Ch.255036 Work Record – Under the Brightest Spotlight (2)

I won’t say that executing and completing the chair-stealing operation doesn’t require firing a single bullet. However, power, as always, is merely power.

It’s something without which the problem cannot progress, but not something that automatically resolves the problem just by possessing it. And in the chair-stealing operation, power’s role was even less significant than usual.

Power is held by Belwether. Panacea Meditech has it. Hollowood Creek has some too. I can’t develop my abilities alone to directly confront mega-corporations.

So, during the operation, I’ll use their power. I’ll redirect Belwether’s power that currently protects Hollowood Creek and keeps Panacea Meditech in check.

Belwether will be able to join hands with Panacea Meditech, once their enemy, and Panacea Meditech was large enough to protect itself.

From that moment, cracks will form in Hollowood Creek’s monopoly. Belwether will start to see the power it’s using to protect Hollowood Creek as wasteful.

But still, this is a world where trust is everything. As long as Belwether recognizes Hollowood Creek as its lifeline and supplies sufficiently efficient medications, Belwether has no justification to abandon Hollowood Creek.

That’s precisely where I need to intervene. Though I’m certified by Belwether, I’m no longer their person. If I were Belwether’s person, I’d be both a nationalist and H-Enter’s person.

As an outsider, I’ll say I’m striking Hollowood Creek’s leader for my own deeply personal reasons. If I need to say it’s because of my love for Eve, I will.

I’ll force out the howl of a beast to prevent mockery. I’ve learned that not all people who can make beast-like sounds, who feel like kin, are right… but that’s not my concern.

I am justified. A human life is not worthless. A human life is not sublime. A human life is worth exactly one human life.

Hollowood Creek tried to take my Eve’s life, and I will take exactly one life in return.

Anyway, even though this performance is led by Talent and Tradition Company, this is Belwether’s territory, and the main sponsor is Panacea Meditech.

What I’ll encounter on site will be the working staff of both companies, and I might learn something from observing them. It’s been a while since I’ve stood firmly on Belwether’s side without watching Belwether itself.

I’ve been viewing the mutant issue through the lens Belwether gave me. It was a problem that needed changing either way, but now it even seemed inefficient. Then it must be dealt with.

Shaking off these stray thoughts, I lightly opened the limousine door that Polaris seemed to be waiting for me to open. Polaris got in, followed by Theo.

Thanks to the limousine being large enough to accommodate his enhancement suit, which was too large to be called just that, Polaris could sit with her legs stretched out. As I was about to close the door, Polaris smiled.

“This is a matter of external politics, not security, Boogeyman. Rather than you riding in a different car from the limousine for practical security…”

She carefully extended her hand, placing it on mine as I held the limousine door, and gently pulled. It wasn’t enough force to pull me, but I decided to let her.

The feeling of becoming a security vulnerability is quite strange. I mounted the Panacea rifle inside the vehicle. I sat across from where Polaris was sitting with her legs stretched out.

“It’s more important to expose to the media that Panacea Meditech hired a three-company certified freelancer for Polaris. This is show business after all, isn’t it?”

Polaris standing between a man wearing a display helmet and bulletproof suit, and a man in a life-support system doubling as a closed enhancement suit much larger than normal would certainly make for a striking image.

I decided to recall what I used to think about when working as a guardian. Since I’d be in camera angles, I shouldn’t remove my display helmet. In most of my work, revealing my face would do no good.

Still, I wanted to show my face to the children. I wanted to tell them that I too was one of Panacea Meditech’s miracle children, that this world isn’t perfect… but there is hope.

The vehicle departed. Los Angeles seen through the heavily tinted windows seemed less hazy than usual. The smog was the same. Only my position had changed.

It didn’t take long to reach Panacea Meditech’s children’s hospital. Theo gestured lightly toward the outside of the vehicle. It seemed like all the unmanned cameras and irresponsible media in this city had gathered.

“Overlay permitted filming zones in your vision. You may destroy equipment outside the permitted zones, and subdue anyone who enters them, or shoot to kill if they’re armed.”

