Grab the Regressor by the Collar and Debut - Chapter 558

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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558. In the Chaos (11)
“…I don’t have the audacity to defy a national representative.”
I quickly lowered the laser gun to the floor and raised both hands in surrender. Ji Ye, still unable to lower her guard against me, stepped closer one pace at a time, looking ready to pull the trigger at any moment.
‘But does that laser gun actually work on us?’
Come to think of it, when the security robots said they’d kill us with that thing earlier, it does seem like that’s how it’s supposed to work.
While I was rolling my eyes in uncertainty, Ji Ye, reading my expression, threw out a cynical remark.
“It works.”
“Huh?”
“It works on us. We’re all wearing laser detection patches.”
“What? Where?”
“On your waist. On the belt with the microphone pack.”
Ji Ye nodded as if telling me to check for myself.
Hearing this for the first time, I lowered my right hand and felt around the back of my waist where the microphone pack belt was, and sure enough, my hand brushed against something hard and electronic besides the familiar microphone pack shape.
“Ah!”
Of course.
No wonder they were in such a rush to set up the audio equipment.
But since I’d only felt it with my hand and hadn’t actually seen it with my own eyes, I still couldn’t completely believe it. I kept both hands raised and opened my mouth. I made sure to smile as warmly as possible.
“But why are we being cautious with each other right now? We’re on the same side.”
“Why did you point a gun at me, then?”
“I thought you were a security robot. I’ve lowered the gun now, haven’t I?”
“Are you sure?”
“What?”
“Are you really sure we’re on the same side?”
Ji Ye’s expression as she questioned me wasn’t simply that of someone frightened.
There was a certainty as if she knew something, mixed with anxiety and distrust that no one could be trusted.
I exhaled sharply. Then I spoke calmly.
“What I know is that the Dropouts, who we thought were eliminated at first, are now hunting us down for some reason. And that Void is actually an experimental subject of this Research Facility, and we might be getting used by Void.”
“….”
“What do you know, Ji Ye?”
The method I chose to reassure Ji Ye was to lay out all the information I had. To gain complete trust, I had to show trust first.
Maybe because she was athletic, Ji Ye had some similarities with Lee Do-ha. She was the type who preferred direct confrontation over vague mind games.
“Among us….”
“…?”
As expected, after hearing my honest position, Ji Ye opened her mouth quietly after a moment of silence.
“Among us, there’s a traitor.”
“A traitor?”
“Someone has been turned by Void. Their goal is to eliminate us and help Void escape, and they said they formed a temporary alliance with the Dropouts because of that.”
“I see….”
“I heard directly that the traitor told the Dropouts where Jung-sun was, which is why she was eliminated.”
So that’s how things turned out.
While the three of us were trapped in the 2nd Floor Office, it seemed a literal blood-soaked survival game was unfolding outside.
I exhaled deeply and nodded, finally understanding Ji Ye’s attitude, when she adjusted her rifle and asked menacingly.
“But….”
“…?”
“What were you doing here? …dressed up like that, no less.”
“Huh?”
“You’ve been here the whole time?”
“What? …Oh.”
At Ji Ye’s words, I looked down at my own attire.
In the Security Room filled with CCTVs, I was a suspicious figure incarnate—dressed in a white lab coat, half-rimmed glasses, and an employee ID badge.
As I hesitated to respond, Ji Ye’s laser rifle gleamed at its muzzle and pressed closer toward me. I frantically waved both hands and shook my head vigorously, vehemently denying it.
“No, no, no? It’s not, it’s not, it’s not!”
“What do you mean it’s not?”
“I, I, I just got here, just now. I was in the 2nd Floor Office with Tae-jin and Sara until just before! The three of us were together the whole time and just separated now, so we’re innocent. We can prove it to each other!”
“Then why are you dressed like that?”
“Ah, well, see, I had to wear this to fool the security robots, according to that record from earlier…. Anyway, I’m really not, Ji Ye. Really!”
“….”
“I’m supposed to meet Sara and Tae-jin again on the Third Floor in about an hour and a half, right? If you’re suspicious, let’s go together and check. That settles it.”
With the word “innocent” written all over my eyes, I poured everything into asserting my innocence.
But no matter how much I insisted I wasn’t guilty, without evidence it was useless. Ji Ye didn’t easily lower her guard. I continued laying out my defense to prove my innocence.
“Besides, if I really were a traitor, I wouldn’t have lowered this rifle even if it meant death. I only just learned from you that this rifle actually works on us.”
“….”
“Look, look at that paper on the instrument panel over there? That’s the blueprint we found in the 2nd Floor Office earlier, and if you look, there are notes I wrote down about everything I didn’t understand regarding the System. Why would I write something like that if I were a traitor?”
