Chapter 28
The pain pouring from my mangled arm was horrific.
Thankfully, because of the pain suppressants Kang Chaeyeong had with her, I didn't feel it for very long.
But for those five minutes or so, it was pure hell.
If the day ever came when I was tortured, I'm confident I'd spill everything—the Bureau's secrets, the identities of the few people I knew, and the Gallery's identity too.
Anyway, with Kang Chaeyeong's help, I somehow made it out of the village where time had stopped, and now I was at a Bureau-run hospital in Gyeongbuk.
“Shouldn't we break it a little more? It looks like the bones are out of place.”
“Shall we?”
Crack, crack.
“Whoa...”
Right now I was witnessing my left arm getting broken even further in real time, as if it were somebody else's business.
“It doesn't hurt, does it?”
“If you're going to break it all up and then ask me that, what am I supposed to say?”
“I know it doesn't hurt; I'm saying it so you don't mind.”
“Well, it's not like what we're doing is treatment.”
Two men with physiques a bit too rugged to be doctors.
The one in the lab coat is the doctor, and the one in the nurse's uniform is the nurse, I suppose.
Let's not ask why the male nurse is wearing a skirt.
Crackle, crunch, crunch, crunch.
The thumb on my right hand and the fingers on my left had found their proper angles again, but they were still alarmingly loose.
Should I even call this treatment?
With no pain at all, it didn't even feel like my body.
“Good grief, what were you doing to come back with your arm like this?”
“Right. The records say this is a newbie, but what kind of newbie ends up like this?”
“Pardon?”
What was that supposed to mean? Wasn't the rookie death rate the highest?
'Nine out of the ten people deployed this time were killed.'
'Newbies who survive more than a week are rare.'
The story of Imina and Choi Yuna.
The youngest member position on the field response team, unchanged for a year.
And the missions I had gone through too.
Even allowing for the fact that this was the human-rights-forgoing track, it was still a conversation I couldn't relate to at all.
“Um.”
“Hm? What is it?”
“What do you mean, 'what kind of newbie ends up like this'?”
The doctor tilted his head.
“I mean exactly that. Does it need some deeper meaning?”
“No, it's just very different from what I know.”
“Hey, hey.”
The nurse clicked their tongue and furrowed their brow.
“You happen to be from Seoul?”
“Yes.”
“Ah...”
The moment I said I was from Seoul, the pity in their eyes suddenly deepened.
“Hang in there.”
“Pardon?”
“We're just low-level guys too, so we don't know much, but I hear the Bureau's Seoul side is a total monster den....”
“They say there's even a track where they don't treat you like a person, in exchange for paying you a lot.”
Monster den, a track where they don't treat you like a person.
“Um, then does this side not have a human-rights-forgoing track?”
“Human rights? Joining the Bureau is for the sake of humanity—so what are you supposed to give up your rights for?”
“Good grief, so it was real. No matter how much they shoved all the weird stuff into Seoul, there really was something like that?”
Rattle.
“If you've adjusted the angles, get out. I need to treat him.”
Just as a conversation that might have yielded some useful information was about to start.
At last, a nurse in the proper uniform for her gender came in and chased the two men out.
In her hands was a green gel-like substance in a glass bottle.
“Looks like you've got quite the ability, huh?”
“Pardon?”
“Usually an injury this bad would mean about a month of rest while it heals naturally, but I heard somebody upstairs ordered it to be fixed fast.”
As the nurse held the container against my arm and opened it, the green gel began squirming its way out.
It slowly wrapped around my injured arm and shoulder like a cast.
The sleeve of the hospital gown it touched melted away in an instant.
“What is this?”
“It's a bit long to explain, so later you should ask your guardian to explain it to you.”
After confirming that the green gel had taken hold from the tips of both hands all the way to the shoulders, the nurse left the room after saying that.
No, if it's going to be like this, bring those old guys back in from earlier.
I checked the clock. 3 p.m.
By now, wasn't the Gallery probably treating my death as a foregone conclusion and throwing a festival?
My death would be a funeral, but reopening the Gallery would be a festival for them.
I'm done for. Once my arm heals, I'm going to start doing things you're not supposed to do in a funeral home.
Rattle!
“Big bro!”
“Ah, Senior Chaeyeong.”
Not long after the nurse had left, Kang Chaeyeong came sprinting into the room, calling for me at the top of her lungs.
“Are you okay? It doesn't hurt or anything, right?”
“Of course not. That pain inhibitor lasts twelve hours.”
She had slept, but her face looked haggard, as if the fatigue from the mission hadn't gone away.
The way her expression seemed to say, 'I'm super worried,' was like looking at a big dog.
“That's still no excuse... I mean, how do you smash a person's arm up like a bundle of sticks!”
“They say you have to do it like that for it to stick properly. By the way, I'm curious what this thing stuck to my arm is—do you know?”
“Oh, that? Wait a sec, I'll show you the report.”
Kang Chaeyeong moved to my side to show me the report, since I couldn't use both arms.
“Here, look!”
After tapping the device a few times, she held it right up to my face.
Too close.
I forced my eyes onto the terminal, trying not to be distracted by the rather conspicuous thing beside her.
++++
Entity Report
[Cover Gel]
Grade: Level 1
Classification: Entity Type
Cover Gel is an entity discovered in the state of Texas, USA, in 1963.
Its first discovery took place at the ■■■■ meat-processing plant.
At the time, a factory employee reported that waste in the disposal warehouse he managed was decreasing at an abnormal rate.
During the plant's investigation, an unidentified mucous entity was discovered, and it was subsequently recovered by the Bureau after the plant reported it.
Cover Gel actively absorbs carcasses.
