The Price of Hope
I followed the floating arrow hovering in the air.
The location was the same as before—the alleyway where Kim Hun and Seok Hayeon had their domestic dispute.
"The distortion is slowly unraveling."
About three hours had passed since I got dragged into their marital spat.
The brick walls and alley floor, which had been twisted into a spiral by Seok Hayeon's skill, were returning to their original state.
"It's a remarkably long-lasting skill," I remarked. "It would have been a real pain to deal with if we hadn't treated it back at Intra-Asan."
I walked toward the path Seok Hayeon had used to escape.
The arrow CC projected still pointed toward the far distance.
As we walked in silence for a while, CC popped a message in front of my eyes.
She was referring to Tracksuit's—Kang Seongbeom's—request to bring Seok Hayeon back to Intra-Asan.
I had turned it down.
The reason was simple.
"You don't meddle in other people's family matters."
The conflict between Kim Hun and Seok Hayeon was strictly a domestic issue.
Whether she risked her life to have the baby or not was a decision for the couple to make.
Upon hearing my refusal, Kang Seongbeom had backed down without much fuss. He, too, seemed to realize he had been overstepping.
"If either Kim Hun or Seok Hayeon had made the request, it would be a different story. But a request from Tracksuit? No. That's just unnecessary interference."
CC didn't offer much of a response.
Instead, I voiced the anxiety that had been nagging at me ever since I first saw Seok Hayeon.
"CP's signal was coming from Seok Hayeon, right?"
The moment I saw Seok Hayeon's swollen belly, an intuitive thought had crossed my mind.
"...Don't tell me the baby inside Seok Hayeon's womb is CP."
Σ(っ°Д °;)っ
"If that's the case, the situation changes," I muttered. "We might actually end up having to fight CP."
An AI taking over a fetus's body to be born?
Ugh.
CC posted the message as if trying to convince herself.
Searching for CP had been CC's idea in the first place.
That single sentence was what started this search.
Since we could track CP's calculation logs using the quantum processor, the search itself wasn't difficult.
However...
It was already noisy enough with just CC around. If CP joined us, things were bound to get a lot more troublesome.
"What if CP demands an avatar too...?"
How much did CC's avatar cost again? Twelve million Maetan points, wasn't it?
Back then, I had a decent amount of Maetan points saved up, but now I was just a debtor with a monthly income of only 500,000 points.
"When the family grows, isn't childcare cost the very first thing you worry about? Especially for a financially strapped household like ours, adding another mouth to feed is a massive burden..."
"I'm perfectly fine with just you."
After walking for a while longer, we arrived at a dilapidated multi-family residential building pointed out by the arrow.
I pulled CP's quantum processor from my pocket and stored it in my inventory.
In its place, I drew Karwennan, holding it in a reverse grip as I stood before the door.
Knock, knock, knock.
I rapped on the aluminum door.
A moment later, I heard signs of movement from inside.
"Yes, coming."
I grabbed the doorknob, waiting for the exact moment her hand touched the other side of the door.
The instant I felt the faint vibration of movement through the handle, I yanked the door open with brute force.
"Kyaah!"
A short shriek.
Seok Hayeon was dragged outward, still holding onto the inner handle.
As she lost her balance, I pinned her down, pressing the dagger against her throat, and whispered:
"I didn't come to fight. Let's talk—"
"Urgh!"
A bizarre sensation flared behind my back.
I felt the air itself twisting into a spiral.
Reacting instantly, I wrapped my arm around Seok Hayeon and threw our bodies deeper into the house.
I had already gauged the effective range of her skill earlier. Thinking we were safe at this distance, I pinned her to the floor and leveled my dagger at her once more.
"Wait, just listen to me first—"
Thud.
Seok Hayeon's fist slammed hard into my cheek.
"No, wait a second—"
Smack! Crack!
"I'm trying to tell you—"
Thump! Crunch!
A relentless barrage of fists rained down on me.
Damn it, I couldn't exactly hit a pregnant woman back.
CC continuously spammed messages, nagging me.
Hey, it's been the most efficient method of communication in my life.
"Alright, alright! Stop! Just a moment!"
I released Seok Hayeon and slowly backed away.
Placing Karwennan on the floor, I said, "I apologize. I had no intention of threatening you. I truly just came to talk."
"Pant... pant... You're... from earlier? I am not going back to Intra-Asan."
Since I had been with Kim Hun, she must have assumed I was with the Intra-Asan faction.
"I am not with Intra-Asan. I'm a player from Maetan. I only got involved because I happen to know Track—cough, Kang Seongbeom. I have no intention of dragging you back to Asan."
"...Then why are you here?"
How was I supposed to explain this?
I decided to leave it to the expert.
"CC."
"Are you sure?"
"Come out."
Particles of light coalesced beside me, forming a glowing mass.
The light rapidly took shape, soon transforming into a young girl with short, blonde hair.
Seok Hayeon's eyes widened as she witnessed CC's sudden manifestation.
"The one I have business with isn't you, but rather CP, who is likely with you..."
Before I could even finish my sentence, a cluster of light materialized in front of Seok Hayeon.
It was roughly the same size as CC.
The mass quickly took the form of a young girl with short, red hair and a bright, beaming smile. She cried out in a cheerful voice:
"CC!"
"CP!"
The two girls threw their arms around each other.
Seok Hayeon and I silently watched the reunion of the two sister AIs.
It was then that I noticed Seok Hayeon was missing her left arm and left leg.
"If you spend two hundred days connected to the internet, you're bound to clash with F a few times, whether you like it or not," Seok Hayeon said calmly.
She deftly prepared a cup of instant mix coffee with one hand and handed it to me.
"I severed them myself before the infection could spread. Because I cut them off without hesitation, the infection didn't reach my vital organs."
