Chapter 136
Chapter 136
I’m No Longer Curious
Cannibalism.
One of the greatest taboos humanity had guarded against since ancient times.
Back when people lived as primitive tribes, they committed it without shame, but as civilization matured, it became one of the sins they no longer perpetrated.
Of course, there were exceptions.
There was no need to look far. When the Third World War came to an abrupt end and the ice age began, the true face of the animal called humanity was laid bare.
Back then, everyone was guilty. Unable to cope with an unprecedented disaster, people threw away even the things that should never have been abandoned.
Scarce resources.
An unprecedented famine.
Bone-chilling cold.
And the boundless selfishness born from them.
In an era when every condition had been driven to extremes, the tragedy of fratricide blooming among blood relatives was almost a law of nature. Yes, there was room for excuses. It was all a desperate struggle for survival, a frantic effort to preserve the species.
It was not a matter of choice, but of life and death.
That was why no one pointed fingers at the tragedy. They merely lamented and regretted the reality that had come to pass.
It was not even recorded in history to begin with. As though everyone had resolved to erase that part entirely.
If it were brought up now, people would probably laugh and dismiss it, saying there was no way such a thing could have happened.
Only Ga-on remembered it clearly.
The horrors of that era.
However, the 24th century was different. Having overcome the pain of the ages and successfully risen again, humanity threw open the gates to a magnificent future once more. Even amid the freezing snowfields, they advanced into space without hesitation.
There was nothing left that evoked memories of those times.
If anything, it was as though an instinctive desire for compensation had been engraved into humanity, driving them to obsess over material things. The modern society that was born anew lacked for nothing. Technology that had trespassed into the domain of the gods had granted humanity limitless possibilities.
Though he never imagined there would be someone who would use such power to recreate the calamities of that era.
“Khkhkh, khkh.”
It was malice so vile that it sent a shiver down his spine, something he had not felt in a very long time.
In this day and age, anyone could become anything and do anything.
Then why, exactly, did corruption continue to fester instead of being cleansed away?
Ga-on suddenly tilted his head upward.
As it happened, someone who knew the answer was waiting above ground.
***
“You’re late.”
Looking down at the cold dining table, Hudson Nictor muttered quietly.
It was not because he was anxious or because his patience had run out.
He was simply puzzled.
For androids, negligence and laziness were impossible concepts. Since every procedure and process was carried out exactly as scheduled, they had no notion of the inevitable waste that accompanied human behavior.
To them, a promise was synonymous with fulfillment.
Yet even after time passed, the meal he had been waiting for never arrived. Unless something unusual had happened, this should not have been possible. Just as he rose from his seat, thinking he should go see what was going on—
Rumble.
A round object rolled in from the end of the hallway.
It was the head of the android secretary who had welcomed Hudson.
A chilling premonition made the hairs on his body stand on end.
Before he even had time to react, a man appeared.
After examining the unexpected guest, Hudson revealed his bewilderment.
And why wouldn’t he?
The young man he had believed dead was standing there perfectly fine.
“How are you still alive?”
“Why did you think I was dead?”
“Well...”
Because his son Philip Faway had told him so.
The circumstances had seemed convincing enough, so he had not bothered with additional confirmation.
One could say he had simply acted out of habit.
“Hah, so I was deceived.”
Now that he understood the situation, all that remained was resolving the incident.
Hudson’s pupils shook out of focus for only a moment.
Needless to say, it was the precursor to operating his device. The instant it happened, Ga-on rushed him, covered his mouth, and ripped the device out.
Crunch.
Part of his pseudo-nervous system came out with it, yet Hudson did not so much as flinch.
He merely stared directly at Ga-on with bloodshot eyes.
“If you report me, you’ll only hurt yourself. I just came from seeing what you’ve got displayed underground.”
“......”
Hudson knew the weight of his crimes.
He had long expected that he would be discovered someday.
But to be exposed by some third-rate fixer whose name he did not even know?
Still, there was room for negotiation.
The other side could not report him either.
Clutching his trembling hands, he gathered himself.
He was a man who had once squandered 100 billion and still lost an election, and who had spent four years recuperating after failing to endure the genetic modifications conducted by the Mars Defense Force and suffering severe rejection symptoms.
Compared to those experiences, this was hardly a crisis.
A beat later, after repeatedly telling himself he could handle it, a calm voice emerged from Hudson’s mouth.
“Yes, your anger is justified. Any human would naturally feel that way. However, whether that gives you the right to impose private punishment is another matter.”
“Were you even listening to what I said?”
The absurdity of the statement made the crease between Ga-on’s brows deepen into the shape of the Chinese character 川.
“Did I actually harm anyone? Or bring harm to society? I merely tested advanced technology. Strictly speaking, cultured meat is nothing more than a complex aggregation of countless atoms, is it not?”
In other words, it was no different from cattle or pigs.
That was also why clone humans had no human rights.
To Ga-on, who knew Hudson’s sins, it was nothing but a ridiculous and long-winded sophistry.
“What about Wendy? Are you going to pretend murdering her never happened too?”
“That is the true nonsense here. She died? I believe she came to work today. It is true that my son treated her harshly, but I fail to see whether that deserves condemnation.”
“So that’s how you’re going to play it.”
To prove the crimes committed by Philip and Hudson, they first had to reveal that Wendy was dead and that the woman currently walking around was a clone human.
