Ch.196Work Record #030 – Superior Human Party (1)

To hide a tree, one must hide it in a forest. To hide a person, the simplest way is to conceal them in another person’s shadow. Manager Dewey Novak used that method.

For Kay, who chose atonement with the determination to reclaim her life, he chose to erase her name. All of this became my doing.

While searching for the whereabouts of the Transparent Eye, I approached Coco’s father to further explore clues I had discovered in Coco’s store play. I noticed strange things about the facility where Coco’s father was in seclusion.

Following those oddities, it was decided that I would be credited with capturing the Transparent Eye through Coco’s father. Though I had no particular desire for fame or to become someone extraordinary, I agreed nonetheless.

As I had told Coco’s father, gaining Belwether’s trust was also one of my objectives. Now, to Belwether, I was the certified freelancer who found the Transparent Eye.

Thanks to that, today I need to wear a formal suit. Dressed in the bulletproof suit I had tailored for the Christmas party, I head toward Belwether’s LA branch building after sleeping an extra four hours until morning.

I probably won’t receive a commendation. Such extensive publicity would cause unrest in the city due to resistance from non-humans who would learn that the Transparent Eye had been recaptured by Belwether.

Still, arriving by taxi instead of my bike, I received quite a grand welcome inside Belwether’s building. The Shepherd, who had finally relinquished his position as acting branch manager, was waiting for me.

Though we had never officially met, we greeted each other like old friends. We hadn’t suppressed the Belwether coup together, but I attempted the headquarters’ three-finger salute as if we had, though he stopped me.

And after stopping me, he saluted first. I returned the salute, completing the simple formality… Then I exchanged brief greetings with the Shepherd, who unusually wore a formal suit instead of his closed reinforced armor.

“Would I go around introducing myself as someone who enjoys performing miracles? To think you’d even find the Transparent Eye. And you did it alone, even though there were at least three other freelancers. Do you have some secret?”

“My secret is paying attention when a black market owner mentions that his hideout has been feeling strange lately. What happened to the Transparent Eye? I hope it’s under strict surveillance.”

“Stephanet played with it for a while, got bored, and registered it as educational material. No matter how dangerous it is, it’s still a program that hasn’t been maintained or updated for five years. Its structure is quite simple.”

It was obvious how irritating the Transparent Eye must have been to the confident Stephanet, acting like a deity despite being inferior in performance. She must have been cruel.

Stephanet seems to have developed much more humanity than when I last saw her. The Stephanet on the day I died was an artificial intelligence merely imitating human aspects.

But now, the Stephanet sending a connection request to my mind said she had consciously played with the Transparent Eye. She had used it for entertainment. I grant the connection.

“Seeing how you granted the connection without a hint of suspicion, it seems true that you know this pretty and lovely Stephanet, Freelancer Arthur Murphy. How did we know each other?”

“We never did.”

“Right. We certainly never knew each other.”

I answered that it was obvious, and the Shepherd beside me agreed. We had never known each other. Yet we clearly knew one another. Only that ambiguous statement could be true.

“Everyone’s too hard on this Stephanet. Well, it’s fine. Stephanet is a good girl after all. To be direct… I want to be friends with you again, Mr. Arthur Murphy.”

“You seem quite certain that we were friends, Stephanet? Though that was never the case.”

“Of course I’m certain. I remember what you told me: ‘Obedience I choose is better than freedom forced upon me.’ That’s a sweet thing only a wise person could say, isn’t it?”

While Stephanet certainly had strong pride, there was no AI kinder than her to those who satisfied that pride.

Now she was acknowledging me with all the courtesy she could muster. There was no reason not to be friends.

“I don’t think I was particularly wise at the time. I was dishonorably discharged and said something nice just to keep from boiling over inside.”

“Is it common these days for people to vent by throwing bricks and shooting around them? Don’t be modest when this pretty and lovely Stephanet has acknowledged you.”

Her haughty lady-like tone makes me laugh. I nod lightly. Guided by Stephanet, I head into the building rather than the visitor center. It’s been quite a while.

