Plan B
Julione cut away a portion of the hull alloy to fashion new plating, reconstructing the robot's body.
She also completely repaired the main circuit board, which had only been temporarily patched.
> Stability check... 93%.
Afterward, she replaced the engine parts of the micro-spacecraft and attached the mana reactor.
She was finally ready to leave.
"Lastly..."
The copy of the supervisor card Eldia had given her. She slotted it into her laptop. Complex programming languages immediately flooded the screen.
Among the lines of code, Julione spotted an incredibly clever trap.
"Self-destruct."
As expected, a self-destruct function was hardcoded into it.
In other words, the moment this card was used, the self-destruct countdown for the corresponding sector would initiate. Had they delayed their descent even slightly, they would have been blown to pieces in the VVIP room.
Julione's instincts flared.
Eldia was wearing a mask, and Seol Ha-woon's party was in grave danger.
“Wh-what on earth is this?”
Just then, an unfamiliar voice crackled through. Julione checked the truck's camera feed.
“Is it a toy?”
A man was talking to the truck she had left out in the lobby. He had soft, boyish features and messy brown hair.
Julione spoke into the microphone.
"Who are you?"
“Gasp!”
The man flinched violently, trembling as he drew the bow slung across his back.
"I asked who you are."
The truck raised its railgun in response.
“D-don't shoot!”
He surrendered instantly.
What is this little punk?
"Speak."
“I'm Im Hae-jun.”
"...Your name follows the same format."
“Huh?”
Seol Ha-woon, Seo Ji-woo, Kang Hyun, and Im Hae-jun.
"Name one person you know."
“What?”
"Someone you know. With a name like yours. Anyone."
“Uh... yes, well... do you happen to know Seol Ha-woon?”
"Seol Ha-woon?"
Julione charged the railgun with a low hum of electricity as she pressed further.
“Wh-why? Why?!”
"Keep your voice down unless you want to call the zombies. Just answer the question. What is your relationship with Seol Ha-woon?"
“I-I'm... well...”
"Answer me. I asked what your relationship is."
She snapped, her tone dripping with menace. It was the only way to squeeze the truth out of him.
Gulping hard, Im Hae-jun stammered out an answer.
“I-I'm his disciple. His disciple!”
Disciple? This goofy-looking kid is the disciple of that meticulous bastard?
"...You look far too stupid to be his disciple."
“What?!”
"Shh."
She lowered the railgun for now. Im Hae-jun whispered back in a tiny voice.
“I really am his disciple, okay?”
Well, I suppose you need someone to teach to be called a master.
"Follow me."
Judging by his scrawny build, the robot could easily subdue him if he tried anything. More than anything, the connection was what mattered. After all, Im Hae-jun was the one who had brought up Seol Ha-woon first.
“Who are you, anyway?”
"I'm Seol Ha-woon's comrade."
“...Comrade? That hyung doesn't do the whole 'comrade' thing.”
She opened the staff gate.
Rattle, rattle. The truck rolled in first. Im Hae-jun followed closely behind, stiff with tension.
"What skill did you get?"
She asked to break the ice, recalling what she had overheard from Seol Ha-woon and his companions.
“The terminal.”
"..."
From what she had heard, it was the absolute worst skill.
"How foolish."
“No, it's not!”
The truck stopped in front of the supervisor's office. Julione stood up and opened the door herself.
“What do you mean foolish? This is incredibly useful, uh—!”
"Get in."
She gestured him inside.
Just beyond a single layer of tape, zombies wandered. Not dozens, not hundreds, but thousands of them. Every now and then, a stray hand, arm, or leg would brush against the tape.
"..."
"..."
I looked at Kang Hyun and Seo Ji-woo. They were holding their breath, trembling like leaves.
"...Relax. The sound won't leak out anyway."
It was a magic seal.
The moment I said that, both of them let out a long, heavy sigh.
"You should've told us sooner!"
Honestly, I had only kept quiet because watching them was amusing.
Seo Ji-woo leaned her back against the wall.
"...No matter how much I think about it, I trusted her too easily. People, I mean."
She still seemed deeply resentful.
"But is there really a way out of here?"
Kang Hyun seemed to be calculating their next move, but even I didn't have a clear solution. I hadn't anticipated this specific brand of betrayal.
"At the very least, we won't be able to open the gate from inside here."
From where we stood, there wasn't even a machine in sight to attempt a hack.
