"...It’s frightening how fast you are. This research facility must be at least 80 km away from the bunker, the last combat zone."
"Is it unfortunate that your final resting place is somewhere like this?"
"You're in a hurry—"
Bang!
A thick bullet whizzed past the senior Artemis operative’s head. Almost simultaneously, but a fraction of a second too late, the sound reached him. A bullet barely missed his ear by 3 cm, creating a noise loud enough to cause ringing—Eugene had fired a warning shot with his right hand.
His Adam's apple moved. He swallowed. In that moment, the senior operative realized that the person in front of him had no intention of talking. The same chilling murderous intent, as sharp as the destructive power of the bullet, swept across him, while the vertical pupils of Eugene’s cold blue eyes scanned him with an icy gaze.
A voice, cold and emotionless, followed.
"Do I really have to make it clear here that I didn’t come to talk with you?"
"..."
The enemy was missing one arm. The same went for the machine that had betrayed Artemis and escaped.
But what was this eerie calmness? The voice inside his head screamed to immediately transform the nanomachines, which existed in the form of a suit, into an exoskeleton, but he couldn’t do it.
Before that, his head would explode like a watermelon.
So the only option left to him was one.
"...Did you follow Epsilon? If you want, I’ll give it to you. It’s still not formatted."
"You’re suggesting that I kill you here and take it, but why propose such a thing?"
"Don’t you see the laptop connected to the coffin? It’ll be hard to ignore."
So, this person was trying to negotiate with that alone.
Eugene was somewhat baffled, but there was something intriguing about it—this high-ranking Artemis operative had already realized that Eugene valued Epsilon more than his own life.
But it didn’t matter. Unless Eugene shot the laptop, or even if he did, the Icarus gear could easily perform functions far beyond that laptop. The method was simple. Either Eugene's avatar, wearing the downgraded Icarus gear, or Jin could access the network.
After that, the Icarus gear from the Dagger Team, via the downgraded device or Jin, would automatically take over the laptop’s role.
At the moment Eugene finished that thought, the senior operative spoke again.
The brief silence, caused by Eugene's distractions, had been misinterpreted as consent.
"Drop your weapon. I’ll tell you how to operate the laptop. Even if you disarm yourself, Gamma-type will be watching over me. There’s nothing I can do in just a suit."
"And what’s your purpose?"
"Isn’t it obvious? It’s to save myself."
As expected.
Eugene carefully placed his weapon on the ground, and Jin moved to the edge of the not-too-large room, aiming the plasma cannon at the senior operative. She was ready to vaporize him if he made any foolish moves.
A somewhat strange situation began to form. Specifically, the high-ranking operative stood in the center of the room, while Eugene, having placed his weapon down, cautiously approached the laptop. He wasn’t wrong in what he said. The screen was filled with incomprehensible commands, but nothing was happening.
At that moment, the senior operative threw something.
It was a USB.
"Just plug it in and do as you’re told."
Of course, Eugene had no intention of doing that.
She took the USB, pretended to plug it in, and accessed the laptop's network through the downgraded Icarus gear. A holographic message appeared that only she could see, indicating that the Dagger Team's original Icarus gear had taken over the laptop in an instant.
The reason she accepted the request, even though she knew it was unnecessary, was simple.
She needed to deal with him cleanly so he couldn’t try any tricks.
Meanwhile, the senior operative began to move.
"Do not move."
"You can’t see the laptop's progress from here. Gamma-type, didn’t you come for Epsilon? I’d appreciate your cooperation."
It was an obvious trick.
The senior Artemis operative moved precisely into the middle of the straight line between Eugene and Gamma-type—meaning that in case of a plasma cannon shot, either the laptop or the Archetype would likely be caught in the aftershock.
In other words, from the beginning, he either planned to die with Epsilon or use her to break out of the situation. Eugene read the situation exactly and intended to use it against him, so Jin had merely verbally stopped the operative from moving recklessly.
Then, a few seconds later, the senior operative, turning his back, started running toward Eugene, who was looking at the laptop screen.
"...!"
An abnormally fast speed.
