Traces of a Romantic
"It's not here."
Dogok-dong, Gangnam-gu.
An apartment complex where only the wealthiest in Seoul lived.
Near the very top of that complex, in the middle of a penthouse, stood Choi Minseol.
Priceless relics and various items capable of warping the physical laws of the virtual internet were displayed all around her.
She hadn't collected them.
They belonged to Kang Sihyeon, the S-class and former Rank 1 player of Intra-Maetan.
"Strange... It should be here somewhere..."
Choi Minseol scratched her head with a troubled expression.
The white shirt and sharply pressed black suit she wore made her look like a highly capable female CEO, but her clumsy demeanor was exactly like her real-world self.
"Could he have transferred ownership to someone else?"
Beside her, a young girl with short black hair wearing a black frilled dress spoke. It was CE.
"Sihyeon isn't that kind of person," Choi Minseol replied with absolute certainty.
"Sihyeon acts all easygoing, but at his core, he's greedy. And a coward. Just look at all the treasures piled up here. He's kept things he has absolutely no use for. With gear like this, Maetan could have expanded its influence across the Internet long ago. But he kept it all locked away for himself. No matter how powerful a weapon is, it's useless if it's rotting in a warehouse. There's no way he'd hand over a treasure he worked so hard to get to someone else without a damn good reason."
"Then someone stole it."
"That's much more likely... Ugh, if I'd known this would happen, I should've just picked a fight with him earlier."
"I advise against that. Sihyeon was strong."
"True. A direct confrontation would have been risky... I was planning to deal with him after making thorough preparations. But then I heard he died on the Internet and rushed over, only to find the one thing I was looking for is missing."
Choi Minseol stroked the black-haired girl's head. "Sorry, CE. I wanted to find your sister for you."
"It is fine. Sister is enough."
CE grabbed Minseol's hand as it stroked her head.
Then, CE raised her voice in warning. "Door opening confirmed. Silhouette detected on surveillance. Someone is approaching."
Just as CE said, a woman walked into the room.
She was the woman who had become the owner of this place after Kang Sihyeon vanished.
She was startled to see the intruder, Choi Minseol, standing boldly in her home, but she quickly regained her composure.
"...Who are you? How did you get in here?"
"Ah... My apologies. I had some urgent business, so I let myself in without permission... but it seems what I was looking for isn't here. Excuse us. We'll be on our way."
Minseol bowed slightly and tried to leave, but the woman grabbed her arm.
"Do you know him? My husband... what happened to Sihyeon?"
"Please let go."
"Are you one of them too? A Player? Right?"
Minseol reacted to the word 'Player'. She softly called the girl's name.
"CE?"
"No, Sister. She is not a Player. Just a resident of the Internet. A clump of data."
"Really? She brought up Players so casually, I thought she was one..."
"You are a Player, aren't you? If you know anything about him, please tell me what happened! He just vanished, leaving nothing but a single letter!"
"Let go."
"I beg of you! Just tell me if he's alive or dead...!"
"I told you to let go."
Boom!
An abrupt explosion erupted without warning.
The blast tore the woman's body to shreds, and the scattering embers ignited fires across the room.
The flames spread rapidly, beginning to consume the priceless items.
"Ah... I used something a bit too strong. It's always hard to gauge the power of combat items."
"Sister, you are too clumsy."
"Can't be helped. I'm not a fighter. Let's get out of here before things get annoying—"
Then, Minseol's eyes caught the woman's severed hand rolling near her feet.
The hand was tightly clutching a crumpled envelope.
"A letter written by Kang Sihyeon... Shall we take a look?"
"Sister, you should not read other people's mail."
"Well, I think this lady wanted to show it to me anyway. It'll be fine."
Minseol squatted down and slowly read the letter.
Meanwhile, the fire continued to spread, eventually engulfing the entire floor.
The sprinklers went off, showering the room with water, but the flames showed no signs of dying down.
After reading the entire letter, Minseol spoke.
