"Eden, Paradise, Utopia, Nirvana, Heaven. Do you know what all of these terms hold in common, Cerebus? These are places that promise a long and fulfilling life, unconditionally."
The rain poured down, and the clouds thundered outside, rattling the ancient windows of the ancient castle. A fire blazed inside the room, lighting up the room. The shadow of a man, sitting in the red velvet armchair, appeared from time to time, out of the shadows that cloaked his entire body. Only when he moved his hand to pat a large black cat sitting on his other arm, would his sleeves appear, black and red velvet designs and a golden button shaped like a skull.
The cat looked up towards him, and meowed nastily. It then began furiously clawing the man hidden by the shadows. It was a strange sight, and anyone would question why the feline had gone crazy all of a sudden, furiously scratching its calm owner, who's heavy menacing voice had teared through the crackling of the hearth. It was simple. The cat was too scared to turn its back to the man, but it could also not sit still in front of someone that it's natural instincts had deemed a danger.
"I am afraid, but I cannot help you on this matter, Cerberus. If you do not like me, nothing can be done about it. However, I did look into your memories again."
The cat growled, its fur standing straight on its back.
"You have been seeing a girl lately haven't you? You sneak out when I'm not home, and return before I do. You eat your food quietly, and go to sleep. When I want to play with your fur, you let me. Still, defiance is intolerable."
The old man stood up and the cat fell on the floor. The man's black boots forcefully thrust into the creature's stomach, sending it flying in the air and hitting the ceiling. Blood splattered out of its mouth.
"Forget about that girl, Cerebus, for I have burnt her alive. She scratched me a lot. Maybe her scratch marks on my chest prompted you today, but you are an animal, so accept your fate without putting yourself in danger. You are dismissed."
As the cat landed on the ground, it quickly scrambled away from the room, jumping in the air out of fright, as a particularly large thundershock bolted across the sky lighting it up in shades of purple.
The man slowly walked towards the window, and stared into the clouds. Then, he spoke to himself, his voice echoing in the empty room.
"Fragments of a portal appearing in one of the farms. How very interesting. I think it is also where those low life androids think they're hiding. It has been a while since I paid them a visit. Last time, those fools made me a hero for building them that shelter. I wonder how they will treat me after all these years."
A threatening malicious laughter filled the room followed by another crackle up in the sky. As the rain thundered on and the darkness of the night intensified, the castle stood unfazed and unbothered, grounded on the green grassy hill surrounded by beautiful trees. Although the scenery contained everything to make it a beautiful place, still the eerie fog of evil loamed over the castle. The sound of a hoarse echoed in the grounds near the stables, and the everlasting rain continued to pour down on the hundredth floor of the Megacity "Ozymandias", also the largest and most populated megacity on Earth.
Meanwhile, I sad sitting nervously on the chair, the doctor examining his arms and legs. The lady with the mechanical face seemed to have cooled down a little bit, but took her sweet time to check his entire body.
"It's certain that your body is unadulterated. It's clean of any type of enhancer. But you came to me because I'm known for asking no questions, right Yuki?"
The doctor smiled, but I could see how much she was regretting her policy. I really was an abnormal case.
"We were looking for neurochips that are cheap but also not too crappy, and I'm really hoping you can do something about it. Us androids are doing pretty well with the standard chipset we inherited upon manufacturing, but for a human body, requirements may change slightly."
"That's true. Although I haven't had any exposure to human bodies in the last couple hundred years, I know for sure that each body is unique to humans and not every product is good for everyone. That being said, I'll have to conduct some tests first to point out specific information."
I quietly sat there, closely listening to their conversation. I had decided to step up my game in this world, and at least be powerful enough to prevent mishaps. The more technologically progressive this world was, the more advanced and sophisticated its crimes. Karma was I felt, right behind my heels, and I had only just begun to enjoy the power I had back in my time, so It was worth a shot. Then, a question came into my mind. Once the doctor and Yuki stopped talking, and the doctor went to her desk and began furiously typing on her computer, I asked Yuki in a hushed voice.
"Hey, who do you think is currently the strongest hacker in the world?"
"I don't really know the specific answer, but it must be the invisibles."
"I remembered Yuki had mentioned "Invisibles" before as well.
"You mean the mythical category of a handful of people who are the best magicoders?"
"Yeah yeah, and it's also said that they are the ones who control society from the shadows. Still, it's so convenient to believe but there's no proof of how true this is. There is the "radioactive" category too, hackers who are above the best, and are hired by the state to work for them. Each of the major governments has one."
"What, what's that? Didn't Earth have just one globalized government?"
"Yeah, it does, but we also have a government of Mars and a government of the Moon. Mars is ruled by the Monarch of Mars, who's three sons each have a third of Mars, while the Lunar Government is an advanced, decentralized democratic government. As for Earth, we have a president, and ministries, and all of these are elected through polling in elections."
"Whoa, hold up... Earth's not the only stage anymore? This is like a whole different scale of geopolitics."
