Chapter 3 Part 8

Jeong Tae-ui mercilessly poked Tou in the ribs, and in that moment, the Instructor pressed the controller key. The dark screen brightened, and a video was projected onto it. The video quality wasn’t particularly good, but it was perfectly adequate for recognizing the footage.

‘You bastard, that hurt!’

Tou, with a grim expression, muttered beside him, but Jeong Tae-ui pretended not to notice and only looked forward.

‘Be quiet and just watch that. It’s the joint training records, they said.’

Jeong Tae-ui said, feigning coolness. Tou reached out, as if to retaliate, but Carlo Sagisawa, seeing enough from the back row, lightly kicked Tou’s chair. Thump, a small sound echoed, and the Instructor’s icy gaze shot over. Beep, the video paused.

“You there. Do you want to watch this separately during your free time after regular duties?”

A frosty voice came with stern authority. Tou straightened his back, assumed an upright posture, and put on a serious face.

“No, sir. I absolutely do not wish to.”

“I apologize. I will be quiet.”

It was best to just give in unconditionally. Jeong Tae-ui had only just realized this morning that arguing with a superior here would only harm himself. Of course, Tou, who had lived here longer, would certainly know that.

Although the hierarchy was Director-General, then Vice Director-General, then Instructor, followed by Member, the position of Instructor was not to be taken lightly. It was even said that an Instructor at UNHRDO would immediately take a senior position if they transferred to another organization.

The Instructor, whose hair was beginning to gray, glared at them with piercing eyes before gripping the controller again.

“If you want to keep your life for even one more moment, you mustn’t neglect your studies. Watch carefully.”

As the Instructor finished speaking, the video began to move again.

It was a record of the joint training with the Europe Branch from last year. It wasn’t the complete record, but rather an edited video, seemingly cut into segments, with only the necessary parts from various scenes.

The Lecture Hall, which had been quiet when the video began, gradually grew restless as the content progressed. Everyone watched the records with serious eyes, engaging in quiet, brief conversations with colleagues seated nearby. It could also be described as a discussion in the form of casual talk.

Jeong Tae-ui, who had never experienced joint training, focused on the screen, picking up bits and pieces of conversation from around him.

“So, what do you think? Less than ten days left. Seeing that, do you think you can keep up?”

Tou tilted his head and muttered quietly beside him. Jeong Tae-ui rested his chin on his interlocked hands, gazing intently at the screen without taking his eyes off it, and replied.

“It feels like a systematic brawl. The job is definitely to team up with your side and relentlessly take down the opponents. …Still, I’ll have to look out for my own life, I’m not very confident.”

Among the men engaged in a melee on the screen, familiar faces were visible. Colleagues currently sitting in this Lecture Hall also appeared from time to time. But they wore expressions Jeong Tae-ui had never seen before. Faces truly on the brink of life and death. As if to say, ‘If you lose, you die.’

Lethal weapons were not provided. Guns were paint guns or airsoft guns. Knives had their blades dulled so they couldn’t cut a person. In other words, formally, it was nothing more than training. However, no one here was unaware that even such things could be used to kill a person.

“Aha, they even caught Tou acting like an idiot.”

Jeong Tae-ui chuckled and pointed at the screen. A man beside him, whose face was clearly contorted in a frown, was visible in it. Just as he was about to seize an opportunity to land a blow on an opponent, he mistakenly stepped on a fallen foe behind him, losing his balance. Because of that, his swinging fist couldn’t deliver proper power, landing like a miss, and naturally, his opponent took the chance to counterattack.

Tou grumbled about why they’d filmed such a thing and clicked his tongue. Wien-ho, who had been chuckling beside him, also had to scowl fiercely at his own face on the screen not long after.

“Good grief, I wish they’d show some successful cases instead of just failures. It’s embarrassing to watch since it’s all just our team members acting foolishly.”

“You bastard…—So confident that your mistakes won’t show up, huh?!”

“It’s not easy to shorten your lifespan with such basic mistakes.”

Tou, fuming at Jeong Tae-ui’s blatant grin, started to roll up his sleeves, but then the atmosphere around them turned cold. In the sudden silence, Tou looked around, bewildered, and Jeong Tae-ui also looked forward.

An edited video clip was playing on the screen. Even as an edited video, it was footage where only the useless parts at the beginning and end were cut, leaving the main content entirely intact.

Inside it, there was a man. His face was so pale it was almost white, utterly devoid of color. Tall and slender, he was staring idly at his feet, as if lost in thought. The man, perhaps appearing somewhat melancholy, had features so refined that he seemed out of place in such a video. He would look more fitting in a model’s photoshoot.

“……He has a face that would be cute if he smiled.”

“But his face is completely white, poor thing,” Jeong Tae-ui murmured, adding to his thoughts, and then suddenly met Tou’s gaze, who was glancing at him as if he’d seen a ghost. Not only that. Colleagues sitting within earshot turned to Jeong Tae-ui with eyes wide in shock, as if they would pop out—or perhaps they were glaring.

“What’s wrong with them all at once?” Jeong Tae-ui thought, meeting their gazes head-on, then tilted his head and returned his attention to the screen.

The man in the video didn’t even have a weapon. His hands were empty. He was simply wearing black Gloves on his hands. Nor did it seem he was hiding any other weapons. His form-fitting shirt and trousers were simple, without anything cumbersome attached.

Did they put in the wrong video? No, but the background definitely looks like our Branch.