Getting to Korea proved itself easy enough. Tex wasn't a big fan of traveling to other countries, but he had to admit it was much better than it had been a few years prior. Ever since it had become public knowledge that the TSA had managed to stop less than zero terrorist attacks, full body scans had been rendered illegal.

Luggage checks and pat downs, however, had only gotten more intense.

"How will we get through security?" Junji asked as they left the car.

"My gun don't set off the alarms." Tex replied. "It ain't made of metal."

"What about the bullets?"

Tex hummed out a small noise of discomfort. He'd been hoping Junji wouldn't ask.

"We used to have a saying in the marine corps." Barton said as she gave Tex's shoulder a pat. "No one likes shoving things up the tailpipe more than a country boy."

"Ah." Junji replied. "What about the gun we plan to plant on our target?"

"Barton's got a hole in her shoulder." Tex answered, swatting Barton's hand away.

"It's from the time I was shot with a boulder." said Barton.

"Does your gun not use the same bullets?" Junji asked Tex.

"...What?" Tex replied.

"The gun we've bought to plant uses the same kind of ammunition as your gun. If the gun in Barton's shoulder is loaded, you could just move bullets from her gun to yours prior to landing."

Tex felt his face turn white. Next to him, Barton had to put a hand on her knee to keep from falling over.

"You've been--you've been carrying bullets up your ass for five years." she wheezed. "All because we were both too stupid to think of that!"

Thankfully, the trip didn't take too long. Tex spent the first half of the flight in a fictional relationship with the attractive older woman across the row from him. The relationship then ended, however, when he noticed she was wearing a dog collar that read Daddy's Little Girl .

Upon leaving the train, Tex followed Tala to the exit. A woman in a blue suit stood by the glass doors.

"Hanguk-e on geot-eul hwanyeong-haeyo." she said as they walked by.

"Uh, you too." Tex replied.

They took a train to get into Itaewon. Thanks to the neighborhood being a tourism hotspot, no one gave them a second glance. They arrived at Hwan's street by midnight, and Tala easily shut down the cameras.

Hwan's block was on the outskirts of Itaewon, in a residential area that blended nicely into a tiny forest park. From the large tree they hid under, Tex could see that Hwan's house was a large urban thing made of underlit rectangles that sat on a massive grass patch. He could also make out Hwan on his computer through an upstairs window.

"Guess we'll just wait here until he leaves or falls asleep." said Tex.

"What should we do while we wait?" Barton asked.

"We could kiss each other." Tala suggested.

"I would find that tolerable." Junji replied.

"How bout we do the opposite of that?" Tex pleaded.

"What's the opposite of kissing?" asked Tala.

"Gay sex." Barton said immediately.

"God, I can't believe Tex wants us all to have gay sex."

Just as he did every day, Tex prayed to God that hell wasn't real.

By two in the morning, Hwan was still on his computer.

"I wanna go to bed." Barton grumbled.

"You know it's only eleven in the morning where we live, right?" Tex replied.

While Barton shot Tex the stink eye, Tala pulled out her phone and began to rapidly tap on the keyboard.

"I have an idea on how to get him out." said Tala.

"How's that?" Tex asked.

After a few more long moments of typing, Tala opened her mouth to reply.

"I made a profile for a dating website." Tala explained. "We can lure him out with a cheap deal."

Tala typed in the words hello yes I am sexy Russian woman with poorly-put-together-man fetish would you like some sex into Google Translate. After she'd translated the words into Korean, she sent the message to Hwan.

It took Hwan about five seconds to reply. Tala ran the reply back through Google Translate.

"He wants to know what we look like." she stated.

"What do we look like?" asked Tex.

"Hang on..."

It didn't take Tala long to find an image to send to Hwan. Tex glanced over her shoulder as she picked one out.

"I like to live life on the edge." Tala said happily.

"Christ." Tex muttered.

"He wants to know where to meet."

"Christ. "

"This is why we should never have invented seat belts and disinfectant." said Barton. "Natural selection's stopped working."

The rest of the plan went flawlessly. They agreed to meet Hwan at a bar and he was out his door in seconds. After giving it just a few more minutes, they snuck into the house through the back door.

Tex wasn't sure why, but he felt a little bad about catfishing Hwan.

While the outside of the house had been impressive, the inside was rugged and unkept, filled to the brim with dirty dishes and broken shards of dry instant ramen. It wasn't uncommon for their target's houses to be messy, although Tex was always unsure why they didn't simply hire a housekeeper when they clearly had the money.

