“Was that shopping complex originally built for that purpose? The structure was unique.”“I don’t know. It’s not mine.”“To think only a handful of people use that place... money really is nice.”“Even though I said it’s not mine? Today you just can’t understand what I mean.”Boss Gil replied in a flat voice and then Crunch, he took a bite of the pie.He’s not someone with a big appetite, so it’s unexpected to see him eating in this situation. In an instant he devoured half of a fist-sized pie and, after cleansing his palate with tea, continued speaking.“That basement was something your damn father got. We handled the facilities, but it’s not under our name.”“You’re saying you built it yourself.”“What is there to say we built it? We just took a prototype, dropped it into an existing space, and spruced it up.”As if chewing over his memories, Boss Gil’s eyes drifted upward. He fell silent for a while, then let out a slight bitter laugh and asked, “Is that place still running?”“Roughly, yes. The data-processing side is working properly, too. It’s just that most of the data got lost.”“Someone must have wiped it. Either Seongjo or some other guy.”“Someone else...”Before bringing up the main topic, Jin Muhae glanced to the side. Joo-o was sitting close by, eating pie.The pace he normally devours things with was nowhere to be seen; he was carefully chewing and savoring each bite.He didn’t seem interested in our conversation. Muhae cleared his throat, then turned his gaze back to Boss Gil.“I saw the records. I don’t know if they’re notes or conversation logs.”“....”“I thought it might be my father’s records, so I came looking, and it seems to be so.”This time Boss Gil flinched. As if expecting the next question, his face darkened.“There were four of them?”“What are you talking about.”“You know what I’m talking about.”Evading the question only made it easier to figure out. In that group back then, besides the three people Muhae knew well, there was another accomplice.We can’t tell their gender or age, but they must not have been just acquaintances. Just like Boss Gil and Dr. Jeong now, and as shown by the intimate dialogue in the logs...The fact that this person’s existence was completely erased from my father’s records, and that no one mentions them, what could be the reason?Like the end of Hwehang, maybe that person also met an unmentionably bad end. Or maybe their relationship just ended in disaster.“You didn’t have to ask me anyway...”“....”“You’ll find out soon enough, too.”Boss Gil swiftly averted his eyes and finished off the tea in his cup. I don’t know if it’s that he doesn’t want to tell me or can’t tell me.What was certain was that no matter how much I probed, I wouldn’t get any answers from him. Muhae took a step back and picked up a pie topped with red jam.Crunch, the crust crumbled in my mouth with a savory, salty taste, but it was still too sweet for my palate.I glanced to the side and saw Joo-o’s eyes sparkling as he looked at the pie in my hand.Did he want to eat this? When I offered the pie I’d bitten, Joo-o happily came over and quietly ate it.“Hmm. Fake cherry.”“Didn’t I tell you not to call food ‘fake’?”“But it is fake.”His swift head movement as he bit into it was fascinating to watch, so I just observed him. I even held my hand under in case pie crumbs fell. If the sofa or floor got dirty, Boss Gil would definitely start nagging.His cheeks moving as he chewed looked kind of funny. As I suppressed the twitch of my mouth and turned my head back, Boss Gil was watching us with a strange look in his eye.Damn. I messed around in the middle of a serious conversation. I quickly dusted my empty hand on my pants and smoothly switched to another topic.“Oh, about Gureum. I’m still in touch with them.”“...But?”“It’s kind of a weird feeling, you could say. It’s hard to grasp their motives.”“Motives?”Boss Gil erased his strange expression and focused on the conversation. I organized in my mind what had happened with Gureum and spoke slowly.“I know they’re helping me under the guise of a deal, but the scale is bigger than I expected.”“Why. What else did they do?”“To be honest, it even feels similar to my father. Not in what they do for me, but in how they keep assigning me tasks like homework.”I poked at my left wrist. The records in the Link Watch were nothing more than assignments left by my father.Of course, I never had much interaction with him while he was alive, but the missions I inherited after his death are an endless series of tests.For some reason, I felt a similar sense from Gureum.“They’re not someone with that kind of power, yet they would go that far for me?”“Ahem.”“Besides, when we first met, Gureum said it. That I resemble that woman.”When talk of Gureum’s identity came up and Boss Gil was once again skirting the conversation, he reacted to the last words and his eyes widened. But soon his gaze shifted elsewhere. He still had no intention of mentioning this topic.“Just tell me this. Was my mother also part of Hwehang?”“....”“Gureum seemed to know. I have my suspicions too… but it’s better to have it confirmed. That’s why I’m asking.”Unlike my father, who cast even a shadow over my life, my mother left no trace at all.It’s not like I have regrets about a guardian I never had. I’m just curious. From Hwehang’s perspective, how she stayed and what she did.