While San and SanHa stared at the computer, someone gave them a video call from a private network. The screened showed that there was an incoming call but the whole screen was black and was intendely glitching.

These two know that they were already being watched from the moment this mission begun. The reason being that this mission was also like a fitness test. Only San and SanHa know about the trial however SanHa doesn't know that the trial requires for San to authorize it

The importance of a trial is to test San team s competence, agility,speed and stealth. San may or may not tell them about it but its usually better that he doesn't so that they don't carry out the mission in fear of something bad happening. Whatever he decides the mission must be done and the trial must be passed.

Should they passed the test, they would get promoted and have their pay and benefits increased but if they fail then it's all bad news.

A trial is performed by a specific team that San s bosses ( pseudonym Zyan) choose. Only they know if they are using the same people every single time or not. That being said this team is told that they would be conducting a trial for another team and must stage an obstacle course for that team.

For example DongHan s team was picked to check how San s team would handle a hack-attack. This is whereby the devices they use are premeditatedly made to malfunction and then someone on field like Jung, MingYu or JunHui is expected to strategize an alternative way to complete the mission. And the attack part was to see if they would handle any unexpected intruders.

Before this mission Zyan had a call made to San letting him know of this and though it made it seem like San recklessly free to refuse, denial is packed to the brim with unpredictable consequences and delaying or postponing testing signals incompetence. Therefore he consented to it.

Anyway this is the reason why San nor SanHa didn't storm into the building when MingYu and JunHui were describing those atrocities.

From whatever angle, it looked indeed as if San was praying for his team to land in boiling water but that is not the case. Zyan didn't tell San what kind of trial it was because a trial is like an emphasis that San should be ready for anything. Sort of like a school test.

Again San and SanHa can't help during the mission no matter what happens . Three thousand volts is not deadly nor is it a joke because if San or SanHa aid anyone in ways that they would not have done should it not have been a trial ,that individual will be the one that is punished.

They looked at the screen fearing the worst. San knows when he is called he has to answer the phone because knowing Zyan s capacity and savage behavior, patience for a subordinate won't come to San cheaply

SanHa moved his hand to the answer function on the screen and immediately following picking up, it showed a transmission into the dark room.

It seemed like someone was holding a phone or a digital camera to show what was happening . The individual proceeded to hold light source like a flashlight to illuminate the destroyed space .

SanHa moved his hands to his mouth immediately when the camera showed intensely-masked JongWoon dressed in black, pulling Jung from under the table.He dragged Jung who was motionless , exposing him to the camera until all his body was on display.

San felt his heart leap from his chest and lay on the floor. He could not react and he felt numb. His cranium felt like it had been hammered and his brain was exposed to extreme heat.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

JongWoon let go of him , moving away thus reveling only Doyoung s boots as his body was a bit further from Jung. When he did that, Jung s head fell to the side and faced the camera .

The camera then zoomed in and onto Jung s face .

" He is not breathing", an automated voice spoke and San grazingly closed his eyes and slightly turned to the side as if to shake it

Immediately then a tear flowed down his eye..

SanHa on the other hand had both his eyes flooding of tears. He was not doing anything to hold back his emotions...

San half blinked again and without a word, he let down more tears . He was chocking the need to cry because his brain was replaying those words while he staring at Jung who had his eyes closed and had tear streaks on his face .

He should not have authorized his trial. It was clearly implied that casualties are significantly likely yet he let Jung go into the field.

Jung would never have let him go in there. He would never have done anything like this and now because of his obligation ,he has foolishly and irreversibly gambled with the life of Jung.

The screen froze and Jung was just laying there , almost as if looking back at San . Though they were in a van that is modified to house a table, sort of like those vehicles police use in a stakeout.

San threw his elbows onto the table top and he landed his head on his palms then he squeezed his skull proceeding to pull onto his hair . Henceforth he started to hyper-ventilate

The more he huffed and puffed , the more his tears fell

How could he do this to Jung? He didn't even act when Jung was in danger.

Jung begged him into his life , he prioritized everything for San. And because he felt that Jung was too suspicious he tasked Doyoung to watch Jung and in the end despite Doyoung telling him that Jung is innocent, San insisted that he watch him.

He has done nothing but try to prove that all he wanted was to be next to San s side but San kept pushing away. First he pushed him to find people of similar interest, then he pushed him to Doyoung then to spend more time with Sakura . Whatever the case Jung came back because as much as Doyoung was with Jung, Doyoung seemed happier with YuKhei. On the other hand, Sakura was acting up and the said people of similar interest are Yuta and BoGum, who not interesting at all

He struggled to breathe so he zoomed out of the chair, slid open the doors and swayed outside

And he just stood out in the cold . Four seconds later he bent over as gravity and atmospheric pressure were being ruthless on him

The breeze was thin and there were cars beeping from a distance . He hit his chest so thoroughly thrice before rubbing his first towards the left . He felt the world spin on top of him. The ground he stood on felt like ice and the chill was raising up his bones and up his spine. At the same time his abdomen like he was grating piping hot coal.

Such a combination of simulations in his body aided his perplex inability to breathe or to sustain stability.

He felt like peeling off his skin and ribcage because there was minimal air accessing his lungs . He has never had an asthma attack before but whatever the case it was probably something like this.

He tried to force the air in by opening his mouth but the chillness only cooled his bucal and seemed to dissolve without bothering to go down his trachea . The more he tried to gasp for air, the less it seemed willing to come into his body. His sinuses seemed blocked and his epiglottis felt swollen

Because of such attempts , he also felt his gastric muscles gain autonomy as they were forcing him to throw up yet he had not consumed anything.

He was now hyperventilating, nauseous, sweating, shuddering and suffocating .

Finally like his intercoastal muscles that were giving up, his sphincter obided , releasing out the water that he drunk along with dangerous amounts of acid out of his chamber.

He regurgitated the extremely bitter solution onto a nearby bin but immediately after then another group of muscles in his body shutdown and those are his quadriceps. Like a snake he slithered off the bin and slumped onto the floor. All the energy on his body seemed to have drained with every second of his vomiting.

As he laid there feeling tormented, he heard SanHa in the background calling him but instead he sounded like he is so far away. Though San tried to look around through his tears that were still falling, seventy percent of his vision had deteriorated and the rest was promptly falling suite.

He moderately blinked up and down but the images he saw were getting more blurry and dark faster than air was reaching his lungs.

Tears were now trickling and then dripping down and the scorching flame in his body felt even more brutal now that he was in the floor.

What he was feeling on his head was far much more than a headache, more than just a thumping or a piercing. his hemispheres felt like they are drying out and are shriveling while his neurons felt like they were relaying thunder bolts

Sanha was still calling unto him but to San , he now sounded like he was mumbling. Even though SanHa was shaking him as well, San could not feel anything aside from the feeling that his epidermal layer was coated with boiling oil..

Of course he knew one day he would have to let Jung go because a member only has to stay for six years, but never did he think this was the way that Jung was going to go. Better yet he didn't think this was how he was going to react when Jung leaves..

Why does it feel so physically painful for San after seeing Jung like that? Even when Zyan first tested his pain endurance, or when San had his knees broke, in comparison, a combination of all these feels like a drop in the ocean .

Eventually San gave into the domineering darkness and raging flame boldly consuming him . He felt a large presence pulsating heavily in his throat, blocking his food pipe that was still coated in reminants of acid and was probably corroded.

His eyes slowly blinked before closing, sending San into deep and horrifying state of unconsciousness .