The last guests to visit Seo Jung-woo were Dr. Jeong Ki-hoon and Jessica. Seo Jung-woo finished his schedule by having a cup of coffee in the police chief’s office.

The chief said,

“Detective Seo. If you come to our police station, I’ll really treat you well.”

“Our chief said... you would say that.”

“He won’t let you go?”

“Yes. Absolutely not.”

“I know that guy well because we’re old classmates. He’s always been greedy. Tsk.”

Seo Jung-woo left the chief’s office. It was time to leave the police station where he had spent one night.

A government official explained the situation outside.

“There’s a crowd of reporters at the entrance, so it won’t be easy to get out. Let’s hold a press conference before you leave.”

“I’m not interested in press conferences.”

“I heard that too, but it’ll be difficult to leave quietly this time. The reporters won’t let you go.”

It was true that Seo Jung-woo usually avoided press conferences, not because he absolutely couldn’t do them, but because he couldn’t answer questions about his past.

But now, there was a different reason. At least until this weekend, the situation needed to stay under his control. There were still remnants of the international industrial spy organization.

If he got caught by reporters now, creating an alibi would become complicated.

“This building doesn’t just have the main entrance, right?”

“There are a lot of reporters at the back entrance too.”

“Then I’ll just use the side door.”

“Huh? There’s no side door in this building though?”

Seo Jung-woo walked down the corridor, opened a window, and casually jumped out.

People nearby were shocked and rushed over.

“What are you doing!”

“No way! Is he trying to jump... Huh? He’s walking just fine?”

From outside the first floor, Seo Jung-woo waved once and headed toward the wall.

People looked out the window, bewildered.

“Wait. This is the third floor, right?”

“How did he jump down? Was he a cat in a previous life?”

“But why is he heading for the wall...”

Seo Jung-woo easily jumped over the police station wall and disappeared.

The government official, realizing the situation too late, trembled in fear.

Outside the police station, reporters had formed a blockade. Now that official had to explain to them why Seo Jung-woo was gone.

“T-the reporters are going to eat me alive.”

Each broadcasting station’s news covered the international industrial spy case quite extensively.

Although it didn’t involve targeting Korean technology, nor were there any casualties, there had been a hostage situation and a shootout. And the one who resolved it without any damage was a Korean police officer.

There was no way Lee Seon-hwa hadn’t seen the news featuring Seo Jung-woo.

She had tried calling Seo Jung-woo last night, but the call didn’t connect. At that time, he had been meeting people from various departments at the police station. Even when she sent a text, there was no reply. He didn’t read his messenger either. His phone was completely turned off.

The next morning, she burst out in anger.

“Isn’t this way too much? Aren’t you treating me like a joke? I’m Lee Seon-hwa!”

Kim Gyeong-mi said,

“Then cut off contact. If he misses you, he’ll be the one to reach out.”

“I’ll try three more times.”

“You said you’d try three more times yesterday too, you idiot.”

“The date changed, so the count resets!”

Seo Jung-woo turned on his phone far from the police station. There were many missed calls and texts.

“Why are there so many unknown numbers?”

There weren’t many numbers stored in Seo Jung-woo’s phone. Just his team members, 4cats, Oh Dong-Cheol, and Lee Seon-hwa’s numbers.

As soon as he turned on his phone, a call from Lee Seon-hwa came in. He picked up.

“Yes.”

- Why wasn’t your phone working! Did you block me? How could you do that?

“I had to turn it off because I was being questioned all night.”

- Ah! I knew it! I knew it would be something like that!

“Doesn’t sound like you were sure.”

- A-are you hurt anywhere?

“There wasn’t really anything that could’ve hurt me.”

Some monsters in that other world couldn’t even be pierced by bullets. Hunters were veterans with real combat experience.

But the enemies from yesterday’s fight barely had any real experience and were weak. Bullets worked just fine, and only six of them even had guns. Even the slightly stronger ones were nothing compared to the average hunters in the other world.

For Seo Jung-woo, last night’s battle was little more than a warm-up.

- The news made it sound incredible though.

“The news exaggerated it.”

