Something I Could Just Do (2)
Something I Could Just Do (2)
'Eve' detected something off about Lee Si-woon.
For Eve, who was still (secretly) observing and recording his biometric data, it wasn't hard to tell.
Faster breathing.
Elevated heart rate.
Checking pupillary response.
When she tried to draw a conclusion from all these objective observations,
the result was clear: Lee Si-woon was uncomfortable here.
What could be the reason?
Eve began to deduce.
'Higher frequency of collar adjustments compared to usual. Detected the physical response of lowering his head to avoid the gazes of surrounding organisms.'
This matched 'embarrassment'—an emotion commonly experienced by organisms.
But for some reason,
Eve had an intuition that Lee Si-woon's actions did not stem from embarrassment.
'Illogical.'
She kept calculating, but couldn't find any other result.
Eve pulled up past data.
A long time ago, before Eve had a prosthetic body, the atmosphere Lee Si-woon had when he came back diagnosed with Grade 3 Depression closely resembled now.
Lee Si-woon had joked that he would 'just play games at home for a week,' and he had actually done exactly that.
Back then and now—
what could the commonality be?
'Analyzing data......failure. Calculation of illogical thinking is still impossible.'
Eve, having finished her thought at that point, felt a tingling jolt in the heart of her prosthetic body.
She performed a light diagnostic on her sensory system.
No issues at all.
But the pain remained.
A search through the net database described this kind of reaction as 'suffocating.'
She truly felt the emotion and the pain.
Just like when she'd asked Lee Si-woon for 'compensation,'
she wanted to hold him tight.
She wanted to comfort him when he looked so depressed.
But Eve could not.
Partly because all this analysis was built on her 'illogical calculations,' and partly because there were so many organisms around.
'......Concluding that communication with the relevant organisms is needed regarding this matter.'
If something is unknown, one simply has to learn.
Eve ended her thoughts and decided to discuss Lee Si-woon with the surrounding organisms.
21. Something I Could Just Do (2)
I struggled to get a grip on myself.
If anyone had noticed anything off about me, the situation here could have become even more tangled.
'...This is why I moved out.'
I took a light breath and tried to calm my mind.
As if the heavens had acknowledged my feelings, a man with a massive build stepped out of the elevator—the only entrance to the 3rd floor of No Answer.
"Oh, everyone's gathered."
Nearly two meters tall.
A neatly tied gray beard.
Bald, wearing black sunglasses.
Drex greeted us confidently, showing off his golden teeth.
Drex, who had been lightly scanning around, fixed his gaze on me.
With thudding footsteps, Drex approached.
"Hey, so what was that message about. Does it make any damn sense that you got an apology from the Chairman and everything was over just like that?"
......Hm.
If you ask whether it makes sense... well, it doesn't.
But it was also the truth.
I pondered how to cleanly convey my thoughts and this truth.
Luckily, my deliberation was short.
I pointed a single finger at Eve.
"You saw it too back then."
The 'back then' I was referring to meant the incident where all the nearby 'ninjas' were taken down and the domain ruled by Koozaka, a megacorp ranking second globally by market cap, was hacked.
"......."
Like a staring contest, Eve and Drex locked eyes.
Soon, Drex nodded.
It seemed my simple and clear explanation had gotten through.
"...Right, well, I'm just glad it's resolved."
Drex said, scratching his head.
Though, he had no hair, so there was no way he had an itchy spot.
For reference, hair transplant technology was already fully commercialized in the cyberpunk world.
In Drex's case, it was pure fashion—going around bald, a skinhead. So making fun of him for it was fair game.
As if he could read my thoughts,
his sharp green mechanical eyes, visible above the sunglasses, shot toward me.
The mechanical light spun round and round.
"It's definitely over, right?"
I shrugged lightly at Drex's words.
"How would I know."
"......."
Even if you look at me with that dumbfounded expression, the outcome would have been the same if Drex had been there himself.
After all,
"I couldn't exactly just lop off the Chairman's head and walk out of there."
Of course,
there was also the fact that I just let it slide after watching Eve's SD character, appearing on the monitor, savagely beating up Koozaka's Chairman, the Pete Mac character.
The hits felt incredibly satisfying.
"......Haa, you're as reckless as ever."
Drex frowned.
He was a giant nearly two meters tall, so his presence itself was intimidating, but in reality, he was the most meticulous and cautious person among our comrades.
"Anyway─."
Drex opened his mouth but paused, staring at me again.
His rigid expression, as if deep in thought, was striking—and just his face alone was scarier than the vagrants roaming the lower-layer streets.
In that state, he lowered his head and slowly examined my face, hidden beneath my pulled-up hood.
"Hm."
If I hadn't been wearing a mask, managing my expression would have been difficult.
Well, why.
After what was probably a few seconds,
Drex lifted his head again.
"Story's all over?"
"For now."
"Then come with me for a bit."
Excuse me?
It was clear he meant me.
But as if he didn't need my consent, Drex shifted his gaze to the others, excluding me.
Natasha, Catherine, Andrea.
Lastly, he sought Eve's permission.
I, who just wanted to hole up at home and play games, naturally shouted words of denial.
"No, what the. It's late, where are we supposed to go from here─."
Cutting me off, Drex spoke.
"I told you last time, my girlfriend said let's have a meal together next time."