They found the computer up the staircase, where it took up the entire second floor. The whole room seemed to buzz with electricity, and Tex felt the tiny hairs on the back of his neck stand up.

Tex handed Barton his gun. She pocketed it and took a seat at the top of the stairs, keeping her eyes peeled on the front window.

"Alright." Tala said as she took out her laptop and plugged it into the computer's ethernet port.

While Tala got things set up on her end, Tex reached into her bag and fished out the adapter. After hooking the green cup to the computer, he helped both Junji and himself into the blue cups.

The train car appeared before him, completely unaltered from how it had been before.

"Were you being truthful when you told me you found this adapter in a dumpster?" Junji asked.

"Yep." Tala replied.

"What's the file?" asked Tex.

"It's called 'segsihan seukai lim'."

"We ready?"

"Go for it."

Junji placed his fingers on the screen. After adding his own left hand, Tex selected the directed file with his other.

The file loaded in and the program started. Tex vomited on the floor.

"Yeah, I'll get the bag." Barton said with a sigh.

"Wā." Junji muttered at the scene before them.

"Is it bad?" Tala wondered.

"I will say that it gives the expression 'chewed my ear off' a new meaning."

Tala failed to reply. An invisible bag was handed to Tex.

"No, but really." Junji followed. "It is quite shocking."

"How many are there?" asked Tala.

"Too many." Tex muttered.

"Makes sense. There's hundreds of assets."

"Who are they?" Junji asked.

"Just randos, I think. I don't think any of them are correlated to real people."

"So they have no counterparts from our world?"

"Nah. They're entirely new people."

"Interesting. Is this common?"

"It isn't uncommon." Barton answered.

"I have it recorded that sixty-seven percent of the operations we've come across have used DNA converters to make copies of real people, specifically people that the perpetrator knows." said Tala. "Thirty-two percent have used random number generators to spawn in randomized humans."

Tex did his best to calm himself as he tried to piece together the scene before him. He could barely register the sound as Tala began to click around.

"See, this guy made his victims in a Skyrim character creation mod." Tala continued.

"Is that really so different than being born from woman?" Junji asked in wonder.

“Yes.”

“Who cares?” Barton grunted.

Tex cleared his throat, although no one seemed to notice.

"What about the last percent?" asked Junji.

"Huh?" Tala hummed.

"The numbers you gave only add to ninety-nine percent."

"Oh. Yeah. One time this lady was torturing dolphins. I didn't know where to categorize that."

"She worked at SeaWorld." Barton stated.

"She did work at SeaWorld."

"Can we, uh--" Tex stammered. "Can we get to work?"

"Sure. Sorry Tex."

Working through Hwan's computer proved itself to be quite difficult. By the time everyone in the simulation had stopped screaming, Tex had thrown up seven times and lost the ability to support himself on both feet. When Barton finally came around to rid him of the memories, Tex sighed in relief.

Barton also offered the memory wipe to Junji. Junji didn't take it.

"We ready to communicate with the modded victims?" Tala asked.

"Sure." Tex replied.

"I am ready." said Junji.

There were two hundred and seventy-eight of them, and not a single one of them spoke English.

"Since they only know Korean, we're going to have to feed our Jesus asset Google Translate lines." Tala explained.

"Ah, Google's shit at translating Asian languages." Tex replied. "We should tell them we're using Google Translate."

"Mmh."

"Put it on hold." Barton announced as she handed Tex his gun back. "We got company."

Instinctively, Tex pulled the suction cup from his forehead. He found that Junji had gotten his off as well, without any help.

After motioning for everyone to press themselves up against the far left wall, Tex readied his gun. If everything went alright, they would be the be the last thing Hwan saw if he came up the stairs.

"Is the timing usually this neat?" Junji asked Tex in a voice so quiet that Tex had to strain to hear.

"Nah, just a coincidence." Tex replied, just as muted. "Usually takes much longer for them to come back."

"Sometimes Tex steals stuff." Barton whispered.

Although Barton's comment was accurate, Tex chose to be offended anyway.

The creak of the stairs under Hwan's feet was loud enough to make Tex's heart pound. But Hwan still didn't look over even as he passed by them.

Hwan stopped moving. Slowly, he turned his gaze to the left.

"Mwoya sibal?" Hwan said.

Quick as a wink, Barton positioned herself between Hwan and the staircase. Hwan's eyes were wide as Tex whipped out his gun, lined up the shot, and missed point blank.

