“Damn!” Muhae ground his teeth and fumbled at his waist.Even a half-crazed kid ought to know enough to read the situation. Had he asked too much of someone who drooled at the mention of food?Krk- Krheooong!To make matters worse, the tough thorn wolf had shrugged off the Taser’s shock. The staggering beast planted all four paws firmly and readied to strike.If this continued, Joo-o would be ripped to shreds—and yet he still sat there grinning.Watching the wolf as if it were a show, he felt no sense of danger at all.We’re screwed, Muhae thought. There was no way to save Joo-o unscathed now. He shouldn’t have brought the brat here, no matter how much he’d complained or claimed he could handle himself.Muhae sighed and clenched a long cylindrical cartridge in his hand. Whatever—he’d worry about Dr. Jeong’s bill later. For now, he’d keep the kid alive.“This is gonna hurt.”He’d bought one of Boss Gil’s steeply discounted beast-capture stun rounds. If he threw it, he could stop the wolf faster than with lethal ammo.The problem was it’d mess up Joo-o too—but ringing ears and rattled innards beat having your head split open.I’m not footing that bill, he thought, though he knew full well he would.That cartridge alone cost more than a few meals.Alright. It’s my fault for bringing him here. Muhae drew a deep breath and pressed the single-use activation button.Then—Kyaeng!The charging wolf froze mid-lunge with a strangled howl. Its eyes bulged so wide the whites showed.‘…?’Foaming saliva dripped from its maw, lined with razor-sharp teeth.Frowning at the strange effect, Muhae quickly braced his firearm. He’d hesitated before, worried about hitting Joo-o at point-blank, but this time the target was unnervingly still.As if a predator that should pounce any second had been caught in headlights, the wolf’s tail curled tightly between its legs.What the hell?The coarse spines of its fur stood on end. It was literally frozen solid. Muhae didn’t hesitate—he squeezed the trigger.Taang! Zzzzz-.Kyaaaeng!The Taser finally did its job. Given the momentary downtime, Muhae switched ammo and fired into the wolf’s immobilized flank.Taaang! Wham!With brutal recoil, the bullet sank deep, tearing open the beast’s chest.Kekeng-!A crackle and the stench of burning fur filled the air as the electric blast convulsed the wolf into rigidity.Done. He’d bought enough time «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» to rescue that nuisance.Only then did Muhae whip his head around—he needed to see where Joo-o had gone.“Damn…”But to his shock, Joo-o hadn’t bolted. Instead, the kid sprang to his feet and marched right up to the dying wolf.He pressed down until his boot sank into the beast’s throat with a sickening crunch.Giiik…The wolf’s final whimper died away, and at last its life ended. Only then did Muhae return his gear to its holster.“Whew…”That was tight. A thorn wolf like that alone wouldn’t trouble him—but worrying about someone else had been a stress he didn’t need.Relieved, Muhae turned with a grim expression.“You little—”He strode forward, grabbed Joo-o by the scruff of his neck.“The chip.”“What?”“The chip. We need to find it.”Joo-o’s unmarked face split into a smile as he pointed at the fallen wolf’s carcass.The creature’s belly looked distended, as if it had gorged itself recently.Entranced, Muhae released the boy’s collar and approached the blood-soaked wolf.Thunk!Skrick, ssshhk!He slit the belly open—and amid the gore, an undigested gold ring quivered and glinted.Where people live, rumors thrive.Above ground or underwater, inside the Comfort Zone or out—if there are humans, spine-chilling tales pass from lips to ear.Ghost stories naturally follow the bounds of human habitation.In the age of farming by nature, water ghosts haunted reservoirs, and scarecrows sometimes moved on their own.When everyone crowded under the domes, the hot topic was some “forbidden” secret zone hidden in the city.Or stories of human experimentation whispered among mercenaries…“You wouldn’t know, kid, but Solar City used to be a filthy huge metropolis. Full of researchers. That’s when they got cocky—thought they could get Blue more safely. Thought they could control beasts or anomalies.”The dead speak no words, and fallen cities become breeding grounds for fabrications.When bad news flew in from an unvisited distant city, every rumor’s backdrop flipped to that place as if by pact.Muhae had heard hearsay about prohibited experiments in Solar City across the sea. They’d tried to create “evolved humans” for adaptation and prosperity.Something went wrong, part of the Comfort Zone was wrecked, and the test subjects vanished—no one knew where. Such vague, aimless rumors always ended as someone’s scoff.