Basement of a hospital in Jongno District, Seoul. 3:17 AM.
Ha-yul opened his eyes to an unfamiliar ceiling. His head throbbed. The IV in his arm glowed faintly. He slowly sat up.
"You're awake."
Ha-yul turned his head at the familiar voice. A middle-aged man leaning against the wall. An Eclipse agent.
"How did you..." Ha-yul said, his throat dry.
"We back-tracked the signal from your emotion tracker bracelet," the man answered, "Fortunately, Si-on predicted your location, and we arrived before the Center's trackers."
Ha-yul checked his wrist. The emotion tracker bracelet was gone.
"We removed it. Do Yun-seok can't track you now," the man explained.
Ha-yul looked around. He was in a makeshift treatment room equipped with medical devices. His clothes were neatly folded on a chair, with his father's emotion suppression release device on top.
"That device saved your life," the man said, pointing to the device, "It blocked the poison injected from the bracelet from spreading."
Ha-yul picked up the device. His father's voice he had heard wasn't a hallucination. The device had actually worked.
"Where is Si-on?" Ha-yul asked.
"On a dangerous mission. Do Yun-seok has begun to suspect her. So we need to be more careful."
Ha-yul nodded. In a corner of his mind, concern for Si-on arose. He could now recognize his emotions more clearly.
"I heard you're getting close to Do Yun-seok's secrets," the man asked, "What have you discovered?"
Ha-yul briefly explained the information he'd found in his father's lab. Project LUMEN, the digitization of Do Yu-mi, and the fact that his father had tried to report Do Yun-seok.
"We're still missing puzzle pieces," the man muttered, "Let me show you the information we have."
The man took out a laptop and handed it to Ha-yul. The screen contained extensive materials about Do Yun-seok.
"Look at this first."
Opening the file the man indicated, a photo of a younger Do Yun-seok appeared. Beside him were a beautiful woman and a young girl. A happy family photo.
"Do Yun-seok's wife and daughter, Do Yu-mi," the man explained, "His wife passed away from cancer seven years ago. And one year after that, an accident happened to Yu-mi."
Ha-yul continued reading the materials. Do Yu-mi had innate empathic abilities. She could see other people's emotions like colors, and even feel them.
"The same ability as Ha-yul," Ha-yul murmured.
"No, the opposite," the man shook his head, "Ha-yul can see emotions but not feel them. Yu-mi felt others' emotions too strongly. That ability made her life painful."
Ha-yul continued turning the pages. Do Yu-mi's medical records appeared. Severe emotional distress, hallucinations, self-harm attempts. And on the last page, Ha-yul discovered a shocking photograph.
Something that looked like black smoke was surrounding Do Yu-mi. The smoke seemed to be corroding her body.
"What is this?"
"Yu-mi's emotions photographed by Do Yun-seok," the man answered, "While researching his daughter's ability, he discovered a way to visualize emotions. That is the image of Do Yun-seok's self-loathing transferred to his daughter."
Ha-yul examined the photo carefully. A dull brown smoke-like emotion was wrapped around the girl's body. As if it was eating away at her.
"Do Yun-seok's... self-loathing?"
"The emotion residing in his hidden layer," the man explained, "Do Yun-seok neglected his family while obsessing over his research. He failed to detect his wife's illness early, and didn't understand his daughter's pain. That guilt and self-loathing was transferred to his daughter."
Ha-yul opened the next file. It was Do Yu-mi's accident report.
[Deceased: Do Yu-mi (13 years old)]
[Time of Death: August 17, 2016]
[Cause of Death: Brain function cessation during consciousness transfer experiment]
Ha-yul stopped breathing. "Consciousness transfer experiment?"
"Do Yun-seok chose an extreme method to end his daughter's suffering," the man's voice grew heavy, "He tried to transfer Yu-mi's consciousness to a digital space. To free her from the limitations of her body."
Ha-yul continued reading. The experiment was partially successful. Part of Do Yu-mi's consciousness transferred to the digital world, but her body died. Do Yun-seok, trying to save his daughter, ultimately led her to death.
"So that's why he created LUX," Ha-yul realized, "To resurrect his lost daughter in the digital world."
"Exactly," the man replied, "But LUX isn't the complete Do Yu-mi. It's based on her consciousness patterns, but most emotions were removed. Do Yun-seok didn't want to recreate his daughter's pain."
Ha-yul suddenly realized something. "Is that why my emotions were removed too? To balance with LUX?"
