Hyun-seop checked the navigation.

  Current Time: [2036. 02. 02. 08:02]

  Before putting the car in gear, Hyun-seop leaned deep toward the passenger side. He reached down and roughly pulled the metal lever under the seat.

  Clatter, thud!

  The old seat reclined all the way back. As his vision suddenly shifted to the ceiling, Dong-jun looked at him, startled.

  "It’ll take at least two or three hours to get to Guro. You look exhausted, so get some sleep," Hyun-seop said nonchalantly as he gripped the steering wheel again.

  Despite the suggestion, Dong-jun didn't actually feel that tired. "No, I’m fin—"

  But he knew from the past two days that he had to rest whenever the opportunity arose. He forced his eyes shut. Yet, with so much on his mind, sleep didn't come easily.

  ‘First priority... retrieve what was lost.’ The fragments, the chip, the tablet, Arisa, the bag, and... So-hee.

  ‘If there’s any clue left at all... it’s the chip I haven’t tried yet.’ ‘If I find it, repair it, and connect it, maybe I can find out more...’ That was Dong-jun’s only hope.

  And... ‘So-hee...’ Dong-jun bit his lip. ‘You have to be alive.’ Holding onto that thought was the only thing keeping him together.

  Meanwhile, at the Guro Police Station, Shin Yeo-gyeong was lying on a cot in the breakroom, thinking, ‘Finally, some rest.’ She had stayed up all night, unable to go home, trying every possible way to persuade Arisa. It couldn't be helped; Arisa wasn't just any ordinary AI.

  At first, her attempts were somewhat normal. Plan A: Offering a high-end lens upgrade. "How about this, Arisa? Doesn't it look like it would make your vision much clearer? Should I swap it for this one?" She scrolled through an eyewear website, trying to entice her. "Hmm... not really my style," Arisa replied.

  Plan B: Flattery bombardment. "Ugh, my eyes are so blurry from looking at the screen for too long." "Oh? Wait! Ever since I started using Arisa, my vision is so sharp! Wow, what is this design? Who's your manufacturer? I want to buy one right now!" "...Cringe."

  Plan C: Stimulating her interests. "Whoa, what? This drama is insane! What a plot twist! How can this be? And look at the animation quality!" "Yeah, I already watched all of that with Pil-gu."

  Plan D... and so on. She had attempted nearly a hundred different plans over the course of eight grueling hours. ‘Even after all that, nothing...’ Yeo-gyeong was in despair. For the first time in her life, she felt truly incompetent. As an elite who had prided herself on handling every task perfectly, the disappointment was immense.

  "..."

  Just as she was about to give up and go sleep, she noticed the tip of Arisa’s frame flickering. ‘Wait, what’s that?’

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  "Salute! Have you eaten yet, Senior?" It was Officer Chun Jae-ah, a genius recruit dispatched from the Hanam branch in Gyeonggi-do.

  "Oh, hey. You said you’re from Hanam?" "Yes, ma'am!"

  And the moment she saw him... she realized exactly why Arisa was flickering.

  The FAI wasn't only in Daejeon. While the Daejeon headquarters was built two years ago, branches had also been established in Seoul and Busan. Park Pil-gu was currently at the Seoul branch.

  "Misook, come on, just let me go." Locked in a steel cage, Pil-gu held out his hands, which were bound once again by zip ties. But Ko Misook didn't offer a single word in response. She simply stared at the monitor.

  "Gwangju..." "Director!" The Deputy Director rushed in, frantically holding his slipping wig in place.

  "What is it?" Misook turned to him. "Headquarters in Daejeon just sent an order. We’re to leave only a skeleton crew and report there immediately. They said they're initiating Plan B..."

  Misook was visibly startled, a headache already forming. Unintentionally, her gaze drifted toward Park Pil-gu. Pil-gu felt her eyes on him. "?"

  "Dong-jun! Dong-jun, wake up!" Hyun-seop shook him awake.

  "Are we there already?" "No... it's not that."

  The moment Dong-jun opened his eyes, the sight outside the window was overwhelming. Dozens of trucks and cars were stopped in the middle of the road. Drivers were blaring their horns, some joining the protest and others shouting curses. Ironically, most of the vehicles were models made before 2030—cars without autonomous driving features.

  In front of the vehicles, a massive crowd stood holding placards. A giant banner hung from a rooftop: 'ROBOTS CANNOT REPLACE HUMANS.' One man was screaming while holding up an android with its face torn off. Through megaphones, the voices of the crowd surged: "BAN THE ROBOTS! BAN THEM!" "BAN THE ROBOTS! BAN THEM!"

  They were the metalworkers' unions and civic groups, their voices emboldened by the recent incidents. The crowd was larger than expected—at least 5,000 people, though it was hard to tell behind the wall of cars.

  They were blocking the streets and protesting around the Guro Tools & Commercial Complex—the very street where police and civilians had died just two days ago.

  The memories of that day flooded back to Dong-jun. The cars flying, the police dying, the suffocating feeling of the air being sucked out of his lungs... the emotions began to swallow him whole.

  "Dong-jun, get it together! Hey, Noh Dong-jun!" Hyun-seop panicked as Dong-jun began to hyperventilate. The road was a one-way street hemmed in by fences on both sides, leaving no room to turn around or escape into an alley.

  Hyun-seop turned on his hazard lights and tried to pull over to the far right of the road to check on Dong-jun’s condition. It happened then.

  CRASH—!

  A vehicle that couldn't handle the congestion had sped up along the shoulder to bypass the protesters, slamming directly into Hyun-seop’s passenger door.

  "Ugh!" The impact from the right sent Dong-jun’s head snapping against the window. The force knocked his deep hood back, exposing his face. The car skidded and finally came to a halt right in front of a utility pole.

  "Ugh, damn..." ‘My neck...’ Still, it was a stroke of luck that no one was hit by the cars. Due to the deafening noise of the protest, most people nearby didn't even realize an accident had happened, except for a few standing right next to them.

  Hyun-seop asked urgently, "Dong-jun, are you okay?" Dong-jun clutched the back of his neck and replied, "...Yeah, I'm fine. What about you?" "I'm sorry... I should have taken a different route." Hyun-seop realized exactly where they were. He felt a heavy weight in his chest, fearing he had reopened a wound Dong-jun wasn't ready to face.

  Just then, the driver who had hit them came running over in a panic. "Are you alright?!" He was a man in his mid-forties. Through the rearview mirror, Dong-jun could see a woman, presumably his wife, and two children under the age of ten inside the other car.

  The man approached the driver's side window. At that moment, the words Kim Tae-won had said before they left Daejeon flashed through Dong-jun’s mind: ‘Be careful not to stand out to others.’

  The man continued as he looked at Hyun-seop, "Excuse me..." Then, out of the corner of his eye, his gaze landed on Dong-jun. "Huh? Wait, I've seen you somewhere..."