Chapter 30
Inside the Hole Paradise building, there was a special underground facility.
It could only be reached from inside via a freight elevator, while the only entrance connected to the outside was an underground parking lot that required a long, winding descent.
It was an employees-only area that ordinary customers couldn't enter at all, and it was also a crucial facility that served as the foundation of Hole Paradise.
However, the facility's security wasn't managed nearly as strictly, as could be seen from the two people idling in the basement right now.
“Hey, hey.”
“What.”
“The guys outside aren't answering their comms.”
“What were you trying to contact them about?”
“Obviously, I was gonna tell them to get their asses to work.”
“Jeez, you fucking moron….”
The gang member who had muttered the curse sank onto an old sofa.
“They’re probably slacking off somewhere again. It’s not like this is the first or second time.”
Empty pizza boxes and beverage cans were strewn haphazardly across the low table.
It was proof that more than one or two people used this place like a break room.
“Boss─, didn’t the owner say he’d run us and the androids through the shredder if he caught us slacking off one more time?”
“If those idiots had enough brains to think about something like that, they wouldn’t have slacked off in the first place.”
“…Is that so?”
He tilted his head, then soon nodded in agreement.
After all, they were hiding out and slacking off too.
He nodded as he pulled a handheld game console from his pocket.
“Come to think of it, if something had happened, they wouldn’t be unreachable. They would have contacted us.”
“Obviously.”
Boop-boop, boop….
The two continued their conversation amid the retro game sound effects.
“Right. Come to think of it, didn’t we have some people out on patrol?”
“Patrol?”
“You know, that thing.”
“Hmm, did we? I haven’t gotten any messages.”
“I’m sure we did. Ah…. Since they’re out anyway, I wish they’d bring back some of the ones who look like they’re in decent condition─.”
Thud thud thud!!
Just then, someone pounded hard on the steel door.
The man whose sentence had been cut off let out a sigh.
“Ugh, I told you not to knock. Press the damn buzzer.”
He rose from his seat and walked toward the tightly closed steel door.
Then he checked the camera.
“Hey, that looks like one of the touts who works at the main entrance.”
“It is. …But why does he look like that?”
The two gang members standing before the steel door frowned and checked the camera feed again.
[H-Hey, open…. Open up…! Hurry!!]
Aside from his trembling voice, the tout had pressed his face so close to the camera that his filthy pores were plainly visible.
It was an extremely unnatural sight.
“…Wait a sec. I’m going to contact the security room and ask what happened at the main entrance.”
Just as the man activated his smart-chip interface to contact the security room.
KABOOM─!!
A deafening roar like a bomb exploding rang out.
The steel door flew away, crumpled beyond recognition.
A clear footprint was stamped onto the outer surface of the steel door like a seal.
“F-Fuck. What the…?!”
The gang members behind the steel door had to take the full force of the impact.
Leaving his already unconscious comrade behind, the other gang member shouted as he wiped blood running from his forehead.
“Do you even know where the hell you are…!!”
Soon, he was unable to finish his sentence.
In the gaping entrance stood an unidentified man, while the tout seen on the camera moments ago dangled from his hand like a doll.
The sharp-eyed assailant─Hotdog Man─swung the tout’s body back and forth as he asked a question.
“You said it was here.”
“Y-Yes!! It really is!”
To the tout, this unbelievable reality felt like a dream.
At first, he had intended merely to play along with the assailant until the gang members gathered.
From the main entrance all the way down to the basement.
Every gang member he encountered had been taken out.
And all in a mere few minutes….
“This is where you capture androids, reboot their personality modules, and reconfigure them into sex toys that work like a charm! If you go farther inside, there should still be people running the programs right now!!”
He blurted out secrets he shouldn't have revealed without hesitation.
Hotdog Man quietly gritted his teeth.
The contents were genuinely shocking.
“…So that’s what this is.”
At the same time, a gloomy sound effect rang from the handheld game console in the fallen man's hand.
[-GAME OVER-]
As if it were telling him the reality that had befallen the enemies in his place.
* * *
The cleanup was more or less finished for now.
When I used the card keys taken from those pieces of trash to open the inner door, a foul, unknown odor flowed out, pushing through the heavy air.
A stale metallic smell, like old blood.
My expression naturally twisted into a frown.
“Heh, heh heh…. Here it is. I guided you as you asked, so you’re going to let me live, right…?”
I didn't answer and tossed the tout aside.
He wasn't what mattered right now.
“Eek, eek!!”
Freed from my grasp, the tout wriggled as though he wanted to run away immediately, but his foot had already been completely mangled, leaving him unable to stand properly.
He began crawling toward the outside at an extremely slow pace.
At that rate, it looked like it would take him several hours just to get from the basement to the ground floor.
I stepped into the depths of the basement, where the light from the lamps flickered.
…Bzzzt.
There was a prison there.
A prison where the kidnapped androids had been left.
Most were female androids, but the occasional male android could be seen as well.
And at the end of the corridor, an android hung suspended in midair, all its limbs disassembled and wires plugged into the ports at its temples.
“Ah, I’m still working here. Wh-Why are you coming in?!”
