Treated Like a Doll
Fortunately, nothing else happened after that. With an amethyst-like stone that could fetch a good price tucked under one arm and my free hand gripping a steel pipe tightly, I crossed the wasteland at a brisk pace, constantly on guard. No disturbances came my way.
And now, it stood right before my eyes.
It was huge. Truly an absurd size. The sight resembled countless skyscrapers fused together without end. Thanks to the fine dust, even the silhouette at the top remained blurry. It had to be at least two hundred meters tall. The Great Wall would look like a mere toy next to this structure.
The colossal magic circle floating overhead was equally terrifying in scale.
Pushing aside the awe that bordered on intimidation, I began walking along the wall. I needed to find an entrance. There was no other choice now that I had come this far. I kept repeating that to myself for reassurance.
I had no idea what lay inside. Even if people were present, there was no guarantee they would be friendly. So I shouldn't get my hopes up. The greater the expectation, the greater the disappointment.
Steel ing my resolve, I continued along the seamless black wall that appeared to be a single solid piece. The surface—whether stone or metal—was not as smooth as it looked from a distance. Yet the scattered gouges and time-worn cracks conveyed resilience rather than frailty.
After walking quickly for some time...
“───.”
This time luck was on my side. I found what appeared to be an entrance sooner than expected. A patch of gray stood out amid the endless black waves. It was unmistakably a door large enough for a vehicle to pass through.
Some kind of emergency exit? It looked more like a side passage than a formal entrance. The odds of it being locked were high.
I glanced around, but no buttons were visible. I raised my hand, intending to knock, when...
'Now that I think about it, how do I even do this?'
One hand held the large amethyst. The other gripped a silver-glowing steel pipe. Honestly, my current appearance was the furthest thing from innocent or harmless.
If an intelligent being waited beyond the wall, this look would surely cause a misunderstanding.
The moment that thought crossed my mind...
“──Oh.”
As if it had read my thoughts, the steel pipe in my right hand dissolved into white particles and vanished into thin air.
Startled, I pictured myself holding it again, and the pipe reappeared in my grasp without fail. The action felt as simple as opening and closing my hand.
Come to think of it, it had worked the same way when it first appeared. Equipment I could summon at will—such convenient assistance was always welcome. I had no idea how it worked, but for now I was simply glad. I dismissed the pipe once more, then looked at the amethyst in my other hand and muttered.
“Disappear.”
I thought I had infused the word with considerable conviction, yet there was no reaction.
“...So this one doesn’t work.”
I had wondered, but it seemed summoning and dismissal were privileges reserved for the steel pipe alone. I would have to treat it as dedicated equipment.
Feeling oddly embarrassed despite having no audience, I muttered to myself and reluctantly tucked the amethyst back under my arm.
With my newly freed hand, I knocked on the door.
At first it was a polite knock knock knock, using only my fingertips with my hand turned over.
I waited.
But, as expected, such a timid appeal earned no response.
Ten seconds passed. A full minute. Still nothing.
I had no choice but to escalate.
This time I clenched my fist and struck harder. Thud thud thud.
It felt like thick yet somewhat hollow metal. Surely this would send a signal inside.
Yet again, there was no response.
Should I search for another entrance? No. I didn’t want to remain alone in this dangerous place any longer. I wanted inside by any means necessary. I had already had enough of trading blows with those centipede-like monster machines.
Anxiety made my heart race. The fear of being abandoned here caused me to unconsciously pour strength into my arm.
The result...
At some point, a loud BANG! rang out as the door I had been hammering finally dented.
...Wait a second. This wasn’t sheet metal. It was a chunk of iron several centimeters thick, and it had dented?
It wasn’t folded beyond use—just slightly warped—but the event was still completely illogical.
Come to think of it, my body’s strength had already been beyond common sense ever since I smashed that robot centipede.
Just as the incidents I had deliberately pushed to the back of my mind threatened to overwhelm me again...
Rumble.
The door that had seemed impossible to open began to rise with a metallic groan.
For some reason the saying “machines only listen when you beat them” flashed through my head. I wonder why.
At any rate, it was not a single door as expected. One forearm-thick slab rose, followed by another behind it. Then another. And another. Only after ten layers of metal had opened did the interior finally come into view.
A square space that could fit a one-ton truck perfectly. Completely sealed on all sides.
The first image that came to mind was a large elevator. For a fortress wall of this scale, an elevator-like device on the outer wall made perfect sense.
Even while thinking that, I hesitated briefly before finally stepping inside after steeling my nerves.
Was there a sensor? Not long after my clumsy entry, the doors rumbled shut again. Ten layers of bulkheads blocked the outside sunlight in moments.
In their place, artificial white light fell across my still-unfamiliar pale skin. It resembled the daylight hue of fluorescent or LED lamps, yet seemed to radiate from something that proved this was another world entirely.
What shone from the ceiling instead of light fixtures was clearly a magic circle. Its form differed completely from the one floating above the giant structure outside. Its size was also incomparably smaller, covering only enough area for a single person.
While I stared blankly at the light bathing my whole body, the solid floor beneath me gave a faint tremble. Then came the sensation that the surrounding structure itself was moving.
Traveling diagonally upward? Just as I had guessed, the space itself served as transportation. With a scale this enormous, minimizing walking was only logical.
It felt somewhat like riding an escalator, so the sensation wasn’t entirely foreign. Even so...
It was only a passing worry, but...
...It wouldn’t suddenly dive straight into a blast furnace, would it?
『───! ───? ──!!!』
『──? ─!───!』
“……What is he saying?”
I was genuinely happy to encounter a person-like being. But I had never imagined we wouldn’t be able to communicate.
