“You know I can’t go because I look like this, right?”

    Sonagi raises both her hands and both her arms. She is sitting in a wheelchair being pulled by a pink-haired Ripperdoc, with her hands and thighs wrapped in pure white bandages.

    Of course, as befitting a cyberpunk world, the wheelchair could be operated and moved by itself without anyone having to pull it. When Sonagi bragged that she could even go to the bathroom by herself, Jihoon didn’t know what to say in response.

    “Yeah, I know. Take care, Sonagi. That ha… . Grandma. She gave us money, so we have to get revenge. ”

    Ji-hoon still didn’t feel it was real even though he was saying the word ‘revenge’. Unlike what Ripperdoc said, he didn’t feel any emotions. It was because he hadn’t had a proper conversation with the old lady in the first place.

    However, his heart ached. If it hadn’t been for him, wouldn’t he have died? The emotions that naturally come to him as a human were buried deep in his heart.

    “Yeah, that old lady was a good person. No one said anything because a place like Mirae Enterprise killed her.”

    Sonagi looks towards the elevator once. Hong Gil-dong, a black man, is standing there, having finished his preparations, waiting for them.

    “But you.”

    The raindrop with its mouth open points at itself with its finger.

    “How long are you going to call me by my name?”

    “…What?”

    What are you talking about? Ji-hoon doesn’t understand for a moment and points to Sonagi with his finger. Sonagi’s name is Sonagi. How can you call it something else?

    “Hey.. Is that what you want, honey? That’s a little creepy.”

    “No sir.. I don’t want that either? You always call my name ‘Sonagi’. How long are you going to call me that? We did everything we could.”

    “…Ah.”

    The shower is not a shower. It is So Nagi. Her name was Nagi.

    “Ah.. what.”

    Ji-hoon awkwardly scratches his head with his hand. He had been with her for about a week. We had become close and done various things, but there was a strange feeling.

    Because of the hypnosis, Sonagi came to love and like Ji-hoon, but what about Ji-hoon? Maybe he still needs more time to become close to her.

    “Hey, there are times when you call me by my first name, even my last name.”

    “There are times when I call you, but I’ve never called you ‘Sonagi’ without fail. Call me once.”

    Sonagi shamelessly raises his arm slightly. It gives the feeling of subtly pressuring her, saying, ‘I got hurt because of you.’ In this part, Sonagi is sharp.

    “…Naki.”

    Once he said the name, Ji-hoon got goosebumps all over his body.

    “Pfft! Just call it a shower.”

    “Are you kidding me…”

    Ji-hoon scratched his head with his hand. He had a strong feeling that he had not yet fully adapted to this world. He might have to live in this world until he died.

    Ji-hoon scratched his head with a bitter smile as all sorts of thoughts came to him belatedly, and headed toward the elevator.

    “I’ll be back soon. Have fun with Ripperdoc over there. Nagi.”

    “Am I a puppy?”

    Sonagi chuckled and waved. The elevator doors closed without much conversation.

    “Bro, there’s a time for everything.”

    “That’s right.”

    “Take good care of Sonagi Yang.”

    Ji-hoon nodded silently at the small piece of advice given by a man who had already lost his precious mother.

    * * *

    Neo Seoul has many buildings.

    As if to prove that the saying, “90% of people living in South Korea live in Neo Seoul,” is not a lie, Neo Seoul is densely packed with buildings.

    The distance between buildings was not much different from modern times, but it was really strange to see skyscrapers so tall that it hurt my neck without a single small commercial building.

    The buildings decorated with neon signs were so numerous that the streets were filled with such splendid lights that it felt like the dark night was fake. Ji-hoon couldn’t help but click his tongue when he saw those billboards and neon signs overflowing with vanity.

    “Despite the recent stock market crash, it is said that Mirae Business’s Chairman Hong Seo-yeon will push ahead with replicant development. Mirae Business is ──”

    There’s nothing I can do, as ordered by the black Hong Gil-dong! Ji-hoon, who was waiting in the hotel room, was watching TV and wiggling his fingers.

    ‘Nothing has changed…’

    I thought that Hong Seo-yeon, who attacked me and Sonagi, was wanted, but no matter how much I turned on the news, I couldn’t find any such article. In the first place, there were no stories about criminals anywhere on the news, so at first glance, this Neo Seoul seemed like a clean area where no crime had been committed.

