Fortune Cookie (9)

- You and Woof-woof are both so pushy.

That was the last thing Nadia said, repeating her warnings over and over, before ending the call. Licorice, who had been quietly listening, shook her head.

Actually, it wasn't Licorice who shook her head, but the security robot Alpha. Even though it was in shambles, it seemed the neural circuits above its waist were still functioning.

- Pushy? Us?

- That's how it looks to me.

- Hm. Is that so.

- That tone weirdly gets on my nerves, so don't use it next time.

- Hm.

- Lee Hyun-woo.

- Okay. I won't use it.

Pushy. It means to be very aggressive or energetic, and excessively proactive. That's what I understood.

'Me and Nadia?'

I fell into quiet thought. Since ghouls were still in the nearby streets and I had to be silent, there was nothing else to do. Thinking was the only kind of movement I could make right now.

'Do I give off that impression?'

I didn't have much experience in believing in something. I must have had a childhood and gone through various experiences, but since I'd forgotten everything, I was clumsy at dealing with people.

I did think that we were a little close. Not everyone wandering the residential area's streets was like us. If it happened, it was usually among family. The kind of family I must have had, too. Me, Nadia, and Carry— the three of us relying on each other was similar to the families I'd seen in the past.

'Compared to others, maybe we are a bit like that.'

When I first met Nadia, she was a patient on the verge of death, so I paid special attention to her. After she recovered, I naturally cared because she became my partner for work.

If I treated her like a stranger, how could we be partners? We'd just be some strangers forming a temporary group.

- Maybe we look like that because we're partners.

- That's all?

- What more do you want? Are you looking down on mining jobs or something? Teamwork really matters, you know? Do you think you can just blast tunnels with an polar impactor recklessly? Absolutely not. And don't get me started on byproduct collection.

- No, no, that's not what I mean. When did I ever belittle mining work? That's not why I'm saying this.

- So what, then?

Is there something more? Roundabout conversations weren't my style. Dialogue that left too much open to interpretation only led to unnecessary misunderstandings, in my experience.

I wished she'd just say upfront what she meant. But since she wouldn't, the frustration only piled up. I was supposed to keep quiet so the ghouls wouldn't notice, but I was getting so heated I thought the steam rising off me would give me away.

- Everyone else knows except yourselves... Are you getting "benefits"?

- Huh? What "benefits" all of a sudden?

- She's asking if you two are in that kind of relationship.

- ...... What kind of relationship is that?

- .......

Maybe I was too dull to keep up with the conversation, because I just couldn't follow the flow. No matter how many times I asked, unable to grasp it, Licorice stayed silent.

Seeing Alpha's mono-eye wavering, I got the sense Licorice was reluctant to talk.

'Relationship?'

While I pondered that word, a small "ah" of realization escaped. Suddenly, an idea popped into my head. It felt like a light bulb turning on in my mind.

- I don't know what you mean exactly, but I guess it's similar to my relationship with you.

- You... You mean a relationship like you and me?

Relationship, relationship. Licorice murmured the word to herself. The way she fixated on that word was starting to make me laugh inside. Suppressing a sigh, I resumed our comms.

- If it weren't for you, I'd have died wandering the back alleys, and if it weren't for me, Nadia wouldn't have gotten medical treatment and would've died too. Of course, who knows how things would have turned out, but that's how it was back then.

The only person to reach out in a situation where nobody else cared. For me, that was Licorice, and for Nadia, that was me.

- Maybe that's why. It's a bit— hmm... I guess you could call it 'dear', or that I care a little more. Something like that.

After answering, I snapped back to my senses and hurriedly texted. Licorice never liked being judged. Alpha's mono-eye reflected a somewhat flustered appearance.

- That's just how I feel. I don't know how you see me, Licorice.

- You really don't?

- ...... How would I? You've never told me.

Licorice went quiet, and suddenly Alpha creaked as if to get up. Wondering if its control system was malfunctioning, I pressed its head down with one hand. It went still.

A faint cough was heard, and Licorice spoke again with a coy tone. But that couldn't hide a bit of happiness in her voice.

- Not noticing that— that's not my fault. Anyway, you're saying your relationship with Woof-woof is similar to ours?

- Yes. It's similar with Carry, too.

- What?

That was odd. Licorice's voice suddenly dropped. I flinched, wondering if I'd said something wrong, and tried to change the subject as naturally as possible.

- But does it matter what Nadia and I are to each other? It's the first time you've asked so persistently. You never even cared before.

- ...... Persistently? Never cared? That hurts, you know. I was just curious. That's all.

I was about to continue speaking but jerked my head up. Tap, tak—footsteps sounded from outside. Something hefty. Not a person, likely a ghoul that hadn't yet left the area.

【Kiiiiehk?】

It was close. Judging from the presence, it seemed to be lingering near the pipes I'd climbed up earlier.

Krrrk—grrrrrk....

A phlegmy growl filtering through the relentless hail battering the residential area. As the tension slowly mounted, the ghoul, failing to find any clue, was heard moving away.

