Chapter 187: What's She Doing There?
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 187: What's She Doing There?
The National Intelligence Service’s Special Operations Office.
A hacker, in the middle of his work, suddenly shrieked at his computer as it went dead.
“Aaaargh! What?! What’s wrong with this thing!?”
He had been in the middle of wrapping up something important, and his scream was filled with despair—so much so that his nearby colleagues came running to see what was wrong.
When they arrived, they saw the monitor, now completely black, and let out a collective sigh. A single glance at the dark screen was enough for them to understand the situation.
“Man, good luck.”
“Pray to the machine god. Ask it to back up your files.”
“—Gyaaaaaaah!?”
The colleagues, who had been about to return to their desks with sighs of sympathy, were startled by another scream from behind them and whipped around.
There, they saw their colleague being attacked by a small robot.
“Shit, what is that thing?”
“A T-Transformer?”
“You’re kidding… Did aliens really invade?”
The robot’s appearance was strikingly similar to the aliens from a sci-fi blockbuster that had once been popular on Earth. Furthermore, the case they were currently investigating was so surreal it might as well have been the work of aliens. The agents couldn't help but think the robot before them was an extraterrestrial.
But regardless of whether the opponent was a robot or an alien, their training kicked in reflexively. An agent grabbed a nearby file folder and swung it at the robot.
No matter what the robot was made of, the difference in strength and mass between the two should have sent it flying. But to their astonishment, the robot casually snatched the incoming folder out of the air.
Krrrrk.
“You’ve… you’ve got to be kidding me…!”
The agent gasped, feeling the immense grip through the folder. In a way, it was to be expected. What stood before them wasn't some alien robot that had flown to Earth from outer space, but a Machine Demon God forged by magical power.
A small God Machine that had casually tossed aside the laws of physics.
And humans cannot stop a god.
“Kuaaaargh—!”
The God Machine, having caught the folder, pulled the agent’s arm forward, grabbed his wrist, and slammed him to the floor. It was a throw accomplished with unbelievable brute force. The agent clutched his broken arm and rolled on the ground.
Leaving the writhing agent behind, the God Machine turned its camera toward the others. At the same time, its camera caught sight of a ㄱ-shaped tool that fit perfectly in a person’s hand.
BANG-! A sound like thunder rang out, and the God Machine’s body staggered back a few steps.
“Holy shit!”
“Get a rifle! Get a rifle!”
As the agents stared in disbelief at the God Machine, which was perfectly fine after being shot with a pistol, the machine, having taken a considerable shock, flung the file folder it was holding.
While the agents were distracted dodging the folder, the God Machine slipped under a desk. The agents surrounded it, swallowing nervously as it disappeared from view.
“The rifle, is it here yet!?”
“It’s coming!”
In the distance, they could see guards, who had heard the gunshot, rushing over with rifles. The agents breathed a sigh of relief.
It had shrugged off a pistol round, but they figured something that small couldn't possibly withstand a rifle bullet. It wasn't a bad assumption.
In fact, if they had been in an open field with no cover, the God Machine, even one made of magic, would have been relentlessly fired upon and destroyed.
Krrk, krrrrk.
But this was no open plain without cover. It was the opposite. A concrete jungle, overflowing with places to hide and mechanical resources.
Here, the God Machine could become what its name implied: a god of machines. The small god emerged, a cannon the size of its own body now mounted on its arm.
“What the…”
“That wasn't there a second ago.”
While they tilted their heads in confusion, the guards finally arrived, pushed the agents back, and opened fire on the God Machine.
The moment the special-purpose rifles, capable of firing 650 rounds per minute, began to spit fire, the cannon on the God Machine’s arm began to move in kind.
Vwoooom—! The instant an unidentifiable noise emanated from it, all the bullets aimed at the God Machine’s body were drawn toward its arm.
“What the hell!?”
“What is that!?”
“It’s blocking the bullets…?”
As they stared at the God Machine as if it were a true alien robot, it fired the dozens of bullets it had collected in front of its arm all at once.
Unlike the God Machine, they had no equipment or ability to block bullets. The guards, each taking a bullet to the torso, collapsed in a spray of blood.
“Fuck, what is that thing…”
While the agents stood stunned at the sight of the fallen guards, the God Machine extended its other arm and transformed a computer on another desk into a mechanical device.
The moment they saw the long left arm, so different from the round right one, the agents realized what the God Machine was creating.
“A rail… gun?”
It was an electromagnetic accelerator cannon, something thought to be impossible to miniaturize. As they stared at the railgun with dumbfounded expressions, the God Machine grew a tail and plugged it into a wall socket.
The next moment, the railgun on its left arm began to glow blue.
“Sh—”
Thunk-.
