Chapter 8: Crime City (3)

She only set me down from her arms once we were far enough from the scene.

“Phew…”

Sensation finally returned to my legs.

I let out a long sigh of relief as I stood up on my own two feet at last.

Then I stole a glance behind me.

She had taken off her mask and cap at some point.

The revealed face was far more elegant and beautiful than I had expected—calm, refined features, with an intelligent air.

She looked to be in her mid-to-late twenties.

Was it called a braided bun?

Her tightly bound black hair—braided so it wouldn’t come undone even in combat—combined with her golden eyes left a strong impression.

I hadn’t recognized her beauty yesterday in the junkyard because of the swelling and bruises.

I caught myself staring without thinking and quickly came to my senses.

This wasn’t the time to be gaping—I needed to thank her first.

“First of all, thank you for saving me. I owe you my life. So, your name is…”

“ST-780199.”

“ST… sorry, what?”

I was momentarily stunned by the response.

Sure, this was Cyber City, but that kind of—no, that kind of name… could that really be a person’s name?

“Uh, then… I’ll just call you ST for now.”

“If that’s more comfortable for you, I don’t mind.”

And then the conversation paused.

I was carefully choosing what to say next, while she… who knew?

Ever since I first saw those bright yellow eyes, I hadn’t been able to guess what was going on behind them.

Golden irises shining like the midnight moon.

They felt more like the eyes of a dangerous beast than a human.

Maybe that was natural.

She had just slaughtered dozens of people without blinking an eye.

And not just back-alley thugs, either—trained soldiers from a private security company.

Could that really have been done just to repay a favor?

Was that something anyone would do for such a simple reason?

I swallowed dryly without realizing.

The more I thought about it, the more questions I had.

Starting with how quickly she had come to find me.

Whatever the reason, her condition yesterday had been disastrous.

Given the state she was in, even several weeks of rest might not have been enough.

And the [Healing] skill I had used back then hadn’t even activated properly.

Strangely, it took far more effort than when I’d used it on Kyla, and I hadn’t been able to fully heal her.

She was barely clinging to life at the time…

‘Wait a second—don’t tell me… she wiped out an entire strike team in that condition?’

Just as my nerves began creeping back up my spine, she spoke first.

“There is something I wish to ask you.”

Of course. This had to be the real reason she’d sought me out.

I tensed up, bracing myself.

“Do you know who I am?”

“Huh?”

I was dumbfounded by the abrupt question.

It sounded like something only a self-absorbed celebrity would say.

As I hesitated, unsure of her intent, she continued.

“The truth is… I’ve lost most of my memories.”

“What? How…?”

“It was a kind of security measure. To prevent internal data leaks, a kill switch was embedded deep within my synthetic brain. When it activated, it damaged my cortical implant and parts of my nervous system. As a result, I can no longer recall my original affiliation or even my real name.”

She explained her situation calmly, saying she had only survived thanks to our fateful encounter.

“Judging by the circumstances, it appears I was disposed of by a ‘superior’ for some reason. But in this state, I can’t determine the cause or how it happened. All I know is that I was discarded. That’s why, though it may be presumptuous, I came directly to you. I thought you might know something about my past.”

It was a story I hadn’t anticipated.

But if that was her situation, it made sense that she’d come looking for me as soon as she regained consciousness.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have any information she might be hoping for.

“I—I don’t think so. I just happened to find you collapsed while passing by…”

“If you had no connection to me, how did you manage to save my life?”

“What do you mean…?”

A pause. Her golden eyes, fixed on me, suddenly seemed ice-cold.

“The security measure—the self-termination protocol—ensures complete erasure. Once triggered, not even the best hackers can interrupt it mid-process. Only someone with executive-level clearance or higher could do that.”

Because of this, she said, she had suspected I was somehow involved in her disposal.

I panicked and scrambled to deny it.

“No! No, I swear! I’m not involved at all, please believe me…!”

To be mistaken for one of the people who betrayed and abandoned her… That was a dangerous misunderstanding.

“Then how exactly did you stop the protocol’s sequence and save me?”

“Well…”

Her intense gaze pinned me, pressuring me to answer.

But I was completely at a loss.

Because the truth was completely absurd.

If I told her, ‘Oh, I just clicked a button using a Saintess skill from a game,’ would she accept that—or would she drag me into an ‘in-depth interrogation’ until she got a better answer?

That would be terrifying. She clearly had no hesitation about killing.

I doubted she’d have any qualms about interrogating someone for answers.

