The moment the rooftop access door opened, sunlight poured into my eyes like stabbing needles.
And the moment my vision adjusted, I saw the rooftop of Segwang City Hall beneath a blue sky so clear it made my skin crawl.
…The floor was covered over, like a membrane, with a strange grayish-white substance.
It looked like the shell of a cocoon.
And yet it gleamed in iridescent colors.
‘…An egg.’
I remembered the footage Reporter Eun Haje’s group had recorded.
That bizarre shape swelling atop the city hall building.
It looked as though it had ‘swollen’ all the way down to the rooftop floor.
“……”
Trying desperately not to let my hands shake, I slipped a hand into my pocket and carefully pulled out the bundle of convenience store receipts.
Then I threw them.
Thunk.
The receipts rolled across the cocoon-like surface of the rooftop floor, struck the railing, and fell over the edge.
And naturally, the sight of the city spread out beyond it—
“Don’t look.”
“……”
Suppressing the tension prickling up my spine, I turned my head back toward the rooftop.
…Right in the middle of the rooftop, a single machine stood there by itself.
The Dream Incubator.
On the ground around that huge machine were toy fragments, researchers’ gowns, glasses, and clothes strewn about like trash.
And something stood tall in front of it.
A figure about the size of a human being.
Covered with cloth.
“……”
I stepped forward carefully.
At the same time as I felt a strangely slight softness underfoot…
I walked ahead.
[Bold as ever, my friend!]
When I got all the way up to the Dream Incubator,
I reached out… and swept the cloth…