Chapter 23: Dance under the lights (9)

The reason for F24’s assault was simple.

Permission had been granted by Sector 11-A city.

However, the issue they had to make clear was that L-Q3 was still a remnant of Red Stream.

No matter how thoroughly the key positions had been replaced after the devastation, Red Stream’s current leader, L-Q3, was different.

Because he was an individual who had been active as a current Hound.

He hadn’t been killed despite the government’s persistent pursuit, and it was possible he had even more killing machines implanted in his body.

Considering the situation, F24’s command judged that going berserk was the most appropriate course of action.

Like the citizen rebels of the Fifth World War, descendants of the original Hardshells, almost everyone in Red Stream adorned their bodies with machinery.

They had no innate reluctance to destroy their own bodies.

Going berserk was pretty much on target.

And, the subsequent plan for the assault team to buy time while joining forces with the security team to capture L-Q3 and other executives went awry.

Because the assault team was annihilated earlier than expected.

L-Q3 retrieved the hand cannon shotgun that had riddled the assault team member’s entire body with holes.

“…Keuk, kkeueuk.”

The temporary life support system would preserve the man’s life a little longer, but it was utterly meaningless now.

At least, there would be no one to save such a worthless b@stard right now.

“L, L-Q3, berserk… overload….”

He was exhaling trembling breaths, as if habituated to it right before death.

L-Q3 rose, his body, painted crimson with mechanical paint, creaking.

Smoke leaked from various parts of his body.

Heat flushing.

No matter how much the rain and wind pierced through the broken window cracks and pelted down, the heat emanating from his body itself could not be cooled.

Similarly, it was heat building up inside his body, so L-Q3 gripped the assault team member’s neck.

He broke it.

He threw it out the broken window as if for show, and soon after, the sound of a thump! exploding clearly reached his ears.

L-Q3 turned and scanned his surroundings.

The beast-model mechanical sound of his growling, guttural breaths seemed to intensify.

The originally chaotic meeting room had become even more chaotic after the blackout.

Shattered, scratched everywhere, and broken, it was truly a devastating state.

Wasn’t it a sight reminiscent of when Red Stream was first attacked by the government?

The executives he had kept under him to maintain the status quo were just scattered around, incapacitated.

“…”

L-Q3, who had been staring blankly at the whole place, approached an executive.

He struck him with the butt of his shotgun, severing his neck.

Trrrk- Entangled wires in his neck sparked and detached.

He sliced open and tore apart another executive’s body.

An unknown liquid, whether blood or oil, splattered everywhere, and with long fingernails that had appeared at some point, he stabbed all over.

Going berserk didn’t necessarily make emotions surge.

Whether it was due to the stuffy fumes of heat flushing or simply something boiling inside him, his body was just transiently hot.

L-Q3, wondering if there was anything else, thought of something.

Core Works, F24, and the government.

Red Stream’s current situation.

With his entire body now operating sharply due to nervous system manipulation, his brain also worked similarly.

This place, that is, Red Stream, was completely finished.

However, only that remained.

Here, a way for him to get out alive.

Once berserk mode started, the modules in the body were no longer the user’s.

Berserk mode arbitrarily pushed the output of any implant to its maximum, which, like that time three years ago, heralded permanent damage to the nervous system.

There was also a high chance of causing cybernetic psychosis.

The former could somehow be patched up with other modules, but the latter could not.

Causing errors due to over-output and leaving only human nature was, paradoxically, the most detestable disease in this mechanical world.

Therefore, an exit.

L-Q3 now had to find an exit.

At that moment, L-Q3 turned to the twitching presence of an assault team member.

He moved his body, which had been standing still.

“…”

Clank, clank, with each step, the mechanical sound seeped deeply into the floor.

He knelt before the team member.

The long fingernails, which had been drawn at some point, lifted the team member’s chin.

He shoved them into his mouth.

“…Keok! Keheok!”

Piercing the uvula, with his fingernails, he lifted him up and slammed him onto the floor with a thump!

[TL Note: The uvula is the small, soft, teardrop-shaped tissue that hangs down at the back of your throat, right in the middle. It’s most visible when you open your mouth wide and say “ahh”.]

He stabbed his lungs with his fingernails.