“...Yeah. She was there.”Boss Gil, who had been hesitating for a long time, answered as if there was no other choice. A complex emotion passed over his face.I silently nodded and took a few sips of the cold water in my cup. I already knew this from when Gureum subtly mentioned my mother, but hearing a direct confirmation felt a bit strange.“Jin Muhae. Have mine.”A small cup suddenly appeared before expressionless me. It was a warm teacup.It looked like someone had taken a sip, and gentle ripples were spreading across the half-empty tea.“You drink it.”“It’s tasty, this.”The repeated invitation sounded so nice, I pretended I couldn’t refuse and took the tea to my lips.The guy who used to snatch other people’s food at first gradually began shoving tasty things into his own mouth.It’s bothersome, but it’s a huge improvement. At least now there’s less risk of him wandering around drooling, claiming no one would buy him food.I emptied the liquid, whose taste I couldn’t grasp at all, and handed the cup back to Joo-o.His dull face broke into a big relieved smile. He must have sensed the mood and taken the hint. After poking me to check, he responded as usual, looking relieved.“Is that all you’re curious about?”“Yeah, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) well. For now.”I rolled my stiff shoulders with a cracking sound. Staying any longer would only make Boss Gil uncomfortable, and it didn’t seem like I’d hear anything new.“I’ll be heading out. Let me know when you’ve fixed the hook.”After a brief farewell, I stood up, and Joo-o quickly got up and scampered after me.“And I really came for multiple reasons. To check the equipment, and to bring pie. Someone kept nagging me to buy them some.”I gestured sideways with an indifferent voice. Boss Gil’s eyes followed me to Joo-o.Joo-o nodded and murmured, clutching someone else’s arm. His expression was similar to when he gave Boss Gil that weird mascot figure—TeTerong or whatever.“You must’ve found more records?”“Probably. I’ll look them over and come back.”Boss Gil’s expression relaxed considerably. I thought of my mother, whose existence was only passed down in oral tales, then shook my head slightly and walked on.If she had been truly involved in Hwehang’s affairs, she would have shown up in the records at some point. Unless it’s necessary right now, it’s better for mental health to cut away all the extraneous and focus only on the goal.That’s the truth I realized over the past seven years wandering through rough terrain as a mercenary, and the secret to living the same daily life while saving up a fortune I never know when I’ll need.Project Solar47047’s RecordsThere is an archetype that exists commonly in the collective unconscious of humanity.This manifests in modern humans who live in isolation just the same, so thoughts anyone human has ever had are shared among all through word of mouth.Dreamers of a new world existed long before the great upheaval. This time it just became Hwehang, and this kind of desire could appear anywhere, not just in Goryeo City.That Hwehang had cooperation networks all over the world is by no means coincidence. If there had been no restrictions on communication between cities, even more groups would have banded together for the same ideal.At present, the goal of these dissidents is to create a ‘reset’ button. Research on Crystal Blue has continued steadily since its inception, and each time a new theory is proposed, along with the possibilities for energy utilization, hypotheses about crystal generation are also added....“What is this even saying.”Muhae, as he reviewed the freshly obtained records, sighed and leaned back into the sofa.It definitely felt like the author tried to make it easy to understand, even adding tedious preamble explanations, but from Muhae’s perspective—far removed from any erudition—it actually reduced his intuition.Still, if you sift through it roughly, it’s about another group with the same purpose as Hwehang. Not in Goryeo City where they stayed, but in other cities far and wide.Muhae suddenly recalled the first-aid kit he picked up in the Burkta region. The Solar City emblem under the pill bottle. Joo-o’s face when he recognized it instantly and looked like he understood something...“Jin Muhae.”Speak of the devil, Joo-o, who had been lying in the study, somehow came out and plopped down beside me, calling my name.I checked the time as if it might be mealtime and looked at the glossy white face.“What did Jin Seongjo say?”Indeed. I started to reply vaguely but my eyebrow twitched. What had I just asked?“You don’t go around calling other people’s parents by name. And how did you even know that name?”“Boss Gil told me. But I told him just call me Jin Muhae too.”“Because I’m not someone else’s parent.”“You wouldn’t call your own kid ‘Jin Muhae’, would you?”It’s a total mess and I don’t know where to even start pointing things out. He says I shouldn’t call someone that when they’re right in front of me? And I can’t call someone else’s child ‘my kid’?He definitely had no socialization at all. Though he belatedly wore an expression like ‘Was I?’, given my already chaotic state of mind, I somehow felt a let-it-be attitude.“Do as you please.”“Okay.”His sweet, light voice answering so smoothly was really galling and irritating.I brushed his head aside and swiftly cleared away the holographic windows floating before me.

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