"Fuck!" Tex swore.

Barton and Junji exchanged a quick glance. Hwan made his break back down the stairs, but Barton easily tripped him before he could get too close. He went flying, back first, into Junji, who caught him with ease.

"Torture is wrong." Junji said calmly as he snapped Hwan's neck.

"Wait! Wait. Damn. " Tex yelped, just a second after Hwan's body had fallen to the floor.

"What?"

"We're supposed to make it look like he killed himself."

Barton waved her hands at Junji.

"Here, I'll fix it." she called.

Barton caught Hwan when Junji tossed him to her. Without a moment of thought, she twisted Hwan's neck in the opposite direction.

"Fixed." she said. "Done."

"Now his neck's broken the other way!" Tex replied.

"I'm just having fun."

"...I'll see if I can find a rope."

"Have a good time."

Barton began to get to work fixing the hole in the wall left by the bullet. With a rub of his temples, Tex took off to begin his search.

He found a total of zero ropes. To his luck, however, Tala and Junji had fashioned a make-shift noose out of several loose wires by the time he'd gotten back.

"You two mind if I don't watch?" asked Tex.

"Do whatever you want." Tala answered.

Tex nodded as he made his way back down the stairs. Wanting to feel like he was helping, he took a look out the back window to make sure there was no one peeping in.

It had been less the gore he'd wanted to get away from and more the...smell.

Tex returned to the top of the stairs after the grunts of manual labor had finished. He found that Hwan's body was out of sight.

"We hung him on his porch." Tala said.

"It was the only place that was high enough to believably snap his neck." Junji explained.

"Mmh." Tex replied. "We going back in again?"

"I am still ready."

After getting a nod from Tala, Tex restuck the suction cup to his forehead. He and Junji both put a hand on the traincar windows to resume their pursuits.

Talking to the horde of confused and frightened people didn't end up being too hard, although it was a very slow process. Jesus spoke to them with translated lines from Tala, and Tex and Junji had to repeat any questions the horde had phonetically into Tala's phone where it was translated into English.

"You told them we're using Google Translate, right?" Tex asked.

"No." Tala replied. "Why does it matter?"

"I don't want them to think we're stupid. "

Out of the two hundred and seventy-eight poor souls, one hundred and ninety-two chose to have their code deleted, or as Tala had put it, 'deyeeted'. The other eighty-six expressed their wishes to have a new life in the mediocre paradise that Jesus had promised.

"Guys I'm really sorry about the deyeeting thing." Tala repeated as the crowd continued to speak back to Jesus.

"They're asking, uh, 'ulineun bioghabnikka'." Junji told Tala.

"What do that mean?" asked Tex.

"They want to know if they can procreate with each other." Tala answered as she clicked on her keyboard. "They probably want to start families."

"Can they?"

"I don't know."

"Moleugessda lol. " Jesus said to the crowd.

The crowd groaned.

The rest of the world building went smoothly, save for one bump. Tala found that the new program and all of its occupants were too much for the computer to speed up time by much, so they were forced to keep the program open and pray the computer was left on for a while.

"Hope the police don't turn the computer off." Tex said as they left. "Those people would be toast."

"Just think of it like a surprise heat death." Tala replied.

Before they left, Tex cut out the square of carpet where his vomit had landed to avoid any secret throat DNA getting into police hands. He tossed it in a trash can a few blocks over, and they were on their way back to the train station.

Tex didn't try to overhear Junji and Tala's conversation, but it was hard not to in the silence.

"I am interested in the worlds you create." Junji said quietly to Tala as they walked.

"Oh?" Tala replied.

"I've spent some time thinking about how to maximize contentedness myself. Would it be alright if I shared some of my ideas with you?"

Tala nodded her head with interest.

"Yeah, sure." she replied. "Show up an hour or two early next time and we can talk."

Tex felt a rush of satisfaction. He'd been hoping that Junji would get along with the others.

The flight back to Washington was as uneventful as the trip there. Tala left her seat early to walk around, and Barton fell asleep almost immediately upon departure. Junji sat cross-legged with his hands in his lap, and Tex assumed he was meditating.

Tex didn't know much about meditation, so the desire to study what Junji was doing more carefully was there. Tex choose to read instead, however, as he didn't want to be rude even if Junji didn't have his eyes open to notice.

He'd gotten halfway through his book when Junji's eyes snapped open. Tex nearly jumped.

