Chapter 14 - Choice (1/2)

Choice

“Mhh.. Huh?”

Il-hyun opened his eyes slenderly in bed.

It was surprisingly daytime, and the sunlight was peeping in through the blinds that covered the windows.

He glanced around.

It was not a familiar place.

He was inside a fairly large white room and was lying in a hospital bed. The structure of the hospital’s single room was a bit different, and he felt uncertain in many ways.

Il-hyun, who traced his body, woke up slowly after identifying that his body was intact. He didn’t know exactly where he was, but he was glad that it wasn’t a detention center.

He was out of energy, so he had to maneuver his head to get out of a moderately stupid position.

“Right… It didn’t work at that time.”

Il-hyun sighed a little after recalling his performance at Songpa.

Honestly, it was a disheartening memory.

At that moment, he poured out everything he had, but in the end, it was completely blocked by the A-rank awakened.

If he knew this would happen, he would have just absorbed the ether.

He discovered a new use for cores through predation, but it was too wasteful after considering the value of the B rank core.

It was the worst-case scenario.

He had started working as a scavenger to get ether without having to reveal his abilities, but it took just one accidental mistake to ruin everything.

He was flustered at himself as he anticipated what was going to happen.

“But, where is this place?”

He could only recall up until he collapsed, so he couldn’t figure out why he was lying in a hospital bed rather than a police station. He wasn’t seriously injured either, so the police wouldn’t have had him hospitalized.

He approached the window, raised the blinds, and looked out.

It was a building with a familiar design.

A massive U-shaped structure immediately caught his eyes.

Many busy people, vehicles, varieties of ground transports, and helicopters were parked in the middle of the building. Some helicopters even took off and landed.

Il-hyun was not entirely certain, but he believed that he had seen it on TV before.

It was the headquarters of Aegis.

“Crazy… What is this?”

Il-hyun witnessed the spectacle outside the window and became nauseated with apprehension.

Abduction. Confinement. Torture. Dissection.

Many conspiracies of corporations and governments that he regularly saw in movies came to mind.

Il-hyun shook his head and denied the thoughts.

He touched his face.

It was returning to its original appearance. When he lost consciousness after losing, his face naturally became distorted.

Someone was approaching the door.

Il-hyun could hear the sound of footsteps.

He was startled and twisted toward the door.

After a while, a woman came in.

“Are you up?”

Lee Soo-yeon said in a calm voice.

Unlike before, she was not wearing a coat and was dressed comfortably without weapons.

“I just did what scavengers do, and I broke the ether.”

Il-hyun said it as it was.

Although it was an unspeakable situation, he was the one who did the illegal scavenging and invaded the field first.

In the process of running away, he used a B rank core, which was a precious resource worth tens of billions of dollars at will.

But why were they kidnapping him?

“I think there’s a misunderstanding. It’s not like that.”

Lee Soo-yeon said with a smile on her face.

She took a water bottle from the small refrigerator and handed it to him.

The thirsty Il-hyun accepted it, but couldn’t take it to his mouth with her gaze fixated on him.

“I didn’t know your address, and I wasn’t handing you over to the police, so I brought you here instead since there’s a bed.”

“What are you talking about? Didn’t you hand me over to the special forces?

“I changed my mind. I decided to cover it up quietly instead. I didn’t hand you over to the police, and I don’t intend to ask for anything. Don’t you know how much the ether that you broke is worth?”

Lee Soo-yeon smiled curtly.

Il-hyun sighed upon hearing her words, but on the other hand, he was suspicious of his current circumstance.