"Damn it! Everyone hold on tight!" With Seo Myung-hyuk's shout, the stealth transport aircraft became a massive fireball and plummeted toward the black night sea. The aircraft shook violently, and outside the windows, the storm mingled with the lightning-like attacks of the EMP defense system, creating absolute chaos.
Do-yoon desperately gripped his seatbelt, trying not to lose consciousness. Beside him, Ju I-dam was already struggling to manually open the emergency hatch, while Ryu Jae-ha held onto the broken communication equipment with a look of despair. Kang Ju-ha gritted her teeth while embracing an injured operative.
Crash! With a tremendous impact, the aircraft split in two and plummeted into the sea. Just before losing consciousness, Do-yoon vaguely felt Ju I-dam pushing him out of the aircraft along with an emergency escape suit.
How much time had passed? When he regained consciousness with the cold waves, Do-yoon found himself collapsed on an unfamiliar beach. The storm had subsided, but the sky was still covered with dark clouds, and the surroundings were filled with fragments of the transport aircraft and charred wreckage.
"Ju I-dam! Mr. Seo Myung-hyuk!" Do-yoon searched the sandy beach for survivors. Fortunately, not far away, Ju I-dam, Ryu Jae-ha, and several Blankers operatives appeared, coughing. Seo Myung-hyuk, Kang Ju-ha, and the remaining operatives were nowhere to be seen.
"Damn it... it's completely wrecked." Ju I-dam cursed while looking down at the broken terminal. "Communications cut, most weapons lost, food supplies... almost gone. Literally the worst-case scenario."
The island where they had crash-landed had an eerie atmosphere. Behind the beach stretched a primeval forest shrouded in thick fog, and the trees were all grotesquely twisted. In the air floated a very subtle but mind-numbing scent that was both sweet and nauseating. It was as if the entire island was submerged in a giant hallucination of memories.
"This place... something's not right." Do-yoon said in a low voice. His 'Echo' detection ability was sensing countless distorted and painful fragments of memory scattered throughout the island. As if the island itself was a living mass of enormous grief.
Just then, several small reconnaissance drones emerged from the forest with sharp mechanical sounds and began firing red lasers at them. "Damn, is this Alpha-7's welcoming party!" Ryu Jae-ha shouted while looking for cover.
They had few weapons left, but they resisted desperately. Ju I-dam tried to disrupt the drones' control frequency, but it wasn't easy due to the powerful interference waves spread throughout the island.
In the chaos, Do-yoon unconsciously closed his eyes and concentrated on the 'Echo' spread throughout the island. At that moment, an intense 'Echo of pain' close to Sora's scream flowed clearly into his mind. Like a compass, it was pointing somewhere beyond the fog.
"Over there...! Sora is... over there!" Do-yoon shouted and began running toward the fog-shrouded forest.
"Hey, Jin Do-yoon! It's dangerous!" Ju I-dam urgently followed behind.
Not long after, the remaining survivors including Seo Myung-hyuk and Kang Ju-ha emerged from the forest with difficulty. They too had been scattered by the drone attacks and had just managed to regroup.
"Damn, the operation became nothing before we could even start." Seo Myung-hyuk said, suppressing his anger. His arm had a deep wound. "First, let's move to a safe place and reassess the situation. Mr. Do-yoon, that 'Echo' thing you say you can sense—is it reliable?"
Do-yoon met Seo Myung-hyuk's gaze with unwavering eyes. "My sister is over there. And... maybe something related to Dr. Yoo Jin-ha's 'first memory' too."
Seo Myung-hyuk stared at Do-yoon for a moment, then nodded as if he had made up his mind. "Fine. Right now we need to grasp at any straw. I'll trust you. Lead the way."
With Do-yoon in the lead, the survivors stepped into the bizarre forest. The thick fog made it difficult to see even a step ahead, and strange plants coiled around their ankles from underfoot. Constantly, unidentified voices and phantoms disturbed their minds—images of lost family members, traumatic memories they wanted to forget. These were psychological traps designed by Alpha-7.
But Do-yoon remained unshaken. He followed only Sora's 'Echo' through the treacherous path. His enhanced ability went beyond simple detection, guiding them like 'memory navigation' that could find threads of truth within the fog of distorted memories.
How long had they walked? Finally, the fog lifted, and what appeared before their eyes was... the entrance to an artificial structure made of cold metal and glass, intricately entangled like a giant maze. Around the entrance, bizarre guardians that looked like native creatures of the island—half machine, half organism—wandered about making ominous sounds.
The entrance to the 'Project Lucid Dream' facility. But this was no mere research facility. It looked like a living nightmare itself.