episode_0005

My conditional acceptance or provocative answer deepened the peculiar smile on Yuna’s lips.

She briefly alternated her gaze between the tattered Bugbear behind me and her own dazzling Silvera.

It was as if she was once again confirming the disparity between the two mechs, calculating something.

The surrounding mercenaries held their breath, waiting for her next words.

A moment later, she opened her mouth.

“A reasonable point.”

She admitted it unexpectedly readily.

“I don’t want to make you fight with a mech so broken it’s an eyesore. And there shouldn’t be any room for excuses either.”

She said, staring directly at me.

Her silver eyes held a strange fairness along with arrogance.

“Alright, I’ll give you time. Time to repair and maintain your mech.”

She said, checking the terminal on her wrist.

“Tomorrow at dawn. We’ll meet at this base’s training ground.”

Tomorrow at dawn? This crazy woman.

It was an extremely tight schedule, but demanding more in the current situation would be unreasonable.

Moreover, the location was our base’s training ground. At least there was the advantage of a familiar environment.

“Is that enough, Driller?”

She asked as if confirming.

I nodded. I had my pride.

“It’s enough.”

“Good.”

Yuna replied curtly, as if satisfied, then turned her head towards Bulldog, who was standing restlessly beside her.

“Commander.”

Yuna said, as if giving an order.

“I’ll be using the training ground tomorrow at dawn. Clear it out.”

“Yes, yes! Of course, Yuna-nim! We’ll definitely clear it out! If you need it, even our personnel support…”

Bulldog reverted to a subservient flatterer, fawning over her.

“No need.”

Yuna cut him off coldly.

And she no longer paid him any attention.

After sending me one last meaningful glance, she turned and headed towards her Silvera.

The path she walked was still filled with awe and silence.

Once she climbed into the cockpit, she took off silently, just as she had arrived, and disappeared from view in an instant.

As if a storm had passed, the hangar immediately erupted into a clamor once Yuna left.

“My God, did you see that? Yuna’s actually going to have a mock battle with Cog7!”

“Is he crazy? He’s going to fight the Silvera with that pile of scrap metal?”

“Still, he bought some time! Who knows what he can do overnight?”

“That rookie is really something else. To have such guts in front of the Silver Witch!”

“Tomorrow morning’s training ground will be a complete spectacle!”

The mercenaries chattered excitedly amongst themselves.

Those who mocked me, those who worried, and even those who held unknown expectations. Their gazes were all fixed on me.

Then, Bulldog blocked my path again.

His face was contorted with humiliation and greed.

“Cog7, what the hell happened? Why is Yuna showing interest in you? Did you make some kind of deal with Icarus? Spit it out!”

He seemed to think that I might have suddenly become a ‘valuable’ asset.

His real intention was to somehow control me and profit from this situation.

But I was no longer the Cog7 of before.

I had a total of 8300 credits in my possession.

This much would allow me to get by for a while without his interference.

“None of your business.”

I answered coldly, looking him directly in the eyes.

“And you should mind your own business. This is a matter between her and me.”

I pushed his shoulder aside and walked past, sneering as I spoke.

“Move. I have to prepare to welcome a ‘distinguished guest’ tomorrow at dawn.”

Bulldog stood there blankly for a moment, seemingly speechless at my attitude.

I no longer bothered with him and headed towards where my Bugbear was. Time was short, and I had mountains of work to do.

I opened the system window, activated the [Shop] function, and bought the parts I had marked down without hesitation.

[Item: Small Reactor Booster (Grade C)] Purchase complete. -4500CR

[Item: High-Performance Actuator Set (Grade D+)] Purchase complete. -1500CR

[Item: Nano-Composite Armor Plate (Medium) x5] Purchase complete. -1500CR

[Item: Frame Reinforcement (Melee Combat)] Purchase complete. -500CR

Total 8000 credits. It was most of my entire fortune.

As I pressed the purchase button, the space beneath my feet shimmered slightly, and the ordered parts appeared one after another.

A booster with a subtle gleam, heavy actuators, thick armor plates.

As I stood in front of the Bugbear, examining the mech’s deplorable condition, an old man in oil-stained work clothes approached me.

He was the one in charge of the Chronos Mercenary Group’s repair bay, known as ‘Foreman Han’.

“Hmph, the rumors are flying, kid.”

Foreman Han said, scrutinizing me from head to toe with his arms crossed.

His voice was gruff enough to be heard clearly even amidst the machine noise.

“You’re boasting that you’ll humble the Silver Witch, aren’t you? Are you crazy enough to want to die?”

I didn’t even have time to retort to his sarcasm.

“Hmph!”

Suddenly, Foreman Han’s eyes widened. He couldn’t close his mouth after seeing the reactor booster.

“Where did you get all these precious items! Especially that booster… it’s Grade C! Our third-rate mercenary group can’t even dream of seeing something like this! Did you, by any chance, raid a corporate transport ship?”

Instead of answering his fuss, I pulled out a 200-credit chip from my remaining 300 credits and offered it to him.

“I need this installed on my mech. If you help, this is yours. What do you say?”

Foreman Han alternated his gaze between the credit chip, my face, and the latest parts laid out on the floor.

