Chapter 66
Chapter 66
Sergeant Kang Cheolwoo’s mechanical eye glowed red as it scanned the visitors.
When he noticed Choi Manseok of Guro Foundry, his expression twisted into a frown.
“I’ll skip the welcome. Just state your business.”
His voice sounded distorted, mixed with mechanical noise.
Even Choi Manseok, a B-Grade Awakened, instinctively stepped back at the heavy, metallic tone.
But he quickly remembered his status, cleared his throat, and lifted his chin arrogantly.
“Ahem. That’s a bit rude, Sergeant. We came here for business.”
“Business?”
“Yes. Well… it’s also Colonel Park Jinseop’s intention.”
The air in the plaza froze instantly.
Behind the Sergeant, black smoke burst from the exhaust pipes along his back.
“…What did you just say?”
“I said Colonel Park Jinseop. He’s the one who arranged this oper—”
Choi Manseok did not realize it.
He had just stepped on a landmine—no, an anti-tank mine he should never have touched.
“Bastard…”
A low curse slipped from the Sergeant’s lips.
At the same time, fragments of a horrific memory exploded inside his mind.
Ten years ago.
Uijeongbu Defensive Sector.
Sergeant Kang Cheolwoo had been a tank commander in an armored brigade.
“—Sergeant Kang! Hold the line thirty more minutes! Reinforcements are coming!”
The voice over the radio belonged to then-Lieutenant Colonel Park Jinseop.
Kang Cheolwoo believed him.
His tank platoon fought desperately against an incoming A-Grade mutant wave, holding the line until their ammunition ran dry.
But the reinforcements never arrived.
Instead, they saw the command helicopter fleeing toward the rear.
“Colonel! Colonel! We’re out of ammo! Casualties are rising! Please respond!”
Only dreadful silence answered.
In the end, his tank melted under the acidic fluid of a giant centipede mutant.
His subordinates crawled out with severed legs—only to be devoured.
In that hellscape, Kang Cheolwoo survived by crawling away after losing both legs.
“…And you dare say that bastard’s name in front of me?”
Click—
The rocket launcher mounted on the Sergeant’s right arm swung toward Choi Manseok’s head.
The sound of the safety being disengaged echoed through the plaza.
“Y-you lunatic!”
Choi Manseok panicked and stretched out his hand.
Hiss—
The surrounding H-beams and steel girders melted like candy, instantly forming a red-hot molten shield in front of him.
“How dare you! Do you know who I am? Want me to turn you into scrap metal too?”
The heat radiating from Choi Manseok’s hand warped the air itself.
The situation hung on a razor’s edge.
If either side pulled the trigger or unleashed their power, the plaza would become a slaughterhouse.
At that moment, Yoon Imsu, who had remained silent, stepped forward.
“Please stop, Director! And Sergeant, please calm yourself!”
He walked directly between the rocket launcher and the molten metal shield.
It was a position where he could die instantly.
But his eyes did not waver.
“My apologies, Sergeant. Our director spoke out of turn. It was my fault for failing to inform him in advance about your past with Colonel Park Jinseop.”
Yoon Imsu bowed respectfully.
When he lifted his head, however, his gaze was cold.
“But Sergeant… even if this operation succeeds, Park Jinseop will still be forced to remove his uniform.”
If Guro Foundry regained its position, they could continue pressuring the military from a superior position.
“Are corrupt officers rare in the army? Forming alliances with others and removing Park Jinseop would be simple.”
The mechanical eye of the Sergeant narrowed.
His anger had not faded, but Yoon Imsu’s words carried undeniable logic.
Yoon Imsu pressed further without giving him time to think.
He pointed toward the disabled soldiers groaning in pain in the corner of the plaza.
Men wearing rusted prosthetic legs, their infected wounds wrapped in yellowed bandages.
“Look at them. Your men. Brothers abandoned by their country, enduring each day with rotting bodies.”
His voice carried genuine sympathy.
“What they need right now is painkillers to ease their suffering, mechanical limbs that won’t decay, and proper maintenance facilities.”
He paused.
“Only Guro Foundry can provide those. We had no choice but to cooperate with Colonel Park to secure the necessary technology.”
The Sergeant’s gaze shifted toward his subordinates.
Men who trusted him despite their agony.
He bit his lip.
He could not reject support that his men desperately needed just because of his pride.
“When Colonel Park loses his uniform, we will deliver him directly to you, Sergeant.”
The Sergeant slowly lowered his rocket launcher.
But the killing intent did not disappear.
Yoon Imsu continued persuading him that the two sides should cooperate to eliminate the mad killer known as the Bomber.
Of course, he deliberately left out the fact that the Bomber’s technology surpassed Guro Foundry’s.
“Fine. But…”
His gaze shot toward Choi Manseok.
“During the operation, make sure no sparks fly into civilian areas. We are soldiers, not raiders.”
Yoon Imsu exhaled in relief.
“I promise. The only target is the Bomber.”
Meanwhile
“Wow, the data is pouring in!”
Picker shouted excitedly.
One hundred monitors inside the workshop lit up simultaneously, displaying scenes from across Mapo District.
The newly deployed 100 Honeybee drones swarmed through the area like a disturbed hive.
Through the Mana Resonance Lens, they were collecting real-time mana patterns from ordinary pedestrians, raiders, and even guards stationed at shelter entrances.
“Good. Once enough data accumulates, we can complete the mana pattern database.”
While watching the screens with satisfaction, something strange caught my eye.
A wide road cutting through the ruins of Guro Digital Complex.
A sleek black sedan was racing down it.
Ten years after the collapse.
