After a busy day, Suho and his party unpacked at their lodging and talked animatedly until late into the night.
They filled their stomachs with an abundance of top-tier hotel room service and wine,
and the three of them chattered as if they meant to stay up all night.
Suho, Jiho, and Seongsik were neighborhood friends—older and younger brothers in all but blood—who shared a considerable number of childhood memories, so they lost track of time just reminiscing.
Only Joshua, unable to join in the conversation, washed up and lay down first to recover from the fatigue of travel.
Sometime after two in the morning, Suho’s android Minsu, who had been charging, approached at a brisk pace.
“Huh? Minsu, what is it?”
“Information from the Cheongdam penthouse. Communications have been lost with the androids assigned to perimeter security. All five units are being detected as inoperable.”
“What?!”
Suho sprang up from his seat.
* * *
Suho’s penthouse, where five of the guards dispatched by the Administration Bureau had finished the day-night shift change with the other five and were now stationed as perimeter security.
In addition to the guards, five security androids were also scattered around the perimeter.
And inside, a total of six androids for his father, mother, and Suji were either charging or on guard.
The security personnel deployed to what seemed an excessive degree had been regarded as an absolutely watertight protection system.
At least until just a moment ago.
Chk—
“This is A-1, east entrance all clear. How’s your side?”
“This is B-2, west rear gate all clear. Checking the parking lot.”
Chk—
“C-1, parking lot all clear. CCTV is operating normally too.”
“Hold on, this is D-4. Strangers approaching from the south recycling station. What the hell, there are several of them?”
“Report their appearance and behavioral characteristics. Let us know if you need additional support.”
“Okay, I’ll warn them off. If I detect any suspicious behavior, I’ll report immed—urk! K-keheuk!”
“D-4? D-4? What is it?! Everyone, converge on the south recycling station!”
A sudden cut in communications from one side.
Sensing something was wrong, the guards immediately reported to headquarters and ran toward the spot where contact had been lost.
If communications were cut off on this side as well, the police special forces would be contacted at once.
Swish, swish, swish, swish—
The security androids guarding the perimeter of the residence also detected the anomaly and ran toward the location. The androids arrived far faster than the guards.
True to their mechanical nature, the androids charged into the problem area without fear.
But from behind the corner near the recycling station, where as many as five security androids had rushed in, sharp sounds of friction and small explosions rang out along with flashes of light.
Kakakakagak!
Kishishishit!
Pajijijik!
Kooong—chiiiiii...
The strange sounds, coming in rapid succession, scraped sharply at the nerves.
After that, the inside of the corner fell silent.
Tat-tat-tat-tat.
The four guards who had gathered at a run drew their pistols and stopped in their tracks.
“Stop. Hold here for a moment.”
“There’s... something there.”
“The client’s private androids went in, but the moment they did, we lost all contact.”
“Is D-4 inside?”
They could not tell what was around the corner. In a situation where even powerful security androids appeared to have been neutralized in an instant, the flesh-and-blood guards could not help but hesitate to enter.
One of them radioed again.
“Headquarters, this is A-1. Requesting support. We need immediate backup. South recycling station. We are in confrontation with an unidentified enemy.”
—Headquarters confirms. Support team dispatched. Continue reporting the situation.
“Hoo... hoo...”
It was an intensely tense situation. Each of the guards darted his eyes around, quickly scanning the surroundings, but—
beyond the building corner where something seemed to have gone terribly wrong, there was only darkness and silence.
Then,
with a strange whirring sound, a human silhouette walked out of the darkness.
“Sh... shoot!!”
Bang—bang—tatatang!
The four guards fired in unison at the unidentified figure.
But whatever it was, it kept walking even after taking a considerable number of bullets, then suddenly toppled over.
“What... what is that?”
“It’s an android! It’s one of the security androids that was originally guarding the perimeter.”
It was one of the ones that had charged in without fear.
It was a model that could normally withstand handgun rounds with its body, but something had already destroyed a significant portion of it, and it was on the verge of ceasing function.
One of its arms was gone, nowhere to be seen, and there was a large hole in its abdomen, sparks crackling from within.