Despite that, I kept my ears pricked for a while longer. Ghouls were tenacious hunters. They might only pretend to leave, hiding silently like me, waiting for a careless prey.

After what felt like 20 minutes, I finally relaxed and leaned against the wall. The possibility of a ghoul still being nearby must have only been my paranoia. A sigh of relief was muffled by my respirator.

- It's gotten pretty quiet.

- Yeah. I think we'll be able to move soon.

- Good, I'll leave that to your judgment. Well, it's not really 'leaving it to you'.

There isn't much choice, is there?

Licorice clicked her tongue and continued.

- Alpha won't be able to help you any longer. Its frame is so twisted that its limbs have come off. You should've brought another unit for situations like this.

- That would just be one more broken robot, right? You know as well as I do—it wasn't something numbers could fix.

I looked quietly down at the Alpha security robot lying on the floor. Alpha was Licorice's eyes.

By sharing the mono-eye's view, she could keep up with our situation, but now that was about to end. There was nothing I could do systems-wise to help either.

- Should I just leave it behind? I dragged it along thinking it might still be useful, but it'd be tough to carry around something so big.

- Just take the core. Leave everything else if you want, but you must recover the core. It'll come in handy for all sorts of things.

- As a bomb?

- That works, or you can use it to temporarily power a system and activate it.

- ...... Couldn't we have done that to open the tram station door, too?

- Listen till the end. There's a limit to the size of facility you can power this way. And it's a very clear limit. Using the core like that, it'll be totally drained and shut down—one-use only. If Alpha had powered down at that moment, there'd have been no time to open the door, right? Though it wasn't even possible back then anyway.

True. There's no way Licorice would overlook something even I know. Sometimes she made mistakes, but a broker was still a broker.

- How do I remove the core?

- Only touch what I tell you from now on. Otherwise...

- ... Otherwise?

- It'll explode. Boom. To prevent reverse engineering, if you don't follow the right order, it's rigged to blow.

"......"

Explode. I thought of the bodyguard robots that self-destructed while clinging to the monster tram. My body trembled. If a blast of similar magnitude occurred here, I'd have no guarantee of surviving.

I only managed a grim expression for a moment. Then my face screwed up at Licorice's next words.

- I'm joking.

- ...... Why would you joke about that?

My fist trembled. Maybe, despite only having three years of memories, I'd met more people than the broker had. A harsh word rose to the tip of my tongue but I managed to swallow it.

- You really think I'd do something bad to you? After all we've been through together. There's not much time, so let's get started.

- Fine.

I was annoyed, but I followed Licorice's instructions for now. As she said, we couldn't stay here much longer.

- Even you can see Alpha looks unsalvageable, right?

- Yes.

- Good. Start by removing the armor plates.

- Just tear them off?

- Yes. Normally you'd need proper tools, but you're strong enough that it shouldn't matter. Even if you pull hard, it's fine. On my end, it already shows the part as detached, so if it's still attached, the frame itself must be bent.

I forced Alpha's upper body armor up from below and tore it off. I tossed aside the special alloy that had been dented and gouged by the ghoul's claws.

- Done.

- Next is the internal frame. How does it look?

- Not good.

- ...... I meant, can you tell where the structure's been deformed, where it's bent or worn?

I narrowed my eyes and stared closely at Alpha's opened chest. Always keep decisions quick—a split second determines survival. I made my judgment at once.

- Can't I just pull out the mono-eye and check directly?

- .......

- I'm kidding.

- Right?

- Of course. You think I can't even inspect something properly? It's right in front of me. You're not swearing at me with the mic off, are you?

- Of course not.

Despite her denial, a file was sent to me. When I opened it, it was a schematic of the robot's interior. She must not have trusted I was really kidding.

If she'd had this all along, she should have sent it sooner. I kept that thought to myself and alternated between glancing at the schematic and Alpha, explaining the frame's condition as best I could.

- On the lower right of frame 3, there should be a small notch. Hold it down and pull upward. That should detach it.

- Done.

- Good, we're making good progress. Now for the final step: core separation. It's like the heart in a human body, so it should be connected to a particularly thick cable.

- Found it.

- How much of the cable do you think you can save? The longer, the better.

- Not even a hand's breadth, I think. The part attacked by the ghoul is right nearby, so most of the cables are shredded. They're barely holding on.

- Hmmm...

Licorice let out a thoughtful noise.

- Nothing for it, then. Forget the mono-eye—just cut it clean. Ah, the core is active, so be careful not to touch it. You could get shocked.

- .......

- ...... Did you get zapped?

- ...... Yeah.

Thankfully, it wasn't bad—the suit had blocked most of it. I reached inside Alpha's chest, now disassembled, and pulled out the glowing blue core completely.

- I've separated the core.

- Good job.

There was no more reason to remain. I loosely tied the spherical core at my waist, then straightened up.

It was time to head outside.

To rejoin the party that had gone ahead.

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Insert You dense motherfucker meme here.(ʘ言ʘ╬)】

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