Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 69: Recruitment
On the ground, dinosaurs were stampeding, and above them floated the Mosasaurus — the Veritas Correctional Facility had become a warzone of primal chaos.
I looked down at the facility, now plunged into utter disorder, and nodded with a satisfied grin.
Ember had already launched her operation.
Activating her optical camouflage, she rendered herself invisible ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) and moved swiftly, incapacitating the Veritas security teams one by one.
Though they were labeled a security team, they gave off more of a private mercenary vibe.
Their equipment was far too excessive for a hospital-affiliated force.
And the facility’s architecture — it looked like it had been designed under the assumption that someone might attempt an assault.
Difficult to enter, even harder to escape. It was practically a prison built for a very specific purpose.
And the number of armed personnel was absurd.
There seemed to be more guards than patients.
Boom!
A sudden explosion rang out — the sound of a body being shattered into pieces.
It was the report of Ember’s anti-tank rifle.
A weapon far too powerful to be used on humans.
And sure enough, anyone hit by her shots was blown to smithereens.
Watching it unfold gave me a twisted sense of satisfaction.
After all, I’d already been briefed by Ember on the truth about this facility.
Veritas offered a very particular service to corporations.
They provided a "legal" way to remove people from society.
When outright killing someone might stir up trouble, Veritas stepped in.
If anything went wrong, they absorbed the blame instead of the corporations — a risk management operation, essentially.
The usual victims were low-level employees who had stumbled upon information they weren’t supposed to know.
Inside that facility, all kinds of crimes were being committed.
Violence for stress relief.
Lobotomies and grotesque human experimentation.
Forced labor to recover operational costs.
Even cannibalism...
Veritas was, without exaggeration, a pit of demons.
After spectating the chaos for a while, I cloaked myself in shadow and leapt into the battlefield.
Then, I unveiled a new technique.
‘Gather the energy in both hands...’
“Fire!”
I thrust both hands forward — and my fists shot out like projectiles.
A literal rocket punch.
My fists, infused with the energy from the Heart Ring, flew like homing missiles, blasting holes through the enemies’ torsos.
‘Damn... this is convenient.’
It was a technique I hadn’t used much since acquiring it, but now that I was trying it out, it was incredibly handy.
The fists tracked and attacked targets on their own — I didn’t even need to control them.
As if they had a mind of their own.
And since the original user was a Zhenlong Agent, they could be fragmented and still function. I could also program detailed commands into them and even have them corrode matter like the original agent did.
Sure, it didn’t boost my combat stats as directly as the Heart Ring or the Blade of the Right Hand,
But aside from occasionally acting out of line, they were an amazing quality-of-life feature.
Heheh.
I laughed playfully as I watched the fists independently tear through enemy ranks.
They roamed the battlefield like wild beasts finally let off their leash.
While enjoying the glorious display of flying fists, something peculiar caught my eye among the rampaging shadow dinosaurs.
It was a herbivorous dinosaur with a long neck — but it walked on two legs. Odd.
I got closer to get a better look.
It was a fusion — a Child fused with a dinosaur.
Whether it was the fusion that made it so strange or it had been a weird species to begin with, I had no clue.
[Graaaahh!]
The shadow-Child-dino let out a roar and smashed through the facility’s outer wall.
While I was watching the creature’s destructive rampage, the battle came to an end.
There were no more enemies left resisting inside Veritas.
At that moment, Ember disengaged her cloak and approached me.
“It’s time to move inside, A.”
I nodded in response.
It was finally time to carry out the real objective of the request — rescuing the girl’s sister, Celine.
****
The eastern district was a completely different world from Burning Duct.
Glittering neon signs and holographic ads filled the air. Every person on the street was adorned with top-shelf implants.
It was the kind of place where the phrase “just breathing costs you money” rang true.
Iris and Daniel looked around wide-eyed, clearly dazzled by the extravagant sights.
Iris, in particular, stopped in front of a massive holographic billboard and stared at it for a long time.
“This place hasn’t changed...”
Victor scanned the surroundings with a look of faint nostalgia.
Before settling in Burning Duct, he’d once worked as a mercenary here.
The memories were coming back to him vividly.
But Victor had no intention of resuming mercenary work in the eastern center.
Most jobs here involved corporate espionage or contract killings for promotion battles — high-paying, sure, but the fallout was always massive.
It was a place where betrayal lurked around every corner.
The unpredictable wilds of Burning Duct were far more comforting to him.
Victor skillfully guided Iris and Daniel through the streets, relying on his memories from his mercenary days.
He picked out shops the kids might like and made sure to grab all the items they needed.
“Alright, that should be just about everything.”
