Dirty Sweet Baby Chapter 81

Beep, beep!

Soon, a call alert appeared, followed by a reassignment message on the screen.

Task force.

It was a military term for a temporary unit formed to carry out a special mission. It was also called a mobile unit. The notification absurdly stated that Baek Heeheon and Cha Moogyul had been assigned to a combat unit, and a task force at that.

‘What? This is impossible. Was the military a place where administrative processing happened this quickly?’

At least, in Heeheon’s experience, it absolutely was not. The vertical system where a single word from a general could resolve everything in a flash was truly dumbfounding. It was enough to make him wonder if this was what absolute power meant.

Cha Moogyul languidly urged him.

“National hero, you said you had to do it.”

“…”

“Didn’t you say you didn’t want to receive the hero treatment and then just wipe your mouth clean?”

“…”

“Even if hyung doesn’t step up, I’ll take care of it myself and come back, so there’s no problem. I’m just a little… rushed to be sitting around doing nothing.”

Then, Cha Moogyul walked ahead without a second thought, leaving Heeheon behind. It seemed he was heading for the elevator to leave the barracks.

For the past few days, he had been stuck to Cha Moogyul—when sleeping, when training, when eating, Cha Moogyul was naturally by his side every minute, every second—but he was about to leave Heeheon as nonchalantly as if it were nothing. Heeheon couldn’t follow his way of thinking, wondering what on earth he was up to.

Deploying immediately, changing their assignments, and…

‘How can he maintain such composure in this situation?’

A barrier collapsing and creatures crossing over into a general residential district was a grave situation, the first in 40 years. Heeheon was at a loss for words at how utterly calm Cha Moogyul was, even with such a major incident unfolding.

He had felt it before, but he was like a veteran Awakened. No, he seemed more like a person who was partially missing the nerves responsible for death, threats, or fear.

No matter how long they had trained, there were quite a few Awakened who felt hesitant about killing creatures. But Cha Moogyul seemed to be naturally gifted in that mental aspect. He was completely unshaken in a wartime situation, devoid of emotion. He was just the same Cha Moogyul he always saw.

He couldn’t be compared to an ordinary person, and even when compared to other Awakened, he was excessively cool-headed and rational. It was as if he had lived that way from birth, without fear. It was to the point where Heeheon felt he was not just callous, but a little inhuman.

“Wait.”

Swallowing dryly, Heeheon grabbed his rifle and stood up. Then he chased after the back of the man who was getting farther away.

Cha Moogyul, so far in the distance.

Cha Moogyul, who would soon ascend to a place beyond reach.

In truth, the day Heeheon would no longer be able to guide Cha Moogyul was probably not that far off.

Guiding him was becoming more and more difficult, and even last time, despite his poor physical condition, he had barely managed it out of sheer desperation. It was possible that an opportunity like this, to deploy on a mission together, might never come again. This could be the last time.

He knew that someone was needed to protect the Center, that someone had to take on this duty, and that this too was a noble and valuable task. He had no intention of neglecting or demeaning the mission given to him, but what was more important than anything else right now was eliminating the creatures swarming the field as quickly as possible.

<You won’t be able to use much power?>

<I don’t know. I actually think I’m more capable now.>

Heeheon knew Cha Moogyul well.

He was an extremely rare S-rank esper, and it wasn’t in his character to make empty promises or to bluff.

There was no way a meticulous bastard who would prepare a basement just to lock Baek Heeheon up would act recklessly with baseless confidence.

If Cha Moogyul said he would take care of it, then he would.

If he said he could do it, then he could.

His eyes must have held the conviction that he could overturn this disastrous state of war.

Then shouldn’t he go?

“I’m going too. With you.”

Of course.

He had to go.

There was no reason to refuse.

Heeheon lifted his chin resolutely and quickened his pace, looking forward. The retreating back gradually drew closer again. He filled Heeheon’s vision, came within arm’s reach, and finally, he was standing right beside him. They walked together from the same spot, looking ahead.

Cha Moogyul threw a sideways glance.

After confirming Heeheon was right next to him and seeing the resolve on his face, his cold, black eyes curved, as if softening. Then he jabbed the elevator button with his fist and let out a short burst of laughter.

“Haha.”

…What is it? Why again?

Why is he laughing right now?

Heeheon furrowed his brow, expressing his confusion. He really didn’t understand Cha Moogyul. At a time as urgent as this, why? What could be funny? Is he having fun…?

