He must have once pretended to be a police officer.

That must have been when he and Asil were partners. I couldn’t help but pity the Asil of that time—forced to patrol alongside a deceitfully calm Jaeyeon.

It was clear now that Asil quitting the force had something to do with that man.

Oddly enough, seeing Jaeyeon didn’t anger me as much as I thought it would. I had expected he would show up here in some form. Not seeing him at all would have been more unsettling.

At least one thing was certain now—

I wasn’t going to die here.

“Green Dream.”

The pale, cold air of the place wrapped around us.

Asil glared up at Jaeyeon, his voice tight with suppressed rage.

“You were the one who supplied it, weren’t you?”

“Ah, our dear Marie?”

A trace of amusement lingered on Jaeyeon’s lips.

The sharp-looking man narrowed his eyes.

“She wasn’t mine. Just the desperate flailing of a loser.”

Only I understood his words.

If Jaeyeon was telling the truth, then the high school girl who injected us with Green Dream had been a subordinate of a nameless Elder—one who had lost to Colton.

That defeated Elder had not given up yet.

But his final scheme had already been seen through by both Colton and Jaeyeon. To Jaeyeon, such futile resistance must have seemed hilarious. He had probably enjoyed watching it unfold, choosing to worsen the situation by playing a policeman for his own amusement.

Purely for entertainment.

Ah... there it is again. Old memories surfacing.

Jaeyeon, living a life bound to Colton, often behaved exactly like this—acting out just to relieve stress. Colton would look down at him with weary disdain. “Stop doing such useless things,” he would scold, and Jaeyeon would respond by smashing whatever objects were within reach.

Crash! Bang! I could almost hear the sound of breaking glass again—just as I used to quietly slip away before things got worse.

I let out a small sigh.

“You’ll survive the match, won’t you?”

Jaeyeon ignored my sigh and directed the question at Asil instead.

But before Asil—still grinding his teeth—could reply, the sound of footsteps came from the end of the corridor.

Several of them.

Out of the darkness came a familiar voice.

“Officer.”

The first to appear was Mick.

“Got any more Green Dream?”

“Unfortunately, no.”

Jaeyeon turned to him with a spin and a smile.

He stood politely, hands clasped behind his back, answering like a model subordinate. It was strange to see. I had never seen Jaeyeon speak so respectfully to anyone other than Colton.

Then again, who could say which version of him was the real one?

“Exporting Green Dream is a tedious process,” Jaeyeon went on smoothly. “The woman who tipped you off about this plan probably has the rest.”

“She’s nowhere to be seen.”

Mick’s reply was followed by the grumbling of the three or four mafia men behind him.

Listening to their complaints, I quickly pieced things together.

The idea of throwing the Badgers into the arena had been a plan devised by that defeated Elder and the mafia.

The mastermind was the former Elder expelled by Colton, and his first collaborators were the mafiosos. The Elder must have hated the Badger leadership for allowing his downfall, while the mafia resented the Badgers for constantly interfering with their business.

Then Jaeyeon had inserted himself into the mix—playing the role of a corrupt cop.

With a dramatic sigh, Mick gestured lazily with his hand.

“Can’t be helped. Guess we’ll just have to shoot them up with more drugs.”

The seniors’ bodies stiffened.

I pretended not to notice the way they clenched their jaws and glared. Shouting now would do nothing.

Mick accepted a syringe from one of his men.

“Newbie. Come here.”

Holding the syringe in his right hand, he crooked his finger at me.

“Stick your arm out through the bars.”

“Yes, Mom.”

I answered breezily.

The seniors snapped their heads toward me in unison.

Jaeyeon laughed aloud. I heard Ricardo make a dry scoff. Asil and Bobby stared at me, wide-eyed.

The mafiosos, too, looked at me with a mix of confusion and amusement.

Only Mick’s expression remained unchanged.

He grabbed my left arm through the bars, blinking twice before meeting my gaze.

Then the mafia boss smiled faintly, almost pityingly.

“You really don’t know any better, do you?”

He jabbed the needle into my arm and pushed the liquid in.

“Rookie Badgers are always like this. They get drunk on the power they suddenly have.”

“So that’s why you keep shooting them up?”

I smiled gently and asked, voice soft.

“Because you’re scared of me?”

Crackle!

Thud!

A heavy impact slammed me against the floor.

Ah... that actually hurt.

My body convulsed as the electricity passed through me. I heard the mafia laughing, Asil and Bobby shouting in panic, Ricardo sighing quietly, and Jaeyeon’s snort of amusement.

Mick had slammed me against the bars and let me fall, then stood silently as I gasped for breath on the ground.

After a long pause, he spoke.

