Is Help Needed?
In the cutting-edge combat simulation center of Icarus Technology's Far East branch, multiple high-performance simulator cockpits were arranged in a perfect circle.
Normally, Yuna would have overwhelmed her teammates with superior skill in this high-intensity virtual combat training, securing the top score and earning both envy and admiration from everyone.
But today was different.
As soon as the simulation ended and the results flashed across the main screen, the entire training center fell into a heavy silence.
1st Place: Laser
2nd Place: Titan
3rd Place: Doctor
…
Last Place: Yuna
The name that had always topped the charts now clung to the very bottom of the rankings, paired with an impossibly low score.
It had even recorded several fatal hits.
For someone who chased perfection above all else, this was an outcome that should never have existed.
“…”
Yuna stepped out of her simulator cockpit with a rigid expression.
Deep in her silver eyes, faint confusion and irritation flickered, emotions she herself could not understand.
‘Why is this happening? I can’t focus.’
Even during the training, she had been completely unable to concentrate.
Her mind was filled with thoughts of Cog 7—the mercenary Kang Jinwoo she had met days ago at the Kronos base.
His strange movements. The inexplicable energy patterns. The moment he had scratched her Silvera.
An existence that defied any clear explanation.
She had given him her personal contact details and a temporary entrance code for the Icarus facility, promising to wait for his call.
Of course she had assumed he would contact her immediately—or at the very least, within a few days.
After all, who would turn down the formal invitation from Icarus Technology, especially one she had personally extended?
But days had passed, and there had been no word from him.
According to the information analysis team’s report, he had left the Kronos Mercenary Group right after the incident and departed the base on his old Bugbear.
Yet no trace of him had been found afterward.
It was as if he had simply evaporated into space itself.
Not even on surveillance satellites, routine flight logs, or the underworld’s information networks was there any sign of him.
As if his current whereabouts had never existed in the first place.
‘Where did he disappear to? Why isn’t he contacting me?’
Could Bulldog from Kronos have gotten involved?
Or had he fallen victim to some unforeseen accident?
Countless possibilities swirled in her head, constantly shattering the perfect focus she had once possessed.
These nagging thoughts had been her undoing throughout the training.
“You alright, Yuna?”
Laser approached, feigning concern.
“You’ve been off your game today. Still thinking about that Driller?”
“None of your business.”
Yuna replied coldly and walked past him.
Yet she knew he was right.
She left the training center and checked her personal terminal one more time.
No messages had arrived.
Waiting did not suit her personality.
This frustration, this impatience, this inexplicable unease—it all felt foreign and unpleasant.
‘I’m not the type to sit and wait.’
She reached her research lab and immediately sat at the main console.
Then she pulled up the massive volume of combat data her Silvera had recorded days ago at the Kronos base.
Her single objective was to find the unique identification signature of the spherical Bugbear Kang Jinwoo had piloted.
Even an old machine would leave behind its factory-issued frame number and the precise energy emission pattern of its primary power source—its own fingerprint.
Icarus’s latest sensors would have recorded it without fail.
Her slender white fingers danced across the console with lightning speed.
Amid the complex data streams, she finally isolated the signature code that matched the Bugbear.
Comparing it against Kronos’s official registry, the machine turned out to be an outdated model produced decades earlier, with a long history of ownership changes and modifications.
Nothing special—just scrap metal.
But the current pilot was extraordinary.
Yuna inputted the extracted identification code into Icarus Technology’s global surveillance and tracking network.
[Tracking in progress…]
While she waited impatiently for results, minutes ticked by.
Finally, the screen displayed its verdict.
[Matching signature detected.]
[Last detection time: approximately eighteen hours ago.]
[Last detection location: Sector Delta-9 outskirts, heading toward the unregistered hazardous zone—Grey Wasteland.]
[Current position: Untraceable. Area restricted for sensor detection and communication.]
“Grey Wasteland…?”
Yuna frowned at the unfamiliar name.
Her database labeled the region as an exploration-prohibited or access-forbidden zone due to extreme environmental contamination, unstable crust activity, and powerful electromagnetic interference.
Why would he head toward a place like that? To find a hiding spot? Or was there another purpose?
Questions deepened, but at the same time a glimmer of hope sparked in her eyes.
He had not truly vanished.
He had simply gone somewhere no one had expected.
‘I can’t wait. I have to go myself.’
Submitting the information for formal expedition approval would take far too long.
