Chapter 28

Chapter 28 - Missing Person Search Plan (1)

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An existence that had seemed to vanish from this world.

Evaporated without leaving a single photograph behind, surviving only in her memory.

Ju-hee clutched the employee ID—proof that person had existed—as if it were something precious.

Anyone could tell this wasn't just a simple relationship between a colleague and her superior.

Su-myeon rubbed the bridge of his nose uncomfortably and let out a sigh-laced murmur.

"He was there. I wanted to rescue him if I could, but it was too dangerous."

He didn't bother adding an apology.

He had done everything he could within the limits of what was possible.

At Su-myeon's words, Ju-hee sank back down with a confused expression.

"For now, everyone's exhausted. Let's get some rest and pick this up once our heads are clearer."

Young-cheol steadied Ju-hee and wrapped things up.

Before anyone noticed, the faint glow of dawn was breaking over the horizon.

In the quietest hour of the city, each of them settled the turmoil inside—louder than anyone else's—and parted ways.

***

In truth, nothing had been settled at all.

Even so, everyone somehow returned to their daily lives.

Su-myeon made it home, laid out the 'things he'd brought back' from Exit 4, and finally tried to organize his thoughts.

"......"

Five Rose Coins he didn't remember picking up, tucked in his pocket.

And, remarkably, the plush doll that had still been clinging to his shoulder even in the real world—Cheshire.

"......Excuse me?"

Su-myeon gently set Cheshire on the living room table and tried speaking to him several times.

But remarkably, Cheshire said nothing.

Su-myeon couldn't tell whether he wouldn't speak or couldn't, but in any case, there was no response.

Right now, he looked like nothing more than an ordinary stuffed toy.

"......"

After mulling it over, Su-myeon carefully covered his right eye.

The Cyclops Contact Lens he was still wearing in his left eye.

He'd hoped it might show something different, the way it had at Exit 4, but nothing special was visible.

After deliberating, he removed the lens and placed it in its storage case.

The case was no different from an ordinary plastic lens case.

The only slightly unusual thing was that instead of the typical two-eyed design with both sides connected, it was a single unit.

Beyond that, nothing stood out—which made Su-myeon wonder.

'Do I have to clean it like a regular lens......?'

As he entertained that idle thought, his eyes fell on the sukajan he'd tossed aside carelessly.

The lens, the Cheshire doll—unlike those strange places, nothing had changed about them in the real world.

If that was the case, what about that jacket supposedly made from the Nemean Lion Hide?

Curious enough to want a definitive answer, Su-myeon picked up the sukajan with its elaborate embroidery.

Then he went to the kitchen and brought back a large pair of kitchen scissors.

'If it works the same way in reality, the possibilities are endless, right?'

The Cyclops Contact Lens too—maybe it wasn't showing anything right now simply because there was nothing to show.

If it functioned in reality, it might reveal something when he got close to an area connected to an urban legend.

As for Cheshire—if he was simply asleep right now, Su-myeon should probably take care of him regularly.

And the sukajan went without saying.

A jacket that could withstand any physical force just by wearing it.

How reassuring would that be?

"Just a little......"

But even with the scissors poised against the Nemean Lion Hide sukajan, Su-myeon hesitated for a long time.

This was the garment that hadn't suffered a single scratch even from San-hyeok's monstrous attacks.

He didn't think a small cut would cause any major damage.

'The power's in the hide itself, so it doesn't have to be in its completed form......'

Steeling himself with that reasoning, Su-myeon avoided the sections dense with ornate embroidery and gently pressed the blade against the fabric.

He carefully scraped the scissors along the left shoulder area.

The hide scratched white and gave way without the slightest resistance.

"GAH!"

Su-myeon yelped involuntarily and frantically rubbed the spot with his fingertips.

He'd thought he'd barely grazed it, but absurdly, a finger-joint-length piece had been cut clean off.

Forget invincible—wasn't it even flimsier than an ordinary T-shirt?

He'd damaged the precious jacket, but at least one thing was now certain.

The bizarre items only functioned as intended inside the urban legends.

DING-DONG.

Just as he reached that conclusion.

Su-myeon rose at the sudden ring of his doorbell and neatly folded the Nemean Lion Hide away.

With the thought that he should treat it with care in the real world, he checked the intercom.

"......Ju-hee?"

The unexpected visitor was Go Ju-hee.

Scratching his forehead, Su-myeon turned and headed for the front door.

On the other side stood Ju-hee, looking a bit haggard.

"Weren't you going to work today?"

Su-myeon opened the door in surprise, and Ju-hee managed an awkward smile as she nodded.

"I was, but...... I called in sick. I don't think I could handle work like this."

She'd earned that after the kind of night they'd had.

Su-myeon nodded, and Ju-hee asked tentatively.

"Can I come in?"

"Oh, yeah. Of course."

At Su-myeon's invitation, Ju-hee stepped inside and quietly took in Su-myeon's apartment, which she was visiting for only the second time.

A few photographs hung on the wall.

Photos in the kind of spots where family portraits usually go.

Every single one of them had become solo shots, with Su-myeon awkwardly occupying the center alone.

From childhood, all the way up to a relatively recent photo of him in military uniform.

Every photograph that had clearly been taken as a family keepsake—and in all of them, Su-myeon was alone.

Ju-hee looked them over and slowly settled into the living room.

