episode_0059

“Dad, we’re in big trouble.”

Although it was Lee Ji-ah speaking in the men’s bathroom, her expression was very serious.

‘If you came here without even calling, then something really big must have happened…?’

Ji-hoon, who had been feeling uneasy, nodded his head in relief at the fact that Ji-ah was right in front of him. The two of them were currently in the same room, but since it was a fancy restaurant, there weren’t many people coming in, and the room that should have been narrow was a bit large.

“Dad, look at this.”

Ji-ah looked at Ji-hoon and gave him a signal, as if she didn’t have time to talk for long. A small window appeared naturally on the HUD, and Ji-hoon clicked on it to enlarge it.

The news was currently being broadcast on TV.

“Chairman Hong Seo-yeon, who had not been seen for the past month, appeared healthy at an official event for the first time in a while. Thanks to various rumors, the stock prices of Mirae Enterprise, which had been fluctuating, have also begun to rise steadily.”

“What… What the fuck is this…”

Ji-hoon, who couldn’t understand the news, rubbed his eyes for no reason. But nothing had changed. The subtitles on the news were simply reporting that the president of Mirae Enterprise, who had appeared after a month, was healthy, and they were just publishing articles denying various rumors.

In fact, if it had ended here, it could have been considered a desperate attempt by the vice president and management of a future company to protect the stocks that were falling without end.

“This is reporter Kim Dae-gi on site. It is known that Chairman Hong Seo-yeon returned home after making a promise at the shareholders’ meeting of Mirae Corporation. Please see the footage.”

As soon as the reporter finished speaking, Hong Seo-yeon really came into view. She was wearing a neat and clean suit, and she took off the black sunglasses that covered her face, brushed back her wavy hair, and began to speak with a smile.

“Let’s get straight to the point. Our company, Mirae, has decided to release a new cyberware implant. These products will feature some innovative updates ─”

Ji-hoon followed up with a long explanation that he couldn’t understand. In the video, Hong Seo-yeon spoke in front of people and showed them how to lightly lift the arms and legs of the cyberware that the employees brought in and simply test its functions.

Among them, she showed a simple performance where she attacked herself using objects that looked like they could be used as weapons, and then blocked them with drones floating in the air. Even the drone she used seemed to be sold as a product, and she also spoke briefly about the drone’s capabilities.

“No… No way these guys…”

Hong Seo-yeon was with herself all day today. She had sex from morning to noon, and after that, she slept for about an hour at the hotel, and then came here to watch a movie because of hypnosis and suggestion. Ji-hoon knew this better than anyone else, and the location information that Sonagi attached to her body was nothing special.

“Dad.”

Lee Ji-ah looked at Ji-hoon without saying a word. Ji-hoon could roughly guess what was happening.

“Thank you, Ji-ah. I’ll think about it. It’ll be the fastest if you solve it yourself.”

It’s Kakemusha.

To put it more simply, it’s fake. Perhaps the executives of a future company are using an elaborately made android that looks exactly like Hong Seo-yeon to do their dirty work.

these guys

Ji-hoon, who had been toying with Hong Seo-yeon to his heart’s content and was thinking of swallowing up Mirae Enterprise, was quite displeased.

* * * * * *

The menu that Hong Seo-yeon chose was ordinary. It was typical Western food that you would eat at a fancy restaurant. It was a course meal and there were a variety of things that came out.

Ji-hoon thought it was ordinary, but the price printed on the order form was outrageous. Fortunately, he didn’t know that fact, and he was cutting the main dish, steak, into bite-sized pieces with a knife and fork.

The taste was, needless to say, good. I thought that it wasn’t much different from what people eat in 21st century Korea, but maybe this was similar to the movie theater that Hong Seo-yeon used.

‘Considering how incredibly expensive raw eggs are…’

The dishes here were definitely not made of hastily heated up instant food, but were clearly made with fresh ingredients, so you could imagine how expensive they were.

However, Ji-hoon couldn’t help but be surprised by each of these prices. He was shocked by the fact that Mirae Enterprise had created a ‘fake Hong Seo-yeon’ and was doing something with it, and his mind was in a state of confusion as to how to get rid of the fake.

‘Do I really need to worry about this?’

He thought for a long time while eating and drinking the wine that Hong Seo-yeon recommended with a smile. He thought about it so hard that he thought he might be getting gray hair, but he couldn’t come up with a good answer.

The answer may be surprisingly simple. There, doesn’t Ji-hoon have the power to erase memories over and over again? Ji-hoon coughed once as he watched Hong Seo-yeon smile and sip her wine.

“Seoyeon, can I ask you something?”

“Oh my, that’s a pretty rude question to ask.”

Hong Seo-yeon smiled and nodded as if to tell him to do as he pleased. It felt like she would answer any question as kindly as possible, and Ji-hoon shrugged his shoulders, clearing his mind a little.

“Are you the type of person who prepares for emergencies, Seoyeon?”

“Hmm… There’s no one who doesn’t prepare for something like that. There’s a reason people look for insurance.”

“Then, is there a system that operates if Seoyeon gets hurt or goes missing?”

It was such a direct question. But Hong Seo-yeon blinked once and sipped her wine.

“Are you curious about that as a netrunner? Or as my partner?”

“I would say both. Sometimes I want to go out and hang out with Seoyeon for a few days.”

