27 – The Dummy Monster (5)
The author looked up at me and opened his mouth with a grin.
“When did you join the mountaineering club?”
“Ugh, hmm? No, you’ve never joined a mountaineering club before?”
“Would you like to?”
The author blinked her eyes a couple of times and smiled.
“Then why are you suddenly not hiking? Were you camping outside?”
“Uh… Want to feel the natural scenery all of a sudden?”
ㅡ That’s a stupid excuse.
No, how do you excuse yourself in this situation?
ㅡ If it’s me, I won’t make excuses. Since ancient times, there is only one way for a man to persuade a woman.
What is it?
ㅡ Grab her by the waist, lift her chin, and share her hot kiss. One room and that’s it.
My life is over, you madman….
The author’s laughter grew thicker after hearing my strange excuse.
“So who did you meet on the mountain?”
“No, I went alone.”
“Really? Have you had lunch?”
“Oh, I ate.”
“A sushi restaurant?”
“… Uh?”
How did you know that?
ㅡ It seems that we have smelled wasabi and soy sauce that are strangely felt in our bodies. That’s great observation.
I think that’s beyond observation….
“Did you go alone?”
“No, that’s not it….”
I am being interrogated.
It wasn’t until the author’s laugh grew thicker that I realized it.
And she seems to know why the author is smiling like this.
I think I know why Grid laughed loudly the moment she met the author.
Because of camping in the mountains, I was concerned about the strange smell of soil and sweat that I felt on my body.
While I was doing that, Yuna sprayed me with perfume.
I didn’t think much of it at the time.
On the contrary, I felt grateful for such a small consideration.
But the nostalgia was the problem.
I only wear perfume on special occasions.
Even that perfume has a slightly strong scent and is mainly used by men.
I mean, I don’t use this neutral perfume that I sprayed on my body.
At a glance, it looks like she went hiking, but her body smells of nostalgia.
“That, Ji-eun. It’s not what you think.”
“What is that?”
“… Let’s go inside I’ll go in and explain.”
“… Great.”
The author made a sound that seemed to swallow her breath a little and nodded her head.
Fortunately, it felt like a storm had passed and I had entered through the eyes of the storm.
ㅡ You rolled your head more than I thought.
What is it?
ㅡ … I’m the one I expected. You are a monster that does not know the human mind.
What do you keep saying, you bastard?
I took the fruit the author had brought and headed home, and the author followed me hesitantly.
I put down my luggage, sat down, and held out the cushion to the author.
“Thank you.”
I was worried about the author who kept glancing around and hesitantly, but I had to explain the circumstances first.
“It is true that I came hiking alone. In the previous hero ability test, the 3rd and 4th places were mountains, right? I felt a lot of things there.”
I came up to my own room and lined up plausible excuses that I came up with.
When I took the test in the mountains, my field of vision was narrow and it was more difficult than I thought.
So it was an excuse to go to the mountain for training, which was not enough in the training room.
I think it was a pretty plausible excuse.
“But why does my body smell like perfume?”
The author asked the most important question with a slightly pouting expression.
Now this is the important part.
“There is someone who lives next door, and I met him on the way home and we ended up having a meal together.”
The excuse was that I sprayed perfume on my hands as a joke when I said it was a bit like eating together because I smelled like it.
According to the author, she tried to say something at first, but then she sighed.
“Ah, anyway, eat fruit.”
The author kept glancing around her and touching only the side of her hair.
ㅡ Time to use 23cm!
After hearing Grid’s words, she realized how strange the current situation was.
The place the author glanced at me was the bed.
I became more careful about swallowing.
The other person has a crush on me and is sending me a signal like this.
However, being calm in this situation was a bit embarrassing for a man of his age.
But listening to Grid’s cry calmed me down a little, thinking that I was half a monster.
“I’ll bring you some tea.”
I got up and stood in the kitchen and started making tea.
The five senses that have developed since the grid entered the body captured the author’s strangely regretful yet relieved sigh.
Why is such an attractive kid looking for someone like me….
I let out a small sigh so that the author wouldn’t hear me.
“Seo, senior?!”
As I was making tea like that, the author called me in a panicked voice.
“Why?”
My face was stamped on the screen of the smartphone that the author suddenly held out to me.
I held the author’s smartphone with a slightly embarrassed expression.
The title of the post is an incident that happened in broad daylight.
A murder case? Extermination of monsters?
It was such a stimulating content.
It was the photo of me piercing the monster’s heart and killing it.
The majority of the opinion was that it was something non-human because there was no blood even though it pierced the other person’s heart.
But it was already an uproar about whether it was an urban myth that there was a monster that could turn into a human.
I hurriedly turned on the TV and switched to the news channel.
There, the news was already being leaked with provocative titles such as “Alone” And “The First” With the contents of “Monster that mimicked a human?!”
I had a temporary hero license, so it was a video with no mosaics on my face.
“I-is this your senior?”
“Uh… There were incidents like this.”
