WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Natty
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◈ Black Badger ◈
Chapter 25: Outside the Core (3)
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I pushed open the heavy door and entered the library.
It smelled of dust and marble.
An open lobby stretched out before us. Several motorcycles stood in the old lobby, along with a few old cars. A military Humvee, a command vehicle, a maintenance vehicle, a communications vehicle, and more. Behind the two and four-wheeled vehicles stood several enormous cannons.
I blinked, then snapped out of it after staring at the weapons.
“Where’s the food storage?”
I turned to my peers.
“You said the supplies with the wrong numbers were food, right?”
“There’s a pad here.”
Tom, who had been standing by the wall near the door, spoke.
“It roughly shows where everything is.”
“Oh.”
I turned and walked over.
Hessi had kept glancing outside the main entrance even after we came into the library, but reluctantly turned around as well.
“Second floor.”
I muttered while staring at the pad.
“Is the numerator the current amount, and the denominator how much there should be?”
“Looks that way. The number on top has been steadily dropping by one every day for the past few days.”
Tom pointed out.
Hessi pressed his lips tightly together. Maybe he wanted to follow the seniors.
I glanced at Hessi’s brown eyes.
“You okay?”
Hessi quickly looked up at my question.
“Huh?”
“You don’t look too happy.”
Tom turned to examine Hessi’s expression too. The library, sealed off behind its closed doors, felt grim. There was not the slightest sign of anything alive.
Hessi bit his lip, then nodded.
“I’m fine. I’m just annoyed.”
“It’s your first time. It can’t be helped.”
Tom shrugged and said something reasonable.
I nodded too. To be honest, I did not really understand why Hessi was annoyed.
Did Hessi really think Yoon left us behind to protect us? From what I had seen, my senior partner was not that kind of person. He probably left us because he thought we would hold them back.
That might be what Hessi was annoyed about, though. You couldn’t expect to be full after the first bite.
“The second floor is huge too.”
“Should we split up?”
Tom suggested it after I turned back to the pad.
“How about we check the east, west, and north sides separately?”
“Can we split up? Wouldn’t that be dangerous?”
“I think it’s fine for now.”
Hessi answered my concern.
“Angela said one box disappeared every night. Maybe something only happens at night. We don’t even know whether it’s a creature or a Badger doing it.... Isn’t the witch that might wander over here the more immediate danger?”
“What time is it?”
“8:36.”
Tom checked his watch and told us.
An awkward time. I narrowed my eyes and looked over the supply depot.
I gathered the information the senior partners had thrown at us. Our assigned task was to defend the supply depot and determine the food count.
Special note 1. One box of food disappears each night.
Special note 2. If a witch’s energy blast hits the supply depot’s fuel tanks, it will be a disaster.
I looked toward the entrance we had come through.
“Then how about one person watches and defends the supply depot entrance while the other two check the food count?”
“Sounds good.”
Hessi answered my suggestion.
Tom nodded too.
“Not bad. Who wants to keep watch?”
“How about you do it, Hessi?”
Hessi turned to look at me when I casually suggested it.
He looked into my eyes for a moment, then nodded.
“Fine. I’ll contact you over the radio if anything happens.”
“Okay. Tom and I will go to the second floor.”
Tom nodded when I turned to speak.
We split up in the lobby. Hessi took a gun and went outside. Tom and I turned toward the second floor.
The second floor was darker and grimmer than the lobby. As soon as we climbed the central ramp stairs, we found a pad mounted on the second-floor wall. I fiddled with it and turned on every light on the floor.
The bluish hallway was bathed in fluorescent light.
We walked down the bright corridor without encountering anyone.
* * *
It took longer than expected.
But nothing unusual happened. It only took so long because the place was large and there were so many boxes. We finished counting the supplies in the last archive room and straightened up.
“It matches exactly.”
Tom muttered while looking around the room full of bottled water.
“And I don’t see anything strange.”
“Is someone really taking them?”
I examined the room, which still bore traces of its time as a library. Bookshelves clustered along one wall. They were crammed with books in an unfamiliar language.
A couple of books had fallen from the shelves and lay on the dusty floor.
