Tok! Tok! Tok!

Contrary to his handsome appearance, a man in his mid-thirties with thick dark circles under his eyes was frantically typing something.

It looked different, a smartphone that was transparent like glass.

Something could be heard through the ear of the man who seemed to be talking with someone as his lips moved.

[Mr. Lee Myeong. Autonomous driving mode has been canceled due to vehicle congestion time. Please place both your hands on the wheel.]

The words of the AI in the vehicle he was driving.

“Tch, what generation are we in? Shouldn’t there be an autonomous mode just for driving in rush hour!”

The man groaned.

Autonomous driving mode for automobiles has been commercialized since 2026.

Several makers had ambitiously introduced their self-driving cars with approval from the government, but no matter what car, accidents couldn’t be prevented.

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Despite numerous sensors being installed into the vehicle and the development of sophisticated vehicle AI, the autonomous driving mode couldn’t respond smoothly to congestion or sudden unexpected situations.

After numerous accidents, the government decided to put restrictions on the autonomous driving mode.

Srrr!

Lee Myeong closed the transparent smartphone on his left wrist.

And what was supposed to be a phone wrapped itself around his wrist.

“Sigh.”

As the flexible transparent smartphone device wrapped itself around like a watch, Lee Myeong sighed as he grabbed the steering wheel.

He tried to get to the Shenyang City Public Security Bureau (City-level Chinese Nation Police Agency) as early as possible. Still, it was his fault for the delay at the Academy of Sciences.

It was rush hour, so there were a lot of cars on the road.

“I need to hurry. The director is going to nag at me.”

The director is the head of the Public Security Bureau.

Despite his boss not being in front of him, the thought alone scared him.

Step!

With strength on his right foot, he stepped on the gas.

Five o’clock in the afternoon.

Although it was February, the sky was already turning yellow with all the cold around them.

With that, the sun went down.

Passing through the forest of buildings and moving above the overpass, which was above the small buildings, he saw a huge wall to the west.

A gray wall, full of repair marks here and there, surrounded the entire city.

The wall is known to be the Gate Barrier.

“Ah, this is so frustrating.”

Every time Lee Myeong looked at the wall, his heart would ache.

That gigantic barrier was the evidence that made him and the other people realize just how insignificant and helpless humans are in the current world.

“It has been twenty-eight years already.”

Twenty-eight years have passed since the First Dimensional Gate, which was called the worst day in human history, opened.

That year was the worst year in history, where one-fifth of the world’s population was erased.

In fact, humanity could have suffered more damage.

However, as forces hidden behind mankind appeared like the sun, the damage was kept to a minimum.

Shh! Tak!

He took out a pack of menthol cigarettes from his pocket and put one between his lips.

He was about to light it when the AI’s voice warned him.

-Business vehicles are non-smoking areas. Warnings or penalties may be given at a later date.

“Fuck.”

It was annoying to hear that warning every time he lit a cigarette.

As it was a work vehicle from the Public Security Bureau, it wasn’t possible to mute the vehicle’s AI.

Crackle!

He lit the cigarette with the lighter, sucking in a huge amount of smoke to fill his lungs, and then exhaled the smoke.

“Phew!”

The inside of the car was instantly filled with smoke.

Wheeing!

The sunroof of the car opened by itself.

The smoke in the car leaked out through the open sunroof.

Beep! Beep!

“Shut up.”

Lee Myeong relaxed his right foot and lowered the speed.

Although he was moving at 80km/h, the wind noise coming through the sunroof hurt his ears.

It was then.

Be-beep! Be-beep!

The smartphone on his wrist began to ring.

And the face of a woman in her early sixties with sparse white hair could be seen on the car’s center screen.

“What?”

The caller was none other than his mother.

“It isn’t time for work yet.”

Wondering what was going on, he decided to connect the call via Bluetooth.

“Hello.”

-My son.

“I’m still at work.”

-You think your mother doesn’t know that?

“Then what’s up? If it’s nothing important, the call will get cut off as soon as I get close to the Public Security Bureau.”

-You. You’ve been working there for so long. Why can’t you just use a messenger?

“What are you talking about?”

Lee Myeong looked annoyed.

