As soon as Klugger became visitable in the hospital, A, Theo, Alt, and Lloyd came to visit him. However, when A, Theo, and Klugger started talking separately, Alt and Lloyd had to step outside.
The two who went out had nowhere to go.
“What should we do?”
Alt instinctively sensed that the conversation between the three inside the ward would be long and immediately began to think about how to spend time. Meanwhile, Lloyd, who was pressing his nose with a beanie, blocked his nose with one hand.
“Let’s go out first.”
Lloyd, who had been repeatedly blocking and releasing his nose since entering the hospital, was beginning to feel the limit.
Lloyd, born from the genes of a planetary citizen with characteristics of a wolf, had a sense of smell superior to that of ordinary people, bioroids, or monsters born from bioroids.
To Lloyd, the smell of medicine and disinfectants permeating throughout the hospital was more intense and piercing than to others.
Despite carefully blocking his nose, he started feeling dizzy and wanted to go outside since leaving the ward.
“There’s nowhere to go even if we go outside.”
“Either way, it should be better than here.”
Although Lloyd had a keen sense of smell, he wasn’t overly sensitive. Although numerous smells stimulated his nose, he didn’t react to every single one.
For example, if they went to a cafe filled with the aroma of coffee, Lloyd would smell various scents other than the coffee and wouldn’t focus on just one smell but detect multiple scents through his sense of smell.
However, the hospital was different. The smell of disinfectant, which would sting the nose of an ordinary person, was unbearable for the highly sensitive Lloyd.
He could endure it to some extent, but there was clearly a limit compared to other places.
“You’re used to living in comfortable places.”
“Who said I was comfortable?”
Alt and Lloyd were both monsters born from bioroids. They shared common traits despite having different base genes and birth times.
However, besides their gene differences and birth times, there were clear distinctions between them.
Alt’s appearance did not differ significantly from many humans existing in space.
Of course, since the appearance of planetary citizens varies depending on the environment of their planet, one cannot say all humans in space look the same, but Alt’s appearance is considered the most universal form.
On the other hand, Lloyd, with his beast-like ears and tail, faced significant limitations in activities during the initial stages of planetary invasion.
Although they were both monsters, Alt had been continuously involved in invasion activities after coming to Earth, while Lloyd had spent the past 20 years on a spaceship and was recently deployed to the field.
Since Lloyd lived in a much more comfortable environment, Alt worried whether Lloyd could adapt well.
Especially since Alt knew that both Korea and Japan boast extreme summer conditions, he wondered if Alt could endure it.
“Even now, in winter, I wear a beanie, but in summer, I might collapse, right?”
“What’s so special about summer?”
“It’s incredibly hot. Why does my skin look so tanned?”
“Were you burned?”
“I played too much at the beach in the summer.”
While he didn’t explain this in detail to others, Alt’s skin turned dark each year due to playing freely at the beach every summer.
“So you got tanned by playing? Then summer must be a good season for fun, right?”
Unfamiliar with proper summers, Lloyd couldn’t fully understand the concept of playing at the beach in summer.
“What happens when you go into the water?”
“It’s cold.”
“Right? So why do you think you played so much at the beach in the summer?”
“…Because it’s hot?”
Although he answered correctly, Lloyd still looked puzzled. Thinking that he would understand eventually, Alt decided to take him outside the hospital.
Thinking that he would feel better outside, Lloyd did not stop walking away from the hospital.
“How far do you want to go?”
“I want to get a bit further from the hospital. The smell of medicine fills my nose and won’t go away.”
“Then go around and come back by yourself.”
Unfamiliar with the surroundings, Alt had no intention of going far. Though Lloyd also didn’t know the geography, he believed Lloyd, with his keen sense of smell, could easily find his way back.
“Alright.”
Under the influence of the medicinal smell, Lloyd responded half-heartedly to Alt and gradually moved away from the hospital.
“…I guess he’ll figure it out himself.”
Feeling unnecessary worry, Alt found a place to pass the time properly.
After Alt and Roy left, Kruger and Theo in the ward sent me a hot gaze. Saying “hot gaze” could lead to misunderstanding, but it was truly a gaze that felt like it could burn one alive.
“I’m sure you know I’ve been investigating the hyper-human, right?”
“Yeah, I know.”
Kruger, who had been with team 3 for a long time, and Theo, who had recently joined, both knew that I had been collecting information on the hyper-human.
During the data collection phase, Kruger helped, and Theo made a significant contribution to the development of the hacking tool.
“But I found out that the hyper-human’s salary is very low.”
“How did you find out?”
“It’s complicated to explain.”
No matter how close these two were to the team members of HunterKiller, they couldn’t let more people know about their relationships with girlfriends.
They could talk about it when the situation improved and all the girlfriends entered Spacystro, but for now, it was a secret.
“Alright, keep going.”
Avoiding answering, I said the explanation would be long, and Kruger asked for the next part without getting bogged down in minor details.
“I found a way to hack.”
Kruger and Theo, who listened to the story without missing any details, tilted their heads as the story didn’t connect directly.
“That’s why I asked Theo to look for the hacking tool.”
“Then you triggered this?”
“Yes.”
