Chapter 7: Hobby Activity

School. A place where kids gathered to study, play, and form friendships. What could I possibly do there?

I’d be lucky if I could even hold a conversation, let alone fit in.

They came from a completely different world than me.

I wasn’t sure. Seo-jun was the only person my age I knew.

But I was going. I would finally see her again.

With one condition.

“S-spare me! We were just following orders…!”

Watching their faces swell and explode was always repulsive.

No one forced to work would take such pleasure in injecting a test subject.

I must have been a successful experiment, after all.

I untied the naked girl, around my age, from the chair. She just stared at me, mouth agape, speechless.

I had been told to find a hobby before school started, something to make me more “human.”

I tried playing musical instruments. I even sat at a piano, but the notes felt hollow.

I was technically proficient, but it was just noise. I followed the sheet music, hitting the keys with the correct rhythm and force, but there was no feeling.

The experiments had enhanced my physical abilities and senses, but they had taken my emotions.

I tried a barista course. The cheerful atmosphere, the laughter, the delicious coffee… it was suffocating.

I couldn’t smile with them.

The coffee, so fragrant when I drank it alone, tasted bitter here. Especially when I saw a young couple holding hands, attending the class together.

So, I found a different hobby.

– Thirty private security guards approaching from the right. Return to base.

I pulled out my earpiece. I considered removing my mask, but I didn’t want to jeopardize my chance of attending school.

– Hey, hey! Lee Si-hyun, stop what you’re doing and get to the…!

The earpiece crackled, submerged in blood, then went silent.

I wasn’t concerned.

I carved deeper into the dead researcher’s body, gathering more blood, and dragged the corpse down the right hallway.

As expected, sirens wailed, and footsteps approached.

A narrow hallway, flickering lights I had smashed, a dizzying red glow and blaring sirens… not a good place for thirty people to converge.

I detonated the corpse, using the blood to slice through the approaching figures.

They slid to the floor, their bodies tilting at odd angles, their faces blank with incomprehension.

Screams erupted a moment later.

Two survived. One clutched his throat, staring at the ceiling. The other stared at his legs, now a mangled mess of flesh and bone.

He saw me and screamed.

“D-don’t come near me, you monster…!”

I formed a bloody hand and covered his face. He fell silent.

“Got a cigarette? What, no smokes for minors?”

He fumbled in his pocket, offering me a pack of cigarettes and a lighter with trembling hands.

“P-please, spare me.”

The bottom of the pack was soaked in blood, but I didn’t care.

I pulled out a crumpled cigarette, placed it between my lips, pierced the filter with my teeth, and lit it.

I inhaled…

“Ack! Ugh… First time, huh?”

This wouldn’t become a new hobby either. The blood-soaked cigarette didn’t clear my head or soothe my nerves.

I felt… dull. I wasn’t even human. Humans didn’t survive gunshots or regenerate limbs.

He stared at me, his face contorted in disgust, then exploded. I didn’t like his expression.

I continued through the facility, freeing the test subjects I encountered. One begged me to end his suffering, clutching his mangled legs. I obliged, swiftly and painlessly.

I understood them.

I wasn’t suggesting suicide was the answer to life’s problems, but being trapped here… it made you want to die.

We had suffered so much that we forgot what it meant to be alive.

I hated everyone involved: the guards, the researchers, even the cleaning lady.

The empty promises – just a little longer, once you develop your ability, once the experiment is successful, once you’re older and understand the importance of this research – the endless days in that dark, cramped place, the futile fantasies of escape… then, finally, the tests to determine the durability of my eyeballs, the sawing of my arm because bullets had no effect, the slow tearing of my throat with pliers to see how much damage I could sustain… Everyone here deserved…

I was getting agitated again. This wasn’t like me.

I had to remain kind and gentle if I wanted to see Seo-jun. I might be dull now, but perhaps I had always been.

Girl. The word made me laugh.

The blood flowed from my fingertips, leading the way, staining the floor crimson.

I felt a pull towards the basement.

I descended, following the blood.

The basement was filled with test subjects, some barely alive, others recently captured.

Most of the guards were upstairs. Only a few remained, patrolling the hallways.

The researchers were huddled under their desks, pathetically trying to hide. The blood seeped through their fingers, into their ears and nostrils. Most of them exploded, clawing at their faces in a futile attempt to escape the blood.

Most meant there were survivors.

“Your build, your ability, your hair… Number Eleven? I’d recognize you anywhere, even with that mask.”

The department head and a few researchers were in the deepest lab, observing a test subject strapped to an operating table.

“Why are you here?” I asked.

“Someone needs to transport your limbs and… provide explanations.”

I wasn’t sure what they did with the buckets of fingers and toes.

Perhaps they fed them to someone. I had eaten someone, once. I thought it was just meat in my meal. Team Leader Joo later told me it was the flesh of a previous successful experiment.

He pulled out a cigarette, placed it between his lips, and lit it. I wanted to smoke too, but my lungs still burned from my previous attempt.

“I’m more curious why you’re here. We lost our most successful test subject and several researchers in a sudden attack. It’s a bit disconcerting to see the test subject return.”

I answered by flicking needles of blood at the researchers, killing them instantly.

“It sounds like an excuse, but I didn’t want to do this to children like you. Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out as planned.”

“Then why did you do it to me?”

I had so many questions.

“Because it will ultimately save many lives.”

He pulled out a pistol and aimed it at his head.

His hand flew off before he could pull the trigger.

“You shouldn’t die like that.”

I used the blood spurting from his severed wrist to slowly drown him. Alone, helpless, unable to scream or call for help.

He didn’t scream. He just closed his eyes, as if he had been expecting this.

The man who had tormented me for months died a pathetic death, without even a plea for mercy.

I kicked his lifeless body. It didn’t move. Just a splash in the pool of blood.

“Ugh.”

My mind felt empty.

Yet, I still reached for another cigarette, watching the scene unfold. I lit it, coughing as I inhaled.

As the burning tobacco reached the filter, releasing a disgusting smell, a voice cried out behind me.

“I told you not to do anything dangerous… oh.”

I turned. The woman in the rabbit mask stumbled and fell, her eyes wide as she recognized the dead department head.