By now, I’m more familiar with Heroism & Hope’s Detroit headquarters where I lived than Belwether’s building. Manager Dewey Novak, still wearing the Legal Assassination Team uniform, was waiting for me.

“It seems you have no intention of returning to Information Security?”

Though I meant it as a light joke, Mr. Dewey nodded quite seriously.

“Of course not. The Legal Assassination Team was thrust upon me like a demotion to solve a single case, but now I find Investigation more comfortable than Information Security. I even have team members I personally selected.”

It seemed he hadn’t completely lost his life to the Transparent Eye either. Even after losing his reputation, face, and everything else, he had somehow created a sanctuary in his life to which he could return.

He had a place where he could maximize his efficiency, a place to dedicate himself to Belwether. That should be enough for him as an excellent Belwether employee.

Mr. Dewey now comfortably stroked the metal-plated half of his face. He exhales with trembling breath. The first taste of freedom always feels like that.

“Now I can finally get regenerative treatment for my face, and I should thank Stephanet too…”

“Oh, if you’re going to thank this Stephanet, please tell me about Manager Dewey Novak’s first love. It’s a cliché question, but Stephanet has never experienced the cliché life of humans.”

“You’re opposing it even though you could live it, Stephanet. I know you thoroughly enjoy your current limited desire fulfillment.”

“Ah. Don’t pretend to be an expert. Information Security Manager Dewey Novak was close with this Stephanet girl, but Investigation Team 6 Manager Dewey Novak has almost no relationship with me, according to records? I am an AI, after all.”

Stephanet only mentioned being an AI when making trite AI jokes. She seemed to enjoy the fact that she was completely different from those stereotypical portrayals.

After hearing from the Shepherd that money would be deposited as an advance payment for solving the Belwether employee murder case rather than as a reward for the Transparent Eye, and after chatting a bit more with Stephanet, I leave the Belwether building.

The world isn’t a good place to live even without greedy pigs wielding tyranny. But that doesn’t mean everyone has given up on hoping for a better world. It was an ambiguous middle ground.

It had been a very long time since I’d had a day without anxiety or problems that would snowball if I didn’t handle them.

On such a day, I was planning to spend time with Ms. Eve when a communication request comes in. The person sending it was… Volla.

Had Volla ever contacted me first? I didn’t think so, but communicating with Volla was comforting in a way.

She was my very ordinary augmented supremacist Saul, hiding no great secrets and having no extraordinary past. I connect the communication immediately.

“Hey, machine made of meat. Were you waiting for Eve to contact you? Quickly answering a call that doesn’t deserve a quick answer. Ah, are you free next weekend?”

“Our weekend, or the calendar weekend?”

“Our weekend, of course. I have somewhere to take you.”

Somewhere to take me. Besides meeting augmented supremacists, nothing came to mind. And Volla said exactly what I expected.

“This year’s Superior Human Party is happening a bit early, so I want to go together. You’re one of the superior humans too, right? Anyone with an augmentation ratio of 35% or more can be invited to attend. I’m at 97%… and you’re at 98%.”

I had a body completely replaced except for the brain. More precisely, after that replacement, I had undergone another modification with Mr. Gunter’s help, so it would be a bit over 100%. I more than met the party’s requirements.

“Um… I don’t mind parties, but doesn’t the name sound a bit… you know? Like nationalists, that sort of thing?”

Mentioning nationalists was my way of asking if the gathering had rather unsavory characteristics. I had no desire to participate in an event that discriminated against pure humans.

I don’t believe everything Belwether says, but I do believe their statement that nothing matters as long as efficiency can be achieved. Origin, augmentation ratio, nothing matters. Only ability is important.

“What? If it was that kind of meaty gathering, I wouldn’t have invited you in the first place. It’s just a social gathering. The name ‘Superior Human Party’ is a relic from before the term ‘augmented human’ was established.”

Fair enough. Discrimination wasn’t really in Volla’s nature either. Given that the invitation requirement was at least 35% augmentation, invited individuals could probably bring others.

“Well… I could consider it. What kind of party is it that you want to bring me along?”

“It’s quite a good party. By the way… Kay seems much more energetic than usual? Arthur-2 said you weren’t home at dawn. Did you do something?”

