Origin (15)

Back when I used to search for information about Earth, there was a phrase I read—something about the conscience.

It said that, supposedly, there is a very pointed and sharp triangle inside all our hearts. That triangle turns and hurts us whenever we do something wrong. That's why we feel guilty.

However, the more bad things we do, the more that triangle gets worn down, becoming rounded, and the pain that stabs our hearts gradually lessens. In that way, conscience disappears.

My triangle was still perfectly intact. Looking at Kyle, who seemed to be suffering from overwork, along with his colleagues, I felt my triangle wanting to spin around furiously.

Just that alone made my chest throb with a dull ache. It was the pang of conscience I felt as I looked over the items laid out on the workbench.

Before heading to the cargo sector, all the gear Kyle had painstakingly made for me—plasma cutter, shock wave emitter, flamethrower—were left there, all totally destroyed.

'... Hmm.'

To be honest, I had handled them a bit rough. I wasn't going to deny that. I used the plasma cutter as much as I wanted since Kyle said he made it sturdy, but as for the shock wave emitter and flamethrower, that was unfortunate. They just weren't robust.

They didn't meet my standards for tools. Thinking it over, I felt a bit unfair. The pile of work wasn't all because of me—even if Kyle was now collapsed over the workbench, a fair portion of that work wasn't solely my fault.

So I decided not to spin that triangle around. I had worked hard too, after all. Once I stopped the triangle, I felt better.

"Equipment... isn't... disposable... The shuttle was intact, so I hoped I could rest this time... How could you break the hard stuff..."

Whether he knew it or not, Kyle muttered with a voice as if he were dying. I muttered with him, about how I managed to pull off something so difficult.

"Argh! Gaaah!"

"Eek!"

Even though I said it quietly, Kyle seemed to hear and suddenly went into convulsions. He suddenly transformed into a beast, roaring and springing up. Thinking he was about to take a swing at me, I quickly shouted.

"I'm a patient!"

"Grrrr..."

Kyle hesitated for a moment. He looked me up and down with bloodshot eyes, then collapsed again. I wasn't really a patient anymore, but whatever.

Like Licorice had said, getting up and moving about just two days after being injured wasn't normal, so it wasn't strange for them to treat me as a patient. And my life really had just been threatened.

From behind me, I heard stifled giggling—it was Licorice. She was laughing with her mouth covered, but when I spun around, she pretended like nothing had happened. It was such a lame act that even a kid wouldn't be fooled.

'A joke, seriously.'

Somehow, Licorice didn't seem like herself today. Why did she look so happy? Now that I thought of it, her usual security robot wasn't around either. Not waiting outside, not anywhere nearby.

As I eyed her suspiciously, Licorice raised one eyebrow.

"What are you looking at like that?"

"Where's Alpha? You didn't leave it behind because you're short-staffed, did you?"

She wasn't the type to pass off all her resources even if she was short-staffed. At least, not the broker I'd come to know.

"How could I not be short? You know how many simultaneous jobs are going on right now? And, why are you asking all of a sudden?"

"No real reason. It just feels empty now that it's not around. Makes me think of old times."

Calling it 'old times' was a bit odd. It had only been two years ago.

"Old times?"

"You and I once got trapped on an ice cliff for a while. The shuttle malfunctioned."

"... Ah."

That was back when I didn't even know her name, Licorice, and only knew she had red hair. She was just someone I called 'broker' at the time, and she took me as her bodyguard on a trip. Of course, on our way back, the shuttle core temporarily malfunctioned.

Because of that, the shuttle crashed into an ice mountain range. Fortunately, some auxiliary armor was deployed, and only the core had malfunctioned—the rest of the functions were intact. The broker and I managed to escape safely using the emergency escape device.

However, all the security robots with us crashed along with the shuttle and were totally destroyed. We survived, but were stranded, with nowhere to go.

Due to the aftermath of the crash, the cliff became unstable so we couldn't clamp up and out. Nor could we go down, since a bottomless crevasse lay below.

