Thirty years ago. A perfectly ordinary commute home, no different from any other day. Alexei was just an ordinary family man.
Every time he opened the heavy front door, two people were always there to welcome him. His beloved wife, with her soft brown hair and gentle smile. And his little daughter, who looked just like him, running into his arms with bright, clear eyes unlike the dull artificial one he had now.
It was the kind of everyday life that felt like it would stay happy forever. But tragedy came for them.
A brief hallucination, or perhaps a cruel fragment of the past.
Alexei’s dull gray artificial eye flashed, and his consciousness surged back from that fleeting memory into reality.
Sshhk-!
The sharp dagger Ji-hwan had picked up from the floor came slashing toward his throat.
Alexei instinctively jerked his head back, barely slipping past the cold blade wind.
He lowered his body, reset his stance, and sprang at Ji-hwan again.
Thud-thud.
Stone dust rained down from the ceiling. In the middle of the collapsing underground parking garage, the two men’s battle continued without end.
Clang-!Kagagang!
Neither man could land a decisive hit. Alexei’s assassin swordsmanship and trajectory. Ji-hwan’s seething combat sense, which had completely closed the once-insurmountable gap, blazed brilliantly.
Ji-hwan knocked aside Alexei’s broken katana, swung by a crushed mechanical arm, with the dagger in his hand.
Kkigigik-.
The instant solid metal collided, the dagger that had stubbornly endured the exchange seemed to hit its limit. Near the hilt, the metal screamed, sending an unpleasant vibration through his hand.
"This has to end."
Reason arrived at a dry conclusion. But at that moment, a strange sensation rose somewhere deep in Ji-hwan’s chest.
Regret. A very brief lingering hesitation at the fact that he had to decide the fight here and now.
"Am I actually regretting this?"
Ji-hwan’s thick eyebrows twitched slightly.
Blood spraying, flesh tearing, a life-or-death brawl in a place where losing his head at any moment would not have been strange. He realized he was genuinely enjoying the fight itself.
It was completely unlike the old him, the one who had lived an ordinary life in the twenty-first century. Was he going insane, or evolving to fit this barren wasteland?
But the thought did not last long. Ji-hwan gave a light shake of his head and brushed away the tangled train of thought.
Then he tightened his grip on the creaking dagger in his aching hand.
Through the stinging haze of dust, his gaze once again locked head-on with Alexei’s. Without a word, the two men lowered their stances toward each other.
Taat-!
The silence was torn apart as two shadows slammed together with ferocity.
Clang-!Thwack-!
In the middle of the dark underground garage, katana and dagger, cold steel prosthetic arm and seething bare fist, crossed again and again without pause. Blue sparks flew, dirt exploded from the floor, and the exchange raged on.
But with every clash, hallucinations began to flicker across Alexei’s dull gray artificial eye. In the instant when cold metal and living flesh collided.
"You’re back?"
The face of his wife, smiling brightly as she came to the front door to welcome him home.
Kagagang-!
The moment their weapons collided and burst with a crack.
"Dad!"
The warm weight of his little daughter throwing herself into his arms.
The past he had forcibly erased with sedatives after becoming a corporate hound. The faces he should have forgotten forever kept reappearing before his eyes, riding the vibrations of every impact.
"Aaaaargh!!"
Alexei lost his reason and screamed. As if he wanted to tear the hallucinations in his head apart, he charged at Ji-hwan like a madman, his trajectory falling apart. The grotesque excitement of an assassin whose emotions had been stripped away.
Ji-hwan did not miss the opening.
He smoothly deflected Alexei’s wildly thrusting fist, then drove a heavy punch into the man’s exposed side.
Thud-!
The dull resonance of titanium armor crumpling. Alexei’s thick body twisted violently.
Seizing the chance, Ji-hwan whipped the sharp dagger down like lightning to finish him.
Tap-!
"Huh?"
A brief question slipped through Ji-hwan’s lips. Alexei’s remaining hand, though staggering, had clamped down on the fist meant to slice his throat with a grotesque grip.
The cold touch of metal. Ji-hwan reflexively slapped away the man’s iron-hard hand and stepped back.
"Ghk, ngh……."
Alexei grabbed his own head with his remaining hand and forced his upper body upright.
Dark red tears dripped from his dull gray artificial eye, soaking the dirt floor. A cold gaze mixed with pain and resentment.
"What the hell did you do to my head……!"
