Holy Idol [EN]: Chapter 232

< 232. That PD Must Be Crazy (1) >

Youtuber Frog Eggs

Red Hand

Adventuring Poodle

Adventuring Poodle Frog Eggs

Adventuring Poodle Red Hand

Youtuber Red Hand

Youtuber Missing

Frog Eggs Identity

Frog Eggs Red Hand

The words dominating real-time internet searches showed just how shocked people were.

Soon, under the title ‘[Breaking News],’ the story of ‘Man-Eating Frog Eggs,’ watched live by tens of thousands, flooded the news.

Moreover, since the video was uploaded to YouTube, it quickly spread overseas. However, similar cases had already occurred almost simultaneously in foreign countries. There were people in every country who took the lead in doing what they were told not to do.

All sorts of social media and major portals were filled with related posts, articles, photos, and videos. It didn’t even take two hours for the entire internet to be turned upside down.

And the next day, elementary schools were temporarily closed, and the government repeatedly urged people not to touch the frog eggs.

However, even in this situation, people’s entire lives didn’t come to a standstill. Most high school and middle school students, except in a few local areas, went to school avoiding the floating frog eggs, and adults went to work, avoiding the giant frog eggs.

Jongwoo also came to the dorm the next day looking like he was about to die.

“I heard a few more people died from touching the frog eggs. Not Koreans, though.”

Keshie, who was heading to the front door with a frying pan again, was surprised when Jongwoo grumbled as he came in and asked,

“Hyung [older brother or male friend], how did you get here?”

“I drove at the lowest speed possible.”

“Is that okay?”

“Well, they stay still as long as you don’t touch them.”

Jongwoo himself looked like he would burst into tears if you poked him.

“And that bastard Gamjae still isn’t answering his phone.”

“That manager hyung is really consistent. I feel like he’ll stay the same even if the world ends.”

Jongwoo put down several paper bags he was carrying in the living room.

“I wish it were like that. Here. Just in case, keep all this.”

“What is it?”

“Ramen, canned goods, emergency food, tissues, water, a flashlight, stuff like that.”

“Why this?”

“Just in case.”

Hye Gyeol looked at the paper bag with a queasy feeling. Jongwoo acting like this made the situation seem even scarier.

However, Jungseo silently took the items out of the bag, putting the food in the refrigerator and the tissues and water in the veranda storage.

Meanwhile, Taein asked Jongwoo with an anxious expression,

“What about my music show?”

“What music show? Everything’s canceled.”

“Everything?”

“They’re just playing news 24/7. Who’s going to listen if you go on stage and sing ‘Our love is so pretty, so pretty’ in this situation? All the variety shows and dramas will be canceled.”

Jongwoo sighed and told Rembrary as well.

“Yeonwoo, you too. I got a call saying they can’t film Joseon Hwarang and the romance stuff for a while due to safety issues.”

Rembrary nodded in understanding. Hye Gyeol’s expression darkened, and she muttered,

“I hope our jobs don’t disappear because of this?”

Taein asked irritably,

“Are you worried about your job? People are dying!”

“My job is a problem too! We have to make a living! What if we have to coexist with frog eggs forever?”

While Taein and Hye Gyeol were arguing, Rembrary, lying on the sofa, tried to contact Sa Gamjae again, but as Jongwoo said, he couldn’t reach him at all.

‘Did he go to the afterlife? He usually goes to the afterlife when he disappears for this long.’

Just then, Keshie was changing TV channels when he exclaimed, “Huh?” in surprise. Taein and Hye Gyeol immediately stopped fighting and rushed over.

“What is it?”

“Did they get rid of the frog eggs?”

“No! The Blue House [South Korean equivalent of the White House] dispatched experts, apparently?”

“Experts? What experts?”

They wouldn’t have sent reptile experts, would they? What kind of expert is there for man-eating frog eggs? The members looked at each other with doubtful eyes.

* * *

The experts who were called in were Nakru, who had close ties with the government. Since Nakru had always been handling strange phenomena quietly, the government naturally called on them again this time.

Among those Nakru, Gu Seji, the leader of Seoul Team A, and Woo Sungwoo went to the missing YouTuber’s house to assess the situation.

“Please take care of this.”

The Nakru staff member, who was simply scared of the situation, greeted Gu Seji and Woo Sungwoo with great relief, but Woo Sungwoo crossed the police line in front of the YouTuber’s house without answering.

As they entered the problematic yard, the situation was preserved as it appeared in the video. The YouTuber’s two slippers were lying under the giant frog eggs, and the camera was mounted on the camera stand.

The surface of the frog eggs that the YouTuber had dug out was lying on the ground, and the black membrane still had its inside exposed.

“Should I give you some space?”

While Woo Sungwoo and Gu Seji were examining the membrane, the staff member subtly asked them, looking like he really wanted to.

“If you’re scared, just stick to the wall over there.”

“That would be better, right?”

At Woo Sungwoo’s words, the staff member immediately went to stick to the wall, and Gu Seji chuckled and brought her camera close to the black membrane, zooming in as much as possible to take pictures.

As the shutter clicked a few times and the flash went off, the staff member swallowed hard, afraid that the ‘Red Hand’ inside the black membrane would feel the flash and reach out again.

How could the sound of the camera shutter be so scary? However, contrary to the staff member’s worries, nothing like that happened.

Gu Seji pulled the camera back and turned the screen to the side to look at the pictures she had taken. Woo Sungwoo watched the process and asked,

“How is it?”

“Inside… yeah. I can see something like a hand.”

“Red Hand?”

“I don’t know if it’s the Red Hand or the YouTuber’s hand.”

Woo Sungwoo took out his weapon, aimed the tip at the black membrane, and asked again,

“Can I attack on the premise that the YouTuber is dead?”

