Chapter 23: Chapter 23- Message
Talon tilted his head as he kept staring at the woman trying to understand what she was trying to say to him in secret. However, his attempts ended in failure.
A second later, the girl turned away and she started acting as if nothing happened for the most part.
"What's up with her?" Talon asked.
"What?" Acrypha, who seemed to be occupied with something else, didn't really notice what happened.
"That girl seemed like she wanted to tell me something but couldn't say it." He replied.
'For a second there, I felt like she was trying to hide her words from someone.' He thought to himself as he rubbed his chin.
Talon intended to go to her and talk since she seemed to directly want to talk to him. However, when he thought about it again, if she really wanted to talk, she would've spoken in a loud tone.
The fact that she was whispering meant that she didn't want the others to hear. But, the question remains.
"Why?" As he kept staring at her, his mind worked out all the details he had. But, in the end, he really couldn't see what it could be.
"She could be paranoid from everything that happened," Acrypha said.
"Yeah, that could be true..." Talon decided to shrug it off for now and decided to do something else So, he jumped down and walked toward the pot of stew that he kept simmering on fire so that it doesn't get cold before he filled a few bowls of it and walked toward the group.
"Here, some food to warm up." He said.
"Ah, thank you!" Ryan Seok took the bowls before he handed the two girls one each. Then, Talon sat down near them. Meanwhile, Shin-Il and Soomin seemed to have been called by Chin-Hwa for something.
As they took a mouthful of soup, their faces changed as they looked down at the food in amazement.
"This...." An Sook, the wildman's wife murmured. "This is amazing..."
"Hahaha, thanks."
"Can I ask what's the recipe for it?" She asked hesitantly.
"Of co-"
"No, don't ask." Suddenly, Ryan Seok spoke in a surprisingly cold tone that took everyone by surprise.
Everyone immediately stared at him. However, the man's weird look shifted as he smiled awkwardly. "Can't you see that sir Talon's soup is too amazing? I'm sure it's a secret family recipe."
"Huh?" Talon was about to speak when An Sook suddenly looked at him and bowed.
"My deepest apologies! I didn't know! Silly me! Please forget everything I said." Her tone seemed perturbed for some reason.
'Ok, what the fuck is going on here?' If Talon had a mere suspicion before, now he was almost certain that there was something fishy happening in front of him.
However, he couldn't really say what it was. Everything was simply too vague. He wanted to ask but also the image of Eum Eun was still in his head.
"Just eat your food and rest. I'm going to take care of some stuff." Rubbing the back of his head, Talon stood up and walked away. He was simply too stressed to add another problem to his list of problems he needed to deal with.
"Did you notice that now, Acrypha?" He asked.
"Yeah. There is certainly something odd about those people. They don't seem normal by the standards of humans." She said.
"Standards of humans? What? Do other dimensions have different standards for what's normal?"
"Walking outside with clothes on is frowned upon in some worlds." The beautiful woman replied with a sarcastic tone.
"..."
"You haven't seen anything child." Acrypha tapped Talon on the shoulder as she floated away.
"Sorry for not being 7 billion years old like you." He replied, rolling his eyes.
"Who are you saying is 7 billion years old you little brat?! I'm only 200 years old which is very young by the Core Dimension's standards.." Acrypha replied as she glared at him.
"Ah, my bad... granny."
*Flick*
Acrypha flicked his forehead with her fingers which sent a sharp pain into Talon's head. Grabbing his forehead, he groaned.
"Ouch! Hey! Uncalled for."
"You don't know how to treat a lady, do you?"
"Tsk!" Talon clicked his tongue and looked away from her.
Talon then walked toward the other side of the warehouse to rest. His body was exhausted after training and also activating the Dimension Harvester which seemed to drain his stamina a lot.
However, as he passed beside one of the craters, he heard a sound. Looking down, he noticed the phone Hyun-Jae was using to communicate with the outside world. It had been silent this whole time, but now, out of nowhere, it started making radio noises.
Talon was confused at first but then it happened.