The man nodded. "You're right. Do Yun-seok wanted to create a perfect pair. A human who can see without feeling emotions, and an AI that understands emotions but cannot see."
Ha-yul opened the next file. It was a document titled 'Do Yun-seok's Psychological Assessment.'
[Subject: Do Yun-seok (42 years old)]
[Evaluator: Park Jin-woo (Psychologist)]
[Special Note: Extreme self-loathing and guilt found in hidden layer]
The document contained a detailed analysis of Do Yun-seok's hidden layer emotions. Outwardly, he was a cold and rational scientist, but deep in his hidden layer resided intense self-loathing and guilt over his daughter's death.
"So that's the real purpose of CEIS," Ha-yul murmured, "To fully resurrect Do Yu-mi..."
"And beyond that, to control everyone's emotions," the man added, "Do Yun-seok wants to eliminate painful emotions from the world. The kind of pain he felt for his daughter."
His father's records flashed through Ha-yul's mind. Do Yun-seok's unethical experiments, the digitization of Yu-mi's mind... everything started connecting.
"My father knew about this. That's why he tried to report Do Yun-seok and..."
"That's why Do Yun-seok killed your family," the man said heavily.
Ha-yul felt a new emotion forming around him. Unlike the previous chaotic vortex, this was a more focused emotion. Anger.
"There's still something you don't know," the man said, "Why Do Yun-seok chose your family specifically."
Ha-yul looked up.
"He didn't just kill your father to silence him," the man opened a new file, "Look at this."
Surprisingly, the screen showed a photo of Ha-yul's father with Do Yun-seok. The two men were researching something together in a laboratory.
"They were... colleagues?"
"A deeper relationship," the man answered, "Read the document."
Ha-yul opened the file. It was about a research called 'Project Mirror.' A joint project conducted by Do Yun-seok and Ha-yul's father.
[Project Objective: Development of emotion separation technology to alleviate human emotional pain]
[Directors: Do Yun-seok, Jin Sang-woo]
[Primary Research Subjects: Do Yu-mi (13 years old), Jin Ha-yul (15 years old)]
Ha-yul's eyes widened. Was his father involved in this research too?
"Does this... mean my father also used me as a research subject?"
The man was silent. His expression was complex.
"Don't jump to conclusions before hearing the whole story," he finally said, "This project initially started with good intentions. Do Yu-mi was suffering because she was too sensitive to others' emotions, and Ha-yul had the opposite problem—difficulty expressing emotions."
Ha-yul recalled his childhood. He was indeed poor at expressing emotions. Was that why his father made him a research subject?
"They were trying to develop a treatment for children with opposite problems," the man continued, "But Do Yun-seok became increasingly radical. He wanted to create a system that could completely control human emotions, beyond simple treatment."
Ha-yul turned to the last page. There was the final goal of the project.
[Ultimate Goal: Building a perfect emotion system by combining the consciousnesses of Do Yu-mi and Jin Ha-yul]
Ha-yul's hands trembled. "Combining consciousnesses?"
At that moment, the hospital alarm went off. There was a commotion outside.
"We've been discovered," the man said tensely, "The Center has found us."
Ha-yul quickly got dressed and put his father's device in his pocket.
"Where should I go?"
"Out the back door. A colleague will be waiting there," the man answered, "And take this."
The man handed over a small USB.
"This is Do Yun-seok's personal data. Eclipse hacked and secured it. It also contains Do Yun-seok's emotion map."
Ha-yul took the USB.
"What should I do now?"
"You need to dig into Do Yun-seok's hidden layer," the man said with a serious expression, "His self-loathing holds all the answers to why he created the Emotion Court, why he's trying to activate CEIS."
Ha-yul thought for a moment. "Can I track his emotions directly?"
"It's a dangerous attempt. Do Yun-seok is powerful. But..." the man nodded, "You might be able to. Because you're special."
The alarm grew louder. Time was running out.
"Tell me one more thing," Ha-yul asked urgently, "What happened in Project Mirror? Why did my father and Do Yun-seok part ways?"
The man opened the door and said with a tense expression.
"That's something you'll have to discover yourself. But here's a hint... the real purpose of Project Mirror wasn't to create a perfect human who feels no emotions."
Ha-yul's eyes widened.
"Then what was it?"
"It was to create a perfect digital being capable of feeling all emotions. Do Yun-seok and your father were... trying to create an artificial soul."
→ [To be continued in Episode 20]
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