By Zephyria The Guide of the Ember.
An old iron furniture surrounded the dark room like a fortress.
Black paper was pasted on the already small window, so not a single ray of sunlight entered the narrow study.
But it didn’t matter. Even without light, Joo-oh could see everything clearly.
Old but fluffy bedding. A mattress with a sweet scent of flesh. A cozy pillow. Everything was just satisfying, and Joo-oh hummed a tune.
“Hmm… Hmmm, euuuhm.”
He loved the fact that he had his own space.
Even though it seemed like he was being thrown into a disused room, it meant that Jin Mu-hae had no intention of kicking Joo-oh out.
It was natural since he had found the wolf, but it seemed that he had acknowledged and accepted his usefulness.
At that thought, Joo-oh’s heart soared and fluttered like it was dancing.
Also, Jin Mu-hae bought Joo-oh clothes and shoes. He even got him a Link Watch that he had only seen in games, and as soon as they returned home, he took a mattress from his own bed and laid it in the study.
The bedding he used had the scent of well-dried fabric and his faint body odor. When he buried his head in the mattress, it felt like he was riding the bike and hugging him.
“Haaa.”
Joo-oh was reminded of that moment again. The pulse and muscle movements felt through the jacket…
The warmth of a person he felt after a long time was so comfortable that his body melted. The scent of the living tickling the tip of his nose soaked and filled his empty insides.
So even if he was in a different room from him now, it was okay. After all, Jin Mu-hae would soon enter the study after waiting a little longer.
Joo-oh tapped the Watch and recalled the events of the day.
‘Don’t come in, wait here. Don’t wander around unnecessarily.’
He went to the familiar pawnshop with Jin Mu-hae. It was the pawnshop where his father’s belongings were pawned.
The moment he cleared the huge debt, an electronic sound rang in Joo-oh’s ears.
Bbiririk-!
WELCOME TO LA VIDA 🙂
~15 years 118 days~
[Quest]
Main Quest
Tutorial (Completed)
Chapter 1
☞ The Heretic of the City (Completed)
The Wolf that Bears Gold √
200,000 Deal Worth of Belongings √
☞ The Ember That Hasn’t Gone Out (In Progress)
Intangible Legacy
[Intangible Legacy]
The belongings brought from the pawnshop contain a dangerous secret as much as their price.
If you unlock the storage device, you may gain a new life goal.
As the quest was updated, Joo-oh felt like he had been struck by lightning. He felt such a thrilling and intense joy.
Whether it was because he had completed another quest, or just because he was excited. From then on, he became a little more alert.
The things that would happen in the future flashed through Joo-oh’s faint memories.
The information hidden in the belongings, the cause that Jin Mu-hae would bear, the shocking truths surrounding Crystal Blue…
Joo-oh easily made a judgment. By now, Jin Mu-hae would be struggling with the encrypted data and decided to search the study.
His father’s belongings had already been burned along with his will, but some of the furniture remained.
‘…He stood up.’
As expected. There was a rustling sound of fabric outside the door. Then, Joo-oh’s heart ached a little at the sound of Jin Mu-hae approaching the study.
Knock knock. The unhesitating knock broke the silence. Although he knocked, the old wooden door opened abruptly as if he had no intention of waiting.
A tall man entered the room with a stiff face. Joo-oh smiled in the darkness and turned to him.
“You’re not sleeping, so why is the light off?”
“It’s okay. I can see well.”
“Are you going to sleep now?”
“No, not yet.”
“Then wait a moment. I have something to find.”
Before he could even nod, the room brightened up. As if the light bulb hadn’t burned out while it was neglected, the metallic desk and empty cabinet reflected the light dimly.
“If you’re sleepy, go out and rest.”
He could take Jin Mu-hae’s bed. It was a tempting offer, but Joo-oh immediately shook his head and refused.
The progress of the game was unfolding before his eyes. Whether he was bothered by it or not, he was going to sit on the mattress that filled the room and watch him.
Clunk, creak.
Creeak- Bang.
The old furniture made a loud noise as it was opened and closed repeatedly. The drawers that didn’t contain even a bug corpse, let alone a clue, were more empty and desolate than clean.
After moving around for a while, Mu-hae frowned and grabbed the desk. He looked troubled as if he had reached an impasse.
After a few seconds of silence, he twitched one eyebrow and looked back at Joo-oh.
“…Didn’t you hear any strange noises just now?”
“The creaking sound.”
“Other than that?”
“Jin Mu-hae’s breathing?”
“Haa.”
His voice, muttering about who he was expecting something from, was quite low and deep.
