Since he was internally chewing on every curse in the world, this was quite restrained for him. If he had let it all out of his mouth, Kwon Jeonghoo would nag until his ears grew calluses, so he irritably held back his body.
Yeah, fuck.
Now he felt like he could understand the base’s decision to stubbornly push forward with the guide-accompanied operation. Naturally with his head, not his heart.
Since the mutant Sirens that were obstacles to gate suppression lost their will to attack in response to guides’ wavelengths, they must have judged that the operation couldn’t be carried out efficiently without bringing them along.
They probably requested cooperative operations not only from the capital branch but also from regional bases to thoroughly scrape together every single guide. Why, there’s even a saying that the more, the merrier.
And if this was true, he absolutely could not agree to this dog-shit operation. Because monsters weren’t beings that could communicate with humans.
Even if they didn’t attack guides right now, the monsters he knew were things that could turn and show abnormal reactions at any time, anywhere, somehow.
Besides, goddammit, this content wasn’t even written in the proposal!
Even though he had read and chewed over it at least five more times, he hadn’t been informed of any related content. In other words, didn’t that mean those fucking base bastards deliberately hid information from him?
Yeo Dowoon pressured the researcher irritably.
“What happened with the operation proposal?”
“…….”
“I remember the operation proposal I read didn’t contain any of this content. Please make me understand.”
It was a sharp-edged question. The researcher then looked into empty space as if troubled and feigned ignorance.
“That’s…….”
But when he heard a voice saying “Researcher-nim,” he confessed honestly. He answered without meeting Yeo Dowoon’s eyes.
“I apologize, Dowoon-ssi. According to guidelines that top-secret matters cannot be left as public records, we had no choice but to deliver an abbreviated proposal to you all. I ask for your understanding on that point. I apologize once again. Furthermore, today’s meeting is also included in the confidentiality clause, so the attendees…….”
“I don’t need to hear any more. I’ll be leaving now.”
Yeo Dowoon cut off his words mid-sentence and stood up.
As if thoroughly disgusted, his manner of looking at the researcher was ominous. Regardless of whether there were gazes wondering about him or not, he criticized the base.
“Isn’t this currently a stupid plan to throw guides out as bait since monsters don’t target them? I don’t want to waste even one more minute on such a low-level operation.”
If it were using Espers as bait, maybe, but of all things, guides? Those who were no different from civilians? From Yeo Dowoon’s standpoint, that made absolutely no sense.
The researcher expressed difficulty and tried to persuade him.
“Dowoon-ssi! We’ve already completed experiments through artificial wavelengths. The mutant Sirens are definitely avoiding guides’ wavelengths. Isn’t this an operation with too high a risk level not to use this good hand? It’s not like we came up with a plan completely lacking in feasibility…….”
“Researcher-nim.”
Yeo Dowoon swept his eye area with a touch that clearly showed fatigue. Because these bastards had never stood on the front lines, all they could present were such useless excuses.
They didn’t come up with a plan lacking feasibility? Really now….
“Cave-type monsters don’t attack people. They fear other life forms. If you approach, they just run away or choose to hide with protective coloring—what do you think? Could you let them loose in your yard and live together?”
“If it’s cave-type monsters…….”
At Yeo Dowoon’s surprise question, the researcher stretched out his words as if the mere imagination was dizzying.
In fact, this was the normal reaction. Even if a monster was known not to attack people, it could absolutely never form a community and live in human society.
So regardless of how high their intelligence was, and regardless of how human-friendly they were, monsters were ultimately just monsters.
Weren’t even cave-type monsters, which possessed minimal intelligence and simultaneously had remarkably low offensive intent, always objects of fear to ordinary people?
But now they were concluding that only mutant Sirens would be different. If that’s the case, acknowledge cave-type monsters first before talking, he wanted to shout loudly.
Honestly, even cave-type monsters were evaluated positively by Espers as being that docile, but the absolute majority would feel both disgust and fear. Because it was impossible to predict when or where they might try to kill people.
