Begging for Mercy
As I closed my eyes and tried to catch my breath for a moment, a short notification chime rang out from my personal terminal.
The instant I checked the sender, my body jolted upright on its own.
Caller: Chief Han
‘Chief Han?’
I never imagined he’d be the one contacting me.
Since leaving the Kronos Mercenary Group, not a single message had ever come my way.
Warning: This message will be automatically deleted in 1 minute after viewing.
I held my breath and read the lengthy message at lightning speed.
Putting it simply, the situation was as follows:
Bulldog had been stirring up terror within the mercenary band, and with Nesis Tech, he was desperate to capture me.
Yet amid that, hints suggested a faction within the band—disgusted by Bulldog’s tyranny—was secretly preparing its own resistance.
The situation has gotten far too dire... I simply can't keep silent about this. I don't know how much longer I can hold on myself. I can only hope this message reaches you safely.
Just like that, the one minute passed.
Message Deleted.
I attempted to contact Chief Han, but all I got was a repeated signal tone—no answer.
The worst possibility already swirled through my mind: something terrible must have happened to him.
He was the one who quietly looked out for me when I first dropped into this world.
💥 CRITICAL HIT! 💥
If it came to it, I’d take him out first.
Bulldog and the Nesis Tech corporation he’d allied with—these were no longer things I could ignore.
Do I really need to poke the hive?
Suddenly, I remembered Kaien’s words.
Her advice had been to avoid direct conflict with the corporations.
But the situation had changed.
Immediately, I manipulated my personal terminal to input the coordinates of the Kronos Mercenary Group base into Asura’s navigation system.
The distance from Terminus to the Kronos base was considerable.
Even with Asura’s own boosters, it would take dozens of hours.
To shorten the time, I needed a high-speed transport ship.
Without hesitation, I headed straight for Scarlet’s workshop.
I burst through the door and stepped inside.
Scarlet, wearing a welding mask, turned to me with a puzzled expression.
“What’s going on?”
“I need help.”
I laid out everything without holding back: Chief Han’s message, the current situation, and my decision to wipe out the entire Kronos Mercenary Group.
With every word, Scarlet’s face grew more serious.
When I finished, she stared at me in silence for a moment.
Then, with a resolute expression, she grabbed a tool from her workbench.
“I get it. I’m coming with you.”
“That’s too dangerous. You don’t have to do this.”
I tried to stop her, but Scarlet’s will was ironclad.
“Don’t give me that. Do you really think I’d let you go alone into something this risky? And don’t misunderstand me—I can protect myself well enough.”
She tapped her chest confidently.
I realized I couldn’t dissuade her any longer.
“...Thank you, Scarlet.”
“Save the nagging for later. Let’s move quickly! I’ll contact Kaien and borrow the fastest military-grade transport ship from Terminus.”
Scarlet contacted Kaien right away.
Kaien, with her usual swift generosity, immediately provided the most advanced military transport vessel available at the station.
She didn’t even ask about our destination.
Scarlet and I each boarded our respective mechs.
Scarlet climbed into her agile medium-class Red Spider.
The sleek red-and-black armor plating and the multi-jointed auxiliary arms that evoked its spider-like legs made for an impressive machine.
The heavy ramp of the transport ship sealed shut, and we sliced through the darkness, streaking toward the Kronos Mercenary Group base.
Deep underground in the Kronos Mercenary Group base, the air was cold and damp, filling the isolation cell with a heavy silence.
Only a single faint emergency light struggled to pierce the darkness.
Beyond the rusty iron bars, intermittent exhausted sighs of three men once part of the same mercenary band leaked out.
In the innermost cell, Chief Han sat slumped against the wall on the cold floor, still wearing the oil-stained work jumpsuit.
Next to him was Milo, the old mechanic whose face had been captured for giving Jinwoo repair advice.
On the opposite side was Leo, the young technician dragged in under the pretense of helping with mecha repairs, staring blankly into empty space.
“Damn it, why are we stuck in this pigsty?”
Milo’s voice was the first to break the silence.
He ran a rough hand through his unkempt hair that hadn’t been washed in days and vented his frustration.
“What the hell was stealing a few spare parts for that guy? It’s been ages since he ran off from the band—now this nonsense?”
“Milo’s right.”
