novelraw Chapter 151
Chapter 151
Chapter 151
Who would’ve thought I’d ever owe the police something in this life?
In my previous life, I used to be a timid boy who trembled just from being called to the homeroom teacher’s office during school.
And now, here I was, facing a police officer for trespassing on corporate property and causing a ruckus. Well, technically not just any officer—he was the Chief of the Valhalla City Police Department.
Life, truly, is hard to predict.
If they were to handle this case by the book, I’d be looking at a minimum of ten years in prison. I had, after all, broken into Omega Investment’s premises with the explicit intent to cause damage and destroyed the Motherboard.
But I had a defense that might be seen as justifiable.
“Motherboard asked me to kill her.”
That was the story I had prepared.
The recent aggressive investment behavior and public manipulation by Omega Investment toward the Stingray Group—it had all stemmed from a critical error in her system.
Motherboard had lost control of the system. She was no longer capable of executing rational investment or profit-generation strategies.
And so, she asked me to stop her rampage... or so the story went.
“D-Does that even make sense?”
“Sounds like a lie, right?”
Because it was a lie.
“I-It’s a hard story to believe.”
“You don’t have to believe it.”
And if he didn’t?
“Do you have any way to prove what you’re saying?”
“Well. It’d be nice if some evidence was left behind.”
I made sure to erase all possible evidence on my way out.
“Ha, good grief…”
“Anything else you want to ask?”
When I met his eyes with a bold gaze that showed no sign of guilt, the police chief averted his eyes, sweating.
“So you’re saying… if we put it in human terms… that someone gradually going insane asked to be killed before they lost control?”
“That’s right.”
At first, I’d planned to say I had no choice but to trespass because of a “car accident,” but the more I thought about it, the more far-fetched it sounded.
If I went with that, I’d never be able to explain why I destroyed Motherboard’s AI Core, so I decided to switch strategies.
“Then why did Motherboard choose you?”
“Probably because of my combat capabilities.”
“And why did you accept?”
“On the contrary, is there a reason I shouldn’t have?”
“……”
The police chief was speechless.
He scratched his head in frustration. His synthetic hair was probably in danger of falling out as he racked his brain trying to figure out how to handle this situation.
But really, in a world where technology had advanced enough to swap out limbs, why hadn’t anyone invented a drug that made hair regrow?
I heard those synthetic hairs itched terribly and had serious side effects… Could it be the author hates bald people?
“...Alright, understood for now.”
After a long pause, the police chief finally spoke. It seemed he had decided on what lifeline to cling to.
“We received intel from the scene. Though the defense drones were activated, there’s no sign they were destroyed. And there’s also no indication that the AI Core storage was forcibly breached.”
“I see.”
“The story about Motherboard inviting you in... seems to hold weight. The investigation is still ongoing, but there doesn’t appear to be anything else to uncover, so we’ll likely close the case quietly.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Seeing that the matter was wrapping up, I casually stood from my seat.
The police chief also stood up but began speaking again, still with a troubled look on his face.
“I’ll try to close this without involving the prosecution... but if the political sector picks up on this, a reinvestigation under the prosecution’s lead could begin. If that happens, our ability to help will be limited.”
That was only natural.
I nodded silently, and he cautiously added:
“And lately, there’s been a lot of talk from the opposition party. It seems they're aiming at the Stingray Group. There’s a high chance they’ll use this incident as ammunition…”
“I understand.”
That was my reply, though honestly, I didn’t think it was worth worrying about. Recently, the driving force behind the Special Law for Adaptees had been Motherboard, and the person pushing it at the center was none other than Zyle Stormwalker.
‘We were going to meet eventually anyway.’
Still, to think a mess that big could be brushed off with just a meeting with the police chief... It once again struck me just how much influence the Stingray Group wielded in this city.
The rest would be handled by the legal team. It was time for me to move on again.
Once Kara contacted me, I’d start gathering the Transmigrators again.
But before that…
‘I should go see my kids.’
I needed something to soothe this tired heart.
Humans all die someday.
Thanks to the development of anti-aging procedures, the rich and the poor now lived in vastly different timelines, but in the end, time still claimed everyone’s life—so it was fair in that regard.
At least more so than the city’s civil servants.
That’s why I didn’t feel much when people I barely knew died or got hurt.
After all, countless lives had sunk and disappeared into the darkness of this city’s underbelly without ever once seeing the light.
However...
‘Did I really do this?’
Donovan von Delay.
The guy who’d picked a fight with me on day one of the Academy.
Trash. Human scum. A thug.
No insult could fully capture how rotten he was.
There were many times I’d fantasized about twisting his neck myself.
That’s why I had shown no mercy in my counterattack. He had come at me with deadly intent during the [Showcase], and I had fought back with everything I had. I’d been ready for one of us to die—or at the very least, to suffer a permanent injury.
Even so.
The massive explosion that marked the end of the [Showcase] had delivered a shocking sight to Iri.
‘Did I… really need to go this far?’
Donovan was dead.
Once again, he was a guy who deserved to die.
But even for someone that vile, as a fellow human being, I never wished for his end to come like this.
