—————————————————————–
Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
—————————————————————–
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
The inside of the building was dark. The stairwell lights were sparse, casting long, deep shadows.
We slowly descended the dark stairs.
“Shiun, make me some water, will you?”
Apparently bothered by the clinging blood, Andrea stuck out her tongue slightly, making a disgusted face.
She was already covered in red blood, most of her body, including her massive mechanical arm, smeared with it.
“You should’ve brought a gun too.”
“Ah, that wouldn’t fit in my car. Frankly, I could only bring this because I had the trunk custom-expanded.”
Andrea replied, swinging one arm. Its size was always impressive.
Water.
I stopped midway down the stairs.
I briefly concentrated.
A moment later, a ball of water materialized and floated above my palm.
A wondrous sight, but also a familiar one to us.
Andrea meticulously cleaned the bloodstains from her body.
Given the size of her mechanical arm, it would be difficult to clean thoroughly, but in no time, Andrea was spotless.
Memories of creating water balls for Andrea resurfaced, back when we were actively carrying out missions with our comrades.
Since entering the building, we had encountered a total of six people.
All of them, of course, were escaped convicts.
Terrorists, bombers, gang members.
Their crimes varied widely.
Now they were all reduced to meat patties thanks to Andrea.
Before entering, Eve had said that there were seven signals detected within the building.
Then, it was obvious who the remaining one was.
We resumed our descent.
Finally, reaching the bottom of the stairs, we were greeted by a single, old, spacious room.
Concrete barriers surrounded it on all sides, identical to the rooms we’d seen so far.
But there was one difference.
A woman sat in a chair in the center of the room.
The woman, Maya, turned her eyes toward us.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
In a very casual and peaceful tone, Maya spoke.
“You came?”
The outer shell, slightly cracked from the turret fire, was still as it was.
It was thanks to our immediate pursuit after the commotion in the street.
And since we’d arrived in Andrea’s red supercar, it was expected.
There wouldn’t have been time for repairs or treatment.
“How did you find me here? Did you plant a tracking chip when you hit me?”
Maya said, stroking her abdomen. The spot where I’d struck her hard.
“Or did you learn net hacking? You’ve changed a lot, haven’t you?”
“People change.”
I answered, but in truth, I hadn’t changed.
It was Eve who had helped.
Personally, I felt I was the same as always.
But with Eve’s identity currently a secret, I couldn’t reveal the truth.
I put on an air of contemplation, pretending to have figured it out myself.
“Who’s… behind you? I haven’t seen that face before.”
“A friend.”
“For now, a friend.”
Andrea added to my answer.
The ‘for now’ part bothered me, but it wasn’t important right now.
The conversation stopped, and a brief silence followed.
“……A friend, huh.”
Maya tilted her head.
Despite her expressionless face, a faint sound escaped her lips.
A subtle, grinding sound. The sound of teeth grinding.
Her fists, clenched tight beneath the chair, showed no sign of relaxing.
Maya sighed.
“…Huu.”
In a more relaxed tone, she continued.
“I know. I’m aware that I’m a little… off right now.”
Perhaps she had regained some clarity after being hit by my powerful physical magic (punch) on the street.
Just like when she escaped, she seemed much more lucid than when we first met.
Maybe we could resolve this through conversation.
With that thought, I spoke to Maya.
“Then come with me─.”
Maya’s voice interrupted me.
Madness flickered in her eyes.
“But I can’t help it. I want them to only see me. I want them to only look at me.”
Maya rose from her chair.
Several blades had sprung from her wrists.
“Call it selfish, but just look at me. Forever. Always.”
It was then that her expressionless face transformed.
A long, curved smile spread across Maya’s lips.
This wasn’t an atmosphere conducive to conversation.
…Looks like we have to fight after all.
From a normal perspective, it was a large room.
But to me, it felt incredibly cramped.
It was because we were underground.
If I used powerful magic and the ceiling or walls collapsed, I could only envision a future where we were all buried alive.
No matter how skilled a mage I was,
No matter how talented a singer Andrea was,
No matter how formidable a chrome psycho Maya was,
If that happened, none of us would survive.
I was glad Andrea was here.
If I had come alone, I would’ve been in serious trouble.
Thinking that far, I breathed a sigh of relief.
I turned around to thank Andrea for coming with me.
But for some reason, Andrea’s expression was subtle.
She looked displeased,
Yet also seemed to be reflecting on something.
Was it because Maya’s condition was more serious than she had anticipated?
Hmm.
That couldn’t be it.
We’d seen countless chrome psychos during our missions together.
“What’s with that look?”
“……Nothing. Just thinking that intense possessiveness isn’t good. It made me reflect.”
I didn’t understand why she would have such a reflection in this situation.
Andrea rubbed the back of her neck.
Her mechanical fingers were so large that a single one covered her entire neck.
“Ready to fight?”
“We can’t kill her, right?”
“Yeah, try to capture her alive.”
“Sure, fine.”
Andrea and I exchanged a brief conversation.
It was Maya’s voice that cut it short.
“What are you two talking about?!”
