Chapter 26 Part 1: Commission – Violence

“Do you know how to drink?”

“As much as others do.”

“That’s enough. Just don’t drink enough to get drunk. You’ll cause an accident.”

I piled up the snacks, drinks, and alcohol that I had swept from the convenience store onto the desk.

Then, Haran, who saw the food piled up so much that it more than filled the desk, looked at me as if she was tired of it.

“Didn’t you buy too much?”

“I did… But if we can’t eat it all, we can just eat it all later.”

“Sigh.”

…Did I buy too much after all?

I watched Haran’s reaction as she sighed, and I put the excuse that I couldn’t help it into my mouth.

“B, but… That food isn’t synthetic meat. That kind of thing is rare.”

“You know there’s no such thing here.”

“Ugh.”

But, the excuse didn’t work on her.

I wanted to make an excuse for buying too much using my origins as an excuse.

Perhaps it’s because we’ve been living together for a while, but she seemed to notice the excuse in an instant.

Is she angry after all?

I was a little uneasy from the start when I said let’s have a party and then said let’s just eat convenience store food.

Perhaps I should have gone to a slightly more expensive place since I said party.

When I think about it, Haran is a woman.

I am also biologically a woman, but it’s hard for my emotions and hers to match perfectly.

If it’s a party, I should have done it in a place with atmosphere…

“Why are you so restless? I’m not going to scold you, so stay still.”

“Oh, really?”

“Geez, why are you suddenly reacting like that? We can’t get a refund for what we’ve already bought, so just eat it.”

With those words, Haran plopped down on the chair, picked up a convenience store chicken leg, and started munching on it.

As I put one chicken leg in my mouth while watching her reaction, the unique scent of chicken and the crispy texture of the fried chicken brought satisfaction to my brain through the taste sensors.

“…It’s been a really long time since I’ve had food that didn’t come from a factory.”

“All the food here comes from factories. Convenience store food is all like that, isn’t it?”

“That’s not what I mean. This chicken leg is made of chicken.”

“Yes? Then what do you make chicken with if you don’t make it with chicken?”

“I don’t know.”

Synthetic meat made by mixing a lot of unidentified substances that I don’t even know where they were extracted from, and vegetables that don’t explain in detail what kind of genetic modification they have undergone.

Is it because I have lived for a long time eating that kind of stuff?

I couldn’t help but buy this and that when I saw the food displayed at the convenience store.

You could say I was unusually excited.

“I know, but I don’t want to say it. You’ll lose your appetite if you hear it.”

“Ah, yes… You saying that makes me not want to hear it…”

“Forget it. There’s no company that makes that kind of thing here anyway, right?”

I once infiltrated a company that manufactures the food I used to enjoy, and I happened to peek into the manufacturing process at that time.

And, after that day, I didn’t put the food of that world in my mouth.

I was so disgusted with myself for eating that kind of thing.

I could deeply sympathize with the saying that there are truths that are better not to know.

・Dirty memories came to mind.

I took a big gulp of beer to empty my stuffy heart.

“Keuh. Delicious.”

“…You’re eating deliciously. So much so that it’s hard to believe you’re a machine.”

“It’s the opposite. It’s delicious because I’m a machine.”

“Is that so?”

“Yes. I can eat as much as I want without guilt.”

One of the many advantages of replacing my body with a prosthesis.

That is, I don’t gain weight.

In some ways, it’s natural. Although bio-tech is applied, this body was made with the goal of an ideal body that people want.

Apart from the performance to protect the body, there are many convenient functions dormant.

There’s no way I can gain weight by eating a little food with that kind of body, right?

All the calories absorbed into the body are converted into energy and then charged into the spare battery, so I can’t gain weight.

That means I can eat a lot of high-calorie food without any hesitation.

・Unfair.”

“You can switch to a prosthesis too.”

“Yes? Is that possible?”

“Well. There’s a possibility. I have the blueprints.”

“Blueprints?”

To show her, who was expressing doubts, I tapped my forehead with my index finger.

Then, the smooth forehead cracked and spat out a small chip.

“This is…”

“It’s a storage device. It contains various information. The blueprints are also inside.”

No matter how good a prosthesis is, maintenance is essential.

But, it’s impossible to entrust my prosthesis to other people, right?