Yuna rose from her seat and walked straight toward the private hangar without hesitation.
Her sudden movement caused Laser and Titan, who had been passing the corridor, to block her path with puzzled expressions.
“Yuna? Where are you rushing off to? Did the simulation score piss you off or something?”
Laser asked with a mischievous grin.
Titan spoke in a more serious tone.
“No combat orders from command. What’s going on?”
Yuna did not stop walking and replied coldly, “Private business.”
“Private business?”
Laser’s eyes lit up. “Is it about the Driller again? Did he finally contact you?”
Yuna stopped, turned, and stared at them.
“Do not interfere.”
She brushed past them and headed into her own hangar.
She climbed into the cockpit and activated the machine.
[Target coordinates set. Sector Delta-9 outskirts, last detected point.]
‘What are you hiding?’
Yuna murmured as she pushed Silvera’s throttle forward.
********
I leaned against the ruined torso of the massive Atlas, body still moving from the impact, and stared at the enormous steel door that guarded the far side.
And beyond it, the steel door that had once protected Atlas itself—still tightly sealed.
‘It’s finally…’
The Atlas V Graviton Damper—or the clue to it—must be waiting on the other side.
I had become a broken man by the time I reached the prize, but I had arrived right in front of it.
The keycard I received as a system reward was proof.
I opened the System Inventory and pulled out the [Keycard] Isolation Access Keycard.
Click.
A small blue lamp on the front of the card lit up.
A moment later, multiple metallic clunks echoed from inside the wall as the locks disengaged.
With a long, grinding creak of old machinery, the heavy steel door slid open to both sides.
It looked like a vast laboratory or hangar. Everything inside was destroyed and frozen in time.
‘The Atlas V Graviton Damper is probably in there.’
I approached the central ruined device.
And finally found it.
“Found it. Atlas V Graviton Damper!”
It matched the design blueprint I had seen in the game exactly.
I carefully maneuvered the remaining left arm of the Bugbear, cleared away the debris, and gently placed the Graviton Damper into the makeshift container I had prepared, then secured it to the machine.
“I did it.”
A sigh of relief escaped me as I leaned back in the cockpit seat.
Suddenly, every warning light in the cockpit flashed wildly, and a deafening alarm blared.
The radar screen showed at least three hostile signatures approaching at high speed from the exact direction I had entered—through that steel door.
“Damn it! Ambush!”
The owners of the combat traces from earlier? Or the bastards who saw me destroy Atlas and decided to take their shot? Maybe they had been tailing me from the start.
I spun the Bugbear around immediately.
Three mechanics stood in a perfect circle around the entrance, waiting.
They were clearly pirates who preyed on ships or low-life mercenaries.
A rough voice crackled over the communication channel, accompanied by mocking laughter.
“Heh heh heh! Look at that! Some lowlife in a scrap heap managed to take down Atlas? Must’ve been real lucky—or maybe other idiots took care of the real fighters first!”
“Either way, the treasure we found belongs to the captain! Boys, finish this guy off and grab the goods!”
“Thanks for clearing the path, merc.”
They had come specifically for me.
Right now my Bugbear was a wreck.
Energy reserves were near empty, missiles gone, and the plasma blade had barely cooled from overheating.
No way could I fight three hostile mechs in this condition.
But the Graviton Damper I had just acquired…
I couldn’t let it be taken from me.
“I’ll give it a shot.”
Gritting my teeth, I squeezed every last drop of energy and ignited the reactor booster.
Then, plasma blade raised high, I charged straight at the nearest pirate mech.
It was now or never.
I had to drag at least one of them down or create enough chaos to give myself a chance to escape.
Kwaaang—!!!
A blinding blue flash suddenly exploded above my head, coming from the exact direction I had entered through the steel door.
The beam pierced the swarm of bullets and slammed straight into the cockpit of the pirate mech.
The pirate didn’t even have time to scream before the mecha exploded into a fireball.
“What the—?!”
“From where?!”
The remaining two pirates shouted in shock.
I, too, slammed on the brakes and came to a dead stop in the middle of the charge.
Then, slowly, I raised my head and looked in the direction the flash had come from.
There, hovering silently in the air where nothing had been moments ago, was a sleek silver-white mecha.
The very mecha I had seen at dawn—the Silvera of Icarus Technology.
And its pilot was…
The communication channel forced itself open, and a clear, cold voice I knew all too well filled the cockpit.
[Do you need help? Driller?]