Chapter 227: Poe-ling 1
Junhyuk went to work at Guardian's office in Ilsan. There, he met the other employees and smiled at them. From that moment on, he had just one more week, and Junhyuk wanted to spend it diligently.
The monster corpses had arrived from the airport, but Ilsan didn't have a storage room, so everything was sent to Paju. That day, they were moving the corpses to the new headquarters being built in Seoul, and Junhyuk took Tsubasa and Soyeon with him.
Eunseo hadn't arrived at work yet, so he didn't see her.
Junhyuk was willing to wait for Eunseo to make up her mind, and he told the others he was going out.
Looking at the new building, he couldn't hide his astonishment.
"When did they build all this?" Soyeon asked, stupefied.
"Probably, at the same time were building the HQ at Paju. If not, they couldn't have built this much already."
The area designated for apartment redevelopment was without apartments. Instead, a huge building took over it. The storage room had three sections, and there were over fifty trucks in front of the storage area.
Junhyuk walked past the trucks to meet the drivers.
"Did you just arrive?"
"Please, wait a minute."
Junhyuk walked toward the entrance of the building and placed his hand on the fingerprint scanner. Soon, he heard Zaira's voice, and the door opened.
Standing in front of Tsubasa and Soyeon, he said, "Now, check on where the bodies came from and measure their sizes. It will take about two hours."
Each took out a tablet and started the process. The work was simple, and having more people would help it go faster.
Junhyuk ordered them to place the bodies deep inside in order of arrival. By then, the iron soldiers were deployed to at least fifty countries, and the storage room had fifty separate areas.
Every week, there were about two monster attacks, so there were many monster bodies now. They had also created a monster research team that was able to research the bodies much faster.
Junhyuk inspected that day's corpses. In China's case, the monster had been killed by a person with a power, so there was no body from there.
He stopped the team that was working on the corpses from the States immediately.
"Wait!"
There were putting the bodies away when they stopped, and Junhyuk walked over to them and frowned.
"Is this part broken?" Junhyuk asked, and Tsubasa and Soyeon walked over to them as well. The material was from the United States, but a part of the container had cracked, and there was a green liquid oozing out.
Junhyuk looked at the green liquid and frowned.
"Maybe it's the monster's blood?"
More people gathered around him.
"We have to transfer this body. Bring me a new container."
The new container was brought over, and people wearing HAZMAT suits arrived. To transfer the body from container to container, they had to move the whole thing to a different place designed for the job.
So far, they had found no virus on the bodies, but it was never a bad idea to be extra careful. They decontaminated the body in the other room first before starting the transfer.
Junhyuk was looking at the monster through a monitor and frowned. He checked his tablet and found the identity of the monster found in the States.
"Is it a poe-ling?" [Editor's Note: The best that I could tell was that it was something like Slimer from Ghostbusters. Think Legend of Zelda Poes.]
It was a sticky, jelly-shaped monsters. They had to use napalm to kill it. Junhyuk looked at the body again.
Bits of green jelly filled the container, and Junhyuk looked at Soyeon.
"In this case, it'll be better to dispose of the container."
The container itself was very cold. The idea was to keep the bodies in it without having them decay. However, this time the container had cracked, and there was a liquid oozing from the body. It was having issues keeping the contents cold, so it was a good idea to exchange containers.
Junhyuk watched carefully as they exchanged containers and walked around checking to see if there were others with similar problems, but he found they were all OK.
"Well, let's go back."
He waited for everyone to get out of the storage area and placed his hand on the scanner and closed the door. The delivery trucks started to leave, and Junhyuk looked around. The whole building was still empty, but there was a park with vending machines around it.
After getting a few drinks from the machine, he handed one to Tsubasa and another to Soyeon.
"Before we go back, let's have lunch. It's on me."
"If it's lunch, I want noodles," Soyeon called out first, and Junhyuk looked at Tsubasa. She didn't speak, and he went back to looking at Soyeon.
"Do you know a good noodle place?"
"I do!"
"Then, take us there."
---
Inside of the large monster storage room, a container was bouncing and shaking. The contents had come from the United States, and a crack appeared on it. Through that crack, green liquid started oozing out.
The green liquid traveled to the center of the storage area and stood up. It was already three meters tall and shaped like pudding. The monster was a poe-ling. Despite its endearing name, the monster ate everything around it. Only the iron soldier would be able to stop it.