    But Ji-hoon could tell it was a lie just by looking out the window.

    ‘They’re still fighting.’

    A man and a woman who looked like gangsters were exchanging gunfire in a dark back alley. The sound of gunfire had been heard for ten minutes, but no one was screaming or even calling the police.

    This was the everyday life for the people of this city. Ji-hoon couldn’t understand it, but in a world without cameras and lights, bullets were closer than laws. Ji-hoon, who couldn’t even imagine what they were fighting about, decided to drink a beverage from the refrigerator.

    It’s been exactly 10 minutes since the black Hong Gil-dong left. Even though he’s called the ‘legendary problem solver’, he can’t kidnap a person in 10 minutes.

    ‘If I had known this would happen, I should have brought Sonagi… No, I guess I should call her Nagi now.’

    ─Chi-i-ik

    The moment he opened the can, cool foam rose. The taste of the canned beer, which was so cold that it made his fingers numb, did not disappoint Ji-hoon. The taste of Korean beer was the same. It was drinkable, but not the best.

    ‘Rain… Rain… Rain…’

    I call out the name in my head a few times. Is it because the completed word ‘Sonagi’ is stuck in my mouth? It feels strange to call it by dividing it into parts and calling it ‘Nagi’.

    ‘Now that I think about it, are you pregnant…?’

    There hasn’t been a situation where I could ask you anything since the last time I manipulated the hormone regulator. I’ll ask you later. Ji-hoon sipped his beer while organizing his thoughts.

    ─Bam!

    Hong Gil-dong comes in with the sound of the door opening. There is a woman on his shoulder. Without even checking the face, it is ‘Park Ji-hye’.

    “No, what the…kidnapping…”

    “Don’t be surprised, I was staying downstairs. Even Sonagiyang could easily do this.”

    Hong Gil-dong threw Park Ji-hye, who was struggling to move her body while talking, onto the bed. Silver tape was attached to her mouth, ankles, and wrists.

    “Ugh…ugh…”

    Park Ji-hye, who was resting at a hotel, suddenly sheds tears when she realizes that not only did a black man appear and kidnap her, but also that the pervert ‘rapist’ Kim Ji-hoon, whom she saw last time, is right in front of her.

    Her shoulders were shaking so much that she would have clasped her hands together and prayed if she could move them.

    “Ji-hoon, don’t forget.”

    Hong Gil-dong puts a finger on the side of his head and presses it. Ji-hoon and Hong Gil-dong made a small promise.

    “As you said, I will definitely tell you where the future companies are kidnapping people.”

    “Thank you.”

    That must be English. The black Hong Gil-dong spoke lightly, closed the door to Ji-hoon’s room, and left the room.

    The pact he and Ji-hoon made was simple: Ji-hoon would help the group led by Hong Gil-dong, the Hwalbindang, by finding out where the future corporation was kidnapping people, torturing them, and extracting their brain data.

    On the contrary, Hong Gil-dong decided to leave the room while Ji-hoon was ‘interrogating’ Park Ji-hye. From Ji-hoon’s perspective, there would be no benefit in showing him hypnotizing a woman.

    If he were to talk to Sonagi, something might happen. In a situation where he had to help Hong Gil-dong anyway, Ji-hoon tried his best to save himself.

    “Do you remember my face?”

    “Ugh… Ugh… This crazy kid!”

    As soon as the tape falls from her mouth, Park Ji-hye starts swearing.

    “Why are you suddenly swearing?”

    “You crazy bastard! What the hell! Don’t be a jerk! Because of you, I…! Do you know what happened to me! What the hell! The day you kidnapped me, the bank was robbed!”

    “What a great coincidence..”

    “Coincidence? Fuck you. You did it! Yeah! Fuck! I reported you because I thought you did it?! It’s so cool that Mirae Corporation is drooling at the thought of putting a bullet in your asshole!”

    Park Ji-hye curses coolly, snorts, and then smiles proudly.

    “…Ma’am. Do you know what your situation is?”

    Ji-hoon takes out the gun Hong Gil-dong gave him and waves it lightly in front of Park Ji-hye. Then he points to the room with his finger.