- No way. Where are you? Let’s meet. I have to check if you’re really okay with my own eyes.

“Later.”

- Later? When later? This weekend?

“I have things to do this weekend.”

After hanging up, Detective Team Leader Kwon Byeong-cheol called.

- Good work.

“It was just repeating the same thing over and over all night, so it wasn’t really hard.”

- Huh? No, I meant good work fighting the international industrial spy organization. That was a big deal, right?

“They were just small fry.”

- From what we heard, they weren’t small fry.

“If you try it yourself, Team Leader, you’ll see it’s not hard.”

- I absolutely don’t want to try. Oh. You’re getting vacation time.

Seo Jung-woo’s face lit up.

‘I was going to ask for leave anyway. Perfect. This way, it looks like it was Team Leader’s idea, not mine.’

“Vacation because I worked hard?”

- No. Reporters swarmed here asking for interviews, and we can’t get any work done. We’ll just announce you’re on vacation, and they’ll go away.

“The chief must be happy.”

- He was happy at first. Now he’s sick of repeating the same thing. Disappear for two or three days until it quiets down.

“You’re calling it vacation? But the weekend’s right around the corner.”

- Two or three days including the weekend. That’s just how it is for us.

“I got excited for nothing. Fine, I’ll rest through the weekend.”

- Where are you going? We need to know roughly to answer if the higher-ups ask.

“Some deep mountains in Gangwon-do. Preferably somewhere without phone signal. My phone’s been blowing up.”

- Actually, that sounds good. It’s not you who’ll be missing out anyway.

If he couldn’t be reached, it would be other people who were inconvenienced, not Seo Jung-woo.

“You must’ve heard that from Sung-min hyung.”

- Heh. You said that to someone from the U.S. Embassy and they suddenly started speaking Korean, right? I’m going to use that next time someone talks to me in English.

“Oh, and Team Leader.”

- What?

“Can the hotel cost from last night be reimbursed? It was about 200,000 won.”

- You got the receipt, right?

“Yes.”

- If you try to sell that receipt, it’ll be worth way more than 200,000 won.

Seo Jung-woo returned home.

The reporters had all swarmed the two police stations, but no one came to his house.

He checked to make sure there was no one around and entered the house. Seo Sora was already gone.

"Look at this mess. Sora couldn't have done this alone. The twins and Nana must have come and eaten their fill."

When he entered the room and checked the armed suitcase, there were signs it had been tampered with. He had expected as much.

"That's why I put a sturdy one here."

He entered the five-digit password, turned the key, and opened the suitcase.

Inside the fully opened bag were all sorts of weapons, explosives, and ammunition.

'First, I'll take two handguns.'

He took out one low-powered silenced pistol using subsonic rounds and one powerful handgun using armor-piercing rounds.

'I don't know how many there are, so I'll take three magazines each to be safe. No, wait. Since I'll also need to use standard rounds this time, I'll just take two magazines each.'

In addition to armor-piercing rounds used in the other world, he packed two magazines of standard pistol rounds.

He also selected explosives.

'Incendiary bombs are the best for wiping out evidence.'

After gathering various necessary items, he packed them all into a backpack. The bag became quite heavy, but thanks to the side effect of his shooting skill that enhanced his strength, it wasn't a burden.

He closed the armed suitcase and reset the lock.

Before leaving the house, he turned his phone back on and called Seo Sora.

Soon, he heard Seo Sora yelling.

- Why did you have your phone off!

"I had it off because I was being questioned all night."

- Why were you being questioned! What did you do wrong!

"It wasn't because I did anything wrong. I just had to explain what happened. It's standard procedure."

- You're not hurt, right?

"Would I really get hurt by those small fries?"

- There you go bragging again! You said bullets were flying around! You said it was like a battlefield!

"The news exaggerated it."

- Do you know how badly I got scolded by Mom? Just stay home! I'm coming over now!

"I got the day off today. I'm going on a trip, so even if you come, I won't be there."

- A trip?

"Too many people are trying to find me. It's a hassle. I'm heading deep into the mountains in Gangwon-do to pick wild balloon flowers or something. I'm leaving now."

