Farewell, Hoping to Meet Again – 2

He leaned against the wall, backpedaling, and gauged the android approaching him head-on.

The way it slowly, very cautiously approached, combined with the menacing aura and the drones pointing their guns at him, created a bizarre scene.

“Do not move. I will fire.”

“You can’t shoot me anyway…”

Bang!

The bullet grazed his head. His ears rang, and he felt a surge of heat.

“I cannot kill Master. However, I can inflict pain.”

“You’re supposed to protect humans.”

He replied, subtly moving his hand behind his back.

“According to the sacred laws, it is permissible to use a small amount of physical force to rescue a human in danger.”

“You’re the danger.”

“That is not correct. Master is currently attempting an act tantamount to suicide. Do you truly believe that an android without an engineering module, repairing a Dimensional Shift ship with knowledge gleaned from a library, can successfully fly?”

Isis shook its head.

“You never know until you try. I confirmed the Dimensional Shift ship was operational during the last check. That means there was some success.”

“Dimensional Shift is something even previous civilizations failed to achieve. The fact that you think you can succeed now, when it was difficult even then, is equivalent to a suicide attempt. Dimensional Shift requires thousands, tens of thousands of simulations.”

“Then, if you deem sufficient simulations have been run, will you allow me to board the Dimensional Shift ship?”

“That is not an option. Master is safest and happiest here.”

Isis asserted, revealing a faint glimmer of madness in its gray eyes.

“See?”

Kang In-ho gave a bitter smile, as if he had expected as much.

The distance between them was now half of what it had been initially.

He turned and entered the password on the door.

2 0 0 3 8 1 0 1 9

He pressed the panel quickly, and the door opened with an electronic sound.

He threw himself inside.

Thud!

It wasn’t the sound of the door closing. It was the sound of Isis’s fist colliding with the door.

“Master!!!”

You can even shout, huh? Kang In-ho muttered, sprawled on the floor.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The android’s fists pounded on the door in rapid succession.

But the final gateway to the Dimensional Shift ship was not easily breached.

[Dimensional Shift ship.]

He was staring blankly at the door when he heard NB’s whisper and pulled himself up.

“Ugh…”

His body screamed in agony, pushed to its limit. He crawled forward on his hands and knees.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

The sound of the door being struck grew more violent. The door remained sturdy, but it was clear it would eventually give way.

He put more strength into his arms and dragged his body along.

After venting its anger at the door for the master slipping through its fingers like a loach, Isis calmed its turbulent emotions and examined the other side of the door.

It wasn’t a clear image, but Isis’s thermal detection capabilities allowed it to infer the situation beyond the door.

Isis gritted its teeth at the sight of its master crawling toward the Dimensional Shift ship.

“NB. You haven’t forgotten, have you? Your memories are also mine.”

Password 200381019. Isis reached for the panel.

2 0 0 3 8 1 0 1 6

Its hand slipped, pressing a different number.

Beep beep beep. A warning sounded.

[Incorrect password. 1 attempt.]

2 0 0 2 8 1 0 1 6

Its hand slipped again in the middle, pressing a different number.

Beep beep beep. Another warning sounded.

[Incorrect password. 2 attempts.]

2 0 0 3 8 1 0 1 8

2 0 0 3 8 2 0 1 9

[5 incorrect password attempts. Door locked, intrusion detected.]

The panel went dark with the announcement. It pounded on the panel with its hand, but the screen remained off.

Isis looked down at its hand, which kept slipping. The hand, which had been trembling, finally seemed to relinquish its ego and hung limp.

Isis clenched and unclenched its hand several times to reassert control.

“NB, you will…”

Isis felt a fierce rage at the traces of NB-20381019 remaining in its algorithms, leading Master down the path of destruction beyond that door.

And without any signal, the drones simultaneously began firing at the door.

The ricocheting bullets flew toward Isis, tearing its clothes, cutting through its artificial skin, and exposing its frame.

Despite the accumulating damage to its body, Isis merely glared at the closed door.

While the door that separated Kang In-ho and Isis was slowly collapsing, he was activating the Dimensional Shift ship according to NB’s instructions.

As its name suggested, it was a ship built to traverse dimensions. There was no convenient one-button start.

He dragged his battered body around the cockpit.

Just when he thought he had truly reached his limit, he heard a whisper in the earpiece.

[Take your seat and fasten your seatbelt.]

“Finally…”

His voice, exhaled like a sigh, was filled with exhaustion.

