UNFED

It was nine o’clock the next morning.

Yuki’s room. A tatami floor. It was the same spot as last night, but no one was there. Books on the shelf. A low table. The morning light of Nakameguro streamed in through the window. It was Thursday. The streets were quiet.

Yuki sat down on the floor. She sat up straight. Hoon sat across from her.

"I'm nervous."

Yuki spoke first. She wasn’t one to hide her feelings.

“I know.”

“What was Lee Jae-in like?”

Hoon thought.

"He cried. A lot."

“What about Viktor?”

"He screamed. Once."

Yuki nodded.

“What do you think I did?”

Hoon looked at Yuki. He’d known this person for two days. A fast-talking, quick-thinking, energetic person. He still didn’t know what lay beneath the surface.

"I don’t know. It depends on the person. But one thing is certain."

“What is it?”

“You’ll change once you go through it. You’ll only know how you’ve changed after you’ve gone through it.”

Yuki thought about those words for a moment. Then she closed her eyes.

“I’ll start.”

Hoon said.

"Start with your breathing."

* * *

[ 6 hours ]

It was three o’clock in the afternoon.

Yuki was sitting there. It was quiet. For the first few hours, his expression was stiff, just like Lee Jae-in’s. Then, at some point, his expression softened.

Strangely enough, it wasn’t that the stiffness disappeared; it changed into a different expression. An expression that seemed both focused and distant.

Hoon placed a glass of water next to her. In case she needed a drink.

Around 5:00 p.m., Yuki suddenly smiled.

Silently. But clearly.

Hoon approached. He watched. The hallucinations had begun to set in. Sometimes, like with Amara, they would come on quietly from the start. It seemed that was the case with Yuki.

The smile stopped a moment later. And her expression changed.

It was a complex expression. It seemed as if various emotions were flashing by rapidly. This was typical of Yuki. She was someone whose thoughts moved quickly on the outside. It seemed to be the same on the inside.

* * *

[ Yuki’s Hallucination — First, 10 Hours ]

It was Osaka.

The neighborhood where Yuki grew up. A residential area near an industrial zone. Narrow alleys. Low-slung roofs. It was evening. Smoke rose from the factory chimneys.

Her mother was walking.

She was wearing her factory uniform. She was on her way home after finishing her night shift. Yuki watched her from behind. Her shoulders were slumped. Her steps were slow. They were the steps of someone exhausted.

Yuki tried to run after her.

But her feet wouldn’t move.

Her mother walked away. Yuki stood there, unable to move. Her mother’s figure grew smaller and smaller.

At the end of the alley, her mother turned around.

She saw Yuki. She smiled. It was a tired smile. But it was a smile of joy at seeing Yuki.

Then she turned and disappeared.

Yuki remained where she was. Unable to move.

She looked at the alley where her mother had disappeared.

Something appeared at the end of that alley. It wasn’t a person. It was light. Screen light. Dozens of screens. Billboards. Smartphones. Tablets. They emerged from the alley and began moving toward Yuki.

Sounds rang out. Notification sounds. Message sounds. Video sounds. All different sounds at once.

Yuki tried to stop them. With her hands. But they passed right through her. Toward the direction her mother had disappeared. It seemed as though they were going to find her mother.

Yuki couldn’t stop them.

* * *

Yuki began to tremble.

Her hands were the first to shake. Then her shoulders. Hoon approached her. Yuki’s eyes opened halfway. They were eyes caught between hallucination and reality.

"Mom."

It was Japanese. Okasan. Hoon understood.

“I’m not here. I’m not here right now.”

Yuki tried to open her eyes fully. Hoon said,

“Close your eyes. You need to stay inside for now.”

Yuki resisted. She wasn’t trying to get out. She was trying to get in. Deeper.

She closed her eyes again.

Hoon stepped back.

Yuki grew quiet again. But it was different from before. It felt as if something had opened up. It wasn’t tension, but a different kind of focus.

* * *

[ Yuki’s Hallucination — Part Two, 38 Hours ]

The screens disappeared.

The alley grew quiet. The smoke from the factory chimneys vanished. It wasn’t Osaka either. It was a space whose location was unknown. It was vast. There were no walls. Only the floor remained.

Yuki was standing on that floor.

And she held something in her hand.

It was paper. A single sheet of A4. Nothing was written on it. Just white paper.

Yuki looked at it.

A breeze blew from somewhere. The paper was about to fly away. Yuki held it tight.

The wind grew stronger. It tried to snatch the paper away. Yuki held it with both hands.

That’s when she realized.

