Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 10: Heart Drill (1)

Outskirts of Babel – Concrete Family’s Hideout

Despite being a gang stronghold, the Concrete Family’s hideout was unsettlingly clean—almost too clean for a place like this.

But inside, an ominous murmuring echoed through the air.

"Maybe he's already dead."

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"No, he’s alive. It’s all because of the implants."

Even though the voices were barely whispers beyond the thick concrete walls, they were disturbingly clear.

And then—

The heavy concrete walls tore apart like paper, the grinding of stone and the shattering of debris ringing through the hideout.

As dust and rubble scattered into the air, a figure slowly emerged from the breach.

At first glance, he was just an ordinary man.

But there was something deeply wrong about him.

The way his limbs moved, the way his expression shifted—it all felt warped.

His ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) gaze was locked downward, his lips ceaselessly mumbling something to the empty air.

Then—

A sharp voice rang out.

"Fire!"

Onyx, the daughter of the Concrete Family’s boss, gave the command.

Immediately, dozens of gang members who had been lying in wait opened fire at once.

The muzzles of their weapons erupted, unleashing a relentless storm of bullets.

Golden casings clattered to the floor, piling up as the deafening gunfire shook the building.

Even a corporate enforcer packed with military-grade implants would’ve been reduced to a shredded corpse in seconds under this kind of firepower.

As the gunfire subsided, thick clouds of gunpowder smoke and dust obscured the area where the man had stood.

"Did we get him?"

Someone whispered hesitantly, breaking the heavy silence.

In that instant—

A black shadow burst from the dust like lightning.

"Why, why... are you wearing armor?"

Muttering frantically, the man lunged into the midst of the Concrete Family’s ranks.

His fingers tore through flesh as if it were mere paper.

"Aaaaagh!"

"No, please!"

"Run!"

Screams and wails filled the hideout.

His hands never stopped moving, cutting down one gang member after another with terrifying ease.

Blood streaked across the walls. Shredded flesh littered the floor.

"This... this is impossible..."

Onyx stood frozen, her face contorted in disbelief.

Terror mixed with fury in her expression.

This thing wreaking havoc in front of her eyes—he wasn’t just some stranger.

He was one of their own.

A low-ranking errand boy from the Concrete Family.

A man with no proper implants.

No reinforced skeletal system.

No neural implants to enhance reaction speed.

No subdermal plating for protection.

The only modification he had was a basic muscle-support implant to help control gun recoil.

And yet—

This same man was ripping apart veterans armed with missile defense implants and combat-enhancement augments like they were nothing but paper dolls.

"Miss, we need to retreat. The only option is to buy time."

Onyx’s bodyguard spoke urgently, stepping closer to her.

Recently, a drug had begun circulating through the Concrete Family.

No—no one could even confirm if it was a drug.

There was no trace of any substance left behind.

All they had were bizarre symptoms, leading to speculation that it was some kind of digital drug.

The name given to this substance—Heart Drill.

And its effects were clear:

The user would suddenly lose their mind and go berserk, displaying extreme aggression toward everyone around them.They would gain unnatural endurance, speed, and strength.After a set period of time, their heart would literally be drilled through, killing them.That’s why they called it Heart Drill.

Onyx’s bodyguard was emphasizing the only known solution to this madness:

Buy time.

Eventually, the berserker would die on his own.

But how many more would die before that happened?

Onyx gritted her teeth as she watched her people get ripped apart.

They wouldn’t have had to die if she hadn’t tried to take the berserker down herself.

"Why is everyone faking their breathing? Liars. That armor—whose is it?"

The berserker’s murmuring grew faster.

Onyx stared at him for a moment before spinning around—

And ran.

She was heading for the armory.

"Miss! Where are you going?!"

Her bodyguard called after her, panic in his voice, but she ignored him.

Moments later, Onyx dragged out a long object from the armory.

One of only two anti-tank missile launchers in the Concrete Family’s possession—

Manufactured by Hexa Armory.

Her father had stashed them away in preparation for a full-scale war with a megacorp.

"Miss?!"

Ignoring the stunned expression of her bodyguard, Onyx hoisted the missile launcher onto her shoulder.

Her eyes burned with fury and resolve.

"Move!"

At her command, the remaining gang members scattered.

The berserker, his twisted expression shifting, was scanning for his next victim.

In that moment, his gaze met Onyx’s.

Without hesitation, she pulled the trigger.

"Die!!"

Her roar of rage filled the hideout as the missile launched.

It streaked forward at blinding speed, slamming into the berserker’s chest.

True to Hexa Armory’s marketing claims, this missile wasn’t like an ordinary explosive.

First—

A brilliant light flared.

Then—

A small, golden sphere formed in the air.

A perfect, dazzling sphere—

As if it had condensed all the light in the world into one point.

