This Goddamn Possession

"Overtime again today. Overtime."

Dawn. The last trains had already stopped running. I could have hailed a taxi, but I walked home instead — might as well save the money.

"At least it's Friday. Wait, no. It's Saturday now."

Jinwoo, you've got no talent, but damn if you don't have grit. Keep at it. You'll get good research results.

That was what my senior at the pharmaceutical company had told me after I joined. I still couldn't tell if it was a compliment or an insult. No talent, but plenty of grit. This wasn't a construction site. Didn't you need actual skill to make decent medicine?

Still, I'd taken his words to heart. I'd thrown grit at the research, and things I'd never noticed before had started to come into focus. Take the energy drink I was holding, for instance — the way each compound in it reacted once it hit my system. Details like that.

"Yeah. Grit's good."

So what if my body got ground down in the process? If I made good medicine, the world would be better for it. That sense of mission was why I worked at a pharmaceutical company in the first place.

Beep.

The familiar door to my studio apartment swung open, and a hush of darkness swallowed me whole. A cute little cat waiting to greet me would have been nice. But I could barely take care of myself — I had no business keeping a pet.

I washed up in a daze, sat down at my computer desk, and stared at the screen. I'd pumped so much caffeine into my body that sleep was a lost cause. Besides, there was a game I'd downloaded before heading to work.

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Ghost of Cyberpunk.

At launch it had been a punchline — bugs, optimization disasters, the works. Now people called it a rebirth, a masterpiece. More importantly, it was a game built for modding. For someone like me, who refused to touch a game without mods, that was the best news I could have asked for.

Office workers don't have time. That was the whole point. I wanted to skip the boring stretches and just play.

"Finally. All downloaded."

Most of the mods used the same manager, so getting them installed and applied wasn't much trouble. I pointed it at the game directory and hit launch.

"What the hell?"

Ah. I'd forgotten to delete the mods from the last games I'd played.

I didn't think much of it. If something broke, I could just delete the mods. Right now, I wanted to play. Starting a new game always got the blood up — and I didn't know a single thing about this one, which only made it better.

"Alright. Let's go!"

The excitement drained out of me in a single breath. I sighed.

"Yeah, okay. I did install way too many."

I hit the close button. The computer stuttered as if it had locked up. I mashed it again and again.

"I paid good money for this thing! It's not supposed to lag over something like this."

I grabbed the sides of the monitor and snapped at it, for all the good that would do. A machine wasn't going to answer me. I dropped into my chair, deflated, and stared at the screen.

The same line packed the monitor from edge to edge.

"God fucking dammit."

The curse came out on its own. All I'd wanted after work was to unwind with a game.

"WHY CAN'T I EVER BE HAPPY!!!"

Kzzzt.

Static swallowed the screen whole.

"Huh?"

In that instant, a hand reached out. Or at least, that was how it felt.

"AAAAAGH—!!"

My body was sucked into the monitor.

"Blurgh— huaaagh—!"

When I opened my eyes, my stomach was heaving in a way I had no words for. Too much caffeine? No. This was in another league entirely. That nauseating stench — I knew it. Back in undergrad, we'd botched the temperature controls and the lab rats had died and gone to rot. This was that smell.

"W-what?"

That was when it hit me. I had opened my eyes in a pool of corpses.

I clawed through whatever that liquid was — water, or something pretending to be water — and swam my way out. The stench of rot clung to every inch of me, and my body shook uncontrollably.

"Where the hell am I?"

I huddled in a corner, wrapping my arms around myself, and tried to think. I laid out everything that had happened, as calmly as I could.

"Possession?"

The kind of plot device you saw in web novels and webtoons all the time. Getting dropped into a game, or a novel. That sort of thing.

"A dream...?"

No. No matter how I looked at it, this was nothing like a dream. I could feel my body dying. If this kept up, I was actually going to die.

"Where am I even supposed to go?"

I had to live. That single scrap of grit was enough to get my feet moving.

See? I told you that grit of yours is something else.

My senior's voice buzzed around inside my skull. Dream or not, I had to survive.

Wherever I'd landed, it seemed to be some kind of underground waterway. I followed a drainage tunnel, and the worst of the shivering eased off. My body was still a wreck. I'd been marinating in a pile of corpses — if I'd felt fine after that, that would have been the strange part.

I kept walking until I found a ladder, and I climbed. "Please be open." I put a little weight into it, and the manhole cover scraped aside. I hauled myself up and out.

"Th-this is..."

This was not Korea. If I had to compare it to anything, it was like a slum in Bangladesh — except this place was far more developed. Neon signs hung from every surface, and even though it was the dead of dawn, people still came and went.

"The hell's that retard?"

"Pffft— look at that guy. He looks like a drowned rat."

"Why don't you go comfort him, then? He's packing."

"Yeah, right. We've got a customer."

"Go on, then. Work that one."

It wasn't Korean, but I understood every word.

"You dumbass. Put some clothes on."

A man with a mohawk and a face that was entirely machine tossed a rag at me.

"Thank you."

"Don't come near me, you stink, you moron."

His mouth was filthy, but he was a decent guy. Come to think of it, I was naked. I'd been too out of it to even notice.