“So the androids that went inside were all destroyed after—”
In that instant,
Shiiiiik—!
A sharp light shot out from beyond the darkness.
It was too fast for human reflexes to properly react to. The guards merely sensed something like a flash of light.
Kakakakakakakakang—!
“Huuugh...!”
They had not even properly seen what flew at them, but something had come right up before their eyes, only to be blocked by something and fall to the ground.
Only then did they lower their gazes and realize they were sharp blades.
It had been a moment when they might as well have died without even knowing it.
Only belatedly realizing that they had stepped into the jaws of death and come back out, the guards felt the strength leave their legs.
An enemy in the darkness, moving at a speed their eyes could not even follow.
The pistols they gripped in both sweaty hands had never felt so powerless.
They were staring straight ahead, trembling, without even knowing where to aim, when voices reached their ears.
“Wow... Noona was right.”
“See? I told you unni has good instincts.”
Fortunately, three superhumans had arrived in time and generated a shield in front of the guards, saving their lives by a hair’s breadth.
“Y-you people are...”
“We’re the Sanarae Clan. Request support from headquarters and fall back. We’ll handle this place.”
When Lee Seojun, an A-rank Admittee and one of the raid leaders of the Sanarae Clan, spoke in a low voice while staring into the darkness, the guards flinched in surprise.
“S-Sanarae... Understood. Thank you. We’ve already sent in a report. A support team will arrive soon.”
“Okay. Then get as far away as you can. Don’t get caught up in the fight.”
“Understood.”
The moment the four guards hurriedly left the scene, Lee Seojun growled toward the enemies crouching in the darkness.
“You rat bastards, don’t hide in the dark. Come out. I can see you perfectly.”
The group, realizing that their attack had been blocked by something, finally walked out of the darkness.
Ten Admittees exuding a sinister aura, and five combat androids with four arms each, unlike ordinary androids.
One of the men, wearing a smart mask that had grotesquely distorted his face, muttered.
“Heh... what’s this? There were more flies.”
“Strange. That wasn’t an attack some mere guard could block.”
“Those guys don’t look like civilians, do they? Was there a briefing that people like that would be here? Was I the only one who didn’t know?”
For the Russian special operations team High Specter, who had come believing the target Jeong Suho’s security consisted of ten human guards and eleven androids, this was honestly not an operation they could possibly feel nervous about.
That remained true even with two or three more people who appeared to be Admittees now standing before them.
Their side already had ten Admittees in total.
The leader of High Specter, who was commanding the operation, gave an order in a low, biting tone.
“Don’t let your guard down. We don’t know what those three are. Hit them as fast as possible, all at once.”
Overconfident in their own strength, they intended to swiftly dispose of the obstacles before them and continue the kidnapping operation.
However,
Dadadadat—
Whoooooosh—
Papat—
Wiiiiiiiiiiiii—screech.
Figures appeared from every direction.
Some came flying through the air, some with tremendous super jumps, some by sprinting at high speed, and others arrived on bikes.
Not a single one of them was an ordinary person.
In the blink of an eye, the faces of the Russian High Specter team darkened with distress as they found themselves surrounded by more than sixty Admittees.
“Th-this fucking...”
“Did they know we were coming...?”
“...Damn it. To think there was a traitor on the inside... The operation’s been leaked! Abandon the current operation. Switch to escape. Scatter and move to rendezvous point B. If you are captured, you must self-destruct!”
Instantly grasping the overwhelming difference in combat power, they drove the five combat androids into a deathtrap to buy time and quickly chose to flee.
But there was no way that would work.
Bam! Kwajijik!
Booooom!
Fyusuuuuuk...
The combat androids could not even buy a few seconds against dozens of Sanarae Clan Admittees.
“Hmph, arrogant bastards. Where do you think you’re going? Catch them!”
“Roger!”
The elite Admittees of the Sanarae Clan charged at the Russian intruders like flashes of light.
* * *
‘Winning Jeong Suho’s heart.’
Lee Danbi believed that was the only thing necessary right now.
So she had begun protecting his family with no guarantee of any return.
