MIT 132

“Damn it.”

Somehow, he had a bad feeling about this. Mu-hae hurriedly approached the fallen man and checked his breathing.

Thank goodness, he was still breathing properly. His eyes were rolled back, so he seemed to have fainted, but his pupils weren’t completely gone.

However, he seemed to have lost some blood. He must have been attacked with clumsy knife skills, because although his life wasn’t in danger, the cuts on his side and arm were long. There was no telling how long he had been in this state.

Mu-hae rummaged through his luggage and disinfected the wounds. The bleeding seemed to have stopped a long time ago, but he still needed first aid.

Even unconscious, the pain seemed severe. Hwang-jae’s body twitched, and then his eyelids slowly opened.

“Ugh… uh…”

“Are you coming to?”

“Chip… Choi…”

He didn’t even have the strength, but tears streamed from his eyes. He writhed in pain, groping for his arm where the treatment pad was attached.

As if realizing the situation from the vivid pain, Hwang-jae’s eyes were filled with despair.

“I know. The Bio Chip, it was taken.”

“Son of a bitch… bastard. Son of a bitch…”

As soon as he was helped to sit down, curses poured out of him non-stop. Even as his head swayed from dizziness, his face was filled with frustrated anger.

“I knew, I knew it.”

“Knew what?”

“That I was in the closet…”

Hwang-jae trembled as he took the painkiller. The situation, which must have been terrifying for him, was vividly drawn in Mu-hae’s mind.

Judging from Hwang-jae’s appearance the day before, he must have waited with bated breath. Nevertheless, Choi noticed that someone had sneaked in just from the small changes in the bedroom.

Perhaps he pretended to go out and watched for Hwang-jae to come out. He must have sensed the betrayal when he saw him heading straight to another district.

Or maybe he simply made a slip of the tongue. In any case, sensing that things were going wrong, Choi attacked Hwang-jae and made the first move.

Now the key to the Distribution Center was in his hands. Mu-hae handed Hwang-jae a water bottle and quickly got up.

“I’ve given you first aid for now, but you should go to the hospital.”

He hadn’t planned to trust him and proceed with the plan anyway. Now that Choi had moved, there was no time to delay.

As Mu-hae turned away, Hwang-jae let out a groan close to a scream and staggered to his feet. Because he supported himself with his injured arm, blood was visible under the white pad.

“Together, huh… let’s go together.”

“Where are you going in that condition? Get treatment before the wound opens up.”

“I know the way! I’ll be helpful, so, so…!”

Hwang-jae desperately grabbed the man who was trying to leave him behind, gasping in pain. His bloodless face was as pale as a corpse.

“I have a guess… about where he’ll do it. I know Central’s geography inside and out.”

A strange light flickered in Mu-hae’s eyes. He thought he would be trembling and collapsing, a cowardly and foolish man.

Even though he was breathing heavily, he stubbornly followed behind him. Eventually, he was helped into the old car and passed out in the passenger seat as if dead.

“Like you said… it’s my fault.”

Hwang-jae muttered and sniffled. There were long tear tracks on his blood-splattered face.

He looked quite different from the day before, when he was desperate to escape, wondering what he had been thinking all night.

“In the Business District… Distribution Center number 7, huh, is connected.”

“Connected?”

“To the closed lines, everything… Others wouldn’t know, but I’ve worked there for quite a while, and my old mentor told me when I was young.”

He seemed to be moving haphazardly, but he was thorough in his work. He must have been quite the veteran.

He didn’t even put on his seatbelt, and designated the car’s destination while breathing heavily.

“Since he said he used the machine, he probably moved the goods from the Business District through the Pneumatic Tube… huh, Choi Hyung will be at the Distribution Center.”

He closed his eyes as he explained with difficulty. The tears had almost stopped now, but he was still sniffling and biting his lip.

Even though he was about the same age as Director Gil, he seemed so immature, and Mu-hae felt a little sorry for him, who he had only seen as pathetic.

Anyway, he was trying his best. He was trembling but still in this place, trying to take responsibility for the work he had rashly stepped into.

Wooooo-.

The engine sound of the old car filled the silence like white noise. Hwang-jae, who had been irregularly exhaling, suddenly sobbed in a weak voice.

The atmosphere was so dead that it felt like he was crawling into his grave, so Mu-hae sighed and took his eyes off the pad.

“Do you want more painkillers?”

“No… it’s okay. It’s not just because it hurts.”

He shook his head with a face that was getting wet again. In fact, he had been groaning since earlier, but he hadn’t complained about being in pain or dying.

“I thought I could do something great too. Not just eating, sleeping, and working because I’m alive, but something more special…”

His eyes, where hope had collapsed, were black and cloudy. For a lowlife who frequented Sakdal whenever he had the chance, their group was his only expectation and driving force in life.

If people hadn’t died and been injured, and if the purpose of the fake Return flight hadn’t been urban reform, Hwang-jae would have gladly participated.

But now everything was ruined. He tried to hold back his tears and looked out the window.