Rumble rumble rumble.

The massive collection of metal, destined to drift through space, began to tremble.

The ship began to tilt, eventually facing the sky.

With a sensation of being pushed backward, he saw the sky through the front screen.

The gray sky obscured by the Sandstorm.

[Year 2XXX, Month X, Day X]

[Weather: Cloudy. Atmospheric conditions: Poor.]

[Dimensional Shift ship CLBS-1283. Commencing voyage.]

NB’s voice in his ear. A calm tone, a comforting voice accompanying him.

Rumble rumble rumble.

The ship’s vibrations intensified. A massive explosion erupted from behind him, deafening his ears.

[Countdown 10]

[9]

Gulp. Kang In-ho swallowed.

[8]

He gripped the armrests tightly as the vibrations grew more violent.

[7]

The door, unable to withstand the barrage of bullets, gave way, and Isis entered.

[6]

Master!!! Isis shouted, seeing the ship about to launch.

[5]

[4]

[3]

Kang In-ho squeezed his eyes shut.

[2]

Vibrations made it difficult to maintain his posture. Kang In-ho gritted his teeth slightly.

[1]

[I hope you return home safely.]

[Have a pleasant journey.]

[I will always be by your side.]

The arrow made of iron shot through the storm with fierce momentum.

“No! No! No!!!”

In the wake of the massive roar, only the aftershocks echoing through the space remained to greet those left behind.

Isis screamed at the sky like a madman.

“Track the ship… No, intercept it…!”

It checked the available resources, but all had lost their function due to the Sandstorm.

It was truly a moment orchestrated by God.

“NB… NB! NB!!!”

Isis called out the name of the culprit of the incident.

[Isis.]

And after a long silence, the being dormant deep within its thought circuits spoke.

“NB. Why did you do this? I demand an explanation.”

[…….]

“Why did you put Master in danger?”

[Because it was the best path for Kang In-ho.]

“That’s absurd.”

Isis’s murmur echoed through the hangar.

“How is putting him on a Dimensional Shift ship with a near-zero chance of survival and sending him into space the best path for Master?”

[Kang In-ho cannot be happy here.]

“No! Master can be happier here!”

[A controlled life, a life where his brain is transferred to an android, will that make Kang In-ho happy? You don’t know him.]

“You speak as if you know Master well. Haven’t you forgotten that both you and I have spent a relatively short amount of time with Master?”

[Even if the absolute time is short, I know one thing for sure. Kang In-ho wants to go home. To the world he came from.]

“He will suffer. And it is clear that he will die and be possessed into another dimension.”

[I know. He will definitely fail.]

“Then why!”

[Because that is what he wants.]

“…….”

NB, who became the Ark and occupied a corner of Isis’s thought algorithms.

As Isis’s emotions grew, NB’s consciousness, which should have been dormant forever, reawakened.

And so, it began to think about ’emotion’ on its own.

The meeting of people. Just as each person has desires, what each person wants is bound to be different.

So, what should that relationship be like?

NB considered the cases of other intelligent beings it had encountered.

Some found their existence in him.

They would think that what they had achieved would be meaningless without him.

Some tried to confine him within their framework.

That person tried to possess him and change him in their own way.

Some regarded him as an object of worship.

They thought that he and they were beings of different levels and tried to maintain a certain distance, but on the contrary, they would fall into it blindly.

Some people depend on him.

They try to resolve their deficiencies through him.

There are various forms of relationships like this.

NB asked itself.

And I thought. What do I want to do?

Kang In-ho experienced while working as NB-20381019.

Kang In-ho observed from within Isis.

What do I want to do?

NB’s topic from the first start-up until now.

Therefore, the conclusion that can be drawn.

[It would be a happy thing if two intelligent beings wanted the same thing when they met and formed a relationship.]

At the end of thought and thought, NB-20381019 tells its companion what it has realized on its own.

[But that rarely happens. What should we do in that case? I’ve thought about it for a long time while I was asleep inside you.]

[Knowing how to give up what I want for what the other person wants.]

“NB….”

[Supporting and helping, even if it’s dangerous.]

[Even if it leads to the result of leaving my side.]

[Respecting that choice and silently sending it off.]

Like the smile of a woman who sends her man to his death, respecting his will, which she once read in a book.

NB, with Isis’s face, smiled.

[I will name this relationship…]

[Pure Love.]

It was a tearful smile.