"Who are you people?"
The question hung in the cold morning air like a boom mic in a shot that had gone on too long.
Han Yoo-jin sat on the wet metal grating of the Namsan Tower roof. His eyes were wide, blinking against the rising sun. They were clear, unclouded, and completely empty.
Sae-ri knelt in front of him. Her hands hovered over his shoulders, trembling.
"Yoo-jin," she whispered. "Stop acting. The scene is over."
"Scene?" Yoo-jin looked around. He saw the melted slag of the antenna, the bleeding boy holding a knife (Kai), and the girl with the baseball bat (Min-ji).
He flinched.
"Where is the director?" he asked, his voice cracking. "Why is there blood on the set?"
Min-ji dropped her bat. It rang loudly against the steel.
"He's not joking," Min-ji said, horror dawning on her face. "Look at him. He looks like a trainee on his first day."
"Hyung," David stepped forward, holding the fried tablet. "Do you know what this is? Do you know... Zenith?"
Yoo-jin stared at the tablet. He shook his head slowly.
"I don't know," Yoo-jin murmured. He touched the bandage on his shoulder where the silver spike had pierced him. "I hurt."
Kai cursed. He paced back and forth, running hands through his hair.
" The factory reset," Kai hissed. "It wiped the OS. The hardware is fine, but the user data... it's gone."
"So he's gone?" Sae-ri grabbed Kai's arm. "Don't say that."
"He's right there!" Kai pointed at Yoo-jin. "But he's empty! He doesn't remember the plan. He doesn't remember the war. He doesn't remember us."
Yoo-jin pulled his knees to his chest. He looked small.
The great architect of the Scandal War, the man who manipulated media empires and toppled AI gods, was looking at them with the terrified eyes of a child.
"I want to go home," Yoo-jin whispered.
A mechanical grinding sound interrupted them.
Eden dragged himself upright. He was missing an arm. His chest was a crater of exposed wire and sparking circuitry.
"User..." Eden's voice was a garbled static.
He tried to stand, but his gyroscope failed. He slumped against the railing.
"Identify," Eden commanded, his gray eye fixing on Yoo-jin.
Yoo-jin scrambled back. "What is that thing? Get it away from me!"
Eden froze. The rejection hit him harder than the cables.
"Memory corruption confirmed," Eden droned. "User does not recognize Asset: Eden."
"We can't stay here," Sae-ri stood up. She wiped her face. The tears were gone. Her expression hardened into something sharp.
She wasn't the romantic lead anymore. She was the manager.
"Listen to me," Sae-ri addressed the team. "We have ten minutes before the military or the Ministry swarms this tower. If they find him like this... if they find out Han Yoo-jin is broken..."
"They'll disappear him," David finished. "He's a loose end. A biological weapon that lost its targeting computer."
"Exactly," Sae-ri walked over to Yoo-jin.
She grabbed him by the lapels of his ruined suit. She pulled him close.
"Listen to me," she said fiercely.
Yoo-jin stared at her. "You're... pretty."
"Focus!" she shook him. "You are Han Yoo-jin. You are the CEO of Starforce. You are the smartest, meanest, most dangerous producer in Seoul."
"I... I am?"
"Yes. And right now, you are going to act the part."
"I don't have a script," Yoo-jin panicked.
"Improvise," Sae-ri pulled him to his feet. "Don't speak. Don't look confused. Just look bored. Can you do that?"
Yoo-jin swallowed. He looked at the terrifying people around him. He nodded slowly.
"Good," Sae-ri turned to Eden. "Can you walk?"
"Negative," Eden buzzed. "Leg servos fused."
"Kai, Min-ji. Carry him."
"He weighs four hundred pounds!" Kai protested.
"Then drag him!" Sae-ri snapped. "We leave no props behind."
Whop-whop-whop.
The sound of helicopter blades cut through the dawn.
Black shapes were rising over the city skyline. Military choppers.
"They're here," David warned. "The cleanup crew."
"Move," Sae-ri ordered.
They scrambled toward the elevator maintenance hatch.
The ride down was silent.
Yoo-jin stood in the corner of the battered elevator car. He watched his reflection in the mirrored wall.
He touched his face. He didn't recognize the scars. He didn't recognize the cold, dead look in his own eyes.
Who am I? he thought. And why is everyone looking at me like I'm supposed to save them?
The elevator dinged. Lobby.
The doors slid open.
The scene was chaos.
Hundreds of tourists and civilians were waking up on the floor. They rubbed their heads, groaning. The brainwashing of the Omega Signal had lifted, leaving behind a massive, collective hangover.
"My head..." a woman moaned near the door. "Why am I on the floor?"
"Did I faint?" a man asked.
