MIT 133

A gaze filled with shock scans Mu-hae. His eyes dart around as if trying to figure out who he is, but there’s no way he’d know.

Choi, who was still only rolling his eyes with his neck bent backward, finally reached his own conclusion.

“You’re still, still around?”

It seemed that Return flight, which he thought had been completely destroyed a long time ago, was actually barely maintaining its existence.

This young man with a fierce impression must be a member scouted from the surviving Return flight.

The way he readily accepted such absurd speculation further solidified Choi’s past position.

He had a foot in Return flight’s underground network, but he didn’t receive important information. Perhaps something went wrong shortly after he joined.

Isn’t there also a hint of resentment in his expression, as if he’s indignant at the delusion that Return flight was operating without him? He’s not in a position to feel betrayed, as his affiliation was unclear from the start.

He had expected it from the moment a man with no backing grew old and wielded the name of Return flight without receiving any punishment.

“Return flight is…”

“Return flight is not an organization you can easily mention.”

If I become a pain in the ass. Swallowing the rest of his words, Mu-hae returned the words he had just heard to Choi.

Then, the guy who had been standing awkwardly with his hair grabbed obediently twisted his head until it made a cracking sound.

“Then you shouldn’t have made me disappointed!”

The eyes that had been filled with embarrassment until just now harbored a twisted desire. Choi shouted, his eyes gleaming.

“You guys gave me hope that I could escape this kind of life!”

“There’s never been a plan to overturn the city, neither in the past nor now.”

“You’re going to get rid of Crystal Blue, right? Then Central will definitely be destroyed! Return flight will lead the new human group, and Return flight will divide the glorious top!”

Choi probably never had any interest in the future of humanity or a life free from the threat of Aberrants in the first place.

Wasn’t he just trying to overturn everything? He intended to ride on the strength of others and join a well-prepared table.

Return flight had collapsed, but the sweet delusion he had tasted once would remain in his mind forever. In that way, more than twenty years had passed without a proper job or a stable life.

The only remaining assets were a healthy body and youth, but the escapees can never endure the daily life given to them the moment they realize that even those are gone.

‘A gambler.’

Jin Mu-hae knows why the bottom-of-the-barrel lives that line Sakdal can’t escape from there.

They think they’ve already lost too much. The only way to get back the lost principal is now gambling, so they’re trying to compensate for all their mistakes by hitting just one big jackpot.

Choi’s principal remains at the absurd height he dreamed of long ago. The compensation that will fill it is only the ‘great secret society,’ as he said when he was trying to deceive others.

“You must have received a promise, right? That if you attack Goryeo City and come out, they’ll give you a position somewhere.”

Choi’s mouth slowly opens at Mu-hae’s guess. Just when he seemed to stop resisting, he suddenly shook off his hand with a snap.

Not so fast. Mu-hae brushed the pulled-out hair off the floor and grabbed the man’s neck with his other hand.

He may be overshadowed by Joo-oh, who has incomprehensible abilities, but Jin Mu-hae is a strong and experienced mercenary whose name is known in the industry.

There’s no way he can’t subdue a middle-aged man who’s sprawled out when he’s hunting Aberrants. Choi, who could barely breathe, shook his head, gasping.

“Heh heh, hahaha, hahahaha!”

Then, a bitter smile appeared on his reddened face. He forcibly raised his arm and looked at his Link Watch.

“The time is… heh, cough, I bought enough time?”

Exactly 2 AM. Choi’s expression changes as if the confrontation so far had been a trick. But no one standing next to him even pretended to be surprised.

Mu-hae still has a face that’s not only calm but also indifferent. Joo-oh was holding Mu-hae’s waist and sniffing as if pretending to smell something, grinning.

Jin Mu-hae grabbed his neck and came out of the silo. Crossing the crumpled and torn iron wall, the chaotic interior of the Distribution Center came into view.

In the space where things were piled up, a man soaked to the bone was panting and lying on the floor.

“Legs, cough, I broke all the legs. I didn’t know how to dismantle it…”

All the boxes that hadn’t been opened were soaked in water, and the machines scattered everywhere had their parts broken one by one. In the middle of it, Hwang-jae, who was sitting down as if lying down, made a groaning sound as he continued to separate the explosives and machines.

Before going in to find Choi, he moved as Mu-hae had contacted him.

“You son of a bitch!”

Only then did Choi twist his body again, but now there was really no way to escape. Paak! Mu-hae hit the back of the struggling guy’s head to knock him out and approached Hwang-jae, who was lying down as if he was about to die.

“Are you, are you alright?”

“Ugh, haa… no. I feel like I’m going to die.”

“Should I take you to the hospital? I want to go to this guy’s house first, before that.”

“It’s okay… hoo… it’s okay. Let’s go there first.”

Mu-hae, who had tightly tied Choi with the packing straps scattered on the floor, supported Hwang-jae with his other arm and left the Distribution Center.

He had contacted Gu-reum, so the explosives left unattended here would soon be taken care of.

Hwang-jae had his eyes closed as if he were dead while going to Choi’s house, but when Joo-oh stuck out his head and glanced at him, he felt the presence and twitched his eyebrows.

