254 Poring Situation 3
Sarang was sitting on a bucket when she heard a loud noise rang through the entire school. She turned to look in the direction of the noise, and the poring piece tried to get out of the bucket. She kicked it back inside the bucket and sat down on it again.
The iron soldier landed in front of her, and Sarang stepped aside.
[Poring piece located. Collecting it now], the iron soldier said in a mechanical voice.
It lifted the bucket and picked up the poring with its hand, placing it inside a small box. Then, it turned to Sarang.
[I’ll collect the corpse as well.]
She nodded and stepped back. After picking up Mr. Dongs body, it said, [Maybe there’s a chance you’ve been infected?]
“No.”
[Return to class. The government will handle the rest.]
“OK.”
The iron soldier flew away.
“Big brother is powerful. I’m jealous.”
Sarang couldn’t teleport. In a situation like that, everyone was looking at the restroom, so there was no way for her to avoid attention. She grabbed her stomach and went inside the building.
An iron soldier had appeared and taken Mr. Dong with it, so the teachers ran toward her. Once they found her, they asked, “What happened?”
She had already told the teachers that she had had questions for Mr. Dong, so she had to come up with an excuse.
“I was asking him question, and he went crazy. I ran here, but he slipped and stopped moving.”
“How come that iron soldier came here?”
“I am not sure. There was a green ooze coming out of Mr. Dong’s ear. I kept it contained with a bucket, and the iron soldier collected the ooze and his body.”
“Since the iron soldier was here, does that mean it pertained to a monster?”
“I am not sure… but maybe.” Sarang was trembling. “I was scared.”
Teachers knew her as just a high school student. She was highly ranked nationally.
A teacher had gone craze, and she ran away. The teacher fell, and the iron soldier showed up and took the body away. It was definitely related to a monster incident.
The other teachers started feeling sorry that they had raised their voices at her, and one of them stepped forward and said, “Let’s go see the nurse. You must be in a shock.”
The other teachers nodded and stepped back. She looked at them and said carefully, “The iron soldier told me the government will handle the matter. We have to keep this a secret.”
“Of course. We don’t have to tell the other students.”
Sarang went to see the nurse. She lay on a cot and closed her eyes. Thinking of the green-eyed Mr. Dong, she murmured, “That wasn’t Mr. Dong.”
Sarang moved around on the bed.
The iron soldier had contained many people, and the army had killed a lot as well. Junhyuk looked at the number on the screen and frowned.
“We have arrested or killed 1,752 people so far,” he said, and Taewoo and Daeil frowned.
“How many of them have we identified?”
“Of the 2,000, we’ve identified 1,985.”
“How much time we have?”
“An hour and a half, but it’s not certain,” he answered.
Daeil frowned again.
“How long will it take to take care of everyone?”
“About an hour.”
Daeil turned to Eunseo and asked, “How long would it take if we give the iron soldier permission to kill?”
Eunseo hesitated and nodded.
“We can do it on time.”
“Then do it. We have mobility limitations.”
She nodded and looked at Junhyuk. Guardians was, at that point, occupied by the police and the military, but they wouldn’t be able to do anything if a monster showed up. She trusted him instead.
“Deploy every iron soldier.”
“All iron soldier deployed.”
Junhyuk agreed with the decision. To make sure they were on time, the iron soldier had to help. Without mobility, it wouldn’t be possible to deal with every infected person, so the remaining two iron soldier were deployed.
“We need further information on the remaining fifteen people. If not, the numbers will increase to three hundred.”
“We’ll find them.”
Junhyuk trusted Zaira.
They were gathered in one place. All green eyes looked at each other as one of them said, “This can’t continue.”
They could articulate, and as they looked at each other, they nodded.
“Let’s move.”
They all got up and headed in different directions. They hid themselves among the crowds, moving without stopping.
At the same time, people all over Seoul were dying, those walking on the street or at work at their companies’ buildings. The green-eyed people had started killing other people.
The sudden attacks caught people by surprise and many were killed. The police and military were eliminating the green-eyed people with the help of the iron soldier, and Seoul became a quagmire.
Daeil looked at the monitors and said, “A lot of people will die.”
“Over three hundred already have.”
The infected numbered at 150, and they were going berserk, wreaking havoc in Seoul.
The infected were using regular people as shields from the police and military, so killing them was becoming more difficult.
Junhyuk watched, and Zaira spoke up.
[Searches about the incidents on the internet have blown up.]
“Block them all.”
He couldn’t pay attention to anything else. Instead, he connected to Elise through the tablet, but she didn’t realize he had done so. She was entirely focused on her work.
“Elise, the infected are killing regular people. Did you find anything new?”
“The infected have a piece of the poring inside of their bodies. It covers their brain, and when the person dies, it leaks out of the ears. I’m analyzing these poring pieces, and they are showing different characteristics from the poring pieces we gathered previously.”
“In what ways?”
“They have learned to use human knowledge. One of them tried to escape by the sewer, so they understand human society. They may also be articulate.”
“Is there a way to fight them?”
“They are weak against electricity. Tasers may separate the poring from the brain, but the poring won’t die. It may escape to somewhere else.”
“We can’t gather the pieces during the chaos. Can you shut down the poring’s defenses?”
“No. Use short-range attacks so that you can catch them.”
“Understood.”
He report back what he had heard from Elise. After the report, Taewoo and Daeil gave out the others. If using Tasers could save the host, that would be the best way to go.
Zaira told him that the remaining infected had been identified and displayed their information on the screen. They were the first infected. Out of the five, four of them had been spotted.
They moved differently from the others. Unlike the others who killed mercilessly, they were moving between the crowd, using subways and buses to move through crowded places.
Junhyuk looked at Eunseo while still connected to Elise.
“We’ve located four of the first infected. They aren’t killing anyone. Why don’t we use iron soldier to capture them alive?”
“Get those four!” Junhyuk looked at the tablet and Elise added, “They may be in control of the other infected.”
Eunseo didn’t hesitate.
“Order the iron soldiers to arrest them.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
He told the iron soldiers where to go, and they took off quickly. Meanwhile, Junhyuk was following their footage on screen.
“They are definitely learning. They are using crowded areas to try to get out of Seoul,” Junhyuk murmured.
However, Daeil and Taewoo heard him anyway.
“Why don’t we stop them? Shut down subways and buses.”
Junhyuk looked at Eunseo, but she shook her head.
“The iron soldier will do it, but there might be tremendous collateral damage. Send the police and military over there now.”
“Sure. Show me the locations.”
Junhyuk pulled up the four locations, and Taewoo and the military sent a couple of helicopters to each one.
Junhyuk saw an iron soldier arriving through the feed. It made an announcement through the subway station, and people started evacuating. They realized that it was a monster incident, and the iron soldier waited for them to get out of the way.
Soon a train arrived. When the door opened, the iron soldier flew in, surprising the people inside. A hooded man with sunglasses lunged to the side, dodging the iron soldier. He grabbed a bystander by the neck and threw him at the iron soldier while he escaped through the crowd.
The iron soldier raised both hands and placed them against the ground. A strong current travelled through the rail, the train and the platform.
“Ugh!”
Everyone collapsed at the same time, but only one of them had been infected. The green ooze came out of his ear, and the iron soldier collected it and the man’s body. Junhyuk was shocked by it all.
“Elise, what did you just do?!”
“I told you, it’s weak against high voltage, so I shocked it.”
“I know it works, but isn’t it too dangerous?”
“It’s fine. I checked everyone’s heartbeats. Nobody died.”
That surprised Junhyuk.
“So, the host is still alive?”
“Sure, for now. Once the iron soldier brings him in, let’s run some tests.”