Extortion and Business Proposals
Humanity lost the war against the AIs.
The dominion over Earth, which once belonged to humanity, had been seized by the Machine Species—monstrous heaps of iron controlled by artificial intelligence.
The remnants of humanity had no choice but to erect massive walls around their cities and hide.
The vast, open earth?
The global network that once reached into the cosmos?
All of it was ancient history.
Maetan.
It was the name of one of the few surviving human cities, and simultaneously, the name of the corporation that ruled it.
I was a citizen of the city of Maetan, and an employee of the Maetan Corporation.
A five-day workweek, complimentary lunch, and subsidized access to company housing and the employee cafeteria—unbelievably generous benefits.
Of course, nearly half my salary vanished into various mysterious "deductions," and the company housing was a dilapidated dump with holes in the walls and the upstairs neighbor's sewage pipes running right across my ceiling, but...
Hey, humanity was ruined.
With all infrastructure evaporated, we were forced to huddle together in a space barely half the size of Yeouido. If you had hot meals and a roof over your head, asking for anything more was just plain greedy.
Especially the employee cafeteria.
It was truly magnificent.
In fact, it was the biggest reason I chose Maetan as my home.
A three-dish meal that changed daily, served three times a day at dirt-cheap prices...?
Was Maetan a god?
> Employee No. DR03415: Maetan Points are frozen and unavailable for use until the out-of-office mission is completed.
And yet, that very cafeteria had just abandoned me.
A message that essentially translated to "No food for you" floated before my eyes.
“Oh dear, young man, did you get assigned to an out-of-office mission? What a shame. Out-of-office workers can't use Maetan Points.”
The cafeteria lady at the register clicked her tongue in pity.
Maetan Points were the electronic currency used throughout Maetan.
Whether you were buying a meal, paying the water bill, or just purchasing toilet paper from a convenience store, everything was paid for in Maetan Points.
The corporation even paid our salaries in Maetan Points.
In other words, it was my entire life savings.
“Excuse me...? So I can't eat...?”
The lady nodded solemnly.
“You'll have to eat after your mission is over...”
I unplugged the USB cable I had inserted into my Neck-Hub for payment and pleaded.
“I'm starving to death. Can't you put it on my tab... just this once?”
“Oh, don't do this, you're breaking my heart. If it were up to me, I'd let you eat on credit in a heartbeat. But you know how it is. Maetan absolutely forbids transactions on credit. If you have any hard cash... how about a civilian restaurant? There's a decent gukbap place down in the market alley. It's cheap and they give you huge portions. My brother works there, actually.”
I rummaged through my pockets and pulled out my remaining cash.
3,720 won.
I stared at the lady with desperate, pleading eyes.
She slowly shook her head.
A pitying smile accompanied the rejection.
No food.
My world crumbled...
“Sigh...”
A deep sigh escaped my lips the moment I stepped out of the employee cafeteria.
The sky seemed to spin, and my fingertips trembled. I could already feel the early symptoms of hypoglycemia creeping in.
This was a crisis.
I was going to die.
Not metaphorically, but literally starve to death.
A normal person wouldn't suffer much from skipping a meal or two, but unfortunately, my body was far from normal.
Modified by a now-defunct nation to fight the Machine Species, my body burned through calories at three times the rate of an ordinary human just by breathing.
I was hungry even when sitting perfectly still, and the slightest physical exertion would easily incinerate one or two thousand calories.
In an era of abundance, this would have been a minor inconvenience. But what was the world now? Right, a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
We lived in an age where securing three meals a day was a struggle.
My calorie consumption was triple that of others, yet my body's storage capacity was entirely average.
Skipping just one or two meals meant hypoglycemic shock. Going a full day without food meant staring death in the face.
“I need to eat something right now...”
But my points were frozen, and I had no cash.
No matter how great Maetan claimed to be, they had no welfare policies to rescue a penniless beggar.
“Well, I have no choice. Time to impose on them once more...”
Everyone has someone they think of when times get tough.
Leaning against the wall for support, I dragged my feet toward the western sector of Maetan.
The eastern side of Maetan was the Corporate Zone.
Directly managed by the corporation, it housed all of Maetan's core facilities.
It was clean, monitored by CCTV, and had a stable power supply.
The infrastructure was so well-maintained it made you wonder if humanity had actually fallen at all.
The western side was known as the Residential Zone, the housing sector, or simply the Civilian Zone.
This was where Maetan's employees lived, and it was understandably neglected compared to the Corporate Zone.
The power cut out occasionally, and about once a month, some poor soul would get crushed to death by falling concrete from a decaying building, but it was still a lively, bustling place with a human touch.