"Isn't it absurd?"

Ju-hee's question came out of nowhere, and it continued.

"Losing someone precious from your life, and still having to use a sick day just to take time off work. Isn't that just...... absurd?"

In the midst of this irrational reality, Ju-hee laughed weakly.

Su-myeon only then noticed that Ju-hee was dressed in workout clothes.

"Did you run here?"

He knew the area where she said she lived was at least a twenty-minute subway ride from his place.

A distance that would take nearly two hours on foot—and she appeared to have run the whole way.

"......He and I used to run together whenever we had the chance. It was the only hobby the two of us shared. Running."

That wasn't what he'd asked, but...... he couldn't exactly say that.

Unable to find the right words, Su-myeon at least brought out a cup of the instant coffee mix he had in the kitchen.

After taking a sip of the sweet, hot coffee, Ju-hee finally got to the point.

"I need to go back. To that Exit 4."

In truth, even as a character from <UTG>'s main story, Ju-hee was always one who died without fail.

Su-myeon could only know about her what she herself had told him.

He could infer that the missing person was someone very important to her, but he couldn't know to what degree.

"The fact that it's well-known enough to be talked about online means plenty of people have gone in and come back out, doesn't it?"

While Su-myeon watched her with a heavy heart, Ju-hee pressed on in a resolute voice.

"You and Han-su went in and came back safe."

She seemed to have found hope in reflecting on that sequence of events.

The possibility that someone trapped inside an urban legend—a missing person—could be rescued and brought out.

"I want to go back in."

Su-myeon fell into thought at Ju-hee's repeated request.

It was her choice, so he had no authority to stop her or give her permission.

And yet she had come to him, speaking as though she were asking for his approval.

"If there's any advice you can give me...... anything at all...... I'd really appreciate it."

"Advice, well......"

This wasn't a decision driven purely by emotion.

Ju-hee had steeled herself to accept a certain degree of danger, but she had no intention of charging in without a plan.

She intended to actively take in the advice of Su-myeon, who always proposed rational countermeasures for every urban legend they faced.

Under the weight of her determined gaze, Su-myeon's eyes drifted toward his computer.

The <UTG> files were still sitting there, untouched.

"Then...... give me a moment."

Su-myeon made up his mind to compile everything he knew and pass it along.

If Ju-hee succeeded in rescuing Hyeon-seok, it would mean there was a way for Su-myeon to get his parents back too.

Testing that possibility with a different case before attempting to find his own parents wasn't a bad idea.

Besides, knowing her personality, if he helped her find that person, she wouldn't forget the debt.

Su-myeon sat down at his computer and spoke.

"He might not be there anymore."

It didn't matter that others couldn't see anything related to UTG.

They had all gone through profoundly unnatural experiences—a bit of odd behavior was hardly worth questioning.

Su-myeon dug through his computer and opened a file.

Watching him, Ju-hee responded in a bewildered voice.

"What...... does that mean?"

Su-myeon replayed the final moments in his mind.

The corridor that had transformed as they chased Shin Hyeon-seok. The posts that had appeared on the Heartphone and online.

Piecing all of it together, one thing came to him.

"Remember the online post you saw while looking for us?"

---
Today, I'm born again

Freed from a tedious daily life

Skipping even a last goodbye

So long, wretched existence

To a place where the sun never sets

Give me my freedom.
---

Ju-hee recalled the post and nodded, and Su-myeon spoke.

"There's a common trick, right? Where reading just the first character of each line spells out a different message."

Ju-hee furrowed her brow at his words.

How had she missed it? Reading just the first character of each line, the message was unmistakable.

'Don't come. Save me.'

"The fact that the real message is hidden means something's watching, right?"

Su-myeon continued his reasoning.

"And one of the lines said, 'To a place where the sun never sets.'"

Su-myeon searched through the countless main entries, fan games, and parody games of UTG stored on his computer until he found the Sadang Station Exit 4 file.

It was saved alongside another version.

"Baekya Land."

Su-myeon opened the file.

The subway scenery that had shifted as they followed Shin Hyeon-seok had increasingly resembled a run-down theme park.

A color palette of pink and mint green jumbled together.

The main menu that loaded bore a background with graphics identical to what he'd seen. That only deepened his conviction.

"Following the flute to a promised land is one of the endings for Exit 4."

A promised land.

The endpoint for all those who had walked the infinite loop through Exit 4, Shin Hyeon-seok included.

If that pointed to Baekya Land.

"Baekya Land—the land where the sun never sets. The idea of an amusement park does fit well with the imagery of freedom and liberation."

Su-myeon gave a brief summary of the reasoning behind his theory.

"So there's a strong chance that the people who fell into Exit 4 ended up there."

At Su-myeon's words, Ju-hee grew even more confused.

She couldn't see any of the game files Su-myeon was referring to.

"......Alright."

But on trust in Su-myeon alone, Ju-hee nodded.

With the supernatural bleeding into and threatening their daily lives, Su-myeon was the only one who pointed them in a direction.

On top of that, Su-myeon had lost his own parents.

And in a situation like that, the person they'd found wasn't his parents, but the one she had lost.

Ju-hee understood just how fortunate that was.

The more desperate the situation, the more she needed to abandon stubbornness and make rational choices.

"If he's at Baekya Land, then let's go there."