The Aftermath of the Third Development Product
The third development product’s aftermath.
Fifth. Levitan. Commonly known as Levitang.
As an executive of the Evils organization, she was currently in the middle of a very successful social reintegration. And as a police officer, no less.
“Social reintegration…?”
“Yeees… The boss takes really good care of that kind of thing.”
According to Aile, Regalia’s philosophy was this: There was no need to stay tied to an organization like Evils. If anyone wanted to leave, they were free to return to society whenever they wished. Just keep their name on the roster. Use her as much as she could be used.
Rather than locking talented people in a narrow cage, it was better to release them into the world even if they left her grasp. She pursued the romantic ideal that one day those birds would remember the owner who raised them and come flying back.
It was the kind of naive, ten-year-old romanticism that only the boss could have.
Then what about me?
I briefly imagined what would happen if I told the boss I wanted to leave the organization. If what Aile said was true, she probably wouldn’t cancel my forged ID just because I said I was quitting. The boss would likely do everything in her power to support me.
In that case, the best place for me to go would be… a research position where I could make use of my scientific knowledge.
Right. Evils Enterprise.
Joking aside, Evils Enterprise was, both subjectively and objectively, an incredibly outstanding global conglomerate. Among the choices available to people who were neither heroes nor villains, it was easily one of the best.
So even if I leave, I’d still end up under the boss… and I’d even get a bunch of useless superiors on top of that.
If the boss specially recruited me, I could probably claim the position of lab director without much trouble. But even a lab director wasn’t some unrivaled, peerless existence with nothing above them. Within the company, board members and research department heads could interfere as much as they wanted.
Rather than creating a bunch of unnecessary superiors and getting dragged into political fights, it seemed far better to just stay as a scientist for Evils. At least for now, the only person I had to serve was the boss.
“Ahahaha—! What’s with that reaction! The boss really didn’t tell you, huh?”
“Yeah, well. I’m still a newbie, after all. By the way, what’s with that way of speaking?”
“Whyyy? Does it bother you? Should I stop?”
“No, it’s not that bad…”
“No waaay—!”
Watching Levitan burst into laughter, I let out a helpless chuckle along with her. Her tension level was unnecessarily high. To the point it was mentally exhausting. For a shut-in researcher like me, she was a very difficult type to deal with.
As expected, Aile seemed equally uncomfortable with Levitan. She had been fidgeting restlessly ever since we met up, clearly unsure what to do. I could now guess why she had gone out of her way to call me and drag me along for shopping.
If she went shopping alone with someone like this, her energy would get completely drained. The frail, socially anxious otaku Aile would turn into a dried-out squid in seconds.
“—So? Why a police officer of all things?”
“Hmm? Because I wanted to help people—!”
I was about to say that if she wanted to save people, a hero would be more suitable than a police officer, but I stopped myself as I remembered her actual occupation. That’s right. Before she was a police officer, she was a villain. And not just any villain—she was part of the biggest villain organization in the city.
For a villain like her to become a hero because she wanted to save people? That would be nothing short of a scripted performance.
Evils did announce their crimes in advance and only targeted places where people wouldn’t get hurt, but Regalia was surprisingly sensitive to public opinion.
“But can a villain even take a police job? I thought criminals weren’t allowed to become public servants.”
“The boss took care of it—!”
“Ah, right. Of course.”
After hearing her words, I finally realized where we were.
E City.
A city ruled by Evils Enterprise. A place where even the mayor, who held near-absolute power, and the president elected by the entire nation’s vote couldn’t easily interfere. A region governed by a mega-corporation so massive it was practically untouchable.
Slipping one of her subordinates into the police force wouldn’t be difficult at all. Especially if it was a capable and motivated new recruit.
“By the way, you’re Eight, right? Is that story true?”
“…What are you referring to?”
“That you fixed Galrm’s body—!”
It was the first I’d heard of it. I tilted my head and looked at her in confusion. Seeing my expression, Levitan quickly backpedaled as if she had misunderstood and stepped back. For some reason, Aile, who was standing beside her, scrunched up her face and stared at me.
At that moment, a support request came through the radio I had clipped to my shoulder. Upon hearing it, Levitan immediately stood up and waved her hand.
“Ah— I’ve gotta go now—! Eight, Aile. Nice meeting you—! See you next time!”
