The world believed Lee Rang was dead.And maybe… they weren't entirely wrong.
Two months had passed since that night—the chamber,the screams,the blood.
The city had moved on.Reporters had found new tragedies,police files had been buried,and the rain that once fell for her had long since dried.
But grief has a scent.And in the empty alleys of Seoul, it still lingered—metallic, quiet, haunting.
Inside a run-down apartment, a man stared at himself in a cracked mirror.
The reflection wasn't Lee Rang.It was a ghost wearing his face.
His hair was shorter.His eyes darker.His voice—nothing like the man who once tried to save a girl he didn't know was his sister.
Now, he didn't save anyone.Not even himself.
On the table lay two chains—one engraved SEO-RIN,the other LEE HYUNG.
He picked them up slowly, thumb tracing the cold metal.Both carried the same mark beneath the rust: 404.
The number pulsed like a heartbeat that refused to die.A code.A curse.A truth that would not stay buried.
He whispered, almost to himself,
"You both died because of this."
Then, a faint smile.
"So I'll live for it."
The television droned in the background:
"After an extensive search, officials have declared Lee Rang deceased. Evidence from the explosion site confirms—"
Click.The sound died.
"The dead don't watch the news,"he muttered, tossing the remote aside.
Across the wall hung chaos—notes, photos, red threads connecting the faces of the damned.Han.Seo-rin.Old lab reports.Torn newspaper clippings.
At the center, circled in crimson ink:PROJECT 404.
Rang's gaze hardened.He touched a photograph of the underground tunnel.
"Three chains," he whispered. "Three names. One truth."
His phone buzzed.Unknown number.
Static.Then a voice—soft, distorted, unmistakable.
"You're late, Rang."
He froze.Wan.
"Tunnel 404. Come alone."
The call ended.
Rang's reflection stared back from the mirror, haunted but steady.He pocketed the chains, zipped his coat, and whispered—
"Then let's finish what death couldn't."
The district was dead.No cars.No lights.Only rain whispering against cracked pavement.
The entrance to the underground facility waited ahead—half-buried under rubble,the word DANGER fading like a warning too old to save anyone.
He pushed the gate.It creaked open,as if the building itself exhaled after a long, cold sleep.
Inside, the air reeked of rust and decay.Machines sat like corpses.Papers littered the floor—diagrams, blood tests,every page stamped with the symbol: 404.
He brushed dust off a shattered console.The screen flickered weakly to life.
PROJECT 404: HUMAN LINKAGE TEST – STATUS: TERMINATED.
Rang's pulse slowed.
Then he saw them—his father's name,Seo-rin's name,and something that made his blood turn to ice:
SUBJECT 03 – CLASSIFIED.
"Subject three…"his voice trembled."Me."
The light died.The tunnel sank into darkness.
And the silence that followed wasn't empty.It was breathing.
A whisper of boots scraped the concrete.He turned.
"Who's there?"
No reply.
Then—a silhouette stepped from the dark.Graceful. Still.Eyes like molten amber.A silk-black scarf hid half her face.
Wan.
But her presence felt… wrong.Colder. Sharper.As if she was less a woman—and more a secret given form.
"Wan?" he said.
She didn't blink.Didn't smile.
"You shouldn't have come here, Rang."
His hand went to his knife."Then why call me?"
A beat of silence.Then—
"Because you were meant to."
Her voice dropped lower.
"They didn't just experiment on your father. They finished it—with you."
Rang froze.
"What are you talking about?"
The lights above flickered violently—then died completely.
From somewhere in the dark, a distorted voice spoke,cold and mechanical:
"Welcome back… Subject 03."
A surge of electricity crackled through the tunnel.Doors slammed shut behind him.Hidden machinery roared to life.
Rang turned—but Wan was gone.
Only her scent lingered—sweet, ghostlike, impossible.
He whispered into the dark, voice breaking—
"What did you do to me…"
The tunnel pulsed red,light bleeding through cracks like veins.
And beneath it all,a voice played through broken speakers—Han's laughter, Seo-rin's scream,and Wan's whisper layered above them all:
"Truth was never buried, Rang.It was waiting for you."
Lee Rang didn't die that night—he was rewritten.And in Tunnel 404,the world would finally remember what it created.