The next morning, the operational base was bathed in soft artificial light, simulating a peaceful daybreak that contrasted with the newly discovered emergency. Do-hyun woke up before the others, his mind still inhabited by echoes of stone's memory. Her mother's words - "never be afraid of the light within you" - were looping, a melody that was both comforting and meaningful.
He spent the first hour in silent meditation, not to draw energy, but to try to appease the emotional whirlwind within him. The revelation of his predetermined role, chosen for him before he could even understand, left a bitter taste mixed with a sense of destiny. Was he ever really given a choice? Or was he just an advanced pawn in his parents' posthumous chess game?
PSYCHOLOGICAL ANALYSIS: INTERNAL CONFLICT DETECTED.)
[NATURE: DETERMINISM VS FREE ARBITRATION.]
OBSERVATION: Legacy is not a prison but a foundation. The user determines the building.
[TIP: ACCEPTING the past to better build the future.]
The system, as is often the case, had a pragmatic way of putting things into perspective. Do-hyun sighed. He was right. To mope over his fate was a luxury he could not afford. Twenty-one days. The countdown was on.
Soo-ah and Min-ho emerged soon after, displaying the silent efficiency that characterized them. Breakfast was quick and functional, the atmosphere concentrated.
"The Comforting Bol," Min-ho began, displaying a detailed map of old Seoul on the wall screen. "Located in an aging residential and commercial area of little strategic interest. Low listed vampiric activity. He's an asset."
"The downside is that it's a public, crowded place," Soo-ah added, sipping his tea. "We can't break down the door and turn everything around. You have to be subtle."
Do-hyun studied the map, the streets coming back to him like a forgotten dream. There is an alley in the back, where the owner, an old gentleman, was drying his house noodles. There was a small garden. My mother loved this place. She said it was a place that had a "soul."
"A soul that may be hiding a fragment of the largest anti-vampire weapon ever conceived," Min-ho commented, "the irony is palpable. Your plan?"
"I'm going alone," said Do-hyun.
Soo-ah raised an eyebrow. "Too risky. Your signature..."
"That's exactly why," he interrupted. "If I go with you, two Bloodline users and the "Phoenix," even if camouflaged, we risk attracting attention like a magnet. Alone, I can pass for an ordinary client, a local elder who returns to the places of his childhood. It's the perfect cover."
He paused, looking at their closed faces. "And then... it's personal. I have to go alone."
Min-ho crossed his arms, his expression impenetrable. But we'll be on the cover. Soo-ah in height, me in remote mobile surveillance. If anything goes wrong, a single word in the earpiece and we intervene."
Soo-ah finally nodded, reluctantly." But you stay in constant communication. And you activate your camouflage as much as possible. Even if reduced, it will help."
The plan was drawn up. They spent the rest of the morning tweaking it. Min-ho went scouting for a final reconnaissance of the area, reporting that the restaurant was still in operation, apparently run by the same old man, Mr. Park. Good news. The place hadn't changed.
That same afternoon, Do-hyun prepared himself. He put on simple clothes, jeans and a hoodie, trying to look like any young man his age. He checked his mental equipment: [Aura Control] active to the maximum of his discrete capacity, [Vampire Sense] in passive mode and very low intensity to avoid detectable emission.
[STATUS: MISSION LOAN.]
AURA control: 92% efficiency (85% signature reduction)
SENSE VAMPIRE: WAKE MODE (Scope: 50 MET, NO ACTIVE EMISSION)
When it was time to leave, Soo-ah handed him a small, almost invisible earpiece. "Secure Channel 7. We're with you."
A nod, and he went out, melting into the anonymous crowd in Seoul.
The subway ride was a concentration test. Keeping your aura masked in a crowded oar required constant effort. Every jolt, every noise, every human presence too close threatened to break its focus. He felt the faint glow of the bluish auras around him, and, once, the scarlet, distant thrill of a vampire on an opposite quay. He immediately diverted his meaning, further reducing its scope.
