Became a Mechromancer - Chapter 87

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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 87.
Before the Sun Rises (5)
A Korean Man crouched on the floor.
Behind him, Blood Soo in a panda mask provokes Li Chen.
“You use expensive stuff. Your Awakening State is pretty pathetic, though.”
Li Chen’s gaze shifts to his Awakening State. A hole sits clearly in the center of it.
‘What is this…?’
Of course, I didn’t fall for the provocation.
What bothered me wasn’t his words, but the identity of the fork that had left such a scratch on my Awakening State.
It made sense.
My blade was a weapon forged from Heroic-grade Echometal.
‘Did he make the fork from Mithril?’
There was no other explanation.
Meanwhile, the Korean Man touched his neck with a vacant expression.
Only now did he realize how close he’d come to death, and his fingertips trembled.
Blood Soo stood before the man and looked down at him.
“Hey.”
The man looked up dazedly.
“Want to make a request?”
“…Huh?”
“It’s normally expensive.”
The panda head tilts to the side.
“But it’s New Year’s event, so we’re running a 90 percent discount. What do you say?”
The man’s lips tremble.
His mind is too scattered to accept the situation.
“P-please… save me….”
Before the man could finish speaking.
One of Li Chen’s companions twists a spear in his grip and drives it straight toward the throat of the man crouched on the floor.
But.
Blood Soo, who had altered the spear’s trajectory, was already standing beside the spearman.
Near the spearman’s ear, her voice reaches him.
“I’m in the middle of a transaction.”
“…?!!”
A scrape.
The fork’s tip leaves a thin cut across the spearman’s neck.
Blood beads in a line.
The spearman’s body goes rigid.
And the next instant.
Blood Soo was already crouching in front of the Korean Man again.
To the man’s eyes, her movement appeared like teleportation.
Tap, tap.
Blood Soo reached out and gently tapped the man’s cheek.
“You need to stay sharp during a transaction~.”
“Ah, yes! Of course!”
Li Chen’s eyes narrowed.
He hadn’t even properly seen the panda mask woman’s movements himself.
‘Is her speed superior to mine?’
He gestured to his two weaker companions to step back.
Then he observed Blood Soo while holding his sword at an angle.
‘I’m supposedly an A-rank Awakener, so surely I won’t lose?’
Besides.
“Isn’t it true that fixers just go with whoever pays more?”
Of course, he had no intention of actually paying.
But that statement was enough to keep the Korean Man’s attention.
“I, I’ll hire you!”
“Oh my, you certainly make decisions quickly, don’t you?”
A holographic document materialized before Blood Soo’s smart glasses.
Soon the contract was transmitted to the man’s smart glasses.
Once the man hastily completed the contract, Blood Soo rose to her feet.
“I’ve accepted the job.”
She spoke while looking at Li Chen.
“But I could always switch sides if you pay more.”
Li Chen’s lips curved upward.
Ha!
What a cunning woman.
It was clear from the start that she’d inserted herself to drive up the price.
“I’ll pay double.”
“Really?”
Li Chen laughed with a bitter edge.
“I could even pay triple, but… in exchange, show me your face.”
A brief silence descended.
The Korean Man looked between the two of them, seized by anxiety.
He seemed to be nothing more than bait to raise the panda woman’s fee.
Then Blood Soo raised her hand.
With her back to the man, she stood facing only Li Chen and his companions.
Soon the holo-mask lifted away.
All three men’s eyes widened simultaneously.
Li Chen’s gaze transformed in an instant.
He shamelessly raked his eyes across Blood Soo’s figure.
“Damn, you’re pretty.”
He stepped closer as he spoke.
“Just be mine. I’ll treat you well, yeah?”
Blood Soo asked the Korean Man without turning around.
“I wonder if our client would like to see my face too?”
The man shook his head frantically.
“N-no, of course not!”
Blood Soo smiled faintly.
Then she looked back at Li Chen.
“Triple the contract fee comes to 3 billion coins.”
“What?”
“I said triple.”
She shrugged her shoulders.
“Since our current client won a lottery event and got a 90 percent discount, they’re only paying 100 million.”
As if something had just occurred to her, she made a regretful expression.
But.
“If they see my face, no amount of money would save them—they’d have to die.”
“What?”
Li Chen asked back with a dumbfounded expression.
Meanwhile, Blood Soo muttered as if recalling something.
“I’ll need to deal with Go Gyeong-taek too. Since he’s the client’s grandson, that’ll be a bit awkward.”
The man kept his gaze fixed on the floor, afraid she might remove her mask.
Whirr.
The panda mask activated again, concealing her face.