The fingernails, now like rakes, tore the assault team member’s body to shreds.

Clank, clank, L-Q3 approached another assault team member nearby.

He slashed him wildly with his drawn fingernails, then looked at a fallen executive this time.

He had to find an exit.

He approached.

Executives, of all things, they were Red Stream.

B@stards he had disliked from the beginning, f*cking !diots.

As he drew his fingernails across them, they became bloodied, twisting and distorting before his eyes.

Even though he didn’t make it, a mechanical sound kept flowing from his throat, grrr, grrr.

He had to find an exit.

A cigarette was flicked.

Then a staff, with a texture he couldn’t tell if it was steel or wood. L-Q3’s head momentarily swayed.

He immediately turned his head.

However, another staff flew towards his line of sight.

Whack!

The staff embedded itself in his already damaged red chrome face.

It was Lee Do who immediately removed the staff.

He tried to place his palm on his stomach, but at that moment, fingernails swung.

Lee Do’s foot quickly retreated.

A grrk! krrk! sound escaped L-Q3’s throat along with his smoke-like breath.

‘Which b@stard are you!’

L-Q3 roared and immediately drew a shotgun from his hip.

He aimed at his head and pulled the trigger straight away.

Nothing.

No bullets, no shotgun.

Instead, what flew out were his fingernails.

“……?!”

A gap created by the sense of incongruity.

It was the inside of his recklessly swinging, bent arm.

Lee Do caught it with his staff.

Just as L-Q3’s center of balance tilted towards where his claws were aimed, Lee Do pulled the staff, wedged between their bodies, in the opposite direction.

His body spun around.

As if slamming him onto the floor, he brought the staff down.

Thump!

“Kkeureuk! Krreueuk!”

L-Q3’s feet tangled, and he fell.

His face hit the ground.

The moment Lee Do extended his palm, he felt a tingling sensation all over his body.

Because the heat flushing had turned into an electric current.

He quickly withdrew his hand.

“Kreuk! Krreureuk! Kreuk!”

L-Q3 sprang up like a spring.

He was airborne.

As Lee Do dodged the claws striking down diagonally by leaning his upper body, another hand reached out to grab his neck.

Red electric currents sparked all over his body.

Clack!

As he barely deflected the arm with his staff, claws swung from the opposite hand again.

Truly wolf-like aggression.

However, immediately after dodging that as well, Lee Do brought the staff he had raised down on L-Q3’s arm.

The arm went down, crisscrossing with the staff in mid-air.

Lee Do let go of the staff.

As it clattered to the floor with a ting, tang! sound, he dug into L-Q3’s arm and wrist, entangling them with his own arm.

With his elbow, he slammed his jaw.

“Kreuk!”

Then, the side.

Immediately after striking with his elbow, Lee Do placed his palm.

It was when internal energy, refined through the flow of meridians, rushed in as if being slammed.

He quickly channeled all of it into his fist.

Chon-gyeong.

[TL Note: Chon-gyeong is a structured martial art with multiple forms or techniques.]

‘First Form.’

Tukung!

With a shattering sound, the mechanical noise vibrated as if convulsing.

The trembling of the man’s body was felt like a wave through their entangled arms and bodies.

It didn’t stop.

Untangling his arm, he placed his palm on the chest of the man who was about to fall backward.

‘First Form, Taeheukgwon.’

Tukung!

The red chrome took a hit.

The air momentarily stopped, and when the phenomenon replayed, L-Q3 fell away.

Lee Do immediately kicked off the floor.

Approaching the man who was falling away, he placed his hand on his heart area again.

‘First Form. Swae-gong, Ap-heo, Heo-myeol, Heo-gwon.’

It was the foundation of the First Form he had practiced so much.

Tududuk- Koong!

It was the sound of chrome breaking.

His fist slammed into his chest.

Instead, the man’s body fell straight to the floor.

“Kkeuk, keuk!”

The man unconsciously fumbled the floor with his claws, yet swung his fist into the air.

“Keuk!”

But it stopped abruptly.

Blood burst from the man’s mouth.

Lee Do, once again on top of L-Q3, placed his palm on his chest again.

Unbeknownst to him, red flashing electric currents continuously ate away at his arm.

Each moment was a burning pain, but he gathered his internal energy in his palm.

