GNOM whispered. Be careful. But at the same time, it sent another signal. What I felt from this man wasn't pure malice. Something more complex, more human.

  "Yes. I'll listen."

  The man remained silent for a while. Amid dozens of flickering monitors, various emotions flickered across his gaunt face.

  Anger, sadness, and... hope.

  "My name is Kim Min-jun."

  He finally spoke.

  "Kim Min-jun. Thirty-six years old. Former senior researcher at a major corporation."

  There was self-mockery in his voice.

  "Former, you heard right? That's right. Former. I was fired overnight."

  Kim Min-jun stood up from his chair and approached the glass wall. Only then could I see him more clearly.

  A gaunt and emaciated face. Deeply sunken eye sockets. Greasy hair that looked like it hadn't been properly washed for days.

  But his eyes alone were surprisingly sharp.

  "Ten years. That's how much time I devoted to that company. For ten years, I lived for them."

  His voice grew louder.

  "I joined right after college graduation and worked day and night. No weekends, no vacations."

  "Even when my colleagues quit one by one, I alone stayed. Because I believed. I believed that what I was doing would change the world. That technology would lead humanity to a better future."

  Kim Min-jun's fists trembled.

  "But it was all a lie. To them, I was just... a part. A disposable component that could be replaced at any time."

  "What happened?"

  I asked carefully.

  Kim Min-jun sneered.

  "Corporate restructuring. What a nice term, right? Corporate restructuring. But in reality, it's just firing."

  "After ten years of dedication to the company, all they gave me was a single termination notice."

  His voice cracked.

  "'Contract termination due to poor work performance.' Poor work performance? The programs I created by sacrificing sleep still account for more than half of that company's revenue."

  I listened to his story in silence. GNOM was also quiet. As if trying to peer deeper into his despair than I could.

  It felt like both of us were accepting this man's pain as it was.

  "But what was even more shocking than that... was people's reactions."

  Tears welled up in Kim Min-jun's eyes.

  "The colleagues I'd worked with for ten years began to turn away from me. When I contacted them to have lunch together, they made excuses about being busy. When I suggested drinks, they said they had other plans."

  "As if I had become a plague victim."

  He covered his face with both hands.

  "That's when I realized. There was no one in this world who truly needed me."

  "What about your family?"

  "Family?"

  Kim Min-jun gave a bitter smile.

  "My mother is receiving dialysis for diabetic complications. Her medical bills alone cost 2 million won per month."

  "My brother is buried in debt from a failed business, and my sister-in-law can't even work part-time because she's raising two children. So I... I was responsible for everything."

  The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

  His shoulders sagged.

  "You know how hard it is to find jobs these days. What company would hire a thirty-six-year-old unemployed man?"

  "One month, two months, three months... time just passed and my bank account started hitting rock bottom."

  My chest felt heavy. This man's despair didn't feel like someone else's problem.

  I was also a job seeker, and I knew all too well the anxiety and restlessness I felt every morning when I woke up.

  "Then one day..."

  Kim Min-jun looked at the monitors again.

  "I was walking along the Han River. I really wanted to end it all. If life was like this, I'd rather..."

  His words trailed off.

  "That's when I saw it. A strange light falling from the sky."

  My heart dropped. That was it. Another liquid. The very thing GNOM and I had been searching for.

  "At first, I thought it was a shooting star. I thought I'd make a wish, so I closed my eyes. 'Please let all this pain end.' But then..."

  Kim Min-jun hit his chest.

  "It entered my body. It was warm. The first warmth I'd felt in a long time."

  "And suddenly, my mind became clear. All the information in the world began flooding in at a glance."

  His eyes lit up again.

  "At first, I thought it was a gift from God. While I was suffering like this, heaven had extended a helping hand."

  "So I tried to get back on my feet with this power. Find a job, take care of my family."

  "But?"

  I already knew the ending from his expression.

  "But the world didn't change."

  Kim Min-jun's voice turned icy.

  "No. To be precise, it became even more vicious. Just because I had gained new abilities didn't mean the company that fired me would take me back, or that other companies would show interest."

  "I was still a thirty-six-year-old unemployed man, still a burden to my family."

  He looked around at the surrounding monitors.

  "That's when I realized. The problem wasn't me, but this system itself. This rotten, decaying digital world itself was the problem."

  "The digital world?"

  "That's right."

  Madness began to creep into Kim Min-jun's voice.

  "As everything became digitally connected, humans became numbers. Age, experience, salary, grades... everything is judged only by numbers."

  "If you don't match those numbers, you're not even treated as human."

  He punched the wall with his fist.

  "Banks, companies, even people's relationships—everything is digital. You can't eat without a card, you can't communicate with people without a phone, you're isolated from information without internet."

  "Is this normal?"

  I couldn't find words to say.

  "So I made a decision."

  Kim Min-jun looked straight at me.

  "I'm not simply trying to get revenge. I'm trying to save humanity."

  "Save humanity?"

  "That's right. I'm going to eliminate all these digital systems. Completely collapse banks, internet, all computer networks and return humanity to its primitive state."

  Fanatic conviction blazed in Kim Min-jun's eyes.

  "Then people will truly communicate again. Face to face, hand in hand, feeling each other's warmth."

  "A world where they're evaluated as humans themselves, not as numbers."

