I slowly looked around.
“The elevator is stopped, and the power is out.”
I turned my head back to Eve.
“…You’re not kidding, right?”
“I assure you, I’m not.”
Hmm.
No matter how advanced Eve was as the best artificial intelligence in the world and how she had somehow acquired some emotions, she rarely lied to me.
This must be a genuine, sudden accident.
If I really thought about it, there was a much more likely suspect than Eve.
“Maybe it was that Luddite group.”
“Very likely.”
…
But honestly, the timing was suspicious.
It seemed Andrea was embarrassed to hold my arm in front of others. She quickly let go and muttered beside me.
“So, it’s hacking, then?”
At that, Eve shook her head.
“As of the current check, it has been determined that there is a physical issue with the power line. The auxiliary generator is also affected, so the chances of normal recovery are very low.”
Well, it is common for such a massive facility to have an ‘emergency power system’.
Given that the power hasn’t been restored so far, it definitely seemed like the highest chance was terrorism.
For now….
I calmly checked the visual interface.
Fortunately, the signal hadn’t been cut off. I questioned Eve while manipulating the visual interface.
“Catherine is up there too, right?”
“That is correct.”
Andrea mentioned yesterday that she had reserved seats for both Catherine and Eve.
Since Eve was here, Catherine must have come along as well.
It was a reasonable inference.
I called Catherine.
“Hello?”
[Oh, Siwoon? Where are you? The lights are out here and people are going wild.]
It seemed the situation up top was the same as here.
I continued the call calmly.
“We just arrived at the underground, and the situation here is the same—pitch black without a single light. Anyway, let’s meet up and talk about it. We’ll come to you.”
[Got it.]
After a brief conversation, I ended the call.
….
By the way.
The elevator has stopped, so when am I going to go up the stairs?
“Sigh.”
I let out a light sigh.
27. The Painful Social Life (4)
In the completely dark space with lights out, a man continued to communicate via walkie-talkie.
“How’s it over there?”
[The line here is finished too.]
A different voice came from the other walkie-talkie.
Nodding alone at the response, the man pressed the button of the walkie-talkie to reply.
“Confirmed, the finishing work on this side is complete. The dome is now in blackout status. What about recovery?”
[Absolutely impossible.]
“Good, let it be a machine’s dream, not a human’s.”
[…For the dreams of humans.]
The man, a member of the Neo Luddites, continued to contemplate slowly.
‘This should deliver the message.’
The fact that the man had snuck in disguised as a staff member and had worked hard to gain trust was all for this moment.
‘…Now all I need to do is escape.’
There was no problem with the escape plan.
In a space where lights had vanished, human chaos was guaranteed to maximize.
Without power, a performance was impossible.
The man and his fellow members had no trouble escaping while taking advantage of the confusion of the audience.
[Wait, someone’s on the line─.]
– static.
With a loud noise, the voice of a colleague was cut off through the walkie-talkie.
At the sudden silence, the man pressed the button on the walkie-talkie and shouted.
“3, 3! What’s going on?!”
No answer came from the colleague, number 3.
Instead,
[…This is 2! Everyone, log off immediately!]
[This is 4! Comms with 2, 3, 5, and 6 have all been cut off─.]
[What, what the hell!!]
Only the screams of other colleagues could be heard.
The man felt cold sweat trickle down his forehead. Even now, the screams were being relayed through the walkie-talkies his colleagues held.
Soon after, all colors on the walkie-talkie lit up red. This signified that the connection with everyone had been severed.
‘We shouldn’t have been worried about pursuit using a closed network…?’
But that was the reality now.
If he didn’t act fast, he would surely be pursued too.
Having thought that, the man dropped the walkie-talkie. He stomped it to stop the signal. It was an instinctive move.
However.
[Confirming, you are the last one.]
“……What?!”
That was where the man’s memory ended.
It didn’t take long for the Neo Luddite group that infiltrated the dome to silence everyone.
*
“Successfully tracked the Neo Luddite group, successfully neutralizing all personnel.”
“…It’s only been 30 seconds since you told me that?”
“Exactly 26.7 seconds.”
“…….”
In Cyberpunk, there seems to be nowhere to hide from Eve, the ‘Deus Ex Machina’.
Not to mention I was caught off guard by how much faster she was than I thought—more importantly, she had presented me one more worry.
But still.
Eve couldn’t solve every problem.
The biggest issue was the physical power outage.
Famous singers were left sucking their thumbs, causing the audience to start shouting for credits to be refunded. According to the news through Andrea, the company simply wanted to go belly up.
