I'm a young god, won't you raise me?

Chapter 19: Chapter 19

Kwak Hanmuk, Mo Haein, Samra, and the others all matched the feeling I’d imagined while watching dot characters.

Their features had been rendered well in pixels, and I found myself quietly impressed.

But Je Hyun-oh had never once shown his face in the game.

He’d never even taken off his goggles.

Now, across both game and reality, I was seeing part of Je Hyun-oh’s face for the very first time.

And with his goggles off, Je Hyun-oh looked nothing like I’d imagined.

I pictured a tall, well-built handsome guy, but he’s more...

Beneath thick lashes, dark violet eyes set in horizontally elongated sockets stared back at me.

His irises and pupils were different colors — the pupils were metallic gold.

The discoloration from the infection made it unmistakably clear that he was no longer fully human.

Unlike me, who stood frozen with wide eyes, Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein looked slightly surprised but otherwise unfazed.

Their reaction was more along the lines of "So he finally took off his goggles."

They’d seen his face plenty of times, so there was nothing new to be shocked about.

I tried not to stare too obviously, but Je Hyun-oh’s eyes crinkled.

Only then did I realize I’d stepped several paces closer.

I must have moved toward him unconsciously, trying to observe him.

Since we’re here, I wish he’d take off the gas mask too.

Maybe once we got closer, I’d ask if he could.

"Trainee."

Lost in my face-gazing, I snapped back to reality at Je Hyun-oh’s voice.

"What’s your name?"

"Han Goyo."

"Goyo."

His impossibly low voice didn’t match his smiling eyes at all.

Like two completely different things had been glued together.

"If you do that one more time, you’ll really die."

...A chill ran down my spine.

"I’m sorry."

I apologized immediately.

Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein probably thought he was warning me about the dangerous stunt I’d pulled — using him to kill zombies.

But I knew.

Je Hyun-oh was talking about <Zero>.

He’s telling me not to act like I know anything.

Despite holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel, Je Hyun-oh was the youngest team leader at the TRA.

Unlike Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein, who were in their thirties, he was only twenty-eight.

The turning point that led to his absurd string of special promotions was <Zero>.

Originally a promising talent, everything changed for Je Hyun-oh after he entered <Zero>.

Becoming a sentient infected, he became the TRA’s most powerful weapon.

It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that South Korea — pushed to the brink of national collapse by the Trials — had been able to recover thanks to Je Hyun-oh.

There were even Adaptees who entered <Zero> willingly, hoping to gain power as strong as his.

But none of them came out alive.

Je Hyun-oh was <Zero>’s sole survivor.

The TRA wanted to know how he’d cleared <Zero>, but Je Hyun-oh never filed a report.

Director Jang Seokyun himself had pressed him on it, and he couldn’t even get a single word out of Je Hyun-oh.

After that, countless attempts were made to extract information about <Zero> from him.

In response, Je Hyun-oh started attacking anyone who brought up <Zero> in his presence.

After one researcher from the Research and Analysis Division died as a result, it became an unspoken taboo to mention <Zero> around Je Hyun-oh.

To this day, the TRA had no idea what kind of Trial <Zero> actually was.

And I’d poked that bear.

But I had my own argument to make.

"So does this mean you’ll accept me as a team member now?"

Frankly, Je Hyun-oh was the one who’d tried to kill me the moment we met.

As violent as he was toward Trials and Adaptees, he’d never been this aggressive toward a TRA soldier without reason.

Instead of answering my question about whether he’d kill me, Je Hyun-oh turned his gaze to Mo Haein.

"Captain Mo. What’s this?"

"A newly enlisted trainee. Short-term, one month. A Special Mission Team has been newly formed under the Director’s direct command, centered around Trainee Han Goyo, who has specialized knowledge of the Trials."

"Mm. And I’m assigned to it."

"Yes."

Mo Haein paused briefly, then looked Je Hyun-oh straight in the eye and added.

"...He’s a teammate, Lieutenant Colonel-nim."

Je Hyun-oh slowly closed his eyes, then opened them.

"Trainee Crazy Chestnut shut down HapFactory. He has considerable knowledge about the Trials. He’ll be useful as a teammate."

Kwak Hanmuk chimed in diligently, advertising Trainee Han Goyo’s usefulness.

And while the two Captains were working hard, I sent out a Message.

Please trust me.

Je Hyun-oh’s eyes flicked to the System window floating in front of him, then back to me.

An instinctive chill ran through me.

Je Hyun-oh still wanted to kill me. I had no idea why — the murderous intent made no sense.

But even as I felt that killing intent, I was certain he would never actually kill me.

At least not while we were here in DeZonDeal.

If he was going to kill me, he would have done it already.

There was no way Je Hyun-oh couldn’t move just because I’d rolled him across some asphalt.

Even after his final attack was blocked by the Prohibition, he’d had countless opportunities to take my head off.

Yet he’d let me live.

Probably... because he doesn’t know exactly what I can do.

Je Hyun-oh didn’t know that my abilities were still pathetic.

All he knew was that I could send System windows and place brief restrictions on him.

It was only natural for him to assume I was hiding something bigger.

And I did have Execution, technically. With him registered, his life was in my hands.

As the silent stare-down dragged on, Mo Haein grew visibly uneasy.

Only after a fairly long pause did Je Hyun-oh finally speak.

"Can you get a True Ending here too?"

The meaning was clear.

If I couldn’t prove my worth in DeZonDeal, he’d dispose of me regardless of my weird ability to summon System windows.

The truth was, I hadn’t even confirmed whether a True Ending was possible yet.

But that’s my problem.

Either way, if I didn’t want to lose my limbs, I had to make it happen whether it was possible or not.

I answered him with full conviction.

