Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 54: Hector (2)

Hector stood motionless in the ruins.

His massive metal body blended into the wreckage around him, as if he were just another piece of the shattered landscape.

But this wasn't just any ruin.

It was a battlefield — one where something monstrous had happened, and the scars of that clash still lingered.

The ground had been torn and crushed under immense force. Twisted fragments of weapons and shattered implants lay scattered in every direction, so mangled they were barely recognizable.

Even the remains of Titan Tech’s pride — their colossal Titan Tanks — were ripped apart, left in ruins.

Hexa Core Armory’s exoskeleton suits, once gleaming symbols of dominance, had crumbled into piles of scrap metal, now just part of the debris.

And that wasn’t all.

Broken drones from Abyss Aerotics were strewn about, their pieces tangled among massive shards of metal, some clearly ripped from Sakamata Heavy Industries' aircraft carriers.

It was as if every megacorp in Babel had converged here, throwing everything they had into a brutal war.

Yet what made this place even more grotesque were the cracks — rips through the world itself.

Unreal fractures split the air and the ground alike, flickering in and out of existence like scars carved into reality.

Pockets of blackened corrosion floated like ink drops, bleeding ominous energy into the atmosphere.

This was why no one ever came back.

A land cursed — twisted and broken, where time and space themselves had rotted away.

This was the battlefield Hector had fought on more than fifty years ago — back when he was still human, back when the legend began.

Hector stood at the exact center of the ruins, at the very spot where the war had ended, gazing up at the ashen sky.

He made this pilgrimage about once a month.

Just to remember.

To never forget his goal — and the horrors he survived.

Even now, if he closed his eyes, he could vividly relive the slaughter against MK Corp’s monsters.

The Wraiths of MK Corp.

They had been terrifying beyond comprehension.

Their strikes had slashed through space itself. Titan Tech’s behemoth tanks had been torn apart like paper before them.

Hexa Core’s overwhelming firepower, once the pride of the armory, meant nothing against them.

No cutting-edge weapon from any megacorp could pierce the Wraiths.

The battle was pure despair.

Anyone watching could see it — the megacorp alliance was losing, badly.

But then MK Corp suddenly retreated.

When one Wraith was shredded by an experimental erosion bomb the alliance had barely managed to deploy, the rest of them simply vanished — abandoning the battlefield in an instant, as if a single casualty was unacceptable.

At the time, Hector had been nothing more than a mercenary hired by Hexa Core Armory, scrambling just to survive.

And somehow, he had.

He survived the nightmare.

And that was enough to make him a legend.

Since that day, Hector had lived for one thing only:

To catch up to the Wraiths.

To reach that overwhelming, untouchable power.

For that goal, he had abandoned his humanity without hesitation.

He mechanized his entire body, and willingly threw himself into the dangerous Circle Project of Hexa Core Armory.

His hand absently brushed over his chest — the spot where his artificial heart had been grafted in.

The core of the Circle System glowed faintly beneath the metal, pulsing with a deep red light.

“Once the Circle is complete... maybe I'll finally reach them.”

His mechanical voice echoed low across the empty wasteland.

His blood-red mechanical eyes stayed fixed on the warped fissures scarring the sky.

****

I was back in my studio apartment, settling into the same old peaceful routine.

The TV blared noisy ads and endless news updates while I sprawled across the floor, lazily munching on Black Bio Pizza and watching "I" and Kiwi play nearby.

It looked like an ordinary scene.

Except for one ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) detail.

"Kyuhing... hing..."

Mecha-Agwi was hanging from the ceiling, letting out a pitiful whine.

His round body was tightly tied up with a sturdy rope, dangling like a giant fish.

The reason for his punishment was simple.

While I was asleep, he had tried to sneak over and gobble up Kiwi, who "I" adored.

Luckily, "I" had gained enough physical presence to intervene, and immediately reported the crime attempt with impressive speed.

"I" had frantically smacked my eyelids until I woke up, groggy and confused, and I instinctively strung Agwi up from the ceiling in my half-asleep state.

The TV switched over to a follow-up report about the incident I had resolved not too long ago.

Given that it had almost wiped out an entire coastal region, it wasn’t surprising that the media wouldn’t shut up about it.

