Because I Gave Birth to Him
Kang Do-seok let out a short, dry laugh. Celnar pressed on.
"That's right. What I want is revenge. Revenge for being reduced to this. Go kill that bitch—kill her as cruelly as you can."
"Just kill her? That's all?"
"That's all. I've already got a body lined up to transfer into, so don't worry about my original one. Just put her down."
"Understood."
"I've attached the information. Read it before you go."
At that, Kang Do-seok pulled his terminal from inside his coat and checked the deposit history. Sure enough, the detailed dossier with the target's location was attached as well.
Once he'd confirmed everything, he turned away. He had a target and a location—there was nothing left worth hearing.
"I'll be back."
Sector 45, Zone F. A penthouse crowning the top floor of the Red Security building.
Inside, the apartment was silent. Expensive liquor bottles, a haze of perfume, thin scraps of clothing strewn across the floor. Along the walls, antique crimson fixtures breathed out a murky glow.
In the middle of the vast living room sat a woman, wearing nothing over her bare skin but a thin robe. Skin white as fresh snow, black hair that looked perpetually damp—a beautiful woman by any measure. Slowly, she lifted her head.
"You. Who are you? How did you get in here?"
Her eyes were webbed with burst blood vessels as she asked, reddened pupils fixing on Kang Do-seok's face.
"I'm a man called Kang Do-seok."
"Kang... what?"
"Kang Do-seok. A fixer. Give me money and I'll handle anything—blackmail, debt collection, contract killing, all of it."
"...I didn't ask for your résumé. How did you get in here?"
"For the record, I don't deal with junkies."
Sinkella stared at him, words dying in her throat, then let out a hollow laugh.
"You don't listen to a single word anyone says—you just bulldoze straight through whatever you came to say. I take it you're not the kind of man words work on. Message received, Kang Do-seok."
Her bloodshot eyes swept over him once, then dropped to the sword hanging at his hip.
"So in other words, you're a blade who'll kill a man as long as the money's right."
"That's right."
Kang Do-seok nodded. After a brief silence, Sinkella continued.
"You said your specialties were blackmail, debt collection, and contract killing. Then let me ask you one question. Did you come here to threaten me?"
"No."
"Then did you come to collect a debt?"
"Then it must be a contract kill. Hm."
Sinkella drummed her fingertips lightly against the arm of the sofa. After a short silence, she spoke.
"Celnar sent you."
"Quick on the uptake."
"I have many children. A great many. And among those little bastards, more than a few have sent assassins after my life."
Sinkella rose from her seat. The sheer robe swayed, baring every curve of the woman beneath.
"Kang Do-seok. Kang Do-seok... now that I think about it, I've heard that name once before. Yes. Back then—didn't you storm the Atomic Generation headquarters with a single blade and kill their chairman? I believe that player's name was Kang Do-seok."
"Ah, I remember that one. A four-billion job."
"If memory serves, that company kept three hundred private soldiers on the payroll alone. The sheer nerve it takes to punch into a headquarters like that and go dancing with a sword—you must be one hell of a blade for hire."
"Then you know what to do. Sit still and stick your neck out nice and quiet. I'll make it painless."
"...How crude."
Sinkella clicked her tongue.
"Celnar is my son, but he is a child who has never once kept a promise in his life. Whatever he told you he'd pay, that boy will never honor a word of it."
Bzzt. Just then, the terminal inside Kang Do-seok's coat vibrated once. He slipped a hand in, checked the screen, and answered flatly.
"I already received 500 million as a down payment. A message just came in, actually. Bring back your head cut nice and pretty, and he'll throw in another 50 million. Says he wants to see your face with his own eyes, or something like that."
"...What part of what I said did you not understand? Celnar will never pay you the balance."
"Don't care."
Kang Do-seok's grip tightened around the hilt.
"How many people do you think have tried to rob me of my money over the years? Blackmail is one of my specialties for a reason. Plenty of field experience."
"...I see. You're a blade with a truly admirable sense of professionalism."
"Something like that."
