Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 44: Golden Murdock (7)

She had been shot. That much she remembered.

A bullet piercing her abdomen. The warmth of her blood spilling onto the ground.

She knew—absolutely—that she had been dying.

“Is this heaven? Or maybe... my final dream?”

She turned her head and spotted a picnic basket.

It was filled with all the foods Whity had always been curious about.

Sushi, pasta, cake, fruit, sandwiches...

Every dish they had only ever seen in books spilled endlessly out of the basket.

[Riley, you finally made it!]

Startled by the familiar voice, Riley looked up.

There, floating gently in midair, was a round, white bird—Whity.

Just like always, Whity’s wings were spread wide, eyes beaming with joy as they looked at her.

The same Whity she had left behind.

The one she had once promised she’d take to see the cherry blossoms. The one she had wished to go on a picnic with.

Here, in this place, that wish was coming true.

[You said we’d have a picnic together, remember? I kept the promise!]

Whity’s voice rang clear and bright.

As if nothing had ever happened.

Even in her half-conscious state, the moment Riley saw Whity, she understood—she was dreaming.

But so what?

Right now, in this moment, she was having the picnic she’d longed for, with Whity by her side.

“Whity, try this one too. You said you wanted to taste sushi.”

Smiling, Riley gestured toward the little white bird.

She offered a small plate of sushi to Whity.

Whity looked at it and beamed.

[Wow! So this is real sushi! It’s even prettier than it looked in the books!]

Through Riley’s blurred vision, Whity appeared pure and white, just as always.

But in reality, Whity was no longer the same.

Swallowed by darkness, their feathers had turned black, their form twisted and warped until it was barely recognizable.

But none of that mattered.

Even soaked in shadow, Whity still smiled for Riley.

Under the cherry blossom tree, Riley and Whity laughed and talked together.

They spoke of the books Whity had read, of the stories Riley had told about the outside world, of all the places they had dreamed of going someday.

[Look, look at that cloud! Doesn’t it look like a cat?]

“That one looks more like a boat... Oh, wait, yeah—kinda like a cat too.”

In truth, Riley lay sprawled on a cold, hard slab of black marble, deep in the darkness.

But the fantasy in her mind remained vivid.

And the dimmer her consciousness grew, the sharper that fantasy became.

[Thank you, Riley.]

Whity suddenly spoke in a quiet, sincere voice.

“...Why?”

[For setting me free. You taught me about the world. You gave me books, you told me stories... And now you’ve shown me the cherry blossoms, too.]

Riley fell silent for a moment.

Then smiled softly.

“I always wished you could leave that tiny space... and see the real world someday.”

[I know. I always knew.]

Whity floated down and gently perched on Riley’s shoulder.

Riley reached up and stroked their soft feathers.

“Whity... where should we go next?”

Her voice was growing faint.

Even as she felt her consciousness fading, she held onto her smile until the end.

[Anywhere is fine... as long as we’re together.]

Whether that was Whity’s real voice, or just something her heart imagined, she couldn’t say.

Petals scattered more thickly from the sky.

Sunlight shone down on them, and the breeze wrapped gently around their bodies.

In the dark, Riley and Whity continued their eternal picnic inside their shared dream.

****

The place I arrived at—led by the white bird—was swallowed in dense darkness.

The moment we reached it, the white bird dispersed into the air like scattered mist.

The ceiling lights had all been shattered, but the soft blue glow flowing naturally from my body faintly illuminated the space.

Behind me, a hollow elevator shaft stretched upward, barely visible in the dark. Ahead stood what looked like the entrance to a lab.

“...This place...”

Something about it stirred a strange sense of nostalgia.

It reminded me of the lab I’d seen in the early days after joining MK Corp.

As if some piece of that memory had been reconstructed right here.

Of course, if I looked closely, I could tell this wasn’t the same place. But emotionally—it felt the same.

I pointed to the old CCTV camera tucked in a corner of the ceiling and spoke to the one perched on my shoulder.

“Some of those might still be working.”

[?]

“I” tilted their head, confused, clearly not understanding.

