Snake Venom Ch 14

Chapter 14

“Ha, it’s fine.”

Exactly thirty minutes later, Im Sehan set down the leash. The man cast a brief glance at the leash now separated from Lee Yeonwoo. At the very least, the risk of his head flying off had been eliminated.

“Good work.”

As Im Sehan began to pack up the equipment, the clattering and rustling sounds echoed in the room. Yet Lee Yeonwoo remained utterly still, and the man looking down at him, sleeping as if dead, was equally unmoving.

“Shall I wake him?”

“Leave him.”

The man gave a curt reply as he recalled his first encounter with Lee Yeonwoo—not through a monitor or night vision lens, but in person, face to face.

With large eyes and delicate, finely arranged features, his pitiful and shabby appearance looked far more fragile in person than it had on screen. The way he anxiously glanced around, nerves stretched taut, made him seem almost like he suffered from an anxiety disorder.

It was a natural response from someone tormented and driven to the edge by one survival game after another. But Lee Yeonwoo was a little different. Ironically, it was because he radiated something close to vitality. Put in sympathetic terms, it was a pure desperation. Put bluntly, it was a distilled ferocity.

“I was the one who reached out.”

Even then, the soft-hearted meddling of someone trying to care for others despite his own situation seemed absurd. Who are you to look after someone else in your state? It was almost laughable, but he didn’t show it.

“No killing among teammates… okay?”

When he showed that pathetic desperation to cling to anything, the man had thought, At least he knows his place.

“Aaaaaaagh! Please spare me!”

And when he bounced like a ball, shamelessly pulling tricks with practiced skill, the man had thought once again, Yeah, I picked a good one.

“If you don’t want to share, then just shut up.”

The boldness to provoke others and the sound judgment to read a situation—those were traits he had already valued highly.

“That’s a trade secret. I’m sorry.”

Yeah, that one had been particularly cheeky.

Though a half-blood, there are occasionally mutants whose abilities rival those of purebloods. But such individuals were usually quickly scouted and absorbed by either humans or purebloods.

The desperation that came from holding a disadvantaged position as a half-blood had become almost instinctual—so ingrained that it was a core part of their nature. As a result, they were clever and opportunistic. Sweet offers from those in power were paths to social ascent and chances to change their lives. It was only natural they wouldn’t refuse.

But those sweet deals came with a price—regardless of the kind. Wealth, honor, and power—things an inferior being had no right to enjoy—as well as dirtier, darker trades like drugs, prostitution, and gambling. The list was too long to name.

When someone’s status is ambiguous, they are easily corrupted by desire and temptation. Whether sweet or bitter, once they’ve had a taste, it’s hard even for the most well-trained species to return to how they once were. Such individuals were useless from the start. Beasts that carry hidden motives and do not treat their masters as such are better left outside the gate.

Among half-bloods, the mosaic-type was a conglomeration of prejudice and persecution. Born into a place where they didn’t belong, survival was both their life goal and the very purpose of their existence. They possessed somewhat superior abilities but had experienced such a narrow world that their ambitions were equally limited. Like dogs chained all their lives to a short leash, desperate to guard only that tiny space.

Just like Lee Yeonwoo.

It was the reason the man had pulled him from Utopia Sodom’s hunting ground. His desperate desire to put down roots in this land was self-evident. He was perfectly suited as a disposable tool, and even if he betrayed them, killing him would be the end of it.

It was far easier to train a dog that had never had a master than one who had. The same way a mutt that had only ever chewed on roots would lose its mind the first time it tasted meat, unlike one that had sampled a bit of everything.

Lee Yeonwoo was a mongrel dragged in by a vicious dog dealer. And wasn’t he literally part canine? Canine species were said to be easier to train than others—another fortunate point. From what the man had seen, Lee Yeonwoo fit his absurd conditions perfectly.

Even for training, it would be better if he gained some weight. Just as that thought crossed the man’s mind, bothered by Lee Yeonwoo’s thin frame—

“Uh, Team Leader.”

“Speak.”

The man answered without taking his eyes off Lee Yeonwoo.

“Why don’t we just make the offer now? He seems likely to accept.”

At Im Sehan’s suggestion, the man flicked Lee Yeonwoo’s hair. The hidden eyes were revealed. He pictured the gentle, round eyes that had scanned every corner, alert.

“You think so?”

The man’s indifferent gaze turned toward Im Sehan.

“He may look like that, but he’s still a beast.”

