Chapter 179

The vast golden beach.

The blazing sun that seemed ready to scorch the earth.

The endless blue sky.

The emerald waves rolling upon the sea.

On one side of the beach, blonde beauties giggled as they played beach volleyball. Near the horizon, with a loud roar, a massive yacht sliced across the surface, spraying water coolly in its wake.

And from under the shade of a parasol, Vladimir looked on with satisfaction. On the table to his left, a glass of cocktail shimmered in a clear blue light.

Then, the women playing volleyball turned toward Vladimir and waved.

“Oppa~! Come here! Play with us~!”

“Not today, My little kitties.”

“Eiiing~ Don’t be like that~.”

The beauties approached the parasol and tightly hugged both of Vladimir’s arms. Tugging so close that their skin brushed against his, they let out coquettish, nasal voices.

“Play with us~.”

“Mmm. Uhm-hmhm. Hmhm!”

Vladimir barely restrained the corners of his lips from soaring toward the heavens. Struggling to maintain a composed expression as if nothing had fazed him, he muttered, “Can’t be helped,” and was about to rise from his seat.

Riiiiiing—!

“……?”

Riiiiiing—!

“…….”

Suddenly, a call notification window popped up over one of the women’s faces. At the same time, everything moving around him froze in place.

Vladimir removed his sunglasses and checked the caller ID. The name was saved as: “Fucking Psycho Bastard.”

“……That damn bastard, again!”

He thought about just hanging up, but in the end, he decided to take it.

Definitely not because he was afraid of what might happen if he ignored the call. Absolutely not.

Sssshk.

With a drag, he accepted the call.

Soon, a loathsome baritone voice came through.

[Yes. It’s me.]

“What now.”

Vladimir replied with a shiver of disgust.

At that very moment, the scenery around him began to collapse. The beach and the beauties’ images were erased, replaced by the view of a desolate chamber. Of course, calling it a “chamber” felt overly modest for such a luxurious space, but to Vladimir, that’s exactly how it felt.

[Work with me.]

“Why do you torment people once every quarter? It hasn’t even been three months since I got kicked out as a Foundation executive. You know that, right?”

[Don’t you want to return?]

“…What did you just say?”

Vladimir doubted his ears.

What the hell was this guy talking about?

“I’m on vacation, in case you didn’t notice.”

[Ah, vacation. If holing yourself up in a room and flirting with holograms is your way of resting… well, I respect your tastes.]

“Wh–who says I play around with holograms!?”

Did this bastard install a camera somewhere?

Vladimir activated his scanner module and searched around, but found nothing.

Realizing he had once again been toyed with by that man’s tongue, he scowled. Still, despite his irritation, the earlier words sparked a bit of interest.

“What do you mean by ‘return’?”

[Just as I said. I’ll help you return to your original seat.]

“You think I’ll fall for it again? Do you even remember how many times I got screwed over listening to your proposals—!”

[Come to the Academy.]

Click.

The call ended abruptly.

“Hey! Hey! You son of a bitch!!”

Vladimir roared in fury, then sank back into his chair. He reached out to press the button beside him and re-launch the hologram but—

“……”

Instead, he quietly withdrew his hand, rose, and opened the door to the other side of the room.

Not long after…

Sssshhhh—!

From behind the closed door, the sound of the shower began to flow out.

A dream.

What is a dream?

Back when research on the brain’s structure, roles, and functioning was still underdeveloped, dreams were often thought of as divine prophecies shown by gods.

Gods, huh? Isn’t that funny?

The so-called “divine race” is just another category of [Mystics].

In truth, dreams are nothing more than a process of reassembling and organizing images seen in reality or conjured in imagination, stored within the subconscious. Yet, people of old used them to divine their future fate.

And even now, in this age where we can perfectly analyze the brain’s structure and even replicate personalities as data, dreams are still regarded by many as something special.

Primitive, isn’t it?

Have a good dream, and fortune will follow.

Have a nightmare, and one must be cautious.

No matter how advanced technology becomes, it seems the essence of humanity doesn’t change. I suppose that’s natural. After all, the DNA of Homo sapiens sapiens hasn’t changed much from ten thousand years ago.

Attach cybernetic devices to the cerebral cortex, replace your arms with machines, swap out your organs with bio-generators—yet the essence remains the same.

But sometimes I can’t help but wonder.

What if I’m not human?

Dreaming is supposed to be natural for humans—or rather, for animals in general. But I have never once had a dream.

No… strictly speaking, I do dream, but I’ve never remembered them. I once analyzed my sleep patterns and confirmed that I enter REM sleep normally.

It’s just that I never recall them.

Not once have I ever had a dream strong enough to remember. No good dreams, no nightmares, no prophetic dreams, no lucid dreams… not even memories of the past have ever surfaced.

But thankfully…

For the first time in a very long while… or perhaps for the first time ever, I had a dream.

If I had to categorize it, I’d say it was closest to a ‘lucid dream.’ The moment I saw it, I realized right away that it was a dream.

There—there is a child.

Alone, in a pure white space.

That must be me as a child.

Hmm. I was rather small-built even back then.

My hair was shorter than it is now.

Not to boast, but… I think I looked rather cute. I looked younger than Evangeline at that age. Since I lived a much healthier life back then, my skin was clear, and I had no dark circles under my eyes.

Ah… slowly, my surroundings are coming into view.

