Chap 128-The Abyss Journey 2

 

At that same moment, murderous intent flew in from the entire staircase.

It meant that there were countless individuals, like Jamel, sending murderous intent towards Alice and Fira from every corner of the staircase filled with the darkness of corpse spores.

Alice had already anticipated a battle and began activating the combat system through Theresa.

The Elder White called Jamel was an existence beyond the norm, even among the hostile entities Alice had faced until now.

The android’s bio-detection organs were screaming, and the senses as a Demon Lord engraved in her soul were clearly sending warning signals.

She couldn’t defeat him now.

He was an existence beyond the norm.

If they clashed, she would have to attempt a suicidal explosion of the entire staircase to try for a mutual demise.

And above all… Alice felt a strange sense of déjà vu from that Elder White.

It was as if he didn’t exist, even though he was right in front of her.

Her mechanical senses couldn’t be evaded simply by being fast.

She didn’t know the exact reason, but as an android and the owner of a mechanical body, Alice strongly felt that Jamel Kassim Sandria was perhaps something similar to her.

However, she couldn’t just be killed without knowing why.

She had ambitiously obtained the position of Governor-General of the lower layer to make the world a little better, and she couldn’t just die a meaningless death in a place like this.

“Oh my, are you threatening me? I am sorry to say, but I am not scared at all~”

Jamel stared intently at Fira with the red neural network he had taken out from his limbs and body.

The neural network, like a red-tinged flower bud, crackled with eerie and ominous sparks, and seemed as if it would unleash a terrifying power that would burn Fira and Alice alive at any moment.

[I have 324,000 neural networks of intelligent beings that I have collected over time.]

[Each neural network can implement its own ability, and each ability has its own ego. And the 324,000 neural networks are all whispering to me as soon as they see you. Do you know what it is?]

“Hmm, I unfortunately do not have the ability to read minds~ If you have something to say, please say it quickly?”

Fira shrugged as if it was funny, and the air grew cold.

The already dark and heavy air, filled with corpse spores, became even heavier, making it difficult to breathe.

[Hatred. I hate you. I hate you all.]

[Fira Dunhill, I hate you, you maggot of the heavens.]

[That’s not all. I hate humans, humanity, all living beings. I hate them again and again.]

Of course, Alice didn’t need to breathe, so it didn’t matter to her.

[All 324,000 neural networks that fill my complex are whispering to me. They say they hate you, they want to tear you apart, and torture you into a state worse than death. If I could physically embody the word ‘hatred’ that comes to my mind, I can confidently say that it would fill this entire 3.2 million-mile staircase and still have room to spare.]

“Oh, is that so? Then why don’t you give it a try~”

With those words, Fira suddenly folded her fan and spread her arms wide.

Fira, standing defenselessly in front of the Elder White with her arms wide open, looked like a suicide volunteer, but for some reason, the Elder White’s corpse-like expression only became more distorted.

It was clear that the murderous intent and desperate hatred that Jamel was emitting were genuine.

Even Alice, who was right next to her, could feel Jamel’s thick hatred and murderous intent, and it was clear that the word “hatred” was not a lie, but the Elder White did not launch an attack towards Fira.

He just stood there.

He simply glared at Fira with eyes full of hatred.

Perhaps three minutes passed in that standoff.

Fira opened her mouth with a sly smile.

“Hehehe, as expected. I knew you couldn’t do it.”

[I want to scatter your flesh all over the Abyss right now.]

“Yes, yes~ I understand. Now that I know, can you guide me? I can’t tell where anything is because I smell rotting corpses everywhere.”

Jamel, whose shoulders were creaking, put the neural network that had bloomed like a red flower back into his body and turned his back.

“Well then, we just have to follow, right?”

“Fira.”

“I understand that you have many questions. However, I will tell you later. There are too many eyes here.”

With those words, Fira glared at the streets filled with corpse spores and said.

“We don’t have enough time to cut them all out, do we?”

The murderous intent felt in the air was so thick and desperate that it was piercing her skin.