The staff member wanted to say, ‘I hope you’ll consider the possibility that he’s still alive and act accordingly,’ but he suppressed those words from behind. He figured the experts would know what to do.

Gu Seji nodded and stepped back. As the team leader, Woo Sungwoo, an elite among elites, was more important than the YouTuber, whose life or death was unknown.

Having received permission, Woo Sungwoo stepped back two paces and aimed the end of his weapon at the black membrane. As he pressed the handle in that state, something was fired from the weapon Woo Sungwoo was holding with a soft thud and embedded in the black membrane.

The staff member swallowed hard as he watched the scene. What was embedded in the black membrane was a needle about half the size of a human palm. A needle that was neither too thick nor too thin.

Woo Sungwoo waited for a hand to pop out through the membrane. However, unlike with the YouTuber, there was no reaction.

“Does that mean it doesn’t come out if you attack without touching it?”

As Gu Seji muttered, Woo Sungwoo raised his weapon again and fired a series of long needles in succession.

At that moment, something churned inside, and a lump popped out through the hole. Covered in sticky mucus, it was a person.

“Ugh.”

The staff member felt nauseous and gagged. Because the person who popped out was the YouTuber who had been reckless yesterday and was dragged inside. Moreover, the weapon Woo Sungwoo had attacked with was embedded in the YouTuber’s crown.

“Ugh!”

The staff member couldn’t hold back and threw up, but Woo Sungwoo didn’t even blink and just raised his weapon, continuing to fire those long needles into the inside.

How long had it been? Finally, Woo Sungwoo stopped operating the weapon. The black membrane of the frog eggs looked fine at first glance, but if you looked closely, it was full of holes.

“So it seems like there’s no reaction if you attack without touching it?”

The moment Gu Seji muttered that, a strange creature with a completely red body popped out from the inside with a ‘Kwaeeeek’ sound.

“!”

Woo Sungwoo stepped back, and Gu Seji, who was closer, took out her gun and fired wildly at the creature.

The staff member grabbed his hair, tears welling up in his eyes, and cursed inwardly. He should have asked to be transferred to another department. He was told this department was easy. The bastard who recommended it was a crazy bastard.

While he was cursing inwardly, the monster, hit by a series of bullets, made a chilling sound of ‘Kiaaaaaa’ and suddenly ran towards the staff member.

“Aaaaaaaah!”

The staff member screamed, covered his head, and crouched down without being able to run away. At that moment, the monster jumped over the staff member and the wall at once and ran away.

Before long, there was an uproar from the police and onlookers outside. Woo Sungwoo and Gu Seji exchanged glances that said, ‘This is going to be a pain,’ and jumped over the wall with short curses.

“Aaaaaaack!”

“It’s a monster!”

“Shit, save me!”

While the onlookers ran away and some people filmed the scene from the buildings with their cell phones, Woo Sungwoo quickly grasped the monster’s path and went around the side.

Gu Seji, realizing Woo Sungwoo’s intention to get ahead of the monster, fired mainly at the monster’s legs with a specially coated gun to hold it back.

‘It’s working!’

She wondered what would happen if it didn’t work, since it was a monster that overturned common sense to the point that everyone could see it. Fortunately, the monster reacted when it was shot.

However, whether it was angry or not, it stopped running away and started running towards Gu Seji.

The people filming inside the building, seeing this, screamed even louder, telling her to run away.

However, Gu Seji ran forward instead of running away. Then, as she approached the monster, she twisted her body and shot all the monster’s weak points, such as the back of its head, spine, ankle, and side.

Fortunately, something worked, and the monster rolled over a parked car.

The onlookers cheered simultaneously with a ‘Woaaaaah.’

“Awesome! Finish it off!”

Then, a person who was filming and watching the scene from the building got excited and dropped his cell phone. The cell phone slipped out of his hand and fell down, and there happened to be another frog egg in that location.

And the moment the cell phone touched the frog egg.

A 3-meter-long red hand that shot up through the frog egg came up to the window in the blink of an eye and grabbed the person’s face.

* * *

“Hyung, isn’t that your hyung?”

Hye Gyeol, who was always on her phone, was looking for videos, wondering what was going on, when real-time searches went crazy again as breaking news came out. She found a short video and ran to Rembrary in surprise.

Rembrary was asking Shin Jo-woon how Jang Tae-ri was doing when he turned around, saying, “Huh?”

Since Hye Gyeol’s expression was serious, Rembrary first hung up the phone and looked at the cell phone Hye Gyeol handed him.

“Woo Sungwoo?”

The cell phone was repeatedly showing a 3-second video of Woo Sungwoo standing on the frog egg, grabbing the red hand that had reached up to the second floor, and stabbing a dagger into it.

“That’s so cool! What does your hyung do? It’s crazy right now!”

“What’s crazy?”

“A monster popped out of the frog eggs, and the people hired by the government killed both of them! But one of them is your hyung! The other one’s face isn’t showing well!”

“Is it a live video?”

“No, it’s a video from about 30 minutes ago. The news will be all over it now.”

Rembrary gave Hye Gyeol’s cell phone back to her and tried calling Woo Sungwoo. He thought he would be very busy since the situation had become like this. Surprisingly, Woo Sungwoo answered the phone right away.

[I was going to call you anyway. Good timing.]

Moreover, he said this as soon as he answered the phone.

“The video―”

Rembrary was about to ask what happened since he saw it when Woo Sungwoo cut him off and quickly continued.

[It’s too public. I think they’re going to change the policy. They’re going to use this. Details later. Keep your cell phone charged. Keep it with you no matter what. I might need your help.]

“Can I say something―”

[As a Sacred Idol.]

< 232. That PD Must Be Crazy (1) > End