Seoul Engulfed in Flames
Seoul Engulfed in Flames
Seoul.
Bright sunlight poured over the metropolis, and at a glance it looked no different from any other day.
Yesterday, today, tomorrow. An ordinary city that seemed like it would stay much the same.
The occasional terrorist appeared, and monsters sometimes emerged, but aside from those incidents, it was always the same unchanging city.
No one could promise it would still look like this ten years from now, but it seemed certain to remain peaceful at least through the following week.
And so, no one saw it coming.
That the end of daily life would arrive so abruptly.
Ordinary ground.
Between tall buildings, a person on a rooftop taking in the view.
That person was the first to notice something was wrong.
It was the same view they always saw.
Towers, the hazy mountain range against the dark backdrop behind them, and beside it—something enormous.
The kind of thing you might miss if you were staring blankly.
Anyone with a sharp eye, however, would have noticed it immediately.
Oh shit.
What the hell is that.
One corner of downtown Seoul.
Way off in the distance, next to the mountains.
A colossal something was standing there, looking down at the city.
A gray torso shaped like a cylinder capped by a hemispherical head. Two long steel legs, and equally long steel arms hanging down.
It looked like a mechanized weapon—something that seemed impossible to believe was standing before this city.
And while people rubbed their eyes, wondering if they were seeing things—
It began to advance into the city center, pulverizing the ground.
BOOM—
BOOM—
With every stride, the earth rumbled. With every next stride, the ground shook as it came closer.
Like something out of a movie, it crushed everything underfoot as it advanced.
"Aaaah!"
Only then did people realize what was happening.
Everyone in its path stopped whatever they were doing and fled.
The peaceful city turned into pandemonium in an instant.
KRA-KOOOOOM—
Soon enough, the thing strode unhindered into the heart of the city.
Towering amid the buildings, it presented an overwhelmingly imposing sight.
Where the colossal weapon's legs had stepped, the asphalt was already smashed to rubble.
In front of it, countless people screamed as they ran.
Blaring car horns, shrieking voices.
It seemed as if everyone in the city had jolted awake and was now desperate to get away from it even a second sooner.
It had paralyzed the city center without doing anything more than standing there.
It stood motionless, looking down at the chaos it had created.
Then, finally, a voice began to ring out from it.
[You dogs of the government and the Association.]
The voice thundered across the entire city at a deafening volume.
It sounded like metal scraping, riddled with static, which only made it more chilling.
That voice was thundering from the giant weapon.
[You remnants of Old Humanity who have blocked our progress toward New Humanity.]
[You incompetent, inferior species who cannot accept evolution and innovation.]
[Your narrow-minded, selfish thinking has finally brought down Han-eun, which would have opened a new horizon for South Korea.]
[Those who bring destruction upon others must be prepared for their own destruction.]
There, whoever was speaking seemed to pause for breath.
Then, in a voice far clearer and louder than before,
It declared the verdict as if delivering a formal sentence.
[Today, Seoul—including the government and the Association—]
[will end here.]
[No one in this city]
[will leave alive.]
And the moment those last words were spoken,
The giant started to move.
KRA-KOOOOOM.
At the same time, it swung its arm and simply smashed the buildings in front of it to pieces.
A skyscraper that had stood so majestically it seemed destined to remain for decades more was effortlessly broken in half.
And with that, the weapon began rampaging through the city.
Countless buildings erected over decades of industrialization
began to collapse helplessly beneath its hands.
RUMBLE.
Like an unstoppable calamity, a being out of myth, it advanced without resistance and smashed every building around it.
Within only a few dozen minutes of appearing, it had already half-destroyed the city and finally caught up with the fleeing crowd.
"Ugh, uhh..."
"P-please, help..."
"Waaah. Mommy..."
"Ah... ah..."
Even those who had been running as hard as they could
They sank to the ground beneath the shadow that covered them before they even realized it.
Ah.
No matter how far we run.
We couldn't run anymore.
That was as far as we could go.
And so, in front of the terror-stricken people.
At a point where one more step could kill hundreds—thousands—at once,
it spoke one last time.
[Goodbye.]
[Blame the useless Association.]
[Go to hell, humans.]
Then it ripped a nearby building free with one arm as easily as pulling a radish from the ground.
Holding the building with its outer wall torn open and dangling, it aimed toward the crowd.
And the moment they gave up and closed their eyes—
The giant weapon suddenly twitched.
....?