    “Thanks to that lady, I lost the only fixer I knew and I can’t contact the person I know…”

    “Ha, of course. Do you think Mirae Enterprise is a retard? I don’t know how you hacked and sold their stocks! You’re screwed!”

    “There’s someone right in front of you who you want to take revenge on, but you’re talking too casually.”

    Only after Ji-hoon puts the gun to her forehead does Park Ji-hye’s expression change. She swallows with her face turning pale.

    “Are you… retarded? Hey… If you kill someone, even if they’re a police officer who took bribes, they’ll move, right? ”

    “I’m screwed anyway so I have nothing to lose so what do I know?”

    Ji-Hoon’s action of putting his thumb on the trigger startled Park Ji-Hye and she trembled. She was about to wet her pants like last time.

    “Mi, you crazy… little shit…”

    “Anyway, if we kill one more woman here, she’ll probably get caught and killed by the Future Corporation kids…”

    “Ha, don’t do it. Don’t do it! You crazy bastard! Whoa, what do you want? What do you want!”

    Park Ji-hye screamed and shut her eyes tightly.

    “Ma’am, what kind of deal did you make with Mirae Enterprise?”

    Ji-hoon tells the story he heard from Hong Gil-dong.

    He said that Park Ji-hye never reported to the police or Mirae Corporation. It is highly likely that she was kidnapped somewhere by Mirae Corporation’s security team as soon as she returned home.

    In the first place, Park Ji-hye is not a person from Mirae Enterprise. Incheon Central Bank belongs to Lucky Venus.

    “What…what do you want?”

    “I really want to know where the lady went and what she talked about so that she came out with all her limbs and even her vagina intact.”

    “You… . What are you.”

    All the information was provided by Hong Gil-dong, but Ji-hoon smiled. He tapped his temple with his finger as if telling him to think about it. Park Ji-hye swallowed with anxious eyes at his relaxed behavior.

    “Ru.. Did you send it from Lucky Venus?!! What the heck! I didn’t even get married and was loyal to Lucky Venus!! I had no choice but to survive!”

    Park Ji-hye screams and struggles to get out of bed. Her struggles go down the drain with just one movement of Ji-hoon’s hand…

    “Keep talking. Okay.”

    “Ha, haha… . Shi… . I don’t like it. No matter what I say, you’ll kill me.”

    Park Ji-hye snorts and makes one last desperate move.

    ‘I think this is as far as I can get with my mouth…’

    The information that Hong Gil-dong gave was only a ‘possibility’. Judging from Park Ji-hye’s reaction, it seems clear that she was really ‘kidnapped’ and taken somewhere for a ‘trade’.

    ‘From Mirae Enterprise’s perspective, they suffered losses because of the program that started at Incheon Central Bank. They’re trying to trick Park Ji-hye. Of course, this woman was kidnapped by us…’

    She said what she knew, and it was clear that the future company that extracted her brain data was looking for Sonagi and Jihoon.

    ‘On the contrary, we should use it…’

    Park Ji-hye in front of him was not a wreck. The data in her head was not ‘cleanly organized’ either. It was a situation where Hong Gil-dong could sufficiently obtain the information he wanted.

    In this situation, there was only one thing Ji-Hoon had to do.

    “What are you doing?”

    Ji-hoon touches his smartphone without answering the anxious Ji-hye Park.

    [Please select the program to upload]

    【Answer Kim Ji-hoon’s questions truthfully.】《Duration: One hour》

    Park Ji-hye’s eyes glowed red. He placed the gun on the table to see how effective the suggestion was and sat down on the bed where Park Ji-hye was lying.

    “Ma’am, how many times did you go to the bathroom today?”

    It’s unlikely that someone would answer this question honestly, when they’re not even pointing a gun at you.

    “I’ve been there twice…”

    Park Ji-hye, who answered, bites her lips. She was embarrassed by the situation where she answered without realizing it, even though there was no reason to answer such a question.

    “Why did you come?”

    “In the morning, I was busy with small and big things… I was busy with small things earlier… Ugh… Ugh…”

    His eyebrows furrow. He could simply answer that he was ‘back’, but no one would go into such detail.

    Ji-hoon smiled at the fact that the hint had worked and caressed Park Ji-hye’s thigh.

    “I need to finish work quickly and have some fun…”

    If you drop a hint like this, there’s a set thing you have to do. Ji-hoon smiled a little evilly.

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