# Chapter 62
Arriving five minutes before the meeting started, Lee Hwan went down to the basement to find Kang Dongha leaning against the stairwell door as if he’d been waiting.
“Are you crazy? What the hell are you doing here?”
Despite the irritated tone, Lee Hwan didn’t feel like arguing back. He didn’t even have the energy for that. He was just grateful that his mask concealed his drained face.
“I tried using voice recognition, but it’s not great.”
He waved his arm as he spoke, but immediately regretted it. He’d momentarily forgotten that the watch he was wearing had been given to him by Taesung. This suspicious guy would surely question where he’d gotten a Strike Team device.
Fortunately, the concern proved unfounded.
“You mean that thing well covered by your clothes? I’m amazed you can understand anything with cotton stuffed in your ears.”
The hastily thrown-on clothes completely covered his wrist, with just a bulge showing where the watch was. Lee Hwan was so relieved that he simply kept his mouth shut and nodded at the barbed comment.
That reaction must have seemed strange, as Kang Dongha paused mid-complaint and gave him a suspicious look. In response to him eyeing him up and down, Lee Hwan straightened his spine with more effort.
“Are we going in or what?”
Finally, after making his snide remark, Dongha turned his suspicious gaze away and started walking.
There was no need to tell him about meeting Kang Taesung separately. He would surely have a fit. Well, he might secretly be pleased to hear that Lee Hwan had been chased and nearly killed… but the thought of explaining all that in detail made keeping quiet seem like the better option.
When they opened a door with a glass window deep in the corridor, seven or eight people were seated around a long, wide table. Everyone looked up at Dongha when they sensed someone coming, then uncomfortably glanced at Lee Hwan who followed behind him.
Was it because of the mask, or was it displeasure at having a guard accompany him this far inside?
However, no one dared to challenge Dongha, so nobody spoke up. Instead, all their gazes shifted at once toward someone, as if seeking permission.
‘…’
Lee Hwan felt his toes freeze. Taesung, who had been chasing him just earlier, was sitting there with a perfectly normal face.
He looked so calm and composed that it was hard to believe he had been running after him. Wearing his usual work clothes with his hair casually styled, he somehow resembled his past self.
Crazy bastard. Suddenly stirring up nostalgia like this. Lee Hwan felt his shoulders stiffen.
Should he be glad to see this face of mixed love and hate, or should he be depressed? All he knew was that, either way, keeping quiet was the best option. He wasn’t here as a Naru researcher, Strike Team member, or mere employee, but as Dongha’s subordinate.
Taesung’s eyes briefly swept over Dongha before smoothly turning toward Lee Hwan. Lee Hwan pretended not to notice and quietly stood in the corner, not making even a breathing sound.
Soon the door closed, and the meeting began as one of the researchers stood up from the front seat.
The TF team’s first meeting turned out to be an explanation of the new topic and goals. A clean PowerPoint presentation with only the necessary words precisely arranged appeared on the electronic board.
“As previously informed, today we’ll briefly explain the team’s purpose and highlight our future vision.”
The voice that started this way moved from brief greetings to introducing the agenda.
Listening to the subsequent comments, the speaker seemed so articulate that it was hard to tell if they were from research or sales. Well, to secure a decent position in a large corporation, pure research skills probably wouldn’t be enough.
Click. With the sound of a button press, the screen soon changed to a graph, and the main discussion gradually began.
“First, this graph records gate-related accidents. The accident rate, which was quite frequent until the first 10 years after gates appeared, dropped dramatically after a stabilization period and has maintained a consistent rate for 40 years. We can observe that it has been gradually rising for the past 10 years or so.”
As mentioned, the red graph showed fluctuations around the 10-year mark and had been gradually rising. It included figures for various incidents such as internal gate accidents, gate overflow incidents, and more.
“And this is a graph quantifying observed cases of gate transformation.”
Soon a yellow graph quickly moved and was recorded on the same table. While it was empty at the first appearance of gates since there was no record of what cases were pre-transformation, the subsequent movement remarkably resembled the gate accident graph with a surprisingly similar curve.
“Finally, this shows transformation cases in gates that have been managed for more than 50 years without natural disappearance after opening.”
Since gate transformations themselves weren’t rare events, a blue line was drawn far below. However, the pattern of increases and decreases in this graph also resembled the previous two graphs.
“After quantifying and organizing gate incidents from the past several decades, we’ve calculated that older gates have nearly six times the probability of internal transformation, which we’ve confirmed leads to gate accidents causing significant damage. This has also been observed in overseas gate cases…”
The dry but clean voice continued with a concise explanation, focusing only on the essentials. Even Lee Hwan, who had been holding his stomach with one hand and biting his lip, found his attention drawn for a moment.
Glancing around, he saw that not only the Strike Team, but also Kang Dongha and Taesung were listening attentively. The presentation seemed flawless at first glance.
But something felt off. Though the content seemed perfectly normal, there was a sense of discomfort throughout. Lee Hwan stared at the graph for a while, then activated his watch to record everything being said.
