The Sanctuary of Camp Humphreys
An hour had passed.
The sunset had bled away into total darkness, yet the area surrounding the laboratory remained in disarray. The police, nowhere to be found while the actual violence was unfolding, had finally shown up to make a bustling show of efficiency, scrambling to string yellow crime-scene tape and inspect the grounds.
At the front gate, the wing-body truck sat abandoned where the attackers had left it. Through its propped-open cargo doors, dozens of hastily piled PC towers and stacks of documents were visible—a stark, visual testament to exactly what the intruders had been hunting when they stormed Arcane Technology.
"..."
My stomach sank as I stepped past the wreckage.
Every single window across the main building had been shattered. Expensive specialized equipment lay smashed throughout the hallways, but what was truly chilling were the splatters of dark blood staining the floors and walls. Knowing what kind of brutal toll the security guards had endured to hold the line, I squeezed my eyes shut against the sight.
The carnage continued inside. The research lab where Hyung-jun and I had barricaded ourselves was somehow the least damaged room in the entire facility. In other words, not a single square inch of the building had been spared.
"..."
Hyung-jun surveyed the ruin with a hollow, dazed expression. It was only natural. The very space that held everything he had poured his blood, sweat, and tears into had been trampled into dust in the span of a few hours. Rage, helplessness, and sheer emptiness—those three emotions laid bare across his face.
Then his eyes snagged on something across the room, and he let out a hollow laugh.
"Ha. Unbelievable."
"...What is it? What do you see?"
"Look over there."
I followed his pointing finger.
It was the corner housing the CNC machining center responsible for fabricating standard-sized Magicians. Stacked neatly right beside the machine sat an orderly row of finished Magicians, completely untouched.
"Are you kidding me right now...?"
The raiders had ransacked the place, hauling off ordinary computer towers and stacks of printed documents that held little real value, yet walked right past the genuine treasure. The sheer irony forced an incredulous chuckle from my throat.
"Did those idiots really not know what they were looking at?"
"Either that, or they cared more about stealing the underlying manufacturing data than the finished hardware."
"Could be."
"I'm glad neither of us got hurt, but seriously... what the hell do we do now?"
Looking at the decimated laboratory, a heavy sigh escaped me.
Right on cue, Section Chief Kwon Jeong-geun stepped into the lab, flanked by several subordinates. He looked like he had been put through the wringer just as badly as we had; his usual smug, slippery demeanor had vanished, replaced by sheer exhaustion.
"You're here," Kwon said. "I'm relieved to see you both unhurt."
"I suppose," Hyung-jun replied, his voice laced with barbed sarcasm as he glanced around the ruins. "I'm not entirely sure whether 'relieved' is the right word, but considering our limbs are intact, let's call it that."
Kwon wore an apologetic grimace. "I have no excuses. We never anticipated things would escalate to this degree."
To be fair, it wasn't right to pin the blame on the National Intelligence Service. They were the ones who had warned us when we were off our guard and assigned bodyguards to protect us in the first place. If not for them, we might have been dragged away in zip ties before we even realized what was happening.
"We understand," I intervened. "Nobody expected them to be this reckless. More importantly..."
I asked the question that should have come first:
"How are the guards?"
"There are severe injuries, but thankfully no fatalities or life-threatening conditions. A silver lining in a terrible situation, I suppose. They are currently being treated at the hospital."
A silver lining indeed.
Those men had risked their lives, holding out for ten minutes against a mob three times their number. Thanks to their sacrifice, we bought enough time to assess the situation calmly and slip out unharmed. In every practical sense, they had accomplished their mission.
"Arcane Technology will cover all of their medical expenses, no matter the cost," I said firmly. "Technically, they were contracted under our banner. Hey, you agree, right?"
"Huh? Ah, yeah. Of course. Process the payment immediately."
I nudged Hyung-jun, who blinked out of a daze and nodded. His mind had clearly drifted elsewhere.
Turning back to Kwon Jeong-geun, I bowed my head deeply in sincere gratitude. "Thanks to them, we walked out of here without a scratch. Truly, thank you."
