MIT 5

“Wow.”

“…….”

“Ooh.”

“…….”

Mu-hae entered the station interior, hearing the same old exclamation.

Joo-oh had been acting like that ever since getting off the transport vehicle, as if everything was so fascinating.

“Be quiet.”

After passing four or five booths selling cheap snacks, a vast, dusty lot appeared.

Jin Mu-hae grabbed Joo-oh, who was staring at the food as if possessed, and dragged him along.

“33764. Unregistered.”

Speaking to the old window, a wrinkled face popped up. It was the reception old man who had been guarding this spot for decades.

“Jin Mu-hae, is that you.”

“No time for idle chatter.”

“Definitely you, judging by your temper.”

The old man’s eyes gleamed as if he had found something good. A fishy smile was mixed in with his gruff words.

Jin Mu-hae had arrived at a kind of parking lot that stored transportation from outside the Comfort zone.

Vehicles traveling through dangerous areas required cumbersome quarantine procedures when brought into the city, so most people left them here instead of taking them to their residences.

“Seeing you looking for your bike, you must be going to hunt Thorn wolves too, huh?”

The old man spoke abruptly. The twitching of his lips suggested he had caught some good information.

Mu-hae tapped the window with an indifferent expression, meaning to hurry up and stop the nonsense.

Cheeeee- Thud, thud.

Soon, the inside of the iron bars became noisy with clanging sounds. The open floor pushed up, and an old bike appeared through the rusted fence.

The shocks, the lights, the seat—each part seemed to have been taken from different vehicles and assembled, giving it a bizarre and savage appearance. It was the bike Jin Mu-hae had made himself with Director Gil’s help when he first started as a mercenary.

“How much?”

“Looks like the dead old man’s Bio Chip really is inside a Thorn wolf’s belly, huh?”

“32 Deal. Right?”

“Jackal told me to keep an eye out for you.”

The old man kept talking nonsense. His hissing voice had a subtle hint of laughter.

Considering he was usually stingy, the fact that he was putting off talking about money and grinning meant he had probably been asked to spy on Mu-hae.

It wasn’t an unfamiliar situation. Jin Mu-hae was a young, strong, and fast mercenary. He kept taking jobs that were given out competitively, so the bottom-tier industry was wary of him.

“If you’re going to sell information, let’s just call it 20 Deal.”

Beep-!

There was no response to the half-hearted haggling… but the old man had definitely entered 20 Deal.

The fact that he had announced his rat-like behavior in advance meant he was doing Mu-hae a favor. He wanted to earn some petty cash by spying, but he didn’t want to deal with Mu-hae’s aftermath.

Beep-!

Mu-hae swiped his Watch on the terminal and immediately turned around.

Joo-oh, who had been watching the scene like a movie, belatedly came to his senses and quickly followed Jin Mu-hae.

“You’ve got a tail I haven’t seen before?”

As the old man’s gaze turned to the hooded figure, Mu-hae pushed Joo-oh’s hood down further.

Whether he knew Mu-hae’s annoyed mood or not, the white hand waved as if to say hello.

“Hi, Jae-gu.”

The old man’s eyes widened in surprise at the unfamiliar name.

Joo-oh, grabbed by Mu-hae’s hand and dragged along, giggled.

“Don’t call just anyone by weird names.”

“Okay.”

The old man’s eyes remained wide open until the two had completely left the front of the reception.

WELCOME TO LA VIDA 🙂

~15 years, 117 days~

Joo-oh hummed and approached the savage-looking bike.

He could feel it without looking back. The reception old man was still staring this way.

His official title was the parking lot’s ‘Old Beaver.’ But in reality, back when the framework of the nation still existed, he was a petty thief called ‘Jae-gu.’

He was an NPC that Joo-oh visited endlessly often when doing side quests, and seeing the old man he had only seen in game illustrations moving alive in front of him felt strangely welcoming and fresh.

“Stay still.”

“I was still.”

“Don’t keep looking around. And don’t stare at strangers.”

Perhaps that was why. Jin Mu-hae’s cool and stern warning didn’t dampen his mood.

Rather, he was just glad that he kept talking to him. Joo-oh nodded vaguely and climbed onto Mu-hae’s back.

“Hold on tight.”

He didn’t say be careful, nor did he explain where they were going.

Even with a voice that had no kindness in it, Joo-oh just felt good about everything. His body floated, and a nostalgic BGM kept ringing in his ears.

…The simple station he had only seen in games a long time ago. The various snacks he could buy with petty cash. The city inside the Dome. Jin Mu-hae, just as he had imagined.

It felt like a dream. The worldview of 「La Vida Blue」, which he had hardly felt even after spending 15 years here, was now boldly approaching his face.

So Joo-oh just smiled with a blank face. He wasn’t about to fall off this bike, but he wrapped his arms around Mu-hae’s waist and leaned his head against his back.

