Chapter 24
Walter Müller, who ran 【Walter's Recycling Shop】 alone, sensed something ominous from early morning.
It was a morning unlike any other.
“…Tsk.”
It was truly ominous.
Extremely so.
After waking from a nightmare, Walter grabbed the plastic bottle beside his mattress without even wiping the cold sweat from his body.
Since his occupation required intense concentration, the bottle contained clean, purified water without cheap food additives or food coloring.
He gulped down the water, which tasted like an old swimming pool filled with chlorine.
“This fuck─.”
He locked eyes with a large blackish-brown bug swimming inside it.
And the way its wings fluttered….
Walter swore and poured all the remaining water into the sink.
Even in the unsanitary District 49, quite a lot of people disliked bugs.
Some might have enjoyed one as a snack, but Walter had no interest in drinking water flavored with protein, so his first thought was that the day was off to a bad start.
‘…Unlucky from the very start of the day.’
Apparently, he had forgotten to close the bottle’s cap before going to bed.
In any case, Walter’s own actions were to blame.
I’ll spray some bug killer later.
Suppressing his rising irritation, Walter made his way toward the kitchen with unsteady steps.
He filled the kettle with water and turned on the switch.
Then, while waiting for the water to boil, he took out a cup of ramen he had stored in the kitchen cabinet.
Since there was no one to prepare meals for him, Walter made do with instant products like this for most of his meals.
After confirming that steam was rising and tearing open the cup ramen’s packaging, Walter’s expression twisted terribly.
“……?”
A question mark naturally appeared above his head.
There was no powdered soup base inside.
There weren’t even any flakes.
Only fried noodles were there to awkwardly greet Walter.
Having suffered a string of minor misfortunes immediately after getting up, Walter instinctively sensed that today would be no ordinary day.
For the record, Walter’s bad luck didn’t end there.
His perfectly fine shoelaces suddenly snapping,
the light of a recently replaced bulb suddenly going out,
or a new character shaped like a dog being added to the sign that read 【Walter's Recycling Shop】 alongside the word ‘Fucking,’ for instance.
Walter’s title had now become Dog-Fucking Walter.
‘Should I just take the day off.’
Looking at the shop sign, Walter let out a deep sigh.
There had been too many customers who had left the shop cursing lately to identify the culprit.
Crazy bastards looking for like-new items in a used recycling shop….
But as a sad self-employed man─Walter, he had no choice but to put up with it.
And then, at that ominous moment, someone’s voice rang out.
“Excuse me.”
“……”
A flippant face like that of a punk.
It was the man who had come a few days ago.
Since he was also an East Asian rarely seen around here, Walter hadn’t forgotten the man’s face.
Considering all the misfortunes so far, Walter couldn’t view the man’s arrival favorably.
So Walter quickly got the first word in.
“Absolutely no refunds.”
“…Pardon?”
“What do you mean, refunds at a recycling shop? Unless you’re looking to sell something back to me. Though I’d cut the price to less than half. And there’s no free after-sales service, either. This isn’t some corporation, so why do people expect so much from a neighborhood hole-in-the-wall─.”
The stranger in the city─Abel Anderson─furrowed his brow.
They had only exchanged greetings.
* * *
A little while later.
Walter, somewhat calmer, smiled awkwardly.
“I didn’t come here intending to ask for a refund.”
“Then how many times do I have to tell you? I really mean it. Why would I do that to someone who’s putting it to good use….”
I said that while shaking the terminal in my pocket.
Walter scratched his tousled hair.
“Of course I thought you were a difficult customer.”
He looked especially worse than usual today.
Like most self-employed people, he seemed to have lost his faith in humanity.
“Well, if you’re a normal customer, you’re welcome as far as I’m concerned.”
When I entered the store, the still-chaotic interior made my eyes hurt.
As a fellow self-employed person (not really), I couldn’t help feeling uncomfortable at the lack of tidiness.
Our grocery store was serious about first in, first out and lining everything up in rows and columns.
…Though the entrance had been smashed.
“Don’t you ever organize the place when you have time?”
“What are you talking about? This is what a well-organized place looks like. Well, I suppose it would look like that to an amateur who knows nothing. Everything is exactly where it belongs.”
People who live without cleaning always say things like that.
Walter sat down in an old chair.
Since he was fairly large, the chair’s joints let out a noisy death rattle.
“So what brings you here? The terminal battery still looks fine.”
“As for the battery….”
Ah, right. He said pressing this button would make it explode.
What a way to carry a bomb around in one’s pocket.
I shook my head vigorously.
“I doubt I’ll ever use that function in my lifetime.”
“You never know what may happen. Of course, all weapons show their true worth when they’re not in use.”
Is that some kind of nuclear-weapons mentality?
Walter’s mechanical eyeball spun around.
I had seen it last time too, but the movement was quite grotesque.
Facing his spinning eye, I continued speaking.
“Um, are you busy these days?”
“Not particularly, but why do you ask?”
First hurdle cleared.
Perhaps sensing something ominous, Walter’s face began hardening again.
Ignoring his expression, I opened my mouth.
“Then why don’t you come make a house call to our place?”
“…Say that again. What did you say?”
Thick veins stood out on Walter’s hand.
Wait, is he holding a wrench right now….
I took a discreet step back and said it again.
“Come make a house call to our place.”
Walter dragged a hand down his face.
Fortunately, he had put down the wrench again.
“Goddamn it, you really are a difficult customer….”
“Difficult? I’m a perfectly proper customer.”
At my words, Walter sighed and pointed to the side with his thumb.
“Can you not read?”
“…I can’t see anything. What else is there besides that junk over there?”
For the record, if even I, with my good eyesight, couldn’t see it, then it really wasn’t visible.
“Ah.”
