YM778.TV 14 - Operation Art Retrieval
Illustrations: None.
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The whole world was blurry.
Only the taser gun, half-submerged in a pool of blood and sparking with blue electricity, stood out clearly in his vision.
‘Blue snake…’
Yeonwoo thought incoherently and let the thoughts drift away.
‘A snake like lightning, lightning like a snake. A person-like anomaly. An anomaly-like person. In the end, it’s all just anomalies.’
He glanced briefly at the two anomalies still shouting and arguing.They looked like humans, acted angry like humans, and gestured like humans, but they were anomalies.
Anomalies that had caused this horrific massacre.
‘They need to be dealt with.’
To survive.
For revenge.
For himself.
As he grasped the taser gun with his blood-soaked hand, Yeonwoo realized something.
‘In this strange world, there can be no safe and comfortable life.’
It wasn’t just about working at the company.
Life itself was like that.
In the shadows of the world lurked strange things that could show malice at any time.
Just as these anomalies had slaughtered the research staff one night.
‘To survive in such a strange world…’
Click-
With a shaky hand, he aimed the taser gun at the back of the anomaly known as the Director.
Leonardo, who was gesturing on the opposite side, widened his eyes.
His mouth opened in a shout.
“Mister, get down—”
‘I have to become strange too.’
He pulled the trigger.
Flash—
In an instant, the blue snake-like electricity wrapped around the Director.
His whole body convulsed and he fell sideways with a thud.
Remarkably, even in the throes of paralysis, he struggled to move his tongue.
“Raaagh! Reee! Diieeee! Raaagh! Reee! Diieee!”
Yeonwoo looked down at the sight, then slowly turned his gaze to Leonardo.
The taser gun aimed at him.
Cold sweat rolled down Leonardo’s forehead.
“I didn’t expect this. Hey, everyone, if I surrender—”
Click-
He pulled the trigger, but the blue snake didn’t come out. It seemed the taser gun only had one charge.
Relieved, Leonardo suddenly smiled.
His hand was already on his guitar strings. As his fingers moved, a sublime melody filled the clearing.
“Alright, first song! Leonardo of the 21st Century Seoul!”
A song that moves the world, captivating it, and thus influencing it. Leonardo’s song began to flow, drawing everyone into ecstasy.
Mouths opened, and saliva dripped.
Eyes widened, and minds grew hazy. Souls were bathed in joy and bliss. How could there be such a song in the world—
Then, Dr. Kim shouted urgently.
“Stop! Stop right now!”
The song didn’t stop.
“If you stop now, I’ll let you go!”
Gritting his teeth—
Dr. Kim bit his fingers to stay conscious and pointed at the wounded.
Many were dead, but there were also those who were injured. People who could still be saved.
“If they hear your song, they’ll all die! We need to perform first aid, so stop the song now! If you don’t stop immediately, I’ll escalate your threat level!”
“…I can’t have that. So it’s a deal? I stop, and you let me go.”
“Yes, so stop now.”
“Promise you won’t escalate my threat level—”
Leonardo continued to strum his guitar, but he didn’t sing.
Both he and Dr. Kim were desperately negotiating. Lives were on the line.
In the heat of the moment, Leonardo completely forgot about Yeonwoo.
Drip—drip—
Blood dripped from Yeonwoo’s chin.
His front teeth and canines had cruelly dug into his lower lip.
Despite this, his mind was being sent to heaven, so he bit down on his upper lip as well.
Crunch—
The collision of pain and ecstasy in his head.
In that gap, he barely managed to hold onto a thread of thought.
‘There were two gate guards. Two tasers. Two snakes. I used one, and the other one is there.’
The other gate guard was dead. The holster and taser lay on the ground.
“Then, to be safe, I’ll go to the gate and stop playing.”
“Run! We don’t have time!”
“Running while playing the guitar? That’s not stylish—”
Yeonwoo pulled the sparking taser from the holster and aimed.
Trigger pulled.
Flash.
“Keep your prooooomise! Ohhhh!”
Ding, dedeng, ding—
Leonardo’s fingers lost control and plucked the strings wildly.
It was no longer music.
