Chapter 258
The pillar of fire that erupted from the underground chamber where the Samjok-o was located blasted all the way through the floor where Zeon and his group were imprisoned.
The aftermath destroyed the prison doors that had confined them.
Thanks to that, Zeon’s group was able to walk outside without any interference.
“What the hell is going on?”
“Why was there an explosion underground...? I almost died lying there.”
The explosion had been so powerful that even Levin and Brielle made a huge fuss over it.
Fortunately, they had not suffered any direct injuries, but the deafening blast had numbed their ears.
Mandy was also frowning heavily from the pain in her ears.
Only Zeon remained calm as he surveyed the surroundings and tried to assess the situation.
His gaze shifted toward the massive hole torn open ahead of them.
The heat was so intense that the metal plates around the hole were sizzling and melting as though a volcano had erupted.
This was not something an ordinary explosion could cause.
That alone proved the explosion that had struck the underground depths of the Mega Tower was no ordinary event.
Zeon approached the hole and looked downward.
Like a vertical mine shaft in a magic stone mine, a gigantic hole stretched deep underground with no visible end.
At the source of the explosion—
Someone deep below was staring back at him.
It was Kim Kyungsoo, ruler of the West District.
“Kim... Hyunsu.”
Although it was a face he had never seen before, Zeon instinctively recognized who he was.
“Zeon!”
Dozens of meters and thick darkness separated the two men. Yet neither distance nor darkness could obstruct their vision.
Kim Kyungsoo’s eyes glowed ominously within the darkness.
“Why are you here, Zeon?!”
“You should ask the Samjok-o. Thanks to it, I’ve been getting plenty of rest in a prison cell in the West District.”
“The Samjok-o?”
—Zeon’s companion Levin committed murder within our district and was being detained.
Kim Kyungsoo frowned at the Samjok-o’s explanation.
“Then why was I not informed?”
—I was about to report it when Researcher Lee Sumyeong invaded the bunker containing my main body.
In other words, it had not had time to report the matter.
Kim Kyungsoo accepted the explanation, yet still felt uneasy.
With the Samjok-o’s capabilities, it should have been fully capable of reporting to him while simultaneously dealing with Lee Sumyeong and Hyeonmu.
Still, this was not the situation to press the matter further.
As he launched himself toward the floor where Zeon stood, he issued an order to the Samjok-o.
“Seal all underground levels and inspect the systems again.”
—Yes, Master.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
At the Samjok-o’s response, emergency bulkheads closed one after another, sealing off the underground levels.
Meanwhile, Kim Kyungsoo quietly landed before Zeon.
Although he was a mechanized awakened, Kim Kyungsoo outwardly looked no different from an ordinary human. Yet he radiated the cold, inorganic atmosphere unique to mechanized awakeneds.
“My mistake. To think I left such an esteemed guest in a shabby place like this without realizing it.”
“It’s fine. Thanks to that, I got plenty of rest.”
“What a coincidence. For something like this to happen precisely when you arrived.”
“Seriously. It seems I saw something I shouldn’t have.”
“So you understand.”
“So that was the Samjok-o’s true body.”
“I’m currently debating whether I should gouge out those eyes of yours or cut out your tongue.”
Kim Kyungsoo’s eyes glowed crimson.
It was such a savage gaze that most awakeneds would have their legs buckle just from meeting his eyes.
Yet Zeon showed not the slightest sign of intimidation as he calmly replied,
“Wouldn’t it be enough if I simply kept my mouth shut?”
“The fewer people who know a secret, the better.”
“Then I suppose all I can do is struggle as hard as possible.”
“You dare resist me?”
“My life is precious to me too.”
“You seem awfully full of yourself after killing Lee Jiryung. I am not like him.”
“I know.”
“And even so, you intend to challenge me?”
“I can’t exactly sit still and die. Well... I’d appreciate it if you considered this nothing more than desperate struggling.”
“How impudent.”
“Well, it’s just my nature...”
