I’m a Young God, Won’t You Raise Me?

As I followed the Chief of Security, I thought about Creature No. 13.

In the original game, there was no Creature No. 13, and, of course, Cell No. 13 was always empty.

Depending on the Weekly Schedule, which changed every week, the Procedures Manual instructed me to behave either as though someone was inside Cell No. 13 or as though it were completely empty.

‘I hope too many anomalies don’t start appearing.’

The Creatures were the most important part of this Trial, so it wasn’t good for more variables to emerge.

Even so, I was curious about this new Creature.

With my heart torn between concern and curiosity, I kept walking.

Block X, where the thirteen isolation cells were located, was far more oppressive than it had been in the game.

An icy dampness, impossible to perceive in the game, clung to my skin and sent chills running through my body.

Twelve cells faced each other along the long corridor.

The thirteenth one stood completely isolated at the very end of the hallway.

Hidden behind thick steel bars, the cells were terrifyingly cramped.

The only place where any light entered was through a tiny opening no larger than the palm of a hand.

Even there, the bars were packed so closely together that they barely allowed enough light to illuminate the interior.

I could feel several pairs of eyes fixed on me.

They belonged to the Creatures, whose bodies remained half-concealed within the shadows.

Deliberately, I kept my eyes fixed straight ahead.

I couldn’t look at them yet.

The Creatures imprisoned there were in an extremely sensitive state.

If I approached them carelessly, their Suspicion would immediately rise to 100, and they would completely close off their hearts.

I slowly walked past the cells.

When I passed Cell No. 6—

“Mr. Gunbam, do you hear the sound of the sea?”

It was a little difficult.

But I forced myself not to turn my head and kept walking.

Eventually, I reached Cell No. 13, located even farther back than the other twelve.

Several prison guards had already gathered there.

Those towering two-meter-tall figures crowded in front of the cell, blocking almost my entire view.

Through a small gap between them, I could see that the cell door was open.

Apparently, they still hadn’t managed to lock up Creature No. 13 and were confronting him.

Among the guards, I spotted a head of red hair that was slightly shorter than the rest.

Beneath the metal mask covering half his face, Kwak Hanmuk’s lips were tightly pressed together.

It seemed Creature No. 13 had caused quite a serious disturbance.

The admission procedure for Creatures was completely different from that of humans.

Human criminals were transferred to the prison after their trials, underwent a search of their belongings, received a brief orientation, and were then assigned a cell.

Creatures, on the other hand, were locked up immediately upon arriving from the laboratory.

Unlike humans, there was no risk of them hiding objects, and they were much easier to control inside specially designed cells.

Creature No. 13 must have also been transferred directly from the laboratory to Block X.

And during that process, he had probably attacked one of the prison guards.

The fact that they still hadn’t managed to subdue him proved that he was an extraordinarily powerful Creature.

“…!”

Only then did I notice the tragedy lying at the guards’ feet.

One of them had died.

His body had been split cleanly in half.

Instead of red blood, a thick neon-green liquid flowed from the corpse.

The severed cross-section of his body was completely black, as though an enormous mass of dark jelly had been sliced in two.

I held my breath and looked at the dead guard’s name tag.

Then I squeezed my eyes shut and let out a sigh.

What rotten luck.

‘Why did it have to be him?!’

The one who had died was the only guard who had practically never paid any attention to the physician.

If someone had to die, I would have preferred it to be the most troublesome guard.

That very guard was now reporting the situation to the Chief of Security.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen a Creature this violent. Look what he did to me.”

His entire left forearm was missing.

A steady stream of neon-green liquid poured from the amputated limb.

Honestly.

I thought he was overreacting.

After all, prison guards could recover from injuries like that fairly easily.

Losing an arm was completely repairable.

They only died after sustaining damage beyond a certain threshold.

‘Though it doesn’t seem like there’s much camaraderie among them either.’

One of their comrades had just died.

And yet, none of them showed the slightest reaction.

The only thing that angered them was the commotion the Creature had caused.

Even in the game, I had felt that there was very little interaction among the prison guards.

And apparently, in reality, there wasn’t any sense of camaraderie between them either.

Perhaps it was the price they had paid for abandoning their humanity in exchange for power.

“Chief of Security. We need to execute that bastard.”

Holding his injured arm, the guard took a step back as he spat out those furious words.

He did so to allow the Chief of Security to get a clear look at Creature No. 13.

And since I was standing right behind him,

I naturally ended up seeing Creature No. 13 as well.

…Huh?

“……”

I blinked over and over again.

I stared fixedly at Creature No. 13 before shifting my gaze toward Kwak Hanmuk.

The moment I looked at him again, I realized that the stiffness in his lips wasn’t from tension.

He was holding back laughter.

The instant I realized the truth, I screamed inwardly.

‘Why is Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno showing up as a Creature?!’

This was completely insane.

In The Cell Block X, I had never heard of a Creature inmate role.

There were human inmates, but never a Creature as an assignable character.

Dominic, who had also seen Creature No. 13 with me, tilted his head curiously.

“Has one of Mr. Gunbam’s followers committed some kind of sin?”

Hearing his question, the first thing that came to mind—rather maliciously—was that he probably had committed quite a few.

