IBMTG Ch 2

“Muhae, I heard you picked up a son?”

As soon as he stopped by the electronics store, Mr. Gil acknowledged him. Jin Muhae walked inside, recalling the previous day’s events.

The man who was left alone amidst all the dead miners. With mysterious eye color, he didn’t answer any questions about his identity, only furrowing his brow.

It was last night that he brought him back to Goryeo City, and it seemed like various rumors had already spread.

Muhae rummaged through the items scattered on the workbench and opened his mouth in a nonchalant voice.

“He’s… not a child. He’s quite tall.”

“I heard sons start growing again these days. Look at the Academy, there are already tons of kids as big as me.”

“That’s because you’re short.”

“This brat, the way you talk to an adult…”

Although it might sound harsh, Mr. Gil always spoke in this curt manner. Muhae barely paid attention to his nagging and picked up a round device.

When he pressed the button, a whirring sound accompanied the ejection of specially processed wire.

He had left it with Mr. Gil just in case, even though it was completely smashed in the previous request. Somehow, he had completely restored it.

“You fixed this?”

Despite his temper, there was no other electronics store in this area with his level of skill. As Muhae expressed his admiration, another question flew at him.

“I heard you took him to Teacher Jeong. Where do you even have the money?”

“I just asked for a light checkup. Since I picked him up.”

“Teacher Jeong was looking for you. About 5 minutes ago?”

“Really?”

As Muhae glanced over, Mr. Gil was holding his terminal with a cigarette in his mouth.

999 deal. The price, conspicuously lacking 1 deal to make it three digits, was incredibly annoying.

And he was worried about where I had the money… As Muhae grumbled inwardly, as if reading his mind, Mr. Gil added,

“Buy yourself something with that 1 deal.”

“Yeah, thanks.”

“Buy something for Teacher Jeong too.”

“He doesn’t eat cheap snacks.”

“He does when you’re not looking.”

Mr. Gil’s faded blond hair swayed as he chuckled.

Jin Muhae nodded perfunctorily and swiped his hand over the terminal.

Beep-!

As the beep signaling the payment rang, Mr. Gil clicked his tongue and said,

“You’ll need to make another run, won’t you?”

Muhae also clicked his tongue, checking his balance.

He was right. As he said, this month looked tight, thanks to picking up that strange man from outside yesterday.

“Do you have any decent requests coming in?”

“I don’t know. Everyone has been obsessed with catching the Thorn Wolf since the day before yesterday.”

“Why a wolf all of a sudden…?”

“Some old man from Central decided to play hermit and became dinner. But his will is on an internal chip? Everyone’s gone crazy over the inheritance.”

Open requests with bounties weren’t common… but it sounded like it could be a waste of time.

All sorts of riffraff would jump on something like this. He wondered if it wouldn’t be more efficient to run a few odd jobs instead.

“Wouldn’t the body and the chip be melted by now?”

“Melted or not, they’re offering 30,000 deal for even the remains. It’s not a grotesque, just a beast. Anyone with working limbs has gone outside the dome.”

“…Sounds like finding a needle in a desert.”

“Well, do it if you want, don’t if you don’t.”

Muhae nodded vaguely again, packing his equipment into his bag.

As he left the cluttered electronics store, cool air brushed the tip of his nose.

Soon, mottled buildings made of construction waste filled his vision.

Location Info ▶ [Goryeo City]

• West 81.2240, 12.0771

Starlight Alley, a street lined with unauthorized extensions.

Even among the slums divided into east, west, south, and north, this most neglected place, the Western slum, was Jin Muhae’s hometown and base.

He had no memories of his very early childhood. From the moment he could remember, he was a part of this alley, and like those raised in such neighborhoods, he grew up tough and rugged like a weed.

Despite his humble origins, having a place to stay was a rather comfortable yet inconvenient shackle.

[UNION/GR Deposit/Withdrawal – 24,557 deal]

‘A sudden expense.’

Jin Muhae frowned and turned his steps.

Since he got a message, it was time to go meet the mysterious man.

🧿

Clink.

As he entered the building, which was too simple to be called a hospital, a cheap speaker emitted the sound of a metal bell.

