Advanced future. Glittering neon signs.
But behind that dazzling light lay a horrific dystopia, where trampled human rights and rotten power were tangled together like a spiderweb.
Not long ago, Ji-hwan had enjoyed this awful world from the safe side of the monitor, clearing countless side quests as if he were touring a theme park.
The rough romance of the Cyberpunk world—racing across the harsh wastelands of the Badlands in a smoke-belching junker.
In a way, Ji-hwan had now fulfilled that flimsy wish he once held beyond the screen, and in the worst possible way.
He was stuffed into the cramped, stinking trunk of an armored vehicle, with both hands tightly bound behind his back and not a single ray of light getting in.
Rattle-!! Crash!!
With a violent jolt and a loud burst of noise, the heavy vehicle lurched hard, and Ji-hwan’s heavy eyelids flew open.
All he could see was pitch-black darkness, so deep he couldn’t make out a thing in front of him.
"Mmm... don’t tell me it’s already evening?"
Still half-asleep, Ji-hwan thought he was back in his narrow little Seoul studio apartment.
He reflexively tried to sit up, thinking he’d get something to eat like usual and fill his stomach.
Bang-!!
"Ghk...! What the hell?!"
The top of his head slammed hard into cold, solid metal, and a dull scraping sound rang out.
At the same time, a shock that rattled his brain struck him like lightning, and fragments of the horrifying memories he’d been suppressing slammed into his mind.
A massive machine gun aimed at him. A vicious dust mask emitting the sickly mechanical sound of an artificial lung as it approached. And even the heavy rifle butt of a Raffen Shiv thug flying straight at his face and crushing his nose.
"Haa... haa..."
Ji-hwan’s lips trembled.
"Shit... it wasn’t a dream..."
The throbbing pain in his jaw and the lingering metallic stench of blood on his face proved beyond doubt that this hell was real.
Ji-hwan forced his mind, which was on the verge of panic, back under control and began twisting his bound hands and body, feeling around the space he was trapped in.
Whiiir-!
Rattle, rattle-rattle-rattle!
The harsh grind of tires through the floor, the thick smell of oil mixed with exhaust, and the merciless vibration of a vehicle racing over barren rock. It didn’t take long for him to realize the horrifying truth: he was trapped in the trunk of an armored vehicle, being hauled somewhere like cargo.
"I’m screwed. If they drag me off like this, I’m either going to end up as meat pie or get chopped up for spare parts."
Thinking that staying still meant death, Ji-hwan curled up in the darkness, frantically groping around the floor beside him.
Soon his fingers brushed past sharp metal parts and rusted scrap, searching for anything that might help him in this situation.
Then—
Tap.
An alien object snagged on the cold fingertips of his bound hand.
"Huh?"
With no light at all, Ji-hwan relied only on the sensation at his fingertips to carefully infer its shape.
A thick, rough handle that felt like plastic or rubber, and from the end of it, a long, thin, pointed piece of cold metal.
It was an old, blunt utility screwdriver the Raffen Shiv had left rolling around in the cargo hold.
Compared to a gun or a knife, it was nothing but a pathetic chunk of metal, but for Ji-hwan, kidnapped with nothing on him, it was the only tool he had—one he’d trade his life for if he had to.
He twisted the fingers of both bound hands in a grotesque angle and finally managed to grip the screwdriver’s handle tightly.
"There’ll be a use for it someday."
Ji-hwan forced himself to focus on the cold feel of the old utility screwdriver tucked deep inside his clothes.
Of course, he didn’t think a piece of scrap like this would do much against the people in this terrifying other world, who carried guns and had their whole bodies covered in chrome and cyberware.
But the desperate comfort that it was better than having nothing at all was the only thing barely keeping his mind from collapsing into panic.
Before long—
Rattle-!!
With another harsh burst of noise, the armored vehicle that had been racing at full speed slammed to a stop.
Ji-hwan’s body lurched forward from inertia and hit the filthy trunk wall.
"We’re here."
Holding his breath, Ji-hwan listened to the sounds outside, and a muffled voice began to seep through the metal.
"Damn it, do we really have to check the cargo again? What a pain in the ass."
Along with the grumbling complaint, heavy bootsteps approached the trunk where Ji-hwan was trapped.
Clack— krrrrrk!
Soon the massive trunk door opened, and the blinding sunlight of the barren wasteland poured in like a waterfall.
"Ghk...!"
Ji-hwan, still adjusted to the darkness, was just about to squint and raise a hand to shield his eyes when a rough grip seized his collar without mercy and dragged him out violently.
"Ugh, keck!"
His body was yanked into the air and then dumped face-first toward the ground.
Rolling across the rough sandy earth and inhaling dust, Ji-hwan forced his head up and looked at the bastards who had kidnapped him.
At least they were human-shaped, intelligent enough to talk. Ji-hwan hurriedly opened his mouth, trying to reason with them somehow.
"H-hey! Just let me talk for a sec...!"
But that flimsy modern common sense was stomped flat by the brute in front of him.
Thud-!!
"Kheuk...!!"
