episode_0036

“Thank you, I really looked embarrassed.”

Hong Gil-dong sits in the back seat, receiving the red sunglasses Sonagi hands him. He was found in the basement corner of the disco mart, but surprisingly, he was dressed normally.

However, he was not in perfect condition. Looking at his swollen face and blood-stained bulletproof vest, he was in a situation where he had to quickly return to the underground hideout of the Hwalbindang.

“I’ll drive. Jihoon, you sit next to me.”

Sonagi, who was behind the wheel, gave a hint. Since it was more comfortable to have a sensitive conversation in the passenger seat than in the back seat, Ji-hoon sat down without complaint.

The three of them got into a black van. Even in the cyberpunk world, such crude-looking vehicles were always in demand. Ji-hoon sat down and then fiddled with the flyer he had kept in his pants pocket.

‘Let’s take a look at the situation.’

Sonagi and the troubleshooters were surprisingly able to save Hong Gil-dong easily. Sonagi was suspicious because it was so easy to save him, but thanks to Ji-hoon’s smartphone, she was able to find out that Hong Gil-dong was real.

“Mr. Hong Gil-dong, what happened? You’re not the type of person to get hurt.”

While asking a question, Sonagi starts the engine. The sweet and gentle sound of the engine can be heard, and the radio naturally turns on. The mellow tone of trot music fills the van, but Sonagi mercilessly turns it off.

She was quite serious. She had no intention of listening to a trot song about love for a lover.

“I got hit.”

“Of course I know what happened. What happened?”

“I don’t know, I sneaked into the disco mart and got attacked by someone. It was a very fatal attack.”

“But still, life is alive, right?”

“A beggar who gave mercy.”

Hong Gil-dong speaks and places the blue bag containing the ice on his forehead. He takes a deep breath and touches the base of his neck. There should have been artificial skin there, but it is sharply torn, exposing the external port.

“There may have been some information that I absolutely had to get from OR..me.”

Sonagi clicks her tongue at his words. She glances at Hong Gil-dong’s condition through the rearview mirror and looks at Ji-hoon.

“Ji-hoon, can you check Mr. Hong Gil-dong’s condition with that external device?”

“Uh… why?”

“There may be a strange program installed. There may be something like a backdoor installed, and our faces and conversations may be transmitted at this very moment.”

“…Just a minute.”

Future companies won’t be idiots. Ji-hoon thinks to himself, takes out his smartphone, and scans it lightly. The ID that immediately lets him know that it’s Hong Gil-dong still catches his eye.

[Hong Gil-dong (Killdong-004): 1m]

《Unhackable: Old version of OS》

“Hmm… This will be hard…”

“Why?”

“Mr. Hong Gil-dong’s brain chip version is too low, so ICE doesn’t come up and we can’t connect from here. It seems like even the Future Enterprise guys couldn’t do anything about this.”

“Ah… I see why Hong Seo-yeon isn’t here. Seriously. Is there a way for that weirdo to access the brain chip she used 50 years ago?”

“There might be one, but it wouldn’t be in the basement of the disco mart.”

It was such a positive thought, but there was nothing else I could think of. Despite the clone guards swarming around, I couldn’t meet Hong Seo-yeon or any high-ranking people from the company.

But Hong Gil-dong was tortured. Isn’t there a net-runner in Mirae Enterprise who has better skills than Ji-hoon?

‘Of course there would be… But, they’d hack just like me, right? There’s no way they’d suddenly be able to do something I can’t do because I’m an old version. They’d have to have a really old computer or some kind of expert!’

And such experts do not fall from the sky anytime, anywhere. Ji-hoon felt a strange sense of pride in the fact that he and Sona saved Hong Gil-dong with such fantastic timing.

“I think it’s best to assume that the old man is fine, but if he planted something, he wouldn’t tell me.”

“Hmm… Yeah, it doesn’t seem like the old man’s personality has been modified.”

“Haha, you guys are talking like you forgot that I’m sitting in the backseat.”

Hong Gil-dong just smiled lightly and rubbed an ice pack on his cheeks and lips. He didn’t have a gun, let alone a small knife that could be used as a weapon, so Sonagi felt like he was just going to get over this situation.

“Anyway, Mr. Damon will treat and examine you. If there’s a problem then you’ll know…”

Sonagi changes the direction of the handle she is holding. She, who has been going around and around in the same place for a long time, quickly heads to the underground hideout in this situation where she has no choice but to trust Hong Gil-dong.

“…What is that? Nagiya. Mr. Hong Gil-dong. I found this at the disco-mart. ”

Ji-hoon took out an advertisement after confirming that the atmosphere had relaxed a little. It had a gorgeous picture of ‘Pet Girl Lee Ye-ah’ on it.

“Oh, that.”

