The claim that Yoon Tae-ha had succumbed to the enemy’s provocation and caused the guide’s death was gaining traction.

“We shouldn’t have entrusted work to such an unstable esper!”

This was because she was unable to give a proper testimony at the time. It was an incident without even a witness. Above all, Moon Sunwoo was Dr. Moon’s only family. Therefore, the doctor’s influence worked against Yoon Tae-ha.

It had been a long time since losing an important weapon to the anti-government forces was added to her charges.

Within the headquarters’ massive glass building, her name became tattered. However, Yoon Tae-ha confessed in secret, away from people’s eyes, and was able to reveal the truth only to Lee Hae-kyung.

Initially, due to her sense of injustice, she only thought about uncovering the truth behind the betrayal. But as time passed, the desire to completely forget the incident dominated her.

She, who had slept about 20 hours a day while taking the drugs given by Ark, emerged back into the world the day before she turned twenty.

Waiting for her when she came out of the underwater prison was Lee Hae-kyung, who looked much thinner and more precarious than before.

“Come to Korea. Your status has been restored. You can go back to your normal agent life.”

“Why are you doing this, knowing that Dr. Moon is there? You know I thought of the doctor as family. Would he welcome the person who killed his family?”

He didn’t get angry at Yoon Tae-ha’s sharp retort.

“You said you were curious about the reason.”

“You must have confessed your love to the Red Serpent. You seemed so earnest.”

“That kid alone?”

Silence hung for a moment on the desolate cliff where the wind and rain had just swept through. Lee Hae-kyung didn’t make her wait long.

“Moon Sunwoo wasn’t the only one who cooperated with Orca.”

At that moment, the screams and explosions that had been haunting her like phantoms disappeared.

“I can tell you more names.”

“Lee Hae-kyung... Oppa, you’re crazy. The faces of your colleagues who died fighting those guys are still vivid to me! You can’t find anything better to suspect than someone from the same Ark?”

Lee Hae-kyung, striding closer, grabbed her shoulders.

“Listen carefully.”

Misery and fear. Her whole body stiffened at the sight of the man, who had always been mature, showing his bottom line.

“No one knows the scale. We barely salvaged a few names from headquarters. People who operate as Ark on the surface and Orca in the shadows have driven the situation this way. Are you stupid enough to believe that incident was Moon Sunwoo’s solo act?”

In fact, as soon as she came out of the sea, she wanted to go back to prison. A place where there were no accusing people. A place where she could simply take medicine and fall asleep if she suffered from tinnitus and hallucinations.

Even if it was her execution ground.

“Let’s end the lies we’ve been raised on within our circle.”

But she couldn’t.

Letting go of everything was a choice she could make under the belief that the people she loved would be safe without her.

The messy bouquet of flowers given to her by the young psychics in the north when she graduated stood firm before the cliff, preventing her from returning to the sea.

That was why her heavy body, which had wanted to sink endlessly, floated back up.

________________________________________

Yoon Tae-ha, having surfaced, took a deep breath and grabbed the edge of the bathtub. Her lungs greedily inhaled the air. Finally, the unpleasant scenes began to blur.

Leaning her head back against the tub, she tried to lift the water with her power, as was her habit. But she failed, perhaps due to stress.

Not again. Does that kid next to me have to hold my hand?

Cheon Geon-young, who had talked about Orca’s territorial waters, had at least found the right place to make a request.

Who is human, and who is Orca?

The past four years had been a time to find the answer to that question.

She did whatever the company told her to do. She moved without regard for her body and gained the trust of her superiors. In exchange for shortening her lifespan, she had access to more information.

As time passed, one question she had held since childhood became clear.

Grandfather is involved.

The individual suspected of being Orca had large and small connections with Professor Yoon. Dr. Moon wasn’t entirely innocent either.

Every time she entered Dr. Moon’s office, every time he reminded her of his dead nephew with a clueless face...

Yoon Tae-ha only thought of what she had to do. And she smiled as much like her younger self as possible. Like a young girl desperate for affection.

She didn’t want to let him know that she was treating the doctor with different eyes. It wasn’t because affection remained, but for a more perfect plan. Her silence about the truth regarding Moon Sunwoo was also her will.

There weren’t many people she could trust.

In fact, after her undercover work ended, hadn’t someone from headquarters been sent to probe her, representing the company’s position? And what about the unidentified enemy who used the guise of a student and an agent?

She had never harbored the optimism that she could end this without any sacrifice.

Ignoring her finely trembling fingers, she clenched her fist tightly.

Whoosh.

Turning on the hot water again, she stared at the rising water with empty eyes for a while before getting out of the tub.

When her thoughts became overwhelming, she shouldn’t keep her body still.

•

“Could you give me a mission with no assigned handler right now?”

