𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗩𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗮𝗻𝘁 [𝗦𝗵𝗼𝘁𝗴𝘂𝗻 𝗕𝗼𝘆 𝘅 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱𝗲𝗿]

[CHAPTER 23]

"Zero... are you sure?" Shinyeong asked, completely baffled at the child's ability. Then, Gyuhwan came to a realization, how he managed to sense the death of Ms. Ahn. "Actually, come to think of it... Zero knew about Ms. Ahn's death!" Gyuhwan shared with his group.

Gyuhwan replied. Then he remembered about Hyeyeon's death. He jumped up. "Hey Zero! You think you could help me? One of our teachers was badly hurt by that huge monster... maybe you can--" "𝐓𝐨𝐨... 𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞..." Zero interrupted Gyuhwan. "What...? How do you know?" Gyuhwan asked surprised. "𝐈... 𝐜𝐚𝐧... 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥... 𝐢𝐭." The child replied quietly. "𝐀𝐥... 𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲... 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝." Gyuhwan looked down. "Dammit..." He sat down.

"Zero! You can sense things like that?!" Gyuhwan asked, which Zero replied with a nod. "𝐘𝐞𝐬." Then, Shinyeong joined the conversation. "Then, can you sense where people are, too?" She asked, Zero nodded once again.

"How about... where the monsters are?" Shinyeong asked, pushing her luck. However, Zero shook his head in response. "𝐈... 𝐜𝐚𝐧'𝐭. 𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐲... 𝐝𝐨𝐧'𝐭... 𝐡𝐚𝐯𝐞... 𝐬𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐬."

"Well, that's incredibly lucky." (Y/N) stated as they stood up. "But, it makes sense. I'm pretty sure those creatures don't have souls."

"I have a question." Shinyeong raised her hand before turning to (Y/N). "You keep on referring to those monsters as 'they', like you aren't one of them. Why?"

(Y/N) silently chuckled before replying. "It's simple. I'm not like them. I'm pretty sure Zero had already realized, but I have a soul." Shinyeong then turned to Zero. "Is this true?" She asked, Zero nodded again.

Then, (Y/N) began to run outside. "C'mon then! We're gonna go save them!" The rest followed behind wearily, looking around for any monsters.

As the elevator shot open, revealing a blinding light, three soldiers marched out and looked around the room which was littered with boxes and debris. It looked as if the area had been abandoned for quite a while.

Ms. Kim and the students who were with her had all hid behind a stack of boxes. Then, Ms. Kim realized what the three soldiers were wearing and immediately assumed it was the military. "The military... it's the military! We're saved!" She then ran out of hiding, running towards the three soldiers whilst waving her hand. "Hey! Over here! Help! Please!"

However, the three soldiers, instead of helping her, point their guns at her. She screamed as she puts her hands up as she tries to reason with the soldiers. "W-Wait! I'm a teacher at Yeongchan High School! My name is Suyeon Kim! You're here to save us, right?!" She asked shakily.

"Scan her." One of the soldiers said sternly. Another soldier pulled out a weird device which had a green glow to it. It scanned Ms. Kim and a robotic voice said 'clean'. "What? What are you doing?" Ms. Kim questioned, still with a shaky voice. "It's all part of the process, ma'am." The scanning soldier responds.