“I’m reporting this to the police.”
Ska was the first to regain his composure.
Yehyeon, still unable to take his eyes off the video showing Hilde writhing under electric shocks, gave a small nod.
“The Elders must already be aware, right?”
Gilbert, his face pale, pulled out his work phone.
The Commander nodded again but didn’t stop Gilbert from calling the Elders to confirm.
He simply stood there, colorless, staring at the video for a long time—until Ska and Gilbert finished their calls and turned back toward him.
“They were aiming to get me arrested, no doubt.”
Yehyeon spoke to himself.
“But that was impossible, I suppose.... When exactly was Hilde kidnapped?”
“There’s a record showing he used the shooting range until 6 p.m. today,” Gilbert said, scanning the screen.
“Then he was probably taken on his way back. I’ll contact Yun.”
“Good. Tell him to come to the office.”
Yun arrived soon after.
While Yehyeon was responding to messages from the Elders and placing a call to his father—who was supposed to be resting on his day off—the Commander finished the brief conversation in his native tongue and showed Yun the video.
Yun watched in silence.
Then, as soon as the video ended, he spoke.
“He was kidnapped after finishing his schedule, but those people couldn’t have acted alone.”
Yehyeon finally tore his gaze from the video that had been looping.
Ska and Gilbert looked at the rookie’s mentor. Yun met the senior officers’ heavy, guilt-ridden eyes with a cold expression.
“There’s no way he wouldn’t have sensed strangers full of that much malice approaching.”
“I think so too. But that’s not what matters right now.”
Yehyeon’s voice was weary.
“Let’s find him quickly.”
“They won’t be able to kill him.”
“I know. But he’s suffering.”
The Commander brushed a pale hand over his face.
“He’s in pain. So....”
His words broke for a moment, then continued softly.
“He’s the last person who should ever have to go through something like this....”
Everyone in the room understood Yehyeon’s quiet murmur.
Guilt shone in Ska’s and Gilbert’s eyes as well. They knew full well that the true target of this group had been them.
Those kidnappers had wanted to capture and kill the top officers. Yehyeon could already guess which group it was—one of the most violent among the factions opposing the existence of the Badgers. They occasionally launched physical attacks, always aiming for the command staff.
But instead, they had captured a rookie.
He wasn’t as young as people assumed, but still, a rookie nonetheless. Hilde hadn’t yet gone on solo missions, hadn’t completed the periodic physical evaluations, and didn’t even have the authorization to freely handle Green Dream.
In short, he was a complete newcomer.
If Hilde were young or fragile, he might have given up being a Badger altogether after this incident.
But Yun wasn’t worried about that.
“The real problem is that he has a test tomorrow.”
Yehyeon, who had buried his face in his hands, lifted his head.
The aides widened their eyes.
“Tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
Yun nodded at Gilbert’s question.
“It starts at nine thirty in the morning.”
“What kind of timing is that?”
Ska looked horrified.
“If he doesn’t make it before the exam starts, he’s disqualified, right?”
“Exactly. That rule has never been broken.”
“There’s never been an exception like this either.”
Yehyeon muttered, his eyes hollow.
“We’d better get him back as fast as possible.”
“But that means all the helicopter and firing range setups are already locked in, right?”
“Yes. The test schedule can’t be changed.”
“That poor guy’s cursed,” Gilbert said under his breath, voice strained.
“Of all times, this happens the day before his promotion exam....”
“Call Walker and Asil—whoever’s free.”
Yehyeon’s sharp voice cut through their murmuring.
The men turned toward him—toward their superior, who was staring down at his phone, brows drawn together.
Cold air filled the office.
The Commander rose from his seat and spoke briefly.
“I’ll contact my people in the police and intelligence bureau.”
He stepped inside to make the call.
The others followed Yehyeon’s orders without hesitation.
***
I was hungry.
I’d been on my way to buy dinner when I was kidnapped, so I was starving. I lay on the cold floor, watching the kidnappers rustle around.