Physical force was out of the question as well.
No matter how skilled Kang Hyun was, he couldn't cut through the gate—nor should he. The hangar's structural integrity was bound to be terrible.
If even a tiny breach were made, the vacuum of space lay directly on the other side.
"Then we're completely screwed."
"It's not like we have absolutely nothing to rely on."
A plan heavily reliant on randomness isn't a plan at all. But rather than the word 'random,' I preferred the phrase 'built on trust.'
"The truck."
I hadn't sent the truck ahead for no reason. She was capable of piloting the spacecraft, which was our most critical asset.
Seo Ji-woo's eyes widened.
"Ah! Right!"
"If Miss Truck brings the spacecraft..."
Kang Hyun nodded in agreement.
I trust my comrades. Doubt and trust are separated by a paper-thin margin, but once the 'assessment' is complete, there is no turning back.
No matter how brilliant an elite is, if they are an enemy, they must die. No matter how useless an ally is, if they are on our side, they must be trusted.
In that regard, the truck—Julione—was actually an elite ally.
"But will she really come back? She needs to go to her hometown."
Seo Ji-woo muttered, her voice laced with worry.
"Saving us once won't make much of a difference in her timeline. She has to travel light-years anyway."
I said it aloud, but in truth, I was just as anxious.
This is precisely why the military utterly loathes randomness. It meant gambling the lives of an entire unit on a single person's whim or sheer luck...
"So once we're within range of that terminal, we can establish communication?"
Inside the supervisor's micro-spacecraft. Julione asked as she prepped for takeoff.
"Yes, ma'am."
Im Hae-jun answered from behind the passenger seat.
"Um, Captain. But... doesn't a person usually sit in the passenger seat~?"
He offered a playful, sycophantic smile.
And indeed, a metallic drum of a robot was currently occupying the passenger seat, its heavy rear crushing the cushion.
"You're not my co-pilot."
"...Huh? Ah~ No, that's not what I meant~ I just feel like the seat is about to explode because of this guy..."
"We're taking off."
"Eh?"
RUUUUUMBLE—!
The spacecraft detached from the Cosmos ship.
"Whoa!"
Im Hae-jun's entire body was thrown violently backward.
"Captain! I-I'm flying away here!"
"Hold onto something."
He hurriedly wrapped his arms around the passenger seat's headrest. Clinging for dear life, he stared out the viewport.
"Aaaagh... oh...? Whoa..."
He gasped in spite of himself.
Distant, shimmering light. An overwhelming galaxy.
The vast, infinite expanse of space unfolded before him, a breathtaking sea of beautiful stars.
Swoosh.
The micro-spacecraft banked smoothly.
"How did you end up drifting all the way out here?"
Julione asked.
"Ah... well, I was actually in a party. But..."
It had been a three-man party: Kim Dong-ha, Jin Ho-jong, and Im Hae-jun.
"I sacrificed myself."
Im Hae-jun had volunteered to draw the zombies' aggro, barely escaping with his life through the ventilation shafts.
"To be honest... I was so terrified of the zombies that I almost gave up."
He absolutely loathed this kind of atmosphere. He couldn't even watch horror movies alone, so having real-life zombies pop out at him was a nightmare.
"...And a coward like you entered a place like this just to make money?"
Julione pinched the bridge of her nose in disbelief. Im Hae-jun offered a sheepish, bitter smile.
This woman didn't know what they truly were. That realization made him feel a little sad, and a bit wistful.
"We're going to circle the mothership now."
Julione unbuckled her safety harness.
"Robot. Handle the fine maneuvers."
> [ROBOT]: CONFIRMED.
The fuel tanks were completely topped off. It was more than enough to make a round trip to her hometown and back.
It was all thanks to Eldia, who had showered them with unnecessary, excessive kindness in her bid to buy their trust.
"Im Hae-jun, use that terminal of yours to locate your master."
"Yes, ma'am! I'm already on it!"
Im Hae-jun stared intently at his Level 3 terminal.
"Keep the terminal active. It's our only lifeline."
"I am."
Kang Hyun replied, his eyes shifting to Seo Ji-woo. Their gazes locked, and Seo Ji-woo squeezed her eyes shut.
"...Fine, I get it! You really saved my life, Mr. Kang Hyun. Thank you so much for leveling up the almighty terminal."
