In a typical dark city, the only beings that can cross are ‘heroes’ or ‘ninjas.’
But there’s another entity allowed to engage in such suspicious activities other than the hero in a bat mask or the ninja in a black mask.
It’s the ‘ordinary terrorist.’
They traversed rooftops, sending signals through a voice channel shared only among themselves.
[Target location.]
[Specific completed, recorded in data.]
There were probably more than ten of them. That number didn’t seem small.
Every time they set a foot down, the sound of springs bouncing echoed from their knee joints. At the same time, concrete fragments scattered on the building’s rooftop floor.
If an unsuspecting civilian witnessed this, they would exclaim in awe, “It’s the Kojaka Ninja Unit!”
But in reality, it was just terrorists affiliated with some group moving around.
[Receiving.]
The man, one of the members of the ‘Tech Worm’ organization (who thinks of himself as a machine), pondered about the target, ‘Maya.’
‘…To refuse the favor of machines.’
Must be due to nostalgia for flesh. It’s fine. If I reconstruct the cyberware implants, she’ll rediscover the pleasures of a mechanical body.
The man continued his thoughts, somewhat malfunctioning emotionally.
Only ten seconds to arrival.
The ‘message’ was imminent.
“……”
Meanwhile, the man spotted someone with the target.
He immediately relayed a message to his comrade running alongside him through the voice channel.
[Person next to the target.]
[Unknown, identity verification impossible.]
Then it must be an unfortunate civilian.
Not holding any weapons, nor in any readiness posture. There was no reason to prepare.
The man mumbled briefly.
[Countermeasure.]
[All abducted.]
His comrade’s judgment was the same as his.
[Receiving.]
The responding man prepared for hacking while swooping down on the target and the unlucky civilian.
Or rather, that’s what he intended to do.
[……?!]
[Sudden gust of wind, landing impossible.]
[…Were they prepared? How? There are no machines in sight─.]
The last gasps of his comrades began to reach him one after another.
The man’s thoughts were no different.
‘No, more importantly…!!’
As far as he knew, among the implants installed by him and his comrades, none of the cyberware had the function to control posture mid-air.
Suddenly, all of their bodies flipped upside down as if they were doing a handstand.
They flailed helplessly in the air, but changing posture without devices was nearly impossible.
‘…Shit!’
And then an unending blackout followed.
That was the end of the man’s thoughts.
30. Transhumanism (3)
In this cyberpunk world, tall buildings were, of course, abundant.
And with so many buildings, it was quite common for poor ‘birds’ to crash into them and fall to the ground.
60cm mice, 30cm cockroaches, many-legged frogs, etc.
Even among the strange creatures in the cyberpunk realm, this was no different.
How on earth did they penetrate the ceiling traps?
Sometimes during the migration season, oversized sparrows that were too large to be just sparrows and slightly too small to be eagles could be seen flying around the city.
There were many subscription-based insurances related to ‘bird strikes.’
While birds weren’t aggressive, their mere size frequently caused accidents just by flying around.
Simply put, it’s like the ultimate evolutionary form of chicken pigeons.
Anyway, the reason I suddenly thought about ‘birds’ in such a situation was that I felt a sense of déjà vu seeing the attackers who failed to land and plummeted headfirst because of my gust.
…It wasn’t much of a deal after all.
In fact, changing the ‘brain’ part of a human into a machine was incredibly difficult.
Only someone at the level of the Monolith’s chairman could make it happen. Upon reflection, the Kojaka chairman used whole-body replacement technology as well. So it must only be the CEOs of megacorps who could manage that.
In the end, it meant that no matter how much of their body had been mechanized, the head remained vulnerable.
Seeing the attackers wriggling on the ground like bugs, Maya let out a short gasp of admiration.
“Wow.”
“Don’t look, don’t look.”
“…Do I look like a child to you?”
You are the youngest, after all.
I replied to Maya with silence.
Anyway, they made their appearance and left right away.
I thought they would fly away like ninjas, so surely they could change posture mid-air.
But I never expected it to end so trivial.
Well, if it’s a group I’ve never heard of, that’s to be expected. They likely wouldn’t have appeared in the game, and if they were strong, that would have been even weirder.
To be honest, there are just too many organizations swarming in Neon City.
