"Ugh, my God. Is everyone okay?"

"This side is fine."

"My unit is also functioning normally, Archetype."

Silence.

The rain that had been blown away by the shockwave started to fall again, slowly. The cold droplets soaking my body brought my dizzying thoughts back, and as I exhaled, I could see my breath in the chilly air.

I struggled to get up and surveyed the surroundings. The area was littered with debris. Fortunately, Jin and I had hidden behind an abandoned tank, so there was no major issue. I carefully stood up and checked the surroundings. Thankfully—or perhaps unfortunately—checking the nearby terrain wasn’t that difficult.

It was all wiped out.

"Almost everything’s been incinerated."

The information about the antimatter weapon, particularly the Delta-type antimatter grenade, passed on to us by Dagger Team.

It had a lethal radius of 150 meters. When it exploded in the middle of the area filled with skeletons and various warehouses, a fireball several meters in diameter erupted, incinerating everything within a 70-meter radius. The shockwave that followed destroyed buildings and twisted steel beams like they were toothpicks.

Thus, the already sparse skeletons had literally turned into a giant graveyard. Of course, all the enemies in the area were either obliterated or destroyed due to the shockwave and various other reasons. The fact that there was no radiation was the only small consolation.

Jin, who had quietly stepped out, added:

"Considering its power, it’s roughly half the firepower of a Davy Crockett. About 10 tons of TNT worth of explosive power."

"That sounds about right."

After murmuring that, I carefully scanned the area again.

There didn’t seem to be anything unusual near the logistics warehouse. After several rounds of fire support, we had already lost a tank. That said, I wouldn’t say other areas were untouched. As I mentioned earlier, the area around the skeletons, where the most forces were concentrated, no longer existed.

The areas I hadn’t checked yet were the depot, the maintenance area, and the substation, but judging by the lack of updates from the two who were providing fire support near the northern power line tower, it seemed like there was no major issue.

Unfortunately, the heavy rain prevented me from feeling the vibrations that would tell me if enemies were approaching, but I wasn’t too worried. I still had plenty of energy to fight.

That said, there were a few things that were bothering me.

"...It seems the unit has disappeared somewhere. I had quite a few questions for it."

"What are they?"

"The AI’s reactions were quite... unique."

It felt almost human, or perhaps even more human-like than a real person.

But just as I was about to say more, I stopped myself. If it was Artemis, there was a high possibility that they had created a truly individual AI with intelligence comparable to humans—and considering they would stop at nothing, that was entirely possible.

Thinking about the kinds of experiments they might have conducted to create an AI with human-like intelligence, the answer seemed to come quickly. Perhaps Artemis's headquarters had a neural network structure that completely mimicked human neurons.

I had a rough idea of what they might have done to create that.

"Given that, capturing this unit might be necessary..."

"I will try harder to please you, Archetype."

"No, it’s not about that..."

Why was he acting like this?

Anyway, the reason for needing to capture it was simple—this unit could possibly provide concrete evidence about Artemis’s essence and what they had been doing. It might have learned data in a completely different way than Jin.

From how the unit referred to Jin as a "betrayer of Artemis," we could make an educated guess. If they had planned to kill or recover both of them, all they had to do was follow the commands given, without any emotional involvement.

But the fact that emotions were involved made it possible to infer the situation to some extent.

I spoke as I faced the pouring rain.

"Of course, just because the unit disappeared doesn’t mean our objective changes. Let’s keep going. We haven’t even installed half of the beacons yet, and we haven’t dealt with the Artemis forces trying to get into the customs building."

"I figured as much. Our current combat potential... 97% of the usual. Support is not an issue."

Life was hard, but there was still work to be done.

Although most of the tough parts had been handled by Dagger Team, it was still my responsibility to get out there. I picked up my weapon again and made my way down the path I had already crossed several times, not needing the map anymore.

