Chapter 3 LETS GET RICH
The shift from the night market to the upscale district felt like stepping into another world. The thick smell of grilled street food and diesel gave way to filtered air carrying faint notes of ozone and artificial jasmine. Even the rain seemed cleaner here.
Minjun and Jiho stood at the entrance to the Mag-Lev station that marked the boundary. To the left lay the crumbling concrete and tangled wires of Guryong Village. To the right stretched the spotless pearlescent tiles of the Cheongdam luxury zone, gleaming under soft lighting like the inside of a seashell.
“We look like easy targets, Minjun,” Jiho whispered, shifting uncomfortably.
He was right. Their clothes were stained with grease and mud from the alleys. Minjun’s boots left dirty prints on the pristine white floor. The well-dressed office workers streaming past them gave the pair a wide berth, their expressions the kind reserved for something unpleasant on an expensive rug.
“Look at them,” Minjun said quietly. “They think they’re better just because their lives are polished. They believe these glass walls keep the real world out.”
[INSPECT]
[Target: Station Security Gate (Tier 2)]
[Attributes:]
• [ Material: Reinforced Poly-Carbonate ]
• [ Scanner: Biometric/ID Check ]
• [ Status: Locked ]
• [ Alarm: Active ]
The stim pen still buzzed in his veins, holding the worst of the headache at bay, but his vision flickered at the edges. He needed to get through this gate cleanly. No silent alarms. There was no muddy water here to hide a body.
“Wait here,” Minjun said.
He approached the ID scanner — a sleek silver pillar with a holographic interface that flickered to life.
[PLEASE PRESENT CITIZEN CHIP]
Minjun pulled a battered ID card from his pocket. He had scavenged it months ago from a dead man. The chip inside was fried from an old electrical surge.
[Target: Scavenged ID Card]
[Attribute: Data Integrity (0%)]
He pictured the clean, flawless state of the delivery drone he had sold earlier. He needed that same perfection.
[Target: Data Integrity]
[Command: COPY] → [Source: Security Gate Database (Authorized Entry)]
[System Error: Permission Denied. Level 1 Administrators cannot COPY encrypted server data.]
A sharp pain stabbed behind his left eye. The System had barriers. He could rearrange physical objects like moving furniture, but the digital locks remained out of reach.
“Fine,” he muttered. “If I can’t copy the permission, I’ll cut the restriction.”
He focused on the gate’s scanner.
[Target: Biometric Sensor]
[Attribute: Sensitivity]
[CUT]
The sensitivity slid neatly into his clipboard. The scanner stayed lit with its steady blue pulse, but it had gone blind — a camera without a lens, a sensor that could no longer feel.
He swiped the dead card anyway.
The machine paused, searching for data its own sensors could no longer detect. No error appeared. It simply accepted what little logic remained.
Chime.
The glass barriers hissed open.
“Let’s go, Jiho. Move.”
The air-conditioning on the other side hit them like a cold slap. Jiho’s mouth fell open as he stepped through. “You just walked through a Tier 2 checkpoint with a piece of junk ID.”
“The gate is only as smart as its sensors,” Minjun said. “I made them stupid.”
They moved into the main plaza — the High Market. Well-dressed people drifted between stalls selling high-end augments and designer enhancements. Minjun stopped in front of a brightly lit window display. Inside, nestled on black velvet, sat a sleek silver spike: Neural-Link Grade 3. A small plaque promised fifty percent faster processing speed.
[INSPECT]
[Target: Neural-Link Grade 3]
[Value: ₩65,000,000]
[Attribute: Processing Speed (+50%)]
“Sixty-five million won,” Jiho sighed. “That’s ten years of our kind of work.”
“I don’t want to live on it,” Minjun replied. “I want to use it.”
The stim pen was starting to fade. Tiredness settled heavily on his shoulders, and the stamina bar in his vision bled back toward red. He needed rest, but staying at Level 1 wasn’t an option. Not while the digital side of the System remained locked.
“Someone’s following us,” Jiho muttered, glancing at the reflection in the glass.
Minjun stayed still. He used the reflection to trigger another scan.
