By Zephyria 
“This could’ve been a hassle.”
Hwang-jae, inspecting the state of the trash, scratched his forehead. He said there seemed to be a problem with the compression, and after wandering around, he handed the pad he was holding to Mu-hae.
“I’ll keep an eye on the loading, so go upstairs and check this out. There’s nothing difficult, just check it according to what’s written here.”
Having already experienced the power button incident, Mu-hae scanned the contents with suspicious eyes.
As expected, there was an item about the status lights. When he raised his eyebrows, Hwang-jae waved his hand as if to say it was okay.
“All green. The last one being off is normal. You’re too scared for a young’un.”
Joo-oh chuckled at the words he was hearing for the first time in his life. Even though hearing and ignoring such nonsense was a daily occurrence, Mu-hae somehow twitched and narrowed his brow.
Holding onto the giggling guy, he climbed the stairs that Hwang-jae pointed to, and soon a huge silo appeared.
Pneumatic Tubes connected to various parts of Central were shooting compressed trash into the Distribution Center.
“I wonder where it’s all connected to?”
Mu-hae was newly intrigued by Joo-oh’s words. Beneath the clean and flawless city, there was another network of passages, as intricate as a spider web, just like the sewers.
Well, it’s not like they’re going to wage a water war, so there’s no need to block every gap. Unless it’s outside the official residential area, it’s not easy to get into Central in the first place.
“You’re here. Get in.”
When they returned to where the truck was, the trash scattered on the floor had been neatly cleaned up.
Hwang-jae, with an utterly annoyed and exhausted face, attached the pipe he was holding to the loading bay. The turquoise hose attached to the truck seemed to be sucking up the trash.
“It’s about time for the cleaning trucks to come out.”
Hearing those words and coming above ground, it was still pitch-dark. Only their truck was shining and leisurely roaming the empty streets.
“Let me tell you something funny.”
Hwang-jae, who seemed more talkative than before, spoke while looking out the window.
“Originally, all the trash cleaning was done by machines. The Pneumatic Tubes were longer too. They say it shot it all the way to the industrial zone?”
“So?”
“The further the distance, the more the maintenance costs increase. Repairing and managing… That’s why humans work again. We’re cheap. Should we be thankful that we’re making a living because we’re cheaper than technology?”
He had a cynical tone for someone who said it was funny. Since it was already a well-known fact, Mu-hae simply shrugged without replying.
In Central, where time is money, machines build and expand buildings, but even in Starlight Road, where Mu-hae grew up, humans gathered in droves to build walls.
All sorts of dirty and annoying tasks were done by people if it seemed cost-effective. They gathered in the Comfort zone for safety, but it was a life where they had to become parts that replaced technology, even at the risk of danger, to survive.
“But the guys who live here probably don’t know anything about that kind of life.”
Hwang-jae wore a smile that was closer to sarcasm than self-deprecation. Even though you could blame Central for anything, it was a heavy topic to be rambling on about to someone he had just met.
‘Subversive… element.’
Goryeo City wasn’t a city that was particularly strict about ideological screening. Like the old saying that you can even curse the king where no one is around, Mu-hae often muttered about the Central guys.
But the further he got from the slums, the more he became aware of the atmosphere. Especially now that he was in Central like this, anyone would be careful not to stir up trouble.
Hwang-jae didn’t seem to be. His gaze, looking straight ahead, was full of discontent. Under the streetlights that became denser as they got closer to the center, his distorted mouth was clearly visible.
“There. Pick up the board in the back. Yeah. Next to you.”
Before they could continue the conversation, it was time for labor again. As the truck slowed down near its destination, Hwang-jae had Joo-oh grab the alloy plate placed next to the folding chair.
Swaaaa-!
The Comfort zone periodically releases artificial rain to control the humidity in the air and remove pollutants.
Nevertheless, this highly complete area undergoes additional maintenance every day, and vehicles carrying chemicals wash the roads clean.
The trash and fallen leaves that were pushed away in the process were sucked into the pipe held by Hwang-jae. It was a method he hadn’t seen even in Jaegang District.
“You see the location on the pad, right? Go and check it out, you two.”
The surveillance system of Goryeo City records bulky or heavy foreign substances on the map. Checking this was also part of their job.
Unfolding the foldable hoverboard and getting on it, Mu-hae entered the alleyway to check the obstacles that had appeared overnight.
“Jin Mu-hae. Is it fun?”
“What’s fun about it?”
“I’m excited.”
The cleaning job that he had taken on at Gu-reum’s direction seemed like a job experience to him. Or maybe it was cosplay.
Even though it wasn’t hot, he deliberately took off the top part of his jumpsuit and tied it tightly around his waist. Then, he looked at himself in the mirror-like glass of the building.
It was dark, so he couldn’t really see anything, but it was practically just for the mood.
“That’s it.”
Joo-oh, who had already gotten off the board and ran, found the trash marked by the drone. It was a large rechargeable battery that could be used in a vehicle.
The corner was dented, but fortunately, there seemed to be no Blue Energy left. The program on the pad scanned the battery and displayed a ‘safe’ sign.
Mu-hae received the battery pack on the back of the board and looked at the map again.
“How many places are left?”
“Twenty-four. But about eight of them have that person’s name on them.”
Mu-hae received the battery pack on the back of the board and looked at the map again.
It seemed like Hwang-jae was signaling that he would take care of the trash nearby. It was surprising that he did his job even though he always had an annoyed look on his face.
The trash they found afterwards was so diverse and suspicious, from scrap metal of unknown origin to tiles that looked like building materials and machine parts.