We had counted every box in this room by hand, but there were no errors in the figures. There were exactly as many food boxes as there should have been. That meant no food had been stolen yet today.
Was it because midnight had not passed? Or should we inspect the other floors? The library had three floors in total. After checking the third floor, we might need to carefully inspect the first basement level too.
I glanced at my watch. 9:10. Quite a bit of time had passed.
Did the senior partners catch the creatures safely...?
[Someone’s coming.]
A voice came over the radio.
Tom and I jumped.
Hessi’s voice continued through the communicator at my ear.
[They’re not the senior partners. Several motorcycles are coming.]
“Other seniors?”
Tom muttered.
“Why hasn’t Angela contacted us? Hessi, can you see our senior partners?”
[They kept getting farther away with the witches a few minutes ago, and now I can’t see them at all. No witches came this way.]
“Should we go help them? Or should we ask the seniors who are coming for help?”
“Let’s go outside first.”
I headed out.
We ran down the ramp stairs and toward the front entrance. We weaved through the motorcycles and cars filling the lobby before heading outside.
When we pushed open the front door, we saw the Core shrouded in darkness.
The smell of cool night air pricked my nose.
Hessi turned sharply. Headlights approached through the darkness.
The witches that had filled the horizon were no longer visible, perhaps because night had fallen. The senior partners who had left on motorcycles were nowhere in sight either.
All I could see were four unfamiliar motorcycles approaching us.
Worry suddenly settled in my chest, and I stood there with my mouth shut.
Screech! Screech!
The motorcycles stopped noisily in front of the library.
We silently watched the people who had stopped in front of the library. Two women and two men. All wore black helmets that reflected no light.
The man who arrived first got off his motorcycle and removed his helmet.
“What are these?”
A familiar voice reached me.
“Why are there only three brats sitting here?”
Blond hair.
A sturdy build. Handsome features. Bright blue eyes. I inwardly sighed as I watched the man pull out a cigarette, put it between his lips, and smirk. It seemed he did not need to introduce himself.
Jason Tvein.
According to Yoon, he was an old-fashioned jerk.
“And who’s this?”
He fixed his eyes on me, his unpleasant smile widening.
The cigarette between his lips glowed red.
“Isn’t this the famous rookie?”
“Hello.”
I smiled brightly and greeted him politely.
“I’m Hildebert Taleb. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Senior.”
Tvein raised one eyebrow with the cigarette still in his mouth.
I tried hard not to wipe the smile off my face.
Hessi and Tom seemed to remember what Yoon had said a few hours earlier, because they wisely kept quiet.
The man looked me over as if measuring me.
The silence was broken by a man who approached while taking off his helmet.
“Huh? Why are you already here?”
That voice was familiar too.
It was Lee Ho Chang. I wiped away my fake smile and filled its place with genuine delight.
“Lee Ho!”
“What? Hessi and Tom are here too. What are you three doing here?”
“We came to restock the supply depot.”
Tom answered.
Tom began explaining everything that had happened so far to Lee Ho. The two female Badgers who had removed their helmets approached and listened. I did not know their names. One had tied up blond hair, while the other let silver hair hang loose.
Tvein did not take his eyes off me while Tom finished the story.
“Witches?”
Lee Ho muttered in surprise as soon as the story ended.
“That many witches came all at once?”
“Yes.”
“And you were left here.”
Tvein spoke mockingly. Open contempt clouded his face as he looked into my eyes.
Hessi beside me seemed about to flare up, so I jabbed him with my elbow.
I kept elbowing my peer and smiled.
“They said the food count at the supply depot kept dropping, so we were checking the number of supplies and searching the library.”
“Why search the library? Didn’t you listen to me properly? Some bastard is obviously stealing them one by one.”
“Angela hasn’t contacted you?”
Lee Ho asked Tom beside the sneering Tvein.
Tom slowly shook his head.
“Not yet.”
“Shouldn’t we go?”
“Go where? Yoon’s there.”
Tvein answered Lee Ho’s question indifferently.
Lee Ho seemed convinced by that. He blinked, then straightened up with an expression that said, Right, of course.
The blond Badger, who had been listening with a worried face, suddenly nodded with relief too. The silver-haired woman had not changed expression once.
