Chapter 85
Even the megacorp’s security team, Bansho Takemaru, the head of the Hakugakumi, and even my younger sister in Korea had been unable to do it, but Walter had accomplished it with ease.
“You crazy bastard…. You stole a megacorp truck? Just what the hell have you been doing out there?!”
“No, it’s not like I stole it because I wanted to….”
I dodged the wrench Walter swung and ran out of the shop.
Of course, I really had stolen it because I wanted to.
But if I confessed honestly in this situation, I felt the number of wrenches flying at me would double, so I offered up a well-intentioned lie.
Still, I couldn’t run away without saying anything, so I subtly mixed in an excuse as I added,
“And even if you get this angry now, it happened several weeks ago already….”
“──!!”
Damn, that wasn’t an excuse; I’d just entered the provocation command.
Fortunately, Walter did not follow me outside the shop and into the vacant lot.
Thanks to Anna, the true owner of 【Anna’s Recycling Shop】, sensing the commotion and coming down to the first floor.
“Dad!! What are you doing right now!”
“No, it’s just….”
A fleeting look of conflict passed through Walter’s eyes.
Walter seemed to want to say that Hot Dog Man really was a lunatic, but the last thread of reason still clinging to him barely held him back.
“To the big brother who saved both of us!”
And just like that, he was grabbed and dragged back inside the shop.
Since Anna was an android, she seemed to be quite strong by default.
“……”
Walter’s expression did look terribly aggrieved, though.
That’s just how the world works.
I quietly waved my hand, giving him a final farewell.
“Hot Dog Man, so you were here.”
“Huh?”
Turning my head to the side, I saw Michael staring at me with his expressionless face.
Perhaps because of the sleet falling from the sky, his face felt a little colder than usual.
The sight of him walking around in nothing but an old suit in subzero temperatures also made him look rather cold.
“…Why is Mr. Walter being dragged away by Miss Anna with such an aggrieved expression?”
I looked around, then spoke to Michael in a low voice.
“I told him about stealing the megacorp’s truck, and the old man nearly croaked on the spot.”
“Ah, so you told him about that.”
His facial muscles, stiff as though covered by a mask, formed a strange smile.
It looked as if someone standing beside him had simply tugged up the corners of his mouth.
“I was extremely flustered when I first found out, too. So I can understand his reaction.”
Michael seemed to have just come out of the homeless shelter building.
Whenever I didn’t see him these days, he seemed to be taking care of the homeless in that building.
“How’s the business going?”
“Yes. It’s progressing better than I expected.”
Michael answered my question immediately, as if he had been waiting for it.
“Since it concerns environmental protection, it seems we can expect a fairly good net profit as well.”
“Ooh….”
It was fairly good news, but I couldn’t tell whether it was morally right.
Aluminum cans were one thing.
Hadn’t he said the paper straws were artificial pulp made from Biofarm corn starch?
In other words, they weren’t even real paper straws.
I wondered if we’d be arrested for fraud later.
‘Still, considering that it would provide many homeless people with work and shelter, it wasn’t entirely without positive aspects.’
I decided we would think about it again if a problem arose.
As I continued thinking to myself and walked toward the grocery store, Michael suddenly asked me,
“By the way, are you troubled by something?”
“Huh?”
Apparently, I had spent too long thinking on my own.
I scratched my chin and answered Michael.
“Well, it’s because that megacorp team leader keeps coming in and out of our grocery store.”
“Ah, I’ve heard about that, too.”
“It’s fine that he comes as a customer, but I can’t help being concerned in the end…. Maybe it’s because of the stress, but I haven’t even been able to eat as many hot dogs lately.”
“……!!”
Michael wore an expression of profound shock.
Apparently, my inability to eat hot dogs had struck him as a serious matter to that extent.
“Uh, how many fewer are you eating….”
“I’m supposed to eat at least three boxes a day…. These days, I can only manage two.”
“…??”
Michael, who had been looking at me as though I were insane, soon let out a calm, awkward cough.
Though Michael’s facial muscles were practically dead, after watching him for so long, I could read his emotional expressions perfectly.