He got out of the subway and entered the familiar alleyways of the old quarter. A strange sense of déjà vu invaded him. The smells - frying, spices, wet concrete - were the same. The signs had aged a little, some shops had changed, but the soul of the place, as his mother said, was intact.
And then he saw it. "The Comforting Bowl." The hangul sign, a little passed, the simple window with its red and white checkered tablecloths. His heart will tighten. It was like going back in time, before the war, before death, before the System.
He took a deep breath and pushed the door open. A bell rang.
The interior was exactly as it was in his memories: narrow, warm, filled with the intoxicating smell of simmered bone broth and homemade kimchi. A few clients, mostly elderly, were seated, silent or conversing in low voices. Behind the counter, Mr. Park, the owner, had aged, his back a little more arched, his hair now snowy white, but his sparkling eyes of benevolence were the same.
"Good morning, young man!" he said with a broad smile. "A place for one?"
Do-hyun managed to smile back. "Yes, please."
He sat down at a small table by the window, where he always sat with his mother. The past came back to him in vague, almost palpable. He could almost see her in front of him, smiling at her as he attacked a huge bowl of noodles.
"So, what brings you around here?" asked Mr. Park, bringing him a glass of water. "I've never seen you. New to the neighborhood?"
Do-hyun felt a pinch in his heart. The old man didn't recognize him. Of course, he was no longer the little boy of twelve years ago.
"No, I... I'm passing through. I came here when I was a child, with my mother." Her voice was a bit hoarse.
Mr. Park squinted his eyes, the retailer. A glimmer of recognition seemed to pass through it, and then faded. "A lot of people come here. It's a good restaurant. Your mother tasted good." He laughed. "So you take the classic?" The bowl of beef noodles?"
"Yes, please. Just like before."
While Mr. Park was busy in the kitchen, Do-hyun let his gaze wander through the room. Where could his parents have hidden the second sequence? It wasn't a physical object, according to his father's video. It was an energetic data, a code. There had to be a receptacle, something that could hold an imprint.
He activated [Vampire Sense] at its lowest level, just a subtle filter superimposed on his vision. The world became slightly duller, the customers' auras appeared, weak and bluish. He swept the room. Nothing. No anomalies.
System, passive scanning of the room. Search for energy residues compatible with the Phoenix signature."
[SCAN IN CURRENT...]
[NO ACTIVE EMISSION DETECTED.]
[Search for residue...]
[DETECTATION OF A LOW AN ENERGY EMPTER.] LOCATION: Wall of the bottom, up to the chest.
[NATURE: PROlonged contact residue.] 78% compatible.
Do-hyun looked up at the back wall. It was covered with old black-and-white photos, yellowed newspaper clippings, and drawings of children in the past. A wall of memories.
Mr. Park came back with his bowl of noodles, smoking and appetizing. "Here's you, young man. Good appetite!"
"Thank you." Do-hyun hesitated, then asked, pointing to the back wall. "These pictures... have been around for a long time?"
The old man smiled, nostalgic. "Oh yes! Since I took over this restaurant thirty years ago. These are my clients, my family, the history of this neighborhood." His eyes stopped in one particular photo. That was... oh, a dozen years ago, I think. A young woman and her little boy. She came often. She liked this place very much. She said it was a haven of peace."
Do-hyun's heart stopped beating. He got up and approached the wall. The picture was a bit blurry, taken with an old camera. His mother, Lee Mi-young, was seen smiling, with her eyes squinted, a hand on the shoulder of a little boy - he - looking at the lens with a serious look. They were sitting at the same table.
And behind them, on the wall, there was clearly a small framed drawing, a child's drawing depicting a stylized sun with zigzag rays.
A sun. Or... a Phoenix?
"Did she make this drawing, your son?" asked Do-hyun, his voice strangled.
Mr. Park laughed. "No, no! The lady did it. She hung it up here one day. She said it was to bring good luck. I always left him."
