Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 57: Hector (5)

The ruins of the sandstorm where A's old one-room apartment stood.

Inside the one-room, everything was still a mess.

Empty pizza boxes were scattered across the floor, and the TV was silently playing advertisement screens.

The Mecha-Agwi hanging from the ceiling was desperately twisting its body, trying to break free from the rope that bound it.

"Kkyu-hing-hing..."

A whimper, filled with injustice, echoed faintly through the room.

Below, "I" was playing with the kiwi birds.

"I" gently petted the back of a kiwi with golden-coated fingers, and the kiwis chirped happily, letting out soft "kiwi-kiwi" sounds.

It was a peaceful moment.

But the peace didn’t last long.

"Kkyu?"

The Agwi hanging from the ceiling suddenly froze.

It tilted its head, its feelers twitching sharply.

Something was approaching.

Tension filled Agwi’s round eyes.

Sounds rising from below.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

Heavy, rhythmic footsteps made the rusted steel staircase tremble.

They weren’t the footsteps of A or Amber.

"Kkyu. Kkyu-kkyu."

Agwi let out a small, urgent cry.

It was a warning to "I" and the kiwi birds.

"I" looked up at Agwi with a startled expression.

The kiwis huddled closer together, nervous.

Agwi nodded frantically, signaling "I" to hide quickly.

"I" hurriedly gathered the kiwi birds and dashed toward the pile of pizza boxes stacked in the corner.

And Agwi gathered all its remaining strength.

Stealth Field.

The space in the corner of the room shimmered faintly and began blending into the surroundings.

"I" and the kiwi birds vanished completely from sight.

It was at that moment.

Bang!

The steel door of the one-room caved inward and flew off.

Dust and debris exploded into the air.

A soldier in black combat gear swiftly scanned the room and muttered under his breath.

[Optical camouflage detected.]

In that instant, the soldiers simultaneously raised their rifles.

Muzzle flashes burst forth.

Drrrrrr!

Dozens of bullets rained toward the space covered by the Stealth Field.

At that moment, Agwi broke free from the rope and flung itself forward.

Like a shield.

Bullets pierced mercilessly through Agwi’s plump body.

"Kkyu-hing-hing..."

Agwi collapsed weakly to the floor, riddled with holes.

[Nooo!!]

"I" reached out with a shocked expression.

"Kiwi..."

The kiwi birds were also struck, falling over as juice spilled from their bodies.

The golden coating that had wrapped around "I" shattered under the barrage of bullets, peeling away.

The soldiers checked the collapsed Stealth Field area and looked confused.

Because all they found were a strangely shaped pet robot and a few kiwis.

"No sign of the target."

The soldiers hesitated for a moment ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) but quickly regained their composure.

"Doesn’t matter. Plant the bomb and get out according to plan."

They hurriedly moved to set the explosives.

At the very moment all their attention shifted elsewhere—

Agwi’s body, sprawled across the floor, twitched ever so slightly.

A faint blue light seeped out from the holes torn into its belly.

Agwi, squeezing out the last of its strength, slowly crawled toward "I," reaching out.

"I" also stretched out a translucent hand toward Agwi.

And finally—

Agwi’s plump palm and "I"’s translucent palm touched.

In that instant, a blinding flash erupted as Agwi and "I" merged.

When the soldiers turned around in shock, a new being stood there.

A bizarre form — "I"’s face on Agwi’s body.

Agwi-I.

Formed into a new Agwi-I form, "I" and Agwi shouted fiercely.

[Bad humans!] "Kkyu-aak!"

****

Even as I sprinted through the abandoned subway tunnels, Aria’s transmission continued without interruption.

[Amber’s okay. Scarlet is giving her emergency treatment right now. And...]

"And?"

Aria hesitated for a moment.

An awkward silence, as if she was struggling with what to say.

[I have a lot to say, but... this isn’t something to talk about over comms.]

"?

Aria’s tone subtly shifted, mimicking Amber’s speech patterns.

[...Just like Amber’s old habit.]

It gave me a strange feeling — like she finally understood the reason behind Amber’s way of speaking.

[Once you find Victor and Iris, come to Scarlet’s shop as fast as you can. I’ll be waiting.]

With that, Aria cut off the transmission.

I picked up my pace even more.

Inside the subway tunnel, the atmosphere grew increasingly bizarre.

