Chapter 308
Why is this here? No, more than that, there’s no way the extermination Squad wouldn’t know -
As I was half in a panic, conscious of the gazes around me, he spoke to me.
“Please stay calm. I have taken the necessary measures. As long as you do not show it outwardly, they will never know.”
Even if he told me to stay calm, there was no way it would be that easy.
An object perhaps even more dangerous than a nuclear bomb was resting in my hand. If the fact that I possessed this became known, I would immediately become a public enemy of the city and a dead man.
It wasn’t like he was repaying a favor with enmity, but there had to be a reason for handing over something so troublesome to deal with, and something I didn’t even need.
“…Is that inside?”
“Yes. I believe you already know how to use it.”
“You want me to use it?”
I had no idea where he wanted me to use it.
…No, actually, I had a slight guess.
I carefully lifted the drive. As I gripped it tightly with a trembling hand, a reaction came.
It was the voice of the Tenant in my head, who had been silent for a very long time.
[Test Subject, that is needed by this System Assistant. That code is a meaningful resource for the Research Institute’s Superhuman Experiment. Connect it to the older model Cyberwatch immediately.Error occurred. Error occurred. Re-entering.]
[…No. Forget it. According to Militia Special-Strong Artificial Intelligence Regulations 1.12a, this Assistant is strictly prohibited from contact with external programs. I request the deletion of the malicious code in question.]
The System Assistant’s condition had been unusual lately, but I had never seen it completely fluctuate like this.
It looked as if the artificial intelligence inside the microchip was experiencing a split personality.
The FAIV Virus was already, even before I had used it, exerting a strong influence on my pet artificial intelligence.
'Seeing as it isn’t even throwing a fit at the title of pet Artificial Intelligence, this makes it even more certain.'
It was incredibly unsettling. I would probably never inject the FAIV Virus into the In-Head AI with my own hands.
“…I don’t really want to do that.”
At my reluctant answer, the extermination Squad member spoke.
“I still recommend that you take it. It won’t be too late to decide after thinking it over. The thing you are worried about will not happen. This is strictly a reward, an upgrade.”
'Upgrade,' huh.
The voice I had heard in the illusion came to mind.
“The reward is an upgrade, and it has already been given. Only acceptance remains. You must do what needed to be done, Jo Aron.”
Was this what that meant?
And that only acceptance remained? Perhaps already at that moment, all of this…
“It is best not to think more deeply than necessary.”
The advice came at a truly appropriate time.
I caught my quickening breath and thought as I exhaled.
The thing I was worried about wouldn’t happen, meaning that using this wouldn’t cause the In-Head AI to suddenly leap into another superintelligence.
And the other party already knew that. It wasn’t really something to be surprised about.
“…How much do you know?”
“As much as necessary, and as much as possible.”
The voice saying that was somewhat sorrowful. I frowned, feeling like it wasn’t the speech pattern of the Prezen Meredith I knew.
A concern naturally arose.
Could the super artificial intelligence Prezen be considered the same person as the Raver Prezen I knew?
It was a difference of merely one step. At the same time, it was the difference between a foolish person of The Mortal World and a god who had ascended by becoming omniscient and omnipotent.
The five-year-old me and the twenty-two-year-old me were the same person. It was natural, since the five-year-old me grew up to become the current me.
But even so, I didn’t remember every single promise the five-year-old me made, the friend I played with, the sad things and the happy things, nor did I consider them important. It was natural, since it happened when I was so very young.
The relationship between the super Artificial Intelligence Prezen and the Raver Prezen might be similar to this.
Compared to the immense amount of information a super artificial intelligence that had reached the singularity absorbed every hour, the memories of his Raver days were a mere speck of dust. In human terms, it was no different from infancy.
Just because I knew the Prezen of that time, could I say I knew the Prezen of now? Was a person like me still a meaningful audience member to that artist who had become a god?
I clenched my teeth.
“Answer me. Who am I?”
