Red Dot - 85

Chapter 85

“I don’t understand.”

Hanseo placed a hand over his rapidly beating chest, staring at the now empty folder.

“The zombie virus spread because of me, right? Even the solution in the end was me.”

It wasn’t that he felt particularly guilty or regretted the past. He could even guarantee that if he went back to the past, he would do the same thing again – he wanted to destroy everything associated with this research lab that much, and hoped his foster parents would reject and tear down the ideals they had dreamed of with their own hands.

Because of that, he didn’t really care what happened to others.

“Don’t people usually tell you to atone or repent?”

Any ordinary human would naturally say that, wouldn’t they? As if they had walked only the moral path entrenched in a lifelong strict ethical consciousness.

Even if that so-called atonement meant keeping one person trapped as a research material for life.

“I was going to finally give you the real research data that only I know, but if you just neatly blow it all away like this, it’s useless.”

At Hanseo’s words, Junseong took a deep breath, wiping the tense expression off his face.

While he had defiantly deleted it, he hadn’t done so without any consideration either.

But no matter how much he thought about it and racked his brain, the answer that kept coming up was always the same, so he made this choice.

“If you have to sacrifice yourself, then I’d rather go back to when I knew nothing.”

Whether it’s the whole incident or the solution or anything, back to when he knew nothing.

Back to when he was just wandering aimlessly in his dreams, searching for answers.

But before that, there was something he had to address.

“And… I’m not convinced yet that you spread the virus.”

The hand Junseong had placed on Hanseo’s back slid off. Following that hand, Hanseo’s gaze met Junseong’s unconvinced expression.

“There’s a difference between what you said and what I know from my dreams.”

“What are you talking about?”

Hanseo asked with a slightly furrowed brow.

From his perspective, he had laid everything bare to Kang Junseong. So Junseong’s words that seemed to question that made the strange feeling that had risen to the tip of his chin feel like it was being mercilessly crushed by his palm.

“I’m not saying you lied. I’m just saying there are differences from my dream.”

Even as Junseong couldn’t control his complex emotions while listening to Hanseo’s past, he had been comparing the information he obtained in his dreams with the content. Although he didn’t know all of Hanseo’s past from the dreams, he could sufficiently compare at least the part corresponding to the end of Hanseo’s story with his own information.

To resolve the doubts that naturally arose in his mind, Junseong took out the walkie-talkie he had tucked into the side of the backpack Hanseo was carrying. After giving a short signal, an alert sound was followed by the other person’s voice.

-Junseong? Did you make it outside?

It was Changmin’s voice coming through the walkie-talkie.

“Not yet. But I need you to check something for me. Can you go back to the security room?”

-Sure, but what’s going on?

“I need to confirm something with the CCTV footage. Just let me know when you arrive.”

-Okay, I’ll be right there.

He seemed puzzled but didn’t probe further. Changmin’s trust in Junseong was considerable.

As Junseong put the walkie-talkie back in his coat pocket, he asked, “Since you planned this, I assume you avoided the CCTVs or erased the footage?”

“On the day of the incident, I just selectively erased the parts where I appeared.”

“That’s fine then.”

With a nod, Junseong considered what to ask first the Hanseo who was staring at him intently, and decided to start with the most important and fundamental point.

“Are you really sure it was your ‘foster father’ who spread the zombie virus?”

“…What?”

For a moment, Hanseo wondered if Junseong had properly listened to his whole story until the end.

The final choice had been given to his foster parents, two people.

When Hanseo came back unable to discard the research data, the one left behind was his unmoving mother with marks of strangulation on her neck. His foster father had conveniently disappeared, leaving only the research center’s address for Hanseo.

After that, in just a few hours – enough time for him to simply return to the university, leisurely take a nap, and wake up – the world had become overrun with zombies.

No matter how Hanseo thought about it, it was undoubtedly due to his foster father, who had escaped the lab carrying the zombie virus.

The cause of the zombie virus spreading that Junseong had learned about in his dream was ‘a researcher who escaped the lab while infected’. His foster father, who had left with an ineffective blood pack from others that couldn’t even slow the infection, must have died before even reaching the Cheongmusi Research Center and then risen again to attack people. So Hanseo had thought the cause Junseong learned in his dream perfectly matched his foster father.

But Junseong denied that absolute hypothesis from the very foundation.

“The one who escaped the lab and spread the virus was a ‘female researcher’. Not a man.”

Hanseo’s eyes gradually widened.

Then he abruptly stood up and suddenly started heading somewhere quickly. Junseong followed behind him and asked,

“And one more thing… Did you really seal off this research lab too?”

Hanseo had first sealed off the Second Research Lab, and then also tightly shut down the First Research Lab that his foster father had disappeared from, with his own hands.

The lab shutdown Hanseo spoke of was stopping all internal functions and cutting off all power supply except for the backup power that automatically ran.