Maya’s figure lunged at us like an arrow.
[Synchronizing visual interface data. …Complete.]
Eve provided support.
Given her obsession, I expected her to target me, the mage, first.
But Maya’s target was Andrea.
“Die!!”
“Ha… whatever.”
A clang resonated. Maya’s figure was repelled.
Red plasma flickered around Andrea’s mechanical fist.
The shockwave from the force field vibrated the air.
“Hey, hey, Andrea. You know we can’t kill her, right?”
“I heard you just now, I know. Don’t worry, I hit her very lightly.”
The other escapees had been reduced to bloody chunks by that same attack…
I wondered what the difference was.
But Andrea’s words seemed to be true.
Maya, flung back against the wall, looked more intact than I’d expected.
Yes, ‘more intact than I’d expected’.
One of Maya’s arms, the one that had blocked Andrea’s attack, was already shattered and gone.
Maya, seemingly surprised, stared blankly at her missing arm.
No blood flowed.
Her body, fully converted to cyberware, didn’t contain that much blood anymore.
Instead, a transparent electrolytic fluid oozed out, viscous like oil.
It was a natural consequence.
The cyberware implanted in Maya’s body was quite old.
In modern terms, they were outdated models.
They were functionally inferior to the latest cyberware.
And Andrea was the type who spared no expense on her equipment.
The reason why the escaped convicts we encountered earlier had all exploded, literally, from a single punch from Andrea was because of this.
The ensuing situation couldn’t even be called a fight.
Compared to the fight between Maya and me on the street,
The time it took, and the outcome, were completely different.
It didn’t take long for Maya to lose both arms and legs and collapse on the floor.
“There, done.”
Andrea made a V-sign with her massive mechanical arm.
“Thanks for the help.”
“Don’t mention it. It’s what we do.”
She stepped back, giving me space to talk with Maya privately.
I approached the fallen Maya.
Thanks to her full-body cybernetic conversion, the loss of her limbs didn’t seem to be life-threatening.
However, her neural lines were still active, so she should be in pain, but she seemed oblivious to it.
“…….”
“Like I said before, I’m sorry I was late.”
“……It’s not that you were late.”
Her mechanical eyes blinked.
I didn’t know what was reflected in them now.
She might be thinking of my past self,
Or perhaps looking back at her past self.
Maya slowly opened her mouth.
“……Kill me now.”
A chrome-converted body couldn’t even shed tears.
But perhaps because her internal components were damaged, transparent electrolytic fluid trickled down from the corners of her eyes, like tears.
“I want to remain in your memory, even if it’s forever.”
Saying that, Maya closed her eyes.
What did she envision for her future?
Was it returning to prison?
Perhaps that’s why she was asking me to kill her.
But the future I envisioned was different.
I supported Maya’s upper body with one hand and cradled the back of her neck with the other.
“I don’t want to.”
Before she could respond, I generated an electrical current at my fingertips.
Even if cyberware covered the entire body, an electrical shock to the nervous system was effective against almost everyone.
I looked down at the unconscious Maya.
Her ferocious demeanor was gone, and she looked like she was peacefully asleep.
Even in the past, I didn’t want to send Maya to prison.
But the situation back then left me no choice.
Among her targets for revenge were high-ranking corporate executives and, nominally, many ordinary citizens.
Considering the NCPD and Chrome Force who responded to the scene filled with corpses, sending Maya to prison was the best option at the time.
And I was the one who stopped them from killing her on the spot and instead had her arrested.
But now, the situation was different.
There were no NCPD officers here, and no prying eyes to recognize her.
Andrea, also curious about this, approached me and asked,
“So… what are you going to do now?”
“I’ll have to leave it to a bioware specialist.”
After all, when it came to chrome psychosis, the root cause was ‘chrome’.
If all the chrome in her body was removed and replaced with bioware, and she underwent implant surgery again, she could be treated to some extent.
Well, I had heard that there were cases where even that wouldn’t work, but…
Right now, I couldn’t think of any other option.
She was a source of regret for me.
Because I was late in saving her,
Because I was late in remembering that she was a character from the game,
All of this had happened.
That’s why, after Maya’s incident, I tried to prevent similar things from happening again.
Like with Drek, I focused more on saving and helping others.
I couldn’t turn back time, but if I could help her now, I had to.
I couldn’t say for sure what her future held.
But I hoped it would be better than now.
“Hmm… that’s the best option.”
Andrea nodded.
“Now that it’s over, wanna go out and have some fun?”
“…Since you helped me, if you want─, ah.”
I stopped mid-sentence.
“Why?”
It was because I had just received a message.
“Catherine says she’s home.”
“Ah.”
Andrea, like me, trailed off.
“…….”
“…….”
Guess I’ll just go home.
I didn’t forget to contact the bioware specialist who could help Maya.
And so,
That day came to an end.
Then one day, during my week-long streak of staying home and playing VR games, someone came looking for me.
“……The Boss said you had an appointment but never showed up. She told me to bring you to her personally. Let’s go, Mr. Shiun.”
It was the gun-toting kidnappers (Smith and his men).
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