As I neared the outer fringes, it grew dark despite it being the middle of the day.
This was due to the shadow cast by the colossal wall surrounding Maetan.
Calling it a wall was generous; it was merely a crude barrier made by carving up and piecing together the rubble of collapsed skyscrapers.
And as is always the case, unsavory characters tended to gather beneath the shadow of such walls.
Just like the group huddled around the burning drum barrel over there.
Sinister faces, paired with incongruously colorful flower tattoos etched onto their forearms.
Those mismatched tattoos were the symbol of the Garden gang, Maetan's local thugs.
Ah, my mouth was already watering.
“Hey, meatheads. Is Hee-cheol in?”
“? What bastard dares call our boss by name—*gasp*!”
“Shit, run!”
The thugs bolted without looking back the moment they saw me.
That was fine. They weren't my targets anyway.
I pounded on the iron door they had been guarding.
Thud, thud, thud! Thud, thud, thud! Thud, thud, thud!
Thud, thud, thud! Thud, thud, thud! Thud, thud, thud!
After a solid minute of pounding, the peephole slid open, and a face peered out.
“Hey! Shut up! Why are you banging on the—*gasp*!”
“Hee-cheol, long time no see.”
*Slide. Click, clack, clunk.*
I had barely finished my greeting before the peephole slammed shut, followed by the frantic sounds of multiple deadbolts and latches sliding into place.
“Open up.”
“Are you out of your mind, hyung-nim? Why would I open it? Please just get lost, sir!”
“I'm going to break it down.”
“Ha! This is on a whole different level from the steel door you smashed last time, sir! It's a titanium-graphene alloy reinforced with Machine Species outer plating! Go ahead and try it if you think you can, ain't it, boss?”
The outer armor of the Machine Species was tough enough to deflect RPG rounds.
Piercing it required naval artillery or a direct missile strike.
“Just give up and go home, sir! We don't have anything left to give you, boss!!”
“Just you wait.”
I lowered my stance and drew my left arm back.
The defunct nation hadn't just modified my metabolism to burn calories like a furnace.
Muscles with three times the density of an average human.
A skeleton reinforced with titanium alloy.
Superhuman reaction speeds.
And a cybernetic prosthetic arm installed in place of my severed left limb.
Keeping my center of gravity low, I summoned the control console for my prosthetic arm.
> Output: 70%... 80%... 90%... 100%... 110%...
> 270%... 280%... 290%...
> CRITICAL THRESHOLD EXCEEDED
The prosthetic arm's management interface flashed before my eyes.
*Crackle! Spark!*
The electrical energy stored in the arm's battery discharged, enveloping the limb.
They called it a sort of electromagnetic shield.
I didn't quite understand the physics behind it, but the results were undeniable.
For a brief moment, it exponentially boosted the structural integrity of the prosthetic arm.
“Hup!”
Pushing off the ground, I spun my entire body and threw a straight punch with my left arm.
*BOOM!*
The overclocked prosthetic arm effortlessly punched a massive hole right through the concrete wall adjacent to the door.
Stepping through the newly made gap, I entered Garden's headquarters, which was disguised as a shady bar.
“Are you guys idiots? What's the point of reinforcing the door when the wall is this soft?”
“Shit... who in their right mind calls a concrete wall soft...?”
Hee-cheol, who had been guarding the door, whimpered.
Despite his rough trade, Jeon Heechul had a surprisingly delicate, pretty-boy face.
He was the leader of the local gang.
*Clatter!*
The Garden thugs surrounded me, brandishing their weapons.
Five... ten... twelve of them in total.
“Bring me whatever food you've got.”
“Damn it... you're not even trying to hide the extortion anymore, are you, boss? We have our reputation to uphold as an organization! Get him!”
“Aaaaargh!”
The thugs charged at me all at once.
Chicken is delicious.
Chicken eaten after a workout is even better.
“Ah... Hey, bring some more.”
A thug with a fresh black eye meekly placed a new plate of chicken in front of me.
I downed a glass of synthetic beer and tore into the fresh batch.
I could feel my rock-bottom blood sugar levels surging back up.
Taking care of the thugs had taken less than three minutes.
After smashing a few tables, chairs, and the daggers and iron pipes they had been brandishing, the situation was resolved.
The result?
The chicken in front of me spoke for itself.
Hee-cheol, kneeling beside me with a tissue stuffed up his bloody nose, spoke up.
“I beg of you, hyung-nim, could you please stop making these regular visits, sir?”
“Do you see this?”
