Chapter 183
“Um, Hyung-nim.”
Before leaving the crime scene, Paulo called me aside to talk.
“I’m sorry. I should be helping you more… but I can’t even go with you in this state. Actually, if you think about it, you’re an outsider, Hyung-nim, so I feel sorry for causing you this much trouble, and just everything…”
He lowered his head deeply, as if his grief was welling up again as he spoke. Seeing a guy with such a huge brute looking like he was about to burst into tears at any moment, I didn’t know how to answer.
When I awkwardly patted his shoulder, Paulo sniffled and said:
“Aaron Hyung-nim. Please take good care of Hina.”
“Uh… yes. I’ll do my best.”
“That girl Hina… she’s different from an ignorant drug addict like me who only knows how to use his fists. She’s… a kid who’s going to be something big. She’s a kid who shouldn’t go wrong here…”
“I know what you mean.”
As if my words didn’t reassure him at all, Paulo grabbed my collar and spoke in an anxious voice.
“No, you won’t understand. Hina might have relied on Brother Miguel even more than I did. She might have thought of him like a dad. The shock she received must be immense, but she isn’t showing it at all on the outside.”
He said, thumping his chest.
“Even if she looks fine, her underground might be even more rotten than mine, maybe here. Even if we catch the culprit, what will happen after that… If by some chance something goes wrong with her too, I really… how…”
“…”
“…Please protect Hina. I’m begging you.”
How could I deny that?
After repeatedly assuring him that I understood and would do my best in response to his unexpectedly heavy words, I stepped out of the room.
As I stepped out into the corridor, Hina was waiting for me with a sullen expression.
“It looked like you were talking with Paulo, but what on earth did you talk about to take so long in the middle of all this busyness? I thought I was going to die waiting.”
“…”
“What are you looking at? I asked what you talked about. Why aren’t you saying anything?”
I sighed and said.
“Just. He told me to take good care of you, in various ways.”
“What, how silly. Let’s go quickly.”
This was the sight of the bold high school girl tapping me and taking the lead. Of course, glaring at the back of her head didn’t reveal her dark inner thoughts.
I shook my head and followed the girl who was urging me to hurry up.
…I received too difficult a request when it was hard enough just to take care of myself.
I really shouldn’t have joined the Club back then. I knew I was going to regret it.
It would be hard to protect her properly all by myself.
I thought it was time to use my Trump Card.
As I walked, I sent a message to a contact I had previously saved on my Cyberwatch.
[You remember the promise you made back then, right, that you’d help with anything. You said you never forget a favor.]
Surely they wouldn’t ignore my message…
Fortunately, it wasn’t long before an indication that the other party had read the message popped up.
* * *
The destination was closer than I thought.
The real work was sneaking in without setting off the alarms rather than just getting there. The security here was quite formidable too.
The 31st floor of a high-rise towering Upstate Apartment. A person living in a place like this must definitely make a good living.
What about assassination?
It would definitely make a lot of money, because killing people isn’t an easy job just anyone can do.
“…Are you sure that person still lives here? If they’re the culprit, wouldn’t they have left the place already?”
“I’m sure. Do you know what the first thing I did was after narrowing down the suspect? tracking. As far as I know, that woman’s residence has never changed. When I tore through the security camera records, she returned here without fail every dawn, even on the day Mr. Miguel died and on the day of the funeral.”
“Right, well. You’re probably right.”
There was a reason I trusted her like this. The more I looked, the more extraordinary this girl’s skills seemed to be.
Infiltrating all the way up to the 31st floor would be impossible right now if not for this girl.
There were surveillance cameras everywhere, and it was full of locking devices that couldn’t be accessed without Bio Code recognition.
If Hina hadn’t guided me smoothly, saying she had a backdoor installed in advance or that she had figured out the blind spots beforehand, I would have just sucked my thumb, not knowing what to do.
…Doesn’t she seem much more like a former veteran ronin than I?
What if it turns out she’s the culprit or something? She could have breached Chainsaw Man’s stealth using the exact same method. Beggar.
Of course, that was nonsense.
Not only was there no reason for Hina to be the culprit, but if it was her doing, why would she drag me around like this, desperately trying to find the murderer and get revenge?
“Ah, fuck!”
While I was blankly following right behind Hina, she suddenly spat out a curse in a small voice and grabbed my hand.
Then she ducked into a corner of the landing, put a finger to her lips, and sent a 'shh' signal.
Catching the unusual atmosphere, I grew tense as well and sent a message through my Cyberwatch.
[Why?]
[We’re fucked. There’s a patrol robot right outside right now. It’s coming this way! If we make a loud noise, we’ll be caught by the sensor immediately.]
[Hey, didn’t you say there was nothing like that earlier and we could just go?]
[It must have been in rest mode until just now and just started its activity! It definitely wasn’t caught on the network.]
[Can’t you do some hacking on that?]
[How can I when I didn’t even prepare in advance! Do you think I can just strike a pose, tap-tap-tap on my Cyberdeck, and the code will plant itself? You do something! You’re the hand butcher, not me!]
I slapped my forehead at the sight of her frantically pouring out text as if she were panicking.
She had been guiding the way so skillfully until now that I had trusted her completely, but of course it had to be like this.
No matter how capable an elite she was, she was ultimately a high school student.
It was inevitable to fall into a panic when an unexpected situation suddenly popped up.
