episode_0346

***

“Do you really need to do that customization here?”

After breakfast and cleaning up, he asked Isis.

“No.”

Isis wiped the toothpaste from the corner of her mouth with a towel.

“Then there is no problem if we proceed outside, right?”

” When you say outside, do you mean the data room or history museum?”

“Ask something even though you know. Outside this cradle.”

The owner said as he changed his clothes.

Isis shook her head.

“No.”

As if he had expected such a reaction, he let out a long sigh.

“Even when you were lying to me in the hospital room, you went outside.”

“I have never deceived my master. At that time, I also revealed my name as Isis.”

“You know that’s a pun, right?”

His eyes narrowed.

He snatched the robe that Isis was holding and began to change it, putting his own hand into it.

Isis quickly tried to help him by standing behind him, but she couldn’t bring herself to do so and waved her hands in the air a few times.

Silence fell in the space where he and Isis were.

Silence simply means the absence of sound, but Isis somehow decided that this situation needed to be resolved.

However, no matter how hard I tried to calculate what to say to resolve this situation, I couldn’t come up with an appropriate solution.

Simulate the situation using the owner’s reactions so far as variables.

The trees swayed dizzyingly outside the front window. It looks like the wind blew stronger than expected.

Watching them sway left and right, I choose and tailor my words.

Try not to disturb the owner and think of appropriate words to say to him.

After calculating while feigning silence, Isis’ mouth opened slightly.

“Do you hate me?”

For a horse that had been selected, refined, and tailored, Isis thought, its composition was not good.

“…half and half.”

He didn’t look at Isis.

“The Master is a difficult being to understand.”

He went through the human life cycle several times while managing Aaru.

Even after spending so much time, Isis, the self-proclaimed strongest AI, found it difficult to guess her master’s intentions.

Should I step back or move forward further?

Isis calculated. But none of them seemed right.

But I didn’t like silence.

“Does my existence remind you of that android?”

“Often yes. Often.”

“Do you think my presence eliminated that android?”

“I don’t know. But… I think it was covered up for whatever reason. Right?”

“That’s….”

“No, it’s done. I feel like I’m taking out my anger for no reason.”

Isis tried to say something, but he cut her off with a wave of his hand.

“If you’re angry, isn’t it right to be angry? Isn’t that a feeling?”

“Humans have emotions, but we cannot live only according to those emotions.”

It’s funny that I even say this. He laughed self-deprecatingly.

“I don’t know.”

“It will be difficult to understand. It was the same for NB, who can understand emotions, but it must be even more difficult for you.”

“There is not much difference between that Android and me.”

“Who was it that said, ‘I can’t feel emotions’ just a moment ago?”

He twitched the corner of his mouth.

Isis walked away from Kang In-ho, capturing Lee Juk-dae’s face on the visual sensor.

“It was the Master who decided that I could not feel emotions.”

Isis said as she walked towards the door.

“What?”

“On my first morning in the cradle, I talked to the Master about my feelings. Even though the expression is young and lacking, I believe it shares my emotions about what I saw and experienced. But the Master defined it as simple imitation.”

Isis lifted her hand and pressed her ear.

A clear electronic sound was heard, and a conversation was played from Isis’s mouth.

– Master, isn’t it a wonderful sight?

– Do you know the meaning of the word cool and use it?

– Of course, I know. The dictionary meaning, when to use it, and how I feel about it.

– Anyone can imitate something.

His face, which had been frowning, hardened.

– It was the Master who said that AI can also have emotions.

– That’s not you, NB.

After the regeneration was over, Isis, who had taken out the records of the past, was still showing her back to him.

“As requested, customization will be carried out outside the cradle. I think the park where you tried to escape last time would be suitable.”

“Please rest for a while. When I’m ready, I’ll come pick you up.”

Isis closed the door and left.

Kang In-ho looked at the tightly closed door and scratched his head.

***

Park outside the cradle. Perhaps because he was in a different situation than when he was frantically running away, Kang In-ho was able to leisurely take in the view of the park.

The first thing I saw was grass cut to a certain length, appropriately pruned trees, and benches placed according to rules.

“It’s nice to get some fresh air.”

“To tell you the truth, although there is a slight difference, the quality of the air here is lower than that of the air using the cradle’s air conditioning system.”

“Let’s call it a sense of liberation. Shall we do it on the bench over there?”

“Do whatever the Master wants.”

As Kang In-ho sat down on the bench, Isis sat next to him with a fist in her hand.

At the same time, two drones flew in carrying something, a transparent display that showed the other side.

“Default model.”

When Isis snapped her fingers, the display lit up and printed a familiar 3D model.

It looked like a dummy used in car impact tests.

“It’s like watching an Iron Man movie.”

Kang In-ho looked at the model he was touching with curiosity.