I pointed to a fingernail-sized scar on my right forearm.
It was a stab wound, but it had healed so well that the mark was barely visible.
“Every time it rains, this wound still aches...”
“We already apologized for trying to shake you down when we didn't know any better, hyung-nim! This is the third time this month, sir! We're seriously dying here. We have to pay our tribute to the higher-ups too. Please, have mercy, boss. Please.”
“Have I really been here three times this month?”
I did drop by whenever the cafeteria meals weren't enough to satisfy my appetite.
But three times? I did feel a slight twinge of guilt.
“My bad. I eat a lot, but my income is pretty meager... whenever I'm struggling, you guys are the first ones who come to mind.”
“Does it make sense to rob us just because you're broke, sir?”
“Well, I can't exactly rob innocent civilians. What, do you think I'm some kind of thug?”
“Wow... what the hell...”
“Look, wouldn't it be easier if you just handed over some cash or food whenever I show up? Then you wouldn't have to get beaten up.”
“But we're gangsters, ain't we, boss? How can we just pay voluntary taxes out of fear, sir?”
“You've got pride. That's why I like you.”
“If you like me, please just leave me alone, sir.”
“I want to see you often precisely because I like you. Besides, I really had no choice this time. My Maetan Points got frozen, so I couldn't even buy a meal.”
Even as Hee-cheol and I chatted, his subordinates were already busy plastering cement over the hole in the wall with practiced ease.
Since I smashed something every time I visited, they had all become top-tier construction workers.
Suddenly, Hee-cheol asked,
“But why did they freeze your points, sir?”
“Turns out out-of-office workers can't use Maetan Points.”
“You're going on an out-of-office mission, hyung-nim?!”
Hee-cheol's face lit up with a massive grin.
His subordinates also shot me looks filled with sudden hope.
The survival rate for out-of-office missions was roughly sixty percent.
Meaning four out of ten never returned.
“You look happy.”
“Not at all, hyung-nim! You work so hard, sir. I have no idea how you got roped into an out-of-office assignment, but it's truly tragic, ain't it? It must be some wicked scheme by Maetan, sir. I pray you preserve your precious health and return safely, boss.”
Hee-cheol, who had been kneeling, cautiously stood up.
He dusted off his pants with both hands and casually slid into the chair opposite me.
“Hyung-nim, would it be alright if I asked you for a small favor, sir?”
“Are we on the kind of terms where we do favors for each other?”
“Of course not, sir. Then how about a business proposition, ain't it?”
“I don't do business with thugs.”
“Then...”
“But I suppose I should pay for the wall I broke.”
Hee-cheol smirked.
“The out-of-office mission you're going on, hyung-nim—it's probably a courier run, sir.”
“A courier run?”
“Delivering messages or data to other cities through the Internet, ain't it, boss?”
“The Internet, huh.”
Humanity lived isolated in their respective cities.
Outside the cities lay ruins—wastelands teeming with radiation, the Machine Species, and mutated creatures whose original forms were completely unrecognizable.
Traveling by land was practically suicide.
Yet, humanity couldn't survive completely cut off from one another.
There was only one way to exchange information without crossing the physical wasteland.
Diving deep into the Internet, which was completely occupied by the AIs.
A courier run meant braving the AI-infested Internet to deliver messages and digital goods to other cities.
“I heard a rumor, sir. If you're heading out today, your destination is probably Intra-Sampyeong, ain't it, boss?”
“Intra-Sampyeong?”
“It's a virtual world created by the faction settled in Sampyeong, sir. They apparently repurposed the servers of an old gaming company to build it.”
Every human settlement of decent size maintained its own virtual world, an intranet.
“So, I was wondering... could you deliver a package of ours along the way, hyung-nim?”
“...If the Maetan Administration catches me, I'm dead.”
“We'll compress and disguise it perfectly so they won't find it, sir.”
“No.”
Hee-cheol pointed toward the wall, which was nearly fully repaired.
“The wall, sir...”
“The math doesn't add up. You expect me to risk my employee ID just because I broke a wall?”
Whatever data Hee-cheol wanted me to carry, it was bound to be highly illicit.
I had no desire to give Maetan any excuse to penalize me.
I was already in the middle of serving a disciplinary action.
If anything else went wrong, I might actually get fired.
I couldn't go back to surviving in the wild, chewing on mutant meat.
“I'll pay you two million in cash, sir.”
My monthly salary was 1.5 million Maetan Points.
Two million in hard cash was enough to keep me well-fed for quite a while.
“...What's the package?”
“Pardon me, sir.”
Hee-cheol tapped the back of his neck.