Tou smiled happily and walked out of the elevator as
soon as the elevator stopped. Jeong Taeui immediately followed, but immediately
after that he was stunned into silence.

The 5th basement floor in front of him is a long
hallway covered with white carpet. This place was so quiet that not even a
single footprint could be heard, and it was also very different from the shabby
building on the ground before.

Jeong Taeui never thought that there would be such a
clean and splendid space like this in the basement of the old abandoned house
above.

“How do you feel? Startled?”

Tou smiled brightly as if this wasn’t the first time
he’d seen that kind of reaction from someone else.

“You must have thought about a damp basement full of
rats, cockroaches and spider webs everywhere, right?”

Even though he didn’t imagine it to be that scary,
it wasn’t completely wrong.

“Does this floor have BOQ?”

*BOQ is Bachelor Officer Quarters which is the
headquarters for single officers/private rooms for each person.*

Jeong Taeui secretly admired and
wondered as he followed Tou striding down the long hallway. He turned his head
to look at him and smiled as if he knew he would ask that. “You used to be a
military officer? In which unit?”

“…. …”

“No comment? Ok, everyone has some things they don’t
want to say. Here it is called an internal room, not BOQ. 1 room for 3 people.
But the place to work and study is downstairs. There is a gym, library, and
multi-purpose room. Basically, the entertainment area is located on that floor.
If you want to play or read books or watch movies in your free time, you can go
down there.”

“I want to put my ‘burden’ down first.”

Tou must have been very amused when Jeong Taeui said
that while slinging a seemingly heavy Boston backpack on his shoulder.

“Really? So let me hold it. First of all, we
have to build relationships with other teammates, right? In the future, we will
experience life and death together, shouldn’t we talk to each other
first?”

“…..”

“After 5pm is free time so everyone is doing their
own thing now. But most of them probably just gather in the practice room.”

Jeong Taeui wanted to meet the people who would die
with him after putting down this backpack and checking in his room, but he
still quietly walked up to Tou – who was walking in front with his bag on his
shoulder. Who knows, maybe this is the normal procedure for someone new to this
place.

But at least there is one comfort, that is, except
for the nine superiors, all the rest are equal colleagues.

Maybe he is a new person, but in principle, if the
newcomer and the bullies are equal, relationships will be much easier. Besides,
it sounds like a joke but it seems like killing one or two people is fine.

…. …Even though he was more likely to be the one who
would die than the murderer.

Maybe he needs to increase his vigilance from now
on.

Even when he was at the military officer school, Jeong
Taeui’s training and practical adaptation achievements were not too good but
not too bad either. Always just a normal level.

Unless you are confident that you can defeat all the
approaching enemies, it is best to live quietly and suffer quietly for half a
year. While turning around the corner of the hallway, he saw the library and
multipurpose room. There was another vending machine in the corner. Every now
and then he passed someone, but no one paid attention to him. They only glanced
briefly as if realizing it was a strange face and then stopped looking.

“I thought the Asian branch only had Asians, but
apparently that’s not the case.”

After a Westerner passed by him, Jeong Taeui
immediately spoke, Tou turned his head to look at him.

“No matter which branch, there are many different
races. Asian branch means it’s in Asia, not just accepting Asians. But compared
to the headquarters or other branches, there are more Asian people here. I’m
also half Asian.”

Tou said as he arrived in front of the practice
room. The iron door twice as big as a normal door opened, a space more spacious
than any gym appeared before his eyes. In fact, the facilities are not much
different from the military except for some training tools that look more
dangerous and stand out.

Inside the gym, there are about 40 to 50 people
practicing individually. Among them, he saw some people sitting in groups of
three or four to chat, some people lying on their backs to sleep, and most of
the rest were engrossed in exercising as if they wanted to increase their
physical strength up to a possible level.

“You said this is free time, but with so many people
coming here, they’re really working hard.”

“If you don’t want to die early, you’d better
increase your physical training before next month. Let’s see, there are only
two weeks left. If the Europeans fall into my hands, those people will surely
die.”

Tou clenched his fists with determination, he looked
around the room and then headed to where six men were gathered. Even when they
gathered, there was still a moderate distance between them, but enough to
recognize them as a separate group.

Jeong Taeui silently nodded. Maybe they’re on the
same team. And as expected. Tou is approaching them.

When they realized two people were approaching,
everyone stopped exercising or stopped talking and turned their eyes towards
the two people. Exactly, look at Jeong Taeui’s strange face.

“Did Tou go out and forget his cigarette pack?

“That’s right. Once he smokes, how can that guy
forget three cigarettes at a time?

The eyes of the man who was smiling and speaking
stopped before Jeong Taeui. Not only them but also other men nearby also turned
curious eyes towards him.

“He’s a newcomer. Officer Jeong told me to bring him
down here to build relationships with everyone, so I brought him here. New
member of our team.”

While Tou said a few words to them, Jeong Taeui just
indifferently observed his surroundings.

The age of the people here ranges from 20 to 30, a
little older. The youngest looking person in the corner over there looks like
he’s just a teenager. And a man doing abdominal exercises nearby must have been
almost 40 years old. It seems that most people are in their late 20s and early
30s. 30 years old can’t fight with physical strength when 20 years old can
break buffalo horns, but in fighting, besides physical strength, technique is
equally important, so age is not an issue.

As Tou said, half of them are Asian, the rest are
white and black. Overall, we don’t know, but at least if you look at the people
here, it seems like there are more black people than white people. However, at
first glance there are many people who seem to have mixed blood.

