Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 58: Hector (6)

Hector's unit had just finished planting the bomb inside A's one-room.

And right at the moment they began clearing the scene and preparing to pull out—

A blinding flash burst from the back of the room.

The soldiers reflexively raised their arms to shield their eyes.

As the light faded, something bizarre stood where nothing had been before.

It looked somewhat like the pet robot from A’s apartment, but something about it was... different.

A chubby, round body like Agwi’s — but with the face of a small girl who looked like A.

A plump torso and a cute, childish face.

Hardly threatening. If anything, laughably unimpressive.

The tension in the air loosened — for just a moment.

And in that moment—

The strange being, Agwi-I, morphed one arm into a blade and charged at the nearest soldier.

Its waddling gait looked clumsy, almost comical — but the speed was unreal.

[Bad human!] "Kkyuaaaak!"

“I”’s furious scream and Agwi’s eerie wail burst out in sync.

A blue trail sliced through the air.

The soldier was cleaved in half before he could even scream.

Only then did the rest of the unit grasp how serious the situation was.

The slackened tension snapped back into full alert.

"Open fire!"

With the squad leader’s command, the soldiers raised their rifles in unison and aimed at Agwi-I.

Drrrrrrrk!

Muzzles lit up, and a storm of bullets rained down.

The narrow one-room filled instantly with the reek of gunpowder and deafening gunfire.

But Agwi-I moved with uncanny ease through the hail of bullets.

Its movement still waddled — but not a single bullet touched it.

Its rippling belly subtly shifted to dodge incoming rounds, and those it couldn’t avoid were deflected by the swiftly sweeping blade.

Even while fending off bullets, Agwi-I's blade never stopped moving.

Each arc of that blue trail dropped another soldier.

Arms flew off. Legs were severed. Torsos split in two.

It wasn’t a battle — it was a massacre.

"Kkyuhihi."

As the last soldier’s head hit the floor, Agwi let out a satisfied giggle.

Silence returned to the one-room.

Scattered across the floor were dismembered bodies and shattered implant fragments. The walls and ceiling {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} were streaked with dark crimson oil.

BEEEEEEEEP—

Then, slicing through the silence, came a high-pitched tone.

Agwi-I turned its head toward the source.

In the center of the room, the bomb the soldiers had installed was blinking red, counting down rapidly.

[Nooo!] "Kkyu!"

Only now did Agwi-I seem to realize the bomb’s presence — its face twisted in panic.

It bolted to the corner of the room.

Behind the pile of pizza boxes, the kiwi birds were huddled together, shaking, wounded from the earlier gunfire.

Agwi-I gently gathered them into its arms.

Without a second’s hesitation, it sprinted out of the one-room.

Just as Agwi-I hurled its body out the shattered window of the building—

BOOOOOM!

A massive explosion erupted behind it.

The blast wave and intense heat slammed into Agwi-I’s back.

It tumbled through the air, spinning, and smashed into the ground.

After rolling across the debris-strewn street for a while, Agwi-I finally managed to stand back up.

It looked back.

The three-story building that once held A’s one-room was completely gone.

Only a collapsed wreck and a cloud of thick dust remained.

[Nooo....] "Kkyuhinghing..."

Agwi-I stared at the ruins, dazed and hollow.

****

The massive universe that blocked my path.

It was too vivid to be just a hallucination — and it filled the entire tunnel, leaving no space to avoid it.

The blue star at the center of it gave off a strange pull, as if it were calling to me.

What the hell is this universe? A hallucination created by the Erosion Zone?

It was clearly something I’d never seen before — yet felt oddly familiar.

Like a landscape I’d always known, or something I’d seen over and over in dreams.

I stepped forward, drawn to it like I was under a spell.

No hesitation. No fear.

Just a pure, instinctive certainty that I had to move forward.

One step. Another step.

With every movement, the universe expanded rapidly toward the blue star.

A strange sensation — like space and time were both stretching and collapsing at once.

Even through the dizziness, like I was teleporting, I kept walking.

How long had I been walking?

Time itself had grown vague — but at last, I neared the blue star.

The tunnel was now filled with its radiant glow.

Everything around me shimmered blue, like I was submerged underwater.

But as I drew closer, it no longer looked like a star.

It was an endless blue horizon.

Like a sea and sky fused into one — a pure, boundless world of blue without limit or edge.

And beyond that horizon stood a silhouette.

A being outlined in blue light.

As I faced it, my heart began pounding.

A strange, inexplicable excitement.

Like meeting a long-lost friend. Or reclaiming something I thought I’d lost forever.

The figure beyond the horizon slowly turned to face me.

[...]

The moment our eyes met, the universe vanished — and a new hallucination swept in to take its place.

Like a film reel swapping frames in a theater, one scene ended, and another began.

A battlefield.

Thousands of soldiers, tanks, and massive aerial combat vehicles.

They were all attacking one place.

Where blue-glowing humans stood.

At first glance, the odds looked ridiculous.

Hundreds, thousands of heavily armed troops launching an all-out assault on just a few humans.

But the battle didn’t unfold the way I expected.

It was horrific — completely one-sided.

No — it was a slaughter.

Shells, bullets, missiles aimed at the blue humans were all neutralized midair, as if hitting an invisible wall.

But a single movement from a blue human — a hand gesture, a step forward — and dozens of soldiers fell, tanks exploded.

They destroyed everything with calm, emotionless precision.

No rage. No hesitation.

And strangely, as I watched, I thought—

No, that’s not how you’re supposed to do it...

As if I had always known how to wield that kind of power.

The massacre continued until one of the blue humans was engulfed by a bomb that created a black sphere.

At that exact moment, the illusion shattered like glass.

The cracks in the tunnel walls and the micro-Erosion Zones all vanished, like they’d never been there.