“You’re here.”

A languid voice came immediately from inside the room. It was Teacher Jeong, one of the few doctors in Starlight Alley.

“How is he?”

When Jin Muhae asked without greeting, the bespectacled man, as if accustomed to this, parted the beaded curtain and came out, glancing towards the inside of the treatment room.

“See for yourself.”

Perhaps because of the scar that ran across one side of his cheek, each word Teacher Jeong spoke sounded serious despite his bookish appearance.

Muhae entered the treatment room with an almost polite attitude, which was unusual for him.

Slide.

As soon as he crossed the threshold, the bed on the far left side of the room, with the curtains half-drawn, caught his eye.

Someone was sitting there blankly. The man was sitting on the blanket he was given to cover himself, like a nest, staring into space.

His jet-black hair looked as soft as sable fur, and his eyes had a strangely reddish tint…

It was the unidentified human Jin Muhae had picked up from the scene of yesterday’s disaster.

“He’s awake.”

“He was awake when he came in, too.”

“That’s true, but.”

What was he doing? The man didn’t even make eye contact, seemingly oblivious to Muhae’s presence.

He seemed to have stared intently at Muhae when he was picked up. Now, even that small amount of interest seemed to have vanished.

“He’s twenty-two.”

Teacher Jeong casually spoke from beside Jin Muhae, who was looking at the man with dry eyes.

The conversation they had here yesterday immediately flashed through Muhae’s mind.

‘What’s with the sudden patient?’

‘I picked him up. From Khan Lano.’

‘There are no safe zones around there.’

‘Maybe he fell while traveling somewhere. For a miner, he… .’

‘Seems like he was raised well.’

‘Yes. His hands aren’t calloused.’

‘What’s his name? How old is he?’

‘I don’t know. I asked, but he kept… .’

‘Wah… Wahh.’

‘He only made sounds like that.’

Indeed, the man didn’t seem to be in his right mind. In the end, Muhae had given up on finding out his identity and went home early.

But it seemed that Teacher Jeong, who checked on the man overnight, had discovered something.

“Were there any medical records left?”

“No. He doesn’t have an internal chip. No birth records or citizen registration either.”

Despite his eager question, a dry answer came back.

… No internal chip?

Jin Muhae frowned slightly. People living in Central usually had expensive internal chips implanted.

Could it be that he was from the slums despite his clean appearance?

Beep- Beep-!

A sudden beep sounded in Muhae’s ears just as he was about to fall into thought.

He turned his head quickly to see the man playing with a portable recorder, which must have been hospital equipment.

He poked the screen floating in the air, and whenever his fingertip passed through it, he smiled brightly, as if enjoying it immensely. He looked like someone seeing a machine for the first time.

“Then how did you find out? Does a diagnosis show something like that?”

“No. He told me.”

He spoke…?

As Muhae quickly looked towards the bed again, the man finally looked at him.

His jewel-like eyes stopped, as if observing him intently.

After a while, the man muttered softly,

“Hungry.”

It was an abrupt statement.

🧿

Slurp.

In front of a cheap street stall. Sitting on a worn-out chair, someone moved their chopsticks incessantly.

The man, despite not appearing to be in his right mind, was quite good with chopsticks. The pure white noodles were sucked into his red mouth endlessly.

Gulp, gulp. Gulp, gulp.

It was hard to tell if he was even chewing the food; his jaw barely moved, yet the bowl was empty again.

Muhae, who already knew the taste, wondered if the noodles were really that good because the man ate them so deliciously.

‘He’s acting like someone stranded for 10 years.’

However, for someone who had been stranded for so long, the man’s hair was a reasonable length, and his face was soft and radiant.

Whenever he fidgeted his legs, his healthy black hair swayed ostentatiously.

He definitely didn’t have the look of someone born and raised in a shabby neighborhood.

As if he could receive an overflowing reward for finding his lost family.

“Phew.”

It was definitely strange. His clean appearance, despite being in a dangerous zone outside the Comfort Zone, and the way he acted like he hadn’t had a decent meal in his life, even though his skin was shiny and smooth.