The ecstasy gradually faded.
To make matters worse, Leonardo fell forward, his face hitting the dirt.
“Uuugh! Ugh!”
Dr. Kim and Yeonwoo’s eyes met.
He gave him a thumbs-up.
“Well done. You bought us some time.”
“It was nothing.”
Yeonwoo, who had adapted to this strange world, silently shook his head.
---
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What happened next went by quickly.
The employees, shocked by the massacre, and then further disoriented by Leonardo’s song, were awakened by slaps to their faces.
The medical staff, who needed immediate attention, were prioritized.
The medics, bruised on their cheeks, rushed around, administering first aid to the severely injured.
In one corner of the clearing, security guards watched the two intruders with fierce eyes, ensuring they couldn’t cause any more trouble.
“They’re insane. Even while bound by the snakes, they’re trying to do something.”
Yeonwoo and Dr. Kim stood with the guards, looking down at the two intruders.
The Director twisted, trying to shout “Ready, action,” while Leonardo attempted to turn his screams into song.
Every time they tried, they were beaten with batons.
“Stay still, you bastards!”
“Die! Die! Die!”
“Stop! Don’t kill them! Drag this guy away!”
Batons made from non-conductive materials struck them without mercy, hitting their heads, chests, arms, waists, and legs.
On top of the mess caused by the blue snakes, bruises bloomed all over their bodies.
A researcher approached them.
With a deathly pale face, the researcher spoke to Dr. Kim in a somber voice.
“Temporary containment measures are ready.”
“Explain.”
“We suspect that the sounds these two make are the starting points of their anomalies. Therefore, we will gag them. The singer will also have his hands bound.”
“And?”
“To be sure, we will additionally administer sedatives and tranquilizers to keep them unconscious. If they wake up, the device will make the snake bite them again.”
“Alright, let’s do that for now.”
Dr. Kim nodded.
With the help of the security guards, the researcher dragged the two intruders to the deep basement of the three-story building.
The intruders, realizing this, thrashed and convulsed, trying to activate their anomalies with their voices.
The guards, seeing their chance, struck them with their batons.
Crack—Thud—Snap—
“Gaaah! Reek! Raaagh!”
“Aaaaah! Aaaah! Aaaah!”
“Still not staying still? Keep hitting them! Make sure they can’t even groan!”
It was a brutal scene where two people could die.
Dr. Kim didn’t stop it.
Watching quietly, Yeonwoo asked a question.
“What will happen to those anomalies now?”
“I’m not sure. The singer will be managed by our research center, but I don’t know about the Director. The Korean branch or the headquarters will decide.”
Dr. Kim spoke with a controlled voice, but his tightly clenched fists didn’t relax.
“They might be used in negotiations with the Free Artists Association or in research on reality manipulation. They won’t be killed.”
“I see.”
It was an unfair situation. But Yeonwoo accepted it calmly.
It was a strange world. A world of anomalies.
To survive in such a world, it seemed better to be an anomaly than a human.
In the clearing where the tragedy occurred, the surviving employees busily moved to handle their fallen colleagues.
The clearing, soaked in red blood, was touched by the faint morning light. The day the training ended, morning had come.
Yeonwoo faced the morning as a person in a strange world.
---
---
On the last day of the 7-day training.
There was no graduation ceremony for successfully completing the training.
It wasn’t the right situation for that.
Only three new employees and Dr. Kim gathered to briefly exchange farewells.
The dormitory, transformed into an eight-person infirmary due to the number of patients, could no longer hold the injured.
Yeonwoo, Kang Yeol, and Dr. Kim gathered near Seoyeon’s bed, who had lost her left leg.
They all looked exhausted, having had no time to sleep.
Dr. Kim, with deeper dark circles, flipped through a few documents with his bandaged fingers, muttering to himself.
“New employees, the 7-day training has ended safely. Ah, there’s no need to read this.”
Dr. Kim shoved the papers aside and made eye contact with each of the new employees.
Kang Yeol, with his arm in a cast.
Seoyeon, lying in bed after losing her leg.
Yeonwoo, wearing clothes cut by a knife.
