The absolute silence was surreal—almost unbelievable—that this place had been filled with gunfire, explosions, and screams just monts ago.
Now, only the sound of the wind threading through the buildings remained in this open lot.
The eerie quiet dissipated when a black-haired woman spoke to .
“W-what the hell...?”
Her voice carried the weight of soone witnessing sothing beyond belief.
Fear and awe clashed in her eyes.
For a mont, her gaze wavered before settling, her head shaking slowly.
“No... Thank you. Really.”
She straightened her posture and locked eyes with .
“I’m Onyx from the Concrete Family. Who are you?”
The mont I heard those words, a strong sense of déjà vu hit .
The first ti I t Amber... it had been the sa. The sa atmosphere. The sa question.
Only a year ago.
Back when I drifted through the back alleys, taking on rcenary jobs without any real plan.
When I didn’t even have a proper na—just known as That Pizza Guy or The Crazy Pizza Man.
I had the sudden impulse to ask for a pizza as paynt again, just like I did when I first t Amber.
But this ti, I was here on a job. Hired as a rcenary. I had to answer properly.
“rcenary A from the Seoul Office. I’m here for the Heart Drill investigation.”
Onyx’s expression relaxed slightly at my words.
With a quiet sigh of relief, so of the tension drained from her stance.
“Oh, Amber’s office? I thought she gave up on this job since no rcenaries showed up...”
Now reassured, Onyx scanned the area and started giving orders to her subordinates with practiced ease.
“Erase every trace here. Gather all debris and incinerate it. As for the fallen brothers... keep them in the underground vault. We’ll give them a proper funeral when this is all over.”
As her subordinates moved swiftly, she nodded at .
“Follow .”
The building Onyx led into had an unusual atmosphere.
Everything was white.
The walls, the ceiling, the floor—every surface was so bright it hurt my eyes.
The black of my coat felt almost unnatural in this space.
At the end of the stark white corridor, Onyx opened a door.
The mont I stepped inside, I was t with an even more extre whiteness.
Not just the walls, but the furniture too—everything was completely, immaculately white.
A room that felt like it could drive soone insane.
Onyx sat in one of the chairs and swiped a finger across an AR screen.
Streams of data flowed across the transparent panel.
After a brief pause, she looked up.
“I checked with the Seoul Office. Nice to et you, A.”
She must have contacted Amber to confirm that I was really one of her rcenaries.
“Let introduce myself again. I’m Onyx, daughter of the Concrete Family’s boss—and the client for this job.”
Client?
My brow lifted slightly.
I °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° had assud the client would be the gang boss himself...
Onyx must have noticed the doubt in my expression because she imdiately continued.
“My father doesn’t know about this request. And he can’t know.”
Her voice lowered.
“This isn’t an official job from the Family. I’m the one who personally requested it.”
Leaning forward slightly, as if sharing a secret, she spoke in a quiet voice.
“My father is trying to handle this problem using the Family’s strength alone.”
Her fingers gripped the chair’s armrest tightly.
I could see faint scratch marks forming on the smooth white surface.
“He’s completely ignoring what the other executives are saying. It’s... weird.”
A troubled expression crossed her face as she tilted her head slightly.
“He wasn’t always this reckless...”
****
After the brief conversation, I told Onyx I’d start my investigation.
She took the lead, guiding through the gang’s territory.
“This way.”
Onyx led to a particular district.
“This is the northern sector of the Concrete Family’s base. It’s where most Heart Drill addicts have been found.”
“Hmm...”
I glanced around slowly, masking my frustration.
I had planned to just wander around and kill ti, pretending to investigate.
But I hadn’t expected the client herself to follow around and explain everything.
Honestly, I wasn’t used to actual investigation work.
Gathering evidence, tracking suspects, analyzing clues...
That wasn’t my style. I was more comfortable with charging in and tearing apart whatever target I was assigned.
Did I screw up by taking this job just for the credits?
I had started the Heart Drill investigation, but I still had no idea why Amber sent here in the first place.
Onyx enthusiastically introduced different facilities and people, occasionally giving bright, expectant looks.
Like she thought I was about to start so impressive detective work.
Maybe she was overestimating because I had taken down that berserker.
“Well, let’s just take a look around first?”
I suggested awkwardly.
Onyx nodded and began walking at a slow pace, keeping step with .
“You’re really different from the netwitches we’ve had here before. Those guys locked themselves up in so corner the mont they arrived.”
“The number of Heart Drill addicts is increasing. At this rate, we won’t be able to keep the Family together for more than a month.”
I listened to Onyx as we walked through the vast, white-walled complex.
I wasn’t paying much attention to where I was going, but Onyx kept glancing at , as if gauging my reaction.
After so ti, I noticed sothing odd.
The gang mbers training nearby were far better equipped than I had expected.
More specifically, their gear quality was way too high.
“...Are all those firearms from Hexa Core Armory?”
