Chapter 57 Part 11: New Year Event

“It’s so dark, I can’t see anything.”

I slowly reached out and groped against the wall.

Thanks to the softly glowing nightgown, I could see the surrounding structures in a blurry form.

My body was becoming strange.

The moment I realized that my surroundings had become dark, all my strength left my body.

I placed my hand on the wall and slowly caught my breath.

My heart was pounding.

The fear rising from deep within my chest was blocking my body’s movements.

“Huk…”

“Jeff?”

“Ugh….”

I pulled on the fluffy dinosaur hood.

My body sagged and I sat down on the seat, my legs feeling weak.

“Does it hurt?”

“No… It’s just a little… strange.”

I raised my hand and brushed my dry face.

It’s scary.

It’s scary.

Such negative emotions continued to rise.

Why?

The question that arose in my head remained unresolved, and the magnitude of those emotions grew even bigger.

The surroundings were dark.

The shadows of Shine and Rain swaying in the soft light felt so scary.

“Ah…! Jeff!”

At that moment, Shine suddenly came to me as if she remembered something and hugged my body.

Whoosh-whoosh—She blinked, taking a short breath.

“It’s okay!”

“What…?”

What’s okay?

I blinked my hazy eyes and looked at Shine’s face.

She met my eyes with an urgent expression.

“Nothing will happen.”

“Huh….”

“You’re not scared, are you?”

My vision flickered.

The emotions welling up deep in my chest twisted and lost their form.

“Are you scared?”

“Yeah. Jeff was scared of the dark, right?”

I nodded slowly.

When I heard it, it seemed that way.

It’s scary.

Why?

I don’t know why.

It just felt that way.

But it was okay now.

Shine’s warmth, hugging my soft body, drove away my fear.

“Jeff is scared of the dark, right?”

Rain came next to me with a worried expression and patted my head.

I closed my eyes at his touch and answered.

“I think so….”

A voice that hung limply.

My whole body was drained of energy.

In that short moment, I felt like I had expended a great deal of energy.

“Shall we take a break?”

Shine spoke while looking at me.

I nodded.

I felt like I needed a little rest.

Shine, Rain, and I sat side by side on the floor of the drying room and held hands.

“Since when has Jeff been afraid of the dark?”

“Uh…”

I squinted at Rain’s question.

Since when?

I slowly traced my memories.

Memories that had sunk into the blur slowly came back to me.

Darkness.

Night.

Memories that started from the first word and continued to come back in a chain.

Night street.

A dark street, a place without a single streetlight?

“Since I was very young.”

Shine answered Rain’s words.

“Jeff was afraid of the dark since he was little.”

“I see. When I was little, I was scared of dark rooms too, so I slept with the lights on.”

Rain patted my head, saying that he was the same way.

“Ugh…”

I frowned and looked around.

The darkness that had felt so scary just a moment ago approached without a care.

As I reached out and reached toward the darkness, a dinosaur arm stretched out, emitting a soft light.

“Are you okay now?”

“Yeah.”

I nodded and got up from my seat.

My trembling legs returned to normal, and my heavy breathing became stable.

The events that had just happened felt so distant, like a dream.

“Jeff will be okay. I have him.”

“Yeah.”

I nodded and grabbed Shine’s dinosaur tail.

In the darkness where we couldn’t see even an inch ahead, only the dinosaur tail could connect us.

Rain also grabbed my dinosaur tail and started walking.

We lined up and left the drying room, and reached a dark room.

“I can’t see anything.”

The surroundings were dim.

The only light the three of us could rely on was the glow from our pajamas.

“No flashlight?”

“No.”

I shook my head at Rain’s question.

A few days ago, I was so bored that I searched through all the drawers where Amy stored the things she bought.

Unfortunately, the flashlight that Rain was looking for wasn’t there.

We were able to find the door to the room and escape into the hallway, relying on the soft glow of the nightlight.

The hallway was deserted.

It was complete darkness where you couldn’t hear a thing or see anything.

I swallowed and stared into the dark hallway.

There was nothing to be afraid of because Shine was there.

Shine started to walk forward briskly, as if she had no fear.

“Why is there a power outage all of a sudden?”

Rain asked, looking around.

Every time she moved, the fluffy tail attached to her butt was pulled in all directions.

I looked around and reached out and stroked the smooth wall.

Shouldn’t there be some kind of backup power in such a large facility?

It had been a while since the power outage, but it didn’t look like there would be any power supply.

“Where’s Amy?”

“She’s on the floor below.”

“Where the support items are made?”

“She’s even lower than that.”

Shine, who was walking confidently, bumped her head against the wall and started walking slowly.

Our movements were slower than usual.

We had to move carefully, crawling like turtles.

We had to be very careful because if we walked too fast, we might hit our heads on the wall.

Rain wanted to see.

“Where is this place?”

Shine stopped and looked around.

It wasn’t like I could see my surroundings though.

