By Zephyria 
~Day 199 of Year 15~
[Quest]
Main Quest
Tutorial (Completed)
Chapter 1 (Completed)
Chapter 2
☞ The Person Responsible for the Bygone Reform (Completed)
Scheduled Work √
DIY 777 √
Blue not Vlue √
Planned Hero √
Sewer Exploration √
One to Replace Four √
☞ Cooperation Across the Sea (In Progress)
A Letter from the Past
[A Letter from the Past]
A newly acquired record revealed an unfulfilled promise.
Head to the recorded location and check the old message.
‘Glad you came to Jaegang District.’
Joo-oh stared blankly at the system window, lost in thought. He had woken up again in the middle of the night, tossing and turning for a while before finally calming down upon hearing Mu-hae’s heartbeat.
While he liked their home on Starlight Road, the starting point of the game, he preferred sleeping here with Mu-hae, since they only had one bed there.
That way, even when he saw the faintly glowing monitor in his dreams, he didn’t feel suffocated. Even if his hands trembled slightly, the scent of Mu-hae quickly calmed him down.
‘Jin Mu-hae.’
Joo-oh carefully took the sleeping man’s hand and gently placed it on his chest. It would be even better if he patted him, but just feeling his warm, large hand made him feel good.
‘Jin Mu-hae is the best, after all.’
Basically, he didn’t mind the warmth of people in general, no matter who it was. Joo-oh could gladly accept Teacher Jung’s hand stroking his hair as if testing him, or even Cheong’s presumptuous touches.
But none of them could compare to Jin Mu-hae’s touch. It wasn’t just because Mu-hae pulled his ears, stroked his cheeks, and rubbed his body.
He just liked him because it was him. He liked his scent, he liked his voice, he liked everything.
‘But is Cheong going to distance himself now?’
The cutscene of when he confronted Cheong played in his head like a robot’s video.
As expected, Cheong had started to move. He was sure that guy would bother Jin Mu-hae.
Interestingly, it wasn’t out of malice for Cheong. Cheong just needed something to pique his interest.
According to the story, Jin Mu-hae got caught up in it, and since the helper position was out of the question, he would either hinder or help them with his mischievous whims.
But Joo-oh was okay with it! He remembered clearing the game without any problems even after antagonizing Cheong and maximizing his exposure.
He still couldn’t remember anything from the past except for the strange monitor, but he knew the upcoming story with uncanny clarity.
Like a veteran player who had played the same game dozens, even hundreds of times. Even Joo-oh, whose common sense was lacking in places, knew that it wasn’t a normal way to play.
‘Game… um, what was it. Um… right. I must have been a game addict.’
But now that he thought about it, wasn’t it fortunate that he was an addict? He could equip all sorts of mods like armor and help Jin Mu-hae.
Besides, thanks to that, whenever he found something delicious, he could buy it all and put it in his Inventory. Right now, the expanded Inventory was filled with all sorts of snacks that even Mu-hae didn’t know about.
He would never tell him, but Joo-oh sometimes went around the grocery store to save money.
Whenever he walked through the slums without Mu-hae, someone would always pick a fight. They would touch his hat, which he wore to avoid being recognized, and pull on his arms or neck, so Joo-oh would grab them and stride into the alleyway.
‘Massage fee.After gagging the humans and tapping their arms or legs, dozens of deals would jingle into his account.
The food on Starlight Road only cost a few dils, so Joo-oh could quickly fill his Inventory with just a few farming runs.
Without knowing this, Jin Mu-hae kept telling him to save money. But money came and went. Well, Mu-hae had to buy clothes, food, furniture, and equipment, so it couldn’t be helped.
Jin Mu-hae knew a lot, but he also didn’t know a lot. Joo-oh realized this vaguely at some point.
Jin Mu-hae seemed to think he was from Solar City.
‘That’s a Comfort zone that collapsed a long time ago. Is Jin Mu-hae stupid?’
As he muttered to himself, Joo-oh quickly corrected his thoughts. Looking back, when they went to Teacher Jung’s hospital together, Jin Mu-hae had talked to him about Solar City.
Solar City had a lot of rumors surrounding it, and there were a few Easter eggs related to it in the game.
Things like the experiments they did there, and how prosperous Solar City had been.
‘Rumor has it they did human experiments too.’
‘I don’t know about that. I’m not sure about that story either. It’s just that research related to Crystal Blue and Aberrants was definitely active.’
Maybe Jin Mu-hae was mistaking him for an Experiment from there. He kept asking about human experiments and trying to avoid eye contact.
