I Am Not a Robot. Beep-bop

Chapter 55: Saya Guild of Nuong 4

When I looked at Sohi, smiling like a mastermind, the Mantis Blade inside me stirred violently.

Should I bring this up now or not?

Sohi’s appearance was undoubtedly that of a shadowy mastermind or a villainous executive, but the rational side of me screamed not to jump to conclusions without evidence.

In fictional works, the kind, smiling woman who claims to be harmless usually stabs you in the back about 80% of the time.

After a brief pause, Sohi spoke with a smile that seemed to say, “I’m not suspicious at all.”

“By the way, I was about to guide Alice to the room where you’ll be staying. Would you care to join me for dinner? It gets lonely eating alone all the time.”

“Alone?”

I glanced around at the shelter, where girls were scattered in various states.

Some were asleep, others were sharpening weapons bigger than their own bodies, and a few were meditating in cross-legged positions.

Now that I thought about it, during the half-day I spent playing with them, not a single one of them had eaten anything.

“What about them?”

“They’re fine. Unlike us, they don’t need to consume regular food for nutrition.”

“…That’s… suspicious.”

“I understand. I’ll explain everything during dinner.”

With those words, Sohi extended her hand to me.

Although she didn’t seem as harmless as the girls, her face still appeared remarkably non-threatening.

If this was all an act, she should quit being a Hunter and start a career as an actress.

When I took her hand, I felt a surprisingly strong pull.

Well, she is the guild leader, so a basic level of physical strength should be expected.

A few of the girls seemed bored, chasing each other along the walls and ceilings of the mansion, but as the sun set, most guild members settled down in the shelter.

Dinner turned out to be quite decent.

In Ark, industrial products like processed foods and synthetic meats dominated, but Saya Guild’s claim of specializing in dairy farming wasn’t an exaggeration.

Everything on the table came straight from nature.

There were nameless vegetable salads.

Fresh-looking pork, seemingly just slaughtered, was stir-fried with various spices and garlic, emitting a mouthwatering aroma. There was also fried chicken drizzled with soy sauce.

It couldn’t possibly taste bad.

“Haha, one of the few advantages of our guild in the satellite city of Zain is our steady supply of delicious ingredients.”

“This isn’t secretly made from those kids’ flesh or anything, right?”

“Oh my, what a horrifying thing to say.”

By the way, natural foods in Ark are absurdly expensive.

Beef of the same weight costs over 15 times more than synthetic meat, so if Saya Guild manages its dairy farming well, they could earn a fortune in Ark.

Though, compared to mega-corporations like Dawn and Earnest Rail, it would still be a small figure.

“Do you have oil beer by any chance?”

“Oh my, are you a mechanical body user?”

“Yeah, sort of.”

“Hoho, your hands felt so soft when I held them that I didn’t even realize. While we don’t have oil beer, we do have butter beer made with natural butter. Would that be alright?”

“That works for me.”

“Also, try putting the stir-fried pork between the bread like a burger.”

“…”

When I split the warm bread, stuffed the stir-fried pork inside, and took a bite, it turned out to be an unexpected delicacy.

After wiping the sauce off my lips with my thumb, I took a sip of the butter beer Sohi brought. My taste sensors were in utter ecstasy.

The mental fatigue from dealing with the kids vanished without a trace.

However, I still remained on guard against Sohi and Saya Guild, who seemed suspicious in every way.

Sohi smiled contentedly as she watched me eat.

“Alice, have you heard of the Immortality Factory?”

“Huh?”

Was it some knockoff of the Biological Factory?

“Ark is a place where all sorts of people gather. Deep within, there are humans who are connected to depths we can’t even imagine.”

Sohi swirled her butter beer as she continued to speak.

The frothy liquid whirled and bubbled, forming and dissolving into spirals repeatedly.

“In every era, there have been those who desired eternal life and immortality. The wealthier and more powerful someone is, the stronger that desire becomes. Deep in Ark’s abyss, the Immortality Factory was established, funded and supported by wealthy individuals, criminals, Hunters, and Overseers alike, all seeking eternal life.”

“Don’t tell me your guild operates that Immortality Factory?”

As I suspected, this trash woman—

I knew it.

There’s no need to hide my tendrils and Mantis Blade any longer.

I’ll drain her dry to the bone.

“Oh my, of course not. The Immortality Factory was destroyed thirty years ago by First-Class Overseers.”

“Oh, uh… really?”

“Just in case you’re wondering, we haven’t secretly taken their data to operate a similar facility in Saya Guild.”

“How am I supposed to believe that?”

“The guild’s transition to a corporate entity means there are over five dedicated overseers from the administration assigned to Saya Guild. You can verify this on the administration site or ask them directly.”

As if to dispel my doubts, Sohi added further explanation.

Sohi, who had been swirling her butter beer, furrowed her brows as if recalling an unpleasant memory.

“But even though the Immortality Factory was destroyed, its creations were already out in the world.”

“By any chance, are those girls you call regular guild members…”

“That’s correct. Those children are one of the results of the Immortality Factory’s Alice Project.”

Alice.

Somehow, something that resembled my name had come up.

“Originally, our Saya Guild was an outsourced guild that participated in the suppression of the Immortality Factory. At the time, all the girls born from the Alice Project were supposed to be terminated.”

“Isn’t termination too extreme?”

“The higher-ups decided that if these girls fell into the wrong hands or were left unattended, they could disrupt or threaten Ark’s ecosystem and existence. But to prove they were the results of the Immortality Factory, the girls were nearly immune to any standard attack.”

