Ch.182Work Record 027 – Eve #113764’s Escape (1)

Operation Prometheus and its war will fade into history. The flames of that war will not ignite again unless I desire it and the world does not help.

Could I ever want to use that Phaethon Station? Perhaps. I won’t deny it. Thinking rationally, not using it would be the correct answer.

However, I was an emotional person with deep hatred who merely wished to be rational. I wanted to rain down strategic weapons from the war era upon Hallowed Creek like divine judgment.

That wouldn’t be satisfying enough. Playing god would just be putting a different leash on the same dog. I’ll turn the cult leader not into a convicted sinner sentenced to death, but into an old beast skewered on a harpoon.

The meat of a whale called god will surely taste sweet. After steeling my heart with these familiar words, I went to sleep that night. It was a night without worry about fire raining from the sky.

The next morning was gray, unlike in the movies I’d watched with Mila. It was a day with quite thick smog. I wasn’t disappointed.

I turned on my computational assist device and connected to Ms. Eve with a slight nod. Her voice over the communication was welcome.

“Good morning, Arthur. How was Mila’s place?”

“It was like a crumbling war-era bunker, so I just grabbed what I needed and got out. I managed to salvage some pre-war movies, and she suggested we all watch them together sometime.”

I heard her giggling over the channel. When I went to the living room, Arthur-2 was opening a container of food substitute in the adjoining kitchen. He nodded in greeting.

“That… wouldn’t be bad. It could be fun to gather and watch together. And speaking like it wasn’t that great… you pass, as expected. Oh, right. I asked everyone to gather by 11:30 today.”

This time, Hallowed Creek would surely have prepared forces. Then we too must prepare. The Night Watch would be excellent preparation. Though invisible, I nodded.

“I’ll be there, and actually, the Night Watch people would help if they could… you know?”

“Yes. I know well. Hallowed Creek being a Belwether partner. That’s the problem. It’s not difficult to deal with trouble inside the city, but outside… getting attacked first is the only option.”

Even if Hallowed Creek is bad, we need justification to attack. Since Belwether and Hallowed Creek had a relationship closer to that of superior and subordinate, we didn’t need that strong of a justification.

Especially since Hallowed Creek’s purpose was to take Ms. Eve, who had now become a Belwether employee-citizen, they couldn’t strongly protest to Belwether.

“Will President Yoon allow it?”

“I don’t know. Considering the emergency exit for fire evacuation, I think she might approve, but I can’t be sure. If not, we’d have to bring mercenaries… what should we do?”

“Then… I’ll call Kanun Sa for now. There must be some way. Most of their forces are clones who can’t think or resocialized copies, right?”

“Mmm, that’s right. Sigh… No, no. This won’t do. This is my problem. I won’t just watch you shoulder everything and handle all the work again, Arthur. I’ll look into it too.”

It was a pleasant moment to see that Ms. Eve’s helplessness, trapped by guilt, was nowhere to be found. When I ended the call, Arthur-2 looked at me with an incredulous expression as he prepared breakfast.

Toasts made from soy flour bread from the cupboard, a couple of krill sausages with pork flavor, and a container of chlorella each for morning nutrient supplementation. Arthur-2 seemed unable to detect the chronic fishy smell.

After quickly finishing breakfast, Arthur-2 and I headed to the Night Watch office, dressed almost identically except for the size of the guns at our waists. Employees began to gather.

Ms. Eve arrived first and was setting up the hologram projector, and K followed, poking me in the side. After just smiling, he headed toward Ms. Eve.

Is everything ready? It seemed like it would be a busy week with non-work activities. Soon President Yoon and the new recruits arrived, and K began speaking first.

Drone reconnaissance photos appeared on the hologram screen. The resolution wasn’t very high, perhaps because they hadn’t used a large drone, but it was more than sufficient to identify what was visible.

Hallowed Creek forces were gathered near the cult leader’s house, Ms. Eve’s destination. At a glance, there were nearly twenty copies and three or four heresy inquisitors. For a mega-corporation, their available forces were few.

Most of Hallowed Creek’s forces would be pointing their guns inward at the city. As long as Belwether kept buying Hallowed Creek’s products, the only concern would be escapees. I felt disgust.

“I did some reconnaissance as Eve requested, and there are quite a few Creek fanatics. Are they deploying that many forces just to stop Eve from coming? Won’t they let her in?”

