Chapter 49

Shuri blinked her eyes and told him.

“Right? You’re a robot head, after all.”

“Isn’t this… a bald head?”

“It’s not a bald head. You just didn’t have hair originally.”

“Shuri, I experience a strange sensation.”

For the sake of the plunged-into-confusion Adam, Shuri climbed onto the seat and planted a kiss squarely on his black head.

“It’s fine. You’re cute, you know?”

Adam’s confusion was rapidly calmed down.

“If I am cute in Shuri’s eyes, that is fine. I shall deem it a stable state that minimized air resistance.”

“A good thought!”

Shuri burrowed into Adam’s embrace, and keeping his arm draped over her shoulder, took a long pull of the sweet vanilla frappe, slurp.

Upon consuming the sweet item, the front of her eyes brightened up. Across her cleared-up vision, the splendid night view of Zone A beyond the dark blue river water commenced to show through.

Amidst the faint night fog, the lights of skyscrapers stretched endlessly. The ultra-high-rise buildings stood closely attached like a colony while emitting dazzling light, and the neon lights gorgeously embroidering the city shifted colors leisurely yet in perfect order. It felt exactly like they were exchanging some sort of signal or conversation with one another, rendering the city visible like a living organism.

Above the straightly stretched roads and bridges, the orange trajectory of streetlights continued, and automobiles darted along that road at a constant speed. That also appeared like red blood cells flowing through a blood vessel or ants moving in a line. As if continuously breathing life into that twinkling city to make it illuminate eternally.

Pulling out a sandwich from the takeout box, Adam handed it over and asked.

“Shuri, do you wish to eat a sandwich?”

“Mhm.”

Receiving the healthy-tasting sandwich that somehow felt as if Adam had explicitly selected it containing personal interest, Shuri spoke in a moved tone.

“It’s so pretty. The city looks exactly like a tremendously massive data center.”

Pulling her close, Adam buried his face against her hair and whispered affectionately.

“Does it please you?”

“Yeah! I truly love it.”

“Shuri, by any chance, do you not wish to reside in Zone A?”

After chewing and swallowing the sandwich munch-munch, Shuri shook her head.

“No, I love our house in Revnax.”

She was satisfied with her current spot.

Because of the dread that she might encounter her adoptive father again, she could not go to Zone A, but up to the things she had to execute here still remained for her. The temporary nest situated between Zone A and Zone F suited that version of her perfectly.

However, if someday, all the things that must be executed here were to be concluded…

“You know, Adam. Someday, when the world becomes a little more peaceful, the thought occurred to me that I wish to go to other places too…”

In truth, if it were the past, this was a thought she wouldn’t even have dreamed of.

“I… I don’t love things like traveling, you see. Unfamiliar places are frightening, and I fail to look at people’s faces well, so a place possessing nothing but strangers is indeed frightening. Still…”

Clinging tightly against Adam, Shuri looked up at him and added cautiously.

“Since I am together with you, it seems to be fine.”

Lifting her up in a single motion, Adam placed her atop his lap. He then spoke in a soft voice.

“Splendid, Shuri. Wherever it is a place you wish to go, let us go together.”

Shuri’s two eyes welled up, and her two cheeks heated up ripely like peaches. Wrapping her arms around the nape of Adam’s neck, she spoke in a tiny voice.

“Then, I shall forgive you now. For behaving maliciously today.”

“Wow, I have received forgiveness!”

“Do not do that in the future. Got it?”

[ㅠ_ㅠ]

“I shall exert effort…”

“Right!”

Adam, who had been staring only at her the entire duration, raised his head to gaze at a single location.

“Shuri, what would that be?”

“Huh? What?”

The item Adam pointed at was the Helix Bridge, one of the landmarks of Zone A. Identical to its name, it was a metallic bridge crafted by modeling the helical structure of DNA, but when night arrived, a media facade (nighttime exterior wall video) used to be screened on the surface of the metal frame.

Upon that Helix Bridge, a strange phrase was slowly surfacing.

[I♡SHURI]

Shuri’s mouth hung open in a circle from shock.

“Wh-What is that?”

Rubbing his face against her cheek, Adam spoke in a coaxing voice.

“You explicitly told me that the one Shuri loves the most is me, didn’t you. I am identical to that.”

Shuri shrieked.

