By Zephyria 
“……Can you memorize it?”
“Yeah.”
Joo-oh took a deep breath as he received the document. The complex explanations, difficult to grasp at a glance, were imprinted in his mind like a photograph.
Blink. Just as he finished reading the last page, Mu-hae’s Link Watch emitted a red light.
Having erased all traces, Mu-hae stepped out of the room without hesitation.
“Run.”
As Jin Mu-hae operated the Watch, pitch-black darkness descended upon the entire building. All the lights, the surveillance cameras, and even the faint hum of electromagnetic waves coming from somewhere ceased.
Joo-oh quickly retraced his steps and grabbed the elevator doors.
He pried open the steel doors, which weren’t even operating as if the power had been cut, revealing a gaping tunnel.
“Jin Mu-hae. Be careful.”
“Just make sure you follow me.”
The vertical shaft where the elevator had stopped was filled with a chilly, fishy smell of iron. Following Jin Mu-hae’s nod, Joo-oh closed the forced-open elevator doors again.
The tendons in the arm of the person descending slowly, gripping the metal wire, stood out. Joo-oh also clung to the rope and descended down, further down.
“That… whew, it’s not stopped in front of our floor, is it?”
“8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2…… No. We have to open the door before then.”
Clunk. Only after entering the opposite passage and landing on the elevator ceiling did Mu-hae ask, calming his ragged breath.
His arm was trembling slightly. It seemed that even for someone as strong as him, this was a grueling and nerve-wracking task.
Screeeech—.
After closing the steel door, they returned to the vicinity of the rest area corridor. Judging by the busy footsteps, it seemed the guard at the main gate had run all the way here.
In the darkness, Joo-oh’s toe kicked the guard’s shoe. The shadow, knocked violently to the floor, hit its head and collapsed without a sound.
“Finish it up well.”
“Okay!”
“Wait.”
The faint light of the Link Watch approached his face. Mu-hae reached out, then stopped and rubbed Joo-oh’s cheek vigorously with the back of his hand.
“Go in now.”
Joo-oh wondered for a moment why he was touching his face at a time like this, but it seemed something had been smeared on it.
Hiding his disappointment, Joo-oh ran into the darkened lounge.
Beeeeeeep—!
Before long, the power returned. After scrubbing his hands on the leaves of a fake potted plant, Joo-oh approached the massage chair, chewing on his lip.
‘T-47……’
The new story connected with what he already knew. His face flushed red all at once, making him look like someone who had been startled.
“Ugh…… kh……”
The researcher opened his eyes to a loud noise. His head throbbed, and he felt immense pain from his neck down to his back.
It felt like waking up after drinking heavily. But he hadn’t overdrunk since reaching a certain age.
As he slowly regained consciousness, the researcher realized he was lying under an excessively bright light.
There was no way he would have used this kind of lighting as a nightlight. As he snapped his eyes open, the face of a man, looking flustered and lost, was close by.
Experiment 1.07?
“He’s awake!”
“Ugh…… what, what happened?”
The siren wailed loudly. His memories were cut off so abruptly that he couldn’t recall the preceding events.
His heart sank as he bolted upright, and the experiment the colleagues called Number Eul clung to his arm, whimpering.
The experiment’s hand pointed to the floor on the left. One of the ceiling lights had fallen and shattered into pieces.
“Suddenly the lights went out, hng, ugh.”
Just in case, he tentatively reached for the back of his head and felt glass shards. There was a bit of blood, so it seemed he had been hit in the head by that.
Why, how did this happen suddenly? When he looked back at Number Eul with suspicious eyes, the other’s wide, terrified pupils trembled.
“What do I do? Does it hurt a lot?”
The way he gasped for air showed he was excessively frightened. Seeing the tiny glass fragments sparkling on the other’s clothes, it seemed Number Eul was the one who had moved him to this spot.
Bang! Just then, the firmly closed door opened, and two guards rushed in. They twisted Number Eul’s arm and pinned him to the floor, neutralizing him instantly.
“It hurts! It hurts!”
“Bind him.”
“I’m scared! I’m scared!”
As Number Eul screamed while struggling, the fragmented situation began to form in the researcher’s mind.
A sudden power outage in the facility. Himself, knocked unconscious by an unfortunate accident.
Number Eul, who had whimpered in panic, moved him to a safe place and waited in fear.
“I won’t eat the snacks! I was wrong……”
Number Eul shouted tearfully. As if he thought he had done something wrong again, like when he was dragged to prison, he immediately began rambling apologies.
The researcher rubbed his stiff neck and waved his hand to stop the guards.
“Wait, this person didn’t do anything. There was an accident during the blackout, and he helped me.”
