Crackling noises, like flickering lights. The buzz of electric vibrations. In front of him, there seemed to be a door. A handle no one could bear to touch. Meyer couldn't reach it. The increasingly heavy presence of Emma was nothing but a burden on his heart muscles. He clutched the folds of his clothes tightly, his fingers locking as he breathed heavily, drenched in sweat. Catching his breath beside a corpse, Emma's entrance and her demand to leave without saying a word—wasn't that terrifying? Who was Emma? Would she always remain a mystery? Yes—Meyer didn't know the answer. All he knew was that in her eyes, he saw a dark betrayal that gripped the blood.
No one else seemed to see anything in Emma. But Meyer saw something uniquely his. As if a vague and merciless fate had bound them together.
"Who are you?" he asked, as beams of light danced around them like disco lights. "What are you? Why are you here? And why does it feel like I can only ever ask you one question? But the answers…" His lips cracked dry. "It's as if I'll never get them."
Emma had her back turned; the flames reflected in her pink gaze had yet to ripple in Meyer's eyes.
Time bounced between them like a volleyball.
A faint sorrow was imprinted into the light within the darkness.
"Emma Tyle," Emma whispered. "The woman who betrayed you."
Meyer felt crushed under the sharp weight of her words. They etched themselves into his soul. "I don't remember you," he simply said.
Emma remained silent. The dark curtains continued to dance around them. Time and space kept fading. The only thing left between them was an insatiable curiosity.
"But your heart remembers," Emma answered, slowly turning around.
As Meyer looked into her pink eyes, he felt everything flowing in reverse. The disorder of it all was increasing.
[Time fabric is tearing. Look into Emma's eyes. What you see there is real.]
Meyer gasped, taking a deep breath into his lungs. Time was… really. He glanced at his wristwatch. The second and minute hands spun endlessly. He gathered strength to meet Emma's gaze.
Then, slowly, something began to appear.
A night Emma and Meyer spent together in bed.
Then time sped forward. Emma rewarded Meyer with a warm kiss on the cheek.
Then—words. On a screen, Meyer looked at Emma. "I was so real with you, I became fake with everyone else..."
The words hit Meyer like bullets, dropping into his heart like large snowflakes. He was freezing.
It felt like dying—like death itself.
Another scene flickered through Emma's eyes.
A moment of holding hands. Emma's pink gaze clinging to Meyer.
Then—another scene.
Snap!
Emma, standing beside a stranger. Holding his hand in the same way. Kissing him with the same emotions.
Meyer pressed his hands over the scar on his abdomen.
He was in pain. Not exactly from what he saw, not entirely from what he remembered. But the betrayal his heart recognized—that was real. Emma had never been a stranger to him. That was the familiarity he felt when he looked into her eyes.
"Emma Tyle," Meyer murmured.
"Steve," Emma's voice was like a still sea.
"You cheated on me," Meyer said in a voice barely audible. "With someone closest to me. With Magnus."
It played again and again in his eyes.
[Mission successful. Memory restoration complete. Thank you for retrieving the Spider Antidote. Please prepare to report to the Tower.]
The Tower. Meyer remembered that. The Arrogant Thorn, the ring, and Black Tiger… The Doctor. Agent J. Code 43.
The curtains opened, and Meyer stood in the cold that pierced his skin. This was a prison cell. A toilet, a bed, a wooden plank. The sour smell rising from the sink.
"The Tower," he said. "I've arrived at the Tower."
The hard texture of the floor was familiar under his feet. The dampness was a memory locked in his lungs.
"Did I travel through time? But? Where's ambulance driver Meyer? Where's Jennie? And the bottle!" He breathed rapidly, looking around. Was the bottle he took from Justin still there? He shivered at the slick glass against his fingers. "To carry something from past to future? How could that be possible?"
He looked at the worn spider label on the bottle.
Spider Antidote.
Could he ever see Jennie again?
That machine—more human than any human.
The scars... Of course, they belonged here. They had opened on his skin like cellars when the spiders stabbed him.
He was alone here. But through a crack somewhere, cold air seeped in.
He shivered and lay on his side.
The fading point between past and future. He fell asleep there.