“Ms. Eve is basically a Belwether employee-citizen, so glaring at her won’t do much good. If Belwether finds out, they’ll foam at the mouth, and it’s obvious they’ll cut off trade instead of retaliating directly.”

If they cut off trade, Hallowed Creek would collapse. As I quietly examined the force composition, Volla, who had been reading about Hallowed Creek’s armament levels compiled by Ms. Eve, spoke up.

“With that level of armament, handling them shouldn’t be difficult. Those copy bastards can just be mowed down with machine guns, and the heresy inquisitor enhancement suits aren’t that good, right? Flesh bags…”

Volla was a person who moved forward in the name of modification, while Hallowed Creek was something that remained in place in the name of faith and tradition. There was no way they would appeal to Volla.

Everyone’s gaze turned to President Yoon. President Yoon surveyed our gazes as if wondering why we were all looking at her. She continued speaking as if it were obvious.

“You seem to misunderstand something, but Night Watch will help Ms. Eve. Night Watch will help any of its members who have problems. Because nothing should interfere with achieving maximum efficiency.”

As she casually approved attacking a Belwether partner as if it were nothing, I was trying to choose what to say when President Yoon naturally brought up the next plan.

“First, Volla, who would be the most conspicuous, will dress properly in combat gear like a normal modified human to hide the fact that she’s a full-body cyborg. And we’ll use temporary vehicles. We can’t burden Belwether.”

After pulling up the map, Arthur-2 naturally checked potential sniper points. President Yoon selected sniper positions that would be good for keeping additional support forces in check.

It felt strange how everything was being handled without any obstacles. President Yoon’s gaze came toward me. The direction for the van’s entry was already drawn with an arrow on the map.

“Ah, um. I’ll enter from the opposite direction of the sniper position. If I can approach stealthily, I’ll ignore the copies and take care of the heresy inquisitors or the office workers in the rear of the position.”

Due to the sniping, I would have no choice but to take cover in the direction of the cult leader’s villa… which meant I would have to fight the Belwether-made bio-weapon that I couldn’t handle even with my bare hands.

“Good. Jay, prepare gas grenades. We’ll neutralize with gas grenades and then kill, and we’ll standardize our attire tomorrow to leave no evidence that Night Watch was involved. Any objections?”

No matter how obedient the copies are, tear gas will disrupt their aim, and vomit gas will neutralize them. It’s only natural for living beings.

Ms. Eve quietly raised her hand. After lightly clearing her throat, she spoke. This was now Ms. Eve’s desire. Still, this time it was about helping her.

“After subduing Hallowed Creek’s forces, I need to enter that villa and meet someone to bring back. I’ll need to check their condition… but could we retrieve even a consciousness stored in a hologram projector?”

President Yoon quietly nodded and passed the answer to the person in charge of that task. It meant she would allow it if there was a way.

“K, please answer instead. K is our IT person.”

“Ah, um. If it’s a hologram running on a brain scan, retrieving it shouldn’t be difficult! Boogeyman will probably be with Eve, so I can connect through Boogeyman and download it. I’ll handle it!”

“The plan is good, but we won’t have much time to bring back that hologram cult leader. If we assume they report immediately after being attacked, and calculate escape time… I’ll give you about ten minutes.”

That’s more than enough time. When we previously went with Ms. Eve to find the cult leader, we came out in less time. A pleasant smile appeared on Ms. Eve’s face. It was always a good face to see.

“That should be enough. Usually when I went with Arthur, we’d barely talk for about five minutes before leaving. And… sigh, I guess I’ll have to dedicate my life to the company. Please keep needing a medic.”

“Fortunately, we have no plans to hire more full-body cyborgs besides Volla. Would you like to name the operation yourself? For Ms. Eve… think of it as an employee benefit.”

Ms. Eve thought for a moment, glanced in my direction, and then spoke. The exchanged glance that turned into a slight eye-smile in less than half a second was pleasant to see.

“Operation Wrist Cutting wouldn’t be bad. It’s something Arthur always says. When I say memories from Hallowed Creek keep holding me back… he says he’d cut off the wrists that grab my ankles.”

“Very well. Although this is work without either a down payment or completion fee, it’s far more economical than losing a skilled medic. We’ll gather tomorrow at 9:30 AM. Any objections?”

The office quickly fell silent, making my momentary thought that the new recruits might object seem foolish. They might have thought this was an extension of the fact that Belwether could be humane as long as efficiency was maintained.

“Good. Today is a holiday, so get plenty of rest. See you tomorrow. You are dismissed.”

