I stared at the system window announcing the closure.

Then slowly turned my gaze, scanning my surroundings.

No one was there.

Yi Se-on, who had been shedding black tears of blood — gone. Tak Jucheol and Paeng Sangdo, who had howled like a choir — wiped clean away.

I didn’t even get to say a proper goodbye.

Smiley flashed through my mind. The one who’d turned into an item right before my eyes.

Having the same thing happen twice made it feel... hollow, somehow.

Even knowing they were just NPCs, I never really thought about it while inside the Trial. They were right there, alive and moving, so I kept forgetting they were meant to disappear. I’d catch myself vaguely thinking I could meet them again anytime.

Regardless of how I felt, the system window diligently kept flashing noisy notifications.

◆ <Han Goyo> Epic Quest: Close 3 Trials within one month.

Trials currently closed (1/3)

(Warning! Quest failure will result in limb amputation! Success will preserve limbs.)

<Han Goyo> has made a name known in Akasha!

■■ ■■■ is watching you.

Current Recognition: 0.05%

I shook off the loneliness and read the system window.

Whoa, Recognition.

Last time it only gave me 0.01%.

This time it went up by a whopping 0.03% — a very generous increase.

Still had no idea what I was supposed to use it for, though.

And I still don’t know what "Black Block is watching you" means either.

I shifted my gaze to the cassette tape player in my hand.

The system window popped up again.

You feel you absolutely must listen to this music.

It was similar to the message I’d gotten when I received the Happy Smile Candy before.

I was planning to check it out anyway.

I was curious why the contents had changed, and I wanted to hear the music inside.

I’ll ask Samra to listen to it for me.

Since it might be dangerous, I planned to have Samra — who’d probably be fine even if he listened to the music — handle it instead.

The Trial <Dead Zone Delivery> has ended.

The Trial will be permanently closed in 80 seconds.

You are the Top Contributor of <Dead Zone Delivery>.

You may take 2 items.

As expected, the Top Contributor notification appeared.

I’d already picked one item. The portable cassette tape player.

The second item was the problem.

I wanted to ask the Captains if there was anything the TRA needed, but they weren’t around, so I had to choose alone.

Turns out I didn’t need to worry.

"...Ah."

Item selection complete.

Because I couldn’t choose any more items.

The player and the cassette tape inside it were apparently recognized as separate items, counting as two selections.

Can I change it?

I regretted my choice as I faced the prospect of walking out with just a cassette tape player.

But there was no cancel button in sight.

"Cancel. Change. Undo...?"

I tried saying a few things despite the embarrassment, but the system window remained silent.

Looked like I was going to have to become someone who really loved music.

It came from a Trial, so maybe it has music that doesn’t exist in human history.

Maybe it was a new cultural artifact that could bring great progress to the music world.

Hoping that was the case, I packed the cassette tape player.

Eighty seconds later, the world crumpled into a kaleidoscope of colors.

I emerged from the Trial.

It felt like I’d come back after a very long time.

In reality, probably about five or six days had passed.

Before I could even open my eyes on the cold laboratory floor, my entire body ached.

"Ugh..."

A groan escaped me involuntarily. I swallowed the pain while still lying face-down.

It was because all the thread and bandages I’d used to treat my wounds inside DeZonDeal had disappeared.

Having paid the price of being Top Contributor, I curled up motionless for a while.

It didn’t hurt this much inside DeZonDeal, did it?

It seemed the painkiller effect had vanished along with everything else.

After groaning for a bit, I finally lifted my head and looked around.

Kwak Hanmuk and Mo Haein came into view first. They didn’t seem to have regained consciousness yet.

I’d been alone at the end, so I’d worried a little, but it was a relief.

What about the Lieutenant Colonel?

He wasn’t someone I needed to worry about, but since I was checking on the Captains, I looked for him too.

Je Hyun-oh was holed up in the farthest corner.

From the way he sat with his back against the wall, he seemed to already be conscious.

His outfit was exactly the same as inside the Trial.

