Chapter 13: Half Android
[Are you interested, Mr. Diesel?]
I had been walking down the street when I received a call from someone.
To be more precise, I was on my way home after finishing a small, miscellaneous job that Boss Kim had brokered for me, when a job offer came in from a Fixer whose name I was hearing for the first time.
[Well. I’d need to hear more first.]
[If you come to my office, I’ll explain in person.]
The Fixer spoke in an extremely polite tone.
Even accounting for the static in the transmission, he was a man with a strangely mechanical voice.
[I’ll think about it.]
[Yes. Please come by anytime you’re comfortable. I’ll be waiting.]
After ending the call, I asked Ar.
〈What do you think?〉
Then Ar spoke while floating information before my eyes.
〈Alfred Han. A Fixer active in northern Gyeonggi. Species: Half Android.〉
〈Half Android? Hm…….〉
Half Android.
A term referring to androids who claimed themselves to be sentient beings.
Among androids possessing strong artificial intelligence, some had developed self-awareness and demanded equal rights with other intelligent beings, insisting that they were independent persons.
Such beings were called ‘Half Androids,’ implying hybrids born between humans and androids.
‘It’s only possible because this is an era where human rights aren’t innate, but granted.’
A world where humans could become perfect machines, and machines could act perfectly human.
Such technological advancement inevitably brought about social confusion regarding what human rights actually were.
And to certain people, that confusion became an opportunity.
‘Those certain people were corporations.’
The megacorporations that ruled the world began granting a new form of human rights under the name of an ‘Identity Guarantee Number,’ claiming they were bringing order to the chaos.
Of course, the criterion for granting it was simply whether it benefited corporate value, which had to rise infinitely.
Among androids, some Half Andros who possessed their own assets began purchasing those rights.
However, even with the backing of megacorporations, they were not treated as proper persons.
In a way, it was only natural.
When even species with genuine personhood weren’t treated properly, suddenly granting human rights to androids that had originally been someone’s property—
There was no way the world would easily accept that.
Even so, a small number of Half Androids were steadily carving out places for themselves, standing out in various fields based on their exceptional abilities.
This Fixer named Alfred Han was one such capable individual.
‘Well, for me, this might actually be an opportunity.’
I didn’t particularly care whether he was a Half Android or Satan straight out of hell.
What mattered was how trustworthy he was, and how important a job he could bring.
〈Master, shall we move?〉
Ar asked, poking their head out from my chest.
“Yeah. I’ve got some time anyway.”
As soon as I finished answering, Ar immediately hailed a taxi.
‘I should start looking for a ride of my own soon.’
Muttering that thought, I got into the vehicle that had come to a stop.
Northern Gyeonggi, once packed with apartment complexes, had been almost completely reduced to ruins during the Third World War.
Even though quite a long time had passed since the armistice, restoration had not been fully carried out, and traces of that devastation still remained everywhere.
When I arrived at my destination, instead of the clean residential district it had once been, I was met with unmanned factories spewing murky exhaust and pitch-black wastewater all day long.
Seeing that scene, I was once again reminded of what kind of world I was standing in.
Between densely packed cylindrical structures, a single crude, box-shaped building stood alone.
It was a building constructed with no regard whatsoever for fire safety regulations.
As I entered through the entrance, an android model commonly seen on the streets greeted me, spreading both arms wide.
“Welcome!”
“Are you Alfred Han?”
“No. I’m Alfred Choi. Please come this way.”
As I followed the Half Android down the corridor, identical faces brushed past me one after another.
‘At least let me be able to tell who’s who.’
〈It’s not that difficult.〉
〈Ar, can you tell them apart?〉
〈They’re all different.〉
Different? They all looked exactly the same to me.
I wondered if, through the eyes of an Electrosphere Spirit Guide, it was possible to read some kind of individuality from those mass-produced-looking androids.
When we arrived at what appeared to be the largest room in the building, Alfred Choi knocked on the door twice.