Everyone responded to that, and after Volla lightly patted Ms. Eve’s shoulder as if to tell her to look forward to tomorrow before leaving, only I, Ms. Eve, and President Yoon remained in the office.

By the time I confirmed Arthur-2 walking home with the spare key, Ms. Eve sat down in the reception room again and looked at President Yoon with a question. It was quite an honest curiosity.

“Ah, I’m very grateful for your willingness to help. But actually… you were so willing that I became curious about the reason. May I ask?”

President Yoon’s smile usually seemed to hide coldness with artificial warmth, but only after hearing those words did she let out a comfortable laugh. She answered while leaning back in her chair.

“Belwether believes that enhancing employee welfare can increase employee efficiency. I believe the same. I wasn’t like the branch manager who staged a coup. Everyone has different beliefs about efficiency.”

There were many factions regarding efficiency enhancement. There was a minority faction like Walter who claimed that thoroughly inhuman management was efficient, and another minority faction who said Belwether’s marginal utility curve for welfare was wrong.

“Belwether thought it was enough to satisfy safety and basic needs, but I believe that considering humanity beyond that increases efficiency more than what is spent. Though I was clumsy with Tina.”

I had heard from Tina herself how she joined Night Watch. Flipping her car with a sniper shot and saying ‘I’ll take care of your sister if you join Night Watch’ must have sounded almost like a threat.

I should have considered that the fact that a professional racer whose car was flipped didn’t die showed that President Yoon had been quite considerate. Her voice continued.

“I’m not as clumsy now. And Belwether’s self-proclaimed partner is cutting into my employee’s efficiency. Such variables must be eliminated. And Creek won’t be able to respond.”

President Yoon’s words echoed my prediction. For Hallowed Creek, remaining as Belwether’s partner was far more important than losing dozens of copies, four heresy inquisitors, and their cult leader.

They can make as many copies as they want, and they can recruit more heresy inquisitors… but opportunities to follow in the wake of a whale as big as Belwether don’t come easily. It seemed like a decision made with calculation.

“Then we should also worry about retaliation from Hallowed Creek itself… but a chairman over a hundred years old who doesn’t even use rejuvenation technology developed by competitors wouldn’t let his guard down.”

Hallowed Creek must have something like a chairman’s security team, but they would be focused on protecting an old man who had lost all his hair, was practically blind, and had lost all his teeth.

The rejuvenation technology that Mr. Günter would have used was created by Panacea Meditech. Hallowed Creek’s biggest competitor. If humans can’t become younger, they only grow old and weak. Enhancement suits are not the body.

“Additionally, Hallowed Creek has no precedent of proper retaliation. After sufficient consideration, helping Ms. Eve was the more efficient decision for me. It was the path for Night Watch to become more efficient.”

I couldn’t tell whether she was truly a compassionate efficiency advocate or if she was so Belwether-like that she couldn’t survive without connecting efficiency even to the word compassion. President Yoon continued.

“Efficiency is not a means. High efficiency is inherently good and right, and should be an end in itself. Belwether’s company rules are solely for increasing efficiency. Not for catching mutants.”

President Yoon also had a somewhat religious expression only when praising efficiency. That statement must be her reason for protecting Nadia.

Nadia proved her efficiency by neutralizing Lawfirm employees who invaded Night Watch’s office on Walter’s orders, resulting in zero employee losses. Nothing else matters.

President Yoon, who had been speaking as if receiving a calling, softened her expression a bit. She let out a slight chuckle.

“Of course, I got on the wrong line. The branch manager was that stupid kid. So… I retired and opened Night Watch. It doesn’t matter. I will make Night Watch achieve maximum efficiency. By any means necessary.”

When someone from Belwether says “by any means necessary,” it often includes good deeds. It’s rather funny that someone determined to do bad things if necessary can’t do good things.

It seemed there was no need to be wary of President Yoon anymore. I believed it was more right to exclude personal feelings when it came to efficiency, but letting personal feelings in didn’t seem to yield bad results either.

So… there was one appropriate thing to say next. Something I could say very lightly and comfortably.

“He certainly was a stupidly stupid kid. When I bought him three-flavor ice cream, he desperately tried to dig out two of the three flavors.”

Nevertheless, Walter had sufficient ability. It was Walter who submitted the early design of the Posthuman Type IV that I wore to Belwether headquarters. In this high-speed era, everything was too intertwined.