Finally, when they reached the Joo-myung district, Hwang-jae raised his body with a pale face.

Beereurik- Cheolkeok.

Inside the house, which they entered after unlocking the door. In a corner of Choi’s bedroom, a decoration that looked like a picture frame was placed as if to show off.

Thud. When Hwang-jae touched the empty space, a hologram rose up and a bright blue screen appeared.

“You see it. If you touch this in a certain way, a sailing ship will come out, but I don’t know how.”

Hwang-jae looked at the decoration regretfully with eyes that said, ‘Of course you wouldn’t know either.’

Mu-hae silently picked up Return flight’s object and stirred the screen with his fingertips. Each time, the hologram screen was distorted and drew a series of patterns.

A square. A circle. And a triangle. After grasping the positions of the hairline cracks that looked like shapes, he tapped the screen in order…

Ping-!

With a clear sound, a 3D video of a sailing ship sailing the ocean unfolds. After roughly supporting Hwang-jae, who was surprised and sat down, Mu-hae brought the Watch on his wrist to it.

Tti- Tto-!

Light poured out from the Link Watch, and the shape of documents floated in the air. The floating data was connected like a mind map, and branches were added to a huge tree.

As expected. Return flight’s documents were sleeping here. He didn’t know how the data that his father had split and stored ended up in Choi’s hands, but it was clear that he didn’t receive it as a member who would carry on Return flight’s legacy.

“Oh… oh…”

Mu-hae’s face shines brightly in the hologram that emits light like a world tree. Hwang-jae’s legs buckled in front of the mysterious figure like a halo.

“A real… secret society.”

Mu-hae blocked the Watch with his hand to erase the shape and turned his head into the darkness.

“Just treat what you saw here as a pipe dream and forget about it. If you want to live a long life.”

He added words that sounded like a threat, but it didn’t seem like the words would leak out even if he hadn’t. Even though Hwang-jae was far from being an ideal human being, he didn’t seem to be the type to be light-mouthed or greedy for profit.

He also had some survival instincts, and he also had a sense of responsibility to suppress them. So, if Hwang-jae nodded his head in agreement, there would be no need to violently shut his mouth.

“In, instead!”

It seems stubborn to make conditions even though his neck is barely hanging on like that.

“Let me help too.”

“Yes?”

“I’m not saying let me join you. Just… if you need anything, let me help. I want to do something meaningful too.”

After throwing out the absurd request, Hwang-jae lay down on the floor, staggering. He seemed to have moved too much after being injured and bleeding a lot.

Mu-hae looked down at him for a while as he groaned with cold sweat.

Nod. Joo-oh, who made eye contact, nodded his head slightly, and Mu-hae sighed and put his hands in his pockets.

“…Alright. I’ll contact you someday if I need help. If you’re out in society after receiving punishment, that is.”

Hwang-jae’s face, which had been beaming, turned even paler than before. Only then did he realize his situation with his hazy head and he fainted.

The day dawned and there was a commotion for a while. After Hwang-jae was taken to the hospital, Mu-hae followed the people in suits and underwent an investigation that lasted for several hours.

From the fact that he was working as a substitute for an environmental worker who had taken sick leave for a few days to the story of how he happened to discover a suspicious person and prevented a terrorist attack…

The background that Gu-reum had prepared in advance was excessive, but as if they had made a promise, no one focused on the suspicious aspects.

Thanks to that, he was able to enjoy the festival a little with Joo-oh, who was energetic even after running around all night. As expected, he tried to taste all kinds of food and emptied the remaining balance, but surprisingly, he showed a generous side by trying to share a bite with Mu-hae.

The very next day, a highly embellished news story was published on the front page of Goryeo City’s newspaper.

The news that an external subversive force had carried out a terrorist attack taking advantage of the festival, and the heroic efforts of the environmental worker and the substitute cleaners who stopped it…

“The upstanding young man Jin Mu-hae. A hero of this era.”

“Scraping it like that won’t work.”

Mu-hae scoffed, pointing to the picture of Joo-oh smiling brightly in the center of the article. Joo-oh clicked his tongue and continued to eat his cereal.

‘Is that why you didn’t stop it?’

He thought that Gu-reum could have quietly resolved the matter, but he deliberately passed it on to this side. It seems like he was trying to benefit Mu-hae as well.

“Oh! The normal Robobo is back.”

Joo-oh shook the Fruit Tornado box and took out a sky-blue plastic toy. He must have been lucky enough to get the same one after giving a Tinkle Friends to Hwang-jae’s hand the day before.

“What kind of guy was that again?”

“He cheers you on to cheer up when you’re in danger.”

“Without helping.”

“Yeah. Because you have to cheer up.”

As expected, he automatically shook his head at the ambiguous explanation that seemed to be missing a screw. Well, Mu-hae was praised and Hwang-jae also became a hero who prevented the terrorist attack, so he wouldn’t be in a position to worry about being arrested anymore.

Mu-hae cracked his head and stretched his body, then carefully examined the next request that had flown in from the Company.

“Blueberry cinnamon roll.”

He didn’t properly hear Joo-oh’s words, who was muttering while looking at the air, as he was checking the schedule and equipment.