I overlaid the HUD on my vision. There were permitted filming zones on either side of Polaris’s path where journalists were allowed. The journalists seemed to be respecting those lines. They had no choice.

In today’s world, everyone carries at least one self-defense pistol, and even such pistols become weapons if they cross the permitted filming zone. I opened the car door and got out first.

Polaris followed, protected by Theo. I thought I’d become quite familiar with camera flashes during my guardian days, but what poured toward Polaris was on another level.

With my second, translucent eyelid lowered for anti-flash protection, I led Polaris toward the hospital entrance. The faces of all the surrounding journalists matched those registered in the database.

The hospital executives and staff who greeted us at the entrance, along with one child, were also in the database. The child’s tense face melted as soon as they saw Polaris.

The fact that behind her stood a security guard with a railgun rifle and Theo in his enhancement suit, a head taller than normal suits, seemed almost invisible. This is where Polaris belongs.

The child’s parents were probably exposed to biochemical weapons during that war period. The child’s skin was subtly crumbling like powder. It looked like the genetic map itself was damaged.

The hatred people held for each other during the extinction war was terrible. It was as terrible as if they wanted to take away all human happiness, pleasure, and joy from one another.

But even a child like that can dream of a new life if they survive until brain development stops. Once the entire body is replaced, that genetic disease will eventually die.

Polaris kindly asked if she could hug the child, and ended up holding the gloved child’s hand as they headed into the hospital. In the hospital lobby stood a statue of the goddess Panacea, similar to the one near the branch office.

To create a panacea. To cure death, sorrow, and all losses. Panacea Meditech’s goal was extravagant, but they were racing toward it, abandoning even their humanity.

When they finally reach it, even all those cruel and terrible experiments will be remembered as noble acts. Those idealists who don’t even know self-defense will ultimately be remembered as achievers.

However, there was one more unexpected entertainment industry person in the lobby. An employee from Nature and Nature Entertainment… from an unknown department. I’m ignorant about that side too.

A woman with long silver hair, wearing Nature and Nature’s distinctive uniform resembling those of military contractors, gave Polaris a brief salute. She naturally greeted with the company motto.

“Gather the pieces. Reassemble the old world. Never give up. Repeat. Again. And once more. I’m Agnes Schneider, department head of Piece Collection at Nature and Nature. By T-Enter standards…”

Military contractors had somewhat unified systems, but not this ever-changing and cruel entertainment industry. Polaris nodded as if she already knew what the woman was trying to explain and replied.

“By Talent and Tradition standards, you’d be at director level. If you knew I was visiting today, I’d call it expected luck, and if not, unexpected luck. Which is it?”

That would make her team leader level by Belwether standards. Agnes nodded briefly at Polaris’s inoffensive joke. She was considerably more rigid than Polaris.

“I knew but had to come anyway. We received information that one patient’s grandparents were from Ontario, pre-war America, so I came despite potential friction. Pieces must be assembled, after all.”

Was the virtual reality program I bought in New Mages really made by directly extracting people’s memories like this? She called those memory fragments “pieces.” These people are fanatics too.

They really seemed to be trying to reassemble the old world by extracting memories from people who remember the pre-war world. What they’re trying to return to people isn’t just nature from the past.

She lightly tapped inside her clothing as if she had something to take out for Theo and me. After I lowered my Panacea rifle, she pulled out a small chip case from inside her clothing.

“Of course, Nature and Nature doesn’t intend to proceed insensitively. This is an assembled piece of what was called Keukenhof, the world’s largest flower garden. The period is 2031, completed last week.”

She meant to offer at least minimal compensation with a virtual reality chip for the children to enjoy. I took the chip case she handed over, inserted it into my internal device, and connected wirelessly. Aegis began checking the device.

“New device detected. Checking. Confirmed. No security vulnerabilities found. Safe to use.”

After Aegis’s confirmation, I handed the chip case back to Polaris in the same condition I had received it. She nodded kindly this time, not showing any displeasure.

“I don’t distrust someone trying to give something good to children, Department Head Agnes. If time permits, you’re welcome to join us with the children. You must have many stories to tell them.”

