A Mother's Resolve
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Tokarev, floating in midair, spat fire.
"Hup!"
The muscular player in the line of fire didn't even think of dodging. Instead, he crossed his arms to shield his face.
Clang! Clack! Sparks flew as the Tokarev's bullets ricocheted away.
A skill? Or an item? The player's arms gleamed like polished metal.
"Don't move."
A masked player had slipped behind me before I even noticed.
My body floated up, drifting toward his incoming fist as if drawn by a magnet.
If my clone hadn't caught my floating body, that fist would have slammed straight into my solar plexus.
"Ha, now that's a coveted item."
The masked man chuckled and backed away.
I unleashed a barrage of bullets to pursue him, but the man with the metallic skin stepped in to block them.
The moment I tossed aside the empty gun, a woman wielding a dagger lunged straight at me.
The dagger in her right hand moved like flowing water. She used her entire body as a weapon—using her left hand to break my guard, her legs to sweep my stance, and her shoulder to shove me back.
I swung my fists, channeling the power of Strong Arm, barely managing to force my way out of her attack range.
"You're pretty strong, Goblin Oppa."
"Be careful. He has some high-quality items. He might still be hiding something."
"His combat instincts are outstanding too... Is he really a D-class? I know computation grades and combat power are separate things, but still..."
The players chatted while keeping their distance. They were clearly relaxed.
"Tsk..."
I clicked my tongue without realizing it. There were three players surrounding me. Every single one of them was incredibly strong.
They were on par with Kang Seongbeom... no, even stronger. They probably weren't S-class, but they were at least A-class, or players heavily specialized in combat.
On top of that, their coordination was flawless. They divided their roles into offense, defense, and surprise attacks, smoothly rotating who took charge with practiced ease.
Unlike Maetan, which operated on a guild system, Intra-Asan was said to be built on master-disciple relationships. Perhaps because of that, these players knew each other's strengths and weaknesses inside out, perfectly complementing one another.
"Mister, should I summon the multi-legged tank?"
Sensing that we were being pushed back, CC was the first to suggest summoning the tank. I was tempted for a moment, but quickly dismissed the thought.
Even if they had cleared the area of bystanders, summoning a tank in the middle of Seoul would immediately draw F's attention.
Besides, my opponents were fellow players. The tank's firepower was overwhelming, but it was impossible to hold back with it. If I used it, they would likely end up with bodies that could never connect to the Internet again.
No matter how much our goals clashed, I couldn't bring myself to take their lives. Above all, wasn't this a fight to save someone?
They fought to save Seok Hayeon. Seok Hayeon fought to save the child in her womb. A multi-legged tank was simply too much excessive firepower to bring into a battle meant to protect and preserve life.
"The best-case scenario would be for Player Seok Hayeon to subdue the others, but..."
Over the shoulders of the players surrounding me, I watched Seok Hayeon fight.
Seok Hayeon was strong. Her skill—though I didn't know its name—required no preparatory movements and could target anywhere within her line of sight.
Although there seemed to be a slight delay before activation, its range was considerable, and above all, since it lacked lethal capability, she could use it without hesitation.
However, it lacked a finishing blow. Those hit by the skill felt no pain, and unless their legs were targeted to render them completely immobile, she couldn't incapacitate her enemies.
Even now, the players loitered menacingly around her, their elongated arms and legs dangling loosely.
Their tactic was clear. A war of attrition.
Just before the battle began, Seok Hayeon had complained of a high fever and a headache. This was the plan of the Intra-Asan players. They had likely halted the cooling process of her physical body in reality to a dangerously critical level.
On the Internet, even twitching a single finger overworks the brain. If a high fever persisted, the avatar's movements would slow down drastically. That was exactly the state Seok Hayeon was in right now.
She was probably receiving help from CP, much like I relied on CC's computational support, but CP was also in an incomplete state. Unlike me, she didn't have a quantum processor physically equipped.
The Intra-Asan players baited Seok Hayeon into using her skills, dodging them and waiting for her to exhaust herself. The outcome of this battle was already decided.
"Mister... (┬┬﹏┬┬)"
Realizing how unfavorable the situation was, CC shed digital tears, but there was simply no way around this.
A tedious exchange of blows continued for a while. The players surrounding me didn't attack aggressively either; they merely moved to block me from reinforcing Seok Hayeon.
How much time had passed?
"Aaargh!"
Seok Hayeon's severed arm flew through the air and landed right in front of me.
The person who had severed her arm was Kim Hun, her husband.
"I'm sorry, honey... Just bear with it for a moment..."
"You...!"
"I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. But... I can't lose you yet."
"Aaargh!"
Kim Hun moved with blinding speed, severing his wife's tendons.
Seok Hayeon turned her head, trying to track Kim Hun's movements, but he was just a fraction faster.
The battle was decided when he finally slipped a hood over Seok Hayeon's head to block her skills.
"It's over."
"Good work. You too."
The players surrounding me lowered their weapons in unison. They figured there was no longer any need to fight.
"Honey, let's go back. We need to get you treated right away."
"If we leave now, our baby will die!"
"We have no choice! You've been logged in for over two hundred days straight—you don't realize what state your physical body is in! The baby... let's recover your health first, and then we can try again. I'll fully cooperate next time. We'll prepare everything perfectly and try again."
Sprawled on the ground, Seok Hayeon spoke.
"Do you really think... there will be a next time for me?"
What does she mean by that?
While I was struggling to follow their conversation, someone spoke up from behind me.
"Hayeon is a cancer patient."
It was the player with the ability to turn his body into metal.
"She came to Asan in the first place to receive cancer treatment."
"I heard she crossed a radiation-contaminated river to escape the Machine Species."
