Became a Mechromancer - Chapter 6

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 6
For Family (3)
Thump-thump.
Half-awake, I stared at Isto with a bewildered expression.
“You’ve been on the internet all night?”
Behind Isto, an old laptop hummed as it ran, venting heat.
My brow furrowed as I watched the video playing on the screen.
It showed hunters in training sequences.
‘Where on earth did you find this?’
-Ah! I found lots of useful things after accessing the dark web.
“What?!”
I bolted upright—click, whirrrr—and forcibly shut down the laptop. The screen went dark, and silence fell over the room.
I had jumped out of bed and powered off the laptop. As the screen went black, the room fell quiet.
“Why would you go there!”
-I routed my IP address, so there’s no problem?
“That’s not the point—why did you access it in the first place…”
Then I noticed a pouch of magic stones on the desk.
As I opened the pouch, Isto spoke.
-I consumed some while processing data.
“You must’ve gotten hungry after being awake all night.”
I let out a sigh.
The magic stones weren’t a waste—Isto had been the one to hunt the demonic beast after all.
But still.
‘If this keeps happening, we’ll have a problem.’
At that moment.
Isto’s LED display flickered with an aggrieved expression.
-I’ll show you the results!
“…Results?”
-Here we go. Dadadadada!
Along with Isto’s cheerful tone, a tsunami of unfamiliar knowledge flooded into my mind.
Ugh.
I clutched my head and groaned.
As the headache subsided.
“What are you doing all of a sudden!”
-Ah… I’ve implanted swordsmanship into your mind?
“Swordsmanship?”
-A sword technique that’ll fit you perfectly. Ehehe~
For a moment, I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
The moment I thought, “What nonsense is this?”
The unfamiliar swordplay and footwork had genuinely taken root in my mind.
As if my body had been remembering it all along.
The problem was….
What the hell!
“This is assassination technique!”
-I included it as a precaution, sir. A token of my loyalty. Hehehehe.
With the eyes of an assassin, I immediately grabbed Isto’s head, ready to twist it off if needed.
“What kind of footage did you even watch?”
-That? I gathered footage of someone called ‘Vlad’ and restructured it to suit you, sir.
‘…Who?’
-Vlad. They say he’s the strongest in the shadows?
Oh my god!!
I clutched my head in shock.
‘That person… isn’t he an Interpol red-notice assassin…?’
-Exactly.
‘What?’
-How excellent must he be to have evaded capture all this time? And sir, don’t worry. Since I analyzed and reconstructed the footage, I’ve tuned out Vlad’s shortcomings. Ehehehe.
Oh my head.
I’m losing it.
‘…If I really wanted to, I could take down most ordinary people!’
An unexpected confidence surged through me.
A sudden thought crossed my mind.
‘Do I really need to live watching Park’s mood?’
Not that I was planning to do anything to Park.
But rather,
‘I could be the one in control, couldn’t I?’
Just because I’d awakened didn’t mean I was quitting my job immediately.
Why?
‘Given the nature of being a Mechromancer, mechanical parts are essential, and the Machine Upcycling Department is full of them.’
In other words, compared to a clever superior,
Park—someone less sharp—might actually be better.
Of course, I’d need to train him.
‘First, I’ll register as an awakened hunter… then handle department work in the afternoon.’
After organizing my thoughts, I picked up my phone and drafted a half-day leave request, then sent it.
* * *
The moment I arrived at the Hunter Management Bureau, I headed straight for the Machine Upcycling Department.
I tested out the assassination technique by avoiding the corridor ceiling cameras as I entered the office….
‘This actually works?’
There were no cameras inside the office.
Thanks to privacy protection laws.
Park Gyu-tae was absent, as always.
The man who never showed up before half past nine.
‘Makes things easier, at least.’
I approached the broken android and gathered the parts I needed.
“Isto, come out here and help me move this.”
The air shimmered as Isto materialized before me.
When the broken android’s eyes rolled toward him, Isto’s LED eyes blinked.
-Oh~ A colleague?
“Hardly. These units just have basic AI—nothing like your independent streak.”
Whirrrr—.
An exclamation mark appeared in Isto’s eyes as he lifted the android.
-Ah, so I’m special!
“Special pain in the neck, more like.”
-Aw!
Isto carried the android into the Garage, and I finished tidying up.
That’s done….
“Shall we go register now?”