"But, Kang Do-seok—didn't you just say it? Pay you, and you'll solve anything. So how about this. I'll pay you double whatever Celnar promised. Go kill Celnar for me."
"Hm. That is a tempting offer, I'll admit."
"So, your answer?"
"No."
"Why? What's the reason? Isn't money all you need?"
"It is. That's the problem."
Kang Do-seok's gaze slid to the table, where a syringe lay beside lines of white powder.
"I don't deal with junkies."
"...Right. Is that so."
With those words, Sinkella's expression turned vicious. She raised her hand.
"Then die!"
A ball of flame surged up above her palm. The fire compressed in midair, dragging red afterimages behind it. Crimson light rippled like a tide across every pane of glass in the penthouse, and heat flooded the living room in an instant.
FWAAAAH—!
The next moment, the fireball was hurled straight at Kang Do-seok.
He didn't dodge.
Instead, he advanced a single step and swung his sword.
Shff. The fireball split clean in two. The halved flames swept past either side of him and slammed into the wall.
Fwoosh—crack!
KRA-BOOOOM!
The explosion swallowed the far end of the living room. Glass shards and gouts of flame scattered in every direction—and in exactly that instant, Kang Do-seok's figure blurred.
Sinkella's vision wavered for a heartbeat. Red fire crawled up the walls; shattered glass rained down like shrapnel. And through it all, Kang Do-seok emerged. Three steps away. Exactly three.
Shunk! The point of his blade sank into Sinkella's forearm. The moment her eyes flew wide, he dragged the buried steel straight down. SHRAAAK! Her arm split open lengthwise, bone and nerve bared beneath the pale skin.
"KYAAAAAH!"
Kang Do-seok took exactly one more step, recovering the blade in the same motion. Immediately, his edge traced a half arc. Sinkella reflexively conjured a fireball in her remaining hand and swung it wild—but the steel had already found her thigh.
Shff! Sinkella's left leg came away. The severed limb spun through the air, flew to the far end of the living room, and smacked against the wall. Flesh tore with a wet rip, and blood sprayed in every direction.
THWACK!
Kang Do-seok kicked the toppling Sinkella square in the body. The heavy blow sent her flying into the wall.
CRASH! Shatter—!
"Ggh... ugh..."
Fragments of the broken fixtures rained down across the floor. Sinkella's blood-smeared lips trembled as she frantically raised her remaining hand.
"W-Wait. Wait, wait."
"What."
Blood fell from the tip of his sword, drop by drop. Squelch. Kang Do-seok stepped through the puddle, closing the distance.
"Please—spare me! All I did was take a body! That can't be such a terrible crime!"
Kang Do-seok actually considered it for a moment. Was it not a terrible crime? This was, admittedly, a world where a body was as replaceable as a spare part. Bring enough money to a hospital and they would swap out everything from your face to your organs.
And yet—was scooping the brain out of a son who was alive and well and sealing it inside a tank really such a light offense? He couldn't say.
"I will never get used to this world's sense of morality."
"Celnar stole the city government contract that was supposed to be ours! Red Security spent months preparing for that deal, and on the very last day the little bastard kidnapped the official in charge and made him sign it under his own company's name. That's not how things are supposed to work!"
Sinkella's bloodshot eyes quivered. She shrieked:
"I was merely a mother correcting her child's manners! That ungrateful, garbage-hearted freak! Hiring a fixer to murder his own parent!"
"What kind of lunatic mother fixes a kid's manners by stealing his body?"
"I didn't steal it. I simply took back what was mine from the start."
"You—Kang Do-seok. You're thinking it right now, aren't you? How could anyone possibly regard another person's body as their own? This is why children never understand their parents!"
"Yeah. I am curious."
He genuinely was. What kind of mental wiring did it take before someone else's body read as your own property? Curious enough, apparently, to pause the butchery and ask.
"Why is Celnar's body yours?"
"Because I gave birth to him!"
Sinkella's eyes glistened wet.
"I gave birth to him, so naturally he's mine! He's my child! If I'm the one who let him be born, then he should behave, obey, and do exactly as he's told! Do you have any idea how much it costs to rent a birthing incubator for ten months!"
