Hunt-Dog +21
The basement test room of the Second Research Building.
Whiiiiiing...
Takadadak!
On the huge industrial treadmill, a steel beast that had been reduced to little more than a frame was charging at full speed.
The number on the instrument panel read 20 kilometers per hour.
For a human, it was close to a full sprint.
And yet the robot’s movements were smooth as silk.
"Speed maintained! Hydraulic temperature normal! Frame vibration zero!"
The voice of the researcher watching the monitors trembled.
That was when it happened.
"Excuse me for a moment."
With my arms folded, I strode over to the side of the treadmill.
Then, without warning, I drove a hard kick into the robot’s flank as it sprinted.
Thud!
"Huh?!"
"Director?!"
Director Yoon and the researchers burst out in alarm.
Common sense said that if something took a heavy blow from the side while running, it would lose balance and tumble.
At least, that would have been true of Hunt-Dog until yesterday.
Clack, whirr!
But it didn’t fall.
The leg on the opposite side of the impact crossed over in an instant to catch the weight, and the upper body stayed level like a roly-poly toy.
The wobble lasted only 0.1 seconds.
As if nothing had happened, it resumed running on the treadmill in a smooth rhythm.
"You saw that, right?"
I turned to Director Yoon, who was staring blankly, and said, "Kick it with your foot and it still won’t go down. At this level of balance, it’ll be flying over mountain terrain."
"This... is really something our lab made..."
Director Yoon took off his glasses to wipe them, still unable to believe what he’d seen as he looked at the robot.
When the performance check was finally over, we moved to the makeshift meeting table set up in one corner of the lab.
Stacks of cup noodle containers and crushed energy drink cans bore witness to the intensity of the night before.
"Ugh... my back."
Team Leader Park let out a groan and stretched.
"All right, the robot’s running fine now. We can head out, right? I’ve been away from the site too long. I’m worried the guys down there are going to cause some kind of accident."
"I need to get back as well. There’s still final software tuning for the Powerpack transmission. The code here is optimized, so your team should be able to handle maintenance, Director Yoon."
Senior Researcher Jo Seokhun and Department Head Maeng Giyong both began gathering their things.
The immediate fire had been put out, so going back to their own work was nothing but a perfectly reasonable decision.
But I had no intention of letting them leave.
"I’d like it if you stayed a little longer."
"...Hm?"
"Stay another week. Just until the Darakdae evaluation is over."
At my words, Maeng’s hand froze in midair as he packed his bag.
"Darakdae? That’s the all-purpose firing range in Pocheon, isn’t it? Why would we suddenly go there?"
"An evaluation? That wasn’t on the schedule."
Senior Jo looked at me, equally lost.
Well, when Executive Director Kang had come by earlier, those two had been working inside the lab, so it made sense that they wouldn’t know what had been said out in the hallway.
I took a breath and briefly explained the conversation I’d had with Executive Director Kang earlier in the corridor.
"Taeseong Heavy Industries filed a complaint with the Ministry of National Defense. They said their six-wheeled vehicle is ready for immediate deployment, while Hanseo Defense’s robot is just burning tax money."
"What? Those Taeseong bastards?"
"Yes. So the Ministry of National Defense launched an audit. Next week, there’ll be a side-by-side evaluation at Darakdae between Taeseong’s vehicle and our robot. If we lose there, our robot division closes its doors right then and there."
As soon as I finished, the room stirred.
They had thought this was just technical support. Now it was a death match with the fate of the department on the line.
Team Leader Park gave a dry laugh, sounding stunned.
"Hah. Those Taeseong bastards really planned this out, huh? Waiting until we were already struggling so they could stomp us flat."
"That’s the situation. Which is why I’m telling you not to leave. We’re going to war. I can’t go alone while all the commanders run off."
At my words, Maeng frowned deeply.
"Hey, Baek. Ease up a little. What, are we your subordinates now? We stayed up all night because you said it was urgent. What more do you want?"
"Right. We’ve got our own work too."
Everyone looked ready to wave me off and stand up.
I put on a deliberately hurt expression and quietly folded my fingers down one by one.
"Come on, that’s cold. Who was it that broke through your five-year-old transmission problem, Department Head Maeng?"
"......"