In a world filled with rusted wreckage, a luxury sedan polished to a mirror shine stood out far too much.
“What’s that? Who the hell drives a luxury sedan instead of military vehicles or motorcycles?”
“I’ll zoom in!”
Picker magnified the image.
Faces became visible through the window.
The driver looked menacing.
In the back seat sat Choi Manseok and Yoon Imsu.
“…Where are those guys going?”
Watching their route, I saw their destination.
Yeongdeungpo Times Square.
The headquarters of Steel Legion.
“Picker.”
“Yes, boss!”
“We’re deploying a Spider Cam.”
Picker returned to the workshop and grabbed a palm-sized spider robot.
Flying to Times Square, he dropped the Spider Cam through a rooftop ventilation duct.
Tap. Tap.
The four-legged device descended silently through the vent.
Moments later, audio and video from the Times Square atrium appeared on the monitor.
“We’ll skip the greetings. Just state your business.”
The Sergeant’s imposing voice.
Choi Manseok’s arrogance.
Yoon Imsu’s cunning persuasion.
Their conversation was transmitted to my ears word for word.
“…We’ll place Park Jinseop’s leash in your hands later.”
“Heh.”
I chuckled.
Things were getting interesting.
“A Sergeant, huh…”
From the Spider Cam recordings, I learned several important things.
First.
Steel Legion and the Sergeant were victims abandoned by the military.
Second.
They hated Colonel Park Jinseop.
Third.
The only reason the Sergeant cooperated with Guro Foundry was to relieve the suffering of his men.
“…Side effects of Neural Integration, huh?”
I zoomed in on the injured soldiers.
Their mechanical limbs were attached to swollen, infected joints leaking pus.
Of course.
They had forced crude parts onto their bodies.
“Yoon Imsu is lying.”
Through the K-4 weapon system, I had already assessed Guro Foundry’s technological level.
Their technology was basically repair work.
They could replace machine parts.
But they had no capability to solve biological rejection between flesh and machine.
Yoon Imsu’s promise was only a temporary patch.
But I was different.
Microporous Bio-Separation Membrane.
Neural connection technology using Contaminated Wild Dog Tendons.
With the workshop’s biotechnology, I could solve their pain fundamentally.
“…There’s no need to make Steel Legion my enemy.”
I crossed my arms and watched the screen.
The Sergeant’s insistence on protecting civilians.
His hatred toward both the military and raiders.
And above all—
Their mechanized bodies made them perfectly compatible with my technology.
“Steel Legion would make excellent allies.”
If I brought them to my side?
My influence would extend beyond Mapo all the way to Yeongdeungpo.
But first, I needed to expose Guro Foundry’s lies and prove that I was the real solution.
“Picker. Change of orders.”
“Yes, boss!”
“Steel Legion troops are not to be killed. Capture them all alive.”
“Capture them alive? Killing them is easy, but taking them alive is nightmare difficulty.”
“I know. That’s why we need to think.”
Neutralize them without killing.
And they were already heavily mechanized.
“Poison won’t work.”
Steel Legion soldiers used Neural Integration.
A nerve-paralysis toxin would stop signals to the brain and freeze their mechanical limbs.
But dosage would be nearly impossible.
Too strong, and they’d die.
Too weak, and they’d still pull the trigger.
“I need another method.”
Then something came to mind.
A special material I had been researching for a long time.
Slime flesh.
[Armus Flesh]
Grade: B
A fragment of the alien predator Armus. A colony of shape-memory cells capable of nullifying physical attacks and freely altering form.
When I took the flesh out of storage, Picker screamed.
“Boss! You’re not raising that monster again, are you?! Do you remember how much trouble it caused me?! Freezing it, running away—it was chaos!”
“Relax. You saved us back then.”
The texture felt soft.
Like the liquid monster toys I used to play with as a kid.
“Remember when it devoured Pig?”
“Yes! That was horrifying! Pig screamed and then—gulp!”
“How did it grow?”
“It absorbed Pig’s core energy—wait!”
Picker’s lens flashed.
“Exactly. If it absorbs core energy, it might replicate.”
I immediately began experimenting.
First I fed it an F-Grade Core.
Nothing happened.
Maybe the energy was too concentrated.
“Let’s grind it smaller.”
I activated the Core Grinder developed earlier while making the Item Information Concealment Coating.
Whirr—
The F-Grade core was reduced to fine powder.
“Eat.”
I sprinkled a small amount onto the slime flesh.
Immediately it began glowing red and writhing violently.
The fist-sized lump expanded to the size of a basketball.
“Boss! It’s growing! Is it going to explode?!”
“No.”
As it grew, its activity slowed.
I created a cooling spray through the workshop manufacturing system.
Hiss—
Cold refrigerant gas froze the expanding flesh instantly.
I cut the hardened mass into pieces.
“…This is it.”
Freeze it and it hardens.
Feed it energy and it expands.
Using that property—
I could create the perfect restraint weapon.
I stuffed the frozen flesh into a bullet casing and inserted a micro-capsule of core powder.
The mechanism was simple.
When the bullet hit a target, the capsule would break.
The core powder would trigger explosive growth of the slime.
[Bio-Restraint Round]
Grade: D
Upon impact, the slime rapidly expands and hardens around the target, immobilizing it. Cannot be severed by physical force.
I smiled while holding the finished round.
A transparent projectile filled with red slime.
Now it needed field testing.
Too large and it might devour a human.
Too small and the restraint would be weak.
Testing against Awakened targets would be necessary.
“Picker. Grab any nearby raider for testing.”
Picker immediately displayed a map on the monitor.
“Right here. The bees control this entire area. Just pick a suitable one.”