Things like grace, kindness, or conscience didn’t suit those who were neither human nor beast. Those rare moments where it appeared otherwise were merely the result of tireless indoctrination—a façade for coexistence. Cheon Wooshin understood that better than anyone.

“You’re saying that after what happened?”

At the man’s icy rebuke, Im Sehan lowered his eyes.

Since survival was Lee Yeonwoo’s sole objective, he would act with even greater simplicity and stubbornness. The fact that he’d shoved aside his pride to gobble down food and had sunk into sleep without concern for appearances showed as much. He wasn’t reckless or defenseless. Lee Yeonwoo had already assessed the situation and was simply waiting for what came next—though he probably didn’t realize that the next step would be an even darker pit.

“Besides, this one’s not ordinary. You saw it too.”

Lee Yeonwoo was the only one who had survived without being tainted by Sodom’s system. If he were a shrewd and materialistic specimen, he would have been easy to recruit with worldly temptations. But there were plenty of such individuals already—creatures who would roll over in front of you, then stab you in the back.

The man had already been betrayed by someone like that before.

If Lee Yeonwoo had survived by killing others, no matter how competent he was, the man would have struck him off the list. Truthfully, he had mocked Yeonwoo’s nosy altruism, but if that softness hadn’t existed, he would’ve been excluded for that reason too. Having reviewed every single piece of footage involving Lee Yeonwoo, the man’s decision was firm.

“If we pamper him from the start, he’ll become spoiled.”

Wasn’t today’s game supposed to be sheep herding? The man planned to corner Lee Yeonwoo a bit further, even if it took more time. The more keenly he felt the weight of his situation, the more obedient he would become.

“Send him to the Management Department, as planned.”

The man issued the brief command and grabbed the doorknob.

It happened when Lee Yeonwoo was ten years old.

“I’m sorry.”

His grandmother bowed her head in apology. Hidden behind her, Lee Yeonwoo clenched his teeth. He wanted to scream, What are you sorry for?! but his grandmother’s wrinkled hand gripped his own tightly.

“I’ll speak to him sternly.”

At that, the young woman who had been accepting the apology widened her eyes.

“What do you mean speak to him? Brats like that only understand a beating. It’s because you spoil your grandson that he turned out like that.”

A surge of heat erupted in his chest. His grandmother had done nothing wrong. The real offender was the kid pretending nothing had happened behind his mother. Yeonwoo glared at the boy his own age, who was using his mother as a shield.

The boy played the neighborhood leader just because his family was a bit better off and he had more toys and snacks than the others. Those rare treats were both his weapons and his bragging rights, but they had never impressed Yeonwoo. He didn’t like the way the boy bossed his friends around and strutted about. Maybe that’s why the boy had always picked on him.

Even though people pointed fingers and called him the abandoned child, a mosaic half-blood of the lowest rank, Yeonwoo had endured. The wounds had grown so calloused, they could hardly hurt any worse. But that day was different.

“Your grandma’s probably scared of you too, right? Who knows when you’ll turn into a monster?”

That line made him lose his mind. It sounded like even his one and only refuge was a luxury he didn’t deserve. It was the kind of curse that inflated all the insecurities he kept bottled up and detonated them at once.

Yeonwoo rushed the boy and knocked him over. Then the boy’s whole group jumped in to attack Yeonwoo. Had it not been for a passing adult who intervened, he could’ve easily ended up with a broken bone. But somehow, he became the perpetrator.

His grandmother, who had been summoned, behaved like a criminal. His body ached from the unfair fight, and Yeonwoo was overwhelmed with frustration. If it was going to end like this, I should’ve beaten him senseless. Would scratching up that smug face have eased his rage? His overheated fury churned and twisted inside him, giving rise only to cruel impulses.

“Honestly, who lets a mosaic half-blood roam the neighborhood? It’s no wonder this kind of thing happens. Aren’t you scared of your grandson, ma’am?”

Yeonwoo wanted to plug his ears. Even in a land where half-bloods were already used to discrimination, there was worse. It wasn’t like he had chosen to be born this way. Mosaic half-bloods were the result of some distant ancestor’s random gene manifesting irregularly in an unpredictable host. In short, a freak accident.

He wasn’t so different from other half-bloods, yet just one extra line on his ID card brought such rejection. It was as if, unable to take out their resentment on the purebloods who discriminated against them, people were desperate to crush something beneath them instead.

Aren’t you scared of your grandson, ma’am?

The young mother’s question pierced Yeonwoo’s chest like a blade.