"......Tsk."
He closed another step, blade hanging low, and Sinkella shoved herself back across the floor with her remaining hand. Her back was already flush against the wall.
"I don't want to die—I don't want to die! Hm? There's no bad blood between us, is there! Spare me! I'm begging you, spare me!"
Kang Do-seok's answer was a swing of the sword.
SHRAK!
Sinkella's neck split halfway open. Blood streaked the wall in a long arc, and her eyes shook wide.
Shff. A second swing—and her head dropped.
Sinkella's severed head rolled to a stop among the shattered light fixtures. Kang Do-seok flicked the blood from his blade, seized a fistful of her hair, and lifted it up.
He carried it back to the brain in the tank—to Celnar—and set Sinkella's head down before him. Droplets of blood spread slowly across the tabletop.
"You actually went and killed her."
"What was I supposed to do, kill her fake?"
The lens connected before the vat whirred as it adjusted its focus. Celnar's brain twitched—just barely.
"How long has it been... since I last saw this face. Mother... Mom."
Celnar murmured. Kang Do-seok watched the shuddering brain for a moment, then spoke.
"Done admiring the view?"
"...Yeah. Filthy hag. Still—killing her felt good anyway."
"Spending 1.35 billion to have your own mother killed. You're no ordinary unfilial bastard, are you?"
The hair-thin wires threaded into the brain's surface trembled.
"So what? What's it to you—got a stake in my family's affairs?"
"None at all. I just want to be paid."
Celnar's voice had gone slightly hollow. After a short silence, the speaker crackled to life.
"Take it and go. Payment's been deposited."
And right at that moment, the terminal in Kang Do-seok's coat chimed. He confirmed the transfer notification and nodded.
"I'll be off, then."
"Wait."
The nutrient fluid in the vat swayed slowly. Celnar kept the lens trained on Kang Do-seok and said nothing for a moment.
"What."
"While you were handling the job, I looked further into you. Kang Do-seok. Unaffiliated player. Three hundred and twenty-seven officially verified contracts on record."
"So?"
"The players are almost all descendants of an ethnicity called Korean, aren't they? Even among the Koreans—famous far and wide for their diligence—there's no one who throws himself into work like you do. I'm curious what the reason is."
The lens before the vat moved slowly. Celnar glanced once at Sinkella's head on the table, then swept back across Kang Do-seok. He answered.
"That's easy. It's for the money."
"'It's for the money' is what whores say when they're milking sympathy. I'm asking for the reason underneath that."
Celnar's brain wriggled gently in the vat. As if waiting for an answer, the camera lens focused in on Kang Do-seok's face.
"Kang Do-seok. Why are you so obsessed with money? Is there something you want to buy?"
"Yes."
"What is it?"
After a brief wait, he answered.
"Skill Stars."
At his answer, the lens before the vat rotated slowly back toward Kang Do-seok.
One of Chrome Blade Saga's systems was a unique growth mechanic built around stars.
That was what separated an ordinary online game from CBS—Chrome Blade Saga. For a character to grow, stars were required.
Among them, the Skill Star was, as its name suggested, a star that granted a 'skill.' In other words: the fastest, most certain path by which a player could grow stronger.
"Ah, I think I've heard of those. They say players go insane hunting for them."
"That's because the ones who didn't are already in their coffins."
"So the conclusion is: it's to become stronger. That's the fundamental reason, then. But, Kang Do-seok. Aren't you already strong enough? Why reach for more?"
"Why get stronger, huh."
At Celnar's question, faces flashed through Kang Do-seok's mind.
Faces he could never see again.
A gaunt face blackened with grime.
The younger ones who had followed him since childhood—dropped into this shitty world right alongside him.
And the ones who were dead now, gone to a handful of ash.
"Hm..."
Kang Do-seok scratched his jaw and fell into silence. To outward appearances, he looked as composed as he had moments before.
And yet, in that brief silence, Celnar sensed that something in Kang Do-seok's air had subtly changed.
When the short silence had passed, Kang Do-seok opened his mouth.
"I made a careless promise in front of a grave."