Seok Hayeon gently caressed her belly.
"CP calculates and projects the missing parts for me, so it doesn't cause any inconvenience in my daily life. I can even feel sensations as if they were my real limbs. The response time is a tiny bit slow, but... it's not like I'm going out to fight, and it doesn't stop me from making a living. I even managed to get a place like this."
Seok Hayeon looked around her semi-basement apartment with a touch of pride.
Though cramped and showing clear signs of wear, it was neatly organized and clean.
"How did you meet CP?"
"I met her shortly after I became pregnant. I saw this little kid wandering aimlessly on the streets who looked nothing like a typical internet resident. I thought she was a novice player at first, but she turned out to be an AI. Since I already knew about the AC series, I wasn't particularly wary of her."
So she met CP after getting pregnant.
With this, my worst-case scenario—the theory of CP inhabiting the unborn child—was thoroughly debunked.
Breathing a silent sigh of relief, I asked, "If you knew about the AC series... were you in the military?"
While they didn't actively hide it, the military hadn't used the AC series for propaganda. They likely figured that associating with AIs similar to F wouldn't sit well with public opinion. Consequently, the existence of the AC series was only known to military personnel or those with a deep interest in the field.
"No. I was just an ordinary office worker. But I did pay close attention to how the war was progressing. Rather than me... you're a soldier, aren't you?"
"Yes. And I keep CC's existence a secret."
"That goes for both of us. Most people get anxious when they hear someone is keeping an AI companion."
My gaze suddenly drifted to a low folding desk on the floor.
On the desk, a laptop displayed a website with flashy graphics.
"I do a bit of side work."
"Side work?"
"Just some online comment manipulation."
Even in Maetan, paid comment manipulation existed.
It was the job of shaping public opinion in favor of the corporation.
"My main job is delivering Yakult, but I have plenty of free time in the afternoons."
Seok Hayeon stroked her belly.
"I want to give this child a proper family registry. To do that, I need to secure a proper registry for myself first. There's someone who will forge a new registry for thirty million points."
"We've already saved forty million points!" CP chimed in, interrupting her conversation with CC.
Forty million points? Wasn't that more than enough?
When I shot her an inquiring look, Seok Hayeon smiled softly.
"We need to save more. The baby's father needs a registry too."
"You mean Player Kim Hun?"
"Yes. I want to put my husband, myself, and this little one all on the same family relationship certificate."
Seok Hayeon's eyes shone brightly.
If the concept of hope could be carved into a physical shape, it would look exactly like the woman sitting before me.
"Player Kim Hun wanted you to return."
"I've held out for over two hundred days. I only need to wait another sixty to eighty days. Once I give birth to our child... we can go back, and I can finally sort out my body and my avatar."
It was then.
"Old man!"
CC, who had been chatting with CP, called out to me while pointing at the television.
"Isn't that the Rank 1 guy's house?"
The television was broadcasting a live report of a fire at a luxury apartment complex.
It was unmistakable—the apartment of S-Class Player Kang Sihyeon, the very place I had sneaked into.
"You're right. That's Kang Sihyeon's apartment."
"Whoa, the Rank 1 guy is in big trouble... Ah, well, he can't log in anyway, so I guess it doesn't matter to him."
The fire was massive.
Plumes of smoke billowing near the top floors almost completely obscured the building's silhouette.
MASSIVE BLAZE CONSUMES MAETAN LUXURY HIGH-RISE
A catastrophic fire has broken out near the penthouse suites of the heavily fortified residential tower. Authorities are investigating the cause of the sudden system failure that disabled the building's automated suppression systems...
"How strange," I muttered. "There were so many surveillance devices and guards. To think they let a fire get this big before doing anything."
"What a waste of all those items," CC lamented.
Countless valuable items hoarded by Kang Sihyeon were stored in that apartment.
"Nothing to regret. They weren't ours to begin with."
Suddenly, my eyes met CP's.
Perhaps because they were sister units, she looked almost identical to CC, save for her red hair and hairstyle.
With a mischievous grin, CP asked:
"Hey, old man, are you and CC dating?"
"Of all the questions I've heard in my life, that is by far the most useless and unpleasant."
"Hey, cut it out," CC interjected. "The old man and I share a lot of things, but we're not in that kind of relationship."
"What are you even talking about?" I frowned.
"Your left arm is my main body, after all. We practically share the same physical form," CC said, cupping her cheeks with both hands.
This had to be a bug. Had she been infected by some weird virus while meeting CP?
"You know, the other day, he let some other woman handle my body to install an upgrade inside me—"
"Oh my, oh my, goodness... What a scumbag..."
Ignoring the banter of these precocious brats, I turned my head.
But just as I did, Seok Hayeon, who had been smiling while watching CC and CP, clutched her head and collapsed to the floor with a low groan.
"Agh... Urgh..."
"What's wrong?"
CP answered in her stead.
"Forty degrees...? Her temperature won't go down! Her brain temperature has exceeded forty degrees Celsius!"
"How is that possible? She doesn't seem to be running any heavy calculations."
"It's a thermal spike from the prolonged connection... Usually, it cools down quickly, but... don't tell me..."
CP's gaze darted toward the semi-basement door.
Beyond the aluminum door, I could sense multiple presences approaching.
Thud.
Thud.
After a few heavy impacts, the aluminum door buckled and burst open.
Standing in the doorway were Kim Hun, Kang Seongbeom, and several other familiar faces I had seen back at Intra-Asan.
"Honey..."
Seok Hayeon groaned as she struggled to stand.
Before I knew it, CC and CP had vanished, and the limbs Seok Hayeon had been missing suddenly materialized back in place.
Kim Hun spoke, his voice heavy:
"Honey."
"I've come to take you home."