The Trash Wants to Live

PR: Naa_chi

Feeling better, I headed toward the table. It was more like a buffet style than a dining table as there were a lot of dishes. Perhaps Rachel had spoken to the kitchen beforehand; a man in a chef’s uniform brought a small bowl. It was pet food for dogs.

Cookie, who had been shaking his butt ever since he entered the canteen, was distracted when he saw the pet food. I put him down when he yelled for me to let him down quickly. He clung onto the leg of the man with the pet food.

“So adorable and cute.”

The man walked over smiling as if he liked dogs and asked Cookie to follow him. Eating in the canteen wouldn't have been a big deal, but in the case of Cookie, it was probably better for it to eat somewhere else other than under our feet.

I took the plate Rachel gave me and slowly looked at the food. There was a small card with the contents of the food written and placed on the side. As a country with a good distinction between vegan and vegetarian. The food was divided into vegan, vegetarian, and regular food.

I've heard jokes about Americans calling french fries vegetables, but when I saw this, I thought it was ridiculous.

However, since meat was a staple food, the proportion of meat was higher than that of vegetables. I was happy with that since I was a meat eater.

"Steak!"

Jung Yi Joon was also a meat eater, so he couldn't get his mind off the abundance of meat in front of his eyes. For that reason, Jang Eui Yeol and Jung Yi Joon ran towards the meat while carrying their plates. I followed suit.

"Pork ribs sound delicious."

"There's also Mac & Cheese."

Meat piled up on our plates like high school students who could even chew stones.1 We quickly grabbed the meat onto our plates and sat down at our seats to start eating.

Unlike us, who only grabbed meat onto our plates, the others had properly grabbed both meat and vegetables. Ki Hyun Joo clicked her tongue and shook her head when she saw our plates full of meat.

"Isn’t it too greasy to eat?”

It was exactly as she had said. I couldn't even eat half of it and Jung Yi Joon's face also contorted. Jang Eui Yeol looked disappointed and just sucked on his fork.

"I want to eat kimchi…"

Jang Eui Yeol nodded at Jung Yi Joon's words. This happened because we were only greedy for meat while overlooking the greasy food. Other than the Americans, there were no Koreans, so there wasn’t any kimchi either. Maybe because it was a food that people either liked or disliked.

Rachel, who couldn't stand it, shared some of what she had brought and asked if Jung Yi Joon would like some pickles. Jung Yi Joon thanked her and took a bite, then shuddered.

"…Sour!”

Unlike the sweet pickles eaten with pizza in Korea, American pickles were very sour. Jang Eui Yeol also took a bite and shuddered. I put some in my mouth and chewed it with the meat.

Fortunately, the bite of pickles made the meat less greasy. As I was eating the meat, chewing the pickles little by little, Cookie trudged over as if he had finished eating.

[Pick me up!]

I placed him onto my lap because he was whining, and now he was starting to crave meat.

[I also know how to eat meat.]

You just came back from eating a meat-based meal.

I couldn't answer since there were so many eyes staring at me. I answered in my mind instead and ignored him, but he kept on making drooling noises. I felt very burdened.

Can I give this to him? It's seasoned. Would it be okay since it's not too salty? In any case, he's not a dog. Would it be okay if it's salty?

Someone tapped me on the shoulder as I was agonising over the meat on my fork.

"Don't give it to him. If you want to give it something, give it this instead."

"Oh… Mr. Johnson."

"Cough. Don't call me that. Call me Chuck."

Similar to when I met him in the gym before, Chuck frowned when I called him Mr Johnson.  His appearance was scary, so I subconsciously accepted what he had offered.

"This is…"

It was beef jerky. He smirked and chewed the same jerky as he said, "If you're going to give some to the dog, this isn’t seasoned."

I thought of giving it to Cookie as it was, but it was quite big and thick, so I tore it off bit by bit. Cookie said it was delicious and tasty when he ate it.

When I thanked him, Chuck chuckled and said it was nothing while jiggling his shaker. I assumed it was a protein shaker.

After eating, we set off to sector C. We were looking forward to it. After opening the door with a green card, we entered. I saw a laboratory similar to sector A, except it was newer and felt more like a hospital.

