It looked like it would take about an hour to leave the dock and get to the island.

Since it was a remote island, he thought it must be pristine and uninhabited since there was only one branch office there. But it was surprisingly large, so he had to get on a bus back from the island’s pier and drive a long way along the beach.

The sun had just set so the forest on the island looked even darker and strangely dense.

 “If there were wild animals or poisonous snakes appearing here, it wouldn’t be strange at all.”

Jeong Taeui whispered, his uncle calmly nodded.

 “There are a lot of poisonous snakes, so at night you should look carefully under your feet. – – But there’s nothing to worry about. There is no type toxic enough to kill someone immediately, so if you can give first aid in time, you won’t die.”

 Jeong Taeui looked at him speechlessly. Changin reassured him not to worry again.

Looks like he really came to the wrong place. Even if it’s half a year, it’s still enough time for a person to die unjustly. In any case, he will wait until next weekend and go to Hong Kong Island and run away. But Changin immediately overruled him.

“Ah, that’s right. In more than a month, no one will be able to go out. Joint training with the European branch will begin in 15 days. Within 15 days. Before that, it was a special training period, so going out was forbidden. And during the general training period, you will also be prohibited from going out, so… A month will pass quickly, hopefully during that time you will adapt in time.”

Before wondering how much this uncle could read his mind, even if only for a moment, he really wanted to strangle this man.

Jeong Taeui stared at his uncle’s neck with regret. Suddenly, he felt a gaze and glanced towards the rearview mirror and met eye contact with the driver. The driver narrowed his eyes on him. It seemed like just a fleeting smile.

That was the person who picked him up at the airport. Could it be that he drove from the airport to the pier, then slowly drove the boat across the water and onto this island… Jeong Taeui bet he didn’t see him on that boat…

This person also has a similar smell. The smell of a soldier. He had said many times that they were not soldiers, but he still had the characteristic scent of a soldier who had lived a life full of hardships. Maybe when they get to that island, everyone there will smell of the same sin.

While thinking, Jeong Taeui sighed and turned his head back. The power to strangle his uncle also disappeared.

“Bringing me here just in time for the joint training session with that unfortunate and bloody European branch… Turns out you really hate me.”

“No way.”

 The uncle laughed. Jeong Taeui looked at him suspiciously and without much confidence.

Jeong Taeui soon got used to this type of general training. In recent years, he has struggled to train like that every day. Until four months ago, he was still a Military Officer. I wonder how they will train here?

No matter how tired you are, as long as you don’t die, you’ll soon get used to it. Each experience takes a little time to adapt to it, and then you will get used to the new pain over and over again… Then at some point, the worst worm will writhe, you will not control it anger anymore and it will explode, then the problem will lie in personal choice.

 Jeong Taeui suddenly got upset and scratched his head.

Until now, he has never regretted anything he did. No matter what it is, he engraves in his heart that he must not do things that make him regret later.

Therefore, he did not regret beating that unlucky colleague in the army to half-life. Before that happened, he patiently endured five and a half years. So he thinks that’s enough. In fact, it was also the result of many different complicated things. Even though he thought that being discharged from the army would cause his life to fall into a deep hole for the rest of his life, in any case, he did not regret leaving the army.

However, thinking about that time and the mood at that time, he still couldn’t help but feel sick to his stomach.

That guy is someone who has never fallen behind others, but when he saw you surpassing him, the face he showed was extremely ugly. And that was the reason why the two had to lie next to each other in the military hospital right before demobilization. Along with that motive, Jeong Taeui’s sexual orientation is also a perfect reason.

Tsk tsk. Jeong Taeui was inconveniently stretched in the car. All day he had to be stuck on a plane, then a car, and even on a ship, from the air to the mainland and then floating again at sea. His body was exhausted. No matter where you train, you must first stretch a few rounds to warm up your body.

The car that was driving suddenly stopped.

Under the dark sky as the sun had set with the dense forest surrounding it. Jeong Taeui didn’t know if he had ever been in such a dense forest.

