Chapter 227

“…So, this is one of the infected droids that created this dogshit show?”

A man, an engineer dispatched from the Exatech emergency response team and serving as a technical advisor on-site, muttered with a delightfully sardonic attitude.

As can be inferred from the way I emphasized his attitude, the insouciance was evident not just in his tone but in his overall demeanor.

With a cigarette butt dangling from his lips, he kicked lightly at the body of one of the restrained robots sprawled on the ground, the injured leg resting carelessly across his other.

If someone were to carelessly put the soles of their shoes up against MegaCorp assets, he might have said something like, “It’s a disaster waiting to happen, so quit being a fool.” However, since the perpetrator was one of the staff members in charge, that was hardly a concern. He likely found himself in that position because he was far more capable of managing his own affairs than most.

“Let’s hope it doesn’t start moving again, or I won’t be able to stop it.”

“Wait? Didn’t it all just freeze like the power was cut? Didn’t we remove the power unit separately?”

“I don’t know. It suddenly just dropped! So it could just as easily spring back to life without warning.”

However, the officer from the NHPD, who was stationed nearby as part of the security detail, felt compelled to contribute a remark to the Exatech lead.

The reason was simpler than expected.

As the scale of the unrest increased in the vicinity, the public safety bureau could no longer afford to treat it as just another corporate affair. Even though the troops deployed were late arrivals, he couldn’t help but have an intuition about what kind of chaos they had created while those things were wide awake.

Feeling the unease in the lead’s voice, he instead chose to mutter under his breath, “Damn, I told him to specify the important points in his report, not to rush it,” as he squatted down to the ground.

It wasn’t as if he approached things this way just because he had a short temper or liked to be cantankerous.

The current scope of the site included a whole block encompassing the Coldplain Resource Development Company’s premises, and with the troops, they had sent, the combined forces of Exatech and the police could be likened to a truckload.

On the ground, there were so many restrained and bound robots due to a lack of restraining equipment or binding tools that even large scrap magnets from the junkyard had been used to keep the infected robots down.

On top of that, due to a clandestine request from a senior researcher, the damage assessment was in shambles, with no official timeline or command orders left behind.

“…Shit.”

In such a chaotic situation, a proper investigation would require collecting raw, near-uncensored reactions and impressions, which was why he had resorted to a somewhat haphazard and casual approach… or perhaps he was just exasperated that he was getting stuck in this annoying fieldwork.

The culture of seniority and rank had let him down, and the ambiguity of his own adequacy was also a contributing factor.

In any case, the required outcomes were clearly a set task, so he needed to finish his work before he could return… go home… and have some leisure time.

However, given the state of things, that finish line seemed tantalizingly far away, and his only recourse was to chew out some pent-up curses just before starting the actual work.

“Huh!? If you block it like that…!!”

Click.

After powering on his laptop, he abruptly shoved a connected wire into the exposed circuit board of a droid; the shocked officer instinctively raised his voice, foreseeing disaster, but the lead remained unfazed.

“Virus~ Virus. All the corporations and cyber engineering experts keep singing about the dangers, so people mistake it for a biological virus. If these complex machines repeat certain behavioral patterns or operate with specific intent, it’s closer to being malware.”

The man was capable enough to have passed Elysium’s public examination and accepted an offer from Exatech, which provided more favorable working conditions and bonuses.

Although his nature leaned towards being averse to tediousness, he had solid knowledge of his profession and technical expertise.

“Such programs don’t spread indiscriminately through adjacent networks or other electronic devices. Typically, they exploit detected security vulnerabilities or transmit quietly across when the necessary conditions for safe transfer are met.”

“…Is that really the case?”

“Otherwise! Did Metropolis just get wiped out back when hacker groups were rampaging or when the Elysium folks created some major accident? Even if it were some bizarre and vicious piece of code, it couldn’t operate outside the limits of its foundational code and systems; you just have to create a suitable environment for isolation… and that’s it.”

Given that other dispatched staff from Exatech consisted only of droid operators and combat personnel aiming to contain the situation, the lead started to conjure technical magic that only specialized technicians could perform, making the officer feel less lonely.

Staring intently at the monitor didn’t change anything, but the wave of strings and equations dancing on the screen provided a strange satisfaction, prompting the officer to steal glances at the spectacle.

He converted an additional hard drive attached to the computer into a cradle. At least from the outside, it would appear inviting as he laid out a red carpet for company.

However, practically, that space was an observation and cultivation chamber. Designed to be a dead-end pond where indiscriminately streaming data accumulated, he patiently awaited the emergence of the unauthorized program he intended to capture… and he hooked it!

There were no issues up to that point, and honestly, it was a perfect job worthy of pride, even from the perspective of an uninformed viewer. He was absolutely confident in that…

“…Huh?”

A sound of air escaping from lungs escaped.

When a large system file with undeclared information properties not registered in the Exatech network was indicated as being transmitted, instinctively, he realized he’d found something to analyze.