“We’re almost there. But if they’ve closed the entrance, I can’t get in now because I don’t have the chip…”

He must have said that to change the subject, but it was true that they were almost at their destination. Joo-oh, who was sitting in the back seat, interrupted, swinging his legs.

“It’s okay.”

Mu-hae didn’t say anything more, so Joo-oh didn’t give a detailed explanation either. He just hugged his bag and tapped the seat with his long legs.

He seemed to be humming a song in his head. The tapping felt like it was keeping the beat.

“I’m going to tie your feet.”

“Hmph.”

Despite the troublemaking of the guy who didn’t know the atmosphere, they quickly reached the Distribution Center. As expected, the entrance to the underground was firmly closed.

Hwang-jae tried to get up but grabbed his side and sat down. Mu-hae looked down at him with an indifferent expression.

“I knew it…! Should I report it now?”

Hwang-jae’s expression became strange at the sight of his carefree eyes. He was restless, but in the end, he nodded obediently, and Mu-hae attached the equipment he had brought to his jacket and lining and winked at Joo-oh.

Sniffle. The man with the bag silently jumped out of the car. His movements were like the flapping of an owl’s wings, so quiet that you couldn’t even feel his presence.

“What has he done?”

“He’s probably carrying explosives.”

The key code to open the Distribution Center had already been received through Gu-reum. It was impossible for a temporary cleaner of a few days, but it was different for the leader of the real Return flight.

The only thing he was worried about was the fact that Choi had contacted an external organization. Even if it was an accident that would be resolved before it happened, he couldn’t know why or for what purpose they were touching the city.

Goryeo City wasn’t just a small resting place, it was a Comfort zone of considerable size. Was it that these things always happened but were quietly resolved so no one knew?

Pushing away the complicated thoughts, he sneaked into the Distribution Center. In the silence, he could only hear the sound of people’s footsteps in the distance.

He leaned against the corner of the wall and carefully observed. Someone was moving back and forth, carrying luggage in the place where the large Pneumatic Tube used to reach.

It was a member who was supposed to deliver the packages when it got light. Choi was nowhere to be seen, and he was the only one who was busy.

After confirming that there were no additional personnel, Mu-hae nimbly approached him from behind.

Bang!

The strong impact, whether he hit or broke his neck, made the strong man’s body collapse. Joo-oh gave a thumbs up to the situation that was resolved without a single groan.

“Don’t be ridiculous, just follow me.”

Ignoring the praise for his skills, Mu-hae examined the packaged contents. A hook leg was built into the flat device. It was a mechanical device that could climb steep places.

He didn’t know how they had broken through security and brought it to the Business District, but it wasn’t an individual’s work. Beep. The Link Watch that Mu-hae touched displayed a window in front of him.

“…Okay. Let’s go there.”

The next place his eyes reached was a metal wall that had been blown open. The entrance to the garbage road leading to the Business District. The seal was roughly torn off.

Considering Central’s work, an alarm should have gone off. It must have been broken for a long time, because it was quiet.

If so, it was unfortunate for facility management, but good for them. Mu-hae slowly walked into the huge silo where garbage used to be collected.

The cavity, which had been abandoned for decades, didn’t smell bad, but the air was stuffy and his nose tickled, so it didn’t seem like a good place to stay for long.

At the end of it, Mu-hae was finally able to find Choi, who was dressed in dark clothes. He was crawling out of a pipe with a diameter of about 1 meter.

“What? I told you to move the goods, not come in here?”

Choi, who seemed to think he was one of his group, was annoyed, but he flinched at the unexpectedly large figure.

“Where do you think you’re going?”

He grabbed him as he tried to crawl back in, and Mu-hae pulled him out headfirst.

“Aaaah! Let go!”

“I won’t.”

Choi’s eyes widened and he looked at the other person when he heard the familiar voice. Only then did he realize that it was Mu-hae who had grabbed him, and his panicked face twisted fiercely.

“Who called you? I never said I’d let you participate?”

“Did you enjoy playing fake Return flight to your heart’s content?”

The guy who was questioning him as if he was inferior stopped as if he was frozen. His eyes, wide open as if they were about to tear, were filled with horror.

However, he must have judged that there was no way that a young mercenary could have been a member of the Return flight. Soon, Choi’s face pretended to be calm.

“Unexpected. I didn’t expect to meet someone who knew about the Return flight. Have you met a conspirator?”

“What are you trying to achieve by using a group that has already disappeared as a shield?”

“I don’t know where you heard it, but the Return flight is not a group you can easily talk about.”

“Just answer the question.”

Anyway, cults and terrorists, strange guys always give irrelevant answers. Mu-hae grabbed Choi’s hair and tilted his head back, and he groaned and shouted.

“This is the will of the Return flight! To reform the unfair society and free everyone!”

Next to the guy who was smiling confidently with his eyes wide open, Joo-oh laughed along.

“That’s not it.”

“What?”

Choi reflexively asked back at the cheerful reply, and Joo-oh giggled and quickly hid next to Mu-hae.

Jin Mu-hae bent down and whispered in the ear of the indignant man.

“The end of Crystal Blue. The liberation of mankind.”

“……”

“General Jin doesn’t know a human like you, you shouldn’t lie.”