Black Badger

I pushed open the heavy door and entered the library.

The air smelled of dust and marble.

Right in front of me was a wide-open lobby. Inside the worn lobby were several motorcycles parked. There were a few old cars too. Military Humvees. Command vehicles, maintenance vehicles, communication equipment carriers, and so on. Behind the two-wheeled and four-wheeled vehicles were several massive cannons.

I blinked and stared at the weapons before snapping back to reality.

"Where's the food warehouse?"

I turned my head to look at my companions.

"You said the discrepancy was in the foodstuffs, right?"

"There's a tablet here."

Tom, who had been leaning against the wall near the door, spoke up.

"It roughly shows what's where."

"Oh."

I twisted my body and approached him.

Hesi, who had been glancing back at the front gate even after entering the library, finally turned his head reluctantly.

"Second floor."

I muttered while staring at the tablet.

"The numerator is the current count, and the denominator is what it should be?"

"Something like that. The numbers in the numerator have been steadily decreasing one by one for the past few days."

Tom pointed out.

Hesi kept his mouth shut tight. Was he upset about having to follow the seniors?

I subtly turned my head to look into Hesi's brown eyes.

"You okay?"

At my question, Hesi jerked his head up.

"Huh?"

"Your expression looks off."

Tom also turned to check Hesi's complexion. The closed library felt eerie. There was no sign of any living presence.

Hesi bit his lip and then nodded.

"I'm fine. Just pissed off."

"It's your first time, so it's unavoidable."

Tom shrugged and said something reasonable.

I nodded too. Honestly, I didn't quite understand why Hesi was pissed.

Did he really think Yoon had stayed behind to protect us? From what I'd seen, my mentor wasn't that kind of person. He probably just left us because we might hold him back.

That could be annoying, but you can't expect to be full on the first sip.

"The second floor is huge too."

"Should we split up to check?"

As I turned my gaze to the tablet and muttered, Tom suggested.

"How about dividing it into east, west, and north sections to look around?"

"Is it okay to split? Isn't it dangerous?"

"For now, it should be fine."

Hesi responded to my concern.

"Angela said it decreases by one box every night. Maybe something happens at night. Whether it's creatures or badgers, it's not clear.... Actually, isn't the real danger right now the witches that might flow over here?"

"What time is it now?"

"8:36."

Tom checked his watch and announced.

It was an ambiguous time. I narrowed my eyes and surveyed the supply depot.

I compiled the information the mentors had tossed out casually. The assigned mission was to defend the supply depot and figure out the food counts. Special note 1: Food disappeared by one box every night.

Special note 2: If a witch's energy cannon hit the supply depot's oil tanks, it would be a disaster.

I turned my gaze toward the entrance we had come through.

"Then how about one person monitors and defends the supply depot entrance, and the other two check the food counts."

"Sounds good?"

Hesi replied to my suggestion.

Tom nodded too.

"Not bad. Who wants to do the monitoring?"

"How about you, Hesi?"

When I suggested it casually, Hesi turned to look at me.

He stared into my eyes for a moment before nodding.

"Sure. If anything happens, I'll contact you via communicator."

"Got it. We'll head to the second floor."

I turned to Tom and said, and the red-haired companion nodded.

We split up in the lobby. Hesi grabbed his rifle and went outside. Tom and I turned toward the second floor.

The second floor was darker and more eerie than the lobby. As soon as we climbed the lamplit staircase, we saw a tablet attached to the second-floor wall. I fiddled with the tablet and turned on all the lights on the second floor.

The bluish corridor was bathed in fluorescent light.

We walked down the bright corridor with no sign of people.

*

It took longer than expected.

But nothing unusual happened. The place was just vast, and there were so many boxes. We finished counting in the last bookshelf section and stretched our backs.

"It's exact."

Tom muttered while looking around the room filled with bottled water.

"No anything weird in sight."

"Is someone really taking them?"

I scanned the room that still bore traces of being a library. Bookshelves gathered in one corner. The shelves were packed with books in unfamiliar languages.

A couple of books that had fallen from the shelves lay on the floor, covered in dust.