“When intermission’s over, drag them all to the arena.”

“Yes, sir!”

The mafiosos moved at once.

While his subordinates scurried around, Mick didn’t budge. He only stood there, head lowered, staring at me in silence.

His shadow loomed over me.

“So, because the Green Dream didn’t work properly, you think this is all funny, huh?”

My attitude must have really gotten under his skin.

His voice hit the floor, heavy with restrained fury.

“You probably think time’s on your side—that you’ll recover, that your body’s stronger than a normal person’s, that you’ll win eventually.”

“You’re trying to call me arrogant?”

Even through ragged breaths, I couldn’t help but laugh.

“You?”

“You think no matter what happens to your seniors, you’ll walk out of here alive. That delusion’s what lets you act like this.”

He ignored my words.

Maybe he didn’t even hear me. His pupils had that loose, unhinged gleam as he murmured,

“Let’s see how long that confidence lasts.”

Mick turned away.

Radiating gloom, he and his men finally left. I listened to their footsteps fading down the corridor, the crowd that had stormed in now retreating in a rush.

Jaeyeon, who had /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ been lingering nearby, slipped away too. The sound of military boots gradually turned into the click of heels—then vanished entirely.

A pale silence followed.

Cold air sank around me, and the chill reached deep into my skin.

As soon as the aftershock of the electric hit faded, the drug began to take effect.

“Newbie.”

Asil’s voice buzzed faintly near my ear.

But I couldn’t muster the strength to reply.

“You okay?”

I had to get away from them.

A confusing rush of sensations pressed down on me.

Asil said something, standing up sharply, but I could no longer make sense of his words. The others’ voices blurred into a dull hum.

One thing was certain—I couldn’t control my strength right now.

Scraping together what little reason I had left, I rolled away from them, curling up in the corner of the cell.

They really did inject me with something, didn’t they?

What kind of drug makes you hurt instead of feel good?

The seniors kept talking, but their words melted into noise. I gave up trying to understand and raised one trembling hand.

“Stay back,” I managed to say.

Ricardo sounded angry about something—probably shouting—but thank God I couldn’t make out a word.

I looked at their frowning faces and smiled faintly.

“I can’t understand anything you’re saying.”

...Was that Ricardo kicking the wall just now?

Terrifying. An angry Ricardo is terrifying.

Watching him and Bobby jump to their feet, I decided to pretend to faint.

I closed my eyes naturally, curling up so I wouldn’t hit them if I thrashed in my delirium.

If I just waited this out, the drug’s effect would wear off.

I couldn’t afford to hurt them—not even by accident. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

It took everything I had to hold on to consciousness. The space was small enough that if I lost control, I might actually strike one of them. The unpleasant sensations crawled through my limbs; I clenched and opened my fists, groping at empty air, then scratched at the cold floor once I realized there was nothing to hold.

At least clawing the floor kept me from passing out.

Then I felt someone drag me from the corner toward the center of the cell.

Sweat had gathered along my lashes; I blinked it away.

“Should we make him vomit?”

A frightened voice.

Another voice, low and grim, answered,

“It won’t help. We just have to wait for it to wear off....”

“Let’s keep him out of the match.”

A firm voice this time.

“We’ll end this ourselves.”

End what?

I listened dimly, mind fogging.

I remembered only that I mustn’t pass out—everything else slipped away.

Why was I here again?

The floor’s cold.

Who’s talking? None of them sound particularly happy....

Ah. My hands and feet are tingling.

When I stirred slightly, all voices stopped.

A face filled my blurred vision.

“Hilde!”

Hm?

“Can you see me?”

Ah.

I smiled faintly at the familiar outline—shoulder-length hair, wide eyes leaning close to mine.

So the tiresome business must be over now.

Watching her trembling hair, I smiled weakly.

“Eve.”

The person looking down at me froze.

“I see you. Guess it’s over. Where’s Kyle?”

No answer came.

I blinked, uneasy at the silence.

Why wasn’t she talking? She was always so talkative. Always full of excitement, giving long, dramatic speeches after every experiment ended.

Shaking that odd two-tone hair—blue on top, violet beneath.

“Who’s Eve? And Kyle?”

Hm?

...Oh.

Damn it.

Reality crashed back all at once.

“People you know?” one of them said. “Whatever—he’s clearly out of his mind right now.”

“I’ll carry him to the waiting room,” came Asil’s low, grim murmur.

“He doesn’t look like he can walk properly.”

Time to pretend I’m still out of it.

Mortified that I’d mistaken Bobby for someone else, I stayed limp, pretending to be completely dazed.

Even when Asil lifted me up, and even when Ricardo realized I was half-conscious, I kept up the act—faking the stupor right to the end.