Sonagi glanced at him and nodded as if telling him to continue talking. Hong Gil-dong’s reaction was similar.

“Both. There’s nothing surprising.”

“What’s surprising?”

“No… This is selling people. I don’t know what they did with the celebrity’s DNA, but it’s selling people as pets.”

“Right.”

Sonagi answered bluntly and turned the steering wheel once. She gave a strange look to the black car in the rearview mirror.

“Ji-hoon. This is a common thing in this place.”

“…Something like this…?”

Hong Gil-dong smiles a little in vain as he looks at Ji-hoon who is frowning.

“Didn’t you fight alongside Sonagi Yang? The security guards of the future company you killed were all clones created using the DNA of Olympic athletes with outstanding physical abilities. ”

“No… Are that the same as this? Mr. Hong Gil-dong. This is a pet girl. A woman.”

“Even in the same situation, there is definitely a power that makes women look more pitiful.”

Sonagi said and stepped hard on the accelerator. The speed of the van was getting faster, but the cars around it were going faster.

“That’s not what I’m saying… This is…”

“Ji-hoon, change your mind. What was the clone security team of the future company born for?”

“Of course, to fight with a gun.”

“Yes, they are made to die. There is a good word for it, meat shield, so let’s use that. What’s the difference between it and Pet Girl? Isn’t it better?”

“…ha…”

“The clone guards end up falling victim to the raiders attacking the future corporation, but at least in Pet Girl’s case, if she was sold to a man who could handle her, she could live out her life and die.”

Ji-hoon, whose mouth was logically shut, briefly pressed his hand against his head. Ji-hoon had never once felt ‘pity’ while looking at the clone bodyguards and security guards.

Why is that?

Is it because they are the ones running towards me to kill me? Because they were trying to kill me?

“But… this… this pet girl… the guys bought her and…”

“Don’t rape them. Yeah, whatever you want. Install a program to make them act like your lover, or slap them. Sometimes… there are crazy perverts who try to satisfy their cruel desires by cutting open a frog’s stomach. ”

Sonagi glances at the rearview mirror, presses the pedal harder, and operates the stick. The driving of the taxi is becoming more and more reckless, and Hong Gil-dong also seems to notice something strange and glances back.

Ji-hoon also looked behind him through his side mirror and saw about three black cars following them.

“Then… is there anyone who is against saving or selling this pet girl?”

Hong Gil-dong nodded as if his question was a given, and did the same.

“Wasn’t Mr. Hong Gil-dong a person who saved poor people? This pet girl”

“It’s not people.”

“…”

“In Me’s eyes, the essence of Pet Girl and the Clone Guard is the same. They are products made for human desire. My mission is to take from the rich and give to the poor, but I can’t shed blood and sweat for products.”

His words drive a wedge.

Ji-hoon bit his lip a little.

‘…It’s none of my business.’

My mind is in a state of confusion. Is it because I sometimes see flood refugees, African orphans, and war refugees on TV?

They were at least ‘people’ who were born and raised naturally. Pet girls are different. As Hong Gil-dong said, they are objects that are born according to their purpose and are sold after being given a value.

‘…no.’

Ji-hoon swallows. He is not a man with a particularly great sense of justice, but he has the morality of an ordinary person.

‘They say that if you abuse or kill a pet you bought with money, you’ll be arrested… But they’re also human… It’s strange to think like that… It’s strange..’

He bit his lip once and looked at Hong Gil-dong. But his mouth was faster.

“Jihoon, I know what you want to say. But, Hwall Bin Party can’t save everyone. Understand─”

─Kkiiik!

Before the conversation ends, his body is suddenly thrown forward. Ji-hoon grabs the back seat with all his might, and Hong Gil-dong regretfully puts his head on the front seat.

“Ugh…”

“Fuck… Fuck!”

The swearing Sonagi quickly leans out the window, takes out the submachine gun on his waist, and fires. Every time the gun fires, a scream can be heard from behind.

“What the hell. Am I being chased?”

“No! If we were being chased, we wouldn’t have been able to raise it to that level! Hong Seo-yeon would have come and broken our heads herself!’

Sonagi shouted and looked at the two men. Ji-hoon nodded, and Hong Gil-dong shrugged his shoulders once, relaxed his strength, and put the gun on his waist.

We have to have a fight.

“Jihoon-ah. You should try your best to hide and not fight. You won’t care anyway since you can’t shoot and you look like shit.”

“Hey! Isn’t that too much for your fucking boyfriend?!”

“Miss! What can I do if it’s true! Hide in the car as much as possible, and then run to the manhole next to it! Leave the lid open! ”

After giving the order, Sonagi takes the grenade from his waist and lightly throws it out the window. A thud is heard, and Hong Gil-dong and Sonagi open the car door and quickly get out.