Li Chen, reading the atmosphere, adjusted his grip on his sword.
“…You’re going to regret this.”
Instead of answering, Blood Soo shoved the Korean Man’s shoulder.
Thud.
His body was pushed to the side.
In that instant, two of Li Chen’s companions launched simultaneous attacks at the spot where the man had been standing.
And then.
Thwack.
Thwack.
Both men crumpled to the ground, clutching their throats.
Gurgle, gurgle….
Both of them made wet, choking sounds as they gripped their own necks, then went limp.
Li Chen’s expression hardened.
He gripped his sword and drew up his mana.
Blood Soo spoke gently.
“Still, since you almost became a client, I’ll let you off the hook this time.”
Trembling.
Li Chen’s hand gripping the blade quivered with humiliation.
‘Just because I’m a bit fast…!’
He immediately activated his chill skill.
Crack, snap.
Frost crystallized in the air as the floor began to freeze.
Rime spread along the walls.
‘No matter how fast you are, once your feet are bound, it’s over!’
But Blood Soo’s feet hovered slightly above the ground.
She asked.
“So your skill is chill?”
Li Chen’s face drained of color as he saw her suspended legs in mid-air.
Zhang Wei.
‘You should have told me if there was a monster like this…!’
Hraagh!!
He conjured sharp ice shards.
Crack, crackle.
Ice spears erupted from all directions, cascading toward Blood Soo in an instant.
Puff, burst.
The surroundings were engulfed in ice fragments.
Moments later, the chaos subsided.
‘I really thought I was dead.’
Just as Li Chen was about to catch his breath, Blood Soo’s voice came from behind him.
“That was a decent attack.”
With those words, Blood Soo tapped his earlobe with a fork, tap tap.
Goosebumps erupted across Li Chen’s entire body.
‘This woman is stronger than Zhang Wei.’
She asked.
But….
“You know you just exceeded three moves, right?”
“Wait, wait! I’ll give you ten billion won!”
Blood Soo smiled wickedly.
Mr. Go~.
“Once I’ve seen your face, money won’t help.”
“I’ll forget! No, I don’t even remember!”
Blood Soo stared at him for a moment.
“Saying you saw me and forgot right away is kind of hurtful, you know.”
Ah, ah….
Desperate, Li Chen spun around and swung his blade.
Or at least, he tried to.
Whoosh.
Blood Soo’s fork glided lightly across his neck and passed through.
Thud.
Li Chen collapsed to the ground.
Silence descended upon the dim Night Market.
The man who’d hired me huddled against the wall, trembling.
Blood Soo flicked her fingers, and the corpses and traces on the ground were swept into the corners.
She was tidying up in her own way.
The man watching the scene opened his mouth halfway.
‘That masked man earlier destroyed a robot with telekinesis too….’
Then Blood Soo spoke.
“Make sure you send the payment.”
“Huh? Oh, yes!”
She turned and walked away, her presence fading into silence.
The man muttered, watching her retreating figure.
That woman….
“She was the masked man’s associate.”
In that instant, Blood Soo reappeared beside him.
“What did you just say?”
The man flinched violently.
Blood Soo’s gaze turned toward his smart glasses.
Device information overlaid the glasses like a hologram.
She spoke curtly.
“Jacob.”
A holographic communication window opened in the empty space before her smart glasses.
Jacob appeared with an indifferent expression.
-What.
“Do some hacking for me.”
-I don’t want to.
Blood Soo’s eyes narrowed.
“Are you going to keep acting difficult?”
Jacob frowned.
-I’m not the incompetent fool you knew before….
Ding.
A payment notification sounded.
Jacob’s expression changed instantly.
-It’s not like I’m doing this for money… *ahem*! Let me show you what I can really do.
Blood Soo synced channels with the man’s smart glasses, and Jacob’s fingers swept rapidly through the air.
-Okay. Let’s see what we’ve got.
The man, unable to comprehend the situation, could only blink.
In that instant.
The storage area within the smart glasses opened in a flash.
Hidden folders spilled out one after another.
The Drug Dealer panicked.
What? What?
“Why is my glasses doing this?”
And then.
Jacob, having finished the hack, opened the most recent recording file and his eyes widened.
-…Holy shit.
The muscular man in the video was shattering the robot to pieces with telekinesis, without laying a finger on it.
Blood Soo’s gaze fixed on the footage.
A moment of silence.
Then the corners of her mouth slowly rose.
Copycat.
She murmured softly as she watched the video.
“There you are.”
The Drug Dealer looked up at her with a dazed expression.