[INSPECT]
[Target: Unknown Male (Augmented)]
[Status: Tracking]
[Combat Rating: B-Rank]
[Threat Level: High]
The man wore a long charcoal-grey trench coat that looked too heavy for the humid night. His eyes were unnatural — glowing amber orbs that flickered with streams of data. A professional. Bounty hunter or corporate cleaner. It didn’t matter.
“Into the alley,” Minjun said.
“But it’s a dead end!”
“I know.”
They slipped into a narrow service passage between two high-rises. The walls were smooth white composite, polished until they almost hurt to look at. At the far end sat a large trash compactor with its metal mouth sealed shut. No way out.
They stopped.
The man in the grey coat followed without hurry. His footsteps made almost no sound on the tiles — mechanical, precise, too perfect. A collapsible baton slid from his sleeve, humming with a high-frequency vibration designed to turn bone to powder.
“Minjun the scrapper,” the man said. His voice had an artificial edge that echoed off the narrow walls. “Ajumma Soojin talks too much. She sold your location for a hundred thousand won. Said you have a way of making things… brand new.”
“Ajumma Soojin is a businesswoman,” Minjun replied, turning to face him. “And you’re an error that needs to be cut.”
“My name is Jaeho. I work for the Collective.” The man’s tone stayed flat, ignoring the insult. “You have a mint-condition delivery drone. We want the method you used to clean its serials. Hand it over and I’ll make your death quick.”
The headache roared back. Minjun’s vision was starting to tunnel.
[Stamina: 5%]
One chance, he thought.
He looked into Jaeho’s glowing amber eyes.
[INSPECT]
[Target: Jaeho]
[Attributes:]
• [ Neural-Sync: High-Speed ]
• [ Sub-Dermal Armor: Grade 2 ]
• [ Emotion: Null ]
• [ Visual Input: Digital Overlay ]
He chose the visual input.
Jaeho lunged. His speed was terrifying — at least three times faster than any normal person. The baton came down in a blur aimed at Minjun’s head.
Minjun stood his ground.
[Target: Visual Input]
[Attribute: Resolution]
[CUT]
The attribute transferred into his clipboard. In Jaeho’s world, crystal-clear 8K vision collapsed into a single blurry pixel. Complete blindness, even though his sensors were still active.
The baton whistled past Minjun’s ear and slammed into the wall, showering sparks. Jaeho stumbled, both hands flying to his face.
“What did you do?” His synthesized voice crackled with panic. “I can’t see anything! My sensors are on but there’s no input!”
Minjun stepped forward. Darkness pressed at the edges of his own mind. He placed a hand on Jaeho’s chest, over the hidden armor.
“I’m taking your speed now,” he said quietly.
[Target: Neural-Sync]
[Command: CUT]
[System Warning: Stamina ALERT (0%). Brain damage imminent. Proceed?]
Yes.
A blinding white flash exploded behind Minjun’s eyes, accompanied by a roar like a thousand engines. The high-speed neural sync flooded into him too fast, too raw — like swallowing lightning.
Minjun dropped to his knees. Blood poured from his nose, splattering the clean white floor.
Jaeho collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. His thoughts still worked, but the connection to his muscles had slowed to a crawl. It would take him minutes just to blink.
“Minjun!” Jiho rushed forward and caught him before he hit the ground.
Minjun gasped, lungs burning. The stolen [Neural-Sync] and [Visual Resolution] sat heavy in his mind with nowhere to go. His clipboard was full.
“The spike…” he managed, pointing weakly toward the display window they had passed earlier. “I need… somewhere to store this.”
“We can’t go back there! There are guards everywhere!”
“Take… Jaeho’s card.” Minjun gestured at the grey coat.
Jiho quickly searched the man’s pockets and pulled out a sleek, gold-plated identity card. He stared at Jaeho’s face — frozen in shock, eyes vacant.
Jiho helped Minjun to his feet. “We have to move. There will be more of them. There are always more.”
They stumbled out of the alley. Jaeho remained standing behind them, baton still humming in his hand like a forgotten statue.
On the street, Minjun felt his mind slipping. The new high-speed processing screamed inside his skull, desperate for a place to settle. He looked up toward the towering luxury buildings in the distance. They felt closer now.
“Jiho,” he whispered.
“I’ve got you, hyung. I’ve got you.”
“Go to a doctor… a black-market one. Tell him I have… an upgrade to install.”
