The Trash Wants to Live

PR: xashaha

[I’m here. Ki Yoon-jae.]

It was Cookie who returned to the form of a small puppy. He tried to approach me in his divine form earlier, but I winked at him and told him not to come in that form. Understanding my message, Cookie disappeared out of the base camp.  Fortunately, the shock caused by Dietrich prevented everyone from noticing Cookie’s disappearance.

“Does it hurt a lot?”

[I’m okay.]

Cookie’s fur was covered with blood. When I pushed it back, the blood stopped, but the wound remained, so I called Ki Hyun-joo. Ki Hyun-joo noticed why I called her and poured healing power on Cookie.

[Mmm…]

I could see Cookie’s wounds healing little by little. He gave a small groan, perhaps because it was painful or itchy as the wound healed. Of course it was a groan to me and a whimper to others.

“…Is he the one from before?”

This makes no sense. Ki Hyun-joo murmured. No matter how she looked at it, the small, cute, little furry and the huge divine beast, like the legendary PoXmon, didn’t match well. While rummaging through his fur to see if there were any remaining wounds, she patted Cookie’s downcast head.

“Can’t he talk now?”

“Maybe?”

“I think I have fully healed him, but I don’t know if he is feeling dejected or in pain…”

Ki Hyun Joo continued to examine Cookie’s body and finished the treatment when she saw that there were no more wounds. She then healed the minor wounds left on my body and stepped down to help the injured. Jung Yi Joon also disappeared to help people as if he had come to his senses. All that remained was me, Jang Eui Yeol, who lost his tamed bull and was now no different from an incompetent person, and Cookie.

Jang Eui Yeol and I, who settled down in a corner so as not to get in the way of people, were restless when we saw the gloomy Cookie.

“Where does it still hurt? Why are you so listless? Hm?” 

[I’m sorry.]

Hmm? Why is he apologising all of a sudden? I didn’t understand and looked at Cookie opening his mouth sullenly.

[You and Jang Eui Yeol got hurt a lot because of me. Because I… I couldn’t stop Dietrich properly.]

‘Hmm…’

[I… I didn’t do my best and I almost killed both of you.]

Apparently, Cookie was bothered that he got caught up in emotion and couldn’t stop Dietrich. I understood him when he blamed other people’s suffering for his inability to compartmentalise public and private life.

‘How can he live in the world with FM as if he had measured it with a ruler?’

Dietrich wasn’t just a fellow countryman, he was someone with whom Cookie shared memories. Dietrich was his old master’s older brother, so he might have resembled her too. How could he be cold to such a person?

‘I can’t do that either.’

I didn’t even have to go to the people I knew before I was possessed. It was the same for the people I met after becoming Ki Yoon Jae. What if Jung Yi Joon had become an enemy? Or what if Jang Eui Yeol became an enemy as in the original story? Can I really hurt them?

‘…I can’t do that unless my life is at stake.’

If you’re in a novel that just wants smooth progress, you’ll find it cathartic to see the main character ruthlessly defeat the villain, regardless of old ties. But if the novel were to become reality… could you really like a main character who behaved like that?

I hugged Cookie silently and rubbed his back with my hands. Cookie dug deeper into my arms as if he understood my silent answer.

As everyone was cleaning up the trail of the disaster, people poured into the base camp, men of the first team and soldiers with new faces. They must have looked for an exit and came back in.

“Mr. Ki.”

Among them was Rachel. She saw me and approached me, but because the atmosphere around me was unusual, her face hardened and she turned back toward the soldiers, perhaps to hear the report. I feel like it’s all over, probably because I was supposed to meet her outside. 

After organising the base camp with the help of additional people from outside, we were able to go outside through the exit we found. Perhaps because of the life-or-death experience, the U.S. government did not put people inside the gate, but took everyone out for psychological counselling.

Well, there was also a reason that the base camp was not there anymore because the ground was overturned and collapsed by Dietrich’s attack.

The same thing happened to our guild when we left the gate. We rested in the hotel and were treated by a psychologist sent by the US government to ease us out, but everyone was less shocked than I thought.