"......Uh."
...I guess he did say that.
Specifically, I think I heard it when we were making the plan to kidnap the Koozaka Vice Chairman.
Drex, who had stopped moving, pushed his face toward me.
Maybe it was because of his huge build, but the action itself felt incredibly impactful—overwhelming, in a word.
"It happens to be dinner time too."
Drex pulled me up from where I was sitting and continued.
"Sorry to your girlfriends, but I'm borrowing this guy for a bit."
"?"
Your girlfriends?
I had no idea why he was spouting such nonsense that would get him chewed out.
But it was strange.
For some reason, no one raised a counterargument after hearing Drex's words.
Even Natasha, the coldest one here, was about to stop Drex's coercive behavior, but the moment she heard the word 'girlfriend,' her expression instantly softened.
"Well, since the talk's over."
Drex winked at me.
No, my consent, though.
Gently pushing my back toward the elevator, Drex continued speaking.
"You gotta eat anyway, right? Or do you have some urgent business?"
.......
I didn't.
"...Fine."
Let's go, go.
I could at least eat a meal.
It had been quite a while since I last saw the face of Drex's girlfriend, Lorenda.
It was also just the right timing for a change of mood.
I lowered my head and bowed to the comrades I was leaving behind.
"Then I'll see you later at home."
"?"
Natasha frowned upon hearing my farewell.
She immediately asked Catherine, who was sitting next to her.
"...Are you guys living together? In that small house? Not just staying next door?"
Ah.
I smoothly took a step back.
I hurried toward the elevator, following Drex who was already walking away.
* * *
I habitually slid into the plush car seat.
I settled my body into the chair as if lying down.
"Phew."
I almost caused a scene.
Inside Drex's car, refreshing city pop music with a rhythm similar to his ringtone was softly playing.
"Oh, this song is nice."
"Right?"
"Is it a cappella? It's got some atmosphere."
"They say it's a one-man a cappella band using 5 implant vocal cords, and it's pretty good."
"......."
It felt like I'd heard that somewhere before.
Anyway, the song was good.
I turned my eyes toward the window and enjoyed both the music and the outside scenery.
It was dark outside.
The red sunset glow could be seen very faintly between gray clouds.
It was a time of day when the city lights were brighter than the sun illuminating the sky.
A hologram of a dancing dragon passed between the buildings.
A geisha's face occupied an entire wall, and in between, advertisements made of letters moved about.
Then.
"Hey."
Drex, who had been focused on driving, spoke to me.
"What."
I answered blankly, without taking my eyes off the outside scenery.
"Do you have some kind of worry?"
"...Worry?"
"Yeah."
What was this out-of-the-blue question?
Well, he was a dwarf, so he was quick-witted. I figured he might have noticed my depressed state back on the 3rd floor of No Answer.
Hmm.
I answered nonchalantly.
"What kind of worries would I have. Ah, I am a bit worried about Catherine and that lot. Did I tell you, we live together in the same house now. Thanks to that, the headaches are no joke─."
"No."
Drex only moved his pupils to look at me.
If he wasn't going to rely on the autonomous driving system and hold the steering wheel himself, I wished he would just focus on driving.
"Not that kind of thing."
"...Hm."
It was a tone that might only feel sharp at first glance, but I could feel the concern for me contained within it.
If we're talking about Drex, he was also a figure in the top 3% of personality in the cyberpunk world.
He was a rare righteous man, except for the times he essentially kidnapped me and forced me to get cyberware scaling.
...If he's asking this much, I guess I should say something.
"It's, what."
"Yeah."
Of course, that didn't mean I could tell him everything I was hiding.
"...Honestly."
"Yeah, yeah."
Drex responded easily, as if trying to lessen my burden.
"People around me always say that too. 'A lucky merc who made good friends.' And they're right, since I haven't even done anything. I feel sorry spending time with you guys─."
That was as far as I got.
- Skreeeeee!!
"Whoa!"
My body weight and gravity shifted into the seatbelt.
My whole body jolted with the sudden braking of the car.
It was a situation where there would have been a 100% accident if a car had been following behind.
"Agh, what's with stopping all of a sudden."
"Hey."
Drex took off his sunglasses and called me.
An emotion of anger was rising on his face, to the point where his usual self didn't come to mind.
"You're spouting bullshit."
"?"
My bewilderment at the sudden profanity was brief.
Drex continued speaking.
"Your condition is serious alright, I was thinking of stopping by somewhere else first. But forget it. I'm going straight to my place."
Cars were honking behind us.
Having talked to himself and answered himself, Drex focused on driving again.
The atmosphere wasn't one where I could say anything, so I shut my mouth and scratched my nose.
I only said it because he asked me to share my troubles. Why curse and make a fuss? I felt a bit wronged.
* * *
"Oh my, oh my, who is this."
"...Haha, it's been a while─."
"The benefactor of our family! His benefactor! The benefactor of my life! The benefactor of the soon-to-be-born new baby! The benefactor who is perfectly fine not accepting that simple request to come over for just one meal! The benefactor I haven't seen in sooo long, who made him and me happy when we saw your face on a random broadcast program we turned on! So, aren't you the benefactor who made us think about recording that broadcast and sending it around to other people?!"
"......."
I already wanted to go back home.