“Tsk… A young man with no fear. I don’t need credits, but let me tell you clearly, attaching this won’t turn your scrap metal into a Silvera. Just you wait until tomorrow morning and hear you cry.”

And so, Foreman Han and I began our all-night work. He grumbled, but with skilled hands, he brought the necessary tools, helping me install the parts or offering advice.

“This booster, it’s small but has considerable output. Be careful when connecting the energy. If you mess up, your cockpit will be roasted.”

“It’s a good idea to replace the actuators with these. The old ones were already at their limit. This part of the frame is also severely twisted. You’ll need to focus the reinforcement welding here. Are you planning on swinging that crazy drill-like thing again?”

“These armor plates… they’re quite thick, but they’ll be like paper in front of Silvera’s beam rifle. It’s best to avoid a head-on confrontation.”

He grumbled incessantly, yet whenever my movements faltered, he would uncannily notice and take the necessary steps. His experience and know-how were definitely helpful.

“Foreman-nim, do you know much about Yuna?”

I asked casually, watching the welding sparks.

“The Silver Witch, you mean?”

Foreman Han replied, turning a wrench.

“If you don’t know her in the mercenary world, you’re a spy. Icarus’s proudest spear. They say she’s beautiful, but just as cruel. More than a few mercenary groups have been shattered by her hands. I wonder why such a big shot is showing interest in a rookie like you.”

“Indeed.”

I replied curtly.

I couldn’t possibly talk about ‘movement flow’ or the game.

“Hmph. There must be something.”

Foreman Han mumbled meaningfully.

“Anyway, I have one piece of advice, kid. Don’t try to win. That’s suicide. Just endure somehow. If you can even land a scratch, you might become a hero. Of course, the probability of dying trying is much higher.”

His words were cold but realistic.

I didn’t consider victory either.

The system quest’s additional reward conditions: ‘survive for 3 minutes’ and ‘land an effective hit’. Those were my realistic goals.

If I achieved that and survived, then perhaps a truly new opportunity would open up.

As the night deepened and the eastern sky faintly brightened, all the work was finally complete.

“It’s done.”

Foreman Han said, wiping his oily hands on his work clothes.

There was clear fatigue on his face, but also a strangely satisfied expression.

“Now it’s all up to you. Don’t die too quickly. It’d be troublesome if rumors spread that my skills are terrible.”

He spoke gruffly, but it seemed to contain a faint hint of encouragement.

I chuckled and nodded my head at him.

“Thank you for your concern, Foreman-nim.”

I wiped away sweat and stood in front of the mech.

My entire body’s muscles screamed from the all-night work, but my mind was clear, as if forged into steel. The dawn’s light was breaking through the hangar window.

Bright lights were already on in the training ground. It was the appointed time. I climbed into the Bugbear’s cockpit.

[System startup. All devices confirmed operational. Reactor output stable. Booster system online.]

Along with familiar mechanical sounds, the dashboard lit up.

I felt a much more stable and powerful energy flow than before.

I gripped the controls and took a deep breath. It was time to go.

*****

While Kang Jin-woo was engrossed in modifying the Bugbear all night, Yuna was composing text on a holographic terminal inside the Silvera’s cockpit.

Although her surroundings were only cold metal and faint dashboard lights, in that familiar solitude, she most clearly confirmed the reason for her existence.

If she found even the smallest possibility that could benefit Icarus, even a dust-like clue, she would never let it go, persistently verifying it to contribute even a sliver to the corporation’s might.

For her, it was more than just a mission; it was an obsession almost akin to a survival instinct.

As natural as breathing, as unstoppable as a beating heart.

If Icarus hadn’t taken in her younger self, who had lost everything, abandoned like cold space debris, dying in hunger and fear without even a name, then the ‘Silver Witch’ Yuna of today—no, Yuna as an individual—would not exist.

Icarus gave her not only life but also a name, power, and, above all, a reason to live.

That gratitude was etched into every cell of her body.

Therefore, dedicating herself to the corporation and proving its boundless power on the front lines was the only way she felt she was alive and that she had value.

Only when every judgment and action led to Icarus’s glory did she finally gain the strength to escape her hollow past and live in the present.

Her fingers glided smoothly over the holographic keyboard.

[Target Name: Driller, Identification Code: Cog7. Affiliation: Chronos Mercenary Group. Mech Status: Extremely poor. Pilot’s combat style is unconventional, but instantaneous judgment and potential value warrant reconsideration. Continuous observation and data collection required.]

As she wrote the report, she involuntarily recalled Driller’s face, who had stared at her directly, with what felt like a somewhat arrogant gaze, in the hangar just moments ago.

His face was stained with dirt and oil, but his eyes shone brilliantly within it.

‘It wasn’t just bravado or recklessness. That gaze… it was certain of something.’

The sensation she felt during that brief encounter was quite vivid.

There was ‘something’ about him that couldn’t be quantified by numbers, something difficult to analyze with data.

She instinctively sensed that it could either benefit Icarus or, conversely, pose a fatal threat.

Either way, she couldn’t simply ignore it.

She gazed into the air for a moment, as if lost in thought, then quickly closed the small report window on the screen.

The cold air inside the cockpit seemed to cool her heated eyes.