The atmosphere of the woman in the panda mask, who had seemed so composed until moments ago, had shifted entirely.
Blood Soo’s eyes narrowed.
“This is far more interesting than before, isn’t it?”
Naked curiosity dripped from the end of her voice.
She twirled her fork as she asked.
“Where have you seen this man?”
“Uh, at the Night Market. He was taking down combat robots all by himself….”
Blood Soo cut him off.
Mm~.
“It’s all in the video.”
She rose from her seat and spoke sweetly to the man.
“Since you gave me something good, I’ll let the 100 million coins slide~.”
“Really, truly?”
“Which way did he go?”
The Drug Dealer quickly pointed with his finger.
“That way!”
Whoosh!
With those words, Blood Soo had already vanished.
* * *
I had anticipated the enemies wouldn’t come, but I never expected things to end this easily.
Lim Doo-ho wiped his chest.
He had descended to Basement Level 2 Storage and managed to load all the green stones into the Garage.
He hadn’t forgotten to tamper with the CCTV cameras along the route he’d taken.
Thanks to her, Hyun Se-hee, the control tower operator for Chiko Island’s South Korea sector, could now observe the chaotic, darkening Night Market once more.
Soon her voice flowed from Lim Doo-ho’s smartwatch.
-Are you planning to bring up the people hiding as well?
Lim Doo-ho glanced around briefly.
There were far more people concealed throughout the Night Market than he’d expected.
He shook his head.
“It’ll be safer for them to stay hidden here until the situation stabilizes.”
After answering that way, just as Lim Doo-ho was about to move again with suppressed presence—
-Lim Doo-ho. Stop.
Hyun Se-hee’s urgent voice came through the smartwatch.
-A combat robot is approaching the Night Market entrance.
Lim Doo-ho immediately turned his head.
And he spoke as quietly as possible, yet infusing his words with mana so everyone could hear.
“A robot’s coming. Everyone hide again. Quickly!”
Chaos erupted.
People scrambled to conceal themselves.
Whirrrr, clang, clang….
The distinctive heavy metallic sounds of the combat robot echoed across the ground.
Lim Doo-ho reflexively reached to pull the Android from the Garage, then stopped.
A full-body cyborg woman caught his eye. An elderly man with an artificial eye was visible too.
Scanning the surroundings, the proportion of full-body cyborgs was higher than expected.
As Lim Doo-ho hesitated briefly, Bom-i on his shoulder read his thoughts and spoke.
Master.
-Androids and full-body cyborgs have different compositions, ribbit.
“I know.”
I couldn’t carelessly inscribe mana circuits. Especially on people who’d replaced their eyes with artificial ones—where would I even embed the mana stones?
Then Hyun Se-hee’s voice came through.
-Hurry and hide.
“That won’t work.”
-Pardon?
“Combat robots are basically equipped with thermal sensors alongside cameras. Nine times out of ten, it’ll detect everyone in hiding.”
-Then what do you suggest?
“I need to eliminate it here.”
-Y-you mean…?
Lim Doo-ho didn’t respond to her words and concealed his presence using assassination techniques.
He began rushing forward in a low crouch.
Splash!
Drawing more power, he ran along the wall.
‘Thanks to the Heart Water, my physical abilities have definitely improved.’
Lim Doo-ho swiftly created distance between himself and the crowd.
He pushed off the wall and leaped toward the high ceiling.
Simultaneously, the Soul Bot added its propulsive force, sending my ascent even higher.
Gasps escaped from the lips of those watching from their hiding places.
“He was a high-rank Hunter.”
And beneath me, the combat robot’s head came into view.
In that instant.
Androids equipped with green stones poured down from the air in rapid succession.
The combat robot lifted its head.
Its lens flipped, losing its center of balance.
The Androids clung to the robot’s head, torso, and legs in a flash, binding its movements.
Crash!
The combat robot’s posture collapsed.
Lim Doo-ho appeared to hang suspended in mid-air.
In truth, it was only because the Soul Bot had anchored itself to the ceiling and walls.
And then….
The Soul Bots that poured forth engulfed the combat robot in an instant.
As mechanical sounds grated harshly, the combat robot disintegrated into nothing but debris.
Softly.
As Lim Doo-ho descended from the air, the wreckage of the combat robot lay in pitiful ruin on the ground.
A moment of silence.
Those in hiding stared blankly at what had just unfolded before their eyes.
Then someone gazed upon Lim Doo-ho and kindled hope.
We….
might actually survive and return!
I Became a Mech Mancer
Author｜
Gungang E
Published｜
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 in any form without permission.
UCI｜
G720:N+A277-20260210015.0087

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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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