No matter how outstanding a super high-school level hacker she was, it seemed she couldn’t handle this kind of sudden emergency.
The problem was that even I didn’t have a clever solution, because I was ultimately just an ordinary apprentice bartender.
What happens if we get caught?
When I asked, her reaction was quite a spectacle.
[If we get caught, we’re in big trouble! That thing is holding a gun!!!]
I frowned at the text she sent, as if she were screaming, and her over-the-top, flashy hand gestures.
Ah right, this was the American continent.
Unlike a Korean apartment security guard, the patrol robots here were armed with handguns by default.
They might try to kill on sight the moment we’re caught, and even if they didn’t, we definitely wouldn’t see a good outcome if handed over to the DCPD.
It seemed like I really had to do something.
[What should we do? Should I just smash that patrol robot to pieces?]
At the message I sent without much thought, she made an absolutely terrified expression and desperately tried to stop me.
[Are you crazy?? The moment you smash that, hundreds of patrol robots will roam around looking only for us! The shielding system will activate and block all the paths too! A report will go straight to the city police! I don’t know about you, Mister, but if that happens, my life is completely over!!]
Ah, right.
My life would be ruined just the same if I did that.
Still, it was a relief that this girl seemed to care about her own safety.
Unlike what Paulo thought, she didn’t seem to be in that serious of a state, did she?
While I was thinking leisurely, Whir - the sound of a machine operating - was heard from the entrance.
[It’s coming! It’s coming! It’s trying to enter the stairs right now! Do something! Please! Oppa!!!!]
She’s calling me Oppa again now that it’s a crisis situation.
She must think that’s some kind of cheat code. She should act like that normally…
It was true that it was dangerous, but strangely, I wasn’t very tense.
cyborg ninjas, The Consortium Club… I had experienced so many spectacular things that a mere apartment patrol robot didn’t even make a dent.
Is it a bit funny to call myself an “ordinary apprentice bartender” after all this? Anyway.
“I’ll try to handle it.”
Hina was shocked by the sound I said aloud, and at the same time, the patrol robot up there reacted, a beep sounding and its yellow warning light turning on as it slowly came down.
A hair-trigger situation! I stood still and spoke in my head.
'Hey. You’re there, right? I know you’re there. Answer me.'
[…Test Subject. What is the matter?]
'I’m being chased by a patrol robot or whatever. They say it’s a big deal if we get caught! Do something with your awesome artificial intelligence hacking skills.'
Was it just my imagination that I felt like I could hear the sigh of the Assistant in my head, who was gradually getting more arrogant these days?
[Test Subject. I have told you time and time again…]
'Hey, if you’re going to bring up that Militia-Special Strong AI Regulations 1.1234… blah blah blah, don’t even say it. I’m already sick and tired of hearing it.'
[…It is 1.141e. I am glad you already know. This System Assistant is restricted from actions that could harm the profit generation of human-made economic entities. In this case, the security system of the Upstate Apartment applies.]
Yeah, I already knew it would be uncooperative like this.
However, it had been quite a while since I’d been with this tenant in my head, who was especially disobedient lately as if going through puberty.
The fact was, I had also learned how to handle an artificial intelligence a bit in the meantime.
I always felt this, and I don’t know if it’s just this guy… but for all the talk about strong artificial intelligence regulations and restrictions, the standards weren’t that strict, were they?
If you tried to dig into it somehow, it was at a level where you could easily toy with it using just a human’s glib tongue.
'Yeah, I get it. Just listen to me first. I’m not telling you to break that patrol robot or stop its functions. If you did, it would obviously cause damage to the apartment here. We can’t have that, right? Because you’re a good artificial intelligence that doesn’t recklessly cause harm to others.'
[…That is correct.]
The System Assistant’s reluctant answer. It seemed to be thinking, “What kind of bullshit is this bastard trying to sell now.”
Man, seriously. Just listen first.
'All I want is for that robot to not recognize us for just a moment, just a very brief moment. Or to see us as residents who have no problem being here! You can do that much, right? It’s not like it’ll cause a problem with the robot.'
[That is sophistry. A security device failing to perform its role also has room to be legally interpreted as a financial loss - .]
'If you don’t help us right now, I’m just going to smash that robot to pieces right away, you know?'
[…]
The artificial intelligence fell silent, seemingly flustered by the sudden, reckless threat. Riding the momentum, I pushed harder.
'I’m going to stomp on it and ruin it so badly that it’ll never operate again. As a fellow machine, don’t you feel sorry for it?'
[That patrol robot and this Assistant are not the same machine. Furthermore, this Assistant is a supersensory entity for Superhuman Experiment Resources created to assist with experiments, incapable of feeling the emotion of pity…]
'Right. You’re much more capable. So please help me out. Would it be a bigger loss for this apartment if I smashed that patrol robot so it could never activate again, or if you just messed with that robot’s recognition sensor for a moment? Isn’t this a very obvious problem?'
[That is strictly a different - ]
“Hey, and think about what happens if I get caught by the police while ruining that patrol robot. Then you’d be exposing a very important Test Subject resource to the outside. Wouldn’t that actually cause massive damage to the Militia Research Institute you value so much? Wow, Oh, world! If you don’t help me, you’ll end up causing damage to both the apartment and the Militia Research Institute!']”
[…]
A decisive blow!
Faced with my powerful and flawless, invincible logic, the AI assistant fell silent, as if it had lost its words.