The elevator arrived immediately, and Cha Moogyul pulled Heeheon inside.

“Looks like you’re ready.”

He whispered softly and pressed an inner button. His voice still held a trace of laughter, and their destination was the 7th floor.

7th floor. Sterile Transport Room.

It was a place where one could teleport to specific coordinates using the ability of a mobility-type esper. Of course, teleportation required approval from the higher-ups, and it was generally used by special mission unit members for emergency dispatches.

Whirrr. The elevator doors closed, and this time, the two of them began to ascend together. The mirrors on both walls reflected Cha Moogyul’s face, making his image appear on all sides.

Dressed in a combat uniform as black as darkness up to his neck, wearing a leather harness, a rifle slung over his shoulder, and his coarse black hair pushed back, he was, more than anything else, showing a fervent emotion as he looked at Baek Heeheon.

“Hyung, you be the national hero.”

“…”

“I want to hurry up and take care of those fucking things and roll around with hyung.”

A white light flashed before his eyes.

They arrived at the Sterile Transport Room, completed sterilization inside the double-shielded door, and requested a teleport. After stepping onto the platform and waiting for their turn, the lamp lit up, and after that…

‘Ugh, I think I’m going to throw up!’

It felt like his insides were flipping over and his consciousness was being sucked into a single point.

Heeheon gritted his teeth and squeezed his eyes shut.

He had lived at the Center for five years, but this was his first time personally experiencing a coordinate shift. It was usually the special mission units that deployed via a mobility-type esper’s teleportation, so he had only memorized the theoretical information.

‘Literally teleportation.’

To put it simply, teleport.

Here in a flash, there in a flash.

Of course, if the coordinates were off, you could die from losing a body part, and if you were sent to a contaminated area, you could die from infection, but for Heeheon to be experiencing such a strange superpower was truly an incredible thing.

‘Dizzy, ugh…’

Clutching his rifle tightly, Heeheon tensed every muscle in his body. It felt like experiencing three or four hours of motion sickness all at once. People who experienced teleportation for the first time were said to have great difficulty adapting, but fortunately, the dizzying sensation that had been battering him subsided after a short while.

The white light also gradually faded.

As the dazzling halo of light dissipated like a shimmering heat haze, color returned to the surrounding scenery.

Heeheon, who had stopped in place, panted softly and blinked.

‘Ah.’

The scenery had changed.

The place he had just been was the Sterile Transport Room on the 7th floor of the Center’s main building, with white panels embedded in the walls and everything around him being pure white. But the place the two of them now stood had black panels embedded in the walls, and the walls and floor were gray.

Above all, the incessant, loud whirring of a propeller was ringing painfully in his ears.

This was a Sterile Transport Room located inside a transport helicopter.

It was the same kind of unmanned transport helicopter that the special mission unit members fearlessly jumped out of. He knew right away because the broadcast footage from a little while ago had shown agents descending from a helicopter just like this one.

“An unpleasant sensation.”

Cha Moogyul, who had teleported alongside him, nudged Heeheon’s shoulder with the back of his hand. Having already stepped off the designated coordinate platform, he opened the tightly sealed double-shielded door. Heeheon quickly snapped to his senses and followed him.

Did Cha Moogyul also get motion sickness? Was he as dizzy as Heeheon had been, to the point of wanting to throw up? Unavoidable curiosity arose, but this was no time for a leisurely chat. The moment they opened the outer shielded door, they were met with a fierce blast of wind.

The view looking down from the wide-open door was catastrophic.

It was pitch-black.

Like being covered in summer mold, the creatures that had spread throughout the residential district were indiscriminately attacking and devouring the city. They were like the swarms of locusts described in the Book of Exodus.

Concrete buildings, streetlights, roads, and vehicles—man-made structures were being swallowed up without distinction by the black monstrosities. Crunch, crunch. They were being bitten, chewed, and gnawed on. If left alone, it wouldn’t be long before the entire city was destroyed, and even the civilians who had barely escaped to shelters would be exposed to danger.

The deployed Awakened had formed a long, ribbon-like front line to prevent them from approaching the shelters, but the creatures were advancing at a terrifying speed, and far from being suppressed, the front line was gradually being pushed back.

Bang!

“Behind you.”

While Heeheon was gravely assessing the battle situation, he heard a clean gunshot followed by Cha Moogyul’s warning. He immediately turned around to see a black mass approaching the rear of the unmanned transport helicopter.