He had already emptied his third bowl in a short amount of time. The noodles here were reasonably tasty, but the portions were so huge that even the large Muhae was full with just one bowl.

Muhae, who had been waiting for the meal to end, finally spoke to the man.

“Where do you live?”

He didn’t expect much, but as expected, the man just stared at him instead of opening his mouth.

Then, slowly, he reached for Muhae’s bowl of noodles.

Munch. Slurp.

‘Is this guy crazy?’

The man began to steal and devour Muhae’s noodles.

Thinking this wouldn’t end well, Jin Muhae pulled his bowl back.

… But strangely, the bowl he was trying to retrieve wouldn’t budge. He thought he was mistaken and applied more force, but it still didn’t move.

Muhae, who had never been overpowered by anyone in his mercenary work, was perplexed. If he decided to use his strength, even the strongest of men would be easily subdued…

“Give it back.”

Jin Muhae frowned, feeling his pride somewhat hurt. Still, the noodle bowl showed no sign of returning.

“If you don’t answer, I won’t buy you any more.”

When he finally voiced a warning that even he thought was childish, a slight conflict flashed in the man’s eyes, unexpectedly.

Was this a human or an animal? The man reacted solely to food.

‘Damn it, did I pick him up for nothing?’

Yesterday, he brought him in because they met in such a dangerous area, but an unidentified man with no records whatsoever was becoming increasingly suspicious.

Even if he had rescued him out of human decency, he also hoped to receive a reward, which is why he even left him for medical treatment…

No matter how he looked at it, it was strange. At this rate, far from receiving a reward, he might not even be able to take him anywhere.

Since his body seemed fine, should he just let him go? Jin Muhae was already unable to find a normal job due to his own unidentified status.

Maybe it would be wise to cut his losses before things got worse and consider the medical expenses a donation to this crazy guy.

But…

‘You, kid, you’re lucky to be alive. There was a little kid wandering alone outside.’

‘He didn’t even know how dangerous it was, just sitting there staring blankly at the sky.’

Funnily enough, a past event flitted through Muhae’s mind. In a vague, forgotten memory, he too was once left alone outside the Comfort Zone.

It was such a faint scene that he wondered if he had seen it in a dream, but it was undoubtedly not false.

Teacher Jeong also speculated that a part of Muhae’s memory might have disappeared starting from that day.

… A strange and annoying sense of kinship pricked at him.

He certainly couldn’t just leave this clueless, seemingly out-of-his-mind guy anywhere.

Especially not with a face like that, which went beyond simply being handsome and was ‘in demand’ everywhere.

He glanced at the man’s sleek and flawless body. With his handsome features, he had caught people’s attention several times on their way here.

He didn’t want to be nosy, but he could picture the man being dragged off to some bad place if he wasn’t careful.

“Ha.”

Muhae sighed and rubbed his forehead. So, did this mean he had to take this guy home and provide temporary shelter?

Oblivious to Muhae’s worries, the man continued to inhale the noodles, gulp, gulp.

Soon, the empty bowl landed on the table with a thud. The man, who had been dazed since seeing the food, finally made eye contact with Muhae.

Was he finally full?

No. Clutching the empty bowl tightly, he seemed to have remembered the warning about not getting more if he didn’t answer.

“If you don’t want to talk, at least gesture or something.”

At the suggestion, delivered at the right time, the man paused and fell into thought.

Then, he suddenly turned to the side. Thinking he had finally found a clue, Muhae turned his head as well.

“…….”

However, his gaze was directed beyond the nearby buildings, towards the city entrance they had come through.

All the speculations swirling in his head vanished. He couldn’t understand this guy any more than before.

“There.”

Suddenly, the man spoke.

It was the first time Muhae had heard his voice since he uttered “Hungry” on the bed.

The man’s gaze, when their eyes met again, was strangely eerie and unsettling.

As Muhae felt goosebumps rising on his arms, looking into those clear eyes that didn’t match his dazed demeanor,

“This time, that.”

The man pointed his finger at the steaming meat.

Then, drip, drip…

“Crazy.”

He started drooling, despite his seemingly normal face.