"And who was it that performed CPR on Team Leader Park’s dying five-axis machine?"
"...Cough."
"Senior Jo, those fluid dynamics analysis data. If I hadn’t sorted those out for you, you’d still be here burning the midnight oil."
The three of them went still.
They couldn’t argue.
The bill I’d just handed them was simply too large.
After a moment of awkward silence, Maeng scratched his head hard enough to make it sound rough.
"Ah... damn it, seriously. You’re basically a loan shark."
"Really now, dragging up old debts like that..."
Team Leader Park grumbled too, then quietly sat back down.
Senior Jo gave a resigned laugh and opened his laptop again.
"Fine, fine. We’ll stay. So what exactly do you need us to do? The robot’s already perfect."
As the atmosphere loosened, Manager O Jinhyuk, who had been sitting quietly in the corner, spoke up cautiously.
"Um... I actually have something to say."
"What is it, Manager O?"
"A classmate of mine from university works on Taeseong Heavy Industries’ robot team. I had drinks with him not long ago... and the atmosphere over there is seriously off."
At O Jinhyuk’s words, everyone’s attention turned to him.
"You’ve heard about Taeseong’s weapon, the six-wheeled unmanned vehicle Titan, right?"
"What, that wheeled armored vehicle thing?"
"It’s not that simple. The six wheels move on independent suspension, and it supposedly reaches 60 kilometers per hour on flat ground and 40 in rough terrain. That’s at least twice as fast as our Hunt-Dog."
O Jinhyuk swallowed and went on.
"The scariest part is the stability. The chassis is low and wide, so it can fire while moving with almost no recoil. They’ve already finished field verification tests with frontline units. It’s a complete product."
His face darkened.
"Honestly... compared to our four-legged robot, which has only just learned to walk, the difference in class is huge. If I had to compare it to fighting, it feels like a heavyweight champion going up against a rookie making his debut."
The meeting room grew cold again.
Director Yoon’s face had gone pale.
"It’s fast, stable, and already verified... how are we supposed to beat that?"
As O Jinhyuk continued, everyone bowed their heads.
Even if the machine’s technical completeness had improved, there was no overcoming the difference in raw class.
And yet I only curled up the corners of my mouth.
"It is fast. But wheels have a fatal weakness."
I walked up to the whiteboard and picked up a marker.
Then I sketched a rough car with wheels and a four-legged beast.
"Wheels transfer terrain irregularities straight into the body. No matter how good the suspension is, it can’t stop the chassis itself from jolting. What happens when you fire a gun in that state? Your accuracy goes to hell."
I circled the head of the beast sketch.
"But legs are different. Even if the legs are bouncing around, the torso and head can stay level. Like a chicken’s head."
"So what? It’s still true that we’re slower."
To Maeng’s objection, I answered, "If this is just a straight race, we lose. We need to win with moving shots."
"Moving shots?"
"Yes. When Taeseong’s Titan is rattling around spraying bullets everywhere, we’ll walk like we’re dancing and punch a hole straight through the target’s forehead. Isn’t that the real tech gap?"
At my confident declaration, Director Yoon tilted his head.
"The theory is fine, but... do we even have armament on our robot? At best, it’s got a reconnaissance camera."
I set down the marker and looked Director Yoon in the eye.
"Director. Isn’t there one thing sitting in the warehouse, gathering dust?"
"...Yes?"
"The RCWS, I mean. The remote weapon station you bought from the U.S. back when you first started robot development, planning to use it for combat. You still have that, right?"
At my question, Director Yoon’s pupils shook hard.
He swallowed heavily and licked his dry lips.
"H-how did you..."
"So you do have it?"
"I-I do, but... it’s been stored deep in the warehouse. The robot couldn’t even walk, so we couldn’t put a heavy turret on it. The software’s all powered down too..."
Director Yoon trailed off.
It was probably the self-disgust of having spent a fortune on it and then treating it like scrap iron without ever using it.
"Good. Team Leader Park, go tear it out. We’re mounting it on Hunt-Dog’s back."
"Hah, now you want to put a turret on top of it? Won’t that wreck the center of gravity?"
Team Leader Park Park Kwangchul asked in disbelief, but I pointed to Senior Jo and Maeng, who were sitting beside him.
"These geniuses here will handle the real-time control. Right?"