What mattered was that this paper was white. What mattered was that nothing was written on it. What mattered was that she could write something on it.

The wind died down.

Yuki looked down at the paper.

There was a pen in her pocket. She didn’t know when it had gotten there. She took it out. She began to write something on the paper.

Lines. Dots. Circles. Connecting lines.

It was a network.

Lines connecting people to people. Lines connecting cities to cities. Lines connecting countries to countries. Lines that weren’t on a screen. Lines passing from hand to hand.

The paper was filled.

Yuki saw it.

She wasn’t hungry. That fact felt natural in that moment. Because she was doing something more important than eating.

* * *

[ 72 Hours ]

It was the morning of the third day.

Yuki opened her eyes. Not slowly. Quickly. But quietly. Her eyes looked as if she were waking from sleep. They were clear.

She looked around. She looked at the space. She looked at Hoon.

And she reached out her hand toward the floor. As if searching for something.

“Do you have a pen?”

Those were her first words.

Hoon took a ballpoint pen out of his bag. He handed it to Yuki. Yuki took it. Then she looked around. She looked for paper. Hoon took out a notebook. Yuki took it and started writing right away.

Writing was the first thing she’d done in 72 hours.

Viktor did the same.

Hoon watched and thought. The first action after awakening reveals what each person possesses. Lee Jae-in was an architect, Amara brought a seed, Viktor wrote a thesis, and Yuki drew a network.

A moment later, Yuki held up the notebook. She showed it to Hoon.

Lines. Dots. Arrows. Circles. It was a network sketch drawn with quick strokes. It was hard to understand. But he could tell it contained the structure of something.

Yuki said.

“I saw it in a dream.”

Hoon said.

“It’s a hallucination.”

“Whether it’s a hallucination or a dream, I saw it.”

Yuki looked at the sketch again.

"It’s based on the OFW route, but we have contact persons at each hub, and they pass the information on by hand to people around them. There’s no digital component at all. It’s slow, but it can’t be cut off. Even if AI blocks one point, another route remains active."

Hoon listened to the explanation.

"You designed this in 72 hours?"

Yuki looked at Hoon.

“Time feels different when you’re inside. It felt long. Really long.”

There was a moment of silence. Yuki spoke.

"I saw my mom."

Hoon listened.

“Her back as she was leaving the factory. It’s the same sight I used to see every day when I was little. Back then, it was so normal I didn’t even notice.”

Yuki looked at the notebook in her hand.

“Now I know why that back view stuck with me.”

Hoon asked.

“Why?”

Yuki said.

"Mom went to that factory to support me. That’s what kept her there. It wasn’t a choice—it was a necessity."

Hoon said nothing.

“I didn’t start the digital detox movement because of AI. Actually, it was because of Mom. I didn’t want to be trapped by circumstances like she was.”

A moment of silence.

“But this connects, doesn’t it? To what you’re saying.”

Yuki picked up the sketch again.

“Breaking free from the conditions that dictate what we must do. That’s the world where Mom wouldn’t have had to go to that factory. If only this had existed sooner.”

Hoon listened to those words. For a long time.

The reasons for their awakening differed from person to person. Lee Jae-in wanted to build something that wouldn’t crumble. Amara wanted to complete what her grandmother had always known.

Viktor wanted to reclaim what he had sold. And Yuki—she wanted to break free from a life bound by conditions.

They were all different.

But they met at the same place.

Hoon said.

“Can you come to Gong?”

Yuki nodded. Then she looked at the sketch.

"I’ll refine this a bit more and bring it back."

“When?”

Yuki thought for a moment.

"A month. I need to tidy this up and draw the structure properly."

“A month should be enough.”

Yuki stood up. Her legs were shaking. She’d been sitting for three days. She held onto the wall and stood on her own.

She walked over to the window. She opened it.

The morning in Nakameguro poured in. It was spring air. She heard birds singing. The smell of coffee drifted in from somewhere. The café next door must have opened.

Yuki took in the scent.

"The smell of coffee."

Hoon looked at her.

“Are you hungry?”

Yuki thought for a moment.

"No. I know the smell is nice, but I don’t feel like drinking any."

Then, looking out the window, she said,

"It’s strange. It’s strange, but not in a bad way."

Hoon listened to her words and thought.

There were four of them: Lee Jae-in, Amara, Viktor, and Yuki.

And Lee Jae-in and Amara were already in Gong.

Four seeds touched the ground.

Roots began to take hold.

New episode drops daily at 7 AM (Philippine Time, UTC+8) until Part 1 concludes (Ep. 55) on July 25th.

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