We had manually counted the boxes in a room like this, but there were no discrepancies in the numbers. There were exactly as many food boxes as there should be. So, that meant no food had been stolen yet today.

Because midnight hadn't passed? Or did we need to check the other floors? The library had three floors total. We might have to thoroughly check the third floor and then the basement first floor.

I glanced at my watch. 9:10. Quite some time had passed.

I wondered if the mentors caught the creatures safely....

[Someone's coming.]

A voice came from the communicator.

Tom and I jumped.

Hesi's voice continued from the communicator in my ear.

[The mentors aren't there. Several motorcycles are coming.]

"Are they other seniors?"

Tom muttered.

"Why no contact from Angela? Hesi, can you see our mentors?"

[They were getting farther away with the witches a few minutes ago, and now they're completely out of sight. No witches have come this way.]

"Should we go help? Or ask the seniors who are coming now for assistance?"

"Let's go out first."

I turned toward the outside.

We hurried down the lamplit staircase in quick steps and headed to the front door. Dodging the motorcycles and cars filling the lobby, we went outside.

As I flung open the front door, the core shrouded in darkness came into view.

The cool night breeze stung my nose.

Hesi whipped his head around. Headlights approached in the darkness.

The witches that had filled the horizon were no longer visible, probably due to the settled darkness. The mentors who had ridden off on motorcycles were also out of sight.

Only four unfamiliar motorcycles approaching this place caught my eye.

I stood there silently, my jaw clenched in worry.

Screech. Squeak!

The motorcycles came to a noisy stop in front of the library.

We watched silently as the people stopped in front of the library. Two women, two men. All wore black helmets that didn't reflect the light.

The first man to arrive got off his motorcycle and removed his helmet.

"What are these?"

A familiar voice rang out.

"Why are there only three rookies left all alone?"

Blond hair.

Sturdy build. Handsome features. Bright blue eyes. I sighed inwardly as I looked at the man who smirked while lighting a cigarette. I figured he didn't need to introduce himself.

Jason Tvain.

According to Yoon, he was an old fogey.

"And who's this."

He fixed his gaze on me and widened his unpleasant smile.

The cigarette in his mouth burned red.

"Isn't this the famous newbie?"

"Hello."

I smiled brightly and greeted him politely.

"I'm Hildebert Talev. Nice to meet you, senior."

Tvain raised one eyebrow while smoking his cigarette.

I tried hard not to let the smile fade from my face. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

Hesi and Tom, remembering what Yoon had said a few hours ago, wisely kept their mouths shut.

The man looked me up and down like he was appraising me.

The silence was broken by another man approaching and removing his helmet.

"Huh? Why are you here already?"

This voice was familiar too.

It was Lee Ho-chang. I wiped away the fake smile and put genuine delight on my face.

"Ho-chang!"

"What's this, Hesi and Tom are here too. What are you three doing here?"

"We came out to replenish supplies at the supply depot."

Tom said.

He began explaining everything that had happened so far to Lee Ho-chang. The two female badgers who had removed their helmets approached and listened to the story.

I didn't know their names. One with blond hair tied in a ponytail. One with silver hair let down freely.

Tvain didn't take his eyes off me while Tom finished his story.

"Witches?"

Lee Ho-chang muttered in surprise as the story ended.

"Witches swarming all at once like that?"

"Yes."

"And you three were left here."

Tvain said in a mocking tone. Mockery he didn't bother hiding showed on his face as he looked into my eyes.

Hesi next to me seemed to bristle, so I elbowed him.

I kept elbowing my companion while smiling wryly.

"The supply depot food counts keep decreasing, so we've been checking the numbers and inspecting the library."

"Why inspect the library? Didn't you hear me properly? I said it's definitely some bastard stealing them one by one."

"No contact from Angela?"

Lee Ho-chang asked Tom from beside the sneering Tvain.

Tom slowly shook his head.

"Not yet."

"Shouldn't we go check?"

"Why go? Yoon's there."

Tvain replied indifferently to Lee Ho-chang's question.

Lee Ho-chang seemed convinced by his words. He blinked and straightened up with an expression like, well, that's true.

The blond woman, who had been listening to the conversation with a worried face, suddenly looked relieved and nodded. The silver-haired woman showed no change in expression.