Jin Mu-hae couldn’t find a clue as easily as he thought. When Joo-oh saw it in the game, he could easily find it because the blue light was flashing. Without the user controlling him, he was just an ordinary human.
Then, perhaps there needs to be someone to give him a hint, like the game’s system.
As someone who remembers every scene of the game, there would be no easier mission than this.
Joo-oh stared at him for a while and then spoke casually.
“Isn’t there a place where you keep important things? Something like that?”
In the flashback scene that comes out after finding the clue, there is a scene where Jin Mu-hae recalls a conversation with his father.
The moment the user realizes that his father planned and waited for all of this.
“…Important things.”
As if he had remembered something, Jin Mu-hae quickly lowered his body and opened the third drawer of the desk.
He put his hand inside the already examined interior and began to thoroughly scan the empty inside.
Then his eyes flashed for a moment. He seemed to be putting force on the drawer enough to make a clunking sound, and then a red mark was imprinted on his fingertip that came out smoothly.
It was a simple and meaningless pattern with a circle inside a square and a triangle inside the circle.
“Watch. What’s wrong? There are no numbers.”
When Joo-oh chimed in again, Mu-hae shifted his gaze to his wrist.
He brought the tip of his index finger to the blue screen that didn’t show the time or location.
Bbi- Tto-!
With a strange electronic sound, the Watch vibrated slightly. At the same time, Chwareureu!
Beams poured out of the Watch, and countless Hologram Windows floated densely in the air.
For the past few days, Jin Mu-hae’s life had been like a yacht floating in forbidden waters.
Not to mention the precarious feeling, he was completely out of his mind.
The confusion reached its peak when he received his father’s belongings.
As soon as he touched the round storage device to the Link Watch, all the functions of the device stopped.
The small screen turned blue and did not show the time, weather, or location.
Mu-hae could instinctively sense it. The Watch had broken free from the control of the Central Data Agency.
“…Damn it.”
The Link Watch was a daily necessity. It could manage everything inside and outside the Comfort zone, from identification and financial affairs to location reception and communication.
It was even more important for people like Mu-hae who could not have chips implanted in their bodies. It was a problem that an indispensable item for living in the City was paralyzed.
It would be better if it was just broken, but it looked like it had been hacked, which made it even worse. The Link Watch was an item that the government sold cheaply to manage citizens.
If he was caught breaking free from control like this, he would be caught up in more troublesome procedures than he could imagine, especially since he already had problems with his identity.
‘He wouldn’t have given me a 200,000 Deal bomb just to screw over his son.’
Mu-hae recalled the will and belongings that he had neatly organized under Director Gil’s advice.
He instinctively sensed that something unusual was involved in this matter.
There must be a way to solve it. With that thought, he wandered around the small house, and various codes and common codes flashed through his mind.
That’s because Jin Mu-hae had learned a lot for a member of the slums.
He had never attended a proper educational institution, but his father and Teacher Jung taught him more than he needed to live.
Tok. Tok. Tok. Tok… Tok. Tok.
He tapped his name and his father’s name, etc., on the Watch in Morse code.
As he didn’t expect much, there was no change in the Watch.
He also wrote some codes on the small screen with his fingertips. As expected, there was no noticeable response.
“Hmm, hmmm…”
Then, he heard a faint humming from beyond the closed door. Jin Mu-hae, who was lost in thought, finally remembered that there was another person in this house besides him.
‘Study.’
It was then that he remembered his father’s abandoned space. It was a space that he hadn’t even thought of looking into because he had already disposed of all the items and documents inside according to Director Gil’s advice.
At the time, Director Gil was against selling the furniture. He saw it as the lingering attachment of someone who had lost a friend and roughly agreed, but now that he thought about it, there might still be a clue there.
Knock knock.
As soon as he knocked, a strange air brushed past his nose. The room, which should have been full of old iron furniture and dust, was strangely fragrant and cozy.
When a languid face like a full cat turned to him, Mu-hae spoke without realizing it.
“You’re not sleeping, so why is the light off?”
The pupils in the red eyes were greatly swollen in the darkness.
Joo-oh’s eyes were full of laughter, as if he was so happy about something.
“It’s okay. I can see well.”
Every time he blinked, his long eyelashes fluttered gracefully. It was only for a moment, but the scenery of the old study felt like a painting.
Again. He felt strange again. His breath heaved shallowly as if he had breathed in hot air.
A strange sensation swirled around Mu-hae’s neck and tickled him. It felt like he was taking a step into an unfamiliar world.
“Are you going to sleep now?”
“No. Not yet.”
When the pleasant voice rang in his ears like a bell, Mu-hae somehow had the illusion that Joo-oh was holding a dim light and waiting for him at the entrance of that world.