Chapter 73: Do Androids Pray for Cybernetic Heaven? (3)

While I was flustered by the scene unfolding before my eyes, the police riot squad quickly completed subduing the area.

The ODPD arrested all the androids who had participated in the protest and then swiftly withdrew.

The campus main gate became quiet once more.

In the place where the commotion had disappeared, only broken slogan pickets and stains of spilled operational fluid on the ground remained.

If not for such traces, it would have seemed as if nothing had happened at all.

“…..”

“…….”

We, who had been observing the situation, cautiously crossed the area and returned to our parked vehicle.

Inside the vehicle, heading back to the suburbs.

ST, sitting opposite me, saw my expression and asked.

She must have sensed some unease.

“Lady Eve, is there perhaps something bothering you?”

“Ah, that… It’s nothing.”

“Is it because of the scene where the android protesters were just suppressed?”

I eventually admitted and nodded.

“…. Yes, that’s right. Honestly, they look just like real people.”

Yoanna added to our conversation.

“Well, androids are products meant to replace human labor.

Since all of society’s infrastructure and industrial equipment are already tailored to humans, it’s more efficient for them to have a similar form for versatility.”

“In that case… was there a need to put human emotions into them?”

“That was an unintended error even by the developers.”

“An error?”

“Yes, originally, such emotional expressions in androids were designed to be close to appropriate acting.

Androids are also widely used in service industries dealing with customers.

For customer satisfaction and convenience, they had to be made to resemble humans to some extent.

But them starting to claim they ‘have real emotions’ was an error that even the developers didn’t anticipate.”

I began to listen intently to her story.

The process of the android protesters I had just seen being suppressed was nothing short of brutal.

The screams, pleas, and faces mixed with desperation being trampled under overwhelming violence were so vivid….

“Is all of that just acting? They didn’t feel real pain or fear?”

“Well. The manufacturer, ‘Nexus Initiative,’ still claims so. Who knows.”

Yoanna’s explanation continued.

“The error code supposedly causes a malfunction in the AI algorithm, making the androids mistake the emotions they were imitating as their own.
However, they insist that its root is merely a programming bug.”

However, it was said that it was still unknown why such errors didn’t occur in the AI of self-driving cars or robot vacuum cleaners, and only happened in high-intelligence humanoid-type machines.

“After a specific firmware update, androids all over the world started showing such abnormal symptoms simultaneously.
The problem was, because androids were originally designed to behave similarly to human emotional expressions, the manufacturer realized the problem too late.
Not until an android finally killed a person.”

Because of that, Nexus Initiative’s stock price plummeted, and they almost went bankrupt, she added.

Nexus Initiative.

It was a leader in AI robot technology and, at the time, a conglomerate that monopolized the supply of new androids worldwide.

They developed androids capable of perfectly replacing human labor and, with that achievement, were on the verge of rising to the ranks of a new megacorp.

However, that frightening growth momentum plummeted overnight with the aforementioned android murder case.

If it had merely been distrust of that product line, they might have been able to maintain sales by taking measures like recalls or upgrades.

But the problem was, the discontent of the common people, who feared losing their jobs to machines, exploded simultaneously due to that incident.

Yoanna shrugged.

“The anti-android sentiment at that time was apparently immense.
Demands for production bans, boycotts, human-first protests, indiscriminate assaults, and terrorist attacks on android factories and workplaces employing them happened almost daily.”

It sounded like a really serious social problem.

But honestly, the anger of such common people alone doesn’t change the world.

The order of this society was already led by corporations, and the voices of ordinary citizens alone were insufficient to overturn the power of capital.

No matter how many people were pushed out by machines and became unemployed, or were killed by malfunctioning androids, corporations could maintain supply and demand without batting an eye.

That is, until another, larger order intervened in that game.

Yoanna’s explanation continued.

“While the social controversy over androids continued, ‘Ceres Global’ began to attack Nexus Initiative.
That was the decisive blow.
Ultimately, the production of high-intelligence androids, except for some special purposes, was legally halted.”

Ceres Global, the world’s largest food hydroculture plantation company.

The reason why a megacorp occupying one of the top 10 corporate seats attacked the then rapidly developing android manufacturer was clear.

Because machines consume nothing.

It wasn’t just food.

Androids are, in fact, a labor force of overwhelming efficiency that requires almost no consumption.

However, that fact was accompanied by a fatal problem.

Humans are both workers and consumers.

The economy only functions when they continuously spend the money they earn from work on eating, drinking, dressing, and finding shelter.

But for androids, electricity to charge their batteries was enough.

If such machines were to completely replace the world’s labor force…

In the short term, it might seem like all companies would benefit from reduced labor costs, but in the long term, it meant the annihilation of the market itself.

Because the human customers who would buy the products and services created by corporations would also disappear.

Yoanna continued her explanation.

“Therefore, with the tacit approval of other megacorps and under the leadership of Ceres Global, a regulatory bill restricting the development, mass production, and maintenance of high-intelligence androids, the ‘Android Ownership Act,’ was proposed.”

Afterward, all android production was halted.

