Monster Training

Argh! Urgh… Crash!! The holographic monster became blistering dust.

"That's how you do it," Dong Man said, "now you guys should give it a try."

I sighed in despair.

"I didn't sign up for this; why do I have to please someone I'd rather strangle?" Dave murmured.

We took turns and learned to fight against these holographic monsters; we were past the basic martial arts training already. Fighting against holographic monsters was quite hard for me, unlike Dave and Daesang, whose abilities gave them an edge. I struggled to defeat my first holographic monster after almost two thousand attempts; Dave and Daesang had already left me behind in the training, and they were far ahead, teaming up to fight tougher holographic monsters with the rest of the team, while I was still trying to beat my second holo-monster (as we fondly called it), a level two holo-monster.

I started getting tired of it all, asking myself unnumbered questions. "Why always me? Why can't I be like them? Why don't I have any abilities? What could have gone wrong during my own experiment?" I asked myself these sorts of questions day after day.

Dave and Daesang started getting incorporated with the rest of the guys; they all started to get along just fine. Each time they went on a HUNT, they were commended on their contributions to taking down the monster; I felt left out, secluded, and useless. "As a normal human, I couldn't help those I wanted to, and now as a mutant, I'm still no use; what a joke I am." I thought to myself one day.

ARIES was built and structured in such a way that we wouldn't have the urge to go out into the real world. We had the Internet, TV, phones, air conditioning, and so on. The only thing that changed about us was our DNA; besides that, we were very much human – we eat like humans, sweat like humans, experience fatigue, get bored, and whatnot. We felt changes in temperature; we laughed, played games when we had nothing to do. It just felt like a mixed-gender competition with no definite winner for an indefinite period. Sometimes, our handler even allowed us to go into the real world, but under tight supervision and restrictions. We dressed like normal people; Dave still had his English accent and was silly and unserious as ever; Daesang still ate five times a day, and I still loved staying in my room.

It was past ten at night; I descended from my room in my training outfit. While others joked and munched on late-night snacks, I went to the training center. This day wasn't different either; I was keen on becoming stronger regardless of whatever.

"Su Jin, eodi ga (where are you going)?" Dave asked mockingly.

"For Christ's sake, Dave, you know he does this every time, plus you can see he's in his training outfit," Daesang countered.

My eyes narrowed; one of the main reasons I wanted to become stronger was because Dave had been teasing me a lot lately. "It's Dave; what should I expect? He's always been a nutjob," I said to myself.

I was about to walk away when I heard Jeong Su's voice: "Ya (hey), Dong Hwa…, He's trying his best; besides, cut the guy some slack."

I felt better a little upon hearing that, even if she was lying, I wouldn't care; I'd have made myself believe it. But I heard the genuine sound of her voice, and that made me feel a lot better.

I entered the training room and trained for almost four hours straight; I practiced some martial arts techniques, did some workouts, and then tried fighting level two holo-monsters. But it was to no avail. I heard a knock on the door, and then I thought to myself, "Why would anyone have to knock on an automatic door?" I turned around and saw Jeong Su leaning against the wall with her legs crossed.

"You don't seem to be startled," she said.

I scoffed, "Why would I be? You already knocked…. But I didn't expect it to be you, though."

She smiled, "I wouldn't have expected me if I were you either…" She said and started making her way towards my direction. "…That's a lot of sweat on you."

I looked down at my body, and truly, I looked like someone coming out of a swimming pool rather than someone at a training center. She looked into my eyes and took three more steps towards me, standing at an awkwardly close range, but I stood firm.

"Don't you feel this is too close?" she asked me.

I kept a straight face, "Well, I've been in worse situations, so… This is something I can handle."

She took two steps back with her hands placed behind her. "You really have a way with words," she said. "Now, put what you've just said into fighting these holo-monsters; try not to depend on abilities. In the real sense, it's only Dave, Chae Yeong, Na Na, and um....that's all – only those three actually have abilities that can cause direct damage. Take me, for instance; psychometry, like psychometry? All I do is see people's memories; nothing physical about that. So what I did was: I tried to focus, I did meditations, and I was able to see the person's weak point by prying into their memories, then I exploit that weak point."

Like a scale fell off my eyes, I was starting to see things differently. "So, when you fight these holo-monsters, you don't use your abilities?" I asked her.

"Exactly my point – how can I see the memories of an AI program?" Jeong Su said and handed me a practice knife.

I held the knife and fought naturally, without thinking of any abilities, and surprisingly, it felt less difficult and quite engaging. Now I was landing strikes, making blocks, dodging, punching, kicking... Finally, I was able to defeat a level two monster, something I'd been on for weeks. I looked at Jeong Su and smiled, "You're quite a nice coach," I said to her, panting heavily.

"That's all for today; it's late already. Just do it this way, and you'll get a hang of it; I know so, plus you're a natural." Jeong Su said.

We both left the training center around 3:30 a.m. I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep anymore; I always found it hard to sleep once time had passed three o'clock, even as a human, and that didn't seem to change either. As soon as we went through the last door leading to the gathering center, I felt a sharp pain in my eyes, and I heard my name; it felt like someone was calling me, but the sound was distorted.

"Jeong Su, did you call me?" I asked her.

"Aniyo (no)," she replied, looking confused.

I brushed the thought off as an aftereffect of the experiment or just stress from the training.

"Here," Jeong Su said, stretching a cup of coffee towards me. I didn't feel like drinking anything, but at the same time, I couldn't refuse it.

"Oh! Thank you," I bowed my head down a little to show appreciation, then I rose it and took a sip. I walked towards the sliding window just right in front of us and stood in front of it, looking at the sky, one hand holding my cup of coffee and the other in my pocket.

"You are also fascinated by the stars, huh?" Jeong Su said, bending her head and looking at my face from under.

"Ye... (yes), I always like the way it's either patterned or scattered." I said.

She nodded in consonance, "Right, it's always fascinating to look at," she added and started staring at my face deeply, like she was waiting for me to say more.

"That gaze of yours is quite intense; don't you think? My skin is quite soft; you're gonna make a lot of holes in it," I said and sipped from my cup.

She chuckled slightly, "Ani (no), not a lot, just two deep holes right in your cheek," she smiled again and relaxed her gaze.

"You really do want to make those two deep holes, don't you?" I said, and this time, I returned the gaze and steered deep into her eyes.

She looked away quickly, blinking her eyes, "How did you even know I was looking at you by the way?" She said then abruptly shifted her eyes back to the sky.

"Um... well... I just knew it – male intuition, and also, the window; the window gave you away." I said.

She smiled wildly and looked at me again, "So... it wasn't male intuition but the window?" She said and chuckled.

"Well, both played vital parts," I replied.

She looked at me for a moment, drowning in my eyes, "Su Jin..." Jeong Su called; I turned to her... "Haendupon (your phone)." She said, stretching out her left palm. I reached for my phone in my pocket and placed it in her hand; she typed her number in and called it. "That's mine," she said and handed my phone back to me. She bit her lips softly and turned around. "Jalja (good night)," she said and headed towards the elevator. I sighed heavily and also left for my room.

"All I need to do now is strengthen my focus and skill." I said grimly and lay on my bed.