Those who had resigned themselves, waiting for death with their eyes shut, sensed something strange and opened them again.
It remained frozen with its arm raised, twitching again and again.
Then a scream from an unknown source suddenly burst from the weapon.
[Who the hell are you?! Urgh, aaaargh!! Rese... archer... Ugh. Urk.]
....
Static.
The sound of something breaking, someone screaming, and objects being smashed.
Then came thud, thud—the sound of something being struck.
And then, silence.
.....
Suddenly the city center went quiet.
The city became eerily quiet the moment the weapon’s speakers, which had been shaking the surroundings only seconds earlier, fell silent.
Only intermittent sobs could be heard. The giant weapon remained frozen in the same pose, still holding the building aloft.
Like a statue.
***
"Crack!"
"AAARGH!"
I brought the wrench down again and again on the man sitting in the pilot’s seat.
He crumpled without resistance.
"What the hell is that guy!!"
"Kill him!!"
The researchers nearby lunged at me.
I shouted back to Choi Se-hee behind me.
"Electchu! One million volts!"
"Here you go. Zap."
Choi Se-hee casually fired a bolt of electricity.
The Han-eun Group lackeys convulsed and collapsed one after another.
At the far end of the spacious cockpit, Dr. Kim Seon-woo alone retreated until his back met the wall.
"Hello, Dr. Kim Seon-woo. Nice to meet you. I’m Egostic."
I grinned and gave him a polite greeting.
Kim Seon-woo—the final boss of Phase 1 and the enemy of both Seo-eun and Soo-bin.
This was my first time seeing him in person.
He looked even more shabby and pathetic than I'd imagined.
"Y-you! Why are you doing this?! Aren’t you a villain?!"
"Me? Of course I’m a villain. I was relaxing at home when this amazing robot suddenly appeared. What kind of villain would I be if I didn’t steal it?"
"Do you have any idea what you’re doing?! You idiot! You’re obstructing the evolution of New Humanity!"
"Ha. I don’t see what massacring the citizens of Seoul has to do with evolution. And listen, old man."
I laughed, then lowered my voice and continued.
"Cut the bullshit and shut the hell up, you senile lunatic."
"What did you say?! You bastard!"
"Se-hee. Shoot him."
"Mm-hm."
Kim Seon-woo charged with his eyes rolling back, but Se-hee fired a single bolt from behind me, and he went limp.
After kicking the bastard sprawled on the floor, I locked him and the others in the Ego Underground Base.
The cockpit was now empty, leaving only Choi Se-hee and me.
"Heh-heh... HAHAHAHAHA!!"
Before I knew it, I was laughing like a madman.
"HAHAHAHAHA!!"
"Hey... you okay?"
Ignoring Choi Se-hee’s worried gaze, I kept laughing like a lunatic for quite a while.
No, it was funny.
That this—the final boss of Phase 1, the trigger that would plunge South Korea into anarchy, kill tens of thousands, and turn Stardus’s life into a full-blown misery story—
had been subdued this easily.
"Ha-ha..."
I wiped away the tears that had formed from laughing so hard and looked around.
Clean white walls, one side covered with dozens of display panels, and a cockpit overlooking the outside.
From here, I could see thousands of terrified people below. I quietly approached the controls.
The Han-eun Group bastards had poured everything they had into this final masterpiece.
Left unchecked, it could completely destroy a city, and it could withstand nearly any impact. It was a true symbol of cutting-edge science.
A giant weapon that truly stirs a man's heart.
Now, should I try operating it?
There was plenty to do. Naturally, I planned to take this thing into a fight with Stardus. It had been a while, so I would push our Stardus through some serious growth.
Before that, though, I should reassure the citizens trembling down there.
"Ah, ah."
I turned on the mic and spoke.
Time to start the show.
***
And so.
The giant weapon had abruptly stopped before attacking the civilians. After a short while, it moved again.
Then, suddenly, a voice rang out once more.
[Ah, ah.]
The brighter, more cheerful voice was completely different from the one before, leaving the people momentarily bewildered.
Before they could understand what was happening, the voice continued booming from the giant weapon.
[Hello, everyone!]
[Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Egostic!]
Right.
Suddenly—truly out of nowhere—a name no one had expected rang out.
As the people fell into confusion, he continued.
[The Han-eun Group folks built something pretty cool, didn’t they? Anyway...]
With a faint laugh in his voice, he continued.
[So I stole it.]
[This is mine now.]
No one had seen that coming.