Chapter 48

“……Please present your identification.”

The police officer, DS3-2, rights granted by the team leader, sternly leads the inspection.

The sweetness of power… is more of a nuisance. And the nuisance seems to be overshadowed by greater anxiety, as it was evident from the control room that they couldn’t focus on their work.

There was a good reason for that. In recent days… to be precise, since witnessing the capsizing incident, Helena, the charismatic top of the daytime shift team, had been frequently leaving her post.

It seemed my advice had unintended consequences; she was busy searching for the whereabouts of the missing persons, precariously tiptoeing around the rules and regulations.

Using her menstrual cycle as an excuse, she constantly contacted other gates and checked the list of incoming individuals with her team leader authority…

Even if I begged her not to poke around recklessly, it was clear she would just say she understood but had no intention of stopping.

…What have I been doing all this time?

– I’ve completed checking the medical area system with engineering privileges. I’m printing out the patient list to send to you, so don’t get suspicious by poking around. –

– …Thank you. –

How could I leave her all alone? I was busy supporting her with the mindset of watching over a child playing with fire.

I sent data while mumbling things that I could never say proudly over the police communication network. Meanwhile, I thoroughly erased the remaining traces.

If I had my way, I’d want to secure the place and cover not only my access logs but also the traces of Helena wandering around… But I was too worried about someone right next to me, as well as the command structure.

“Lena, I wonder… what could possibly be so urgent when the kids are this flustered?”

“…….I don’t know…?”

Knowing that my personal line established through the cheap introduced device would not be heard by others, my body instinctively stiffened every time Anne muttered to herself.

On a normal day, I would have considered this just a trivial worry… But as she mumbled while casting sharp glances toward me, it felt like there was something more behind her words.

If this was a moment of discouragement because she had noticed that her close friend and that friend’s younger sibling were scheming something while excluding her, I would have honestly confessed to Anne and asked for help, telling her what I knew.

However, the heat that had shown itself on our first meeting was steadily growing stronger and clearer, a flame that had repeated ignition many times.

I wanted to lament that my situation was no better than a frog in front of a snake… Yet it seemed that the snake desired something from the frog.

…I really couldn’t take it anymore.

With my back feeling this unstable, even a seasoned soldier would struggle to engage in active combat; my mental strength, being just a civilian, was beginning to scream at its limits.

There was a need to clarify things here and now. Was Anne Grisha truly an ally of Helena Valentine… or was she an enemy?

“Hey… Anne, can I ask you something?”

“…? Yes, of course.”

Her immediate response made me carefully choose my words.

I didn’t want to openly show that I was suspicious of her. I had no intention of meddling too much in a matter where I had intruded purely due to the kindness of the two Valentines and my own selfishness.

I just needed to find out if Anne was, like me, drawn to Helena’s light.

“Do you… like Helena? Ah, I mean, more than just friends!”

“……”

Her previously sharp gaze became dreamy, as if intoxicated by a dream, and the air around her felt sticky, as if pheromones were being emitted from her body.

Breath flowed slowly as if to say that not a single lie or ounce of suspicion should mix in.

A confession filled solely with sincerity and passion unfolded in a place devoid of the person involved.

“…Yes. From the moment we first met. I loved her to the point of being willing to die for her.”

…Why is it that the listener feels more embarrassed?

“…Have you told her that?”

After making a long-held wish like praying to a star, Anne’s slightly flushed face shook gently side to side.

“…When the right stage is set.”

“…”

She would choose the place and timing for a once-in-a-lifetime confession… In this matter, being the complete outsider, I had nothing to say.

No, rather, it stirred up a sense of regret.

Why did I have to be the type of person who, even after falling into a place like this, felt the need to constantly weigh and think about everything?

Setting aside the complicated entanglement of my own identity…

Even after everything that happened with the video game character, I still couldn’t conclude whether it was permissible to overlay my feelings onto the living, breathing Helena Valentine. The fact that Anne could simply declare she fell in love with her just because they met was unbelievably impressive.

“Ah, another alert from the armory… even an escape incident, huh?”

“…? What?”

What, did the heavy armory droid malfunction or something?

I didn’t quite understand how an escape incident could occur in the armory, but I waved goodbye to Anne, who was hastily leaving as her work hours were nearly done.

Then, I was preparing to join Helena and return…

“Damn it… what is this chaos? I really don’t want to go to command…”

“…Stop thinking about dumping it on us. I don’t want to deal with the collection unit either.”

Crash—!!

I flinched at the sudden entrance of the night shift engineers, almost entering as if to swap places with those who were leaving.

Fortunately, I was already wearing my riot gear, or I might have toppled my chair in surprise.

“Hey, daytime shift guy. You must have been scared, huh? Sorry about that.”

“…It’s fine. But what about the command…? We have no authority, do we?”

Before the control room door even locked behind them, I asked the guy who awkwardly apologized as if he knew he had slipped in.

“Seems I ran into the command on a bad day. They randomly granted me temporary access rights and demanded I extract all footage from the internal security cameras because there was some accident in the underground? Damn…”

“Oh dear…”

It seems today was a day for calamities, and Helena’s evaluation score would take a hit due to her wandering around during work hours. …No, thinking it through, perhaps there would be gains worth that sacrifice.

