Chapter 47
Her snow-white irises held such a transparent light that one could mistake them for blue.
Her variegated silver hair, falling below her waist, gave us the mysterious sensation of looking at a beautiful work of art in its own right.
After a brief silence.
Nova slowly stepped out of the capsule.
“Huh….”
Perhaps the voice had escaped him without his realizing it, because Michael hurriedly covered his mouth, looking startled.
To the point that even an extremely capable corporate executive like Michael had momentarily lost his grip on reality.
Nova’s new body radiated an overwhelming presence in every direction.
Thump─.
My shoulders jerked at the sound.
It hadn’t come from my chest.
The faint sound of a beating heart was coming from Nova, of all people.
‘…How.’
It felt as though I were looking at a living human being, and I had to calm myself down.
Come to think of it, the android I met at Hall Paradise could eat food and exhale, too.
Though those were unnecessary functions for an android made of machines rather than flesh and bone, it seemed they had deliberately modified her and added a separate heartbeat.
But it wasn’t truly a human body.
It was merely an incredibly well-made android.
“……”
“……”
Nova stared at me.
Not a volleyball one could find on a deserted island, nor a turret one could see at a grocery store,
but her own body, moving perfectly normally.
A little awkward….
“How is it? Are you all right?”
In response to my question, Nova closed and opened her eyes a few times, as though organizing her senses.
She was currently wearing a shirt and slacks that Michael had picked up from a clothing collection bin.
I had originally planned to simply wake her up, but I was startled by the flesh visible through the transparent capsule and asked Michael to help.
Perhaps she found it awkward to speak through an android body, because Nova stroked her neck with her delicate fingers.
“Ah, aah─.”
A small but distinct voice.
It was different from Nova’s familiar voice, which I had heard through the speaker, but her precise pronunciation remained unchanged.
“System boot functioning normally. Bio-interface panel functioning normally. Basic system diagnosis complete. Operating system compatibility confirmed. No operating-system conflicts.”
Then.
Nova folded her hands neatly.
“Yes, I am fine.”
At least, it was the same way the Nova I knew spoke.
Probably.
“…You are Nova, right?”
“I failed to understand the intent of your question. If you were hoping for another model of artificial intelligence named ‘GPT,’ which you mentioned last time─.”
“No, no, no, that’s not it.”
It was simply because I couldn’t easily associate the appearance of a beautiful woman with a 20mm-caliber turret.
She still remembers that.
‘…It really is Nova.’
There was no doubt that it was her.
I looked Nova’s body up and down to see whether anything was wrong.
“There’s nothing wrong with your body?”
“That is correct.”
Nova gave a small nod.
Just as I was about to let out a sigh of relief.
“However.”
“?”
“This ‘android model’ appears to be an illegally modified derivative product.”
When I put a question mark on my face, Nova calmly continued her explanation.
“I checked the stored internal data. After searching the specifications and model names of every android product released in Risk City.”
“The result?”
I held my breath and waited for her to continue.
Faint streaks of light flickered within Nova’s white irises.
“I confirmed product specifications highly similar to the RS series developed by Beltech.”
“…If you mean Beltech.”
“Beltech International Solutions.”
That was the name of the corporation Michael had just mentioned.
In other words, there was a fairly high chance that Nova’s guess was correct.
“The exact model designation is RS-009. It is also a product whose sale was halted by the city government due to its dangerous nature.”
They stopped selling it because it was dangerous…?
I took the terminal from my pocket and tried to search for information on the model.
And then.
[😆]
I saw an emoticon grinning brightly.
“…Huh?”
The emoticon changed its expression frighteningly quickly the moment our eyes met.
[😶]
I subtly raised my head to check Nova’s expression.
“Why do you ask?”
Her face was still expressionless.
But if the emotion shown on the terminal hadn’t been a mistake.
“…No, it’s nothing.”
“Understood.”
Still, she seemed happy.
I chuckled and launched the Cyber Web on the terminal.
What was it again?
‘Beltech RS-009….’
Several posts appeared.
I was curious what kind of model it was that the city had forcibly halted sales of.
“……”
I silently closed my mouth and held the terminal screen out to Nova.
After checking the photograph on the terminal, Nova calmly nodded.
“Yes, this is the model.”
“This is it?!”
My voice rose before I could stop it.
For reference.
The following post was displayed on the terminal screen I had held out.
───────────────
Title: Beltech Co., Regarding the RS Series.
“A machine must remain faithful to its purpose.”
That was the motto written in the electronic autobiography published by Frederick Kessler, the CEO of Beltech.
In that sense─.
The RS series developed and released by Beltech could be called a masterpiece of the security android industry, faithfully carrying out slogans such as ‘riot suppression, terror control, and criminal restraint.’
(Photograph of a gigantic bipedal robot)
Above is a photograph of the RS-009 model, which boasted especially powerful specifications among them.
As for the product’s detailed specifications……
───────────────
It looks just like a Goliath.
I stared blankly at Nova while recalling the name of the unit one could produce by investing 100 minerals and 50 gas.
‘…It has specifications similar to this?’
Honestly, I couldn’t quite understand it.
I only felt a sense of incongruity.
For one thing, that was true of her size and weight alone.