“Here we are”

The driver got out of the car. The uncle spoke briefly, Jeong Taeui immediately opened the door. As soon as he set foot outside, he saw a building ahead.

“Phew, if you feel this tired, you must be really old. That’s right, I’m over 40 so I can’t call it young.”

The uncle muttered to himself behind Jeong Taeui. He looked intently at the building in front and asked.

 “Uncle.”

 “Huh?”

 “Asia Branch…. Is this all it is?”

“Yes, one building. Seems a bit simple, right?”

“So what are those spacious buildings in the brochure?”

“Ah, that’s the headquarters in America. Our Asia branch’s facilities are the least modern but at the same time the best place for strength training. I haven’t told you yet?”

“Not at all…..you liar.”

“No one cares about that brochure anyway.”

He smiled and said. People will register to join branches based on the name, not the guidebook, it’s just you who was dragged there without any choice. But the building in front of him was no different from a dilapidated one-story building of a school in the countryside that would have to be demolished and rebuilt soon. Even everywhere there are cracks, peeling paint and rust.

No matter how you look at it, it just looks like a level 4 building that is about to collapse or a state agency that was abandoned decades ago.

Wait. If this were a building….

“How many people are there….”

“1 Director, 2 Vice Directors, 6 Instructors, 96 members, 5 Assistant Warden. A total of 110 people.”

He counted with his fingers as he spoke.

“Isn’t that right…?”

“How can 110 people be crowded into a place like this?”

“Come in. Even a compact car can fit a bunch of people.”

“No, but the training area and the place to eat and sleep….”

Jeong Taeui pointed at the building with a bewildered look, but the driver had already passed by his uncle’s luggage and entered the building in front of him. The rusted hinges made a creepy noise as the door opened. It’s not like a ghost would suddenly appear when awakened by that sound…

Looking at Jeong Taeui’s expression, he immediately smiled and said seriously.

“It’s the basement. There are a total of 7 basement floors. It’s about 2,000 pyeong (6,611 square meters) so 100 people is no problem even though it’s not very big.”

(*A pyeong (abbreviation py) is a Korean unit of area and floorspace, equal to a square kan or 36 square Korean feet. The ping and tsubo are its equivalent Taiwanese and Japanese units, similarly based on a square bu (ja:步) or ken, equivalent to 36 square Chinese or Japanese feet.*)

Jeong Taeui once again looked at him with a puzzled expression. Isn’t 2000p and 7 floors too large for 100 people to live in, but….

“On a small island, how can you build a basement of up to 7 floors and 2,000 square meters wide…”

“That’s why we chose this island. Do you think we just randomly picked an island in Asia and set up a branch there?”

The uncle said with satisfaction.

Jeong Taeui looked suspiciously at his uncle’s back for a moment, then came to the open door, put his backpack on his shoulder and followed him.

His uncle’s steps gradually slowed down to wait for him to catch up. Suddenly, he turned around and patted Taeui’s head. Jeong Taeui took a step back and looked at him confused. 

“Don’t die.”

“….Yes?”

“This is not a place where the law out there has a place to step in. This is a place where weak people cannot complain even if they fall into injustice. And in some cases, even if a few people die, the internal affairs will soon be calmed down without any problem.”

Changin stopped for a moment. Jeong Taeui looked at his uncle without saying a word. After that, he laughed without any strength.

“Uncle, why are you so mean… You should have said that first. If I was suddenly dragged to the tiger’s den, what would I do?”

“Even if I said it first, the result would still be the same.”

He also laughed. Jeong Taeui sighed and shrugged.

“In short, I will have to trust my feelings like you said to try to survive, right? But… if there’s anything you remember, come help me pick up the corpses and collect the bones.”

“Haha, well, even so, it’s not completely wild and wooly here.”

“So do we need to be careful or not?”