It’s not surprising that I’ve already forgotten the name of the organization that requested Julia’s abduction. I think it had “doom” in it or something, but it quickly faded from my mind.
Maya walked over to the fallen ones.
Transparent colloid and red blood flowed down.
“So they were trying to abduct me again, right?”
“…Uh-huh.”
Maya glanced at her feet.
She had approached right in front of the collapsed abductors.
“……”
And Maya silently took in their bug-like behavior.
Hmm.
This feels unsettling.
The Chrome Psycho Disorder usually doesn’t have a concept of ‘cure’— that might stem from the mental issues, and the causes aren’t clearly understood, making it hard to explain.
Using the function of my mechanical eye, I enlarged Maya’s face in my view.
And at the same time,
Maya turned to look at me.
Whoa, freaked me out.
I was shocked even more because I was zooming in on her face.
At that moment, the image of Maya I met on that rainy day briefly flashed in my mind.
…That’s why I wanted to send Maya away.
Given that they were here for reasons similar to the ones who forcibly installed implants in Maya, I didn’t want them to meet.
…
I tried to persuade, explain, and plead as much as I could.
But one minute was way too short.
No, 50 seconds.
I called Maya’s name in a small voice.
“…Uh, Maya?”
But maybe it was just my worries.
Maya smiled brightly and answered me.
“Yes?”
The feeling I had just a while ago vanished completely.
“……”
Still, I should be cautious.
I urged Maya again.
“Would you like to head back first today?”
Considering the information about Maya that’s leaked, it seemed best to deal quickly with whatever that ‘Tech Worm’ organization was about.
“I’ll take care of that what’s it called, Worm.”
[It’s ‘Tech Worm.’]
Whether it’s Tech Worm or whatever Worm, they’re all the same.
Just one of the trashy organizations overflowing in Neon City.
But once again, Maya firmly rejected my request.
“…You’re not thinking I’ll just go back, are you?”
“……”
So what will you do then?
Of course, you should go back…
As if reading my thoughts, Maya shook her head again.
“…I won’t have any part to help you. Thanks to Dr. Terra, I’ve gotten rid of most combat cyberware in my body.”
Even if you could fight, I wouldn’t take you.
Why would I bring a civilian along?
Just as I was about to open my mouth, Maya raised her hand to stop me.
“But I’m not saying this out of a childish whim to accompany you.”
“Hmm.”
“…In the end, the Chrome Psycho issue is largely a mental one.”
I nodded slightly in agreement.
That makes sense.
Given how the symptoms worsen on rainy days, it might just be that the pain annoys her.
Maya looked at me straight in the eyes.
“I want to see it with my own eyes. The bad guys disappearing from this city.”
……
“…Is that not possible?”
…It’s hard to just refuse.
Logically, it would be right to send Maya back. But I couldn’t cold-heartedly cut her off, knowing she had a painful past.
I need to fix this tendency of mine.
“…Just stay behind me.”
“……Yes!”
As I started moving,
Excited steps from Maya followed closely behind me.
Well, it should be fine.
What could possibly go wrong?
In the meantime.
[Is it okay not to call in other units?]
“Uh?”
I pondered over Eve’s question.
Hmm…, that could work.
Of course, I am indeed the weakest among our allies (the Four Kings), and I haven’t learned magic in a systematic manner from Merlin yet (and I have no intention of doing so), and Eve, who has always been dependable, isn’t an android right now, but…
“Eh, it’s just a run-of-the-mill organization around the neighborhood. Do we really need to go that far?”
I casually brushed off Eve’s advice.
*
Hmm.
I should’ve called them.
[Shall I call them now?]
“……No, I’ll give it my best shot for now.”
“…Is something wrong?”
“Maya, you’re genuinely in danger, so stay absolutely close behind me.”
Regret crept in.
No, how does a neighborhood organization go around fully modifying their bodies like Drake?
Of course, their product line isn’t top-tier, but comparing to Drake, it’s not like they had exceptionally weak parts, making it hard to find a non-metal piece.
In other words, they were incredibly solid.
I had been lucky during the earlier ambush…
“……”
This might not just be an ordinary neighborhood organization.
“…Target confirmed, attack!!”
“You organic bastard! I told you not to fire the grenades─.”
– KABOOM!!!
As I reflected while sending the grenade soaring back at me.
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