"Ugh... my head..."
A girl with blonde hair and glowing red eyes leaned against a cold wall, slowly fluttering her eyes open.
Her beauty belonged in a field of flowers, yet she had awakened in a filthy, wretched back alley. Rain poured down, mixing with the murky water crawling across the pavement.
"What... where is this?"
She scrambled to her feet. She remembered falling asleep in a plush, soft bed just last night. Why was she here?
"It's so filthy... Grace? Where are you? This joke has gone too far! I'll tell Father—"
Fear began to seep in as she stared at the grimy alleyway she had never seen before. Desperately looking around, she caught her reflection in a puddle.
Blonde hair she didn't remember dyeing. Eyes emitting a blood-red glow.
"Is this... me?"
A hallucination magic? A nightmare? Whatever it was, reality was about to get worse.
"Yo, Boss. Scope this."
"Damn. Check the specs on her. Top-tier visuals, huh? Too clean for the slums. Hey, doll. Why don't you slide with us? It's freezing out here."
Three thugs approached, looking like extras from a low-budget movie. They whistled and swaggered, ticking every box of a third-rate villain.
"I... I have to go."
"Whoa, pause. A lady walking around soaked to the bone? That ain't right. Come on, let us dry you off."
The largest of them, clearly the leader, grabbed her wrist with brute force.
That was his last mistake.
"Wait—"
A gasp—no, a death rattle—escaped the thug's throat. His head was already spinning through the air, severed clean.
In the girl's right hand, a beam sword had ignited, pulsing with a brilliant blue light.
"What the...?"
"You fucking bitch! You wanna get zeroed?!"
The other two thugs immediately dropped into combat stances. Flames erupted from their hands, fueled by raw mana.
"No, wait! It's a mistake! I didn't mean to—"
"You just clipped our boss! Shut your trap, you scrap-metal bitch!"
'Scrap-metal? Me?'
Faced with thugs wielding fire magic and spouting nonsense about 'robots' and 'beam swords,' the girl spiraled into panic.
She had never used magic in her life. Fighting was a concept alien to her upbringing.
"Die! Our crew runs the fire magic game in this hood! Go to hell!"
The girl was instantly engulfed in flames. Yet, for some reason... it didn't hurt.
She was vaguely wondering if being on fire was supposed to feel this comfortable when—
Thuck.
A black, carbon-coated blade buried itself into the forehead of one of the thugs.
"Tsk tsk... Why are you standing there like an idiot? You should have finished the other two just like the first one."
A young man with black hair appeared in her peripheral vision. He lunged forward, driving a matching blade into the stomach of the last thug. With casual efficiency, he ripped the blade upward, bisecting the man.
"Ugh... ah..."
The girl stared at the cross-section of a human body, the geyser of blood, and the spray of organs for the first time in her life.
She promptly fainted.
"Chilling... The internal structure is identical to a human. What kind of pervert designed this?"
When the girl opened her eyes for the second time, the young man from earlier was peering down at her, murmuring with clinical curiosity.
"Wh-what?! Who are you?!"
"That's my line. Who are you? Why is a high-end android like you lying around in the trash?"
"I'm not an android! I'm human! H-u-m-a-n!"
"For a human, your fingers pop off pretty easily."
The young man held up one of the girl's fingers. Nauseated, she snatched the finger back.
To her horror, it snapped back into place like a magnet—seamless and clean.
"I've become... a robot? This can't be..."
"Are you sure you weren't a robot from the start?"
"Absolutely not! Anyway, who are you, and where am I?"
As the girl panicked, the young man offered a polite, completely empty smile.
"I'm Yu-han. A kind, law-abiding taxpayer. And this is my house."
"A... law-abiding taxpayer?"
The girl recalled him slicing a human being in half just minutes ago. This 'Yu-han' was beyond shameless.
"The fact that I saved you is proof of my kindness."
"Huh... then why did you bring me here?"
"I figured you'd fetch a good price for parts."
"...I thought you said you were kind?"
"Is it a crime to recycle lost property?"
Though they had just met, the girl felt a surge of genuine irritation toward this man.
"Fine. Thank you for saving me. But don't touch me. I'll call someone, figure out why I'm like this, return to my original body, and pay you a proper reward. Got it?"
"Calling someone? You must be from a rich family."
"...Yes. Extremely rich. I'll introduce myself properly. I am Seong Yu-hwa, the daughter of President Seong Dong-hyeon!"
Instead of shock, Yu-han looked at her with pure pity.
"Memory error?"
"I told you, I'm fine!"
"You know, there's a guy named Mr. Park in the psych ward who claims the exact same thing..."
"Are you calling me crazy?!"
Tired of the shouting, Yu-han activated a hologram in the air. He commanded an AI agent to search for 'Seong Yu-hwa.'
A moment later, a live government broadcast appeared. There, standing tall and elegant, was the President's daughter, Seong Yu-hwa.
"Then... who is that?"
"No way... I am Seong Yu-hwa..."
"Reality says otherwise. Unfortunate."
"I'm human... I'm really not a robot... Please, help me..."
The girl pleaded, her face drained of color, desperate not to be sold for scraps.
She expressed emotions indistinguishable from a human, fainted from shock, and her skin felt organic. This level of technology was unheard of. Selling her to a local junk dealer would actually be a waste. Moreover, her mannerisms were clearly those of high society.
