episode_0071

‘Human? The humanoid is saying it’s human.’

Harmon watched what the humanoids were doing.

The humanoid, who was looking at his own clothes and moving his hands here and there, let out a deep sigh and said.

“Yeah. There’s no way there’s cigarettes. I asked them to put some in, you fucking bastards.”

She grumbled and said as she looked at Harmon’s hologram.

“By the way, that’s amazing. How do you use holograms? Isn’t it true that humans in this era just live off the scraps of technology we left behind? That’s what I expected.”

[Mostly, yes.]

Harmon admitted honestly.

[I am special.]

And he added:

Dahlia, who had been looking at Harmon with a blank expression for a moment, snickered.

“Huh, kid.”

She said that with an expression of satisfaction and instinctively moved the finger holding the cigarette to her mouth, but when she saw that there was no cigarette, she shook her hand, saying that she felt bad.

“Yes, special descendant.”

[Isn’t it a bit ambiguous to call them descendants? In terms of DNA, we are… .]

“We created the designer, so you are our descendants.”

[…Amili.]

Dahlia’s eyes widened when Harmon mentioned the name.

“What? How do you know him?”

[Were you Amilie’s colleague?]

“It was a cooperative relationship. Amelia and I. We joined hands because we needed each other.”

Dahlia planted her wings on the floor and leaned back against them, saying:

“Amili needed our skills, and we needed her power. She was the only CEO who listened to us.”

Harmon could guess what skills Amelia would need.

Perhaps, Amelia couldn’t complete the designer on her own. She must have completed the designer with their help.

And maybe the price for that is… this.

Human consciousness transplanted into a humanoid body.

“The humans of our time were the most brilliantly developed, but also the most foolish. They had enough power and technology to set the world right, but they just ran towards destruction. War, war, and more war… In the end, this is how the world turned out.”

The Age of the Wilderness.

A completely dead Earth where past humans could not survive even for a minute.

“We expected it. We didn’t think we could stop that madness. We tried a few times and failed. So, we decided to survive alone.”

So we prepared the humanoid.

“The human brain can’t endure the long years without knowing when it will wake up. I wanted to become a cryogenic human, but if someone maliciously ruins it, there’s nothing I can do. That’s why I turned to humanoids.”

Dahlia spreads her arms.

“Even in those times, Amelia was a powerful person who could request the creation of humanoids, and we asked her to order each brand to create humanoids that would be made of our bodies.”

So they made it.

A database that has copied and transferred everything from their memories and consciousness, to the artificial intelligence core of humanoids and dominates the blue brains within them.

“On the day the humanoid was completed, we placed a time capsule containing our consciousness inside the humanoid. Someday, after a long time has passed, if everything goes according to Amili’s plan, it will be the time capsule that will transcend time and bring us back to life.”

That was the identity of what Harmon called a black box.

An object containing the consciousness of mankind from a past era.

[Transferring human consciousness and will by completely duplicating it? Is that possible?]

“Well, it’s not easy. Even if you raise twins in exactly the same environment, minor errors can cause differences in personality.”

Dahlia scratched her head.

“Maybe we who are here now are different from the real us who are already dead?”

It also means that she failed to completely revive, but she didn’t seem to care at all.

[Is that okay?]

“What do you know? I recognize myself as me. Then that’s fine. I am me, and then I am definitely resurrected. The important thing is not the truth. Recognition.”

[That’s not something a scientist should say.]

It wasn’t something Harmon should have said.

Because if the Harmondo metal cell treatment fails, he was thinking of backing up his consciousness data and transferring it to a dummy.

If that had been the case, Harmon would have died and only a mechanical Harmon would have remained, moving according to data.

On the other hand, those in front of us have succeeded in doing so.

“Even if there is a knife that can cut everything in the world, if the user only recognizes it as a razor, it is still a razor.”

As she said that, Dahlia got up from her seat and walked towards Harmon’s hologram.

Dahlia leaned down in front of the hologram to get eye level with Harmon. She looked at Harmon quietly and said.

Harmon also said he saw her.

[I was wondering why you were talking so bluntly.]

“Really?”

[You, you’ve got an error.]

Dahlia smiles at Harmon’s words.