In short, it was a complete mess.
I first questioned Eve.
“…Recovery of power is difficult, right?”
“Physical problems cannot be resolved by this AI’s capabilities.”
Well, that makes sense.
To be honest, if she could solve even this, I’d have created a religion called ‘Eve’ and prayed.
Catherine scratched her head and said.
“I’ve overheard some surrounding talks, and it seems like today is a bust.”
“I’d say it’s a bust, alright.”
“No, not just that.”
Catherine continued her brief explanations.
Though they managed to brighten the corridor with makeshift lights, many people were still trapped in the parking lot.
Lastly, Catherine pointed at the ceiling and the stage direction.
“They said that even if everything else is restored, stage-related lighting and equipment consume too much power, so it’s impossible.”
“Who says that?”
“The lighting supervisor.”
Being an expert’s opinion lent more credibility.
At this point, it seemed better not to perform at all.
Even if they somehow restored it and started the show, the risk of lights and music cutting out in the middle would be a headache.
…Was there no way?
I thought briefly.
Seeing Andrea lost in thought, I wanted to find a different way.
How could we continue the performance?
I didn’t wish for complete normalization.
If only the audience could enjoy it and Andrea could comfortably sing, that would be enough for me.
…Stage, lights, equipment.
Hmm.
“Hey, Andrea.”
“…Yes?”
“What do you think of this idea?”
I whispered my opinion into Andrea’s elf ear.
Andrea soon looked at me and said.
“……I’m okay with it, but are you sure you can handle it?”
“Let’s just try it. If it doesn’t work, I’ll resort to being a human battery.”
But that was the absolute last resort.
I sought agreement from Catherine and Eve, then moved with Andrea to find the relevant personnel.
*
[LOL, serves you right. LOL, failed concert?]
Ranked down to a million now, LOL.
It’s a blessing I missed the ticketing, LOL.
— I’m politely cursing your mother.
ㄴ LOL, frustrating, huh? (Author)
[Neo Luddites are f*ckers.]
(Dark venue photo)
I came to see Andrea’s concert!!!!
Why are those other machine-voiced bastards ruining the entire concert instead?!
— Raise the brightness, I can’t see the photo.
— Title: Dancing Black Folks.
ㄴ Racial discrimination at orc level.
ㄴ Stop the orc hate, please.
— LOL, they say the lights went out; must be true.
ㄴ Can’t see anything at all (Author)
[Breaking news: they say the concert is just going to start?]
What now?
— They’re probably just going to sing, LOL.
— LOL, crazy credits, LOL, guess they don’t want to refund.
— Anyway, since they’re going to perform, I’m going to check it out (Author)
*
Above the shadow-covered stage.
One by one, small lights began to flicker.
The lights that appeared in the air gradually grew in size, illuminating the surrounding stage in no time.
It didn’t take long for the noisy audience’s gaze to fully converge on the stage.
When the growing flames stopped, the ‘host’ flying in the air appeared on stage.
It moved so naturally that it didn’t look like it was hanging from wires.
It soared across the stage as if genuinely flying, and the host himself wore a big smile as if enjoying himself.
After flying around for several rounds, the host slowly descended onto the stage.
《First, I sincerely apologize for the earlier issue! Thank you for waiting! Everyone! At this moment! At this place! I announce the start of the ‘Iron Heart Festival’!》
“Wooaaah!!!”
The audience’s loud cheers echoed throughout the dome.
As if responding to the cheers, the flames decorating the stage grew even larger.
Stronger than the normal spotlight.
A strong impact captured the audience’s attention.
…….
And I was behind the stage.
“Light crew! Front, move forward!! I said move forward! No, slower!”
“Raise the host’s position! No, if you raise it from there, his head will hit the lights! Does anybody want to clean up a corpse?!”
“Can you possibly lift our singer into the air? I promise to compensate adequately!”
I felt like a house-elf, getting dragged by the lighting supervisor, stage director, or other singers’ managers.
My concentration was waning, people!
No, don’t block my view.
“Can you move aside a bit?! I can’t see!”
“Now! Red lights! Quick!!”
But these guys were just doing their job.
Hearing the lighting supervisor’s screeching plea, I slowly changed the light color to red.
I did say I’d do it, but I should’ve just stayed still.
“…….”
Well, still.
Struggling to help all these audience members and staff didn’t feel too awful.
“Brighter!!”
Wiping off the spittle from the director’s face, I quietly thought.
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