I asked, narrowing my eyes.
Onyx nodded.
“Probably most of the Family is using them.”
Soone might scoff at making a big deal out of a bunch of rifles.
But if all those rifles were Hexa Core Armory weapons, that changed things.
Even among rcenaries at Amber’s office, there were plenty who wanted Hexa Core gear but couldn’t get their hands on it.
They were expensive as hell, even for well-paid rcs constantly risking their lives.
Yet sohow, a gang—who relied on numbers more than skill—had stockpiled a massive arsenal of high-grade weapons.
That was more than just a little strange.
"Hexa Core Armory weapons are insanely expensive. How the hell do you have so many?"
Onyx hesitated for a mont before slowly shaking her head.
"Honestly... I don’t know. My father got them from sowhere, that’s all I know."
She genuinely looked like she had no clue.
We continued walking through the massive training grounds.
Then, suddenly, the entire atmosphere shifted.
The gang mbers in training imdiately straightened their posture, while those who had been chatting quickly fell silent.
A group of people strode into the area from the far end of the training ground.
"...Father."
Onyx’s voice was barely above a whisper, but the tension in it was unmistakable.
The boss of the Concrete Family was an imposing figure—towering in height and built like a mountain.
His jet-black hair made his presence even more intimidating, and the deep wrinkles on his face bore witness to countless battles.
But the most striking thing about him was his eyes.
Sharp and unreadable, they seed to pierce straight through everything.
His gaze swept over briefly before landing on Onyx.
Disapproval was written all over his face.
"You're wasting your ti."
His voice was deep and weighty.
In front of him, Onyx seed to shrink, like a child being scolded.
"Father, this is just—"
"I will handle it."
He cut her off, his tone firm.
"We don’t need outsiders involved."
With that, he shot one last, unreadable look before turning away.
His entourage quickly followed him, leaving behind an eerie silence.
Onyx didn’t say anything for a while.
Her face shifted through a storm of emotions.
****
Late at night.
The investigation had yielded no real results, and I returned to the lodging Onyx had prepared for .
Just like every other building here, the room was blindingly white.
White walls, white ceiling, white bed, white desk.
I stared at the monotonous interior for a mont, grumbling to myself, before heading straight to the bed.
Finally, it's over...
Even though I had only been walking around all day, I was exhausted.
Maybe it was because I was stuck doing sothing so out of character.
The thought of having to repeat this pointless wandering tomorrow crossed my mind, but I pushed it aside—that’s tomorrow’s problem.
I plopped onto the bed and hugged the soft pillow.
I was ready to pass out on the spot—until I felt sothing off inside the pillow.
What the...?
I reached inside and pulled out sothing hard.
A small device, glowing with a faint blue sheen—the only thing in this whitewashed room that had any color.
It looked like an external terminal, the kind netwitches used.
Could it belong to one of the netwitches who took this job and ended up dead?
I had a feeling that soone had deliberately hidden it inside the pillow.
Judging by the look of it, this device could be useful in the investigation, so I wasted no ti in turning it on.
"Hm..."
Unfortunately, it was heavily encrypted.
But I had a trump card.
Absorption.
It wasn’t a combat ability, but if sothing was built on an AI frawork, I could devour it entirely.
The only reason I could communicate with Amber without a separate device was because I had previously absorbed an external communication module.
If I didn’t have this ability, dealing with this kind of shit would be so much more frustrating...
My body might look like a full cybernetic fra straight out of a cyberpunk fever dream, but in reality, it wasn’t.
Other than Absorption, the only special features I had were heightened senses, imnse strength, and the ability to function without eating.
Honestly, the fact that I wasn’t fully cybernetic was a relief to .
People who overloaded themselves with implants always ended up a little... off.
No matter how strong an artificial arm was, if I couldn’t feel anything with it—no warmth, no texture—would I even be able to endure it?
If I stroked my right hand with my left, but there was no sensation, no warmth... would I still be myself?
At least my body, this AI-modeled fra, retained all human functions.
If I ate a pizza and my system just displayed on an AR screen instead of letting taste it, I would lose my mind in a day.
As I let my thoughts wander, the device was already being absorbed into my body.
Once it fully rged, I accessed the internal data.
It contained the logs of a netwitch who had been investigating Heart Drill.
Investigation Log – Day 2
No evidence suggests that Heart Drill is an electronic drug.None of the infected show signs of accessing digital drugs.So victims displayed symptoms despite never connecting to an external network. (Long incubation period?)It seems more like a virus attacking systems rather than a drug.No idea how the virus affects the heart—an organ without implants.Injecting controlled virus strains into so gang mbers to run a trace simulation.
Investigation Log – Day 3
Trace simulation results are in.Only one software is a possible infection vector.It’s the aim-assist AI that the Concrete Family uses in their firearms.Investigating the AI starting now.
The report was surprisingly detailed.
Even my gut instinct told —the answer was already in here.
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