“Anyway, this situation happened because I messed up. I should bear some of it.”
If only I hadn’t stolen the megacorp’s truck….
I could have simply asked the boss to find me an android body.
Michael began to ponder my words deeply.
“Hmm…. Definitely.”
Perhaps because of his deeply sunken eye sockets, Michael had an especially sharp appearance.
His brown eyes turned toward me, then.
“If we’re going to act for Hot Dog Man, then we should ultimately pay more attention to this matter before the business. In any case, the megacorp will keep doing this until it finds the whereabouts of the missing item.”
Soon, we looked up at the sky.
An AV bearing Veltech’s corporate logo flew through the gray snowflakes floating in the air.
Markus Vogel’s death had not solved this problem.
It had merely erased the trail leading to us.
Michael added in a low voice,
“For now, I’ll think of a way, too.”
* * *
As soon as I entered the grocery store’s warehouse,
I spotted Nova sprawled on the old, worn-out sofa, reading something on an electronic device that looked like a square tablet.
In Nova’s case, didn’t they have any need to use an external terminal?
Curious about what Nova was looking at, I sidled closer and focused my vision.
The tablet was covered in densely packed writing.
It looked like some kind of e-book, and the title was….
[The Differences Between Agape, Philia, and Eros from a Biological Perspective.]
What on earth were they reading?
Just then, my eyes met Nova’s as they looked up at me from the sofa.
“Why use an optical HUD? Why not use that hologram?”
“I just wanted to look at it on a terminal, too.”
It seemed my habit of saying “just” had rubbed off on Nova as well.
Come to think of it, I had said “just” the very first time I spoke with Nova, too.
- You asked what business I had with you?
- Yes.
- Um, just.
- …Yes?
Let’s consider this the price I’m paying for that sin now.
The Veltech team leader did not seem to have properly realized that the android Nova currently inhabited had been loaded onto the truck, but.
In the end, I couldn’t let Nova outside while corporate AVs were flying through the streets.
That was why Nova was sprawled around the warehouse like an unemployed person.
‘Come to think of it, was Nova’s artificial intelligence also made based on someone else’s personality?’
Walter had said that most artificial intelligences were the brains of intelligent entities that corporations molded however they pleased.
Of course, since the conditions were “most” and “corporations,” it was still possible that this wasn’t the case.
Only Troy, who had made Nova, would know.
In the past, Boss─, Christine had told me that the grocery store turret’s artificial intelligence had come from her work partner.
Nova had probably been made by Troy.
Now that I thought of it, should I send him a text?
───────────────
Title: UrgentUrgentUrgentUrgentUrgentUrgentUrgentUrgent
(A meme of a frog smoking a cigarette)
This isn’t actually that urgent...
I baited you to ask this...
I was just curious how Nova was made.
───────────────
And several dozen seconds after I sent the message,
a call came through on the terminal.
“Hello?”
[You son of a—….]
A stream of profanity came immediately.
It was Troy’s voice.
Fortunately, he didn’t seem busy at the moment.
[What the hell is this all of a sudden…. And who’s Nova?]
“One of our grocery store’s mascots, and….”
[…??]
Troy still didn’t know that I had named the turret Nova.
“You know the artificial intelligence inside the grocery store turret. I heard somewhere that most artificial intelligences are made by opening up people’s heads, so I wanted to ask.”
[Is that really an ordinary grocery store over there? And where the hell did you hear that?]
A small sigh followed.
A long exhalation, as if he were smoking an e-cigarette.
[Are all the people in District 49 like that? Do you have no idea how frightening corporations are? If you keep that up, the moment you really leave that place, you might get a bullet in the head.]
“Well, that’s not impossible even now….”
The possibility wasn’t nonexistent.
Perhaps my words sounded like a joke, because Troy continued sighing several times without answering.
[And what exactly do you take me for? I may not look it, but I’m a regular employee officially working for the city government, you know? If I commit a crime, I’ll be arrested on the spot.]
“For someone like that, you seemed pretty willing to help with the illegal things I asked you to do─.”
[Oh, just let that one slide.]
