‘Oh no, oh no.’
‘Those damned corporations.’
‘Couldn’t they all just drop dead?’
‘But then Eden would be ruined.’
‘What am I to do? What am I to do?’
‘Aaaah! Save me!’
‘We’re all dead meat now.’
‘And of all things, a sandstorm…’
‘No, it’s not your fault, Soo-nim.’
The drone, which had been faltering, suddenly began to buzz frantically.
Having discovered drones swarming from all directions, Miko’s scattered mind snapped back into focus.
After muttering to herself for a while, the drone began to repeatedly tap against Soo’s forehead.
‘If we delay any longer here, we’ll be discovered.’
[Quickly! Run away!!]
The drone Miko had sent was the only one of its kind in the world, essentially Miko’s personal drone.
‘If a corporation were to discover this, rumors of Yuugiri Miko being alive would spread, and the likelihood of Lu Qian taking action would become very, very high.’
‘Therefore, under no circumstances must we be discovered.’
‘What must be done to prevent that?’
‘Naturally, we must flee!’
‘Of course, since things have come to this, I could just bravely let myself be discovered.’
‘I could draw some attention in a spectacular way, then Miko’s true body could escape somewhere into the vast wasteland, where there are plenty of places to hide.’
‘If I just manage to evade them for another three years and avoid setting foot in a city, Lu Qian would no longer pursue me.’
‘But Soo cannot afford that.’
‘Soo must live.’
[Soo! You have to run away!]
The informal tone of Miko’s words clearly indicated a situation similar to, or rather, far more dangerous and dreadful than when they had been burrowing through the sandstorm.
‘Sandstorm versus corporate abduction.’
‘Without hesitation, everyone would choose the former.’
‘If abducted by a corporation, one must first abandon any hope of a peaceful death, for there’s even a chance of being exploited endlessly, unable to truly die even after death.’
‘Yet now, they were on the verge of being dragged away by a corporation.’
‘How could Miko not be desperate?’
[Why aren’t you moving!! You, you… stubborn mule!!]
Even so, Miko couldn’t bring herself to use harsher words.
Soo’s appearance was that of a mid-teenager, and Miko was not such a scoundrel as to hurl severe expletives at such a young girl.
[Please, let’s just run awayyy!!!]
As Miko squirmed and pleaded, Soo’s eyes sparkled, her heart thrumming with an excited flutter.
In games, such pursuit situations are often represented by the number of stars displayed above the health bar.
One star signifies one or two police cars.
Two stars mean several police cars and two SWAT vehicles.
Three stars indicate six SWAT vehicles alone, along with corporate drones joining the chase.
This meant that, currently, they were facing a three-star situation.
This wasn’t her first time; Soo herself had lived with stars over her head.
Especially in the early stages, it was practically a galaxy.
She had no choice but to do so to earn money.
While there were several ways to make money, extorting and selling corporate drones was the quickest and easiest.
However, these drones couldn’t be sold within Eden itself.
The only buyers were special merchants who roamed the wasteland.
As soon as one handled corporate drones, tracking would begin, making it an unavoidable consequence.
Thus, even Miko, who was not a merchant to begin with, couldn’t be sold drones.
‘But what about now?’
“Miko.”
‘Even if I can’t sell them, perhaps I can make use of them?’
‘Especially since Miko claims to be a genius.’
[Why!!]
“If you look closely, can you tell where the GPS is attached on a corporate drone?”
[Is that important right―]
“Answer me.”
[Ah, I can tell…]
“Then, I’ll just break a few Lu Qian drones and take them.”
[…Huh?]
“If Lu Qian isn’t good, should I get ones from another corporation instead?”
Saying this as if asking Miko to pick her preference, Soo enveloped her entire body in a gentle breeze.
[…What kind of crazy, talk is that? It?]
“If it doesn’t matter, I’ll just take two.”
‘Two hands, two drones. It wasn’t a difficult calculation, nor did she hesitate much.’
Soo picked up a few pebbles from the ground and carefully placed them in her pocket.
Soon after, she tossed the drone and the ring into her mouth.
[Ugh?!]
Taking Miko’s short shriek as a signal, with a resounding CRASH—! Soo shattered the ground and leaped skyward.
Her body was perfectly concealed within a small sandstorm.
****
A colossal sandstorm that had enveloped an ancient ruin finally dissipated.
The news spread among the corporations in less than a minute.
Every corporation that had been stationed in the wasteland, researching the ruin, immediately mobilized.
Hesitation and deliberation were not options; they had to rush faster than anyone else to claim it first.
This was due to a law established by the three major corporations in collusion with the government.
Under the Frontier Claim Special Act, the corporation that first discovers an ‘artifact’ in the wasteland can claim ownership.
In a world where scientific technology had been developed to its limits, a first-come, first-served condition seemed like child’s play.
However, if even the three major corporations adhered to that law, the situation changed entirely.
If they followed it, all of Eden had to follow suit, as even the government could not completely defy them.
Of course, whether they followed it or not was largely meaningless to the three major corporations.
If they simply crushed others with their immense wealth and power, they would eventually get what they wanted anyway.
Still, by getting there first and claiming ownership, they could secure a valuable stake.
If they handed it over to the relatively more moderate Megacorp or Neonik, they could sell it for an enormous sum.
No one knew what lay within the artifact or the ruin itself.
But if it meant money and an opportunity to establish connections with the three major corporations, they were willing to risk their lives.
Thus, hundreds of drones converged on the site.
Though they longed to unleash missiles and destroy everything, every corporation bit their lips and held back.
