“Hello…?”
As expected, the house looked quite small and old.
Moreover… a pungent stench filled the air.
“Could it be…”
The game had already known the winner’s location.
Did they know we were coming and take care of it…?
I raised my gun again, aiming over my shoulder, and scanned the surroundings.
[Thud… Thud…]
Cautiously surveying the area, I spotted a large plastic container inside the house.
Opening it, I found it overflowing with garbage bags.
Heading into the kitchen, I saw a sink piled high with unwashed dishes.
It seemed someone was living here.
[Creak-]
Opening a nearby door, I saw a room containing only a bed and a computer.
And…
“Mmm…”
A small sound echoed from inside the blanket, confirming someone was there.
The voice was delicate… could it be a woman?
Approaching the blanket, I heard loud breaths.
After exchanging glances with Detective Lim, I quietly started counting down.
“One… two… three…!”
[Whoosh-]
Long blue hair… small but well-formed breasts, and beautiful features like Deuk-young or Kong-yu…
Her hair was slightly disheveled, probably from sleeping.
…It was blatantly a sleeping beautiful girl.
Her pajamas were a sky-blue color with several cute bear prints, making me feel like I shouldn’t disturb her.
She was the former winner… so was this person originally a man?
I shook the blanket, but she still didn’t wake up.
It was strange to be sleeping so soundly when it was barely evening.
[Thud… Thud…]
As I got closer to her, I surprisingly smelled a natural blueberry scent.
The room was so dirty, but… was she taking good care of her body?
[Thump-]
I touched her shoulder and shook her gently, but she didn’t budge.
She should have woken up by now, but she seemed quite tired.
“Ugh…”
Was she waking up?
Small sounds were escaping her lips, suggesting she would wake up soon.
“Cake…”
…
Was it just sleep-talking?
[Grab-]
Just then, Detective Lim, who was next to me, snatched the pistol from my hand.
Could it be…?
“Hey, sto—!”
[Bang-!]
“Aaaah!?”
Detective Lim fired the gun at the ceiling, startling her awake.
It wasn’t what I had feared, so I was relieved, but… even if we were short on time.
“Uh… who are you…?”
“You’re the game winner, right?”
She was covering her ears with her hands, probably because of the gunshot.
But she didn’t seem surprised or flustered by the question about being the game winner or the gunshot, as if she was used to it.
“You want to know the winning secret?”
“I don’t know how much you’ll pay, but go away. I’m not in the mood right now~”
[Thud-]
She lay back down on the bed and waved her hand dismissively, as if there was no other way.
“…We’re detectives. We’re being chased by people involved in that game right now.”
“Just take us to the game location. You know where it is, right?”
She stopped waving her hand and looked at us again.
And…
“You want me to go back to that place? How annoying—”
She smiled briefly and sat up straight, like a queen.
“If you satisfy me, I might tell you? Heh~”
I might actually kill her.
She was loosening the buttons of her pajamas and acting relaxed, which made me feel irritated.
[Grab-]
“Hey… do you think this is a joke?”
“You look pretty young too.”
I didn’t want to waste any more time, so I grabbed her by the collar.
I felt guilty because of her appearance, but I couldn’t help it.
We needed to get the former winner’s information and arrive as soon as possible…
“Calm down… I’m 72 years old, you know?”
72 years old…?
Was she lying?
She looked like she was in her late teens or early twenties at most.
“Well… I won the game about 50 years ago…”
It was definitely an unbelievable story.
Of course, with that group’s technology, it seemed possible…
My head was so confused that I couldn’t make a decision.
“So… you were subjected to something too?”
“Ugh… please don’t mention it, it’s too horrible to even imagine!”
Come to think of it… the testimony said that there were four eliminations.
There was a punishment for each elimination, so maybe this appearance was the result of the punishments.
“Hey… that’s right, isn’t it? It was painful, wasn’t it? You want to go back to being a man, right?”
“We’ll find a way to go back, so just give us the information.”
“Why should I?”
I was momentarily taken aback by her unexpected answer.
If she had been modified like that, wouldn’t she usually want revenge?
“To be honest, what’s the point of going back to a life that was a sewer…”
“I’d rather have this body, it’s cute, I don’t have to bother washing, I don’t have to take care of my body… and above all, there’s that pleasure too.”
“The identity is a bit of a flaw, though…”
…Honestly, I couldn’t understand her way of thinking.
Even if she was a beautiful girl and didn’t have to take care of her body, wouldn’t it be better to go back to being a man?
Above all, she would be repeating this kind of life forever without an identity…
But if I couldn’t persuade her, I wouldn’t even know the location even if I arrived on the island.
…I was confident in my communication skills.
“Haa… okay. I won’t force you.”
I carefully sat down next to her, and thankfully she didn’t seem wary.
“I understand your situation well enough.”
“The reason is, until just now, we were experiencing something similar to what you went through.”
At that moment, she seemed to be lost in thought, as if the pain of that time had come back to her.
“I told you not to mention it…”
“If you don’t help, something similar will happen to us in the future.”
She couldn’t meet my eyes and lowered her head, as if she felt guilty at those words.
Even though she had been modified, she seemed to have some guilt left.
After looking at my expression for a moment, she lowered her head and began to cover her face with her hands.