“Mr. Alfred Han, the Ghostcatcher has arrived.”
He then opened the door, revealing yet another android of the same model seated at the table.
However, unlike the others, his entire left eyeball was pitch-black.
“You’ve arrived! You must be Mr. Diesel, whom I’ve only heard rumors about. It’s an honor.”
Alfred Han raised his hand to request a handshake, then guided me to the guest sofa.
“Was it difficult getting here?”
“It’s a place with nice mountains and clear water.”
“Haha! Please understand. An office like this is the best a lowly fellow like me can manage.”
The Fixer laughed, casually spitting out a self-deprecating remark.
“So how did you hear about me?”
“Ah, Mr. Diesel? I see. I wasn’t able to properly explain over the phone.”
Alfred Han continued with a smile.
“There’s a community even among us Fixers, and lately, Mr. Diesel has become quite famous there. They say there’s an especially brilliant spellcaster among the rookie Ghostcatchers.”
I already knew through Boss Kim that rumors about me were gradually spreading.
Even so, the reason I hadn’t received any notable offers until now was likely due to this underworld’s tendency to place great importance on experience.
“That’s why I decided to contact you like this. You see, I take a special interest in our rookies.”
A Fixer who took an interest in newcomers.
I had a rough idea why.
‘Looks like being a Half Android hasn’t made things easy for him.’
Because of his background and credentials, veteran Ghostcatchers probably turned him down, forcing him to extend his gaze even to rookies.
After all, what underworld Ghostcatchers scrutinized wasn’t just the job itself.
“Then, may we proceed straight to the main point?”
Alfred Han said as he pulled out a briefing chip from his waist.
I took the chip and plugged it into my port instead of answering.
Immediately, information that couldn’t be discussed over a regular phone for security reasons began to appear.
“As I mentioned, this operation involves a total of four participants. One hacker, one physical guard, one gunner, and lastly, a spellcaster—yourself, Mr. Diesel.”
Several photos slid past in accordance with his explanation.
As I was looking them over, I noticed something that bothered me and raised a hand to stop him for a moment.
“I’m seeing a face exactly like yours over there.”
“Ah, you must be referring to Alfred Park. He’s a Ghostcatcher we’re raising on our side as a gunner.”
“Hmm……. Understood.”
The expression ‘raising’ bothered me a little, but I decided to let it slide for now.
“The operation leader is a hacker named Zeon. He doesn’t have much experience, but he’s quite a capable hacker. Our physical guard, Jason, also used to be active in the field at a security company, and now he’s a shaman who handles miracles of shamanism.”
I turned my gaze to the profiles of the hacker whose face wasn’t clearly visible, and the burly orc.
“The actual operation is a week from now, but before that, the team members will gather once to do some simple preliminary work. The details are similar to what I conveyed over the phone.”
Simply put, it was a job where we infiltrated somewhere and took something out.
That somewhere was a wastewater treatment facility, and the item we were extracting was merely a water spirit.
“Do you have any questions?”
“When is the preliminary work?”
“The day before the operation. The leader will probably contact you separately.”
“Understood.”
At Diesel’s affirmation, Alfred Han’s face brightened.
“Excellent! Then let’s move straight on to the contract—.”
As he was about to hand over the holographic documents, I briefly cut him off.
“Instead, as stated, the compensation needs to be exact.”
Above all, the reason I had become interested in this job was because Alfred Han had declared that he wouldn’t take a brokerage fee.
Fixers usually took at least 20% as commission, often 30%, and the real thieves took amounts close to half.
That was also why I had gone out of my way to come all the way here to find an unpopular Fixer like Alfred Han.
The more desperate the Fixer, the less brokerage fee it was likely to take.
“Of course.”
The Half Android smiled, wrinkling his face.
〈Did you check?〉
〈There was no suspicious presence.〉
In the taxi on the way home, I asked Ar.