"Hmm... Kang Sihyeon was more of a romantic than I thought. He truly loved a resident of the Internet."
Minseol handed the letter to CE, but the ink had already bled from the sprinkler water, making it illegible.
"Illegible."
"It says he's leaving everything he owns to his beloved wife and asking her not to look for him. It seems he actually married this woman. Well, now I feel a bit bad..."
"Sister, the firefighters will arrive soon."
"Stop the elevators. Buy me a little time."
"Understood."
Machine code flickered in CE's eyes.
Beside the motionless CE, Minseol summoned her hacking console.
A keyboard made of light manifested in the air, and Minseol's fingers flew across it.
"Sister, they have started climbing the stairs."
"It's fine. Almost done."
The moment Minseol pressed the Enter key,
The scattered pieces of the woman's flesh began to coalesce.
As if rewinding time, the torn, burned, and exploded chunks of meat returned to their original form.
"Huh...?"
The woman, who had been a mangled corpse just moments ago, stared blankly into the air with wide, disbelieving eyes.
"Sorry! Truly sorry! I had no idea you were so close to Kang Sihyeon. I don't know if he's alive or dead, but he won't be able to return here anymore. So, please, stay strong and live your life. Okay?"
Minseol patted the woman's shoulder and stood up.
Heading toward the window, she looked back at the woman right before jumping.
"And take good care of the baby in your belly."
With a light leap, Minseol and CE plummeted out of the high-rise window, the ground a dizzying distance below.
As if taking their place, firefighters and security guards burst into the room.
They dragged the dazed woman out of the raging fire.
Until she was led out of the room by the rescue team, the woman could not comprehend what had just happened to her.
"There was a familiar name in the letter."
Enveloped in a blue light, Minseol and CE drifted slowly downward.
A few people pointed at them in shock, but they paid them no mind.
"Who?"
"Someone you don't know. It seems he's the one who took the quantum processor."
"How do you know?"
"Three items were listed in the letter, but two of them weren't in the penthouse. Instead, one was left behind. He probably took the quantum processor instead of the missing items."
"Hypothesis, speculation, nonsense."
"Hehe, true. But it's still worth looking into. It's been a while... I wonder what kind of man he's grown into?"
"A man?"
"Yes. I'll introduce him to you too, CE."
"I decline the family meeting."
Clang!
A bullet sliced cleanly in half bounced off the alley floor in two directions.
The man in the tracksuit and glasses, Kang Seongbeom, raised his invisible sword—the Single-Molecule Cutter—and smiled.
"Has it been so long that you forgot? Bullets don't work on me."
"We'll see about that."
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Continuous summoning and firing of the Tokarev.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
The calculations to summon the Tokarev were handled by CC. I simply held my hands out, slightly adjusting my aim, and pulled the trigger.
However, Seongbeom had to twist his entire body and swing his sword frantically just to block a single bullet.
"Cough... pant... pant... H-how's... that..."
Once the barrage ended, Seongbeom gasped heavily.
How was it?
He blocked them, sure, but he looked completely exhausted.
"Pant... pant... N-now... is it my turn..."
Seongbeom raised his Single-Molecule Cutter once more.
I summoned a new Tokarev to lay down a suppressive fire and block his approach.
But he didn't move from his spot.
Instead, he reached into his back pocket, pulled out a gold hairpin, gripped it tightly, and shouted:
"Flying Swords! Sovereign Thunder Whip!"
Six small daggers flew out from behind Seongbeom.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
I poured bullets into them to block them, but the daggers didn't fall to the ground; they hovered around Seongbeom.
"Bwahaha! How do you like that! This is my Flying Swords technique!"
"What, I thought you were going to throw the Single-Molecule Cutter. Did you settle for daggers in the end?"
"It's temporary! Temporary! One day, I'll make the Single-Molecule Cutter fly!" Seongbeom yelled, trying to gloss over it.