At that moment.
“Aaa… I understand…!”
My skills, which had even persuaded suspects during my seven years as a detective, worked.
“Hoo…”
As I exhaled, the events up until now passed by like a scene.
Certainly, there had been too much happening in the last day, so my head needed optimization.
[Rustle…]
As I got up from my seat, Detective Lim opened the front door and gestured for me to hurry.
We had to get out of here quickly.
“Hey, quickly get ready and let’s g—”
[Thud-]
“Hmm… but now that I think about it, I’m a bit tired today… wouldn’t tomorrow be okay?”
…
She was just human trash, even though she looked cute on the outside.
As she lay down on the bed and started rolling around, a sense of despair washed over me.
[Thud… Thud…]
At that moment, Detective Lim approached her and put his mouth to her ear.
And…
“You heard the gunshot when you woke up, right?”
“The neighbors must have reported it by now… the police will be here soon, right?”
“What do you think will happen if you’re here without an identity~?”
“Ah…”
…
[Rattle… Rattle…]
“Ugh…”
I could hear something mumbling in the back seat of the car, but I decided to ignore it.
“Hoo…”
[Screech-]
I thought it would take a long time to get to Incheon, but we arrived sooner than expected.
Since I had stayed in the neighborhood, this was only the second time in my life that I had come to Incheon.
Opening the car door, I was greeted by a cool breeze and fresh air that I hadn’t felt in Seoul.
Especially since it was near the sea, I couldn’t smell the unique city smell.
Soon, I realized that she and Detective Lim had arrived as well, and I got out of the car.
“Haa… why did I come all the way here…”
“Don’t complain and follow me.”
First, we had to secure a boat.
But usually, you had to make a reservation to go to Gureopdo, right?
As someone who had come here on the spur of the moment, I didn’t know what to do.
…Did I have to charter one?
[Thud… Thud…]
As I looked around, I spotted a slightly older-looking man who was repairing a boat.
“Excuse me…”
“What brings you here at this late hour?”
It was a little difficult to say honestly.
As he said, it was quite late in the evening now.
“I’m really sorry, but I have an urgent situation… I was wondering if you could take us to Gureopdo today…”
“If you have the money, I don’t mind, but it’s impossible at this time…”
“Wouldn’t it be better to go tomorrow morning?”
It wouldn’t matter if we went tomorrow morning, but we were being chased.
There was a possibility that we would be in a bad situation while we were sleeping.
Above all, we had already brought the former winner, so they must have found out our location quite a while ago.
“I really have an urgent situation…”
“I don’t know what your situation is, but going there at this time is…”
“I’ll give you as much money as you want!”
As soon as I finished speaking, he seemed to be considering it for a moment.
“Hoo… okay. Get on.”
Was he quite short on money…?
It would be quite risky to take a boat at this late hour.
At the very least, I decided to be grateful that he had secured a boat for us at this time.
[Thud… Thud…]
“Ooh…”
Was it because I had never been on a boat before?
The inside of the boat was quite spacious than I thought.
“It takes at least 4 hours to get to Gureopdo~!”
I nodded roughly at his words and looked around, and there were all the necessary items.
As I walked for a while, there was a room with a toilet and a sink.
Honestly, I thought there wouldn’t be a toilet on this kind of personal boat…
“…Are we really going? I’m sleepy…”
“Just sleep until we get there.”
“Ah, come to think of it, what’s your name?”
I thought it would be better to call her by her name when I woke her up later.
She hesitated for a moment as if she was thinking about it, then slowly began to open her mouth.
“…Kim Do-hyun.”
It still felt strange to hear a masculine name from her mouth, but…
Well, she was originally a man, so it was natural.
[Vroom-!]
At that moment, the boat horn sounded and the boat slowly began to move.
…
“Detective Lim, how did you become a detective?”
“Are you really going to do YouTube?”
“Hey, I was just joking.”
Then what was Detective Lim’s motivation?
I was curious for no reason.
“Oh~ then tell me what it is.”
“I shouldn’t tell you this~”
Ugh.
Unfortunately, it was a stroke of luck that he was even talking to me like this in front of me.
At that moment.
“…Okay.”
“Oh, really!?”
He suddenly gave up and lowered his head as he answered, so I jumped up from my seat for a moment.
After calming myself down again, I sat down and he began to speak.
“Actually, I used to have a younger brother.”
“A younger brother!?”
I had never heard him say that he had a younger brother on YouTube…
It was definitely content that would have a big impact on his subscribers.
“He was a younger brother who was 6 years younger than me… he went missing for no reason when I was 18.”
“Ah…”
I felt like I knew why he had pursued being a detective.
“Cheer up.”
Maybe it was because I had only experienced heavy things recently, but my and Detective Lim’s hearts seemed to have become heavy as well.
It was the first time I had talked comfortably since I met Detective Lim as a partner…
[Thump-]
The boat lurched for a moment, so I walked over and looked out the window and saw that it was caught on a rock.
And.
[Click-]
“Hoo… we’re here.”
Except for the brief conversation at the end, the time had been quite long and long.
Looking at the time, it was already past 3 a.m.
…Now I had to start my work as a detective.
[Thud-]
“Wake up.”