“Ugh...”
As I cracked my eyes open, the pitch-black darkness of my room welcod like an old friend.
The kind of comforting darkness that made think, Yeah, this is ho.
As my mind slowly ca back online, the circuits on my coat, my hair, and my irises began to glow, casting a soft blue light throughout the room.
Like moonlight spilling through a window, my body’s luminescence cut through the dark, illuminating every corner.
The handwritten Hangeul notes plastered across the walls reflected the glow, shimring faintly.
In the corner of the room, cha-Angler lay fast asleep.
Yaaawn.
I rubbed my eyes, stretched, and sat up on the bed.
A good night’s sleep had left feeling light and refreshed.
The exhaustion that had crushed before I passed out was completely gone.
Shoving aside the empty pizza box next to , I finally took a mont to check my reflection.
My only outfit—the black coat—still pulsed with thin blue circuit lines.
In the mirror, my irises glowed with the sa eerie light.
“Kyuu...”
cha-Angler made a soft, sleepy noise, lying on its back like an overturned turtle.
Why does this thing sleep?
I poked its soft belly.
Squish.
It felt like pressing into a bouncy, jelly-like plush toy.
As if there were no chanical parts inside at all.
cha-Angler had been with ever since I woke up in this world.
We had both opened our eyes in the ruins of the sa abandoned research lab—so it had to be connected to in so way.
When I got injured in an AI assimilation zone, it had reacted like a machine.
But its warm, squishy texture made it feel strangely alive.
It didn’t need power to function.
It communicated in short sounds.
It even watched TV.
A truly bizarre creature.
But no matter how strange it was, without it, surviving in this world with no ties or mories would’ve been even harder.
In this bleak, decayed cyberpunk reality, cha-Angler was my first friend.
Even so, the fact that it was still sound asleep while I was already awake annoyed just a little.
So I grabbed a bottle of ketchup from the corner of the room and squeezed a little onto its belly.
“Kyuu-hing-hing!”
The second the ketchup touched its skin, cha-Angler jolted awake, letting out a pitiful wail.
I couldn’t help but laugh.
Heh.
It frantically wriggled around, trying to wipe the ketchup off, but its tiny arms couldn’t reach most of the ss.
Watching it struggle was so amusing that I let it go on for a bit before finally tossing it a napkin.
After that, I took a glance around my room.
The walls were covered with the notes I had written in Hangeul.
Records of everything I had learned since waking up in this city.
At first, they were ant to help track down traces of Korea and MK Corp, both long gone.
But at so point... most of the notes had turned into food reviews.
I’m hungry...
I searched the room, but all I found were discarded pizza crusts—no actual pizza left.
I could’ve sworn I had so leftovers, but I must’ve eaten them in my half-asleep state.
Damn.
Just as I resigned myself to ordering more, a notification popped up.
A ssage from Amber.
Like an old-world text ssage, short and one-way.
Brief as always.
Amber preferred discussing business in person.
Sothing about not trusting Nexus Node, the gacorp that controlled Babel’s entire communications network.
She probably wanted to go over what happened yesterday in more detail.
“Well, looks like I’m eating out today.”
Waving to cha-Angler—who was still struggling to clean off the ketchup—I stepped out of my tiny one-room apartnt.
As I shut the door behind , I muttered,
“Hold down the fort.”
From the gap in the closing door, a small “Kyuu!” echoed in response.
****
I stood at the edge of the district, pulling up a map of Babel’s outer zones in the corner of my vision.
“Hm, so it’s this route today...”
Amber’s shop was a place I visited regularly, but without checking the map, I’d definitely get lost.
Babel’s outer districts, born from the chaos of the Great Convergence, were always shifting and unpredictable.
Not as extre as AI assimilation zones, but still chaotic enough that walking the sa route two days in a row could lead to entirely different destinations.
The abandoned factory district where I lived and Burning Duct, where Amber ran her shop, were among the more stable areas.