"It was our duty," Kwon replied politely. "Seeing you two safe is reward enough."
"Right. The real issue is what comes next..."
I glanced anxiously around the wrecked lab.
"With the facility in this state, I don't know what our next step should be. After getting hit like this, I don't think I'll feel safe anywhere."
"Understood," Section Chief Kwon agreed, nodding. "Before meeting you, I arranged for an emergency safehouse. It should be significantly safer than any hotel or apartment you could find on your own... Would you be willing to relocate there?"
I looked at Hyung-jun first. He had that distant, brooding look on his face again, lost in his own head.
Hopeless.
Exhaling a long, deflated breath, I nodded. "Let's go."
About an hour later, we arrived at the NIS-provided safehouse.
The only things we had salvaged were the pre-fabricated Magicians. Since all research notes, blueprints, and computer data were backed up to encrypted cloud servers, we had instructed the NIS to incinerate and shred every remaining hard drive and document at the lab. It was data that wouldn't matter even if leaked, but it was better to leave nothing behind.
Handling the aftermath was simple enough.
The real problem began now.
"Hey, Old Man Kim."
I addressed the guy who had been floating in outer space since earlier.
"What on earth are you brooding over so hard?"
"Huh? Oh. Right."
From the moment Section Chief Kwon and his agents escorted us into the safehouse until they gave their briefing and stepped out, Hyung-jun hadn't uttered a single syllable.
"Took quite a hit to your pride, didn't it? You've had a face like a funeral all evening."
"Funeral, my ass."
Good. At least he still had enough fight in him to snap back.
"I was just thinking about who pulled this off."
"Finding the mastermind is critical, yeah."
To tell the truth, I had been turning the exact same thought over in my head.
"Who do you think did it?"
"On paper, the top suspect is obviously China."
Indeed.
They were the ones we had clashed with most recently, aggressively demanding tech transfers and exclusive manufacturing rights without shame. If anyone had the motive to send a hit squad to snatch us, it was them.
"I thought so at first too," Hyung-jun said, "but there's something that doesn't add up."
"Funny. I was thinking the exact same thing."
"Really? What's your angle?"
"Care to take a guess?"
Hyung-jun didn't hesitate for a second. "The police. And the media."
"Bingo. Right on the money."
The police response had been absurdly sluggish. For an organized mob violence incident erupting right in the middle of Seoul, their delay defied belief.
And then there was the media blackout.
During our ride over, I had scoured the major portal news feeds. Astonishingly, there wasn't a single article. Not one.
Can you believe that? Those vultures in the press, who had spent the last few weeks hounding our footsteps and sticking cameras in our faces, hadn't produced a single reporter on the scene until long after the police dragged their feet.
"If someone asked whether China holds enough sway over South Korean police and media to pull off a coordinated stunt like that..."
"The answer is an emphatic no," Hyung-jun finished decisively. "Of course, ruling out any possibility entirely would be foolish, but it's far more reasonable to assume the culprit is domestic."
"If it's domestic, who could it be?"
"Let's put Suseong at the bottom of the list for now."
Suseong had already poured tens of trillions of won into contracts for the Magician. If they intended to rip off our technology by force, they wouldn't have signed massive legitimate deals with us in the first place. Still, you could never rule them out completely, so we shelved them at the bottom.
"Then next is... Hwaseong?"
"That's my prime suspect."
"Makes sense."
Despite being the industry titan in batteries, Hwaseong had been strangely aloof and dragging their feet regarding the Magician. Early on, they had aggressively demanded all-solid-state battery samples from us as well. When it came to motive, they had plenty.
Hyung-jun leaned in, lowering his voice to a conspiratorial whisper. "Here's something I picked up while socializing in those high-society circles."
"You mean that clique of second- and third-generation chaebol heirs you hang out with?"
"Yeah." Hyung-jun nodded grimly. "Hwaseong's reputation behind closed doors is notoriously filthy."