It was unavoidable that the activation was slightly delayed due to being distracted by the pain.

Chon-gyeong.

‘First Form….’

It was then.

-L-Lee Do!

Vivian’s voice, which hadn’t been heard even once until just before.

It rang very clearly in his ears for a moment.

There was still no heaviness of air gathering in his hand.

Yet, it was the Great Daehyup’s characteristic premonition, clearly sensed.

Lee Do withdrew his palm.

He pulled back his foot.

Kicking off, he instantly sprang up from the floor, moving away from the man.

Bang-!

It was a thunderous roar that served as a signal.

Bang—K-kwang kwang kwang! K-kwang kwang!

Gunfire raining down from behind.

“Move back!”

A familiar man’s voice, subtly mixed in with the gunfire.

“Unjacked! Wait!”

The security team, having holstered their guns at the door, walked in unison and hurried towards L-Q3.

And a man, similarly clad in the bulletproof vest of a private military company.

James Well, Team Leader of the 3rd Security Team.

Looking at L-Q3, he relayed something over the radio, then approached Lee Do and raised his voice.

“I told you we’d handle it, why are you trying to mess things up?!”

Lee Do looked at L-Q3, collapsed on the floor.

The security team soldiers gathered around him were taking out an automatic stretcher and spreading it on the floor.

Furthermore, they were connecting what looked like medical equipment to all sorts of wires and jacks.

As if trying to transport him somewhere.

Appearing out of nowhere, as if trying to snatch the already cooked rice.

Lee Do shifted his gaze to James.

Having regained his composure somewhat, he muttered something.

“Listen carefully, our F24 needs that L-Q3. I’m sorry for the warning shot, but I couldn’t help it because I was afraid you might actually kill him. Understand?”

“What kind of ‘mother-died’ bullsh*t is that?”

“The fact that you incapacitated L-Q3 like that deserves compensation. So we will pay you a price. Even though I don’t know what kind of trick an Unjacked used… So, you just shut your mouth and go down now. That would be good for all of us.”

Without even a chance to say, “What the hell is this?,” Lee Do’s eyes turned back to L-Q3 beyond.

He hadn’t finished him off yet.

He had felt it as soon as he first used the First Form on the man.

Unlike Maria or the Hound he had first encountered, there wasn’t that characteristic tingling sensation of internal energy penetrating deep into the body.

It meant he was by no means a light opponent.

In other words, it meant he hadn’t decisively killed a man who clearly needed to be killed.

And that meant he didn’t know what else might happen.

F24’s judgment was only that much.

Crack!

Electricity sparked for an instant.

It was red.

“Krr, kreuk! Krrreuk…!”

The mechanical sound became infinitely rough, as if a wide EQ was applied.

The claws gripping the floor trembled violently, and they scraped indiscriminately.

At first, it was just the floor, but in the end, it was people.

“…Keok, keoheok!”

It was one of the security team soldiers.

“Kkeuk! Kkeueueuk!”

Then two.

“Hak, keuk, kkeueuk…!”

Then three.

The ones who immediately retreated and raised their guns tried to pull the trigger recklessly, but unfortunately, L-Q3 was faster.

Because his claws tore them to shreds.

“Ex-Exit, Exit… Aheuk, aheuk.”

It was a scene where red electric currents even flowed in his glowing eyes.

In the pandemonium, no one could handle the wolf-like cyborg.

Some, mixed in the chaos, fired their guns, but they only ended up having their bulletproof vests torn by his claws and dying.

Lee Do witnessed the bizarre scene in its entirety, then took out a cigarette pack from his pocket.

Fumbling, he put a cigarette to his lips.

He lit it.

F24, Red Stream.

In the end, he still hadn’t found the answer to what the difference between them was.

Perhaps it was a natural fact since both were ultimately !diots.

“Hey.”

Lee Do, taking a drag from his cigarette, called out to James first.

The moment he turned around, he punched him in the jaw.

“…Kkeuk.”

He collapsed with a thud.

“You son of a b*tch.”

Brushing off his hands for a moment, Lee Do, looking down at James, looked up at L-Q3 again.

What he intended to kill, he intended to kill, no matter what.

Regardless of who was trying to transport and control what, the fact that he was a psychopathic murderer still remained unchanged.