“Nimi… Really.”

Ji-hoon clicks his tongue at the fact that it is useless at this moment. However, Sonagi’s words make sense. In this situation where there are so many superhumans with ‘fire control programs’ installed in their brain chips, it is impossible to hand out business cards with the experience of having shot a gun in the military and reserve forces.

“…Huh?”

As he was thinking that, Ji-hoon saw something flying in from afar.

Was it Hong Seo-yeon? No. But strangely, I felt like I knew her face.

“This… . Yeah..?”

Ji-hoon, who was mumbling, sees the red-hot knife in the right hand of the ‘pet girl’ and quickly jumps out of the passenger seat.

─Bam!

The ‘pet girl’ lightly jumped down from the roof of the building and split the van Ji-hoon was riding in in half.

“What is this…”

The pet girl’s body was made of sleek black. That didn’t mean she was wearing a body suit like a shower.

Body.

Maybe that word would fit better.

A girl who seemed to be made entirely of machine from the tips of her toes to her neck, and perhaps even except for the skin on her face, stood proudly on top of the van.

“…target confirmed… search complete, lowest processing rank.”

“What?”

The pet girl speaks briefly and looks back and forth between Hong Gil-dong and Sonagi.

“Target confirmed. Hong Gil-dong. Rank 2. Target confirmed. Rain. Top priority. Must kill.”

The woman turns around, muttering, and runs straight towards the raindrops, holding a fearsome sword that spits flames.

─Bang bang!

As she was in the middle of the road, the car behind her hit her the moment she changed lanes. Naturally, the girl should have been blown away, but she raised her left arm and, as if using telekinesis, put the oncoming car in a pressurizer and crushed it like a crushed can.

“Fuck.. No.”

Ji-hoon takes his smartphone out of his pocket with trembling hands. Even an idiot would know. If the girl made of that body approaches Sonagi, she will die.

The rain will die without a trace. He even said he would definitely kill her.

“Nimi…”

Even Sonagi could see the pet girl clearly emitting a life-threatening aura as she approached, but there was nothing she could do.

Even when I tried to shoot with a gun, I could hit with a sword with surprising accuracy, and I could blast away things like electric grenades as if they were home runs.

“Please..!”

“Scanning… Scanning…”

“Scan completed”

「null(Yeah-2017) : ←25m」

“Please… scan… I need to be able to scan… . scan…”

Ji-hoon holds his breath as the onslaught of letters fills his eyes.

【Periodic automatic deletion in progress: 06d 14h until remaining time】

【Mother’s Words Are Always True】《Duration: Forever》

【Life has no value】《Duration: Forever》

【Everything is a lie except what the mother says】《Duration: Forever》

【The only goal in life is to complete the goal】《Duration: Forever》

【Future Enterprise is Neo Seoul’s Only Hope】《Duration: Forever》

【Love can be used to seduce the target】《Duration: Forever》

【Murder is a job】《Duration: Forever》

【Can’t feel any emotion at work】《Duration: Forever》

【Target: Full Body】《Sensitivity: 0.001x》《Duration: Forever》

…

…

“Fuck… This is…”

There is no end to the programs that output enough to heat up the smartphone. It felt like there was no way to stop the Sona from killing me like this.

[ICE Rating of null(Yeah-2017): Solid]

“Oh really…”

The ICE rating is also lacking. It could not be broken through.

“Nimi!”

Ji-hoon shouted and grabbed the smartphone roughly.

──────────────────────────────

● How to complete the quest

– Fight and defeat the clone guards of the future corporation at the disco-mart.

──────────────────────────────

“You completed the quest! You saved Mr. Hong Gil-dong!! … Where can you find something like this!!”

Even though Ji-hoon shouts, the screen does not change.

The pet girl standing far away almost got close to Sonagi…

─Wooow

──────────────────────────────

● Quest accomplished!

– Ice Breaker performance has been improved!

– Security level that can be broken through (Common → Secure)

──────────────────────────────

Ji-hoon, flustered, stares blankly at his smartphone. Isn’t it too accurate, as if someone was waiting for it?

but…

“I don’t care about that. That’s not important right now…!”

Ji-hoon hacked the smartphone by lightly pressing it.

There was a common keyword among numerous programs.

“Rain shower.. Sorry…!!!!”

There was only one hypnosis that could be performed using that keyword.

────────────────────────────

[Would you like to upload the following program?]

【Sonagi (Problem Solver-02077): Assassination Target】▶【Mother】

─────────────────────────

Ji-hoon’s fingers moved. As always, the hypnosis worked.

“…?”

The pet girl’s raised hand stopped. Because her ‘absolute being’, her mother, appeared before her eyes.

“…Mom?”

It was a clean and gentle voice, even though it was carrying out such a fearsome assassination order.