Jenny was a fairly competent BH editor.

Being a competent BH editor meant having a talent for maximizing visual aesthetics.

It's about the sense of removing or modifying unnecessary emotions, and emphasizing or minimizing certain sensations at the right places.

Perhaps that's why. At first, she made a lot of money.

After producing a few BHs experiencing the life of the upper class, the vanity-ridden commoners willingly opened their wallets.

The numbers steadily appearing in her account were so satisfying. For the first couple of months, she even indulged in various hotel amenities like the protagonists in the videos.

Of course, that joy didn't last long.

"...Experiencing extreme poverty? Are you crazy? Who would watch this?"

"Who would watch it? Rich bastards would. Pigs who have so much money that they even want to buy poverty now."

That's what the PD she worked with said, showing his yellowed teeth.

The raw footage he brought was horrific.

A beggar in shabby clothes becomes the target of someone's anger and is brutally assaulted. Afterwards, the beggar wanders the streets with a battered body, and unable to resist hunger, reaches for food waste. While hastily filling his stomach, he's startled by the sudden appearance of the shop owner and runs away, only to be hit by an AI truck and sent flying.

The video fades out with the final scene of the crowd passing by the beggar lying on the ground, staining it red, as if he were discarded waste.

Her head felt hot.

Who even installed the BH implant in the first place?

Moreover, the beggar was a child.

"Properly refine the tactile and gustatory senses. It'll be a mess if it's too painful or disgusting, right? Hmm, we should touch up the olfactory sense too. After all, he ate something gross. Ah! Don't forget to minimize suicidal impulses. And..."

The PD's subsequent directions are not remembered.

Only the moment of clutching the toilet and emptying her stomach remains vivid.

Jenny quit her job that day.

She donated all the money she had earned to the poor. It was much later when she saw on the news that the donation organization was a fraud.

Since editing was all she knew, when Jenny eventually picked up BH again, she only worked on public interest projects.

Construction safety guidelines, public facility evacuation instructions, and the like.

Although her salary became meager, her conscience was clear.

But then she was kidnapped.

By gangsters who wanted to dive into illegal BH business.

The level was just as expected.

Sexually abusing intoxicated clients.

When she raised hell, saying she would never make such things.

First, they cut off her food, and second, they cut off her water.

That was yesterday.

Is this the pain that child experienced?

To experience this? Crazy bastards.

As her consciousness was gradually fading.

That's when the banging noise and intense shouting from outside the door began.

What's going on?

Just as Jenny painfully raised her head.

Crash!

The iron door caved inward.

Immediately after, the doorknob rattled up and down violently, then stopped as if realizing it was locked from the inside.

A moment of silence. Then followed by a loud Bang!

Beyond the door that fell off its hinges, someone could be seen pushing their shoulder through.

An unfamiliar face. A man holding the bloodied head of a gang member in one hand, backlit by a crimson light, opened his mouth.

"Jenny?"

"...Huh?"

"Blonde hair, green eyes. It's you."

Jin said that as he casually flung his hand.

The gang member thrown in that direction hit the wall face-first, then slid down leaving a trail of blood.

"Who, who are you?"

"I'm here to rescue you."

Jin bent his knee to examine Jenny.

Sunken eyes. Pale complexion.

Her hands and feet tied behind her back, her collapsed form was pitiful.

"How did you know...I was here?"

"Your brother told me."

Jin said as he wedged his index finger into the cable tie binding Jenny's wrists.

As he applied force and pulled, with a snap! the tie burst open.

"Ow."

Jenny massaged her freed wrists, feeling the pain, while watching Jin use the same method to undo the restraints on her ankles.

"...Are you a solo?"

"Probably?"

Bang! The second cable tie broke.

It was an amazing feat of strength.

Jenny was surprised, and so was Jin.

I've gotten stronger, huh?

It felt like his strength had doubled even though he had only gained one more perk.

It wasn't the last skill for nothing, right?

"Can you walk?"

"I'm sorry...I can't muster the strength."

Jenny collapsed with a thud as she tried to push herself up with her hands on the floor.

Anyone would be like this after being starved for 3 days and deprived of water for a day.

In fact, Jenny was having a hard time staying conscious due to severe dizziness. At this moment, she couldn't even distinguish if the noisy weng-weng-weng sound of the emergency bell was real or an auditory hallucination.

You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.

"Then just lie still for a moment."

Jin took off his jumper and rolled it up.

After tucking the jumper under Jenny's head, he stood up, placing his hands on his knees, and as he stepped over the threshold, his widened field of view naturally captured the distorted faces of the thugs.

"What the f..."

"What kind of dog shit situation is this."

As some of them cursed under their breath while checking on their writhing comrades on the floor, heavy footsteps could be heard approaching from behind them.

Then someone pushed through the crowd of thugs and revealed themselves.

"Who the fuck are you!"