It showed no meaningful response in experiments supplying it with living organisms.
Experiment results confirmed that if an entity that had absorbed organic matter until it turned green was brought into contact with an injured area, Cover Gel would completely cover the wound and begin treatment.
The entity responded to most trauma and internal injuries, including fractures, lacerations, burns, and organ damage, and the treated area would recover to normal within 24 hours at most.
However, no meaningful therapeutic effect was confirmed for disease or infectious symptoms.
Note that during treatment, Cover Gel continuously consumes the nutrients stored inside it.
The amount of stored nutrients can be gauged by the change in Cover Gel's color from green to white.
If all nutrients are exhausted during treatment, the entity will stop healing and attempt to move in order to absorb organic matter nearby.
Since there have been multiple reports of breaches from the quarantine zone in this process, be sure to provide sufficient nutrients before use.
It is estimated that, on average, organic matter equivalent to two adult human corpses is required to reach a fully charged state.
Organic matter needed to maintain the entity is mainly secured through livestock culling sites, large-scale die-off areas, and waste from food and meat-processing companies.
Obtaining nutrients using human corpses is prohibited under normal circumstances, but exceptions may be granted under Emergency Response Regulation Article ██.
After the signing of the 601 Treaty, the entity was transferred to Korea from Sector 51.
The Bureau currently operates Cover Gel for field response team first aid and treatment of severe injuries.
If you wish to use the entity, approval from a team leader or higher is required.
Unauthorized use will be considered a violation of regulations and referred to the relevant disciplinary procedures.
++++
“I saw everything.”
“And? It's pretty damn useful. Even if it takes a day, you'll be good as new.”
“Have you used it too, Senior?”
“The Gwanak Branch Field Response Team has standing permission to use it. Just bring it and it'll reattach your arm, your leg, your back—everything.”
“It's better if we don't end up needing to use it, though.”
Kang Chaeyeong's words made it sound as though the Gwanak Branch Field Response Team had such a heavy workload that they could use stuff like this on a free pass.
In fact, that did seem about right.
I looked at the Cover Gel, which twitched faintly from time to time.
“The part about charging it with corpses is unsettling. This thing now—could it possibly have been charged with a corpse too?”
“Are you feeling pretty damn bad right now?”
“No. Not really.”
“Then that's not it. The one that's been fed a person feels different when it touches your skin.”
Kang Chaeyeong was casually explaining the difference between an entity that had eaten a person and one that hadn't.
I figured nothing good would come from asking in detail, so I didn't press further.
All I could hope for was that I'd never feel something like that in my life.
While I was praying for safety, safety first and safety second, Kang Chaeyeong opened her mouth.
“Big bro.”
“Yes, Senior.”
“I'm sorry.”
“I'm not sure I follow.”
Turning around, I saw Kang Chaeyeong looking at me with a tearful face.
“As the senior, I should've helped in an emergency, but I just slept the whole time...”
He was an old man who wouldn't have come here in the first place if I hadn't been there.
“Even though we said the two of us were coming, we should've stayed on guard until the mission was over, but I was useless and got you hurt, big bro.”
A self-reproach that wasn't quite self-reproach.
My inner devil whispered that it would be fine to just say, Oh, I see, and wash away the debt in my heart, but...
“Please don't say that. Thanks to you, I'm alive right now.”
'Bye, big bro! Say hi to your sister for me too!'
I couldn't bring myself to do that, because I remembered Kang Chaeyeong coughing up blood from playing around with Yeon-nyeon.
“If it hadn't been for you, Senior, I would've had every joint in my body bent and twisted for three straight days.”
『Yes, around three days should be about right. Humans can live three days without eating.』
If Yeon-nyeon hadn't shown up then, I would've had to spend a full three days in a life-or-death Q&A with that persistent complainant, and I would've been dead for sure.
In the end, I probably would've become less a person and more an entity like “the Bent Man.”
“Really...”
“Thanks to Yeon-nyeon taking the old man away, the sun came up before my neck got bent.”
It looked like Kang Chaeyeong's slumped shoulders rose just a little.
“So don't feel guilty or anything. Just think you saved a junior, and that'll make me feel better too.”
“Got it! From now on, I'll take good care of our youngest, Seongbin, too!”
Recovered, Kang Chaeyeong smiled like sunlight.
Hm, yeah. Golden retrievers really do have smiling faces.
Plop!
“Oh.”
After about two hours of chatting, the Cover Gel attached to my arm dropped to the floor.
“Try moving your arm once, big bro.”
“Yep.”
My healed arm felt much better than it had before I was injured.
Even the wound from being bitten by the Smiler, which had occasionally ached, seemed to have been healed too.
I felt a little grateful to the Cover Gel.
“Looks like you're all better. You can be discharged now.”
I was promptly discharged by the nurse who came into the room, apparently having noticed the gel fall off.
Apparently, employees aren't charged hospital fees separately.
Is there even anyone besides Bureau staff who would come here?
I wondered if, besides Cover Gel, there might be other entities capable of curing disease—and whether high-ranking officials might come secretly for them.
“Then let's meet in Seoul next week!”
“Yes, take care of yourself.”
After saying goodbye to Kang Chaeyeong, who still had a mission ahead of her, I boarded the premium bus.
Looking out the window, I could see Kang Chaeyeong waving at me from outside.
After waving back, I closed my eyes and sorted out my thoughts.
The old man I had to meet again, the strange Bureau in Seoul, the whereabouts of my family that I still couldn't pin down, and the handful of living members of the Gallery.
I had plenty of loose ends, but only one body.
All I wanted was to have everything resolved before I died.
If time kept passing, I knew I'd be able to figure it all out.