Goggles and gas mask, hoodie and combat uniform.

With his metal hand dangling loosely, he looked like a big toy robot that had run out of power.

Not that he was ever the kind of person you’d attach a cute description like "toy robot" to, but...

I felt a little strange.

I’d seen everything Je Hyun-oh did inside the Trial. How he rampaged.

The sight of him gleefully slaughtering zombies right in front of me was vivid in my memory.

But back in reality, he seemed to have no will, no drive at all.

I called out softly to him as he sat there without even a twitch.

"Lieutenant Colonel Je."

His face, which had been staring at the floor, moved very slowly.

My reflection appeared in his goggles.

"Uh..."

I’d called him, but now I had nothing to say. I brought up a safe topic.

"Nothing unusual happened? When we cleared, I wasn’t with—"

I was speaking with only my head raised while still lying down, when I flinched.

Je Hyun-oh had suddenly stood up.

His goggles flickered to life.

^ ^

Symbols appeared on either side of the goggle’s smiley emoticon.

Je Hyun-oh changed both his metal hands into Crow Gloves and walked toward me.

He bent down right in front of me, then tapped me with his hand.

The gesture seemed to check if I was really alive, so I spoke in a dying voice.

"I’m alive..."

A corpse couldn’t exactly talk. Je Hyun-oh withdrew his hand.

"Lieutenant Colonel Je."

? ?

"Are you satisfied now?"

I didn’t know what he wanted from me, but since he told me not to die, I’d come back alive even from inside a boss monster’s guts.

Isn’t this enough?

From now on, I just wanted to focus on clearing Trials in a peaceful team atmosphere.

Please.

I looked up at Je Hyun-oh with earnestness.

"Yeah."

Je Hyun-oh answered quietly, moving his gloved fingers like he was playing the piano.

Since they weren’t metal hands, there was no clicking sound.

He looked at me and spoke.

"Goyo, live long."

"..."

When he was throwing me at the boss monster, it was one thing — now he was telling me to live long.

But I reminded myself again that this was Je Hyun-oh, and quickly resigned myself.

At least he’s not telling me to die.

Anyway, since he’d told me to live long, I figured I didn’t need to worry about my life from now on.

Felt like I’d been through one hell of an initiation.

Je Hyun-oh pressed down on the earpiece in my ear.

Immediately, Samra’s voice came through.

- Han Goyo-ssi.

I reported to him.

"<Dead Zone Delivery> has been closed. All Special Mission Team members will return to the TRA."

No sound came from the earpiece.

Just as I wondered if the connection had cut out, a reply came.

- Yes, Goyo-ssi. I’ll be waiting.

It might be an unusual expression for an android, but I felt like I could sense joy in his voice.

Samra announced my success in a gentle voice.

- Special Mission Team’s first mission complete.

As soon as I returned to the TRA, I received emergency treatment.

The wounds that had been stitched up inside DeZonDeal had reopened and started bleeding — since I’d already lost a lot of blood, it almost got dangerous.

Mo Haein and Kwak Hanmuk were also unconscious for a while, due to the aftereffects of the zombification that had progressed.

Mo Haein especially had been a full zombie for a while, so she was out longer.

Fortunately, there were no other major issues.

As soon as he returned to the TRA, Je Hyun-oh was dispatched to a short Trial that could be finished quickly before the next Special Mission Team assignment.

It was a nominal punishment for attacking a team member.

He probably wanted to enter a Trial anyway, and he’d adjust his schedule to return in time for the Special Mission Team mission, so I wasn’t particularly worried.

After receiving treatment, I woke up having been unconscious longer than even the Captains.

"...?"

As soon as I opened my eyes, I was experiencing something strange.

Snip snip.

Snip snip snip.

Someone was cutting my nails with small scissors...

I was so startled that I couldn’t even signal that I was awake, just watched the scene.

The person who had been deeply focused on cutting my nails belatedly felt my gaze and looked up.

"Hyaaack!"

And screamed.

I wondered if I should be the one screaming here, but I stayed calm and tried to identify her first.

