Ch.239Jagang Ducheon (7)

Bruce fled in a panic, only to realize too late that he had left Pina behind.

“Ah, damn it.”

Irritation surged within him.

Pina was Bruce’s masterpiece. Not because of the android’s superior capabilities, but because she followed any order without question. Higher-generation androids tended to disobey unreasonable commands, but Pina never did.

Loyalty?

He didn’t doubt it.

He’d been using her for over a decade.

“She’ll find her way back on her own.”

There was a possibility she had been captured by that Rheinland fellow. No, it was highly likely. Still, if it was Pina, she could escape on her own. Bruce decided not to think too deeply about it.

Anyway.

Without Pina, large-scale research would have to be suspended for now.

He decided to take a break.

“Damn it, what should I do now…”

After Black Mamba had been dismantled.

Bruce was cornered.

With the gang suppressed, he was nothing more than an easy target criminal. He didn’t have many means to respond when government forces came knocking.

But then.

[Doctor, there’s someone at the main entrance.]

“What?”

Bruce jumped up from his bed and checked the intercom.

A blue-haired android in a maid outfit was swaying her hips with her hands on her waist.

The sight was incredibly provocative.

“That one…!”

There was no doubt.

Sonia, Eidel von Rheinland’s personal android.

5th generation.

Even a high-end model at that.

“Why is she here?”

[I’m not sure.]

It didn’t matter.

A 5th generation android would more than suffice as a replacement for Pina. It would even be an upgrade.

“Rheinland, that bastard sent me a gift. Kuhehe.”

Bruce dispatched his security robots.

“Capture her!”

Kugugung!

Dust rose with the sound of ion-platinum jet engines launching one after another. Sonia, who had been enjoying her happy dance time, looked around and swallowed hard.

Then she.

Took something out from her chest.

It was a portable storage device.

Sonia spoke.

[I’ve come on young master’s errand. Please accept this.]

Sonia placed the USB in a small box and set it on the ground. Then she turned around and ran away at full speed.

“Don’t let her escape! Capture her at all costs!”

Medium-sized robots with caterpillar tracks pursued her fiercely. But it was futile. The distance between them was widening.

“How can a regular android be so fast!”

Swoosh!

A net covered the sky. Sonia looked up. She smiled dryly and slid across the ground.

[Within calculation range.]

Just barely.

Sonia, having skillfully evaded the net, increased her speed. Her figure disappeared beyond the horizon.

She got away.

Bang!

“You idiots!”

Bruce pounded the desk, breathing heavily.

[Doctor, we’ve brought the item.]

The returning pursuit team held out the storage device.

[It has gold decorations. It appears to be quite valuable.]

“Shut. Up.”

He was being mocked.

As if saying, I have so much money that I can splurge even on a USB, don’t you have even this much in your lab?

Those filthy privileged silver-spoon bastards are all the same. Utterly petty.

But that wasn’t the important issue right now.

His location had been discovered.

How?

When on earth did they find out where this place was?

“Damn it, damn it, damn it…”

Curses spilled out one after another. At this rate, he would have to abandon this place and leave. The utopia he had carefully built over the past few years was about to disappear.

[Wouldn’t it be better to open the file first? It seems like they have something to say.]

“Right, connect it to a personal PC just in case. If there’s a virus, it could be the end of us.”

When he plugged the USB into a disposable laptop, a video file appeared.

“…Pina?”

The thumbnail.

A picture of a girl with pink hair wearing a lab coat, smiling brightly.

His hands began to tremble.

Could it be…

Click.

At the beginning of the video was Pina sitting in front of a cake. Then a man in a white coat sat beside her. Eidel von Rheinland. The man beyond the screen spoke.

[Now, why don’t you state your name and affiliation to the camera?]

Bruce’s expression turned stupid.

No.

“That android is mine!”

[From today, I’ve decided to become Dr. Rheinland’s android!]

“No!”

[Master Bruce, thank you for everything! Actually, not really!]

“Fuck!”

That was the end.

Bruce hurled curses at Eidel until he felt his blood flow block, and he fainted on the spot.

Thanks to the care of his loyal robots, Bruce woke up shortly after and gritted his teeth while pounding the desk.

“Doctor? That kid who just finished his bachelor’s calls himself a doctor, and treats me like a master’s degree holder? That ignorant punk who doesn’t know his place!”

Master’s degree.

The words he hated most.

About 30 years ago. Bruce entered the graduate program of a prestigious academy and spent 17 years there.