Before he could even finish speaking, a boot kicked mercilessly into Ji-hwan’s stomach as if trying to stab him through it.
Agony so intense it felt like his gut was about to burst made Ji-hwan roll on the ground again, eyes turning white as foam spilled from his mouth.
"You little shit, who said you could run that mouth?"
The massive thug, spitting curses and murderous intent, lifted his foot again as if he meant to crush Ji-hwan’s windpipe outright. Then someone grabbed the brute hard by the shoulder.
When the big man clicked his tongue irritably and looked back, the man who had stopped him warned him in a cold voice.
"If you kill another piece of cargo—meaning a person—the boss said he’ll sell you off for parts instead, Buck."
"...Shit."
"You already lost an arm because of that last time. This time you’ll really die."
The man jerked his chin toward the ugly chrome prosthetic crudely attached below Buck’s right shoulder.
Buck snorted furiously, but he no longer dared swing his foot and stepped back.
Ji-hwan’s gaze shifted to the man who had supposedly saved him.
He had a rough mohawk, and his lower face was hidden by a bizarre dust mask meant to filter the polluted air, making it impossible to see his features properly.
The mohawk man looked down at Ji-hwan, then slapped the back of his head roughly with his palm and ordered, "Get up."
"Ugh... yes."
Ji-hwan forced himself to stagger to his feet.
The mohawk man shoved Ji-hwan’s back roughly and started dragging him deeper into the camp.
Ji-hwan trembled all over at his own helplessness, being dragged along like a pig headed for the slaughterhouse.
"Where are they taking me? What am I supposed to do now?"
In the middle of his confusion, he remembered the cold screwdriver hidden deep in his clothes, but he quickly shook his head at himself in self-mockery.
"Yeah, right. Like that’s going to work against cybered-up freaks with guns..."
The mohawk man, who had been watching that hopeless, bitter little laugh from the corner of his eye, scoffed in disbelief.
"What the hell are you, some kind of rat? You don’t even have a basic implant, let alone a spine socket?"
To the rough mercenaries of the wasteland, a pure human body with no chrome at all looked abnormal and grotesque.
But before Ji-hwan could answer, their steps stopped in front of an old iron door locked tight in a corner of the camp.
"Get in."
The mohawk man shoved him hard in the back, and Ji-hwan stumbled headfirst into the pitch-black doorway.
Clang-!!
With a heavy metallic sound, the door slammed shut, and the cold click of the lock echoed as he was cut off completely from the outside world.
"Haa..."
Ji-hwan let out a deep sigh, barely holding himself up on trembling legs.
As he shakily got to his feet in the unfamiliar darkness and looked ahead, his eyes slowly widened.
He wasn’t alone.
In the darkness, other survivors were huddled there too, people who had been captured by the Badlands bastards just like him and penned up like livestock. Their bloodless eyes all turned toward Ji-hwan at once.
As his vision gradually adjusted to the dark, the shapes of the crouching people became clearer one by one.
Back when he played games from the safety of his room, the people kidnapped by gangs were just generic NPCs to rescue for a side quest.
They repeated fixed lines and weren’t living, breathing beings one by one.
But the people in front of him now were different.
They breathed, they trembled with fear, they felt despair. They were real people.
Ji-hwan quietly looked over each of the captives’ faces.
Even in the deep dark, their eyes were clearly visible, already dead and dull, as if they had lost all hope of living. Their faces were so gaunt from malnutrition that bone showed through the skin.
"Soon... won’t that be my future too?"
A chill ran down Ji-hwan’s spine at the horrifying thought.
Crushed by the miserable, miserable feeling pressing down on him, Ji-hwan let out a long, heavy sigh.
"I’m screwed... ha... what do I do..."
His despairing mutter fell into the darkness.
But Ji-hwan soon shook his head hard.
"No. Not yet. It’s too early to give up."
This was a place he had never even seen on the game map, but he had to get out somehow.
Steeling his survival instincts, Ji-hwan staggered to his feet and grabbed the tightly shut iron door first.
"Ugh...!"
He grunted and threw his whole weight against it, trying to pull and push, but the door, sealed by a massive lock, didn’t budge at all.
Giving up on the door for the moment, Ji-hwan braced himself against the cell wall and moved cautiously along it.
He tapped the wall with his fist, then began feeling around desperately with his fingertips for cracks or loose spots.
He was still fumbling along the wall, doing who-knew-what, when someone gently tugged at the torn hem of his pants.
"...?"
Ji-hwan jerked and looked down to find a skinny little blonde girl tilting her head up at him.
"What are you doing?"
Unlike the terrified adults, her voice carried a strangely youthful curiosity. Ji-hwan stared blankly down at the blonde girl, then answered stupidly without thinking.
"Uh... trying to get out of here?"
At that, the girl’s eyes went round.
"Out of here? Ah! How are you going to get out?"
At the bold child’s question, Ji-hwan scratched the back of his head and mumbled awkwardly, "Hmm... I guess I have to look?"
At that dazed, honest answer, the girl let out a silent little giggle and smiled brightly.
It was a pure, clear smile that had no business existing in this bleak prison full of iron and despair.
