Taking a Breather (Illustration)
A week had passed since the department store kidnapping incident was resolved.
During that time, the city had seen its share of big and small changes.
First, the internet’s public opinion—which had burned hot enough to flip Cheongang Tower on its head—had cooled back down as if none of it had ever happened.
While the city constantly churned with incidents and accidents of every size, Cheongang had gone completely silent afterward, engaging in no external activities at all.
Last had been resolving cases both large and small while carrying an A-rank hero license from Hero Corporation.
When I checked the site, his affiliation was still listed as belonging to Han Cheolho’s detective agency.
Perhaps because of that, the original Last had felt like a corporate private soldier, but now he gave off the warm impression of a reliable neighbor.
A.G.O’s Rekka channel, which once held three million subscribers, had transformed after the Cheongang sniping video into a sort of conscience-driven whistleblower channel.
It wasn’t that she had stopped uploading Rekka videos entirely, but the ones that did appear now focused more on exposing wrongdoing than on social issues.
It must have been surprisingly profitable; not long ago she sent me roughly ten million won as thanks for the memory chip. To someone who had just been boiling convenience-store ramen because she had no money, the gesture was deeply moving.
And the one at the center of all this butterfly effect is none other than myself.
“Fuck.”
I had no stable source of income, so I had reached the point where I couldn’t even begin planning the next operation.
Why does committing evil require such an enormous amount of money?
In other stories the protagonists casually rake in cash through stocks or coins, so why don’t I have that ability?
Why is the world—
“Why is the world like this!!”
“Ah, you scared me!! Miss, why are you suddenly shouting like that?!”
“I’m sorry.”
I bowed my head in apology to the homeless man sprawled on the sidewalk.
-Sniffle.
It was pathetic. I felt like I had experienced this exact feeling once before.
Back to the main topic: in other stories they easily make money through stocks or coins, so why can’t I do the same?
Why? Because I had never once engaged in financial investment in my entire life, that’s why.
The only charts I had ever looked at were the webtoon popularity rankings from some big company.
What money-making methods could someone like me possibly know?
Earn honestly at a company job, run short-term part-time gigs whenever I needed quick cash, become a famous Instagram influencer and take sponsor ads, or do internet broadcasts to collect donations.
That was it.
“...?”
At that moment I froze as if struck by lightning and spun my thoughts in circles.
Instagram? Internet streaming? xTube?
I immediately dashed into a public restroom and stared into the mirror.
“This is it!”
It was just fucking this.
*
Haedream Detective Agency was relatively quiet today.
In fact, it hadn’t just been today.
Yesterday, the day before, and the day before that had all been the same.
About a week ago there had been roughly six requests piled up.
With only three people in the agency and only Han Cheolho able to take to the field, it was only natural.
But ever since Jinhyun joined, many things at the agency had changed.
Suppressing armed robbers who had illegally occupied a large supermarket.
Rescuing an architect trapped beneath heavy rubble.
Recovering the young child of a wealthy family kidnapped by a cell organization.
There were no difficult jobs.
Why?
Because work efficiency had simply doubled.
“How has Miss Yuha been doing lately?”
Perhaps because he had shed the weight on his heart, Jinhyun—whose complexion had brightened in just a week—asked Yujin.
Yujin, who had been secretly scrolling on his phone with his head buried in his desk, shot upright.
“My sister? She said she started Instagram, so I went straight in and hit follow back.”
“Instagram?”
“Oh my god, senior. You seriously don’t know Instagram?”
Surprise colored Yujin’s voice.
His eyes seemed to ask, You don’t know this? Are you a total loser?
“I don’t.”
“Unbelievable. To think there was another person besides my brother who was this behind the times.”
“So what is it?”
“Here, look. I’ll explain.”
While saying everything on his mind, Yujin shared the screen on his device with Jinhyun.
“So when you upload a photo like this, people see it, share it, or press like?”
“Yes.”
“Then what do people gain by doing this?”
“Validation.”
“?”