The recognition systems operating on backup power were intact, but Hanseo had adjusted the settings so that only authorized Level 1 entrants, including himself, could open the doors. As a result, no one could escape from the Second Research Lab as it began to fill with zombies, and only Hanseo and his foster parents could go outside and head to the First Research Lab. They were among the few Level 1 authorized entrants.

“Yes, I shut it down myself.”

Starting with the Second Research Lab, then the First Research Lab.

Even as he answered, Hanseo sensed that something was off.

“Then it doesn’t make sense.”

The footsteps Hanseo had been taking to confirm stopped, and Junseong stood beside him, facing him.

“Where is your foster mother, who you said was dead?”

The flashlight Hanseo was holding illuminated an empty space. It was the spot where his foster mother’s body had fallen after being killed by his foster father, the same place they had passed through before reaching the blood storage room.

The corpse of a woman that should have been there was nowhere to be seen.

“…I confirmed with my own eyes that the woman was dead.”

“Then it’s even more puzzling. If she was definitely dead, why isn’t she in this place?”

Hanseo couldn’t answer.

Even if infected and died, as long as the brain is undamaged, the virus progression doesn’t stop.

Considering what he had vomited, the amount of virus that entered his foster parents’ bodies was extremely small. If the infection had progressed in that state, it would have been slower than a typical bite, but within 30 minutes or so, their eyes would have been covered by a red film.

Which means when his supposedly dead foster mother reanimated, she should have become a zombie snarling and dripping blood.

“You said the recognition systems here use fingerprint and iris recognition to prevent ‘the dead’ from passing through, right?”

Junseong took the flashlight from Hanseo’s hand and shone it brightly on that spot, as if telling him to look closely with both eyes.

“You said your foster mother died by strangulation. So her brain wasn’t damaged, right? In that condition, if time passed and she became infected, she wouldn’t have been able to pass through the recognition system to go outside. She would have been wandering around here until now.”

Junseong was right. Just as they had to pass through the recognition system to enter, they would need to do the same to exit. And to do that, one had to be a ‘living Level 1 authorized entrant’. Those who were dead or had become zombies could not pass through the recognition system, no matter their Level 1 status.

The empty Research Lab #1.

The disappeared foster mother’s corpse.

Although it’s said to be a dream, a zombie world that started not from the certainly infected foster father, but from some ‘woman’.

The most plausible guess was one.

“Does it mean someone who could enter here released that woman who became a zombie?”

For now, there’s nothing else I can think of other than that.

But who?

Those with Level 1 access to enter Research Lab #1 are Do Hanseo and his foster parents, and…..

“The director of the blood center.”

Junseong, recalling someone like Do Hanseo, spoke clearly.

“Come to think of it, there was something very strange about that person.”

With a sigh, Junseong turned his flashlight to scan the interior. The empty lab was still filled with a pungent smell of chemicals that stung the nose.

“On the day of the incident, the director was not here. But how did he know so well what happened that day? It seems he glossed over some details like the flow of time to hide things about you, but it’s impossible to fabricate the events of that day so accurately without any information.”

What are the chances that someone not at the institute on the day of the incident would know so precisely what happened that day?

“And there’s one more thing that’s suspicious.”

Junseong’s flashlight hit the glass shards, probably from when Do Hanseo threw and broke them. Only a light reddish stain remained there.

“Even if the research data was stored in both labs, this Research Lab #1 was the only place that had your blood, the virus source, and the unfinished vaccine needed to make the vaccine. Yet the director, who could come and go here, didn’t tell us about this place and only guided us to Research Lab #2 as if it were the real one. The only way to think of it is that he intentionally hid Research Lab #1, just like he hid you.”

As soon as Junseong finished speaking, another notification sound came from the walkie-talkie.

“I’ve arrived at the security room. Which footage should I check?”

Junseong spoke into the walkie-talkie while looking at Do Hanseo.

“Please check the security room’s CCTV footage. Set the date to 6 days ago.”

Since Do Hanseo said he only deleted footage with himself in it, the other footage should still be there.

After hearing the confirmation, it didn’t take long before:

“There’s someone there.”

Even without seeing it directly, it was easy to imagine Changmin’s brow furrowing. He was probably recalling the person’s ‘dead face’ shown in the footage.

“The director…?”

As if he expected this, Junseong waved the walkie-talkie at Do Hanseo.

“Did you hear that?”

A faint smile crossed Junseong’s previously expressionless face.

On the day of the incident, the director was watching everything from the security room.

Watching whatever Do Hanseo was doing.

“Do Hanseo.”

Calling out Do Hanseo’s name, Junseong approached and grabbed his collar. Pulling him close, their foreheads were almost touching.

With the flashlight pointed down, the reflected light cast a gloomy glow on Junseong’s face.

“Can you trust me?”