It was obvious that those research bastards held the same thoughts, yet the fact that they were confident mutant Sirens would be safe was infuriating beyond measure.
Yeo Dowoon curtly put an end to the conversation.
“That’s enough.”
And then he turned his back without attachment. At least from his perspective, there was no difference between mutant Sirens and cave-type monsters.
Even if they didn’t currently target guides for attack, there was every possibility they could suddenly show unpredictable behavior patterns and cause confusion.
To put it extremely, if they suddenly started attacking only guides out of nowhere, how would they respond then?
‘They can say whatever they want because they’re sucking their fingers in a safe place. Because these bastards have never experienced actual combat.’
Yeo Dowoon was repeatedly disgusted by the base’s irresponsible decision. Following that, just as he judged there was no need to hear any more reports beyond this and was about to stride out of the conference room—
As he moved his heavy footsteps, a stiff heaviness began rising from his legs. As if a formless giant hand was firmly grasping and pulling down his calves.
“Ha, fuck……!”
Whipping his head around, Yeo Dowoon glared at Cha Uihyeon with blazingly burning eyes. He even growled as if he would chew him up, so Cha Uihyeon offered an apology with an awkward expression.
“Sorry. I’m sorry, Dowoon.”
Then soon he opened his fist that had been placed on the table and carefully raised his second finger. The fingertip was, as expected, gently pointing at Kwon Jeonghoo.
Yeo Dowoon immediately grasped the meaning implicit in that gesture. Fucking Kwon Jeonghoo had secretly ordered him to bind his legs!
Without even looking at Kwon Jeonghoo, Yeo Dowoon glared at Cha Uihyeon and warned him.
“Release it, hyung. Before you see blood.”
But Cha Uihyeon couldn’t release the gravity binding Yeo Dowoon’s legs. If he did, it was obvious he’d be dragged to his superior’s office again to get an earful—how could he act independently?
No, that’s not right. Considering the gravity of the situation, it was certain he’d get not one earful but two or three earfuls. So just hold on more tightly. He had to do as the captain ordered.
“Cha Uihyeon……!”
Finally, when Yeo Dowoon dropped the “hyung” and barked at him, Cha Uihyeon glanced back at Kwon Jeonghoo as if startled. At the same time, a rough voice flowed into his mind.
-Don’t go easy on him, bind him tightly.
“C-Captain. At this rate, if Dowoon fires off an ice spear…….”
-You need to change his center of gravity too.
“……I’ve already reset it to make it hard to gauge direction.”
-Good. You did well. Work hard just a bit more.
“Yes, Captain.”
Cha Uihyeon was an Esper who used gravity among physical systems, and fundamentally could fix a target’s body as if pressing it to the ground.
The unique aspect of his ability was that he could also use this to reset a target’s center of gravity. Through the shift in center of gravity, he could confuse even their sense of direction and interfere with the opponent’s movements.
“Ah. So fucking dirty…….”
As Cha Uihyeon expected, Yeo Dowoon stopped trying to create an ice spear and disheveled his hair.
His whole body kept feeling like it would tilt backward and fall over, and also like it would crash forward. With his sense of direction dizzily failing to settle, he couldn’t establish an attack point as he wanted.
If he carelessly used his ability, the coordinates might twist without him knowing, and he might end up attacking the wrong place.
“Sorry for being dirty, Dowoon. But I really do want to release you……. When I’m using my power on you, my stamina drops too…….”
Precisely because of this advantage, Cha Uihyeon’s ability was scheduled to be usefully employed for the purpose of pulling in the suspected gate source monster when discovered at close range.
“I don’t care about your stamina or whatever, just release this.”
“…….”
“You’re really not going to release it?”
No matter how much he pretended not to know, when Yeo Dowoon kept threatening him, Cha Uihyeon reluctantly answered while glancing at Kwon Jeonghoo. It was a powerless tone.
“Give me a break. You know I don’t have decision-making authority.”
