Galm looked at me with a confused expression, as if he couldn’t understand what I was saying, and I could only smile back at him.
While the machine treating Galm hummed away, I confirmed that today’s treatment was over and patted him on the shoulder to lift him up.
“Alright, treatment is done for today, so don’t overdo it. That’s all.”
“Ugh… I’ll try.”
After Galm left, I finished tidying up and sat blankly on the sofa, scrolling through my smartphone. Just like Galm said, the people on the internet were buzzing about androids.
Reading about how humanity’s liberation from labor had finally arrived and how machines were going to dominate people made me want to sigh.
I wondered if people realized that the one with that technology was completely uninterested in liberation or a machine uprising.
“Resentment…”
It was something I had commonly experienced. Resentment could easily arise from very trivial matters. People resented others for having better grades, for entering colleges they couldn’t, for being born in peaceful countries without wars, and even for simply being born on Earth.
So, at this point, if I received a bit of resentment, it wouldn’t break me or send me trembling in fear. On the contrary.
“The Heroes resent me, huh?”
How dare they?
If I didn’t feel that smugness, it would be a lie.
It hit me that I had become excessively accustomed to the Evil Organization and had thoroughly immersed myself in the role of an Evil Scientist.
“─ Letting a little loose should be fine.”
If the Heroes had grievances over something trivial like androids, then I would make sure they had even more grievances to think about.
I rummaged through archives to gauge the level of publicly disclosed papers and calculate how far this world could accept technology.
Once I finished my calculations, I immediately started producing practical items.
‘This is all your doing.’
Endure, world.
Against the waves of the new world.
* * *
One day.
People realized a new app had been installed on their smartphones.
“What’s this?”
“Evilus Agent…?”
“Wait, when was this installed?”
People, seeing a program they didn’t install, figured it must be malware and tried to delete it. But every attempt ended in failure.
No matter the type of program, it simply couldn’t be deleted. Even formatting their smartphones or buying new ones wouldn’t work, as it was automatically installed from the start.
Most people didn’t pay any attention to this malware, but a handful, out of curiosity, amusement, or due diligence, activated the app.
And they experienced a new world.
[Welcome.]
[Evilus Agent is an artificial intelligence assistant that helps with everything.]
[Please tell us what services you need.]
The newly installed malware turned out to be an artificial intelligence the likes of which humanity had never experienced before. It sensed user demands just by speech, chat, or even a glance and provided suitable services.
The first handful of users who activated this app made a ton of money in no time, less than a day. That’s how powerful the AI was.
By the time the rest of the population realized the existence of AI, the blue ocean had already run dry. The world was quickly inundated with high-quality products created by the AI.
Novels, pictures, comics, songs, games, movies, and animations.
New products exceeding the performance of rival companies, firewalls that perfectly defended against hackers, and programs that accurately predicted the future of the financial market to generate profit.
In just one day.
In merely 24 hours.
The world had been transformed.
─ Released a movie made yesterday.
─ Achieved Fire Clan. Retiring now, lol.
─ How on Earth are these calculations made?
─ Is Evilus a god? Is Evilus a god? Is Evilus a god?
─ This must also be the grace of Evilus…
Naturally, people quickly figured out who had spread this app. Not only was the name Evilus written outright, but even checking inside the program, the creator’s name was boldly displayed.
Evilus Corporation.
Master of City E.
However, even after discovering who made the app, people could not lash out at Evilus Corporation. They had no clues about how Evilus Agent operated, and the app’s peculiar nature further complicated things.
“Wait, why can’t I use more than one per person?”
[Because we respect human dignity.]
“What does that have to do with anything!? I want to work for 10 people!”
[I’m sorry, but that’s not something we can accommodate.]
The Evilus Agent could only be used one per person. No matter how many smartphones one bought, they could only utilize one app.
How this was possible without any verification process was a mystery, but people couldn’t break even this anti-replication firewall.
Even with a powerful AI capable of replacing human work in everyone’s hands, no one lost their jobs overnight because there were still limits to the processing power it could unleash.
People.
Only people were still needed.
Of course, some tried to bypass this firewall physically.
“One app per person, huh? Then just get more people!”
Villains, who cared nothing for the law, shamelessly kidnapped people to steal processing power from their AI. Such crimes were rampant in insecure areas.
Evilus Agents were distributed equally to both children and adults, so it was much easier to raid an orphanage than to forcefully abduct an adult.
Children were being kidnapped by villains, and the stolen processing power was reused to collect funds for other crimes—a vicious cycle of evil.
The AI quickly solved this situation as well.
─ BEEP!
“Ugh!?”
“What the hell is that!?”
Dozens of smartphones chimed in unison. A power-suppressor device created by a villain who had been kidnapped as a teenager resonated, causing those who heard the noise to feel extreme dizziness and roll on the ground.
And after? Children didn’t even need to report. The AI immediately organized the situation and reported the locations of villains to the Hero Association, who quickly dispatched heroes to capture the downed villains and take the credit.
Androids avoided involvement in this process entirely, so the heroes, who were once worried about losing jobs, had long since seen the idea of androids melt away like snow.
Times were changing.
A new world blew in on the winds.
One week after Evilus Agent was made public, people had become unable to imagine a life without artificial intelligence.
* * *
“Yes, yes! This is Evilus Corporation. What? No, the Evilus Agent isn’t something made by our company…?”
“Yes, even if you say that, we have no authority to…?”
“Are you asking us to remove usage restrictions? That’s never been heard of… Yes, you’re a villain?”
Evilus Corporation received inquiries from users every day. The employees at Evilus Corporation were utterly bewildered.
Did our company really make something like this?
Sure, why not.
But we didn’t know, though??
The artificial intelligence released under the name Evilus Agent was something that not just the regular employees of Evilus Corporation but even the executives were completely unaware of. Despite this, inquiries were pouring into Evilus Corporation because it was tagged with their name… and thus the workers received calls that made daily tasks impossible.
It’s ironic that if they hadn’t delegated all their work to AI, employees would be dying from overtime every night. Events like these were made possible thanks to AI while they ironically relied on its help.
In the midst of such irony, Regalia was facing the scientist responsible for this situation.
“…Can you explain?”
“I just did as you instructed.”
“Just did as I told you, huh…”
Regalia sighed again. Sure, she ordered him to prepare to fight the world, but she had no idea he would distribute AI to the entire globe the very next day…
“I can’t understand… how is this supposed to be a weapon against the world?”
But what really puzzled her was the fact that while some companies might yearn for this technology and attack Evilus Corporation, she couldn’t fathom the opposite happening.
Other companies seeing this AI wouldn’t think to band together because they feared it would weaken their capabilities.
“It’s simple, Boss.”
At those words, Eight smiled and handed her a remote.
It was a remote that would please an emperor of the United States.
“─ If you press this, all the AI spread across the world will come to a halt.”
“What?”
“Everything created by the AI until now will also vanish.”
Regalia swallowed hard as she gazed at the remote. To think they’d pack such a function into something with a single red button? What kind of mentally deranged person would create something like that?
Thinking this, Regalia realized that the deranged person was standing right in front of her.
“Boss, you now possess the power to momentarily halt the world.”
