Ch.112New Position! (2)

#112

While Dexter and Judy were having a good time at the movie theater.

-Ding dong.

Jesse, who had been reading the maintenance book Dexter had given her, jumped up at the sound of the doorbell and rushed to the front door.

‘Is this the person Dexter mentioned?’

When Jesse opened the door, there stood a middle-aged man wearing a cowboy hat.

The middle-aged man, who had been stroking his mustache with an annoyed expression, quickly changed his demeanor after looking Jesse up and down, breaking into a wide grin.

“Well, well, when I made the contract, it was a man who came, so I didn’t expect this.”

“…Contract?”

Confused, Jesse took the orange-bordered document the man was holding out, and immediately realized what Dexter had been talking about.

‘Vehicle ownership certificate!’

The vehicle ownership certificate was a document filled out when buying a used car. Dexter had already taken care of all the other paperwork, and Jesse only needed to sign the ownership certificate.

Jesse’s first car had been completely wrecked in an accident in Ohio, leaving her without a vehicle.

Never imagining that Dexter would buy her a car, Jesse tried to contain her excitement as she carefully examined the ownership certificate.

The certificate naturally listed the car manufacturer and model, so Jesse, not yet knowing what kind of car it was, had to look at the document closely.

‘The maker is Chevrolet… the model is… Corvette… C2? Did it say C2?’

“Um, excuse me.”

“…?”

“C2 means it’s a Stingray, right? Not a C3 or C4?”

Seeing Jesse’s hands trembling as she held the document, the middle-aged man chuckled and said:

“Hahaha! He said it was a surprise gift, and now I see what he meant. It really turned out to be a surprise! Yes, it’s a Stingray.”

‘Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god…!’

As Jesse shakily signed the certificate and other documents, the middle-aged man pulled a car key from his pocket and handed it to her.

“That gentleman took care of everything else, so you’ll just need to get insurance separately later.”

“Y-yes…”

Seeing Jesse still in shock, the middle-aged man let out a small laugh and pointed toward the vacant lot where Dexter usually parked his car.

“The car is over there. Anyway, congratulations.”

“Ah, th-thank you for your trouble. Thank you.”

After the middle-aged man left in his trailer, Jesse began stomping her feet excitedly.

“What am I going to do, seriously!”

Unable to contain herself any longer, Jesse ran to the vacant lot where her car would be.

When she arrived, she saw a sleek Corvette gleaming white as it reflected Nevada’s bright sunlight.

“It’s a brand new car!”

Jesse covered her mouth with both hands, amazed at the flawless condition of the Corvette, which looked impossible to be almost 50 years old.

‘Dexter, you absolute madman!’

Overjoyed, Jesse immediately sent Dexter a text message.

-Dexter you absolute madman how did you even think of this?? Just wait until you get home okay????

>Did you see the car?

-Of course I did that’s why I’m saying this!!!! Just wait I’m going to pay you back for this big time!!!!

Reading the message, Dexter chuckled.

‘She’s absolutely jumping with joy.’

For several weeks, Dexter had been researching vintage cars that Jesse might like with Emily’s help, and then extracted money from Elijah.

Elijah’s response when Dexter asked for money to buy his girlfriend a car was a masterpiece.

‘Spending money on a woman, I don’t understand.’

Ignoring Elijah’s universally offensive statement, Dexter had purchased the Corvette Stingray.

“Are you looking at something funny?”

“Huh? Oh, I guess so. The response to my message is pretty amusing.”

The two had just left the theater and were casually discussing the movie.

While Dexter was focused on his phone and chuckling at the message, Judy showed interest in what he was reading.

“…You must have a lot of friends, Mr. Dexter.”

“Friends? Nah, I don’t have many friends either. I haven’t been in Las Vegas that long.”

While Dexter had friendly coworkers, the only person he could really call a friend was Elijah.

Himena, Jesse, and Emily were girlfriends, not friends in the true sense of the word.

“The prison colleagues are nice and friendly, but I feel like they keep a bit of distance from me.”

“That tends to happen, I suppose.”

From what he’d heard from Jesse, Judy found male guards intimidating, while female guards kept their distance from her.

Having unintentionally become the “flower on the cliff,” Judy was feeling somewhat lonely.

“…I’ll introduce you to some friends when I get the chance. I know some fun people. I think you’d get along well with them.”

At Dexter’s casual words, thinking of Himena and Jesse, Judy smiled brightly and gave him a hug.

“Thank you for the thought.”

“Oh, it’s nothing.”

Dexter smiled awkwardly, not expecting a hug for such a simple comment.

“Is there anywhere you’d like to go?”

At Dexter’s question, meant to change the slightly awkward atmosphere, Judy thought about various places in Las Vegas before remembering the vast desert from the movie they had just watched.

“After seeing that movie with people racing through the wasteland, I’d like to see something like that. How about a drive?”

“A drive?”

Thinking that just driving around would be boring, Dexter considered visiting a place a bit farther away and thought of a nearby lake.

“Should we go see Lake Mead?”

“Lake Mead?”

“We could see it near Hoover Dam, then spend some time in Boulder City before coming back. That might be nice.”

Boulder City, located between Hoover Dam and Henderson, was a small city with even a small airport—small but complete with everything one might need.

“Oh, that sounds great!”

Seeing Judy’s bright smile, Dexter immediately headed toward his pickup truck and said:

“Then let’s go to Hoover Dam.”

* * *

“Hah, Dexter must be having fun with Judy right now.”

