episode_0326

The Violet animals’ rebellion was fierce, and in the end, we had to find new names.

The monkey’s reaction, in particular, was so intense that I could feel the others getting agitated.

If I brought up names like ‘Bak-kkagi’ or ‘Bak-jjiki’ here, it felt like they’d revolt at any moment.

“Alright, monkey. I’ll give you a proper name!”

“Ooh-ooh!” “Boss! No more jokes!”

Naming them felt like exploring an unknown world.

Countless words burst forth like fireworks in our minds, then vanished.

“Soong-soong-ie? Or King Kong?” “No! That’s weird!”

“That seems too childish, Boss. Don’t we have something cooler?”

“Then…”

The monkey shook its head no to all our suggestions.

Its expression seemed to say, ‘Please, think seriously.’

Finally, we sighed and looked at each other.

Who knew naming one would be this hard.

“Wait, Mister, what were their genders again? I completely forgot what you said last time. What about the monkey?”

“I believe I mentioned it last time; they are all female.”

“Oh? Really?”

Right, I think we talked about that last time, or maybe not. Why did you say female again?

“Female mammals have slightly higher compatibility with the network’s wavelengths than males. So, we only implanted biochips in females.”

“I see…”

I asked the monkey and the other V-animals what names they wanted.

“Ooh-ooh! Ooh-ooh!” “We want cool, good names!!”

“Caw! Caw!” “Sparkling names!”

“Squeak! Squeak!” “Names! Names! We want names!”

I roughly gathered their opinions and took a long drink from my mug.

Unit 3212 carelessly looked down at the cup in its hand.

Brown cocoa sloshed around, still in the cup.

I looked at the monkey again.

Its sparkling, shaggy brown fur.

At that moment, something flashed in my mind. “A good idea came to me!”

I said to the monkey.

“Cocoa!”

The monkey looked at me with curious eyes.

“From now on, you’re Cocoa! How’s that?”

“Ooh-ooh…?”

It expressed doubt. Why Cocoa?

Since it didn’t immediately object, it seemed it wasn’t too bad.

I quickly formulated a plan to persuade it, mobilizing the collective intelligence.

“Cocoa is a delicious food, isn’t it? And it sounds cute! You’re a female, right?”

So, a cute name would be fitting.

“I’m your boss, and since your boss is a beautiful girl, you should have names befitting a beautiful girl’s subordinate!”

I subtly glanced at the bewildered Mister and nodded.

Mister Yurik, as if understanding my signal, clapped awkwardly.

“Oh, that’s good. It’s cute and… a dignified name. Don’t you think so too, monkey?”

Monkey… no, I should call it Cocoa now.

Cocoa thought for a moment, then chattered happily.

“Ooh-ooh! Ooh-ooh!” “Good! Boss! Thank you!”

What remained were the names of the other animals.

Once a name was given, there was nothing to stop me from here.

Once the floodgates were opened, Violet’s creativity flowed endlessly, continuing its stream of thoughts.

“You are Almond!”

“Caw! Caw!”

“And you are Lemon, Raspberry… Orange! There! I’ve named all ten of you. How about it?”

The crow flapped its wings, seemingly pleased, and the mice squeaked joyfully, cheered thrice, and then hopped and danced.

As we were leaving the office, Mister Yurik whispered.

“…Didn’t you name them a bit carelessly?”

“It’s fine! The kids like them, don’t they?”

The V-animals can’t read our minds anyway. Since they liked them themselves, the problem is solved.

“Anyway, since the problem is solved, isn’t that good enough?” “Great!”

**

Now that the animal naming problem was roughly solved, I wanted to introduce these new animal friends to my actual friends.

Of course, when the Violet network animal access experiment succeeded, there was a separate first recipient of this honor.

It was Enrica, who lived in the next room.

“Wow, it’s a monkey! I’ve never seen one before!”

“Ooh-ooh?”

For Enrica, who had only ever seen beasts and never even a four-legged animal, let alone a zoo, the monkey’s existence was like a new world.

But the joy didn’t last long.

“Here, it’s a banana. Eat!”

“Ooh-eek!…Ooh-eek…Cough! Cough…”

As the excited Enrica stroked it, Cocoa, who had been happily eating a banana, suddenly trembled as if it felt cold.

Startled, I quickly pulled Cocoa away from Enrica.

“What is it?! You’re wearing all your protective gear and gloves! Why is it acting like this?”

It was strange. In this situation, it should be fine even if it held hands and danced with someone like Mister Yurik, so why was it acting like this?

Enrica’s face turned pale, and she quickly checked the meter on her wrist.

An elevated level of radiation concentration in her body was displayed.

“Huh? I guess I haven’t taken my medicine yet. My blood levels have gone up!”

“Cough…Cough…”

“Ahhh! Cocoa’s going to die!”

Only after quickly administering a radiation antidote did Cocoa regain its senses.

It was a mistake not to consider that animals might be more sensitive to radiation.

“I’m sorry, monkey…”

“Eeek…”

“This won’t do. If I see the other animals, they might die. I’ll just watch from afar…”

Enrica, who couldn’t bear to send the other V-animals across the River Styx, had to be content with just seeing them with her eyes.

The lesson learned from this incident was to ensure that no dangerous people came to the animal lab for the time being.

Fortunately, the second person to see the V-animals was harmless and benevolent.

“Long time no see!”