Hesi was biting his lip. Like he was barely holding back from saying something.

Good job. Hold it in till the end, companion.

Tvain broke the silence again.

"So?"

"Yes?"

I widened my eyes at the incomprehensible words. Tvain exhaled cigarette smoke and asked again.

"What's the result."

"What result do you mean?"

"You said you inspected the library?"

Oh.

"We still have the exact food counts, and no special findings."

"Of course."

He was another rude one, but in a different way from Yoon.

I didn't drop the polite face.

"We checked the second floor, so we were planning to check the remaining floors."

"Want help?"

What?

"Let's go in. I'll help with the work."

I narrowed my eyes.

The tall blond with the cigarette in his mouth. He was smiling that long smile again. From any angle, it couldn't be called a friendly smile.

What's his angle....

Tom and Hesi sent wary looks, probably thinking the same. Lee Ho-chang standing next to him had an expression like he wanted to say, what the hell are you talking about all of a sudden.

The blond female badger behind widened her eyes. The silver hair seemed uninterested.

I looked at the cigarette smoke disappearing into the evening darkness and replied casually.

"It's fine. You seniors must be tired, so us rookies will handle it...."

"Cut the nonsense."

The man strode over.

Then he draped his arm over my shoulder. We were about the same height, but because Tvain put strength into his arm around my shoulder, I had to bend my upper body a bit.

I almost grimaced but barely held onto my senses.

I was pulled along by the man's strength.

Hesi and Tom made flustered noises as they followed. Tvain didn't stop them. We entered the library and headed to the lamplit staircase.

Instead of going up the lamplit staircase, he started going down.

As we headed to the basement, a closed iron door came into view. A door that required a password to open. Without removing the arm from my shoulder, Tvain entered the code and flung the door open.

The cool, musty smell unique to basements stung my nose. It must have been a parking lot once. Drum barrels filled the stark space.

Finally, Tvain released his arm from my shoulder. I glanced at him and took a few steps inside.

Tom and Hesi came up beside me and stopped.

"Looks like the place for storing oil."

Tom muttered.

"I didn't know it required a password. And I didn't know the password."

"I said I'd help, didn't I?"

Tvain said in a triumphant voice.

He smirked at the three of us turning our heads at once.

"You wouldn't have been able to open this without me. Now that I've opened it this far, search well. Until your mentors come."

"Here?"

"You said you'd check the whole library?"

"Thank you."

While Hesi asked puzzled, I quickly replied before Tvain could pick a fight.

A strange light passed through Tvain's eyes looking at me. I didn't bother figuring out what it was.

Later, after we checked the underground parking lot, he would ask something like, what was next to that pillar? And if we couldn't answer, he would hassle us.

I didn't avoid his gaze.

Jason Tvain, standing with an inscrutable face, left the spot a few minutes later.

*

We figured out his scheme about five minutes after inspecting the underground parking lot.

While we were examining the solidly closed iron door.

Beep beep beep, ding!

With a strange sound, the lights went out.

Darkness fell.

"What?!"

"The lights are out."

"Wow."

Hesi raised his voice, Tom muttered in panic, and I was amazed.

"For real? This has to be that guy's doing, right?"

"That guy? You mean Senior Tvain?"

"Who else would it be."

I muttered in the pitch-black darkness where I couldn't even see my companions right next to me.

I stayed still, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark. At the same time, I perked up my hearing to locate my companions. And I glared at the deep black darkness with a sullen face.

I wasn't worried or scared. The mentors would come in soon and get us out anyway. Or we could use the watch or codex as a light source and grope our way out of the library.

I wasn't even worried while my companions fumbled with their watches.

Until I reached into my pocket to pull out the codex to use as a light.

And before I could even take it out, the codex spoke in a clear voice in the quiet underground parking lot.

[Creature 'Pig.']

What?

[Tier 4. It hides its body in the darkness and approaches silently to capture and eat prey. Despite its massive body, it makes almost no sound when moving. It possesses tremendous strength, tough hide, and pig-like high intelligence. Guns won't work unless they're large caliber. No special weaknesses.]