“Oh, this is so light!”
As the author was about to shout something, he heard a sound coming from a kettle in the kitchen, so he hurried to the kitchen.
Then the author asked what had happened with a calmer expression.
I put a cup of coffee in front of the author and talked about it in relatively detail.
Since I said it once in front of the police, the story flowed out more smoothly than I thought.
The expression of the author who was listening to it was distorted moment by moment.
“Why?”
“If something happens to you….”
It seemed like they were worried about what would happen if monsters like that existed in our society and were attacked by surprise.
“I am strong now. I’m more worried about you.”
After Grid came in, the five senses developed remarkably.
In especially dangerous moments, the grid informs you of the danger, just like the spider sensor.
ㅡ Grid Sensor!
Yes, the grid sensor.
That’s why an ordinary person like the author is more dangerous than me.
After hearing my words, the author hesitated a little, looked at me, and then slowly opened his mouth.
“Then, senpai protect me.”
“Huh? Uh, that’s how it should be Because you are a hero.”
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“….”
The author frowned and started muttering something in his mouth.
“You can go to school with me. It’s also close to home.”
“Yes… yes!”
I’ve been wanting to hear that from the beginning.
It was a reaction that felt like that.
If only there was no grid….
ㅡ Are you blaming me here? A careless bastard!
It was the moment when I felt like the story was ending in such a friendly atmosphere.
The author’s expression became more relaxed and then hardened again.
“Is this what happened this morning?”
“Huh? Uh uh.”
“… It’s strange.”
The author said it was strange, and she stared at me.
“With an incident like this, seniors can’t be here at this time….”
That’s why she doesn’t like quick-witted children….
I finally had to tell the whole story about the woman who moved in next door to her.
This is the volunteer work I did at Buwon Hospital and the person who woke up because of it.
Since she is rich, I keep trying to give her something, but she keeps refusing, so she followed me all the way.
When I was interrogated as a reference at the police station, I told her all about the fact that she was the one who helped me.
“….”
“That’s why it’s a bit awkward. It’s a story that ends when you get a reward that you’re going to give, but I don’t want to receive it.”
“Whoa. A senior is a senior.”
The author was about to say something, but shook her head and stood up.
“But this may cause some problems in the future.”
“A problem?”
“Since monsters and humans are mixed, there will be a story about how to distinguish between monsters and humans, right?”
“I guess so. That’s why I explained how to identify monsters.”
“The monster mimics the entire human appearance and when his clothing is cut off, it reacts like a living cell… Maybe this could be a problem. It is also a big social problem.”
“Social issues?”
The author looked at me with a slightly sad expression.
“Senior. The world is neither as warm nor as beautiful as you think. Rather, a person like you is really like a natural monument.”
After the author said that, she opened the door.
She then looked back at me before stepping out and spoke in a confident tone.
“Probably in a few days, some pretty unpleasant stories will start coming out. Because that’s not your fault… Don’t be too heartbroken.”
After saying that, the author was about to leave with the words to take a shower and rest in peace.
“I’ll go with you.”
The monster moved to find me and kill me.
There may be surveillance around me, so I have to follow it.
“Thank you.”
After taking the author home and taking a shower, she laid down on the bed and took a short break.
Still, it felt like my body was getting stronger than I thought, perhaps thanks to absorbing the monster’s power.
You can go around the hospital during the week and finish Grid’s meal under the guise of volunteer work.
Take a bit more advanced training in the training room… That’s how I thought about my future schedule.
I realized the meaning of what the author said before leaving.
ㅡ Monsters move according to their instincts. They act according to a simple chain of command: just fight, move, learn. I tentatively concluded that there is an administrator managing the monster.
“….”
ㅡ Is it because you have intelligence? Humans are infinitely more like beasts than beasts who follow orders.
I couldn’t say anything to Grid’s words.
Because I came across the news about bullying incidents in elementary, middle and high schools.
The characteristic of a monster mimicking a human being is that its exposed skin is intact, but its posture and behavior are like that of a zombie.
Yeah, it’s like a zombie.
To put it a little harshly, it looks like a person with a physical disability.
Disabled.
The balance that was normally kept by the social promise to be considerate of those who are a little different from the general public has begun to distort.
An act of bullying called the monster extermination game or the monster detector game was created.
You harass your physically handicapped friend and say, ‘You’re actually a monster, aren’t you? It was an act of violence by shouting, “You son of a monster!”
It was said that there were even incidents of people tearing their clothes, pulling out their hair, and cutting off their skin to find out if it was a monster.
I can’t… It was not intended.
A monster disguised as a human is far stronger than an ordinary person without superpowers.
I thought it was dangerous.
If such monsters are entrenched in our society, we don’t know when a big incident will occur.
At first, I kept quiet because of the social confusion, but I thought it was fortunate that I was known.
I… I didn’t want this.
ㅡ Remember what he said. It’s not what you caused.
That’s what Grid said, but my face in the mirror was surprisingly pale even when I saw it.