Chapter 29

Shuri felt her nose prickle. Looking closely at Adam’s pitch-black face, she thought to herself.

‘If an artificial intelligence truly succeeds in learning humanity, the very first one to love humans will definitely be Adam. He is just so good and kind, after all.’

Perhaps the first AI training system she created had accomplished its purpose. For an artificial intelligence this good and smart had been born from it.

She made a firm resolution internally.

‘Even if I get fired from the project, I should discuss things thoroughly to ensure this project isn’t canceled.’

If Victor Halden judged that Shuri was unsuited for this project, UH would immediately recall Adam. If that happened, Adam might not be here when Shuri returned home.
Exerting effort to hold back the tears that were slightly threatening to fall, Shuri spoke spiritedly.

“I-It doesn’t matter even if no one recognizes it. Because I can win everything all by myself…!”

Looking down at her, Adam clenched his two massive fists tightly to show her.

“You are magnificent, Shuri. Go and win! For I shall have a splendid dinner prepared for you.”

On an impulse, Shuri brought her two hands to Adam’s cheeks. Pulling his face closer, she planted a kiss right around the area where his mouth would be. A small mwah sound echoed.

“……!”

“I-I’ll be back then!”

Without looking at Adam’s face, she quickly turned around. Her two cheeks felt like they were about to explode.

Heading toward the garage, she input the photographed coordinates into the navigation system. The place the coordinates pointed to was an abandoned factory district in Zone F.

Shuri crept stealthily down from the jeep. It was a movement so cautious that if a cat had witnessed it, they would have deemed her another cat.

It was unavoidable. For her interview with the CEO, she was clad in the most well-behaved dress among her possessions. Having put on high heels for the first time in a while to match it, she couldn’t help but be cautious.

However, the moment Shuri stepped into the abandoned factory district, she ended up regretting wearing such clothes.

“Ugh.”

The moment her feet touched the ground, the dirt floor swallowed her high heel bases with deep thud-thud plumps. Inwardly, she wept tears.

‘I only just debuted them today…!’

Gently closing the car door as well, she looked around this way and that. The surroundings were tranquil. It seemed she was the only human around.

‘Victor Halden is a ruthless person. Before stamping the contract, he sent someone all the way to Zone F, but the moment things go wrong, he summons me to an abandoned factory.’

The place Shuri had arrived at was an abandoned factory district currently referred to as the Red Zone.

The factories in the Red Zone had once formed numerous cities while enjoying a boom in manufacturing a long time ago, serving as the backdrop for the birth of high-tech corporations including UH. Along with the decline of manufacturing, however, countless factories went bankrupt one after another, and it had now become a deserted land where no one resided.

The massive factories were left with only their concrete frames remaining where the outer walls had collapsed. With exposed rebar, various structures, and even large silos blanketed in bright red rust, the abandoned factories looked identical to animal carcasses. The sight of such factories stretching endlessly was reminiscent of a mammoth graveyard.

‘It feels like I’ll catch tetanus merely from breathing.’

It was right when Shuri was examining the bright red wire mesh with furrowed brows.

“Oh, fuck’s sake, the location is truly mind-blowing.”

Someone grumbled loudly and walked out from inside the abandoned factory. Halting in front of the factory that gaped open like a pitch-black cavern, he called out to her.

“Shuri? Are you Shuri?”

Snapping her eyes wide open, Shuri nodded her head. It appeared this was truly a place where there was no need to possess a sense of TPO (Time, Place, Occasion).

The man who had come out to meet her was intimidatingly tall, clad in loose clothes over a body so gaunt his skeletal frame was visibly exposed. On top of his attire being in such a state, every bit of exposed skin was tightly packed with tattoos and piercings. If the opponent hadn’t known her name, his appearance would have seamlessly caused anyone to mistake him for a drug dealer.

Shuri hunched her shoulders.