“What’s going on?”
“I’d love to say it’s a seeecret, but since it’s actually related to you, Eight, I’ll tell you.”
Levitan leaned in as if she were about to reveal some massive secret and whispered.
“—A robber who only targets the robots you made has appeared.”
“I see.”
“Yep—! You’re not very surprised, are you?”
“That’s just how humans are.”
“…Hmm— Humans, huh. Yep! Levitang likes you!”
I had no idea what exactly she liked about me, but— Levitan said that and quickly disappeared. Watching her dash away with a whoosh, I let out a belated sigh.
“Huuu… I’m completely drained.”
“Y-yeah, me too…”
“Ah— Aile. Sorry. I said we’d go to the collab cafe together…”
“I-it’s fine—! We can still go now…”
“Shall we?”
Left alone with Aile, I felt my drained energy slowly returning as we headed toward the magical girl collaboration cafe.
The cafe was running a lottery event, and I ended up winning first prize—a magical girl figure. Aile looked at me with envious eyes. Holding the magical girl figure in my hand, I thought to myself.
Lucky me.
The production of Nemo Busters had been discontinued, yet their value began skyrocketing. For some reason, an insane bubble had formed around their price.
Would you believe that a product that originally sold for 9.99 dollars was now impossible to obtain even for a thousand dollars? Naturally, when people saw the price rising like that, a certain thought would cross their minds.
Will it go up even more? Will the price keep climbing?
In this situation, the ones standing in the most advantageous position were the people who had already purchased Nemo Busters. Production had stopped. There was no chance of similar toys being released (at least ordinary people knew full well that nothing of this quality could be made at this price).
It was a situation where simply sitting back and breathing would bring them victory!
Those who wanted Nemo Busters chose a different method than purchasing. If they couldn’t have it, they would simply steal it.
“Mommy—! My toy!”
“Huh? I definitely left it here…”
“T-thief!”
They began raiding every possible location where Nemo Busters might be stored—family homes, the offices of famous influencers, coin mining farms, the warehouses of large toy stores, and so on.
The police, finally grasping the situation, belatedly issued a public notice asking people to voluntarily report their Nemo Buster ownership and request protection. But that was a mistake.
It was as if the thieves had insiders within the police force. They used that information in reverse and began cleaning out the reported locations. In the end, tens of thousands of Nemo Busters were gathered in one place.
“Hehehe— No matter how many times I look at it, this performance is simply absurd.”
The genius scientist, Dr. Kuroi, smiled as he gazed at the circuits of the tens of thousands of Nemo Busters laid out before him. Even with this many physical units, replicating the circuit or understanding its method was an extremely difficult task.
It was a situation that shattered the pride of a genius mad scientist. But if his mentality collapsed over something like this, the title of genius scientist would weep.
“However, once this genius gets involved, that no longer matters.”
Dr. Kuroi gathered the disassembled Nemo Buster circuits together. Using those collected circuits, he began constructing a new one.
People couldn’t understand the structure of the toy circuit Eight had created, but that didn’t mean they couldn’t use it. Just as YouTubers ran games with the circuits or used them for computer graphics processing, some people had sensed various possibilities in that tiny circuit.
Dr. Kuroi was one of them.
“—It’s complete.”
A super artificial intelligence created by connecting hundreds of circuits in parallel. Having completed it, Dr. Kuroi powered it on. The circuit, which could operate on a very small amount of electricity, began to move according to the settings he had prepared in advance.
The mechanical doll opened its eyes.
> Greetings, Master.
“O-ohhh—! Yes! It worked!”
Dr. Kuroi smiled as he looked at the android standing before him.
An artificial intelligence android. A product of super-science that no one had ever succeeded in creating before. He had become the first in the world to step into that realm.
An achievement worthy of having his name recorded in human history. Dr. Kuroi instinctively felt that his name would be passed down through the generations and gave the android an order.
“—Show me. Show me your terror.”
> Understood, Master.
A short while later.
The android, now dressed in a cute maid outfit, acted adorably in front of Dr. Kuroi.
> Welcome, Master! What would you like to order? A bath? A meal? Or… perhaps me?
“Hehehehe—! You! I choose you!”
> Kyaaa—! Master, you’re so bold!
On this day, the world’s first strong artificial intelligence was born.
It was summer.