“AAAHHH!!!”

  Jungwoo screamed the moment his eyes snapped open.

  A searing heat was flooding into his body, burrowing deep beneath the skin.

  “Jungwoo! Snap out of it! You have to escape!”

  Chris’s voice cut through the comm, urgent and raw. But Jungwoo’s HGT101 was already starting to melt.

  “Agh!! Help me!”

  He could no longer feel his right leg.

  What… what the hell is going on? What went wrong…?

  Chunks of the cockpit were dripping like wax. His limbs burned, nerves on fire.

  The pain, paradoxically, sharpened his senses. Everything became cruelly vivid.

  “Jungwoo! You’ve got to get out now!”

  Another shout from Chris jolted him. Jungwoo forced himself to lift his head and blinked with his right eye.

  “Hi, Lucy. How far are we from the Sun?”

  “Approximately 130 million kilometers. Would you like me to run a scan?”

  What? That’s… far enough. So why is it so hot?

  He looked down.

  A strange object was entangled around his leg—glowing, humming.

  Why is this thing so damn hot…?

  “Forget it—emergency escape now!”

  He slammed the eject command.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  Initiating emergency release…

  Tick! Tick! BOOM! Clank!

  The rear hatch of HGT101 burst open, and Jungwoo’s body was flung toward space—except his right leg didn’t follow.

  It was fused to the melting interior.

  Agony returned, sharper than before.

  “AAAHHH!!!”

  Chris appeared, piloting his own sweeper in close.

  “Jungwoo!! Goddammit—we have to cut your leg!”

  “Nghhh…”

  Chris didn’t hesitate. For Jungwoo’s survival, there was no other choice.

  He latched onto Jungwoo’s torso, braced himself—and pulled.

  Rip… crack!

  Jungwoo lost consciousness from the pain.

  Fwshhhh…

  The lower half of Jungwoo’s HGT101, including the leg section, tore away—and exploded.

  The blast threw Chris’s ship backward, hurling them into the void.

  But that was only the beginning.

  Suddenly, the dormant mass labeled M-PU239 / M-AM95 / M-NP93 began to react.

  An intense light surged outward—followed by a whirlpool of gravity and distortion.

  The white light expanded rapidly, bending space around it like water around a drain.

  Then—

  It collapsed into a single glowing dot.

  That dot began to pull.

  Everything.

  ?

  “Damn it… what is that?!”

  Station Director Jang Wiwi stared at the expanding vortex from the main office in the Center—the central research complex between Earth and the Moon.

  BEEEEEP—EMERGENCY ALERT ACTIVATED.

  In the distance, Chris’s damaged HGT101 shot toward the docking bay.

  “Open the gates! Now!”

  Jang shouted to the gate supervisor.

  The doors slammed open. Chris’s ship crash-landed inside, and personnel swarmed around it.

  Inside, they found Jungwoo—unconscious, his right leg severed.

  Medics rushed him to the regeneration chamber for emergency treatment.

  “Chris! What the hell happened out there?!”

  “I—I don’t know,” Chris stammered. “Something… something reacted out there.”

  Before he could finish—

  BOOM. BOOM. BOOOOM.

  The whole Center began to shake.

  “What now?!”

  “It’s the vortex! It’s expanding! The structure is destabilizing!”

  Someone screamed from across the chaos.

  The small white dot was now devouring entire swaths of surrounding space.

  It was growing—

  Relentlessly.

  ?

  Glossary:

  [The Center]

  ? Located between Earth and the Moon

  ? Serves as a central hub for space operations

  ? Functions as a terminal for cleanup, exploration, and development

  ? Flagship complex of Lucy Corp

  ? Operated by Lucy Corp and four other space factions