Beyond them, maps beca useless. Trying to predict the landscape was pointless.
And even further out—there was nothing but pure chaos, as dangerous as an assimilation zone itself.
Or so I’d heard. I had never ventured that far.
Because of all this, the map in my vision seed almost alive.
Wriggle.
The markers on the map shifted constantly, rearranging themselves at a slow but relentless pace.
Following the updated path, I made my way toward Burning Duct.
As I walked, the scenery around changed.
The eerie silence of the abandoned factory district faded, replaced by a low, humming noise that buzzed in my ears.
After a long walk, Burning Duct finally ca into view.
A space that felt entirely different from where I had just been.
****
A labyrinth of pipes stretched across the sky like tangled veins, filling the air with bursts of steam that turned the alleys into a foggy maze.
At irregular intervals, fire belched «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» from between the pipes, staining the mist with flickering shades of red.
That’s how this place got its na.
Burning Duct.
The flaming pipes.
Beneath the massive pipework, the narrow streets were packed with people.
rcenaries showing off their implants, street vendors selling food and weapons, netwitches whispering encrypted deals in hushed tones.
Neon signs flashed through the thick steam, advertising countless shops and bars.
I didn’t particularly like this place—too noisy.
But many rcenaries loved it.
One had once told that this chaotic, cybernetic ss was the most rcenary place in Babel.
Throughout the streets, holographic ads floated like living creatures, glowing with artificial life.
[BRUTAL ARMS! BOOST YOUR STRENGTH BY TENFOLD!]
[LIMITED STOCK! GENUINE NEXUS NODE INVASION SHIELDS!]
[FIREWALL FOODS! 100% BURN GUARANTEED! EXPERIENCE SPICE LIKE NEVER BEFORE!]
The constant flickering of these ads made my vision feel cluttered.
Adding to the chaotic energy, a group of rcenaries had started a fight in the middle of the street.
One side was covered in heavy combat implants, looking as threatening as possible.
Their cybernetic arms glead with razor-sharp spikes, and their shoulders bristled with mini-missile launchers.
Their faces were full of scars and tattoos—trying too hard to look intimidating.
To , they just looked like rookies.
Overdecorated implants like those were nothing but easy targets.
Their opponent was a single woman in a skintight biker suit.
Her bright red hair stood out starkly against the grimy backdrop.
Unlike the rcenaries, she had no visible implants. No weapons.
At first glance, she didn’t seem to belong in a place like this.
But the mont I saw her hair, I already knew how this fight would end.
Because to rcenaries who flaunted their clunky, oversized implants—
She was nothing short of a grim reaper.
“KILL HER!”
The rcenaries roared, drawing heavy firearms embedded in their cybernetic arms.
Murder glead in their eyes, and the crowd quickly scattered into the alleys.
But so stayed.
Watching. Betting.
Fights like these were common entertainnt in Burning Duct.
BOOM!
A small explosion echoed through the street.
Too quiet to be a grenade.
And right after—
A chorus of agonized screams.
I glanced over.
Just as I expected.
A simple summary:
Their combat implants had betrayed them.
Their cybernetic arms had turned against them, choking their own throats.
The missiles they tried to fire had exploded inside the launchers.
Their expressions twisted with terror and confusion.
They had stacked up implants without securing them against netwitch interference—rookie mistake.
The crowd let out a mix of gasps and cheers. So even placed last-minute bets.
The red-haired woman hadn’t moved an inch.
Just stood there, lips curling into a small, amused smile.
A faint blue light blinked on the device wrapped around her wrist.
I lost interest.
This fight had already been decided.
Turning away, I continued toward Amber’s shop.
In this chaotic ss, her place was one of the few quiet refuges.
A place where I could settle the paynt and hear whatever she wanted to discuss.
That was when—
“Ah! A!”
A loud voice rang out.
The red-haired woman, fresh from her victory, had spotted .
“Shit. Scarlet...”
The second I heard her voice, I bolted straight toward Amber’s shop.
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