"Her entire lower body was irradiated back then. Because of that, she and Master Kim Hun became unable to have children... and she's already completely paralyzed."
The players I had been fighting chimed in one after another.
"Are you..."
"Yes, we are Master Kim Hun's disciples. So Hayeon... she's like a mother to us."
"And that guy, Kang Seongbeom, is our youngest."
"Oh, not me, Goblin Oppa. I'm from a different sect."
The woman who used the dagger raised her hand and chimed in.
Infertility caused by radiation exposure. I had thought she was just obsessing over a baby created on the Internet, but to think there was such a tragic reason behind it.
"Let's go back. I choose you... over the baby."
Kim Hun scooped Seok Hayeon into his arms.
And at that exact moment—
Bzzzt. A chilling shiver shot straight through my entire nervous system.
It was a sensation I had felt countless times on the battlefield. The sensation of death.
"Wh-What the..."
I wasn't the only one who felt it. The surrounding players began to panic, looking around in sheer bewilderment.
When had they gathered?
People. The residents of the Internet were surrounding us. There were too many to count.
From the ends of the alleys, from atop the buildings, from the windows. Countless unblinking eyes were fixed upon us.
One of the players muttered, "Is it... F? No, we cleared out as many people as possible from this area..."
"...Hey... look at that..."
Shatter!Creeeeak... snap!Bzzzt!
The sky was cracking like fracturing glass.
It was a sight I had witnessed several times before—the warning signs of F's manifestation.
"Why... how did we get caught? There shouldn't be any witnesses."
"Did too many regional bugs accumulate?"
The players looked on the verge of tears, raising their weapons as they desperately searched for an escape route.
Then, I noticed that the focus of all those expressionless gazes converged on a single point.
"...Is that the cause?"
Hearing my murmur, the players shifted their eyes to where I was looking. Gasps escaped their lips.
"No way..."
"How can this be..."
At the center of their gaze, Seok Hayeon sat slumped on the ground, desperately trying to soothe the baby in her womb.
"It's okay, sweetie... It's okay... Don't worry..."
Stroking her belly with her barely responsive hand, Hayeon kept whispering to her unborn child.
"It's okay... Mommy's here... Yes, don't be afraid..."
Nobody could bring themselves to stop her. They could only watch in silence.
And then, a moment later—
"...The residents are disappearing."
The gazes surrounding us withdrew, and the residents began to leave one by one.
"The sky is mending itself too!"
The fracturing sky was restoring itself as if time were flowing backward. The cracks splitting the heavens vanished, and the leaking green light faded away.
"...Did the baby in her womb... do this?"
"Knowing that it would disappear if she returned to Intra-Asan...? But how?"
The players racked their brains, trying to analyze the unbelievable phenomenon they had just witnessed. At that, the female player who used the dagger stepped forward with a sigh.
"Ugh, men... there's a much simpler reason."
She pointed at Seok Hayeon.
"Because its mommy was scared! The baby did this because it was worried about its mother!"
There was no proof. Yet, we had no choice but to agree. There was simply no other way to explain it.
Seok Hayeon spoke.
"...I'm not going back."
"Honey."
"You saw it just now. This baby wants to live."
Kim Hun grit his teeth.
"...The cancer cells have already spread to almost your entire body. Let's be honest. If you don't get into an intensive care unit right this second, you will die."
"..."
"How many days do you have left? Eighty? Sixty? Your body might not even last until next week. But it's okay, honey. Asan promised us the absolute best treatment."
"Honey..."
"There's already no way to save the baby. At this rate, your physical body won't even survive another sixty days."
A heavy, somber silence descended upon us. If Kim Hun's words were true, there was indeed no way to save the unborn child.
The only choices left were to abandon the baby so the mother could survive, or to die together with the baby still inside her.
After agonizing over it for a long moment, Seok Hayeon spoke.
"No, there is a way."
"Honey?"
"Extract my Neck-Hub."
"Honey."
"If you extract the Neck-Hub, the connection between my physical self and my digital self will be severed. My physical body will never be able to connect to the Internet again... but my avatar, carrying this baby, will remain here on the Internet."
Seok Hayeon spoke with absolute resolve. "That is the only way to save our child."
The moment a Neck-Hub is extracted, the physical body and the avatar connected to the Internet instantly become separate entities.
However, an avatar severed from its physical body slowly loses its original ego, eventually becoming a resident of the Internet—a part of F. It would become just another one of those expressionless gazes that had been staring at us moments ago.
"...Damn it..."
Unable to bring himself to agree, Kim Hun slammed his fist against the ground.
It was then.
Clap. Clap. Clap. Clap.
A slow, rhythmic clapping echoed from somewhere.
The clapping, which had gone on for a moment, stopped, and a woman's voice drifted over.
"How magnificent. A mother's devotion to saving her child."
Everyone's eyes turned toward the source.
At the end of the alley stood a young girl in a frilly dress. Slightly ahead of her, a woman in a black pantsuit was looking our way with a smile.
"There were more people here than I expected, so I was just watching, but I've witnessed something truly beautiful. Oh, I think I might cry."
The woman lifted her glasses and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
The moment I recognized her face, my breath hitched. I kicked off the ground and lunged forward.
In one hand, I held Karwennan; in the other, the Tokarev.
"Wh-What?"
Neither the Intra-Asan players nor the woman at the end of the alley seemed to have anticipated my sudden charge, letting out startled gasps.
Finally, this day had come.
The day our Shoeshine Unit was wiped out, caught between the Machine Species and the human forces. I had been waiting for this day ever since.
The commander of our unit, our older sister, our mother.
And... the target of my vengeance, the one who had annihilated our unit.
Choi Minseol.
She had appeared.