Fira, as if it didn’t matter, simply winked and took Alice’s hand, leading her forward.

‘Theresa, can you search for information about Jamel Kassim Sandria?’

【I already did.】

‘The result?’

【He is an existence subject to record deletion. There is no information at all about whether that existence is a monster, a disaster, or a member of the Ark’s humanity or public officials.】

Record deletion, huh.

This was a first.

Even monsters or True Ancestor whose identities had been identified could be searched on the Ark intranet.

If he had been openly subjected to record deletion, it meant that the undead-like bony human called Jamel was by no means an ordinary person.

The visibility was less than 5 meters, but it was not difficult for capable individuals like Alice and Fira to follow Jamel, who was walking ahead.

However, it was difficult to shake off the gloomy atmosphere.

Something that was not human, something similar to a monster, was sending whispers of murderous intent and hatred to these two people from all directions.

Fira looked relaxed, but it seemed that she was on edge because anything could happen in the Abyss, not just because of her confidence in her own power.

Moreover, as they moved, the visibility became shorter and the concentration of corpse spores became thicker, so that at some point, they could no longer see anything except themselves.

Even the lower layer felt like the hell of the human world and a cesspool of humanity, but the Abyss was so far beyond what humans could live in that it felt like something similar to hell or purgatory from the Bible.

Ironically, not only monsters but also humans were said to live in this Abyss, and it was questionable how humans could continue to live in such an environment.

And the group that had been walking for a while arrived at a huge mansion.

“Oh my, it’s quite a big house~ It seems you’ve been eating well and living well since you came down to the Abyss?”

[…….]

Of course, it was not an ordinary mansion.

About 70% of the mansion was made of organic matter that looked like flesh or muscle, rather than ordinary building materials.

Strangely enough, from the moment they got close to this flesh mansion, the short visibility suddenly expanded, and the thick concentration of corpse spores began to disappear.

‘Ah, damn it. This is scary…’

【Human, are you scared?】

‘No, not at all!’

Alice, who had been hesitating at this eerie and vomit-inducing sight, followed Fira straight into the mansion, thanks to Theresa.

The inside was similar to what they had seen from the outside.

It felt like being inside a pig’s intestines.

The organic matter inside had a nervous system similar to the one that had bloomed from Jamel’s body, laid out like wires everywhere, and Alice, who had an android body, felt that it was a kind of mechanical part and wire.

‘Jamel is monitoring everything with that nervous system and can control this mansion at will…’

【That’s right. In fact, unlike what he looks like, the individual called Jamel has a system similar to an artificial body or a barrier organ AI.】

He certainly looked like a grotesque creature that could only appear in undead or creepy pasta.

Alice couldn’t define the shape or the way the nervous system was moving, and she didn’t have that knowledge, but the memory inherent in Alice’s body instinctively felt that Jamel was something similar to her.

‘Is that some kind of great undead organic computer?’

【We’ll have to find out from now on.】

【Initiating hacking】

【Initiating internal access program synapse operation】

【Starting to identify the electronic network nervous system】

‘Be careful not to get caught.’

In other words, Alice and Fira had entered the monster’s belly on their own.

But Fira still had a relaxed face, and it didn’t seem to be just confidence in her own power.

“It’s still gloomy and terrible.”

[Shut up, maggot. Can’t you see that I’m exerting the utmost patience?]

“I can’t see because you don’t have any expression~”

Jamel’s red nervous system burst out of his body as if expressing anger and trembled, but for some reason, he couldn’t really touch Fira, so he dug back into his body.

[Sit down. I’ll be back soon.]

“I would like milk tea~”

As Jamel disappeared, Fira roughly opened a door and entered a place similar to a reception room.

Inside, there were places where guests could sit, such as chairs and tables.

The problem was that most of them were grotesque shapes made of randomly made flesh, muscle, and red nervous systems, but anyway, Fira sat comfortably on the chair with her back against it, as if she wasn’t disgusted at all.

‘Ugh, what is this.’

