Do-Hyeok and Suchan watched in silent intrigue
They only followed Hyeseong out of pure concern…
Suchan did anyway, Do-Hyeok was too tired to give two shits.
Until now at least.
'That woman… Gayeon Sin…'
Do-Hyeok might finally have a lead on Breeder.
Professor Ji began to speak.
"It's been a long time. Five years already, since you left campus."
""?!""
"How have you been?"
To this question, Gayeon responded in kind,
"Oh professor Ji. We both know you didn't come all this way to make small talk."
"Isnt this when you should be asking me why im here?"
Professor Ji cracked his neck in response,
"i was only trying to be courteous to a former student of mine, but…"
He swung his fist,
"...we can get right to it then!"
BOOM-!
"You're coming back with me to the Nest, after I beat some sense into you."
"See? That's more like it, professor. But aren't you coming on a little stronger?"
Professor Ji was mad,
"You've got some nerve to say that! After killing two students and eight employees of our Nest?"
He swung towards her again,
"Tell me then, why are you doing this?!"
The trees collapsed at the sheer force of the explosion, the surrounding area was completely ruined!
But…
"You shouldn't get so riled up over things like that, professor."
Gayeon completely dodged it.
"It's nothing, really…"
She was above him stinger aimed for his neck,
"...and I'm just getting started!"
CLASH-!
Professor Ji blocked and Gayeon was thrown back a meter or so.
"Enough."
A third voice cut through the dust.
It was Professor Ma,
"Professor Ma…!"
"Delightful to see you, Ms.Sin. but you've caused enough trouble for now, and Nest security will be arriving any minute."
"...!"
"You wouldn't want to risk your life on today's venture, would you?"
Professor Ji cut in,
"But Professor Ma!!"
Professor ma spoke quiet enough for only Professor Ji to hear him,
"shes working for someone she calls boss. It would be wiser to let her go and track her down to find the real culprit. She's quite capable of causing more casualties today…"
After he said that, voices could be heard coming toward the forest.
"The fires over there!"
"Professor Ji used his explosion ability!"
"Hurry! Before the fire spreads!"
At this, Gayeon spoke up,
"Very well, i will back off for now but dont forget gentlemen…"
"The next time that I'm here again…"
"I'm gonna kill every last one of you."
And Gayeon walked off,
"Until next time~ toodles!"
—
The staff moved quickly to put out the fire,
"Sigh~"
Professor Ma spoke first, slight concern in his eyes,
"I understand that she was your student, but you shouldn't have come here alone with such harsh injuries."
"...I apologise."
"Nest security will tail behind Ms.Sin. we'll leave it to them and return to campus."
"But first…"
Two students walked towards the professors holding an unconscious katydid (Hyeseong) shoulder to shoulder.
"...perhaps a talk with your current students will do you some good."
"...!"
"Kim Do-Hyeok… Suchan Jang…"
—
The three walked back to campus, Professor Ji holding Hyeseong over his shoulder,
Do-Hyeok was disappointed other than learning about the woman, Gayeon Sin, he basically just went on a useless midnight walk.
So he remained silent while the other two talked, annoyed expression on his face.
"So uhh… will Hyeseong be okay?"
"Once we get back to campus and remove the stinger, He'll wake up tomorrow like nothing happened."
"Right…"
"..."
"..."
"..."
'This is awkward…'
"I'd appreciate you two keeping what you saw earlier a secret."
"Gayeon Sin… that woman was once a student of mine. She left school after a certain incident five years ago."
'...I really could care less, professor, I'm too tired for this…'
"We never heard from her until today… but it looks like she's back to destroy Nest and its students."
"The students will panic if they find out about her. I'll tell them in due time so…"
Suchan cut in,
"I don't think I can do that for free."
'Please Suchan… I don't care for this shonen ass development, please just stop now.'
These two were having a serious conversation, but Do-Hyeok would rather be in bed, his social battery wasn't built for this level of dialogue.
"?! What's that supposed to mean?"
"In exchange for keeping this secret…"
Suchan turned to face the professor,
"...show me how to use that ability you used against the praying mantis. Teach me how to master my complex."
"I thought long and hard about it. Accepting the fact I'm a bug, and trying not to be repulsed by them… It's not going to be easy."
"But I felt so helpless today. Watching them take Hyeseong and not being able to do anything about it… if it weren't for you and Do-Hyeok, that praying mantis might've gotten up when we least expected it and we would've been done for."
"I want to be stronger."
"But I don't know how, but you can teach me, can't you? You're a professor after all."
Professor Ji smirked, cutting a deal with a professor? He's got grit.
"...you'd better brace yourself. And you Do-Hyeok? What do you want?"