“So you went to Solar City?”“No.”“Then what? I heard the same story in Shin-kyung City 20 years ago.”Of course Muhae didn’t believe in ghost tales. He scoffed at any crackpot theory about rifts warped by Blue’s energy or human-test abominations roaming free.He’d grown up too hardened to thrill at nonsense. No need to follow a merc company just for kicks.“Hahp, um…”“Wow, he can eat all that? Hey—what’s this? Meatballs, more?”“Yeah. Meatballs.”“Alright, two more orders of meatballs!”He thought that… but reality struck.Muhae pressed his furrowed brow and exhaled. Conspiracy theories he’d never given a second thought now swirled in his head.It’d only been three days with Joo-o. In those seventy-odd hours, how had so many strange things happened?The vision of that pale figure standing amid the wreck… the torn clothes but flawless skin…Among countless beasts, the thorn wolf—how did he instantly pinpoint the one with the chip? The deadly gleam in his eyes while every hair on his neck stood on end…The beast frozen by some incomprehensible cause at the moment of peril…“Five more servings.”“Sure—five servings!”He’d already eaten twelve bowls, yet his appetite showed no end.“Stop ordering.”“Why?”“Don’t push your luck. You’ve already broken the day’s sales record.”“Who forced you? The kid’s hungry.”Clack—when the piled-high plates of meatballs arrived, a vein bulged on Muhae’s forehead.Let him eat all he wanted, but this was ridiculous. Onlookers were staring.“You stingy young guy—it’s clear you made bank off killing that wolf.”True, Muhae was stingy, but this time it wasn’t about money. He was richer now than ever before.He’d handed over the remains of that wealthy man to the Central’s patrons and seen the payday land in his account.He couldn’t just walk away from a bigger prize.Clearly there was an inheritance dispute among them—he’d traded the chip to the second son and earned a whopping 50,000 dil.He’d even hit the pawnshop before dawn and claimed his father’s heirloom.The mysterious leather case held a storage device no bigger than a fingernail.He hadn’t expected magic spells or untold riches, but for over 200,000 dil it felt underwhelming.“That’s all you get. We have to leave.”“Okay.”“Chew it well. Don’t just swallow.”Anyway, Muhae had met his goal—and still had over ten thousand dil to spare.All thanks to Joo-o. Feeding him was a fair price.His resolve to leave him behind in the slums vanished like melting snow.In truth, he owed that debt, and it’d be dangerous to dump a rattled kid on the streets outside the Comfort Zone.And besides, he hadn’t yet collected the full reward—and unexpectedly, the boy might prove useful.“How’d you find that wolf—and the one with the chip?”“Just knew.”“Anything else you know?”“Hmm… maybe?”He didn’t believe in ghost stories. He wasn’t soft enough to buy into that nonsense.But it was clear Joo-o was no ordinary kid. Even Muhae’s instincts warned that letting him go anywhere could be dangerous.If Joo-o had even one percent to do with those rumors, Muhae could be in deep trouble too.He already wandered outside the Comfort Zone—he might vanish without a trace…“I’m done.”“…Dust off your clothes and get up.”Despite his unease, Muhae brought Joo-o along.They’d bought him clothes and gear the moment they left the pawnshop, and set up a mattress in his father’s old study.Watching the boy marvel at even a simple Link Watch made Muhae’s heart ache.Again, he didn’t believe in wild tales—but if Joo-o was truly entangled in them…Muhae felt that would be a very sad fate indeed.

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