〈Good work.〉
When I made some jjir for Ar in my arms, it accepted it even more ravenously than usual.
It seemed that being far from the place it normally stayed, combined with the many androids connected to the Electrosphere nearby, had left it extremely tense.
〈Rest a bit, then organize some information related to this job.〉
〈Ar is already moving.〉
〈Really?〉
Sometimes I wondered if I was overworking it, but Ar quite enjoyed searching for information.
Whether it was a trait of Electrosphere Spirits, Ar’s personality, or both.
With the hand that had been feeding it jjir, I gently stroked the back of Ar’s ears.
〈Well done.〉
〈That is insufficient.〉
〈Huh?〉
〈Stronger praise is required.〉
I had never heard it say something like that before.
It seemed it really was tired today.
〈You worked hard.〉
〈Mmm…….〉
〈You’re truly amazing.〉
〈Mmmmmm…….〉
Apparently dissatisfied with the praise, Ar bit my hand hard every time I spoke.
〈You’re the best spirit, right?〉
〈Mm…….〉
This time it seemed pleased; it licked my hand a few times with a tongue crackling with static, then curled its body up.
〈Ar is focusing on Electrosphere exploration. Requesting that the master not interfere.〉
It could have done that after getting home.
Truly, it was an exceptionally diligent spirit—whoever it took after.
A few days later, a message arrived from someone called the hacker Zeon.
A short sentence containing the meeting location and appointment time.
The message was doubly encrypted, requiring a cumbersome decryption process.
‘A thorough one.’
Since coming to this world, the only hacker I had met in person was Little Sister.
I recalled what she had once said.
-Hackers, every last one of them has something wrong in the head.
Was that really true?
I had done a bit of background checking on the team members in advance, but among them, the hacker named Zeon was particularly hard to find any trace of.
If I went deeper into the Electrosphere, information might surface, but it didn’t seem worth investing that much time.
More than that, I was intoxicated by a newly discovered ability.
‘Wow…….’
Before my eyes right now, I could see all kinds of information that normally could only be confirmed by connecting to the Electrosphere.
And yet, I wasn’t even connected to the Electrosphere.
‘They called it Electrosphere Projection, didn’t they.’
An ability said to manifest only in hackers whose Electrosphere perception had reached a certain level.
A projecting power that allowed one to peer into the Electrosphere without connecting to it.
However, my Electrosphere Projection didn’t stop at merely seeing what was connected to the Electrosphere.
I began to see the characters that made up the Electrosphere itself.
Perhaps those could be called ‘code.’
‘As expected, the Electrosphere really is part of the surreal.’
Just as I could see the ‘sentences’ of miracles or the ‘formulas’ of magic, I could also see the code of the Electrosphere.
While projecting into the Electrosphere, I looked over the home appliances connected to my rooftop room.
‘So this is what they mean by a world made of information.’
If the world were drawn using nothing but strings of code, it would probably feel like this.
To my eyes, objects connected to the Electrosphere were laid out exactly like that.
However, I couldn’t interfere by creating or erasing the code visible in the Electrosphere.
With miracle characters or magical formulas, once I could see them, I could naturally handle them, but for some reason, code didn’t work that way.
‘It feels different from when I summon an Electrosphere Spirit.’
Were there two or more language systems within the Electrosphere?
Perhaps it was the difference between the Electrosphere’s native language and a language newly created artificially to utilize the Electrosphere.
As I stared into the Electrosphere in deep immersion, my head soon felt hot, as if it were overheating.
In response, Ar, which had been flying in circles beside me, issued a warning.
〈Be careful. Performing calculations within the Electrosphere inevitably generates heat. The human body is weak to heat.〉
When I stopped projecting into the Electrosphere, Ar licked the back of my overheated head with its tongue.
“Hoo……. So this is why hackers use cooling patches. I should buy a few myself.”
I muttered as I added a line to my purchase list.