Location: Abandoned Industrial District – Sector 3A
The gate was rusted shut, but Daehyun had already cut the chains.
He slipped inside, flashlight flickering.
This place wasn't on any map. It wasn't in the city database. Even the satellite images blurred the site like something wanted it forgotten.
But he had coordinates.
Coordinates hidden deep inside Areum's digital memory backups.
And her nightmares had all started here.
---
Inside the building.
Broken lab equipment. Shattered tanks. Dried red smears across the floor.
Daehyun moved slowly, camera recording. The deeper he went, the colder it got.
Then—he saw it.
A door, reinforced with steel and lined with bio-locks, now long dead.
He kicked it open.
Inside: a small, sealed room. Clean. Untouched.
On one wall, scratched with bloody fingers:
"I remember everything."
In the center of the room was a recording device. A single message file.
> [PLAY?]
— YES
The screen flickered on.
Raon appeared, younger. Unstable. Eyes sunken. Clothes bloody.
"If you're watching this… you found what I tried to bury."
"Her name was Project A.R. Not Han Areum. She didn't exist before me."
"I built her because I wanted someone who couldn't betray me. Who couldn't abandon me like the others did."
"But something happened. She started… dreaming. She started calling me a monster."
"So I had to reset her. Again. And again."
Daehyun's hands shook.
The video continued.
"I left this message for me. Not you. In case I ever forgot what I really am."
"A genius?"
"No. A goddamn monster."
---
Back in the present—Areum wakes screaming.
Blood running from her nose.
> [STABILITY 49%]
[CONFLICT MODE: ACTIVE]
She grabs her head as flashes hit her—
Raon's voice. Screams. Electrodes. Ice baths.
Her voice, years ago: "Please… just let me die."
Tears fell.
---
Final Panel:
Daehyun stands in the ruined lab.
Behind him, something moves in the dark.
A shadow. No footsteps.
> "You weren't supposed to find this place."
He turns.
Eyes widen.
"Raon?"
---