The next morning, the compound existed exactly as it had the night before.
That was the problem.
Mu-Hyuk stood on the ridge overlooking the sealed facility, eyes narrowed as the Murim Dominator System overlaid his vision with status data.
[Facility Occupancy: 0 Registered]
[Historical Record: 12 Subjects –
Active as of 03:41]
[Current Record: No Anomalies]
Twelve people had walked out of that place.
And the sect had not noticed.
Yoo Seol-Ah arrived shortly after him, breath faintly misting the cool air. "They didn't even post a guard change," she said. "No one knows anything's missing."
"They won't, Mu-Hyuk replied. "Because missing people aren't part of their vocabulary anymore."
The system did not mark it as a success. It marked it as an instability spike.
[Administrative Integrity: Decreasing –
Untracked Personnel Detected]
The reaction came in the afternoon.
Not from the guards.
From the records.
A clerk burst into the infirmary demanding updated discharge totals. Another was overheard accusing a junior medic of falsifying numbers. The phrase "twelve units discrepancy" began circulating like a rumor that had learned how to speak.
Mu-Hyuk listened from behind a half-open door while Yoo Seol-Ah tended to a feverish trainee.
"They're searching for numbers, not people," she murmured later. "It's like the escape only exists because the system says it does."
"That's the world they've built," Mu-Hyuk answered.
By evening, the sect attempted its correction.
A public notice was posted declaring that twelve individuals had been formally transferred to "external reassignment facilities." No names were provided. No destinations listed. Only the number mattered.
[System Alert: Reality Rewrite Attempt
Detected]
Mu-Hyuk studied the notice until the paper curled slightly at the edges, then turned away.
"They've chosen the easier fiction," he said. "It requires less explanation."
Yoo Seol-Ah followed him back to the watchtower, where the Murim Dominator System began reorganizing itself in response to the unplanned variable.
[Network Model Update: Civilian Node
Cluster – Active]
[Estimated Detection Window: 41 Hours]
"They'll find them," Yoo Seol-Ah said quietly.
Mu-Hyuk did not deny it. "Eventually. But not as people. As inconsistencies."
That night, the sect's search mechanisms shifted.
Patrols doubled. But they did not comb the forests or the old roads leading down the mountain. They scoured storage ledgers, requisition slips, dormitory capacity lists.
Yoo Seol-Ah watched two instructors argue over how many blankets should have been consumed overnight.
"They think someone stole bedding," she said in disbelief.
"They think twelve lives equal twelve missing blankets," Mu-Hyuk replied.
The next morning, he felt it.
A subtle tug at the edge of his perception as the system registered a foreign pattern.
[Voluntary Allegiance Node –
Fluctuation Detected]
[Status: 1 Subject – Emotional Distress]
Mu-Hyuk froze.
Yoo Seol-Ah noticed immediately. "What is it?"
"One of them," he said. "They're frightened."
The system unfolded a rough spatial estimate — a corridor of uncertainty pointing down the western trail leading away from the sect.
[Signal Degradation: High]
"They don't know where to go," Yoo Seol-Ah whispered.
Mu-Hyuk was already moving.
He found her near the river bend below the mountain path.
The grey-haired woman from the compound sat on a stone, clutching her bundle, eyes darting wildly at every sound.
"I tried to follow the others," she said when she saw him. "But I couldn't keep up. And then I was afraid I'd disappear again."
Mu-Hyuk stood in silence for a long moment before answering.
"You won't," he said.
She looked up at him, disbelief flickering across her face.
"You remembered me," she said softly.
[Allegiance Stability: Restored]
The system pulsed in quiet confirmation.
Mu-Hyuk extended his hand.
"Escapes aren't recorded," he told her. "That's why they matter."