As they exited the final store, Victor murmured to himself.
Then Iris tugged gently on his sleeve, her eyes sparkling.
“Mister... can we go there? Just once?”
She pointed shyly toward something.
Victor smiled and patted her head, then looked where she was pointing.
There it was — a well-known burger franchise.
Colorful holographic menus floated overhead, and a giant, cute mascot was dancing out front.
It looked like the type of place that handed out toys with overpriced kids’ meals.
Seeing Iris look up at him with pleading eyes, Victor smiled and nodded.
“Well, it’s about time for lunch anyway.”
The moment he gave the okay, Iris let out a tiny squeal of joy and dragged Daniel toward the restaurant.
Victor and the kids ordered food and sat by the window to eat.
Iris held the little toy that came with her burger set like it was a treasure.
They had only just begun their meal when a familiar chime rang out from Victor’s AR interface.
Ding.
<Anomaly detected.>
“Hm?”
Victor checked the source and saw that his vision was now flooded with a breaking news alert from the Babel Network.
[We’ve just received reports that the Veritas Correctional Facility in eastern Babel is under attack by unidentified entities! On-site footage shows massive, shadowy dinosaurs demolishing the facility buildings—]
The BPD had reportedly labeled these unknown attackers as so-called “Shadow Demons,” and had placed a massive bounty on the individual believed to be leading them.
The footage being shown was downright shocking.
A pitch-black Triceratops ramming into a wall.
A pterosaur slicing through the sky.
And most of all...
“...Ah. Knew it.”
On-screen was a figure cloaked in shadows, demon-like in form — it was A.
Her face was obscured by the darkness, but Victor recognized her instantly from the way she moved.
He glanced around anxiously.
Fortunately, Babel didn’t seem to realize that “Shadow Demon” included Victor and the other mercenaries.
Still, his heart pounded nervously, just in case someone did connect the dots.
‘What the hell did A stir up this time...?’
Victor sighed inwardly.
Big incidents always seemed to follow her around.
And this one was no exception — it was just as large-scale as ever.
A ten million credit bounty, dead or alive...
That was enough to draw in bounty hunters from all over.
Victor quickly closed the AR interface, relieved that Iris and Daniel hadn’t noticed or shown any interest in the news.
****
The site where Veritas Correctional Facility had once stood was now complete rubble.
The relentless assault of the shadow dinosaurs had left barely a trace of the original structure.
Amid the ruins, a young girl and a young woman held each other tightly.
“Unni!”
“Luna...!”
It was the tearful reunion of Luna — the girl who had summoned the Pizza Demon — and her sister Celine, who had been imprisoned in Veritas.
The two sisters embraced each other in silence for a long while.
Luna’s small shoulders trembled gently, and Celine stroked her hair with a soft hand.
[Human...]
[Are they... sad?]
The Children sitting on my shoulder whispered quietly as they watched.
I turned my gaze from the scene and asked Ember, who was standing beside me.
“What about the rest of the inmates here? You said if we just let them go, the corps will hunt them all down.”
Ember was still communicating through her AR interface, likely coordinating with someone, and responded without looking away.
“I’ve sent the evidence and testimony to someone who specializes in blowing holes in corrupt corporate systems. They don’t mess around unless it involves a megacorp, but they’ll probably secure at least a bounty and some basic protection for the inmates.”
I was honestly surprised a world this messed up still had someone doing that kind of investigative work.
It felt oddly refreshing.
Once the sisters had finally settled down from their emotional reunion, they approached us to thank us.
“Thank you... I really thought I was going to die in there...”
“Thank you, Demon-nim...”
Celine wiped away her tears, and Luna bowed her head deeply.
Ember stepped forward and spoke to them calmly.
“Have you noticed anything strange around here lately? Something only locals might have picked up on?”
Celine looked like she was thinking hard, her face tensing with hesitation.
After a moment, she opened her mouth carefully.
“There’s a place where people keep disappearing.”
“?”
“It’s already a dangerous spot because of the Steel Juggernauts gang. But lately, people just... vanish. So now no one goes near it.”
Ember fell into thought at that.
“Give me the exact location.”
“Yes. It’s in the eastern outskirts. People call it ‘Glitch Alley’...”
As she spoke, Celine sent Ember a set of coordinates.
“Good. I’ll check it out later.”
Ember nodded with clear satisfaction.
And just as the conversation wrapped up—
“Ah...!”
A thought struck me. Something immensely important. Something that could change the fate of the entire world... and I’d completely forgotten about it until now!
I slowly walked over to Luna and spoke solemnly.
“Recruitment!”
“...Huh?”
But unfortunately, Luna only looked at me in confusion.
Hmph.
