"Yu-jin, when do you think this situation will end?"
"Huh…?"
"Is that all you've got to say after dragging soone who’s never had a drink before into this?"
"Damn it, I just want this to end so I can send this kid ho. I'm just trying to discuss it a bit earlier."
Fragnts of my past mories flashed through my mind.
It was the first ti I drank, and I drank until I was completely out of it. Along with about fifteen others, we drank wine until our stomachs were about to burst. The wine, naturally, had been scavenged from various wineries scattered across New York.
The amount of wine we drank that night easily reached into the billions. It couldn’t have been any other way. There were no more people left to guard the wineries, and nobody to stop us from taking it. Everyone had succumbed to the virus or the winter storms of New York.
The joke my comrades made about taking a few bottles of wine being equivalent to cleaning up the trash strewn across the city still echoed in my ears.
That night marked two years since I set foot in New York, and it was also the day our squad's kill count hit exactly 5,000.
"Ugh…"
"Haha, damn it, Morrison made Yu-jin cry after all."
"Hey, take that Petrus bottle out of his mouth. Logan, don’t you agree? I respect you, and whatever choice you make from here on out, I respect that too."
"Aye aye, sir! I'll take it right away!"
"You bastards, give it back! The amount left in that glass is worth $2,000!"
Chaos.
In the hazy mory, I watched as Logan seized the bottle of Château Petrus, while Morrison, despite his fierce resistance, was no match for the bear-like strength of Logan. His thick arms, which looked like they could snap a log in half, grabbed Morrison's frail hands, rendering him helpless. It was a bizarre scene.
At so point, I think I muttered sothing. I can’t rember what I said now, but everyone widened their eyes in response. Logan handed the bottle back, probably thinking I was okay with it.
What followed next was a feeling of warmth as Logan, much closer now, patted my head and back, comforting .
My mories jumped around repeatedly.
I think I cried about wanting to go ho, then sohow regained my strength and walked back to the barracks, holding my bloated stomach, which was full of alcohol instead of food. I rember holding Logan’s hand and seeing glimpses of the hallway leading to the barracks. It wasn’t a mory I was particularly fond of.
At that ti, I had let out every frustration that had been building up inside . Logan, who had also been mysteriously transford into a woman, was the one who listened. It was a ti when everyone around us was barely hanging on.
Though I didn’t want to recall it, there was also a part of that knew if I hadn’t vented that day, I wouldn’t have been able to hold on. We both relied on each other, barely managing to get through it.
Of course—
"Hey, hey! What are you doing!?"
"Pillow…"
There were other reasons I didn’t want to rember that day.
Though I slept more soundly than usual that night, it was because I had wrapped Logan up with my tail like a cocoon. That, in itself, was enough reason for to avoid drinking. Who knows what I might do if I lost control again?
As the mory finally faded, everything turned black. Not just my senses, but even the certainty that I’d be able to rember any of this once I woke up. All that might remain was a vague sense of longing.
Nevertheless, ti passed.
Everything subrged back into the sea of forgetfulness.
And then…
"…Mm, snf."
I barely stifled the sound that almost escaped my lips.
Golden hair filled my vision, and from my tail—pressed against Dice's body—I felt a softness that I shouldn’t have been feeling. Quickly unraveling the tail that had been coiled around her, I was relieved to hear her breathing return to a more natural rhythm.
I glanced up at the clock on the wall. 10 a.m. We didn’t have to leave until 3 p.m., which was when all the solo competitors in the Asia preliminaries had to vacate the venue. Ti wasn’t an issue, but my head throbbed.
As I carefully sat up, I checked Dice’s body for any signs of injury. My mories of last night were foggy. Had I gripped her too tightly? More importantly, how had my habit of using my tail as a pillow escalated into this ss?
I sighed deeply, relieved to see that apart from a slight redness where my tail had wrapped around her, there were no other visible marks. If I had lost control and hurt her, I wouldn’t have been able to forgive myself.
As I shifted, Dice woke up too.
"Ugh, my body…"
"I’m sorry."
"Oh, you’re awake…."
Still half-asleep, Dice rubbed her eyes with both hands. Even while yawning, she managed to cover her mouth—quite impressive.
Even now, she was using my tail as a pillow. Still caught between sleep and wakefulness, she occasionally muttered sothing as she absentmindedly fiddled with my tail.
"Sleeping in the sa position all night… Ugh. What ti is it?"
"It's 10 a.m. Would you like a massage? I know it sounds strange, but it’s really effective for muscle recovery."
"…I’m fine. Just a glass of water, please."
With a soft rustle, my tail slid out of her grasp. I went to the fridge and pulled out a chilled bottle of water, pouring a glass for each of us. The cold water soothed my fuzzy head, and Dice, apparently quite thirsty, downed her glass and asked for another.
After a brief trip to the bathroom, we both sipped so chocolate milk from the fridge to settle our stomachs. With so sugar in her system, Dice looked much better, glancing around the now-tidy room.
"Looks like soone cleaned up while we were in the bathroom."
"Seems like it."
"Ah, you're back to your usual self, Yu-jin… It's kind of a sha."
"Hearing you say that makes dread finding out what I did last night."
She snickered.
It seed Dice had understood my comnt in the exact opposite way I’d intended. The words that followed from her mouth… What could I say? It was like reliving the sa embarrassing monts all over again. Dice found it amusing to see in a more human light, but hearing it now was mortifying.
If there was a next drinking session, I hoped I’d handle myself better than this.
"Oh, Yu-jin, your face is red again. Is that from the alcohol?"
