A few hours or so ago, in Professor Ji's office,
"...I'm sorry sir, what?"
Do-Hyeok was currently sitting in the Professor's office again, a few days after his test results, a little shocked at what Professor Ji just said.
"Like I said, you're in a solo group due to recent events."
"Not only is one of my students dead, but two others resigned leaving 13 students in my class including you…"
"...Now usually in a situation like this, I would put you in a group as a fifth member. However, I'm giving you a choice."
"One, I can put you in a group but increase the grading curve for you during group assignments…"
"Or the second option, be a solo group member."
Do-Hyeok was still a little confused,
"Sir, what do I get out of that?"
"More than you think. Firstly, any assignment you do, as long as it's completed, will be graded at a B. Meaning, you can be as lazy as you want as long as you do the bare minimum."
That perked him up, he could be lazy AND enjoy school life? Score!
"Also, you get the first pic on anything group related, as you are at a disadvantage.."
'That's convenient.'
"But know this, I'm only offering this because of your absurd complex, otherwise, i wouldnt trust you to do this alone."
"Understood sir."
And so, Do-Hyeok ended up in a group for group projects, all alone.
—
Present, practical entomology lecture hall.
"You've all probably heard that group assignments are back on starting today, so here's your first assignment…"
Professor Ji began,
"You will all head outside of Nest, and track down more cans of power killer, the bug spray we call jungle juice."
'That sounds suspiciously easy.' Do-Hyeok thought.
"The spray that turned you all into insect-humans. The "one spray kills all" pesticide that was popular with its consumers Despite such a lack of marketing."
'Sounds like an important plot point.'
The professor continues to say how its maker was unknown yet its distributor 'natural life' went out of business.
He also said that thankfully, Nest managed to contain the damage of jungle juice to Gangwon province.
Jungle juice is a key instrument to cinderella, which is why it was their top priority.
"This assignment is a test of your will and information gathering ability. You have a week, search every corner of Gangwon province and get your hands on jungle juice."
Then the professor said something a little shocking.
"Anyone who can find even one bottle gets an A+."
"""?!"""
'Hmm…'
The class groaned, jungle juice was basically an impossible find.
"Get into your groups. Class dismissed."
—
Wandering through Gangwon, Do-Hyeok considered where to go.
'I could go back to that facility. But seeing as Nest tracked me down from that place, it's probably already been ransacked…'
"I wonder if any of the less populated and rural areas have any cans, the first place to look should always be where you least expect it, right?"
Do-Hyeok was speaking to the air, seems like he's developed a bad habit.
"The professor also gave us a week off for this assignment…"
"It's decided then, guess I'm going camping."
Do-Hyeok thought he might as well just go in one direction for 3 days and if there's nothing, he'd have enough time to get back.
So, he went to the nearest store, bought a bunch of camping equipment and food to last long enough, and set off south gangwon,
To the mountains!
—
Gangwon is big.
So there are tons of places to put a secret base, or even find abandoned buildings.
One of such buildings…
Was an abandoned schoolhouse, far away from prying eyes.
This also happened to be the hideout of a certain group of stray dogs.
"Captain, when're we gonna wreck another facility?"
A large young man spoke,
"Well, right now, due to our last fiasco a month or so ago with Nanami and Haemin, we probably won't be moving for a while so we can keep our identity hidden."
Carly responded,
"But… Why are you staying back today? 'the site's' out and everyone else is hunting today."
The site was a massive abandoned pet shop facility near the schoolhouse filled with feed trained specimens of which these stray dogs used to train when they got too rowdy.
"I've almost mastered the blackout state captain, I don't wanna reset my progress with a slip up on those 'things'."
"I see… that's great to hear woochang."
Carly smiled at him,
And this large fella, woochang kang, smiled back.
—
Late in the night, somewhere in the mountains,
An ant we all know well was currently setting up a camp for the night, day one was over and he'd walked around 13km.
Why didn't he run?