But unlike its beauty, this sphere did not illuminate.

It erased.

A perfect three-meter-wide void appeared in the hideout—

As if someone had cleanly carved away a chunk of reality itself.

Onyx's body relaxed as the tension drained away.

Even if the Heart Drill had infected him, with that level of firepower...

"Ha, haha."

Dropping the now useless missile launcher to the ground, Onyx chuckled softly.

The gang members around her exhaled sighs of relief.

And soon, cheers erupted from all sides.

Onyx took a deep breath.

At that moment, from the center of the massive crater, something began to creak and move.

Everyone's gaze shifted to the source.

"The heart lies, you liar. Stop. Pretending to be alive when you're dead."

With a sinister mutter, the man began to rise from the pit.

He looked nearly the same as before he was hit by the missile.

There was only one difference.

Red energy, like blood, was flowing from every pore of his body.

"M-More... alive?"

Onyx's voice trembled in fear.

She doubted her eyes, unable to believe what she was seeing.

How could someone survive a missile with that kind of destructive power?

"Miss, you’re here!"

Suddenly, the berserker’s voice came from somewhere nearby.

The voice was strangely clear, almost as if he hadn’t lost his mind at all.

Onyx slowly turned her head.

The berserker was there—seemingly having jumped through space—standing directly behind Onyx, looking down at her with an eerie expression.

****

As soon as I accepted the job, I made my way toward the coordinates on the map.

Most mercenaries would’ve packed weapons or gear depending on the nature of the job, but for me, my two fists were enough.

The path toward the Concrete Family’s territory was quieter than usual.

Normally, areas near these kinds of zones would be teeming with vagrants or black market dealers, but today, it was eerily silent.

When I entered the Family’s territory, what I saw were stark white buildings, devoid of any decoration.

It felt like massive concrete chunks had overtaken the city.

It was the kind of boundary that screamed, "This is our territory now."

The entire area seemed different from the rest of the outskirts, likely because everything was white.

I slowly walked up a small hill, muttering to myself.

"Just like a ‘white house on a hill.’"

Suddenly, I was reminded of an old expression from a hundred years ago—"white house on a hill."

Had people of this era forgotten even such simple expressions?

With the extinction of Koreans almost certain, it was probably inevitable, but for a brief moment, a feeling of loneliness passed through my mind.

As I walked through the white buildings, an unsettling sensation crept over me.

It was far too quiet.

At the boundaries of such zones, I expected to see heavily armed Family members standing guard.

But the Concrete Family's territory was as quiet as a ghost town.

It was as if no one was there at all.

"Something’s definitely wrong..."

I muttered to myself, picking up the pace.

Boom!

A massive explosion shattered the air, making my ears ring.

In my year of mercenary work, I had heard all kinds of gunfire and explosions, but this was unlike anything I had experienced.

It had a unique reverberation, as though it could tear through the very air itself.

Realizing something was off, I immediately ran toward the source of the sound.

Each step I took created small ripples in the ground beneath me.

A stronger blue light began to glow from my body, and the hem of my coat fluttered wildly in the wind.

When I emerged from a narrow alley into a large plaza, the battlefield ahead welcomed me.

Countless bullet holes.

Walls ripped open as if torn by hand.

The remnants of a bomb, its center melted away.

And bloodstains splattered across the ground.

In the middle of it all, two figures stood.

A frightened girl in a gray jacket, and a man who seemed to have lost his mind—was he even human?

Hmm...

Though his body seemed fine and physically unremarkable, something about the man felt wrong.

Even considering the berserker's blood-soaked body, surrounded by a terrifying red energy, there was still something fundamentally missing from his humanity.

"Armor—whose is it? You... you're faking your breath, aren’t you?"

The berserker’s muttering echoed across the plaza.

His fragmented, disjointed words were filled with madness.

As soon as I heard them, I charged at the berserker and launched a kick.

My leg whipped through the air like a whip, heading straight for his head.

"?!"

But something felt off when my leg was about to connect.

It felt like two magnets were pushing against each other, gently repelling.

If I didn’t adjust my trajectory, it seemed like the kick would miss. So, I constantly adjusted my angle, overcoming the resistance.

It was like struggling against something, continuously correcting my path.

Finally, with a sudden burst of force, my foot collided with the berserker’s head.

Thwack!

With a sickening sound, his head exploded like clay.

Well, that was expected.

No amount of high-end exoskeleton could withstand a kick of that caliber, especially not a human skull.

After dealing with the berserker, I turned my gaze.

Endless silence greeted me.

The girl in front of me.

The massive figure near her.

The people hiding behind the building rubble.

None of them spoke. They just stared at me.

"What’s going on? Did I do something wrong?"

I grew uneasy, standing still as I nervously shifted my eyes from side to side