'Something big is involved here.'
Coming to a conclusion, Yu-han put on a mask of feigned innocence.
"Waking up as a robot... how tragic. Don't worry! My benevolent heart has been moved. I'll help you for free."
"...Why is your acting so bad all of a sudden?"
"Details, details, blah blah. Just sleep. We move tomorrow."
Yu-han gave her a spare room. It had a bed and furniture but was devoid of personal belongings. Had someone lived here before?
As she approached the wireless charging zone, her battery status naturally floated into her vision. It seemed she really had become a machine.
"This is the worst day of my life."
Did he use magic to clean and dry her clothes? He hadn't touched anything weird while she was powered down, had he? She had a mountain of questions, but for now, she initiated 'Sleep Mode.'
In the 22nd century, to solve the overpopulation of the metropolitan area, the United Republic of Korea used magic and gravity-tech to float the ground into the sky, naming it 'New Seoul.'
To travel between Old Seoul and New Seoul, one had to use the Aerial EV Terminals.
Yu-han and the girl stood at the terminal closest to his house. They had arrived at dawn for the first EV.
"Damn, the fare went up again? 20,000 won per person?"
"Once I find my body, I can pay you back millions, so stop complaining."
The EV was packed with commuters, tired faces pressed against the windows.
"So, people commute in a cage like this every day."
"First time on an EV?"
"I've never been outside the Cheongwa Tower since I was a child..."
The Cheongwa Tower—a massive structure built in the center of New Seoul after the original Cheongwadae (Blue House) was destroyed during the Civil War decades ago. Rumor had it that once you entered, you never had to leave. A place of extreme luxury and absolute power. The ultimate dream for most Koreans.
"Sounds more like a cage to me."
"Maybe it was."
The girl agreed with Yu-han for the first time. Looking at her bitter eyes, Yu-han made a quick judgment: 'Unnecessarily sentimental.'
Crash!
A thunderous noise erupted from the ceiling. A massive figure crashed through the roof and landed in the center of the EV. The crowd screamed.
The giant man, sporting glasses and an unkempt beard, waved his hands.
"Everyone, relax! I'm not a lunatic! I'm just here to destroy this transport!"
A security guard aimed a pistol at him, but the man didn't flinch. He walked calmly toward the guard and snatched the radio.
"Ah, HQ, do you copy? My name is Yang Jin-mu. You can call our organization... 'Thanatics.' And your men? They die here. Now."
Zzzzt!
A magical laser beam fired from his finger, piercing the guard's chest. The beam didn't stop—it continued in a straight line, tearing through the passengers standing behind him.
The interior of the EV turned into a slaughterhouse. Since most passengers were civilians, the screaming didn't last long. Silence followed quickly.
Yu-han silently pulled a carbon blade from his coat and hurled it at Yang Jin-mu. Yang tilted his head, dodging it by a millimeter.
"Yu-han. Long time no see. You look healthy."
As Yang Jin-mu greeted him, the girl turned to Yu-han, horrified.
"You... you know this terrorist?!"
"It's an old grudge."
Yang Jin-mu smirked.
"A truly persistent grudge. Just die here, Yu-han. End the suffering."
Mana began to gather around Yang Jin-mu, glowing with unstable energy. He unleashed a massive explosion, shattering the EV and the tunnel itself.
But Yu-han had already smashed through the floor, grabbing the girl and diving out.
Yang Jin-mu floated in the air, watching Yu-han and the girl plummet toward the ground far below. He knew Yu-han could use fluid-dynamics magic. A fall wouldn't kill him.
"How pitiful, Yu-han... to be cursed with survival."
***
Eventually, they returned to Yu-han's house. The internet was already flooded with breaking news.
[Aerial EV Terminal destroyed across Seoul... Suspects being tracked...]
"Of all times, why did it have to happen when we were going to the Cheongwa Tower...!"
"Since you're the President's daughter, why don't you try contacting them?"
"I already tried. They laughed at me when I said I was Seong Yu-hwa."
"Well... expected result."
"Then what am I supposed to do..."
Seeing the girl despondent, Yu-han ran calculations in his head. And he reached a conclusion.
"First, survive and endure. Then find a way. Come to think of it, you were pretty good at slicing up that trash with your beam sword earlier. How about making a living as a 'Euthanasia Agent'?"
The memory of decapitating a thug flashed in her mind. In movies or comics, characters would suffer from guilt after killing someone, but when she actually did it, she felt surprisingly numb.
"No, but still... killing is a bit..."
"Of course! If killing humans breaks your heart, you can just hunt harmful monsters roaming around!"
"Really...?"
Of course, Yu-han was certain that she would eventually end up killing humans too if she walked down that path. But he didn't bother to mention that.
"Absolutely! By the way, it's dangerous to go around claiming you're the President's daughter. Shouldn't you make a fake name or something?"
She thought for a moment, then pulled up information from her system. Her android body's model name was {A.L.I.C.E}.
"Alice... How about that?"
Yu-han looked unimpressed.
"Do you feel like you've become 'Alice in Wonderland' or something?"
"It's not like that...!"
For some reason, Alice felt that she could kill this bastard right now without hesitation.