"Ugh... my head..."
A girl with blonde hair and glowing red eyes slowly opened her eyes, leaning against a cold wall.
She possessed the kind of beauty that belonged in a flower field, yet here she was, waking up in a filthy back alley. Rain poured down heavily, mixing with the murky water flowing across the pavement.
"What... where am I?"
She staggered to her feet. She clearly remembered falling asleep in a soft, plush bed just last night. Why was she here?
"This place is disgusting... Unni? Where are you? This joke has gone way too far! I'm telling Father—"
She frantically looked around for her sister, but there was no one. Fear began to creep in as she stared at the grimy, unfamiliar alleyway. Desperately scanning her surroundings, her gaze caught her own reflection in a puddle.
Blonde hair she didn't remember dyeing. Eyes emitting an eerie blood-red glow.
"Is this... really me?"
A hallucination? A nightmare? Whatever it was, the situation was about to get much worse.
"Yo, Boss. Check her out."
"Damn, look at those specs. Top-tier visuals. Way too clean for the slums. Hey, sweetheart. Why don't you come with us? It's freezing out here."
Three thugs approached, looking like extras from a low-budget crime movie. They whistled and swaggered, hitting every cliché of third-rate villains.
"I... I need to go."
"Whoa, hold up. A lady walking around soaked like that? That ain't right. Come on, let us warm you up."
The largest of them, clearly the leader, grabbed her wrist with a rough grip.
That was the last mistake he would ever make.
"Wait—"
A choked gasp escaped the thug's throat as his head spun through the air, cleanly severed. In the girl's right hand, a beam sword had ignited, pulsing with brilliant blue light.
"What the...?"
"You crazy bitch! You wanna die?!"
The other two thugs instantly dropped into combat stances. Flames erupted from their hands, fueled by raw mana.
"No, wait! It was a mistake! I didn't mean to—"
"You just killed our boss! Shut your mouth, you scrap-metal whore!"
'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 completely foreign concept to her sheltered upbringing.
"Die! Our crew owns the fire magic scene around here! Burn in hell!"
The girl was instantly engulfed in flames. Yet… strangely, it didn't hurt at all.
She was vaguely wondering if being on fire was supposed to feel this comfortable when—
A black carbon-coated blade buried itself into the forehead of one of the thugs.
"Tsk. Why are you just standing there like an idiot? You should've finished the other two the same way."
A young man with black hair appeared in her peripheral vision. He lunged forward and drove a matching blade into the last thug's stomach. With casual brutality, he ripped the blade upward, bisecting the man.
"Ugh... ah..."
The girl stared at the cross-section of a human body, the gushing blood, and scattered organs for the first time in her life.
She fainted on the spot.
***
"Chilling... The internal structure is identical to a human's. What kind of pervert designed this?"
When the girl opened her eyes again, the young man from earlier was looking down at her with clinical curiosity.
"Wh-what?! Who are you?!"
"That's my line. Who the hell are you? Why is a high-end android like you lying in the trash?"
"I'm not an android! I'm human! H-u-m-a-n!"
"For a human, your fingers come off pretty easily."
The young man held up one of her detached fingers. Horrified, she snatched it back. To her shock, it snapped back into place like a magnet—perfectly seamless.
"I've… become a robot? No way..."
"Were you sure you weren't one from the beginning?"
"Absolutely not! Anyway, who are you? Where am I?"
As the girl panicked, the young man flashed an exaggerated, overly polite smile.
"I'm Yu-han. A kind, law-abiding taxpayer. And this is my house."
"A... law-abiding taxpayer?"
The girl remembered him slicing a man in half just minutes ago. This 'Yu-han' had zero shame.
"The fact that I saved you is proof of my kindness."
"...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 already felt genuine irritation toward this man.
"Fine. Thank you for saving me. But don't touch me. I'll contact someone, figure out what's going on, return to my original body, and give you a proper reward. Got it?"
"Contact someone? You must be from a rich family."