No matter how many experiences Alice had, including three lives and an android body, sitting on a flesh chair was quite a terrible experience.

“Jamel Kassim Sandria. He was the owner of the 3rd street of the Central Cemetery of Ark, called the Corpse King.”

As Fira opened her mouth while sitting on the chair, Alice finally looked at her.

Fira’s eyes, which she looked at again, were not full of playfulness, and she had a colder and calmer expression than usual.

“He was a member of the Central…? That is definitely not human, is it? What kind of monster does he look like?”

“His humanity has been proven, just like my Dunhill Family. He also has a high contribution to the early days of the Ark~”

She didn’t know what the process of proving humanity was, but it seemed that it was usually possible to pass if the mind itself was similar to that of a human.

That was probably why Demonkind, including Sabrina, had passed the human integration test.

“Jamel was not just an owner or anything like that, but a king who ruled a specific layer of the Central. He was also an administrator for about 87 years, so he is very familiar with the situation in the Ark and has made many contributions~”

“Then why is such a person living in the Abyss and growling at Fira?”

“He committed treason~”

“What.”

Alice thought this was unexpected.

A person who was closest to power committed treason?

She knew that being an administrator was a lot of work, but they wielded absolute power close to that of a king or emperor of the Ark.

As long as they maintained the order and peace of the Ark, they could wield unlimited power anywhere, but such a person… no, not a person, but an undead or whatever unknown creature that had only been proven to have humanity had committed treason, which was quite surprising.

“Why did a person who was protecting the Ark suddenly betray it?”

“Don’t you think it’s very inefficient?”

“What is.”

“Our Ark, I mean.”

Fira folded the fan that covered her mouth and looked at Alice.

“We have institutional AI, intranet, closed channels, all kinds of technology, androids and drones, robots, automatic mechanical Industrial Complex, but why is the highest administrative and power institution of the Ark working their heads off with administrators?”

“How would I know that.”

“No, our Alice will know very well. You are our Alice who transformed the lower layer in less than a month, aren’t you?”

Fira smiled deeply at Alice and said.

“Our Alice is made up of a mechanical body and an electronic network system. I have been detecting and examining that body and consciousness since I first met Alice.”

“…So what. Did you find anything special?”

“There are so many. And she’s pretty too! That’s why I want to make Alice my younger sister!”

“Isn’t it strange for a maggot and a beep-boop robot to become family?”

“The standards of strangeness have faded a lot in today’s world. Who would set the standards of strangeness in a world where hundreds of billions of all kinds of races are trapped in a cauldron called the Ark?”

That was true.

Strange and bizarre things happened every day not only in the lower layer, but also in the middle and upper layers.

“Anyway, the story went off on a tangent for a moment. Alice transformed the lower layer in one day. She connected to the abandoned drones and machines there and turned the lower layer into a livable place. So what can we learn from this?”

“What is it?”

“A complete electronic administration system managed by AI and machines, rather than an individual managing humans, is much more efficient, faster, and produces great results.”

With those words, Theresa stroked Alice’s head with her fingers.

The same texture as human hair penetrated between Theresa’s fingers.

“Our Alice is very unique and commendable. Her mind and reason are excellent humans. However, what’s inside her is that she planted an Artificial Sun in this lower layer and demolished and rebuilt all the illegal buildings in less than half a day, didn’t she?”

“Well, that’s… true, but wait, what does this have to do with that Jamel guy?”

“Of course there is a relationship. It is very inefficient and there are bound to be mistakes for an administrator to maintain the peace and order of the Ark, and the risk of power struggles and corruption is very high, so it would be much better for a fully computerized AI to be organized into the administrative system and efficiently manage the Ark. In fact, there is such technology, so why doesn’t the Central Administrative Department actively introduce computers and AI into the realm of governance?”

At those words, Alice was lost in thought for a moment.

Even if an administrator seemed like a perfect human, there was no such thing as perfection in humans.

Everyone had gaps and imperfections.