"May I ask you something?" Junji muttered.

"Course." Tex replied.

Junji didn't answer right away. Tex looked up to see that his brow was scrunched up in concentration.

"I'm having a difficult time phrasing my question, as it seems like the answer should be obvious." said Junji.

"Just ask."

"Why do you kill the targets?"

Tex chewed on the inside of his mouth as he thought of a good way to answer Junji's question.

"I'm not suggesting you do something else." Junji quickly followed. "I'm merely curious of your motivations."

"Nah, I understand." Tex replied. "It's mostly lack of a better option. We don't really got another way to make sure they don't do it again."

"Ah. That's what I was hoping."

"What else would it've been?"

"Revenge."

"Oh..."

Junji fell silent. Tex put his book down.

"That would be a little silly now, wouldn't it?" Tex followed.

"Yes."

"It just ain't like we can go to the cops. Cause guess what? Tetragramming isn't illegal."

Junji's blank expression morphed into one of mild wonder.

"What?" asked Tex.

"You sound disgusted." Junji answered.

"I am."

"Have you considered vouching for it to become illegal?"

"Hell no."

"Why not?"

"Reckon that'll make the problem worse."

"Then you should be perfectly content with the situation."

Tex shook his head as he opened his complimentary bag of peanuts.

"I'm glad it ain't illegal so that I can deal with the problem myself." he replied. "But that don't mean I'm not concerned about the implications."

"Implications?"

"People don't give a damn."

After he'd finished his statement, Tex tossed a peanut at his mouth for dramatic affect. It missed his face and sailed into the seat behind him.

"Have you ever wondered why people do it?" Junji asked.

"Do what?"

"Tetragram."

Tex sucked the salt off a new peanut as he thought of a good way to respond.

"Got my guesses." answered Tex.

"Would you like to share them?"

Before he replied, Tex stole a glance at Barton to make sure she was really asleep. After confirming that she was, he shot another glance over both his shoulders to make sure there was no one in earshot.

"I think most people got a sense of fairness to them, even the shitty ones." Tex said slowly. "So sometimes, when people get treated bad enough by life, they guess it's only fair to treat life the same way back."

"That is interesting."

"Thanks."

"Almost sympathetic."

"It ain't nothing."

Junji fell silent, although only for a few seconds. It looked like there was something that was bothering him.

"What?" Tex asked.

Junji cleared his throat.

"You seem to find viewing the programs we alter to be very upsetting." he replied.

"What about it?"

"If it is so awful for you, why doesn't Barton use the adapter while you keep watch?"

"Barton's shit at it."

Junji nodded. He didn't look particularly surprised by Tex's answer.

"Have you tried not being upset?" asked Junji.

"Huh?"

"There is more than enough torment inside the computer. Why should you add even more torment?"

"Is that how--do that work for you?"

"No. But I wondered if it might for you."

Junji looked strangely sheepish as Tex shook his head in wonder.

"Mind if I change the subject?" Tex pushed.

"I do not." Junji replied.

"Remember when I told you how we keep this place up and running?"

"Yes."

"I want you to meet the other people involved. We have a little meeting every Wednesday. Sound alright?"

"Yes, I would be interested in meeting with the other members of your commune--"

"Stop calling it that."

"--as well."

Tex grunted in irritation loud enough to wake Barton. After stirring for a moment, she sat up and opened a newspaper that blocked out the two of them.

"When and where is this meeting?" asked Junji.

"Six. Just go to the basement floor, and you won't miss us."

"Very well."

Tex thought that meeting people would be good for Junji. Still, he was a little worried about the potential of a fight.

"Do me a favor." Tex stated.

"What?"

"Don't talk about politics."

Junji frowned.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Cause you got--different ones than they do."

"Does Barton not also differ from the consensus?"

"Barton don't usually come."

"I hate community." Barton said as she put her paper down.

Tex shot Barton a quick look before opening his mouth.

"Barton lives by herself." Tex explained. "She ain't part of the club."

"How do you support yourself?" Junji asked.

"I made myself a little fortune." answered Barton. "Ground up."

"She still takes those social security checks, though." Tex muttered.

"...You benefit from social security?" Junji pushed. "I'd thought you'd be opposed to the concept."

"Of social security?" Barton asked. "No."

"Aren't you opposed to taxation?"

"Usually, but social security's alright."

At first, Tex thought that Barton's opinion was contradictory to some of her other beliefs. But by the time they'd touched down, he'd realized that it wasn't.