Half-conscious, Danang couldn’t grasp the gravity of his situation or the imminent danger closing in.
His vision blurred with dust, smoke, and shattered concrete rubble. Spitting blood, he gazed dazedly through a gap in the debris at the steel-plated sky, his eyes shifting to the cleaner aiming a laser weapon at him.
Was he alive or dead? He couldn’t tell. No—how was he still conscious after sustaining fatal wounds, his body blown to bits? No human should survive being shredded by chain guns and Gatling cannons or pierced by a pile bunker.
Yet here he was, alive. Half-dead, perhaps, but cataloging every injury with cold precision.
“—”
Coughing up the blood pooling in his throat, he focused on the heart raging in his chest.
“—ghh.”
With each pulse, hot blood surged through his veins, fueling his cells with energy.
Something writhed within his cells, like nematodes—an unidentified anomaly. No, not just his cells. Centered in his heart, the foreign matter rewrote his telomeres, altering the very genes that made him human.
Lumina’s bug… Eve’s words echoed in his mind, the name of the anomaly she’d implanted flashing through his thoughts.
“Lu—mina.”
White nematodes, Lumina, Eve, Karth… If the worms that had poured from Karth’s wounds in the ruins, sealing and repairing them, now writhed within him, was this immortality Lumina’s power? Would he become a beast like Karth?
He didn’t want to die. He wanted to live. The life the old man had saved couldn’t be wasted meaninglessly. A pointless death was unacceptable. To die without finding purpose, without knowing why he was born… Danang himself wouldn’t forgive it.
“Cellular fusion-type universal nanomachine: Lumina. Full user integration phase completed. Partial authority transfer confirmed by administrator. Raise compatibility level?”
A mechanical voice resounded in his brain.
“Raising compatibility during combat or mission execution is not optimal.”
His heart burned like fire. His blood boiled like molten iron. Every cell radiated heat, his eyes glowing crimson.
What should he do? How could he escape this crisis? The voice in his head demanded a choice, its emotionless tone dizzying him.
“Request authentication.”
“…”
“Do you want to live? Or die?”
The answer was obvious. Given those two choices, there was only one.
“I want to live!” he roared.
“Understood. Initiating combat program. Converting sixty percent of Lumina into bio-fusion metal. Synchronizing mechanical prosthesis with biological components… Clear. Authentication cleared by administrator. Mechanical arm—official designation: Black Steel Zero—connected to Lumina. Request user name.”
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“Danang!”
“Acknowledged. User name change confirmed. Combat support AI Nephthys activated. Lumina usage and bio-fusion metal shaping handled by Nephthys. Good luck, Danang.”
His mechanical arm hummed, the heat in his cells channeling into its power core.
“Initiating thermal energy charge. Black Steel Type-2, armor release. Vibro-blade shield deployed. Wave cannon barrel extended. Enemy exoskeleton laser charge complete. Our wave cannon ready. Danang, your orders.”
The palm armor of Danang’s mechanical arm opened, extending a dull gray barrel as immense energy converged at its muzzle. Lumina transmuted thermal energy into wave energy, excess power forming antimatter that distorted the gravitational field.
“Fire!” Danang commanded.
“Understood. Firing wave cannon.”
Overwhelming—the word fit perfectly. The beam swallowed the cleaner’s laser, incinerating its right arm armor and slamming into the steel wall. The blast’s shockwave pulverized the rubble burying Danang, the compact wave cannon scattering pale blue lightning.
“—”
“Danang, action recommended.”
“Why—?” he gasped.
“Enemy exoskeleton still operational. Initiating combat.”
In a split-second decision, Danang sensed murderous intent and dove aside, gasping as a pile bunker stake slammed into the ground.
“Vile serpent… You’re nothing but a threat. I’ll reassess you,” the cleaner growled.
Even with its right arm useless and circuits fried by the wave cannon’s blast, the cleaner’s crimson mono-eye gleamed, resuming its mission to eliminate Danang.
“Monster!” it spat.
“That’s my line!” Danang retorted.
“Enemy exoskeleton damage: 20%. Weapon damage: 40%. Wave cannon overheated. Bio-fusion metal activated. Lumina activity rate reduced. Regeneration, repair, and restoration functions suspended.”
Dodging a flurry of stakes, Danang scanned his surroundings, spotting Heres lying near the rubble.
His firearms were destroyed by the cleaner’s heavy weapons, reduced to scrap. With his mechanical arm radiating unbearable heat and barely responsive, parrying attacks was nearly impossible. Hiding behind rubble, dodging chain gun and Gatling fire, Danang panted heavily.
“Engagement recommended.”
“Don’t be ridiculous!” he snapped.
“It is not unreasonable. That judgment is illogical.”
“Shut up for a second!”
Think. How to deflect the enemy’s attacks and reach Heres? How to move without weapons? Think.
“…Nephthys, what weapons do I have?”
“Bio-fusion metal recommended.”
“…”
Use any weapon available—even if it’s from a corpse. Only the living can wield them. Unconsciously echoing the old man’s words, Danang gritted his teeth. “Activate the bio-fusion metal,” he ordered Nephthys.
“Understood. Bio-fusion metal surfacing. Control and shaping entrusted to me.”
His flesh left arm took on a metallic sheen, bones and veins encased in steel.
“Disregard standard bullets, grenades, or missile warheads. Exercise caution with nuclear bio-warheads, depleted uranium rounds, and gallium alloy bullets.”
“…Got it.”
Exposing himself to a storm of bullets, Danang triggered bio-fusion metal formation just before impact. Steel clashed with bullets, sparks flying as he sprinted to Heres, grabbed its hilt, and turned its blade toward the cleaner closing in.
“I’ll cut you down!”
The blade sliced through the exoskeleton’s thick armor like paper.
“Black serpent! A ruin’s legacy?!” the cleaner roared.
“Even upper-city cleaners are surprised, huh? I’ll kill you!” Danang shouted.
“Silence! Disappear without a speck of dust!” the cleaner bellowed.
“Danang.”
“What?!”
“Withdrawal requested. Full-body mechanoid approaching.”
“Wha—”
A deafening roar painted the surroundings in crimson flames—a napalm composite missile warhead. Eardrums ruptured, oxygen burned away, and through the inferno emerged a figure joining the fray: a massive black iron mechanoid, fully prosthetic.
“Danang! This time, I’ll kill you! And you’ll kill me!”
Damocles, the gang leader, swung his electromagnetic claws, tearing through the building and roaring maniacally.
“Withdrawal recommended—corrected. Engagement impossible. Retreat or hold until the administrator arrives.”
“…That’s tough,” Danang muttered, locking eyes with Damocles’ glowing mechanical gaze—the eyes of a madman.