He even tried to rub his cheek closer, but failed because of the equipment attached to the jacket. Still, he could faintly feel his warmth through his forehead.

“Let’s go.”

It was strange. Every time he heard Jin Mu-hae’s voice, his heart fluttered and the corners of his mouth kept rising.

So he kept laughing like a person whose mind was going back and forth. Haha, heh. The unfinished laughter scattered in his mouth.

Whoosh-.

The wind wildly struck his ears. The scene in front of him blurred and disappeared at a rapid pace.

Even so, Joo-oh could hear the thumping heartbeat, see clearly far away, and smell Jin Mu-hae’s scent, which quickly evaporated and disappeared.

It wasn’t difficult. He was someone who could sense Aberrants hundreds of meters away.

Joo-oh could stick close to Jin Mu-hae in any condition, and he could help Jin Mu-hae.

Especially if what he had to do was a taste-testing quest from the early part of the story.

It could be solved very easily and quickly.

[Quest]

Main Quest

Tutorial (Completed)

Chapter 1

☞ The City’s Heretic (In Progress)

The Wolf That Bears Gold

[The Wolf That Bears Gold]

David Jang of Goryeo City is looking for the Thorn wolf that swallowed his father’s Bio Chip.

He has publicly promised a substantial reward if the wolf that swallowed the chip is brought before him…

“Jin Mu-hae.”

“…….”

“Jin Mu-hae.”

“What.”

“I know where it is.”

“I can’t hear you well. Talk later.”

Several years after falling into 「La Vida Blue」. Before his reason disappeared, Joo-oh remained alone and endlessly replayed the game’s story.

After that, his mind became hazy, but the clear walkthroughs still vividly came to mind because the location of the first quest was always fixed.

Even after 15 years, Joo-oh could map out that location in a mini-map view.

If his memory was correct, it would probably be near a small forest located southwest of the Thorn wolf’s spawning ground…

“Left.”

“What?”

He said he couldn’t hear well, but that seemed to be a lie. Mu-hae’s voice asking back was closer to ignoring him than questioning.

Joo-oh tightened his arms around his waist. Perhaps because he had rubbed his forehead against his back, the mountain-sized body flinched even though he hadn’t used much strength.

“Go left. It’s there.”

“Don’t disturb my driving and stay still.”

“I’m not disturbing. I’m helping.”

“How do you know where I’m going?”

Even though his low voice was full of annoyance, Joo-oh answered casually.

“Thorn wolf. I know where the one that swallowed the chip is.”

At the same time, the bike that had been running like it was flying gradually slowed down.

Screech-. Jin Mu-hae, who had stopped in the middle of the dry land, turned his head sharply and stared at his passenger.

“How do you know that.”

Jin Mu-hae seemed to have a good sense. Unlike other words, he could have just ignored this and moved on, but he bothered to furrow his brow and ask.

Did he sense something fishy? His eyes were full of suspicion.

“Come to think of it, you can talk properly too?”

“I always could.”

“You could only say you were hungry.”

“I said I would help too.”

As he fiddled with the waist he was holding tightly, Mu-hae’s eyebrows twitched.

He seemed like he was going to question him further, but then he let out a long sigh as if to say never mind.

“We’re not out here for fun, so don’t be a nuisance.”

Judging by his expression, if he bothered him any more here, he wouldn’t bring him out again.

No, that would be a relief. He might even be kicked out of the house he had subtly set foot in.

Even so, Joo-oh pulled Mu-hae’s waist again. It was because he knew his personality well.

For the time being, he would be able to stay by his side if he just stayed quiet, but after some time, he would eventually be abandoned.

In order to observe the flow of this world and survive, the protagonist had to need Joo-oh first.

“……Left.”

But had he thought too much? He was starting to get hungry. Joo-oh swallowed hard and urged Mu-hae.

When he was hungry, his head became dull and he could only think about food. He had lived that way for too long, so he was swept away by his soaring instincts.

“I’m not lying. I know.”

When he spoke with strength for the first time, Mu-hae glanced down at the arm wrapped around his stomach.

He seemed to be contemplating for a moment. Since he was planning to search the Thorn wolf’s spawning ground for a few days until the next job anyway, there was no harm in driving the bike as Joo-oh told him to.

Grrr, whoosh-.

It was too much of a hassle to break his stubbornness, and there was nothing to lose no matter where he searched first.

In the end, Jin Mu-hae’s bike turned its head to the left. Only then did the hand that had been stubbornly holding on to his waist slowly lose its strength.

Thump. Joo-oh leaned his head back against Mu-hae’s back. As the faint scent of his skin lingered around his nose, it became a little easier to endure the hunger.

Every time he felt Jin Mu-hae’s body temperature, voice, and scent, his fading mind slowly returned to reality.