‘!’

And I — standing there — was completely changed.

Energy surged through my body.

All my senses were alive, as if I’d just surfaced from underwater.

My perception spread outward in all directions.

Like a high-end radar, I instantly grasped everything around me.

The tunnel’s length, its shape, the space beyond — I understood it all in an instant.

The massive chamber that looked like a graveyard of weapons.

Every piece of debris and scrap within it — and at the very center, the scene unfolding there.

I’ve gotten stronger...!

But I didn’t even have time to savor that incredible change.

At the center of the chamber, my senses picked up a black steel skeleton of a man gripping Victor’s neck.

Victor’s life signals were fading fast.

Without a moment’s hesitation, I charged into the chamber.

My body moved faster and stronger than it ever had before.

****

The cold metallic grip tightened around Victor’s throat like it was going to crush it.

Under the suffocating pressure, Victor’s consciousness began to fade.

Hector’s red glowing eyes filled his vision like the shadow of death.

["Now die."]

The moment that mechanical voice echoed through the chamber—

Hector saw something strange.

The spatial cracks and micro-Erosion Zones that had filled this place for the last fifty years were all vanishing.

‘!’

Sensing something was off, Hector quickly scanned the surroundings.

Whirr—

Then, his sensors picked up a blue streak flying straight toward him.

It was targeting the steel wrist currently choking Victor’s neck.

The instant he detected the threat, Hector flung Victor aside and dodged back.

The blue trail grazed the spot where he had just been, slicing cleanly through the metallic debris on the floor.

Thud.

Victor hit the ground hard, coughing violently as he struggled to breathe.

Through his blurred vision, he saw a small figure standing between him and Hector.

A black coat lined with glowing blue circuit patterns.

White hair flowing in the breeze.

And eyes — luminous and blue, even in the darkness.

It was A.

Hector stared at the unexpected intruder.

At first glance, she looked like a fully prosthetic girl.

But the moment he saw her, he knew immediately.

She was the one he’d been waiting for all this time.

["The ghost of MK Corp!"]

Like those overwhelming beings he’d faced on the battlefield fifty years ago — that same oppressive presence radiated from the girl before him.

["Heh heh heh... HAHAHA!"]

A low, twisted laugh erupted from Hector’s synthetic voice box.

The crazed delight of a man who had finally met his destined nemesis after a lifetime of waiting.

A looked at him like he was a lunatic.

But Hector didn’t care.

This was the moment he’d lived for.

To stake everything — his very existence — in battle against the ghost of MK Corp.

["We meet at last."]

Hector hesitated no longer.

His artificial heart, glowing red at the center of his chest, began pulsing violently.

Circle System, activate.

He didn’t give a damn about stability.

Right here, right now — he wanted to push every limit he had.

His prosthetic body.

His experience.

His weapons.

He would prove whether any of it could reach the level of MK Corp’s technology.

Crimson energy surged over the black metal shell covering Hector’s body.

Immense power swirled around him, heating the surrounding air.

BOOM!

Hector launched himself at A, slamming off the ground with explosive force.

Far faster than anything he’d used against Victor.

Like a red meteor, he hurled himself toward her with terrifying momentum.

A's expression remained detached.

She raised her right arm toward the incoming threat.

Blue circuits lit up as her arm smoothly transformed.

A blade emerged from the darkness.

Shing.

With a light motion, A swung her blade.

And in that instant, Hector saw something like a star flash before his eyes.

SHNK!

A crisp sound — and Hector’s left arm was sliced clean off just below the shoulder.

But instead of pain, a manic grin spread across his face.

["Yes! That’s what a ghost should do!"]

He stared at the stump where his arm used to be and roared.

As he pushed the Circle System’s output even further, crimson energy erupted from the severed shoulder, forming a new arm-like construct.

It wasn’t perfect — but it radiated even more threatening energy than before.

Hector lunged at A once more.

This time, it wasn’t just a charge.

Two compact cannons folded out from his back and began firing.

At the same time, his energy-formed left arm lashed out like a whip.

A darted through the cannonfire and caught the swinging energy arm with her blade.

Blue metal and red energy clashed with a violent burst of sparks.

The entire chamber shook from the impact.

Debris on the floor launched into the air, and new cracks spread along the walls.

The battle raged on.

Hector kept attacking without pause.

His movements blended the precision of a machine that surpassed human limits with the savagery of a beast.

But A deflected everything like flowing water — dodging effortlessly, parrying with her blade.

Every one of her movements was efficient, and every counterstrike was lethal.

The longer the fight dragged on, the more Hector’s body deteriorated.

His right leg was severed. The cannons on his back destroyed.

Even the energy-formed left arm was sliced off again.

But he didn’t stop.

Every destroyed part was immediately replaced with burning red energy, and he charged again, more ferociously than before.

His fighting spirit blazed like an unquenchable flame.

But the Circle System couldn’t keep up.

The unstable energy began to eat away at his internal systems.

His artificial heart pounded violently as sparks burst from all over his body.

["!!!!"]

And then — his last remaining right arm was severed.

Crimson energy exploded from his entire body like a system overload.

The Circle System had finally reached its breaking point.

Black smoke and fire erupted from Hector’s body.

His metal armor melted. Internal circuits blew apart.

Slowly, he collapsed to his knees, burning alive.

Even the glow in his red eyes began to fade.

A stood, watching the burning Hector in silence.

There was no emotion in her blue eyes.

Shhhk.

A’s blade sliced through the air one last time.

Hector’s charred head dropped to the ground.

The red glow died completely, and his machine body went still.

With the battle over, silence fell again over the chamber.

"A... That’s really you, right?"

And that silence was broken by Victor’s stunned voice.