Everyone seems to not want to die, so they exercise
whenever they have time. Okay, he will only stay here for half a year, even if
there is someone he likes and wants to develop a relationship with, it will be
difficult. He would rather just live quietly like this and then turn away.

“Hmm, Taeil? 20….. 25 years old?”

One of the men sitting on a pile of mattresses
against the wall jumped down and approached him. Behind Jeong Taeui, the others
sneered after Tou briefly introduced Jeong Taeui.

Jeong Taeui looked at the man approaching from the
front. His ears perk up to listen to the sounds and atmosphere around him.

Not bad either. It wasn’t laughter or curious looks,
it was hostility and ridicule, it was sounds of excitement at something new.
After all, it’s impossible to lose sympathy for someone overnight.

The straight man with a smile quietly observed Jeong
Taeui. He is a much taller guy than an Asian. Looking back now, Taeui doesn’t
know if it was a hybrid or not… It seems he is the leader of this group.

Jeong Taeui smiled bitterly in his heart. Regardless
of the place, the society in which men gather always has similarities. They are
bound to find a leader among themselves even among mere colleagues.

Of course, they won’t be openly appointed as team
captains, but if you dig deep into it, any team will have a beginning and an
end. Even though it is said to be equal, there will be people who accept and
obediently follow the leader that they implicitly understand with each other.

Jeong Taeui didn’t know if it was human nature and
not just men, but as a normal man, he couldn’t know how women’s society was
divided. how. And he also had no thoughts of wanting to find out about that.

“How about you?”

Jeong Taeui smiled and raised his chin to look at
the man. He pointed at himself and shrugged.

“Me? Carlo Sagisa. 7 months later I will be 30.
What else are you curious about?”

“Um, is it because of me that you have to warm up
your wrists and ankles?”

The man named Carlo burst out laughing. He didn’t
know if it was just a habit or a threat, but as he approached Jeong Taeui, he
bent his fingers and slowly relaxed his ankle joints, then spread his arms out
again to start.

“No no. I’m just going to exercise a little.
What’s wrong, are you scared? It doesn’t look too scary, right?”

“Because my insides are a bit different from my
outsides.”

When Jeong Taeui muttered, Carlo laughed again.
Although it sounds like a joke, to some extent it is also true. He had heard
that a person’s insides and outsides could be different. And now that he was
contemplating that sentence extremely deeply, he was feeling a little
uncomfortable.

Although the man’s rotating wrist was as big as a
pot lid, it was a bit of an exaggeration, but in short, it was very big. The
muscles emerging from his arms looked as hard as steel. Legs in boxing pants
are no less impressive. How can he feel comfortable when that muscular body is
gradually approaching him?

“Okay, it’s probably an aggressive look with a
kitten’s soul, right? What, I’m going to warm up a bit, aren’t you going to
help me?”

Those muscles and strong body didn’t say it all, but
anyway, he didn’t want to have to confront this man. If the ratio is 100, then
you definitely have a full 100 disadvantages. From the beginning, he was not
confident in his strength. Even if it was a battle to take the position of an
alpha beast, he did not want to stand above him at all.

But even though Jeong Taeui wanted to refuse, he
didn’t have time to refuse.

As soon as he finished speaking, Carlo went to Jeong
Taeui and grabbed his wrist with one hand, the other grabbed his shoulder, and
at the same time his other leg hooked Jeong Taeui’s leg backwards, causing him
to lose his balance for a moment. Jeong Taeui’s gaze seemed to rotate about
half a circle, getting closer to the ceiling and then farther away, and then, a
strong shock went through his back. Even though he tried to reflexively land as
gently as he could, he still couldn’t stop the sharp pain that spread to his
chest for a moment. And right in front of him, Carlo was frowning and laughing
heartily.

“What is this, Tou said you are a soldier, why are
you so weak, so how can you fight properly? Come to your senses.”

Loud laughter and whistles rang out in all
directions. Jeong Taeui glanced at the man with a Western name, this person was
far from the typical beauty of mixed blood, he looked like he had an Eastern
face with a bit of Western European features.

Even though Carlo told him to stand up, he still
didn’t move aside but still held Jeong Taeui’s shoulders and arms, his knees
pressed against his thighs to block him. Jeong Taeui was completely locked up.

Using normal methods combined with the strength of
an ordinary person, it is impossible to escape this grip unless he has master
techniques or is as strong as King Kong. < It’s means that the people in
this organization are completely unrealistically strong 😀 >

“You want me to stand up?”

“That’s right. If you are qualified.”

“Okay. By any means is it fine?”

Jeong Taeui said as he lifted his right leg, the
only leg he could move at the moment, bent his knee and hit Carlo’s lower body
hard.

“Ah!”

Not only Carlo shouted, but the men standing and
chatting around also became speechless with sweat on their faces and let out a
scream at the same time.

The silence that lasted for a brief moment was
broken by loud screams.

“This bastard is truly despicable!!!”

“Coward…..!”

While the victim was lying on the floor unable to
move, the men behind him screamed and ran to Jeong Taeui – who quickly escaped
his arms and stood up. Jeong Taeui snorted.

“I was just defending myself, so where’s the
cowardice?”

Seemingly moved by those words, a man who had been
sitting next to Carlo jumped off the cushion. He rolled up his sleeves, he was
shorter than Jeong Taeui but his body was as solid and heavy as a rock.

After passing this tribulation, comes another tribulation. Could it be
that this man is a subordinate of that leader? Looks like he was welcomed so
warmly today, he definitely had to roll up on the podium to be honored.