It was practically urban safety management disguised as cleaning. If something precarious was placed, it would be taken care of while everyone was asleep, and the discoverer would bear the risk.
After checking all the furniture that hadn’t been reported for disposal with the pad, Mu-hae finally turned the handle of the board, which was full of junk, in the direction he had come from.
“Jin Mu-hae. Wait a minute.”
But Joo-oh, who had gotten on the back, tapped him on the shoulder to get his attention. When he glanced back, he was pointing at his head.
“You hit me.”
Could it be that he was asking to be petted? He should have warned him not to ask to be touched when he went out.
“I didn’t say anything. So before we go to Hwang-jae. Huh?”
Joo-oh shook his head, as if he had read his expression.
He seemed to have been waiting for the perfect timing in the quiet alleyway, where there wasn’t a single person around.
The sincerity of waiting while constantly looking around was funny, so his desire to ignore him subsided a bit.
Mu-hae pressed down on his soft hair with his palm and rubbed it. Joo-oh, who was almost rubbing his head against his hand, finally let out a satisfied sigh.
“Haa.”
“Don’t rub your face. I didn’t wash my hands.”
Whether he did or not, he rubbed his cheek against him before getting back on the board with a normal face, as if nothing had happened.
The surroundings, which had been so dark that his vision was narrowed, were gradually brightening.
“Jin Mu-hae. The pad is ringing.”
“You check it.”
“Hwang-jae says to come in 5 minutes. Or he’ll leave us behind.”
Before the sun fully rises, the trash and its cleaners must disappear from the sight of the Central residents.
When they returned to the truck, Hwang-jae was wiping off sweat, having finished preparing to leave.
“Why are you so slow? The real work is about to start.”
He smelled faintly foul, probably from cleaning up some kind of waste. Hwang-jae twisted his mouth and muttered, seeing Joo-oh wrinkle his nose.
“You’re awfully sensitive. You should be grateful you’re not in charge of food waste.”
6 a.m. The truck, loaded with all sorts of waste, left Central.
The vehicle entered the industrial zone and headed towards a huge incinerator.
“Will we not encounter other colleagues except during commuting hours?”
“Of course not. A few people will gather soon. Why? Are you trying to make friends after working for a few days?”
“Just curious.”
Cleaning was just an additional labor. Jin Mu-hae had to find the person Gu-reum had mentioned.
A ‘subversive element’ who used to be involved in Return flight. The expression was a bit extreme, but Gu-reum or his background had judged that person to be a dangerous figure among the sanitation workers.
For now, Hwang-jae, who happened to be assigned as his partner and even looked suspicious, was the most likely suspect, but you never know. He had never seen any problem in the world reveal itself and shout, ‘I’m here.’
“If we get off work during the day, we’ll still have a lot to do.”
“What are you going to do? Just wash up, sleep, and go to Sakdal when the day is over.”
“Did you go there today too?”
“I got out before it got too late. What am I supposed to do when the damn car keeps stalling?”
Judging by his appearance, he didn’t even eat properly. Even with just a few snippets of information, his lifestyle was already close to being a loafer.
But seeing that he was still working properly, it seemed like he hadn’t caused any trouble yet…
“Oh, and if you’re hungry, there’s bread and drinks in the back, so help yourself.”
“I don’t know. Not really.”
“If you don’t eat it now, you won’t be able to get it in your mouth later.”
A dark shadow fell over Hwang-jae, who was chuckling and crossing his arms. The truck arrived at the site where the incinerator was located.
Following the trucks of similar shape, their vehicle also went deep underground.
And…
“Damn it.”
Hwang-jae was right. The air, which had been fine until the internal door opened, was instantly filled with a terrible stench.
The trash loaded in the loading bay was unexpectedly not immediately put into the incinerator. Before that, it passed through a sensor that scanned the contents and then dumped it all into a container.
“We have to sort this. Isn’t it fucked up?”
Mu-hae was speechless in front of the mountain of trash. It was already annoying to sort the trash with all sorts of secretions on it by type, but they even had to rummage through and find the substances caught by the sensor.
Hwang-jae put on the mask he had thrown and turned around, and surprisingly, Joo-oh was eating bread in the meantime.
“How can you eat that?”
“They said if I don’t eat it now, I won’t be able to. I have to do as I’m told.”
“That’s… Never mind. Eat quickly and put on your mask.”
He put on another layer of protective gear over his orange uniform. After putting on his gloves tightly and entering the container, Hwang-jae gestured ahead.
“Don’t touch the black bags with that mark on them unless they’re caught by the sensor. They’re from the bathroom. The rest is nothing. Just pick out the ones that can’t be decomposed and the ones that can be reused. That’s it.”
Fuck. As instructed, Jin Mu-hae didn’t even look at the biohazard signs.
Contrary to his worst expectations, the trash in the container had been sorted out after passing through the machines several times, but there was still a volume that required additional work.
“Is it cheaper to use humans for this too?”
“If they only use machines, problems keep occurring in the incinerator. And this kind of thing… is usually checked by people.”
Hwang-jae used a stick to break apart the trash that had been detected by the sensor. A pile of medicine bottles with unknown languages written on them came out of it.
“I don’t know why it’s being caught. It’s either repeatedly coming out of a place where you wouldn’t use this kind of thing, or something like that.”
“Isn’t there too much of a lack of privacy?”
“It’s not residential trash. That stuff is taken out and incinerated whole.”
No matter how many important facilities were concentrated in the Central building complex, who would have imagined that they would even check the things that were thrown away?
It was hard to understand unless someone had caused an accident there.