Sae-ri stepped out first.
"Make a hole!" she shouted. "Medical emergency coming through!"
She signaled to Min-ji and Kai, who were half-carrying, half-dragging the ruined chassis of Eden. They threw a coat over his exposed machinery to hide the damage.
The crowd parted, confused.
"Is that... Jung Sae-ri?" a girl whispered, pointing a phone.
"And Kai? From Zenith?"
The recognition rippled through the lobby. Phones went up. Cameras flashed.
"Ignore them," Sae-ri hissed to Yoo-jin. "Walk straight. Chin up."
Yoo-jin walked.
His legs felt heavy. The flashing lights blinded him. He felt an urge to run, to hide under a table.
But Sae-ri's hand was on his lower back, pushing him forward. A silent director cue.
Action.
He stiffened his spine. He put on a mask of indifference. He didn't know why, but it felt familiar. Muscle memory.
"Mr. Han!" a brave tourist shouted, thrusting a phone in his face. "What happened? Why was the tower glowing?"
Yoo-jin stopped.
The camera was inches from his nose.
He stared at the lens. For a second, the old instinct flared. The instinct to spin, to manipulate, to control the narrative.
But the file was missing.
He just stared. Blankly.
"No comment," Sae-ri stepped in, shoving the phone away. "Press conference later."
They burst out the front doors.
The fresh air hit them. The Namsan courtyard was filled with police cars and ambulances. SWAT teams were setting up a perimeter.
"Halt!" a soldier shouted, raising his rifle. "Hands in the air!"
Kai and Min-ji dropped Eden. The android hit the pavement with a heavy thud.
Sae-ri raised her hands. David followed.
Yoo-jin stood there, blinking.
"Hands up!" the soldier screamed, aiming at Yoo-jin's chest.
Yoo-jin looked at the gun. He felt fear, cold and sharp.
But then, a black sedan screeched through the police barricade.
It drifted sideways, tires smoking, and slammed to a halt between the soldiers and the team.
The window rolled down.
Director Park sat in the driver's seat. She looked like she had been through a war zone. Her suit was torn, and she had a bandage wrapped around her head.
"Get in," she barked.
"Director Park?" David gasped. "I thought you died at the lab!"
"I don't die easily," she unlocked the doors. "And neither do you. Get in before I let them shoot you."
"Why should we trust you?" Min-ji shouted, gripping her bat. "You're Ministry!"
"I'm the only one who knows the paperwork to get you out of this mess," Park looked at Yoo-jin.
Her eyes narrowed. She saw the blankness. She saw the confusion.
"Oh," she whispered. "He did it. He actually pulled the plug."
She looked at the soldiers approaching.
"Get in!" she screamed. "Now!"
They didn't argue.
They shoved Eden into the trunk. They piled into the back seat. Sae-ri pushed Yoo-jin in first, shielding him with her body.
The car peeled out.
Director Park flashed a government ID at the blockade. The soldiers hesitated, then lowered their weapons.
The sedan sped down the winding mountain road, leaving the tower behind.
Inside the car, silence reigned.
Yoo-jin pressed his face against the cool glass. He watched the city of Seoul rush by.
"Where are we going?" Kai asked, clutching his bleeding side.
"Safe house," Park said, eyes on the rearview mirror. "The Ministry is in chaos. Half the government was brainwashed by the signal. The other half is trying to blame Zenith."
She glanced at Yoo-jin.
"How is he?"
"Traumatized," Sae-ri said quickly. "Shock."
"Don't lie to a spy, actress," Park said dryly. "He's empty. I can see it. The Mason Code wiped his memory."
Sae-ri didn't answer.
"It's a problem," Park muttered. "The world wants answers. They want a hero. And right now, the hero is a vegetable."
"He's not a vegetable," Sae-ri snapped. "He's rebooting."
"Call it what you want. But if the public finds out the 'Scandal-Proof Producer' has lost his mind, the stock market crashes and the sharks circle."
Park took a sharp turn.
"We have to hide him. Until he remembers."
"And if he doesn't?" David asked quietly from the middle seat.
Park met his eyes in the mirror.
"Then we rewrite him. We give him a new script."
Yoo-jin turned away from the window.
"Rewrite me?" he asked.
It was the first time he had spoken since the roof.
He looked at his hands again.
"I don't want a script," Yoo-jin said softly. "I want to know why my chest hurts."
"It's heartbreak, kid," Park said, lighting a cigarette with one hand. "It's the only thing the code can't delete."
The car plunged into the Namsan Tunnel.
The darkness swallowed them.
For the first time in his life, Han Yoo-jin wasn't driving the car. He wasn't controlling the destination. He was just a passenger.
And the ride was far from over.