At the conversation between the two men, Levin, Brielle, and Mandy swallowed dryly.
They already knew Zeon was strong, but their opponent was Kim Kyungsoo, the man who had ruled Neo Seoul’s West District for years.
This was an entirely different level of power.
Moreover, this was the West District.
The moment Kim Kyungsoo gave the order, every awakened in the West District would attack Zeon.
No matter how strong Zeon was, he could not fight an entire district alone.
And to make matters worse, they were inside Neo Seoul, where there was no sand.
Zeon could not fully display his strength here, while Kim Kyungsoo could utilize his power at more than one hundred percent.
The situation overwhelmingly favored Kim Kyungsoo.
Yet despite that, Zeon remained perfectly calm.
Kim Kyungsoo stared at Zeon for a long moment before finally speaking.
“So you’re saying you’ll keep the secret?”
“Yes.”
“And them? Will they keep the secret as well?”
The people Kim Kyungsoo was referring to were Levin, Brielle, and Mandy.
Under the immense pressure, all three of their faces turned deathly pale.
Even compared to another S-rank awakened like Lee Jiryung, Kim Kyungsoo’s presence was on an entirely different level.
Just meeting his gaze made it feel as though their entire bodies would be torn to pieces.
They had never experienced pressure like this before.
At that moment, Zeon stepped in front of Kim Kyungsoo.
Instantly, the crushing pressure weighing down on the three disappeared.
With a smile, Zeon said,
“They’ll keep the secret too, of course.”
“Are you certain?”
“I guarantee it. They’re trustworthy people.”
“Have you eaten?”
“As you can see, we’ve been detained all day, so we haven’t eaten anything.”
“Then I’ll treat you to a meal.”
“Well, I’d appreciate that.”
At that moment, the oppressive atmosphere suffocating the area vanished as though it had never existed.
Only then did Levin and the others finally release sighs of relief.
‘Haa... We survived.’
‘Crazy bastard...’
Their pounding hearts still refused to calm down easily.
That was how overwhelming the lingering pressure and presence Kim Kyungsoo had left behind was.
The four boarded an elevator heading toward the top floor of the Mega Tower.
The elevator stopped beneath Kim Kyungsoo’s residence.
Kim Kyungsoo spoke to Levin, Brielle, and Mandy.
“I’ll be dining separately with Zeon, so the three of you should eat here. Someone will bring food shortly.”
“But...”
Brielle was about to object, but after seeing the look in Zeon’s eyes, she shut her mouth.
Because Zeon was stopping her with just his gaze.
In the end, the three were left behind while Zeon and Kim Kyungsoo continued to the top floor.
As he stepped out of the elevator, Kim Kyungsoo said,
“You are the first outsider ever to enter this place.”
“I’m honored.”
“Enough with the empty flattery. Sit down.”
“Yes.”
Zeon sat without hesitation.
Kim Kyungsoo sat across from him and spoke.
“Samjok-o.”
—Yes, Master.
“What’s the status of the repairs?”
—Over ninety percent of the underground bulkheads have been restored. The rest will be fully repaired by tomorrow morning.
“Any other problems?”
—Inspection results show no abnormalities in the other support AIs.
“And you?”
—My self-diagnostics show no issues whatsoever.
“Are you certain?”
—I am certain.
At the Samjok-o’s answer, the stiffness in Kim Kyungsoo’s expression eased slightly.
“I’ll be dining with Zeon. Prepare the meal.”
—It is already being prepared.
Hearing the Samjok-o’s voice sounding exactly as usual, Kim Kyungsoo felt inwardly relieved.
The moment something happened to the Samjok-o, the entire West District would grind to a halt.
A district inhabited by millions would become completely uncontrollable.
Fortunately, the Samjok-o remained intact, and there were no signs of such a crisis.
At that moment, Zeon spoke.
“You seem to rely on the Samjok-o quite heavily.”
“The Samjok-o is like my other self.”
“You trust it that much?”
