episode_0003

“Oh… This, this guy… F**k…!!!!!!!”

Ji-hoon, who thought of an ordinary motorcycle, regretted it.

He was screaming for his life. He had not been able to communicate with the black helmeted troublemaker for quite some time, and the speed of the motorcycle was so fast that his own cheeks were fluttering comically, making it difficult to speak.

“Mister, fucking lord, I’m gonna die, I’m gonna die!! I said I’m gonna fucking die!!!”

Ji-hoon, who is not even a crab, screams. Why is he, a healthy young man from South Korea who has even served in the military, screaming?

The first was because the motorcycle was going so fast. The thought, ‘Hmm~ This is how fast a motorcycle should go’ disappeared into the other side of the universe as soon as I started driving on the overpass.

The second was that the troublemaker did not obey any traffic signals. To her, the reds, oranges, and greens of the traffic lights were just small bulbs that decorated this dreary, flashy city full of flashy neon signs, and she did not give any signals.

Even as the cars boasting their shiny gloss and squeaking sounds slowed down, the troubleshooter drove his motorcycle as if he was telling them to fuck off without slowing down, performing tricks between the cars.

“Fuck!”

I don’t know how many times he swore. Ji-hoon kept swearing the same way to the point where it felt like his language skills had deteriorated, but he couldn’t help it!

The clothes he was wearing were black tracksuits that were suitable for crawling out of the room and going to the nearby convenience store. They had no function to keep out the cold on a motorcycle that seemed to easily exceed 100 km/h, and he clung to the back of the troubleshooter awkwardly to avoid falling every time the motorcycle shook up and down with a rattling sound.

‘I’m dying, I’m dying, fucking dying… I’m dying…’

He had no other thoughts than wanting to live. But at some point, Ji-hoon felt nothing but the strong wind blowing. The problem solver’s motorcycle was running on the road as usual, but the view of the huge city in the distance caught his eyes and five senses.

“What is that…”

I’ve seen a lot of neon signs since falling into another world, but the huge city in the distance was on a whole other level.

First of all, the sight of the buildings standing tall to the end of the sky was no joke. In South Korea, where I lived, there were huge, tall buildings that could be seen anywhere near Seoul. However, that was only one.

This city had a different feel. There weren’t just one skyscraper, but dozens of them. The buildings towered high in the sky, almost blocking the path for airplanes, giving the impression that huge windows were stuck into the ground.

“It’s pretty… but… it’s really weird… something… something really…”

Lights were pouring out of that gigantic skyscraper. It was gorgeous. The simplest colors in the world, red, blue, yellow, primary colors, were radiating out brilliantly and decorating the city.

The city spewing out gorgeous fireworks is beautiful. It was so beautiful that I felt my soul was completely lost, but strangely I felt empty. Boom! Boom! It was just like watching fireworks explode. Fireworks that explode gorgeously are certainly pleasing to the eye, but their beauty is not eternal.

It’s just a moment. The beauty of fireworks is not eternal. The huge city that is still sparkling cannot possibly be like fireworks.

“What, Kim Ji-hoon, is this your first time seeing Neo Seoul?”

“Neo.. What?”

He shouldn’t have reacted like this. Ji-hoon knew that, but he couldn’t help but be surprised by the words of the problem solver who slowly got off the motorcycle that had stopped.

“What the heck is that? The place you went to become a Netrunner is Neo Seoul, right there.”

“Then, where is this place?”

“Where is it? It’s Incheon, the Demon World. Don’t you know? The police working in the great Neo Seoul don’t care, and there are thugs running wild! It’s a fucking place where companies do unmanned sales.”

The problem solver raised her hand and waved it from side to side as she spoke. She had considerable dissatisfaction with the city where she was born and raised, but Ji-hoon had no way of knowing that. Still, he could vaguely sense it because her emotions were expressed so openly.

‘Demon World Incheon… You must be joking.’

Sighing, Ji-hoon decided to focus on the building in front of him rather than the conversation in distant places like Neo Seoul and Makai Incheon.

Unlike the city in the distance with its flashing lights, this place was quite dark. It was a residential area, so it was natural that there were no flashing neon signs, but the atmosphere was just uneasy. It was a place that was exactly the right word to describe it.

He took out his smartphone and checked the time. It was just past midnight, but that didn’t mean all the lights in the houses around him had been turned off. There was a car near where the troubleshooter had parked his motorcycle, but Ji-hoon couldn’t see inside.

” and…”

The car’s windshield was so dirty because there was so much dust on it. I couldn’t even tell what the driver’s seat looked like or what the back seat looked like. The hood wasn’t covered in dust, but rather sand and pigeon droppings. It was obvious that the car was so damaged that even the junkyard would tell me to “stop being a jerk and get out.”

“What are you doing, not following me?”

“The car is a bit weird.”

“Oh, that. It was the car that Mr. Kim, who lived in the basement, used to drive, but now it’s ownerless.”

Why? I wanted to ask, but I didn’t. The moment I entered the building and followed the troubleshooter’s butt up the stairs, I knew why.

The only entrance leading down to the basement, the stairs, was blocked. It wasn’t even a piece of white tape blocking the way, but a white hologram appeared nearby the moment I glanced at it, indicating, “No Entry!”

Below it was written something like “Police”, but Ji-hoon’s eyes didn’t reach that far.

‘Did he commit suicide? Or was it a murder or something…’

My mind was complicated, but when I arrived at the house of the problem solver on the third floor, my thoughts changed. Let’s think about it positively. From now on, Ji-hoon will be entering the house of a woman who is not his real friend, but a ‘friend’ he created by hacking.