The black suit began to shift. The nanomachine data obtained when prototype Mecha Eugene was developed had also been applied to the suit, and it soon formed a black frame that connected to the power source on his back.
At a glance, it was a more refined exoskeleton than any standard Artemis infantry. Moreover, a long mantis blade extended from his forearm, aiming at Eugene. It was clear that the arm wasn’t human from the start.
In a way, it seemed he had some confidence.
But—
"People who don’t know what’s going on are so happy to make their own plans."
Eugene, turning her head at a speed almost impossible to track with enhanced vision, added.
Before realizing something was wrong, she pulled a thick axe from her multi-purpose pouch with her right arm. But the size was unusual. The axe, which had a handle that could be folded several times, unfolded and glowed with a bluish light from the blade. Of course, this was provided by the Dagger Team.
The next moment, the senior operative’s right arm was severed and flew into the air. Transparent oil, instead of red blood, shot out. There was no need to mention that the mantis blade’s alloy had been completely cut through as well.
‘It’s invisible...!’
But there was no time to think.
A kick, too fast to recognize, struck the senior operative’s upper body. His body, with the strength equivalent to a level-6 bulletproof vest, was crushed as if hit by a car, and he was sent flying into the air.
With a loud crash, the new model collided with the wall. But before hitting the ground, he had been propelled at least 3 meters up, and Eugene, by that time, was already accelerating toward the ground. The Icarus-Tomahawk in her right hand glowed ominously.
When the senior operative hit the floor, the silhouette before her eyes was clear.
Eugene spoke.
"Talking about formatting others while you yourself are a cyborg. Isn’t this irony?"
"..."
"I trust you have no more words?"
"Wait! I’ll tell you the location of the other senior Artemis operatives—Gaaah!"
Crack!
Severing his left arm, Eugene used her tail to hold the axe and reached out to choke him. The thick rubber-coated skin and the spine embedded with cables were crushed mercilessly, and the diameter of the neck, which was too large for her small hand to grasp, began to shrink.
The circle her hand had made began to narrow, as if she were holding an orange and squeezing it into the size of a golf ball in seconds. With a crack, as her thumb and index finger twisted, the golden polygon chunk rolled to the ground.
Of course, no one there didn’t know what it was.
A dark, oily, golden liquid shot up like a fountain, and she finally took a breath and spoke.
"I let my personal feelings mix in too much."
"...Next time, I’ll handle it, Archetype."
"Will you now?"
Eugene, finally catching her breath, sat down and confirmed the Dagger Team, who had already cleared the area and were running toward her.
The first to enter the room were Loren Tina and Logan, who exchanged looks of disbelief and spoke.
"Doing fatalities in real life, this crazy bastard."
"The weapon you gave earlier was quite useful. Thanks for the hard work."
"Haha..."
As their gazes shifted, the unsteady coffin came into view. As expected, the estimated time was still quite far off. What was certain was that when all three manifestors gathered, it could barely be moved, or it might end up being heavier.
Looking around, Loren Tina spoke.
"I didn’t expect to use strength instead of guns this far."
"Hah... I’ll call for a helicopter to the bunker, and if we can load it onto the armored train, let’s do it."
"..."
"Everyone, I’m always grateful and sorry."
With a slightly embarrassed look, Eugene opened a secure communication line to the Dagger Team, signaling the start of a mad plan never seen anywhere in history.
It was just 30 seconds ago when they realized there was a conveyor belt leading to the unloading dock connected to the platform where the armored train was.
───!
"It looks like there's chaos at the base in the middle of the night."
"We brought something the size of three public phone booths at the crack of dawn, so what do you expect?"
As it was said, the surrounding area was literally a storm of noise and its source. A helicopter carefully lowered a massive box, about the size of three public phone booths combined, and below it, engineers who had been suddenly woken up in the early hours of the morning were using various heavy machinery to build a new structure beside the Dagger Team's building.
It was 3 AM at the moment. I felt a little guilty, but it was an unavoidable process. At around 2:40 AM, when Brigadier General Aaron was forcibly woken up and heard about the operation’s progress and results, he immediately raised an emergency alert at the barracks where the engineers were stationed.