“Doesn’t it feel good when people come look at a photo you took and show interest?”
“Hmm...”
Jinhyun couldn’t understand the feeling at all.
In the past week of activity, not once had receiving people’s attention felt good.
“There are also sponsorship deals that come from Instagram fame, but I doubt many people start an account specifically for that.”
It was a statement that would make someone flinch if they heard it.
“Then photographers would be good at this kind of thing.”
“Not necessarily?”
“Huh? Then what exactly hooks people into giving such enormous attention to someone who only uploads a single photo?”
“Well, that’s...”
Yujin tapped rapidly on his phone and pulled up Chae Yuha’s Instagram.
“You’ll get the feeling when you see this.”
Jinhyun stared intently at the screen Yujin offered.
Compared to the influencer accounts Yujin had shown earlier, the page looked shabby.
After all, there was only one uploaded photo.
But the moment Jinhyun realized who was in that single photo—
“.......”
He silently snatched the phone from Yujin’s hand.
Jinhyun felt as though his pituitary gland had taken damage.
It must have been an enormous shock.
To Jinhyun, who could barely navigate the internet and only ever secretly watched the videos Yujin and Cheolho played, this was overwhelming.
“Why are you taking my phone without permission?!”
The fact that Yujin could so easily reclaim the phone—which Jinhyun would never have been able to take by force—showed just how little strength he had.
“Oh my god, she already has over three thousand followers? This unnie is the real deal!! With a face like that, what has she been doing not using Instagram until now?!”
-Tap tap tap tap tap...
Completely absorbed in Instagram, Yujin began typing at a speed Jinhyun could not even imagine.
It was the first time Jinhyun had ever seen Yujin move his fingers so quickly.
“...Is this normal?”
“Huh? What did you say?”
“That Instagram thing—do people normally leave that many hearts?”
“No? This is probably the first time a regular person’s follower count has risen this fast.”
“Why? Just because she’s pretty?”
“It can’t be only that, right? Anyway… wait, what the fuck? This bastard is cursing at a complete stranger and calling them an attention seeker?”
-Tap tap tap tap tap...
Even while answering Jinhyun, his hands never stopped typing.
To Jinhyun’s eyes, it already looked like a skill.
“Do we really need to analyze the reason?”
-Tap!
After elegantly adding a period, Yujin turned to Jinhyun with a refreshed expression and shoved Chae Yuha’s selfie in his face.
“Honestly, she’s pretty, right?”
“.......”
Jinhyun became mute as if he had swallowed honey and averted his gaze.
Pretty? He had thought that from the moment they first met. Her appearance was the kind that, once placed in your mind, could not easily be forgotten.
But Jinhyun’s feelings were not that simple. This indescribable emotion had begun the instant their eyes met in the restaurant. Perhaps even earlier than that.
“Come on, repeat after me. She’s pretty.”
“.......”
“Just say it once!!”
Whether he knew or not, Yujin kept thrusting the photo at Jinhyun and demanding he speak.
This continued until the gorilla—Han Cheolho—woke from his nap and burst out of the break room.
*
Meanwhile, the following scene was unfolding inside Chae Yuha’s studio apartment.
“Krr~ The response is amazing!! As expected, it all comes down to looks!!”
“Wait… why is this number still climbing? Am I really this popular?”
“Hey, hey… No!! Stop!! Enough!!”
“This has to be manipulation… There must be an invisible force rigging everything from behind…”
Chae Yuha, whose personality had never been that of an attention seeker and who had needed considerable courage even to appear in court, felt her mentality being swept away by the tidal wave of hearts rushing in.
There was a reason she had suddenly received such massive attention.
The passionate speech Chae Yuha had given for Jinhyun’s sake about enhanced humans had, strangely enough, touched the hearts of countless enhanced humans living in the city.
But Chae Yuha, who had no idea and could not even imagine the reason—
“It’s manipulated…”
—was collapsed on the floor, completely drained as if every last drop of energy had been sucked out of her just from staring at the screen.