It looked like it would take about an hour to leave
the dock and get to the island.

Since it was a remote island, he thought it must be
pristine and uninhabited since there was only one branch office there. But it
was surprisingly large, so he had to get on a bus back from the island’s pier
and drive a long way along the beach.

The sun had just set so the forest on
the island looked even darker and strangely dense. “If there were wild animals
or poisonous snakes appearing here, it wouldn’t be strange at all.” Jeong Taeui
whispered, his uncle calmly nodded.

“There are a lot of poisonous snakes, so at night
you should look carefully under your feet. – – But there’s nothing to worry
about. There is no type toxic enough to kill someone immediately, so if you can
give first aid in time, you won’t die.”

Jeong Taeui looked at him speechlessly. Changin
reassured him not to worry again.

Looks like he really came to the wrong place. Even
if it’s half a year, it’s still enough time for a person to die unjustly. In
any case, he will wait until next weekend and go to Hong Kong Island and run
away. But Changin immediately overruled him.

“Ah, that’s right. In more than a month, no one will
be able to go out. Joint training with the European branch will begin in 15
days. Within 15 days. Before that, it was a special training period, so going
out was forbidden. And during the general training period, you will also be
prohibited from going out, so… A month will pass quickly, hopefully during
that time you will adapt in time.”

Before wondering how much this uncle could read his
mind, even if only for a moment, he really wanted to strangle this man.

Jeong Taeui stared at his uncle’s neck with regret.
Suddenly, he felt a gaze and glanced towards the rearview mirror and met eye
contact with the driver. The driver narrowed his eyes on him. It seemed like
just a fleeting smile.

That was the person who picked him up at the
airport. Could it be that he drove from the airport to the pier, then slowly
drove the boat across the water and onto this island… Jeong Taeui bet he
didn’t see him on that boat…

This person also has a similar smell. The smell of a
soldier. He had said many times that they were not soldiers, but he still had
the characteristic scent of a soldier who had lived a life full of hardships.
Maybe when they get to that island, everyone there will smell of the same sin.

While thinking, Jeong Taeui sighed and turned his
head back. The power to strangle his uncle also disappeared.

“Bringing me here just in time for the joint training
session with that unfortunate and bloody

European branch… Turns out you really hate me.”

“No way.”

The uncle laughed. Jeong Taeui looked at him
suspiciously and without much confidence.

Jeong Taeui soon got used to this type of general
training. In recent years, he has struggled to train like that every day. Until
four months ago, he was still a military officer. I wonder how they will train
here?

No matter how tired you are, as long as you don’t
die, you’ll soon get used to it. Each experience takes a little time to adapt
to it, and then you will get used to the new pain over and over again… Then
at some point, the worst worm will writhe, you will not control it anger
anymore and it will explode, then the problem will lie in personal choice.

Jeong Taeui suddenly got upset and scratched his
head.

Until now, he has never regretted anything he did.
No matter what it is, he engraves in his heart that he must not do things that
make him regret later.

Therefore, he did not regret beating that unlucky
colleague in the army to half-life. Before that happened, he patiently endured
five and a half years. So he thinks that’s enough. In fact, it was also the
result of many different complicated things. Even though he thought that being
discharged from the army would cause his life to fall into a deep hole for the
rest of his life, in any case, he did not regret leaving the army.

However, thinking about that time and the mood at
that time, he still couldn’t help but feel sick to his stomach.

That guy is someone who has never fallen behind
others, but when he saw you surpassing him, the face he showed was extremely
ugly. And that was the reason why the two had to lie next to each other in the
military hospital right before demobilization. Along with that motive, Jeong
Taeui’s sexual orientation is also a perfect reason.

Tsk tsk. Jeong Taeui was inconveniently stretched in
the car. All day he had to be stuck on a plane, then a car, and even on a ship,
from the air to the mainland and then floating again at sea. His body was
exhausted. No matter where you train, you must first stretch a few rounds to
warm up your body.

The car that was driving suddenly stopped.

