The Engine Roars
Gong Ryun and his companions dragged their weakened bodies out through the Hydra tunnels, crawled through the laboratory ventilation shafts, and finally managed to climb back up and out of the research facility.
A few leftover Hydras they hadn't finished off attacked along the way, but Gong Ryun—the only one whose body was still in working order—threw himself into the fray and slaughtered them all. In the narrow tunnel just before the vents, four Hydras came pouring in at once; Gong Ryun alone blocked the alley like some madman filming a Changban Bridge highlight reel, sweeping his palms and looking genuinely cool while he did it. Un-rang and Brigit could only suck their fingers and watch from behind.
"Un-rang… what can people like us even do when we can't use martial arts…?"
"There's nothing we can do, Brigit. Let's just cheer him on."
By that point Gong Ryun had nearly burned through his internal energy as well. He had to rely on his protective aura while cracking them one by one with Geumna-su, the technique that consumed the least energy of anything he knew. The resulting brawl was pure savagery—so raw that the spectators' hearts lodged in their throats the entire time.
After that minor struggle, they at last climbed back to the surface.
Night had already fallen outside.
They could still see somewhat in the dark thanks to sunlight reflected off the celestial bodies overhead—like a night with an especially bright moon.
"Heh-eh-heungh…! We're finally on the surface, shit…! Hweeeeeeh…!"
Amazingly, that sound was coming from Brigit.
With her dantian injured and after prolonged exposure to a threatening environment, she was emotionally fraying at the edges.
For a martial artist who believed martial arts solved everything, being unable to use them was this terrifying. The galactic environment was merciless—radiation, toxins, monsters, and more. Martial arts had always been the sturdy armor holding that harshness at bay. Being unable to use them was as frightening as standing naked in the middle of an enemy camp with every piece of gear stripped away.
"This fucking job—I'm never taking one like this again…! Hee-eeng…"
Brigit whined in a way that clashed wildly with her thuggish big-sis appearance.
She pulled her robe up over her head and clutched the respirator attached to her neck as if it were precious.
In their weakened state, these things were essential equipment now. The Martial God's monstrous technique, Honwongong, still let a measure of protective aura function even with a damaged dantian—but it was weaker, and that made them uneasy.
Normally, protective aura could block most cosmic radiation, so people just draped their robes loosely. The robe's real job was to take some of the protective aura's burden, cut internal energy consumption, and lower the mental strain of constant focus. That was why no one sealed themselves up like a spacesuit—they just threw the robe over their shoulders. More of a functional item than a survival essential.
Right now, though, failing to wrap up tight might actually be dangerous. Radiation was vicious. What if they got skin disease?
The respirator was the same. It was a critical survival tool now. Under normal circumstances, respiratory martial arts could produce the same effect, but that felt far too unreliable at the moment. The one silver lining was that even with damaged dantians they still had enough internal energy left to power the respirators.
"The car! Where's the car?! Let's get back to the city already!"
Brigit frantically searched for the vehicle they had arrived in.
Fortunately, it was still parked right where they had left it.
The problem was…
"Kyaaaaaah!!!!! Fuck, the car's brokennnnn!!!!!"
"The car's broken?"
"The EMP reached all the way out here!!! We're so fucking screwed!!!!! Hkieeeek!!!!!"
This was genuinely screwed.
They were in the middle of an empty wasteland where no cars ever passed.
And the distance back to the city was no joke. They had raced here for hours even in a fast car. At absolute minimum it had to be over a hundred kilometers as the crow flies. How long would it take on foot?
Ordinarily it would have been fine.
They could have simply used lightfoot techniques and returned as fast as any vehicle.
But right now, none of them could use lightfoot techniques.
Un-rang and Brigit no longer had bodies that could wield martial arts, and Gong Ryun had never been able to use them in the first place.
Which meant…
"So we have to walk…?"
"Absolutely hopeless."
"Maybe we can hitchhike along the way… And if we just keep walking, won't we run into a mine or at least a charging station?"
"This region has few active mines left, and consequently few vehicles or rest stops either. The Hydra tunnel we just cleared was an abandoned mine that had been shut down for ages."
