Became a Mechromancer - Chapter 69

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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 69.
How Many Layers? (6)
Pentagon.
J-6 Joint Tactical Cyber Division.
12:00 PM.
A holographic notification announcing lunch hour materialized in the air.
“Come on, let’s head to the taste shop.”
“Lunch already?”
The employees busily gathered their full-diver cables.
And in one corner of the office.
A man sitting without the slightest movement was Jacob, the security chief.
Ting, ting-ting.
His artificial eye, crafted to resemble a snail’s antenna, emitted soft sounds as it adjusted its focus.
He was scrolling through dozens of security logs floating in the air.
“Um….”
A new agent who had just joined this week gently tugged at his senior’s sleeve.
“Is the Chief okay? He’s been like that since yesterday.”
“Huh? Oh.”
The senior shook his head, drawing an X with both hands.
“Leave the Chief alone.”
“Sir?”
“He’ll finish his work and quietly log out on his own.”
“Log out? You mean he’s leaving work?”
When the newcomer turned his head, there was a full-brain station right next to Jacob’s seat.
Good heavens!
“They set up a station here…?”
At the newcomer’s question of whether that was even possible, the senior lowered his voice considerably.
“Even if dozens of agents like us put up barriers, he’d tear through them all alone and get in. So special treatment from above is only natural.”

In the end, the two of them plugged in their dive ports and headed off to savor their lunch break.
Jacob was the only one awake in the Cyber Division.
Beep.
At that moment, a hologram materialized before Jacob’s prosthetic eye.
『Blood Soo』
Jacob opened his mouth slowly.
“I’ll take it at home.”
Then he rose from his seat and reclined his body onto the station.
Whoooosh….
The light illuminating the station extinguished.
Jacob’s head lolled helplessly to the side as he entered charging mode.
His consciousness….
departed from his full-brain prosthetic.
* * *
A private underground bunker in the Virginia Outskirts.
Whirrrr whirrrr….
The vibration of the massive cooling unit roared loudly.
Hisssss—.
The capsule door hissed open as the pressure valve released.
Clang, clang.
Jacob’s footsteps echoed across the floor as he emerged from the capsule.
A high-performance full-brain prosthetic optimized solely for combat and information warfare.
Whoosh.
Connecting through the secret channel brought a hologram directly into view.
The contact was Blood Soo from moments before.
She spoke.
-You should’ve arrived by now. Did you see it?
“You’re impatient, aren’t you?”
-If you don’t want your neck on the line, move quickly.
“Yeah, yeah, hold on.”
He turned his head.
Hamji!
“If anything came for me, bring it here!”
Whirrrr— clunk.
The thick steel door of the workshop opened, and an old-fashioned robot shuffled in.
It was an antiquated, unhackable machine with no radio reception capability.
Jacob took the small box from Hamji.
“Susan, I just received it.”
As he opened the box, the main chip that Go Gyeong-taek had entrusted him with came into view.
-How long do you think it’ll take?
“We’ll find out once we try.”
“So roughly how much are we talking?”
Jacob asked, fidgeting with the chip.
“You weren’t interested before. Why the rush?”
-Not me.
“Then who?”
-Chairman Han is quite interested.
Ha.
Jacob let out a hollow laugh.
“That old man really is something.”
-….
“Not trusting his own family, paying penalty fees and all—I never thought he’d go this far.”
-Furball, stop spouting nonsense and tell me when you’re done.
Click.
She ended the call.
Snap.
Jacob reached out and inserted the main chip into the mount at the center of the workbench.
Whirrrr—.
Power flowed into the chip’s circuits along with the startup sound.
He supplied only minimal power to avoid damaging any traces left by the target.
Now, where….
Jacob lifted his gaze.
“Let’s see how you managed to dig your way in here.”
Hum, hum, hum!
Dozens of holographic panels unfolded in the space before his eyes.
Immediately, code cascaded across them.
Flick.
He lightly manipulated the panels in the empty space with his fingers.
“First, let’s start with a probe packet.”
Just as he was about to push the code into the chip’s interior.
Crackle! Zzzzzzz.
Suddenly the panels erupted in noise.
“Hm?”
At the center of the main panel.
A silver mask—the logo of Ghost, the trendy organization, suddenly burst forth.
Caught off guard by this unexpected development, Jacob’s mouth fell open.
Screeeech.
The Ghost logo grinned wickedly and opened its mouth wide.
Boom!
It devoured the analysis code Jacob had deployed, shredding it to pieces.
Hot!
“Holy shit….”
Poof—!
The Ghost logo that swallowed the code bursts like a soap bubble and vanishes.
…Kahahaha!
Only after a long moment did Jacob burst into uncontrollable laughter.
Electric thrills crackle continuously through his entire cerebral nervous system.
