#063
Not only was he covered in all kinds of filth, but it felt like bugs were crawling all over his body. Yoo Seong-woo desperately wanted to take off his pants and throw them away, but he held back as he crawled out of the sewer.
“Whew…”
After walking through the sewer for several hours, he had arrived at a field where abandoned factories stood sparsely, with no people in sight.
Only after carefully examining his surroundings did he grab Popo’s extended robotic arm and pull it out. Popo, rescued from the sewer, was in just as terrible a state.
“Let’s rest here for a while since there’s no one around. I’d like to clean up right away, but… that’s difficult.”
He had walked through the long sewer while fighting back nausea. Not only was his body exhausted, but he was mentally drained as well. Popo rolled its round body around on the sandy ground, seemingly trying to clean off the filth stuck to it.
The sky above was cloudy as usual. He had heard that in Section 1, the capital, they used some device to make the sky appear bright blue, but he had never seen a blue sky.
Lying down, he turned his head to survey his surroundings. It was exactly as he had researched beforehand – desolate land with Third Era abandoned factories that looked like they might collapse at any moment.
Finally, he had escaped from Section 2.
“Popo, are you keeping that thing safe from earlier?”
– Popo is a diligent robot!
Popo opened its round body and showed the small chip inside.
This was something Yoo Seong-woo had placed inside Popo before he officially began his escape. It was Yeon Tae-soo’s property, no less.
While circling the outskirts of Section 2, he had realized that he couldn’t escape normally.
People were standing guard almost everywhere. Seeing the personnel strategically placed, it seemed like they had prepared thoroughly.
‘How many people did they deploy?’
Since almost every passable route was being guarded, he had no choice but to move underground.
Old Man Chang’s place that he had visited before. If he could get just one of the many signal jammers near there, it would be a great help in avoiding future tracking.
Fortunately, he was able to contact Old Man Chang directly through Popo.
– There’s always only one guard here. I suppose having too many people would attract attention, especially with the equipment. I’ll let you know the shift change timing.
After thanking him, he soon received the shift change timing and a simple map.
– By the way, Mr. Yoo… wouldn’t it be better to get help from Chairman Yeon? I don’t know what’s going on, but…
He couldn’t possibly tell him that he was actually trying to escape from that person.
“…I don’t want to be a burden. I’ll use the equipment well and quietly return it, so I’d appreciate it if you kept this a secret.”
– Of course, don’t worry.
Fortunately, Old Man Chang didn’t seem suspicious. At least, that’s how it felt from the messages conveyed through Popo.
He had disassembled the stolen signal jammer to make it portable, stripped down only the core part from the innermost section, and placed it inside Popo’s body.
If Yeon Tae-soo noticed that Popo was gone, he would naturally track Popo. And he couldn’t bring himself to discard his tablet with electronic currency because of the risk of tracking.
Though he wanted to rest more, it was really time to move on. As he lifted his heavy, foul-smelling body, Yoo Seong-woo suddenly wondered if Yeon Tae-soo would still maintain his interest if he saw him in this state.
How effective were an entertainment android’s seduction functions? What level of ugliness could they accept?
Probably the fact that he was an android would never be acceptable.
Yoo Seong-woo walked weakly, looking at the cloudy sky. How long could he survive in this state?
Thinking that he’d like to see at least a few more full moons, he forced his heavy legs to move.
***
The original plan was to head straight east and smuggle himself out by boat. However, a problem arose. The smuggling price was much higher than he had anticipated.
The price quoted was far beyond what he could afford with his electronic currency, and although it was clearly inflated, the problem was that he needed to pay it to leave the country.
Even if he couldn’t go to Southeast Asia where androids could supposedly live openly, he thought that leaving Korea would be the best choice.
‘Do I need to… get more money?’
After parting with the broker at the port, Yoo Seong-woo drastically revised his plan.
‘If I need to earn money in a short period…’
He had no special skills besides playing instruments and singing. He had learned a bit about fighting from the mercenaries, but that was it.
Without any significant skills, the only way to earn money quickly with just his body would be hard physical labor. Yoo Seong-woo came to that conclusion.
