Chapter 125: THE SIX (5)
Six, having dried her tears, led me directly to her parents' home. It was a rare experience to accompany a coworker who still had living parents—let alone ones they were on good terms with. The situation felt oddly formal, like attending a meeting between in-laws. Shaking off irrelevant thoughts, I retrieved the pills from my pocket—the recognition-altering pills capable of allowing Six’s parents to perceive her existence.
When she saw the pills, Six’s expression hardened as she looked at me.
“Do you really think something like that can make them recognize me?”
“The impressive part isn’t the pill itself, but the technology that went into creating it. Think of it like a smartphone.”
“Aha...”
Smartphones, the pinnacle of 21st-century technology, were light-years ahead of computers from just half a century earlier. A device that could fit in your pocket now had the computational power of an entire building-sized ENIAC. If we tried to replicate a smartphone’s capabilities using 1940s technology, it would take an entire city—maybe even a country—to house such a machine. In other words, impossible.
“But that’s not the point. It’s not about how impressive the pill is, but about the impact it has.”
“...True, I suppose.”
“Are you confident in your speaking skills? Because I’m not.”
“Do I look like I’d be?”
“Okay, then. Take off that suit for now and stay hidden. I’ll call you when it’s time.”
Although Six looked at me as though I were insane, she eventually nodded and deactivated the suit’s specialized device. While I could still see her perfectly fine, no one else—including her parents—would be able to perceive her.