The busker and the robot stood in the middle of a desert-like plain.

“Chorong, now!” James shouted.

Chorong put her arms around a wolf Alpha’s head and held it in place. James aimed, lining up the middle of the circular sight above the muzzle with the beast’s head. He fired. The wolf’s body fell to the ground and never moved again.

“We got it ourselves this time,” James said proudly.

Chorong nodded, smiling with pride of just defeating an Alpha. She had gotten used to the new hand by now, so she could handle combats easier.

Then, suddenly, a female voice said, “Oh my gosh, thank you!”

Chorong and James turned to where the voice came from. A woman emerged from behind a bush not far away from them. Her long black hair under a cowboy’s hat flowed outside a long brown coat she wore. She wore dark jeans, a black shirt, and long black boots inside the coat. She looked like a cowgirl.

“I was hiding from the wolf. I thought I was going to die for sure! Thank you!” she exclaimed as she approached James and Chorong with a big smile. She wrapped her arms around James. He could feel the warmth and softness of her skin. He noticed a long, thin scar on her cheek.

The next thing he noticed was a revolver next to his head.

James looked at the lady. The lady wasn’t making her thankful smile anymore. Instead, it was replaced by a neutral face that reminded him of Chorong’s when he had first met the robot. The lady’s eyes felt like daggers digging into his brain.

“Don’t trust anyone,” the lady said.

Chorong raised her hands in a boxing stance. The woman jammed the revolver into the side of James’s head, silently threatening Chorong that she would fire if the robot attacked. The robot analyzed the surroundings, trying to come up with a good way to rescue James.

Then, the lady smirked. “But you are cute, so I will let you slip.”

She moved her revolver away from James’s head and let him go. Chorong was about to launch an attack to safely make her unconscious, but then the lady opened the revolver’s bullet chambers and let its contents drop out. They were empty shells with no bullets inside.

“I couldn’t fight the Alpha because I ran out of bullets,” she said. She hummed joyfully as she went to James’s back and opened his backpack before the busker could say anything.

“Oh, I will take this gladly, thank you,” she said as she took out a can of tuna from the backpack. She sat on a rock nearby, opened it, and started eating its contents with James’s spoon, which he hadn’t even noticed her taking. James and Chorong quietly grumbled.

“Let’s go, James,” Chorong said, cheeks puffed like a blowfish to express her irritation.

James nodded, and the duo walked away from the lady, heading toward their next destination: a city called Halfyear. According to what he knew, it was one of the bigger civilizations. It was somewhere between Bulan and Mi-Ray. If someone drew a straight line connecting Bulan and Mi-Ray, it would be just slightly under it.

The lady made a face like she just remembered something. “Oh, by the way, be careful around here.”

Then she opened her mouth wide and took a huge bite of a spoon of the canned tuna.

James thought he was used to outdoor living by now, but rain hit him hard.

“Ah, frick,” he muttered. He and Chorong powered through the wind and rainfall with ponchos that covered their stuff on their backs.

“Are we going in the right direction?” Chorong asked.

James reached inside his backpack, being careful not to let rain get into it. Then, he realized his hand got wetter when it went inside.

The duo went under a tree next to the road. The leaves blocked off some of the rain, allowing James to take off his backpack and examine its inside. Everything inside was wet. There was a hole in the top of the backpack. He looked at his poncho. There was a big rip on the poncho, too. He must’ve gotten the rips when he had fought the wolf Alpha back earlier; the claws had ripped through his backpack and ripped the poncho exactly where it would align with the hole on the backpack if he wore the poncho over the backpack—which he did.

He pulled out the digital compass from the backpack. It was soaked. He tried to turn it on, but it did not work.

“My unluckiness sometimes amazes even myself,” James said.

Something triggered Chorong’s auditory sensors. She focused on it. She eliminated the noise from rain and wind, and she found out it was the roar of an engine.

“There’s a truck approaching,” she said.

“We need a new compass. We can ask for help,” James said. “They could be NURAT. I will do the talking.”