"Honestly, now... you just decide things on your own."
Maeng grumbled, though he didn’t seem to hate the idea.
I smiled at Director Yoon again.
But that wasn’t the end of it.
"Director. Since we’re already raiding the warehouse, let’s do this properly."
"Properly?"
"The RCWS mount is the expandable type, right? Then let’s not stop at mounting a K16 heavy machine gun..."
I let the words hang for a moment, then went for the killing blow.
"How about we add a K4 grenade launcher too?"
"...What?!"
Director Yoon cried out as if he’d been stabbed.
A machine gun and a grenade launcher.
It wasn’t just a reconnaissance robot anymore. I was proposing we build a walking powder keg.
"If we want to break Taeseong’s spirit for good, we need firepower like that. Sweep the infantry with the machine gun, and smash the ones hiding down with grenades."
It would be ridiculous, yes.
Even if Hunt-Dog was a robot based on AI, it still had no idea how to make the weapon on its back and the legs beneath it talk to each other.
We’d have to connect two brains that were operating separately.
And we had only one week to do it.
But even knowing all that, the veterans’ eyes were already beginning to gleam.
Director Yoon, and the researchers around him at the robot lab, too.
They were all fired up already.
Watching that, I grinned and said, "For the next week, everyone’s going to work themselves to the bone."
*
One week later. Pocheon Darakdae General Test Range.
Beneath a sky heavy with gray clouds, a vast stretch of harsh wilderness spread out before us.
The dirt at this range, hardened by shelling and gunfire, was a far crueler environment than any off-road course.
Under the command tent in the center of the field.
Kim Hyeongseop, an executive at Taeseong Heavy Industries, was stirring a cup of instant mix coffee with an expression dripping with ease.
His gaze was fixed on the reporter from the Ministry of National Defense press corps standing beside him, Yang.
"Reporter Yang, the road here was rough, wasn’t it? Have a cup of coffee and warm yourself up."
"Ah, thank you, Executive Kim. The weather is pretty cold."
Reporter Yang accepted the coffee with perfect politeness.
Kim Hyeongseop put on a look of concern, though the smile at the corners of his mouth was thoroughly satisfied as he went on.
"The reason we went out of our way to invite the reporters too isn’t anything else. This is a project funded by the public’s tax money, after all. We just wanted the media to keep an eye on whether the evaluation is being carried out transparently and fairly."
"Haha, I see. There’s certainly been plenty of talk lately about defense corruption and the like."
Even though he understood Kim’s intent, Yang played along at a safe level.
He’d come hoping to catch a scoop, so there was no reason to needlessly irritate Taeseong Heavy Industries, the party with all the leverage.
At that moment, Song Chanjung, the evaluation team leader dispatched from the Defense Acquisition Program Administration, clicked his tongue and joined in.
"It’s called a match, but in truth isn’t this just the final paperwork step? The results are already written, as far as I’m concerned."
"Is that so? So even from your perspective, Team Leader Song, the difference is that big?"
At the reporter’s question, Song shook his head slowly.
"Isn’t the gap in class simply too large? Taeseong’s Titan has already finished field validation and is a completed product, while Hanseo’s... well, from what I hear, it’s a robot that can’t even walk yet. Comparing them is embarrassing."
"Exactly. Honestly, we feel embarrassed too."
Kim Hyeongseop laughed heartily in agreement.
"It was unrealistic from the start. Four-legged walking, of all things. The U.S. gave up and went back to wheels, and Hanseo, with no foundational technology to speak of, started making a fuss about doing it too. It’s wasteful spending. Pure waste."
He glanced sideways at Reporter Yang’s notebook and subtly guided the headline he wanted.
"This is the perfect chance to clean things up properly and focus on a proven platform. That would help strengthen national defense too. I hope you’ll emphasize that point in your report, Reporter. Something like, 'What we need are weapons systems with real battlefield value, not flashy but unrealistic technical displays.'"
"Ah, yes. I’ll keep that in mind. Haha..."
Yang answered without a soul in it, scribbling with his pen.
The atmosphere had already hardened into a Taeseong Heavy Industries victory.
Even the judges had begun to regard Hanseo Defense’s robot not as a technical challenge but as a drain on taxes.
But then.
