By Zephyria For Jin Mu-hae, parents were beings whose presence or absence made no difference.
Of course, he felt a little uneasy when his father passed away when he was twelve. It was because the guardian, who had at least been real, had disappeared forever.
But he soon realized. He had always prepared his own meals and fallen asleep alone.
Since the environment didn’t change, he hardly felt his father’s absence. The same was true for his mother’s place, who had never existed from the beginning.
The life of an orphan in a slum was fierce and busy. Even with Director Gil and Teacher Jung watching over him.
Thanks to that, Mu-hae never dwelled on thoughts about blood ties for long. Sleeping during that time was several times more helpful for survival.
‘He really does resemble that woman.’
He became interested in his mother after noticing the strange connection between her and Return flight.
No matter how much he thought about it, he couldn’t believe that someone like Jin Seong-jo had a wife, but unless he had reproduced asexually and conceived a child, it was hard to deny the existence of the mother who gave birth to Mu-hae.
So, he wondered if she was also a member of Return flight, and whether she was dead or alive now. That was about the extent of his curiosity.
Furthermore, he was also a little curious about what role she played.
“Jin Mu-hae. Buy that too.”
“You still have money left?”
“Just a little. I’m going to ask them to cut the rest.”
Kang’s words had been lingering in his ears since the previous evening. What he mentioned was clearly Mu-hae’s mother.
At this point, wasn’t there a high probability that she was also a member of Return flight? Her husband was the head of Return flight, and those who knew her were all former participants in Return flight.
She probably got dragged in against her will. Just like Joo-oh, who stepped in here without knowing anything.
Or maybe she liked it like Joo-oh. If everyone remembered her, she wouldn’t have had a minor role.
“Umm. Jin Mu-hae.”
“What did you buy?”
“No. They won’t cut it by 20 Deal.”
“How much is it?”
“28 Deal.”
Hearing the highway robbery-like discount rate, his mind, which had briefly wandered off, returned.
When Mu-hae turned his head sharply to look, Joo-oh rubbed his shoe against the floor with a distressed face.
He had been wandering around here and there, looking at all sorts of trinkets since earlier.
He told him to look around before leaving Central, and it had already been two hours. He was blatantly getting his money’s worth.
“You ripped them off too much.”
“So, I told them I’d give them some meat skewers.”
“That’s only currency to you.”
“They said they can give it to me for 25 Deal.”
Wondering what he was trying to buy, he followed Joo-oh and saw a vintage shop. Various ornaments were arranged in the showcase.
Joo-oh pointed to a deer doll with a 70 percent discount sticker on it. It was more of an ornament than something to play with, being smaller than the palm of his hand.
Seeing the 20, 30, and 50 percent stickers below the discount price, it seemed to be dead stock. Well, it wasn’t very pretty.
Especially the strange mottled pattern on its head, strictly speaking, it was closer to a Beast of the deer family than a deer.
“A deer?”
He asked as a formality to appease the sulking guy,
“It’s a baby Beast.”
Joo-oh immediately ignored his sincerity and shook his head.
He didn’t understand why they made and sold Beast dolls, or why he wanted to have one.
“If I hadn’t hoarded that damn meat skewer, I would have bought it a long time ago.”
“He doesn’t like meat-fried sandwiches either.”
“……When did you buy that? You still have some left?”
Oops. Trying to match his mood, he unintentionally interrogated him again. Seeing him turn around with a ‘tch’ sound, he felt a little uneasy.
Mu-hae had taken him out in the evening to relieve his pent-up desires. Even though Joo-oh had approached him first, he felt indebted for a while after touching him.
“Stay there. Don’t wander off and disappear.”
Only after buying the unnecessary item and placing it in his hand did the atmosphere become soft again.
“You can go now.”
“I’m going even if you don’t want to. I’m the one who decides.”
He took care of Joo-oh while engaging in a pointless power struggle and headed to the station. Once they got on the train and left Central, the work of Return flight would begin again.
The investigation into Solar City, which Gu-reum was not involved in. For the first time, he began to handle secret information without her instructions.
“Did Jin Mu-hae buy clothes too?”
“Why would you buy my clothes?”
“But I’m going to wear them. They’re just Jin Mu-hae’s clothes.”
Joo-oh stuck close to him, spouting nonsense. He thought his condition had improved a lot, but he was still crazy.
Whoo-oong-.
In the end, there were more expenses. He had received a request from the Seogyeong City Company, but that was only on the surface.
Since there was no support for planes or vehicles, Mu-hae’s bike was the only thing he could ride. After charging Blue Energy and installing additional power, the funds that Director Gil had given him this month were halved in an instant.