An Ark employee rubbed his eyes, seeing Yoon Tae-ha appear in the middle of the night. Was he seeing things because he was tired from his night shift? But even after rubbing his eyes, the person in front of him was indeed a psychic on par with the center director.

“Ms. Yoon Tae-ha? It’s late, what brings you here?”

“I can’t sleep. If there’s an urgent mission, please give it to me. Something I can do alone, like reconnaissance.”

“If you’d do that, we’d be very grateful. Just a moment.”

The employee began typing on the keyboard with a clearly nervous expression. He had a long work history and high security clearance, but this was his first time speaking directly with Yoon Tae-ha.

“Take your time. It’s my fault for coming without notice.”

The employee nodded and busily searched for a mission. Then, unable to suppress a question that arose, he spoke.

“By the way, don’t you have a Gaia-derived artificial intelligence? If you had asked there, we could have transmitted a mission to you immediately without any waiting time.”

“I came in on a whim while taking a walk. So I don’t have any electronic devices with me.”

Came to the company to find work while taking a walk?

It seemed like a way of thinking that ordinary people couldn’t understand. The employee clicked his tongue inwardly and searched for the most suitable mission based on the current time.

Meanwhile, Yoon Tae-ha crossed her arms and looked around the brightly lit company even at night.

Psychics don’t cause accidents based on day or night. Rather, dangerous things happen mostly at night. That was why the people here couldn’t sleep, even working night shifts.

The employee, who had made her wait a moment, informed her that he had found a task.

“There’s a reconnaissance mission. You just need to check out a black market on the outskirts of Seoul. They sell everything from cheap painkillers and suppressants to unauthorized illegal weapons.”

Yoon Tae-ha lightly frowned, as if she couldn’t understand.

“There’s something like that on the outskirts of Seoul?”

“Plenty. It’s hard to track down how far it’s connected, and crackdowns don’t work well. It seems like they’ve set up shop here completely these days. I think there’s probably a psychic involved who knows how to connect spaces.”

She asked the employee for a temporary burner phone. He quickly ordered a subordinate to bring one.

“Perhaps, a handgun...?”

Yoon Tae-ha responded with a smile instead of an answer. He knew it was a pointless question. The employee handed over a burner phone and a small bag containing simple equipment with an awkward expression.

After checking the items, she left the company at a brisk pace.

•

Smells like strawberry jam.

That was Yoon Tae-ha’s first thought upon arriving in the neighborhood where the black market was said to be.

A back alley where a broken streetlamp flickered gloomily. The few pedestrians were all dressed similarly to her.

She pulled her hat down low and her mask up to just below her eyes.

This was a neighborhood where gate-type rifts had erupted twice in a row.

Hardly any residents returned to live in the neighborhood that monsters had swept through. Everyone had left with the meager compensation money.

Perhaps that was why underground residents involved in illegal activities had taken over the neighborhood recently.

She found a two-story house with a collapsed roof, one of the entrances to the black market. Just then, a pedestrian was entering the front door first.

The man who entered the abandoned house seemed to be heading towards the kitchen, but he suddenly disappeared the moment she took her eyes off him for a second.

According to the preliminary information, the entrance was a refrigerator. Taking a chance, she pulled the refrigerator handle. The weight of opening the door was considerable.

Soon, a cloyingly sweet smell that made her wrinkle her nose enveloped her. And an entirely unimaginable scene followed.

Yoon Tae-ha quickly closed the refrigerator door and entered a new space. Unlike the quiet neighborhood, the inside of the refrigerator was bustling.

In the distance, she saw the back of the head of the man who had just entered this place through the refrigerator.

Got it right.

She looked around, relieved. It was like a busy underground shopping mall.

She tried to stick as close to one wall as possible to avoid being swept away by the crowd, but she couldn’t. This was because an unidentified vine plant grew densely on the wall.

It had been a long time since Yoon Tae-ha had visited a black market, and her head turned busily.

Certainly, she thought that this was a better choice than sitting still at home and fighting off the memories that came flooding in.

“Orca uses something like this as a secondary weapon?”

“Have you been living under a rock? Put it down if you don’t like it.”

“Is it even possible that those guys use such cheap smoke bombs? Show me some proof that they’re connected.”

She went over to a poorly-looking weapon dealer because she heard a familiar name.

The shop owner was showing off a crudely self-drawn Orca insignia on his ankle. The customer was only grumbling, but he had a slightly interested expression after seeing the insignia.

They’ll be in big trouble if they scam people with something like that.

She approached the customer as if she were interested in the smoke bombs. The shop owner became even more elated as his audience grew.

“I’ve been to that godforsaken land, I tell you! How many of the thugs and hoodlums roaming around here do you think have actually been to the green sea?”

Yoon Tae-ha casually asked.

“Have you really been there? The green sea.”

“I used to be a well-known guide in this business. I had a good sense of direction even in controlled areas.”