The JSTR team did not find out that Illik had been shot and killed last night until this morning.

  A single, short line in a breaking news report delivered the news.

  It was an incredibly hollow and unbelievably simple sentence.

  Scott, the leader of the JSTR team, stood before the entrance of the morgue.

  He stopped in front of the door for a moment, saying nothing.

  Soon, a long sigh escaped his lips.

  Then, he slowly pushed open the cold metal door.

  That sigh was a tangle of various emotions.

  Letting her slip away at the airbase. Underestimating the abilities she possessed.

  And finally, the fact that he first learned of her death not directly, but through a news article this morning.

  All of these truths... perhaps within that exhaled sigh, there was an emotion even darker than regret.

  It was a sense of utter patheticness toward himself.

  —-

  Scott and four agents stepped into the morgue. The cold air brushed against their skin.

  On a metal table in the center of the room lay a corpse covered by a white cloth.

  The five men stood around it in silence.

  A morgue employee was already waiting for them. As soon as Scott saw him, he spoke curtly.

  “The state is reclaiming this body.”

  The employee’s eyes widened for a moment.

  As if it were an unexpected remark, he stared at Scott before speaking cautiously.

  “The state… is taking the body? The family hasn't even arrived yet.”

  Scott said nothing. Instead, he pulled a small name card from his pocket.

  He thrust it directly in front of the employee’s face.

  It was an identification card for a national intelligence agency.

  The gesture appeared excessively authoritative.

  There was no explanation, no persuasion. It was closer to a mere notification. The employee could no longer say a word.

  –

  Scott turned his head to look at the agents standing behind him.

  “Put the body in a bag. Prepare it for transport.”

  It was at the very moment the agents were about to move.

  “Ah… wait.”

  Scott suddenly stopped speaking.

  His gaze was fixed on the cloth-covered body.

  Standing there as if lost in thought for a moment, he spoke in a low voice.

  “Uncover the body.”

  The cloth was slowly pulled back.

  Beneath it, Illik’s pale form was quietly revealed upon the metal table.

  Like someone fast asleep, her white skin lay softly under the cold light.

  There were about four gunshot wounds on her chest and flank.

  Because the body had already been washed clean with water, there was no smearing of blood or any messy appearance.

  Only small, dark traces remained upon the skin.

  Her face was slightly distorted, yet strangely, a peculiar sense of tranquility dwelled within her expression.

  It was a face that held neither anger nor fear.

  Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

  Scott gazed at the sight in silence for a while.

  What lay before his eyes was merely the corpse of an ordinary human being.

  It was a body showing no signs of anything special, no different from any other person who had died from gunshot wounds.

  –

  “That’s enough. Cover her again, put her in the bag, and return to base.”

  As soon as Scott finished speaking, he stormed out of the morgue and into the hallway.

  The remaining agents began to secure the body. Scott sat in the large SUV, waiting for the agents to bring out the body bag.

  Sitting in the passenger seat and staring out the window, Scott tilted his head in confusion.

  ‘Something’s not right...’

  In his mind, his gaze slowly swept over the body again.

  ‘There’s absolutely no difference from a human body.’

  He muttered to himself inwardly.

  There were no traces that could be called "alien" anywhere.

  The skin, the skeleton, even the wounds everything was human. Physically, there wasn't a single thing out of the ordinary.

  Moreover, she had been killed by human bullets. And in her final moments, she had chosen death herself.

  ‘Why on earth?’

  The furrows on Scott’s brow deepened.

  ‘What could the reason be... there is no physical evidence at all to suggest Illik was an alien. Nothing...’

  His thoughts came to a halt as if hitting a dead end.

  ‘Ah...’

  He unconsciously rubbed his head. The more he tried to squeeze out an answer, the more tangled his thoughts became.

  She was human.

  A woman.

  Nothing more, and nothing less.

  If so, what on earth was it that made people perceive her as an alien?

  No matter how much Scott racked his brain, he couldn't get a grasp on it.

  After a while, the agents sealed the body inside a black plastic bag.

  The bag was quietly loaded onto a transport gurney and moved directly into the vehicle.

  The engine let out a low rumble.

  The vehicle carrying the agents left the morgue and began to speed down the dark road.

  Their destination was once again the Las Vegas Air Force Base.

  Scott remained lost in deep thought for over thirty minutes after the car left the morgue.

  Closing his eyes and rubbing his forehead, he threw a question to the agent behind the wheel.

  “Did that body we just saw look like an alien to you?”

  Caught off guard by the sudden question, the agent replied casually.

  “No, sir. She just looked human.”

  “Then, assuming she was an alien, what was it that made her different from a human?” Scott asked, like posing a riddle.

  “Hmm... In my opinion, isn't it that she approached the police knowing full well she would die?”

  “Exactly... As if she had to die.

  As if she had completed some mission, and this current physical form was no longer necessary.”

  Scott already knew the answer, but he seemed to be seeking a response that would confirm his own intuition.

  “We still have the female driver who was with Illik held at the base, don't we?”

  “Yes, sir. She is currently being detained in a safe house within the base.”

  “Good. Let’s go interrogate her.”

  As the car sped toward the airbase, Scott organized his thoughts while staring out the window.

  The image of Illik’s corpse he saw at the morgue would not easily leave his mind.

  He began to slowly piece together several conclusions.

  First. Illik and Jun-ho definitely exchanged something in the interrogation room that day.

  They weren't strangers meeting for the first time; they already knew each other.

  And it was certain that Jun-ho had passed some kind of information to her.

  Though he didn't know what it was yet, there was a lingering sense of an invisible pact between them.

  He had to check the CCTV footage of their conversation in the interrogation room from that day.

  Second. Illik possessed the ability to remain uncaught.

  What she had displayed was not merely physical prowess.

  It was closer to a mental ability.

  Or perhaps, it was the power of some weapon she possessed some cosmic device beyond human comprehension.

  If that were the case, another possibility emerged.

  That she died in this manner… perhaps because she no longer had any use for that physical body.

  Scott’s eyes narrowed.

  It was the kind of thought that belonged in a sci-fi movie, yet in the current situation, it couldn't be entirely ruled out.

  What if she had transferred her consciousness to someone else?

  …And if so, who was the target?

  An image flashed through Scott’s mind: the truck driver he had encountered on the road that night. She was the one who needed to be investigated.

  Third. Illik’s death was broadcast live across the entire United States.

  The media aired those scenes repeatedly, and as a result, significant chaos spread through American society.

  The government, too, took a non-negligible hit—especially with the elections looming.

  It was possible, entirely possible, that she had intended for this to happen.

  However, fortunately for us, the war has resumed. It has shifted the center of gravity.

  Scott closed his eyes for a moment, then snapped them open. At the center of this entire puzzle, there was one man.

  Jun-ho.

  He must be brought back to the United States at all costs.

  Scott’s expression hardened. Jun-ho had claimed he would cooperate with us, but in the end, he only obstructed our path.

  He wasn't a mere person of interest. He was a dangerous individual. And above all else…

  there was a high probability that he was connected to an extraterrestrial entity in some way.

  The car sped through the dark road. Scott made a final decision in his heart.

  The moment he arrived at the base,

  he would issue an arrest warrant for Jun-ho. And then,

  he would interrogate that female truck driver.