L*st and Death

Isaac and Marta Monto had dismantled the human trafficking network rooted in Belzoras, uncovering one of its central hubs. But a new nightmare had only just begun. The organization’s boss was murdered. The passenger ship sank with all its crew. The funds were converted into cryptocurrency and scattered across untraceable offshore accounts.

All that remained were fragmentary scraps of information. But among those fragments, the most horrifying revelation was that this network wasn’t limited to Belzoras. It was only a node in a system that extended far beyond its borders. They had severed a limb of the organization, nothing more. The central nervous system was still alive somewhere.

Isaac posed his third question to Singh.

“What kind of organization is Hybris?”

Singh, who had just been punished thoroughly for lying, let out a shaky, mocking laugh—as if the question itself were absurd.

“What do you think? They’re just after profit, like everyone else!”

“Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.”

“Then the person leading Hybris must be a beta. No alpha expecting to die before their mid-thirties would run an organization purely for profit.”

Singh’s ragged breathing stopped for a second—then resumed. Isaac noticed the subtle flinch, like he’d been stung by an insect, and pressed further.

“What are you thinking?”

Isaac grabbed Singh by the collar, as if ready to shove him into the black sea. Singh, terrified by the charged atmosphere, answered in a panic.

“My orders were simple. ‘Create a pearl-like omega to offer to the alpha as reward.’ A pearl-like omega—what nonsense. I thought it was just a fancy way of saying, make a high-end prostitute to sell at a premium, in exchange for prolonging an alpha’s life.”

Isaac’s grip loosened slightly.

“Did that order come directly from the organization’s leader?”

“Probably. I can’t say for sure—maybe ninety percent.”

“Is he Muslim?”

“...What?”

Singh stared at Isaac, stunned. His eyes filled with confusion and disbelief. Isaac calmly stroked his chin, answering slowly.

“‘A chaste virgin, pure like a well-guarded pearl, awaits in paradise with large black eyes.’ A famous line from the Qur’an, describing heaven.”

Isaac fell silent, as if organizing his thoughts. He remained deep in contemplation for a long time, then finally spoke.

“Hybris might be more religious than I expected. So, who’s the spiritual leader of this so-called religious group?”

A forced smile twitched across Singh’s face.

“Do you seriously think I’d know?”

“Think simply. Just remember the first person who approached you.”

Pressed by Isaac, Singh began recalling, reluctantly. After the Federal Biological Research Institute (BRI) was disbanded, Singh had lost his position. Then, a man approached him—a calm gentleman with a scholarly appearance, already graying from early-onset poliosis.

“I have in my possession part of Dr. Yuri Berec’s research log concerning the Omega Project. Though it’s only a fragment of the gene recombination protocol, would you consider joining the research?”

Singh, who had devoted his life to alpha-omega phenotypology only to lose everything with the collapse of BRI, had seen the man’s offer as a new beginning. The possibility of solving an unfinished puzzle in his field opened before him like destiny.

Singh had assumed even Isaac wouldn’t be able to dig into such personal history. But the memory of drowning in freezing seawater had been so excruciating he couldn’t bring himself to lie again.

“...A man sent me an email. Said he had part of Yuri Berec’s research log. Asked me to join the Omega Project.”

“A fragment of the log?”

Isaac, who had been leaning loosely against the worktable, changed posture.

“That’s impossible. I had all of the research logs in my possession.”

“Right. The beta-to-omega transformation protocol—only you had that.”

Isaac’s voice turned sharp.

“Then what was this man researching?”

“Something about alpha-omega imprinting.”

Singh saw Isaac’s expression freeze.

“Is that claim based on solid evidence?”

“Nothing more solid than this.”

Singh let out a dry, almost gleeful laugh.

“Your uncle—or should I say, your father?—Gezar Bazelli. The data came from him.”

Something shattered behind Isaac’s mask-like expression. Singh instinctively held his breath, trying to catch every microreaction.

After a pause, Isaac exhaled a thin sigh and ran his fingers slowly down his jawline, eyes deepening. The current of thought flowing behind his tranquil face was enormous. A clarity born from some overwhelming realization flashed through his gaze.