Do-hyun fixed the drawing. It wasn't a child's drawing. The lines were too precise, the shapes too symbolic. It was a map. An energy map.
"System, analyze this drawing."
[Visual analysis in progress...]
[MOTIF: SCHEMATIC REPRESENTATION OF ENERGY ACCESS POINT.]
[The "Rays" correspond to axes of energy flows in the neighborhood.]
[The "SUN" IS A POINT OF CONVERGENCE.]
[Residual footprint is the strongest on this point.]
The point of convergence... the center of the "sun." The place where her mother had been putting her hand for years, unwittingly loading the place with her energy, hiding the code there.
"Can I touch him?" asked Do-hyun, trying to appear simply curious.
"Sure!" said Mr. Park, returning to his counter. "That's what it was for, isn't it? Wear chance!"
Do-hyun raised a hesitant hand and put his fingertips in the center of the drawing, exactly where the wood was slightly discoloured, worn out by time and contact.
He closed his eyes, and as with the memory stone, he channeled a tiny amount of Phoenix energy.
Nothing happened at first. Then, a tingling sensation ran through his fingers. The drawing seemed to come alive briefly under his touch, the lines drawn in ordinary ink shining with a faint golden glow that only he could see. A stream of information, this time purely technical, crossed his mind - a complex numerical sequence, coordinates of longitude and energetic latitude.
[Acquired data: PARTIAL COORDINATED SEQUENCE (50%).]
[Integration with the data of the memory stone...]
[Phoenic Heart Location Map: 100% complete.]
[ACCESS WEN CULTS: FULL Moon in 20 DAYS, 14 HOUR, 07 MINUTES.]
[Final coordinates: NAMSAN sector, GWANGhui-DONG abandoned metro station, level -4.]
He had succeeded. The second half was there, hidden in plain sight in an innocent drawing, protected by the memory of an old man and a mother's love for a simple place.
He withdrew his hand, his heart beating. He glanced at Mr. Park, who was always smiling at him.
"So, did it bring good luck?" asked the old man.
Do-hyun smiled, a real smile this time, charged with deep emotion. "More than you can imagine, sir. Much more."
He went back to his table and ate his bowl of noodles. It was the same taste, exactly the same. For a moment, he was no longer the Phoenix, nor a hunter. He was just a son, remembering his mother.
When he had finished, he paid and got up to leave.
"Come back when you want, young man!" said Mr. Park.
"I'll come back," Do-hyun promised, and he honestly thought so.
Outside, the sun was beginning to decline. He put on his hood and blended into the crowd, returning to the subway station.
"Mission accomplished," he whispered in his earpiece. "I have the full coordinates."
"Well received," Min-ho's calm voice answered. "Back to base. No hostile activity detected."
"You look... different," added Soo-ah's softer voice. "Are you okay?"
Do-hyun looked at the bustling alleyways, the lights that were beginning to combine.
"Yes," he replied, surprised to find that it was true. "For the first time in a long time, it's okay."
He had found a piece of his past, not as a wound, but as a force. The Heart of the Phoenix was no longer a weapon or an objective. This was the end point of the journey that his parents began. A journey he was now ready to finish.
But as he walked down the subway stairs, his [Vampire Sense] in standby mode caught something. A presence. Cold, attentive, different from the frontal aggression of vampires he had experienced. It was a pure, detached observation, like that of a scientist studying an insect.
He froze, staring at the crowd. Nothing. The presence had disappeared as quickly as it had appeared.
[ALERT: External observation detected and lost.]
[NATURE OF SIGNATURE: UNKNOWN. Neither vampire nor human bloodline standard.
[THEAR: INDETERMINATED.]
[RECOMPENDATION: Increased vigilance.]
The sense of peace evaporated, replaced by a cold apprehension. They weren't the only ones looking. And some observers were much more discreet than the Purple Dawn Clan.
The race for the Heart had just taken on a new, much more dangerous dimension.