Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 22: That Pizza (6)

A red glow filled the air.

Strangely enough, the scene looked almost like a beautiful night sky full of crimson stars.

Of course, the problem was that every one of them was a meteor shower crashing straight toward me.

I shut my eyes tightly, but the pain I was expecting never came.

Instead, a strange sensation surrounded me.

When I opened my eyes, what I saw was unbelievable.

Just like when Titan Tech’s robot blocked my fist with shadow, the red lasers were now moving in slow motion through the air, as if suspended.

No—Titan Tech’s shadow ability wasn’t meant to block fists. It must’ve been meant to intercept projectiles like this.

Compared to my punch, those beams had way more destructive power.

I stared in awe at the shadow coiling around my body.

It writhed like a living creature, wrapping around me entirely.

At the edges, it pixelated like a corrupted digital image—scattering and reforming in a constant loop.

It looked like a slow-burning black flame.

“Why did I suddenly unlock a new ability?”

“It feels kind of like the Heart Drill....”

Even as I tried to figure it out, the red beams kept drifting toward me, slow and steady, like they were underwater.

But no matter how much they slowed down, light was still fast—and with dozens of beams coming from every direction, there was no way to dodge them all.

“I’ll have to take a few hits if I want to break through—”

In that moment, the shadow at my feet rippled like it had reacted to my thoughts.

A black wave rose from my ankles and swallowed my whole body in an instant.

It felt like sinking into warm liquid—and then, a wave of vertigo, like the entire world had flipped upside down.

In the blink of an eye, I was somewhere else entirely.

Standing behind one of the Prototype Soldiers.

Shadow travel!

It was unmistakably the same ability Titan Tech’s robot had used when it ambushed Agu.

Where I’d just been, dozens of laser beams crashed down.

The way the beams, previously bound by shadow, suddenly crossed and exploded in the air—it looked like a detonation made of pure light.

If I’d still been standing there, I would’ve been vaporized.

As the red flashes faded, nothing was left at that spot.

The Prototypes were thrown into confusion—but not for long. Their sensors suddenly blared in unison.

BEEEEEEP.

With the alarm, they all turned their heads toward me.

I’d been spotted again.

But a confident grin spread across my lips.

With this ability, I could fight them.

As I smiled, blue circuits extended from my right hand—and then shifted into a sharp blade.

It carved a glowing blue arc through the air.

The Prototype that had just started to turn its head toward me—its torso slid cleanly off its lower half and fell in slow motion.

Red energy bled out from its body and scattered into the air.

"Now it’s my turn."

The shadow beneath my feet rippled again.

I melted into the darkness—moving toward the next victim.

****

A flicker of blue echoed across the hologram screen.

Richard Hawk, head of the Circle Project development team, dropped the datapad in his hands.

It shattered on the floor—but he didn’t even glance at it.

“Impossible....”

He said it aloud, without even realizing.

That unidentified cyborg didn’t just have technology resembling the Circle—he seemed to possess Titan Tech’s newest abilities too.

“He’s using both Circle and Titan Tech systems?”

It was unthinkable.

The Circle wasn’t just some invention.

It was the culmination of decades of secret research under Hexa Core Armory.

AI frame data gathered when every megacorp had formed an unlikely alliance thirty years ago.

Legacy tech sourced from MK Corporation over a hundred years ago.

Energy assimilation research conducted by deliberately triggering AI Corruption zones around Babel’s outskirts.

And then the human experimentation—orphans, the homeless, the undocumented, even gang members thrown into the grinder.

All of it—the data, the records, the subjects—had led to this single technology.

Titan Tech’s methods, no doubt, were similarly built.

And now someone existed who wielded both.

“No way.”

Richard muttered as he placed a trembling hand to his forehead.

Even as he watched Hexa Core’s battle-hardened Prototypes fall one after another, he couldn’t stop muttering.

Attacks slicing clean through the Circle Prototypes’ reinforced armor.

Mobility through shadows, like Titan Tech's stealth units.

Durability that didn’t falter even with holes torn through the body.

This wasn’t just advanced—it was overtechnology.

But there was still hope.

The enemy was alone. And the veterans of Hexa Core Armory were starting to adapt to his patterns.

The fact that they were landing occasional hits proved that.

“Wait.”

As his thoughts spiraled, a certain rumor surfaced in Richard’s mind.

An absurd conspiracy whispered among employees of various megacorps.

“MK Corporation still exists.”

And someone at Richard’s level knew better than to laugh it off.

After all, there were suspicious internal protocols inside Hexa Core Armory tied to MK Corporation.

“No way....”

With a trembling hand, Richard manipulated the AR interface, beginning to render the unknown cyborg.