They seemed to be heating something.
Was the next act supposed to be a burn attack? I blinked dully, thinking.
My stomach growled loudly.
“I’m hungry.”
When my guards stared at my stomach, I said proudly, “You got any dinner?”
Thud.
One kicked me in the belly.
Unfortunately, it didn’t really hurt... partly because they were civilians, partly because the guy just didn’t know how to kick.
I sighed deeply.
“You could at least grant me a last meal.”
“Shut up.”
The masked one hissed between his teeth.
The guy beside him echoed, “Yeah, shut up.”
Then suddenly he started to get riled up.
“I said shut up!”
He punched me.
I stared blankly ahead while being hit. As the agitated guards wasted their energy on useless blows, I watched what the twins were doing. Looked like they were burning something.
So they were going to brand me, huh.
I just hoped they’d choose a spot that wasn’t too vital. Then again, if they picked one that was, maybe Colton would intervene faster.
But did they really send that video of me to Yehyeon?
I wondered as I stared at the glowing heat. The room was still dark and cold. They kept beating me in various ways until near midnight. It hurt, but it was tolerable.
Which, apparently, only irritated them further.
Ah, I guess the way I kept asking the same question over and over pissed them off even more.
Even while trembling from the lingering shocks, I stubbornly repeated:
“How did you kidnap me?”
Even when they pressed the taser to me again and again through rubber gloves, I didn’t flinch.
“Who did you hire?”
Crackle!
After enough repetition, they eventually threw the taser away.
Now they were preparing something new. Completely deranged people. I could understand hating the idea ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) of undying humans, but spending all this effort to kill me was excessive.
Not that they’d listen to reason anyway.
The night dragged on.
“Hildebert.”
Just after midnight, the male twin turned toward me.
I sighed when I saw the long, heated branding iron in his hand.
Quite the size, too.
The burning metal drew closer.
“I’ll give you a mark.”
“Wow.”
The sheer madness was suffocating.
I scanned the design of the red-hot metal stamp.
Under the circular frame, letters were engraved.
Reading them wasn’t difficult.
“Lab rat.”
“Why am I a lab rat?”
“Do you know who was the first to receive an enhanced body implant?”
The female twin approached, heels clicking.
I looked up at her—her elegant gesture as she tucked her loose curls behind her ear.
I dug through my memory and gave a half-truthful answer.
“No.”
“Death-row inmates.”
Her low voice echoed in the silence.
“They experimented on prisoners first. When the experiments succeeded, the people who ran them started implanting enhanced bodies into themselves.”
“Fascinating. And how did you come to know all that?”
It didn’t sound entirely wrong.
That probably had happened. Eve might not have known, of course—she’d been naïve enough for Kyle to mock her for it. But she wasn’t the only one who met us when we came through the Portal. And I’d never once expected the world to be beautiful.
They surely had taken Eve’s results and tested them on prisoners.
The woman’s story had plausibility.
Still, it was likely her wild guesses had just happened to hit a truth by coincidence.
“We’ve dug through history relentlessly, and at last we’ve found the truth.”
Oh, is that so.
“There are people in this world—powerful ones—who have enhanced bodies even though they’re not Badgers.”
I know. You’ll meet the one at the very top of that chain soon.
“We’re going to tear down this rotten society. It’s unfortunate that you have to be sacrificed along the way.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t call it unfortunate after you’ve already done it.”
“I’ll make sure you die beautifully.”
“Saying that while holding a branding iron....”
And the cameras were still rolling, too.
I sighed as the heat grew stronger.
The male twin knelt on one knee before me. I felt my clothing rustle and scorch as I whispered,
“At least pick somewhere not too visible.”
They pinned down my limbs and rolled up my shirt.
The heat engulfed my body.
Sizzle!
A muffled sound escaped me.
The pain twisted my body violently, throwing off the civilians holding me down. They screamed and fell backward.
Curses filled the air.