"I will. No matter what."

Something amused him. Laughter spread through Je Hyun-oh’s eyes.

His eyes curved into crescents as he abruptly called my name.

"Goyo."

"Yes!"

"You’re going to die young."

"...Excuse me?" freeweɓnøvel.com

After dropping that sudden curse, he put his goggles back on.

Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein stood there dumbfounded before speaking up for me. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

"Come on, Lieutenant Colonel-nim. What kind of talk is that to the team’s youngest? Goyo’s twenty-four, you know. Twenty-four. Two. Four."

"Lieutenant Colonel-nim. That was a bit much."

Je Hyun-oh didn’t answer, of course. Instead, he just displayed a smug emoticon on his goggles.

<

What the hell was that supposed to mean...

I gave up trying to interpret the emoticon. That wasn’t what mattered right now anyway.

Finally — Je Hyun-oh had joined the Special Mission Team!

My heart swelled as I looked at Je Hyun-oh, Mo Haein, and Kwak Hanmuk.

To think I’d be on a team with the people I’d considered the TRA’s best members while playing the Archive’s games.

This was the best moment I’d had since becoming the System and ending up on the verge of losing all four limbs.

"I look forward to working with you, Lieutenant Colonel-nim."

I bowed to Je Hyun-oh while secretly entertaining a small hope.

Maybe I’ll get to see my favorite character too?

I liked the TRA people, but my favorite character from the Archive wasn’t part of the organization.

Still, since they were an Adaptee, I figured I’d meet them eventually.

Of course, surviving the month and keeping my limbs intact came first.

Just then, zombie sounds drifted through the quiet night air. The remaining Dead Zombies seemed to have tracked our presence.

"The jeep!"

Kwak Hanmuk went for the jeep first.

"I’ll go hide it."

There was no mode of transport more useful than the jeep, so it’d be a waste to use it once and abandon it here.

But if we hid it poorly, the Dead Zombies would tear it apart.

Dead Zombies were more destructive than regular zombies.

That was why the Dead Zone was nothing but ruins — not a single intact building compared to other areas.

We’d need to get at least to the Red Zone to find a safe place to hide the jeep, but by then it’d defeat the purpose of having transport.

"Captain Kwak. Moving the jeep somewhere safe would take too long."

I pointed to the laboratory rooftop.

"What if we put it on the roof?"

Mo Haein looked at me like this crazy trainee is at it again.

She asked, exasperated but curious.

"And how exactly do you plan to get it up there?"

"Fly it."

A moment later.

We were successfully flying through the night sky.

Or rather, Je Hyun-oh was carrying the jeep — with me, Kwak Hanmuk, and Mo Haein inside.

The cold metallic sound of his wings fluttered softly like background music.

Kwak Hanmuk, sitting in the driver’s seat, rested his arm on the wide-open window, enjoying the flight.

"Lieutenant Colonel-nim is really convenient."

He was thoroughly satisfied with the performance, letting the cool night breeze hit his face.

"Captain Mo. What if we made Goyo hyung-nim the team leader? Then we could ride this plane every time, right?"

Unlike Kwak Hanmuk, who was joking and laughing cheerfully, Mo Haein in the passenger seat still looked like she couldn’t believe we were flying in a jeep.

"Shut up with the nonsense, Kwak. I’ll bite you."

She had Hinge Handcuffs on her wrist.

A precaution in case her aggression suddenly spiked.

She was in the passenger seat for the same reason — if she attacked from behind, it’d be dangerous, so Kwak needed her in his line of sight.

Which meant I, the youngest, got to sit in the back.

Listening to Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein bicker, I glanced down through the window.

Dead Zombies were already swarming around the laboratory. But none of them could climb up to the rooftop.

If we can just keep going like this.

If we could clear the True Ending quickly too, that would be perfect.

Je Hyun-oh flew up to the rooftop, circled the lab once to gauge the spot, then set the jeep down in a suitable place.

Thump. The jeep landed on the rooftop with a slight jolt.

A few Dead Zombies that had been hiding in the rooftop corners attacked immediately, but there was no need for us to step in.

Je Hyun-oh dealt with them in an instant.

While Kwak Hanmuk unlocked Mo Haein’s cuffs, I read the System window floating before me.

◆Main Quest: Explore the laboratory and find the surviving vaccine developer.

You have achieved an incredible feat in an impossible way!

You’ve done the unbelievable, but this is only the beginning.

You believe that if you find someone who can develop the vaccine, you might have a new hope.

But whether everything will go smoothly remains to be seen.

Because too much has already changed.

Finding the researcher to develop the vaccine was a quest I’d received in the game too.

The wording was a bit strange, but the context wasn’t far off.

I started a brief briefing.

"As soon as we enter the laboratory, the first thing we—"

"Trainee. Hold on."

But Mo Haein cut me off before I could even start.

"Your hunger and thirst are fully recovered, right?"

"Yes! All filled up now. I’ll be careful not to let that happen again."

"..."

Mo Haein frowned. Then Kwak Hanmuk suddenly threw an arm around my shoulder.

I looked up at him, pinned under his weight.

"We, you know, take Trial closures reeeeally seriously. Not those bastards, is what I’m saying."

"Right, Trainee. You’re only a trainee by rank, and you haven’t even had formal training."

Mo Haein looked at me steadily.

"To be precise, right now you’re a civilian, not a soldier."

"Ah... I’m sorry."

I was about to take a step back, thinking I’d been too forward.

Then Mo Haein pulled out a piece of cloth from who knows where, wet it, and handed it to me.

When I just stood there holding it, she gestured to her face.

Only then did I understand. I wiped my face — the cloth came away bright red.

Mo Haein sighed and murmured to me.

"...I meant pace yourself."