"Governments on Mars, hackers with godlike skills… how is all this even sustainable?" I found myself laughing is dismay and awe.
All the existing information I had gathered up until now was going up into a tornado of gibberish. I couldn't react too much, because then the lady with the mechanical face might become a vulnerable point of contact in a case where she'd accidentally make me too famous while gossiping. Still, my eyes were wide open, and I looked at the palm of my hands, which were sweating. Just how much potential does all of this generate, for someone who is powerful and influencing.
"Yuki, I want to see the outside world. Please, take me to the megacity outside of the underground neighborhood."
I whispered this into Yuki's ears, and she patted my head as if teasing an over enthusiastic child.
The doctor got up from her chair swiftly.
"You guys may be lucky.. I just found out about a wild website that's hosting a Kodokushi Neurochip Bidding. These types of chips are hard to get, and even harder to access in a bid. This may be a once in a lifetime chance, although the price may not have a limit. You guys wanna try your luck here?"
"Kodokushi!"
I blurted out the word, mainly because I was already familiar with it. It was surprising to hear it in this era. Yuki was curious about this because she asked immediately.
"You know about Kodokushi?"
"Yeah. It's that thing where people pass away in their homes, and for years no one knows about it, since these people were lying alone, forgotten by family and friends."
"Yes, yes that's right!"
So it made sense. When people would die a lonely death in their homes, a stalker might report it to the black market instead of the authorities, and the service would send a guy to extract the neurochip out of this person, until the authorities would get suspicious, upon which the identity-less person would then simply get a new chip and deactivate the old one. It was a completely elevated form of identity theft and stolen information. I was surprised how my hacker brain had figured out the business model, upon a slight prompt, but still I didn't reveal my dark intellectual prowess to the others. Yet again, I had forgotten that my brain could be read, which had probably been happening at that moment because Yuki looked at me in a disgusted yet impressed manner.
"Oye lousy human, you sure are quite the interesting subject."
Yuki intervened. She seemed to have doubts about it.
"We need to think it through, because you may not know this but these bids are more of a lucky draw kind of thing. The quality of the neurochips can vary greatly, and sometimes these chips even arrive fried to the core. It happens that a person died, and had a very useless chip even though they acted rich in society, or that a rich person may have a chip which is so customized that it isn't of use to anyone else. Even more dangerous is the chance that the body may reject that chip, and testing isn't allowed during the auction. Some collectors may collect it to resell in better conditions. There's no way we should settle for the auction, even if the chip is a Kodokushi sourced chip."
"But the uncertainty is what keeps the prices low. Even the sellers have no idea what's inside the skull of the deceased."
"Still, we're short on money and we can't take any chances. Hasumi, am I not right?"
Everything Yuki was saying made complete sense, but there was another element to it. If we were not going to go for the bid, what other options were there that would guarantee a close to high end chip that would come at a price of a few thousand EC's? Even more so, my background in crime gave me an understanding of what was to gain from the chip. More than it being good or bad, it offered someone's identity, allowing the user to go off grid. To put it simply, it was an effective form of identity theft.. This meant that the auctioneer wouldn't know exactly what model of the chip was being sold but would have a good idea of who it was and how valuable that person was. I had to confirm a few things. I faced the woman with the mechanical face.
"How much does the bid usually open at?"
"There's no average, but most neurochips touching the high end go for 5000 EC's. We should expect to have at least that much in hand.".
"However, the bid begins in 5 days, and I need to have at least 5000 EC's before that. Unless you don't give them to me in hand, I will absolutely not bid. And I don't lend money either, keep that in mind. Decide now if you want to register or not because these types of events don't wait around."
Yuki and I looked at each other, knowing full well that we didn't have 5000 EC. Still, this was my only window of opportunity, so I decided for the first time to take the wheel.
"Here's a deal. I'll give you all the money I can gather. It'll be at least the minimum amount. If I can buy the chip for a certain amount of money under what I have deposited, you can keep the rest."
"So if there was a single EC left, I would only get that? Doesn't that sound like a very stupid proposal? I charge 1000 EC's for my consultancy either way, so why should I bend the rules for you?"
"Indeed it is a stupid proposal. In fact it's so stupid, that you could even earn more than your consultancy fee. There's no upper limit to it. Still, there is another reason for you to help me."
The lady raised an eyebrow.
"I'm having a problem seeing one reason, but you have another? Haha, surprise me then."
I took a step forward towards the doctor firmly, and kabedon'd her against the wall.
"It's because when I saw you for the first time, I couldn't resist admiring your beauty."
I brought my lips as close to the woman's ears as possible.
"If this doesn't work, then I'll be in jail."
As I leaned closer towards her, my warm breath pushed lightly against her ear and a shiver rushed down her spine. My voice, low and husky, sent tingles dancing across her skin as they brushed against the vellus hair behind her ears. I made sure to pronounce each syllable slowly, meaningfully, meant to pierce through the fabric of her reasoning.
"Ero-Sensei: Activate"