His corpse was in shreds.
The massive explosion triggered by the [Incinerator Cannon] had engulfed him whole.
The arm modified into an energy cannon using a Combat Module had been blown off in the blast. His shoulder was split open like a trumpet, metal barrel flaring out like a twisted flower.
Even with all his bragging about his tough Skin Armor Module, a close-range explosion like that was too much to withstand. His skin had been charred black, torn to ribbons.
The shockwave turned his Alloy Skeleton into shrapnel, which dug deep into his body and shredded his internal organs. The sharp fragments had torn through his blood vessels—no matter how durable his body was, there was no surviving that.
And along with it, another fact came to light.
“That bastard really was an ‘Over-Adaptee’.”
Over-Adaptee.
Also known as Over-Augmented.
Those who had traded away even the bare minimum of 30% humanity to gain overwhelming power.
Iri hadn’t even considered that term at first, but Lexus, who had come to act as her coach after the [Showcase], explained it that way.
Donovan von Delay was an Over-Augmented.
Militech, perhaps wanting to keep that fact under wraps, quickly retrieved Donovan’s corpse—but it was likely only a matter of time before rumors started to spread.
“Anyway, good job. Come on, let’s get out of here. You need treatment too.”
“Uncle Lexus.”
“What?”
“I-Is this really the end?”
Lexus, who had been about to leave the training ground that served as the duel site, turned back when Iri stood still and asked.
“You said he was an Over-Augmented, right?”
“Yeah. So what? You want a pat on the back for beating a big bad monster?”
“That’s not it!”
Iri’s voice rose.
“I mean… that’s illegal! Modifying your body like that, pushing replacement rate past 70%…!”
“You’re from the Fallen Sector, aren’t you? Since when did you start worrying about what’s legal and illegal?”
“That’s not the point…!”
Her voice trembled slightly.
“Did I do something that made me deserve to be hated that much?”
“What?”
“I mean, if someone goes so far as to give up their humanity just to get back at me, turning their entire body into a machine… doesn’t that mean they hated me so much they couldn’t stand it?”
“Eh?”
“But I never even did anything wrong to him. He was the one who started picking fights from day one. All I did was be born in the Fallen Sector, and I was hated so much for that that…”
“What kind of nonsense are you thinking?”
Lexus snorted in disbelief. Then, after glancing around, he lowered his voice.
“Follow me. This isn’t something we should be talking about here.”
“……”
With no other choice, Iri followed Lexus. Once they reached a quieter hallway, he finally spoke slowly.
“You really don’t know, huh. There are a shit-ton of Over-Augmented in this world. People just don’t talk about it, but every major company has one or two… no, probably way more than that, kept as their final weapons.”
“Huh? Then does that mean President Aaron is one too…?”
“Ah, that one? Probably not.”
Lexus shrugged.
“Aaron Stingray is a freakishly special case. He’s probably the only one in this city who can wield that much power without crossing the 70% threshold.”
“I-I see…”
Whew.
Iri let out a small sigh of relief without realizing it, then tilted her head in confusion.
Why was she even relieved?
Seeing that, Lexus chuckled and continued.
“That guy earlier—Donovan, right? He probably didn’t want to be modified like that.”
“W-What?”
“What are you so surprised about? Of course it was that Vladimir bastard or whatever who took responsibility and forcibly increased his replacement rate. They needed to win in the [Showcase] somehow, so they could get the upper hand in their power struggle with Stingray.”
“But that’s…”
“What? Did you think corporations are full of hardworking, clean-cut gentlemen? Heh, are you sure you’re from the Fallen Sector? All the Fallen folks I knew used to spit on the ground just hearing the word ‘corporation’.”
“...They did.”
They did.
She spoke in the past tense—probably because Iri's thoughts had shifted slightly.
Over the past six months, working as a special scholarship student under the Stingray Foundation, her perception of “corporations” had started to change.
Lexus, perhaps noticing that, went on.
“We’re the weird ones.”
“What?”
“I mean, the Stingray Foundation is what’s weird. That Crown Prince guy suddenly got up from his sickbed and started acting all serious about the students.”
Other places aren’t like this.
They see students as mere ‘resources’ to be consumed as long as the supply doesn’t run out, Lexus explained.
“Not sure how it is now, but I heard they used to experiment on clueless scholarship students. Just a rumor, but still.”
“……”
“So don’t go trusting corps too much. Best strategy is to stick around just enough to leech off them like an aphid, then bolt when the time comes. Okay?”
“But…”
Iri started to say something.
But stopped.
Then, after a pause, she slowly spoke again.
“He said… he had something he wanted to tell me.”
“What?”
“I don’t know what it was. But maybe he was going to ask me for help. Maybe he knew Militech was going to ‘do that’ to him.”
“Who knows.”
“No. I think I’m right. Even if I was from the enemy side, he wanted to borrow my strength to escape that situation. And…”
…And I didn’t respond.
Iri murmured with a distant voice.
Lexus, glancing sideways at her face, quickly realized it.
In Iri’s eyes—
Something fierce and determined was rising.