Her entire body floated up with a ‘whoosh’ before gently settling back down.Soo blinked, her gaze fixed forward.Though she had advanced five steps, she found herself pushed back a full nine. [Y-you just floated up! You almost flew away! I told you, you’d fly away! How many times have I told youuuu!!!]“Mmh.”Admittedly, she hadn’t initially believed she would be carried so far. In games, she had never once been swept away by a sandstorm.Yet, experiencing it firsthand, it certainly felt as though she could be flung that great a distance. ‘It must be because my body is so light.’What, then, was she to do? ‘I’ll just use a different kind of magic.’With a decisive motion, Soo kicked off her shoes, leaving her feet bare.Then, without a moment’s hesitation, she took a step.Crunch—This time, however, was different.Soo’s foot plunged into the earth.Her tail, swaying behind her, followed suit.It burrowed into the ground right beside her foot, firmly bracing her to prevent any falls.Crunch— Her next step also did not tread upon the surface.Soo’s foot dug deep into the parched earth of the wasteland, and her tail, trailing behind, embedded itself firmly next to it.Crunch— Crunch— Cra-crunch—Having finally returned to the spot where she had been pushed back moments earlier, Soo spread her toes wide and planted her foot down with even greater force.Concurrently, the raging storm caused her body to sway.But she merely swayed. Unlike before, she was not lifted off her feet and carried away. ‘Magic (physical) to withstand the storm!’A bright smile gracing her lips, Soo resumed her advance.One step, two steps, and then three.With each step forward, the sensation of sand grains brushing against her skin grew clearer.The grinding ‘kwak-kwak’ sound was utterly chilling.Inside her mouth, Miko was screaming as if her throat would tear.And with good reason, for the incessant sound was akin to a fork scraping against a coconut shell.Yet, Soo’s skin remained perfectly smooth.This was thanks to the transparent scales that had emerged on her skin, shielding her from the blade-like sand grains.There was no need even to use the magic she had taken from the test subjects.As long as she wasn’t blown away like this, she was fine.Soo pulled her embedded feet cleanly from the earth and took a confident, wide stride.****[This is utterly impossible. Truly, truly, this is impossible. How, how did you get out of that, huh? What, what on earth… What have I even been researching all this time…?]She had emerged from the sandstorm.Without a single drop of blood shed, without a scratch on her skin, perfectly unscathed.Even her clothes remained untorn.The scales protecting Soo seemed to have anticipated and guarded against every conceivable predicament she might face. [Seriously, if it’s like this… couldn’t she even take on the corporations…? No, I’m sure she’d win…]Miko, the drone flitting around Soo, continuously spewed out dazed exclamations.Her expression was likely as slack as it had been when she’d declared she would lick a tail.Of course, this failed to capture Soo’s attention.“Wow…”They say the eye of a typhoon is calm.This place was no different. Encircled on all sides by walls of sandstorm, it was tranquil and serene.Even the normally yellowed sky had cleared to a brilliant blue here.There, Soo saw but one thing.A majestic ruin standing proudly in the heart of the desert.It consisted of structures built from smooth marble, and countless fragments believed to be fallen pillars from a bygone era.The surfaces of these fragments bore the marks of time, eroded by wind, and etched with enigmatic patterns, proclaiming with every inch of their being that they were not of this world.When the glittering currents of wind from the sandstorm reflected off the marble surfaces, the light seemed to momentarily dance within the patterns, imbued with a fleeting life.And in the center.While everything else lay buried beneath the sand, a prominent hourglass-shaped structure, almost certainly housing dormant magic, had a clearly open entrance.That was where she needed to go.Magic awaited!“My magic!”Soo, beaming with absolute joy, dashed forward. [Wait, squeak!!]Miko, belatedly snapping back to reality, tried to block Soo’s path.Of course, a drone no bigger than a thumb could not stop Soo. ‘What should I do? How do I stop that wild filly?’Miko’s processors whirred, and simultaneously, she found her answer. [If you go in like that, the magic might disappear!]“Ah.”As if entirely unfamiliar with the concept of inertia, Soo’s body came to an abrupt halt.“Disappear?”[Yes! Ruins have various traps… or rather, puzzles. If you pass through without solving them… your body might suddenly explode, you might be teleported somewhere else, or the magic might simply vanish.]Among these outcomes, the magic disappearing was considered the best.Exploding bodies were, naturally, undesirable, and being teleported elsewhere was hardly a favorable result either.If the coordinates were fixed, one might simply be moved, but with scrambled coordinates, it was common for a body to merge with a specific structure.The most frequent outcome, of course, was merging with the wasteland itself.The sight of human bodies ‘growing’ in the barren wasteland, where not a single blade of grass could thrive, was said to be horrifying enough to haunt one’s dreams. [But who am I? I am Miko, Senior Researcher of the Ruin Exploration Department. When it came to disarming traps, I was the best in Eden.]Her position as Senior Researcher was not earned lightly.Nor was it obtained through falsification.Miko had proven her skills, and most of that proof lay in her trap-disarming abilities. [Heh heh, it seems the time has finally come to prove my worth. Just leave it to me. I can disarm most things within a day!]“And if it’s not ‘most things’?”[Then… it might take anywhere from one to three months, but it’s fine! This place isn’t what you’d call particularly large, you see? At the very latest, I’ll have it solved in six hours.]For her to claim this place wasn’t large implied that even bigger sites had already been discovered. ‘Just how much has been stolen?’Soo pouted, then resumed her walk. [Hmmmm, do you see that rock up ahead? I think you can stop there.]Following Miko’s instructions, Soo paused before the large rock, narrowing her eyes as she scanned her surroundings.Something was indeed visible.A hazy, pale-colored… mana, forming a dome around the ruins. [Hmm, I suppose this would be called a labyrinth.]“A labyrinth?”[Yes, you can think of it as a trap that teleports you elsewhere if you don’t follow the designated path. Would you like to follow me slowly?]Miko began to hum, flitting forward.After a moment, as if possessing a camera capable of observing mana, she stopped precisely at the dome’s boundary.Soo’s steps halted at the same spot.And then she saw something. [Heh heh, six hours will be plenty for this.]A path drawn with mana.Soo observed the winding path that led into the ruins.Footprints were even kindly imprinted upon it.As if to signify that stepping here would pose no issue.By all appearances, it was indeed a path.Following those footprints alone should be perfectly safe.“Miko.”[Yes?]“Right in front of my foot.”Soo wiggled her toes.The drone, flitting over, examined the spot. [What about here?]