Troy quickly moved past the subject unfavorable to him and continued in a lighter tone.
[So, Nova…? Nice name. The artificial intelligence I made is pretty novel, you know. Anyway, it’s not some bloody thing like that, so I understand what you’re worried about, but you don’t need to fret too much.]
“Mm…, confirmed.”
The uneasiness in my heart eased slightly.
And I was beginning to get a rough idea of how amazingly skilled Troy was.
I was about to thank him and hang up when….
[Hey, and did you contact your senior?]
“…Senior? Ah, Boss? Not yet.”
[I told you to tell her I took good care of you…. I carved time out of my busy schedule to help you chase some weird yakuza boss, so isn’t that the least you could do in good conscience?]
Come to think of it, it had been quite a while since I had contacted Christine.
I’d been so busy with so many things lately.
I should give her a call sometime soon.
“Okay. It’s not that I forgot; I really was busy.”
[Tsk, fine.]
After bickering for a while, we ended the call.
And then.
“……”
“……”
At some point, Nova had risen from the sofa and was staring intently at me.
Perhaps Nova was bothered by the conversation I had just had with Troy, who could effectively be called Nova’s parent.
“May I ask who the user’s conversation partner just now was?”
“Uh…. Troy.”
I wondered if telling Nova the name would make them realize, but their interest didn’t seem to be in that.
“Is he a man?”
“…? Uh, yes.”
“Then that is fine.”
That was the end of Nova’s questions.
Nova slowly let out a breath, as if slightly relieved, and sat up straight on the sofa.
“You like the opposite sex, don’t you?”
“Well, yeah.”
Nova was stating the obvious.
It wasn’t wrong, but….
“Why do you ask that all of a sudden?”
“Your gaze often lingers on my chest armor, so a call with someone of the same sex is reassuring.”
……Gasp.
With that answer, Nova straightened their back.
At the same time, their overwhelming presence became apparent.
Nova looked up at me with an expression that revealed nothing of what they were thinking.
It seemed as if Nova were even closer than before.
No, Nova actually was.
I swallowed involuntarily.
‘After reading that strange book, my child has changed─.’
Just as the atmosphere was gradually beginning to grow strange,
Whoosh!!!
Something flew through the air, cutting the wind, and broke the long silence.
The dart, traveling at the speed of a bullet, buried itself in the dartboard hanging on the wall with enough force to nearly pierce it.
At that rate, wouldn’t it have gone through an actual wall, too?
When I slowly turned my head to the side, I saw Rivera and Michael standing there with the back door open.
Soon, Michael’s quiet voice followed.
“Bull’s-eye, 50 points….”
A clicking of the tongue came from beside me.
“Tch.”
Nova?
The two of them walked naturally into the warehouse as if nothing had happened.
Though the atmosphere was rather awkward.
Perhaps Michael sensed something strange, because he cleared his throat and drew everyone’s attention to himself.
“Ahem. I’ve thought of a good way to deal with Veltech, so I came to tell you.”
“Oh, what is it?”
“It’s very simple.”
Michael positioned himself among us as though giving a presentation back when he had been a corporate employee.
“Veltech may have been after Markus Vogel’s head to find the whereabouts of the missing item, but their goal must also have been to uncover the true mastermind behind it.”
“…There’s another mastermind?”
“Of course, I don’t know either.”
“Huh?”
“But that isn’t necessarily an important point.”
At that moment.
I realized once again what kind of man Michael was.
Come to think of it, this bastard….
“The simplest way to resolve a matter has always been behind-the-scenes maneuvering, hasn’t it?”
He really had been a lunatic from the start.
I had suspected as much when he gave that long-winded speech to the homeless, but after he kept acting so perfectly normal, I had been mistaken for a while.
“The Ryan Eliens Company. It’s a megacorporation commonly known as a military-industrial conglomerate that rivals Veltech, while also operating famous franchises. If we compare their industries or market capitalizations separately….”
Michael continued confidently,
“I think it would be best to set the two of them against each other.”
* * *
“Achoo!!”
Maybe it was because the weather was cold.
Paul Lucas sneezed alone.