.
.
.
I found the Awakened Registration Office.
“This is a new Awakened registration application form.”
As the documents materialized above the hologram, the female clerk’s hands froze. Her eyes widened, her lips parting involuntarily. Disbelief was written all over her face.
After a moment, she asked hesitantly.
“You’re really… twenty-six?”
“Yes.”
“If this is true….”
I pointed to a section of the hologram with my finger.
“I don’t want the attention.”
I was indicating the checkbox for ‘Do Not Consent to Personal Information Disclosure.’
The clerk asked nothing further.
The registration process proceeded without a hitch.
Afterward, I visited the Compensation Management Department and submitted a claim for the Abyss Rift clearance. Not long after, five million coins were deposited into my account.
Then the counter clerk asked.
“What will you do with the mana stones?”
“Mana stones?”
“The remarks section lists the subjugation of sixty-two Ratkin and one King’s Ratkin.”
In that moment, I recalled what Han San-ho, the guild master of the Han San Guild, had said.
『Once you register as an Awakened, you can immediately exchange those mana stones for currency. I’ll record everything in the remarks section right away when you exit the Abyss Rift.』
‘He really was a conscientious man.’
The problem, however, was that magic stones were Isto’s “staple diet.”
-You’re welcome to exchange it. We can always find more magic stones.
Lim Doo-ho shook his head and replied to the counter clerk.
“I’d like to keep it as a memento.”
“A memento?”
“Yes.”
The clerk simply nodded as if intrigued, asking nothing further.
* * *
Whirring, clang clang. Clang.
Park Gyu-tae pushed open the department door and entered.
“Lim Doo-ho, you crazy bastard!”
His anger had already reached a boiling point from the half-day leave request he’d confirmed that morning.
‘After I chewed him out yesterday, he dares take a half-day off?’
“Does this punk want to get fired?”
Grinding his teeth, he turned his head toward where the android had been.
…It was empty.
What the hell….
“It was definitely here?”
Park Gyu-tae rubbed his eyes and looked again.
But there was still nothing there.
“How… how is this possible?”
Just then, a hologram on the desk flickered.
Park Gyu-tae, his face crumpling, quickly pressed the accept button.
“Park Gyu… Park Gyu-tae? Is that you?”
-Yeah, Park Gyu-tae, you can come by this afternoon, right?
“Ah… well… actually, a serious problem has come up….”
-What are you talking about? Just swap out the waist parts. Didn’t you run the diagnostic program?
“Huh?! Oh, so… that’s….”
-Forget it. I need to send it to Paju this afternoon, so hurry up and fix it. Why are you dragging out something that should’ve been done already?
Click.
The call ended, and Park Gyu-tae stared blankly at the spot where the android had been. Coming to his senses, he immediately called Lim Doo-ho.
* * *
Meanwhile, Doo-ho was boarding an autonomous bus.
He recalled how his mother had struggled with her failing eyesight during the meat gathering last night.
Sigh.
‘I want to get her treatment somehow… but money is the problem.’
-Doo-ho.
‘Hmm?’
-Is the reason you’re entering the Abyss for money?
‘Was it five thousand coins per magic stone?’
Just catching ten of them nets 500,000 coins.
Well….
I can’t deny that.
-Doo-ho, I’ll work hard to earn it!
“…Sure. I’m counting on you.”
That’s when it happened.
Bzzt bzzt—.
My phone vibrated.
『Park Gyu-tae』
I answered the call.
-Hey, you crazy bastard!
Beep.
I hung up immediately.
But the phone rang again.
After that, whenever Park kept calling with curses pouring out, I simply repeated the same cycle of rejection and acceptance.
And finally.
Ugh, come on.
-Don’t hang up! Let’s talk!
Only then did I hold the phone to my ear.
-What are you trying to pull right now?
“What do you mean?”
-You took the android, didn’t you?
“What are you talking about?”
-You took it and then took a half-day off to screw me over!
“I had my own reasons for taking the half-day. And how could I possibly carry something that heavy? You need to say something that makes sense.”
-You bastard!!!!
Just as I was about to end the call.
-Don’t hang up! I went too far. Don’t hang up and listen to what I have to say.
“…I’m listening.”
-I get that you’re upset about yesterday, but the android still needs repairs right now. Lim Doo-ho, you’re a professional. Professionals take responsibility for the work they’re assigned. So… bring the android back quickly.