So was his mother, when she said.

-I let you live however you want to. Shouldn’t you at least do one thing that your mother asks? Stop by Beijing for a while and have a meal with Director Zhang’s third daughter…

“Can’t. You know this is how my job works, right?”

-…Do you plan on avoiding it every time like this?

“Whatever, I might not make it past the wall with the Gate 26 warning.”

-Warning?

“Soon, there will be news and alarms in each province.”

-…..

Upon hearing that, Lee Myeong’s mother was speechless.

Gate Warning.

It was a warning issued to citizens in places where the Gates open.

Since one could never know what would happen once a Gate is opened.

-The cycle is short. It’s Gate 26… he might be summoned. Haha.

“I’m near the Public Security Bureau. Ending the call.”

-… I believe what you are saying about the Bureau, but I hope you don’t fight your mother who arranged for you to meet ‘that one’ with that excuse.

“Yes, yes~!”

Hoping that she would give up, Lee Myeong answered with a smile.

But,

-Director Zhang worked hard to persuade her, so go to Beijing once the warning is cleared. Get the phone number and the messenger ID, and make an appointment.

“Ha!”

His face crumbled in an instant.

He definitely said that he didn’t want to have a conversation on the messenger, but there she goes talking about it again.

He was at a loss for words when she said that.

-Don't you remember where you came from?

His mother ruled over him.

-Listen to your mother. You’re 36. How long do you plan on spending your life in vain as a single man? I’m only thinking of…

“Haa”

At her constant nagging, the man deeply inhaled the half-burned cigarette.

‘For me?’

Not at all.

He was a child who moved away from his home.

If he wanted to marry, he would have gotten married when he was seeing women.

‘What’s this? Some clan union… shit!’

Although he had a rough mouth, he couldn’t get himself to curse in front of his mother.

Still, he was upset.

-Anyway, listen to this mother of yours. I won’t sit still if this doesn’t work. If it doesn’t work out this time either… sigh, it would have been nice to freely buy a plane ticket and travel by air like before. What kind of a mess are we in!

“I’ve heard you talk about planes a hundred times already.”

Airplanes.

They were now a symbol of the past.

His mother told him that it was possible to travel from one place to another by plane when she was young.

However, from the moment that the Gates opened, movement by air became impossible.

Thanks to that, Lee Myeong had never seen a plane.

His mother said that he had flown on an airplane when he was three years old, but who even remembers that?

-You always treat your mother as some old-timey person. All because you don’t know how convenient an airplane is!

“Yes, yes, yes. Right. If you can move by the sky, yes, yes. The days when humans ruled the skies are long gone…”

For a moment, Lee Myeong stopped talking.

He doubted his eyes.

Something just fell from the skyscrapers.

‘What was that?’

It was so far away that he couldn’t see it clearly, but ‘something’ fell from the sky.

-What are you talk… chick!

The phone was disconnected, and a Public Security mark appeared on the center screen.

And he heard the familiar voice of a member of the Information and Communication Team of the Public Security Bureau.

-This is the Information and Communication Team of the Public Security Bureau. An unidentified flying object just fell in the middle of 2nd Avenue in Tie Xi Qu.

“Flying object?”

The road he was driving on was 5th Avenue.

Very close.

Then, the information was about what he saw.

If a flying object fell from the sky, then it could or couldn’t have something to do with the Gates.

-Public Security police and members near 2nd Avenue must stay armed while grasping the situation.

Maybe he wasn’t out of luck.

It was all happening on his way.

“Damn it, the Gate alarm wasn’t even sounded, yet what is all this?”

Grunting, he pressed the red and blue button on the top of the center panel.

And then a siren came up from the left side of the white RV he was driving.

Wee-woo! Wee-woo!

The siren sounded, and he turned the steering wheel sideways.

There was only one good thing that came from sounding the siren officially.

Despite the road being congested, he would get a free pass to move.

Lee Myeong spoke as he pressed the speaker button on the center car panel.

“This is Lee Myeong, the 3rd team leader of the Shenyang City Public Security Bureau. On my way to 2nd Avenue.”

-Understood.