"...Yes. Extremely rich. Let me introduce myself properly. I am Seong Yu-hwa, daughter of President Seong Dong-hyeon!"
Instead of surprise, 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 says the exact same thing..."
"Are you calling me crazy?!"
Tired of her shouting, Yu-han summoned a hologram in the air and ordered an AI agent to search for 'Seong Yu-hwa.' A moment later, a live government broadcast appeared. There stood the elegant President's daughter, Seong Yu-hwa.
"Then... who is that?"
"No way… I am Seong Yu-hwa..."
"Reality begs to differ. Unfortunate."
"I'm human… I'm really not a robot… Please, help me..."
The girl pleaded desperately, her face pale. She didn't want to be sold for scraps.
Yu-han could see that her emotions were indistinguishable from a human's. She had fainted from shock, her skin felt organic, and her mannerisms clearly belonged to high society.
'Something big is involved here.'
Coming to a decision, 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 terrible all of a sudden?"
"Details, details. Just go to sleep. We move tomorrow."
Yu-han gave her a spare room. It had a bed and basic furniture but felt completely impersonal. Had someone lived here before?
As she approached the wireless charging zone, her battery status automatically appeared in 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 done anything weird while she was powered off, right? She had countless questions, but for now, she activated Sleep Mode.
***
In the 22nd century, to solve the overpopulation crisis in the metropolitan area, the United Republic of Korea used magic and gravity technology to lift 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 to catch the first EV.
"Damn, the fare went up again? 20,000 won per person?"
"Once I get my body back, I can pay you back millions, so stop complaining."
The EV was packed with tired commuters, their faces pressed against the windows.
"So people really commute in a cage like this every day."
"First time on an EV?"
"I've never left Cheongwa Tower since I was a child..."
The Cheongwa Tower — a massive structure built in the center of New Seoul after the original 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 expression, Yu-han made a quick judgment: 'Unnecessarily sentimental.'
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 crazy! I'm just here to destroy this transport!"
A security guard aimed a pistol at him, but the man didn't flinch. He calmly walked over, snatched the radio, and spoke.
"Ah, HQ, do you copy? My name is Yang Jin-mu. You can call our organization... 'Thanatics.' And your men die... now."
A magic-laser beam shot from his finger, piercing the guard's chest. The beam continued straight, tearing through the passengers behind him.
The interior of the EV turned into a slaughterhouse. Most passengers were ordinary civilians, so the screaming didn't last long. Silence fell 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 hair's breadth.
"Yu-han. Long time no see. You look healthy."
As Yang Jin-mu greeted him casually, the girl turned to Yu-han in horror.
"You... you know this terrorist?!"
"It's an old grudge."
Yang Jin-mu smirked.
"A truly persistent grudge. Just die here, Yu-han."
Unstable mana gathered around Yang Jin-mu. 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 them plummet toward the distant ground. He knew Yu-han could use fluid-dynamics magic. A fall like this wouldn't kill him.
"How pitiful, Yu-han... 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 heading to Cheongwa Tower...!"
"Since you're supposedly the President's daughter, why don't you try contacting them?"
"I already did. They laughed at me when I said I was Seong Yu-hwa."
"Well… expected."
"Then what am I supposed to do..."
Seeing the girl looking utterly despondent, Yu-han ran some calculations in his head and 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 Sanctioner'?"
The memory of decapitating the thug flashed through her mind. In movies and comics, characters usually suffered from guilt after killing someone, but when she actually did it, she felt surprisingly numb.
"No, but still… killing people is a bit..."
"Of course! If killing humans breaks your heart, you can just hunt the harmful monsters roaming around!"
"Really...?"
Of course, Yu-han was certain she would eventually end up killing humans too if she walked that path. But he didn't bother mentioning it.
"Absolutely! By the way, it's dangerous to go around claiming you're the President's daughter. You should use a fake name."
She thought for a moment, then pulled up information from her system. The model name of her android body 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.