Seo-An-Dang, the finest euthanasia center in Korea.
Yu Seo-Yeon, one of its Gwajang, was walking down a corridor.
At first glance, she looked like an ordinary employee in her twenties. In reality, she was a harpy—a member of a mythical race—and one of two women who had simultaneously broken Seo-An-Dang's record for youngest-ever Gwajang.
"Goddamn... Cheong-Am bastards..."
But no matter how capable she was, there was no way she could actually enjoy working.
And lately, Cheong-Am Center had been adding even more to her workload.
With another conflict looming in Old Seoul, it seemed about time to meet with them and discuss what lay ahead...
"Oh, my. Our poor little tweety seems to be having such a hard time lately. Ohohoho!"
A shrill laugh suddenly echoed through the corridor.
Before Yu Seo-Yeon knew it, an obnoxious long-haired woman in a crisp white suit had come up behind her.
"Kim Ju-Ye Gwajang. I believe I've told you hundreds of times to stop calling me that."
"Hmph! And I believe I've told you hundreds of times to stop being so fussy over nothing."
Kim Ju-Ye had joined the company at the same time as Yu Seo-Yeon.
She, too, had broken the record for becoming Seo-An-Dang's youngest Gwajang alongside her.
Their personalities, however, could not have been more different.
Yu Seo-Yeon belonged to Execution Department One. Kim Ju-Ye belonged to Execution Department Two.
They were about as unlikely to get along as two people could be.
"I have no intention of entertaining your pathetic attempts to provoke me. If you have no business with me, move along."
"There you go tweeting again... Do you think I'd go out of my way to talk to you if I didn't have business with you?"
"Then get to the point!"
"I hear you've been handling work related to Cheong-Am Center lately. It's clearly more than you can manage, so step aside and leave it to me."
"...What?"
Yu Seo-Yeon's expression twisted.
"Yu-Han isn't someone you have the ability to handle. As it happens, he and I have an unpleasant history, so I know him reasonably well... Why not hand the matter over before you waste any more of your energy?"
For an office worker, there could hardly be better news than someone volunteering to take work off their hands.
When that someone was their rival, however, it was a different story.
"I'm perfectly capable of handling it myself. Stop meddling and worry about your own work!"
"Oh, my~ Here I am, graciously offering to help. Suit yourself, then. Have fun suffering! Ohohoho!"
Kim Ju-Ye strode away down the corridor, her insufferable laughter trailing behind her.
Yu Seo-Yeon glared at her retreating back, trembling with rage, and vowed to wipe that smug look off her face.
---
Inferno Pizzeria, Sector B-4 of Old Seoul.
The members of Cheong-Am were holding a staff dinner to celebrate their recent victory.
Lee Sang-Deok and Kang Seung-Cheon, who had helped secure that victory, were there as well.
"Kang Seung-Cheon C... So you weren't an ordinary interior designer after all. I had no idea!"
Kang Seung-Cheon modestly shook his head at Alice's remark.
"I'm nothing more than an ordinary artist. Interior design simply happens to pay the bills."
"And an ordinary artist defeated a trained combatant like that...?"
"Then I suppose my artwork must have been extraordinary."
Alice began to wonder whether he had done anything strange to the wallpaper in their building as well.
Oblivious to her suspicions, Lee Sang-Deok ate his pasta and complained to Yu-Han.
"I don't mind having a staff dinner, but why did it have to be pizza and pasta? Was this your idea?"
Antonio's knife stopped ominously in the middle of slicing a sausage.
Yu-Han either failed to notice or simply did not care.
"There's nowhere better around here. Pasta, in particular, is an excellent source of carbohydrates from a nutritional standpoint... The Italian philosophy of preserving the natural flavor and nutrition of every ingredient is worthy of respect...!"
Antonio broke into a smile and resumed preparing the food.
But Yu-Han was not finished.
"Still, don't other countries do meat dishes better?"
Antonio's eyes bulged.
His knife came down and split the cutting board clean in half.
"Yu-Han. Do you want to die?"
"Antonio C... Why are you being so scary? It's just food. Oh, come to think of it, Italians do make good ham and sausages. I'll give you that."
"Bastardo!"
Antonio hurled his chef's knife.
Yu-Han fled around the restaurant, blocking each attack with his carbon-coated blade.
Kang Seung-Cheon turned to the others.
"Is Yu-Han... like this with everyone, not just me?"
"Yeah."
Everyone answered in perfect unison, then let out one long, collective sigh.
At that moment, a gang of rough-looking men entered the restaurant.
"Hey! Hand over everything you've got!"
Before the man at the front could even finish speaking, a chef's knife buried itself dead center in his forehead.
Without so much as looking at them, Antonio said,
"He told me to hand over everything I had, so I started with the knife. Anyone else want a bullet?"
The remaining men lowered their heads and quietly slunk out of the restaurant.
It had all happened so quickly that Alice could barely process it.
"What just happened?"
"You don't know, Signorina? It's almost Seokjeon season. Bastards from other sectors come here to raid us."
"Seokjeon?"
Seokjeon was a murderous sport from the Joseon era in which people threw rocks at one another until somebody died...
But Alice failed to see how that connected to the present situation.
Kim Ga-Eun quickly caught on and stepped in to explain.
"Think of it as a territorial war between different sectors. The winning sector gets government subsidies."
"And this happens regularly? Is this really supposed to be a modern, civilized society?"
As if on cue, gunshots and screams rang out from outside.