‘Except Ha Hyun Seo has not gone through the base camp, and Kwon Jae Hyuk because he has nothing to fear…’ 

Ki Hyun Joo, Jung Yi Joon, and Jang Eui Yeol, who received a murderous look from Dietrich, were also better than expected. Their attitude toward it was almost like, “It just happened back then.”

But there was one person who wasn’t in good condition. That was Ha Eun Seo.

‘I think her male phobia has become stronger…’

In the past, we sometimes made eye contact, but recently Ha Eun Seo didn’t even raise her head. She didn’t come out of the room much because she was afraid of running into men.

Cookie grunted apologetically to everyone, just like he did to me. People couldn’t hear what Cookie was saying, but they all understood what Cookie meant when he grumbled and stuck his body close to them.

“Are you apologising now? I’m fine but— you’re really cute.”

Everyone said he was adorable and scratched his ear with their hands.

Cookie seemed relieved as he felt those touches. 

Thanks to that and Jung Yi Joon, Cookie, who had been depressed for a while, soon regained his liveliness.

“Hey, get as big as you did then. You can’t? You can’t, right? Huh?”

“Grrrrr.”

“If you growl, what do you… Argh! He bit me!”

Jung Yi Joon harassed and teased Cookie as if he had forgotten the fear he experienced earlier in the day, but was eventually bitten hard. Cookie chased Jung Yi Joon, who ran away while flapping his hands in pain, although he did not bleed. Everyone laughed at them as Cookie chased after him relentlessly, even though Cookie would normally just growl quietly. 

Then someone knocked on the door.

“Who is it?”

Ki Hyun Joo stood up and asked as she headed toward the door.

Not many people knew we were here, mostly people from the US Government and the SNT. It could have been an assassin who came to kill me from Korea, but the probability of that was quite low. The hotel is surrounded and guarded by U.S. government agents.

‘I don’t think it’s an assassin.’

And I was right, as expected.

“It’s me.”

The voice heard outside was Rachel’s. Ki Hyun Joo looked through the scope on the door and confirmed her face. As soon as she opened the door, Rachel came inside.

She then approached me and asked. 

“Can I talk to you for a second?”

“Well… yes, sure.”

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I nodded and stood up to follow her. We left the room and entered another one on the same floor. There was no bed to be seen, only a table, and  it seemed to be a space for conversation.

“Please have a seat.”

Rachel pointed to one chair and sat on the other side. An agent handed her and me one drink each and left.

“I brought Mr. Ki here instead of the interrogation room to hear what happened that day because we don’t want to scare you or make you feel like that.”

“I know.”

Somehow, my people and I, who were hired, got caught up in a disaster… The U.S. government didn’t anticipate this, and will likely be very frustrated.

If they were scared by interrogating other people, including me and Kwon Jae Hyuk, they didn’t know that the consequences would be severe for them. If they had listened to all the stories of the people who had previously gone in with us, they would know that Kwon Jae Hyuk had defeated Dietrich by himself.

Anyway, there was no reason to offend Kwon Jae Hyuk, who easily eradicated Dietrich and was impervious to modern firearms, or his boss, me, by interrogating me like a sinner. And more importantly, I almost died.

‘Soldiers, government workers, were killed on a mission, and I thought I could somehow gloss over it, but… I can’t.’

A person from another country, and I, the successor of a world-famous company, died on a mission? There was no way to simply get away with it from Sungwoon, saying, ‘Oh, I see’. 

‘Well, I don’t care what happens after I die, but…’

It didn’t matter whether Korea or the earth would be destroyed after I died, but I didn’t want my death to benefit others. For example, Ki Yong Woo and Ki Sung Yoon became rich. 

If I die, they will be happy and love it, saying that their world has come, but they will pretend to be sad on the outside and think carefully about the pros and cons in their heads. How can they significantly extort the compensation for my death from the United States?

‘They’ll never see that coming.’

My mind was filled with the thought that I had to live somehow. I smiled, grateful to be alive today.

T/N: I don’t know what FM is since author didn’t explain it. If someone know, please comment below. Thanks 😁🤞