"H-H...el... p... *Buzz*... Any...o..ne... *Buzz*"
Talon picked up some human voices mixed within that buzzing sound. Quickly, he rushed to the receiver and spoke in it.
"Hey! I'm here! Can you hear me?!"
Then he waited for a moment when he heard the same voice again.
"We...ar...* Buzz*... stu...."
"What?" Talon put his ear next to the receiver. "Speak louder! I can't hear you!"
His voice caught the attention of everyone present in the warehouse. Even Hyun-Jae, who was completely asleep and wasn't even aware that some newcomers had arrived because of her exhaustion, woke up.
Everyone quickly rushed to Talon.
"What is hap-" Chin-Hwa was about to ask when he went silent.
"Shh!" Talon signaled for him to not speak as he listened closer to the receiver.
"We... Mon... *Buzz*... ster... Hu... *Buzz*..." Then, in the end, Talon picked up on a faint noise other than the buzzing or the human speaking. It was very faint, barely audible even.
However, Talon heard it and he heard it well. At that moment, the receiver suddenly shut down and the connection was lost.
"Hello? Hello! Dammit!" Cursing under his breath, Talon put down the receiver as he rubbed his face.
"What did he say?" Hyun-Jae approached him and asked as she picked up the device and started fidgeting with it trying to make it work again to no avail.
"I couldn't understand everything. But I'm sure it said 'Help, anyone. We are... Stuck.' or something else, I'm not sure about the last word. And then..." Talon looked down.
"And then what?" Shin-Il asked as he gulped a mouthful of saliva.
"And then it said 'Monster... Huge' or something along those lines. At the last second, I heard something for a split second."
"What did you hear?" Chin-Hwa was the one to ask this time as his face was getting darker and darker.
The two words 'Huge monster' were already terrifying enough let alone what Talon could've heard.
"I heard... a laugh... No, it was a cry... Or a laugh, I really don't know... It was the most twisted laugh or cry I have ever heard... It wasn't humane..." Talon said.
Now, Talon wasn't really sure if that was simply a distorted cry from one of the survivors there or if it was something else. But he was damn sure it wasn't normal at all.
"A laugh or a cry?" Soomin adjusted her glasses when she heard those words. "Could that be simply someone crying?"
"It could be." Hyun-Jae nodded her head. "Or it could be something like that giant mosquito or far worse." Just remembering that insect sent a shiver down her spine. So, imagining what could be the origin of that laugh was simply terrifying.
Everyone went silent for a while before Hyun-Jae asked. "But, where was that message coming from?" She murmured as she opened the device again and tapped a few buttons.
A few moments later, her expression changed subtly again.
"Where is it from, president?" Chin-Hwa asked.
"... It's from the coordination 37°27'36.00" N 126°57'0.00" E." She said.
"And where is that?" Shin-Il asked.
"The campus..." Talon replied with a dazed look. "It's the coordination of the Seoul National University."
When everyone heard that, they had different reactions. Chin-Hwa's face darkened while Shin-Il and Soomin simply looked a little afraid but nothing too serious. The reason for that was because they still didn't know about Talon and Hyun-Jae's plan.
Sucking in a deep breath, Talon stood up. "I need some time to think."
"Hold on there a second." Chin-Hwa interrupted him. "What time to think? The situation there is clearly bad. There is no way you can infiltrate the place. It's probably filled to the brim with Dimension Walkers and whatever else that could be there." He said.
Talon stopped in his tracks and didn't look back. "I still intend to go. There are no other choices. Whether you are afraid or if Ran Hyun-Jae is afraid, you can convince her to pull back."
Talon was completely serious about what he said. So what if the situation was terrible there? he had to go if he wanted to make some progress on actually leaving this place instead of rotting here waiting for help that most likely would never come.
Then, Talon simply ignored the glances he was getting and walked away.
"President, you heard him. He's a suicidal maniac that doesn't care about his own life. It's clearly not a good idea to enter the campus. Just let him go alone." Chin-Hwa directed his eyes to Hyun-Jae who was still staring at Talon's back.
Then, she finally turned around and looked at Chin-Hwa.
"I'm going with him."
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