That wasn’t true. So, before going to sleep, Joo-oh had been about to tell Mu-hae that it wasn’t true, but he just kept his mouth shut, pretending not to know.
When he thought about it, an Experiment was better than a monster.
Aberrants couldn’t be next to Jin Mu-hae, but Experiments could.
So Joo-oh thought. From today on, he wasn’t a 15-year-old monster, but a ‘human’ who had escaped from an experiment in Solar City.
Mu-hae had created an origin for him that was difficult to explain, so he was grateful.
‘I’m Joo-oh. And I’m an Experiment.’
Joo-oh repeated the same words several times in his head and took a long breath, feeling relieved.
As long as he was human, he could be happy and feel good like this forever. He kept making mistakes in his long-awaited human act, but Mu-hae seemed to misunderstand and understand him as he pleased.
Sometimes, when bad guys made him angry, he wanted to rip off their heads and chew on them…
If he thought about it that way, he could put up with anything. Joo-oh smelled the scent of the sleeping Mu-hae and smiled slightly.
“Pack your things properly. You didn’t leave anything behind in Jaegang District, did you?”
“Nope. I brought everything.”
Jin Mu-hae equipped his gear on the back of his jacket and slung a small bag over his shoulder. When he turned to look at Joo-oh, he was already stuffing a baton into his backpack and sitting in front of the door, putting on his red boots.
“This time, it’ll be two days at most. It’ll be over soon, so don’t cause any trouble and follow me closely.”
“Okay.”
He was glad he kept taking Company requests. Not being suspected while going in and out of the city was a greater reward than money.
Especially when the destination and the request location overlapped like this, Mu-hae felt like this despised job was a stroke of luck.
“We’re going to move towards the mountains on the way. If you feel anything strange, tell me right away.”
“Jin Mu-hae worries a lot.”
Mu-hae glared at Joo-oh, who shrugged his shoulders, and cracked his knuckles.
It was almost time to leave. This business trip was to the Takra area. The distance, neither too far nor too close, made him feel lighthearted.
“It’s lucky that we had something to do there.”
“…You could say that.”
It was purely by chance that he found the unfamiliar coordinates in his father’s records. Joo-oh had been lying impudently on his lap while he was watching TV, so he had lifted his head and thrown him off.
As he fell under the sofa, he struggled and touched the Hologram Window, and a block was caught between the empty paragraphs, revealing a hidden memo.
Even Mu-hae, who had read his father’s records to the point of exhaustion, hadn’t expected this.
[Takra 33.289 126.367]
[I wanted to meet you in person closer, but this seems to be the limit for now.]
It was clearly a message that someone had sent to the Return Flight. He couldn’t guess how old the record was, but Jin Seong-jo must have inserted this memo here.
He wanted Mu-hae to visit the outside of Goryeo City, which he could no longer go to, in the future.
‘…Takra?’
As soon as he heard the place name, Mu-hae muttered aloud. Takra was a remote area with a fairly large Crystal Zone.
If he remembered correctly, the Company’s requests related to that place were also delivered on a schedule a couple of times a year…
Because it was such an isolated terrain and there were almost no Crystal Zones there until decades ago, there were shelters where people stayed in Takra.
Now, the Company was using these shelters to increase the survival rate of the miners. Of course, the Company took the initiative to maintain them in a simple way, and that was sometimes delivered to Mu-hae as a request.
How have you been, MH5591.
The exploration schedule you accepted last month is coming up in two days, so we are providing guidance and precautions.
xx. xx. xx ~ xx. xx. xx
Check and manage Shelter Point 3 in the Takra area
Class 3 Small aircraft/ Two-wheeled vehicle for ground movement
Regular shelter management is recommended to secure emergency evacuation sites. Check the external sensors and opening/closing systems of the marked shelters, and stock emergency food inside.
Seawater pollution levels are decreasing, but minimize contact as it is harmful to the human body.
Injuries or losses incurred during work will be handled according to the most recently updated contract.
We wish you good luck.
Cheongang Mining & Energy Service Team
The pay was low because it was a simple job, but the schedule was only two days at most.
Mu-hae, who no longer had to be desperate for a large sum of money, hurriedly accepted the last request of the last quarter.
It was a request he wouldn’t have even glanced at before he got his father’s belongings, but he was lucky.
He wondered if anything would still be left at this point, at least twenty years later. Jin Mu-hae packed his bags with doubts and left the house with Joo-oh.