KEG 92

“I was swapping shifts with people who couldn’t make it in like Ho-hyung. It’s nice to make some extra cash~”

So he’s pulling the same sucker moves on others that he pulls on me.

It was easy to understand him since he was such a consistent sucker, but it was not exactly a good thing since I wouldn’t be able to use him when I needed to step away for a job.

“Don’t you take care of your family?”

“Hmm… That does worry me a bit. Things are fine for now, but what if something major happens….”

“Are you struggling financially?”

“Ah! I found my wallet, so I’m okay now! They pay me to wear this, so I can get by on that.”

Lee Yuksam pulled his turtleneck down to show the collar.

So that’s why he’s been wearing it so obediently, they pay him for it. Apparently, if you are S-class, the government gives you money just for not causing trouble.

At first glance, it seemed like a perk, but if you looked at it negatively…

“So you’ve been selling your human rights for money.”

They treated him like an animal and then hushed it up with money. If Lee Yuksam hadn’t been such a docile guy obsessed with food, this would’ve become a problem long ago.

No, maybe it was already a problem and just being swept under the rug.

“Cut back on the work. You’ve got enough to live on.”

“Aaah! See? You’re the only one who cares about me, my best friend Ho-hyung~?”

Lee Yuksam was moved by the strangest of things.

Well, whether he was moved or not didn’t matter. I just needed a backup who could step in when things got tight.

“Huh? Ah! Flowers!”

Lee Yuksam suddenly looked out the window and said cheerfully that flowers had bloomed.

It’s still February, what flowers is he talking Read onabout? I was about to tell him that the flowers were blooming inside his own head, but when I looked out the window, I froze in place.

“Flowers have bloomed around the gate!”

About 500 meters right in front of the hospital.

The void was splitting apart.

A black gate was about to spawn. It writhed as if it were alive and exuded an ominous aura.

A few cars and pedestrians on the road were being sucked in, their mouths agape as they screamed, but the sounds didn’t reach the inside of the hospital building.

Watching the scene of chaos from behind thick, soundproofed glass felt unreal. It was as if I were watching a silent movie.

“What kind of flowers are they?”

Just as Lee Yuksam had said, the area around the gate had turned into a flower bed.

Black petals with pistils and stamens sprouting like animal whiskers. It was a flower that looked more threatening than beautiful.

-Ah, ah, this is an announcement. Code Orange. Code Orange.

Amid the chaos outside the window, the hospital’s public address system blared.

-A gate has spawned outside the hospital. Patients and visitors inside the hospital are asked not to leave the premises and to wait calmly until support personnel arrive.

As if the chaotic situation outside had spilled in, the entire hospital buzzed with commotion. From the sixth floor, where the hospice ward was located, all the way down to the first floor, the countless people in the building were all talking at once, making it feel as if an earthquake had occurred.

I looked out the window, and saw half the people were rushing to get outside, while the other half, startled by the gate, were trying to get inside.

“Ho-hyung, are we going to be stuck here today?”

“Probably not…”

Bam!

Just then, the sound of something colliding with the hospital’s outer wall echoed through the air.

“Squeeeeeek!”

The center of a black flower opened, revealing sharp teeth. The flowers lashed out with tentacle-like vines, wreaking havoc all around, and several stolen contentof them had reached the vicinity of the hospital.

“Yuksam.”

“Yes.”

“They pay overtime for this.”

“Huh?”

I took off the top half of my jumpsuit-style cleaning uniform and tied it around my waist. Then I grabbed a mop, snapped off the end to make it sharp, and said to the dumbfounded Lee Yuksam,

“Let’s go get that overtime pay.”

Though I’m not sure if they’ll count this as work.

***

The fire shutters on the first floor of the hospital were down.

Clang! Clang!

The force with which the flower vines lashed against the heavy fire shutters was fierce.

The front windows were all blocked by metal shutters, so we could only guess what was happening outside by the sounds.

-Code Orange, a lockdown is currently in effect throughout the facility. Visitors, please proceed to the designated waiting area. This is a repeat. Code Orange, Code Orange…

“Ho-hyung, that announcement sounds like a recording.”

Lee Yuksam spoke after listening to the announcement that had been repeating several times. It seemed they didn’t have enough staff to handle the broadcast, so they’d recorded it once and were playing it on loop throughout the entire hospital.

“Where did everyone on the first floor go?”

“I think they evacuated to the cafeteria in the basement.”

“Huh? How do you know?”

“Because that’s how we’re trained.”

