Chapter 20 Part 8: Adaptation.

I laughed.

Because the memories I wanted to forget crashed into me like reality.

It wasn’t a situation where I could laugh even if I wanted to, but I laughed.

One thing was certain.

This was a hallucination. It was just a terrible nightmare created by Gong Jin-hu, somehow.

So I could endure it.

My real body would be standing still on the sports field.

“…Ah.”

Even so, this scene was quite hard to bear.

Alarms blared from all directions.

In rhythm, the surroundings turned red and then returned to normal, repeatedly.

I heard people’s screams.

I heard the gurgling sounds of people dying from drug poisoning.

I saw researchers casually uttering the word ‘disposal’.

I saw them taking a person’s life with a single injection, and then filling it with a new poison without any guilt.

The limp bodies of other test subjects.

Researchers shot and bleeding.

Partition walls descending from somewhere.

The sounds of people screaming in madness, or muttering to fulfill their mission.

Gunshots ringing out in succession, along with curses.

All of it became a terrible music, striking my ears.

So I tried to laugh.

It was all over anyway.

I wasn’t afraid because I knew what would happen after this.

They said fear comes from ignorance.

I thought I could handle something I’d already experienced countless times in nightmares, but.

“…As expected.”

I muttered, desperately trying to suppress my strength.

My body wouldn’t listen.

Did they say fear comes from ignorance?

That’s exactly what this situation was like.

Researchers were standing around me.

This was different from the past.

Back then, a researcher held my hand and ran.

Saying they couldn’t let a successful product like me die here, that I had to live.

It was quite a strange request, asking me to live, so I remembered it.

But now it was different.

Several researchers surrounded me, staring at me.

And they were all holding syringes.

If they stuck it in a test subject’s neck and injected the drug, everyone would die in a few seconds.

They were holding those syringes filled with poison, measuring the amount.

I saw the poison dripping from the tip of the syringe and tried to calm myself.

This was just a hallucination.

I was clearly seeing things, so I needed to calm down.

But I couldn’t calm down.

It was strange if I could calm down.

To a person who survived a brutal battlefield.

To a person who still suffers from PTSD and has nightmares.

It was no different from showing them the scene of that battlefield again.

Reflexively, my body tensed.

My muscles tensed, ready to strike immediately if anything attacked.

My tongue naturally became thin and automatically flicked out, detecting my surroundings.

My body sent me the opinion that it should immediately sweep everything around.

But I ignored that opinion and tried to calm my emotions.

If I attacked wrongly now, it wouldn’t end with just a serious injury.

Fortunately, nothing happened.

The researchers just stood there.

Thanks to that, I was able to calm down.

After a few minutes that felt like hours, the hallucination gradually disappeared.

So I looked around for a moment and was relieved to see the sports field.

There were no broken glass walls.

No sprawled bodies. No alarms blaring from the ceiling.

No water being sprayed to prevent fires.

But the situation didn’t seem very good.

The students surrounding me were all looking at me with awkward expressions.

Not only that, but the PE teacher was also looking at me with a somewhat stiff face.

He would have intervened earlier if something had happened.

Thankfully, that didn’t happen.

The PE teacher let out a small sigh, pressed the button on the timer, and said.

“Tag is over! Now the even-numbered teams will be it, and they will catch the odd-numbered teams! We’ll start soon, so everyone get ready!”

I relaxed my tense body and looked towards the bench.

I didn’t need to see to know who won.

It seemed like the even-numbered team won this time.

I saw only 13 people sitting because Si-woo and I weren’t caught.

After looking at the bench for a moment, I started walking towards it with a forced smile.

I heard other students talking to me, but I ignored them for now.

My heart was beating so fiercely that I couldn’t control my emotions.

What would those students have thought of me a little while ago?

Just a girl terrified by a strange hallucination?

A girl who couldn’t grasp the situation, so she was wary of her surroundings?

Maybe they thought of me as a strange girl.

But I thought that evaluation would be better.

