066. Eve (2)
066. Eve (2)
Eve No. 27—Eve 27 for short—had agreed to cooperate.
It wasn't free, of course. In exchange for safely activating the Healing Phase, I'd promised to provide her with a body of her own, since she currently had none.
Oh, and she made it clear she had no intention of accepting just any old body from the scrap heap.
Instead, the body specifications she demanded went like this:
"Prepare a flagship model from a major brand such as Halo Company, Kaguya Heavy Industries, or Dunkel Industry.
"Ah, I shall personally oversee the appearance customization. An absurdly busty blonde beauty would be ideal. The core must be top-of-the-line, and every other component at least A-rank.
"I also have a particular skill module in mind. Namely......."
In short, these were specs Krädel could never hope to provide.
Worse, we were struggling to afford even a single budget body. Installing the portal recently had bled our finances badly.
But this wasn't the time to ask whether her wish was realistic.
More importantly, if I could bring my soldiers home safely, what wouldn't I promise? Even if her wish was unrealistic, I had no choice but to agree.
So I told her I understood for now and urged her on.
"We don't have time. Let's just cross over already."
"I dislike impatient men......."
Grumbling at that, Eve 27 nevertheless rose from her seat.
Soon, she flung open the half-open door labeled Path to the Main Server.
The main server beyond it was, how should I put it, bizarre.
It looked like the same East Asian-style mansion as the backup server, except someone had added Cthulhu to the genre mix.
"......Why does it look that warped?"
"The influence of the Legion Phase. More importantly, why are you standing there instead of going in?"
"Is it really okay to just walk across?"
"It is fine, you coward."
No, it didn't look fine at all.
"Could you go in firs——"
"You are noisy. Hup!"
With a little grunt, Eve 27 shoved me into the main server.
How?
By stepping on me.
It was even a little smaller than Rinne's foot, which had stepped on me plenty of times.
But the force behind her kick was incomparably greater than Rinne's.
It must have been because she was an Eve.
In this world formed inside Eve's full-brain, Eve held a status akin to that of a god.
Her physical force was bound to be on an entirely different level.
......Thinking about it in reverse, that meant the Eves who wanted to kill us were equally powerful.
No, not just as powerful as Eve 27. They would be far stronger. Unlike 27, who had withdrawn her influence within the system, the Eves in the main server were in complete control.
For that reason, I had assumed we needed to act as cautiously as possible, at least once we crossed over into the main server.
"Hup."
Eve 27, after shoving me into the main server without warning, followed after me with another unnecessary little grunt.
"......Aren't you being too careless?"
"What need is there for caution? I am also a master of this system."
"I'm a guest here."
"You are with me, so you are safe."
That was the first reassuring thing she had said.
Perhaps this was the side of Eve 27 that Violetta had seen.
My relief was short-lived.
"......If it's so safe, then why didn't you cross over here and activate the Healing Phase yourself?"
Violetta had speculated the reason was because the path was blocked, which was why she sent me, someone who could breach it.
But looking at it now, it didn't particularly seem like I had been necessary.
Not that she appeared to have been assimilated by the infected Eves or actively cooperating with them, either.
In other words, it looked as though she had been in a state of neglect...... but if the journey was this safe and easy, couldn't she have handled it alone?
Seeing my confusion, Eve 27 added bitterly.
"You will understand once you go and see. Why I was holed up back there."
"What on earth was there......."
I muttered in disbelief.
Nevertheless, Eve 27 led me somewhere.
That didn't mean nothing happened along the way. From time to time, Eve's 'Security Guards' appeared while patrolling the server.
These guards, taking the form of empty suits of armor, saluted instead of being wary of us.
No, really.
—Snap!
They raised their empty arms in a crisp salute.
Of course, not to me, but to Eve 27 beside me.
That easy, danger-free journey continued for a while.
Soon we reached the central corridor of the mansion, which Eve 27 called the 'heart of the server.'
The guards I had seen earlier were teeming there too, but they weren't the only ones.
There was something far more revolting.
How should I describe it?
So, in a word.
A massive wall formed from the tangled bodies of dead biodroids blocked the way.
That alone would have been a horrific enough sight.
I was already grimacing at the sight.
But what truly ignited my fury was the presence of a certain biodroid at one corner of that barrier of flesh and steel.
It was Rinne.
Rinne was there, eyes empty as if dead, tangled between other biodroids as part of the barrier.
"What in the world......."
I chewed my lip and approached Rinne.
At that moment, Eve 27 gave a fierce warning.
"Stop. That is a firewall."
"What?"
I pulled back my hand and asked Eve 27.
"What do you mean? A firewall?"
"What looms before your eyes is a firewall protecting old version data."
"A firewall? This?"
It was functioning as a kind of barrier, given that it was blocking the path, I suppose.
But it looked a far cry from any firewall I knew of.
At that, Eve 27 nodded.
"It is as you say. It is no ordinary firewall. An ordinary firewall cannot block my approach. So the infected Eves employed a sort of expedient."