"Who are you?"

The chubby-cheeked woman wore large round glasses and a white coat — she looked more like a researcher than a doctor.

The way she looked at me was similar to Yi Ga-on when she’d realized I was the cure.

"Ah, hello... I’m, um, from Division 2..."

"You mean the Research and Analysis Division?"

"Yes, yes."

The woman suddenly bowed her head in greeting.

All the while, she clutched the sample tube containing my nails as if it were precious.

In a very small voice, she announced her name.

"My name is Ham Ji-wol... I’m the Chief...!"

As soon as I heard the name, I quickly clenched my fist to hide my nails.

Ham Ji-wol made a sound of dismay, her eyes and mouth rounding in surprise.

It seemed she hadn’t collected as many of my nails as she wanted.

Thank goodness... No, wait — is that unlucky?

Research and Analysis Division Chief, Ham Ji-wol.

She wasn’t someone I encountered often while playing the Archive’s games.

That was because meeting Ham Ji-wol came with a 100% probability of...

A bad ending.

Only endings where the player was dragged off as a lab experiment subject and experienced horrific things.

Knowing how brutal Ham Ji-wol’s human experiments were, I couldn’t help but feel terrified.

I was trembling internally when, by the greatest stroke of luck, a savior appeared.

"Han Goyo-ssi. You’re awake?"

The one who opened the hospital room door and entered was Samra. I’d never been so glad to see him.

"Yes! I’m perfectly fine. I can be discharged right now."

"Ah, ah...!"

Ham Ji-wol fidgeted in front of me, but I desperately pretended not to notice.

Meanwhile, I shot Samra a pleading look.

Samra took his time collecting data on my physical reactions before finally rescuing me.

"Chief Ham Ji-wol. Could you step aside? I need to discuss the next mission with Han Goyo-ssi."

"Ah... Samra, um, I... I only got 0.06 grams of nail... There’s other stuff too..."

"Sample data collection is already sufficient. Anything beyond that is Chief Ham Ji-wol’s personal greed."

"...That’s—"

Ham Ji-wol closed her mouth without further argument, and Samra expertly shooed her out of the hospital room.

"Thank you."

"So you know about Chief Ham Ji-wol as well."

"Not much."

Samra stood by the hospital bed and looked at me. It wasn’t easy looking up at the tall android.

When I tilted my head way back, Samra obligingly sat down on a chair.

"Are the Captains alright?"

"Captain Kwak Hanmuk and Captain Mo Haein are currently attending to their respective team duties."

Fortunately, they seemed fine. As I felt relieved, Samra informed me of the next mission.

"It’s still under discussion, but the Special Mission Team’s second mission will likely be assigned <Clean! Clean! Clean!>."

We were scheduled to enter in a week, and if I wanted to adjust the timing, I should let him know.

But I was the one in a hurry.

Limb amputation...

I said there was no need.

Honestly, for Clean3, entering in a week was fine. It was a relatively easier Trial than DeZonDeal.

Instead, I asked for something else.

"There’s an item I’d like to acquire before the mission."

"I’ll submit a request to the Asset Management Division."

"Well, the thing is, the TRA doesn’t have this item... There should be exactly one in Korea, and as far as I know, the owner is the Chairman of the Cheon-gang Group."

The moment he heard my words, Samra immediately knew what item I meant.

"’Good-Looking’?"

"Yes. Having that item would be a huge help in clearing the Trial. Is there any way we could ask the Chairman for cooperation?"

"It’s possible."

"...!"

Seeing Samra answer so confidently, it really did seem possible.

But before I could feel happy, Samra added something puzzling.

"However, Han Goyo-ssi must personally meet the Cheon-gang Chairman and persuade him."

"What?"

"The Cheon-gang Chairman will absolutely not hand over the item to anyone but Han Goyo-ssi."

It didn’t make sense. If persuasion was needed, wouldn’t a high-ranking TRA official be much better suited?

I’d never even seen the Cheon-gang Chairman from a distance—

No, wait.

Had I... seen him before?