I returned to the logistics depot, where heavy fighting had occurred. Since Lorentina and Logan had drawn most of the attention, the fight had been happening more at the substation, but given that they brought a huge load of antimatter rounds, I never thought they'd be at a disadvantage in terms of firepower.

I picked up a PDA lying on the ground.

Of course, its owner was already dead.

• [Message: From this moment, retreat and reestablish at the fastest speed possible.]

 

Unfortunately, I couldn’t check more files.

The unit—an enemy type unit—was standing on the hill above, so I couldn’t risk it.

I shook my head and said:

"When we get back, let’s rest for a bit."

"I agree."

The battle had begun.

That day, the depot was half destroyed.

"Simon Glass, Artemis's chief researcher. 42 cases of biological experiments and unauthorized modifications and sales of illegal equipment. Collusion with hostile nations and data exports. Participation in at least 3 Icarus Operator murders and acts of treason. Designated as a priority target for elimination... What a damn mess."

"It took five years to catch this big fish. It’s a shame to lock him up in this backwater, but it would look pretty good locked up in the Black Room at Central Park HQ... Oh, and the cyanide capsule in his molar has already been removed, so I’d recommend not doing anything foolish."

"..."

"When faced with a cliff, suicide is the same here or there. But today won’t be that day. If you answer my questions well, you might just survive."

"...What if I don’t?"

"We’ll just use the method they use best."

The interrogation was underway.

A member of Dagger Team, acting as the interrogator, pulled in a piece of equipment into the interrogation room. It wasn’t very big, but it could be considered large—it was about the size of four microwaves put together.

When the cloth covering it was removed, Simon Glass’s eyes widened to the size of saucers. It was no surprise—this device was Artemis’s most notorious tool used for biological experiments.

"How the hell did you—!"

"Does it matter? Whether you talk or not, we have a way to extract all the data from your mind."

"I’ll tell you everything! You can ask anything you want, just please don’t use that cutter!"

The Brain Slicer, also known as the Cutter.

When Dagger Team first learned how to use it, even they grimaced, and some even felt nauseous. The method was simple—put the person’s neck inside it, and that was it. After about 30 minutes, Artemis was able to fully understand the brain structure of the person.

Of course, the process to obtain that result could be easily inferred from the device’s name.

Naturally, Simon was utterly shocked. How did they know about Artemis’s most well-hidden secrets, and worse, how did they bring this device here? He had been one of the people most familiar with it, and the disarray in his mind was immense.

He couldn’t even tell whether it was real or not.

"Now we can finally have a proper conversation, like an intelligent person. I have a few questions for you, so please answer them sincerely. I’ve even brought a lie detector, so you better not think about lying."

"I understand."

"Good."

Thunk.

At the same time, several photos were placed on the table. Naturally, Simon, who had expected to be asked about the location of Artemis’s headquarters and the whereabouts of everyone, was caught off guard. However, upon recognizing the identity of the figures in the photos, he furrowed his brow.

The figure in question was the machine known as "Mecha Eugene."

The questioning began.

"Why create something like this?"

"Is that a fundamental question, or are you asking about its utility?"

"Answer as you know."

"…As you might have already guessed, this unit doesn’t have any significant strategic utility that could change the battlefield. Instead, it’s more of an… experimental model, created through the process of merging unmanned systems with human combat data."

"Hmm."

But that wasn’t the end of it.

In the next moment, one of the Dagger Team members played a video of the conversation between the successor units, showing the interactions of Eugene and the captured Jin. Simon, who had already been sarcastically laughing, pointed with the only free part of his body—the face—toward the brain slicer.

As if explaining to a student, Simon spoke.

"After this unit was developed, Artemis began to consider how an AI that could think and learn on its own would develop combat abilities. Artemis chose to feed in human combat data, but it wasn’t very efficient."

"Hmm."

"But as more data accumulated and combined with early AI that mimicked human neurons, a model was created that could think and choose better combat strategies. This brings us to the Gamma-type model... the same kind of machine that Archetype possesses."

