We Close the Battlefield

“Aaaaaaaagh!”

As Kang Yeolchan swung his fist, a goblin made of fire swung its massive club.

The giant club smashed directly into the road, and the police cars that failed to dodge erupted in a chain of explosions.

Yeolchan shouted.

“Cover your ears!”

Lee Jun and I reflexively covered our ears with both hands.

“Grrrrr... Roaaaaaaar!”

A resonant vibration echoed, feeling as if it were squeezing our very hearts.

The sound bounced between the buildings, amplifying as it resonated.

The roar of the Mountain Lord, paralyzing anyone who heard it.

It was Daenyang-i’s skill, Tiger’s Roar.

*Crash! Screeech! Thud!*

The police cars collided and piled up, their drivers completely paralyzed.

Yeolchan yelled.

“Hyeong-nim! Go! We’ll clean this up and follow right behind you!”

Without hesitation, I slammed on the accelerator.

Yeolchan’s fading voice drifted over.

“You have to hurry! Maetan has decided to shut down the server!! We have to return within an hour...!”

His voice was drowned out by a subsequent explosion.

I turned to Lee Jun, who was sitting in the passenger seat, anxiously biting his nails.

“What does he mean by shutting down the server?”

“...Exactly what it sounds like. They’re turning off the physical servers of Intra-Maetan that connect to the Internet. To block F’s intrusion, they’re destroying the very space it could invade.”

“What if we don’t escape before then? What happens to us?”

“...If we don’t log out by then... physically, nothing happens. We’ll just wake up normally in reality. But...”

Lee Jun looked at me and said cautiously.

“Our consciousness, which failed to log out, will be left behind on the Internet.”

“Like having your Neck-Hub extracted while still connected to the Internet?”

I recalled the bearded scavenger’s persona, who had been infected by F during an outside mission and left stranded on the Internet after his Neck-Hub was extracted.

“Yes. You’ll exist in reality, but also in the digital world. The real-world Juhyuk will wake up as if from a dream, but the digital you, the one talking to me right now, will remain trapped here forever. If that happens... which Juhyuk is the real one?”

Lee Jun kept checking the rearview mirror as he spoke. Every time a silhouette resembling a police car appeared, he flinched reflexively.

“And that’s not all. Your physical body will never be able to connect to the Internet again.”

I silently pressed harder on the accelerator.

Before long, we arrived in Chungmuro.

A few players were guarding the entrance to the gate leading back to Maetan. Among them were the guards who usually watched over the Monolith Gate. Were they players too?

I pulled over to the shoulder and scanned the surroundings. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Perhaps F’s influence hadn't reached this far yet; the digital residents walking the streets were going about their daily lives as usual.

I got out of the car, pulled Go Yongwan from the back seat, and slung him over my shoulder. A pool of blood had ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠formed on the floor of the backseat where he had been lying.

Lee Jun let out a sigh of relief.

“He’s still alive... Let’s move, quickly.”

“Juhyuk!”

Yoo Hyeyeon ran toward us from among the players guarding the gate. The Monolith Gate guards following close behind her took Go Yongwan off my back.

“Thank goodness. You made it out safely.”

“Yeolchan and Dae-nyang helped us.”

“Those two escaped through a different server. You need to log out immediately, Juhyuk.”

“Did everyone else make it out safely?” Lee Jun asked.

Hyeyeon ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠replied in a low voice.

“Except for those confirmed dead... there’s still one person left. But hurry. We have less than ten minutes before the connection is severed.”

The timer in the corner of my vision turned crimson, beginning its countdown from 09:59.

We were the first to run, yet we’re the last to leave. I guess S-ranks really are built different.

Just as we were about to cross back into Intra-Maetan, Hyeyeon’s face lit up.

“The last one is here.”

I turned around to see ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠a sharp, handsome man wearing glasses.

“Sihyun-nim!” Lee Jun called out.

S-class player, Kang Sihyun.

The man who had faced the F-controlled Wan Dalho alone to buy us time to escape.

