NOVEL NEXT Chapter 237
“Funny fact. Human belief can surprisingly be measured in units.”
The units I often use are time units like hours, minutes, seconds, and number units up to one, two, three, four.
The reason there’s no ‘day’ in time units is simple. I’ve never seen a human endure an interrogation for an entire day.
No matter how strong the body may be, how numb to pain, or how strong-willed one claims to be, I’ve yet to witness anyone make it past a day.
Even after holding out for a long time, half a day at the longest, they end up spilling everything—the location of the hospital where they were born, the age they first did it, and what they saw at that time.
Not to mention the lower-class trash, even upper-class ideologues who have taken weird paths become equal in my hands.
They all end up squirming on the floor, clinging to my leg with hands that have neither nails nor fingers, begging to do anything I ask just to let them live.
Looking at it this way, humans seem to be quite equal. In front of death, it really doesn’t matter which family you were born into or how you lived.
What’s important is whether you live or die. It’s just one of those two options. How great it’d be to see that old man squirming around like a bug…
“Hehe, hehehe…”
During my break, I enjoyed a bit of catnip and entertained some happy delusions. No matter how much I loved this job, it wasn’t something I could enjoy without taking breaks.
It was quite hard work beyond just being fun, so I needed to sneak in these short breaks. More than anything, these little pauses made interrogation easier.
What do they call it? Apples and whips? Anyway, I think it was something like that. Hmm, I can’t recall. My head feels fuzzy, and I can’t make sense of it.
As the drugs slowly kicked in, my head wasn’t functioning quite right. Not that it needed to. I already got all the information I needed.
All that was left was the fun part of wrapping things up.
Now, I just had to think of the most entertaining way to handle it… Hmm… Is there really any point in worrying?
Guess I’ll just do things the way I usually do.
Even though the drug effects weren’t completely gone, it didn’t matter. In fact, the halfway buzz made for the best reactions.
As I stepped into the interrogation room, which reeked of blood and the sickly smell of chemicals, a naked man, his body melting in places, crawled into a corner.
His movements looked awkward, probably because he wasn’t fully thawed from the numbness, but the will to live was unmistakably there.
─Yeah, that’s it. That’s what makes it fun to stomp on. Watching him force his numbed tongue to move for any words is oddly cute.
“This is your last chance. Where’s your boss?”
“Eeeaaarrr!!!”
“Huh? Can’t hear you. Where’s your boss?”
The man gnawed his teeth, desperately trying to talk to me, but then suddenly noticing my face, let out an ‘Ah’ sound.
No matter how dumb he was, by this point, he should have figured it out, right?
The man, previously muttering something about having just said it, now spat out curses about killing me.
It took 4 curses and 10 minutes for the plea for mercy to evolve. It took another 30 minutes to dispose of him without leaving a trace.
Oh, by the way, the 4 refers to the number of limbs.
— — —
“The sports festival is tomorrow. It feels like I just enrolled yesterday… Time really flies, huh?”
“You’re speaking as if it’s already the end of the year.”
When Blanca tried to steer the conversation, Seolhwa repeatedly blocked it, and it had started to feel like a part of daily life.
Of course, that didn’t mean I was completely okay with it. I still broke into a cold sweat every time these two fought.
So, instead of asking ‘Why are you fighting?’ it became ‘How should we end this?’
Fighting had started to feel normal.
…Which isn’t exactly a good thing.
I genuinely wanted them to get along, but I just had no idea how to make that happen.
Seolhwa hated Blanca because Blanca showed interest in me, and it was unclear why Blanca would provoke Seolhwa like that.
Maybe it was simply because she had a bad personality. Though Blanca seemed nice, there were twisted parts of her character.
“Come on, come on. Stop it already. We have an important event tomorrow, can’t you just let it slide for today…?”
“Well, if Seolhwa would just leave me alone…”
“…Are you siding with Blanca right now?”
As I tried to mediate, it seemed to ignite Seolhwa’s temper, so siding with her would land me in hot water with Blanca.
After 20 minutes of navigating between them, I finally managed to put an end to the fight, at least for now.
“I’ll make sure to drop you tomorrow.”
“Try if you can.”
“Ah… haha, you both seem to be overflowing with fighting spirit…”
“That’s the problem—it’s overflowing… sigh.”
Ageha’s remark hit me hard this time.
It’s fine to fight sometimes. But this was a little… not what you’d expect from friends.
Maybe since both of their likability figures were at 3, or maybe there was something else going on.
Seolhwa didn’t seem like this originally. Or maybe this was always her but didn’t get depicted well.
That’s cheating, isn’t it? I chuckled a bit inside and only wished they’d compete fair and square tomorrow.
“Uh… but… the competition, there are gonna be a ton of people, right…?”
Lapiz, it seemed, was still burdened by the thought of swarms of people showing up.
Since she was someone who shyed away from the spotlight, I couldn’t really blame her for feeling anxious.
“Yeah, a whole bunch. Probably way more than anyone you’ve seen in your life.”
Just as I was going to tell Lapiz not to worry too much, Blanca chimed in with a scary tone, as if she wanted to tease her.
“Oh come on, Blanca. That’s too much…”
As I started to assure her it was just a little exaggeration, I suddenly remembered the size of the arena and couldn’t continue.
…Could it really be that more people might show up than Lapiz has seen in her whole life?
“Mi-minho? Why did you stop talking…? It-It can’t be real, can it…?”
As I cut off mid-sentence, Lapiz’s face went pale and began trembling vigorously.
“It’ll be fine! They’ll be watching from so far away, you won’t even see their faces, probably…”
Even I thought Blanca was right, so all I could offer Lapiz was some passive reassurance.
Lapiz turned to Yeonhwa and Jinhyeon, who had been quietly chatting at the back, with a teary expression. Blanca’s face while watching this was oddly triumphant.
“You…”
“I don’t like lies.”
How could she lie so casually and shamelessly? While her smile was pretty, I couldn’t help but be astounded by her character.
What on earth did I do to make her so fixated on me? I honestly couldn’t recall anything.
From the looks of it, she oddly seemed to be obsessed with me.
Someday, I should really pin her down and ask why she’s acting like this. It might help me figure out what to do next.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, she indeed was on my side. However, it felt like she was not on the side of the people around me.
That’s a bit troublesome. I wished well for others too. I hoped Blanca could get along with everyone else as well.
“Blanca, isn’t that a bit too much? You know Lapiz struggles being in front of people.”
As I shot that out with a slight reprimand in mind, Blanca cheekily retorted.
“But it’s a contradiction to dream of being a hero and be afraid to stand in front of people. If you save people, you’ll receive gratitude from them, but feeling burdened every time must be agonizing, right?”
“That’s true, but it’s not like it’s something she needs to fix right now.”
Blanca seemed to catch my drift and didn’t reply, just laughing and brushing it off.
…She really is pretty. Pretty, but what is up with her personality?
What do I need to do for the ‘Censored’ splattered all over the status window to disappear and reveal her true identity?
I still didn’t know her. However, it seemed she knew who I was. If that’s the case, I could guess her affiliation to some degree.
It’s probably Heros Company.
But I didn’t know exactly which part of Heros Company she worked for, or if she even worked there under her real name.
I still had an informational gap with her.
…How come I’ve got a reincarnator cheat, yet there’s no sign of a solution?
Isn’t Heros Company a massive cheat?
I playfully complained in my mind as I prepared for tomorrow’s sports festival.