episode_0318

***

The land of different shapes is divided into square sections, and the uneven road surfaces are made even with asphalt.

After painting nature in gray, green things are placed at regular intervals.

Street trees and flowers in flower beds placed at regular intervals add freshness to the gray canvas.

Weeds and flowers that happen to show up in unwanted places are plucked by cold metal arms and their lives end.

That is how the city, Aaru, is managed.

The only thing that filled the streets of this quiet city was the wind and things with metal arms and wheels.

The sound of birds often fills the empty city, and these are birds that have built their nests in the city.

They wander around the nooks and crannies of the city to get food.

However, despite their efforts, they have never successfully hunted on their own.

All it did was pick up things that someone had scattered around with its beak and fly to its nest.

– Tweet

The male catches food and flies to the nest where his mate is. The female incubates the eggs until they hatch, and the male feeds the female.

It was a division of roles created by nature.

In the morning, the surface of the egg began to crack, so hatching was imminent.

The male soared into the sky, holding a piece of finely chopped meat.

Underneath the outdoor unit of a building where no one was walking, there was a nest.

– Tweet

The male moved his shiny wings making a sound and landed on the nest.

The female, who was quietly covering the nest, identified the male.

As if kissing, the male handed the piece of meat he was carrying to the female.

The female swallowed the meat in one gulp, and the male swallowed some of the remaining scraps.

– Beep beep beep

Inside the female’s arms, the sounds of newly hatched chicks could be heard.

All the chicks hatched while the male was roaming around the city.

– Tweet

I don’t know if he was feeling paternal love, but the male was squinting and looking at the babies that were peeking out from under the female’s belly.

And then something rose from beneath their nest.

– Buuuung.

A cuboid, one eye, and pincers on either side. It was a square object that made a strange sound.

Its eyes moved back and forth, observing their nest.

– Tweet

The cubs’ parents spread their wings and threatened it.

But even with its large wings and sharp claws, it did not move.

[Scanning]

A dry voice flowed from it. But the birds didn’t understand it.

[Run object management process]

As soon as the notification was over, the claws stretched out like octopus feet.

– Tweet

The birds resisted, but were unable to withstand the cold metal arms.

Due to the vicious attack, both the male and female had no choice but to leave the nest.

– Beep beep beep

The number of chicks remaining in the nest was five. It paused for a moment, examining the cubs with one eye.

[Object Management]

The claw arm snatched two cubs. And without looking back, it started to leave the nest.

– Beep beep beep

Despite the faint cries of the cubs caught in the claw arms, there was nothing their parents could do.

The female, who had strayed far away, returned to the nest and gave birth to her chicks.

The number of remaining cubs is three.

That is how the city, Aaru, is managed.

***

The city management drone that captured the two chicks from the nest was flying to the specified coordinates.

The single eye attached to the drone scanned the city.

The clean and magnificent scenery was converted to information made up of 0s and 1s and entered into their memory.

The place where the drone arrived was a garbage dump on the outskirts of the city.

It used to be a busy place when their creators were prospering, but now it has long since become a place where they stop by occasionally to dispose of such ‘trivial’ trash.

After dropping what it brought into the trash can, the drone flew to its next destination without even looking back.

The birds that fell into the huge trash can no longer cried, as if their lives had already ended.

The city’s excrement was piled up, forming a tower in the trash can.

[Confirm the specified value and start grinding.]

As if the condition had been met as the bird fell, the crusher began to move, revealing its teeth.

The trash can gradually tilted and began to pour out the contents inside it into the shredder.

– Kakakakakakakaka

The sound of grinding, breaking, bursting, and crushing was heard, and traces of the city began to fall under the grinder’s blades.

The traces of the disintegrated city flowed into the sewers and began to flow out of the city in the endlessly flowing wastewater.

Various wastewater from the city meets, bends, and splits through sewer pipes and flows out of the city.

The thick and sticky wastewater is the river water, and the rusty sewage pipes are the river stream.

And since ancient times, humans have gathered and lived near rivers.

Of course, there are no humans living on Aaru, but other things do.

No. 32 Sewage Treatment Pipe.

Something carrying a huge baggage was passing by the sewage treatment pipe.

This was the path the Creators walked before they took over the Creator’s work.

“The grinder will be replaced soon.”

Looking at the residue that had not yet been pulverized, it foreshadowed the end of the machine, which had reached its expiration date.

It continued walking along the road. It was wastewater with a terrible smell, but I didn’t frown or anything.

It wasn’t that I couldn’t smell it, but it was because I couldn’t recognize it as unpleasant.

“There are no useful items.”

It looks around at the things that have fallen around it and says:

Tongue, tongue

A dull sound is heard from afar.

“An unusual sound has been detected.”

The dull sound is getting closer and closer.

Tongue, tongue

The sound of something hitting a sewer pipe from the inside.

The entity on its back looked at the sewer pipe.

Empty! Empty!

And, you can hear that sound right next to you.

Empty! Empty! Empty!

It sounds louder and more urgent.

“Is there anyone?!”

And the moment a voice was heard from inside, the person carrying the luggage stretched out his hand without hesitation.

“Object recognition that sends rescue signals. Rescue operations begin.”

bang!

Wastewater began to flow through a hole in the side of a rusty pipe.

But the hole was too small to take out anything inside.

bang!

The fists are thrown out again, one after another.

bang! bang! bang!

I stretched my fist into the sewer pipe like that dozens of times. As soon as a large hole was formed, something inside came out along with the wastewater.

“Wow! Cough! Cough!”

A rescue seeker coughing and vomiting wastewater.

“Are you okay?”

“Wow… this place? Where….”

“The person requesting rescue. An unidentified human has been identified.”

The person who came out of the 32nd sewage treatment pipe was a young-looking boy.