The Trash Wants to Live

PR: Naa_chi

"Oh, you're here?"

Chuck, who was already seated, raised his hand and greeted us. He was said to be the strongest among America's gifted people, so he was sitting at the head of the table. Tanisha was sitting beside him. She greeted us by raising her hand slightly.

After greeting her, I looked around. Seeing that there were empty seats on Sergeant Hazel's side, I thought that they should be our seats.

“You're here.”

She greeted me lightly as I sat down next to her. The briefing started as soon as we sat down. When the monitor installed at the front turned on, a view of the forest unfolded within it. Seeing the surprise of not knowing how it was taken, the soldier who was giving the briefing explained it in a low voice.

“We used a wired drone to take pictures of the surrounding landscape. It's a wired drone; since the altitude isn’t high, the image isn't perfect… Here we can see it.”

He pointed to the edge of the picture with a pointer. The boundary where the forest ended was clear, as if someone had cut the edge of the forest with a huge sword.

"There seems to be a bordering edge nearby. Considering that the vicinity not far from base camp looks like this.”

"Hmm. Then we'll have to go the other way.”

There was no reason to go to the edge, because the dimension stone and the exit would probably be in the middle if nothing major happened. In any case, our first goal was to create a safe path between the entrance, base camp, and the centre which was the exit. Meanwhile, the additional step was to eliminate the monsters that would attack us.

"It's important to get to the centre, but for now, it's more important to secure drinking water."

Although we were able to bring some dry combat rations and the packages weren't that big, for water it was different. We had to use them for drinking and for cleaning, so they brought water as much as they could, but the amount was still too small.

"Fortunately, we can see a river nearby. I don't think it would be a problem if we could connect the pipes from here to there and fetch the water."

A high-definition picture taken by the drone showed a river. It still looked quite far away, but could we install a pipe?

It's not like we're going to do it barehanded… There were a lot of big machines. It might be possible…

They were really well prepared. Sergeant Hazel told me that he had brought a water purification facility in case it was hard to secure drinking water.

Hmm… at the very least, I didn't want to use that water purification facility as much as possible. Even if it became purified water, it did not change the fact that it was recycled water.

I brushed off my thoughts and continued listening to the briefing.

“We will divide into three teams. One team will make a path to secure drinking water, another team will be raiding the gate. Finally, the last team will be assigned to guard the base camp."

As he spoke, the soldier, who was presenting, pointed the tip of the pointer to a place in the picture.

"This area is the main target of the raid team. Let's aim to pave the way here for now. Now then, we will sort out the raid team, the secure-drinking-water team and the guard team."

The workers on secure-drinking-water team—no, although they were called workers, they were in fact soldiers who would head to the left side of the base camp, while the raid team would head to the right side of the diagonal line.

"I'll be announcing the members of the raid team first. Chuck Johnson, Isabella Dunner, William Duston… Ha Hyun Seo, Kwon Jae Hyuk. That's all."

Ha Hyun Seo? I was surprised, and so was Ki Hyun Joo. Ha Hyun Seo looked confused when his name was called. He didn't understand why his name was being called. When I told him that he had been selected for the raid team, his eyes widened. Of course, his confusion was doubled because he never thought that he would be chosen.

"Me?"

Ha Hyun Seo asked in reply since he didn't understand why he was chosen. When his name was called out, Ha Eun Seo's face turned pale. She squeezed his arm as if in objection.

"Mr. Ha was dispatched because I want you to do some reconnaissance.”

It seemed that he wanted to use him as a scout who could transform into a bird or a wolf. However, since he was still young, the soldier said he would exclude him if he refused.

Ha Hyun Seo thought about it for a while before telling Ha Eun Seo that he wanted to join the raid team.

"Hyun Seo-ya!"

"Noona, it's just reconnaissance. Who can catch me if I turn into a bird and fly? Don't worry."

"But…"

"Noona, I also want to become strong."

Ha Hyun Seo looked at me, then turned to Kwon Jae Hyuk. Ha Eun Seo couldn't seem to stop Ha Hyun Seo anymore when he said he wanted to become stronger. She looked very sad and lowered her head, fixing her gaze on her knees. In any case, their conflict ended in this way.

Unlike Ha Hyun Seo, who was suddenly selected, Kwon Jae Hyuk was chosen to be in the raid team as expected. Of course, Chuck, who was the strongest person in the U.S. SNT, and the rookie, Isabella, were also on the raid team. Isabella smiled at Kwon Jae Hyuk and blushed as if she was happy to be on the same team as him.

She was one of the heroines, and she looked really pretty, but Kwon Jae Hyuk didn't even glance at her. However, my heart was strangely heavy.

Ah… That's weird. Maybe American food doesn't suit me?