Around the weekend, Kalia visited our home in the central district after a long time, intending to check on the brotherhood and the neighborhood.

“What do you mean, ‘long time’? You were sitting next to me on the high-speed train just a few hours ago!… So you tamed animals? What are you talking about?”

“You’ll see, come on! Say hello!”

As soon as she entered the factory building, Kalia was met by a squad of mice, lined up in two rows on the table.

The mice waved one of their front paws in greeting, as instructed.

Kalia’s eyes widened at the sight.

“Squeak! Squeak!”

“Huh? Hey! What’s this, a mouse! Isn’t it a sewer rat? Why are you raising something like this?”

“They’re lab mice! Don’t say anything, they’re clean and smart! And they understand human speech well.”

“Squeeeak…”

At the mention of being dirty, the mice lowered their heads as if disheartened.

Kalia, after hearing the explanation, wore a troubled expression.

She seemed to be pondering how to treat the dejected V-mice.

“These kids even bathe and can use the conveniences of civilization. Look! Don’t they smell like soap?”

“…They do smell fragrant. So, you really understand what I’m saying?”

As soon as Kalia finished speaking, the mouse serving as the leader of the V-mouse squad stepped forward and looked at her with sad eyes.

“Squeak…Squeak…”

“Kalia, Lemon is angry! They’re upset about being compared to low-class street mice when they’re smart mice. Apologize!”

“Ah, um, I’m sorry. This neighborhood used to be infested with rat… no, not rats! Those, mice really swarmed here and bothered us. Not you! You’re clean mice. You know I didn’t mean it that way, right? Huh? Sorry!”

The commotion subsided only after biscuits were handed to the sulking mice.

Perhaps this experience acted as a vaccine, as no verbal blunders occurred when she saw the monkeys and crows.

“Oh… to think that animals can understand speech. That Mister scientist and the old Professor are amazing, but also scary. What methods did they use to connect them to your head?”

Kalia, who went outside to look around the neighborhood, still shook her head, looking dumbfounded.

Then she looked up at a cawing sound above her head.

“That’s the crow from earlier, right?”

“Yes, its name is Almond.”

Almond was acting as a Violet drone, patrolling the surroundings above our heads.

Being a bird, it had good eyesight and was much more comfortable than when sharing a mouse’s vision.

A wide field of view was also an advantage.

“Well done! If you’ve covered the residential complex, go over there, to the red commercial building!” “Understood! Boss!”

The outline of how the Violet Brigade’s system would be structured in the future was taking shape.

I’ll assign the V-crows the role of drones, and the powered hang gliders the role of attack drones.

Since they’re birds, they won’t be easily noticed, and enemies will be less wary of them.

Thus, our special animal unit was gradually taking shape.

Excluding Cocoa, they could be considered to have no direct combat power, so using them for suicide attacks would be a bit of a waste.

“Still, they’re useful for surveillance, right?” “That’s true!”

Violet’s vision now extended to the narrow underground and the wide sky.

It was as if they could personally realize the proverb ‘Birds hear day words, mice hear night words’ [a proverb about how secrets are difficult to keep].

“Everyone is doing well…”

While inspecting a housing complex, Kalia unconsciously muttered.

It hadn’t even been a year since our Violets swept away the nearby gangs.

The peaceful appearance of this neighborhood on the outskirts of the central district, which they were currently observing, still seemed unfamiliar.

“Yes, Kalia’s uncle has also recovered his health and is hitting bad guys’ heads well.”

After our Violets first cleared out the bad guys, the Osprey Brotherhood became a heavily armed force, equipped with weapons and funds we had seized from the gangs.

Thanks to Kalia’s uncle, a former hunter, who put in effort afterward, this area became peaceful.

“Right, but there’s still something to be careful about. There’s still a problem related to real estate redevelopment. You know the story from my uncle, right?”

“Yes, a Clan came in and caused a ruckus. Then it was dismantled and disappeared.”

“That last part is important. It was LUMINEXA that dismantled those Clan guys. My uncle says the development problem in this area has only paused temporarily. It could resume at any time.”

“Ah, so there was such an important problem.”

I paused for a moment. It was the moment when the collective intelligence of the Violets was about to activate in an unexpected situation.

Perhaps sensing my seriousness, Kalia quickly added.

“Don’t worry! LUMINEXA isn’t interested in this place. And remember that inspector who came to catch you last time? I met him recently. He met my uncle too.”

“What? Really?”

“I don’t know the details, but he supposedly helped sort out the related issues. Don’t worry too much.”

“Hmm, that’s a relief. We’ll clash someday, but it would be troublesome if problems like this arose here already.”

And so, Kalia and I patrolled various parts of the neighborhood.

Most were decent citizens, and although there were occasionally suspicious-looking people on the outskirts, there were no major problems.

Just ordinary people engrossed in their own work. All the bad guys had become daily sustenance for fish.

“It’s thanks to Violet. Now those filthy bastards and fixers can’t even set foot in this neighborhood.”

“Oh, it was nothing. I just threw some gang members into the sea.”

I replied humbly to Kalia’s gratitude, but for some reason, my friend’s expression turned sour.

“Th-the sea? Ah… was that how it was…? Well, I guess so…”

“Well, don’t worry, I didn’t throw too many! Just don’t eat fish caught near the Rust Room. Got it?”

“Oh, sorry!”