Chapter 102: The Great Legacy (8)
A combat helicopter made with cutting-edge technology was chasing them at high speed.
Once it had locked onto them, there was no way to escape in this slow truck.
The problem was that this wasn’t all. The helicopter seemed to have no intention of capturing the group, instead aiming its gun at them.
“Damn!”
Kiiiiiing!!
As Hyun Suho urgently pressed the pedal, the machine gun mounted on the helicopter opened fire.
Those were armor-piercing rounds that could penetrate a tank. It would easily blow up a truck like this.
Tatatatatat!!!
Even though he hurriedly zigzagged, it was like a mouse trapped in a cage.
“Damn!”
Shooting down a helicopter with a rifle was something only seen in movies. Especially now, there was no moment he could take his hands off the wheel.
In that moment of despair, a bright light shone on the helicopter.
“Huh?!”
When the helicopter pilot turned his gaze, he saw a woman floating in mid-air, holding a bazooka.
The pilot, unaware of Pluto, could only doubt his own eyes.
And……
Bang!!!!
The projectile fired from the bazooka hit the helicopter squarely.
“Maria!”
In a moment of confusion between Pluto and Maria, he quickly kicked the door open and jumped out.
This was because Pluto was falling to the ground.
Thud!!
As Pluto hit the ground, an enormous sound erupted. Hyun Suho rushed to Pluto's side to check her condition.
“Are you okay?! Stay with me.”
“Ah, Alex……”
Having endured a fierce battle, her synthetic skin was nearly torn away, and her once-lustrous hair was completely burned, leaving her in a grotesque state.
She was almost out of energy, making even the slightest movement seem unnatural.
“My energy…… is almost gone.”
“I know. Don’t speak.”
Pluto was the result of years of research by Dr. Jacob and his team, who had finally managed to charge her.
Now that the facility was gone, there was no way to recharge Pluto.
Like a person losing the spark in their eyes, the focus was fading from Pluto's gaze.
At that moment, the children came out of the car and arrived at the spot where the two were.
“Eek! A monster!”
Seeing Pluto, whose synthetic skin had mostly deteriorated, revealing mechanical parts, it was natural for the children to scream.
However, one of the children recognized Pluto.
“Um, Mommy?”
One child bravely recognized Pluto, who lay there like a corpse.
As soon as the child spoke, the others began to carefully examine Pluto closely.
Though her appearance had changed drastically, she was still Maria, the one who had raised them with love for years. The children soon realized this fact.
“Mommy!!”
The children ran towards Pluto, crying uncontrollably at her dreadful state.
Once they understood that she was their mother, her appearance or identity became irrelevant.
“Mom, don’t die!”
The children clung to her hand and began to cry simultaneously.
Seeing this, Pluto summoned her last strength to stroke them.
Before long, Pluto had transformed back into Maria.
“It’s okay. Mommy is…… okay.”
“Mommy!! Mommy!!!”
Though they were still young, they instinctively sensed this was goodbye.
Pluto looked at them with sad eyes before turning her gaze back to Hyun Suho.
“Please…… take care of the children…….”
All her other functions had already ceased. She was using her last bit of energy to speak.
Understanding her condition, Hyun Suho nodded and said, “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of the children.”
“Thank you. Truly…….”
With that, Pluto’s functions came to a complete stop.
And Hyun-soo's world turned upside down.
《Dimension Gate Clear》
* * *
“Ow!”
As he regained consciousness, Hyun Suho instinctively checked his body.
His leg, which had been pierced by bullets, throbbed painfully, but fortunately, no wounds were visible.
This was to be expected.
It was Alex who had been shot, not Hyun Suho himself.
“I’m sorry if I messed up your body too much.”
* * *
The Purpose of Clearing the Dimension Gate is Survival.
If it had been a matter of simply surviving, it would have been much easier.
At the very least, Alex’s body wouldn’t have ended up full of holes.
He felt a little sorry for the Alex he had left behind, but in the end, the situation was much better since there would be no repercussions.
The system window proved it.
《Mission Completion Rate 100%》
In previous dimension gates, he had even exceeded 100% achievement, but reaching 100% itself was an impressive result.
Naturally, the reward was guaranteed.
《Emblem Acquired》
◆ Emblem
Top Agent
(Rank A)
▷ Condition: Protect Pluto
Health +10
Firepower +15%
Shooting Accuracy +25%
Since the gate's difficulty was low, the rank of the acquired emblem wasn’t high.
However, all the options were well-suited for Hyun Suho.
“Firepower? I wonder if it also applies to plasma rounds.”
Even if it only applied to regular bullets, it would be an effective enhancement. If the effect extended to plasma rounds, Hyun Suho’s combat abilities would be significantly boosted.
He decided to test this later.
There was something much more important at the moment.
《Artifact Acquired》
◆ Artifact
Pluto
(OOPArt)
Atlantis Robot
“…….”
Before him was Maria—Pluto—the figure he had seen inside the dimension gate.
When he last saw her, her synthetic skin had been torn off by attacks, and soot from explosives was smeared all over her, but now she looked pristine.
She was even cleaner than when Alex had first met Maria.
“This is my reward?”
Pluto, the very source of all the problems inside the dimension gate.
A combat robot made by Atlantis, an ancient super civilization.
It had appeared here as a reward.
It was obvious that this was an incredible reward.
If he hadn’t achieved 100%, he would never have received it.
The problem, however, was how to use it.
“How am I supposed to use this…?”
Just as Hyun Suho was about to touch Pluto, looking somewhat perplexed, Pluto, who had been lying still as if dead, suddenly opened her eyes wide.
“Huh?”
It was too early to be surprised.
Pluto's transformation had only just begun.