"Amy! What are you doing?"
Just then, a blonde woman who looked almost exactly like the child hurried over from the darkness.
She seemed to be Amy’s mother or older sister. Pale with alarm, she wrapped an arm around Amy’s shoulders and quickly pulled her into a corner.
"I told you not to talk to strangers."
The woman scolded the child while shooting Ji-hwan a wary glare. But even in her mother’s arms, Amy pointed at Ji-hwan and mumbled, "But... that uncle said he’s getting out of here..."
At those innocent words, the woman let out a deep, bitter sigh and stroked Amy’s blonde hair with heartbreaking tenderness.
It was the resignation of an adult who knew to the bone that there was no way out of this hell, and yet still clung to the instinctive love of protecting a child.
Watching that rough but warm scene, a strange feeling stirred deep inside Ji-hwan’s chest.
"Yeah... no matter how horrible this hell is, people still live here."
These weren’t just data scraps seen as pixels from a room in front of a monitor.
There were real human lives here, breathing just like him, sharing warmth and trying to protect their families.
The dull haze in Ji-hwan’s eyes began to burn again with a fierce, beastlike light. He pulled out the old, cold utility screwdriver he had hidden deep in his clothes.
Clink, clack-clack!
Once again, Ji-hwan carefully tapped the wall, then used the screwdriver’s pointed tip to pry and dig fiercely at the seam where concrete met steel.
He had to find even the tiniest pinhole of a gap to escape this shitty cage somehow.
As he struggled with the wall and sweated through it, Amy, who had somehow slipped past the adults’ watch and come back to his side, poked at Ji-hwan’s arm holding the screwdriver and asked, "What’s your name?"
At the child’s cautious question, Ji-hwan loosened his stiff jaw and answered, "Yeah. Kim Ji-hwan."
"Ji-han?"
"No. Ji. Hwan! Kim. Ji. Hwan!"
Ji-hwan carefully sounded it out for her, but the little blonde Amy just laughed brightly and shouted with confidence, "Aha!! Ji-han!! Kim. Ji. Han!"
At the child’s innocent and absurd pronunciation, Ji-hwan let out a snort of a laugh and a deep sigh.
What a completely out-of-place little bit of peace, in this stinking camp full of despair.
"Fine, fine. Just call me Ji-han."
Ji-hwan scratched the back of his head and asked, "Then what about you?"
"Huh? Me? Amy!"
Watching the child proudly shout her own name, Ji-hwan grinned slyly.
"Ayy-me?"
"Amy!!"
At Ji-hwan’s teasing twist on her name, Amy puffed out both cheeks and yelled, then ran back to her mother and tucked herself into her arms.
Watching Amy laugh in her mother’s embrace, Ji-hwan also smiled without making a sound.
Then his eyes met the mother’s as she stroked the child’s head.
She loosened her guard just a little and bowed her head slightly to the stranger who had given her child even a brief moment of laughter.
Ji-hwan nodded back lightly in return.
As he looked at Amy joking around in her mother’s arms, Ji-hwan’s expression hardened again and he turned back to the pitch-black iron wall.
Gripping the old utility screwdriver hidden in his clothes, he desperately gouged and probed at the seams in the wall, struggling to escape this shitty hell by any means necessary.
He had been wrestling with the wall and sweating for a long time when a cautious voice came from behind him.
"Excuse me?"
Turning around, he saw Amy’s mother had come up beside him at some point.
"Ah, hello."
Ji-hwan quickly hid the screwdriver up his sleeve and extended a hand in greeting.
The rough, dirt-stained hands of the two briefly clasped and then parted.
"I’m Ji-hwan."
"I’m Rachel."
Ji-hwan paused his search for an escape route and faced her.
To understand his situation right away, he started talking with her, trying to dig up information about how he’d been caught by the Raffen Shiv cannibals of the Badlands and what the camp’s security layout was like.
But while he was hearing the miserable situation outside through her trembling voice, one impossible word slipped past his ear.
"...W-what did you just say...?"
Ji-hwan’s face went white in an instant, and his words cut off.
Startled by his sudden reaction, Rachel blinked.
"Pardon?"
"No, the year you just mentioned..."
"Ah... the year 67?"
Thud—!! It felt like a giant hammer had just smashed mercilessly into Ji-hwan’s brain.
The time period of the game he had memorized by playing it over and over in his room was not 2077. It was a full ten years earlier—2067.
He had been dropped into the true lawless age, before the corporations openly crushed the world underfoot and horrific cyberware experiments were carried out like beasts beyond the reach of law.
Even the future game knowledge he had believed was his only weapon was something he couldn’t properly use right now. This was an uncontrollable, unknown dystopia.
"I’m screwed..."
The flimsy hope he’d clung to—that he might somehow escape this horrible prison—crumbled helplessly before the massive despair of a ten-year gap.
Unable to keep himself upright, Ji-hwan leaned against the cold iron wall and slowly slid down to the floor.
Staring into the black void with empty eyes, he muttered like a man who had lost his mind, utterly dazed.
"The year 2067..."
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