He compiled all the combat footage from the Prototypes’ perspectives—assembling the full body image piece by piece.

Glowing blue eyes.

A sleek, black body.

Cat-like ear decorations atop the head.

Blue circuits endlessly pulsing across the body.

And faintly etched into the chest—a logo.

“This is....”

The rendering finished. Richard’s face turned pale.

The logo read exactly what he feared:

MK Corporation.

“So MK Corporation... really did exist after all.”

With a shaking hand, he slammed the comms button.

“Prepare full retreat. All Prototypes—stall the target until the signal is given.”

****

After slicing through the Prototype, I immediately dove back into the shadow.

This content is taken from freeweɓnovel.cѳm.

The black wave wrapped around me, and I felt as if I were being pulled into liquid.

I drifted through the shadows for a while, swimming through the dark.

The Prototypes were clearly starting to get used to my patterns—if I jumped out right away, they’d notice instantly. This way, I could throw off their timing.

Once I figured I’d waited long enough, I rose toward the surface of the shadow.

The blue ring around my heart began spinning faster, and the energy flowing through my body surged toward my blade.

When the energy hit its peak, I tore through the veil of shadow.

Graaagh!

I burst out with a savage expression.

...

But there was no one around.

Feeling awkward, I looked around. The corridor was empty. No sign of the Prototypes.

I slowly wandered the area, but only the silence greeted me.

What the hell?

Only faint traces of red energy still floated in the air, remnants of the beams the Prototypes had fired.

They had vanished without a trace.

What the hell happened?

It made no sense.

The continued barrage of red beams had an almost 100% chance of severing my neck.

Sure, I wouldn’t die even if that happened—my victory was inevitable—but there was no way the enemy knew that.

So why retreat all of a sudden?

A hundred questions spiraled through my head.

I stayed tense for a long time, waiting for the Prototypes to show themselves again—but they never did.

Shockingly, the enemy had retreated.

I summoned Agu and “I.”

Agu’s belly wound still hadn’t fully closed, but he was functioning just fine.

“I” looked around the hallway with wide, curious eyes.

“Something’s not right. Let’s investigate the rest of the plant.”

Both of them nodded at my words.

We cautiously explored the Black Bio Plant—but all we discovered was something even more surprising.

No one’s here...

The entire section once occupied by Hexa Core Armory was completely deserted.

Signs of a rushed evacuation were everywhere.

Datapads had been destroyed, power cables ripped from the walls and strewn across the floor in a tangled mess.

It looked exactly like someone had issued an emergency retreat order.

And the same went for Titan Tech.

The departure hadn’t been as frantic, but their sector was just as empty.

At this point, the mission was pretty much complete, right?

Hehe.

****

A quiet night at the Seoul Dispatch Office, bathed in soft blue light.

An old ceiling fan turned lazily, stirring the air.

Behind the counter, Amber polished a glass and looked down at A, who was slumped over fast asleep.

Just a few hours earlier, A had burst through the door with a bright smile.

“Mission complete...!”

She’d shouted that, then dropped into a seat at the counter—and fell asleep right there on the table.

Like a kid who’d run with everything she had. Then again, maybe she actually had run the whole way.

Right then, the TV started playing the news.

[This is Babel Network. Earlier this morning, Hexa Core Armory abruptly withdrew from the Black Bio Plant.]

[A spokesperson from Hexa Core Armory stated that the Low-Tech Street Gang suffered catastrophic losses and scattered.]

[As a result, Black Bio has resumed production as of this afternoon, and the food crisis is expected to resolve much sooner than anticipated.]

Amber let out a low whistle as she listened.

The result had come way faster than expected.

And this particular operation had been a last-minute improvisation. Even if it succeeded, there was a good chance it wouldn’t have any real effect.

“Just what the hell did she do in there?”

Amber muttered under her breath.

A faint blue glow pulsed from A’s body.

It throbbed steadily, ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ like a heartbeat—and with every rise and fall of her breathing, the glow gently brightened and dimmed.

That soft light somehow felt... calming.

Shuu-shuu...

A’s soft breathing echoed in the quiet Seoul office.

Looking down at her, Amber pulled out the business card she’d received not long ago.

It was made of special alloy—an outdated design that didn’t fit this era at all.

The surface had been engraved using a fine etching technique, displaying the name and contact info.

Amber stared at that old-fashioned card for a moment before slipping it back into her pocket.

Once A woke up, she’d tell her a special request had come in along with the card.

It’d probably be too early to send her on another job right away—but at the very least, she needed to know someone had asked for her.

Amber gently brushed A’s hair with her hand and whispered,

“Rest well, A.”