Under the dark sky as the sun had set with the dense
forest surrounding it. Jeong Taeui didn’t know if he had ever been in such a
dense forest.

“Here we are”

The driver got out of the car. The uncle spoke
briefly, Jeong Taeui immediately opened the door. As soon as he set foot
outside, he saw a building ahead.

“Phew, if you feel this tired, you must be really
old. That’s right, I’m over 40 so I can’t call it young.”

The uncle muttered to himself behind Jeong
Taeui. He looked intently at the building in front and asked.
“Uncle.”

“Huh?”

“Asia Branch…. Is this all it is?”

“Yes, one building. Seems a bit simple, right?”

“So what are those spacious buildings in the
brochure?”

“Ah, that’s the headquarters in America. Our Asia
branch’s facilities are the least modern but at the same time the best place
for strength training. I haven’t told you yet?”

“Not at all…..you liar.”

“No one cares about that brochure anyway.”

He smiled and said. People will register to join
branches based on the name, not the guidebook, it’s just you who was dragged
there without any choice. But the building in front of him was no different
from a dilapidated one-story building of a school in the countryside that would
have to be demolished and rebuilt soon. Even everywhere there are cracks,
peeling paint and rust.

No matter how you look at it, it just looks like a
level 4 building that is about to collapse or a state agency that was abandoned
decades ago.

Wait. If this were a building….

“How many people are there….”

“One governor, two deputy ministers, 6 guidance
officers, 96 members, 5 logistics. A total of 110 people.”

He counted with his fingers as he spoke.

“Isn’t that right…?”

“How can 110 people be crowded into a place like
this?”

“Come in. Even a compact car can fit a bunch of
people.”

“No, but the training area and the place to eat and
sleep….”

Jeong Taeui pointed at the building with a
bewildered look, but the driver had already passed by his uncle’s luggage and
entered the building in front of him. The rusted hinges made a creepy noise as
the door opened. It’s not like a ghost would suddenly appear when awakened by
that sound…

Looking at Jeong Taeui’s expression, he immediately
smiled and said seriously.

“It’s the basement. There are a total of 7 basement
floors. It’s about 2,000 pyeong (6,611 square meters) so 100 people is no
problem even though it’s not very big.”

*A pyeong (abbreviation py) is a Korean unit of area
and floorspace, equal to a square kan or 36 square Korean feet. The ping and
tsubo are its equivalent Taiwanese and Japanese units, similarly based on a
square bu (ja:步) or ken, equivalent to 36 square Chinese or Japanese feet.*

Jeong Taeui once again looked at him with a puzzled
expression. Isn’t 2000p and 7 floors too large for 100 people to live in, but….

“On a small island, how can you build a basement of up
to 7 floors and 2,000 square meters

wide…”

“That’s why we chose this island. Do you think we
just randomly picked an island in Asia and set up a branch there?”

The uncle said with satisfaction.

Jeong Taeui looked suspiciously at his uncle’s back
for a moment, then came to the open door, put his backpack on his shoulder and
followed him.

His uncle’s steps gradually slowed
down to wait for him to catch up. Suddenly, he turned around and patted Taeui’s
head. Jeong Taeui took a step back and looked at him confused. “Don’t die.”

 

“….Yes?”

 

“This is not a place where the law out there has a
place to step in. This is a place where weak people cannot complain even if
they fall into injustice. And in some cases, even if a few people die, the
internal affairs will soon be calmed down without any problem.”

Changin stopped for a moment. Jeong Taeui looked at
his uncle without saying a word. After that, he laughed without any strength.

“Uncle, why are you so mean… You should have
said that first. If I was suddenly dragged to the tiger’s den, what would I
do?”

“Even if I said it first, the result would still be
the same.”

He also laughed. Jeong Taeui sighed and shrugged.

“In short, I will have to trust my feelings like you
said to try to survive, right? But… if there’s anything you remember, come
help me pick up the corpses and collect the bones.”

“Haha, well, even so, it’s not completely wild and
wooly here.”

“So do we need to be careful or not?”