And… he would need to change his appearance a little.
Now that he had made his decision, it was time to put it into action. Yoo Seong-woo adjusted the bag containing Popo and pulled his hat down low.
***
Eden had been closed for over a week.
Had this ever happened before? The people of Haeya-dong were bewildered. The neighborhood’s landmark, which always gleamed with golden light, had its lights turned off for several nights.
‘They say Yeon Tae-soo has fled.’
‘No, I heard the Ministry of Defense sent people to take care of him.’
‘Would he be that easy to take down? I heard he’s just sick.’
Numerous rumors circulated, and Eden maintained silence and darkness, not responding to any of them.
In reality, there was no owner at the unlit Eden. Yeon Tae-soo had been personally searching for Yoo Seong-woo for days.
“…Has the boss eaten anything today?”
“Ah, he had a coffee this morning…”
“This is driving me crazy. He’s not sleeping either, is he?”
“No…”
The burly men continued their search of the area with sad faces. The forest was dark and rough. Yeon Tae-soo, wearing a suit and dress shoes rather than sneakers, moved faster than they did. He didn’t seem to have sore feet either. The men gritted their teeth and kept going, knowing they couldn’t slack off when the boss was personally involved.
A week ago, traces of Yoo Seong-woo had been found near Old Man Chang’s bunker. He had taken one of the signal jammers.
They would never have known if not for a small spherical CCTV hidden among the bushes.
All they had was a very brief side profile of Yoo Seong-woo passing by. Based on that clue, they were now thoroughly searching the nearby mountains.
Of course, they had repeatedly questioned Old Man Chang at the bunker if he knew anything. But Jang insisted he knew nothing.
It was a situation worthy of suspicion, but Yeon Tae-soo didn’t press Jang further. He just examined the bunker once. Yeon Tae-soo knew the bunker’s structure better, and Mr. Yoo wasn’t in any place someone could be hidden.
‘He’s a civilian without proper training. He’s only been here once, and it’s unlikely he could navigate these mountains with barely any paths, so there’s a high chance he’s stranded here.’
The subordinates wanted to ask if an untrained civilian would take apart a signal jammer, but they held back. The current Yeon Tae-soo looked angrier than they had ever seen him.
To avoid bearing the brunt of that anger, they needed to move quickly and somehow find at least traces of Mr. Yoo.
If he had been stranded, Mr. Yoo would have exceeded his survival timeframe by now. But no one dared to mention that.
Yeon Tae-soo hadn’t just searched the mountains. For the first three days, he had personally scoured these mountains thoroughly, but once the survival probability became extremely low, he frantically searched other outskirts.
There was a strange lack of traces. Mr. Yoo had learned how to erase tracks from the two mercenaries before, and it seemed he had diligently applied what he learned. His skills were impressive considering the short training period.
‘It seems like… he’s deliberately running away.’
The burly men desperately wanted to ask, “Boss, what exactly did you do wrong to Mr. Yoo?” Especially those men who had worried about whether Mr. Yoo was eating properly felt even more concerned.
The people who slept with Yeon Tae-soo were all like wild dogs, eyes red with greed for whatever they could get. Compared to them, how kind was Mr. Yoo? No guest ever cared for these uneducated men.
“Hey, guys, Section S-12 is done.”
Mercenary Nikita reported back, looking completely worn out. Xinyan, who had reported from another section earlier, was in a similar state.
The two of them weren’t even part of Eden’s staff; strictly speaking, they were valuable foreign guests, yet strangely, they were helping search for Yoo Seong-woo without a single complaint. The burly men knew why. Both of them had spent time with Mr. Yoo, teaching him self-defense. Mr. Yoo was a kind person, so he must have shown them warmth.
And having taught him how to cover his tracks, they probably felt responsible.
The burly men shared information with Nikita and Xinyan and moved out again. As they did, they became convinced:
‘The boss must have done something wrong.’
Of course, they felt sorry for their boss, who was soaked in sweat and searching the mountains like a madman…
But since there must be a reason for his escape, the subordinates’ footsteps subtly slowed down, thinking it might be good to give him some time.