Singh recognized the cold tranquility of someone who had just solved a long-held riddle. He knew at once that his answer had fulfilled Isaac’s goal. Even if Manu Singh were to vanish into the ocean this instant, Isaac wouldn’t mourn. He’d already gotten more than he came for.

Yet the interrogation dragged on until sunrise. Singh, though aware his life hung on Isaac’s whim, kept resisting and lied several more times. Three of those lies were caught—and punished by near-drowning.

Dragged up from the water after nearly three minutes in a pre-death state, Singh gasped frantically. Warm air stabbed into his lungs as he vomited seawater. His coughing wouldn’t stop. Eyes and nose streaming, he clutched at Isaac’s feet, sobbing that he’d never lie again.

Barely regaining enough calm to speak, Singh began to spill information Isaac hadn’t even asked for.

“Dr. Tygri—she defected to the Vile Group. I think she’s the one who made the chairman’s youngest son into an alpha.”

Kate Tygri had joined BRI young and only worked there about a year. She had once participated in the AX-66 project, which aimed to weaponize alpha traits for national defense. But she’d been horrified by the inhumane treatment of alphas and left the institute.

Later, she transformed the son of her university classmate—Chairwoman Catherine Choi of the Vile Group—into an alpha. She served as director of a Vile Group–affiliated lab that publicly claimed to be developing new pharmaceuticals. But it was highly likely they were continuing research on alpha life-extension, given the nature of her work at BRI.

What was the question again?

Singh, rambling through everything he knew, suddenly fell silent with a confused look. Isaac’s face was tinged a faint blue. From the edge of the sea, the dawn light was creeping over.

A strange mix of relief and dread churned in Singh's chest: relief that morning was coming, fear that they were still stranded at sea.

“I’ll ask one last thing. How many lies have you told me?”

“As many as the times you tortured me.”

Trembling, Singh still managed to lie again. Of course, he’d told many lies. The biggest one concerned the young East Asian man once called 3543 on the island.

3543 had become an omega. They would come for him—the world’s only omega. Singh wanted to live until then. But he doubted Isaac would allow that.

“You’re lying again. If you go back into the sea this time, you won’t survive.”

“...You never intended to let me live, did you? You lied from the start.”

Isaac tilted his head with a faint smile. It was a chilling signal—the herald of death.

“It’ll be a pitiful death. I’ve imagined killing you in many ways, but none were this boring.”

Singh’s frail heart began pounding uncontrollably. He hadn’t lived this long to die such a pointless death. With death looming, he wanted to spill everything—anything—to escape this fate.

“Is it... is it because of what I did to you? But you’re an alpha—strong as a monster! I—we—had to explore the unknown!”

Isaac shook his head slowly, disinterested. Singh clutched at his arm as Isaac lifted him onto the boat’s edge.

“Don’t you want to know more? Aren’t you curious what I’m still hiding?”

His whole body trembled with terror and rage. Isaac met his eyes and silently cut the rope that bound Singh to the boat—the last thing connecting him to life.

“You don’t know! You don’t know anything about Gezar or Yuri Berec! Don’t you want to know why Gezar tried to kill you? I’ll tell you everything once we get to shore!”

Singh was grasping at straws, stabbing at Isaac’s guilt with the sharpest truth he had. But Isaac didn’t flinch.

“You’re trying to say Yuri Berec was pregnant with Gezar Bazelli’s child?”

“...You knew?”

“Yeah. Thanks to your sloppy handling of the research log.”

Singh was stunned. He looked up at Isaac—calm, guiltless, utterly unfazed—as though staring at the most despicable creature on Earth.

“Then why don’t you feel any guilt? If you hadn’t tried to rape Yuri Berec, he and your siblings would still be alive!”

Maybe that last line should’ve remained unspoken.

Isaac’s face turned as cold as a frozen sea. He shoved Singh in the chest.

In the brief moment before his body plunged into the water, Singh’s entire life flashed before his eyes.

The instant he hit the freezing sea, his body convulsed. He struggled with all his strength, but the line that had pulled him up before no longer held him.

The darkness of the ocean pulled him downward. As his vision dimmed, his consciousness shattered and faded into silence.

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