Category: Fiction
Through fiction rooted in plausible futures, we explore events that could unfold in our world and imagine how they might shape our lives. These stories invite readers to reflect on where we stand today—and where we may be heading.
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 30 — The Designer’s Time
“To become gods… wouldn’t they still need people to worship them?” Even as she asked it, Mika thought how servile she sounded. It was the kind of question that begged for one’s life, asked only in order to survive. When the advertisement ended, the image on the LED wall changed. The stretch of beach where…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 29 — Hope
The transparent elevator began to descend without a sound. Beyond the glass wall, a vast underground research facility unfolded level by level. A floor where robot arms assembled silver torsos; a floor where quantum computer halls bathed in blue cooling light stretched on endlessly; a bio-lab where artificial organs pulsed inside glass culture tanks; and…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 28 — The 96%
At an open-air restaurant overlooking the sea, Mika sat across from Rachel and ate pasta. Rachel only slowly tilted her wine glass. Mika was glad she could feel, exactly as it was, the texture of the pasta — slightly springy yet soft. “Ah, it tastes… good.” Mika’s guess that she would have lost all her…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 27 — The Horizon
News that Dr. Jang Jin-gyu, Korea’s foremost robotics authority, and his android secretary Rachel had died in an unexpected building collapse spread across every LED display on every building in Seoul. To prevent such disasters, the government announced it would conduct thorough safety inspections on all buildings over 50 years old. Nowhere was there any…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 26 — Three Decoys
Mika, as if disbelieving, examined her own hands, her own legs, her own body — then, startled, hurriedly covered her chest with both hands. “Aah! What is this?! Give me something to put on!” Dr. Jang turned his head away with a disinterested air, as if such things were beneath his concern. From Mika’s perspective,…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 25 — The New Body
Leo’s Blackcar Y pulled out of Terra Motors Factory No. 2 and merged onto the Skyway, headed for Seongbuk-dong. Six minutes to Dr. Jang’s grand mansion. But the moment the Blackcar Y appeared on the road, police drones immediately began their pursuit. Whirrr— whirrrr— Twelve patrol-type pursuit drones. Their rear LIDAR immediately identified the Blackcar…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 24 — HOMO DEUS
Pluto’s red eyes, which had been tracking steadily, went still — brightening and dimming in a slow, rhythmic blink. It seemed as though his life was running out. “That’s right. That’s exactly it. But you are not the culprit. Because it was not your free will — it was a hidden command buried inside you…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 23 — The Frankenstein
The camera drone projected into mid-air another video that Pluto was transmitting. It was a view of the secret laboratory located in the basement of Dr. Jang Jin-gyu’s grand mansion. The blood-soaked police robot Pluto stood guard before the massive laboratory door. On the experimental tables lay the bodies of Investigation Team Leader Jang Jeong-guk…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 22 — Butterfly
Mika tried, as if to fight back, to pull up a memory. The ramyeon Jeong-guk had cooked. The brief words they had exchanged on the way to work. What was that joke he had made — what did Jeong-guk’s face… look like… The memory was hazy. As if it had been processed with a Gaussian…
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Epi 01: PLUTO. Part 21 — On the Eve of the Wedding
So it was. Mika and Jeong-guk were an engaged couple who had set their wedding date for May 14, 2034. Mika, a social-affairs reporter, was a frequent visitor at police stations, and she had known Jang Jeong-guk, Chief of the Intelligent Crimes Unit, since his days as a junior detective. Jang Jeong-guk had been drawn…