Chapter 89
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: penny
Chapter: 89
Chapter Title: Escape
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Damn, this is some well-made gear...."
She had felt it even from afar while observing, but now firing off the hooks and handling it firsthand made her admiration grow all the more.
At its core, it was a gas mechanism—a mechanical device that rotated a turbine by releasing compressed gas and harnessed that rotation as motive power.
While the raw materials might have been processed with sorcery, the operating principle involved no magic whatsoever; it was purely mechanical in structure.
And yet it maintained a consistent, relatively simple design without relying on overly precise or intricate parts, meaning it was sturdy and unlikely to break down.
Even with that crude composition ensuring durability, it didn't skimp on actual performance. Truly, one couldn't help but marvel at the craftsmanship.
And so, in a short time, So-hyang had fully grasped the structure and operating principles of the emergency drive.
In martial arts terms, it was akin to achieving perfect mastery—
In other words, she had reached the realm of a grandmaster, comprehending the fundamentals and innovating new principles.
So-hyang's fingers tapped the control handle like piano keys, and the drive's power unit and rotor sprang into furious action.
"Come on! Faster, even faster!"
Her face lit up with a broad grin as she glanced back at the soldiers behind her, giving them a knowing look.
The message was simple.
I'm picking up speed now—keep up.
-Kkiiigigigigik!
A grating screech erupted from screws and gears wearing down in real time, born of reckless manipulation that ignored the machine's lifespan entirely.
In exchange, So-hyang unleashed output far beyond the emergency drive's intended limits, weaving through Beijing's nightscape at will.
"Whoa—! What a view!"
Indeed, the heart of the empire, the eternal capital Beijing.
The spot where the explosion had flung her was in one of its busiest districts, packed with high-end inns and multi-story buildings.
White moonlight bathed the sky from above, warm lantern light rose from below—it held its own against any nightscape from her previous life.
"-Damn it all, how the hell is she that fast...!"
Of course, the Imperial Army soldiers chasing the exhilarated So-hyang could only wail in frustration.
If she had been sprinting on foot with overwhelming lightness skill, they might have understood.
With such a vast gap in prowess from the start, surpassing the drive's speed would make sense.
They could barely accept someone moving faster than the drive amid city buildings in the first place, but if it were footwork, at least it was conceivable.
But they were using the exact same equipment, amid the harsh conditions of dense urban structures, and still couldn't catch up...?
"Sh-shit, what the...!"
They simply couldn't hold back their curses. Weren't they Imperial Army soldiers who patrolled the city daily to maintain order?
So why was this woman navigating Beijing's skies more adeptly than they were?
As if she already knew the city's layout and structure inside out, moving freely without a hint of hesitation...!
"Hmm, right turn here, slight twist, then straight through the next one..."
Their guess was spot on. So-hyang had the city's geography and layout memorized down to the finest detail.
Not from prior study of maps or blueprints, mind you—just from a quick scan mid-flight after the explosion.
With that alone, she had committed the urban panorama and layout to memory.
A photographic recall ability.
Less innate genius and more the fruit of repeated mnemonic training and refinement, but at this point, it was full eidetic memory.
She could have used divine sense or opened her hearing for echolocation to map the surroundings, but where was the fun in that?
It would feel like cheating while everyone else played fair—like solving a test with the answers in hand.
It just wouldn't taste right, so it was a self-imposed handicap, a courtesy of sorts.
Of course, the trailing soldiers wouldn't notice or care either way.
"-Target passing through sector seventeen—no, sixteen, thirteen, nine, twenty!?"
"Damn it! Speak clearly!"
"The target's too fast! We can't keep—"
Or rather, could they even spot her to begin with?
As emphasized before, this emergency drive was exceptionally well-crafted.
Compared to the wire guns or grappling hooks from her previous life, which were all riddled with flaws.
Output to pull a person in a straight line.
Durability to withstand intense maneuvers.
With just those two conditions met, So-hyang was confident she could pull off infinite maneuvers without superhuman physique or spirit energy.
