episode_0043

“It’s hard even with just one… . The Android Army…”

Sonagi pulled out electric grenades from his waist, but there weren’t enough of them.

There were so many of them that I thought I should have at least 10 of them, even if I could incapacitate 10 by throwing one.

“Ha, hahaha.. hahaha! What do you think? Do you still think you beat me?”

Hong Seo-yeon put her butt on the palm of the android holding the giant shield with a very satisfied smile. This endless army of robots painted in ‘national defense colors’ naturally surrounded Sonagi and Ji-hoon and aimed their guns.

“…Fuck.”

Ji-hoon’s plan didn’t involve fighting androids.

‘I had to think about it…’

Ji-hoon, who thought that things were going well even though things started to go wrong from the beginning, couldn’t help but click his tongue. Should he have just knocked Hong Seo-yeon unconscious so that she wouldn’t be able to say anything?

It was too late to regret it now.

‘Using a cyber hypnosis app is fucking stupid, because you have multiple Androids instead of just one.’

There is only one way. Ji-hoon stared at the woman who had naturally hidden herself in the waves made of iron.

At this moment, Hong Seo-yeon was wearing the drones that the android had brought on her hands and feet. Fortunately for Ji-hoon, however, the drones were all broken, so none of them could turn into armor to protect her body.

Hong Seo-yeon clicked her tongue nervously after bringing about 10 drones to her body. She already thought she had won this fight without even looking at it.

“How about pretending it never happened? Hong Seo-yeon.”

Ji-hoon raised both his hands and spoke as if he had surrendered. Hong Seo-yeon liked that look, so she did not give the android the order to fire.

“You, you’re not really trying to pretend this never happened, are you? You didn’t just steal our company’s money, you ruined our stocks too-”

“That’s not something we knew about. We just uploaded the program we received from Fixer to the server.”

“You broke into my lab, kidnapped the doctor, hacked my clones, and now you want to do this for work?”

When Hong Seo-yeon snorted once more, Ji-hoon shook his head from side to side as if he had no choice and moved his legs a little. Sonagi, who was holding his waist, also naturally followed him.

“Will it be hard?”

“Of course!”

“Yeah! Then there’s nothing I can do, damn it! Rain! Jump down!”

The bomb that exploded under Hong Seo-yeon’s feet created a space to descend.

Ji-hoon jumps down without a second of hesitation, and So-na-gi grabs his hand urgently and jumps down.

The gun aimed at them naturally pointed downwards, but no fire came out of the muzzle.

No, I couldn’t.

“Fuck..!”

Hong Seo-yeon clicked her tongue. Below were her precious assets.

Clone, pet girl, whatever you call them, to Hong Seo-yeon, each and every one of them was worth hundreds of thousands of won.

If Ji-hoon and So-na-gi had jumped down to the bare ground, they might have fired their guns without hesitation.

However, it was impossible to just fire a machine gun at the clones that had been hidden among the clones that had been held dear for five years without being discarded.

“Hoo..”

Ji-hoon racks his brain during this short time. It’s fortunate that the androids didn’t attack, but there are a lot of them.

There was also the possibility of sending robots down ‘delicately’ to engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Ji-hoon was grateful that Hong Seo-yeon didn’t jump down to the second floor right away, but he wiped the sweat running down his forehead and grabbed Sonagi’s hand.

“Nagiya, there’s an elevator that goes down to the basement here too, right?”

“Of course! You’re not an idiot. Do you get off at the 3rd floor and take the stairs to the 2nd floor every day?”

“Then, Sonagi. Can you hold on for a moment here?”

“What?! Why?! What are you trying to do!”

Unlike the screaming, Sonagi definitely pulls out the electric grenades on his waist. There were only two, but even one could buy some time.

Because the hole to get down through was really small.

“If we don’t do something about Hong Seo-yeon, I think this kind of thing will happen again.”

“What does it mean?”

“Even if we’re lucky and defeat all the androids, Hong Seo-yeon won’t have any soldiers. She’ll order the soldiers at headquarters to come rescue her.”

“Yeah, the guys we have to deal with are going to get stronger. So how are you going to neutralize Hong Seo-yeon? You said you can’t hack her.”

Unlike the anxious Sonaga, Jihoon smiled and shook his head.

“I just had an idea. Isn’t there an emergency device in a lab with 20,000 clones?”