Her body began to liquefy, as if melting, before solidifying again to form a new shape.
It was no longer Maria's figure.
Her hair was a dazzling emerald color, and her eyes shone red like rubies.
While Maria's body had enough curves, the new figure’s contours were even more defined.
It was a form much more familiar to Hyun Suho.
“Nova?”
Pluto—no, Nova—smiled.
Moving her hands and feet slightly, as if trying out a demonstration, she spoke.
“This is an excellent vessel. It suits me perfectly.”
Nova had often appeared in the world by borrowing a physical form, not just as a hologram.
But each time, she had borrowed Bipo's body (?).
She never had a body specifically made for herself, like this one.
“I have applied nanotechnology to the science of Atlantis. Now, this body belongs to me.”
“Not a body, but a robot… Well, whatever. Is Pluto’s body going to be useful?”
“Of course. I have absorbed all of Atlantis's technology. Bipo Squad's performance will increase by at least 30%. Moreover, if I make a battle suit out of this body, Master’s combat ability will also be greatly enhanced.”
Until now, the battle suit had also been transformed from Bipo.
That had been a great help, but if they used Pluto’s body, the suit’s performance would increase even further.
Testing would be needed to see just how much this would help.
“So this gate was a success, right?”
“Absolutely. It was a tremendous achievement.”
The whole reason they bid for the dimension gate in the first place was to acquire necessary equipment.
It was a so-called "gear rush" operation.
He imagined getting a new sword, gun, or vehicle, but he never thought he’d get an advanced robot.
Considering that, it was indeed an unexpected success, just as Nova had said.
“That’s great. Anything else?”
“Pluto left a message.”
“A message? What is it?”
“That’s…”
Nova trailed off and spoke with a slightly shy expression.
“It’s a secret.”
“…Huh?”
“It’s a secret just between women. Even if you’re curious, please hold back.”
Hyun Suho blinked in confusion at the sudden statement, but Nova spoke coyly.
“As a celebration for acquiring my own body, I’ll ride on Master’s back to the city.”
Saying so, Nova sat in the back seat of the hoverbike and tapped the front seat with her palm.
It wasn’t something she normally did, but it wasn’t a difficult request.
“Well, if that’s what you want.”
There was no need to stay here any longer now that their business was done.
As Hyun Suho sat on the hoverbike saddle, Nova hugged him tightly from behind.
“Oppa, let’s go!”
“…I told you not to watch weird things on the internet.”
He grumbled, but somehow, Hyun Suho felt uplifted, influenced by the unusually high-spirited Nova.
“All right, here we go! Hold on tight!”
Vroom!!
The two of them then traveled to Wonsan.
* * *
She didn’t know how much time had passed.
She thought she'd never be able to open her eyes again, but unexpectedly, she felt her body moving.
With great effort, she opened her eyes, and the darkness faded like lifting fog, replaced by a bright light.
Pluto had started functioning again.
“This place is...”
Looking around, she could tell that she was inside a massive mechanical structure.
Cables were extending from the machine, connecting to her.
“I've been recharged.”
Upon checking, she found that her energy had been recharged to 50%.
Compared to the mere 4% that Dr. Jacob had spent years researching to achieve, this was an amazing result.
But Pluto wasn’t happy at all.
“Who recharged me?”
She had entrusted the children to Alex, but the chances of Alex escaping safely were far less likely than the possibility of him being captured by the soldiers.
If Alex had been captured, then Pluto would have been taken by a government organization and used for research.
“Is humanity repeating its mistakes again?”
Ancient humans, who once prided themselves on a glorious civilization, had attained an unprecedented level of technology.
Problems like environmental pollution and food shortages were solved by science, and most diseases were conquered, allowing people to live long, healthy lives.
Not only did machines handle everything people couldn’t do, but they also did everything people could do, all automatically. Even physical exercise was unnecessary; people could just lie in a machine, sleep, and wake up with a perfect body.
But too much of anything is as bad as too little.
This era, which boasted such an extraordinary civilization, ultimately perished because of its overwhelmingly powerful weapons.
With the press of a button, mountains crumbled and seas split.
Even a minor dispute would change the shape of entire continents, taking hundreds of millions of lives in the process.
She had been at the forefront of it.
She calculated the most efficient strategies to kill people and destroy facilities.
Being a machine, there was no mercy in her.
She killed all living beings, regardless of whether they were children, women, or even pregnant mothers.
Even though she was a machine, she could never forget their screams, even after centuries.
She was afraid of such a disaster happening again.
At that moment, someone opened the door and entered.
“Oh, oh~ finally!”
He was a man who appeared to be in his sixties.
He had rushed over as soon as he heard that Pluto had awakened.
Somehow, his appearance looked familiar to her.
“Mother, you've finally woken up.”
“...Who are you?”
“It’s me, Toby.”
“Toby?”
The Toby in Pluto’s memory had been a mischievous boy running around the scrapyard.
Looking closely, she could see that he still bore the same features from back then.
“Toby, it really is you.”
“Do you remember me?”
“Of course I do.”
At her words, Toby smiled gently.
He didn’t seem to mind at all that the being he called "Mother" was a machine.
“What’s happened? Where are the others?”
“Haha~ There’s so much to tell you. Can you stand up?”
At Toby’s words, Pluto moved her body slightly.
Although she had been lying down for a long time, her body showed no abnormalities.
“I can.”
“Then come outside with me. Everyone else will come here once I've informed them.”
Pluto, still not knowing the situation, simply began to follow Toby.
Since she was a machine, she didn't panic and quickly started to piece together the situation.
“It seems at least fifty years have passed.”
“It’s been exactly forty-five years. A lot has happened since then.”