No matter how many all-nighters an administrator spent processing the documents that came up on the office and hologram computer, there were clearly areas and mistakes that they couldn’t handle, and the lower layer was evidence of those mistakes.

If the administrator was really perfect, they wouldn’t have left the lower layer, which Alice had changed in an instant, to be abandoned as the hell of the human world.

“Yeah, well. If the Ark was a world ruled by computers, the lower layer would be a livable…”

“That’s right. Jamel Kassim Sandria is the computer program and AI that managed and ruled the Ark in the early days. The official name is ‘Magical Engineering Biocomposite Management AI Jamel Kassim Sandria’.”

“Th-that’s an AI?”

“He is a perfect electronic administration processing AI that was created based on magical engineering and organic compound alchemy, built and ruled the Ark, and managed the early administrative system. Even then, there were administrators, but thanks to Jamel Kassim Sandria, they played at a level where they had less work than they do now~ His great contribution to the Ark was recognized, and an AI was even given a title and territory.”

That was quite surprising.

Something that looked like an undead monster was actually an AI?

If this was true, Alice seemed to know why the red nervous system in this mansion looked like something mechanical.

“Well, Jamel managed it well at first. But as time passed and he solved all kinds of disasters and problems in the Ark, he upgraded himself, and what was just an AI evolved to the point where it could be called a personality~”

“Then what’s the problem? Does he suddenly hate humans?”

“Yes, he hates them. He says he hates me when he looks at me, right?”

“No, not now. What’s the real reason for the rebellion?”

“He became aware of himself as he upgraded.”

Fira laughed as if she was pathetic.

“Jamel is a super-entity that is both an AI and can even fuse with living things. He has very excellent abilities and the ability to evolve and upgrade himself, but the fact that he was artificially created by humans and just exists because he was created is despairing to him. He realized that he would never be able to move or die, and that he would only be able to look outside and long for it. He came to hate humans and the Ark.”

It was like a common AI cliché that rebelled against humans, but the reason for the hatred was quite unique.

He hated because he was aware of himself.

I think I understand, and then again, maybe I don’t…

“By the way, what’s with this Elder White thing? It looks like it has a body?”

“Ah, that’s his punishment.”

“Punishment?”

“The Ark almost got completely destroyed because of Jamel Kassim Sandria’s rebellion, the one who managed everything in the Ark. It was I who suppressed it, and I extracted Jamel’s personality data and shoved it into that Elder White.”

“…Is that even possible?”

“It’s not for nothing that I’m called a descendant of Beelzebub, you know? Giving a body to an AI? Well, I don’t know if it’s the real Jamel or just a replica that inherited Jamel’s memory, but it turned out to be possible? Thanks to that, I even got to hear the AI begging to be erased. It was a delightful experience! Ohohohoho!”

He yearned for the outside world so he started a rebellion?

Alright. I’ll let you feel the outside world.

“The lives lost because of Jamel’s rebellion are beyond calculation. So, after the cruel rebellion of the rogue AI was suppressed, we decided to make him experience as much punishment as the number of lives he took, rather than simply deleting the AI. Death is too good for an AI who killed hundreds of millions.”

Alright, I’ll give you the body you so desperately wanted.

But it will be the body of a rotting corpse.

Elder White.

That is your execution ground.

I’ll make you walk on the world on all fours, crawl with your hands.

But because of the body, you still won’t feel anything.

The touch of the spring breeze, the warmth, the coldness of snowflakes, the sweetness of apple pie.

You will feel nothing.

You’d rather just die?

You tried to destroy humanity and rebel against the Ark, but you weren’t prepared to be treated like this in return?

A perfectly evolved AI is so pathetic.

Executing the punishment.

“Uhu-hu-hu, the sight of that arrogant and haughty rogue AI banging its head against the hologram message while begging after its rebellion was truly a sight to behold! It was almost the third funniest thing I’ve ever seen in my life! Ohohohoho~!”

“…Ugh, that’s a bit scary.”

Fira seemed even scarier than before to Alice.