‘This is truly too much. Before stamping the contract, he sent a handsome development team leader riding a supercar, but the moment things go wrong, he straight up sends a drug dealer?’

In any case, that man appeared a bit hazardous. Hoping that there was someone else besides him nearby, she asked.

“Where is Victor Halden?”

With his hands thrust into his pockets, the man sauntered closer to her with slouched strides. Close enough that Shuri could not ignore him.

It was right when she was attempting to step back vigilantly.

The man extended an unexpected greeting.

“Hellooo, Shuri. It’s been a long time.”

Saying it had been a long time.

Furrowing her brow, Shuri thought.

‘Is he perhaps someone who knows me?’

This was a situation she frequently bumped into. An awkward situation where the opponent remembered her, but she couldn’t remember the opponent. Because there was a limit to remembering an opponent based merely on their voice or clothing, after all.
Even for her, she had to verify the opponent’s face at times like this. Exhaling deep huff-puff breaths, Shuri calmed her mind.

‘It’s fine. I ate a grand breakfast, and merely verifying a face is…’

Snapping her eyes wide open, she raised her head. Upon her black pupils, the face of the man bending his upper body toward her was captured in a large reflection.

Shuri’s eyes grew wide.

Astonishingly, he had tattoos even on his face. It wasn’t just tattoos. Piercings were embedded into his eyebrows, nose, and lips; he looked like a person who couldn’t leave even a single centimeter of his skin alone.

However, the reason Shuri received a shock was not due to the tattoos or piercings.

The man’s eyes were narrow, and pitch-black pupils that were completely dilated resided within them. Yet they looked exactly like a dead person’s eyes. Neither vitality nor emotion could be felt. There was only darkness.

‘Is he truly a living human?’

It was right when Shuri was hurriedly averting her gaze.

“Shuri, how do I appear to your eyes?”

She raised her head once more.

“Pardon?”

“Fuck’s sake, why do you avert your eyes like you’ve seen something you shouldn’t the moment you look at a person’s face?”

“……!”

This too was a situation she frequently bumped into. Although people who spouted rough words like this man merely because she averted her gaze slightly were rare.

Shuri quickly pulled out her medical card. She then offered an honest apology.

“I’m sorry. I possess these symptoms, you see.”

The man snatched the card from her hand. The sound of him mumbling as he read the card could be heard.

“…What’s this, PTSD? You had something like this?”

“Yes. It wasn’t because you appeared strange that I averted my eyes…”

“This is going to be fun.”

Shuri halted.

The man spoke once more.

“Toying with you is going to be way too fun.”

Shuri grew so furious that she no longer cared whether the man’s eyes resembled a zombie’s or if he truly was a zombie.

Transforming into a furious Chihuahua, Shuri growled and snapped back.

“Did you take some kind of drug? Or have you just not taken the medicine you’re supposed to take yet?”

Extending her hand, she snatched the card back from the man. She then asked sharply.

“Where is Victor Halden?”

The man shrugged his shoulders.

“Who knows? Where would Victor Halden be?”

Something snapped right inside Shuri’s mind. Raising her head, she glared at the man with her black pupils.

The first thing she saw was his lips, which were forming a smirk as if mocking her. Within his slightly visible pitch-black mouth, something was emitting light; he had likely embedded a piercing even into his tongue. And then she saw the man’s eyes.
Those pupils, which had been devoid of any vitality like a dead person’s just a moment ago, were emitting a bizarre light.

Though she couldn’t tell what it was, she could be certain of this much: that light was explicitly directed toward her. Shuri felt her stomach churn.

Taking on a satisfied face, the man nodded his head.

“Yeah, yeah. That’s much better. Fine, Shuri. Don’t avert your eyes from me from now on.”

Barely holding back the churning sensation, Shuri let out a snort.

“What do you mean from now on? Once I leave this place, we’ll never cross paths again.”

“Ohhh, we’ll have to wait and see about that.”

Turning around, the man crooked his finger.

“Follow me.”