It wasn't an extreme crisis. Another shuttle orbiting above immediately started heading our way as soon as it detected the anomaly.

Even without me, the broker would've survived on her own—as long as she was on Titan. Anyway, now that ordeal was just a memory.

"Wow, thinking back, maybe it's not really a fond memory after all. You threw quite a fit at the time."

"... Do you want to die?"

Licorice shot me a glare. The edges of her ears turned red, a sign she remembered all her embarrassing behavior from back then.

"I'm a patient."

"You yourself said you've almost fully recovered."

"I didn't lie. After I rescued you, you screamed, punched at me, shouted that if I touched you the Alpha series would beat me up, and even threw an ice chunk when I tried to make a fire with a kit. You left a bump on my head with that, you know?"

What did she take me for? I'd only wanted to help, but when she responded so sharply I felt really discouraged. Good thing I knew brokers were naturally distrustful of people—if I hadn't, I might have been emotionally scarred.

"... I don't remember such things. And just because you're saying something true doesn't mean it's always right. There are such things as well-intentioned lies in this world—"

"Oh, your ears are red."

"...."

"I'm kidding."

Licorice quickly rubbed her ears, but my follow-up made her fists shake. Her face, which was filling with embarrassment, was now showing another emotion instead.

My heart skipped at how quickly the mood changed. Was that reaction not a bit much over a little joke? I thought that for a moment, but then Licorice unclenched her fists and asked, her expression oddly subdued.

"You know, back then... were you really upset?"

"Huh? Well, I was, at the time. Not now though."

"I see. That's good, then."

Licorice awkwardly twisted a strand of hair, belatedly answering the previous question: the only reason she wasn't insisting on a security robot now was because I was here.

That was a huge step forward—for her to see me as good as a security robot. I was happy, feeling like I'd been let into her circle just a bit.

"So, why did you bring me here?"

I'd gotten a good look at Kyle, but was that the only reason I was brought here? When I said I didn't really care about Kyle's overwork, Licorice looked a little sour.

"... Aren't you being too cold?"

"I'm just telling it like it is."

"And I just told you, being right doesn't mean that's all there is."

I shrugged brazenly. Licorice shook her head as she led me to a metal box in the corner of the workshop.

I remembered that container. I had personally loaded it into a storage unit in the cargo sector warehouse. The items inside this small container were—

"... Custom-exclusive suit."

"You remember."

Licorice pressed a button on the container, which began to open. With a series of metallic clicks, the hooks unfolded to reveal the suits hanging inside.

Technology, equipment, and credits—if you had those, you could modify these custom suits any way you liked. Designed for a range of uses, they were expensive as hell to commission.

But there was nothing to worry about. We still had engineers who hadn't died yet. If you worked them hard enough, it was basically free. That's life in SSTC.

"While you were rolling around in bed, we kept at it. This is just the most basic setup—the rest is all unmodified."

"So I get to modify it however I want."

"That's right. Ah, and I already did this part: an integrated respirator."

She tapped the suit on the hanger and the neck seal opened, deploying a ring-shaped mechanism with a smooth whirr.

"As you know, respirators typically come in two forms: one is a helmet combined with head protection, the other is a barrier device using special elements to keep outside elements out. The second is for EVA use, but the technology is unfinished and has lots of issues. Still, it's decent when in a pinch—not that we're going into outer space."

"Ooh..."

An integrated respirator—just what I'd wanted. All those risks we'd taken to raid the warehouse had been worth it. I think I now understood why Roxy got addicted to dopamine.

With this, I wouldn't need to awkwardly remove and replace my respirator for every meal or drink. In its stock state, it was inferior to a worker suit, but that was just for the stock version.

Once properly customized, it could outperform worker suits by far. With the payoff so clear, it gave me a thrill. I might get addicted to this, I thought.

'Catching Blue Eye was worth it.'

I was now the proud owner of an integrated respirator. No matter what annoyances struck, just remembering who I was made me feel like I could forgive anything. Grinning, I stroked the helmet.