Did I have an allergy to American food?  Why did I feel so stuffy? While I was feeling frustrated, it was time for names of the members for the secure-drinking-water team to be announced.

"I'll read out the names. Lily Averton, Carlos Tern… Jung Yi Joon and Jang Eui Yeol. This is for the secure-drinking-water team."

"What? Did he just call my name? He called for the guard team, right?"

"No, it's the secure-drinking-water team."

Naturally, Jung Yi Joon asked me if he was on the guard team. When I shook my head, he was dumbfounded as to why he was on the water securing team.

“No, I'll be on the guard team. I won't do it."

I explained it to the soldier who noticed his refusal despite the language barrier, all the while puzzled to see Jung Yi Joon making a fuss with a sullen face, saying he didn’t want to.

“It's very important to secure drinking water. We have to cut down trees to install the pipes… I want Mr Jung and Mr Jang to move the felled trees to one side.”

They could just do it themselves, but then it would be a waste of manpower because a large number of people would have to go there. That said, if they tried to clear the area using machinery, they would have to uproot all the trees because the excavators couldn't get in unless the ground was even. If the stumps of a felled tree remained, humans and animals could escape through it, but machines could not.

“When the soldiers and the gifted people from SNT cut down trees, I hope that Mr. Jung can help with his telekinesis ability, while Mr. Jang can use the strength of the bull to move the felled trees aside.”

Jang Eui Yeol nodded when I relayed the soldier’s words1, but Jung Yi Joon continued to resist.

"Hey, he needs you.”

"Ah, I don’t want to! I'm not going.”

"Why aren't you going?"

"It's because of you. You."

Huh? Because of me? When I was confused, he poked me with his finger with a grumpy face.

"You pretend to be smart, but you're actually an idiot. I mean, if you saw something strange, you would follow it recklessly, get lost and get hurt, right?"

"What? Who? Me?"

I'm not a kid! Really, he was absolutely wrong. This wasn't our backyard and there might be a reason to wander… However! I know that I only have one life, so I won't do anything.

I glared at Jung Yi Joon with a disgruntled face, thinking he was looking at me as if I were a weakling, but as expected, Jung Yi Joon just snorted at my gaze.

"What are you looking at?"

This shit… Jung Yi Joon rolled his eyes again. Those eyes! This impertinent jerk…! 

The soldier who was leading the meeting asked me about Jung Yi Joon, who just clicked his tongue.

"What did Mr. Jung say? He doesn't want to do it?"

Since we were all underage, with the exception of Kwon Jae Hyuk, SNT definitely planned to not let us participate if we didn't want to.

Of course I wouldn't send him off if he didn't want to either…  

If he goes, it would definitely help us secure drinking water.

It wasn’t like the SNT request was unreasonable; it was just allocating the extra manpower to the right place. But if it were for some other reason, he would definitely have left if he didn't need to protect me.

It's so embarrassing.

The security of the base camp was quite solid since the researchers would stay in the base camp the entire time. The monsters inside the gate could attack at any time, so there was an electric fence built around it while soldiers with live ammunition were on guard 24 hours. Besides, several gifted people from SNT would remain in the camp in preparation for a possible monster attack, so I wouldn't be in any danger just because Jung Yi Joon went to secure drinking water.

And Ki Hyun Joo is with me.

No matter what happens, would she just watch me get hurt? She would come and treat me right away. I wasn’t even a ten-year-old kid, but he was so overprotective of me.

"Hey, he needs you.”

"Ah, I don't want to…"

“Hmm, tell him to stay here if he doesn't want to go.”

One of SNT's gifted people spoke sarcastically. She was one of the people who raised her hand earlier to be in charge of securing drinking water. With her red hair cut short like a soldier's, she continued to speak mockingly.

"Well, if a crybaby like him is too scared to go, we can’t just coax and bring him with us, right? We're not even his mother!"

"Umm…"

"What is she saying?"

Jung Yi Joon's expression wasn’t good, because he knew that the people around him were making fun of him when they burst out laughing at her aggressive words. When I told him they were calling him a coward, Jung Yi Joon frowned, but didn't make a fuss.

"Tsk, tell her to think whatever she wants."

For Jung Yi Joon's usual behaviour, his response was very calm. I thought he would fight back in anger, but he changed his attitude to protect me even though he was misunderstood as a coward.

I felt kind of strange about that… It wasn't bad to see something touching. It made me smile.

I'm strangely sad.

Whether it was Kwon Jae Hyuk or Jung Yi Joon or whoever. I was happy that they protected me and took care of me, but on the other hand, I felt uncomfortable.

T/N: Apologize for the delay, it took much time than I expected. And no update for next week. Thank you for the patience. 🙏💜

1. Conveyed what the soldier said to them in Korean.