[I tried to fix it, but it didn’t work.]

“Haa. Life sucks.”

[Is it because of the owner registration?]

Dahlia’s expression distorted at those words.

“Yeah, you son of a bitch.”

Dahlia glares at Harmon’s hologram with an expression that suggests she wants to kick it away.

“Originally, I was planning to ignore the owner registration and go find freedom as soon as I woke up. But what is this? Why was I registered as the owner?”

[You should have just removed the owner registration feature, right? You guys are the ones who didn’t do it.]

“Do you think it’s easy to mess with a humanoid? Owner registration is the core of the humanoid system. Without it, there’s an error…! Ha, stop it. What’s the point of saying anything?”

Dahlia crouched down and met Harmon’s eyes as she spoke.

“I’ll give you whatever you need. So order me to remove this fucking owner’s registration immediately.”

[I understand. The dummy ordered me to come to you using my authority, so you cannot leave or run away at your will, and there is no way to tamper with the owner’s registration on your own.]

Harmon smiled brightly.

[You’re lucky. Not only did you get a humanoid, but you got a whole human from the past.]

Dahlia couldn’t help but grind her teeth as Harmon said that with a smile.

“You little shit, be quiet before I use all my means to fuck you… … .”

[Dahlia. Be quiet.]

Dahlia keeps her mouth shut at Harmon’s words.

Harmon nodded in satisfaction at her appearance.

[I was feeling limited in doing research and development on my own. My students were not growing satisfactorily, so I couldn’t do joint research. This is a great talent that I’ve got.]

Harmon, who had been pondering for a moment, asked a question.

[Dahlia. Tell me your specs. Starting with your humanoid body.]

“… … .”

Dahlia clenched her teeth and tried not to say anything, but she could not resist the command signal emanating from the artificial intelligence core.

If you continue to ignore the signal, the humanoid’s core will detect Dahlia as an error and attack her. Dahlia will not be defeated, but the humanoid’s body will become unable to move due to its destroyed functions.

As a result, Dahlia will be trapped in this humanoid body, unable to move, see, or hear, and will live forever in darkness.

This wouldn’t have happened if the owner hadn’t registered in advance.

But it has already happened.

“Medical. 1200 standard.”

At best, she conveyed information in fragments, with minimal resistance, but at a level that seemed sufficient to carry out the order.

[Medical! But are you guys strictly within the 1200 standard?]

“Yes. Because it’s the strongest.”

[Really? Then let me ask you, do you have any hostile forces?]

“… … was there.”

Harmon said firmly.

[No, it’s still there. It’s definitely there.]

“What are you talking about?”

Harmon showed Undine’s hologram by floating it.

[This is the humanoid I have. The black box that contains your consciousness… That is, the time capsule was stolen by a mysterious enemy, and was modified to a lower standard and used as a pet, and was abandoned in the wilderness.]

Dahlia’s eyes widen at Harmon’s words.

Anyone who hears it will find it to be infinitely malicious behavior.

It wasn’t even a real body, but a doll body that contained only a consciousness, so why bother modifying the combat core into a pet core? It was an insult that I wouldn’t have bothered to do unless I had some serious hostile feelings.

“Then.”

Dahlia said, looking at Undine’s face.

“Isobel.”

Isobel. At the name that suddenly popped up, Harmon realized that it was the name of a human who originally had the body of Undine.

“Is Isobel dead?”

[The dummy Undine’s face must be exactly like Undine’s. Why is it only reacting now?]

“Isobel didn’t want to bother designing her own face, so she just picked a face from a catalog. I thought this robot had a public face like that.”

As she spoke, Dahlia actively utilized the humanoid’s computational power to guess the enemy’s identity.

‘If it’s possible to modify a humanoid, it’s someone with extraordinary skills and knowledge. Such people are rare. There are roughly four people that come to mind, but which of them have survived so far? Let’s list them one by one.’

Maybe less… … .

When Dahlia had almost guessed the enemy’s identity, Harmon said.

[I’ll share the next story with you when you get back, Dahlia. I need to think about what to do with Domi.]

With those words, Harmon’s hologram disappeared, leaving only Dahlia, the dummy Undine, and the sleeping Domi.