episode_0018

Scarlet cautiously observed Yuna, subtly moving away from her. Yuna gazed at Scarlet and let out a short sigh.

“Are you that curious about Silvera?”

At her question, Scarlet’s eyes sparkled again.

“Of course!”

Scarlet clenched her fist in excitement.

“It’s an opportunity to see the most advanced custom mechanic in existence with my own eyes. What engineer wouldn’t be excited?”

She continued calmly, as if to reassure Yuna.

“Don’t worry. I won’t ever dismantle it or touch it without permission. I just want to observe its structure, its design, and the organic connections between its parts with my own eyes.”

Yuna was silent for a moment, observing Scarlet’s pure technical desire.

She looked into Scarlet’s eyes.

There seemed to be no falsehood or hidden motives within them. Only an intense craving for unknown technology filled them.

“I want to see for myself and learn how such perfect mobility and performance were achieved, you know?”

“More importantly, Scarlet, do you think it’s technically and realistically possible to implant a graviton damper and a pile bunker?”

Yuna threw out the question, as if trying to gauge her level of understanding.

“Possibility? I can’t say zero.”

Despite the sudden question, she opened her mouth cautiously.

“The recoil issue of the pile bunker is theoretically solvable. The problem is energy consumption and mech load. The instantaneous energy required to fire the GX-Final Impact once is on par with a typical battleship’s main cannon.”

Scarlet continued, recalling the last time she saw Kang Jin-woo’s Bugbear.

“Even with an old reactor and a C-grade booster, it’s woefully insufficient. A dedicated capacitor is essential, but there’s no suitable space for it. Even if the energy issue somehow gets resolved, it’s questionable whether the mech’s frame can withstand the load.”

She sighed and shook her head.

“We’d have to try to know for sure, but it’s truly insane.”

She tilted her head, as if calculating in her mind.

“It’s the worst choice in terms of stability, efficiency, and tactical value. If it weren’t for the promise, it’s a job I, as an engineer, would never want to touch. No matter how much money they offer.”

She spoke decisively.

Yuna listened quietly to Scarlet’s technical explanation.

She had also reached a similar conclusion.

Kang Jin-woo’s plan was, logically speaking, nothing short of suicide. However, because she knew his skill better than anyone, she didn’t harbor any doubts.

“From the start, only using melee weapons is crazy.”

“In that case,”

Yuna said in a low voice. She operated her terminal, projecting a holographic video into the air.

“Watching this might change your mind.”

The video showed a Bugbear wielding a drill bit, taking down six pirate mechs, a scene accidentally recorded by an Icarus reconnaissance drone.

“Huh?!”

Scarlet stared blankly at the holographic video, her mouth agape.

Her eyes were filled with shock and disbelief.

“Wh-what is this? These insane movements? Is this… Kang Jin-woo?!”

She turned to Yuna and asked, almost shouting.

Yuna nodded silently.

Scarlet played the video again.

She focused intently, as if not wanting to miss a single movement of the Bugbear swinging its drill bit. And then,

she finally let out a long gasp.

“If it’s that level of piloting skill, it makes sense…”

She alternated glances between the Bugbear in the hologram and the actual Bugbear in the workshop.

“If such absurd piloting skill exists, then yes, perhaps the pilot is compensating for the mech’s spec limitations with their ability.”

“After all, with just a 3rd-generation mass-produced Bugbear, he was able to put a dent in my Silvera.”

Yuna said, recalling her simulated training with Kang Jin-woo.

“What?! Really?!”

Scarlet’s voice was so loud with surprise that it echoed in the workshop.

“I fought him myself, so it’s certain.”

Yuna wore a faint smile and began to explain the combat situation in detail to Scarlet.

Scarlet nodded as if intrigued, and before they knew it, the two were sitting side by side, engaging in a heated discussion.

Yuna began to explain in detail the simulated combat situation she had personally experienced with Kang Jin-woo.

Scarlet listened attentively to Yuna’s explanation, her eyes shining.

She occasionally threw out technical questions or proposed possible hypotheses based on her own experience.

“He read the entire trajectory of the beam rifle and dodged it? That’s impossible with just simple reflexes or predictions. Could he have hidden a high-performance predictive calculation device in the mech?”

“No, there was no hardware response of that kind. Rather… it was closer to a phenomenon occurring as the pilot’s nervous system and the mech’s control system abnormally synchronized. As if the mech was reading the pilot’s will in advance and moving accordingly.”

“Nervous system synchronization, huh… In that case, a reinforced human? No, that doesn’t seem right. He looks perfectly healthy.”

The two fell deep into discussion about Kang Jin-woo, an unknown entity, and his technology, losing track of time.

