Seoul Cyberpunk Story-Chapter 29: Delicious Kiwi (1)

Northern Quarry, Burning Duct. Deep night, long after the sun had vanished.

A Jinrong agent stepped out of the shadows, porcelain-white mask gleaming, the implant package cradled in his hand.

His voice came from behind the mask—perfectly polished, stripped of any trace of emotion.

"Retrieval complete."

Other agents, already combing the site, looked up.

They wore the same white porcelain masks, but each was still distinct—some tall, some short, some with feminine curves beneath the armor.

"You’re here."

Five in total.

That many Jinrong agents in one place was rare—unheard of, even.

Even now, five years later, the number of agents hadn’t changed. Still only 100 in the world.

Which meant that 5% of Jinrong’s total force had just gathered in this cramped hideout.

If Titan Tech had sent 5% of its arsenal here, this quarry would be buried under tanks.

No doubt the other megacorps were watching this site closely.

The returning agent scanned the surroundings slowly.

There was one spot in the quarry, amidst all the gang corpses, that stood out—blackened, melted, as if fire had swept through and wiped everything clean.

"This is where our brother died..."

The voice still held no emotion. But the rhythm slowed—just a bit. That was the only sign.

A small-framed agent cracked the security on the Query Witches’ server and began combing through the data.

Being a Netwitch den, the camera surveillance was excessive—dozens of angles, every corner covered.

"Footage restored."

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A hologram flickered to life, replaying the moment of the incident.

But what it showed didn’t match reality.

Standing in the place where A should’ve been... was a hulking combat cyborg, armed to the teeth.

The sleek agent analyzing the feed spoke.

"That body... looks like Hector. Hexa Core Armory's model."

"Hector came all the way out here just to kill our agent? Why? What’s the motive?"

But the agents didn’t fall for the fake footage. They started pointing out the inconsistencies.

Then one of them spoke, eyes unfocused—like he was parsing AR data overlaid on reality.

"Just got an update. Hector was never here."

Everyone turned to him.

"CCTV and public network logs show Hector moving toward the Burning Duct. But..."

He paused.

"Testimonies from Jinrong’s on-site employees say the opposite—Hector spent the entire day in central Babel."

"Someone did a major overwrite. Whoever faked this... it was industrial-grade. Nexus Node, maybe?"

"Abyss Aerotics could do this too," another muttered.

That’s when the agent with the implant finally spoke—quiet, but grim.

"If we knew this would happen... maybe we shouldn’t have eliminated the witnesses."

Regret flickered silently between the agents.

Then, the towering agent who had remained silent until now finally spoke.

His voice was low—but powerful enough to cut through every conversation at ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) once.

"None of that matters."

All eyes locked on him.

"Whether it was Hector or a fake doesn’t change anything. Doesn’t matter who killed him. The only ones capable of doing it... are megacorps."

He turned slowly, making eye contact with each of them.

"Every megacorp will eventually need to be conquered. The only thing that matters now—"

He pointed to the scorched, empty space where their comrade had died.

"—is that they’ve finally built something that can kill us. We need to finish the system. Now."

The air in the quarry turned heavy, choked with something unspoken.

One by one, the agents nodded.

Wordless agreement.

The small-framed agent compressed all the data from the Query Witches’ server into a shard.

The process took mere seconds.

"Data secure."

And then, as if they had rehearsed it, the five agents moved at once.

They melted into the materials around them—stone, steel, dust.

Just before the last one disappeared, he paused.

He looked back at the quarry—at the blood, the death, the silence.

Then he too vanished, dissolving into solid rock.

****

In the steam haze of the Burning Duct, the Seoul office lights glowed like cold fire.

Inside the quiet building, the rusty ceiling fan spun lazily, stirring the air like a dying breath.

Amber sat surrounded by floating hologram screens, working late into the night.

Her amber hair reflected the glow of the blue lights, giving it a strange, unnatural hue.

Her fingers never stopped moving—unlocking security layers, parsing through endless data feeds, scrubbing through video logs.

She’d been at it for hours.

All because of a single, passing comment from A after the job was done:

“A Jinrong employee with a white porcelain face attacked me. I killed him.”

Amber had stopped breathing the moment she heard it.

The glass she’d been cleaning froze in her hand, and the color drained from her face.

Two reasons made her blood run cold.

First—A had come face-to-face with Jinrong Technology, the most chaotic, reckless megacorp on the planet.