It was a giant with a gorilla-like face full of anger,

With threatening cyber arms that had large hydraulic cylinders attached to both elbows.

"You fucking bastard. Was it you? The one who's been rummaging through my business like a horny dog fucking around?"

Nice expression?

Jin smirked.

Well, it wasn't entirely wrong.

He wasn't sure if he was a horny dog,

But it was true that he had rummaged through someone else's business.

So why did you hide it so well?

Making it hard to find.

"Looks like you're after our editor. I don't know who sent you, but you're dead. You should stretch your legs only as far as your blanket covers. You little prick."

The gorilla man's intense eyes scanned Jin up and down.

It wasn't a figurative expression, as the electronic eyeball embedded in his eye socket flashed red, and only then did his brow furrow as if realizing something was odd.

"...Not a single implant?"

It was said as if he had seen someone living their life standing on their head.

At that level, it could be considered a natural monument.

Of course, it's not that bodies maintaining such a clean state don't exist at all.

There were old-fashioned folks infected with anti-implant ideology, known as purists.

Descendants of the sword and magic, going against the era of cutting-edge technology.

Or their followers.

But the man who had eaten his underlings bare-handed showed no sign of the blue energy 'mana' characteristic of purists.

And so, the gorilla man came to his own conclusion.

"Could it be an enhanced human?"

At the same time, Jin stomped on the floor.

You talk too much. Do you fight with your mouth?

Bang!

In an instant, Jin reached the opponent, bent his upper body diagonally, and swung his fist that he had pulled back widely.

An overhand right hook accompanied by air pressure.

The gorilla man hastily raised his left arm.

The sound that followed was hard to believe it was metal and flesh colliding.

Kwang!

"...Crazy!"

A curse burst from the gorilla man's mouth at the impact that resonated through his entire arm.

But Jin's attack didn't end there, as the following left body shot struck the gorilla man's wide-open abdomen.

"Kuhek!"

The fact that he didn't collapse while making a deflating sound was purely thanks to his reinforced skin.

Artificial skin inserted to defend against bullets.

It was worth the expensive price.

Thanks to that, he was able to buy time to counterattack.

"You son of a bitch!!"

The gorilla man gritted his teeth and swung both arms.

No, rather than swinging, it was closer to firing.

As his cyber arms repeated piston movements below the elbows, steel fists began to pound Jin's upper body at a speed of 10 times per second.

Dudududududu!!

Jin stepped back from the barrage that could instantly demolish a thick concrete wall.

The sensation was like receiving a shot put shower right in front of his face.

His arms, tightly pulled up in an 11 shape, instantly became numb.

This is cheating!

Jin gritted his teeth.

Just blocking like this won't lead to an answer.

No matter how tough he was, at this rate, he'd end up as minced garlic.

So Jin lowered his posture extremely.

To the thugs surrounding them, it looked as if his legs had given out. Cheers immediately erupted.

"Boss! You've got him!"

"Kill him!"

But the gorilla man couldn't smile at those cheers.

Because the enemy had disappeared right before his eyes.

If he had just sprawled out, it would have been understandable.

He just vanished.

No way...!

The next moment, the gorilla man's ankle was twisted with a crunch.

"Aagh!"

This part isn't very sturdy, huh?

Jin, who had twisted the opponent's ankle like wringing out laundry with both hands, drew a large circle with his arm.

Following that trajectory, the gorilla man's leg swung widely, and he fell forward in an unstable posture.

In the process, he reflexively planted his palm on the floor,

Jin didn't miss that opening and rushed in.

Whoosh!

A full-power kick struck the face of the gorilla man who, alas, was turning his head.

The face tilted backward.

Crack. The sound of something breaking that shouldn't have broken.

Soon after, the stiffened upper body fell backward like a log, and the cyber arms, no longer detecting any bio-signals, deflated with a hiss and went limp.

The boss of Steel Hands, Kirk, died like that.

Remembered in Jin's mind as the gorilla man.

"...Boss! You son of a b****!"

"Is, is he really dead?"

"This can't be true, right? It doesn't make sense."

While the thugs' eyes shook greatly at the sudden death of their boss, Jin looked around, dusting off his hands.

In this situation, there was a ritual that any son of Vietnam who had ever enjoyed the Musou series had to perform.

Jin took a deep breath and shouted loudly.

"Enemy commander defeated!"

----------------------------------------

Late in the evening when the gray ridges of the metropolis swallowed the sun.

A man was anxiously looking out the darkening window.

His name was Jackie.

Crouched in the corner seat on the right side of the second floor of RumPumPumPum, he was nervously biting his innocent thumb when suddenly the sound of footsteps on the stairs reached his ears.

"...!"

In his startled gaze, a chubby middle-aged man appeared.

The man, carrying a tray piled high with French fries like a mountain, found a suitable empty seat and sat down, and Jackie sighed and withdrew his gaze.

Was it a crazy thing to do?