"…So we're really, truly fucked?"
On this vast gray plain, with every electronic device fried and no way to call for rescue, they had become castaways.
The nearest city was ruinously far on foot—so far they would probably die before they arrived. "City" was the word, but the distance between cities was nearly the size of a small nation. (By Terra-era standards, that is. In the modern galaxy the concept of nations inside a single planet had long since vanished.)
On top of that, they had almost no food. They had come in picnic mode, bringing only enough snacks for a meal or two.
"We're fucked we're fucked we're fucked hkieeeeek!!!"
Brigit clutched her head.
"Almighty Martial God protect us with Your light"
Her mind had left the building.
Unlike Brigit, Un-rang remained calm and spoke evenly.
"Everyone, please compose yourselves."
"Oh. Un-rang. At least you're staying level-headed. That's a relief."
"Even if we go to the underworld, the Martial God and the Buddha will watch over us, so please be calm. We would be dying while smiting evil forces like the Cosmic Locusts—surely the Martial God would rate such a death highly. Let us prepare for reincarnation with pride. I shall offer the three-day memorial prayer right here in advance. Aje aje bara aje."
"Okay, this bastard's not right in the head either."
Un-rang was simply going mad in a quiet, dignified fashion.
Gong Ryun steeled himself. Everyone else had been reduced to mental jelly because they couldn't use martial arts.
He, at least, had to keep his wits about him.
"Hwaaaughh I'm gonna die because I can't run because I can't use martial arts so I can't run fast so I'm gonna starve to death!!! What kind of retarded way to die is that it's a Darwin Award waiting to happennnn hweurgh…!!!"
"Taaahk… Abbot… I am truly sorry for all the trouble I caused you… This unworthy disciple goes on ahead… Looking back now, temple life wasn't so bad after all…"
Leaving his mentally shattered companions behind, Gong Ryun approached the car.
Hoping against hope, he hammered on the control panel. Nothing responded. The control panel itself was a kind of monitor and had been fried by the EMP. Control panel: dead. The computer housing the driving AI: also dead.
So the car simply wouldn't run at all? But maybe the battery was still alive. Like a canned battery that had survived.
"Damn it. Do cars even need electrical circuits in their structure? Aren't cars mechanical?"
It made sense—there had been cars on Gong Ryun's homeworld too. Tractors and farm equipment, at least. Even on a slave planet with a civilization lagging far behind, cars existed in plain sight. No matter how he turned it over, he couldn't believe a car's core components would need complicated high-tech circuitry.
Just then Un-rang spoke up.
"Things like the battery are probably fine… but with the driving AI broken, it won't move at all. Without an AI, can you even call it an 'auto'-mobile…? We can't exactly push it either…"
"?"
What was that supposed to mean? The "auto" in automobile couldn't possibly mean that kind of auto.
"Can't we just drive it without the AI?"
"What are you saying, Gong Ryun? You can't use a washing machine without buttons, and you can't use an electric oven if the control panel is broken, can you? So how are you supposed to use a car when the driving AI is broken?"
"That's not what I mean. We just drive it manually."
"What? Unless you're a vehicle specialist, how would you even do that? Can you manually pilot a plane or a spaceship, Gong Ryun? It's the same thing, isn't it?"
"Even with all this automation, there should still be a steering wheel and pedals, right? What do people normally do when the AI breaks? Don't they switch to manual?"
"Huh? If the driving AI breaks, you call the service center and sit right there. That's how you get insurance coverage."
"I'm going to lose my mind."
At that moment Brigit jerked her head up.
"AI??!!! You said AI??!!!"
"Oh. Brigit. Have you thought of something clever?"
"Yes!! That's exactly it!!!"
Then Brigit grabbed the android Un-rang's head with both hands and yanked.
"There's definitely an AI inside this skull of yours!!!!! If I rip your head off and stick it on the car, it'll work!!!!!"
"Kyaaaaah!!! Brigit!!! You've truly gone mad!!! Snap out of it!!! How far gone do you have to be to spit out such racist remarks without a second thought!!!"
"Kieeeeeek!!! I'll only borrow it for a second and give it back!!! Just let me check if it's compatible!!!!!"