Kruger, holding a tablet, showed an article related to the embezzlement case and asked, adding small details would make the explanation longer, so he only gave a brief answer.
“So what’s this encrypted file?”
“The whereabouts of team Guerrilla became unknown.”
Seeing them nodding without saying anything, I swallowed my saliva to ease the unnecessary tension.
“But before that, there’s someone whose whereabouts have become uncertain—Gainesboro from team Guerrilla.”
Kruger, who had a strong impression of Indigo during the confrontation with team Guerrilla, couldn’t vividly recall Gainesboro.
Theo, who hadn’t met team Guerrilla and only knew that I and Kruger were injured, remained silent.
“I found files related to Gainesboro among the data obtained by hacking the Earth Defense Union headquarters’ PC, but most of the files are encrypted.”
“Are you going to decrypt the encryption to track his whereabouts?”
I nodded. I explained the reason for asking Kruger to help with decryption, but even I thought the explanation was insufficient.
Kruger, who was asked to help with decryption, and Theo, who contributed to making the hacking tool, had not fully understood the explanation.
Though they didn’t say it, they sensed that I was hiding something.
“But I’m interested in this.”
Understanding that I wouldn’t reveal what I was hiding, neither asked any questions. Kruger shifted his gaze to the tablet and showed a piece of data to me and Theo.
It was data related to unidentified radio waves detected by Alt at a radio base in Japan.
“Why is this important?”
“When you mentioned Gainesboro’s disappearance, I thought about it for a moment. The timing seemed odd.”
“What timing?”
Looking at the data again, Kruger’s words echoed in my mind.
Gainesboro disappeared about a week after the terrorist incident. During this period, team Guerrilla members were interrogated by the police, and Gainesboro was not officially interrogated before disappearing.
The disappearance of team Guerrilla was difficult to confirm officially, but team Endurance, which replaced team Guerrilla, arrived at the Seoul branch approximately a month later.
And the radio transmission was relatively recent, about a month after team Guerrilla’s disappearance.
“Isn’t it premature to conclude this?”
I also thought Gainesboro’s disappearance might be related to the radio waves, but it was just a hunch without solid evidence.
Kruger seemed to feel the same way and didn’t respond to my statement.
A strange feeling lingered, but without concrete evidence, he couldn’t push forward with the plan.
The ward fell silent, broken only by Theo’s sigh.
“So, will you do it? Or not?”
“Even if we investigate, it might turn out to be unrelated. And the radio wave issue falls under the jurisdiction of the Japanese branch.”
“Checking the data isn’t bound by jurisdiction. And when have you two ever cared about such things?”
Knowing that they could push forward if they wanted, Theo glared at me and Kruger alternately.
“Hurry up and decide. I need time to prepare too, right?”
Whenever Kruger and I got involved in something, Theo always had to clean up afterward.
Not intending to dissuade us, Theo waited for our decision.
“Let’s give it a try. We haven’t jumped into something based solely on a hunch before.”
In fact, we had always relied on intuition and taken action.
Hearing Kruger’s suggestion to try, I, who was hesitating over whether to proceed based on intuition, quickly decided to investigate.
“Alright. Better to try and fail than never try at all.”
Deciding to investigate the radio waves, Theo sighed deeply again. This time, it was a heavier sigh, and he placed his hand on his forehead as he looked at the two of us.
“What do we need? I’ll go to the headquarters to check.”
Unlike the two of us, Theo, who had some access rights, asked what data was needed.
“First, there should be data uploaded to the radio base. Check that and the data Alt brought. I’ll search the hacked data for relevant information. For now, Kruger, focus on decrypting the encryption.”
Thus, Kruger, Theo, and I divided our roles in the ward.
At the same time, in the Spacystro Seoul Branch.
“Huh? Everyone has already left?”
Esmeralda, hearing that A and Theo went to visit Kruger, came to the team 3 office thinking she might need something.
But the office was quiet, and she encountered Siera who happened to visit.
“Yes. According to what I heard from team 3 members, they left just now.”
“It’s been a while since the three of them gathered. It must be noisy.”
Esmeralda, who was once their supervisor when A, Kruger, and Theo worked as engineers, smiled recalling the old days.
In contrast, Siera smiled bitterly recalling the past.
“I get anxious when those three gather. I wonder what trouble they’re planning.”
“With Theo around, it shouldn’t be too bad, right?”
Even Esmeralda, who saw Theo as a restraining force when the three were together, shook her head.
“Ai and Kruger causing trouble is always a problem because of Theo.”
“What do you mean?”
“Their pattern of causing trouble is consistent. First, Ai brings something ridiculous, and Kruger shows interest. Up until then, neither can decide to cause trouble.”
“Does Theo cause trouble?”
“No, he encourages them.”
The Theo that Siera described was slightly different from the Theo Esmeralda knew.
“He pretends to be annoyed because he’s uninterested and has to clean up the mess, but he’s curious and makes them act quickly.”
From the outside, it always looks like Theo cleans up after Ai and Kruger’s mischief.
But Siera, who was inside and observed them, knew that cleaning up after their mischief was always her responsibility.
“I hope nothing major happens.”