"What am I supposed to do now?"

I had nothing. Not a single thing to my name.

"Status Window!"

I figured it was worth a shot. Nothing happened. If this was a game possession, wasn't a status window supposed to be mandatory?

Grrrk.

On top of everything else, I was getting hungry. I walked for a long time. The area I'd first crawled out of must have been the closest thing this place had to a commercial district. The farther I went, the worse the streets became.

"The hell you looking at?"

"Get lost."

"You wanna die too?"

Murder, right there in the open street. I couldn't wrap my head around it.

"Look at that bastard. Upper District trash, huh?"

"Heh. Sure looks like it. Corp bastards stripped his chrome and dumped him."

The killers sneered as they tore mechanical parts off the dead man.

"He'll be dead soon anyway. Leave him."

"Yeah. Anyone who took a bath in that sludge, his organs are already mush."

Those pieces of shit.

If I'd been some overpowered protagonist, I would have ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠charged in and slaughtered them all. But I was a naked man in a rag. In other words: a nobody.

I pushed farther in, and a stretch of homeless encampments came into view.

"Ugh—! What the fuck is that smell?!"

A vagrant who'd been sleeping in peace looked up at me and exploded.

"Get the hell away from me!"

He hurled everything ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠he had — and everything he didn't — until he'd driven me off. I fled, miserable, and stopped in front of a shop. A silver-haired woman stood outside, smoking, and her eyes locked onto me.

"Upper District?"

She flicked ash onto the pavement and folded her arms.

"Hmm. I'm not getting any data on you. They ripped out all your chrome, huh?"

"E-excuse me."

I meant to ask for help. The words died in my throat. Judging by the state of the streets around here, there wasn't a soul worth trusting.

"Someone did a number on you. It's a miracle you're even alive. Come in. Wash up and have some hot stew."

She stepped back inside the shop.

Can I actually trust her?

I stood there, stuck, until she poked her head back out.

"I get it. You don't trust me. Come in when you've made up your mind."

I stood there for minutes, turning it over. If I kept wandering the streets like this, I'd either starve to death or get beaten to death for the smell. If I was going to die anyway, I might as well gamble here.

"Pardon the intrusion."

The moment I stepped inside, I knew what this place was. A chair like the ones in a dentist's office, surrounded by machinery, mechanical arms spread across the surfaces above it. The woman was watching TV, nodding along.

"Bathroom's on the left. Go wash up."

"Th-thank you. I'll repay—"

"Ah-ah. Hurry up and wash. You stink."

"Right."

Scrub. Scrub.

I showered and prayed the beggar-stink would rinse off me. When I came back out, she spoke without looking up.

"Now that you're clean, you're actually presentable. Clothes are on the table. Put them on."

"Thank you."

The kindness was so excessive I wanted to be suspicious, but this was not the time. I dressed and stepped out, and she pointed at the dentist's chair.

"Sit. I need to run a system check and make sure your body's okay."

"I'm fine."

Because if I lay down on that thing, I was pretty sure I'd wake up missing organs.

"You were soaking in that sludge. I need to check. And if they ripped out your chrome, that's even more reason."

"Nobody ripped out my chrome."

"Hmm. Memory loss from the shock, maybe?"

She came in close. The scent of roses drifted thick from her hair.

"What? You don't even have a Cyber Socket?"

She felt along the nape of my neck, then went still.

"Don't tell me... you're completely unaugmented?"

"Uh. Yes."

"What! Then that thing of yours is the real deal too?!"

"Excuse me?"

"A-ah, forget I said that."

She cleared her throat and held out a hand.

"I'm Lucia. I work as a cyberdoc around here."

"I'm Yoo Jinwoo. Thank you for showing me kindness."

"You crawled out of that sludge alive. Of course I'm going to help."

"I want to repay this debt. Miss Lucia, please use me! I'll do anything!"

"E-ahem. You'll do anything, huh. Bold. You don't even know what I'd ask."

"I mean it. Anything at all!"

"I'll think about it. More importantly, you're hungry, right? I'll get some food ready."

Lucia headed for the kitchen. She really was a good person.

While I waited, I looked around what I supposed was her workshop — her clinic, as a cyberdoc. All kinds of drugs lay scattered across the workbench.

"This is..."

The instant I picked one up, a chime rang in my skull.

A system window!

It hung in the air right in front of my eyes.

I picked up a vial that shimmered with blue light.

"Uh... yeah."

Ah. So it's not just a click-and-done.

I followed the combination guide from there. Lucia's tools were right there on the bench, so it was easy enough. And compared to the research I'd done at the pharmaceutical company, the guide was child's play.

"Huh?"

The status window and system interface I'd thought didn't exist had just activated. I knew it then, with a certainty that settled in my bones. With this Drug Crafting ability... I could survive in this world. Somehow, I could make it.

"What did you just make?!"

I'd made enough of a racket crafting the drug that Lucia came running. She stared at the vial in my hand like she was taking it apart with her eyes.

"Oh my god. What are you—?! This is insane!"

"Huh?"

Lucia lit up and pulled me into a hug. Her soft chest pressed against me, and it felt good. All the bullshit I'd been through today seemed to wash away.