Licorice, seeing this, drew back in surprise. Normally I would've felt hurt to be looked at like a madwoman, but I let it slide. The golden future glittering in my imagination was almost dazzling.

"So, who's going to handle the customization—?"

"Who do you think? Me, of course."

"...!"

A low voice from right behind me made my skin crawl. I jumped despite myself.

Kyle, with a gloomy gaze fixed on me, spoke up.

"You said you were a patient, but you look much healthier than I am."

"I am a patient."

"I'm the patient, actually."

If I contradicted him, he seemed ready to finally give me that punch he'd held back earlier.

"Wait. The one you should really be mad at isn't me. It's Roxy."

"Why bring up Roxy now? The shuttle was fine this time, so my work was cut in half. Meanwhile, you smashed all my equipment."

"But you didn't know Roxy had shuttle repair skills, right? Last time, he said..."

I dangled the bait, and Kyle bit instantly. I added a few embellishments to what Roxy had actually said and snared him good.

Sorry, Roxy. We're friends, right? Gotta look out for each other.

"So Roxy said that, huh. Fine. Thanks for the useful info."

"No problem. It's how we help each other."

"Anyway, if you find any flaws with the new equipment, let me know. I'll keep it in mind while working on the custom suit."

I hesitated a moment, wondering if Kyle was now dangling bait for me, as I had done for him. But it seemed he was earnest. Licorice nudged me, saying that's why she'd brought me here.

"You want me to say literally everything?"

"Yes, just tell me everything. I'll decide later if it's doable."

"Then I really won't hold back. To start, the shock wave emitter is useless in its current state. The weight's no big deal, but the size is."

Unless it could be fully miniaturized, it was too unwieldy for practical use. Kyle folded his arms in thought, then nodded.

"If miniaturized, do you want it mounted on your forearm?"

"That'd be the best! I can handle any level of recoil, so stripping out unnecessary framing would be ideal. If not possible, make it disposable. It'd be far more useful than now."

"You mean like a grenade... Miniaturization should be possible. The core was the issue, but now that we have a custom suit, that can be solved. Even if it doesn't work as planned, I'll try another way."

"I'd also like to modify the polar impactor we brought back, if possible."

My most beloved but rarely used mining polar impactor. I'd seen its power firsthand this time.

It cracked through Blue Eye, which was so tough even the plasma cutter couldn't scratch it, in a single hit. And it wasn't even properly cored—just forcibly connected, and yet it delivered that much power.

It made me think again: if your attacks aren't penetrating, what you need is more force. I needed even more power.

"I'm listening."

"Forearm mounting would kill the main advantage, so I'm not interested in that, but I definitely want more power output."

"... That tool's already insanely powerful. It's meant for power loaders, not humans."

"I'm stronger than power loaders."

"That's... I mean—fine. The Polar Impactor needs repairs first, so it'll have lower priority. With the custom suit work, it'll take time."

"That's fine. Just do it right. Oh, and..."

As I excitedly rattled off requests, I glanced around for Blue Eye's exoskeleton to bring up some improvements for the plasma cutter. But no matter how much I looked around, I couldn't find what I was looking for.

"Where's Blue Eye's exoskeleton? If it's usable, I'd like to try something with it."

"Blue Eye? What's that supposed to mean? ... Wait, is that the monster's name?"

"When did you name something like that? I never heard of this before."

Kyle and Licorice were both bewildered. As I continued, their eyes widened in disbelief, as if they'd never heard of a mutant having a name.

"Huh? I didn't name it; that's what was written on it. While facing off with the monster, I noticed some strange letters inscribed on its neck or maybe its shoulder—it said Blue Eye. ... Didn't I mention this?"

"No! Why are you telling us just now?"

As I looked surprised, Licorice yelled in disbelief.

Weird.

Why didn't I mention that?

-------------= Clacky's Corner -------------=Hyun-woo probably forgot to mention it since after returning, he had to recuperate.【ദ്ദി(⩌ᴗ⩌)】

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