“No matter where you are, better safe than sorry “

He smiled and turned to walk away. This time he did not stop or turn his head to watch him walk towards the building. Jeong Taeui shook his head. At times like this, he is jealous of his brother who is not as lucky as him.

Even though everything was in the basement like the office, meeting room, lecture hall, laboratory, break room and cafeteria, he had no intention of leading him into the building but just towards the old door at the end of a deserted wooden hallway.

However, as the two of them were walking, a young man walked out of the door right next to Jeong Taeui. His uncle immediately stopped walking.

 “Tou!”

The young man stepped out into the open door and walked slowly. As soon as he saw his uncle, he immediately turned around.

“Instructor.”

When he saw his uncle, he adjusted his posture and bowed slightly.

“Are you busy?”

 “No, I was just going out to smoke.”

Jeong Taeui nodded, perhaps he understood the difference between the army and this place. He sighed as the world of English opened before his eyes, this was the common language used at the branch. Even though he can speak fluently, he doesn’t really want to use it. Then, his uncle’s index finger suddenly pointed at him.

“Let’s take this kid down for a little tour. Please take him to the room Kiyomi used and help me introduce him to the members below.”

 “Ah, yes.”

The young man scratched his ear as if he was annoyed, but not too annoyed, he just nodded.

When he finished saying that sentence, he didn’t look at Jeong Taeui at all, but just waved his hand lightly and opened that old door and stepped inside. Only the young man and Jeong Taeui remained in the hallway.

The young man looked at Jeong Taeui from head to toe and then went back into the door he had just come out of. Fingers curved up to signal. Jeong Taeui also looked at him from head to toe and followed. The young man immediately smiled.

The wooden door he just walked out of was an elevator. It looked no different from an old elevator of an abandoned school about to collapse. But when he saw it open and close smoothly without a sound, Jeong Taeui felt a bit of a new surprise. Stepping inside, he found that its functions had nothing to complain about.

“Did they pour all their budget into this to make it look as old as possible….”

Looking inside, Jeong Taeui muttered to himself and then looked at the young man who had been attentively observing him.

 He looks like a Chinese person, but judging from his white skin and small frame, it seems that he is not a pure Han Chinese, it seems that he has the blood of some ethnic minority there.

The young man looked at Jeong Taeui with curious eyes and tapped his index finger on his chest a few times.

 “Tou. Tou Jing.”

 “….. Jeong Taeui. You can call me Taeui too.”

 “Taei… , ok.” (Taei is pronounced Tay, while Taeui is pronounced Tae-oui. Oui as Yes in France) 

The pronunciation was a bit wrong, but Jeong Taeui still decided to stay silent because he thought it would be useless to correct it.

“Did you transfer from another branch? Or are you a newcomer?”

“I am a new member. It seems like transferring members between branches is normal.”

“Not common but not very rare either. Newcomers will be arranged from above. What are you doing here? Isn’t it from a company or something?”

“I’m unemployed.”

Jeong Taeui replied seriously but the young man named Tou laughed out loud as if he considered it just a joke.

“Well, just not from the European branch. But it’s good anyway. Welcome here.”

 Tou held out his hand, Jeong Taeui grabbed Tou’s hand and shook it gently.

 “It seems like the relationship with the European branch is quite bad.”

He heard it from his uncle but it seems the relationship between the two branches is worse than that. Surely the relationship was as one-nine-one-tenth as his old platoon and the platoon of his bastard colleague named Kim when he was in the army.

“Pretty bad huh? Sigh, you’ll know early next month. I mean from next month we will have joint training with the European branch so those bastards will come here. Let me tell you, if there’s a particularly obnoxious guy, you can just secretly bury one or two of them. All the teams in our branch will work together.”

This doesn’t sound like a joke at all. It seems like the relationship is worse than the platoon of him and Kim Jeong Pil.

“Thanks for reminding.”

 “What. We have to help each other.”

Tou smiled happily and walked out of the elevator as soon as the elevator stopped. Jeong Taeui immediately followed.