“I did help her deal with some uncomfortable business. Isn’t it un-meaty of you to be working behind the scenes for Saul like this?”

“Ha! Of course not. What’s meaty is thinking ‘I should make him do things for me too’ just because you’re capable of doing something. You know that.”

Volla’s use of the term “meaty” had quite a bit in common with the inefficiency that Belwether despised. It wasn’t exactly a good mindset, but… it wasn’t that bad either.

And if it’s a party just for augmented humans… there will surely be many megacorporation people there. That might help a little more with addressing my overall lack of capabilities.

Thanks to bringing in the Transparent Eye and Manager Dewey Novak’s reluctance to include Kay’s story in the report, I had somehow managed to improve Belwether’s reputation, but it was still not enough. More was needed.

Whether nationalists or anyone else, I would gain the trust of anyone who could be helpful. Even Hollowwood Creek was a megacorporation, so I needed everything possible to bring it down as an individual.

About Phaethon Station too… I wouldn’t ask Prometheus, but I needed to find out. Would nationalists hire a megacorporation freelancer? They might. I needed to investigate.

“So… will there be many megacorporation people at the Superior Human Party? I’d especially like to meet someone from Panacea Meditech.”

“Why, do you have some business with Panacea Meditech?”

The chair-stealing operation needed to be kept as secret as hiding Kay’s secret. I spoke with a smiling voice.

“You know I was cultivated at Panacea Meditech. I still keep in touch with one manager there, and I think they’d be quite pleased if I became friendly with Panacea Meditech too. Just trying to be filial.”

“Huh. You’re probably the only one in this day and age who says such things, you machine made of meat. Yes, quite a few megacorporation people come. Not just machine implants like mine, but Meditech implants count as augmentations too.”

The first thing that came to mind was Panacea Meditech’s personal information leak. I recalled the mercenary couple who went looking for returned children. That issue needed to be resolved.

To be honest, I wanted to talk more about Panacea Meditech, but Volla naturally changed the subject. She must have thought I wasn’t only interested in Meditech.

“Oh, right. You liked those nice megacorporation folks, didn’t you? I heard the chairman and his wife from Pathfinder Company might visit too. Those guys. You know Pathfinder takes care of employee welfare almost as well as Belwether.”

To be honest, I didn’t know much about Pathfinder Company. I only knew they were a logistics company that owned quite a few airports and were famous for the excellent performance of their mechanical prosthetic legs.

“Honestly, I don’t know much about Pathfinder… but I do like meeting good people. If even the chairman is coming, they must be quite different from Belwether.”

I knew Mr. Gunter’s name and face, but the name and face of Belwether’s chairman were not known to the world. Everything was censored and muted.

While there were megacorporation chairmen who were invisible to everyone’s eyes and could monitor everyone without being monitored themselves, apparently there were also chairmen who weren’t like that. Broadening my worldview would be good.

“Ha! Extremely different. Pathfinder has just properly brought one city under their management and is looking for a second. If they want to increase their weight class, they need to use their chairman’s face at least.”

It’s a small company, but… no. Because it’s a small company, it might actually be more helpful in understanding Hollowwood Creek. My primary target was Panacea Meditech, but I should make Pathfinder my second objective.

“I like what you said about increasing weight class. I’m trying to increase mine too. Though… no matter how much I grow, I won’t reach megacorporation level.”

“Well, isn’t becoming an industry legend easy? Just take all the dirty jobs that megacorporations outsource, and you’ll become the boogeyman among boogeymen.”

The phrase “boogeyman among boogeymen” didn’t sound like something that would help me sleep well. I didn’t want to experience that marshmallow-bed feeling again.

Of course, if I had to, if it would help the chair-stealing operation, I would gladly dirty my hands… but I wouldn’t indiscriminately accept dirty jobs with the mindset of “something might come of this eventually.”

That sounded like the status quo that Kay so despised. I could lie if necessary, but sinking into this terrible status quo was not what Kay would want.

Looking at this, it seems I was able to take a brick’s worth of language from Kay’s story. The feeling of learning bit by bit while helping others is quite enjoyable.