"-Intercept, intercept her!! Shit! She's right there!"
Linking straight-line paths to build centrifugal force, chaining circles and curves to trace freeform trajectories.
At its root, it demanded advanced knowledge of mathematics and physics—a complex process yielding orbits that accelerated further.
Fluid motions defying inertia, yet acceleration piled on relentlessly without diminishing.
The speed snowballed steadily, nearing subsonic as the surroundings stretched like taffy.
And ultimately, it broke the sound barrier.
"Th-that, no way—"
The intercepting soldiers' voices faded in an instant, their faint echoes drowned by the air-ripping boom.
Her movement was less wire-guided now and more like a cannon shell, brushing past all obstacles in a whoosh—the wind on her face sharp as a blade—
"Yaaah—whoooaaa!!"
So-hyang let out a childish cheer unfit for her mental age, reveling in the electric thrill.
"-What a lunatic! Is that really how you ride an emergency drive!!"
The pursuers had long fallen behind; even predicting and blocking her path failed against superhuman velocity.
"We can't block her at all!"
In a blink—truly in the blink of an eye—So-hyang escaped the high-rise district.
"Ah—! That was fun!"
As expected, moving your body was the best cure for a sour mood. So-hyang stretched luxuriously, grinning with utter refreshment.
-Udrdrdrdrdduk, kkaduk, ppajik!
The borrowed emergency drive, upon landing in open ground beyond the building forest, spewed metal shavings and smoke before shattering to pieces.
"Oops, broke. I did use it a lot."
Not 'for long,' but 'a lot.'
'A whole damn lot.'
It had far exceeded its designed operating range, even pulling off the unbelievable feat of breaking the sound barrier.
If the designer heard, they'd be too dumbfounded to speak—straight-up ascending to the heavens.
They probably wouldn't believe it anyway. Sound barrier? Whose pet dog is that?
She had lost a fun toy, but no regrets.
She'd already seen and savored all its potential to the limit—
"Won't be much use here anyway."
A vast plaza with few tall buildings around.
"Heh, not even empire-made and at that price? Looks shady as hell—half off would be plenty."
"No, sir! These are pearls fresh from the Western Regions! Top-quality, newly harvested, at a bargain!"
Instead of buildings, the space brimmed with boisterous energy.
People haggled fiercely, merchants shouted themselves hoarse to lure customers.
Dust swirled amid countless footsteps, aromas of hot food and exotic spices filled the air, and even at midnight with the moon high, deals flew thick and fast.
"As expected of a market."
Beijing's southern commercial district, where caravans from the south and all sorts converged—So-hyang had landed smack in the middle.
"...Am I seeing things? That girl just dropped from the sky."
The racket drowned out her sudden arrival; no one paid her much mind.
"You finally lost it? ...Oh, she does look like a fairy who just plummeted from heaven."
At most, her striking looks drew eyes—
"Wait, isn't that Her Third Highness? I think I saw her face during the last procession..."
"Come on, would an imperial scion show up in a grubby market like this? If she did, you'd see the entourage of servants and guards."
"...Well, what about a secret outing?"
"If Her Highness went incognito, riffraff like us wouldn't recognize her. You've been babbling nonsense."
"True... but damn, she really looks like... who is she?"
—or suspicious glances toward Zhu Yeonhwa's golden hair in the arms of that striking woman.
In the market's clamor, So-hyang and Zhu Yeonhwa were just a tad unusual.
"Uh... ummm...?"
So-hyang gave an exceedingly awkward smile.
So what would the Imperial Army soldiers chasing her think now?
After bombing the train carrying the princess and kidnapping her.
Shaking pursuit via memorized city layout and fleeing the sector.
Blending into the crowd for a perfect escape.
"Well, damn, somehow I pulled off another flawless getaway...?"
They'd peg her as a premeditated, cold-blooded criminal.
"-Found you."
And to punish that vicious felon, a single general arrived.
A bolt of lightning struck the market's heart.