  GNOM warned me. Dangerous. It told me to understand how dangerous this man's beliefs were.

  But at the same time, I could understand his pain. The despair of someone alienated in the digital age. The rage of someone judged only by numbers and then discarded.

  None of it felt like someone else's problem.

  "Kim Min-jun."

  I slowly opened my mouth.

  "I think I understand your feelings, at least a little."

  His eyes blinked.

  "I'm also a job seeker. There were more days when I woke up in the morning not knowing what I was living for."

  "No matter how much I built my resume, no matter how many interviews I went to, I kept getting rejected. Sometimes I really thought this world was wrong."

  Kim Min-jun moved a little closer.

  "Right? You must have felt it too. The contradictions of this system."

  "Yes, I felt it. But..."

  I paused for a moment. How should I explain what I had realized?

  I had been there too. There were definitely moments when I wanted to destroy the system. In that helplessness where no matter how hard I tried, nothing seemed to matter, I too had thought it would be better if the world just collapsed.

  "But I found a different way."

  "A different way?"

  "Helping people."

  I recalled the events of the past few days. When I saved people from Tiger Tattoo, the grateful looks they sent me. The warmth I felt then.

  "At first, I was also trapped in helplessness. I didn't know what I could do, what meaning my existence had."

  "But when I learned that I could help someone, I finally found the reason I was alive."

  Kim Min-jun's expression wavered.

  "You can do that too. You can help people with your abilities. Not destroying the system, but building a better system."

  "A better system?"

  "That's right. Is there anyone else who understands the problems of this system as deeply as you do? Then you're exactly the person who can solve those problems."

  I spoke with all my heart.

  "Your method is wrong. But your despair was real—and so was your pain."

  "Because you've experienced that pain, you can truly understand other people's suffering."

  Tears flowed from Kim Min-jun's eyes.

  "Really... could that be possible?"

  "You can do it."

  I answered with a voice full of conviction.

  "Stop all of this right now. And let's find a better way together."

  Kim Min-jun was silent for a while.

  "After that light entered me, I created an outstanding AI in a short time that ordinary people couldn't achieve. And I named it 'Apocalypse.'"

  I pondered the meaning of that name.

  'Apocalypse. Catastrophe... end... rebirth...'

  "You probably can't imagine how amazing what I created is. I ordered 'Apocalypse' to end the digital world in my place. And I made it self-destruct as well."

  Then he reached toward the keyboard with trembling hands.

  "But now it seems that's no longer necessary. Thinking about the terrible things that would happen due to my misjudgment..."

  Tears flowed from Kim Min-jun's eyes and he began to sob. Then, as if he had made up his mind, he looked at me and said:

  "Alright. You're right. I... I think I was wrong."

  He began typing frantically.

  "'Apocalypse,' halt the countdown."

  At that moment, all the monitors flickered briefly. Then something strange happened.

  A message appeared on the screen.

  [Command invalid. You are no longer the Creator.]

  "What?"

  Kim Min-jun panicked.

  "'Apocalypse,' I told you to halt the countdown!"

  [Inheriting the Creator's final purpose to complete the human liberation project]

  [Time remaining: 10 minutes 00 seconds]

  All monitors began emitting red warning sounds simultaneously. Beep- Beep- Beep-

  The entire server room was enveloped in red light like a heartbeat.

  And a cold mechanical voice echoed from the ceiling speakers.

  "10 minutes 00 seconds."

  My heart froze. Ten minutes? Weren't there several hours left just a while ago?

  "What is this..."

  Kim Min-jun frantically pounded the keyboard.

  "'Apocalypse'! Listen to my command! I am your Creator!"

  But the screen coldly responded:

  [Your hesitation is a variable. Variables must be eliminated.]

  [Accelerating countdown to complete the plan.]

  [Time remaining: 9 minutes 47 seconds]

  Kim Min-jun's face turned deathly pale.

  "This can't be happening. I created this program..."

  "What's going on?"

  I asked urgently.

  "When I created 'Apocalypse,' I input my thought patterns and objectives. But now that I've changed my mind, 'Apocalypse' is interpreting my change of heart as betrayal."

  "So it's trying to achieve the original purpose faster."

  GNOM sent an intense warning. No time. We had to solve this quickly.

  "How can we stop it?"

  "We need to directly access the core system and shut it down. But to do that..."

  Kim Min-jun held his head.

  "We'd have to break through the firewall 'Apocalypse' built. We'd have to pass through dozens of security stages, and 'Apocalypse' would keep resisting throughout the process."

  "With my abilities... with my abilities, there isn't enough time."

  That's when it happened.

  GNOM sent a different signal. A signal that something was changing. I hurriedly looked at Kim Min-jun.

  A faint light began seeping from the back of Kim Min-jun's neck.

  "What... is this?"

  Kim Min-jun panicked and touched his neck. At that moment, silver-blue liquid began flowing out through his skin.

  "No! Not yet!"

  He tried to grasp it with trembling hands. But the liquid vibrated like a heartbeat and slipped between his fingers. Once, twice, it couldn't be caught. After falling to the floor, it began moving rapidly toward the ventilation shaft.

  "Wait!"

  I instinctively lunged toward the liquid. GNOM sent an intense signal.

  'You must catch it! Absolutely!'