By Zephyria Thinking about it, Mu-hae hitting him on the head and kicking him had all been because of that lately.
Every time Joo-oh clung to him, every moment his body arbitrarily tangled and tickled, and heat surged, Jin Mu-hae felt an unbearable annoyance.
No, was it annoyance? Looking back now, it was closer to frustration.
The feeling of wearing clothes that constricted his body. A sensation of wanting to smash a wall because he wasn’t satisfied. Yet, he couldn’t take his eyes off him, and this state of rising temper often overwhelmed Mu-hae.
He couldn’t possibly accept it. The shocking fact that he periodically went into heat for him.
So much so that Mu-hae even thought of the red-light district, which he hadn’t even approached in his teens.
‘Calm down.’
He seemed to repeat those words hundreds of times in his mind. Only after self-hypnosis to the point of blurred vision could Mu-hae somewhat control the resentment that surged at every opportunity.
Mu-hae hadn’t lived his life only doing good deeds for others in the first place. Still, he had to be moderately trashy, or it seemed like it would be mentally tough if he went too far.
“Get off? Yo?”
“What?”
“It’s District Ma, Number 1. Get off? Yo?”
“Yeah. Get off. And don’t add ‘yo’ like that.”
His forehead, neatly styled, was clear. Mu-hae unknowingly stared at him for a moment, liking the look of his smiling eyes.
Shiiing-.
As soon as the car door opened, Jin Mu-hae turned his head and stepped outside. Joo-oh quickly followed behind him.
“We have to go through all the warehouses in Districts Ma 3, 4, and 5. Don’t get distracted and follow me.”
“Yes!”
“Answer a little more quietly.”
“I will.”
The obedient honorifics stirred him up again. Mu-hae frowned for no reason and strode forward.
A logistics inspector wasn’t as tough as a mercenary, but it wasn’t a job that printed money either.
The tablet Mu-hae held had over thirty checklists listed.
Moreover, the first eight items required registering videos and photos one by one.
Frankly, it was annoying. If it wasn’t for two days, he would have just pretended to write something and been done with it.
‘Still, if I had to choose a place to work between outside the Comfort zone and here, I’d have to be crazy to pick outside.’
In the first place, people who were born and raised normally inside the formal residential area don’t want to go in and out of the Dome City that protects humanity.
Thinking of such absurd choices was only possible because he was driven out of the city.
Beeep-!
“A scan signal is detected in the 3-2 sub-district. Remove the cover and wait for confirmation.”
The machine automatically checks and records the item’s product and permit number twice. Nevertheless, the final step always required human confirmation.
Apparently, that way, the responsibility for any problems lies with the human? CEO Gil might have said it as a joke, but it was quite impressive to Mu-hae.
Whether he should be happy or sad that human roles remain for various reasons even in the Blue Energy automation era…
“Please open the loading box properly. Hmm. It’s slightly melted?”
“It’s probably not just this side. There was a problem with the container… but we’ll start production right away, so there are no hygiene issues. It’s an orange label, so it doesn’t go to Central at all, and most of it is sent outside the residential area.”
Listening to the somehow unlucky explanation and scanning the contents, he saw rows of neatly stacked rat pups the size of forearms.
To be precise, plump field Beast rats. Jin Mu-hae felt a slight nausea as he looked at the field rats with their skins peeled off, their feet and heads cut off, turned into chunks of meat.
He knew they had undergone a certain disinfection process. Still, most Beast Meat was brought in by capture, not breeding.
Meeting the rat pups that had been swarming in dirty places like this made him feel instantly bad.
Beep. When he photographed the logistics number, the processing plant code appeared on the tablet.
[Gamna Foods]
Mu-hae inadvertently turned around. A Gamna Foods consumer, unaware of anything, tilted their head and smiled.
‘Just try buying something like nuggets.’
Cereal, made by grinding even the lowest-grade crumbs of genetically modified grains and slathering them with all sorts of sweeteners, felt like a better option.
Perhaps it was because of Teacher Jung’s management during his childhood. Mu-hae was unusually picky about what he ate and drank for someone from the slums.
Charrr-!
“There’s a lot of time left. The food itself is still fresh.”
“We’ve already done the inspection. If you just pay a little attention, there really won’t be any items that don’t meet the conditions.”
“I’ll pass it for now, but I’ll report it.”
“Orange labels are usually overlooked to this extent…”
The sound of “Don’t bullshit me” rose to the tip of his throat, and Mu-hae clenched his teeth slightly.
He had learned something he didn’t need to know. He had roughly expected it… From now on, he wouldn’t bother picking up the substandard food at the temporary rest stop or the processed meat products laid out in the slum stores.
Mu-hae, firmly resolved, tapped Joo-oh and turned around. Just then, from the other side, Beeep-! Another scan signal sounded.
“Are we going there?”
“Yeah.”
Once he finished dealing with the rush of work, there would be a break. He would then take the time to compare all the suspicious records of the incoming goods.