"No… this is from embarrassnt."
"Heehee."
How embarrassing.
In any case, Dice clearly hadn’t fully recovered from last night either. Seven hours of sleep weren’t enough to completely shake off the effects. She yawned as she checked the ti again, then shuffled over to the bed.
According to the schedule, we had until 3 p.m. to leave the eSports stadium. Dice knew that too, so she decided to get a little more rest.
As she flopped onto the bed, she asked:
"You’re not going to sleep, are you?"
"I’ll rest too, if there’s nothing else to do."
"Okay, I’ll set the alarm for noon… See you in a bit."
Plop.
She collapsed onto the bed, and I, too, sank back onto mine. The bed creaked slightly but didn’t cause any issues. At least, that’s what I told myself. As I stared into the now-dark room, I closed my eyes.
I let my consciousness drift into the depths.
Two hours passed in what felt like an instant.
This ti, my fatigue had significantly lessened. The hangover was still there, but the chocolate milk had helped ease it a bit. If I ate sothing decent for lunch, I’d probably be back to normal.
The alarm rang, and I gave Dice a light smack to wake her up. I left a quick note that I’d be showering first and grabbed my shower basket. The hot water washed away the lingering effects of last night’s excess.
After about 30 minutes, I erged feeling much fresher. Dice was waiting outside the bathroom, and we had a brief exchange.
"I packed all your things too. What do you want for lunch? There’s a famous bean sprout soup place nearby."
"You’re suggesting bean sprout soup with the vibe of soone who’d rather be eating clam chowder with bread for a hangover cure."
"Ah, that’s discrimination."
"Fine, then I suppose I’ll pretend I’m eating raw beef for breakfast."
"Heehee."
When we returned to the room, it was spotless. Apart from the two bags sitting on the bed, it looked as though no one had been there at all. As the air conditioning blew through my hair, I grabbed a drink from the fridge to quench my hunger.
Since ho was close enough to Yongsan, there wasn’t much rush to leave. By the ti 1 p.m. rolled around, Dice returned, looking much more refreshed.
"Oh, your hair is a ss again. Co here!"
"What’s wrong with it? As long as it looks fine, it’s fine."
"Co on, let brush it! Stop resisting."
It felt a little strange.
Despite my protests, Dice insisted on brushing my hair. Though I got scolded a few tis, it seed we had beco quite close after all. After a bit more primping, we finally prepared to leave the place we had grown attached to.
By 1:20 p.m., I cleared our nas from the pad on the wall, officially checking us out. As we stepped outside, a gentle breeze and warm sunlight greeted us, caressing the park.
Unlike yesterday, it was just the two of us.
We walked through the quiet park that no longer needed to accommodate hundreds of thousands of people.
"Oh, Yu-jin, I forgot to ntion sothing."
"What is it? If it's sothing weird, I’ll let it slide just this once."
"The bean sprout soup place is a kiloter away."
"Oh, co on."
That was such a Dice-like mistake.
But since it was the last day, I decided to let it slide and hurried my steps.
The Asia preliminaries, which had begun with millions of competitors, ended quietly, with just the two of us.
Silent, serene, and with only two people walking together.
"Therefore, while there are many unclear aspects about this data, there is no doubt it was encrypted using the Icarus Gear algorithm."
"Unclear?"
"I an that we cannot be certain of its authenticity or reliability. After the encryption, it continued to update and modify itself into an unrecognizable form. I don’t know if you can even call it data anymore."
Several black vehicles sped down the highway under heavy guard.
Inside one of the most heavily secured vehicles, the U.S. Secretary of Defense was holding a real-ti video conference with her team in the U.S., a noise-cancelling barrier shielding the conversation.
On the other end of the screen was Jordan Royden, a senior researcher from DARPA and one of hundreds involved in developing the Icarus Gear and its encrypted network.
This wasn’t just any eting. It was a gathering of DARPA researchers, the Secretary of Defense, and several key figures.
"So there’s no way to resolve this for now?"
"Unfortunately, no."
That was the conclusion. Janet had already received nurous classified reports earlier, many of them through secret channels.
So of these reports had co from Korean HUMINT and included information on Yu-jin’s recent activities, specifically how, over the past two months, much of her data had beco suddenly encrypted. Even Korea’s intelligence agencies had no way of decrypting it.
It was fortunate, yet unfortunate, that the encryption had been done using the Icarus algorithm. It ant that, without proper thods, it would remain indecipherable for decades.
Setting aside the hundreds of billions of dollars spent building the Icarus networks and infrastructure, the algorithms developed by forr researchers during their spare ti wouldn’t stand a chance at breaking the encryption.
There was also no real need to break it.
The fact that the data was encrypted ant that if Yu-jin’s military history were ever questioned, it wouldn’t cause much trouble. Encrypted secrets tend to inspire trust, regardless of the content.
But still—
‘Regardless, the Icarus Gear is revolutionary technology.’
The U.S. had no choice but to cooperate with Yu-jin to gain access to the Icarus Gear. Its ownership was entirely in her hands, so transferring it to the U.S. was nearly impossible. Whether the data within could benefit the U.S. wasn’t the issue.
Even if it didn’t matter, the Pandora’s box had to be opened.
As the eting ended, Janet opened another communication line.
"Proceed as planned. We’re not considering halting the operation."
"Understood."
Janet G. Harper.
She was known for her relentless drive to complete any task within her purview.
As the communication ended, a fleeting mory of Yu-jin passed through her mind.
Soon enough, Eugene would co to know that Arica had its eyes on her.
Reviews
All reviews (0)