All the power in the building went out.
In the silence that followed the blackout, the God Machine stared down at the rifles lying on the floor.
A moment later, a dozen small robots, each with a gun mounted on its head, began to roam the building.
“Hahahahahaha—!”
A crimson sports car tore recklessly down the road. Speeding was a given, but it was also weaving dangerously between lanes and occasionally running red lights with aggressive abandon.
People cursed at the sports car as it flashed past their vision. Some even called the police.
But Hekaterina couldn't care less whether the police were on her tail. What mattered more in this moment was that the people who saw her were crying out in fear.
“This is the best, really!”
The 21st century. An era where people had become desensitized to most things. Yet, paradoxically, it had also become an era where people would tremble at the mere sight of a single knife.
It was truly hilarious. How could people who would just shrug if their country fell apart be so terrified for their own petty safety? She couldn't understand how the world had become filled with people who thought this way.
But not understanding something and not being able to use it were two different things. Just as modern people used smartphones perfectly well without any understanding of how they worked, Hekaterina made excellent use of their fear.
She cut through traffic, zipping past people. That alone was enough to make them shrink in fear. It was a trivial level of fear that evaporated quickly, but she had the ability to absorb the emotion before it dissipated.
Wee-woo! Wee-woo! Wee-woo!
“Ah, the police.”
After racing down the road for a while, Hekaterina saw the police blockading the road far ahead and slowly began to reduce her speed.
Another peculiar thing. People feared a madman waving a knife in front of them, but they showed courage when faced with a terrorist who was indiscriminately killing people.
It was likely a subconscious belief that a terrorist could not overthrow the state and would ultimately be crushed by its power. Thanks to that, Hekaterina realized that while she could threaten people directly, she couldn't harvest much fear by burning buildings or killing people.
‘It’d be a different story if I destroyed the entire city, but…’
If she did that, Agapeite and Yohan, who had turned back time, would surely scold her. The most she could do was limited to things that would end with a fine.
Seeing the police blocking her path, Hekaterina slowed down and carefully pulled over to the side of the road.
“You are under emergency arrest for speeding, running a red light, and other charges. Turn off the engine and get out.”
“Arrest? Me? Why?”
“…For speeding, running a red light, and reckless driving. If you don't get out now, obstruction of justice will be added to the charges.”
“How mean.”
Hekaterina grumbled but slowly turned off the ignition. For someone who had been driving so recklessly, she was surprisingly compliant. The police officers let out a sigh of relief and began to cuff her wrists.
She only accepted it because she was confident she could get out of jail within a few hours, but the clueless officers were simply happy to have made an arrest.
“You have the right to an attorney, you have the right to remain silent…”
As the officer recited the Miranda Rights, Hekaterina casually looked up at the sky. Then, she grinned.
“Hey.”
“Yes? What is it…”
“Look over there.”
“What?”
The officer turned his head at Hekaterina’s words and frowned at the sight of a black dot flying in the sky.
He couldn't see what it was. Assuming it was nothing, he was about to turn his gaze back to Hekaterina when she kicked him, sending him stumbling back.
“Ugh!?”
The officer, about to subdue the suddenly aggressive suspect, stumbled backward as an artillery shell crashed down right in front of him. BOOM-!
“Uh, uhh?”
The officer, who had just witnessed an artillery strike up close—something most soldiers in South Korea would never see—stared back and forth between the shell and Hekaterina with trembling eyes.
Leaving the trembling soldier behind, Hekaterina let out a hollow laugh.
“And you told me to behave.”
Still laughing, she looked at the officer, who was still shaking, and opened her mouth.
“Hey.”
“Ye-yes?”
“I just saved you. Aren't you going to do something for me?”
“Do… do something…?”
“Aish! Like, take these off!”
Hekaterina said, thrusting her cuffed hands forward. The officer was about to say he couldn't, but then he realized he couldn't possibly drag a cuffed person around in this situation.
With trembling hands, the officer unlocked the handcuffs and looked at Hekaterina as if to ask what she was going to do now. With a satisfied expression, Hekaterina looked up at the God Machine floating in the sky.
“They told me not to bother people… but they never said witches couldn't fight each other, did they?”
The next moment, Hekaterina flew into the sky.
“Hnngh…”
A beautiful woman, covered in a milky white fluid, let out a languid moan as she rolled around on the bed. Yohan, who had slowly climbed off her, let out a deep sigh.
He left the room, took a quick shower, and sat down on the living room sofa, turning on the TV to some random news channel.
As he vigorously dried his hair with a towel, a very familiar face appeared on the screen.
[Ms. Hekaterina, who saved people from the alien robot commotion in Seoul today, has…]
“…What’s she doing there?”