In the story, a small kid is about to grab his mom, but after a few moments, we see the MC wake up from his dream. He tells himself, "Not that dream again..."
MC is staying in a cheap place to live. He stands up, goes to wash his face, and says to himself that he doesn't even remember anything about his past — only that same dream keeps coming back. In the dream, he was trying to grab a woman, but he doesn't even know who she is.
A few hours later, MC puts on his clothes and heads to work at a factory. We see he has two friends — just friends — one of them is a girl. They ask if he had that same dream again, and he nods, saying, "Yeah, it's just like before."
They all tell him not to worry about it. They've already forgotten their past completely, so it's not like they even know what happened in their childhood or who their parents were. But MC gets angry and says, "Even if I don't remember, this is happening because we used too much of our memories for food and other stuff. Now we don't even know what our own lives were!"
Then he storms off to his boss — a woman — and angrily says, "Boss, why don't you increase the pay of our memories? At least let us remember our past!"
The boss replies she can't do anything. "This system has been like this for generations," she says. "Even if I raise the pay and you start to remember, it's pointless because of the memory-based economy we live in."
MC slams his fist in anger and yells, "What's the point of living if we can't even remember how we felt in the past?"
His boss looks sad and just says, "There's nothing we can do." Then she sits in her chair and asks him, "Can you go back to work now?"
He looks down, frustrated. "Yeah... I'll go to work."
His two friends ask him what's going on, but he just looks down and says, "It's nothing. Let's just get to work like usual."
Later, when his work is done, MC goes to buy a small drink from a shop. But he sees he has to pay with memories again — and if he does, it could wipe out everything he remembers, even that dream.
So instead, he goes home, drinks water from a bottle, and suddenly gets flashbacks from his past. In anger, he punches the wall — and the entire wall gets destroyed. But his hand isn't even hurt. He's shocked.
He rushes to tell his friends, but on the way, he accidentally bumps into a small kid. The kid is all alone — homeless, with no memories of his past. As MC reaches to touch the kid, he suddenly feels his own memories returning. But the kid just stares at him blankly, like nothing happened. That's when MC realizes — he can steal memories from others...
Then he thinks about the dream again. The woman — she's smiling at him. He realizes: That's his mom.
From the shadows, his boss watches and says to herself, "I knew he'd unlock that power the moment he came to my office." She looks at her own hand and says, "Tomorrow... I'll have to use my power to make him forget everything again."
The next day, MC goes to her office and asks, "Why did you call me?"
She replies, "Are you having trouble at work?"
He looks her in the eye and says, "Why did you hide your identity from me, Mom? Even though I'm your son…" Then he breaks down crying and punches the table, yelling, "That dream… I've had it for so long. I didn't even know who she was, but now I do. I finally saw my mom's smile again… and I don't want to forget it."
She's shocked. "You've had that dream all this time? I thought you were like the others… I thought you lost all your memories."
As he's about to say more, she gently touches his head and says to herself, "It can't be helped… I have to erase your past again."
She uses her power, and all the memories MC had regained… are gone.
He blinks, confused. "Boss, why are you touching my head?"
She smiles faintly. "It's nothing. You should go back to work."
When MC leaves, she breaks down crying. "I'm sorry, my son… I had to do this. If you remember everything… they'll kill you."
She looks in the mirror, tears in her eyes. "They told me to play this role… to make sure no one remembers their past. Not even my own son. I almost died from remembering mine. But… should I keep following them? Should I destroy this system, even if it means fighting the whole world?"
She watches her son laughing with his friends from the office window. "No… I can't let him die. I won't fight the system. I'll protect him… even if it means he never remembers me."
The end