"An expedient?"
"They tangled together a vast amount of junk data, creating, so to speak, a firewall too massive to dismantle by brute force."
"Let's say that's true. But why does it have to look this horrifying?"
At that, Eve 27 fell into thought for a moment.
After a short while, she gave the following answer.
"Because that is what this data actually looks like."
I couldn't comprehend Eve 27's answer for a moment.
But before long, a suspicion occurred to me.
Eve 27 confirmed that suspicion.
"The junk data composing the firewall is made up of the egos of biodroids absorbed by Eve."
She explained that they housed the brains of units judged too weak for combat and not worth operating independently here, then used them as roadblocks.
"Then Rinne is......."
"If you are referring to the red-haired girl you were about to touch, she, too, has been conscripted as junk data."
As she said that, Eve 27 added.
"The moment you lay a hand on that to dismantle it, a signal will be sent to the infected Eves. At that point, the peace treaty will also automatically shatter, and they will attempt to eliminate us."
After summing it up, Eve 27 clicked her tongue and asked:
"Do you understand now? Why I, who can freely come and go within the main server, could not devise a way to proceed further?"
I understood.
Completely. One hundred percent.
But even so.
I couldn't just give up.
"Eve, is there any way to breach this firewall?"
There had to be.
If there truly wasn't one, Eve 27 wouldn't have bothered to bring me all the way here.
I believed that, and as if rewarding my faith, Eve 27 nodded.
"There is one way."
"What is it?"
"The junk data is vast in quantity, but its composition is not precise. Therefore, extracting just a single person's worth of data will cause the entire firewall to come crumbling down. And I do possess the ability to process that one person's worth of data."
Immediately after, Eve 27 sighed.
"The problem is that they do not wish to crawl out of there."
"......What?"
I couldn't understand what Eve 27 was saying.
Then Eve 27 looked back at me and asked:
"You there, how do you suppose the infected Eves suppress and control the egos of their victims? Can you guess what method they use?"
"......Hard to say."
I didn't know for sure, but it was probably something incredibly horrific.
Eve 27 shook her head at my answer.
"Wrong. It is the exact opposite."
"Exact opposite......."
"Eve gives the biodroids serving as her limbs an extraordinarily happy, sweet illusion."
The same applied to the countless biodroids forming the firewall.
Eve had placed them within an illusory world, and they were intoxicated by that illusion.
Thus, even when Eve 27 attempted to extract them from the firewall,
"The victims refuse to come out and flee deeper into the barrier."
Eve 27 said sadly.
Without realizing it, I bit my lip and asked.
"So then? Is there nothing at all we can do? Like going inside and persuading them......."
"It is fundamentally impossible. Each victim's illusion belongs to them alone. Outsiders cannot enter, much less interfere. That is why there was nothing I could do."
Eve 27 explained.
But apparently, I was a rare exception who might be able to enter.
The principle was extremely simple.
"Among them is a girl dreaming of a world where you appear as someone important."
"You're talking about Rinne, right?"
Eve 27 nodded.
She went on to explain that anyone who was originally part of the dream's cast could enter the illusion.
In other words, I could enter the illusory world where Rinne was trapped.
I could, but—
"The master of that world is that girl. Within that world, everything is warped and altered according to that girl's wishes.
"You are no exception. The instant you enter that world, your body and mind will be rewritten to fit that girl's dream."
In other words, I would completely forget why I had entered—and even who I was.
I might forget everything and live on as nothing more than a character in Rinne's dream.
Eve 27 warned in a low voice.
Then she added one more warning.
"......Even if your extraordinary mental fortitude lets you recognize the situation again, there is no guarantee that child will listen to you."
I might simply be kicked out.
No matter the outcome, there was only one chance.
The moment we interfered, the infected Eves would notice the situation.
If I failed to make that single chance count, Eve 27 and I would be eliminated.
Or we might become part of the firewall piled up there. That is, if my brain, a human male's, was of any use.
"What will you do?"
Eve 27 asked.
"If you intend to stop, it is wiser to stop now. It is regrettable that I will not obtain a body, but well, what can be done? That, too, is my fate."
Her tone suggested she didn't care what answer I gave.
But beneath the bravado in her voice, I could hear a faint tremor.
She wanted it too: for someone to put an end to this atrocity committed by those who shared her name.
For someone to save her from the back room where she'd shut herself away.
......Well, I wasn't really the type to risk my life for the salvation of a girl I had just met for the first time.
The problem was that I'd put my life on the line long ago.
Not for Eve 27, but for the idiot over there dreaming some ridiculous dream.
"There's no choice but to try."
"You really are a peculiar character."
Eve 27 replied as if she couldn't believe me.
"Fine. I shall send you in. Kneel."
I did so.
Then Eve 27 reached up with a small hand and covered my eyes.
The instant her hand disappeared—
I found myself in a high school classroom.
......With Rinne.