chapter 204 – Terran in Neorust (5)

“Look around. Opposite direction. Jump. Get down. Sexy pose.”

“Okay.” Claire had finished the evil android… no, now a pure android. It moved smoothly according to her commands, tilting her attractive body forward and blinking in that last sexy pose. Even Kang Shin-hyuk had to wonder if it was really human, even though he helped fix it.

“Yes, it’s perfect.”

“Thank you.” The android bowed in response to her praise, its voice sounding natural. Thanks to her careful tuning, it could perfectly copy a human’s vocal organs in order to produce a beautiful voice. Claire was a top-notch designer who worked with hardware and software, and Kang Shin-hyuk was a hardware manufacturer who knew how to perfect precision parts, so this was the natural result of their collaboration. However, despite its attractiveness and beautiful voice, Kang Shin-hyuk felt a sense of horror at how it reacted so quickly and accurately to Claire.

“How on earth did you do it?”

“Are you asking about the artificial self? I have to enter a reaction pattern for every possible situation.”

“That’s impossible.”

“Of course, situations not in the database can appear. That’s why I teach it to learn. It can compare and analyze other situations to create new patterns to new situations. If you build up the database like that, it will eventually become equal to, or even superior to, humans.”

“No, that’s kind of scary…” Could this AI be beaten? Should he break it now?

“Of course, it’s not possible at my level, Earth’s level, to create this level of AI from nothing. So, I made the most of the data left in its core. In other words, this can be said to be a collaborative work between me and the contaminated Gaia system.”

“Can it think and judge for itself?”

“I’ve been explaining that so far, right?”

“That’s what it was…” The more they talked, the more he realized he didn’t know, so he decided to leave it be.

“I think it’s time to go back. Wait, I’ve finished making the parts here…where did you put it?”

“Shin-hyuk, is this it?”

“Oh, yeah. Wow…”

“Our Shin-hyuk makes a lot of interesting sounds.”

“That’s not the problem!” He accepted the tree root fragments with a smile but stiffened as he realized that the woman facing him with a smile was the android, not Claire.

“Claire, did you put a human in this one…?”

“Do you need me to explain the artificial self from scratch?”

“No, that’s fine; it just seemed so natural.”

“That’s my masterpiece. After completing this, my alchemy has grown so much! Honestly, I got a lot of help from that tainted Gaia system!” Claire was patting the android’s shoulder proudly. Its face looked the same it had the day it attacked them, but its body was changed to emphasize its femininity a bit more. However, the interior had completely changed. The material purchased on the trading board was the perfect substitute for the human elements, although it was more like slime than a human. Now she wore a bartender suit, which made only it eerier since he knew she wasn’t human.

“It’s a little scary…”

“Did we make it for it to be in the uncanny valley?”

“It’s scary because it’s so perfect. You can’t mass-produce this, right?”

“If I could, I wouldn’t be a bartender but the ruler of a machine kingdom.” Claire, who was the queen of a mechanical kingdom, would definitely be worth seeing. Kang Shin-hyuk thought about it and smiled unintentionally, but someone jabbed him in the shoulder. It was the android.

“Shin-hyuk, could you give me a name?”

“Oh, yes. I have to give you one.”

“I’m sorry, but I want a name from Shin-hyuk.”

“What?” Claire’s eyebrows wriggled at the sight of her androids, rebelling against her. Kang Shin-hyuk motioned for Claire to look at it, and the Android blushed as he tried to ask if this was strange.

“If Claire is the mother, Shin-hyuk is the father, so I want a name from him.”

“…I didn’t do anything?”

“Most of the parts inside of me were processed by Shin-hyuk, and he added a lot of materials, and… most of all, you two are lovers.” The android said so and twisted her body back and forth. Honestly, the image of that evil android swinging a blade at him remained, but now it was slowly fading. However, Claire had a slightly differentidea.

“How can you say all these wonderful words?! My programming was perfect, after all!” She felt a lot better after hearing that Kang Shin-hyuk and her were lovers.

“So is that really alright? Isn’t it the ego of the tainted Gaia system? Are you really okay?”

“I’m okay. It’s correct I was born from the Gaia system, but you don’t have to worry about me being tainted.” Why didn’t this guy know that made Shin-hyuk even more worried? He glanced at the android suspiciously and checked in with the administrator.

‘Is thatokay?’

-It is extremely fine. Both creators had a lot of spiritual power, so this result is normal.