‘When I get home… I need to listen to this again. My head keeps getting fuzzy.’
Was it because of the medication? Despite needing to prick up his ears, his mind kept drifting. He wanted to slap his cheek to wake himself up, but he had no intention of acting crazy in front of people, and anyway, the mask would only make a clacking sound if hit.
‘Let me try to understand as much as I can for now.’
Lee Hwan trusted the recording file, blinked his blurry eyes to focus, and put strength into his trembling legs.
After 15 minutes, the main point of the presentation seemed to be this:
For gates that had existed for many years, rare transformations were observed, and to prevent accidents caused by these transformations, control and manage them to maximize profits, the research team and strike team would work together.
Just hearing it, it sounded quite plausible. Although it was merely a hypothesis that hadn’t been formally adopted yet, if supported by sufficient evidence, it would be convincing enough to follow without hesitation.
Lee Hwan also felt that preparing for gate transformations in advance was better than sitting and waiting to resolve them.
But if things had gone as safely as planned, would he have regressed?
‘Semi-Awakening sounded plausible too, if you just listened casually.’
The main content could be generously described as an effort to prevent accidents, but from a colder perspective, it meant the research team and strike team would somehow tamper with gates for profit. Regardless of how normal the meeting appeared, Lee Hwan didn’t see it in a positive light at all.
Moreover, if he had to give another reason for his aversion to this TF team…
‘That guy, and that one, and that one too. All faces I recognize.’
Faces he had memorized while looking around D Building over the past few weeks. The researchers participating in this TF team were all people who had gone underground. They were all participants in the Semi-Awakening project.
Could that be coincidence? Unless the person in charge of Semi-Awakening was a complete idiot, they wouldn’t make such a mistake.
‘Just advertise that you’re suspicious, why don’t you.’
Lee Hwan turned his gaze slightly to look at Kang Dongha. Somehow sensing his gaze, Dongha, true to his sharp instincts, turned his head and briefly met Lee Hwan’s eyes.
His head nodded once, shallowly. As if to say, “Whatever you’re guessing, you’re probably right.”
‘…What the hell are these guys doing?’
Anxiety and distrust steadily accumulated within Lee Hwan.
No matter how he thought about it, the Semi-Awakening project was the researchers’ main focus, and this TF team was literally just a task force. Then, though a terrible thought, this research must ultimately be connected to Semi-Awakening as well.
‘No… why are all villains so damn industrious?’
They had their fingers in everything. To the extent that if you randomly poked at any strange area, it would probably be related to Semi-Awakening. Indeed, the reason for the apocalypse was corporate tyranny.
‘Pigs of capitalism.’
Muttering inwardly, Lee Hwan slowly wiped the cold sweat seeping from his nape. He had to constantly come up with nonsense to alleviate the pain. Standing the entire time seemed to be worsening his physical condition.
Due to the dizziness that kept blurring his vision, despite hearing this intriguing story, he felt less shocked and tense than he should have been.
‘Just… I want to rest a little.’
Standing had been torturous from the start. His legs felt so weak he thought he might stagger at any moment. Trying to endure by putting strength into his toes made his side throb even more. As if signaling that his injury was serious, even breathing somehow felt burdensome.
Was he feverish now? Lee Hwan tried to wipe the sweat from his forehead, but his hand hit his mask, so he quietly lowered his arm again. If he carefully sat down here, would it make a sound? Would everyone ignore the rustling of clothes and not look at him?
After deliberating, he leaned slightly against the wall, which made him feel a bit more like he might survive than a moment ago. His posture had become lazy, but so far no one was looking in his direction.
…No, there was one.
‘He should focus on the meeting…’
Taesung had somehow turned to look at him. Lee Hwan flinched and tried to straighten his posture, but his back wouldn’t easily detach from the wall as if it had been glued there.
Tensing his abdomen brought another wave of throbbing pain, nearly making him groan unexpectedly. Forcing himself to move seemed likely to cause more harm than good.
Whatever. Screw it. He quietly sighed and leaned his head against the wall, deliberately avoiding Taesung’s gaze.
Click.
During this time, the researcher’s speech paused momentarily. The electronic board was completely cleared, and a new slide appeared.
A word in bold basic font without any explanation.
[Immunity.]
‘That is.’
A significant word appeared. Immunity. It was a term that overlapped with the paper he had received from Kang Dongha on a tablet PC and had tried to interpret for a couple of weeks.
‘So it is related to that doctor and the executive after all.’
Only then did Lee Hwan roll his eyes back to observe Taesung. He was focused on the slide as if he had never been looking at Lee Hwan.
The moment Lee Hwan tried to straighten up to see the board more clearly.
“…!”
It felt like his wound was being gouged out with a loud crack. Lee Hwan swallowed the groan at the back of his throat, enduring the pain as he exhaled rough breaths. Just like at dawn, the pain that made it difficult to straighten his back surged.