On the first floor, all that could be heard was the sound of shutters slamming down; there was no one there. I thought I’d come down from the sixth floor to here pretty quickly, [stolen content]but the security guards and hospital staff had reacted even faster.

“Hospitals are required to have a disaster response team on standby.”

“Wow, South Korea is really thorough~”

Before I knew it, I was pressed up against the now-silent shutter and poked at it with the end of the mop handle. Perhaps they heard the sound of my poking from inside, because the vines began striking the spot I’d poked.

Clang! Clang!

“It seems to be reacting to either vibrations or sound.”

It was a monster with cognitive abilities. It didn’t just attack indiscriminately in all directions; it specifically targeted living creatures that moved and made noise.

That meant if we just stay still, we might survive.

“You there! Hurry up and take cover in the basement!”

While we were searching, someone behind us shouted at Lee Yuksam and me. At that shout, the vines outside once again pounded against the metal shutter.

“Security here! Please follow instructions!”

It was a security guard wearing a navy blue shirt and a black tactical vest. On his shoulder was a patch bearing the hospital logo and the word “SECURITY.”

“We’re the hospital cleaning staff. We’re from the hospice ward on the 6th floor.”

When I identified myself, the security guard spoke into his radio for a moment, then greeted me warmly.

“Ah! You’re the one on the 6th floor who sends such clear radio messages! I recognized your voice right away!”

“Huh? Ho-hyung, do you know this guy?”

“No, I don’t.”

Lee Yuksam asked me if we knew each other, but I had never seen the man before. Feeling slightly embarrassed, the guard cleared his throat a few times before continuing.

“You use Channel 0, right? That’s the general emergency channel. Sometimes you go by ‘Black Panther.’ Our team leader thinks you must be a seasoned soldier and is secretly waiting for you to radio in.”

The agent briefly showed me the radio on his chest, the same model as mine.

I’d only been trained to use Channel 0 in emergencies; I had no idea it was the general emergency channel. Did that mean every time I called for medical staff during an emergency in the ward, the entire hospital staff was listening?

“Yes, please report the situation.”

Fearing the conversation would drag on with unnecessary details, I got straight to the point.

“Ah! Yes! We’ve evacuated all visitors on the 1st and 2nd floors to the basement, and visitors and inpatients on the 3rd through 6th floors are waiting on their respective floors. We’re currently awaiting Hunter support.”

“Have you assessed the scale of the gate?”

“We estimate it to be at least B-class or higher.”

“What is the strength of the security team?”

The agent provided a rough breakdown of the security personnel stationed within the hospital.

There were five security agents in total: three C-class one B-class, and one A-class.

It was a fairly solid force.

“I’m Ha Seongho. I’m an E-class Guide, discharged as an warrant officer.”

“Won Orim! I’m a B-class Esper, specializing in physical enhancement! I’m a close-combat Esper!”

“I’m Lee Yuksam! I’m strong!”

Although there was one oddball in the group, we finished our brief introductions. It was time to get moving.

“Yuksam, can you take care of the vines?”

“Hmm… I don’t like things that don’t taste good…”

“Wild greens are just plants too.”

“Oh!”

Yuksam immediately perked up. Just linking it to food gets him to move, could there be a more convenient team member?

“Can you open the shutter for a moment and let this guy out?”

“It’s dangerous. Raising [Read on]the shutter is something that needs to be reported to the team leader.”

Lee Yuksam doesn’t have a Hunter license. Because of that, there was no way to prove that he was a powerful Esper.

If we couldn’t prove it, we couldn’t use him in a disaster situation like this. Why would people who prioritize safety take the gamble of raising the shutter for an unknown individual?

“Let’s go down to the basement first. If you have any suggestions, please discuss them with the team leader.”

I turned to look at Lee Yuksam. He just stared at me with an expression that said he’d do whatever I told him to do.

In that case, there was only one answer.

“Alright. Let’s go down to the basement.”

We passed through the stairwell, which had been barricaded with makeshift barriers, and made our way to the B1 cafeteria.

There, hospital staff were moving in perfect unison. The medical team was calming patients while simultaneously tending to those injured by the external attack.

“Bring more blood packs, now!”

“Classify this patient as Red first! Have you reached the operating room yet?”

They were facing difficulties since the operating room and medical equipment were located on the upper floors.

“The coolant temperature is rising! Open the valve, open it wider!”

“The engine sounds strange… it’s the bearings… Oh no…!”

Meanwhile, the hospital’s facilities team was constantly moving between the electrical panels and the machine room, running the generator and conducting inspections to ensure that external communications and power remained uninterrupted.