The poe-ling started to move. It looked very slow, but it maintained a speed similar to a grown man running. When it got to the containers with other bodies, it spit more of the green liquid over them, and the liquid seeped into each container.
The poe-ling didn't stand there watching. It kept moving to cover all fifty containers in that green liquid. While it had started at three meters tall, it now measure only two meters.
Crack! Bang, bang, bang!
The containers started to shake and bounce, and the monsters soon broke through from the inside. The iron soldiers had killed them all, but now, the monsters were getting up with green eyes.
Their bodies remained mangled, but more importantly, they were alive again.
The poe-ling took the lead, and the monsters followed it. When they got to the storage room's steel door, the monsters rushed at it.
Boom!
The door didn't break, but it was seriously dented, so they pounded at it more fiercely and, soon, they broke through it.
---
The group was drinking their sodas when they suddenly heard a loud noise.
Boom!
The storage room door dented out, and Junhyuk pulled out his tablet.
"Zaira, show me footage inside the room."
Cameras had already been installed in the storage room, and the tablet displayed the feed he requested. His mouth hung open.
"There were certainly dead before!"
The monster bodies were up and moving around, but there was no time to find out what had just happened.
"Zaira, tell Elise about the situation and call for the deployment of iron soldiers," Junhyuk said and started to run to his car with Tsubasa and Soyeon. While they were getting in the car, storage room door finally broke open with a loud boom.
A wolf with half of its head remaining crossed through the threshold.
Hoooowwwll!
The wolf howled, and Junhyuk stepped on the accelerator. His objective was to get out of that place. There was more than just one or two monsters. All of the monsters were alive again, so there were at least fifty of them.
To survive, he had to get away.
Just in case, he summoned his arm warmer. His defense went up, and Junhyuk turned the car around. The monsters chased maddeningly after it.
None of the monsters were in one piece, but there were many of them. The wolf chased after the car with a mountain hog next to it. However, the hog was very fast, even faster than the wolf, and two meters tall.
The hog was about the size of a truck, and Tsubasa stared at it. Soyeon was frozen scared, and Junhyuk gave her his tablet.
"Ask Zaira if the iron soldier's been deployed and what the expected time of arrival is."
Soyeol collected herself and shouted at the tablet, "Zaira, has the iron soldier deployed?"
[The iron soldier has deployed. Permission for breaking the sound barrier has been granted. It'll get there in two minutes.]
Junhyuk bit his lips. It was flying at the speed of sound, but they would have to survive the monsters for two minutes. He wouldn't be worried if he was alone. In fact, he would've been confident he wouldn't die, and if necessary, he could've gotten away.
But with Soyeon, the story was different. Tsubasa could take care of herself, but he couldn't trust her too much. She only had enough firepower to kill about five monsters. They needed greater movement speed, but that was something they didn't have at that moment.
Toosh, toosh, toosh, toosh!
There were two hogs and four wolves chasing after them now. They were pouring out of the storage room, and Junhyuk wasn't sure the iron soldier could deal with all of them alone.
Junhyuk asked, "Do you have your seatbelts on?"
"Yes!"
Junhyuk yanked on the wheel.
Screeeeech!
The back wheels stopped, and the car skidded. While it did, he turned the wheel again and stepped on the accelerator. The car drifted, and they got out of that area.
Boom!
The hogs crashed at a wall trying to chase the car, and the wolves tripped on fallen logs.
Junhyuk frowned and murmurs, "I need a new car."
If he had a faster car, he might've been able to get away. As Junhyuk drove, monsters appeared opposite of him.
They looked like alligators and they were blocking the road. He stared at them. From head to tail, they were about ten meters long, and Junhyuk felt himself against a wall.
He slammed on the accelerator and said, "We'll take a sidepath."
Tsubasa caught a glimpse of the side of his face. She thought he was amazing because he didn't seem scared. Instead, he was just trying to get them out of there. When she looked at the alligators, she thought she could deal with them normally, but there were too many at that point, so she wanted to follow his decisions.
The alligator's mouth opened, and he quickly turned the wheel.
SNAP!
The car barely escape, but the hood got taken out. They were relieved at their luck, but then something pulled the car off the ground.
Whiiirr!
The wheels spun in midair, and Junhyuk turned to look. The car's sunroof was covered by a spider's web. A giant spider was on a wall, pulling the web toward it with its mouth wide open.
"Shit!"