It was the very definition of being trapped by one’s own actions.
“Very well. Let’s assume, just for argument’s sake, that I truly committed something as terrible as you claim. Even then, how many years would I be sentenced to? Five? Six? If you ask me, I’m confident it would be even less than that. But what about her, once she’s exposed as a clone human? I must admit, I’m a little curious how that will turn out.”
Without losing his composure, Hudson laughed leisurely. Then, for an instant, his eyes narrowed as sharply as blades.
“You need to understand how your actions will come back to affect you. Whatever the circumstances, she’s alive and well now, isn’t she? If only you stop digging around, she can live peacefully until the end of her lifespan. Why can’t you understand something so simple?”
“You call that something worth saying?”
It was an argument so self-centered it was nauseating.
From beginning to end, every part of it was twisted.
Though they belonged to the same species, it felt as though they viewed the world from entirely different perspectives. Disregarding the process and obsessing solely over the result, he looked exactly like the ruling class that had once brought about the Third World War.
An attitude that seemed to say the world could burn in a cataclysm as long as their own desires were fulfilled.
He had never experienced true fear.
That was why he could be this shameless.
“In that case…”
There was only one thing left to do.
“I’ll have to show you.”
Just what kind of wrong he had committed.
***
“One last question. Who’s backing you?”
It was a perfectly reasonable question.
The capital and technology required to rapidly cultivate human bodies, along with the manpower necessary to systematically collect genetic material, were far beyond what an ordinary assemblyman could possess.
“Are you really going to interrogate me here?”
Dragged underground by Ga-on, Hudson remained as calm as if he had returned to his hometown.
It was not because he did not know how this would end.
It was because he already had a good idea.
“I can practically smell the inexperience on you. If I die whether I talk or stay silent, then my choice is obvious, isn’t it? Or did you assume I was afraid of death?”
“Really?”
Ga-on stepped closer, his shadow nearly covering Hudson’s head.
Yet Hudson maintained the detached composure of someone who had reached enlightenment.
“Did you know? I originally wanted to become a soldier, not a politician. That’s why I underwent pain-removal surgery when I was young.”
And not through any method a Tuner could hack, either.
It was an old-fashioned approach.
One could call it acquired analgesia.
Thanks to that, Hudson’s mouth was heavier than gold.
Unless someone brought a Brain Stalker, extracting the information they wanted was virtually impossible.
“Your adventure ends here. You may not have died this time, but the next time will be different. As you’ve probably guessed, I happen to have a lot of friends.”
Hudson even thrust his neck forward as if daring him to act.
To Ga-on, however, it was merely laughable.
He had already guessed that direct torture would not work on someone who did not even scream after having his device ripped out without any preparation.
That was why a different kind of stimulus was needed.
“Pain isn’t the only thing that can kill a person.”
The year was 2046.
Thrown into an age where the ice age had begun and moral decay had become rampant, Ga-on had chosen starvation over crossing the final line.
Once or twice, he had managed to endure it that way.
After all, true death did not arrive in the literal sense.
But what followed was a march through hell.
His desires had been deep, yet his instincts had been shallow.
Back then, Ga-on had been nothing more than an immature youth who had not yet matured mentally.
And so, in a moment of temptation, he became a sinner.
In a slightly different way.
“The bottom is rarely visible. The moment you relax, thinking there’s nowhere lower to fall, it reveals itself.”
“What are you—”
Before Hudson could finish asking what he meant, an unfamiliar voice sounded from behind.
[It’s done.]
“You downloaded all the data, right?”
[Yeah. The stuff about body-fat manipulation and rapid cultivation too. It’s a complete gold mine. Just where exactly is this pla—]
After retrieving the probe, Ga-on pressed the shutdown button.
Before entering, he had connected it to the main server, and that seemed to have piqued Dobby Howard’s curiosity.
But what came next was something he could not allow him to see.
Because he intended to punish Hudson in a way that lay beyond common sense.
Yes—
“I want to teach you that sometimes satisfaction itself can be violence.”
The moment Ga-on declared it, bubbles began bursting one after another inside the cultivation pod.
A sign of explosive cellular growth.
In the blink of an eye, protein formed and fat filled it.
Watching the flesh rapidly take shape, Hudson was overcome by a nameless sense of dread.
“...No. It can’t be. It won’t be.”
“I used to think that too.”
Taking out the completed cultured meat, Ga-on immediately stuffed it into Hudson’s mouth.
Hudson resisted with all his strength, but the difference in physical ability was overwhelming.
The sensation of meat sliding across his tongue made him retch.
It was indescribably fishy and tough, eerily resembling someone ambitious and cunning.
What blazed within his chest was an intense loathing of his own kind.
Why would anyone eat something like this—
“Urgh!”
“Why are you spitting it out? By your own logic, it’s just meat anyway. Why are you assigning meaning to it and making yourself suffer?”
There was not only one piece of prepared cultured meat.
Even while they exchanged words, more continued to be produced.
And whose mouth it would end up in was obvious.
“Wait, wait. I understand what you want. I’ll talk. I’ll tell you who’s behind me. So calm down and—”
“I’m not curious anymore.”
Looking down at Hudson with shadowed eyes, Ga-on added,
“Just like you said, your friends will come find me themselves.”