The Hunter Becomes the Hunted
Choi Ki-hun gripped the pistol with both hands and aimed it at me.
I raised my prosthetic arm to shield my vitals.
Bang!
Choi Ki-hun pulled the trigger without a second thought.
Clang! The bullet struck the prosthetic and ricocheted away.
Stop blocking and dodge!
“Aaaaargh!!”
Bang! Bang-bang! Bang-bang!
Choi Ki-hun screamed, firing in rapid succession.
I blocked the potentially fatal rounds with my prosthetic arm and let the rest graze me.
Without slowing down, I lunged forward and tackled him.
“Gah!”
I lifted Choi Ki-hun off his feet and slammed him against the wall.
The brutal impact to his chest and back left him completely winded and unable to stand.
I threw him to the ground and pinned him down, mounting him.
Please connect the cable. I'll check his neck-hub.
I recalled the firewalls the guards wore around their necks.
They said the moment you connected to a neck-hub, F would launch a hacking attempt.
“You won't get infected, will you?”
Who do you think I am?
Ultimately, without CC, I had no way of verifying whether someone was infected by F or not.
I pulled out the USB cable I always carried and connected his neck-hub to mine.
While CC scanned Choi Ki-hun's neck-hub, he screamed.
“F-Fuck! Let go! Let go of me! You're not a guard, are you?! Why are you doing this to me?!”
“Why did you shoot at me first?”
“...B-Because you charged at me like a maniac...”
He must have had a guilty conscience to pull a gun so quickly.
No sign of F... but it looks like he was stealing from Intra-Maetan without logging out. There's a ton of clothing data and various luxury goods... Lots of figurines too. What is this? A lizard in a maid outfit...?
“A dead end.”
“A-Are you infected by F? I-I can help you. What do you want? To get out of Maetan? I know a secret underground waterway. Or a communication line—gack!”
I drove my fist into Choi Ki-hun's jaw, giving him a swift concussion.
His bag was packed with travel gear, as if he had been planning to flee Maetan.
Leaving the unconscious Choi Ki-hun under a streetlight, I grabbed the CCTV cable once more.
“Next.”
Once again, the CCTV feeds flashed before my eyes, cycling rapidly.
A man holding a knife was threatening a woman.
Found him. Im Gi-yeong.
A red arrow materialized in my vision once more.
I ran in the direction it pointed.
The morning sun rose over the towering walls of Maetan.
Sigh. All of them were busts.
I had tracked down over ten people from the list throughout the night, but every single one was a bust.
There was no trace of F, only a collection of petty criminals.
Maybe the guards found it first.
“Unlikely.”
> Hostile AI has infiltrated Maetan... *static*...
> As of this moment, Intra-Maetan, all networks, and power supplies are shut down.
> All employees, please follow the guards' instructions... *static*...
> Do not connect your neck-hub to anyone else's...
The announcements warning of F's intrusion echoed continuously through the streets.
It meant F was still at large.
I made my way toward the market in the civilian sector.
Where are you going?
“A restaurant.”
In the corner of my vision, strings of text continuously scrolled across a black screen.
It meant CC was still in the middle of her recovery process.
Naturally, this required processing power, and processing power consumed electricity.
The battery in my prosthetic arm charged using the bio-electricity generated by my own body.
One of the reasons we soldiers underwent cybernetic modification was to increase our body's bio-electric output.
And bio-electricity is generated by burning calories.
After running all night on top of CC draining my power reserves all day, my blood sugar was plummeting fast.
With thoughts of stuffing myself to the brim, I headed toward the employee cafeteria.
“Hey! I'm trying to pay with my own damn money! Why can't I eat?!”
“I told you, Maetan Points aren't working right now!”
“Then let me buy it on credit, at least...”
“Go to the restaurants in the civilian sector! You can pay with cash there!!”
A crowd of people was protesting in front of the employee cafeteria.
Maetan's employee cafeteria—which usually boasted three meals a day, a rotating menu, and a balanced diet of fresh vegetables and protein—had ground to a halt.
An older woman I often saw at the cafeteria spoke up.
“Oh, dear, our big eater is here. What are we going to do? The power is out, so we can't sell anything right now...”
It meant they had suspended sales because Maetan Points couldn't be processed.
It would have been nice if they accepted cash, but company-run establishments were strictly forbidden from taking any currency other than Maetan Points. Besides, with the power out, cooking was impossible anyway since the cafeteria relied entirely on massive induction stoves and electric rice cookers.
What should we do?
In the past, I would have despaired at this point and gone to shake down the Garden gang for food...
But I was different now.
I had four million won in cash from the pawnshop.
It was enough money to keep me well-fed for nearly thirty days.
I marched into the market alley where the civilian restaurants were clustered, stepped confidently into a gukbap joint, and called out:
“Auntie! Three bowls of gukbap!”
“I'm busy! Come grab it yourself!”
The restaurant was an open-air setup with several wooden tables spread out, and there literally wasn't a single empty seat.
People who couldn't secure a table were standing around, eating straight from their bowls.
No matter how much chaos F caused, people still had to eat.
Still, just being able to eat at all was a blessing.
There were far more people who couldn't eat than those who could.
They hovered around the tables, watching the diners with gloomy faces.
They either only had Maetan Points, or they had no money to begin with.
Their eyes held a mixture of envy, jealousy, and a faint, lingering resentment.
Mister, look over there.
CC projected a red arrow amidst the crowd.