Well, despite the luggage he was carrying, he very well could have, however…
'Don't wanna miss anything if i want a good grade…'
He could have ditched the camping gear and traversed the whole of the mountains in a day or so if he wanted, but doing that was tiring and he would most likely miss something.
"Plus, I'm lazy."
…and that.
Despite being able to run at 800 km/h (500 mph) he would rather take it all in. He'd find something eventually.
Also, Do-Hyeok realised the assignment was set on a Friday, factoring in the fact that he had a week to find it and the Friday after to turn it in. He had nothing to worry about.
Taking out the camping gear and setting it up, Do-Hyeok roasted some marshmallows by a fire he started.
"Truly I alone am, the camping one"
"..."
"..."
"...God, that was corny."
After he ate a couple marshmallows, he put it all away and hopped into a sleeping bag,
"Goodnight, no one in particular…"
Then he got into the tent and went to sleep.
—
Not far away from the campsite, a certain girl with blue twintails secured by butterfly clips had noticed some smoke coming from the forest on her evening walk and decided to check it out.
It was Nanami.
"Hopefully none of those Pet shop guys are trying to burn a forest… Haemin already tries daily…"
From where the smoke came from, it was too far from a city to be a regular camper and too small to be a forest fire which made her curious.
Maybe a flare?
Or smoke signals?
Curiosity got the better of her but she wasn't going alone.
"C'mon boys~ let's go."
Then her four hulking bodyguards immobilized, moving around her in a square formation.
Then she disappeared into the forest.
—
As she got closer to the site she noticed it really seemed to be an ordinary campsite.
But again, that was peculiar.
Why so deep into the forest?
Was this person looking for something?
She could only wonder.
Suddenly, as she moved in closer to the tent, a particular scent caught her nose.
"?"
"No way…"
An Ant?
She had smelled an ant insect-human.
And the smell was strong. Incredibly strong.
It smelled so delectable that if she hadn't already mastered her blackout state, she would have rabidly pounced on this person.
…
To explain this…
Nanami was an ex feed trained specimen,
This meant she could pick up on certain smells…
The smells of other insect humans.
She, by some miracle, managed to cling onto her sanity long enough to be saved by carly, her captain.
But…
Her parents didn't share the same fate sadly…
So, she stayed with Carly and learned to control her urges, even turning them into her strength.
That's what Blackout mastery is.
…
'Why is an insect-human so far out? Maybe they've tracked onto our location? How do they even know we exist?'
A thousand questions whirred through her head.
Who was this?
That was her main question.
She wanted to go in there and see who this guy was.
But that was dangerous.
'I'll come back tomorrow.'
She decided to come again in the morning,
If this person was still there, she could see who it was and determine the threat accordingly.
Also…
The smell was getting to be too much for her,
Drool began to spill down her mouth.
She wiped it away and left as soon as she could.
'What a tantalising smell…'
—
The next day arrived quickly for Do-Hyeok.
He slept like a baby!
Quickly, he packed up all his items and began to walk.
'Wonder when I'll find something… maybe a kilometre or so?'
While he was having fun admiring nature in peace, he still had an assignment to do.
After a couple miles, for whatever reason he felt as if someone was watching him.
He shuddered, "creepy."
Though he couldn't actually see anyone for quite a while.
"Hmm… is it my imagination?"
Do-Hyeok quickly dismissed it and kept walking, but that feeling never went away.
Eventually, he had finally found something.
A dirt path.
"Hahaha! Finally!"
It'd been quite a bit since he started this little expedition, he was worried he wouldn't find something,
But would you look at that! Didn't take long to find a path somewhere.
'And it's in the middle of nowhere? Its gotta be a secret base there's no other way'
So, Do-Hyeok followed the path.
And after a few hours of walking he found it.
An abandoned schoolhouse.
—
END OF CHAPTER
A/N: I've got college in like 3 hours and here I am writing this…
Whatever.
Give me power stones so I don't collapse.