Polaris naturally made a request that Agnes couldn’t easily refuse. And Agnes politely declined what was essentially a formality.

“Sadly, the Piece Collection Department isn’t skilled at dealing with people. Please convey your sparkle to the children on my behalf as well, Polaris. You have more than enough to spare.”

Fortunately, this ended as a brief happening. Seeing her like this, it’s hard to understand why Nature and Nature are such terrible inefficients who make mercenaries die without surrendering.

Their unyielding nature and the unyielding nature forced upon their mercenaries seemed quite different. All ideas are bound to be distorted. I decided not to worry about it deeply for now.

Now Polaris could go meet the children again. Polaris asked the child holding her hand trivial questions like whether the pretty lady was nice, and they set off again.

The children waiting for Polaris in the central hall were all in poor condition. Generally, they suffered from inherited aftereffects of that war. They were here to break that inheritance.

Humans destroyed by humans will be remade by human hands. Panacea Meditech wanted to write a myth, and no one tried to stop them. Polaris slowly inhaled.

Once again, her voice resonated not with human speech but with the howl of a beast. Though not particularly loud, it seemed to echo throughout the hospital. It was probably due to the spacious hall.

“I’m Polaris, the guiding star shining for you in a lost world, a lost era, here to meet the most persistent people in Los Angeles. Would you tell me your names?”

At that moment, a bundle of countless voices burst forth, almost indistinguishable even to me. Polaris didn’t ask them to repeat their names one by one. Her computational assist device was capable of handling that.

Journalists began taking pictures of Polaris as she processed the children’s voices. Only the sound of shutters erupted, as if they believed Polaris and all the children before them were merely subjects, not people.

While Polaris didn’t mind flashes directed at her, she hated seeing children shield their eyes from the flashes. Her uncharacteristically cold voice reached me.

“Boogeyman, do you have something like a jammer module? Set it to a 5-meter radius so it doesn’t affect the hospital, and trigger it just once. And journalists, this time I’ll let it go with a warning…”

During the brief pause in her speech, I adjusted the output of the interference wave. I triggered it with a light clench of my right hand. Drone cameras tumbled to the hospital floor, and the wireless functions of prosthetic eyes were cut off.

As surrounding objects were affected by the interference wave, Polaris gestured lightly to create a silent zone so the children couldn’t hear. She continued in a gentle but cold voice.

“I can receive public love without your articles. So please, don’t become someone whose absence would benefit the world more than their presence.”

After Polaris finished whispering, she gestured lightly to me as if asking me to turn off the jammer. When the jammer turned off, the drone cameras took flight again. The journalists nodded quietly.

Only then did they begin to act like people with some humanity left. As if they knew the term journalistic ethics and felt some emotion toward the children.

Polaris turned off the silent zone and approached a child who had been squinting, whispering their name and assuring them that the journalists wouldn’t hurt their eyes anymore.

From then on, Polaris began moving around the hospital with the children. I decided to work consciously. Theo positioned himself outside the camera angles, but I was always watching Polaris from within the frame.

This is show business after all. The purpose was to show Polaris pouring love on Panacea Meditech’s children, which was no problem at all for her.

Another purpose was to show that Panacea Meditech had provided Polaris with a three-company certified freelancer, making her so safe she didn’t need to worry about her surroundings at all.

Why is this important? Perhaps to show that Panacea Meditech is maintaining good faith with Belwether. They received considerable help from Belwether in dealing with assassins.

My presence here indicates that Panacea Meditech isn’t just trying to profit from Polaris’s performance while completely delegating security matters to Belwether.

These companies have an awkward relationship. When relationships are strained, companies must constantly prove and show things to each other. But the important thing is… Belwether clearly helped.

Is it because reputation is at stake? No, that’s not it. Whether reputation is involved or not, they wouldn’t abandon their own city to that extent.

Is Panacea Meditech the only one completely refusing cooperation? It’s best to establish this as a hypothesis for now.

“Belwether and Panacea Meditech have a bad relationship” isn’t enough anymore. It was time to clearly define in which areas and to what extent their relationship was bad.