Yet, his initial vision had been to analyze the haphazard code while using the audience as a snack, categorize the malware based on that, submit a report to the public security bureau highlighting malicious code to be cautious of in exchange for a bounty, or even add to his personal collection.

Suddenly facing “something indescribable,” he was wholly unprepared to confront it.

If the previous screen had been alive with strings rhythmically dancing, now, despite having a single file open, a bizarre phenomenon continued with segments of the code constantly changing.

Was he typing? No.

Had he unthinkingly connected the cyberware and concocted equations in his head? Not at all.

Was there a possibility his laptop got infected during the download process? No way.

Then why was this malicious program, which freed various droids and electronic devices from control, writhing as if probing the environment like an infectious agent searching for a change?

“…”

“Did you find out something?”

The lead briefly saw the wire he plugged in pulsating like an umbilical cord, with the monitors gleaming with a mesmerizing sheen, covered in some tactile illusion of flesh.

“Do I know? Right now, all I can see is nonsense as much as I know.”

A self-sufficient ecosystem changing the structure of the connection point in real-time, without even the input of additional commands or manual intervention?

How many times the human resources would it take to decrypt or counter it to barely balance the scales? What exactly was the principle behind this? Which tools were used for its development, and where did they come from?

…Ah, maybe this was the product released to test a new singularity achieved by Elysium.

Perhaps this was in fact the future programming trend and here he was, one step ahead in acquiring it, meaning he might need to return to start learning from the ground up or even consider switching majors altogether.

He thought he was seriously contemplating something. However, the cost for overlooking the reality that the present always changes more suddenly than one can imagine was quite high.

The lead’s calmness stemmed from not having witnessed the site where this program was acting.

The reassurance was rooted in having contained the hazardous entity relatively safely by following all protocols.

The excitement, in some ways, was a spice provided by the bizarre reality of having secured what could be considered excellent teaching material or a treasure.

Thus, rather absurdly.

This writhing data entity wasn’t something he successfully contained; it had merely entered a dormant state while its creator— a girl— fainted for a brief moment, a reality that was difficult to perceive even with an insight above average.

When she, far down below, finally snapped from enduring mental torment, the ensuing disaster was already predetermined.

Ziiing…!!

– Grrrr………. –

The chilling metallic sound, a beep issuing from malfunctioning speakers.

In the open area and alleys illuminated by the white tactical lights, a sudden, blood-red glow blossomed like a wildflower.

Furthermore, it seemed that another technician— one far less cautious than the lead— emerged from the police side. It was indeed too much, as besides the restrained robots, even drones that had free rein to fly or droids on perimeter duty suddenly began to creak and rattle as if struck by lightning.

It looked bad. Really, really bad.

“Uh, um. Did you wake them all up on purpose…?”

“Shit!? Everyone, back off! Retreat, just pull back! Hey!!”

Bang!!

Regardless of the activation conditions for the combat trigger, he sensed that things had gone horribly awry. Desperately, he flipped over his frantically blinking laptop and punched the battery compartment.

Ignoring the blood on his fingers, he successfully forced the laptop to shut down, managing to safeguard crucial reference materials.

Although the now rampaging infected entities showed a strange preference for drones over human casualties, the mixed forces found themselves eerily encircled both externally and internally.

The lead, however, thought to himself that perhaps it was just as well.

If things escalated this far, it was merely the fault of his boss and upper management for sending him out solo; he had made the best decision for himself.

Creak, creak, crunch, smash—!!

Kuguhguhgh…!

The methods of biting, pulling apart, and forcibly breeding through primitive circuit contact remained effective.

Simply put, due to the late responses from the slow technician and the undertrained soldiers, the virus that had been unleashed onto nearby networks consumed the bodies with an alarming vitality, preserving their combat capabilities.

Thus, excluding a few uninfected aerial drones, even the droid squads from recovery and investigation that had been working according to regulations were completely assimilated into this bizarre collective.

“What the hell…?”

“…When I go back, I should really quit this job and hand in my resignation.”

Like an announcement of the end of universal common sense.

As many observers thought, rather than spreading in all directions, they charged forward in a specific direction. Specifically, toward the Exatech research facility where the masterminds had gathered.

Ironically, this was a result closely aligned with the 21st-century unconscious of the original creator, Anastasia.

Had it been a typical Z genre organism, independent entities would have multiplied aimlessly… and mutations would occur at random, worsening the situation—an approach faithful to the basics.

…However, within the Eastern peninsula-style Z genre, there’s always a distinct and delectable special infectant, along with a fearsome mastermind capable of commanding them, which was considered industry-standard at the time.

Thus, the ground proposition commanding this swarm of multiple hundreds was simply determined by an urgent call for assistance left behind by the creator before vanishing.

If an academic term were to be assigned to this violent exodus…

It could perhaps be something like, “Everything is for our Queen!”