He earned his master’s, but.

– Since you’ve come this far, why not go for a doctorate?

Seduced by his advisor’s words, he entered the doctoral program.

The nightmare began then.

Despite producing decent papers repeatedly, he wasn’t allowed to graduate even as his enrollment period exceeded the limit.

– In my lab, you need to be perfect in process, analysis, and theory to graduate. You’re sloppy with your process. Your analysis lacks detail, and above all, your theory is insufficient. It’s not fancy enough. I’m afraid graduation will be difficult.

It was the first time he felt the urge to kill.

After spending 2 years for his master’s and 8 years in the doctoral program, he graduated with a master’s degree due to exceeding the enrollment period. Because he desired to earn a doctorate, he couldn’t give up here.

Thinking his advisor was crazy, he switched from engineering to biotech.

That’s when it started.

When Bruce began to lose his mind.

– Research on grafting monster bodies onto human brains? You’re completely insane! Did you even take research ethics during your master’s? Maybe you should start over from the master’s program?

– Your topic is fucking trash.

– Always doing weird research. If you keep this up, you might get buried in academia? I may sound harsh, but I’m advising you for your own good.

Neither professors nor lab colleagues.

No one understood him.

Especially his advisor.

He had enrolled because the professor was supposedly a renowned scholar in the field, but in reality, he was just an ordinary person who couldn’t see the future.

– At this rate, graduation will be difficult.

Similarly, in his 7th year approaching the 8-year enrollment limit.

Upon hearing those words, Bruce knocked his advisor unconscious with a sonicator and killed him by gouging out his eyes with a Phillips screwdriver he always carried.

The lab seniors and juniors who had mocked him?

He replaced all the water purifiers and bidets they used with strong alkaline water before leaving. What happened next was predictable.

When he left the lab stained with blood and vomit.

Bruce felt liberated.

Having defeated his advisor, now he would graduate.

“I am, I am a doctor. A Doctor of Engineering and a Doctor of Science. I have two doctoral degrees. I’m not a master’s holder!”

Bruce continued to vent his frustration even as he packed to flee.

“Eidel von Rheinland! You, do you know…! How painful it was to go to graduate school twice! Fuck, damn it! You’ll end up frustrated there too! You’re destined to end up with just a master’s degree too!”

He had lost the gang he collaborated with.

The assassination attempt on Eidel von Rheinland had failed.

All he had left now were the secret laboratory he had built deep inside and two unaccredited doctoral degree certificates he had awarded himself.

What is a master’s degree?

What is a doctorate?

Just hollow-sounding titles.

Bruce realized.

That what truly matters is not education or degrees.

“Rheinland, I’ll kill you. I will, definitely, kill you.”

His original research on the union with extraterrestrials.

The extinction of the human species and fusion into a new life form.

To achieve that goal, he needed to thoroughly crush Eidel von Rheinland, who was interfering with his research.

And that’s when it happened.

[“Shall I help you?”]

A melody that directly typed into his mind was heard.

A taste as sweet as sugar and as definite as salt. Bruce was just beginning to realize that he could sense it with his brain despite having no taste buds.

[“Hello, I’ve come to talk to you because I feel sorry for you. If you allow me, I’ll make a contract with you and solve your problems.”]

“…Hahaha!”

Laughter flowed at the following words.

At first, he thought it was a constellation, but no.

To think that the being he had always longed for would speak to him.

“If you want to help me, show yourself!”

[“…Huh, you’re more brazen than I thought. Well, that’s fine.”]

A snickering voice.

And the next moment. A green-glowing irregular polyhedron appeared with a pop from the ceiling and rolled down in front of Bruce’s nose. Bruce, who had been following the stone with his gaze, slowly raised his face.

Somehow.

A swan covered in snow-white feathers was there, grotesquely twisting its neck.

Its beak was split vertically, and it had more than a dozen eyeballs with protruding capillaries.

“Ugh.”

Just looking at it made him want to retch.

But Bruce laughed.

“Surprised?”

The voice that had been circling in his head was transferred outside.

Snicker.

Bruce laughed.

“Surprised? Me? No, I’ve been waiting for you. Black hole of Cygnus.”

“…You know my home base.”

“Well, I’m an expert who has only observed Darwinian extraterrestrials.”

Kekeke.

The extraterrestrial laughed.

“My constellation name is ‘Pulsating White Feather’. Nice to meet you.”