“But it’s faster now. Right.”
The bike, which originally looked ramshackle, was satisfying in terms of output. The speed at which it ran along the land was terrifying.
Thanks to that, they arrived at the shelter with plenty of time before sunset. It was about 380 kilometers away from Seogyeong City.
He had intentionally excluded places closer than that, so this was the first place he visited.
“It doesn’t look like people come here often.”
The inside of the shelter was as if time had stopped, and even traces of mercenaries were rare. Mu-hae patted the dust off his hoodie and pushed Joo-oh inside.
“People don’t travel this way by land very often. There are quite a few areas without roads.”
He had a satisfied look on his face at the kind explanation. Judging by his demeanor, he seemed to have asked knowing already. He didn’t know where he got the information.
“But this place is a bust.”
“We’ll rest for a bit and then head to the next destination.”
He didn’t expect to be full from the first bite. The next shelter he had in mind was about 100 kilometers further from here.
He couldn’t be sure, but it was probably in a similar state. It would be fortunate if it even worked properly.
Except for Goryeo City, tall and rugged mountain ranges were located at every gateway to other cities. There was a reason why most of Seogyeong City’s products were flown by air.
“I don’t know if we’ll really find anything even if we search the surroundings thoroughly.”
Listening to Jin Mu-hae’s mutterings, Joo-oh subtly avoided his gaze. He took out four Daeyong pills from his bag and swallowed them all at once.
“It would be nice if Director Gil was rich. Then the difficulty would be easier.”
He cut off the subject of what difficulty he was talking about, but Mu-hae easily understood Joo-oh’s words.
He must be talking about the process of digging into Return flight. If he had overflowing money, the type of support would have been different, even if he just watched Mu-hae with his hands behind his back.
Come to think of it, Gu-reum and Kang both lived affluent lives. Even Shin Dae-soo had a relatively normal family in a formal residential area.
Even if he didn’t know how the other ‘participants’ were doing, he thought that his father and his friends were in a particularly harsh environment.
Was it because they were the mainstays of Return flight? If he thought that way, it would roughly fit.
Nevertheless, the fact that they were allowed to eat and sleep properly even in a shabby environment was an exceptionally generous treatment from the perspective of Goryeo City, which was strict about order.
‘It seems like a lot more people from Central were involved than I thought.’
By now, would they dismiss the failed Return flight as youthful folly? If there were just one or two more powerful people with lingering attachments like Gu-reum, it would be a major obstacle to the Goryeo City system.
“Let’s go for now.”
That was an area that even Jin Mu-hae didn’t know yet. Because Teacher Jung wanted him to judge and understand everything on his own, Mu-hae was learning the ways of the world more slowly than his temper.
“I’m all ready.”
Joo-oh adjusted his polished boots. After he made shoes out of good quality leather, he wiped the soles like that whenever he had the chance.
Grrr…….
An old device made a metallic noise as it turned. Soon, the door of the shelter closed completely, and Mu-hae started the engine with Joo-oh in the back seat.
Swaaa- The sound of the wind struck his ears fiercely. If they drove at this speed, they could reach the next shelter before dark.
―Breaking news. Last May 22nd
Static
declared
Static- Cheeeee-
―In response, international organizations have urgently
Cheeeek- Zzzzz*
revealed countermeasures…….
In the monitor, the ground is overturned, and fire rain falls from the sky.
The sight of the sun rising, setting, rising, and setting again passes quickly over the screen as if fast-forwarded.
When the man opened his eyes again, he was sitting alone. The TV no longer works.
The radio is also silent. No signal can invade this quiet and arid space.
New Game
Load
Settings
Exit
New Game
Ding-!
Checking the city’s sky……⧖
A cutscene plays, and the desolate Earth and the suffering people flow by like a panorama.
Soon, vivid and blue crystals rise in the human city.
After the screen switches once, the dirty alley becomes a dazzling and shining forest of buildings.
A future city where trains and vehicles fly through the air and machines assist humans.
And bizarre monsters that arise in one side of the Crystal Zone.
―♪♩♬
Screams and shouts are mixed into the music like sound effects. The eerie melody subsides and a new OST begins.
A quiet and unique title music that contains anxiety and hope for the future.
Huge Dome Cities are created here and there, and the title of the game appears.
[LA VIDA VLUE]
Colorful neon lights flicker over the man’s face.
As the mysterious and dangerous OST flows through the speakers, the excessively large space becomes a huge sounding board in itself…….
Flash.
Joo-oh opened his eyes on a musty iron bed.
In the pitch-black darkness, his fingertips, which were always warm, were cold and trembling.