With an awkward expression, as though I had just heard a ridiculous joke, I asked Nova,
“Come on, you’re joking. It says here that this robot can fire missiles and machine guns from its hands….”
“I can do that as well, as long as my ammunition is replenished.”
Nova’s hand rotated backward.
Naturally, an empty space appeared inside it, large enough to be filled with something.
“……Uh.”
I quietly shut my mouth.
She was essentially a walking turret.
“And judging by the fact that an unidentified energy is being transmitted through an organ shaped like a heart, I presume that research technology related to a magic circuit that has not yet been commercialized was used. The test results for the product that exist as data show figures highly similar to those of the RS-009 model.”
No, at this point, she was just a tank.
What kind of terrifying technology would be needed to make an ordinary android’s specifications comparable to a Goliath’s?
At that moment, Michael, who had remained silent until then, quietly approached.
“…Hot Dog Man.”
“I was pretty shocked, too.”
“No, that’s not what I meant.”
Michael began explaining in a rapid-fire manner.
He had heard of the RS series and knew roughly what kind of models they were, but apparently, their overwhelming specifications had created major problems with their size and weight.
However, as Nova had just said, it made no sense for an ‘android’ to retain its size and shape while possessing specifications comparable to the RS-009, the top model in the RS series.
Just how much money would have to be poured into it, and how much technology would have to be employed
to produce such an unrealistic result?
He said he couldn’t ‘possibly’ even begin to estimate it.
And so on….
“Are you finished talking?”
“To be perfectly honest, I think I could keep talking for another two hours.”
“…That’s enough.”
To put the conclusion simply, a single android currently controlled by Nova might be more expensive than every weapon loaded onto the truck.
If that was the case.
What on earth could the ‘someone’ who had lost that valuable item be thinking right now?
We stared blankly at each other, then immediately kicked off the ground without giving anyone a chance to say anything.
Right now.
This was no time to stand around spacing out…!
* * *
─District 21, central business district.
In a forest of skyscrapers packed with buildings belonging to all kinds of megacorps,
there was a taciturn man looking down at the vast cityscape all at once.
He asked in a low voice,
“The culprit.”
At that, countless lines of text began scrolling across the transparent window.
A calm voice continued beside the man’s ear.
[The name is Marcus Vogel. His place of origin is District 42 of Risk City. He is a mercenary hired as a contract worker for a Class 2 security mission.]
From his place of origin to his gender, height, weight, personality, Cyber Web search history, and even his secret preferences.
Though the gender listed as male might have changed by now.
In any case, that was the information extracted by a Web Spider technician employed by a megacorp.
“The method.”
Though the question had been cut off at both ends, the executive assistant quickly understood what he meant and answered.
[After examining the lost-property records, it appears that he had been stealing corporate goods for quite some time. We confirmed that he had held private meetings several times with several personnel in charge of security at the warehouse in that district.]
“The handling.”
[We plan to carry out the ‘voluntary resignations’ of everyone involved, including the factory production manager, warehouse supervisor, and security-equipment supervisor.]
The man, who had been asking his questions with only a few words at a time, finally spoke at length.
“Have the heads cut off so they can be brought back in a ‘box.’”
[…Understood.]
The ‘box’ in question was a device specially designed so that brain cells would not die even without blood being delivered to the head.
The executive assistant, aware of how ominous that object was, faltered for a moment, then calmly steadied his breathing.
The man crossed his arms and tapped his thick fingers as he read through the text before speaking.
“The pursuit.”
[The dedicated team is pursuing him now.]
The problem was that, due to the nature of District 49, there were few surveillance cameras installed along the roads.
Most of them were broken, too.
The screen on the window changed accordingly.
[We found a truck believed to have been stopped by the culprit on a road in District 49. We discovered scavengers dismantling the truck and recovered it, and a separate investigation team is currently examining the clues.]
Hoping the blame would not fall on him, the executive assistant quickly added,
[We presume that the culprit sold all the goods to ‘Black Square’ and fled to District 50.]
The city’s garbage dump.
A place where all kinds of fugitives hid.
On the window’s screen, a small recording played, showing the culprit dragging his feet as he walked.
“He appears to be injured.”
[We presume that he was injured while traveling to District 50 through the waterway in District 49.]
“…Tsk.”
I suppose I can’t understand the thoughts of trash.
Thinking that, the man roughly waved his hand.
At the same time, the light from the window went out, and the executive assistant’s voice was cut off.
Honestly, the missing weapons were irrelevant.
But.
‘…Of all things, that android.’
Because it had been manufactured in secret, the problem was that they had failed to pay more attention to security in order to avoid attracting attention from outside.
Frederick Kessler, the CEO of Beltech, quietly clenched his teeth.
If it were discovered that the head of a prestigious megacorp, unable to trust a mere human, had secretly developed a bodyguard android with a human appearance (which could also be used for other purposes) and customized it to suit his own tastes….
“Damn it.”
The window went dark,
and a dazzling cityscape bright enough to hurt the eyes unfolded before the man.
Unfortunately, he had no time to admire the city at that moment.
* * *
It was truly a moment of life and death.
I pressed the terminal to my ear and murmured sadly,
“Boss, thank you for everything up to now….”
[…Why are you saying that this time?]