At my curt response, Walter let out an awkward exclamation.
Then he moved aside the pile of junk there, rummaging through it.
There,
【!WARNING! NO HOUSE CALLS. WILL NOT PICK UP BROKEN ITEMS. NOT EVEN IF YOU SAY YOU’LL PROVIDE SECURITY. NO. NO. IF YOU ASK, I WILL CRUSH YOUR HEAD WITH A WRENCH. ANYTHING YOU WANT REPAIRED MUST BE BROUGHT INTO THE SHOP IN PERSON.】
was a message written in messy handwriting.
When I came last time, the items had hidden it, so I hadn’t even known there was writing.
“…And you call this organized?”
“Ahem.”
Perhaps embarrassed even by his own standards, Walter gave an awkward cough.
“Anyway, that’s our shop’s rule. You bring the item yourself. As it is, scavenger fly bastards keep swarming around here and giving me headaches; what do you think would happen if I left the shop even for a moment?”
“That’s fair, I suppose.”
It was a more practical problem.
So had I come all this way for nothing?
As I fell deep into thought, Walter rubbed his beard and asked me in return.
“So why do you need a house call? Is the boiler at home broken or something?”
“You just said you weren’t coming anyway.”
“…Even if I offer a consultation, you little shit!”
Seeing the wrench in Walter’s hand again, I quickly added,
“There’s a turret installed at our place─no, several, actually. It couldn’t speak, so I wondered whether getting a technician’s help might make communication a little smoother.”
“……”
Walter’s gaze as he looked at me grew slightly strange.
It was the sort of look one gave a fool.
“What exactly do you think an android is?”
“…A talking machine?”
“Should I be grateful you didn’t say a sex toy….”
Walter sighed and continued explaining.
“Androids are made to be that way. Simply put, they’re machines with self-awareness from the outset. And what you’re saying now is that you want to turn a turret that can’t talk into an android.”
Walter looked at me as if I were some kind of crazy machine pervert.
“Why not just buy a used sex toy, then? At least it seems like it could satisfy that creepy taste of yours.”
“…I think you’re making some strange misunderstanding.”
I recalled Nova, the turret at the grocery store.
That turret clearly possessed self-awareness.
“Our turret listens well. It has a nice personality, too─kind and well-behaved. It’s just that taking it for walks is difficult.”
“…Are you raising a pet?”
“That’s just what I mean.”
What I meant was that our turret had a perfectly functioning artificial intelligence installed.
After hearing my explanation, Walter tilted his head.
“…A turret with AI? It doesn’t just shoot after a target is set?”
“Yes.”
“That’s a little strange. It’s too much for an ordinary building’s security system. There’d be no reason to put AI in a turret in the first place.”
“Apparently, it was because they originally intended to run the store completely unmanned…. I wasn’t the one who installed it, so I don’t know much either.”
“Well, it certainly can’t be an ordinary home. And I already know you didn’t install it, so there’s no need to answer.”
It was bad enough that I couldn’t get a job because I was a liberal arts major; now I was being looked down on by a cyberpunk technician.
…….
Even I had to admit I deserved it.
“You’re sure the turret understands your commands by voice?”
“Yes, more or less. As you know, I only bought the terminal a few days ago. Until now, we’ve communicated entirely by talking.”
“…Then.”
Walter walked to a spot piled high with junk, rummaged through the items, and returned carrying several long wires, connection terminals, and a speaker.
“You know that security turrets ignore every signal except direct connections to guard against external hacking, right?”
“……”
“…Did you grow up in some countryside believing in the Amish?”
I answered with silence.
“Anyway, there must be an AI computer somewhere in your house that commands all the turrets. Different corporations make their connection ports to their own proprietary specifications, so I don’t know if these will fit the holes, but this should be enough to take along.”
Heavy wires and the speaker were placed on the counter.
“From what you’ve told me, it sounds like it could even be used as an android’s operating system, but unfortunately, our shop doesn’t deal in androids themselves. Besides, you said it would be enough just to hear that child speak.”
His voice trembled slightly, but I nodded without giving it much thought.
“Anyway, try this output device once, and if it doesn’t work, come back then.”
“Ohhh, thank you.”
“Mm.”
This was a remarkably satisfactory customer service experience.
Since a house call was out of the question, I’d have to go back and install it myself.
I picked up the wires, connection terminals, and speaker from the counter.
Though heavier than expected, they weren’t too heavy to carry, only awkward in my hands.
And then.
Walter held out his hand toward me.
I naturally reached out to shake it─
Thud.
…Huh?
Walter knocked my hand aside and said,
“Don’t fuck around and just pay me. Four hundred dollars for the wires, terminals, and speaker.”
“…Can you cut that cleanly in half to 200?”
“Agh, this fucking nuisance, seriously….”
Walter gritted his teeth as if he were sick of it.
Gratitude was gratitude.
But haggling was haggling.
Damn right.
* * *
After returning to the grocery store, I looked for Nova’s main body.
“This?”
[Dyu.]
It looked just like a circuit breaker box.
After looking it over, I checked one by one whether the wire terminals matched.
‘…Even having just one USB-to-Type-C adapter gives me a headache.’
Every corporation had completely different connection ports.
Capitalism was this dangerous.
I was starting to crave a sickle and hammer….
After fiddling around for about thirty minutes.
I finally succeeded in finding the matching terminal.
Next, I connected the speaker.
Beeeep….
Along with a brief feedback sound, silence began.
But it wasn’t ordinary silence.
It was like white noise.
The quiet of a connection to someone on the other side.
[Crackle. Hello, World.]
And then.
[Greetings, user. I am the AI controlling the Novarek-A41 model. I am….]
Along with a brief burst of static.
[Yes. I’m Nova.]
I witnessed a turret that spoke like a human.