The Trash Wants to Live

ED: Ozriel

PR: Naa_chi

"Don't think of doing anything strange."

“What did I do!”

I held Jung Yi Joon's hand tightly at the sight of him playing innocent. Cookie, who was in my arms, whined that holding him with one hand was uncomfortable. However, I couldn't let go of Jung Yi Joon, nor could I let go of Cookie. 

If I let go of his hand, I thought Jung Yi Joon would do something strange; if I put down Cookie, I thought someone would kick him while walking.

Of course, no one was crazy enough to kick or bother a cute puppy for no reason, but mistakes could always happen.

Cookie stood up and looked back with both paws on my left shoulder. While supporting his hips with one hand, I looked for a more comfortable position. This position seemed the most comfortable.

[It smells strange.]

Hmm? 

Cookie sniffed and whispered into my ear. Did it smell like gunpowder since it was a military base? There were too many people for me to ask what Cookie smelled, so I couldn't learn what it was.

"That building over there is a dormitory for soldiers, and on the left is a canteen. Have you ever eaten army food? You’ve never tried it? Good. We'll have an American lunch today."

Rachel gave us a rough tour of the military base as she walked. I was curious because it was a military canteen… I had tried combat rations once, before I transmigrated, but I didn't have any expectations because I remembered it wasn't that good…

We entered a building and walked along a long hallway. At the end of the hallway, I saw a large yellow door with ‘A’ written in black. Rachel arrived at the door and looked back at us with a smile.

"This is the SNT area. Welcome to SNT for the first time as a civilian."

She took out an  ID card as yellow as the door from her pocket. The door opened by itself after a beep sounded from the terminal next to it. I thought it was a normal door, but when I looked at its thickness, it seemed to be more than 10 centimetres wide.

When I walked through the door, I could still see the same hallway, but it felt like the air was different.

"This is Sector A. This is where SNT works. Most of them are incompetent, so most of the unclassified stuff is handled here."

Rachel frowned, adding that she worked here except when she was working outside the office. I saw people going somewhere with documents or instructing someone to do something. But most of them sat in front of their computers, typing, and answering the phone.

They looked so ordinary that—if I hadn't known that this was inside a military unit—I would have thought that they had taken a business team and placed them here. As I walked around, a blue door appeared. The door was marked B in white.

"How many sectors is SNT divided into after A?"

"Well…"

Rachel grinned with an expression that showed that I had asked a good question. However, she did not intend to tell me, only spreading her three fingers. 

"I can't tell you how many sectors there are, but… we're going to visit three places: A, B and C. They're the only ones we were allowed to go to.”

Rachel took out a blue ID card from her pocket. Once again, the door opened with a beep. The thickness of the door was over 10 centimetres. We continued walking along the hallway with Rachel. 

This hallway is quite long between the sections. 

It must have been tough going back and forth. 

Suddenly, I noticed a fine crack on the ceiling while deep in thought.

Oh?

There was also a fine crack on the floor opposite the cracked ceiling. Was it a bulkhead? 

Looking at the wall, there were gaps at regular intervals between the bulkheads. It was amazing to see what I had only seen in the movies.

The defence is tighter than I thought.

Maybe it was like this because it was a military base. After the long passage between sectors, we were finally able to enter the interior of sector B.

"This is Sector B. It's a training centre used by gifted people."

"Yes?"

I became a little bewildered. I was dumbfounded because I thought that they were showing me how these gifted people were being trained. They shouldn't have shown me this sort of thing even if we were in an alliance.

Rachel laughed as if she had expected my bewildered response. I could roughly feel the composure from her laughter.

It must be a gym rather than a training centre.

The training centre to learn real skills should be in the other sectors. It was clear that this was a place for physical training or basic learning. The moment I checked inside, I realised what I thought was right. Half of the large sector had treadmills and muscle-building equipment like a gym, and the other half were vacant lots divided by transparent glass-like walls.

Considering that the rubber mat I saw in the Taekwondo hall was laid on the floor, I thought it was mainly for sparring. There was no one in the vacant lot, but I saw people running or doing weight-training in the gym. Among them, the most noticeable was a man sitting on a bench, holding a dumbbell in one hand, pumping his enormous muscles.

"You've seen Chuck. Chuck Jones. He's the strongest hunter in SNT."

"Oh…"

I had never heard of him. The strongest hunter in the U.S. I saw in the original novel was someone else. Would he lose his position later? He looked up at us, perhaps knowing we were talking about him.

His angular, rugged face was stereotypical to the macho-type of the United States. He even had his hair cut short like a soldier; he looked more like a soldier than a hunter.

His shoulders—the size of an adult woman's waist—were really big, and it seemed like he would be fine even if two Ha Hyun Seos each sat on one shoulder.

He put down the dumbbell he was holding, stood up, and approached us. His huge body was so big that I felt that it grew bigger as he approached. 

No matter how small I was, he was definitely over two metres tall.

“Rachel. Are they from Sungwoon?”

“That's right, Chuck. This is Mr Ki…”

Rachel pointed to each one of us and introduced us to Chuck who was approaching. His piercing eyes narrowed slightly after seeing me. He wasn't particularly intimidating, but his slight squint made me internally tremble with fear.

However, he quickly turned his eyes to someone else and took a step closer to Kwon Jae Hyuk as soon as Rachel's introduction was over.

“You must be the one who closed the gate.”

Since Chuck spoke in English, it was only me, Ki Hyun Joo, and Rachel who understood it. Those who did not understand all looked puzzled at this U.S. hunter while Kwon Jae Hyuk, the person involved, was just smiling as usual without asking what he meant.

"Chuck, this person…”

“What is your ability? Could it be a transformation? Like Hulk.”

Chuck laughed with a low groan. It wasn’t a sneer or anything, but a light joke; however, I was worried because the contents of his words were not good.

Asking other people's abilities is…

This was because, although it wasn’t disrespectful behaviour currently, it became disrespectful in the future. There were many cases of people misusing it for the worse because they were able to prepare for the opponent's ability as long as they knew about it.

So by the time the original story started, it was etiquette for everyone not to ask… 

The problem is that now is the past rather than the original time period, and Kwon Jae Hyuk is a regressor (future person).

I was worried that Kwon Jae Hyuk might be offended, but Kwon Jae Hyuk still shook his head with a smile without feeling offended. He answered in fluent English, leaving me wondering when he learned it.

“No, I just know how to handle weapons a bit.” 

Then, as if to sear an impression into their memories, he summoned a dagger and rolled it in his palm. Rachel and Chuck became a little surprised by the sudden appearance.

Soon after Chuck raised his chin and spoke confidently.

“Hmm, that's too bad. I had high hopes for you because your feats were remarkable. Real power comes from the muscles, mate. If you rely on objects, it'll be just a shame after they're gone."

Chuck frowned after saying so and strained his arms. His muscles pulsed and bulged, and his huge body became even bigger.

…I don't think he's a bad person.

Chuck's face was truly intimidating. As soon as he frowned, Jung Yi Joon, who had never felt scared, flinched and gripped my hand tightly.

When I looked at Jung Yi Joon in surprise, he scowled, "What are you looking at?" But his face looked very pale.

"I wasn't scared." He gave me an excuse, but I turned my head without listening. 

As I was teasing Jung Yi Joon, who was being angry beside me, I could feel his gaze. Chuck was looking at me before I knew it.

"Um…"

I was a little nervous and murmured because he stared at me. For a moment, I thought I said something wrong. He kept an eye on me and then turned around. Since he had stared at me until the moment he turned around, I became even more nervous. The look on his face made my heart race.

T/N: Honestly this arc destroy the previous story harmony imo 😔 😔