Perhaps because she wanted to get the owner’s attention, Isis explained the customization options with a calmer expression than before.

“Please tell us the ideal appearance you would like the master to have. I will reflect what you say.”

“Hmm… I don’t know why I’m suddenly doing this. If I had to be honest, it would be nice if I was a little taller.”

“How many cm do you want?”

“185?”

As soon as Kang In-ho’s words fell, the height of the model on the screen increased.

While he burst out laughing in surprise at the real-time reflection, Isis waited for her master’s next words.

“It is better for the eyes to be a little sharp, but not too slit to the side.”

“I don’t like eyes that look like Asians.”

“…You’re racist.”

When he looked at Isis with salty eyes, Isis shrugged her shoulders.

The protest was whether it was true or not.

“The nose is sharp. No, that’s a hooked nose. A little bit weird… right, that kind of nose.”

Kang In-ho, who initially stated the conditions in a vague manner, also became more detailed in his demands as time went by.

It seemed like they were having fun.

“Your lips are too thick now. Make it a little thinner and raise the corners of your mouth slightly. Ah, it was raised too much. How about lowering it a little?”

While the morning sun rose to its highest point, his customization continued.

Height repeatedly decreased and increased, and the length of his arms was subtly adjusted.

I spent a long time massaging the human body like that. Kang In-ho rubbed his chin at the results shown on the display.

“Oh… I took care of all the possibilities.”

A face where softness and strength coexist.

Kang In-ho exclaimed in pure admiration at the harmonious blending of the Sogyoju and saint’s faces.

“Are you satisfied? The Master preferred this kind of face.”

Isis nodded, looking at the screen with him.

The camera inside the gray eyes moved back and forth, taking random pictures of the screen.

“Honestly, if you let me be born with this face, I might want to be born again. Even if you just stay still, a woman will be tempted.”

He could not easily take his eyes off perfection itself.

“Really?”

“Huh? What?”

“If you were to be reborn, I ask you if you would want to be born like this.”

“Ah, yes. Right. It would be perfect if you have a lot of money and are smart here.”

“It seems like there are more and more things I want.”

“Because humans are greedy.”

Isis smiled quietly at the sight of her owner giggling.

He seemed to be in the best mood since coming here. Isis took this as a positive sign.

“Okay. This concludes customization. It’s lunch time now, so you should go back to the crib and eat lunch.”

Isis got up from the bench and looked down at Kang In-ho.

Drones carrying displays were also preparing to fly somewhere.

“Ah, Isis.”

Kang In-ho, who had been giggling for a while, looked at Isis.

“Yes. Please tell me.”

“Can I customize one more thing? It doesn’t matter if I eat an hour late, right?”

Regular eating was a very important factor in maintaining good health, but Isis nodded.

This was because I did not want to scatter ashes in a pleasant atmosphere rather than having a meal at a set time.

“Yes. No problem.”

“Then let’s do one more thing.”

Isis sat down next to him again. There was a gap about half a fist between him and Isis.

“First of all, his height is 177.4”

My height, which had been moving from 180 to 190 a while ago, suddenly became smaller.

“The eyes are suitable. commonly? The eyebrows are slightly raised.”

He spoke without hesitation. Each time he finished speaking, the model’s appearance changed.

“There is a slight wrinkle between the eyebrows. What is it? No matter how hard you frown, something like a mark remains, right? Something like that.”

“The corners of the mouth are slightly lowered. The nose is sharp, but not as sharp as before. Um… uh, about that much.”

“My hair isn’t messy, it’s permed, but it’s not set very well.”

“Please adjust the eye position a little. Oh, like that.”

“The outfit is just a suit. To a low-cost brand.”

Second customization completed in 20 minutes.

On the screen was an adult man who you would see everywhere. If I had to pick a characteristic, I would say it’s a face that looks a little fierce.

“It looks quite different compared to the first customization.”

“I see. What does it look like to you?”

“I don’t think he has the appearance of a handsome man. However, I don’t think it’s ugly either. If the appearance of the first customization was set to 10, the current appearance is 5 to 5.2.”

“It’s average.”

“That’s right. It is universal.”

Isis glanced at the owner sitting next to her.

Unlike the face before, which seemed to be looking at a wonderful toy, the owner’s face was as calm and serene as a lake.

As if searching for something lost, as if taking out something that had been stored away, as if seeing something welcome,

My pupils were shaking and tears were welling up in my eyes.

“Master?”

Isis called him cautiously.

“Isis.”

The owner spoke in a calm voice.

“You may not believe it, but… I want to be like this rather than the way I was before.”

Isis was curious about the reason, but did not think to ask.

The owner was looking at the screen with a face that looked like he was going to cry, and it looked like he was going to collapse at any moment.

It was like crying while hugging something precious and fragile.

Isis did not bother to ask.