Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 24: Jinryong Technology (1)

The day after Titan Tech withdrew from the Black Bio Plant.

A faint blue light leaked from a lab on the upper floors of Titan Tech headquarters.

Outside the window, the night sky over Babel City was soaked in neon signs, but the lab inside remained silent.

Rufus Volt, Titan Tech’s chief engineer, wiped the sweat from his forehead with one hand in the solitary lab.

On the workbench in front of him sat a sophisticated observation device, and beside it, a stack of documents marked with a bold TOP SECRET seal.

“...Whew.”

Letting out a sigh that sounded like it came from someone tightly wound, he reached deep into a drawer and pulled out a special containment unit.

Inside, perfectly sealed in a vacuum, was a substance that emitted a glowing blue light.

A substance discovered at the Black Bio Plant.

Blue traces left at the spot where the MK Corporation's cyborg had fought.

By company policy, everything was supposed to be submitted to HQ, but Rufus had kept this one sample.

His scientific curiosity had overridden protocol.

Rufus closed his eyes for a moment and recalled the cyborg he’d encountered at the Black Bio Plant.

A black body etched with glowing blue circuitry.

Its movements were fluid, like dancing underwater, and the way it had torn through Titan Tech’s latest prototype like paper had stirred both fear and awe.

“MK Corporation...”

Rufus rolled the name around in his mouth.

[If you discover any traces suspected to be related to MK Corporation:]

Report immediately to HQ.

Cease all related missions and return.

Do not attempt any independent investigation.

Do not share related information with outsiders.

Every high-ranking executive at Titan Tech knew those rules.

But none of them knew exactly why they existed.

Why these rules were in place, or even if MK Corporation still existed...

All that was known was that it was a legendary corporation from the pre-Convergence era—and that it had served as the technological foundation for every current megacorp.

“I should’ve questioned this the moment they gave us rules like that...”

Rufus sighed with regret.

He held the sealed blue substance up to the light, inspecting it like a gem.

“What the hell are you? Residue from a new energy source? Or something related to the Corruption phenomenon?”

Considering how most new tech these days involved Corruption, it wasn’t a stretch.

“Well then, time to figure out what you really are.”

Rufus adjusted the observation device to maximum magnification.

Carefully, he removed the blue substance from the container and placed it onto a glass slide, sliding it into the observation device shielded by a special containment field.

“Is this... some kind of nanomachine?”

His eyes widened in shock.

Contrary to his assumption, this wasn’t residual energy—it was an intricately designed machine on a microscopic scale.

Beneath the lens, the blue substance revealed itself as countless, minuscule machines.

“Even Titan Tech can’t achieve this level of precision...”

This was a technology no company in Babel had yet achieved.

Each nanomachine appeared capable of changing its shape freely, emitting a faint blue glow as it shifted.

Rufus began analyzing the data in real-time.

He logged the nanomachines’ energy output, movement patterns, structural features—everything.

“They’re out of power... they’re consuming their own material to function...”

As time passed, the nanomachines moved more sluggishly, some even coming to a complete halt.

And those that lost all energy began to disintegrate, dissolving slowly into blue light.

As Rufus continued his observation, he spotted something unusual forming among the machines.

The nanomachines were assembling into an image.

They were drawing something—someone.

The shape resembled a girl, facing away.

“...?”

Thinking it was moving, Rufus increased the magnification.

At that moment, the girl’s shape began to move slowly.

Spin.

The girl turned her body—and made eye contact with Rufus.

White hair. An expressionless face. A small wave of her hand toward him.

‘!!!’

Rufus’ eyes shot open like he’d just seen a ghost.

And in that instant, the entire image vanished in a shimmer of blue light.

Not just the girl—every single nanomachine was gone.

The observation screen went blank.

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Rufus stared at the empty display for a long time.

Then, slowly, he removed the glass slide from the container.

“There’s nothing in this sample.”

His voice carried the weight of disappointment—as if truly nothing had been in the sample he’d risked the rules to keep.

And then, without hesitation, he tossed it into the trash.

As if he’d never seen any glowing blue nanomachines at all.

****

There it was.

The Twisted Nether-Agu.

A Mecha-Agu with a child’s head.

Or was it an “Agu-I”? Maybe “I-Agu”? The naming was ambiguous, like the thing itself.

“...???”

I was honestly startled when I saw the thing.

Startled enough to nearly drop my slice of pizza.

Trying to calm myself, I took a deep breath and carefully picked up the I-Agu.

The squishy texture was unmistakably Agu.

The child’s face, fused in place of Agu’s, was tangible—real.

I reached out and touched the plump cheek I could never touch before. Soft and squishy.

“...Freaky.”

The I-Agu in my hand giggled as if amused that I’d picked them up, flailing its stubby little legs.

“How the hell did this happen?”

[No idea!]

I ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) asked how the fusion had occurred, but “I” answered cheerfully with a blank, innocent smile.

He just said it felt like it would work, so he did it—and it did.

Well, “I” was closer to the dumb version anyway, so that made sense.

With my initial shock mostly gone, I set the I-Agu back down on the floor.

Immediately, the I-Agu perked up with a thrilled expression, dashed over to the TV, and began aggressively pressing the remote.

The channels flipped wildly, the screen flickering into chaos.

It was like they were finally getting to enjoy the remote they’d never been able to use before.

Watching that nonsense, I finished off the last slice of pizza and stood up.

“Hold down the fort.”

As I said that by the front door, the I-Agu bounced over, remote still in hand, to see me off.

“I” waved a tiny front paw, as if saying, Come back soon.

“Kyu-hing-hing.”

Agu let out a mournful wail, like it was begging me not to leave.

The glowing red <NO> mark on its side was flashing aggressively.

Should’ve just stuck with cute little “kyu-hi-hi”s.

I ignored Agu’s sad little SOS and stepped out of the one-room apartment.

Time to meet the client.

Wilson Bridge, wasn’t it?

****

The place Wilson Bridge picked for the meeting was a restaurant called Last Chance, on the outskirts of the Burning Duct.

The place looked like the world had forgotten it.

The flickering sign at the entrance was so busted it only read “LA CHAN.”

'Huh. Guess I’ll just call it "La-Chan" or something...'

The windows were covered with old, yellowed film that made it impossible to see inside.

Opening the door, the rusty hinge let out a long creak.

Inside was cleaner than I expected—but there were barely any customers.

In one corner, a beat-up restaurant TV was playing, its screen blurry.

Nine out of ten broadcasts were notorious for being filled with megacorp ads.

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As that kind of crap droned on, a man in the back waved to get my attention.

He matched Amber’s description of the client.

Wilson Bridge.

He looked like someone who’d be sweating bullets just for showing up.

The overly tidy suit and unnecessary necktie didn’t match this run-down restaurant at all.

His face looked starved, like he hadn’t had a proper meal in days, and under the fluorescent lights, he was practically glowing pale.

Just like Amber said—an entry-level employee trying to look like a hotshot executive.

But what caught my eye more was the man standing behind him.

Definitely a merc—combat-style clothes, muscular build. Clearly a bodyguard.

There was a small implant visible on one side of his face, and he stood there with both hands folded neatly, posture tight and disciplined.

Bringing a bodyguard to a meeting in a place like this?

Bit of a mismatch.

I sat down across from them, and Wilson gave me a once-over.

I could feel the disappointment in his eyes.

Guess I didn’t match whatever “legendary mercenary” image he had in mind.

“You’re... A?”

His voice was full of doubt.

I didn’t bother answering. Instead, I reached my hand out toward the bodyguard behind him.

He reflexively moved to block me—but I was faster.

Blue light flashed from my fingertips, and with just a light push, he crumpled.

The bodyguard froze in place, his expression blank, like he couldn’t even tell what had just happened.

Seeing his guard drop without landing a single hit, Wilson’s eyes lit up with certainty.

He cleared his throat and finally spoke.

“Apologies for the suspicion. This job is... fairly dangerous. I hope you understand.”

I just nodded.

Luckily, the menu was within reach, so I ordered a pizza.

It would probably just be a frozen one microwaved to hell, but hey—pizza is pizza.

Once the owner shuffled away, Wilson lowered his voice and got to the point.

“To be honest, this request isn’t officially from Melton Pitt.”

He pulled a small hologram projector from his pocket and placed it on the table.

With a press, a glowing blue implant preservation case hovered in the air.

“This is a prototype implant developed by Melton Pitt. It’s on a whole different level from the simple muscle enhancement tech they’ve made before.”

He took a deep breath and kept going.

“If this implant gets released, Melton Pitt might actually break into the megacorp league. It’s that revolutionary.”

There was pride in his voice.

Either he helped develop it, or he deeply understood how important it was.

“The problem is... a week ago, the implant was hijacked during transport. By a gang called Query Witches.”

Query Witches.

A gang led by netwitches, pretty infamous around here.

“For some reason, the company refuses to acknowledge the incident and is doing everything it can to cover it up.”

Wilson sighed.

“But I... I want that implant back. No matter what.”

Just as he finished, the pizza arrived.

It tasted just as bad as expected, but I slowly chewed a slice while sorting through my thoughts.

“Do you know where the implant is?”

Wilson nodded.

“We picked up its signal at the quarry, just north of the Burning Duct.”

I finished the slice and wiped my hands.

No more explanations were needed.

“Alright. Got it. I’ll head out now.”

Wilson stared at me, stunned.

“Right now? Don’t you need to plan—or get gear or something?”

I shook my head.

A faint blue light shimmered from my body.

“Don’t need it.”