But I couldn’t just make something up either.

Not only could I not think of a good lie on the spot, I had a strong gut feeling that lying right now would be a very bad idea.

My head was spinning.

“Um… so, the thing is…”

Her gaze held steady, urging me to speak—but more than that, I felt a real sense of danger.

I had to say something before she decided I was a threat.

My mind was a chaotic mess of panic.

The moment her blood-crusted fingers twitched slightly, the pressure doubled.

I was so flustered that I blurted out something ridiculous.

“A… a miracle from God?”

I immediately regretted it the moment the words left my mouth.

‘I’m screwed.’

It was a mistake.

In ‘Neo Front Cyber City,’ there is no such thing as mysticism.

This is a world of dazzling technology where the unknown has been stripped away.

A hyper-materialist society built on scientific progress—anything that can’t be used or proven is considered less than garbage.

Religions had naturally died out long ago.

Miracles and superstitions that couldn’t be replicated through experiments were no longer believed by anyone.

Even the dominant faiths that ruled for two millennia had been extinct for ages, dismissed as outdated cultural relics.

To talk about a “miracle from God” here? It was a catastrophic slip.

I was terrified of what she might say.

“God…?”

Even she seemed momentarily taken aback.

For the first time, a flicker of emotion passed over her usually blank face.

Her eyes went round for a second—just a second—then she calmed again and asked,

“What kind of god are you referring to? One from Christianity or Buddhism, perhaps?”

“Uh, well…”

I’d expected immediate ridicule, but instead she calmly asked a follow-up.

What was she aiming for?

‘Wait… is she seriously buying this?’

I was completely thrown off by this unexpected reaction.

But now that it had come to this, I had no choice.

I quickly searched my memory.

What was the lore in Cinder Knights again?

The god worshipped by the Saintess belonged to one of the ‘Outer Eyes’…

“Merciful Radiance.”

That was the name.

“…I see. So that was a miracle from your god. I hadn’t expected that.”

It sounded like nonsense, yet she took it with bizarre seriousness.

I couldn’t help but ask again.

“Are you seriously… believing me?”

She nodded calmly.

“Based on the composite scan of your biometric responses, there is a 98% probability that you are not lying. Your pulse, breathing, pupil dilation, sweat levels, body temperature, endocrine activity, and sympathetic nervous system responses all indicate that you genuinely believe what you’re saying.”

That’s when it hit me.

The gleaming golden eyes that had been locked on me—those weren’t just beautiful.

They were high-spec synthetic eyes packed with scanning functionality.

If I had made up a convincing lie, it might’ve backfired horribly.

I broke out in a cold sweat.

‘T-Thank God. At least it wasn’t a lie…’

To be fair, calling it a “miracle from God” wasn’t entirely wrong.

The powers given to the [Saintess], no matter what they were, came from that source.

Probably. To be honest, it was more of a hunch than anything.

Even when I occasionally tried praying out of desperation, I never received a sign from anyone.

But maybe I’d subconsciously come to believe it myself.

While I was lost in thought, she spoke again.

“If it’s not too much to ask, may I see that miracle again?”

---

Blood dripped steadily down her torn forearm.

The moment a small fingertip touched the wound, a soft halo of light burst forth.

Flaaash—!

When the blinding glow faded, not a trace of the injury remained.

“……”

Her golden eyes, calm and unwavering, observed every second of it.

The synthetic pupils of her multi-function ocular implants adjusted like a precision camera lens, capturing every detail.

The data collected was processed by her internal computing system, and the results came quickly.

“Indeed. This is a phenomenon that deviates significantly from any known medical technology currently in use.”

Having directly witnessed this ‘miracle’ for herself and finally cleared up her misunderstanding, she lowered her head deeply.

“I made a terrible mistake by accusing my savior based on groundless speculation. I offer my sincerest apologies.”

She bowed formally, bending at the waist.

I quickly waved it off.

“N-No, please. I would’ve been in serious trouble if you hadn’t helped me too.”

Even if there had been a misunderstanding, I didn’t hold it against her.

We had saved each other’s lives.

I was just glad things had ended well.

Maybe seeing it in action really was better than explaining it a hundred times.

Even I didn’t fully understand this ability.

If I’d done this from the beginning, things might have gone much smoother.

I let out a quiet sigh of relief.

But maybe it was still too early to relax.

“I hope this isn’t an overstep, but… you should be careful.”

“Huh? About what?”

“The [miracle] you just showed me. I believe it’s an extremely dangerous power.”