“Aaron Nakamura. A direct employee selected by the Isiho Chairman. Worked as the Head Chef of the premium Restaurant Enkai before a workplace change to Bar Dragon’s Lair. Has a history of being used as super-human experiment resources at the Militia Research Institute. Place of origin on the fake ID is Neo Tokyo. However, the reality is unknown. To be exact… Korea, Seoul, from about 85 years ago.”
He knew. As expected, he knew.
He probably even knew things I didn’t know, because a superintelligence was that kind of existence.
The answer I had so desperately wanted was in there.
If I could, I felt like grabbing him by the collar and yelling at him.
To answer me, why I, who had been living perfectly fine in my original world, had suddenly fallen into this damn city out of nowhere. Didn’t he know the way to return?
However… life wasn’t originally something that unraveled so easily.
“This is as far as I can speak. I am not an omniscient and omnipotent god. No one has reached such a territory. I do not know all futures, and no matter how much you ask, there is only one thing I can answer.”
The extermination Squad member chanted as if singing.
“Three became four, but it is still lacking.”
“On the day four becomes five, you shall be placed before a crossroads of choice.”
“The conclusion of all things shall come to pass, by your two hands.”
For someone who didn’t know the future, it was quite a plausible prophecy.
I wanted to ask what it meant, but I knew an answer wouldn’t return anyway.
“…Is that all?”
“Yes. That is all. Shall we talk about something slightly different now?”
I felt annoyed at the answer that didn’t deviate from my expectations.
What did he mean, something different? An urge surged up to get angry and tell him to cut the crap, but I held it in.
The extermination Squad member’s unseen gaze stared at me profoundly. For some reason, I felt like I knew the meaning contained within it.
He was telling me to just listen for now.
“Alright.”
“As I said, it is a 'different' story, but as expected, it seems a grand reason is not necessary for living. What does the reason matter? One can only believe that if one does one’s best in whatever it is, good results will follow. Is that not so?”
I felt like I knew what he was trying to say.
I stared piercingly at the extermination Squad member and replied.
“Yeah. It should be.”
This city had better prepare good results for me.
The extermination Squad member quietly stood up and approached Prezen Meredith’s corpse.
The agents belonging to the Watch were analyzing Prezen’s corpse in various ways and preparing for its transfer to headquarters.
An extermination Squad member with a different assigned mission approached and fiddled with an important piece of evidence openly, yet no one stopped him.
They either didn’t perceive his existence at all, or even if they did, they completely failed to grasp the problem with what he was doing and just brushed past it as if it were nothing.
Even in this short moment, the superintelligence’s authority, as natural as breathing, could be felt.
It would be normal to feel displeased at even one’s post-mortem body being treated like a test subject, but no such sign could be felt.
Did it mean that the dead body he had when he was alive was merely a shed skin?
The extermination Squad member stroked Prezen’s face and spoke.
“I will be leaving soon because I have finished what I needed to do.”
“Anything else to say?”
Did his dead self feel divine skill to him?
He lightly pinched the pale cheek, lifted the eyelid, pulled at the corner of the mouth, and then spoke.
“Would you take care of the body from my days as a person? If you did that, I think I would feel relieved.”
I frowned.
“That corpse is being handled by Dusk Watch - “
“Please do not worry about that. There will be absolutely no problems. I guarantee it.”
“…”
Then again, the other party was a superintelligence.
Dusk Watch or whatever, what could possibly be impossible for him? There was nothing to be surprised about when he was naturally siphoning off even a sample of the FAIV Virus.
“If that’s the case, understood.”
“Thank you. My mind is at ease thanks to you. The me from my days as a person would have wanted this too.”
The extermination Squad member said so and turned his body, a back that looked as if it would leave just like that without hesitation.
“Wait.”
I hurriedly stopped him with my words.
The extermination Squad member did not turn his head. There was no reaction.
I didn’t know if he still remained inside there, or even if he did, whether he would take what I had to say seriously.
But I had to say it.
Otherwise, it would continue to weigh on my mind.
The super artificial intelligence Prezen kept using the phrase “days as a person”. However…
“To me, you are still a person.”
It was a cheesy thing to say. But I meant it.
The Raver Prezen and the superintelligence Prezen were definitely different.