Relief washed over the faces of the waiting crowd at his return. Everyone had been waiting for him—Maetan’s finest, its strongest player.

“I’m not too late, am I? Last place? ...I don’t mind,” Kang Sihyun said with a lighthearted chuckle.

Despite having fought Wan Dalho, a fellow S-rank, there wasn’t a single scratch on him. His suit was pristine, free of dust, and perfectly pressed.

“Whew... I’m just glad we made it back safe. I’m taking a break from scavenging for a while...” Lee Jun muttered wearily, stepping through the side door of the building that led to Intra-Maetan. I followed close behind him.

My vision flickered, and the skyscraper-lined streets of Chungmuro vanished, replaced by the chamber housing Intra-Maetan’s Monolith Gate. Seeing the forest surrounding the gate made me feel as if I had returned home.

In the chamber, the guards and S-ranks who had entered before us were talking. *Whirrr.* The sound of the Monolith Gate activating echoed behind us as the final person stepped through.

“Oh. So this is... Intra-Maetan.”

*Shiver.*

A sudden chill crept up my spine, spreading through my entire body in an instant.

An inexplicable, primal instinct screamed a warning in my head.

Without looking back, I shoved Lee Jun forward and executed a Roll.

*Whoosh—*

Something incredibly sharp sliced through the exact space I had occupied a millisecond ago.

As I pushed myself up from the roll, the forest was stained crimson. The Monolith Gate flashed red, blaring a warning siren. Bold text materialized before my eyes.

Everyone’s eyes locked onto the man who had been the last to enter Intra-Maetan.

Kang Sihyun.

A bizarrely shaped dagger in his hand was currently impaling a guard’s chest.

“Cough... Urgh...!”

A sickly green light surged from the dagger, spreading rapidly through the guard’s veins.

Yoo Hyeyeon was the first to react. Letting out a fierce battle cry, she lunged forward and threw a punch at Kang Sihyun.

As Kang Sihyun dodged her fist, he pulled his dagger out of the guard. Stepping in to cover Hyeyeon, Baek Yeonju—the knight clad in full plate armor—charged at him.

*Shreeeeek!*

As Kang Sihyun’s dagger scraped against her plate mail, the ground beneath Baek Yeonju’s feet violently shook.

“...It’s too late,” Yoo Hyeyeon muttered, biting her lip.

The green light had already reached the guard’s head. Without a word, the guard looked at Hyeyeon, gave her a thumbs-up, and crumbled into dust right where he stood.

“He activated the Self-termination Protocol,” Lee Jun’s trembling voice called out.

The Self-termination Protocol. A red cross nestled in the corner of every player’s vision. It was a system designed to destroy one’s own Neck-Hub when infected by F with no hope of recovery.

“You two, log out now!” Hyeyeon shouted, rushing to back up Baek Yeonju as she clashed with Kang Sihyun.

I turned to Lee Jun. “If F invades Intra-Maetan, what happens next?”

“...F will walk the physical streets of Maetan,” Lee Jun said, his body shaking.

“If we don’t stop it here, F will hijack the Neck-Hubs of anyone who hasn’t logged out yet. The AI will gain physical bodies. F, wearing human skin, will walk among us in Maetan. A few years ago, the exact same thing happened...”

I thought of my senior, the Longsword Goblin. Back then, they had shut down the factories to catch a player infected by F, and the resulting chemical leak had claimed many victims, including his wife.

“Aaaah!” Baek Yeonju screamed.

Kang Sihyun was pinning her to the ground, violently ripping away her breastplate. The buckles securing the armor snapped, exposing the chainmail underneath. He aimed his dagger at the microscopic gaps between the metal rings and thrust it downward.

“...I’m sorry!” Just before the blade pierced her flesh, Baek Yeonju’s avatar vanished. She had logged out.

“Haaaaah!” Yoo Hyeyeon, the last remaining S-rank player, threw herself at Kang Sihyun. Her knuckle-dusted fists rained down in rapid succession, separated by mere fractions of a second. Yet, Kang Sihyun dodged every single strike by a hair’s breadth. By a hair’s breadth? No, that was too dramatic a phrase for what was happening.