They simply looked around, curiosity filling their eyes.

Just in case we were being watched, I straightened my hair and pulled the MK Girl costume over myself.

Then, I slowly stepped into the shadow-swallowed lab.

The moment I entered, I could tell something had happened here.

Bullet marks scarred the walls, and the desks and chairs were overturned like there had been a fight.

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Shattered glass and long-dried coffee stains were scattered across the floor.

A strange tension hung in the air.

An eerie atmosphere, like walking into a haunted house, ruled this space.

Unlike the cherry blossom path I’d walked before, here, the features of an Erosion {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} Zone stood out vividly.

Shadows collapsed into pixel fragments, possessing real form.

Rooms connected to each other with no logic—doors leading to nowhere.

And every so often, a construct flickered into existence.

These constructs looked like blackened, warped spheres with limbs attached. Twisted. Wrong.

They seemed to have some connection to the white bird that had guided us here.

“I” clearly didn’t want to see them. They pressed their tiny hands over their eyes and curled up tighter on my shoulder.

I reassured them, and swung my blade-shaped arm to cut down the approaching constructs.

The blue-glowing blade carved sharp trails through the darkness, and each construct it touched dispersed into black smoke.

This Erosion Zone was different in every room.

Some were so deeply corroded they looked like lumps of coal—ceiling, floor, and walls indistinguishable.

Others were filled with such dense shadow, nothing at all could be seen.

The room I entered now looked like someone had just been using it.

A monitor was still on. The keyboard, worn with use, was spotless.

Steam still curled up from a mug of coffee sitting on the desk.

Something about the space resembled the office I used to work in.

Before I realized it, I was sitting down in front of the computer.

The mouse, the keyboard—even the hundred-year-old operating system.

It felt like I had stepped back into the past, and I let myself sink into that feeling, drifting through the computer’s internal files.

And then—I found something that caught my eye.

A document, left conspicuously right in the center of the desktop.

It was titled:

<TITAN TECH AI RESEARCH FACILITY – NEW RECRUIT ORIENTATION MANUAL>

At first glance, it looked like a typical company handbook—but the contents were... interesting.

<It is commonly believed that Erosion Zones form during the birth of self-evolving AIs, but this is false.>

<Erosion Zones occur when the “Violet” virus—embedded throughout MK Corp’s AI frame network—comes into contact with a self-evolving AI.>

<Therefore, all AI frame-utilizing products are strictly forbidden inside the lab. This includes any items made from simple materials like paper or bags.>

“Violet virus...?”

So that swarm of purple-eyed things was MK’s virus...

The manual was full of intel a regular merc like me would never usually see. Stuff about vanishing AIs, warnings against giving them religious texts—things that screamed classified.

One line in particular stood out. The part about religious books.

It felt oddly familiar.

One of MK Corp’s “smarter” AI versions had once asked me to get them a copy of the Heart Sutra.

I glanced at “I,” who still had their hands over their eyes.

“So... if you came out of the Erosion Zone, does that make you a self-evolving AI?”

“I” squirmed on my shoulder and tilted their head again, clearly not getting it.

“Probably not... You’re way too dumb to be a self-evolving AI.”

I muttered with a smirk.

“I” must’ve heard that—because their tiny fists suddenly started whacking the top of my head.

Once I stepped out of the brightly lit office, darkness rushed back to meet me.

Coming out of the light made the hallway seem even darker.

The floor glistened under my blue glow—soaked in blood.

Some spots were still wet. Sticky. Shining.

But strangely, there were no bodies.

Like someone had cleaned them up.

I walked down the blood-filled corridor.

At the end, I came to a door that looked completely out of place.

It said “Reception Room.”

From beyond it, a faint floral scent seeped through.

The same sweet, sticky scent I’d smelled back on the cherry blossom path.

“I” must’ve smelled it too—they curled up again on my shoulder.

Then whispered quietly in my ear.

[Be careful...]

I took a deep breath.

And slowly turned the handle of the black-stained steel door.

As it opened, a long, chilling creak echoed down the hallway.