Beneath the arrow, a child who looked barely past ten was wandering around. While most children in Maetan were covered in grime, this boy had a clean, fair complexion and carried himself like he had been raised in luxury. It was an aura rarely seen in Maetan.
Strangely enough, he had a neck-hub implanted in the back of his neck.
Since Maetan strictly complied with labor standards, they did not issue neck-hubs to children under fifteen.
It's Kang Yeolchan.
What?
I recalled Kang Yeolchan, who had wept in my arms during my field mission.
To be honest, I didn't remember his face, but the vibe felt similar.
Besides, there couldn't be many children under fifteen running around with neck-hubs.
Kang Yeolchan was standing in line to buy gukbap, but people kept cutting in front of him, pushing him further and further back.
His clean, sheltered appearance made him look fragile, and his young age made him an incredibly easy target.
I stood up from my seat.
Another man was about to cut in front of Kang Yeolchan.
I tapped him on the shoulder.
“Hey.”
“Huh?”
Thwack!
My fist connected cleanly, spinning the man's jaw and sending him collapsing to the ground.
I tossed the unconscious man onto a nearby chair and stood in front of Kang Yeolchan.
“Hyeong-nim...?”
Kang Yeolchan looked up at me with wide, startled eyes.
“It's been a while in the real world. How have you been?”
I had just seen him yesterday, but the words slipped out naturally anyway.
“Hyeong-nim!”
Kang Yeolchan leaped up and hugged me.
He was light. Even considering that my strength was several times greater than an average human's, he felt far too light.
Was he even eating properly?
“Are you here to eat? If you don't stand your ground here, people will keep walking all over you. You have to defend your own place.”
“It's not usually this crowded... but there are so many people today.”
Did he usually come out to buy food by himself?
It would make more sense for Guild Leader Yoo Hyeyeon, an adult, to do the shopping.
“Is the Guild Leader safe?”
“Yes! Actually, Mom was incredibly worried about you! She said you were left behind... When we heard they couldn't catch F before the server shutdown, we were so... But seeing you here, I guess you managed to escape too, Hyeong-nim?”
“Yeah.”
“You fought the F that infected Mister Kang Sihyeon, right? How was it? Was it strong?”
“Kang Sihyeon... was strong.”
“But you didn't lose, Hyeong-nim.”
Kang Yeolchan grinned.
Kang Yeolchan bought two bowls of gukbap, including one for the Guild Leader.
I offered to pay, but he politely yet firmly declined.
Even if he refuses, an adult is supposed to pay in times like this.
What nonsense.
He probably makes more money than I do.
I decided to walk him halfway back. The hungry, penniless crowds were staring at him with predatory eyes.
“Mom said she'd give me something the next time we log into the internet.”
“Really?”
“I think it's going to be a promotion. It would be embarrassing for the high-rank players if someone who fought F was still D-grade.”
“I see.”
But what's so good about a higher player rank anyway?
I had never even thought about it, so I had no idea.
“Anyway, I want to get back on the internet soon. Mom looks so suffocated...”
I recalled the Guild Leader facing off against the multi-legged tanks and F.
Dressed in her suit and trench coat, she had unleashed a relentless, storm-like barrage of attacks.
Indeed, if you were used to moving with that level of agility, reality would feel incredibly suffocating.
“Thank you for helping me today. I can go on alone from here.”
Kang Yeolchan bowed politely and disappeared into the shadows of the buildings.
After parting ways with Kang Yeolchan, I headed back home.
I pushed aside the wooden plank that served as my door and stepped inside.
Instantly, a faint, damp, and musty odor hit my nose. It was a mix of mold and a metallic tang, like an old warehouse.
“What the...?”
The next moment, I felt a gritty texture beneath my feet. The entire floor was covered in transparent white crystals, faintly reflecting the dim light.
As I took another step, a thin wire brushed against my ankle.
Zap.
A jolt of electricity surged up my spine.
Before I could even pull back, the sound of shattering glass echoed from the corner of the room. A small glass vial broke, spilling a liquid. The moment the liquid met the powder on the floor, red flames erupted, and sparks raced rapidly along the fertilizer crystals.
“Damn it—!!”
Before the words could fully leave my mouth, a blinding flash consumed the room, dragging everything into the epicenter of an explosion.
There was no time to retreat.
I forced myself to leap backward, crossing my arms to shield my face and chest.
The next instant, searing heat and a violent shockwave slammed into me.
With a colossal roar, my house was instantly blown to smithereens, spewing flames and debris high into the night sky.
I crashed through the wall of the building opposite mine, shattering the concrete.
The ruins of my home rained down on top of me.
Mister! Mister!
I checked my arms.
They were both still attached, but they were blackened by soot and embedded with countless concrete shards.
Through the ringing in my ears and the dizzying shock, my mind raced.
A booby trap.
Who?
It was obvious.
F. It was that bastard.
Before logging out, the entity had been highly wary of the AC series—of CC.
Just as I had been hunting it, it had been hunting me.
How did it find me? My eyes fell on the CCTV camera mounted at the end of the alley.
If CC could do it, there was no reason F couldn't.
“Damn it...”
I thought I was the hunter, but I was the prey.
I forced myself up.
Crack.
Every inch of my body screamed in pain. Shrapnel was embedded all over me.
I was in no condition to move, but I had to.
The booby trap wasn't the end of it.
There would definitely be a follow-up.
“Find somewhere... without CCTVs...!”
A trail of red arrows stretched out before me, leading from one alley to the next.
Dragging my blood-soaked body, I forced myself to run, following the arrows.