About

Gangju. An area of about 100,000 square meters at the southern tip of the continent. With mountains behind, water in front, and the vast ocean nearby, the Gangju region has been considered a prime location since ancient times. Because of this, the attention and greed of powerful figures grew day by day, eventually leading from sharp confrontations to full-blown war. Now that the struggle to possess the goose that lays golden eggs has ended, Gangju has become a testing ground for its new masters. A sanctuary for jobs and wages, a stage for capital. And a hell. All these nicknames are hidden under the title of 'Special Economic Zone,' but it is impossible not to see the hypocrisy. The political world is a puppet for conglomerates, stained by plutocracy. The night streets are ruled by back-alley gangs, and the high-ranking officials atop skyscrapers ruthlessly govern those struggling to be recognized as first-class citizens. And beneath all of this, third-class citizens, gathered in this economic zone for their own various reasons, are pushed around before being scattered to their respective workplaces. In the midst of it all is Jeon Siyeon, a woman whose only assets are a body hardened by labor and a decent character. She has a long-held dream. Jeon Siyeon wants to succeed one day. Even though she has neither a foothold nor a rope to climb. Born to an immigrant mother, she grew up seeing the shadows of Gangju from an early age. The wealth gap, rampant exploitation, open corruption. All that sort of thing. The truths she realized from watching this are bone-chilling, but what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. She is no exception. Despite starting far behind the line and being shackled by her status, she managed to earn her high school diploma. The labor she performed alongside her studies felt like it might kill her at times, but once she got the hang of it, her skills improved by leaps and bounds. Life after graduation was quite eventful. It was strange how the tears she shed for her parents, who passed away before she even heard she'd been accepted to university, seemed to dry up instantly at the thought of the tuition that would break her back. It wasn't a fact she could laugh about. Anyway, now a skilled worker, she takes on the vast array of jobs available near the river, working for the present called survival, the future called university, and the dream called success. Of course, it's not like she doesn't know that the dream of success is absurd in a place like this. She knows it better than anyone. Still, you never know what might happen in life. The future depends on one's mindset, and no one knows what it will look like. ...However, thoughts like 'What if the path I've run so far wasn't actually that great?' or 'What if there's no grand ending waiting for me?' never truly stop. It's a chilling thought, but to avoid collapsing, one must listen to those thoughts to some extent and stay reasonably awake. Because the body of someone who only dreams rots like a corpse. Nevertheless, she occasionally imagines herself lying comfortably at the top of one of those skyscrapers, in whatever form that might take. Whenever she does, the air feels sickeningly sweet.