Shine and I slowly started to move our arms left and right.

We had to expand our body area as much as possible to see our surroundings.

Flower pots, and soft chairs.

“I think it’s near the restaurant.”

I roughly figured out where this place was by searching my memory.

“Hey, can’t Jeff and Shine just use their abilities?”

“Ah….”

At that moment, Rain spoke quietly.

I felt a huge shock as if I had been hit in the head with a hammer at her words.

That’s right.

Shine and my abilities were electric abilities.

It was so easy to create a small light and look around.

I immediately raised my abilities.

Ps…

When I said something to Rain, who was trying to touch the bead with sparkling eyes, she flinched and hid behind Shine.

“Shine, you can’t?”

“Yeah. Jeff can do it by himself.”

“But I want to see Shine’s ability,” so she clung to Shine’s back and pulled her fluffy tail in all directions.

However, Shine did not listen to Rain’s request.

Rain, who had become sullen, approached me and grabbed my tail and Shine’s tail with both hands.

“Let’s go.”

There was a change in our formation.

I, holding the bead made with my lightning ability, took the lead, and Shine and Rain followed behind me.

Our turtle-like walking speed returned to normal, and we were able to arrive at the stairs before long.

The stairs were also empty, with no one there.

And that was the moment.

The moment we arrived at the stairs, the dark surroundings suddenly brightened.

I pulled my hood down tightly against the dazzling light flying from all directions.

“Ugh!”

Rain and Shine were also sitting down, rubbing their eyes, as if their eyes were dazzled.

“I think the blackout was fixed.”

I said, looking around, waiting for my eyes to recover from the sudden exposure to light.

It was quite late, but it seemed that the blackout was resolved without a problem.

I immediately dispersed my power.

The orb that was crackling and making a small noise lost its shape in an instant.

The three of us ran down the stairs right away.

Thanks to Rain, who knew where Amy was, running ahead, we were able to meet Amy soon.

“Amy!”

Shine and I ran to Amy and hugged her.

She, who had been sitting on a chair and fiddling with her phone with a serious face, threw down the phone she was holding in her hand and hugged us.

I, who was rubbing my head against Amy’s arms, opened my mouth wide at the sight of the numerous foods lying around.

Pizza, chicken, spaghetti, and many other foods were warm and smelled delicious.

It was food that reminded me of old Christmas parties.

My mouth started to drool.

At that moment, Rain, sitting across from me, looked around and asked Amy.

“Huh? Victor?”

I also turned my head here and there to find Victor, just like Rain.

But I couldn’t find Victor.

“Jin called me, so I went up for a bit.”

“I didn’t see him when I came down?”

“Did we miss each other?”

“Is that so?”

Amy picked up her cell phone that she had thrown aside and started tapping the screen.

Knock knock knock – A small noise was heard several times.

“I think we’ll be late?”

“Should we start first?”

“I think we should. I think the kids are hungry too.”

Amy turned to me and smiled.

Her hands dug pleasantly into my hair.

A small party called the year-end event.

Delicious food, and the tangy taste of champagne that I could taste a little.

Shine frowned and stuck out her tongue, spitting out the champagne.

Rain, who was sitting next to her, poured a lot of wine.

Rain’s face turned red in inverse proportion to the empty wine bottle.

“Glow in the dark for me too!”

Rain, who was drunk, buried her face in the pizza and shouted at Amy.

Her pronunciation was slurred and muffled, but Amy had no problem understanding what she said.

“Glow in the dark?”

“That one!”

Rain’s hand was pointed at me.

I was wrapping spaghetti around my fork while wearing my dinosaur hoodie.

“I think Rain wants pajamas too.”

“Should I buy you one too?”

Rain, who was drunk, moved his hazy eyes here and there before falling down with his mouth hanging open.

“Oh, right. I almost forgot.”

Amy, who was smiling slightly while looking at Rain, suddenly clapped her hands as if she had remembered something and took out two small envelopes from her pocket.

“Here! These are for Jeff and Shine.”

The small envelopes looked quite luxurious.

I stuffed the spaghetti wrapped around my fork into my mouth and opened the envelope.

“Huh…!”

What came out of the envelope was a small card.

So… something that proved my identity.

An ID card.

“Level 3..?”

It looked completely different from the citizenship card that Amy had first given me.

The blank spaces had my birthday and address written on them.

“It’s a gift.”

I was so surprised that I dropped the cards in my hand.

The citizenship cards fell on the cleanly empty plate of spaghetti and sparkled white.

The citizenship level I had first been issued was Level 5.

However, this time, I received Level 3.

How many people could raise their citizenship level in such a short period of time?

Shine didn’t seem to be interested, so he put the card aside and focused on the chicken.

The number of chickens that Shine Dinosaur had killed had already surpassed three.

In the end, Victor was unable to attend the party that day.

According to Amy, he was placed on probation as a suspect in the facility power outage.