***
When Frank Cut locked himself in his special room in the Tower, silence dominated the space. An hour ago, he had felt a violent ache covering his whole body. He could feel the roots of cells and tissues taking hold somewhere inside, and could almost hear the pulse of blood leaping from his fingertips. On the screen next to him were surveillance images of his horse in an ordinary apartment. The home was protected by a burglar alarm, and Frank Cut, when not Code 43, lived there. Half-lived.
Now, vital organs had grown in what was once a body of nothing more than metal. His heart was pumping blood, veins were forming. Metal plating had turned to solid calcium-filled bones, his metal skin now wrapped in flesh. His armor was replaced by a human dignity.
Years ago, after a brutal accident, his decaying body had been discarded, and his brain copied onto a computer disk. By a trusted system agent—Emma Tyle. The girl who gambled with everyone and always somehow won. Emma profited from every bet—win or lose. That unmatched hunger for more was why Code 43 had chosen her to save him. Now his cables and codes had become organs, blood, bone, and muscle. What more could he want? He had been torn from the past and brought into the future.
If he went back in time, he would witness the confidence—and eventual collapse—of the Gem Union president on the verge of death. But even then, Code 43 was alive. Frank Cut.
Before the raid incident, gems needed to be collected to construct the Tower. But during a conference for Precious Minerals, a major robbery had taken place. The active elements needed for the Tower's construction had been stolen. The alarms of the building near the Magma Protection Zone had shaken the whole city. The armed heist claimed the lives of many mining masters and volcanic rock experts, and years of crafted ideas vanished in smoke.
Frank Cut heard the ticking of the clock. And also, the Devil's Shadow he had locked in one of the cells—Steve Meyer. The prisoner of the Devil Chip.
He pressed a button. A doctor entered.
"What are your orders, sir?"
That sycophantic tone clung to him like a curse.
"Show me the surveillance of the Devil's Shadow."
The doctor bowed. "As you wish, sir." He pulled a projector from his pocket. The image appeared on the blank wall.
Meyer was sleeping in his cell, every muscle relaxed.
"Did you retrieve the Spider Antidote from him?" asked Code 43.
"Yes, sir," said the doctor. "It's stored in the Special Protection Zone."
"Good. So he's sleeping deep enough not to notice you took it."
Unable to restrain his curiosity, the doctor asked, "Sir, forgive me, but… since your body now has internal organs… what's the Spider Antidote for?"
"Spider venom kills humans. Spider antidote kills spiders," said Code 43. "Soon, Lutte will declare war on us. We need to burn their entire line to the ground if we're to survive it, Doctor. By the way…" He paused. "Do you know who really killed Grace Huyger?"
"N-no… I mean, according to Crystal Channel 7, the murderer was never found. She was the girl found dead near the Tower, wasn't she?"
"Emma Tyle," said Code 43. "Keep that name away from the press. Block any channel that says otherwise. If the killer stick is pointed toward Emma in any discussion, break the stick. Understood?"
The doctor panicked. He stammered, "Understood, sir."
"Good," said Code 43. "Now my throne is even stronger." He pushed himself up with his arms and touched his veins. The doctor turned and left the room, as if he'd seen something too private.
"There is no Frank Cut anymore," said Code 43. "Only Code 43 remains." Then he ordered the Devil Chip, "Wake my man up."
"Steve Meyer?"
"There is only one man. The rest are beasts," Code 43 laughed. He stood up and looked at his horse. "And my horse—how is he?"
"The black one. You mean Grace Huyger's horse, sir?"
"What do you think?"
"That's what I assumed, sir. Actually, there's a suspicious situation. A woman is circling your apartment."
"Were you able to identify her?"
"Ah, not yet, sir."
"Not yet?"
"Well, not at this moment. But I'm working on—"
Code 43 shut off the Devil Chip in his mind and watched his horse pace the room.
It would take time to get used to his new body.
He pulled out his journal and, with his now-living hands, began to write:
"Emma should continue staying in the floor below for now. Throwing out the bait to lure Lina was a good move. Collapse is currently on the enemy list. Lina is her trailing tail. Cut the head, and the tail follows. The one pacing outside the door must be sensing the horse's presence. They'll never know. Unless the horse neighs. Well done, Emma. Bravo. Death to the enemies of the government!"