“Isn’t this the way?”[…Huh? Wait, just a moment.]Miko, who had been silent for a while, spoke in a trembling voice. [It is… But how did you know…?]
For traps in the form of labyrinths, taking the first step was always the most challenging part, to the extent that four of the six hours were typically spent just finding the starting point.Yet now, Soo had found that starting point in less than a minute.“I can see it.”[…You can see it? The path?]“Yeah. I’m going.”Soo hesitated no longer.Her pale foot touched a footprint etched in mana.Her second step was the same.Nothing happened.Instead, the mana spread throughout the area began to gather around Soo, as if welcoming her. [W-wait a minute! What if you make a mistake—]Ignoring Miko’s frantic cries from behind, Soo took her third step.Again, nothing out of the ordinary occurred.“It’s fine.”By her fourth step, a sense of certainty had settled within her.Feeling the ticklish, welcoming embrace of mana, Soo advanced with light steps.Five steps, six steps, seven steps.A sound reached her ears.It was the humming of mana.Spreading gradually, it was undeniably a pleasant melody.Listening to a song that resembled both the birdsong of morning and the voice of a siren, Soo continued her journey.She no longer needed to scrutinize the path.Following the whispers of mana, that was where Soo’s path lay.Eight steps, nine steps.The landscape of the ruins, previously obscured by the sandstorm and tinted a dull yellow, now burst forth in a panorama of vibrant, natural colors.A spring meadow brimming with nameless wildflowers.A summer mountainside lush with verdant leaves.An autumn barley field shimmering with brilliant golden hues.A winter garden hushed beneath a blanket of white snow.The mana, which had been merely white, now showcased its individual colors, stirring up a breeze.The wildflowers in the meadow swayed gently.The leaves in the mountains rustled.The barley in the field danced.Flowers hidden beneath the white snow lifted their heads.Soo’s face, too, bloomed with a radiant smile.And so, ten steps.The moment she stepped inside the ruins.“Wow.”A breeze swept through.For any other ordinary person, it would have been a typical gust of wind, but not for Soo.The wind that embraced her body was unmistakably magic.A touch caressing her ash-gray hair, a breath gently tickling her tail, a faint scent brushing past her cheeks.Soo extended her hand, guided by instinct.The wind intertwined with her slender fingers.It whispered, a comforting breeze that felt both like clasped hands and a soft caress over the back of her hand.It was not a human language.While Soo, of course, knew no language other than Korean, she could unequivocally tell that what she was hearing now was not a human tongue.Nevertheless, she fully understood the magic’s whispers.For a dragon to fail to comprehend magic was an impossibility.“So it’s wind magic.”This was different from the fragmented magic she had taken from the test subjects.There was no need to painstakingly force pieces together to complete it.This was a complete, whole magic.A magic circuit was drawn and etched into her mind.No incantation was needed. She merely had to wish for it.As all mana in the world obeyed the will of its master, should the master so desire, Soo quietly commanded:“You’ve worked hard. You can rest now.”The sandstorm, which had remained awake for so long to guard the ruins, now fell into a deep slumber.****All the magic and mana that had enveloped the ruins vanished.While she had felt light coming in, she felt even lighter going out.Soo, with a bright smile, unfurled her fingers.Delicate strands of wind hung from her five fingers.She couldn’t shoot it or wield it.She didn’t yet know how to apply it anywhere.Nevertheless, Soo smiled with utter bliss.Because it was complete magic!“Miko.”Soo, still beaming, approached the drone that remained hovering in the same spot.For some reason, it seemed even more rickety than before.“Look at this.”Miko offered no reply.There were none of the beast-like gasps, exclamations, or sighs that she had uttered countless times until now.“It’s magic.”Regardless, Soo didn’t stop showing off her magic.From her index finger to her middle finger, from her middle finger to her ring finger, then not to her pinky, but to her thumb.The moment the softly swaying wind gently poked the drone. […We need to escape.]Miko spoke in a voice trembling with fright. [The corporations are swarming in.]The eyes and ears of corporations are everywhere.It could be said that this was the most frequently uttered phrase in [Cyberpunk: Eden].And the same held true even in the wasteland.Soo slowly surveyed her surroundings.The colossal sandstorm had vanished.Beyond that wide, open sky.Hundreds of corporate drones were converging.