They looked more like proper employees now, with eyes that had changed in just one day, meeting Dr. Kim’s gaze.
“I reported yesterday’s attack to the Korean branch and the headquarters. What’s important here is that the assignments and positions for Kang Yeol and Seoyeon have changed. Orders came from above.”
“How have they changed?”
Seoyeon asked weakly, worried that losing her leg might lead to her termination.
“Seoyeon, you’re assigned to the Intelligence Department at the Korean branch. Kang Yeol, you’re assigned to the Special Forces at the Korean branch.”
“The Intelligence Department!”
For a moment, Seoyeon was as happy as a child.
She seemed to forget about her missing leg, her face flushing with joy.
Kang Yeol, on the other hand, looked puzzled.
“What kind of unit is the Special Forces?”
“I don’t know either. Both the Intelligence Department and the Special Forces have purpose-specific divisions, and I can’t tell you where exactly you’ll be assigned.”
Not getting the information he wanted, Kang Yeol stroked his chin with his uninjured hand, looking unsure.
“And Yeonwoo.”
“Yes.”
“You’re still with the Anomaly Investigation Team. But you played the biggest role in capturing the Director and Leonardo da Seoul.”
Yeonwoo nodded nonchalantly, not realizing he had done something significant.
He had just grabbed the taser and shot it at a careless enemy.
Dr. Kim looked Yeonwoo up and down once more.
“Anyway, Yeonwoo will receive credit and a reward.”
“What kind of reward?”
“Probably money.”
Yeonwoo smiled faintly. No matter how strange the world was, money was always useful.
Dr. Kim had one last thing to say to Yeonwoo.
“Yeonwoo, report to the Anomaly Investigation Team as soon as they contact you. Kang Yeol and Seoyeon, focus on your recovery first. Well done, everyone.”
With that, Dr. Kim’s words ended.
It was time to part.
Yeonwoo bowed to Dr. Kim, Kang Yeol, and Seoyeon.
“Then I’ll be going.”
“Yeonwoo, you’ll do well wherever you go. And thank you for capturing the Director, even if it’s a bit late to say it.”
“See you later, Yeonwoo!”
“Take care.”
He left the infirmary, passing by busy medical staff and patients with dark expressions.
Thus, Yeonwoo left Baekbeom Cultural Research Center.
Exiting the two-story building, passing the security guards at the gate, walking down the dirt road to the Jungsangol bus stop.
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6. Epilogue
The bus rattled to a stop. Yeonwoo boarded, sat by the window, and looked back in the direction of Baekbeom Cultural Research Center. His eyes were calm and composed.
The bus ran along the winding mountain road.
Subtitle: Thus, the Baekbeom Cultural Research Center retrieved the two artists, and the Humanity Protection Company prevented a national catastrophe-level threat from a large-scale anomaly leak.
In white letters, \'The End\' appeared.
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CAST
Lee Yeonwoo as Lee Yeonwoo
Lee Seoyeon as Lee Seoyeon
Kang Yeol as Kang Yeol
Kim Hyeji as Dr. Kim
Mil Madison as Director
Leonardo Park as Leonardo da Seoul
Ninja as And Suddenly a Ninja
Sohong Kim as Lab Employee 1
Yujin Choi as Lab Employee 2
Sangha Park as Lab Employee 3
Euddeum Shin as Security Staff 1
Junyong Bae as Security Staff 2
Kangmin Cho as Security Staff 3
Watt as Blue Lightning Snake 1
Bluey as Blue Lightning Snake 2
Director as Mill Madison
STAFF
Script: Writer
Production: Humanity Protection Company
Sponsored by: Pretap, Chocobo, Phobos, Joonyoung, Pitchblende, Two Fun Men, Sagangsagang, Dadaman, was yea ra, Feed Me, Outer God L, Hair Loss Treatment Shaving, 1h2q3p, Apple_513, Complete, 00 inch, Joyful Microbe, Founder, Creation, Hyunjin57, Crazy Soundtrack, preeded, Lucky Sign, Wing Beauty, World Eater.
This work is a fiction, and any resemblance to actual persons, organizations, or locations is purely coincidental.