The First Steel Guardian
I finally managed to peel Sim Geum-a off my lap as she clung to me, murmuring with genuine regret, “Ah… I really feel like we ought to do it today….”
She wore a look of true disappointment as she returned to her own seat. Then, as if something had suddenly occurred to her, she turned and asked,
“Come to think of it, you said a Spider Mutant showed up near where you live. What did you end up doing about it?”
A faint note of expectation colored her voice—the hope that I might ask for help from people who had already hunted one of those things.
“Oh… that? I just did what you did. Collapsed the place it was living in and took it down.”
The moment I answered so casually, the cigarette she had just put between her lips slipped from her fingers. It rolled across the table, but she made no move to pick it up; she simply stared at me in blank disbelief.
“…What? You… caught it that easily?”
“No, it wasn’t easy. It was dangerous. One of us had to act as bait to draw it out while the other cut the building’s support pillars. And that thing was sharp as hell—we nearly both got taken out. We worked hard for that kill.”
Sim Geum-a said nothing. She just gazed at me, dazed. At last she retrieved the fallen cigarette and, with trembling hands, managed to light it again.
Right then Yang Jin-ju and Choi Eun-ji returned to the room.
“Oppa, look at this.”
What Jin-ju pointed to was a small cloth pouch Choi Eun-ji was carrying. When she opened it, six gold rings spilled out onto the table.
“Only six people produced gold right away. I considered waiting for more, but you said you were in a hurry, so I brought these first.”
Choi Eun-ji reported.
“…Oppa, one of them is definitely pure gold! I bit it in secret to check.”
Yang Jin-ju whispered so the others wouldn’t overhear.
“Good work. Even one pure gold ring is more than enough.”
I praised the whispering Jin-ju and gave her a quiet high-five.
“Also, as you instructed, we loaded the resources we’ve gathered so far onto the truck first. It’s only two days’ worth, so the amount isn’t much, but next time you come we’ll have collected a lot more.”
At Choi Eun-ji’s words I replied, “Thank you. The small quantity is our fault for arriving too early,” and she smiled faintly, dipping her head.
“Well, that seems to wrap up today’s business. We’ll be on our way.”
I rose from my seat. Sim Geum-a, who had been sitting with the lit cigarette simply dangling from her lips, answered in a daze.
“Huh? Oh…. Young husband… already leaving? Be careful… on your way….”
She stared into empty space with unfocused eyes, lost in deep thought. Seeing her like that, Choi Eun-ji said, “This way. I’ll escort you to the wall,” and led us out.
After Seo Yeong-chan and Yang Jin-ju had left and the farewell was complete, Choi Eun-ji returned to the conference room. Inside, Sim Geum-a still sat alone, staring blankly at the door they had gone through.
“What’s wrong? What are you thinking so hard about?”
When Choi Eun-ji asked, Sim Geum-a slowly turned her head and flicked the cigarette—already reduced to a stub though she had barely smoked it—into the ashtray. Then she spoke, eyes on Choi Eun-ji.
“…They say two people took down that Spider Mutant.”
Choi Eun-ji stiffened at the words. Noticing, Sim Geum-a continued.
“On top of that, they have something like a bunker. They say there’s a place inside that manufactures the very goods we trade with them, so it must be pretty big, right? Ah—and they apparently have a water-producing facility too! All that clean water they gave us in those jugs comes from that installation. And… there’s space where they can build machines like drones….”
She finished speaking, sank deep into her chair, and stared up at the ceiling.
“…Plus, if they have the materials, they can even make cigarettes, they said.”
She let out a long breath. Choi Eun-ji approached without a word and sat in the chair beside her.
“Eun-ji….”
For the first time, Sim Geum-a’s voice trembled faintly.
“To be honest, that place is an enormous prize we absolutely have to seize. But… right now the only link we have is me.”
“…In a situation like this, I’m scared to death.”
“What’s there to be scared of? Isn’t this a good thing?”
