Red Dot - 75

Standing before the device like a surgeon ready for surgery, Gyeong-oh skillfully removed the case covering it first. Although Junseong was illuminating it with his flashlight, Gyeong-oh had already figured out where the screws of the case were long before he could get a closer look. Hwang Gyeong-ohh, who had been interested in dismantling, modifying, and assembling machines since he was young, was like that.

Once the case was removed, countless wires still emitting light underneath the lens and components attached to the green board were revealed. While Junseong and others couldn’t grasp what to touch or how to handle it, Gyeong-oh didn’t hesitate to reach out.

As Gyeong-oh fiddled with the device, Changmin kept an eye on the rear, which was nothing but a corridor. Because the corridors were like a maze, whether it was zombies or people, it didn’t seem likely that they would suddenly ambush from somewhere unpredictable.

If someone were to appear, it would probably be at the end of the straight corridor behind the group. Even if there was a corner at the end of the corridor, it was far enough away that simply watching the back would be sufficient to respond.

‘It’s assuming the opponent doesn’t have ranged weapons…’

At the end of the corridor, with the iron door in front of them, the group was, in a way, at a dead end. In such a situation, if they had to face guns rather than throwing weapons, they would be at a significant disadvantage.

There were over ten of “those” that Junseong had prepared, but considering the narrowness of the corridor, there was almost no way for everyone to be safe with just that item.

Perhaps sensing the same, Hanseo, who had been holding a flashlight at the back, was on guard, shining it towards the end of the corridor.

Suddenly, Changmin became concerned about Hanseo.

Until just a moment ago, he had been wearing his usual relaxed smile, but it disappeared as if by magic. His eyes were so dark that it was hard to express them in words. It seemed like he was deeply lost in thought to the extent that he couldn’t even pretend to be nonchalant anymore.

‘He’s not in good shape.’

Changmin hadn’t seen Hanseo fight zombies properly, but he knew that he was quite skilled.

He had seen it when they saved themselves and Jihan, even stacking up small mountains of zombies to rescue Hwang Gyeong-ohh on the suspension bridge. Yesterday, he and Junseong had even broken into the department store alone and brought back the necessary items.

Junseong said there weren’t many zombies in the department store and he knew a safe route to enter, so there wasn’t much fighting to do. But that was only inside the building, and the path back and forth wasn’t necessarily smooth. Just like Junseong, Hanseo was undoubtedly a skilled fighter with a lean physique.

It was only natural for Changmin to feel anxious about his condition being so poor.

Approaching Hanseo, Changmin asked softly.

“Are you okay?”

Hanseo’s eyes, which had sunk deep, looked at Changmin. Like a momentary forgetfulness, his eyes, now surrounded by chilly coldness, flickered weakly in the flashlight’s light.

“Why?”

With a brief honorific, a smile appeared on his lips. He seemed to realize only belatedly that his lips were as sharp as a knife.

Hanseo’s face, which had changed as usual, seemed to not want any further questions. If he dug deeper, he felt a creepy sensation as if something resembling his gaze would cut his throat.

Changmin unknowingly brushed his neck with his hand. Even though there was still a strange feeling in Hanseo’s eyes, he felt like he shouldn’t touch it and turned away.

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Meanwhile, a short mechanical sound was heard from the facial recognition device that Gyeong-oh was almost dissecting.

“It’s…! Hm, it’s done.”

Almost instinctively, Gyeong-oh let out a loud exclamation and quickly cleared his throat to lower his voice. Yet, it seemed like he couldn’t hide his joy at having done his job properly, as he continued to grin even while inserting the tools.

Standing right behind Junseong, Changmin watched beyond him while firmly grasping the steel pipe.

“Maybe there are guys inside with guns.”

He said so, but the likelihood of that was not very high.

As Junseong predicted, if the person leading his colleagues here yesterday was indeed the boss of the organ trafficking organization or something similar, they wouldn’t be waiting here just to be killed whenever they showed up. There was no need to wait to kill them either.

Moreover, according to Junseong, if they knew that the director’s head was needed to open the facial recognition device, they would have already obtained the solution they needed to solve this situation.

Apart from hoping that the variables would properly use the solution to prevent this situation, there was nothing else they could do…

They thought that by the time they got the solution in their hands, all the matters here would have already been settled, and no fool would leave allies in such a place without hope.

Changmin also wholeheartedly agreed with Junseong’s thoughts.

Nevertheless, he had warned them about the danger, perhaps due to the uneasiness that seemed to spread inexplicably. Could it have been infected by Hanseo’s strange condition?