"Stop pulling my head!!!"
Brigit's eyes had completely spun out of orbit.
Brigit yanking on the head as if pulling a turnip, Un-rang desperately resisting.
Gong Ryun ignored both of them and focused on examining the car.
There had to be a device for switching to manual.
Surely a car couldn't lack a steering wheel and pedals? That wouldn't even be a car. No matter how efficiency-obsessed mechanical engineers might be, Gong Ryun firmly believed they would never commit the heinous, heretical, bloodless, tearless, romance-free crime of removing the steering wheel and pedals from a car.
So after searching the vehicle thoroughly for quite some time, he found something.
A small red lever, discreetly and almost shyly located beneath the driver's seat—exactly the kind of thing that looked perfect for emergency use.
When he pulled it, there was a clunk, and…
The pedals appeared. The ceiling panel above the footwell of the driver's seat opened, and two pedals popped out.
"Yes!!!!!"
Gong Ryun let out a cry of triumph. He had believed in the mechanical engineers. They hadn't given up on the human heart after all.
Continuing his search, he eventually discovered the hidden steering wheel and gear stick as well.
At that point Un-rang and Brigit stopped their head-yanking contest and gathered around.
"Manual driving controls!!!!! Right, those existed!!! But nobody knows how to drive!!!!!"
"If you drive it wrong, couldn't it explode? Are you sure this is safe?"
"No way!!! Gong Ryun!!! You know how to drive?!!! That insanely hard manual driver's license?!!! The obsolete, completely useless boomer certification?!!! But how??? Knowing you, you'd have spent that study time taking mercenary jobs instead!!!"
"You're absolutely certain it won't explode? Engines are sensitive—don't they break down immediately without an AI's precise adjustments?"
This was the limit of their imagination.
They had grown so used to automotive automation that the very idea of moving one manually was difficult. To them a car was literally an "auto"-mobile—a machine that was supposed to move itself.
For reference, in this galactic age, buses and taxis all operated the same automated way. Only vehicles requiring specialist hands—planes, spaceships, and the like—still kept manual operators on staff. And even those were for emergencies; day-to-day, everything was left to the computers.
Gong Ryun snorted.
These bastards… they really must be exhausted and frayed.
"Get in. We're going home."
Gong Ryun took the wheel.
Vwoooooooom!!!
The car raced across the gray plain.
Gong Ryun handled the wheel with one hand, driving with flair.
Un-rang and Brigit in the passenger and back seats were delighted. The tension had finally drained out of them and they could relax.
"Woooah!! Gong Ryun!! You actually had a professional license?!!!!!"
"No. I don't understand why something as grand as a license would be needed for driving. I've been driving tractors since I was fourteen."
"You mean you never studied the principles of engine drive and the physics behind them?"
"Why would you need that for driving?"
"Wooooah!!! Gong Ryun!! If I step on that footrest, does it go faster?!!!"
"That's right."
"Then if I step on both footrests, does it go twice as fast?!!!"
"No, you martial idiot."
"Ohh!! I understand now!! You adjust the direction with that joystick, correct?!"
"This is called a gear stick. Your body doesn't have anything like… never mind. Forget I said anything."
"Truly remarkable, Gong Ryun!! How did you come by such a skill?"
"Because I was a farmer. You think I hauled dirt across those huge fields with a shovel and plow? We used tractors and trucks."
"Good heavens. All this time I imagined you wearing a straw hat and plowing with an ox."
"It wasn't quite that bad."
"You're amazing, Gong Ryun!!! Manual driving!!! You're like a techno-barbarian who still holds lost technology!!!"
"Hey, that's not it either!"
"It's like watching someone rub sticks together to make fire. You know, the thing they do on survival programs."
"If you two keep this up, I'm dumping you on the side of the road. Got it???"
And so they drove on beneath the vast night sky.
Starlight was scattered brilliantly across the heavens.
Guiding themselves by the constellations, they pressed hopefully toward the city that should lie to the northeast.
And around the time the sun rose, they could see the city in the distance.
A dome filled with the air of life—planted with green trees and tall buildings—lifted its round silhouette from the horizon like a second sun rising.