A curse hurled at the culprit who had forcibly dragged up the past he wanted to forget.
At that moment.
Pzzzt-!
Steam burst from Alexei’s spine like an explosion, and his body vanished completely from sight. From Ji-hwan’s blind spot, a merciless trajectory came screaming toward his abdomen.
Ji-hwan also activated [Thought Acceleration], gritting his teeth as he compressed the muscle fibers in his abdomen until they seemed ready to burst, bracing for the impact.
Peeeer-!!!!
As if struck by a cannonball, Ji-hwan’s body was violently hurled backward through the air.
Kwaaang-!!
"Kuhk……!"
He smashed through a thick concrete pillar and was buried in the wreckage. Red liquid sprayed from between his lips, wetting his mucous membranes. In the destruction, where cement dust poured down like a waterfall, only his rough breathing echoed heavily from beneath the rubble.
Alexei clutched his own head with a thick mechanical hand. Ji-hwan’s fate after that last blow was not even on his mind.
His vision warped geometrically, and hallucinations finally flooded his brain.
Creak, creak.
An old rocking chair. The living room light. His wife was sitting there.
One hand gently rubbing her round, swollen belly. A tender smile for the man returning home from work. Alexei held out both hands, not knowing what to do.
His wife took those rough hands and guided them to her stomach.
Movement. The tremor of a small life kicking inside.
Alexei, sinking into the warmth of that sensation, cautiously reached out.
Swoosh.
A cold swish of air through empty space. His wife’s smile, her warmth, all of it scattered like dust in an instant.
What remained in the dull gray artificial eye of Alexei, who had crashed back into reality, was only a cold steel Gorilla Arms flailing helplessly in the empty dust.
"Cough, khuhk……."
A heavy cough came from beyond the stinging dust.
Ji-hwan, buried in the collapsed pillar debris underground, clutched his abdomen tightly. Red liquid gushed from his mouth, and shredded pieces of his internal organs dropped with the blood.
In Alexei’s eyes, silently watching the horrific sight, deep pain flickered, and the blood tears running down his chin finally stopped.
Pzzzt-!!
The high-end [Sandevistan] implanted in his spine. As if ripping out the safety lock, it began to run at 120 percent overload.
Sssshhh-!
Steam burst explosively from Alexei’s back with a violent crack, and the output of his [Sandevistan] surged past its limit with terrifying force.
"……"
Ji-hwan wiped the blood from his mouth roughly and lowered his stance again, forcing strength into his body.
Far away, in the shattered rubble, the [Hound] agents watching in silence had their artificial eyes tremble slightly.
If they pushed implant output beyond the limit, their neural pathways would burn out and they would lose rational control.
Was that man with no chrome at all really dangerous enough to drive the Zeatech commander this far? The commander was going all out.
The commander would win. Victory was certain.
But……
Within their wavering gazes, a strange unease began to creep in, gnawing at that certainty.
"Cough, ugh……."
Ji-hwan spat out blood mixed with bits of his internal organs and wiped his mouth roughly.
"This fucking……"
That overwhelming acceleration from just now. The trajectory of the bastard he had been trading blows with earlier had not been full power.
But still.
"……He reacted."
It had been too fast to see, but his body’s instincts had clearly read the killing intent and defended itself.
This was doable. Ji-hwan lowered his stance again.
Through the thick dust, he could see Alexei’s dull gray artificial eye.
Behind that gaze, deep sorrow and pain were rippling.
At that grotesque contradiction, Ji-hwan let out a short breath.
"Yeah, well…… everybody’s got their reasons."
Sssshhh-!
Steam poured out as Alexei opened his mouth coldly, like a death sentence.
"This is over. I’m abandoning the capture."
Ji-hwan bared his bloodied face in a grin.
"Not yet it isn’t."
Scarlet haze rose between his pores as the locks on his body came undone.
"I’ve figured out your pattern. No matter how strong you are, once I’ve seen the bottom of your bag, you’re no match for me."
Ji-hwan gave a bitter smile and spat out a short reply.
"Then I’ll just get stronger."
He crooked a bloodstained finger at the man. A dry provocation. A twisted smile spread across Alexei’s hardened mouth.
"Sure. If you can."
Thoom-!
With a dull burst that tore the air apart, Alexei’s body vanished.
It was an acceleration even Ji-hwan’s [Thought Acceleration] could barely track.
"Hoo……."
Ji-hwan drew in a breath.