Even so, he couldn’t stop Number Eul from being dragged away. Since he was next to the fallen researcher when the incident occurred, he would likely be investigated while wearing restraints.
However, since the party involved had stepped forward to explain, they wouldn’t inflict physical pain or threats.
“I didn’t even eat the snacks I was saving for Han-seok……”
Trembling violently, Number Eul slumped to the floor.
Damn it. He should have just stuck to his night shift instead of doing things he doesn’t normally do. The researcher stared blankly at the sobbing Number Eul and the snack bag rolling on the floor.
“They’re bad people. They didn’t even give me food.”
“I heard you get porridge in a bit, though.”
“Even though I said I didn’t do it, they kept me locked up.”
‘Because you actually did it.’
Patting the shoulder of the fellow who was still feeling wronged, Mu-hae pushed the tattered string under the bed.
He had cleared it away as a temporary measure, but he would have to dispose of it invisibly before leaving this facility.
“Should I hide it?”
“How?”
“I can eat it.”
“Stop talking nonsense and don’t eat just anything.”
The way he waved his hand as if it were a joke actually made Mu-hae more anxious.
Only after repeatedly warning him not to pick up and eat random things did Mu-hae finally take his eyes off Joo-oh.
“Still, it was fun. There were interesting things.”
If it was a place he was dragged to while being treated as a convict again, it was far from a pleasant location; as expected, the guy couldn’t distinguish between interest and unstable stimulation.
Furthermore, all records for about five minutes before and after the power outage had been erased. In a building with such tight security, such a thing was impossible, so the atmosphere must have been even gloomier.
There was a reason why Joo-oh had been held for so long. Since the way to escape this place also lay in the power outage accident, the treatment toward him might become quite cold starting tomorrow.
Thinking about it that way, he felt a bit sorry for him, but for some reason, he didn’t feel bad. Because the idiot who uselessly took care of everything and smuggled snacks would also disappear.
It wasn’t for any particular reason, but Joo-oh ate too many snacks that weren’t good for his health. Abstaining for a few days was a good choice.
After that, things proceeded smoothly, just as expected.
“Return flight……? But I haven’t committed any violations according to the contract.”
“It’s not because of your issue.”
“And we didn’t attack the person guarding the gate. I don’t even know who that is, and I only heard this morning that they were injured.”
“Just understand it as a security check issue within the facility. All collaborators transferred in the last two weeks will be released.”
A space that looked more like a prison visitation room than a consultation room. The man sitting where Mu-hae was shifted in his seat, breathing heavily as if it were unbelievable.
Fearing that the malignant person, whose face was covered by a mask, might suddenly turn violent, the administrator announcing the discharge kept his hand under the table even behind the partition.
“Damn it!”
He shouted in indignation, but as soon as he stepped out the door, Mu-hae’s breathing changed.
Tap, tap, his fingertips lightly drummed on his leg. His expression beneath the mask became calm, as if he had never been angry.
As soon as Jin Mu-hae returned to the rest area, he tore the bed sheets with exaggerated gestures. He scattered the pieces of cloth he had made into strings among them and mischievously smacked the back of the head of the quietly sitting Joo-oh.
To any observer, he looked like an enraged criminal. Anyone checking the surveillance cameras would pity the experiment sharing a room with him.
“You hit me twice. You have to touch me twice.”
“At least pretend it hurts. Make it look like you’re venting your anger.”
“Ouch.”
But why was the guy who was supposed to be suffering acting so half-heartedly? The scream, mixed with a giggle, sounded more like someone enduring a tickle than pain.
Sigh. Joo-oh sighed and packed his things. Since he had come empty-handed, his only belongings were the prisoner clothes he wore when he was transferred.
“Poor short-hair. He’s getting disciplined.”
“Who told you that?”
“The administrator.”
Mu-hae recalled the man he had just faced. Considering his extremely business-like attitude, he didn’t seem like the type to tell such things to a prisoner……
“Anyway, I did well, right?”
Without answering, Mu-hae narrowed his eyes and checked the Link Watch. After that night, the hacking function delivered by Gu-reum had disappeared from the UI list as if it were a lie.
There were no hidden files, and no suspicious items were visible. Despite his unsettling attire, no one suspected Mu-hae.
No one could have possibly predicted it. That the assets lost during the blackout were intangible knowledge, and that they had been stored intact inside that vacant-looking face’s head.
What they had obtained from the Tamjeunggwan was not just information to pay Cheong. A guide. It was an unconsented guide toward the purpose of the postponed return flight.
“……You did well.”
Thus, three days after the incident, the two were loaded into a prisoner transport vehicle returning to the prison.
No one except the passengers knew that before the vehicle left the city, it changed its exterior color and blended into the slums.