Himena sighed as she sat in front of her computer, staring intently at the monitor.

In the midst of her grueling battle with paperwork, Himena was witnessing the miracle of the loaves and fishes at OSA—finish one task, and another would appear in its place.

As she processed her work with a deadpan expression, a notification popped up on Himena’s screen indicating she had received an intranet email.

[‘Polytechnic’ related data secured. Check with Agent Bennett from the Science and Technology Department.]

‘Finally!’

Exhausted from her work, Himena ignored the immediate problem in front of her and headed straight to the Science and Technology Department.

“What? Weren’t you working? I didn’t expect you to come so early.”

“Hehe, I heard you secured the data, so I was curious.”

Agent Bennett, one of the senior agents in the Science and Technology Department, clearly saw through Himena’s intentions.

‘She’s probably using this as an excuse to escape her never-ending work.’

Having done the same thing many times himself, Bennett didn’t say anything, but gave Himena a knowing smile.

“…?”

Not understanding his meaning, Himena simply smiled back.

“Anyway, you came to hear about Polytechnic, right?”

“Yes. That gaming console is suspicious, isn’t it? The fact that it made an OSA agent behave strangely, and that two agents nearly died because of it.”

“Our agents and researchers were curious about it too.”

Agent Bennett displayed a photo of the Polytechnic device on a large TV.

“At first, we thought it was just an ordinary VR gaming console, but when we took it apart, it was quite different.”

“Different when you took it apart?”

When Agent Bennett moved to the next screen, the Polytechnic was shown completely disassembled down to the last screw.

“Hardware-wise, the device Agent Thompson had and the newly released devices are exactly the same. But that’s not the issue.”

Agent Bennett pointed to one of the disassembled parts of the Polytechnic.

“Looks ordinary, right?”

“Just regular chips and circuit boards?”

At a glance, they looked like components commonly found in console gaming systems.

“These are dummies.”

“Dummies?”

“The parts that actually run the games are only in this section.”

The grouped components looked somewhat out of place.

“These don’t look like Earth-made parts.”

“That’s right. They’re not made on Earth, but from the planet Chincento, known for producing low-cost computer components.”

“Wait, so the manufacturer is…”

Himena frowned, hearing for the first time that the Polytechnic contained extraterrestrial components.

Agent Bennett nodded and said:

“Exactly. They’ve violated the neutrality treaty. That alone is a serious crime. But there are still mountains of problems.”

Agent Bennett moved to the next screen.

The TV displayed a social media account under Agent Thompson’s undercover identity.

“There are no face photos, just pictures of games he played.”

“We call them screenshots. If you look at the photos from the last few weeks, most are from games developed by the company that made the Polytechnic. There’s a game where you pilot a spaceship to shoot down enemy ships, and a farming game too. But here’s the problem.”

What Agent Bennett showed next was a screen showing a private message sent to Agent Thompson from the official social media account of ‘Orbis,’ the company that made the Polytechnic.

[Hello, customer. This is <Orbis>. We apologize for the sudden contact. Thank you for enjoying our gaming console, Polytechnic…]

“What does ‘early access’ mean there?”

“It’s like permission to enjoy something before the official version is released.”

The message from Orbis essentially stated that they had a new game in development, and they wanted selected users of their gaming console to provide feedback while enjoying the game.

“So they’re basically using gamers as testers?”

“Right. Looking at just this message, it might seem obvious, but Orbis only selected ten people.”

“What? Only ten people?”

“Confusing, isn’t it?”

When Agent Bennett moved to the next screen, a video of an ordinary city began playing.

It looked like footage of everyday life in a small American town, similar to areas you might find in Henderson near Las Vegas.

Himena was puzzled by Agent Bennett showing her this seemingly ordinary city footage.

“What is this?”

“This is the scenery inside the game. The game is called <Poly-Create>.”

“That company really likes the word ‘poly.'”

Himena examined the footage carefully but couldn’t find anything unusual.

It was clearly beyond the capabilities of current CGI technology, and far too detailed to be rendered by a single gaming console.

“So people can run around in this place?”

“‘Create anything’ is their slogan. This city that Agent Libero is looking at was created by Agent Thompson over several weeks of late nights.”

“Agent Thompson created this?”

It seemed impossible that an individual could create something in just a few weeks that would normally require dozens of people working for years.

Himena’s head was spinning with confusion.

“Okay… I can see why this gaming console is worth over $2,000.”

“Agent Thompson created this city, but the Science and Technology Department agent who tested the console said you could really create anything. He claimed you could recreate real people like movie actors with 99% accuracy based on your memories, or create fantasy settings where you could make and fight dragons.”

While Himena wasn’t a fan of such games, it sounded undeniably appealing.

“So it’s about building your own world? I’d find that tedious, but… some people would absolutely love it.”

“And there’s ‘another’ problem.”

“…What is this, a problem set? The problems are piling up.”

Laughing lightly at Himena’s joke, Agent Bennett displayed a helmet-type VR device on the TV screen.

Inside the VR device on the screen was a small ampule about the size of a fingertip.

“When we took apart the helmet-type VR device, we found something like an unidentifiable drug inside.”

“What is that?”

“We don’t know yet. But when wearing this while playing <Poly-Create>, the system is designed to spray a small amount of the substance at regular intervals, which is then inhaled through the nose.”

“Don’t tell me…”

“Agent Libero’s thinking is probably correct.”

Agent Bennett showed a bitter smile and said:

“This substance is suspected to be the drug that caused Agent Thompson’s strange behavior.”