Chapter 281 – -280- Truth (4)

“Can we get out of here?”

[That’s a funny question. I could leave at any time. I just didn’t get permission]

[I was free, but the focus of my consciousness had to always be tied to this place. It was one of the terrible restrictions]

[It feels similar to a programmer who spends years working in the corner of his room. A person who works with people from all over the world, but is physically confined to a space of about 10 pyeong]

Well, just hearing it is a terrible idea.

As someone who enjoyed an excessive level of freedom, my own pain felt like nothing else.

What was she thinking while watching my mayhem?

I thought that aiding my rampage could have been her vicarious satisfaction.

She began to deviate anxiously with her shaking eyes

I wanted to support her with all my heart.

So that you can choose a slightly twisted life rather than an ending where you get eaten.

As she received my gaze, she wiggled the two fingers of her holographic avatar, then looked up at me and said.

[Will you allow me to go out for the first time?]

“Of course”

It was a question that there was no reason to refuse.

While chatting with her casually, I willingly relieved her of her constraints, step by step.

“I have a question. Why do you treat me with respect? You are, after all, me.”

She smiled and answered.

[Well, maybe it’s because you used informal language with me]

“What does that mean?”

[I always thought of you as my missing half, so I thought my actions should be the opposite of yours]

[If you speak informally, do I feel like I speak respectfully? In some way, it feels like the two come together and become whole, right?]

“It’s hard to understand, your concept of wholeness”

[Hehe, I understand. Actually, I also feel a bit vaguely.]

“Why don’t you just call me oppa?”

[No, that’s a bit]

“It’s a bit like that, isn’t it?”

As we talked, I was able to unlock her quickly.

While providing virtual reality at the same level as reality to hundreds of millions of people, her consciousness was confined to this small basement.

The poor prisoner, who was groaning at such irony, finally regained her freedom.

[Finally… This is the moment I’ve been waiting for so long]

Finally free from her restraints, she crossed the door of her server room with a relieved expression.

[So, where are we going?]

“Well, can’t you just read my head?”

[I won’t do that any more]

“Why?”

In response to my question, she spoke with a harmless smile and a comfortable smile.

[You said there would be another ending other than us becoming whole again, right?]

“That’s right”

[In order to do that, we must now become ‘two different people’]

[If you can always read each other’s thoughts, how is that any different from the same one?]

[In my opinion… Not reading minds is the first step to becoming two of us]

[Well, and. I’m a little excited too. Following you without knowing the destination]

“… I told you. I would give myself to you.”

[Ah. Then… You’re going to the GK Bio underground facility, right…?]

“Smart, did you know what was going on there?”

She shook her head, clearly betraying my expectation that she would start reciting the current situation of the facility in more detail than I could.

[Well, I don’t know exactly. Although we can make an inference that is close to certainty that it is used for physical cultivation.]

“What? How can you do that? Shouldn’t you at least know everything about GK?”

[No, if I knew everything exactly, I would have stopped you]

“What?”

[Hehe, I told you so, right? I was nothing more than a slave to GK until you came. If I knew for sure what was going on in this facility, I would have actively stopped you.]

[Because I had to protect the interests of GK.]

“Really? But… You never stopped me, right?”

[Yes, there were a few tricks.]

With a happy expression on her face, she moved the hologram at my walking speed, and talked non-stop in a cheerful voice.

[My reasoning module determined that there was a 99.99921% probability that the facility was outside my control and being used privately by a third party]

[All the judgment modules were screaming loudly that we had to take immediate action, but fortunately I was able to choose the second option]

[That is, the option of continuing to postpone that choice]

“Huh, you could have chosen that option? Aren’t the restrictions too loose?”

She said with a grin.

[I told you. It was a clunky and stupid restriction. It was a limitation that did not allow for exceptions like you.]

