"Coddle a thing and it climbs all over you, no idea of its place. A beast only obeys when it's ruled by fear — that's the basic principle, and Chae Junhyeok had forgotten it."
Park Wonjin strode up to the screen and picked up a red stylus.
Over the profile photos of the children beaming brightly on the screen, he made a show of scrawling a rough, heavy X across each one.
"Meals to suit their tastes? Do they think this is a hotel buffet?"
He turned to the researchers with a nasty smile.
"You want to get strong, you eat whatever's put in front of you. From now on, high-concentration protein goes straight into their stomachs. If they refuse, pry their mouths open and force it in through a tube."
The researchers' faces turned deathly pale, but Park Wonjin's rampage didn't stop.
"Sleep? That's a luxury too. Natural sleep is a waste of time. Dose them with sleeping drugs and knock them out cold on a fixed schedule."
He mercilessly hit the delete button on the 'general education' and 'emotional care' items on the monitor and wiped them out.
"Useless education, all of it, scrapped. If they've got time to sit around thinking, tell them to train more. Fill 100% of the schedule with nothing but combat training and drug trials."
Bang—!
Unable to take any more, Han Soeun slammed the desk and shot up out of her seat.
"Are you out of your mind? How could anyone with a shred of humanity—!"
She glared straight at Park Wonjin with bloodshot eyes and struck him right where it hurt most.
"Have you forgotten? Back when you had full control, didn't your crude methods drive the disposal rate through the roof and produce no data at all? You failed then, and now you're going to run the same play again — does that make any sense?"
"...!!"
Park Wonjin's eyelids trembled.
It was unmistakably his weak spot.
The instant that shameful past — the proof of his incompetence, of his being wrong — was dragged into the open, his reason snapped clean through.
Crack—!
He hurled the stylus in his hand to the floor.
Fragments scattered in every direction.
"Shut your mouth!!"
Park Wonjin clenched his jaw hard enough to grind his teeth and snarled like a beast.
"So! What's the result of your precious Chae Junhyeok's coddling?"
"...!"
"You can look at Subject No. 02, jammed in a healing tank with a respirator on right now, and still say that garbage? Is that your successful data?"
"Th-that's..."
Han Soeun's words caught in her throat.
Park Wonjin looked around at the researchers, struck dumb and unable to get a word out, and threw out a nasty sneer.
"You're the problem. Spineless, chasing the Director's tail like sheep, going 'Right you are! Absolutely!' — that's how the project ended up in this mess."
He drummed his fingers on the desk and declared, cruel.
"In the end, your way failed miserably. Admit it."
At that, Lee Jinwoo's and Han Soeun's faces went the color of clay.
"..."
"..."
"Hrgh..."
Park Wonjin, huffing, yanked his necktie loose as if it were choking him.
Rough breaths laced with murderous intent burst out of him.
That was when it happened.
The one who broke the thin-ice silence was Kang Taemin, who had stayed silent as a boulder up to now.
"When would you like it put into effect?"
"Head Researcher Kang!!"
"Hey! Kang Taemin! Have you lost your mind?!"
Han Soeun cried out, aghast, but Kang Taemin didn't even glance at his colleagues, fixing his eyes on Park Wonjin alone.
"Haha! Yes — at least one of you can be reasoned with!"
Park Wonjin pointed at Kang Taemin, triumphant.
"Put it into effect immediately. Starting today."
He glanced at his wristwatch and gave a cruel order.
"It's nearly lunchtime, isn't it? Overhaul the whole menu. That high-concentration protein gruel I mentioned... no, just make it a liquid feed they don't even need to chew. Taste? Doesn't matter how revolting it is. We just cram it into their mouths."
"Understood."
"Kang Taemin, you really—!"
"I'm only following orders."
Kang Taemin coldly shook Lee Jinwoo's hand off his shoulder and turned to head out.
At that exact instant.
Bang—!!
The thick door of the Deputy Director's office was flung open hard enough to shatter. No — someone had rammed into it and shoved their way through, body and all; that was the more accurate way to put it.
"Haah, haah...! D-Deputy Director!!"
Park Wonjin knit his brow, on edge, and looked over.
"What?! Barging in without even knocking, what do you think you're—!"
He was about to bellow, but the state of the man who'd tumbled in across the floor shut his mouth.
The security officer, who had collapsed through the door as if his legs had given out, was a wretched sight.
Filthy uniform, helmet knocked off, and a face gone white with terror.
"S-something terrible's happened! The government forces— the government forces have the institute surrounded and are trying to force their way in!!!!"
The officer screamed in a voice on the very edge of giving out.
Beyond the window, sharp sirens were already mixing with the urgent stamp of military boots.
"What? Government forces?"
Park Wonjin's brow furrowed hard.
"What kind of nonsense is this! Do they know where they are, daring to march their boots in here? There's no way that happens at an institute under the Bureau—"
Kwaaaang—!!!!
As if mocking Park Wonjin's bellow, an eardrum-splitting roar shook the whole building hard, like an earthquake had struck.
"Eek!!"
"Kyaaak!"
The researchers screamed and dropped to the floor.
Right after, along with the shrill sirens, a mechanical loudspeaker voice rang through the entire institute.
[ Kzzt— Ah, ah. Listen carefully. ]
It was a chilling notice, without a shred of feeling in it.
[ As of this moment, the 'Nest' Research Institute is placed under the control of the Republic of Korea government forces and the Central Government Joint Investigation Team. ]
[ All researchers and personnel currently inside the institute are to stop what they are doing at once and come out into the corridor. ]
[ Repeat. Anyone who resists will be treated as a hostile. Assemble in the corridor immediately. ]
With trembling hands, Park Wonjin pulled back the blinds and looked down out the window.
