Chapter 3 Part 10

“Because of that bastard, Kiyomi had a tube down his throat, hovering between life and death. I guess we should be thankful he was treated quickly enough to survive.”

Jeong Tae-ui, who had been staring at the lingering image of the man in the video others were still projecting, frowned slightly and looked back at them.

“Even with that, UNHRDO isn’t taking any action? Even though they blatantly left behind recorded video like that?!”

Then Carlo Sagisawa let out a bitter, grim laugh.

“Hey, Tae-ui. That, you see, is ‘training.’ Moreover, it’s an ‘unarmed trainee’ retaliating against an ‘armed trainee.’ What you saw was part of the ‘training’ process. Okay?”

“Well… still, that bastard made it pretty obvious he deliberately killed him. He didn’t even try to hide it, so he probably went in and out of Eoryeong several times.”

Tou, who had been muttering after Carlo Sagisawa, added, pointing to the floor as if something had just occurred to him.

“Oh, Eoryeong is on B7. If you go in there even once, people come out extremely emaciated. I guess that’s to be expected if you’re confined and tormented for days or even months.”

“…In that bastard’s case, wouldn’t the instructor in charge have become even more emaciated while he was in there?”

Half-listening and half-ignoring their serious-faced muttering, Jeong Tae-ui rubbed his goose-bumped arm. That man, he’d be torn to shreds before he could tear anyone else to shreds. No, before that, he wanted to tear his own mouth, which had just moments ago called that man’s smiling face ‘cute’.

He thought he had a decent eye for people, but it was a complete failure.

Now he understood his colleagues’ reactions. Jeong Tae-ui kept rubbing his arm. His chest still felt chillingly cold. His anxiously pounding heart wouldn’t calm down. Those pitch-black eyes that had met his across the screen. That snow-white face. Those pitch-black gloves. And the traces of blood, red to the point of black, seeping from them.

“…”

“Alright, everyone, did you watch carefully? I’ll play it again, pointing out a few more important details, so pay close attention.”

The instructor in front tapped the desk lightly and spoke. Then he started replaying the video they had just watched, this time pausing it at intervals.

Jeong Tae-ui felt his mind calm slightly and quietly took a deep breath. Then he carefully watched the videos once again.

As a result, Jeong Tae-ui concluded that the Thirty-Six Stratagems were the best course of action.

The library on B5 was always quiet. Perhaps because of that, sometimes he would see guys lying asleep between the secluded bookshelves, their faces covered with books.

The corner between the bookshelves where he usually sat and read was already occupied by someone lying down, so Jeong Tae-ui went to the opposite side and crouched down. A spacious six-person desk was available, but if he sat there to read, one or two familiar faces would invariably come in and bother him. So, it had come to this, him hiding to read, but he also thought it might be better this way since he could just sleep if he got drowsy.

Jeong Tae-ui rummaged through the shelves, found a book, and opened it. Then he silently scanned the pages.

But his quiet, comfortable reading didn’t last long. The reason was that the member who came into this secluded corner, presumably looking for a book, was a familiar face.

“Oh.”

At the short utterance, Jeong Tae-ui merely glanced up. It was Wien-ho. Qing Ren-zhao was visible behind him as well.

Wien-ho stepped closer, took hold of the edge of the book Jeong Tae-ui was holding, and tilted it slightly.

“What are you reading? …The Art of War? This guy sometimes reads strange books. Reading stuff like that won’t help you in real combat, man.”

“Do you know of another book that compiles the Thirty-Six Stratagems so neatly?”

Jeong Tae-ui answered gruffly, shaking the book. As he was about to elaborate on the theory that classics are masterpieces, Wien-ho waved his hand dismissively and took a step back, as if fed up.

“Alright, alright, read hard. The instructor in charge of strategy will surely dote on you.”

Jeong Tae-ui briefly thought of his uncle, Jeong Chang-in, who was in charge of strategy, but then inwardly scoffed, thinking, ‘No way.’ His uncle wasn’t one to dote on model students. If anything, he tended to show interest in slightly odd individuals. That person was also quite out of the ordinary.

“But why the Thirty-Six Stratagems, suddenly? Where are you planning to flee to?”

“Hmm—you know that training video from yesterday? After watching it, I realized that’s the only way to save my life. If a person isn’t confident in winning a fight, they should at least be good at knowing when to escape, to prolong their pathetic life for even one more day.”

Jeong Tae-ui’s nonchalant mumbling seemed to be taken as a joke, as Wien-ho and Qing Ren-zhao laughed, amused.

“There are some opponents it works on, and some it doesn’t, you know. It doesn’t work on just anyone. …Hmm. Though, I guess you do seem like the type to survive and return even if you were thrown into a remote jungle.”

As Qing Ren-zhao nodded and mumbled, Wien-ho also nodded in agreement.

Jeong Tae-ui wondered how his image had fallen so low in just a few days, but he didn’t feel like denying it and just shrugged. He even thought that perhaps this was the ‘sense’ his uncle had spoken about.

In a very short moment, he could make a judgment. How best to act, what was the optimal within the limits of his abilities, what to give up and what to gain for maximum efficiency—he could quickly determine this by assessing himself against his opponent.

But when encountering a monster-like crazy bastard, it was still best to sacrifice pride and gain practical benefit. In other words, just run away as soon as they met.

“But still… it doesn’t say how to best make a getaway.”

Jeong Tae-ui mumbled, flipping through the pages. As expected, the two guys laughed, probably thinking it was a joke.

Seeing their nonchalant smiling faces made him want to lightly bash their heads in with the book, and Jeong Tae-ui, who had been idly looking back and forth between the book in his hand and their faces, couldn’t fulfill that desire because his pager vibrated in his pocket at just the right moment.