In the back row of the command tent, an old gentleman who had been watching silently with his arms folded narrowed his eyes.
He was Dr. Choi Hun, senior researcher at the Agency for Defense Development and the overall head of this technical evaluation.
Arrogant.
Dr. Choi didn’t like Kim Hyeongseop’s attitude.
At a place meant for discussing technology, he was trying to turn it into politics instead.
But what he disliked even more was Hanseo Defense’s incompetence.
They had poured in nearly ten billion won over the years and still failed to produce results, only to end up humiliated like this by a bunch of businessmen.
"They’re coming."
At someone’s shout, Dr. Choi and Reporter Yang both looked up.
In the distance, one five-ton truck and several SUVs came rolling in, kicking up dust.
Leading them was an old transport truck stamped with Hanseo Defense’s logo.
Screeech!
The truck stopped at the test range entrance.
Compared to Taeseong Heavy Industries, which had arrived with a flashy trailer and more than a dozen support vehicles, it looked pitifully shabby.
"Tsk tsk. They came in a tin can with no lift. At this rate it’ll take ages just to get the robot down."
Kim Hyeongseop sneered at Reporter Yang.
"See for yourself, Reporter. This is Hanseo’s reality. They haven’t even properly prepared for unloading the equipment, have they? Calling a forklift will eat up another thirty minutes, too."
"Ah... yes, they do look a little underprepared."
Reporter Yang nodded as well. Anyone could see that it looked shabby compared to Taeseong’s setup.
Kim Hyeongseop turned to the evaluation team leader as if he had already won.
"Team Leader. Let’s have another coffee. They’ve got a long way to go before they’re ready."
Just as Kim was chuckling and about to turn away.
Clack.
The rear cargo door of the truck opened.
There was no lift.
No crane.
Just empty space.
And then.
From the dark interior of the cargo hold, two blue eyes flared to life.
"...Hm?"
Kim Hyeongseop’s eyes went wide.
Reporter Yang froze, camera halfway raised.
Kwaaaang!
With a thunderous crash as something kicked off the cargo floor, a massive hunk of metal hurled itself into the air.
The truck bed was 1.5 meters high.
A several-hundred-kilogram mass of steel had jumped down to bare ground without a single safety device.
"W-What the hell?!"
"It’s going to break apart!"
People screamed.
Just when everyone expected the joints to shatter and parts to fly everywhere,
tap.
Only a chillingly light landing sound rang out across the range.
"......?!"
The dust cleared to reveal its shape.
Four legs had compressed their hydraulic dampers to the limit and swallowed the impact.
Like a leopard leaping from a great height and landing lightly on the ground, it stood there with perfect poise, without the slightest wobble.
Shhhhhh---
The robot slowly rose, exhaling hot steam.
A thin frame, reduced to nothing but its skeleton.
And yet mounted on its back, a heavy machine gun and a grenade launcher hung like a cross, radiating killing intent.
Unless the orange safety flag that marked an empty gun with no ammunition had been stuck into the muzzle, it would not have been strange for someone to scream.
"What... is that?"
Kim Hyeongseop dropped the paper cup in his hand.
Hot coffee spilled over his shoes, but he couldn’t even cry out.
He couldn’t believe what he had just seen.
That massive armament, and it jumped down from a truck like that? Without a scratch?
No, not just without a scratch. It hadn’t even lost its stance?
Click, click, click!
Reporter Yang, who had been dazed, instinctively began hammering the shutter.
His camera, which had come to capture Hanseo Defense’s humiliation, was now recording the arrival of an unexpected monster.
"Hah."
At the back of the command tent, a dry laugh slipped from Dr. Choi Hun’s mouth.
He adjusted his glasses and leaned forward.
For the first time, a spark of engineer’s curiosity lit his eyes, which had been full of boredom until just then.
"So the Hanseo people... weren’t just messing around after all, were they?"
Amid everyone’s shock, one of the SUVs that had followed the truck opened its door, and Baek Gunwoo stepped out.
In a neat suit, he offered a light nod toward Kim Hyeongseop and the judges standing there blankly, as though whoever got out behind him didn’t matter.
Then he walked over and casually patted the head of Hanseo Defense’s robot, Hunt-Dog.
Like a hunter who had brought out a well-trained hound.