A gaunt man who looked like a technician shouted at me in a trembling voice.
Perhaps because the facility was perfectly soundproofed, the technician didn't seem to have noticed the commotion outside at all.
Or maybe it was simply because he was in a strange state.
“F-Fuck. Th-The boss told us, d-didn’t he? Don’t t-touch androids whose s-settings aren’t finished.”
Perhaps mistaking me for a gang member, he shook his head nervously.
Without saying a word, I stopped in front of him.
“…W-What? A-All right, all right, I get it. If you d-do it secretly and leave, I-I’ll keep it a secret.”
CRACK!!
A sound like a watermelon splitting rang out.
My palm, capable of crumpling steel plates, struck the technician squarely in the face.
Ahh, that felt good.
I still had business to take care of and hadn't hit him with all my strength, but even that was enough to make all the man's teeth disappear.
“G-Ghk!!”
I grabbed the technician by the collar and lifted him straight up.
As a rule, everyone living in this city had sturdy bodies.
Maybe it was because they had mechanical bodies.
I ordered the technician in a low voice.
“Cancel it.”
“C-Cancel wh-what, s-sir….”
All his teeth were gone, so he couldn't pronounce words properly.
With his trembling speech mixed in, my hand rose again before I knew it.
Seeing my palm, the technician flinched and frantically waved both hands.
“O-Okay!!”
The guy crawled along the floor, dragging himself, and began typing letters on the screen by tapping the keyboard.
Meanwhile, I checked inside the prison bars set wide on both sides.
Everything was quiet, as though the power had been turned off.
Among the androids with their eyes closed, I couldn't see the face I was looking for.
‘…Where is the one I’m looking for?’
Could there be another facility besides this one?
While wondering whether I should go grab the tout I had released earlier, the technician tapping the keyboard pulled a pistol from his pocket and aimed it at me.
“D-Die!!”
He fired.
Bang!!
The muzzle was wavering, and the trajectory was one I could dodge by moving just my shoulder.
I slapped him reflexively.
Maybe because I put a little more force into it this time.
The technician spun around in place a couple of times before collapsing.
Oops.
I should have woken the sleeping androids.
As I wondered what to do with the captives, I suddenly turned my head at the presence that appeared behind me.
“…….”
“…….”
Our gazes locked in midair.
He was built like a gorilla.
His hard muscles, resembling armor, looked as though he had been stuffing himself with drugs instead of three meals a day.
He seemed to be another gang member, but there was a bullet hole in his chest from the shot the technician had fired moments ago.
Before long, a brass-colored bullet rolled to the floor.
“I-It’s that bastard!”
The tout who had been crawling toward the outside was in his grasp again.
“That bastard caused all this fucking chaos!!”
But the voice that answered the tout belonged neither to me nor to the big man, but to someone else.
[Is that so?]
“Yes!!”
[Then, thank you for your hard work.]
“……What?”
Crack.
Accompanied by the sound of a neck bone breaking.
The tout's head lolled limply.
The big man's inorganic gaze turned toward me.
At that moment, I felt a chill run down the back of my neck.
…What the hell is this now?
[There’s no need to be so tense. I merely have a few questions to ask.]
“And what the fuck are you?”
[Me? I’m the owner of Hol◎e Paradise.]
Hol◎e Paradise, my ass.
The calm voice was coming precisely from around the big man's throat.
Even though his Adam's apple wasn't moving at all, someone behind him was speaking for him.
“Not you. I mean this lump of meat.”
[This friend of mine? Even if you ask, he won’t be able to answer. It’s been a long time since I removed both his emotion module and personality module. I’ve also tinkered with him quite a bit, so he’s a custom model I’m personally proud of.]
“Fuck….”
I wasn't someone who cared about android rights.
But the big guy in front of me.
What was happening in this building.
And that impudent voice.
I couldn't help but get angry.
[I suppose it’s my turn to ask a question. Why have you come here?]
“You kidnapped some old man's daughter.”
[…His daughter? That’s strange. We don’t mess with humans.]
“Because his daughter is an android.”
A brief silence.
Then a loud burst of laughter.
[Pfft, phahaha!!! Ah, there are occasionally people like that. Heh heh heh. I more or less understand the circumstances. So, have you found the old man’s daughter?]
“…….”
[Oh dear, it seems you haven’t found her yet. If she isn’t there…. Ah, then she might be here. I mean, up on the top floor where I am. Before receiving customers, I personally inspect every android.]
Maybe it was because this was a world inside a game.
Or maybe it was because this was a cyberpunk setting where morality had died.
I had no idea why there were so many villains.
[…Or maybe.]
The emotion in the voice was unmistakably mocking.
[Why don’t you come all the way up here yourself?]
“…Ha.”
[It’s the 11th floor. Of course, you’ll have to deal with that friend first if you want to come up. Haha.]
The big man slowly began walking toward me.
A heavy presence washed over me, as though I were facing a massive tank.
[Then I’ll go check whether the person you’re looking for is here. Ah, it was nice meeting you. Best of luck.]
Click─.
A sound like a phone call being disconnected.
It seemed the connection really had been terminated.
And.
·
·
·
…Snap.
A thick vein bulged on my forehead.