"?"
Do-Hyeok just listened to the longest monologue of his life and he was already exhausted, it could be said that he was completely done with this conversation.
'Do I want anything? Suchan literally just asked for extra lessons, sounds like a hassle…'
"...well if i could ask for anything… My dorm is pretty barren. Could you renovate it so there's a training area and equipment? If not there's nothing else. I'm too tired right now…"
"Thats all you want?"
The professor was a little confused, Suchan just asked for extra lessons but all Do-Hyeok asked for was basic equipment.
"Sigh~ Yup. First of all, I haven't even gotten my test results back yet, how could I train something I have no knowledge of? Also, the first step to improvement is the foundation, right? Now if that's all respectfully sir please stop talking to me im this close to passing out… yawn."
'How foresightful, this kid is smarter than what I gave him credit for…' professor Ji was re-evaluating Do-Hyeok, clearly there was more about him than meets the eye.
"Alright then. I'll get that sorted out for you."
"Mhm…"
And then they all went back to campus.
—
About 2 days later,
Do-Hyeok's test results finally came in and he was asked to go to his course professor's office to get them.
KNOCK-! KNOCK-!
it was silent inside for a second, until…
"Come in." Professor Ji's voice echoed from inside the office.
Do-Hyeok entered the office,
"Do-Hyeok, you're here for your insect complex test results, correct?"
"Yes sir."
"Take a seat. Your complex was… particularly hard to gauge."
'That's not ominous in the slightest…'
"Why was it hard to gauge?"
"Well… don't be too shocked when I say this… but…"
'? Why's he so startled?'
"After multiple retests and checking for any malfunctions…"
'What could be so shocking?'
"The science department has come to the conclusion that your body…"
'What about it???'
"...Has been fused with 16,000 different species of ant after the effects of jungle juice."
"Oh."
'Oh shit.'
—
A few days later, Nest cafeteria.
Do-Hyeok, Hyeseong, Suchan, and Huijin sat around a table, casually eating lunch.
"I'm serious! I woke up the next morning covered in dirt!" Hyeseong said.
"Dude, you're delusional." Do-Hyeok commented next to him, lying.
"You probably got up in the night and started sleepwalking like you always do." Huijin added.
"..." Suchan was quiet, clearly he was a bad liar.
The four continued eating, then Do-Hyeok looked to the side over to the cafeteria line.
"Hey, isn't that Dohwa?"
Suddenly, Hyeseong shuddered, and after a short moment he began to rapidly eat, about as fast as he could.
Suchan spoke up,
"Oh, that scorpion girl! Isn't she in her class?"
"That's true, I haven't seen her since classes started, what's up with that?" Do-Hyeok added.
"Dohwa's in our class, but under kind of special circumstances." Huijin stated
"In what way?"
"Well, jungle juice is what made us insect humans right? Well some people received features and complexes based on other arthropods. Nest is currently doing research on such people. And some students volunteer to help out on their research."
"And Dohwa is one of them?"
"Yup, she's been in the Nest lab, to help out so she's missed a few classes, but she should be back starting today!"
"I see."
Hyeseong meanwhile was still racing against something, food going down his stomach at an alarming pace.
'This dude okay?'
Suchan spoke up, "by the way Huijin, Do-Hyeok, I've been wondering… what kind of bugs are you? Do-Hyeok has next to nothing and Huijin's only bug-like feature is her antennae.
Huijin turned to him, "well if you really wanna know, it's similar to the praying mantis."
Suchan shuddered at that, no wonder she's so strong!
"And you, Do-Hyeok?"
"Yes."
"...what?"
"Yes."
"What does tha—"
Suddenly Hyesong stood up, and in the next second,
POW!
Kicked onto the floor by Dohwa who sat down next to Do-Hyeok, where Hyeseong was sitting, and put her legs crossed up onto the table.
"What's up, losers!"
'Poor Hyeseong…'
"Damn it!" Hyeseong shouted.
Dohwa ignored him, "Did you guys hear? Group assignments are officially back on starting today."
Huijin responded, "Yup, professor Ji already put us into a group. Oh, excluding you, Do-Hyeok."
Do-Hyeok turned and said, "Yeah I know, according to professor ji, I'm a special case."
Suchan then asked, "How so?"
Do-Hyeok responded, "Well, due to the recent incident, not only is one of my group members now… dead, but also two others dropped outta the course because they were scared. So basically…"
"I'm on my own."
They all looked at him, a little confused,
""""Huh?""""
—
END OF CHAPTER
A/N: absolute dialogue bomb. It was so boring to write. But it was necessary for the next arc. Sorry for the info bomb.
Gimme the power stones im almost at 100🥳