This was, after all, an infiltration to carry out Gu-reum’s request. This kind of work was just a smokescreen to avoid suspicion.
“Sunbae. I’m hungry.”
“Lunchtime is far away.”
“Can I eat mine?”
“No.”
“……”
“Just eat jelly. Is there any jelly left?”
“I will.”
Was this how working people talked? It was a bit absurd, but Mu-hae decided to be touched that Joo-oh was asking about what to eat before putting it in his mouth without doing anything rash.
When it was break time, Joo-oh eagerly put a meat skewer in his mouth.
Mu-hae was amazed once that the cheap food he had bought in Seogyeong City was still left, and again that he was eating it after so many days.
“It’s fine.”
As he said, the meat skewer really only smelled delicious. It didn’t seem spoiled, and it even remained warm.
He had no idea when he had warmed it up and brought it. Mu-hae pressed his temples and decided to just focus on his work.
‘Districts 3 and 4 are all about food.’
The kind of thing that would be taxed enough to warrant smuggling was probably high-end food ingredients, the black label stuff. Rather than cheap flour or Beast Meat that came in large quantities, making it difficult to hide, it was things like the sea tea that CEO Gil drank.
Focusing on luxury goods going to Central reduced the list that had been so full that it was troublesome.
Looking through documents wasn’t entirely unfamiliar. When he first started working as a mercenary, there were more than a few guys who were eager to scam him when he was young, so he had learned from Teacher Jung and had quite a few tricks he had figured out on his own.
“Did you find anything strange?”
“No, not yet.”
“They do inspections here like this. Isn’t it dangerous if you get caught lying?”
“There must be enough profit to try it. Mixing it with similar items to the point where it’s ambiguous, bringing it in within the margin of error…”
Mu-hae, who had been answering while wondering if he would understand even if he told him, suddenly stiffened his eyes.
Come to think of it, it didn’t necessarily have to be added to luxury goods.
What could be mixed with other qualities and then sorted out later, and whose price range varied widely depending on the quality?
‘Cheese, coffee, tea, alcohol… all kinds of luxury foods.’
The only things that had come in with a significant quantity today were coffee and alcohol. There must be a reason why Gu-reum had specifically sent them both to this Ma district on this date.
“Let’s go.”
Joo-oh, who had no idea where he had thrown away the wooden skewer, followed along empty-handed.
Mu-hae tried to press his forehead but accidentally flicked his glasses and frowned at the blurred vision.
He had tried it at home earlier, but wiping it with his shirt wouldn’t clean it properly. After thinking about it, Mu-hae folded his glasses and shoved them carelessly into his pocket.
Yeah. There was no one here who knew his face, so there was no need to wear this thing on his nose.
“Sunbae. You look angry.”
“What?”
“You’re handsome, but without glasses… um, cold? Like you’re going to hit someone?”
“……”
“Ah! Menacing.”
Mu-hae knew very well that he didn’t have a particularly kind impression. Thanks to that, he wasn’t easily picked on wherever he went, so he didn’t have any particular complaints about that fact.
However, expressions like “like you’re going to hit someone” or “menacing” coming from Joo-oh’s mouth were somehow unsatisfying.
Swish. Mu-hae put on his stained glasses again. He didn’t know what it was about this synthetic plastic sculpture that Joo-oh liked.
District 4, where alcohol was stored, felt deserted without anyone staying there.
It seemed that everyone had left to rest or eat because it was the time when logistics inspections had stopped.
Mu-hae went between the boxes piled like mountains and opened the packaging right in front of him. Artificially aged whiskey was fully loaded between the cushioning materials.
“It’s not like I know the smell of high-end alcohol. I don’t think I’ll find it even if I open it.”
“I do.”
“But we can’t really open them all and check them one by one.”
“Can’t everyone smell it? Wouldn’t they look for it differently then?”
That was true. Unless dozens of people with nothing to do were running analyzers all day, they would have marked the smuggled goods in a different way.
The boxes could be mixed up at any time to remember the arrangement. Since the scan had passed without a problem, it was likely that they had received the product code at the entrance of Goryeo City and then switched out some of the items.
Judging by the fact that it hadn’t been caught by weight, they probably hadn’t filled a box completely with smuggled goods…
“…Let’s go. Let’s finish quickly…”
Mu-hae heard someone’s presence while examining the bottles of alcohol. It seemed that the people who had left were returning.
He quickly put the items back in and tried to turn around, but stood still. Joo-oh, who should have gone out first, was standing as if nailed in place.
“Get out.”
When he nudged him with his leg, Joo-oh, who had returned to speaking informally, whispered in a low voice.
“I saw him. That person.”
Then, as if he had become an intelligence agent, he stepped back and stuck close to Mu-hae.
“When I went to Sakdal, I saw him at the cafe.”
At the unexpected words, Mu-hae also raised his eyes and grabbed Joo-oh’s back.