His body heat was boiling, his muscles compressed. He squeezed the output of [Body Enhancement] to its limit.
Dong-!!
Ji-hwan’s [Instant Strike] slammed into the massive steel frame that had lunged at him with ferocity.
Stacking [Thought Acceleration], [Body Enhancement], and [Instant Strike], which condensed explosive force into a single instant, was nothing short of suicide.
Crrrk-.
"Kuh……"
A vile grinding sound of something collapsing inside his body. But Ji-hwan clenched his teeth hard enough to crack them and responded to the merciless trajectory pouring toward him.
Pow-!Clang-!Kagagang!
The exchange tore through the dust.
"Grrr……."
Alexei was not normal either. With a mechanical scream of Kiiiiiik- the [Sandevistan] spat out a burst of rupture sounds.
But Alexei saw it clearly.
Cracks of a grotesque sort were spreading across Ji-hwan’s torso as he blocked the attack.
His skin was torn mercilessly, and red liquid kept bursting out.
Proof that the enemy was also collapsing under the limits of the body.
Convinced of victory, Alexei widened the distance.
He forcibly pushed the [Sandevistan] output, already beyond its limit, one step further.
Crackle-!
A chilling warning burst from the overloaded core. And with that sound.
Thoom-!
The body of Ji-hwan, who had been reacting while watching Alexei’s movements, had already reached its limit.
Because he had stacked three abilities, his muscle fibers and shattered joints screamed in protest.
But he twisted the body that no longer wanted to move and faced the enemy.
He trusted the body he had forged here, never once resting, through training that anyone else would have called suicidal.
Even if this was his final blow.
In the midst of that brutal struggle, Ji-hwan smiled.
He steadied his trembling muscles. The old [Instant Strike] had only ever switched on and off for 0.05 seconds, in the microscopic instant just before contact with the target. He shattered that unfinished shell and pushed his senses one level deeper.
A finer sensation beyond [Instant Strike].
Toward the charging mass, Ji-hwan casually slammed his fist forward.
Thoom-!
Strange silence. No burst, no impact sound.
The colliding trajectories froze in midair for a brief instant.
In that moment, the wave condensed at the tip of Ji-hwan’s fist passed ghostlike through the solid metal armor. The impact seeped in completely.
Kkigigigik-! Kwa-jik!!*
A mechanical scream erupted from within. Hydraulic motors and artificial nerves inside the steel frame shattered to pieces, spewing blue sparks.
The wave surged violently back through the broken arm, piercing through internal organs and bursting out.
"Kraaaagh-!"
The massive steel frame collapsed, and Alexei dropped to both knees.
On the surface, it looked like the clear victory of a winner.
But inside Ji-hwan’s body, everything was being torn apart.
The pressure of the wave backwashed into his body, and the recoil beyond physical limits ripped through bones and organs with savage force.
The pain was so intense that even taking one step would have caused red liquid to burst from his membranes. His right arm bulged as if the veins might explode at any second.
But he forced down his ragged breathing.
He clenched his jaw, trembling with pain, and pretended to be fine as he looked down at the fallen Alexei with cold, indifferent eyes.
If he gasped for breath, the hounds hiding in the dark would rush in to tear at his weakness.
"Cough, khuh……."
Alexei, sprawled on the floor, spat out dark blood, but through his optical lens he instantly scanned Ji-hwan’s slight muscle tremors and irregular breathing.
"……You pushed yourself too hard. A body like that, ready to collapse any second."
A faint smile spread across his mouth.
One fire order and Ji-hwan could be turned into a sieve.
But he did not give the order. No, he did not even feel like it.
The mechanical noise of the cyberpsycho that had gnawed at his skull and torn at his soul for thirty years vanished cleanly with that one strike.
A quiet, peaceful mind, as if sunk deep beneath the sea. It was the salvation he had craved his entire life.
"Haha……."
Alexei shook off his shattered mechanical arm and looked up at Ji-hwan with clear eyes.
"……This is insane. It feels like my guts have all been cut apart."
Ji-hwan stood there like a mountain, looking down, but inside he was in hell.
Half the force had rebounded and shredded his entire body.
The pain was like needles being driven into him; his vision flickered, and hot blood surged up his throat, but he bit down on his lips and swallowed the metallic blood.
He kept his facial muscles under control and held his expression in place.
The agents hidden in the dark cautiously came out to support their commander and keep watch on Ji-hwan, but
pressed down by his momentum, they did not even dare to raise their guns.