The gatekeeper Roger was quite shocked right now. No—he could confidently say he had never been this surprised in his five years on the job.
A person had entered from outside through the emergency exit he guarded.
It was an event that had never occurred before and one he had never even considered possible.
To repeat, his duty was gatekeeper. His role was to watch over one of the emergency exits of the evacuation fortress Labica.
Yet despite the title, no one had ever passed through this corridor. His senior had told him it had not happened once since the fortress was built.
It made sense. The outside world was a living hell filled with pollutants that no creature could survive for even a minute. To make matters worse, it teemed with vicious autonomous weapons of the dragon race that devoured humans.
Only someone with a death wish would travel through it. Besides, this was an emergency exit. It only opened when the main gate was unusable or overwhelmed.
A gatekeeper watching a passage no one used. Whether it had been different at the beginning or not, hundreds of years of peace naturally made people lazy.
The fact that he alone handled the outpost duty—originally structured as three rotating shifts of two people working eight hours each—came from that same context.
It was now Friday afternoon at four o’clock. The senior who should have been with him was probably sitting in a tavern with the rest of the squad, gulping cheap rum and scouting for women to tumble with that night.
Since Roger usually did the same, he held no particular grudge about working alone. Honestly, wasn’t this a heavenly job? Getting paid by the hour while basically relaxing—there was no reason for major complaints.
He had been passing the time with the comfortable thought that he would probably never have to work for a living until the day he died of old age.
That was why he was so startled.
The external elevator, which had not moved once since he started duty, had activated. The dragon-race identification device he thought was broken was functioning perfectly. Then the opening mechanism activated, and when something red appeared before his eyes, he was so shocked he nearly pulled the trigger of the rifle he carried purely for show.
“Don’t move! I’ll shoot if you do!”
“───?”
The words burst out as he leapt from the outpost that had long since become a one-man bedroom.
The uninvited guest who spotted him hesitated briefly, then obediently set down whatever she had been holding. She raised her slender arms.
He immediately recognized it as a sign of non-resistance.
Confirming she was unarmed, Roger approached with his rifle still trained on her and spoke again.
“What are you? A doll?”
“……,”
No answer came.
The one who tilted her head slightly, as if troubled by the question, was a petite girl. No—a doll shaped like a girl.
Living creatures could not wander outside the evacuation fortress. That was common knowledge. Therefore there was only one answer.
It was a doll.
An autonomous doll, now rarely seen. And not a crude combat model, but a special type with beauty surpassing that of humans.
“Wow. First time seeing a sex doll in the flesh…”
Even amid his shock, the thought ‘Holy shit, she’s hot’ was unavoidable.
The girl doll’s appearance up close was that flawless.
At first glance she looked about fourteen. Smaller than average for that age, like a child, but his five years of experience in the red-light district could not be fooled.
Vivid yet seemingly soft long red hair. Flawless white skin that gleamed without a single visible imperfection. Golden eyes slightly upturned, radiating a strange sensuality. The black dress featured a neckline that teasingly hinted at generous cleavage, while partially revealing a narrow waist and pronounced hips. The skirt length that revealed a hint of pale thighs beautifully showcased the allure of that delicate boundary.
Artificial beauty. Therefore, the ultimate crystallization of feminine charm achievable in a small frame.
A meticulously designed body and aura, specialized in stimulating male desire within the limits of permitted proportions.
That was the special autonomous doll standing before him.
They called it the pheromone that seduces men? He had heard rumors it probably included such magical functions.
‘Either way, I really want to fuck her senseless.’
Once he registered that the being before him was not human but a doll, any guilt over impure thoughts vanished naturally.
Autonomous dolls were human property. They were objects.
Rumors said the high-ranking officials kept human-type autonomous dolls in their homes—called household models but used for sex. Even the director he respected supposedly owned one. Or had he rented it? Whatever.
Pushing aside his wandering thoughts, Roger swallowed his saliva. As someone with a modicum of intellect, he suppressed his inner desires.
This was clearly an extremely expensive autonomous doll. She had probably been carrying out a solo mission.
He noticed belatedly that what she had set on the floor was a large Rima Crystal. Whoever her owner was, they were undoubtedly a major figure.
So he would simply look the other way and let it pass. This passage only led to District 11 anyway. Identity was irrelevant. Even if she slipped into another district afterward, it had nothing to do with him.
If he simply recorded a rough log of who had passed, his duty was complete.
Calming himself, Roger lowered the rifle muzzle and spoke to the doll again.
“Registration number. Name. Tell me who your owner is.”
“──.”
“It’s standard procedure. Once I verify, I’ll let you through immediately.”
Having organized his thoughts, he decided for the first time to actually perform his gatekeeper duties.
However, the situation began to flow in a strange direction.
“I said, give me your registration number.”
“…….”
“What’s your name?”
“…….”
“Just give me the first four digits of your owner’s resident number.”
“……?”
No matter what he asked, she only tilted her head in confusion. The doll simply looked at him with a troubled expression and made unrecognizable sounds.
It seemed her language module was broken. Perhaps she was a defective unit that had been discarded. Or maybe she had lost her owner.
The moment that conclusion formed, a memory flashed through Roger’s mind.
It was probably from his rookie days, not long after he started duty—something his senior had told him.
‘Sometimes autonomous dolls that lived in other shelters, lost their owners, and underwent automatic reset drift over here.’
To that interesting remark he had asked,
‘What happens to ownership in that case?’
His senior had answered,
‘What do you mean, what happens? Obviously the one who picks it up first owns it.’
It was exactly the kind of statement one would expect from a resident of the evacuation fortress Labica.