"All right, everyone. Why do you think I brought everyone here? We're going to defend our sector together! And collect protection fees, of course."
Yu-Han grinned as though everything had gone exactly according to plan.
Antonio pulled a massive crate from one corner of the restaurant and opened it.
"Perfect timing. I've been itching to try out this hot little number."
Inside was a handmade flamethrower constructed from expensive alloy components.
Lee Sang-Deok whistled at the weapon.
"And here I thought you only made gay-ass Italian food. You've got rather refined tastes."
"...Yu-Han. Are all your male associates assholes just like you? Bring more women with you next time."
As the others poured out of the restaurant, Kang Seung-Cheon remained seated, leisurely savoring the food they had left behind.
He had only come for the after-party in the first place.
"What a waste, leaving all this behind. I suppose I'll take care of it for them."
---
In a corner of an alley, a merchant was being threatened at knifepoint.
The thugs were all unfamiliar faces in Sector B-4.
"You already know what I'm going to say, don't you? Hand over everything you've got!"
"Damn it. Just my luck..."
At that moment, three women appeared like bolts of lightning.
One cut down a knife-wielding thug with a beam sword. Another smashed one apart with her fists. The third tore into them with spikes and claws.
The merchant stared at them and stammered.
"Y-You're from Cheong-Am Center!"
Alice gave him a gentle smile.
"You're not hurt, are you? Please get somewhere safe!"
"As I thought... Director Alice really is the savior of this sector! You saved me the last time that Joseon lunatic went on a rampage, too...! I can't thank you enough!"
While the merchant went on gushing about how grateful he was, Yu-Han quietly sidled up beside him.
"Exactly. But you shouldn't stop at words if you're truly grateful. We saved your life, so hand over the protection fee."
"Ugh! You were here too!? What a way to ruin the mood... Fine, take it and piss off!"
The instant the merchant's transfer came through, Yu-Han broke into a delighted grin.
"Yu-Han, do we really have to charge them money?"
Yu-Han immediately shot back at Alice.
"Did you think we were a charity that could survive on goodwill? Make sure you charge at least the going industry rate."
While the two of them argued, Lee Sang-Deok and Antonio were busy performing pest control with their respective flamethrowers.
"Hey, Italian! What did you make that part out of?"
"Inconel 625... with laser-etched runes."
"Oh. You know your stuff."
The two burned Sector B-4's raiders without mercy, filling the entire area with the stench of charred flesh.
Alice found their methods rather excessive, but at least they seemed capable of defeating the enemy without putting themselves in much danger.
"Haah... If only it could stay this easy. This is going to become a headache."
When Lee Sang-Deok, of all people, suddenly sounded pessimistic, Alice asked,
"What happened to all that talk about being an elf of supreme strength and wisdom? So even you get scared, huh?"
"You stupid robot... Of course none of Old Seoul's vermin could ever stand a chance against me individually! But vermin have an infuriating talent for surviving and making a nuisance of themselves."
At that moment, a burst of static tore through Alice's mind.
"Wh-What the hell is this?"
[EMP attack detected.]
Alice's vision began bleaching white.
Soon, she could no longer control her body.
"How dare those bastards do that to our adorable Director! I'll teach them a lesson with my new ultimate martial art...!"
Yi Rang strode forward with absolute confidence.
Something struck the ground in front of her, blasting a divot into the pavement.
It was a bullet.
Yi Rang immediately abandoned her advance and ducked behind a wall.
"Th-They even brought guns!?"
"Did you think they would politely indulge you in a leisurely fistfight? Yu-Han! What the hell have you been teaching this tiger?"
Yu-Han answered Lee Sang-Deok's criticism without the slightest concern.
"That isn't a problem with my teaching. It's a problem with Employee Yi Rang's judgment... In any case, our enemies seem to have prepared rather thoroughly."
They were blanketing the area with EMP waves to counter Alice, who was widely known to be a robot.
They were also suppressing Cheong-Am from a distance with firearms, denying them the close-quarters combat in which they had already demonstrated their strength...
Compared to the disorganized rabble they had faced before, these attackers were making surprisingly rational decisions.
"Yikes! Yu-Han, they even brought a sniper rifle. This is getting annoying."
Antonio returned fire with his carbine as he spoke.
Yu-Han found the situation rather troublesome.
He did not want to damage the sector.
Either Lee Sang-Deok or Antonio could have dealt with the attackers without breaking a sweat...
But if either of them truly cut loose, the entire neighborhood would inevitably be reduced to rubble.
And as a general rule, people preferred not to have that happen around their own homes.
As Yu-Han weighed his options...
A single feather spiraled down through the air as though dancing.
'A feather...?'
A moment later, the crisp, thunderous crack of a rifle rang out.
The attackers were thrown into confusion, unable to tell where the shots were coming from.
Several more shots followed.
With their plans suddenly thrown into chaos, the attackers retreated.
Once they were gone, the EMP interference ceased, and Alice came to.
"Ugh... My head... What the hell happened...?"
"Alice, why does your head always hurt? You've got an AI for a brain."
"Yu-Han. Shut up."
While the two of them bickered, a winged figure descended from above, wings beating through the air.
A brown-haired harpy landed in a gust of wind, a modular sniper rifle in her hands.
Normally, her arms themselves doubled as wings. Now, however, she had two regular arms along with an additional pair of wings extending from her back.
She was in Back-Wing Mode.
"It has been a while, everyone from Cheong-Am—and your associates."
"My name is Yu Seo-Yeon, Gwajang of Execution Department One at Seo-An-Dang Center."