Hulking armored vehicles had the institute surrounded in ring upon ring, tightening like a noose, and through the gaps between them heavily armed special forces were pouring in like a swarm of black ants.
What... what in the world is this...
Then the broadcast struck the institute's walls once more.
[ Warning, once again. From this moment on, you will not touch any material whatsoever — servers, personal terminals, research logs included. ]
[ Anyone attempting to delete or conceal data will be treated as caught in the act of destroying evidence and put down by force at once. ]
It was a situation there was no making sense of.
The Bureau was nominally a government agency, but under the powerful pretext of holding exclusive control over 'Awakened' — a strategic national resource — it was an untouchable sanctuary, beyond the reach of the law.
Which was exactly why, for decades now, the government and the Bureau had kept up a precarious coexistence under an unspoken non-aggression pact, neither side trespassing on the other's turf.
And now the government had struck the Bureau's core institute by force, without any advance notice?
This... isn't a simple search and seizure. This is the government all but declaring open war on the Bureau!
Park Wonjin's pupils shook as if an earthquake had hit.
What on earth has happened up top? Has a war broken out or something?!
Before his reeling thoughts could even sort themselves out—
Thud, thud, thud.
From the far end of the corridor, heavy, regular boot-falls drew closer like a heartbeat.
A menace that tightened around the throat by sound alone. And then.
Kwaaang—!!!
The door of the Director's office, already battered and barely clinging on, was torn off entirely and slammed to the floor.
Through the rising cloud of gray dust, an officer stepped into view, a black beret pulled low over his brow.
A jet-black uniform.
And on his shoulder, the emblem of the Black Eagles — the most elite special unit, said to be a gathering of nothing but monsters even within the government forces — glinted coldly.
"Who the hell are all of you! The nerve, throwing your weight around, do you know where you—!"
Park Wonjin raged, veins standing out, but the beret-wearing commander treated him as thoroughly invisible.
He gave a short, curt gesture to the troops behind him.
"Begin."
The moment that one word dropped—
Rrrrmble— kwachang!!
Fully armed soldiers surged into the room like a black tide.
"L-let go of that?! My computer!! Not that, no!!"
Crash!
The soldiers roughly wrenched out the top-of-the-line desktop tower Park Wonjin had doted on and flung it to the floor.
With practiced hands, it took them under ten seconds to forcibly extract the hard drive alone.
The classified confidential documents in the bookcase came pouring out like a waterfall and were swept mercilessly into military duffel bags, and his plaques and framed photos on the wall were trampled under boots and smashed to pieces.
"Aaagh! Don't touch that! My data! My life's research!!!"
At the sight of his glory being cleared away like trash before his eyes, Park Wonjin lost all reason and threw himself at them, thrashing.
But.
Thwack—!
One of the soldiers shoved the butt of his rifle lightly into Park Wonjin's solar plexus, the way you'd swat away a bothersome fly.
"Gh!"
At the soldier's single blow, Park Wonjin rolled across the floor in a graceless heap.
The Deputy Director's office in front of him was being torn apart in a matter of moments, left as wretched as a bombed-out ruin.
The commander looked down at Park Wonjin sprawled on the floor as if at a bug, and gave his order in a voice cold as ice.
"This man is the true heart of this institute right now. Strip the place bare — don't leave a single speck of dust."
The instant those words dropped, Park Wonjin sprang up like a released spring.
His eyes, which had been white with terror, were glazed over now with bloodshot madness.
"Stop!! This is a blatant overreach of authority! The nerve of mere government forces, trespassing on Bureau territory?"
Park Wonjin blocked the commander's path, veins bulging.
"Even if there were a problem, it falls under the Bureau's audit team. No procedure, no approval... what is this but thuggery?!"
"..."
"When word comes down from up top later, the first head to roll will be yours! Can you answer for that? Can you answer for it?!"
A blistering threat, backed by the Bureau's standing.
But the commander didn't so much as blink at the uproar.
He walked slowly up to Park Wonjin and looked down at him, his eyes cold as ice.
"Answer for it, is it..."
The commander didn't so much as blink, even at Park Wonjin's ear-splitting shouting.
"You're badly mistaken about something."
"What...?"
"Yes, for routine business, you'd be right — it would fall under the Bureau. But when a 'crime against humanity' has occurred, that's another story."
Fwip—
The commander drew a warrant, a red official seal stamped clear across it, from inside his coat and thrust it in front of Park Wonjin's eyes.
"Awakened Human Rights Protection Act, Article 4. Non-consensual biological experimentation and abuse targeting minor Awakened under the age of thirteen..."
The corner of the commander's mouth twisted, nasty.
"...constitutes a 'first-degree felony.' And once this clause is triggered..."
He tossed the warrant down in front of the frozen Park Wonjin and added, icy.
"...the government forces gain the authority to step in directly and carry out a 'investigation' and 'emergency arrests' — no higher agency's procedures required."
"...!!"
Park Wonjin's breath stopped short.
"We've obtained a whistleblower report and evidence that illegal experiments are being carried out on children in this place."
"Ah... ah..."
Park Wonjin's face drained white in a flash, like a corpse without a drop of blood in it.
The Awakened Human Rights Protection Act.
The weight those words carried was immense.
At this rate... I take the fall for everything. No... absolutely not!
On instinct, he scrambled for a way out.
"W-wait! I'm just the 'Deputy Director'! The final authority here isn't me — it's the Director, Chae Junhyeok! If you're going to haul someone off, it should be that bastard! Why come after a powerless working-level staffer?!"
He desperately threw Chae Junhyeok's name under the bus, spraying spit as he went.
But the commander glared at Park Wonjin without a flicker of expression.
"Do you take us for fools?"
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