"I didn't plan on taking it this far either. But you were the one who looked down on me first."
"...This is driving me insane, seriously."
Kang Hyun feigned a stern expression before cracking a sudden smile. Seo Ji-woo brushed her hair back, giggling along.
"Pfft, hahaha!"
"Don't laugh... snort."
Watching the two of them, I found it hard to believe.
What if that sight is fake?
What if you, who look far more real than Eldia ever did, are nothing but a fake?
"I've got a radar signal."
Kang Hyun's expression instantly turned serious again.
"Try to connect."
“...Who is this?”
A voice filtered through the static. The tone was instantly recognizable. It was Im Hae-jun.
Seo Ji-woo snatched the terminal.
"Huh? Is that you, Im Hae-jun?"
“Oh! It's me, Im Hae—”
“—Static. It's Julione.”
Im Hae-jun had his terminal promptly confiscated by Julione.
Still a lackey even over there, aren't you, Hae-jun?
"Julione? Who's that?"
“...The truck.”
"Ah! Miss Truck! You came back!"
Seo Ji-woo clutched the terminal, her face flushed with emotion. Kang Hyun let out a long sigh of relief.
"Where are you right now? We're locked in some kind of prison."
“I've locked onto your coordinates. But the hangar is heavily damaged.”
I took the terminal from Ji-woo.
"Can you open the gate?"
“It should be possible using Eldia's supervisor credentials. She had planted a self-destruct code, but I disarmed it.”
"Perfect. Open the gate first. I'll explain the details later."
“It's too dangerous. If I open the gate, all the air will vent into space.”
"It's fine. Open the gate right now."
"Wait, right now? What about us?"
Seo Ji-woo asked, utterly bewildered. Kang Hyun explained in my stead.
"We'll be fine. We sealed ourselves in with tape. Only the zombies will get sucked out."
"Ah, right. But are you sure the tape can withstand the vacuum?"
I gestured toward Seo Ji-woo.
"We have you. With two mages, we can easily pull it off. Okay?"
I trust you, the elite mage whom Seo Ji-hyuk praised as a genius.
"...Okay."
Seo Ji-woo seemed slightly taken aback, but she rolled up her sleeves with a confident nod.
"Miss Truck, did you hear that? Open the gate now. Just watch out for any flying zombies."
“Understood.”
Once the gate opened, a massive pressure differential would occur. The cold, dark vacuum of space. The zombies would be dragged into that bottomless abyss.
Riiip!
I conjured more tape, layering it thickly like a cocoon until not a single microscopic gap remained. Seo Ji-woo tightly wove her lines through the layers, reinforcing the structure.
The truck replied.
“Opening now.”
The instant the gate opened, an astronomical number of zombies were swept out into the void. It was as if some cosmic vacuum cleaner had switched on, violently purging them all.
Eerily, not a single sound could be heard. It was dead silent.
It was a stark, humbling reminder of how utterly small and insignificant we were in the grand scale of the cosmos.
"Ah, that feels so good! Take that, you stupid zombies!"
Im Hae-jun pumped his fists in the air, thoroughly satisfied.
Julione calmly dampened his excitement.
"They were all human once."
"...Wh-why do you have to say that? You're making me feel bad."
They watched in a daze as the zombies drifted away into the dark. Once the sector was completely cleared,
Julione maneuvered the spacecraft forward, steering it directly into the open gate where they waited.
A safe landing.
"Robot. Close the gate."
> [ROBOT]: CONFIRMED.
Hiss. The gate slid shut.
As the internal pressure stabilized once more, Julione lowered the spacecraft's boarding ramp.
In the corner of the sector, illuminated by the spacecraft's bright searchlights,
Riiip!
The sound of peeling tape echoed. Im Hae-jun turned toward the sound and beamed.
"Ah! Hyung! Master!"
He dashed over to me.
"Am I invisible to you?"
Seo Ji-woo narrowed her eyes.
Kang Hyun placed a hand on Im Hae-jun's head and asked,
"Hae-jun, did you level up your terminal too?"
"Of course! I told you, the terminal is super important."
"But Seo Ji-woo is a terminal hater."
"...Seriously, drop it already! I won't do it! I'm not a hater!"
Julione walked over to join them.
Seol Ha-woon raised an eyebrow at her. Julione let out a soft chuckle.
"I woke up to find myself acting as your Plan B."
"Yes. Mutual trust. I believed in you."