Cracks, as if the space itself was torn, appeared and disappeared along the walls and ceiling.

Reality itself seemed unstable, flickering.

Touching one of those cracks would tear the body apart into shreds.

But that wasn’t all.

Small Erosion Zones floated in midair like droplets of black ink.

Small as they were, they were still Erosion Zones.

Any part that touched them would be devoured.

How much deeper had I gone?

The further into the tunnel I went, the more frequent the cracks and Erosion Zones became, and then—

Faint phantoms began appearing.

The hallucinations quickly filled the tunnel.

I had no choice but to stop and stare into them.

It was... like something gigantic.

It looked like the entrance to a universe so massive its end couldn’t even be seen.

Endless black void stretched out before me.

Just looking at the scene made me feel like I’d be sucked right into that dark abyss.

A space so empty it barely had stars, just infinite, suffocating darkness.

I only thought it was a universe for one reason.

Because right in the center of that darkness, there was a brilliant, radiant blue star.

****

In the massive cavern — the graveyard of weapons.

Victor and Hector.

Neither moved first. They both launched into motion at the exact same time.

Victor burst out from a pile of debris, raising his newly acquired hand cannon. The heavy gunshot echoed violently through the chamber.

It wasn’t the submachine gun he used to favor.

This was a weapon that matched the raw muscle strength enhanced by his implants — powerful enough to pierce even the thickest armor in a single shot.

Hector responded in kind, lifting a massive hand cannon of his own.

Two shells collided mid-air and exploded in a bright flash.

The shockwave blew nearby wreckage in every direction.

Victor used the aftermath of the blast to dash behind another piece of cover.

Hector’s next shot struck the place Victor had just vacated, sending chunks of concrete flying.

Dodging each other’s hand cannons, the two kept firing without pause.

AI trajectory predictions from their ocular implants and the high output of their leg implants made it all possible.

In those movements alone, Hector and Victor looked surprisingly alike.

["How entertaining."]

Hector’s mechanical voice boomed through the darkness.

His red glowing eyes tracked Victor relentlessly.

["Did you know? Only truly exceptional humans can not just endure a full-body prosthetic, but master it."]

Victor wanted to reply — but he was too out of breath. He was gasping, lungs rasping, metal scraping against metal with every desperate intake.

But Hector was different.

He had no lungs.

Only a cooling system that emitted a faint mechanical hiss.

And then, right after saying that, Hector’s movements became even more bizarre.

Firing from poses no human could imagine, using every inch of space to his advantage.

Victor strained to keep up.

He couldn’t follow Hector’s movements with his eyes anymore.

Only the predictive trajectories from his implants — and the combat instinct honed from years of battle — were keeping him alive.

And that realization hit Victor hard.

He was still clinging to human reflexes.

He began mimicking Hector’s movements.

It was awkward at first, but his body gradually adapted.

The explosive power from his steel legs, the perfect grip from the implants in his soles—

Victor launched himself off walls like Hector, soared through the air, moved through debris like an acrobat.

The fight between these two steel titans looked like a destructive dance.

Gunfire roared endlessly. Flashbangs split the darkness.

Collapsed debris flew up into the air, only to come crashing down again.

Who knows how much time had passed.

At last, Victor saw his chance.

As Hector paused to reload, Victor dove forward into his chest.

He aimed the muzzle of the hand cannon directly at Hector’s artificial heart — the source of that faint red glow.

Without hesitation, he pulled the trigger.

BOOM!

At ten meters or less, that hand cannon could pierce tank armor.

Surrounded by clouds of smoke, Victor gasped for air, grinning with victory.

That’s when it happened — a steel hand shot out from the smoke like lightning.

CRUNCH.

It crushed Victor’s hand cannon in an instant.

["Nice gun."]

At the same time, Hector lunged out from the smoke and seized Victor by the throat.

"Khk—"

He couldn’t breathe.

That steel grip was squeezing his neck like it would snap it in half.

Lifting Victor slowly into the air, Hector spoke:

["A good attempt."]

Shit. Didn’t go deep enough...

Where Victor had fired, there was only a faint scratch across Hector’s chest — as if something had merely grazed it.

["If you'd been a mercenary in the Great War like me, maybe you'd have become a legend."]

Hector tightened his grip, red eyes glowing fiercely.

["Now die."]

Victor, staring into the fading blur of his vision, watched death draw near and thought:

Should’ve gone full prosthetic after all...