DP Episode 13

Deep Pivot Episode 13

As they approached Hyoseok-dong, the road was insanely congested. However, for Chung-oh, such obstacles were not a problem. He managed to break through what would normally take over 50 minutes in just 15 minutes and stopped the car.

Around the barricade that blocked the road, the area was bustling with reporters and cameras covering the disaster situation in Hyoseok-dong. Chung-oh, showing his ID card to the soldier blocking the way, took Yeon-woo inside the barricade.

With the sound of sirens ringing everywhere, plumes of smoke both large and small billowed throughout the city. Soldiers scrambled around shouting orders to control the area or request support.

Yeon-woo followed Chung-oh closely, dodging people bustling past with a tense expression. Giant eggs that squirmed and stuck messily to the building facades were everywhere. They looked like someone had half-blown a balloon gum and then spat it out.

Seeing a disaster scene in person that he had only seen on news screens was a first for Yeon-woo. The asphalt ground was swarming with larvae the size of a human fist. They resembled leeches in shape and had a pale pink body, but they moved much faster than their appearance would suggest.

Just then, Chung-oh snatched a walkie-talkie from a passing soldier’s hand.

“Ringo Starr, have arrived at the scene. Please inform me of the BECam location.”

―Samho Tower B-127.

A static-filled yet businesslike reply came back.

“I’m sending one kid over.”

After handing the walkie-talkie back to the soldier, Chung-oh suddenly nudged Yeon-woo’s shoulder toward that direction. Before Yeon-woo could ask anything, bewildered, a soldier grabbed his arm and shouted.

“Over here!”

Yeon-woo’s eyes wavered as he watched Chung-oh become distant through the crowd. Chung-oh seemed to say something while pointing at his own ear.

“…What?”

The surroundings were too noisy to hear anything. Yeon-woo, pulled along by the rough grip of the soldier, moved his feet hurriedly without understanding why.

“Hurry up! Faster, faster!”

Even though he was already hurrying, the soldier kept urging him on and led him into the basement of a building. There, people dressed in special combat suits were assembling unidentifiable weapons.

A woman, who was combining a large cylinder with a gun half her body size while sitting on a table, noticed him and approached.

—Kid?

Before he could respond, his wrist was grabbed and he was dragged along. The soldier who initially brought Yeon-woo here was nowhere to be seen now.

Like someone bewitched, Yeon-woo stripped off his clothes and hurriedly changed into the combat suit she handed him. The situation had escalated so quickly that he couldn’t even think to ask for a changing room.

The complex form of the combat harness and several pieces of equipment were completely unfamiliar to Yeon-woo, and he struggled to figure out how to wear them. As he fumbled, curses flew from the front.

“Damn it, where did they pick up such a clueless kid?”

The woman, cigarette in mouth, watching Yeon-woo’s clumsy attempts, helped him with his harness belt while swearing menacingly.

“Did you just come from training to crack jokes, or are you going to a fashion show?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Sorry?”

She chuckled incredulously as she efficiently strapped more equipment onto Yeon-woo.

“I’ll explain this nicely just once, listen carefully.”

After tightening the harness belts around his waist and legs, she roughly put a combat helmet and mask on his head and continued.

“From now on, we’re dealing with small to medium-sized parasitic creatures. If you spot a mature one, report it immediately to Salamander; handle larvae and eggs as you encounter them. Got it?”

The woman, after adjusting the exhaust valve on the mask, almost threw the recently assembled gun into his arms. The special combat suit, said to be made from the byproducts of the anomalous creatures, was considerably heavy. With the addition of the gun, it felt like wearing a sack of rice.

As Yeon-woo awkwardly adjusted his grip on the gun, the woman scrutinized him with a look of insufficient confidence. A moment of pity flashed in her eyes.

“…Just go.”

She patted Yeon-woo’s shoulder lightly and pushed him towards the exit. Pushed by her insistence, Yeon-woo stepped outside. She told him to go, but he had no idea where to go. Moreover, as someone who had never even held a regular gun, he was clueless about how to operate this strange, special firearm.

He was utterly out of his depth. He felt truly sorry for Kang Heemin, who had once taken valuable time to give a special lecture, but none of that was helpful now.

He had boarded the car thinking he was being taken home, yet here he was. After being enticed by Chung-oh to see Seo-joon, Yeon-woo was left in a bug-infested field, with no sign of Team Leader Jin anywhere.

Even Yeon-woo, who seldom blamed others, felt a slight resentment towards Team Leader Jin at this point. He examined the heavy gun, suspecting that the cylinder attached to the bottom was the main source of its weight.

Guessing the direction to go by following others and struggling to figure out how to use the unfamiliar gun, suddenly, a familiar voice rang in his ears.

―Kid, please respond.

Almost instinctively, he brought his hand to his ear, and a beep sounded in his earpiece.

“…Team Leader?”

―Kid, where are you now?

Ironically, Yeon-woo found himself relying on the very person he had just been resenting.

“I, I don’t know where I am… I’ve never been to Hyoseok-dong.”