Hessi was biting his lip. He looked as if he were barely holding back something he wanted to say.
Good job. Keep holding it in, peer.
Tvein broke the silence again.
“So?”
“Pardon?”
I widened my eyes at the incomprehensible question. Tvein blew out a puff of cigarette smoke and asked again.
“What were the results?”
“What results do you mean?”
“You said you searched the library.”
Oh.
“The food is still accounted for, and we didn’t find anything unusual.”
“Of course not.”
He was rude in a different way from Yoon.
I did not let the polite expression leave my face.
“We checked the second floor, so we were going to inspect the remaining floors.”
“Want help?”
What?
“Let’s go in. I’ll help you with the work.”
I narrowed my eyes.
The tall blond man with a cigarette in his mouth had drawn out another long smile. From any angle, it was not the smile of a nice person.
What was he plotting...?
Tom and Hessi gave him wary looks too, as if they had the same thought. Lee Ho, standing beside him, wore an expression that said, What are you suddenly talking about?
The blond female Badger widened her eyes behind him. The silver-haired woman looked uninterested.
I watched the cigarette smoke vanish into the evening darkness and answered casually.
“It’s all right. You seniors must be tired too, so we juniors can handle it ourselves...”
“Stop talking nonsense.”
The man strode over.
Then he slung an arm around my shoulders. We were about the same height, but Tvein put strength into the arm around my shoulders, making me bend forward slightly.
I almost grimaced, but barely held onto my composure.
I was dragged along by the man’s strength.
Hessi and Tom made startled noises and followed us. Tvein did not stop them. We entered the library and headed toward the ramp stairs.
Instead of climbing them, he began going down.
As we headed underground, we found a closed metal door. A door that required a password to open. Without removing his arm from my shoulders, Tvein entered the code and pushed the door open.
The cool, stale smell unique to basements pricked my nose. It seemed to have once been a parking lot. Drums filled the bleak space.
Only then did Tvein remove his arm from my shoulders. I glanced at him, then walked a few steps inside.
Tom and Hessi came to stand beside me.
“Looks like a place where they store fuel.”
Tom muttered.
“I didn’t know it needed a password. I didn’t know the password either.”
“I said I’d help, didn’t I?”
Tvein spoke smugly.
He watched the three of us turn toward him at once and smirked.
“You couldn’t have opened this place by yourselves, right? I opened it for you, so search it properly. Until your senior partners come.”
“This place?”
“You said you were going to search the whole library.”
“Thank you.”
While Hessi asked in confusion, I quickly replied before Tvein could start another argument.
Something strange flickered in Tvein’s eyes as he looked at me. I did not particularly want to know what it was.
Later, he would probably ask us questions after we searched the underground parking lot, like what was beside the third pillar, then chew us out if we could not answer.
I did not avoid his gaze.
Jason Tvein, who stood there with an unreadable expression, left a few minutes later.
* * *
We found out what he was plotting about five minutes after searching the underground parking lot.
We were examining a tightly shut iron door.
Beep-beep, ding!
The lights went out with the strange sound.
Darkness fell.
“What?!”
“The lights went out.”
“Wow.”
Hessi raised his voice, Tom muttered in confusion, and I admired the situation.
“Is this for real? This was that man’s doing, right?”
“That man? You mean Senior Tvein did this?”
“Who else would do it?”
I muttered in pitch-black darkness, where I could not even see my peers standing right beside me.
I stayed still and waited for my eyes to adjust. At the same time, I strained my hearing to determine where my peers were. Then I glared into the blackness with a sullen face.
I was not worried or scared. Our senior partners would come in and get us out soon enough. Or we could use the light from our watches or field guides to feel our way out of the library.
I was not particularly worried even while my peers felt around for their watches.
Not until I put a hand into my pocket to find my field guide for a light source.
And not until, before I could even take it out, the field guide spoke in a clear voice within the quiet underground parking lot.
[Creature: “pig.”]
What?
[Stage 4. It hides in darkness and silently approaches before devouring its prey. Despite its heavy body, it makes almost no sound while moving. It possesses tremendous strength, a tough hide, and intelligence worthy of a pig. Guns will not work unless they are large-caliber. It has no particular weakness.]
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