Thinking that, I laughed while tightly gripping my trembling right arm with my left hand.

At least it meant they saw me as a fellow human being.

“Yeji, you were amazing!”

Jang Yu-na said, waving her hand while sitting on the bench.

I put on an awkward smile and sat next to her, saying.

“How was I? I don’t really know.”

“Like, like Jang Fei from the Rampage! A really untouchable atmosphere!”

“…Jang Fei?”

“Yeah, yeah. Like some kind of overlord? Like Xiang Yu.”

“I don’t know whether to be happy or not.”

“You should be happy! Hehe, I think the PE teacher was wary of you too?”

I laughed at Jang Yu-na’s words.

The PE teacher was wary of me, not just because of that atmosphere.

Other reasons must have overlapped, making him feel danger and intervene.

So it wasn’t necessarily a good thing.

It gave the impression to someone who would have been a hero or hunter in society that they needed to intervene immediately or it would be dangerous.

“Okay, if you’re ready, we’ll start soon! Three, two, one!”

The teacher said and blew the whistle loudly.

I slowly got up and watched the other students.

The first to kick off the bench and run was, of course, Kang Si-woo.

Perhaps he was still upset about being chased by Si-a for 20 minutes, Si-woo immediately shouted Si-a’s name and ran with all his might.

The other students also seemed to be starting tag in their own ways.

Some students summoned monsters, and some quickly flew into the air.

Some students predicted where the odd-numbered team would move and ran ahead.

So it seemed like we should start moving too.

We’d done it once before, so we knew the ropes.

It was advantageous to catch the easy students first and quickly reduce their numbers.

And I had a good idea.

So I looked at Jang Yu-na and smiled.

Jang Yu-na was slowly stretching her body, intending to run on two legs.

Then she noticed my gaze and hurriedly made an excuse.

“It’s, it’s faster to run on all fours… but I don’t feel like it!”

“No, that’s not what I meant.”

“…Then?”

“Your ability. Does it stop when it touches sound waves, or when you hear the sound?”

“…Um, probably the former? It worked even if I covered my ears.”

“Do you know one of the characteristics of snake humanoids?”

“…Ah! They have resistance to sound wave or sound-related attacks!”

“That’s right. Shall we, get some revenge?”

“Yes!”

“I have a plan.”

Honestly, it was something hard to call a plan.

I was going to carry Jang Yu-na on my back or shoulders and run.

While Jang Yu-na barked on my back, I was going to mercilessly chase after the students.

So I put Jang Yu-na on my neck and slowly manifested my ears like a snake’s.

“…!”

“Sorry, but I can’t hear what you’re saying.”

“…?”

“So, it would be great if you could indicate the direction with gestures.”

“…!”

Fortunately, Jang Yu-na seemed to understand my words correctly.

She immediately pointed her index finger, indicating somewhere.

I looked there and found Kim Aram looking flustered.

They say snakes eat mice.

Come to think of it, dogs can eat mice too.

So it seemed perfectly natural for us to chase Kim Aram.

So I immediately started running there.

Jang Yu-na seemed very excited and kept shouting something.

I couldn’t hear the details, but it didn’t matter.

I kept chasing Kim Aram.

Kim Aram was flustered and started running away from us, but it was useless.

Every time Jang Yu-na barked, she stopped.

Of course, I stopped too.

But compared to other people stopping, it was just a moment of hesitation.

Besides, I also had a way to stop the opponent.

I changed my eyes like a snake’s and glared at the fleeing students.

The moment they made eye contact with me, those students could no longer escape.

It would be embarrassing to have their feet stuck to the ground, and Jang Yu-na kept barking, making them stop.

Eventually, I managed to catch Gong Jin-hu, starting with Kim Aram.

Not only that, but I ran around like a runaway locomotive, catching other students.

After catching all the other odd-numbered teams, even Si-a couldn’t escape Jang Yu-na’s clutches.

13 minutes and 53 seconds.

In that time, the even-numbered team caught all the odd-numbered teams and won the tag game.