I’ve experienced much, but this is my first time taking such a direct hit on home ground.
You don’t disappoint….
“Or is this beyond my expectations?”
Tap-tap-tap!
His ten fingers, now fully focused, drum against the empty air.
He unleashes a barrage of reconnaissance code to find any gaps Ghost has left unguarded.
But.
『Access Denied』
『Alternate Route Search Failed』
『No Response』
Everything was blocked.
Hmm….
Jacob’s lips twitched slightly.
“The defense is solid.”
Standard access can’t even crack a gap in it.
Then.
Whoosh.
He retrieves a thick cable from the storage compartment beneath his chair—as thick as an adult’s forearm.
A custom access cable boasting twenty times the transmission speed of a standard dive port.
Thunk!
Without hesitation, he plugs it directly into the port at the back of his neck while leaning against the chair.
Zing—!
High current surges through, and his neck quickly grows hot.
A warning from the auxiliary processing AI appears at the edge of my vision.
Beep-beep-beep.
『Warning: Unauthorized Access Attempt』
『Warning: Cerebral Data Loss Probability 89%』
『Please disconnect immediately』
In short, a critical warning that my entire brain could burn out.
But.
Jacob stared at the hologram, his lips curling upward.
For an encounter with such a monster….
“The admission fee is quite reasonable.”
‘Anyway, I have a backup of my consciousness, so it doesn’t matter.’
Whoooosh—!
Jacob’s consciousness
was sucked through the dive port.
* * *
Inside the Garage, time worked differently.
The moment Dooho and Super Intelligence entered the Garage, time outside ceased to flow.
So after a brief meeting with them, I stepped directly into the design pod.
I projected a hologram in the center of the design pod and moved my hands rapidly.
Hmm….
‘I’ve done this a few times now—worth trying.’
I organized the blueprint swirling in my mind into a complete design in one breath.
Soon, as I stepped back one pace,
Shwish. Shwish-shwish.
the design pod’s AI automatically calculated and reinforced the weak points.
And….
After rotating the cleanly refined three-dimensional blueprint this way and that, I walked out of the pod.
‘I can’t nerf myself and cripple the team’s combat strength in the process.’
The conclusion from the meeting was clear: equipment to compensate for Isto’s lack of underwater mobility was urgent.
Standing before the workbench, I muttered to myself.
‘So where should I make it.’
I steadied my breathing.
I pulled my concentration taut and reached out my hand.
Srrrrk.
Silver nanobots emerged.
Hmm….
‘The quantity has decreased quite a bit.’
The needlessly detailed Abyss system.
I channeled mana through the nanobots.
Thunk. Clatter.
Isto and Hawkeye brought over the stacked Android scrap parts and Echo Metal fragments from the wall shelf.
I pulled one corner of my mouth up.
‘Normally I would have brought them with nanobots….’
Truth be told, losing the convenience bothers me more than the nerf itself.
I immediately activated the ‘Metal Manipulation’ skill on the mana-infused nanobots.
The two materials of different properties wrapped around the nanobots, and the hard metal blended together as smoothly as taffy.
Splat!
Bom-i flicked her long tongue and stuck it to Isto’s LED eyes.
-W-what is this??
Bom-i’s round eyes, having crawled up onto Isto’s head, sparkled brightly.
-Master, it feels like flour dough, not metal, ribbit.
“Want to taste it then?”
Isto chimed in at Dooho’s joke.
-If you’re giving it to me, Master Dooho, I don’t care what it is! Ding-a-ling~.
Isto fawned over him as if he were about to wag a tail.
Hawkeye, sitting behind, began polishing the steel arrow Dooho had crafted for him.
There was a subtle hint of envy in his expression.
Glance.
Dooho caught sight of it from the corner of his eye, let out a quiet chuckle, and turned his gaze back to the workbench.
How much time had passed?
With my stats reduced by two-thirds, I quickly hit my limit.
Sweat trickled down my forehead.
Phew….
I stepped back from the workbench to catch my breath.
I walked to the wall shelf and retrieved a potion I’d bought in Yeouido District 2.
‘I never thought the day would come when I’d actually drink this.’
Gulp, gulp.
After downing the potion and regaining my energy, I stood before the workbench again.
I poured all my remaining concentration into completing Isto’s equipment.
The distinctive ashen hue of Echo Metal gave it a subtle sense of refinement.
Ooh, oh!
-Master Dooho, may I put it on?
“Of course.”
Ehehehe~~~.
The creature even did a little shoulder dance as he fastened the equipment to his limbs.
“When you apply force to your wrists, it folds like a blade, and when you swim, it spreads into a fan shape.”
Isto immediately tried it out.
Swoosh!
His arms and legs spread into a fan shape, creating webbed appendages.
But here’s the thing.
He looked like a pot-bellied frog.
Uh, well….
I was holding back my laughter.