If he went inside, there might be someone living there. Should he hack her family too? Would the cyber hypnosis app work well? Many thoughts crossed his mind, but Ji-hoon had no choice but to follow the troubleshooter into the house.

“So, how many days are you planning to stay? A week would be fine, but… If you’re planning to stay for half a year, honestly, I’d have a hard time too?”

The troubleshooter takes off his boots as he speaks. Her house was a one-room, but it was larger than he had expected. It was bigger than Ji-hoon’s room before he fell into another world, but it was more than enough for a woman to live alone.

“Ah… I want to organize my thoughts. You know how shocked I was when you see me.”

“If it wasn’t iced, then what…”

The troubleshooter snorts, but doesn’t openly curse Ji-hoon. She takes the guns that were on her back and waist and hangs them on the wall.

As befitting her name, ‘Problem Solver’, she had quite a few guns. The one she was carrying on her back was a sniper rifle, and now that I look closely, I see that it had a fairly large scope attached to it.

There were several types of pistols and machine guns, but they didn’t have many bullets, as there was only one box that appeared to be a cartridge.

“Tell me honestly.”

The troubleshooter takes her to the bed and opens his mouth while pressing his butt against it. Her room was a woman’s room, but unfortunately, there was no event that would make her scream “Ahhh~”.

There was a large black refrigerator, a washing machine that was nowhere to be seen on the veranda, and a round robot vacuum cleaner that was humming loudly and moving diligently on the floor, but there were no panties or bras hanging out.

“You’ve never been to Neo Seoul?”

“….”

Ji-hoon felt his heart drop. It was so painful that it made his chest hurt.

‘What… It wasn’t hacked? Then why did you bring me here?”

The problem solver raises the corners of her lips and smiles at Ji-hoon, who is speechless. She rests her chin on one hand and snorts.

“Hey, Kim Ji-hoon. Why are you so surprised? There’s no way you can go to Neo Seoul, which I can’t go to. Everyone knows that your hacking skills are trash.”

“Uh… Uh…?”

“You need a pass to enter Neo Seoul! How expensive is that! You need two S coins! Do you have that kind of money? You don’t.”

“Yeah, that’s right. In the end, I couldn’t even go near Neo Seoul because of money.”

As Ji-hoon said that, the problem solver tilted her head back once. Her expression improved considerably.

Could it be because the issue she had been thinking in her head as ‘realistically impossible…’ has been resolved?

The troubleshooter didn’t ask any more questions and just lowered the zipper that had been pulled up to the chin. This revealed the black sports bra, and the sweet smell of flesh rising from inside tickled Ji-hoon’s nose.

‘I didn’t even take my clothes off or anything…’

Ji-hoon is a little embarrassed, but he comes to his senses again.

He decided to be more shameless here. He sat down on a nearby chair and scratched his head aimlessly.

“What, what is it? There’s something I haven’t told you.”

“What? If it’s a weird story, you know there’s no soup, right?”

“That… Fuck, I did some hard work to get into Neo Seoul… But, I had an accident there.”

“What the heck?!”

The troubleshooter was surprised, quickly straightened his back, which had been leaning back, and looked at Ji-hoon.

Ji-hoon pretends as if he can’t control his emotions as much as possible. He was able to do this because he had been pretending to his parents for years that he was diligently preparing for the civil service exam.

“I got a head injury… and I got some kind of amnesia… I spent some time in the hospital getting treatment, and because of that, I lost all the money I had.”

“You have that much money? How much money do you need to get the surgery? Tell me.”

“If I had insurance…”

“The company paid the insurance money? Wow… You’re so lucky… What kind of stupid accident did you have to have to pay compensation? That’s amazing…”

Here, the conversation between Ji-hoon and the troubleshooter is a little off. But it’s not a big deal. The troubleshooter is convinced that his ‘friend’ had an accident and was ‘admitted’ to the hospital because he hadn’t been seen for several years.

And so far, the conversation has convinced me that the reason he acts like a person lacking common sense is because of his ‘amnesia’. However, there is one thing missing.

This is just ‘words’. ‘Words’ are like flowing water. Their shape can change at any time. If you put it in a heart-shaped frame, it becomes a heart, and if you put it in a lightning-shaped frame, it becomes lightning.

Ji-hoon needed a frame now. Surprisingly, he had one.

“Look here, there are traces of surgery.”

Ji-hoon pointed with his finger to a corner on the right side of his head. There was a bare patch of skin there where little hair had grown, and it looked just like it was from a wound that had healed.

What is it like in reality? Ji-hoon really did have surgery, but it wasn’t something to talk about in this serious atmosphere. It was just a wound he got from a knife fight when he was in elementary school.

“Wow… Seriously… I told you in advance. So you came here without any plan and got chased by the family members? At least tell me my name.”

“I was shaking like I was going to die because I couldn’t even remember your name until I saw your face. How can I tell you your name?”

As Ji-hoon whined, the troubleshooter snickered. Her expression was no longer guarded. Ji-hoon had a master key. Even if there was something he didn’t know in this world, or something he should know according to common sense, he could just lie and say, “I have amnesia…”

“You, then the reason you said nonsense like “Problem Solver Sister” to me earlier was because you didn’t remember my name?”

The troubleshooter laughs in disbelief at Ji-hoon nodding. She scratches her golden hair with her fingers and sits down on the bed again, crossing her legs.

Her long, slender legs are nice to look at. Looking at her plump buttocks and wide hips, I was reminded of an actress from an old movie.

“Sonagi, that’s my name. Don’t forget it from now on. There won’t be any idiots in Incheon who would try to kill you after hearing my name.”