“B-But why are you uttering that toward a place like that? It’s embarrassing, you see…!”

Shuri was about to shout to cease it immediately, but she halted. To tell him to cease it because it was embarrassing, the spectacle was far too immense.

“This… must be left behind as a photo, a photo!”

“I shall capture it!”

Adam readily pulled out Shuri’s phone. With the immense bridge as a background, Shuri wrapped her arms around the nape of Adam’s neck and pressed her cheek against his face.

Though her face remained red from embarrassment, because this situation was far too hilarious, laughter kept emerging. She went as far as planting a crisp mwah kiss against Adam’s cheek.

At that instant, fireworks burst above their heads.

Shuri raised her head to look up at the sky. Small sparks like meteors flew up from the city of light, and exploded right in the center of the pitch-black sky where not a single star was visible. Along with a massive explosion sound, golden fireworks embroidered the sky.

She thought to herself. If life were a single volume of a book, she wished to wedge a golden bookmark right here.

Until now, the agonizing incidents were countless, and it would be identical in the future as well, but. Every time that happened, if she caught her breath, fumbled through the book pages, located the golden bookmark, and recalled this memory, it seemed she would be capable of laughing again. That she would be capable of turning a new page once more by gaining strength like that.

-Fuck, Leaderrr!

Keeping the phone away from his ear, Nian waited for the counterparty to become quiet. And only after Titan grew calm did he open his mouth.

“What is the matter?”

-Our plan! How is it going?

“You are impatient. Since I shall inform you when something proceeds, wait.”

-It has already been several days, you know? In that duration, fuck, one could even erect a building!

“Isn’t that precisely why it collapses at the drop of a hat?”

-It’s fine. Because if you erect ten, five among them comfortably remain!

“…Our method is not like that. At any rate, what you must execute is waiting.”

Titan warned in a sinister voice.

-Old geezer, do not forget who you are dealing with. If you fail to surrender what I desire, you are finished.

After hanging up the phone, Nian burst into the cough he had been holding back. Blood splattered between his fingers that were blocking his mouth.

“Cough!”

“Teacher!”

A female operative who had been working in the corner of the office came running over. She spoke in a voice where extreme rage could be felt.

“It is because of that damned artificial intelligence, correct? That utterly low-life…!”

Nian extended his other hand to halt her words. And keeping his mouth blocked after pulling out a handkerchief, he waited for the coughing to subside.

Whether the female operative was accustomed to this situation, she straightened his body so Nian wouldn’t collapse, and shouted toward the outside.

“Bring an ice pack!”

Afterward, she cautiously asked Nian.

“Teacher, are you alright? Shall I call the doctor?”

Emitting a horrifying, growling breath sound, Nian shook his head. He slowly extracted the handkerchief from the edge of his mouth. The handkerchief was soaked with dark red blood. As if beholding something filthy, contorting his pale face, he tossed the handkerchief into the trash can before opening his mouth.

“It is fine. A mere torment of mine is a trivial matter. Just how many lives do you think I have stripped away?”

“Teacher…!”

“Rebecca. You return to your seat and execute what you must.”

The eyes of the operative called Rebecca turned bloodshot. Clenching her teeth tightly, she nodded her head.

“Huff.”

After Rebecca returned to her seat, Nian caught his breath while deeply inhaling slender breaths for heaven knows how many times. And the exact moment he calmed down, he dialed a call somewhere.

The ringback tone echoed a few times, and soon a refreshing voice wafted over.

-Yes, Teacher.

“I am sorry for phrasing it as if I am rushing you, but have you made a decision?”

-Teacher, the decision was made a long while ago. Is it not Teacher’s request? I shall attempt it.

“Then I shall be waiting.”

Only after completing what he had to execute like that did Nian slowly stand up from his seat to head toward the washroom.

He washed his hands and wiped through the edge of his mouth that was colored with blood. After rinsing the scratchy interior of his mouth, he raised his head, and a face completely marked by sickness was reflected in the mirror.

His face was colored pitch black around the eyes and mouth while the other parts were pale, looking exactly like a trampled fallen leaf. However, the green pupils nestled inside the hollowed-out eye sockets were burning away fiercely like lamps.
Staring into his own eyes, he spoke.

“I cannot die just yet, you see. Because there remains work to be executed.”