I quickly shook those thoughts away and tried to calmly accept the situation.

‘Although, now that I think about it, it would have been strange if he’d ended up as a human inmate too.’

It was impossible to picture Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno, dressed head to toe in his raven gear, mingling with ordinary prisoners.

I mentally reviewed the other roles in The Cell Block X, but none of them seemed suitable for him.

The only one that more or less fit was prison guard.

Although even that would have been difficult because he would have had to obey his superiors’ orders.

Looking at it that way, becoming Creature Inmate No. 13 was, all things considered, the most logical option.

Except that—

It was a little absurd.

And pretty funny.

“Why don’t we just kill that bastard already?”

The prison guard who had lost his left arm shouted furiously.

It seemed he wanted to lose his head to Je Hyuno this time as well.

Taking advantage of the fact that neither the Chief of Security nor the other guards were paying attention to me, I discreetly looked at Je Hyuno.

He stood motionless in front of Cell No. 13, like a robot that had been completely powered down.

From his metallic hand, that thick neon-green liquid slowly dripped.

Plop.

Plop.

The drops fell one after another.

What unsettled me the most was that the lights on his protective goggles remained off.

Then I regretted something.

‘I should’ve asked Captain Kwak whether emoticons had been appearing on his goggles this whole time.’

After being trapped by the illusion magic in Slay to Plate, Je Hyuno had kept the lights on his goggles turned off.

And seeing that they were still completely dark, it was hard to believe he was in good condition.

Carefully glancing around, I sent him a Message.

Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno, are you alright?

The system window displaying my Message appeared in front of him.

Until then, he had remained completely motionless.

He only tilted his head slightly to one side.

Then he barely turned his face to look at me.

I thought for a moment before sending another Message.

If you want to kill everyone so badly that you can’t hold yourself back, click your hand once. If you can still control yourself, click it twice.

I planned to change my approach depending on his state of mind.

Of course, there was a chance Je Hyuno would ignore my Message.

If he didn’t respond, I’d just have to improvise.

However, without taking his eyes off me, he slowly moved his metallic hand.

Clack.

Once.

I waited a few seconds in case it clicked a second time.

But there was no second sound.

I would have preferred to hear two.

Even so, at least I now had an idea of how he was doing.

At that moment, a cold voice rang out beside me.

“Execute Creature No. 13.”

The Chief of Security had just given the execution order.

Every prison guard drew their weapons at the same time.

They were rifles loaded with special ammunition designed to eliminate Creatures.

Just as they were about to pull the trigger—

“Wait!”

I threw myself forward, practically diving across the floor.

I ended up surrounded by gun barrels pointed directly at me as I forced an awkward smile.

There was no chance Je Hyuno would die from a few bullets.

But inside this Trial, he was being recognized as Creature No. 13.

Even though he was already infected with Zero, and many Trial rules didn’t apply to him, that didn’t mean none of them did.

There was a possibility that this special anti-Creature ammunition could seriously injure him.

And I wanted to eliminate every possible risk.

“Little Lamb. What do you think you’re doing?”

The Chief of Security slowly walked toward me.

The cold barrel of his rifle came to rest against my head.

“Would you like us to execute you as well?”

“I…!”

I hurriedly shouted,

“I’m an expert on Creatures!”

I could see several guards struggling not to laugh.

Ignoring them, I continued speaking as quickly as I could.

“That’s exactly why I was assigned to this prison—because of my extensive knowledge of Creatures. There’s no need to execute Creature No. 13! I’ll subdue him myself and lock him inside his cell.”

I put on an ingratiating smile.

“Wouldn’t it be far more valuable to keep him alive?”

The Chief of Security silently stared at me.

Finally, a crooked smile appeared beneath his mask.

Using the barrel of his rifle, he shoved my head to one side.

I staggered back several steps.

He continued looking at me with an expression full of mockery.

“Go ahead.”

Even though his mask concealed his face, it was obvious what he was thinking.

What could a nobody like me possibly do?

He seemed convinced that, at best, I’d end up running away in tears.

Without letting the smile leave my face, I gave a slight bow.

“Thank you very much, Chief of Security.”

At the same time, I sent another Message to Je Hyuno.

Lieutenant Colonel Je Hyuno, I need your cooperation.

In response—

Clack.

His hand clicked once again.

It wasn’t exactly the way I’d hoped he’d express his opinion.

It was pretty clear he wasn’t very interested in cooperating.

But I had no other choice.

I sent him another Message.

I only need your cooperation this one time.

Meanwhile, I slowly approached him.

I could feel every prison guard watching the scene with intense interest.

Some of them were even nudging each other and pointing.

It looked like they were taking bets on whether I would live or die.

Of course.

I had no intention of dying.

Really, just this once.

As I continued sending him Messages over and over, I finally reached him.

Now that I was close, he didn’t appear to have any injuries.

And he didn’t smell like blood either.

Je Hyuno lowered his gaze and silently looked at me.

My face was clearly reflected in the glossy surface of his goggles.

Then, deliberately, he moved his metallic hand again.

Clack.

The instant it clicked once more—

I realized exactly what Message I needed to send him.

A new system window appeared in front of Je Hyuno.

I’m not joining Pasung.