Temporary access rights should mean that a set period or count would operate without special authentication information, which worked in my favor.

“Shall I go in your place?”

“…Really?”

Without hesitation, he sent me a disposable access card in response to my offer to take on the annoying task.

Ding…!

I boarded the elevator that was supposed to ferry me back and forth between the parking area and the barracks every day.

Though it wasn’t pristine white, it was well maintained without any outstanding filth, but seeing blood stains on it confirmed that something was indeed amiss.

…I hoped it wouldn’t be Anne’s blood that had previously gone out.

“Phew… okay.”

I cautiously pressed the button marked HQ, and lasers from the ceiling scanned the occupants.

– Access rights confirmed. Proceeding to command zone. –

The doors then closed and the elevator began ascending towards the highest floor.

The objective was… to get the black box located in the command floor.

If they had deliberately cut it off from the network, it would undoubtedly be filled with data related to the project.

From experience, extracting specific knowledge from an information library based on certain keywords was more akin to a mental ordeal than it was time-consuming, so I needed to make contact while keeping the device in between.

How difficult could that really be?

Kugh…

After a slight jolt, as soon as the closed doors opened, I was welcomed by uniforms emblazoned with the Oasis and palm tree symbol of Paradise Corporation.

The flamboyant protective gear and military uniforms, a chaotic harmony of gold and white, along with the full-face helmet that also integrated a gas mask, were delightfully reminiscent of the game.

…In reality, their combat power ranked low within the Mega Cop ranks but showcased top-tier equipment, which felt frustrating to show off their financial prowess.

“I extracted the video data as instructed from the control room at gate three.”

Although I had come here on a normally functioning elevator, the collection unit member didn’t step aside until I reported my business, and only then did an employee from the company allow me to pass.

However, when I approached, the tension in his eyebrows relaxed, and, feeling slightly pity, he offered unsolicited commentary.

“…? You seem to have shrunk quite a bit in that short time. Did you undergo some surgical side effect?”

‘You little bastard…?!’

…It seemed he had lost the ability to distinguish people in exchange for working comfortably without wearing a helmet.

Whether this vile individual engaged in personal attacks or not, I maturedly presented the device with the data while discreetly scanning the command structure.

It resembled a much larger and expanded version of the cramped engineer’s control room.

There were troops positioned here and there, busy employees in their respective places, and storage units that looked like servers.

…Occasionally, I noticed other employees departing with connection codes in hand heading over there, so it seemed likely that this indeed was the black box, yet as someone being scorned by the collection unit to simply finish their work, I couldn’t see a natural way to make contact with it.

“Hmm… looks like it hasn’t escaped externally. Good job, let’s just preserve the data and wrap it up.”

Uncertain of what he was searching for, the person who was flipping through the footage stood up.

In his hands were connection codes meant for the black box and my device… If I was in trouble, this was the perfect opportunity to use someone else.

I stealthily followed behind the staff member approaching the black box, pretending to wipe the sweat from my hands and slipping off my gloves.

The target to focus on was the pride that could be discerned from the man’s composed demeanor.

Since he was affiliated with Mega Cop and the police below were nothing more than subordinates, if I could attract attention with flattery, then…!

Click!

As soon as I confirmed the code was plugged in and data transfer had begun, I quickly opened the floodgates of praise.

“Wow~ Working with Paradise, which is almost the best company, and even ordering around that collection unit? I’m truly envious!”

“…You sound like you’re saying something pointless.”

The man, fatigued by work, gave a slight twitch of his mouth, and his gaze, which had been on the device, landed on my visor. He gestured as if to say if I had more to say.

In the meantime, I leaned against the wall and placed my bare hands onto the device resting atop the black box.

“To say it’s pointless… that’s too harsh. Would we really spend time down here if we were all combat officers? I just don’t have the ability to belong to the command, so I’m here.”

“Ahem…!? If you comply with directives from above as you are now, you’ll quickly get promoted.”

Damn it. While I blabbered nonsense verbally, trying to extract a needle from a haystack with my brain was a torture beyond measure.

I swallowed the blood seeping from my painfully tingling nose.

Still, finding the target and the database size was a relief compared to the scale of hacking I did before…

…What is this?

Creeeak!

“?! Hey, are you okay? The surgical side effects are no joke!”

“No… this is…”

My body swayed a bit due to shock from discovering something extremely strange and bizarre.

As I waved my empty hands to signify I was fine, trying to regain my balance, a gentle hand reached out to support my arm.

Ah, right.

If what was inside was not misinformation or dummy data for distraction, it was only natural for her to pop out.

“This is… Grisha! I thought you were underground…?”

“I immediately followed when I heard my precious junior went to run an errand for someone else. Just in case my junior would make a mistake.”

“……”

I lifted my face from gazing at the floor to meet hers.

…The team leader of Paradise Corporation and the site supervisor of the Reutilization Project, Anne Grisha.

She was undeniably the same individual who had been the protagonist of that passionate, desperate serenade earlier. Knowing that she was fully aware of the project that had just intruded upon my mind and that she was even involved in its execution made it impossible to trust anything.

Although her lifted visor displayed Anne’s lovely smile and gentle expression… I actually felt the goosebumps rising on my skin.

…Anne, who the hell are you?