As a result, those who were called in with expressions like they had eaten something sour were wide-eyed when they heard that I had brought back the second model, complete with the recovery coffin, and immediately began construction on the plans the Dagger Team had made, working diligently in the middle of the night.
Icarus gear was truly a cheat code.
"So you tried to carry that thing?"
"Looking back, it was a crazy move."
"By the way, Eugene, do you have a collector’s instinct? Not one, but two... In that case, would it be alright if I get one too...?"
"Why are you already talking about weird stuff as soon as you arrive?"
Dais really can’t stop being extra.
Recently, whenever I had some free time, I would check social media, and it turns out he was raising a new yellow ball python. He said it was a smaller one, but it would grow to 1.5 meters eventually. I really don’t understand why Dais finds it so appealing to raise a pet like that.
Anyway, after ignoring Dais’s nonsense, I looked at the slowly descending coffin. It was carefully placed on the solidified ground, surrounded by numerous prefabricated building materials. The speed was incredibly fast, possibly because the technology was more advanced than reality.
As soon as the Dagger Team finished the operation, they went inside the building, took showers, and got some rest. Thanks to that, time accelerated. It felt as if the film was cutting, and various conversations with the commander followed. By then, it was around 11 AM.
However, there was one downside: despite Dais, Harmony, and others still being around, only Jin and I were allowed to enter the building with the coffin.
"So, now we just need to prepare for Mecha Eugene 2 to emerge and destroy the newly built structure?"
"Stop talking nonsense."
"Ugh!"
Of course, this time, it was Jin who used her tail to give a sharp blow, not me.
With Cato holding his head behind us, I carefully opened the door and entered. The interior was surprisingly modest. It was about 40 pyeong (around 132 square meters). Inside the coffin, Lei was lying as if dead. The power was connected to the Dagger Team's building, so it had automatically been set up during construction.
I wondered if living in a place like this would feel too bleak, but frankly, my own gear box over there was only a little better than this, with the only difference being a few beds. So, I figured I’d bring some furniture over later if that became necessary.
Anyway, it was time for the rebellious second one to finally return home.
I checked the authority I had received for the coffin's control and spoke.
"Looks like it’s a form of body recovery using nanomachines, so after Jin goes in and comes out, we should be good."
"That sounds like a great idea."
"Can you take care of the stubborn second one?"
"Well, by human standards, I guess that makes me the 'older sister'."
What strange things is she going to say now?
And, as expected, Jin’s eyes were sparkling as she stared at the coffin. She probably meant to clasp her hands together, but since she was missing one arm, she couldn’t. Of course, I had used the reactivated healing function to reconnect, so her left arm was now fine again. That was a relief.
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"Well... technically, yes?"
"I'm really looking forward to it."
Of course.
Ignoring the fact that the full recovery had been completed, I scrolled down and activated the function.
And then, with a hiss, the liquid inside the coffin was stored in another compartment inside, and the waste generated from the damage during the combat—things like bullet fragments—was poured into one side.
The red LED on the top of the coffin blinked green, and the door opened.
Before the moisture on her body could even dry, Jin, with eyes that were eerily similar to Lei’s, carefully looked around. The most curious thing for us was what words would come from her mouth first. If something went seriously wrong, we’d have to deal with it right there.
But when her eyes met ours, her expression became indescribable, and Jin and I knew right then that the operation last night had been a success.
She opened her mouth.
"Even after telling you several times to turn around, you just hesitated. I had to bring you here myself—Ugh!"
But she was the one to rush at us first.
Jin quickly raised her plasma cannon, and for a moment, I was startled too. But after being pushed back a few steps, I realized what was happening.
Lei had tightly hugged me.
With a sigh, I opened my mouth.
"Bringing back the second one who ran off is a pain, isn’t it?"
Could a robot that looks so much like me cry?
I’m not sure, but today, I think I might find out.
Still drenched with the liquid from the nanomachines, I turned my back, thinking about how I’d have to make excuses later to the Dagger Team, who would be stuck taking care of two Mecha Eugenes.
The world really was a strange place.