“Yes. I’ll go cautiously.”

Junseong nodded his head, affirming that there was no harm in being careful, and gazed beyond the iron door opening left and right.

The Blood Research Institute, accessible only through the underground of the Blood Source.

In fact, it was a place where a pharmaceutical company secretly collaborated with and conducted various experiments using the abundant supply of blood for research purposes obtained through the Blood Source. If it were just a research institute or a pharmaceutical company, there would be no need to conduct research so secretly.

There was only one reason.

Human experimentation.

Instead of using animals, they conducted experiments using humans themselves to derive results and continued obsessive research.

Most of the humans used for experiments were homeless people. Researchers who brought them in under the pretext of providing shelter and food for legal clinical trials undoubtedly initially conducted safe and kind experiments, but they gradually became more inhumane. Even if they complained of something feeling wrong with their bodies, they only focused on the experiments with cold eyes.

The room for experimental subjects was filled to the brim, then emptied, and then filled again, repeating the cycle.

A strange virus that appeared during drug development.

Once this virus penetrated, the blood in the body began to coagulate rapidly. The coagulated blood flowed back to the head like a reverse flow, and at this point, due to severe intracranial pressure, large amounts of blood poured out from the eyes and mouth. During this process, the blood covering the eyeballs solidified, resulting in a phenomenon resembling a thin blood-red membrane.

The coagulated blood, as it solidified, filled the head and ‘stopped’ the brain.

In other words, humans infected with the virus would die within a maximum of 15 minutes, or as fast as just 1 minute, depending on the rate of penetration.

If it were just death, it might not have been so terrifying.

But the scariest part of this virus was that once the virus spread in the coagulated blood killed the host’s brain once, it penetrated deep into it to control it. According to the instinct of the virus, they ‘reproduce’ by manipulating them.

Driven by the instinct to infect humans like the penetrated hosts, they controlled the brains of the dead. In order to infect the virus, it was necessary to pierce the skin and inject bodily fluids into it. Perhaps because of this, those infected with the virus resorted to biting the flesh of humans to forcibly inject bodily fluids.

It was similar to ‘zombies.’

The emergence of the zombie virus during drug development.

Unfortunately, they never dreamed that such a violent instinctive virus would open its eyes. Therefore, they thought that dealing with just a leather strap for restraining the subjects would be sufficient.

Originally, the idea of ​​the dead coming back to life was something they could not even dare to imagine.

Their panic at the sudden emergence of the virus was only temporary.

The researchers hastily began researching the virus and vaccine. This was due to pressure from the pharmaceutical company, which had become deeply immersed in the idea of making money using the virus and vaccine.

It was the seventh day since the first virus infection occurred.

A researcher, momentarily letting his guard down, relied only on the leather strap for restraint and ended up being bitten by the test subject. Soon after, symptoms of virus infection appeared in the researcher. Then, he quickly turned into something like the test subject and began to rampage, eventually starting to devour other researchers who were once his colleagues.

Thus, the laboratory became filled with corpses infected by the virus, and from that moment on, the peaceful days of the institute were abruptly turned upside down, starting with one researcher who managed to escape being bitten and fled.

Junseong learned of this fact in the final chapter.

Having obtained information about the appearance of the virus and the stabilizer for suppressing it, Junseong eventually managed to obtain the medicine. In the underground of this blood research institute.

However, as expected, there were hardly any signs of zombies within the institute, and there was nowhere to be found the vaccine or the stabilizer that was being developed. It was clear that they had taken away what they had already expected, the director’s head.

Nevertheless, Junseong had a reason to come to this laboratory.

“…”

Security room in the basement of the laboratory.

Junseong’s face, who was checking the CCTV using emergency power, stiffened. His breathing changed, and Gyeong-oh, who had been showing some parts of the recorded videos until now, now had a face that couldn’t hide his agitation.

“Why, why are you like this?”

Even to Gyeong-oh’s question, Junseong only trembled his lips with wide-open eyes. Instead of a breath, a faint groan escaped through his lips.

In the CCTV screen that Junseong was looking at.

There was someone standing on a chair facing the lens with a smile, deliberately showing his face to the CCTV. If he didn’t have the director’s head in his hand, he could have been mistaken for a cheerful man with a simple face.

Junseong’s lips trembled and quivered.

Hanseo, standing next to him, looked at Junseong, who seemed precarious as if he could collapse at any moment, and listened carefully to his voice.

“Nam… Ki-hyuk….”

The name of someone, accompanied by Junseong’s labored breathing, was forcefully driven into Hanseo’s ears.