It was true they couldn’t violate that damned special law, but if by some mistake they shot down a drone belonging to one of the three major corporations, a truly horrific end awaited them.
Consequently, they operated their drones with extreme caution.
Fearing they might incur the wrath of the three major corporations, they also carefully monitored their rivals’ movements.
And then.
“…What was that?”
In the distance, a large drone bearing Lu Qian’s mark suddenly vanished.
“Maria, did you just see that?”
“I’m busy, don’t talk to me.”
“You know there was a Lu Qian drone up ahead, right?”
“There’s Lu Qian, Zyrex, and Neonik. Wouldn’t it be stranger if they weren’t there?”
“That’s true, but…”
“Stop spouting nonsense and just drive properly, Emily. If you make one wrong move and bump someone, I’ll lose my head too.”
The woman, named Emily, switched the drone to autonomous driving and checked the camera footage.
Indeed, it had been there.
From the very start, Lu Qian’s drone had been leading the pack.
It was so massive it was impossible to miss, and, as expected of a Chinese-affiliated corporation, it was ostentatiously plastered with gold and red.
Yet, it had vanished.
Emily slowed the video playback speed to 0.5x.
Something—a yellowish object—shot up into the sky, and the drone disappeared.
She slowed it further to 0.3x.
Only then did she truly see it.
“…Was the camera hacked?”
What flashed on the screen for a brief, fleeting moment was a small sandstorm.
It looked like a miniature version of the one that had relentlessly raged around the ruin until now.
Emily blinked.
‘Perhaps her ocular implant was malfunctioning.’
‘No matter how she looked at it, the situation made no sense.’
‘With the sandstorm gone, a suddenly miniaturized storm shoots into the sky?’
‘And at a speed that required slowing down to 0.3x to even perceive?’
‘To precisely target and sweep away a large drone flying 400 meters in the air?’
‘Just one specific drone, then vanish?’
“I’ll have to go to the clinic after work.”
‘It seemed her ocular implant, replaced just last week, was broken.’
‘If it wasn’t the implant, then perhaps some Megacorp had deployed a new weapon, or maybe a legendary monster from the ruins had appeared.’
Emily thought this and focused solely on piloting her drone.
She didn’t glance at anything else.
It was the same even after Neonik’s tactical-grade drone vanished from above.
Even when Maria, who had witnessed the scene firsthand, shrieked loudly, Emily silently continued to pilot her drone.
‘Discussing matters involving the three major corporations was tantamount to suicide, for the ‘Corporation’s’ eyes and ears were everywhere.’
****
“…Seriously, seriously, oh my god.”
Miko, whose legs had been trembling like a newborn calf, finally collapsed with a thud.
“…Are they really corporate drones?”
“Yeah.”
Soo, her face slightly flushed with excitement, displayed the drones bearing Lu Qian’s and Neonik’s marks.
‘Her pounding heart still hadn’t settled.’
‘This was something she had only done in games, no, something she had never even attempted in games.’
‘In games, at most, she would shoot them down with a gun.’
‘And even that was impossible unless she had a highly reliable gun, as they flew incredibly high.’
‘Yet now, Soo had leaped, practically flying, and snatched the drones barehanded.’
‘There were no problems, for she had completely concealed herself within a sandstorm, and before snatching them, she had thrown pebbles to destroy their cameras.’
‘Although she had smashed other corporations’ drones to use as footholds along the way, their cameras likely couldn’t have captured Soo’s speed.’
‘Even if they had, nothing but the sandstorm would have been visible.’
‘Magic is truly amazing…’
‘If it was this effective now, what incredible and outlandish ways could she torment corporations once she acquired even more magic?’
“The GPS was cleanly removed, and other components are perfect…”
While Soo indulged in all sorts of happy fantasies, Miko, who had been examining the drones, simply flopped onto her back.
‘She wanted to get a little closer to the drones, especially Neonik’s, which she even wanted to lick all over.’
“Seriously, ugh… this, if it’s this good, ugh…”
‘Miko’s bestial sounds were not unpleasant this time.’
‘Soo had acquired magic and extorted drones, and if Miko earnestly begged, Soo was even willing to give her tail.’
Soo sat on the sofa, smiling brightly.
“Where can they be used?”
“They can be used in so, so many places!”
“What about for me?”
“For Soo-nim…”
Miko’s gaze snapped around!
Soo flinched in response.
‘Miko’s breathing was tolerable, but her gaze was extremely, extremely unsettling.’
“I can make you an external implant that suits you, Soo-nim.”
“What kind?”
‘There was no need to mention ports for reading data shards or for depositing and withdrawing credits; those were all functions included in a nanocomputer.’
“You’ll need something that won’t fall off or break, even if you move intensely, right?”
“Oh.”
“And since it would be dangerous if you were caught by a scan, you’ll also need scan prevention—a perfectly flawless prevention.”
“Ooh.”
“And…”
“And?”
“With Neonik’s drone, a large-grade drone like this, there’s no need to even forge an ID chip. Well, technically it’s a forgery, but it’ll be indistinguishable from an ID chip officially issued by Eden.”
“Ooooh.”
“And the most important thing is!”
Miko, who had been staring blankly into space, blinked.
“It seems we’ve been discovered.”
Miko, who had been beaming moments before, suddenly burst into tears.
“F*ck… We, we’re screwed…”
With a crash—! The iron door that had made Miko’s home so cozy simply fell inward.
‘To tear down the door and enter without even knocking? They must be incredibly rude individuals.’
With that thought, Soo turned around.
“…Oh.”
Her eyes met those of burly men in suits, each wielding a Japanese sword.