Leo agreed in a hoarse voice, his face pale with fear and despair.
“I was just peeking from the side... Bulldog really went off the deep end. He’s treating us like traitors.”
Chief Han listened in silence to their conversation.
“Recent missions have failed constantly, and Nesis Tech has been making us grovel. He’s been on edge for days. No wonder he takes it out on us.”
Milo sneered.
“Mission failures? No, it’s just that his command skills are trash. All he ever knew how to do was boss the underlings around. He’s never once planned a real operation.”
Leo unloaded his accumulated resentment.
“And the pilots treat us like disposable parts from the start.”
Being trapped in the cell had finally given them the courage to speak their true feelings.
“By the way, Chief Han, why were you brought here? You never leave the maintenance bay.”
Milo turned to ask.
Chief Han was silent for a moment, then answered in a low voice.
“...It was just bad luck. Thought I was being annoying by asking too many questions, or... maybe he actually believed I was colluding with Jinwoo.”
Bitterness laced his tone.
He couldn’t bring himself to mention the message he’d sent to Jinwoo.
He didn’t want those two to drag them into this even more dangerous situation.
“This mercenary band needs to die today. It’d be better to starve here than roll around like a dog under Bulldog.”
Leo muttered in defeat, and heavy silence once again settled over the cell.
Just then—
KRRRRRR!
The entire floor shook violently, dust cascading from the ceiling.
The old iron bars of the cell rattled dangerously, and the faint emergency light flickered, plunging the space into brief darkness.
“What? Is it an earthquake?”
Milo shouted in shock, pushing himself off the wall.
Leo clutched his head with both hands, terrified.
KWANG! CRASH CRASH CRASH!
It wasn’t an earthquake.
The deafening explosion and the savage sounds of metal colliding and tearing from the outside echoed clearly all the way to the underground cell.
“W-what is that? Are they ambushing us? Who dares attack our base...!”
Leo stammered, his face even paler.
Milo looked bewildered, utterly confused.
But Chief Han’s eyes were different.
HP: [0] / [max]
“It’s already started.”
In normal circumstances, Bulldog’s direct unit was supposed to leave on a mission tomorrow.
Yet here it was, an earlier rebellion than planned.
With thorough preparation, it had to be executed perfectly.
“Looks like the birds have flown the coop! It seems the rumor that our band’s power has been gutted has spread even outside.”
Milo let out a hollow laugh.
“Otherwise, who the hell would dare launch a frontal assault on the Kronos Mercenary Group headquarters? They’re completely disrespecting us!”
“Yeah, the recent mission failures... and we’ve already lost our mechs and pilots in droves.”
Leo clicked his tongue in agreement.
“But still!”
Milo suddenly raised his voice.
A strange sense of pride flashed across his face.
“If it’s our Kronos Mercenary Group, we’re pretty well-known in this business, right? Even if our power’s weakened...!”
He cleared his throat unnecessarily, the complex emotions of resentment and admiration swirling inside.
For the next several minutes, the fierce battle sounds continued without pause.
Explosions, screams, and the roar of unknown mechs mixed together, driving the three of them into terror and anxiety.
They simply waited in silence, hoping the chaos would end.
And finally, the sounds died down as if they were a lie.
A suffocating, heavy silence settled over them.
Deeper and heavier than before.
Milo and Leo could only stare blankly at each other’s faces, not daring to speak.
Only Chief Han stared at the darkness at the end of the corridor outside the cell, his eyes trembling.
Heavy footsteps—slow but deliberate—approached from the distance.
THUD!
The old iron door leading to the underground cell was roughly torn inward from the inside, accompanied by the dull thud of someone tumbling down the stairs.
“Cough... Ugh...”
With a groan, a dusty shadow collapsed pitifully onto the floor of the corridor in front of the cell.
It was Bulldog.
His face was smeared with blood and dirt, and his uniform was in tatters.
And behind him, slowly emerging from the shadows like a phantom, was a figure.
Bulldog looked up at the figure with eyes filled with terror and screamed almost like a beast.
“Cog 7... no, Jinwoo! Please, please spare my life! I was wrong about everything! I’ll give you whatever you want! Credits, mechs, or even the entire mercenary band...!”
His pathetic plea echoed hollowly through the cold underground cell.