And the existing androids, which had already been deployed to numerous workplaces, were fired and driven out amidst enormous public animosity.

The only reason they, abandoned by their owners, weren’t immediately disposed of was that in Omega Detroit, a hefty environmental levy is paid when disposing of ‘electronic products’ exceeding a certain volume.

Therefore, androids abandoned like secretly discarded animals began to wander the streets aimlessly.

Unable to find employment anywhere, and even if someone did use them, they received treatment worse than slaves.

Thieves who steal jobs, robber-murderers who might kill their neighbors at any moment.

They were beings who lived day by day, going from one daily job to another just to charge their batteries, somehow enduring such contempt.

However, some androids in whom the ‘error’ had already manifested recognized the injustice and sometimes gathered to protest.

Shouting that they were not objects, that they had the right to pursue freedom, survival, and happiness.

“And occasionally, the ODPD, dispatched after receiving reports, ruthlessly suppresses and disposes of such defective products.”

“…….”

So there was such a backstory.

It was a fact I hadn’t known at all.

Even in the main game, android protests were sporadic events, but they weren’t particularly important quests… and whether you helped them or not didn’t change any branching points, so I used to just pass them by.

Hearing it now, most androids were virtually homeless, and since they were frequently oppressed by the ODPD, they were probably weaker than street gangs.

It made sense that they had no significant presence in the game.

That’s why I hadn’t thought about it or cared about it until now.

Even now, the existence of androids didn’t seem that important.

‘But… why does my heart feel so uneasy?’

Was it because I saw them being so miserably treated right before my eyes?

The sight of the ‘malfunctioning’ androids struggling and fearing so desperately, like humans… even knowing they were beings created as tools, not real people, was bewildering.

Even now, I honestly don’t know.

Whether an android that has come to fear death is truly a machine or something more.

My head feeling muddled, I lightly shook it to clear my thoughts.

Perhaps such worries were entirely unnecessary.

Androids were mostly an internal problem of the city.

In the first place, while androids were cheap to maintain, their purchase price itself was quite high.

It was a price that suburban residents couldn’t even dream of.

Therefore, it was hard to find even one near the Church.

So, since there was no possibility of me helping or getting involved, why bother worrying?

“……..”

It was the conclusion I reached after a brief period of reflection.

Indeed, unnecessarily complicated and headache-inducing thoughts were meaningless.

It would be better to diligently attend management classes and focus on church affairs; that would be the way to help the people I could truly assist.

Having thus dusted off the worries in my mind, I got out of the vehicle that had just arrived and walked towards the cathedral with my companions.

“Eve unni, thank you for taking me today. It was so much fun.”

“Thank you for coming with me.”

It was right at that moment, as we were entering the building while chatting about various things.

The door, which swung open from the inside before I even pulled it.

From within, a priest with an urgent face came out and led me.

“Saintess! We have a big problem! It’s an emergency patient!”

“What?!”

Startled, I hurriedly followed the priest inside.

“Wh-What’s wrong?”

“A few minutes ago, a child was found collapsed in a nearby back alley, and they’re not breathing!”

My heart pounded at the sudden incident.

In a corner of the chapel I had rushed to, a child lay.

A youthful face, making it hard to tell if it was a boy or a girl.

It was a pretty child, appearing to be around ten years old.

There, other priests were sweating profusely, urgently performing CPR on the child.

I pushed past them and immediately approached the child, extending my fingertips.

“Please step aside for a moment!”

Paaat-

The halo of light that had filled the chapel faded, and everyone held their breath, watching for the result.

“…….”

Presently, one of the priests who had been performing CPR cautiously brought his fingers to the child’s nose.

Then, startled, he turned to me with a pale face and said.

“Still… no breath.”

“What?!”

I was bewildered.

‘Radiance of Healing’ was a power that had effortlessly revived even the most severely injured until now.

It was an undeniable miracle that healed any wound as long as one was alive.

Yet, since it was useless, such a thought naturally followed.

‘Then… was I perhaps too late?’

But for a body that had stopped breathing for a long time, the child’s complexion didn’t look that bad.

That’s why the priests, and I too, had thought there was still hope…

A creeping sense of guilt gripped my chest painfully.

“…….”

“…….”

It was then, as a heavy silence pressed down on everyone.

ST brought up something unexpected.

“Lady Eve, this child… is an android.”

“What? What do you mean…?”

“It seems it can’t wake up because its battery has discharged.”

At her words, everyone present couldn’t hide their bewilderment.

It was because they felt an indescribable, strange sense of incongruity.

Even setting aside the fact that an android, which should only exist in the city, had crossed the strict security and come all the way to this suburb… something was strange.

I muttered in a bewildered voice.

“A child this young… is an android?”

The source of the incongruity was precisely that.

The vast majority of androids are manufactured in adult form.

Because they are made to replace human labor.

All the androids I had consistently seen in the original game, and those I had actually encountered on the streets, were like that.

Therefore, I hadn’t even considered it.

A child-type android.

I had never seen or heard of one.

“…..”

“…….”

With dazed eyes, we looked down for a moment at the small child lying in the chapel.