“It is not trust. It and I are one body. The Samjok-o exists because I exist, and I can stand where I do because the Samjok-o exists.”
His voice carried boundless faith in the Samjok-o.
Zeon frowned slightly.
By nature, he did not trust machines very much.
“So that’s why you replaced your body with machinery? Because you trust the Samjok-o?”
“Are you curious?”
“To be honest, yes. I just can’t understand how someone can cut apart a perfectly healthy body and replace it with machines...”
Among all the people in Neo Seoul, the ones Zeon understood the least were the awakeneds of the West District.
No matter how compatible their abilities were with machinery, he could not understand how they could abandon their original bodies so easily and choose mechanical ones instead.
At least high-ranking awakeneds like Kim Kyungsoo still possessed bodies nearly indistinguishable from humans, but most low-ranking awakeneds looked more mechanical than human, like cheap industrial tools.
People whose mechanized parts exceeded their human flesh.
Could they even still be called human?
Moreover, Kim Kyungsoo was someone obsessed with pride in being a pure-blooded Korean.
Most members of the West District were of pure Korean descent, and enormous support was devoted to preserving pure bloodlines.
And yet someone so fanatically obsessed with pure blood possessed a mechanical body.
To Zeon, it was a contradiction that was difficult to understand.
Suddenly, Kim Kyungsoo’s eyes changed.
“You just need to have all four limbs severed by someone.”
“What?”
“Your arms and legs are cut off, and a sword is stabbed through your heart while you slowly die. Your breathing grows ragged, and your vision blurs. As death approaches, scattered machine parts lie around you. Then, as though by fate, you awaken.”
“Do you know what happens then? Machines replace your severed arms and legs and your broken heart. In an instant, you become a machine human. What emotions do you think that machine human would feel? Would he be happy to become a machine? Happy to grow stronger? What do you think?”
“That was the beginning. That is how the very first mechanized awakened was born. The birth of the very first existence is extraordinarily difficult, but once one appears, it is not so hard for others to follow.”
Even without Kim Kyungsoo explicitly saying it, Zeon understood who the first mechanized awakened had been.
Kim Kyungsoo himself.
In other words, he was talking about his own story.
“There was never any choice to begin with. But I do not regret becoming this way. Do you know why?”
Zeon shook his head.
Kim Kyungsoo looked at him and smiled coldly.
“Because I possess conviction. The conviction to protect my people and this land. Neo Seoul is the land where our people have lived for thousands of years. Yet look at the world now. Foreigners claim ownership of this land. Even creatures that are not human shamelessly occupy entire districts. Enemies surround us on every side. To protect my people from those enemies, power is necessary. Even if my body is no longer that of a pure-blood human, my soul and spirit are still Korean.”
Kim Kyungsoo’s voice carried an unwavering conviction.
He had fought and fought again to protect Koreans.
Whenever he was injured, he replaced damaged parts with new components and continued fighting endlessly. Eventually, even the remaining parts of his human body were replaced with machinery.
“I call this evolution. The evolution of the first individual is difficult, but once one evolves, it triggers the evolution of its kin.”
Those influenced by Kim Kyungsoo began awakening as mechanized awakeneds.
Kim Kyungsoo himself had never had a choice, but they willingly severed their own limbs and replaced their bodies with machinery.
That was the beginning of the West District.
To protect their people, to protect pure humans, they fought desperately.
And after decades passed like that, no one dared challenge the West District anymore.
Because the sight of mechanized awakeneds continuing to fight while replacing shattered parts had broken the spirit of their enemies.
“Afterward, we obtained the Samjok-o and achieved explosive development. But the foundation of everything was built by those who, like me, abandoned their human bodies. Those who gave up being pure humans in order to protect pure humans. Who can condemn us? Who can accuse us of abandoning humanity?”
“We are shields. The final shields who abandoned ourselves in order to protect pure-blood humans. Even so, can you still condemn us?”
Kim Kyungsoo’s gaze sharpened as he addressed him.
“The First Sand Mage.”