“You…”

“Of course there are. But even if clones are cheap, they cost hundreds of thousands of won each, right? Then there must be a way to subdue these clones ‘without killing them’. There must be.”

“What are you going to do if it’s not there? If it’s not there, you, me, and Hong Seo-yeon will die.”

One by one, the androids began to come down from the hole.

There were no guns in their hands, and with their heavy, thick, and strong hands they were really trying to subdue Sonagi and Jihoon.

Sonagi moved his body slightly and blew off the android’s head with the gun he was holding, but it was obvious that it would be difficult as the number of enemies increased.

“I can’t help it.”

It was a plan that was practically a gamble, but Sonagi couldn’t object.

What could she do without a sharp sword? Sonagi had no choice but to trust Ji-hoon and pointed to the wall with her finger to guide him down to the basement.

There was an elevator there.

“Thank you Sonagi..!”

Ji-hoon answered and quickly headed to the elevator, pressing the button. With a thud, he saw the android coming down from the hole, but all he could do was wait.

The elevator arrived and Ji-hoon was able to go down to the basement.

“, Chairman… What the hell is going on right now…”

Helen, who has not yet recovered from the hypnosis, is confused.

“I, I’m the one who’s attacking our company… I’ve never seen a woman like that in my life.”

“Ah… Ahem, Dr. Helen. I think that woman is planning to steal our project and run away.”

Because it was a role change, Helen seemed to think of Hong Seo-yeon, the president of the future company, as a ‘strange person’. She naturally nodded calmly to the words of Ji-hoon, the president.

“I bet there’s some kind of emergency plan in case the clones escape from this lab?”

“Of course. There’s no way that wouldn’t happen, Mr. Chairman.”

Helen smiles and waves for me to come over. As I approach her, I see a few bright red buttons hidden beneath a glass panel.

“From left to right: complete annihilation, forced sleep, memory deletion… This is how it’s prepared. Chairman.”

“What is complete annihilation? Is it a function that burns down or blows up this research center?”

“Yes, I think this… . This project was not approved by the government. There are big ethical issues…”

It was a suicide device that you would only see in movies, but when you listen to it, it didn’t seem like something unnecessary was put there. Ji-hoon nodded and pointed to forced sleep without even thinking about complete annihilation.

“Can you put all the clones on the 2nd floor to sleep?”

“That, of course. Not only on the second floor, but also in the basement, there is a very strong sleeping gas. It is used during surgery, so… no matter what happens, you won’t be able to wake up.”

“Do you have a mask?”

“It would be nice if I could give it to Sonagi too,” Ji-hoon thinks as he looks at the monitor.

There was a camera that showed the situation on the second floor without any omission, so we could see her struggling with the android.

‘Thank goodness…’

As Ji-hoon had thought, the number of androids increased and the rain began to fall. She couldn’t win against the androids with her bare hands, so she used her gun like a blunt weapon and it was getting worse.

It’s a fight where it’s clear she’s reaching her limit, but she doesn’t give up and continues to fight, either hiding under the chairs her clones are lying on or using them as shields.

It was so tenacious and long-lasting that Hong Seo-yeon, who had been watching the situation from the third floor, was finally able to endure it and came down with an android holding a huge shield.

“Here it is, sir. But there are only two masks…”

“It’s okay. If I go up now, I think I’ll get attacked.”

Ji-hoon shrugged slightly and reached for the ‘forced sleep’ button. Of course, he put on the giant mask properly before pressing it.

“By the way, Dr. Helen. What exactly is the function of the memory eraser next to this?”

“That, that’s… a button to remove all programs installed on the clones currently here.”

“Hmm..”

I had to press this button to truly set Ezia free.

But Ji-hoon didn’t press it and just kept pressing the ‘forced sleep’ button.

“Hey.. Where’s your boyfriend?”

“I’m thinking of hiding behind you and hitting you with a punch?”

Sonagi and Hong Seo-yeon were having a strange fight while looking at each other’s faces. They looked like they would pull out guns and shoot each other in the body at any moment.

“Ugh…what is this…”

Hong Seo-yeon is startled when she sees blue gas gushing out from the ceiling, making a “Pew-wow!” sound.

“The little rat…”

She was the one who built this facility, so of course she knew about ‘sleeping gas’. She tried to put her hand on her waist, but she couldn’t.

“What are you trying to do..!”