Theresa’s data came to mind.

The children I played with accidentally misfired at each other or severed a friend’s arm by mistake, yet they recovered perfectly fine.

I knew they weren’t ordinary girls, but I didn’t realize they were this extraordinary.

“In the end, the former guild leader couldn’t bear to see the girls subjected to endless termination attempts and negotiated with Ark’s upper management.”

“I can imagine what kind of deal that was.”

It must have been an agreement to take responsibility for the children born from the Immortality Factory.

“It wasn’t entirely for humanitarian reasons. Ark’s upper management passed the troublesome issue onto us while ensuring that the guild would bear all the blame if anything went wrong. Conversely, we received certain support and benefits from them.”

“At the time, the girls didn’t even resemble humans. They were just lumps of flesh. Alive but unable to die, they could only feel pain. That’s what those children were.”

“Then how did they end up looking like girls? If they came from the Immortality Factory thirty years ago, it doesn’t seem like they’ve grown.”

Sohi smiled awkwardly, as if unsure how to answer.

At that moment, a few girls peeked out from behind a door, watching Sohi. Sohi, sensing their presence, turned toward the door.

“Hoho, well, you see… I told you they were born in the Immortality Factory, right?”

“Yeah.”

“Even our Saya Guild and Ark’s inner circle don’t know exactly how the children were created. But at the time, when they didn’t even have proper human forms, they were terrified of adults.”

“Even as lumps of flesh, they could feel pain and fear.”

“They likely had memories of experiments or torture, and the administration’s attempts at termination added to their fear. Since they were so terrified of adults, taking care of them fell to me, who was a child at the time.”

Sohi took a sip of her swirling butter beer.

It seemed she had endured a great deal.

“After about ten years of bathing them and attaching nutrition tubes, one day, the lumps of flesh suddenly began to mimic my appearance.”

“Then those girls…”

“They’re all mimicking my younger self. While there are slight differences between individuals, you noticed their black hair and eyes, right? They all seem to remember me as I looked in my childhood.”

In essence, Sohi was practically the mother of those girls.

“Thanks to that, Saya Guild gained a new legion. The Immortal Legion of Girls. Initially, we didn’t plan to send them into battles or dangerous situations, but it seems their endless regenerative power builds up energy that they can’t endure without releasing.”

“Is that tendency to release energy something they copied from you too?”

“Ahahaha… I can’t say no. Even though I never taught them, they use mana techniques identical to mine.”

Well, they’re not ordinary Awakened but children born in a distorted way.

They don’t seem to harbor resentment toward humanity and have grown up relatively kind and well-adjusted.

“This is why our Saya Guild, despite being just a guild, was granted corporate approval by Ark. By shouldering Ark’s troublesome issues, including the Immortal Legion, we received a bit of support and expanded into the artificial city of Zain.”

Of course, the administration’s support wouldn’t have been purely altruistic.

They likely wanted any potential problems caused by the Immortal Legion to erupt outside Ark’s walls rather than within.

“After all, this is a lawless zone where all killings between corporations go unpunished, so it’s also a way of sending us out to die.”

However, Sohi didn’t seem particularly concerned as she said this.

The children’s strength was extraordinary by default, and their regenerative abilities were almost immortal, capable of regrowing severed limbs in an instant.

There didn’t seem to be much to worry about in terms of combat power.
“I can’t say I fully understand exactly what our children are, but my affection for them is genuine. Does that clear up some of your doubts, Alice?”

“…Yeah, I guess.”

“Honestly, I’m grateful you didn’t ask me, ‘Why are you raising such monsters?’ That’s what everyone says when they first meet them.”

Until just a moment ago, I thought Saya Guild and Sohi had conducted horrifying biological experiments on the children, but it turns out they were practically saints.

They cared for lumps of flesh that didn’t even resemble humans out of pity.

Pity and compassion are fragments of love, and their love and sense of responsibility are grand and beautiful enough to defy the bleak era of Ark.

I even began to wonder if the children mimicking Sohi’s childhood selves was their own way of repaying her kindness.

“So, Alice, will you continue taking on requests from our guild? This is your last chance to back out.”

“…Well, the food’s good, and the place is nice.”

And honestly, the electricity here is quite tasty too.

I secretly plugged into an outlet to siphon some, and it tasted like banana milk.

“Haha, oh! Now that you’ve truly become one of us, it feels weird to keep calling you Alice. How about Teacher Alice?”

“Teacher? Is that necessary?”

“Why not? It suits you. You’re practically a kindergarten teacher leading the children.”

For a moment, an image popped into my head of myself leading the Immortal Legion girls.

There I was, the slightly less tiny one among the tiny kids, proudly leading them from the frontlines.

Hmm, why does it oddly suit me?

“Honestly, it’s easier for the kids to call you that too. Being called Teacher is better than just Alice, right?”

“…Fine, do as you like.”

When I nodded while sipping my butter beer, Sohi gave me a bright smile.

Still, this isn’t bad…

‘For my first long-term client outside the outer wall to be a good person from a good guild is pretty lucky.’

And Sohi is not only reasonable but also quite pretty.

I like pretty things.

It’s only natural to prefer something beautiful over something less appealing.

“So, you’ve been taking care of the kids for thirty years?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

“Then how old are you…”

“…”

“…Sorry.”

The moment I brought up her age, Sohi’s face turned into the very embodiment of wrath and malice.