"So, the next step is the unit in this video, then?"

"Correct."

A brief silence.

Simon, now seemingly intoxicated, continued his speech.

"As a result of abandoning ethics, we acquired the Brain Slicer, which allowed us to create an AI completely different from our previous methods… No, it’s not an AI. It’s a kind of 'cybernetic human'—a human brain replaced with machinery."

"Can’t we just kill this bastard?"

"We’ll think about that later."

"It wasn’t just that. Whereas previous units followed one-sided commands, the brain-human model learned in a way much more similar to humans. Artemis used human sacrifice to create a new intellectual life form! How incredible is that…!"

"I didn’t ask for a sermon."

Bang!

Just after returning, Logan, still dripping wet, flicked Simon’s forehead with a neutral expression. With a tremendous sound, Simon’s head snapped back as if struck by a bullet, causing him to shudder and gasp for air.

Of course, Simon knew exactly who had attacked him. She—Logan—was also part of Artemis’s database. Although compared to Eugene, the amount of information on her was relatively small, the result of the lack of data to gather.

"Big talk, but in the end, you just brought in a clueless machine and taught it some weird stuff, right?"

"Those bastards are truly scum."

After a few more questions, Owens, sitting on a chair, placed his feet on the table.

With a thud, the final question was asked.

"So why is Artemis doing all of this? What is the purpose? Are they trying to destroy a world that has just barely gotten back on track?"

"Heh..."

A brief silence.

Then, Simon raised his head. There was a flicker of madness in his eyes.

"…Do you really think that’s what matters?"

"What?"

"If they were thinking about efficiency, they wouldn’t be doing any of this. Especially after they pulled out all of Russia’s teeth… Those who betrayed America and went wild like colts should have been dead long ago. Do you still think Artemis has power?"

"…"

"Are you curious about Artemis’s current agenda? It’s simple. They’re doing whatever they want. Pouring all their resources into doing what they can to turn something worthless into something valuable, even for just one day, one hour, or one minute. That’s all they’re doing—struggling to make it happen."

Silence.

The whole room was filled with dumbfounded expressions, and after a brief laugh, Simon continued.

"The prototype weapon will awaken soon. The combat data that has been accumulating over countless battles will be processed, and the semi-permanent power source and nanomachines manufactured through the Icarus gear will destroy anything that appears to be a weapon."

"…"

"The beautiful scene of watching all of that unfold… I will never get to see it."

Phew.

But at that moment, a chilling, familiar voice interrupted from behind.

Simon quickly realized it was the voice of the person who had completely destroyed him not long ago.

Before he could respond, Logan, who had moved without being noticed, delivered a punch to Simon’s head. It wasn’t a full-force hit, so the damage was light, but it knocked him unconscious.

She shook her head, as if disgusted, and spoke.

"I never imagined that those who sold out their country to the enemy would evolve into apocalyptic fanatics. How bothersome."

"Indeed."

"Since we’ve already extracted all the necessary information via the brain scan while this idiot was unconscious, how about we just bury him in a nearby empty lot?"

"Leave him. He’ll be transported to headquarters in a day or two."

With appropriate jokes, the full picture slowly began to emerge.

Simon Glass. Before meeting Dagger Team, he had been unconscious, and during this time, Dagger Team had already extracted most of the information they needed using a brain scan.

He had no idea that they knew about the Brain Slicer, much less that they intended to use it on him. The cyanide capsule in his molar had already been removed, part of their preparation.

After a brief interrogation, Owens spoke.

"Let’s clear that box out. This already cramped interrogation room is about to burst."

"As you wish."

Clank.

At that moment, the remnants of the Brain Slicer faded away, and the hologram covering it vanished, revealing a tray with four empty boxes on it.

Logan quietly dragged it away, and with that, Owens and the rest of Dagger Team began to leave the interrogation room.

"Sometimes a little white lie is necessary for interrogations."

There was no response.

Only the unconscious body of Simon remained in the dimly lit room.