Soon, a pair of headlights appears through the rainfall. James pulled out his flashlight and waved it around, hoping the people in the truck would see the light. He could soon hear the engine and could see that the vehicle was an armoured truck, similar to the one he had seen when the duo was leaving Hyun-Jae.

The truck stopped next to the duo. The window rolled down, and lights inside the truck turned on, allowing James and Chorong to see the driver’s and the passenger’s faces. Both were middle-aged men.

“Hello,” James said.

“You guys seem to need help,” the driver said.

“You’re absolutely right. We are traders. Our digital compass stopped working, and we are lost.”

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The driver pointed to the back of his truck. “Get in. We are going to Halfyear. You can get a new compass there.”

The busker couldn’t hide his smile, amazed by his own luck.

“That would be greatly appreciated,” James said with a nod. Chorong made a light bow as well to express gratitude.

In a few minutes, the truck started moving again, with James and Chorong sitting on benches at the back of the truck. They sat next to each other. James flapped his shirt, trying to let out some of the humidity trapped underneath it. He left his guitar case open next to him to dry the inside. Fortunately, water hadn’t directly got into the case; it was just humid.

James glanced at the driver and the passenger. He had expected them to ask him and Chorong a few questions, but they stayed quiet. He tried to see outside the truck, but all the raindrops hitting the windshield and the fact that he was sitting in the back made it very hard.

Then, he thought he could see the headlights’ lights hitting on a cement wall. Soon, a gate with two armed men appeared in front of the truck.

The driver opened the window and talked to the men. Soon, the gate opened, and the truck went through.

“We are now in Halfyear,” the driver said.

James couldn’t see Halfyear too well since he was already inside it. However, he could tell streets were narrow and had many alleys branching off from one. Tall buildings extremely close to each other filled the city. Neon lights flashed everywhere, asserting their existence.

The truck stopped moving, and its back opened. Once James packed his guitar preciously again, he and Chorong got off the truck through the opening. The driver also got off as well. James approached him and offered a handshake.

“Thank you for the ride,” he said, smiling. The driver took the hand, and they shook hands.

James turned inside the truck to offer a handshake to the passenger as well. There was no one in the vehicle anymore.

Then he heard a body slapping the ground on the rainy cement sidewalk. He looked down. Chorong’s body lay there, her body buzzing, just like when she had been electrocuted in Bulan.

James turned around, finding a taser less than a centimetre away from his neck.

He cursed.

He felt electricity crawl through his veins. As he fell, he remembered the lady he and Chorong had accidentally saved, and what she had said:

Don’t trust anyone.

A sharp pain woke James up.

“Gah!” he exclaimed.

He was lying on a smooth, tiled floor. He put his hands on the ground and noticed a pair of handcuffs chaining his arms together. He sat up and looked around. He was sitting in a building resembling a rectangular church. The floor was nicely tiled, and the walls were made of bricks, speckled with stained glass windows that showed human figures. He was surrounded by tall men with guns standing by the walls.

“Hello, traveller,” a low female voice said.

The front of the church—where priests would lead prayers and masses—was slightly elevated from the rest. However, instead of a desk or a table to put the bible, a throne exerted its existence there. On the throne, a woman sat with crossed legs, looking down on James. She had long, silky lime hair and golden eyes that seemed to glow. Her white silk dress flowed down from her neck to her feet gracefully.

“I am Elizabeth. I am a high priest,” she said.

She was beautiful. Nonetheless, James did not have the mental leeway to care about beauty right now. His hands shook as millions of thoughts clouded his consciousness.

The woman leaned forward and stared at James. “Hmmm.” She reached out her hand and stroked James’s chin. Suddenly, all the thoughts cleared away from James’s head. He felt as light as a feather.

“Do not worry, our dear customer. We do not harm humans…at least not often.”

James looked into her eyes. She made a light smile as she leaned back on her throne again.

She then picked up an item next to her; it was his backpack.

James shook his head lightly as his logical consciousness came back. He now realized all his belongings were put next to the throne.