‘Spiritual power is involved here as well… ah, yes, it was a stupid question.’ Kang Shin-hyuk’s doubts and concerns were all neatly erased as he remembered the first time he communicated with the Godslayer sword. Didn’t he, more than anyone else, know that emotions inhabited objects with strong spiritual power? He couldn’t deny the heart of the android anylonger.

“My name.”

“I can’t give you a Korean one.” Regardless of what race had to do with an android, her facial features were closer to a western woman. Her eyes were deep, her nose high, and her lips were large. Her hair was black, but she was tall, and her eyes sparkled goldenly.

“The color of your eyes…”

“I like the golden eyes. Both Eunah and you havethem.”

“But, why…” She really was like their daughter. He swallowed at the thought as the android stared at him like a puppy. Android, AI, homunculus… various video game names passed through his mind, leaving only onething.

“Let’s call you, Vita.” It was the word that meant life in Latin. It was also a rather grand name attached to a game console, but it was a proper name for an android.

“That’s a perfectly good name.”

“Vita, vita… it means life in the language of Earth. Thank you, Shin-hyuk.” The android, vita, closed her eyes and bowed her head in gratitude. Kang Shin-hyuk could feel a large amount of spiritual power flowing from him into her, changing her and giving her a source.

-You need to be careful in giving a name, member.

‘Thank you for letting me know.’

-A 400,000HP bonus for members who learned such valuable lessons!

Nowadays, he wondered if the purpose of the bonus was to raise him up. However, it wasn’t a permanent loss of spiritual power, so the administrator had probably thought it would be fine.

“Can I call you dad?”

“No way.”

“Sorry…” Vita had a sad expression again, but it didn’t last long. Claire also looked refreshed, looking at Vita as if she wanted to say something, but she soon shook it off.

“You can keep this bar safe until we comeback.”

“Are you leaving me…?” Her pure eyes asked if she was being thrown away so soon. Claire suffered a deep blow to her heart, but she didn’t back down.

“I can’t help it. When we go, people in this area won’t be able to drink the spirited cocktails. I thought of leaving behind a vending machine, but not everyone would comply with its usage andcapacity.”

“Are you worried about the people who will be left here?”

“It’s so that when we come back, we can smoothly perform the dimensional quest. That’s why I decided to leave you behind. Now that you’re upgraded, I don’t have to worry about you being destroyed, and you can even distribute cocktails to people.”

“So, that’s why you made a lot of cocktails a while ago.” As her alchemy had grown, so did her spiritual power, so her capacity was rather large. Thanks to that, it was possible for her to make hundreds of liters of cocktails at once. She had to buy one of the energy bars that Kang Shin-hyuk loved to keep up with it, though.

“Then, I am connected to the two of you.”

“Yes, I’m not throwing you away. We’ll definitely come back, right, Shin-hyuk?”

“Of course.” The administrator said that the dimensional quest might become impossible, but he had no intention of giving up even more so if this world’s current state resulted from the weapon he made.

“Then, I will be waiting here.” Vita nodded, her face dignified.

“Oh, destroy anyone who’s noisy.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t kill them; just warn them!”

“Yes, sir.” Kang Shin-hyuk hurriedly intervened to correct Claire’s somewhat brutal order.

“It is the instinct of every man to want to say certain things to a prettywoman.”

“Yes, then I will tell you what counts as a crime by my standards, so memorize them all. Got it?”

“Yes, Claire.” Kang Shin-hyuk shook his head at the conversation they were having.

“Claire, but Vita… no, it’s nothing.”

“Isn’t it natural as a creator to give your android the ability to participate in sexual activities?”

“I stopped talking on purpose!”

“But nevertheless, this android is built with combat functions that won’t allow anyone to touch her!” Kang Shin-hyuk sighed and stood up.

“Let’s go now. Halo’s waiting for me.”

“Okay, then please take care here, Vita. Be careful about handing out cocktails.”

“Yes, Claire.” Vita bowed deeply then moved behind the bar. She almost looked like Claire. Kang Shin-hyuk gave her a thumbs-up and turned around.

“But, Shin-hyuk, didn’t you say something about men saying things to pretty women they see?” Claire clung to his back and poked his cheek.

“Hm?”

“No, I just remembered when we first met.”

“You first called out to me back then.”

“Yes, I did.”

“Hm? Huh…?”

“No, let’s go.” The two left Vita behind. The general public who visited the bar the next day made a big fuss about the new bartender, who looked like that evil android from before, but their worries were easily quelled.