February 20, 2045 | 9:00 AM | Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

  Amidst the tranquility of a two-story concrete house nestled in the center of vast rice fields...

  BOOM!!! A thunderous explosion erupted from the basement, shaking the earth. The vibration sent flocks of birds scattering into the sky in a panicked frenzy.

  “Mom!” Linnea, a striking Thai-Swedish young woman, sprinted toward the basement—the source of the terrifying sound.

  SLAM! She threw open the door into a room choked with thick, swirling smoke.

  “Mom!” Linnea rushed to support her mother. But the severity of the wounds across her mother’s abdomen was devastating.

  Cough! Pim, Linnea’s mother, slumped into her daughter’s arms, her strength fading fast.

  “Mom! Hang on! I’m calling an ambulance right now!” Linnea fumbled with her phone, her hands shaking so violently she could barely grip it.

  “Don’t...” Pim gripped her daughter’s hand with surprising strength, her voice a strained rasp. “Listen closely... this thing...”

  Pim handed Linnea three strange-looking white steel wristwatches. “It will help you... go back in time... to when you were young. Use it... stop... this nightmare. Don’t... let... the... demon... be... born... the... demon...”

  At the end of her sentence, Pim tried to repeat the same word over and over, but her voice trailed off into a hollow whisper as the life left her eyes.

  “Mom! Mom!” Linnea cried out in despair. Her mother, Pim, had once been Nisa’s personal secretary. Even long after Nisa was gone, the ideology of protecting the vulnerable had remained etched into her soul.

  Clatter... The watch fell from Pim’s lifeless hand. The sound snapped Linnea back to reality. She stared at the device—the final sliver of hope she had left.

  ***

  March 1, 2045 | 12:45 PM | At a Police Station

  “Sigh...” A long, weary sigh drifted from the waiting area. A slender hand tightened its grip on the time-travel watch strapped to the left wrist.

  “What’s wrong, Linnea? Still not used to this sight?” Jia, a Korean friend, asked with genuine concern. She had a delicate, oval face, though her eyes were dimmed by the exhaustion of their long journey. Her short, neck-length black hair gave her a sharp, capable look.

  “Who could ever get used to this?” Linnea replied sadly. Her features perfectly blended her Thai and Swedish heritage, creating a face that was usually captivating but now filled with grief. She bit her lip, her eyes fixed on a woman being dragged out of the station like a common animal.

  ‘Liberty and Equality...’ Linnea thought bitterly. Words her mother told her were once used to liberate women—why were they now being used as chains to hurt them even more? What should I do, Mom? What should I do?

  “Everyone! I got the address documents!” Meena, a stunning female police lieutenant with hair flowing down to her waist, walked out of the office holding the files. She looked dignified in her uniform, her sharp Thai beauty drawing eyes from everyone in the station. Despite her allure, her eyes held the iron resolve of an officer. She leaned in to whisper to Linnea. “Are you sure this gadget can really turn back time?”

  “I don't know... but my mother said so,” Linnea replied, her eyes shadowed.

  “Fine. Since we have no other choice, we’ll believe you. So, how do we start?”

  ***

  3:00 PM | At Linnea’s Living Room

  “Based on the records my mother left, the furthest we can travel back is 2023—when we were fifteen,” Linnea said, spreading the documents on the table.

  “Why only that far?” Meena asked curiously.

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  “The records say that at that age, our brains are strong enough to handle the memory waves from the future without side effects,” Linnea explained.

  “Then what? Should we just kill that 'Pearl-embedded' bastard right then?” Jia, who could swear in Thai fluently despite being Korean, asked fiercely.

  “Don’t forget about that Saito guy too,” Meena reminded them.

  “I don’t know...” Linnea’s posture slumped. She had just lost her mother and was now burdened with a weight far too heavy for her shoulders.

  “How about we prepare first? Go back, win the lotteries, buy stocks, build a massive fortune. Then we plan the most seamless way to eliminate those two so we don't get caught,” Meena suggested, using her police background to think ahead.