Just as he was about to step into the darkness.
Alexei paused and stared at the still-standing Ji-hwan.
"……Thank you."
A short word of thanks, spoken with deep sincerity, slipped through his cracked lips.
With that, the hounds of Zeatech vanished into the darkness beyond the ruins, as if fleeing.
And before Ji-hwan could even breathe a sigh of relief.
Kugugugugu-!!
A horrific roar tore through the night sky above the ruins.
Through the hole in the collapsed underground parking garage ceiling, dozens of armed AVs and heavy armored vehicles kicked up sandstorms, while dozens of intense searchlights locked onto Ji-hwan standing in the middle of the underground clearing.
Amid the waterfall of light, the command AV lowered its altitude and projected a massive hologram.
Carlyle, an executive from Zeatech’s special operations division, wearing a top-tier suit.
"Impressive. Astonishing, really. To bring down the Hound commander with nothing but a bare body and not a single piece of chrome."
The eyes in the hologram glittered with naked greed.
"How about it? If you join Zeatech right now, I’ll promise you astronomical eurodollars and the best treatment in Night City, more than you could ever imagine. But if you refuse…… you’ll be torn apart limb from limb by those hundreds of troops, and we’ll have your artificial nervous fluid and your heart extracted on our dissection table."
A threat backed by overwhelming force.
Dozens of sniper laser pointers danced wildly over his heart and forehead.
But Ji-hwan. Swallowing the disgusting stench of blood, he shot a glare at the hologram.
"……Go wash your neck and wait."
A low, dry voice split the beams of light.
"I’ll be there soon."
A declaration of war without a single step back. Carlyle’s facial muscles twisted ugly at the insolent answer.
"……You arrogant little punk. Deploy every unit now! Bring me that bastard even if you have to cut off all his limbs!!"
Just as Carlyle was about to roar out the order, his chief secretary at his side leaned in and whispered urgently.
"Director! You have to restrain yourself. Because of the troop movement into the Badlands, the eyes of the other faction executives are fully on us now. If we start a large-scale firefight here, the audit team will come down immediately for blatant overreach!"
At the secretary’s desperate plea, Carlyle clicked his tongue harshly, glaring at Ji-hwan as if he wanted to chew him up.
"……You’re lucky. I’ll withdraw for today."
Carlyle yanked his tie loose roughly.
"You’d better think carefully about my offer. Soon, in Night City…… we’ll meet again."
Wheeeeen-!
The moment the hologram shut off, the armed AVs and vehicles all withdrew toward Night City at once, and heavy silence returned to the clearing.
"……Gone, huh."
Ji-hwan did not move a muscle as he opened his senses and checked for any remaining presence around him.
One minute. Two minutes. The moment he confirmed nothing was left, the tension stretched tight in his body snapped.
"Kuhak……!!"
A dark red clot of blood burst from his mouth like a fountain, and the legs that had been holding him up like pillars buckled at once, collapsing helplessly onto the concrete wreckage.
Cough, hack! Kheuk!
The backlash from forcing out an unknown technique crashed over his body like a tsunami after the adrenaline faded.
"Gghh……, haah, ngh!"
Cold sweat poured like rain down his neck, which was swollen with blood vessels.
The veins all over his body seemed to be bursting from within, and the marrow in his bones felt as if it were boiling alive. His whole body trembled violently, beyond his will to control it.
It was the price of pushing far beyond the limit a fully organic body could endure.
The fingertips of both hands scraped against the ground, trembling uncontrollably, and dark blood from what he had coughed up pooled over the broken debris.
Every breath stabbed his lungs with broken ribs, and his muscles spasmed in protest.
Ji-hwan, curled up on the floor and coughing blood, finally managed to roll over and lie flat. In the agony that made his whole body feel like it was breaking apart, his gaze drifted upward through the huge crater-like hole in the ceiling.
Unlike Night City, hidden under smoke and exhaust, the Badlands night sky was piercingly clear.
In the center of the open hole, an especially huge and pale moon looked down on Ji-hwan.
"Haa……."
Moving his bloodstained lips, Ji-hwan murmured blankly as his consciousness blurred.
"Tonight…… the moon’s really big."
The vast moonlight quietly illuminated Ji-hwan’s blood-soaked body, and the long, long night of 2068 in the Badlands was drawing to a close.
Alexei family illustration
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