“Nothing out of unordinary,” she said as she examined the backpack. She put it down.

Then she grabbed the guitar case and opened it. “Oh, my, this is a nice guitar.”

The busker barked, “Don’t touch that!”

The woman stared at James, looking surprised but not in a frightened way; she seemed to be intrigued by his response. He realized he might’ve made a mistake.

“This must be precious to you, hmm?” she said. She lightly ran her hand on the guitar’s body as if she was teasing it and James.

James’s logical consciousness faded, and rage to protect his treasure replaced it. He put his feet on the ground to charge at her. However, two of the guards were faster. They darted to him and pressed down his shoulders aggressively, making a side of his face hit the floor. He struggled against the men in an attempt to escape. He felt like the guitar was screaming and shrieking for help.

“Let me go!” he shouted. His body rubbed on the ground as he wiggled it in an attempt to escape.

The woman smiled. James felt as if he could see demonic wings sprout from her back.

“This guitar is really, really precious to you, doesn’t it?” she said teasingly.

James hated the woman. He despised her. He wanted her to die.

“How about this, our dear traveller? I will offer you a choice.”

She snapped her fingers, and the noise echoed through the church beautifully. A door in the back swung open, and a big man came in with someone else.

It was Chorong, wide awake.

“Chorong!” James shouted.

The big man pushed Chorong forward. He held a taser right next to her neck. It was close enough that sparks from it could touch Chorong’s skin.

The big man and Chorong came to stand next to the throne.

“Let her go, you demon!” James demanded.

“Oh, but I’m not a demon. She is,” the woman said, pointing her index finger with a long white fingernail at Chorong. “Robots are demons, our dear traveller.”

NURAT, James realized.

“As someone who was travelling with a demon, you ought to be executed. However, we believe you still have a light side in you…the good side in you. You were just seduced by a demon into cooperation, and we believe you can come back.”

The woman stood up. She picked up the guitar by its neck. James wiggled violently in response, but guards held him down.

“You have a choice, Mr. Traveller,” the woman said as she turned around and approached the robot. Her back faced James. She held up the guitar next to her as if to let James take a good look at it. “You can choose the guitar to show that you’ve been freed from the demon. We will spare your life as well. Or…”

Using her empty hand, the woman grabbed Chorong’s chin harshly, making her head jerk back for a moment. Elizabeth turned around, letting James see her face.

It was something James would never forget. A smile resembling an amused demon dominated her face.

“You can choose the robot and die together.”

James’s heart beat fast. He breathed fast, close to hyperventilating. Her eyes sucked the rage and his will to protect the guitar from him and replaced those emotions with fear. He felt trapped and lost. He felt like he was losing his ability to think as black clouds covered his mind. He desperately looked for something he knew, anything he could recognize.

He looked at Chorong.

Chorong smiled. It was a beautiful, comforting, innocent smile that the busker will never forget.

“It’s ok, James,” she said.

“I…I…” James muttered, “I want my guitar.”

Elizabeth’s smile split even wider. She licked her lips with her unusually long tongue. “Good choice,” she whispered.

She let go of Chorong, and the guard behind her started dragging her out of the chamber. James couldn’t look at her. He only managed to glance at her just before she was dragged out through the doorway.

When the busker glanced at her, Chorong still smiled brightly, looking toward James. She whispered, “Goodbye, James.”

Then, the guard and Chorong disappeared.

Everything afterwards happened so fast. The guards helped James get back up, uncuffed him, and gave his stuff back. Elizabeth disappeared without him noticing.

In five minutes, he stood outside the church, in front of its entrance. Tall, dead buildings greeted him. The doors closed behind him.

He couldn’t think. His mind was blank. Unconsciously, he stared into the guitar case. It felt heavy and lifeless. Cold.

His body walked to an empty alley nearby. He dropped the rifle and the guitar case next to him. His back smacked onto the wall behind him, and he slid down until his butt hit the floor. He dragged his feet toward himself and wrapped his hand around his knees, curling himself into a ball.