technique of extracting gi-ryeok from superpower users. He said this technique would help with research. Since it was actually a remarkable technique, Dr. Kim quickly came to trust Morpho.
“…Morpho taught you that? That technique?”
Iyeon muttered blankly. Not just acquaintances, but a technical collaboration relationship? But there was no trace of Morpho in the club research facility. Even Sano hadn’t mentioned anything…
‘Wait a minute.’
The image of Sano, who had agreed surprisingly quickly when Heesu came to request the smoke fox case, flashed through his mind. Could it be, could it be that he had predicted this from the beginning? …Why didn’t he tell me?
Iyeon had naturally assumed that Dr. Kim had developed everything. As far as he knew, Morpho didn’t know how to refine gi-ryeok into jewels.
So of course, even the superpower bracelets were made from jewels that Dr. Kim created and then stole…
“That’s right. He did contribute to some extent. But I did the rest.”
Dr. Kim muttered solemnly, as if reading a will. Based on Morpho’s technique, he developed the technology to compress and refine extracted gi-ryeok into jewels.
“Then the jewels in your research facility…”
“Yes. Half were made from what Morpho brought.”
Iyeon found himself holding his breath.