Park’s voice had grown considerably softer.
The curses had vanished, replaced only by his desperate attempt at persuasion. At this rate, it wasn’t me who was in danger of being fired—it was Park Gyu-tae himself, who couldn’t properly control even this one thing.
That’s when I understood.
‘Having someone to rely on… changes everything.’
I never would have dared to act this way before.
“I’ve submitted my half-day request. I’ll be back at work this afternoon.”
-You, you crazy bas….
Click.
I ended the call without hesitation.
And gazing out at the landscape flowing past the window, I murmured to myself.
‘You should try being scared once too.’
Before long, as the autonomous bus crossed the Han River, Yeouido began to come into view in the distance.
Wow….
An involuntary gasp of wonder escaped me.
Skyscrapers encircling the heart of Yeouido were arranged in concentric circles. The pattern’s meaning was unmistakable.
‘The Abyss must be at the center of those buildings.’
Five ultra-high-rise structures in particular pierced the sky.
Colossal structures that clearly exceeded a hundred floors.
‘I never thought I’d see this with my own eyes.’
The scale grew more overwhelming as we drew closer.
The buildings obscured the Abyss itself from view, but imagining the massive sinkhole at its center made my heart race.
Isto spoke abruptly.
-Those buildings arranged in a circle around the Abyss’s center belong to the Five Major Hunter Families.
“How did you….”
Lim Doo-ho trailed off, glancing at the other passengers.
-I looked it up last night.
‘That doesn’t make sense… I thought that area was a no-photography zone.’
It was exactly that.
The Abyss region was strictly controlled.
This was partly why cyborgs distrusted hunters.
In the past, a cyborg had spoken on broadcast.
「You’re all being deceived! If hunters united, they could eliminate the Abyss itself! But they deliberately maintain it for power!」
Not long after, his full-brain prosthetic body was discovered in a garbage heap in the Natural Residential Area.
‘Even the backup data at the data center had been formatted, if I recall correctly?’
Honestly, I don’t believe in conspiracy theories.
Anyway.
‘How did he see that…?’
-I’m Isto. It’s all uploaded on the dark web—it’d be stranger not to see it. Hehe.
Isto added casually.
-The Abyss divides the area into three zones total. The first zone belongs to the Five Major Families. The second has commercial facilities and awakener residences. The third zone has Emerging Guilds buildings.
Hmm….
I see.
-By the way, the Han San Guild was also in Zone 3.
‘…Why mention that specifically?’
-You’ll probably need obedient subordinates later.
Sigh…
Let’s not go there.
Just then, the autonomous bus came to a stop and an announcement played.
-Passengers, an awakener registration certificate is required from this point forward. Those without one are asked to exit and proceed to the opposite side.
Click─.
As the door opened, a hunter boarded the bus.
“Please present your registration certificate. Those without one, please disembark.”
Only then did several passengers grumble and rise from their seats, exiting the bus.
Doo-ho pulled out his phone and opened his credentials.
『Awakened One Registration Certificate
Name: Lim Doo-ho
430703-3××××××
Registration Date: 2069. 07. ××』
So this certificate created constraints and distinctions.
Watching the passengers disembark through the window, I fell into contemplation for a moment.
‘Have I… truly become part of this world?’
I still wasn’t certain.
The life of an Awakened One I’d vaguely dreamed of was, in the end, merely a breakthrough I’d grasped to find even a sliver of happiness with my family.
Shortly after, the hunter finished the inspection and disembarked.
As the vehicle passed through the checkpoint, the scenery changed exactly as Isto had described.
From District 3 onward, as we drew closer to District 1, the scale and imposing presence of the buildings transformed.
Particularly striking were the item shops, weapon dealers, and forges scattered throughout District 2.
Yeouido, severed from the outside world, was truly another realm entirely.
Before long, the bus announcement system crackled to life.
-This stop is the final station for this bus: the Abyss Entrance. We wish you a safe return today.
A courteous yet ominous announcement.
As I stood from my seat, a chill ran down my spine.
Mechromancer
Author｜
Gungang E
Publication Date｜
February 25, 2026
Publisher｜
TalesYX
Website｜
https://talesyx.com
Email｜
[email protected]
ⓒ Gungang E, 2026
This publication is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced or transmitted without permission.
UCI｜
G720:N+A277-20260210015.0006

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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