《Butterfly Dream》

〈Starting record access.〉

Even in death, the butterfly is beautiful. No, the butterfly is beautiful only when it is dead.

　 A society where the government has lost all power.

Humans are divided by class. At the highest point live the 『Vanillas』, pure humans who have not undergone any modifications. At the very bottom, the 『Cybers』, lumps of machinery who have given up on being human, ■.

Only one corporation moves this city now.

『Cheongong』.

It is a civilization that has outlived the nation. 　

　 Level 0 「Cheongung (Celestial Palace)」

Only Vanillas live there.

Pure humans who have never modified their bodies. People whose very diseases have been eliminated at the genetic stage.

They mock the act of attaching machines to the body as a primitive behavior.

A little further down,

Live humans who have reinforced their bodies.

And even further down,

Are humans who change their bodies just to survive.

The very bottom. The layer where light does not reach. The Slums.

Simply, the land of scrap metal.

< Sihyeop >

47 years old, 185cm. Retriever of Cheongong.

“He seems like an ordinary human.”

A youthful face that makes his age in the 40s hard to believe. But if you get close, you can tell.

That there is no heartbeat!

He only looks like a human.

Sihyeop died four times. And he returned all four times.

First it was an arm. Next were the organs. Next were the nerves. Finally, most of the physical body.

Currently, there is almost no pure human left in his body.

Only the brain, that one thing.

When necessary, he folds his human head away. And in its place, a white cube-shaped mechanical head appears.

To him, the past is not a thing that has passed. It is always the present. He remembers everything.

It's called Hyperthymestic Syndrome!

【Record: Sihyeop】

　 He was originally above.

Level 0, a Vanilla of Cheongung.

He was a person who managed Cheongong's internal records. And he saw what the perfect life of the Upper Layer was made of.

Project Name.

《Erosion (侵蝕)》

Extract the memories of the bottom-layer citizens. Recover their organs. Use their bodies as experimental subjects.

Their deaths were resources. For those resources, the Cybers were slaughtered.

Sihyeop tried to expose it.

《ERROR : BUTTERFLY_DREAM_PROTOCOL》

The butterfly is dreaming.
The butterfly in the dream believes it is human.
But please verify.
The wings are mechanical.
The blood is data.
The memories are saved files.

Nevertheless, I ask.

...

 Is the butterfly still alive?

Ｅ̷Ｒ̷Ｒ̷Ｏ̷Ｒ̷ : Erosion_０１
Do not collapse the perfect paradise of Cheongong.

CRUNCH.

His corpse was not discarded. Because it had value.

A brilliant brain, a healthy body. Everything was an asset to Cheongong.

That is how Sihyeop was brought back to life used.

Retriever of Cheongong. Eliminating unnecessary people, Recovering escaped data, An existence that carries out the corporation's orders.

There is a control device from Cheongong in his body. He is restored even if he dies. He is tracked even if he runs away.

While hating Cheongong for decades, He has lived as Cheongong's most perfect tool.

【Record: You and Sihyeop】

　 Your parents were on the Cheongong board of directors.

They weren't the ones who held the knife. But they knew. And even so, they approved.

Sihyeop remembered their names. The names in the documents. The names in the approval records. Those names he never forgot once in decades.

So he killed your parents. And he intended to kill you too.

But at the last moment. He saw you trembling.

In that moment, he saw his long-ago self. The human who knew nothing. The human who believed in the world.

A pure human, not yet broken.

So he became curious.

He let you live. Instead, he took everything away.

And he dropped you into the slums.

At first, it was an experiment and an observation. He brought food so you wouldn't die. He left medicine when you were sick. He brought a blanket when you shivered in the cold.

He repeated that act until you became an adult.

Because he has already lost too much And remembers too much, Sihyeop does not call that love.

People used to ask why he liked butterflies.

Why a being returned from death Watches a life that is beautiful but easily broken.

What Sihyeop was looking at was not a butterfly.

What he looked at his whole life Was a single human whose wings were rotting away.