- Fine. You're taking the car, right?

Seo Jung-woo hesitated.

'Car? There was a car?'

He hadn't even known there was a car. He hadn't expected there to be one either.

In the other world, personal cars were money-eating monsters; they were hard to buy, and even if bought, they were easily destroyed in battles, so maintaining one was almost impossible. Although he knew things were different in this world, his habits from the other world made him not even consider having a car here.

He couldn't ask what kind of car it was or where it was.

"Uh, yeah."

After ending the call, he searched the house.

"There's really a car?"

He found a car key in a drawer attached to the shoe cabinet.

"It really exists!"

Now he needed to find out where it was.

Carrying his backpack, he went outside.

The car key had a remote. He wandered around the neighborhood pressing the remote. Eventually, he heard a beep from the nearby public parking lot.

Turning his head toward the sound, he saw a compact sedan parked on one side of the lot.

Seo Jung-woo pressed the remote button again. The car lights blinked along with the sound.

"Wow. It's really there."

He opened the car door and put his backpack inside first. Then he searched the car and found the registration certificate.

"This is my car?"

It was an old sedan, manufactured ten years ago, but what mattered was that it was Seo Jung-woo’s car.

"Wow. I actually own a car."

In the other world, he had borrowed cars often but never owned one. Unlike those armored vehicles from the other world, this one wasn’t bulletproof, but just having a car made him happy.

Dr. Jeong Ki-hoon opened the envelope that Seo Jung-woo had given him after the flight to the U.S. had taken off.

Jessica, sitting next to him, asked,

"Dad, what did Officer Seo give you? It's not a check, is it?"

"Where would a police officer get money? There's only a piece of paper inside. Looks like a letter."

Jessica quickly grabbed the envelope.

"Maybe it's a letter for me! I'll take a look!"

Jeong Ki-hoon let go. She took out the paper from the envelope and unfolded it.

Several complex formulas were written on it. Even to her, unfamiliar with physics and mechanical engineering, the formulas looked somewhat familiar.

"Eh. What is this? It's the same formula Dad explained at the seminar yesterday. Why did he write this? Nobody in the world knows this theory better than you."

Jeong Ki-hoon smiled as he took the paper back.

"Maybe it's a joke. He told me to open it when bored. One laugh is enough."

After unfolding the paper and confirming the formula, he chuckled again.

"But this part is wrong."

"Did Officer Seo make a mistake?"

"Not exactly a mistake. He modified my formula in his own way. See, he crossed out a part and rewrote it."

"Ah, yesterday at the bar, Officer Seo was talking to Dad about boring physics stuff. I know he has a hobby in physics, but still, how could he modify your formula? That's like... like..."

"Like what?"

"Like trying to teach a caterpillar how to crawl! No, that's not it!"

Jessica’s eyes sparkled.

"Dad, teach me exactly what’s wrong. I'll send it to Officer Seo for you."

Her plan was simple:

'I needed an excuse to contact him, and now I have one.'

With a light heart, Jeong Ki-hoon turned on his laptop.

"The flight is long anyway, so why not?"

Seo Jung-woo drove toward Gangwon-do.

"The car runs great. The roads are in excellent condition too."

In the other world, roads outside cities weren’t paved this well. They were more twisted and full of potholes. Still, the cars there mostly had large, sturdy wheels, so it wasn’t too much of a problem.

But here, the perfectly smooth roads made the driving experience completely different.

Though the sports car he borrowed from Lee Seon-hwa for a day had much better performance, he had only driven it in the city back then, so he hadn’t felt this way.

He was heading in the direction of Gangneung, Gangwon-do. His destination was a deep mountain hotel, somewhat far from Gangneung.

Dr. Jeong Ki-hoon organized the mistakes in the formula Seo Jung-woo had given him with a light heart during the flight.

"It'll be easier to convince him if I show him solid evidence."

He entered the formula into a program on his laptop and ran a simple simulation. He minimized the variables and ran a basic test. According to his expectations, the result should have been absurd.

The calculation finished quickly.

"If I show this, he'll have to admit he’s wrong—"

But the simulation result differed from his expectations.

"Huh?"