―Tell me what building you see in front of you.

Yeon-woo looked around and replied,

“It’s Seonsimdang Hyoseok branch. Across from it is Yuwon General Shopping Mall…”

―Do you know how to use the weapon?

“No.”

―Oh, a total newbie.

The tone was surprisingly calm, considering he was the one who had recklessly sent a rookie, who had never set foot in training, into a level 3 disaster zone.

―First, see if there’s a pin near the butt of the gun, turn it to green.

Yeon-woo followed his instructions and tried to adjust the pin.

“It won’t turn.”

―Release the safety catch.

Bang! Suddenly, an explosion sounded very close by, almost making the ground feel like it was shaking. Yeon-woo instinctively crouched and started to release whatever catches he could see.

Boom, boom! Sounds like a building collapsing echoed one after another. His hands trembled too much to move properly due to the urgency.

“I’ve released it and adjusted the pin.”

―The trigger is #@%^$^& and, @#%^!@ so pull the lever and aim@#%^#……
TL/N: Raws: ―방아쇠는 #@%^$^&하고, @#%^!@으니까 레버 당기고 조준@#%^#…….

A loud noise burst from the other end of the radio. Crackling static intermittently drowned out the voice, making it hard to understand.

“What?”

―#%^!@ so go straight #^#%#@%^#……

“I can’t, …I can’t hear you.”

―Go right around the @#^%@#^ mall.

Yeon-woo looked across at the shopping mall. His body moved towards it before his mind had fully caught up.

“Please repeat, Team Leader. I can’t hear…”

Suddenly, he staggered. Someone had bumped into him forcefully. Too focused on the radio, Yeon-woo barely managed to keep from falling.

Only then did he start to take in his surroundings. Everyone was screaming and running in one direction. Even as he helped up someone who had fallen beside him, the radio continued.

―—@#^$#^&#%.

“…”

However, none of it reached Yeon-woo. His eyes were fixed on a stranger beside him, bleeding profusely from the side. For a twenty-year-old high school student whose life had revolved around school and part-time jobs, the scene was shockingly grim.

“Fuck…”

The man uttered a curse mixed with a groan. Instinctively, Yeon-woo pressed down on the man’s side to stop the bleeding, slinging the man’s arm over his shoulder in the process.

—Run.

Suddenly, a clear voice pierced his ears, prompting him to get up anxiously.

—Run, kid, run!

His mind was already racing like a Jamaican sprinter a hundred times over, but running with an injured person on his shoulder was not easy. Bang! Swoosh, swoosh, boom! As he struggled to keep his composure, bizarre noises came from behind him.

“Behind, behind! You idiot, behind, behind, behind!”

The man hanging on Yeon-woo’s shoulder shouted urgently. As the ground beneath them shook, throwing Yeon-woo off balance, he reflexively looked back.

Thin tentacles densely covered with velvety red mucosa loomed overhead. Mucous dripped down onto the transparent gas mask. The mucous touched the asphalt and the building walls, causing them to bubble and boil.

“Yeek…! Shit… Shoot! Shoot!”

Prompted by the man, Yeon-woo, almost reflexively, lifted the gun and pulled the trigger without thinking.

Pit, pit.
Despite its heavy weight and size, the gun made only a trivial squirt gun noise.

The special firearm, which seemed like it would have tremendous power, only managed to insert a few small ampoules into the giant bug’s mouth.

The ampoules, small as pinkie fingers, cracked with a rustling sound. The mucous membrane touched by the spilling liquid sizzled and burned.

Sssss, sssss.

A moist and unpleasant noise echoed as hundreds of cilia sprouted from the membrane and trembled.

The pale pink, elongated body writhed and shook violently. It was a muscle parasite about as tall as a three-story building. The blisters covering its epidermis popped, shaking off small eggs.

Yeon-woo immediately turned and ran. Somehow finding superhuman strength, even the man with a hole in his side relied on his support to move his feet quickly..

But no matter how far they went, the footless muscle parasite was faster. Their vision was obstructed by the mucous-covered mask. To make matters worse, breathing became difficult. Yeon-woo desperately dragged the man and ran away.

—In 4 seconds, to the right.

An unexpectedly calm and orderly voice echoed in his ears. There was no time to think. 1 second, 2 seconds, 3 seconds, 4 seconds. Yeon-woo sharply turned to the right.

Rushing into a narrow alley between buildings, Yeon-woo barely managed to pull the man by the shoulder. The pinkish body whizzed past the man’s feet.

“Gasp, huff…”

“T, Team Leader. Can you hear me? There’s an injured man here…”

While leaning the gasping man against the wall, Yeon-woo radioed and looked in the direction the parasite had disappeared.

“…….”

Suddenly, something caught his eye. It was the figure of a man, standing on the railing of a 6-story building’s rooftop. Dressed in the same special combat gear, completely covered with a helmet and mask, Yeon-woo recognized him instantly.

Yeon-woo ran toward the spot in horror.

Ji Seo-joon jumped down.

Precisely, into the mouth of the muscle parasite.