As soon as he heard that, he released his finger from the speaker button and stepped on the gas towards the road where cars began to divide like the red sea.

He wasn’t too far from 2nd Avenue.

And it was clear where this unidentified object had fallen.

Woong!

The place where people gathered.

There were three Public Security Police Vehicles that arrived.

Tak!

Lee Myeong got out of the RV and took out his ID as he looked at the crowd.

‘All this curiosity.’

It could be dangerous if this was related to the Gate. However, it was strange how people gathered.

If what fell was a level 5 dangerous object from the Gate, everyone who gathered could be in life-threatening danger.

Not a single person there could protect the ordinary civilians.

‘Crazy bastards. Get bit for gathering. What the hell are they doing?’

Irritated, Lee Myeong shouted at the people.

“Public Security. Step away! Step away!”

Woong!

However, despite the shout, not a single person stepped back, and they were all concentrating on the mysterious thing.

With their phones in their hands, not a single person could take a video.

‘Was a video jammer used?’

The current world is a world of web media.

Anyone could take photos or videos with their phones, which was why the government and the Public Security Bureau took special measures to create a signal interference when it came to such situations.

And the phones which were exposed to the jammers would automatically delete the already recorded content at that very moment.

Click!

The phone on his wrist was shut down too.

It was an impossible task for the union’s local government, but it was possible for the great China’s government, the People’s Republic of China.

Thanks to that, it was possible to avoid the spread of information.

‘Nothing can be done when it’s this crowded.’

It seemed challenging to cut through the large crowd, and he would have to wait until the Security Taskforce came.

‘But I can’t stay still when such a dangerous object is lying around.’

If this object was dangerous, people would have to evacuate before something broke out.

Lee Myeong rushed through the crowd and entered the mostly empty space.

To check with his own eyes what the people were staring at…

‘Eh?!’

Lee, who was very nervous, was disappointed.

And then mumbled.

“What’s this? What’s with the outfit?”

A young man with long black hair and a freakishly handsome face with pale skin.

He was wearing a black robe, more like a dark cloak which one would see in historical dramas, and his appearance, well, the man didn’t seem freaked out about the people around him.

‘Are they filming a historical drama?’

It was funny just how nervous he was thinking that the object would harm people.

There was no unidentified flying object apart from the man who looked like he came from a different era.

Click!

One of the four police officers in indigo uniforms, who were aiming their guns at the young man, pulled handcuffs from his wait.

There were police officers nearby.

Two of them cautiously approached the old-fashioned young man.

As a response, Lee Myeong approached the two police officers who were aiming their guns at the young man and showed his police ID.

The officers slightly bowed, not lowering their guns from the unknown man.

It was because Lee Myeong was of higher rank.

“I'm Lee Myeong, the 3rd team leader of the Shenyang Public Security Bureau’s violent crimes squad. It was reported that an unidentified object has fallen here. So, why are you aiming your guns at an unarmed citizen?”

He couldn’t understand it, sure, the man was dressed weirdly, but it was strange how they were aiming their guns at an innocent citizen.

At that, one officer said.

“Inspector. This is it.”

“It?”

“The unidentified flying object which fell from the sky is this old-fashioned man!”

“What bullshit…”

It was then.

Before he could even yell, something unexpected happened.

Puck!

“Kuak!”

One of the officers who approached the young man in old-fashioned clothes to place him in handcuffs fell down as if he was in some action scene in a sitcom.

Thud!

“Kuak!”

He seemed to be in too much pain to get back up.

“Shit!”

Another officer tried to cuff the man’s arms, but his wrist was caught.

Tak!

“Huh?”

Crack!

Both his eyes went wide at the sound of bones cracking.

“Kuaaak! My hand!”

The officer’s right arm, which was trying to cuff the young man, was bizarrely twisted.

The arm wouldn’t bend properly, straighten properly, and the bone, the bone protruded through the elbow.

“Kyaaak!”

“Hiik!”

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“Th-The bone is sticking out of his elbow!

Even the citizens who were all watching him screamed nervously at what they saw.

“What shit is this?”

Chak!

Lee Myeong, who was yelling at the officers for aiming their guns at the innocent citizen, pulled out his gun and aimed it at the young man.