Croak, croak, croak….
-Iron Guy over there looks like a chubby toad himself, big brother.
Yet Isto was delighted regardless.
Envious of that, Hawkeye continued polishing the steel arrow until it gleamed.
Isto conducted a mobility test by generating slight heat in his body.
The mana mixed with the heat reacted with the Echo Metal’s properties, causing the entire equipment to begin vibrating.
-Oh! It has a vibration function too!
Dooho finished the remaining potion and set down the empty bottle.
“Like I said, Bom-i and I will be on the transport ship, so I’m counting on you.”
-I’m on it!
-I will protect the Macromancer.
Soon after, Dooho’s group left the Garage.
Just as Isto, who had gathered his equipment, was about to head out.
Beep beep.
Isto stopped at the sound from the laptop.
『External intrusion detected.』
His LED eyes flickered.
Someone appeared to be tracing back through the hacking route from not long ago.
Ohhh~
After watching for a moment, Isto retrieved the omniscient memory box from his desk and connected it to the laptop.
-Come on in, why don’t you. Hehehehe~.
Whoever it was, the thought of them falling into the omniscient memory box made his LED eyes gleam with malice.
That’s when it happened.
Dooho’s head popped back into the Garage.
“Why aren’t you coming out?”
-I’m catching them right now~.
“You’re enjoying this?”
-Of course!
Hehehehehehe~~~.
* * *
Dooho looked down the hillside.
Bom-i’s transport ship waited with its articulated legs firmly planted on the ground.
Dooho boarded shortly after.
Hawkeye provided cover, with Isto leading at the front.
The transport ship descended the hill and entered the Coastline.
Red dots began appearing one by one on the main screen inside the transport ship.
-Multiple demonic beasts detected at three o’clock, ribbit.
Bom-i’s warning.
As they advanced further, the sand churned violently.
They were a swarm of creatures resembling ordinary crabs, but with massive front claws thick and grotesquely curved like a dodo’s beak—’claw crabs.’
Oh! Oh!
-Test~, test~.
Isto, showing no tension, rushed forward, kicking up a massive cloud of sand.
Whoosh—Crack!
With just one swing, a claw crab as large as Bom-i’s transport ship was cleaved diagonally in two.
[You have gained experience.]
Oh!
-After all, combat is all about equipment!
That was the beginning.
Swoooosh! Swoooosh!
Like a child who’d discovered the thrill of swordplay, Isto carved through the swarm of claw crabs as if strolling through his own home.
Slash, pivot and slash, leap and slash again.
As Isto’s fervor heated the Echo Metal, the cutting speed became absolutely vicious.
-This one too! And that one!! Hehehehe~.
[You have gained experience points]
[You have gained experience points]
[Experience points…]
Meanwhile, Dooho’s ears were ringing incessantly.
Despite trembling in fear, Bom-i remained focused on the radar briefing with unwavering intensity.
-Three at nine o’clock, five directly ahead, and more coming from one o’clock, watch ouuuuut!!!
By the time the Coastline became littered with claw crab remains.
Hawkeye’s scope, which had been covering Isto, began to tremble increasingly.
-Mecromancer.
“…Yes?”
-Pardon me for a moment.
Whoosh.
Hawkeye drew the bowstring slightly and fired.
Ting!
A luminous arrow grazed past Isto’s gleaming head.
Acock-a-cock-a-cock.
-What, what the—!!
Isto’s LED eyes trembled with fury.
This iron-headed fool!
-Don’t you understand the meaning of restraint?!
After that, Isto sliced each claw crab cleanly, one at a time.
The party swiftly dispatched roughly forty claw crabs.
Dooho shrugged his shoulders as he watched Isto—that reckless berserker.
The accumulated experience points were quite substantial, making it a satisfying result.
.
.
.
Moments later.
Clang whirrrr clang….
Bom-i’s transport vessel finally began descending into the Underwater, one step at a time.
I swallowed hard, my eyes fixed on the main screen.
Wow….
An involuntary gasp escaped my lips.
The scenery was dazzlingly beautiful, like a resort beach somewhere overseas.
And then.
The moment Bom-i’s transport vessel submerged completely beneath the surface.

[First Entry into Unknown Zone]
Reward: 300P
“…Oh my.”
Dooho, startled, let out a dry laugh.
The reward wasn’t the issue.
The main screen illuminated by Bom-i’s radar, which had detected the seafloor, was….
Absolutely crimson red.
Became a Mechromancer
Author｜
Keongang E
Publication Date｜
February 25, 2026
Publisher｜
Talesyx
Website｜
https://talesyx.com
Email｜
[email protected]
ⓒ Keongang E, 2026
This publication is protected by copyright law and may not be reproduced or transmitted in any form without permission.
UCI｜
G720:N+A277-20260210015.0069

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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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