"Filthy how?"
"Given the current situation, you can guess. The word on the street is that whenever there's an innovative technology or a startup they covet, they will literally kill and plunder by any means necessary to take it."
"Is that just an urban legend, or the actual truth?"
"Who knows? Only the people at the top of Hwaseong really know."
Hyung-jun gave a casual shrug.
It looked like a lighthearted gesture, but the glint in his eyes was bone-chillingly cold.
"Circumstantially, it's a hundred percent them."
"Right? But we can't jump to conclusions without hard evidence."
"Tragic reality."
A dry sigh escaped my lips.
"Well, the immediate concern is what we do next." Hyung-jun gritted his teeth. "With the lab in ruins, our delivery schedule is completely compromised. Unless we clean up and rebuild the lab immediately, or set up a temporary workshop elsewhere, we're facing a crisis."
"The real dilemma is... whether any new location will actually be safe."
"Exactly."
Hyung-jun glanced out the safehouse window toward the darkened street.
"The real problem starts with whether we can actually trust the National Intelligence Service."
"I don't think they're in on it. Probably."
If the NIS were in cahoots with the raiders, they wouldn't have executed such a clumsy, half-baked defense that cost their own men dearly.
"You think so?" Hyung-jun surprisingly conceded to my assessment without an argument.
"You're accepting that pretty easily."
"Lately, listening to your gut hasn't led me wrong once."
"Sharp judgment."
"Regardless, that doesn't mean we can breathe easy," Hyung-jun continued. "They claim national interest comes first, but if a corporate chaebol clashes directly with us, how do we know which side they'll define as the 'national interest'?"
"Do you even need to ask? They'd back the chaebol every single time. Think about how many mouths a conglomerate feeds."
I would bet my life on it. Having experienced the harsh realities of power in my dream, I knew state institutions inevitably sided with the established elite.
Hyung-jun stroked his chin thoughtfully. "Then we definitely can't rely on them."
"So what's your move?"
"Fortunately, we happen to know an exceptionally powerful 'big brother' nearby who can guarantee our safety."
"A big brother? Wait, you don't mean..."
"Exactly. Let's call up the big brother who will back us without hesitation: Nylon Musk."
A triumphant, razor-sharp smirk spread across Hyung-jun's face.
"Pack your bags. We're going to Camp Humphreys."
In a building not far from the safehouse where Ji-hyuk and Hyung-jun were staying, Section Chief Kwon Jeong-geun sat listening intently to every word of their conversation through a wiretap feed.
"Haha... Ouch. That stings."
"What should we do, Chief?"
The subordinate's question held layers of implications.
Yet Kwon merely shook his head. "Leave them be."
"Are you sure that's wise? The higher-ups are definitely going to raise hell."
"It's not like they're fleeing the country," Kwon countered smoothly. "When they're seeking the kind of safety we failed to guarantee, what possible justification could we use to block them?"
"...Understood, sir."
Watching his subordinate fall silent, Kwon let out a bitter inner grimace.
I was far too naive.
Assigning standard VIP protection detail had been Kwon's own operational call. Naturally, their armament had been woefully inadequate. No matter how elite a former special forces operative might be, confronting an overwhelming mob of Korean-Chinese gangsters armed with lethal weapons using nothing more than collapsible batons was a doomed endeavor.
I should have issued them tasers at the bare minimum.
Regret came too late.
And what cut even deeper...
Was that I couldn't dispute a single word they said.
If Arcane Technology and a chaebol came to blows, whose side would the National Intelligence Service truly take?
There was no need to ponder. Kwon Jeong-geun himself—sitting silently on multiple pieces of intel pointing toward Hwaseong—was living proof of the answer.
In that case...
We must avoid making an enemy of them.
Even if they grew to despise the chaebols, they must never come to hate their country.
"This is for the best."
"Pardon? Did you say something, sir?"
"Ah, no. Just talking to myself."
With a rueful smirk, Kwon Jeong-geun leaned forward and refocused on the voices crackling through the wiretap.