The shower that had begun to make her drowsy rushed towards Hong Seo-yeon. Crap! Hong Seo-yeon’s body rolled on the ground with a loud noise. As they fought, the clone sitting next to her naturally fell to the ground.

“This..! What the hell..!!’

One of the androids quickly stretches out its arms, but instead of helping Hong Seo-yeon, it picks up the clone’s body and places it back on the chair.

“Ha..! I did the programming wrong..! Ugh, I guess I did it wrong..!”

As Sonagi laughs, Hong Seo-yeon can’t hold back and throws a punch to his face. Of course, it doesn’t reach him, and the two grab each other’s heads and roll around on the floor.

─Push tasting

The blue gas continued to spew out endlessly until the two women fell asleep, and without Hong Seo-yeon’s ‘careful’ control, the androids gradually stopped moving.

Finally, as gas began to fill the basement, Ji-hoon put his hand on Helen’s head.

“Chairman?”

“I’m sorry.”

With a short word, he pulled off Helen’s mask.

“Ugh…?! Ah… Ugh…”

Helen fell down with a faint gasp. The power of the sleeping gas was considerable. ‘Ijia’, who had been left alone on the third floor, had also fallen asleep and collapsed on the floor.

“Hoo..”

Ji-hoon was the only one who was sane in this huge research lab.

He could feel a strange sense of triumph.

“There’s so much to do…”

The sleeping gas stopped coming out, but Ji-hoon didn’t take off his mask. He moved his feet slightly and looked at Helen’s body lying next to him.

It was a pretty nice looking body, but…

“..I don’t have time. I have so much to do.”

Ji-hoon took out his smartphone from his pocket and realized that he needed someone who could solve the current situation nicely.

“Lee Ji-ah, bring Mr. Hong Gil-dong.”

No matter how deeply she slept, Lee Ji Ah had no choice but to open her eyes. Ji Hoon had a program that could control her and her sisters at any time.

* * * * * *

“Kim Ji-hoon is crazy! Didn’t I tell you to tell me in advance if I was going to do something?!”

Sonagi screams and kicks Jihoon’s leg. The “thud!” sound is quite brutal and it hurts like hell, but if you think of it as the price Sonagi pays for relieving her anger, it feels cheap.

“Hey, hey.. How can you tell me that in advance? I went downstairs without knowing anything.”

“But you could have at least called and told me!”

In front of Sonagi and Jihoon, who were getting angry, there was a woman.

A woman dressed in an office lady outfit. Her name was ‘Hong Seo-yeon’, and her black hair was very impressive.

She was really in a deep sleep, like someone who had been under general anesthesia. As you can see from the fact that Sonagi opened her eyes and spoke to Jihoon, she should have woken up a long time ago, but Damon had helped her continue to sleep.

It wasn’t because I hacked it. I was using sleeping gas to keep him asleep.

“So, is this woman still sleeping?”

“Miss, it hurts so bad.. No, Damon said two days is the limit, but you can’t go longer than that because it’ll strain your body.”

“Then what are you going to do? Hacking won’t work, but if you cut yourself with a knife, your location information will be sent to a future company, so you won’t be able to get surgery.”

“So, even if this woman wakes up, there’s no problem… What was it? Mr. Hong Gil-dong promised to provide a shielded room where communication is impossible.”

To Ji-hoon’s words, Sonagi answers with “Ah~” and then looks over Hong Seo-yeon’s body from bottom to top.

“I can’t believe this woman is the president of that legendary future company. But what are you going to do in the end? You can’t lock this woman in a shielded room and leave her there for a thousand years.”

“I have to hack it.”

Ji-hoon spoke indifferently and fiddled with his smartphone.

His smartphone still had a program installed that allowed him to control nearly 20,000 clones anytime, anywhere. Dr. Helen was also ‘confined’ in the accommodations provided by the Hwalbindang, so there was no need to worry about the program being modified or deleted.

“Hey.. You said you couldn’t hack earlier, so what other methods do you have?”

“Of course. You can get it when you level up.”

“What…what is it…?”

At Ji-hoon’s absurd words, Sonagi looked at him with eyes like, “What is he doing now…”, but he had a plan.

‘There are 20,000 dummies using the cyber hypnosis app, so there’s no way they won’t level up.’

ICEBreaker enhancements, near-infinite program uploads using clones…

In this world, I was thinking of improving my net-runner skills in a way that only Ji-Hoon could do.