Sector C had several laboratories divided into compartments on both sides of the long corridor.

“Welcome, Mr. Ki.”

Tanisha, whom we had met earlier, greeted us again. She took my hand and spoke as if she was in a hurry.

“I want to show you something. I really wanted to show it to you earlier…”

She dragged me to the lab in the middle of the hall excitedly. The lab was bigger than I thought. On one side was the bull we had brought from Korea.

The bull was on a large inspection device, lying comfortably on its belly like in the garden. Around it, the researchers looked at the monitor and hurriedly wrote down something.

"This is what I wanted to show you."

Tanisha pointed to the machine on the table. She took a device that looked like a broadcast camera and aimed it at the bull.

"We found invisible waves emanating from the bull's body."

She pulled something similar to a lever next to the machine and fired a beam in front of the machine. If you had ever worked in a convenience store or supermarket, a barcode reader would emit a long, thin beam of light to read long barcodes. 

Tanisha's lightbeam extended horizontally. The only difference was that the mechanism’s light shot out and descended from the back of the bull until it illuminated its entire body. When the light hit the floor, there was a beeping sound from the device she was holding.

"Look."

Tanisha pointed at the monitor of the machine. There was something written on the monitor, but I didn't know if it was the number 0 or the letter of the alphabet.

“I first set the bull as the standard. So the wavelength recorded on the monitor is zero. It's not zero because it doesn't exist at all, rather it's zero because it's being used as the standard.”

"Hmm…"

“And this—"

After showing the number on the monitor, she went to a nearby large monitor.  Maybe it was a touchscreen, but when she touched it, a light flashed on the screen.

"Mr. Ki must have been briefed, but for others, this is an X-ray of the bull."

White bones were seen in the silhouette of the bull on a black screen. However, there was something foreign that didn't look like a bone near the bull's neck. After that, examination photos such as MRI and CT emerged.

"At first, we thought it was a tumour, but then we did an MRI and realized it wasn't. The waves were coming from here."

As expected, they had found a Mana Stone. SNT might have wanted to dissect the bull.  However, since the bull was a possession of Sungwoon, they couldn't possibly dissect it. They had no choice but to check for the mana stone with this indirect method… As I was thinking this, Tanisha put her finger on the screen and pushed it aside.

"Oh?"

The next thing I saw was a picture of a goat. It looked like a Yorkshire Terrier with hair that grew long and covered its body. Its horns were very big and were split into several parts like the horns of a deer. The horns were hard and very sharp like awls.

Clotted blood was tangled all over the goat’s hair in the picture, which made it look like it was dead.

“This is a newly discovered animal. It occasionally appeared in deserted areas and became a ghost story, but somehow it was discovered by our agents and we were able to catch it.”

The goat had fled after colliding with a car, and they had to shoot it several times to kill it. I was surprised to see a monster outside the gate.

Did SNT cover-up this monster at this time?

In the original story, it was after the first gate incident when the monster was officially discovered outside. So, the fact that the monster was here meant that SNT was deliberately hiding its existence, and we would have never known of this fact without the bull.

First of all, the goat looked like a monster from the gate. Monsters created by the transformation of animals and plants on Earth did not turn out so terribly. It would have probably taken the position of an Alpha Male in its group when it got bigger; however, it didn't have a distinct appearance.

That meant that the gate was still open somewhere… As I was contemplating this, Tanisha turned the slide again.

"Despite being found in different locations, the autopsy found a substance with the same wavelength as the bull within this animal."

There was something on the screen that looked like red ruby ​​jewels. The mana stone seemed to have been shattered into a fist-sized ruby.

“I couldn’t get an intact one, because it was shattered by a bullet. Thanks to the fragmented pieces, we were able to distribute it to each laboratory.”

Then she took out a small case from her pocket. The steel case had a dial on it. When she turned it with her fingers, the lid of the case opened.

“Here is the real thing."

T/N: Seriously… The story plot is so weird… Lol. Also I have read the reviews that if any of you is confused about the POV, please let me know, I'll answer it my best. Thank you ❤️

1. Perhaps someone who is young and has strong teeth.