  “Brilliant! If we’re ready, let’s deal with Mook first. He’s the one who builds GREM. Saito is just the investor; we can take him out later if we get the chance.” Jia shook a biography of ‘Chonlanon Maneenual’—published in 2043—with confidence.

  Linnea looked down at her watch. Her mother’s notes said it could only travel back and forth five times before disintegrating. Her mother’s final words echoed in her mind: ‘Don’t let the demon be born.’ Looking at her two friends, Linnea made her choice.

  “Let’s do it!”

  ***

  October 1, 2023 | 3:30 PM | At a Karaoke Room

  “WOO-HOO! Please call me Madame Jia!” Jia, now in her 15-year-old body with the white steel watch on her wrist, was jumping for joy on a massive pile of thousand-baht notes. After returning to the past, she used her future knowledge to win the first-prize lottery every single draw.

  “Linnea! Come dance!” Meena called out, trying to get her brooding friend to celebrate. The three girls were in high spirits, preparing for the grand task ahead.

  ***

  November 13, 2030 | 7:00 PM | A deserted path near a university

  A van crawled slowly down a small, lightless road where no one was in sight.

  “Sob... hic...” The sound of muffled crying came from Mook—currently a chubby young man walking alone by the roadside. He had no idea that a grim reaper in the form of a van was trailing him.

  Screech! The van pulled up right in front of him. The door slid open, and two women in ninja attire lunged out, dragging him inside before slamming the door shut.

  “Wha—Mph!” Mook struggled with all his might, but his hands were pinned and his mouth covered. The execution began.

  Stab! Stab! Stab! The woman holding Mook from behind plunged a knife into his torso repeatedly with frantic violence. She stabbed him over and over until she was certain the chubby man was no longer breathing.

  Huff... huff... Linnea, who had been pinning Mook’s hands, pulled off her mask. She stared at the body soaked in blood, her eyes trembling. “Is he dead?”

  “He should be,” Meena said, removing her own mask to inspect the handiwork.

  “Phew...” Jia, who was driving, and the others let out a massive sigh of relief. The mission was done.

  “Only Saito left,” Meena whispered.

  ***

  April 25, 2036 | 7:00 PM | Prison Visiting Room

  “Can we kill him?” Meena, wearing a prisoner’s uniform, asked Jia—the only friend who had escaped arrest.

  “We can’t,” Jia shook her head slowly.

  “Forget it. It’s 2036 now, and there’s no sign of that GREM machine anywhere,” Linnea, also in prison attire, said to comfort her friend.

  “Does that mean... we actually succeeded?” Meena asked, a small smile finally appearing on her face.

  “Then... let’s go back.” Jia raised her wrist, pressed the button on the watch, and they vanished!

  ***

  March 1, 2045 | 8:15 PM | Nakhon Sawan, Thailand

  Flash! Linnea, sitting in her living room watching TV, felt a strange jolt. Memories of the past flooded back. She quickly looked at her wrist to see the white steel watch, then looked around.

  “I’m... I’m not in prison!”

  Linnea checked her body and smiled with pure, ecstatic joy. But the shock that followed was even greater when she heard a familiar voice...

  “Well, of course you’re not. I worked myself to death fighting for your sentence reduction. What were you thinking, killing him like that!” Pim grumbled as she carried a plate of dessert to the table for her daughter.

  “Mom!” Linnea lunged at Pim, hugging her so tight she nearly cried. She kissed her mother’s cheeks repeatedly until Pim didn't know how to react.

  “What’s wrong with you! Have you gone crazy?” Pim looked at her daughter in surprise.

  “Nothing, Mom... I just wanted to say I love you.” Linnea, now 37, told her mother she loved her like a young girl before happily digging into her dessert.

  “What’s gotten into this girl... Anyway, I’m going to work. Don’t bother me.” With that, Pim walked over and picked up an object that looked like a headband.

  “That... What is that, Mom?” Linnea’s face turned ghostly pale.

  “They call it ‘GREM,’ honey. Someone told me it’s designed specifically for men, so I wanted to check it out.” Pim replied with a curious look, confused why her daughter looked like she had just seen a ghost.