“No matter where you are, better safe than
sorry “

He smiled and turned to walk away. This time he did
not stop or turn his head to watch him walk towards the building. Jeong Taeui
shook his head. At times like this, he is jealous of his brother who is not as
lucky as him.

Even though everything was in the basement like the
office, meeting room, lecture hall, laboratory, break room and cafeteria, he
had no intention of leading him into the building but just towards the old door
at the end of a deserted wooden hallway.

However, as the two of them were walking, a young
man walked out of the door right next to Jeong Taeui. His uncle immediately
stopped walking.

“Tou!”

The young man stepped out into the open door and
walked slowly. As soon as he saw his uncle, he immediately turned around.

“Officer.”

When he saw his uncle, he adjusted his posture and
bowed slightly.

“Are you busy?”

“No, I was just going out to smoke.”

Jeong Taeui nodded, perhaps he understood the
difference between the army and this place. He sighed as the world of English
opened before his eyes, this was the common language used at the branch. Even
though he can speak fluently, he doesn’t really want to use it. Then, his
uncle’s index finger suddenly pointed at him.

“Let’s take this kid down for a little tour. Please
take him to the room Kiyomi used and help me introduce him to the members
below.”

“Ah, yes.”

The young man scratched his ear as if he was
annoyed, but not too annoyed, he just nodded.

When he finished saying that sentence, he didn’t
look at Jeong Taeui at all, but just waved his hand lightly and opened that old
door and stepped inside. Only the young man and Jeong Taeui remained in the
hallway.

The young man looked at Jeong Taeui from head to toe
and then went back into the door he had just come out of. Fingers curved up to
signal. Jeong Taeui also looked at him from head to toe and followed. The young
man immediately smiled.

The wooden door he just walked out of was an
elevator. It looked no different from an old elevator of an abandoned school
about to collapse. But when he saw it open and close smoothly without a sound,
Jeong Taeui felt a bit of a new surprise. Stepping inside, he found that its
functions had nothing to complain about.

“Did they pour all their budget into this to make it
look as old as possible….”

Looking inside, Jeong Taeui muttered to himself and
then looked at the young man who had been attentively observing him.

He looks like a Chinese person, but judging from his
white skin and small frame, it seems that he is not a pure Han Chinese, it
seems that he has the blood of some ethnic minority there.

The young man looked at Jeong Taeui with curious
eyes and tapped his index finger on his chest a few times.

“Tou. Tou Jing.”

“….. Jeong Taeui. You can call me Taeui too.”

“Taeil… , ok.” < Taeil is pronounced Tae-i, while
Taeui is pronounced Tae-oui. Oui as Yes in France >

The pronunciation was a bit wrong, but Jeong Taeui
still decided to stay silent because he thought it would be useless to correct
it.

“Did you transfer from another branch? Or are you a
newcomer?”

“I am a new member. It seems like transferring
members between branches is normal.”

“Not common but not very rare either. Newcomers will
be arranged from above. What are you doing here? Isn’t it from a company or
something?”

“I’m unemployed.”

Jeong Taeui replied seriously but the young man
named Tou laughed out loud as if he considered it just a joke.

“Well, just not from the European branch. But it’s
good anyway. Welcome here.”

Tou held out his hand, Jeong Taeui grabbed Tou’s
hand and shook it gently.

“It seems like the relationship with the European
branch is quite bad.”

He heard it from his uncle but it seems the
relationship between the two branches is worse than that. Surely the
relationship was as one-nine-one-tenth as his old platoon and the platoon of
his bastard colleague named Kim when he was in the army.

“Pretty bad huh? Sigh, you’ll know early next month.
I mean from next month we will have joint training with the European branch so
those bastards will come here. Let me tell you, if there’s a particularly
obnoxious guy, you can just secretly bury one or two of them. All the teams in
our branch will work together.”

This doesn’t sound like a joke at all. It seems like
the relationship is worse than the platoon of him and Kim Jeong Pil.

“Thanks for reminding.”

“What. We have to help each other.”

Tou smiled happily and walked out of the elevator as
soon as the elevator stopped. Jeong Taeui immediately followed.