CHAPTER 28: CHAPTER 27: PERMISSION? CONSENT? WHAT’S THAT?

"So... you have a task page listing various tasks on it, and you used it to find the restaurant?"

Zaen vigorously nodded.

"And you managed to kill them... with luck?"

Once again, Zaen nodded.

Johann smiled and snapped his fingers again. The skin-tight suit untangled itself from Zaen, letting him fall to the ground, sweating and panting like a dog after intense training.

Three hours.

Johann interrogated him for three hours straight without any breaks. Zoey and Karloff both were sent away when the interrogation got a bit out of hand.

Zoey was clearly worried about the mental strain it would put on Zaen, while Karloff... well, he had other matters to deal with.

This fucking bastard...

Zaen thought while coughing his lungs out. His mouth was open to respond to Johann, but the constant pressure on his diaphragm made it impossible for him to talk and breathe for long.

At times he was suffocating because Johann thought Zaen was lying when he told him the truth. Especially when it came to describing the system pages he had.

Zaen thought the system he had was a common resource for all hunters. However, as it turned out, others could only access the ’system’ while they were inside the game.

He was the only one who had an active system in the real world. Not only that, the pages such as the shop, tasks, and rewards, all were exclusive to him. But none of that was his concern.

He was more worried about what Johann would do to him now.

What kind of trouble have I landed in this time...?

"Here, have some water," Johann said, offering him a glass. "Oh, I forgot."

Johann grabbed Zaen’s hand and placed the cup in it. Zaen was thirsty, that was no secret, but he was worried about the liquid offered to him.

The sick fuck had tortured him, and there was no saying if he hadn’t put something in the water or if it even was water to begin with.

"There’s nothing in it," Johann continued. "I know you’re having trouble trusting me after everything that happened between us, but it was the protocol, and here, we take protocols very seriously."

Zaen was still suspicious but drank the contents either way. However, like he suspected, it wasn’t water, but it wasn’t anything harmful either. Instead, the liquid helped calm his nerves and erratic heart rate.

"Do you trust me now?"

Zaen couldn’t help but scoff after hearing Johann’s words.

"I guess not," Johann said, scratching his head. "I keep telling the supervisors that this method of interrogation is too extreme for potential recruits. Ugh.... either way, you can proceed to your medical test now. If everything clears, then we can continue the conversation."

"Without the suit?"

The words shot out of Zaen’s mouth before the mind could process what he was asking.

"...yes, without the suit," Johann replied before calling for Karloff. "Take him to the med bay for medical tests and ask Zoey to file the incident report, and attach Zaen’s confession along with it."

"Roger."

Johann snapped his fingers again, and just like that, Zaen was thrown out of the room.

The more I learn about them, the less I want to join this place...

***

The medical test wasn’t any better than the interrogation. Apparently, the doctor’s idea of a test was radically different from the ones Zaen knew of. Even the military wasn’t as paranoid as them.

Blood sample? Well, every facility takes that.

Urine sample? Nothing out of the ordinary.

Hair and saliva? That was a bit much, but Zaen did as told, but what happened next took him aback like nothing else had in the entire day.

"...what?"

The raven-haired doctor didn’t reply instantly, instead, she fixed her glasses and began flipping through pages.

"It says you are visually impaired, but it seems your ears aren’t in a better condition," she retorted. "I said, remove your clothes so I can check for any anomalous infection."

She continued, "You must have done it countless times during military training. This isn’t any different. Besides, if you don’t do it willingly, I might have to restrain you and strip you myself. Do you want that?"

"...right."

Zaen stripped down to his underwear, wondering what would they ask for next. Instead, he heard a compliment from the doctor.

"For a young adult, you’re in great shape," she said, as she placed the stethoscope on his chest. "Breathe in for me, now let go... good boy."

"..."

From her weirdly strained tone, Zaen knew the woman didn’t seem to have any good intentions towards him.

He had no idea how she looked but from her silhouette, she was gifted in certain parts of her physique. It seemed even blindness couldn’t stop him from judging a woman’s curves.

"Your heart rate spiked suddenly," the doctor replied. "Is something the matter?"

"Nothing..."

"Hm... I guess it can be attributed to the strangeness of the situation," the doctor said, patting his shoulder. "Believe it or not, you’re taking it much better than some other people I have tested. There’s nothing you have to worry about."

Zaen nodded and turned his ’gaze’ away from her. The truth could be hidden till it was about his heart rate, but if his little soldier decided to march, then... he didn’t know what the doctor would think of him.

After that, the doctor performed allergen tests, checked his reflexes, and other basic stuff. At last, the testing phase was over. Zaen grabbed his pants and was about to get dressed, but the doctor stopped him.

"There’s one test left," she said. "We need a sample to conduct genetic purity testing, cellular integrity, and code authorization."

"I don’t know what that means, but can’t you do it with my blood?"

The doctor sighed before leaning towards him.

"Since you’re unaware of it, there have been anomalies capable of manipulating blood. That’s why blood is unreliable in adding a recruit’s genetic information into our agent database."

"But genetic material is one thing no anomalous entity has been reported to manipulate, making it the best method to register an agent’s information into the database."

"...so you need—"

"Your semen, to be precise."

"Yeah, that’s not gonna happen—"

Zaen had barely said those words when the doctor pushed him back on the bed and climbed on top.

"I wasn’t asking for your permission, recruit."