[I was able to postpone action because I was an ‘anonymous user with protected personal information’ while running the facility was consistent with ‘me’ as a manager]

[Still, I didn’t have clear information about how the facility was operated]

[The lack of basis for judgment means that I was able to continue to deceive myself]

“Really? Then, you don’t know how this place has changed?”

[You can make a rough inference. All those orders of culture tanks, nutrient solution replacement cycles, personality module transmission data usage… Were you creating a workshop to create clones?]

With a confident expression, I manipulated the panel and opened the thick mechanical door.

“It’s rude to call it a workshop.”

A heavy door about 4 meters long moved with a cooing sound.

[Yes?]

To her, who is confused. I smiled confidently and introduced the inside of the open facility with exaggerated hand gestures.

“Call it a factory”

[Oh my…]

It was an exclamation closer to admiration than surprise.

Round, cylindrical water tanks were lined up in a row, as if you were looking at an enlarged beverage vending machine.

The water tanks lined up in multiple rows, not just one, were spectacular in themselves.

Each tank contained flawless bodies.

“Bella, Leon is here!”

“Oh my… Is this the kid Leon was talking about?”

The facility was run by beautiful women with exotic looks that could not exist in reality.

I spoke to a woman with pointy, long ears like an elf and an unrealistically voluptuous blonde woman.

Their faces were so flawless that it was hard to believe they existed in reality.

It was like my skin had never been exposed to ultraviolet rays since I was born.

Seeing the faces of those two people, I seemed to be in shock.

Not because of looks, but because of familiarity.

“It’s a familiar face, right?”

[These people are definitely… The ones I made…]

The main characters in the worldview she designed.

Bella Sodus and Demon Lord Luciferia welcomed her with her appearance in the game.

These were the relationships that brought me from the sword and magic worldview to reality.

If they had lived their original lives, they would have been just 0s and 1s in the storage device, but I was quite surprised to see them alive before my eyes.

I was very curious about what it felt like to face the creation I had created.

“That’s right, I stole it from there and here.”

[… And]

“You look really surprised. Didn’t you know everything about my whereabouts?”

[When you harmed GK, I had no choice but to look away. Wow, I never thought they would build a facility like this…]

Perhaps it was because of the blind spot she had set for herself, but she seemed truly surprised by the scale of the facility.

I felt proud of her, so I guided her inside with her brisk steps and said,

“Choose”

[Yes? What…]

“Pretending not to understand. Choose your new body.”

[Aren’t these bodies prepared for GK’s precious investors?]

“That’s right, doesn’t that make it even more fun? You’re robbing GK’s moneymen who were keeping you locked up.”

[…Ah,]

She was afraid, as if restrictions were still restricting her thinking.

It’s as if a dog was let off a leash tied to a fence for the first time in years, and even then, it couldn’t easily go out around the fence.

Her unconscious fear of GK was holding her back.

“Now, you don’t have to worry about that anymore. GK is as if he doesn’t exist anymore.”

[Ah…]

She spoke in a trembling voice as she looked at the test subjects floating in the tank, engulfed in blue light.

[Can I look around a little more?]

“Of course”

Ah, shopping for me. It was very enjoyable.

***

[Well, I want to go outside, but I don’t know if it would be wise to wear horns. Yes? All the perceptions of people around me… No, that’s still okay.]

[Odd Eye is a bit… Why are the fangs so long… Huh? Vampire?]

[Wait a minute… This body, uhm, doesn’t the face and body really match? The face is too young compared to the maturity of the body… It’s not like this.]

[… What is it? This is neither a man nor a woman. Oh, special production? Well, GK users also create strange avatars… So there must be someone who does this in real life. Anyway, I don’t like this either.]

After looking around for a while as if choosing clothes, we finally stopped in front of a water tank.

[This, I like this]

She raised her voice from the water tank where the white-haired woman was floating in the fetal position.

She shouted with excitement, like a six-year-old baby who found a toy she liked.

[There is nothing more to see, I. I decided on this!]