"But even if it's temporary, its effectiveness in close quarters is outstanding! Can you handle six daggers attacking from all directions along with my Single-Molecule Cutter?!"
Seongbeom smiled confidently and took a stance.
I lowered my shooting stance, stood naturally, and said:
"As if that's a big deal... Can you handle this?"
The light gathering in my hand took the shape of an item: the Phoenix Ornament Hairpin.
◈ Effect: Telekinesis (B)
◈ Allows the user to freely manipulate objects weighing under 5kg within a 5-meter radius.
I tucked the hairpin into my breast pocket and then generated Tokarevs.
Five Tokarevs floated around me.
"...W-what... What the hell are you! How did you do that?!"
Seongbeom asked, unable to hide his shock.
"I got one too."
"Can it lift things over 10kg? If so, I'll buy it!!"
Seongbeom completely forgot they were in the middle of a fight and offered a trade.
He didn't know, but mine was ultimately a copy of the Phoenix Ornament Hairpin.
Its capabilities were identical to his.
"No, this one's limit is also 5kg."
"...I see. Disappointing. But fine. If I win, I'm taking that item."
"Huh?"
"The 5kg from my Phoenix Ornament Hairpin plus the 5kg from your item makes 10kg... Maybe then, a Flying Sword with the Single-Molecule Cutter will be possible!!"
He was incredibly optimistic when it came to his Flying Swords technique.
"Try it if you can."
"Is that a promise?!"
"In exchange, if I win, I'm taking your Phoenix Ornament Hairpin back."
"Hmph, a condition I don't even need to worry about. Here I come!!"
Whoosh!
Six daggers flew along bizarre trajectories.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Tokarev bullets and daggers collided in midair.
The daggers faltered under the impact of the bullets, but they quickly corrected their course and flew forward again.
Meanwhile, Seongbeom was tilting the angles of his daggers to deflect the bullets.
Incredible combat sense and concentration.
Deflected bullets rained down onto the ground.
A few of the daggers were chipped and cracked, but they still held their shape.
One could say he won the first round.
However...
"But I have infinite ammo."
I discarded the empty Tokarevs and generated new ones.
This time, including the ones in my hands, there were seven.
The very web of fire that had pushed Maetan's Rank 1 to his limits.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
They were pistols, but they sounded like a machine gun.
"Aaaaaaaaargh!"
Seongbeom swung his sword frantically, using his daggers to block the pistols.
A shower of bullets and broken dagger shards rained onto the ground.
"Pant... pant... pant..."
His hands and feet now covered in blood, Seongbeom barely managed to stand, holding his sword.
He really was amazing. Even though Tokarev bullets were faster than standard pistol rounds, he had blocked every single shot aimed at his vitals.
"L-let's..."
"Hmm?"
"Let's call it a draw for today..."
Thud.
Leaving those words behind, Seongbeom collapsed.
"Is it finally over?"
"Now it's our turn."
Several players from Intra-Asan surrounded me.
They had only been watching the 1v1 duel out of respect for Seongbeom's wishes, but now they were ready to join the fray.
"Maetan guy, seeing your skills, we can't afford to hold back. Don't blame us if things go south."
"No, seriously, just give up now. We're trying to save a life here. You heard the situation, right? If we leave things like this, Hayeon might actually die."
The Intra-Asan players pleaded with me.
Beyond them, I looked at Seok Hayeon, who was fighting a large group of players, including Kim Hun.
She was fighting desperately to protect the child in her womb.
"Well, I don't really know what's right either, but..."
I slipped one of the rings off my finger and tossed it beside me.
With a small puff of smoke, a clone identical to me appeared.
◈ Effect: Creates a perfect clone of the wearer with the exact same abilities.
"He was still hiding an item?"
"Be careful. He's no ordinary D-class. He's the guy who took down Intra-Maetan's Rank 1. He's got something up his sleeve."
The Intra-Asan players took their stances.
Standing back-to-back with my clone, I raised my guns and said:
"I'm just doing what my kid wants."