That’s why I had to do the maintenance of the prosthesis myself, and I always carried the blueprints with me.

I can’t just stand by when things go wrong and I have to repair it on the spot.

In addition to that, a lot of blueprints and knowledge are contained in this one chip, so it can be said that I didn’t just come to this world with my body.

“If you want, I can change you to a prosthesis. It will take some time to make the equipment, though.”

“Ah, it’s okay. That kind of thing is a little…”

“What, weren’t you interested?”

“I’m interested, but I’m still a little scared of changing my body.”

From her slurred words, I could feel a sense of rejection about changing her body into a machine.

Well, the prosthetic hands used in this world are just imitations that only imitate the shape.

I could fully understand that she felt a sense of rejection.

“Don’t worry, I won’t force you. Ah, I remember those Confucian scholars. They were just like you.”

“Yes?…Confucian scholars?”

“Ah, you don’t know? There was a group with that name. They were the guys who extremely disliked using prostheses.”

What was it? The guys who promoted something about the body.

They were the guys who said that the human body is a precious thing handed down by our ancestors, so the heinous act of wearing prostheses to defile the body should not be allowed.

Because they were acting to correct this corrupt world, they were at odds with most organizations.

“It was so funny how those guys would freak out when they saw me. Ahahaha!”

“They were really crazy guys. You’d be surprised if you saw them too. When you see them fighting guys with prostheses with their bare bodies.”

“Ah, yes.”

Although they were guys I could never get close to, I could acknowledge that one romance.

Even though they were in an infinitely disadvantageous position because they couldn’t use prostheses, the sight of them fighting prosthesis users was cool even for me to see.

Well, romance doesn’t feed you, so in the end, most of them died and only a few remained.

Rather, that’s why their notoriety was quite great.

As you can see from the fact that they survived in such harsh conditions, the guys who survived were all skilled guys.

“I’ll make them little by little even if you don’t ask, so tell me if you’re interested.”

“You’re making them? How?”

“I have to ask Yoo Jin. She’ll replicate the parts little by little and assemble them in advance.”

So far, I have solved the case without any problems, but there was no guarantee that I would be able to do this in the future.

If I end up fighting a really dangerous guy, there’s a possibility that I might lose part of my body.

So, I had to make a spare body while the prosthesis was still intact.

So that I can get back on my feet even if I lose.

Even if my body is completely broken, I can create another opportunity.

It was a preparation that I could make because I was not a body with flesh, but someone who could use a prosthesis.

And, while making those preparations, I could prepare a prosthetic hand or foot for Haran in advance.

“I’ll think about it.”

“Think about it slowly. There’s nothing bad about it, right? Who knows if one of your arms will fly away later.”

“There’s no way that’ll happen.”

“Yeah, yeah.”

How long had it been since I started putting the mountain of food and alcohol into my stomach while talking with Haran?

Even though it was well past midnight, I heard someone knocking on the office door.

‘…What is it?’

“It seems like a customer. That was faster than I thought?”

“Haa, why at a time like this…”

“What’s wrong with that. It’s good if there’s a lot of work.”

Whether the choice to provide a free service to the first client as a major bleeding service was not wrong, it seemed that one more client had already come in a short time.

There were only two customers yet, but the prospective customers must have noticed that those people were very satisfied.

I wonder what kind of customer it will be this time.

I left Haran, who had hurriedly started cleaning up, and opened the office door.

“Hmm?”

“Ah, hello. Um, that… M, my uncle handed me this business card and told me to go here…”

However, contrary to my expectations, the person who came to the office did not seem like a client.

A child who is wearing a school uniform and still looks like a student.

The child was hesitantly handing me a business card.

“Let’s see…?”

Checking the business card, I couldn’t help but be surprised once more.

Because the name written on the business card was the name of the first client.

…No matter how I look at it, it doesn’t look like he knows what kind of place this is and came here?

“What is your relationship with this person?”

“He’s my uncle. A few days ago, he told me to go here…”

“Is that so?”

That means this student may also want revenge.

I decided to let the student into the office to hear the story in detail.

“Come in. Aren’t you hungry? Haran! Don’t clean that up! Let me feed it to the guest!”

“Yes?! I’ve already cleaned up almost everything!”

“Then put it back on!”

Haran’s grumbling voice echoed towards the front door.