“….”
Ji Ye, who glanced sideways to confirm the blueprint right next to her, gradually began to soften her rigid expression.
Not missing that small opening, I continued my persuasion.
“Look at the CCTV over there right now. See Tae-jin and Sara resting at the Rest Stop? The Dropouts are still in the Underground Convenience Store.”
“…That’s true.”
“If I really were a traitor, wouldn’t I have already shared Tae-jin and Sara’s location and gone to capture them? Besides, I have no way to contact those people?”
“You have a walkie-talkie on your waist, though?”
“…This is really something I found here. Here, just now. If you’re suspicious, take one yourself right now and try the walkie-talkie—see if the Dropouts can hear it or not.”
Out of frustration, I pulled out one of the walkie-talkies from my waist, turned it on, and tossed it toward Ji Ye.
Before Ji Ye, who caught the walkie-talkie with her excellent reflexes, could even say anything in surprise, I turned on all the walkie-talkies attached to my waist and transmitted.
“Ah, ah. Walkie-talkie test in progress. Walkie-talkie test in progress. Can the Dropouts hear me?”
-Ah, ah. Walkie-talkie test in progress. Walkie-talkie test in progress. Can the Dropouts hear me?
“If you can hear me, how about you blow a cute little cheek heart toward the CCTV~?”
-If you can hear me, how about you blow a cute little cheek heart toward the CCTV~?
“….”
Both Ji Ye’s and my gaze turned toward the CCTV simultaneously.
Needless to say, no signal came through the walkie-talkie the Dropouts had placed on their table, and the Dropouts themselves showed no particular reaction.
The two radios were different models from the start!
“See?”
I asked Ji Ye with a triumphant expression, and she lowered the gun barrel she’d been pointing at me, her face now showing that she’d largely shed her suspicions.
Still, unease lingered in one corner of her face, so I reached behind my waist again and unhesitatingly peeled off the laser patch attached to my microphone pack.
“Oh…!”
“Here, take it.”
Startled once more by my sudden action, Ji Ye looked up at me.
I held out that laser patch to her—something that was probably worth my life in this place.
“Keep it until we meet up with Sara and Tae-jin later to verify. If I become suspicious while we’re moving together, just shoot me with it right away. That gun responds to this patch anyway, doesn’t it?”
It was a somewhat risky method for gaining trust, but for someone like Ji Ye, there was no more certain way.
This calculation included both my confidence that Ji Ye wouldn’t kill me carelessly and my belief that the trust of such a skilled fighter would translate into formidable combat power.
Ji Ye alternated her gaze between me and the patch in my hand, then nodded after a moment.
“Fine. But if I’m suspicious, I really will shoot.”
“Once it’s confirmed you’re not the traitor, give it back immediately.”
“Of course.”
Just as Ji Ye reached for the patch in my hand.
I quickly clenched my fist to hide it and narrowed my eyes with a sudden thought.
“…There’s no possibility you’re the traitor, right?”
“I’m not.”
“How can I trust that?”
As I tilted my head in question, Ji Ye answered without the slightest hesitation, her expression composed.
“I’m swearing on my Taegeuk mark—I really am not.”
There she goes again, staking her entire nation on some game show. Terrifying.
Faced with an oath of such overwhelming weight from a former national representative, I could only raise an eyebrow and reluctantly hand over my patch.
* * *
After organizing the situation, we sat in the Security Room and shared the information we each knew.
Ji Ye, who had supposedly been alone ever since we scattered at the beginning, actually knew quite a lot of various details.
“So there are three teams total right now? The System side, the Void side, and the wanderers in between?”
“The three Dropouts’ objective is clear. Eliminate all of us and blow up the Research Facility.”
“And the traitors on Void’s side want to eliminate all of us and help Void escape? So the remaining people….”
“The remaining people have two choices.”
Ji Ye brought over a scrap of paper lying around somewhere in the Security Room and wrote on it with a pen.
【VOID VS AVOID】
“Either activate the emergency escape system according to Void’s wishes and leave this place with Void, or refuse even that.”
“If we refuse? Just all die together?”
“No, of course not.”
In response to my question, Ji Ye shook her head calmly.
Her small, youthful face—hair that had been perfectly styled this morning now roughly tied up with a rubber band from who knows where—radiated an inexplicable sense of resolve.
“There’s another secret passage in the Research Facility that only humans can access, besides the emergency escape system.”
“…!”
“And it seems the only key that can open that passage is in Zeus’s possession.”
“Zeus? …Son Je-u?”
“Yes.”
Why is he showing up here?
At the mention of the golden child from someone else’s home who had apparently acquired an unexpected Absolute Ring, I couldn’t help but let my bewilderment show through a dumbfounded expression.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com

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