Although they were two people with vastly different backgrounds and personalities, their common interest in mechanics and their curiosity about the enigmatic Kang Jin-woo quickly bound them together.

Yuna admired Scarlet’s intuition and bold ideas, which stemmed from her field experience, while Scarlet marveled at Yuna’s vast data-based knowledge and systematic analytical skills.

As they acknowledged and learned from each other’s strengths, a peculiar bond and respect as engineers or warriors began to sprout between them, replacing their initial wariness.

As their heated discussion continued for a long time, Scarlet noticed a faint brown stain on the sleeve of Yuna’s pilot suit.

It was a coffee stain from earlier, when she had spurted coffee because of Kang Jin-woo in the cafe.

“What’s that on your suit? A coffee stain?”

“Don’t mind it.”

“As if I wouldn’t mind.”

Scarlet retorted playfully.

“Well, that works out. He’ll take a while to get back anyway, so I’ll lend you some clothes to change into. My private room over there has a shower facility too. Just looking at that skin-tight suit makes me feel stifled.”

She added, pointing to her grease-stained work clothes.

“And it’s about time I washed up too, after sweating a bit.”

“…Alright. I will.”

Yuna finally nodded.

As if she had been waiting, Scarlet led Yuna towards her private space connected to the interior of the workshop.

Unlike the workshop, the place was relatively tidy, but unique items reflecting Scarlet’s taste were still scattered about.

Scarlet pulled out a black t-shirt with a skull print and comfortable training pants from the closet and handed them to Yuna.

“I don’t know if the size will fit, but wear these for now.”

She practically tossed the clothes to Yuna and immediately went into the small bathroom attached to the room.

Soon, the sound of water running came from inside.

Yuna looked down at the skull t-shirt in her hand for a moment.

It was clothing about a million light-years away from her personal taste.

But there was no other choice.

She let out a small sigh, carefully took off her pilot suit on Scarlet’s bed, and changed into the borrowed clothes.

#

I parked the Bugbear in front of the workshop, carefully pushed the anti-gravity pallet inside, and exited the cockpit.

The door leading to what seemed like Scarlet’s private space inside the workshop was slightly ajar, and the voices of two people could be heard from within.

Unable to resist my curiosity, I cautiously approached the source of the voices and peered through the crack in the door. Yuna was inside.

She was lying on her side on the bed, not in her tight pilot suit, but in a skull t-shirt that Scarlet seemed to have given her. She was lounging around, propping her chin with one hand, and looking at a data pad placed in front of her.

‘Wait.’

And what was even more surprising was Scarlet’s appearance.

She seemed to have just finished showering, walking out from in front of the bathroom door, casually towel-drying her wet red hair with a large towel.

However, her attire was just an old, stretched sleeveless t-shirt on top, and short shorts on the bottom.

Her wet hair and neck, and her unadorned, bold appearance, overtly revealed beneath the sleeveless top, were, to put it mildly, very stimulating.

I felt my face flush at the unexpected sight.

My mind felt completely blank.

I instinctively let out a sound, stumbled backward, and reflexively slammed the door shut with a bang.

“Oh, no.”

What had I done? My heart was pounding like crazy.

I didn’t know what was happening behind the door, but I felt like I had seen something I shouldn’t have interrupted.

Just then, Scarlet’s cheerful laughter burst out from behind the door.

“Pfft! What was that? That reaction?”

And then, Yuna’s faint but clear laughter followed. It was a clear and pristine laugh, unimaginable from her usual self.

At that laughter, my face seemed to turn even redder.

“When did you two get so close, anyway?”

I stood bewildered in front of the closed door, not knowing what to do. Then, Scarlet’s voice came from behind the door again.

“Is peeking your hobby?”

Her voice was still full of laughter.

“Wh-what are you talking about! I just…!”

“Then why did you suddenly slam the door shut?”

Scarlet said teasingly.

“Are you perhaps embarrassed? What exactly did you see?”

“It’s not like that!”

After a moment, the door opened again, and Scarlet came out.

Unlike before, she was wearing an old work jumpsuit over her sleeveless top.

She still looked at me with an expression that couldn’t hold back laughter.

Behind her, Yuna followed, her expression already returned to its usual composed state.

However, her ears seemed slightly red.

“Ahem.”

Scarlet cleared her throat once, then her eyes sparkled as she looked at the parts on the anti-gravity pallet I had pushed inside.

Her playful expression from earlier was completely gone, replaced by the serious face of an engineer.

“Oh… so these are the items you mentioned.”

She first approached the graviton damper, carefully examining its surface as if handling a precious artifact.

“It’s a genuine Atlas V graviton damper.”

She murmured, unable to hide her excitement.