Second—A claimed to have eliminated a Jinrong agent.

Jinrong agents were considered unkillable. Even other megacorps didn’t believe they could be taken down.

Immortal. Immune to every known weapon. And once they targeted something, they never stopped.

The only reason megacorps even tolerated Jinrong’s demands... was because of those agents.

“How the hell...”

Amber muttered.

Anyone who’d ever seen a Jinrong agent fight knew better than to try.

And A killed one?

Amber stared at the screen, uncertain which was more terrifying—the agent’s death...

...or the power A had just proven she possessed.

But right now, none of that mattered.

What mattered was surviving this moment.

Making sure Jinrong never figured out who A really was.

Amber scanned every network node around the quarry, slicing through security protocols and digging for traces.

And when she finally breached the quarry’s video data—she hit something unexpected.

"If I didn’t do this... then who the hell did?"

Every security cam feed had been altered.

Where A should’ve stood, she was gone—replaced by the legendary Hector from Hexa Core Armory.

On-screen, Hector was burning the Jinrong agent alive.

Hector showing up here? No chance. Someone had tampered with the evidence.

Amber furrowed her brow.

It didn’t make sense. No way A hired a Netwitch just to fake this. Not unless she’d skipped pizza for a week straight to afford the job.

"Is some megacorp helping her? No way... doesn’t add up."

Stressed out, Amber ran both hands through her hair and jumped to other camera feeds.

Same thing. Everything—all of it—was scrubbed.

One hour passed. Then two. Then three.

Her eyes were bloodshot. Her lips were dry and cracked.

The coffee was long gone. She didn’t even think to refill it.

"What the hell is this?"

In the corner of her desk—unseen, unknowable—something was watching her with a smile.

A tiny girl, no larger than a hand, with hair covering one eye. She looked just like A.

[Thanks for always helping A.]

The girl whispered her gratitude—though Amber could never hear it—and then disappeared.

Like she had never existed at all.

Something tugged at Amber’s instincts. She glanced around, sensing something.

But she couldn’t put it into words.

Beyond the glass, the first light of dawn crept over Babel City.

Faint rays bled through the Seoul Office windows.

Amber sighed and began shutting everything down.

She hadn’t accomplished much. But at least A’s trail had been erased—cleanly, thoroughly.

She powered off the terminal and sank into her chair.

Then, pulling a blanket around her shoulders, she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

****

On the way back from the successful implant retrieval job.

I was walking past the filthy alleys of the Burning Duct when the blocky shadow of my one-room apartment came into view.

"Damn, I’m tired..."

By the time I climbed the stairs, my legs felt like bricks. I was dragging my feet to the door.

When I opened it, a chubby silhouette looked up at me with shiny eyes.

"Kyu."

Mecha-Agu raised his stubby arms and waddled over to greet me.

Beside him, the kid had burrowed deep into a blanket and fallen asleep.

‘Looks like the fusion wore off.’

Good. I-Agu looked too damn creepy when it was active.

The room was still a mess.

Empty pizza boxes, paper cups scattered all over. The TV was playing Babel Network news with the volume turned down.

I let out a huge yawn and collapsed onto the bed.

‘I’m wrecked... but maybe I’ll eat one more pizza before I pass out.’

I flicked open an AR menu in the corner of my vision.

Large Black Bio pizza. Extra cheese. Double pepperoni.

The order chimed through with a soft ding and displayed the estimated time.

[20 minutes.]

Agu was still staring blankly at the boring TV feed.

...

Feeling bored, I reached out to poke his squishy belly.

That’s when I heard it—familiar drone sounds outside the window.

‘Already?’

Way too fast for pizza.

Like they’d shipped it before it even hit the oven.

I got up and opened the window to check the drone pad.

There was a box on the platform—but it wasn’t a pizza box. It was a cube.

Standard delivery package.

‘What the...?’

I tilted my head and picked it up.

Lighter than it looked.

When I held it close, I could hear faint chirping inside.

‘No way...’

I brought it inside and carefully opened the lid.

Inside, kiwi birds.

Tiny, brown, fluffy bastards bouncing around, screeching “kiwi-kiwi!”

Every time I saw them, I wondered—

‘Did real kiwis 100 years ago actually make that sound?’

It sounded way too synthetic. Too artificial.

But I’d never seen a single video of a kiwi crying from a hundred years ago.

That thought annoyed the hell out of me.