August 2017: Poluo Town, Republic of China

As Minkwan woke up to the first rays of sunlight peeking through the shut curtains, she gave a yawn and blinked at Gwangseob, who seemed hunched over a small device. "Huh--" she grunted out, before being swiftly silenced by the older man offering her a earbud to listen in. It was a radio, a staple in Poluo Town where their main form of entertainment was a lone, shifter-run radio station known as 'Channel S': a name that Minkwan recognised as the same as the shifter-run media company in Korea. It seemed as though they were affiliated, but from the looks of it, the radio station had been here longer.

While the male voice explained something in a language Minkwan didn't understand, Gwangseob slid her a copy of The Banana- the state's newspaper, named for the sheer amount of banana plantations around the island. She opened her mouth, about to protest that she couldn't read it until her eyes fell on the familiar face on the cover and felt her fingers freeze over it. There on the headline was the haunting expression of a Korean man that looked no older than her, with several images of what appeared to be some sort of gory crime scene accompanying an extensive report of some sort of the incident. "Was that what--" Minkwan began slowly and cautiously, gesturing to the door, "--he was talking about?"

Gwangseob nodded slowly, clenching his jaw before tearing the earbud out of his ear. "Someone got to the vault of Stuff before us. Shot one of the guards dead, then stole a crate of it before hightailing it. They had technology we've never seen before- advanced stuff. Stuff I used to make," he explained, and from the dark expression upon his features, Minkwan knew not to ask further. Too many people had coveted his work for their own, and needless to say, this would eventually be traced back when the Area got involved.

Trying to lighten the mood, Minkwan quickly forced a smile. "A-At least you're currently dead in all records!" she responded cheerily, but the attempt fell flat when Gwangseob stood, opening the curtain to allow them a full view of the town. She scrambled to her feet, following his trail and gazing over the place: lined with small, grey-looking shophouses and a strangely lavish mansion tucked away at the far end of their current vantage point. Gwangseob pointed out the general location of the military vault that had been looted, which was close to the beach that lined the right side of the small town.

Straight ahead, Minkwan noticed the large white cottage that sat on a hill slightly further away from the mansion and with a squint, she tried to zoom in with her bionic eye- the feedback, however, soon gave her a headache, and she crouched down nigh immediately, feeling nauseous. Gwangseob did not move from his position noticing this, only really moving to help her to the bed after realising she hadn't rejoined him. "The cottage--" choked out Minkwan when she was once again laid down, blinking furiously in an attempt to clear the static from her eye and brain, "There's some sort of scrambly thing that prevents me from zooming into it."

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Gwangseob tapped his finger on his chin, focusing on the cottage as well to test her theory- before the unthinkable happened. Minkwan watched in horror as the man was forcefully smashed against the wall of the far end of the room, slumping down and seemingly shut off. "Oh god, oh god," Minkwan exclaimed, fighting her migraine to try to get to him before noticing the light in Gwangseob's eyes return, along with a scowl. "There's a field preventing people from pinpointing the specific location of that cottage," he deduced, and before Minkwan could inform him that it was more than obvious, he began to pace around the room, already coming up with plausible theories of why the cottage was shrouded compared to the other parts of the village.

The vault was forgotten in favor of this new mystery: why was this cottage so well-guarded, to the point where people weren't even able to look at it? This irked Minkwan more than it should: she loved a good mystery when it came up, but the words of the innkeeper echoed in her mind, words of caution against her itch of just bursting outside to chase down the cottage's lead. It still bothered her, how easily it had been to know of their relationship when they looked barely alike.

Let Kiyeol know that his daughter showed up causing him grief.

How did they even know her father's name? Minkwan had never asked about whether he had come to Poluo, or anything along those lines- the most she had gotten was vague, snarky responses involving a high-ranking operative in the Area that had dragged him into their affairs. It made no sense, all things considered. Why was she so afraid of her father finding out, anyway? For all she knew, the cottage could be a lead for her thesis and that was what she was here for, not whatever the situation had now devolved into.

With that, she dived into the bathroom, freshening herself up and deciding that she would go hunt down the cottage herself. The gunman who had robbed the vault could wait, and Gwangseob would effectively handle things on his own. As she looked at her reflection in the mirror, she took a deep breath, seemingly trying to will herself to not be affected by this.

"They're just confused," she told herself, before she returned outside, running down the stairs and into the great beyond of Poluo. There was no time to waste, after all, if the cottage was truly this shrouded. If anything, she couldn't pass up a potential lead to Zhixian.