A few hours later,
THUD-!
Do-Hyeok jolted, he's been zoning out playing roguelikes for hours.
'They're finally here?'
Opening the door, Nanami came to tell Do-Hyeok about the sudden arrival.
"Hey hey~ They're here."
"I feel like I coulda guessed that…"
"Yeah, Woochang tends to have a loud presence, hehe… come on, Captain's already talking to them."
So the two walked outside to the open field area to meet this group of stragglers.
—
Outside, Carly had walked up to the four starting with Woochang,
"Is it mastered?"
A silly smile appeared on the big guys face,
"Hahaha! Yup! As expected of me! I look kinda lame in that state though…"
"That's good." Carly smiled and turned to the next person.
"Haemin, any trouble on your end?"
"Nope, im all good captain, could use a smoke though…"
"Well then that's two for four, Hansung, how about you?"
And he turned to a honeybee insect human, who looks rather similar to a certain student at Nest,
Well, ex-student…
He looked out of it though, slightly dazed, tired. Not physically, but mentally.
"...I'm fine."
"Right…" Carly understood why he looked like this, it was only recently they learned Gayeon Sin attacked Nest and killed his brother after all…
"And you, Bom?"
"I'm all good, Captain. Just all dirty… man i need a shower."
The last of the four had no visible insect human features except the bug tattoo on her left thigh, she had short yellow hair with blue highlights.
"Well then, I should probably tell you all, we have a guest."
""""???""""
They were a little confused, who could possibly find this place. It was really well hidden, a safe haven for stray dogs.
Hansung spoke first,
"Who is it…?"
"A student from Nest."
"?!"
That was even more confusing, how did a single ordinary Nest student find this place, they're so well hidden not even the board at Nest knows they exist.
After this, Captain Carl told the four everything that transpired while they were away.
"I get it. If the Captain says they seem harmless then it's fine." Woochang, ever the airhead, spoke up.
Bom on the other hand was a little skeptic,
"Captain, why are you telling us to help this kid even though we, or even you, haven't met him before?"
It was a simple question. But also the one that made the most sense,
Captain Carl never did anything without purpose, that's just how he always was.
So why would he agree to help out a random Nest student with a fetch quest?
"That's because… he is the survivor of Breeder's latest experiment, Project: Colony."
Hearing Breeder made them slightly shocked, however they had no idea what this project was.
"The raid we did on the ant facility around 2 months ago… he is the only survivor of the fire Haemin set."
"?!" Haemin was shocked, he thought Nanami evacuated all the non-feed trained specimens, or at least all the ones who weren't too far gone.
"Nanami told me she barely understood all the data from the lab with him in it, in fact he was already dead when she got there, so she made a copy of as much as she could, but when i tried looking into it, all that was found was the name 'Project: Colony'. The rest of the data had been corrupted."
That was a lot to process, not only did this imply this guy was a walking corpse or something, but it also meant Breeder had a specific intent with this specific person.
What was it?
To make him a predator?
Or something even more diabolical…
The four were shook, the situation was suddenly way more concerning than what they first observed.
"...any hostility or signs of feeding?" Hansung asked.
"None."
"Then I see no problem… as long as you say It's safe Captain, we'll keep an eye on him."
The other 3 nodded in agreement.
"Good."
—
A minute or so later, Nanami came over to the stray dogs, Do-Hyeok in tow.
"Captain~ I've brought him."
"Ah, Do-Hyeok, nice of you to join us."
"Sup." Do-Hyeok was oddly casual.
"Allow me to introduce these four to you. First off, Woochang Kang." And he pointed to the large man behind him.
"Hmph." Woochang seemed to be oddly cold.
'What's up with this guy?' Do-Hyeok thought internally, but these guys are supposed to help him right? Might as well be nice.
"Damn dude, you're jacked, how much do you lift?" Do-Hyeok asked with a casual smile on his face.
Woochang was caught off guard, while his outer appearance seemed rather gruff, he was a big softie. And a bigger muscle head, he was only acting cold now to test him later.
But…
"Heh. I see you understand the greatness that is my muscles." He smirked, completely forgetting his earlier face.
'This idiot…' the others thought.
'This guy is easy.' Do-Hyeok exasperated.
"Next. Haemin Kwon" Carly cut in, pointing to the smoking guy next to Woochang.
"Pleasure."
'This guy feels a little edgy, but…'
"You've got style."
And for half a second a small glint of respect could be seen in Haemin's eye.
'Game recognizes Game.' Haemin smirked inwardly.
"Then we have Bom Baek." Carly said looking at the only girl in the four Do-Hyeok was meeting.
"Yo."
'Hmm… She's a little hard to gauge. But she seems straightforward enough…'
"Nice to meet you." Do-Hyeok said with a simple smile.
'Simple and to the point… this guy's read us like a book. But I don't hate it.' Bom pondered.
"And finally, Hansung Lee" The Captain turned to the last one, a little downcast but met Do-Hyeok's gaze nonetheless.
"Mn."
Do-Hyeok simply nodded. The dude was clearly either depressed or traumatised. The best thing to do, especially to a stranger of this type, was to be calm and not invade more than what they would want.