He was moving only as much as absolutely necessary to evade. His movements were fluid, filled with ease and absolute certainty. It was as if the outcome of "evasion" had already been decided, and his body was simply going through the motions to match it.

Kang Sihyun’s skill, which allowed him to choose the absolute best outcome from countless possibilities, combined with an AI that calculated the optimal solution at every millisecond. Their fusion had birthed a perfect killing machine that transcended common sense.

The moment despair flickered across Hyeyeon’s face, Kang Sihyun’s dagger grazed her left arm. The wound wasn’t deep, but the sickly green light immediately began to spread through her veins.

“Ugh!” Without a moment’s hesitation, Hyeyeon used her right hand like a blade to sever her own left arm. Blood sprayed like a fountain from the stump, but she didn’t flinch, immediately reassuming her combat stance.

But the scales had already tipped. She had been no match for him even with both arms; losing one made the situation utterly hopeless. An inevitable gap opened in her offensive tempo, and Kang Sihyun did not miss the opening.

Kang Sihyun grabbed Hyeyeon’s right hand. She pulled back and threw a kick, but even as his stance faltered, he dodged effortlessly and drove his dagger into her calf.

Once again, the green light spread rapidly. With her right hand pinned, she couldn’t even sever her own leg.

“Aaaaaah!” Just then, Lee Jun charged forward. His black greatsword sliced through Hyeyeon’s thigh.

Hyeyeon squeezed out her remaining strength to tear herself away from Kang Sihyun. But in doing so, her right arm, still held in his grip, was violently ripped from her shoulder.

The air turned crimson with the spraying blood.

I checked the remaining time.

*Not even a minute has passed.*

Kang Sihyun... no, F, who had hijacked his body, looked down at his left hand. His ring and pinky fingers were broken.

“An impressive sequence of attacks. Even after calculating every possible variable, I couldn’t dodge them all.”

Kang Sihyun stepped toward the fallen Hyeyeon. Lee Jun scooped her into his arms, but that was his limit. Paralyzed with fear, he couldn’t move from the spot.

I stepped between them.

“Juhyuk! Run!” Hyeyeon screamed.

I spoke to Lee Jun. “Take the Guild Leader and log out.”

“But...”

“What are you saying?! You can’t face him!” Hyeyeon tried to push herself up, but Lee Jun held her tight.

“You have to log out before the server shuts down. If you don’t, Juhyuk-nim, you’ll never be able to connect to Intra-Maetan again.”

“I know.”

“Wait...!”

Lee Jun ran, carrying Hyeyeon.

A moment later, the active user count decreased by two.

Having watched the two escape in silence, Kang Sihyun let his shoulders drop, looking thoroughly unimpressed. “Are you Maetan’s final guardian? A goblin. Quite a pathetic last line of defense.”

“I’m used to it.”

“You are severely outmatched. Your data capacity is pathetic compared to the others.”

Memories of the past suddenly drifted into my mind. Behind us, there were always allies in retreat, and we were always the ones running in the opposite direction.

“No matter how much time passes, the job never changes.”

‘We close the battlefield.’ That was our slogan, and our petty pride.

“I’m going full power from the start, AI.”

I crouched down and pressed my hand against the ground.

A single streak of light flickered at my fingertips. It sparkled like a tiny star fallen to the earth, gradually expanding. Two, three, then dozens of light streams began to converge from all directions.

The light swirled, growing thicker and solidifying. Riding atop the rising light, I ascended as the world fell away beneath me. Finally, the light coalesced into a complete form beneath my feet.

The ultimate shield capable of blocking any spear. Eight massive pillars extending from an angular chassis. An electromagnetic turret capable of firing blue flashes of lightning.

The Multi-legged Tank. The main battle tank of the Machine Species materialized beneath me.

“Who... what are you?” For the first time, Kang Sihyun knit his brows.

I replied.

*Crack-crack-crackle—!* A brilliant blue flash erupted, accompanied by the rapid, continuous sound of burning air.

“Let’s go, AI.”