Jin Muhae’s odd behavior continued even at the electronics shop.“Hello.”“Yeah, hello. Does he need equipment checked, too?”“No, I just followed you. But I need you to check the detector, and then I have something to tell you inside.”When Muhae reached out his hand, Joo-o thought he’d brush his hat off for him.But instead, Muhae coldly waved him aside and picked up the tools lying behind.“Is it urgent?”“Not exactly urgent, but if you insist, it’s my feelings.”“…Troublesome brat.”Joo-o hesitated, then pulled back his hood and walked to a corner.He felt a little hurt, but it was okay. He’d always been the one to take off his hat first. Interrupting Muhae when he was busy was not being a good partner.“You’re not giving me any today?”“You know how expensive that is? I don’t even have food.”Muhae wasn’t ignoring Joo-o completely. When they followed Boss Gil inside, Muhae remembered to gesture for Joo-o to come along.He even slid the drink Boss Gil offered over to Joo-o. Joo-o sat on the sofa beside it and drank politely.“Actually… about what you told me last time. About Cloud.”Muhae brought up the topic, and Boss Gil’s expression grew uneasy. He cleared his throat, shot Joo-o a glance, then looked back at Muhae.“I’ve gotten help from Cloud for a while now. But sometimes the scale of it is beyond imagination.”“Ahem. Is that so?”“I’ve heard recently that someone might be behind Cloud.”“Where on earth have you been hearing such rumors?”“Around. Of course it’s all conjecture.”At that, Muhae fell silent. He’d said all he knew—now it was an unspoken cue for any feedback.Boss Gil took a few sips of the fizzy drink, bubbles clinging around the ice, then spoke slowly.“Muhae. That’s all I’ve got to tell you: Cloud’s not someone with that kind of power.”“You’ve told me that already.”“Yeah. I’m always doing my best to help.”“But something’s bugging you. You made that twitchy face.”Watching their back-and-forth, Joo-o sipped his drink. The sweet, fizzy liquid slid down his throat, and he felt his tense chest relax.Sweetness really is wonderful. Different from meat, it brings a pure happiness. Seeing Joo-o grin, Muhae’s gaze flicked over for a moment.Swish. He slid his own drink over in front of Joo-o. Joo-o almost clung to him in joy.So Muhae didn’t hate him after all. He was acting strange, but still cared.Even if he did dislike him, Joo-o would have found solace in his mere presence. Still, Joo-o felt better knowing his beloved protagonist liked him back.Joo-o adored Muhae. He’d be devastated if Muhae truly hated him.“If it’s hard to talk about, never mind. But do you know anything about Solar City?”“Solar City? Why that all of a sudden?”Boss Gil’s pupils dilated slightly at the unexpected question. The hair at his sideburns quivered, and a muscle twitched at his eye.Joo-o watched their conversation eagerly, sipping the bright yellow drink as sparingly as he could until Muhae finished talking—so he wouldn’t interrupt this interesting moment.“You know my father’s research ended up there.”“That’s true. There were people there with similar goals.”“What if that research wasn’t limited to their group?”“Hmm… go on.”“I found a message from a Solar City researcher who’d traded with 회항. Before talking about humanity’s liberation, it seems stopping the creation of the crystal zones was their top priority.”“So that guy shared part of 회항’s research with the city?”“Then even after 회항 failed, they kept researching. They probably got more direct results on ending the blue crystal.”Hearing this, Boss Gil’s eyes lit up. It was quite a sight: a man whose passion seemed bone-dry waking to life.Though he said nothing, a faint admiration passed over his face. Joo-o sipped his drink, studying Gil closely.“Muhae. To be honest, when you first brought that 성조 document…”“Yes?”“I half hoped, half gave up. Harsh words, but I didn’t think you’d stick with it to the end.”“Yet you even brewed tea leaves for me.”“Of course I know you’re sharper than you seem. Retracing 회항’s steps isn’t easy, even if the groundwork was laid. Still, it’s no walk in the park. But…”Boss Gil exhaled deeply, rummaged in his pocket. Click. Lighting a cigarette, he stared at the ceiling and muttered,“You must’ve inherited some smarts. Good drive. You’ve exceeded my expectations. Funny as it sounds, if you’d been in 성조’s position back then, I might’ve lent you a hand.”“That’s the funniest part: that I’m ‘different than I seem.’”“When someone speaks, take it seriously, kid.”Gulp. Joo-o finished the last drop of his drink. Tapping the empty glass, a few drops fell onto his tongue.After savoring the sweet taste, Joo-o finally interrupted their talk.“Jin Muhae. That thing—just pull the lever.”Muhae glanced over, then nodded once. He tapped Joo-o’s leg approvingly, and Joo-o felt his damp gloom evaporate, leaving him light as air.Boss Gil, curious, looked their way. Joo-o forced down his grin and folded his arms quickly.“I heard 회항’s plan collapsed at the last moment. Yet Solar City still had research to do?”“I don’t know where you heard that… but it wasn’t completed. With more time and resources, it could’ve been different.”“They say Cloud only needed to pull the lever.”“Lever… right. Once that trigger was pulled, it was over. They lacked experiments and samples for it. Muhae, that city was huge. Opportunities and conditions were better than here. We were sure they’d succeed—then everything fell apart.”The young man who dreamed of a new humanity aged in a slum’s corner, shackled by surveillance and aftereffects.Less than ten years later, Solar City collapsed, and the 회항 leader passed away.Between the stench of reality and the thread of hope, how did those survivors view Jin Muhae?Joo-o rattled his empty cup, staring intently at Boss Gil. As a die-hard La Vida Blue player, he wanted to see the boss’s expression back then—what might have been if key events had gone differently.Before becoming an anomaly and losing his mind, perhaps he’d endured each day with such thoughts. The familiarity tugged at Joo-o—maybe he often daydreamed before falling into the game.Yet no clear memories surfaced. His only change was the dreams he sometimes had.Now, in nightmares, Joo-o no longer saw a glowing monitor. He felt that strange, time-sapping withering before the screen.“What is it?”Finally Gil noticed Joo-o and raised an eyebrow. Joo-o shook his head and quickly looked away.Cloud, Solar City—whatever else happened, Muhae’s routine continued unchanged.Joo-o clung to him as he headed out on a request, climbing into the small craft.The requests from the Company were gradually getting easier. It seems Muhae was choosing only simple missions.In the original game, Muhae mentioned “cutting back on requests,” but that didn’t imply side-quest difficulty would drop.Still, the ever-smaller tasks were a kind of change. Maybe he was just handling unshown errands.“Phew. There were three of them.”“…You only got two.”“One ran away.”After easily dispatching the spiked wolves, Joo-o shook the ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) blood from his hands. He almost licked them clean by habit, but smelled Muhae’s scent through the metallic tang and refrained.Whoosh. Muhae tossed him something. It turned out to be a wet wipe. Lately he’d always cleaned Joo-o’s hands himself—now he handed over a whole pack without being asked.Joo-o stared at Muhae, and Muhae blatantly looked away.‘He’s always given them like this.’Come to think of it, Muhae had only begun caring for Joo-o so attentively recently. So it wasn’t odd—yet his heart felt otherwise.It was as if a hole opened in his windpipe and something was sucked out.“Stay inside while I check the scanner.”“I want to. I want to help, too.”Normally he’d snap at Joo-o to stop bothering him and take a meal pill, but Muhae hesitated this time.“Do you know the location?”Surprisingly, he gave a positive sign. It was the first time Joo-o had properly joined in on his work.

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