"You four, this is Do-Hyeok." Carly spoke to them then turned to Do-Hyeok with a slightly expectant expression.
'Damn, what do you want me to say?'
"Uhh Nice to meet you, my name is Kim Do-Hyeok. Practical entomology student at Nest studying practical combat for insects. Let's get along, yeah?"
And just like that, somehow, by the will of all introverts on the planet,
Do-Hyeok had managed to make a good first impression with six people in a single day,
And he didn't bite his tongue once!
'Have I truly become a yellow meadow ant?' Do-Hyeok thought to himself smugly.
(Yellow meadow ants are known as the gentlest ants. They're famously non-aggressive.)
—
The next morning Do-Hyeok woke up to a slam of the class door and Woochang barging in.
"Hey, Hyung! Wanna go on a morning run?"
Despite just waking up on around 4 hours of sleep, Do-Hyeok was fully revitalized which was surprising since…
'How the hell am I so awake? I couldn't function unless I had at least 8 hours of sleep before…'
So, with this abundance of stamina he thought while looking at Woochang,
'Why not.'
"Sure, but what's with the 'hyung'? Didn't we just meet yesterday, also how old are you?"
"Well, any man who appreciates muscle is a brother to me! Also, I'm 2 years younger than you, I asked the Captain."
"Dude, you're 18?!"
"Yup! Why, there a problem hyung?"
"Nah… you're just massive for your age." Do-Hyeok said somewhat bewildered.
Then, the two went off on a light jog.
—
Surprisingly, when they got back, while Woochang was sweating buckets, Do-Hyeok didn't even seem remotely tired.
'This is a recent development… it wasn't like this when i was training in my dorm before…'
"Damn Hyung, you're a stamina monster!"
"...Right."
"Oh, right! Now that I have you, I forgot to ask, What's your complex?"
"My insecta complex?"
"Yup! I saw the ant trail tattoo so I know it has something to do with them but I never really got the chance to ask which. So will you tell me?"
'...'
Well now what?
Do-Hyeok was unsure if his complex would put these guys on alert, or make them worship him where he stands, and on top of that.
'This guy's an idiot…'
He hadn't had many interactions with Woochang, but he had enough to know that much.
But…
'He's a good kid…'
"Sigh~ my complex is…"
—
Meanwhile, in the classrooms everyone else was sound asleep,
Everyone except a certain young lady…
'Ugh… why'd I wake up so early today…' Nanami groaned internally.
For some reason, once her body stopped smelling a certain scent, she grew restless and jolted awake.
'This sucks…'
So instead of trying to go back to sleep, she decided to go for a stroll to clear her head.
Not anywhere far, probably just in the outside field for a bit.
So she got changed, put on her makeup and suddenly she wasn't sleepy Nanami but simply Nanami.
And then she left the schoolhouse, trying not to wake up the sleeping stray dogs in the classroom, and went for a walk.
After her little stroll she had calmed down. Thankfully she wasn't as sporadic as it was when she woke up.
'I wonder why he smells so tasty…' She began to salivate.
'Nope! Don't wanna think about it.'
So she strolled back to the schoolhouse and caught on to a certain scent.
After trailing it for a little she saw Woochang and Do-Hyeok outside, one sweating profusely and the other looking like he didn't even break one.
Then she overheard their conversation.
"My complex is…"
She hadn't heard the last bit but after a second and seeing the look on Woochang's face she knew it was extraordinary…
Also because Woochang expressed his exclaim as loud as he possibly could.
"WHAAAAAAAAAT!?!?"
…Well that woke everyone up.
A minute or two later, Bom came rushing down the stairs and dropkicked the life out of Woochang.
Yeah she was pissed.
"SHUT THE HELL UP! I'M TRYING TO SLEEP!!!"
'Real.' Do-Hyeok commented internally.
Woochang was now sprawled on the floor like a certain z-fighter,
And Nanami thought this would be a good time to join in.
"Woochang could you not be so loud in the morning…" she said.
"Hm? Nami? Why're you up so early?" Bom asked.
"Couldnt sleep." She gave an excuse.
No way was she gonna tell her that she couldn't sleep because she couldn't smell Do-Hyeok's scent.
What kinda pervert would that make her?
It's not like she even liked him either, they technically just met.
'He is rather handsome though…'
Then, Do-Hyeok spoke up.
"Bom, sorry about the wakeup call, that's probably my fault."
"Huh? What could you have possibly told him to react like that?"
"All I told him was what my complex was."
""???""
The two were a little confused, Bom more than Nanami as she was already eavesdropping.
"What's your complex? Can't be that shocking."
"16,000."
""...?""
"I'm fused with 16,000 species of ant. Individual species according to Nest."
""HUUUUUH?!?!?!""
—
END OF CHAPTER.
A/N: my friends writing a genshin fic and it should be dropping today on wn. Check it out!
I don't know the name yet but it's written by Dummydumdum1 on wn. No, not the admiral of fountaine fic. I found it its called Genshin: unlucky life
I'm plugging this for free so he better reward me later.
Also gimme powerstones. I want the shiny rock people. And a review if you'd be so kind.
What do you call an ant that likes to be alone?
An independant!
Hehehe. Very fitting for our protagonist.