The pure white background filled with other things.

I was… that child was… the little Miyu was, surprisingly, surrounded by several people. Around her were a mother, a father, an uncle or an aunt. She was monopolizing everyone’s attention.

Seeing that, I once again realized this was a dream. I had no such memory. At least, as far as I remembered, I had always been alone from the very beginning. I didn’t know the details, but my parents probably abandoned me.

So this wasn’t my past. It had to be a scene I unconsciously longed for. Probably so.

Hm? But something was strange.

These were memories that didn’t exist, yet why did I know exactly what kind of life that child was living?

–Miyu, could you try solving this?

–Mm. The answer is ‘2α-62i’!

–Wow! Miyu, you’re so smart! A genius!

–Ehehe~.

My father had written a problem on a small board, and she solved it instantly, smiling brightly. If it were me now, I’d have been embarrassed at such praise, but seeing how she liked it so purely, she was quite a confident little kid.

Then the scenes flashed past in an instant.

Mother, father, uncle and aunt threw countless problems at me, and I solved them all brilliantly. Each time, the adults spared no praise.

–Miyu is the best among us!

–Of course! I’m the best!

Hm.

What an obnoxious kid.

Being coddled by those around her, she thought she was the best in the world. Though, to be fair, it wasn’t entirely wrong. She was a child so bright she could solve problems even most adults couldn’t.

Her ego was still terribly young, yet in her head already existed the knowledge to create a nuclear bomb.

Then the scene changed again.

Huh? For some reason my expression looked terribly sour. Electrodes were connected all over my body, and a strange helmet sat on my head. I was wearing a patient’s gown, my face full of discontent.

–I don’t like this!

–You can’t, Miyu. You’ve been enduring it so well until now.

–It’s always the same result! Every time we do this, my head hurts!

–This time will be different. When it’s over, you’ll be even smarter.

–I’m already smart!

–Haha, well now.

Father chuckled awkwardly.

He exchanged glances with the uncles several times, then quietly nodded. They left me alone and slipped out of the lab.

Then gas was released.

I knew exactly what that gas was.

But no matter how smart, my strength was that of a five-year-old. I had no choice but to lose consciousness.

When I came to, something strange was attached to my backside. A huge mechanical tail. Through it, I felt as though I’d gained new eyes and ears.

At first, unaccustomed, I crawled on the floor or toppled over again and again. But through it, I was able to utilize a vastly expanded sense.

Thanks to that, I began to hear even the conversations between Mother and Father beyond the reinforced glass. Perhaps the tail they’d attached to me had performed beyond their expectations.

Fueled by a bit of spite and curiosity, I eavesdropped on their talk.

–Expanding her senses increased the synapse quantity in her frontal lobe by 23 percent.

–Just as the theory predicted.

–When’s the next enhancement experiment?

–We’ll probably have to watch for about a year.

Ah, that’s when I realized.

Though my physical age was only that of a preschooler, my mind surpassed adults, and in an instant I grasped the whole situation. Or rather, I couldn’t help but understand.

I was an experimental subject.

Those I believed to be Father and Mother were nothing but scientists toying with my body. Their goal was to artificially develop a new humanity endowed with super-intelligence.

From what I overheard, it seemed they were rushing to develop similar technology to rival a competitor corporation, but beyond that, the information was too scant to deduce more.

Betrayal… you could call it that.

Yes, I felt betrayed.

But I don’t think I hated them. No matter what, to the five-year-old me, they were still parents and family.

So the first plan I made was half in jest. I never imagined it would end as it did. I thought that kind of ‘laughing gas’ trap was something I could easily handle with a scoff.

But it wasn’t.

Because of my tiny prank, everything collapsed. I heard one of the uncles had died, caught in my primitive gas trap.

I thought I’d be severely punished.

I knew even then that killing people was wrong. I cried and wailed in regret, clasping my hands and begging for forgiveness. I truly felt sorry.

Then Mother and Father approached me.

To get to the point, they didn’t scold me. They didn’t get angry, nor did they punish me.

It was the opposite.

With beaming faces, filled with expectation, faces like mine just before opening a snack box, they asked me:

–Could you make it again?

It was truly horrifying.

These people weren’t looking at me.

Whether their daughter became a murderer or a monster, whether her development was impaired by a mechanical tail, whether she caught a fever from excessive brain activity—they didn’t care.

They weren’t looking at “Miyu.”

Only.

They were looking at what was inside my head.

I opened my eyes.

Ah, it was a dream.

Thinking that, I gathered myself and found darkness all around. But thanks to the light from the ‘fireworks,’ I could still make out the view ahead.

“Uh… huh…?”

I realized I was in the ‘Living Fireworks’ exhibition hall.

How did I end up in such a place? With that question in mind, I looked around and saw familiar faces.

“Ah, Aaron…”

Aaron Stingray.

That handsome face was glaring at me. But strangely, his gaze was much lower than usual. He was looking up at me from below.

Next to him was a face I’d never seen before.

No— I knew who he was.

Vladimir Kharitonov… Aaron’s friend and rival. The man who had recently resigned from the Militech Foundation’s board chairmanship.

And Iri was there too.

Iri Elisbell.

The girl I liked most.

“E-everyone…?”

But why were they all glaring at me?

As I wondered—

“Miyu.”

Aaron spoke to me.

“I’ll save you.”

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