“It’ll be here. We have to hope it’s here. You said you’d find it, too.”The man rolled up his sleeves with a resolute look—more eagerness than I’d ever seen so far. His dry face was flushed red, as if he were both tense and excited.He strode purposefully toward a secluded room piled with broken furniture. It looked like it had once been a shower room: shower hoses without heads dangled from every wall.Now, an eerie, waterless ruin. Not even a mouse would dare squeak here. The man began to inspect every corner of the desolate space.Then he gave a sharp «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» cry and dropped flat onto the dust-caked floor. He’d found something. I sprinted past Joo-o, who’d already reached him, and approached.“Here… it fell in here.”He groped at a crack in the metal floor. The metal plating was dented as if struck, leaving a gap just wide enough for a fingertip.The man brushed away the dust with his bare hands and rummaged in his bag. He pulled out a long wire coiled neatly.His gaunt throat bobbed as he swallowed, like he was steadying himself.“…I was just going to stay one night and leave. I spilled my drink on company equipment, so I snuck in here to clean it. But as I moved it aside, it slipped from my fingers…”He mumbled his explanation, bending the end of the wire to scrape dust from the crevice.Once the decades-old dust clumped and fell away, the hollow center of the gap was exposed.He shone his flashlight through the tiny hole.Flash. Something gleamed in the darkness below. His drawn face lit up with hope.“It’s here. It’s here! I was worried, but it’s still—”“Trying to pull it up with that?”“Yes, yes. Don’t you think it’ll work? I tested something similar at home; the wire was best.”Clang, clang—the man jabbed the dirty floor with the wire. Sweat beaded on his brow; hooking the ring onto the wire was harder than he’d thought.“Ugh!”He even cut his hand on the sharp edge of the crack. At this rate, he’d get tetanus before another wound healed.When drops of bright red blood began to splatter on the floor, I couldn’t just watch.“Don’t get carried away. Go wash your hand first. I’ll see what I can do.”After a moment’s hesitation, he handed me the blood-soaked wire. I swiveled the flashlight, scanning the hole’s interior.“Think we can get it out?”Joo-o, who’d been silent until then, poked his head in.His eyes curved slightly as he glanced up. He was unusually calm, but his expression was one of rapt fascination.‘Anyone who smiles before starting a job must be out of their mind,’ I thought. Still, at least his odd behavior seemed to be tapering off.I raised an eyebrow at his serene face. Joo-o was changing by the day. He still zoned out at any chance, but he no longer seemed quite the raving lunatic he’d been.It was like watching a wild creature gradually adapt to civilized life—as if, after losing his memory, he were rapidly rehabilitating his earliest childhood memories.“Well… the gap’s really narrow. And it’s not even a straight slit.”“Told you it’s nothing like those mini-games.”“Do I look like I’m playing a game?”“No, but it still looks fun.”Even my sarcastic jibe didn’t faze him. Ever since I found him in the wasteland, he’d simply followed me or clung to me without any offense.I deflated a little and let my sharp tone drop. If he truly was some kind of lab sample, everything he was experiencing now would be novel.I’d felt the same way. After losing my memory outside the Comfort Zone, every sight was strange and agonizing: my father’s unfamiliar face, the garish illegal add-ons on buildings, the graffiti-plastered alleys…“I’m going to widen the hole.”I voiced the plan and glanced toward the door. Joo-o’s lips curled upward at the unspoken permission.The usual warning—“Stay quiet and don’t get in the way”—was nowhere to be heard this time.“There’s a pry bar by the entrance,” Joo-o said brightly, then darted out of the room. His radiant face stuck in my mind.“Here.”The man returned almost immediately with the rusty but usable pry bar.I hooked its crow-bar end under the cracked plating and applied steady pressure. At first, the metal wouldn’t budge, but then it bent outward little by little.“This is ridiculously sturdy.”I spat and hooked the opposite side of the slit, bracing my weight. A vein stood out on my hand, but the plate still refused to deform as much as I wanted.Then warmth pressed against my back, and my right arm felt suddenly lighter.Joo-o was pushing down on the long metal rod from behind.Grrrrick—.The floor trembled faintly, and miraculously the slit began to widen!“That’s enough. Stop now.”I felt the pry bar released, but the pressure on my back stayed until I turned around. Joo-o was leaning into my shoulder like he’d climbed onto the back of a bike, grinning as if he were about to drift off to sleep.“You smell nice.”“Stop with the nonsense and move.”His jacket hadn’t been washed in over a month. It didn’t smell good, but neither was it foul. He was simply complimenting anything while in a good mood. I nudged his glossy black hair aside and picked up the wire again.“Hold the flashlight.”When I shone the beam through the widened gap, I clearly saw the object inside.A golden ring lay among the dust. The client’s hopes were hooked on the wire’s end and brought up. Though plain, with no gems, the ring still glinted like jewelry.“My ring…!”The man, having returned with a clean hand, cried out as if in relief. He staggered forward, took the ring from my hand, and examined it.He rubbed away the smudges, his face awash with emotion.“It rolled in here the moment I dropped it. But I had to leave immediately… I thought I’d just lost it. It wasn’t expensive, and I didn’t want to fall behind…”He muttered his untold story as he slipped the ring onto his finger.After ten years of living without it, the ring fit his ring finger perfectly.“Then five years ago, my wife passed away first. That lone ring in the memorial case kept gnawing at me. Since then, I’ve thought: I have to come back for this someday.”“I understand.”“I don’t have children or inheritances, but I’ve never missed a tax payment in over thirty years. That means for ten years after I die, I’ll qualify for the public ossuary. I want to place our wedding rings together in that memorial case. That’s why I came.”“I’m glad you did.”Joo-o chimed in, and a smile crept onto the man’s lips. Even though the kid spoke casually, it wasn’t unpleasant.He seemed to know: among this underpaid job, Joo-o was the only one who’d listen to him.“Thank you.”“Don’t mention it. We’ve still got to get you back, so stay focused.”“I’ll buy you a drink once we reach Goryeo City. Can’t afford a fancy place, but I can drink you under the table at our usual spot.”“And meat, too.”“Shut up. I buy you meat every day.”Joo-o’s brows twitched, but he nodded and fell silent. I wiped my dirty hands with a wet wipe and pulled a half-foot-long rod from my waist.Ding-.I pressed the power button, and the rod unfolded into a rectangular screen.0221-B3358 Escort Request Report> Cheolma Valley Shelter  > Escort Mission [1/2]  > Grade 4 Anomaly “Twilight Fang” sighted in Lower Bokcheon 2  > No injuries or casualties  > No property damageI exhaled a low sigh and glanced toward the door.“Let’s rest here. We’ll move again at dawn.”It was supposed to be a simple escort—probably fighting a few beasts at worst—so I don’t know how we ran into an Anomaly. If these greenhorn mercenaries hadn’t been prepared, it could’ve gone badly. I rubbed the back of my neck, already feeling the fatigue.

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