But I had no strength left to care.
Ah....
It hurt so much. Pain sharp enough to make me forget tomorrow’s test entirely. I writhed, rubbing my skin against the cold floor.
It hurts.
When the hell is he coming....
“Beautifully engraved,” the woman said, peering at my abdomen with a satisfied smile.
“You monsters will come to fear this mark.”
No sound came out of my mouth.
My heightened senses caught everything—the burning pain, the hiss of another iron heating up, the shimmering heat waves, the stench of my own scorched skin. The sensitivity that had so many advantages also amplified every agony.
As I struggled to focus, the man knelt by my head.
A different branding iron glowed above me.
“You can’t see the one down there because of your clothes,” he said with a smile, brushing my white hair away from my forehead. “Wouldn’t want that to go unnoticed.”
“End this madness with me.”
My voice was faint, soaked in pain.
I almost felt relieved that the first Badger they captured was me. I’d thought they’d just shoot me a few times, but these people were far beyond reason.
“No. I’ll make sure it ends with you.”
I had planned to ask Colton to spare the ones with lighter guilt, but—
As the brand came down, I discarded that thought.
Sizzle!
My body convulsed.
I arched in agony, then curled up tightly. The pain in my abdomen hadn’t even faded before a new wave struck my forehead, and my mind went blank.
Ah.
Lucky it was me who got kidnapped, not someone the Green Dream could affect.
Even through the pain, I was relieved.
Thank God it wasn’t Tom or Hesh. Or Shu. If it had been them, they wouldn’t have made it out alive. If by some misfortune they had taken one of my rookies and killed them like this, I might have quit being a Badger and hunted these people down myself.
The pain was so intense it made my stomach acid rise.
I vomited.
“The video looks great!”
Through the ringing in my ears, I heard the woman’s voice.
“Let’s send this one too!”
Insane people.
And idiots. Sending all those videos would only reveal their location.
But maybe it didn’t matter—whether they sent them or not, the Elders would find their trail anyway. I held my face in my tied hands, thinking, and began to drift out of consciousness.
I should sleep a little.
From the way things looked, Colton would definitely arrive before three a.m.
Just a short rest.
Blurred vision, the droning hum in my ears.
The pain spreading through every limb, the stench of burning flesh filling my nose.
Within those sensations, trusting the comrade I hated most, I slowly drifted into sleep.
***
The command staff received messages from the Elders.
Yekaterina was the first to contact them.
[Location confirmed.]
They had barely sighed in relief when Erich followed.
[Ah, what a fascinating one! My whole body trembles with excitement. I’ll fetch him myself.]
And finally came the last message—from Colton, who had surely found the location first but waited to see how the others moved.
A private message, surprisingly.
[I’ll transport him directly to the test site.]
Both the command staff and Yun were certain Hilde would attend the test.
Since Colton had said that, the situation was essentially over. The police and intelligence agents Yehyeon had sent out in haste were no longer needed. The white-haired rookie would arrive at the exam site before nine-thirty, no matter what happened.
They exhaled in relief and sank into their chairs.
Until Mitchell burst in, crying.
“Commander!”
Her trembling voice called out to her superior as he stood.
“A second email—they sent another—!”
After watching the second video, the command staff was speechless.
Yehyeon buried his face in one hand and didn’t lift it for a long time. Ska too kept his head down, unmoving. Gilbert, deathly pale, couldn’t tear his eyes from the screen.
Only Yun stared coldly at the video.
And after dissecting every pixel with sharp precision, he broke the silence.
“If those old men leave us a share,” he said, his voice colder than usual, “I’ll take whatever’s left.”
On any other day, Yehyeon would have hit him over the head for a remark like that, thinking it was a joke.
On any other day, Ska or Gilbert would have hissed, “Watch it.”
But this time, no one said a word.
After a long pause, Yehyeon finally replied, his voice low and rough with fury.
“All right.”
A thin layer of anger coated every syllable.
“Do it.”