“The gap has to be moderate…! Our young husband—I’m pretty sure he’s a soft-hearted guy. With a power difference this big, if it were me I’d just plunder them or swallow their whole faction. Yet he’s still trying to ‘trade’ with us, and even tilt the terms a little in our favor. Even if you call that the leisure of the strong… that itself is terrifying.”
Choi Eun-ji, who had been watching her, asked,
“So what are you going to do? Just sit there shaking because you’re scared?”
“No… of course not.”
Sim Geum-a’s eyes flashed again like a predator’s.
“We have to lock hands even more securely. But right now the only connection is me, and that makes me too uneasy. Earlier I clung to him and tried to seduce him, but he didn’t fall for it!”
At that, Choi Eun-ji asked, “What, you getting cold feet just because you got turned down once?” Sim Geum-a gave a short laugh, stood, and clamped a firm hand on Choi Eun-ji’s shoulder.
“Eun-ji. Later, when the time comes that we need to bind ourselves even more tightly to our young husband… I might need your help. I’m asking in advance.”
Choi Eun-ji tried to twist free with a “What? No way!” but Sim Geum-a held on and would not let go. Her plan was already in motion.
Back at the Shelter, Yang Jin-ju and I shook the little cloth pouch in front of the three people who had been waiting for us in anxious silence.
“We got the gold!”
Together we hurried to the Mechanic Light Room, carrying every resource we had brought. We fed the materials into the intake. The moment the message appeared—
Required Resources 100% Met
—I pressed the button without hesitation.
Time Remaining: 15:00
“You came back so soon—looks like the gold was easier to get than expected. Negotiations went well?”
Yeong-ju asked.
“Yeah. And I made it clear that from now on they should focus on gathering the resources we need. The trade should be fine.”
I answered, then fixed my eyes on the steadily dwindling timer. All five of us stayed right there, never leaving our posts, waiting together for the moment our first mechanical soldier would be born.
At last the machine’s door opened and the drone revealed itself. We all let out gasps of admiration.
“Whoa… it’s way bigger than I thought. That size is almost like a large travel suitcase, isn’t it?”
When I spoke, Nam Jin-ju tried to lift it out of curiosity, only to give up with a strained “Ugh…!”
“Yes! At that size it’s ridiculously heavy! I can’t lift it by myself!”
Just then a new door suddenly appeared in the wall leading to the adjacent Mechanic Storage Room. With a soft whirr, a mechanical shelf loaded the drone and carried it straight into the storage room. Once inside, the drone displayed the words—
> Charging...
—and then rose smoothly into the air. The shelf that had transported it returned into the machine; the door that had connected to the storage room sealed without a trace, becoming ordinary wall once more.
“…Wow. Just when you start getting used to this Shelter, it goes and surprises you again.”
Yang Jin-ju stuck out her tongue while staring at the wall where the passage had vanished. Kang Po-gyeong nodded vigorously beside her in full agreement. Yeong-ju studied the drone floating quietly while it charged and remarked, “Looks pretty sturdy. Think that thing could smash that spider bastard’s head?” She seemed thoroughly pleased.
Our first steel guardian had been successfully born.
Perhaps thirty minutes passed. The drone that had been charging silently in midair suddenly flashed a bright blue light.
Charging Complete.
Initiating initial system setup.
Before I could even issue a command, it rose with a low whirr and slipped soundlessly through the suddenly opened ceiling of the storage room, vanishing into the sky.
“Huh? Wha—? Where’s that drone going!”
Nam Jin-ju cried out in panic. All of us stood dumbfounded by the unannounced sortie, staring blankly at the hole in the ceiling where it had disappeared.
I hurriedly checked the system window. The four pairs of eyes fixed on me felt heavy.
A new entry that had never existed before now appeared in the window.
⊳ Status: Aerial Standby
Beneath it, various menus for setting the drone’s behavior patterns floated into view.
At last I understood.
This drone was not some simple toy I had to pilot myself every second. Once I set its mode, it would think, judge, and move on its own—our Shelter’s first artificial-intelligence guardian.
Our “eyes” were no longer bound only to the fixed cameras watching the perimeter of the Shelter. We had gained a “heaven’s eye” that could look down upon this world from the sky.