“Ugh…”

Hong Seo-yeon laughed once and took another sip of wine.

“Where should I start explaining? Should I tell Hye-yeon’s story too?”

After thinking for a while, she put down her wine glass and leaned back comfortably in her chair.

“There is something like that. There is an android that was created in case of an emergency. It is a perfect copy of me. Starting with the vice president, all the people below are trash…”

Hong Seo-yeon lets out a short snort as if she is dumbfounded just thinking about the executives, and pours herself another glass of wine as if her throat is burning even when she is still.

“You’ve prepared quite thoroughly for an emergency, Seo-yeon. Is there a reason for this?”

People just don’t prepare.

Especially, an android that looks exactly like you would be something that would cost a tremendous amount of money and time just thinking about it. There must have been an incident that made you think that you had to prepare something like that.

Ji-hoon naturally deduced and asked a question. Hong Seo-yeon surprisingly nodded without showing any discomfort.

“I have a younger brother.”

“She looks like Seoyeon, so she’ll be smart and pretty.”

“Oh my… The problem is that you don’t resemble me at all.”

Hong Seo-yeon sighed and waved her hands up and down silently as the alcohol took effect.

“My younger sister, Hong Hye-yeon, is a woman who ran away from home because she hated both our house and our company. What do you mean by running away…”

“I cut ties with my family. Is that it?”

“That’s right. That’s exactly it. In the past, I just listened to what she said and did whatever I wanted, but one day, she started saying things like, “The work we do at our company is dirty, do you know that we do this kind of work?” and so on…”

As she spoke, she began to gaze wistfully out the window. Then, as if she found it difficult to speak, she put her fingers into her hair and began to twirl it.

“It’s embarrassing to say…”

“It’s okay, Seoyeon. It’s common to hear stories about disobedient younger siblings.”

“… That’s not the end of it, right? Who would think that they would die because their younger sibling didn’t listen to them? After my younger sibling ran away like that, he started surviving in Neo Seoul on his own.”

“Alone? Oh, did you start a business?”

“If that’s the case, they might as well just do a merger or acquisition… No, they said that the social structure where huge corporations rule the world is wrong, and then they ran away and created a strange gang.”

“…You mean you became a gangster?”

“Yeah, yeah.. If I were to put it bluntly, he’d become a gangster. But… isn’t he doing incredibly well right now? Even when I ask the Neo Seoul troubleshooters to take care of him, they all ignore him.. Seriously…”

How did it end up like this? Hong Seo-yeon sighed as she thought seriously about it.

“When I meet Jihoon, I don’t bring a drone, but that’s why I carry a drone. My brother wants to kill me.”

“Why…? No, really. Because the future company is what actually rules Neo Seoul. The future company’s chairman…”

“That’s right. If you kill me, the future company will collapse on its own, and the false ruler will disappear, and the real… what was it? The devil? Anyway…”

From Hong Seo-yeon’s perspective, everything her younger brother said was nonsense. It’s been over 100 years since megacorps, like future companies, have dominated the world. It wouldn’t be a lie to say that they’ve become a social system.

In such a situation, for some unknown reason, his own younger brother, who is spewing strange hatred, has created a huge gang and is interfering with the business of Future Corporation? And he is even thinking of killing him?

At first, she also thought it was just a teenage nonsense, and that it would be over with time, but not anymore. Hong Seo-yeon, who had her life threatened several times and had her business interrupted countless times, had no choice but to prepare ‘insurance’ for when her life really disappears.

‘Hmm… I know my sister is a woman who does strange things…’

How should I use this? Ji-hoon was worried. It was hard to predict what would happen if he didn’t take Hong Seo-yeon to Mirae Enterprise and deal with the fake. There was no way to know what the vice president and other executives would do with the fake.

It is unclear whether the fake came online according to the reservation timer prepared by Hong Seo-yeon from the beginning, or whether it was woken up by executives such as the vice president.

Even though they are having a meal in the huge building of the future company, it feels like the case has been temporarily solved since no one has shown up to catch Ji-hoon…

‘I can’t stand to see that little bastard eating the food that other guys have already prepared.’

Ji-hoon had no choice in the end.

It was time to take his ‘relationship’ with Hong Seo-yeon to the next level.

He creates a relationship where no matter what happens, he will never betray you, and in that situation, he shows the ‘fake Hong Seo-yeon’ of the future company.

‘The time when Hong Seo-yeon wasn’t there… Yeah, I guess I can just drop a hint that she went on a honeymoon with me in secret. The executives of Mirae Company didn’t go around looking for me and Hong Seo-yeon while broadcasting either…’

The number of people who knew that she had been kidnapped was likely small. Even if the executives who knew openly said, “I haven’t seen you for a month, where did you come from?”, if Hong Seo-yeon said, “I came back from enjoying my newlywed life with Ji-hoon,” they would have nothing to say.

“Seoyeon.”

“Why?”

“Where would you like to go on your honeymoon with me?”

“Oh, honeymoon…? I didn’t even think about getting married, what the…”

“What? Is this a proposal…?”

Hong Seo-yeon, who had been listening to the rice cake, blushed with a strange expression and thought, and seriously touched her cheek.

“Should I take a trip to Europe? It would be fun to start from England and go all the way around.”

“Okay. Let’s do that.”

Jihoon smiled and put his finger on the HUD.

“Your honeymoon with me will be so much fun, Seoyeon.”