But at the same time, they were the same person. The two shared the same roots, and in my feelings and thoughts, both were people.
Prezen Meredith asked.
“Do you truly consider it so?”
“Yeah.”
“I am already dead, and I do not even have a physical body, so could such a me still be a person?”
There would be tens of thousands of answers, and likewise, tens of thousands of rebuttals. So I chose to ask back rather than answer.
“Is that important?”
“…”
Since meeting again, the super Artificial Intelligence Prezen lost his words and fell silent for the first time.
“…That is a wise answer to a foolish question. Those words are correct. Whether it is important or not is a matter that ultimately depends on oneself. As expected, that is just like you.”
All I could see was still just his back. Even if we were facing each other, I wouldn’t be able to read his expression at all due to the shielding visor.
But for some reason, I had the certainty that he was definitely smiling. That image seemed vividly etched in my mind.
“Because what you experienced this time is a story outside the planned route, there will be no prepared reward. I also know that it was not something you did hoping for a repayment in the first place. However… even so, could I just move past it?”
“I am also a person who knows his obligations.”
“Whenever you are in the most critical moment, when you feel you are at the rock bottom of your life, think of me. Even if you do not remember me, I will not forget you. To be exact, I have ended up in a position where I cannot forget.”
“They say help is something given and received. Since I received it this time, the day to repay it will surely come someday. I will wait for that time.”
“Then, goodbye.”
Leaving behind a farewell greeting, Prezen Meredith disappeared just like that.
The extermination Squad member staggered for a moment and shook his head from side to side, then returned to normal and started asking me this and that. Not a single trace of the person I knew could be seen inside him.
Just like when he died, he simply left without any special or flashy signs. He departed for somewhere beyond, a place I could not know.
We might meet again someday.
It would take a truly long time until then.
It didn’t matter.
Just as I had watched Prezen’s artwork, it was now Prezen’s turn to watch me.
He definitely would, because that ascended artist would never forget the best audience member he had met, just as he had said himself.
I raised my head.
I examined the self-portrait of an artist that had been stuffed in the empty air of the secret vault since the moment I first arrived.
That posthumous work, a piece that had definitely been incomplete, was different from the one I knew before.
The face and expression, the facial features that determined a person’s impression, were no longer blank and empty.
There was the face of the artist, smiling truly brightly.
Those warm colors and soft lines, the depiction of optics that seemed to emit different lights depending on the viewing angle, were truly art.
He had completed the artwork in that short time.
I wasn’t the only one whose gaze was stolen by the painting.
Not only the extermination Squad nearby, but also the retreating Mili-Tech and executive were captivated.
It drew in their parched souls with just lines and colors.
It was that kind of painting, one that could only be satisfied by drawing everyone’s attention and showing itself off, a masterpiece among masterpieces that forced even those with no interest to look at it.
Multiple appearances could be seen within the single person depicted in the painting.
Sometimes the wandering agony of not having certainty in one’s own existence, and sometimes the heroic aspect of acting on what one believed to be right, would fill one with resolve.
Someone would see a devil full of hatred and suffering in the painting, while someone else would see a guardian deity of nobility and self-sacrifice.
While they saw what they wanted to see, sometimes they also saw what they didn’t want to see.
What was revealed was Prezen’s life, and at the same time, the viewer’s life.
It resembled a mirror. Thus, it was a self-portrait.
How could one forget the Artist who birthed such a piece?
It was to the point where one could believe it even if told it was an artwork painted by a god or a devil.
However, I knew that this painting was born from the hands of a single person, neither a god nor a devil.
Because I was that person’s audience member.
“…”
I saw a boy inside the painting.
He was a boy who painted the outside scenery every night, dreaming of a new life outside the small star he lived on.
“…Goodbye.”
I offered the farewell greeting I hadn’t been able to return to the boy in the painting.
The boy artist did not achieve the dream he had when he was young.
But I knew he had achieved something different, perhaps something much greater.
I had a premonition that the day I would meet him again would definitely come.
Our reunion would take place at the most important moment.
If the prophecy had been correct, I would have made a crucial choice at that time.