Jeong Suho’s abilities already stood out to a serious degree, so there were bound to be many forces targeting him or groups that wanted him, and she believed the opportunity would inevitably come.
Because they already knew of that danger, hadn’t the government also committed an especially large amount of manpower to Jeong Suho’s security?
Fortunately, that opportunity came faster than expected.
It was a chance even she had not thought would arrive so soon.
“Let’s go! Only Sanarae Team 7 stays at the building. Everyone else comes with me!”
Lee Danbi had already sent three raid teams, over sixty clan members, to protect Jeong Suho’s family, but the moment she received word of combat, she decided to lead an additional fifty or so clan members and join them.
If the teams sent ahead could stall for even a short while, the police special forces would soon arrive.
If she wanted to monopolize the credit, she had to get there before then.
Wiiiiiiiiiiing——
Lee Danbi was impatient. Bikes and vehicles roared as they sped off.
* * *
There was no need to see the result.
The battle ended anticlimactically.
No matter how elite the intruders were, the Sanarae team was a massive clan made up only of elites among elites who did not fall behind anyone.
And there were more than sixty of them.
It was a force capable of raiding a monster boss on the highest floors of a high-level Tower.
It was absolutely not a group that a mere ten-man special operations team could contend with.
Moreover, the Specter team had already scattered in all directions and was fleeing, so they were defeated one by one and either killed or subdued and dragged back.
All five of Russia’s combat androids succeeded in self-destructing, but the remaining Admittee operatives did not.
To begin with, they were Tower-raiding Admittees, not special forces soldiers.
They were merely carrying out such operations as part of a deal with the government; they were not soldiers trained to the bone.
The government had ordered them to self-destruct immediately if captured so their affiliation would not be revealed, but in actual combat, that was a far-fetched order.
Not a single one of the arrogant Admittees chose self-destruction.
Instead, they chose to flee or fight back until the very end, only to be eliminated or subdued.
Among them, a few even surrendered, saying they would cooperate.
By the time Lee Danbi’s team of fifty or so and the police special forces, who arrived almost at the same time, reached the scene, everything was already over.
The five smashed Russian combat androids,
three Russian A-rank Admittees and two B-rank Admittees killed in battle,
as well as the B-rank operatives who had been completely subdued after suffering heavy injuries and the C-rank Admittee operative team members who had surrendered.
The 119 emergency responders had already loaded the body of one dead Administration Bureau guard into an ambulance,
and people from the Admittee Security Office and the National Intelligence Service came to capture the surviving Russian Admittees and load them into special vehicles.
A technical team under the Tower Management Bureau collected the five smashed Russian combat androids and Suho’s broken security androids as well.
An enormous number of people had gathered in the middle of the night.
Over a hundred and ten Sanarae Clan members, more than twenty police special forces, other police officers, 119 emergency responders, and people from the Security Office, the National Intelligence Service, and the Administration Bureau.
The scene was hectic with flashing vehicles, murmuring people, and lights.
At the commotion loud enough to wake the entire neighborhood, many residents of the luxury villa “Twelve One Cheongdam,” along with Suho’s family, came outside to watch the situation.
Without even dreaming what kind of danger they had been in.
Suji finally answered Suho’s desperate call.
“Suji! Suji, are you okay over there?! Why weren’t you answering your phone!”
—Oh, big oppa? I didn’t have my phone on me. But how did you know, oppa? It’s chaos here right now.
“They said the androids aren’t connecting. What happened?”
—That’s right, they say all the perimeter security androids are broken. Right now, there are police and soldiers in front of our house, and people everywhere. It’s a total mess.
“What? In front of our house? What happened?”
—I don’t know. I think someone tried to break into our house. Armed people tried to force their way in... I don’t know the details, but anyway, they’ve all been caught now.
“What? Are you okay? You—you? Mom and Dad too?”
—Yeah, we’re all fine. We were asleep. Nothing happened to us. But it was so loud that when we came out, all the perimeter security androids were broken, and they said one of the guards passed away.
“My God......”
This was no ordinary matter.
Suho sprang up from his seat.
Jiho, Seongsik, and even Joshua all looked at him.
“We... I think we need to go back right now. Home.”