[...The Babel Police Department has announced the special promotion of Sergeant Blake for his contributions to resolving the Puppet Strings incident.]

[Additionally, Officer William, who had been wrongfully disgraced, will be reinstated and officially recognized as fallen in the line of duty. His surviving family will now receive the appropriate pension under regulation....]

"Good for them," I murmured under my breath.

It was comforting to know Blake’s efforts hadn’t been in vain.

At that moment, a message popped up on my AR interface — from Blake himself.

<Ms. A, thanks to you, we were able to clear William’s name. I can’t thank you enough. From now on, I’m going to start tracking down those blue-eyed entities in earnest. If you ever need my help, don’t hesitate to reach out.>

<ㅇㅇ>

I replied with a short <ㅇㅇ> — a casual "okay" — and closed the interface.

I did feel a little worried. That justice-obsessed cop seemed way too eager to throw himself into danger.

But no matter what I said, someone like him wasn’t going to listen anyway.

Maybe the only way to actually stop him would be to break every one of his limbs.

At that moment, the TV screen flickered and switched to a breaking news story.

[Meanwhile, construction firm "Simulacrum" has been officially selected as the lead developer for the devastated Eastern Coastal Zone, following the Puppet Strings incident.]

[Simulacrum has announced plans to transform the area into Babel’s premier resort destination using cutting-edge technology....]

"Simulacrum, huh..."

It was a name I'd never heard before.

It made sense for a construction company to handle redevelopment, but something about the name unsettled me.

I popped the last piece of pizza into my mouth and lazily poked at Mecha-Agwi’s tied-up belly as he dangled from the ceiling.

****

Victor and Aria met near a crumbling factory on the outskirts of Babel.

The dim light of sunset stretched long shadows across the rusted metal skeletons.

"Victor," Aria greeted first.

She wore her usual calm expression, but when she saw Victor, her eyes widened slightly in surprise.

"You've... gotten huge."

Victor looked completely different.

Thanks to the massive implant surgery he'd recently undergone, he was noticeably taller, bulkier — like an entirely different person.

He gave an awkward shrug and a half-smile.

"Yeah, well... let's just say I got a little stronger. It’s a simple job today. Let’s get it over with quick."

"Alright," Aria replied with a nod.

Compared to the battles they’d survived before, today’s mission was relatively straightforward.

Victor would infiltrate the target building with his newly enhanced body and top-grade stealth gear.

Meanwhile, Aria would link into his visual implants, hijack his sight, and remotely hack the target’s data center.

Everything went exactly as planned.

Victor moved like a shadow, slipping past the security systems without leaving a trace. Aria, watching through his eyes, cut through the firewalls in a matter of seconds and extracted the data they needed.

It was smooth. No unexpected resistance, no complications.

As they exited the building, Aria flashed a rare, small smile of satisfaction.

"High-performance Victor. Makes the job easy."

Victor laughed again, looking a little embarrassed by the compliment.

After they parted ways, Victor headed straight for the little house where Iris and Daniel lived.

Today was special — Iris had promised to cook dinner herself.

He’d been looking forward to it for days. His steps were lighter than usual.

Burning Duct’s outer residential area.

Victor walked through the familiar alleys, weaving past broken fences and cracked walls.

In the distance, warm light spilled from the window of Iris's home.

He smiled to himself and approached the front door.

But the moment he arrived, the blood drained from his body.

The door was wrecked.

It had been brutally torn from its frame, hanging awkwardly by the last strands of twisted metal. Cracks spiderwebbed through the surrounding walls.

Victor’s heart seized. He shoved the broken door aside and charged inside.

The interior looked like a hurricane had ripped through it.

Furniture lay toppled and shattered. Broken glass and splintered objects littered the floor.

And in the middle of the living room — Daniel lay motionless.

His face was pale. A faint trail of blood stained the corner of his mouth.

"Daniel!"

Victor sprinted over and checked him desperately.

Thank God — he was still breathing.

"Hey! Are you okay? What happened?!"

Daniel opened his eyes with great effort, staring up at Victor in a daze.

"Ugh... Mister..."

His voice trembled, barely a whisper.

"Iris... Iris got kidnapped...."