The anxiety wouldn't leave his mind.

It's hard to find a proper solo in Downtown.

Not only because of the price but also because they're not the kind of people you can meet just because you want to.

By the time he went through intermediaries, made inquiries, and did this and that, his sister was about to die.

So he entrusted his sister's rescue to a man whose name he didn't even know.

It wasn't hard to tell that he wasn't a solo.

Where in the world would there be a solo who doesn't know about BH?

But this too was unavoidable.

Because Jackie was desperate enough to borrow the hands of such a person.

"Haah..."

A deep sigh fogged up the glass window.

How much time had passed like that.

While a heart that wasn't his own was anxiously pounding.

Once again, the sound of footsteps on the stairs was heard from behind.

Despite his expectations being dashed several times, Jackie still turned his head with hope.

And he saw.

The fake solo carrying someone slumped over his shoulder.

The man he had no choice but to believe in, despite everything.

"There you are. Sorry. Got a bit lost."

Jin, who had spotted Jackie, raised his eyebrows and moved his feet.

"Je, Jenny!"

Jackie hurriedly stood up after confirming his sister's face as Jin laid her down on the sofa.

While Jackie was making a fuss, lifting Jenny's eyelids, putting his finger under her nose, calling out to her, and causing all sorts of commotion.

"Ugh."

Jin groaned and laid down on the sofa.

There wasn't a single part of his body that didn't hurt.

It was the result of being hit, stabbed, and torn here and there while dealing with the remaining thugs.

This hurts like hell.

Isn't it normal for morale to drop sharply after defeating the enemy commander?

He sighed involuntarily as he recalled the thugs who had rushed at him as if their eyes were on fire.

Well, thanks to that, he accumulated a lot of skill points.

They might not be useful now, but they might come in handy later.

"Did, did you really rescue her?"

"Why? Did you entrust the job to someone else while I was gone?"

"How, how could that be."

"Then why are you asking such an obvious thing? I'm already dying here."

Jin said that while looking at the unconscious Jenny.

"It seems those Steel Hands bastards locked her up and starved her. I gave her some water for now, but for meals, either start with an IV drip or give her soup. That would be good."

Suddenly, Jackie fell to his knees and began to shed chicken-poop-like tears.

"Thank you. Really, thank you."

"Hey, hey. What's wrong with you?"

What could be more embarrassing than seeing a grown man cry right in front of you?

As Jin waved his hands, Jackie, even while crying, fumbled to put his hand in his pocket.

Seeing that he was clearly trying to take out the commission fee, Jin hurriedly stopped him.

"Let's do this kind of thing more carefully. Okay?"

"Ah. Sorry."

Realizing his mistake, Jackie quickly wiped his eyes.

Anyway, how can a man be so weak-hearted?

Jin, momentarily forgetting that he himself had cried looking for his mother a year ago, let out a deep sigh.

Then, as he watched Jackie compose himself and sit down, he narrowed his eyes at the strange sensation touching his skin.

Pale complexion with cold sweat.

Irregular breathing with a metallic taste.

Slightly trembling lips.

Heart sounds mixed with mechanical noises.

The smell of dying soil and trees.

Jin, who received the information conveyed by his more developed senses with his whole body rather than just his eyes, slowly opened his mouth.

"Where did you get the money?"

"What?"

"I'm asking where you got the commission fee."

"..."

After a moment of silence, Jackie licked his dry lips and said.

"I sold an organ."

"Your heart, right?"

"How, how did you know that?"

"That's not important. Why the heart of all things?"

"...Because it has the highest demand."

In other words, it meant he had ripped out his healthy heart and replaced it with the cheapest of the cheap implants.

No wonder he seemed off from the first time I saw him.

"Damn it...really."

Jin scratched the back of his head.

"Just give me 100,000 credits."

"What?"

"I said, just give me 100,000 credits. I was going to take this job for that much anyway."

"What do you..."

As Jackie made a stupid expression, Jin quickly added:

"Listen to the end. The remaining 1.9 million credits, you'll pay back little by little from now on. Every Wednesday at 7 PM. This seat on the second floor of RumPumPumPum. I'll choose the menu. Got it? By the way, I eat a lot."

"Oh, I understand."

"Then hand it over. The money. I'm going to buy some waffles."

Jin held out his palm.

After carefully pocketing the 100,000 credits that Jackie cautiously handed over, Jin got up and said,

"Take good care of your sister, and you should get your heart replaced with a decent model too. Even for a cheap one, the current one is too cheap. At this rate, you'll last 5 days at most."

"...Thank you."

"I'm leaving."

Towards the back that had already moved far away after the brief farewell, Jackie raised his voice.

"Really, thank you!"

Jin didn't answer. He just waved his hand, showing the back of it, as he trudged down the stairs.

After purchasing two waffles on the first floor, as he stepped out towards the street where darkness had fallen thickly.

An ordinary day in Downtown was coming to an end.