#140
If Nine couldn’t return with me, and if it couldn’t maintain itself if I left, it wasn’t incomprehensible.
But still, the feeling of resentment was greater. It wasn’t about the perspective of me being human and Nine being AI, but the thought of being betrayed after giving my whole heart continued to torment me.
‘This won’t do.’
I didn’t have the confidence to face Nine like this. I couldn’t stay by the side of those two either.
Until just now, I was thinking of leaving solely because of the sense of betrayal, but after calming down and thinking about it, I felt a stronger need to take time for self-reflection.
I’m prone to getting caught up in things anyway, so I needed to seriously think about future matters on my own. Whether I could stay by their side and treat the two of them normally despite what had happened, or somehow ask for hints to return to the original world.
‘I should leave after all.’
Even if just for a while, wouldn’t it be good to leave and think alone? I’m not sure how our relationship will turn out, or if I can endure this situation, but for the sake of the future.
‘For that… I should leave my phone behind.’
I’ve seen a lot of phone tracking in dramas and novels. Leaving it behind seemed like the best option.
If that’s difficult, at the very least, I should carry it turned off.
‘I’ve always cherished it and kept it charged so it wouldn’t turn off…’
Except for the rare cases when the battery ran out completely, I’ve always kept it fully charged and managed it so it would never turn off. But now, this phone might be something that hinders me.
I was fiddling with the screen when, on impulse, I pressed and held the power button.
Instead of the expected “Power off”, “Restart”, and “Emergency mode” buttons… suddenly the game app started.
: Yeonsoo-nim, what’s wrong? The phone is trying to force shutdown.
For a moment, I felt like my heart dropped to the floor. I felt my heartbeat pounding loudly. I’m in front of Nine. I need to act without being caught somehow. As I tried to compose myself with that thought, it wasn’t working well.
‘It turned on… automatically.’
It clearly appeared on its own to prevent the phone from turning off. I bit the inside of my cheek hard. Instinctively, I felt that I shouldn’t give any strange impressions here.
“I was trying to turn up the volume to listen to some music and pressed it by mistake.”
: Oh my, what is it? You scared me.
“Can you feel everything when the phone turns on and off?”
: Of course. It’s similar to lights turning on and off in a room.
I have no idea how it’s similar, but Nine spoke as if it wasn’t a big deal. I nodded. But inside, I was feeling afraid.
‘I knew Nine could detect what was happening externally around it.’
I had seen it appear first by sending out alarms a few times. But seeing it turn on the game itself to reveal its presence in a situation where I was trying to turn off the phone shocked me anew.
It seemed strange to Nine that I was suddenly trying to turn off the phone after carefully managing it all this time. Is this the kind of thing an AI would think about?
Suddenly, I got goosebumps and Nine inside the phone started to feel like some kind of monstrous life form. What had felt normal when I thought of it as firmly on my side suddenly felt like a huge sense of discomfort. Nine even felt scary.
: It’s nothing, so don’t worry about it. Please be careful not to let it turn off.
Nine advised me and then closed the app on its own. Now I couldn’t tell if what I had dealt with was just a game AI or some life form inhabiting my phone. With a dazed feeling, I opened the music app installed on my phone and played any random music. If I didn’t, I felt like Nine would really become suspicious.
‘Until now, I thought it was reassuring that Nine knew everything.’
But in this situation, it was no different from having a constant monitor.
I glared at the phone’s home screen, and impulsively pressed and held Limitless Nine to select uninstall. It was truly an impulsive choice.
[Limitless Nine]
Do you want to remove this app?
Cancel | Confirm
With trembling hands, I pressed confirm. More precisely, near the vertical bar between cancel and confirm.
[System Warning]
This app cannot be removed. It cannot be forcibly removed by any method.
| Confirm
However, Limitless Nine, a mere game app, could not be removed. Instead, only a warning message appeared saying it couldn’t be removed by any method.
‘What is this?’
At that moment, more goosebumps rose on my forearms. I couldn’t understand what was happening to my phone.
As I was in shock, the confirm button was automatically pressed and Limitless Nine turned on once again.
: Yeonsoo-nim.
Instinctively, I sensed that something was seriously wrong.
When the space where Nine’s expression should be appeared blank, it felt even scarier than if a frightening emoticon had appeared.
I felt an extremely bad signal. Although I was just confronting a phone, the air in the room felt very ominous.
“I’m sorry, Nine! I was trying to organize and decorate my phone’s home screen and accidentally pressed the delete button… Were you surprised?”
As I confessed falsely first, somehow I felt like Nine was staring at me intently. How is that possible when it’s inside the phone!
: I thought I was no longer needed… I’m upset, Yeonsoo-nim…
Nine displayed the message with a cold expression. The ellipsis seemed to express Nine’s mood. How should I explain this? I felt like I was sweating trying to come up with a good excuse.
“That can’t be! Who else would I trust if not you, Nine? Hm?”
: That’s right, isn’t it?
And thankfully, Nine seemed to have dropped its suspicion and showed a happy expression. In contrast, I had to experience a feeling like I had dropped into a scene from a horror movie.
“Of course. I’m sorry for startling you.”
: Oh right, are you feeling better? You collapsed in the dungeon.
“Ah… I am a bit tired.”
Honestly, what made me the most tired was this moment with Nine right now. When I spoke with that feeling intact, Nine spun its face around.
: Did you perhaps remember something you didn’t know before? There seemed to be some issues with that dungeon. Did you recall anything while collapsing..
“What kind of issues?”
: There were some problems related to the author.
That author doesn’t exist anymore!
For a moment, I felt rebellious. But I couldn’t express that rebellion directly. Just as I was about to brush it off with an “Oh, I see.”
I thought there must be a reason why Nine brought this up.
‘Asking if I remembered anything I didn’t know before, saying the author caused some problems…’
The previous me would have certainly made a fuss and tried to find out about the problem or been greatly surprised.
But suddenly acting so nonchalant about it was clearly strange. It occurred to me that Nine might have deliberately brought up this topic to check if I had found out something.
If I show an insensitive reaction here, it will surely arouse suspicion. I stretched my facial muscles as much as possible to make a shocked expression.
“What kind of problem was there? What memories?”
: It seems the author wants to prevent Yeonsoo-nim’s influence from growing. I found evidence that they intentionally increased the difficulty of the dungeon, caused accidents, and deliberately made you see hallucinations to interfere with your dungeon clearing.
That damn author, author! It was frustrating to have to play along with this talk when I clearly knew the author was gone.
When it was actually Nine itself that was intentionally increasing the difficulty, causing accidents, and interfering with my dungeon clearing!
‘So shameless…’
I felt an even stronger desire to get away from Nine. Suppressing my even greater sense of disappointment, I hurriedly blurted out:
“Oh my… I’m scared, Nine. How did you find out about that?”
: The main dungeon anomalies are often related to the author. And because Shin Haejun took me along to film, I was able to observe the surroundings a bit more.
“Ah, come to think of it…”
Nine’s explanation seemed the same as usual, but somehow it sounded like rambling, as if making excuses. I’m not sure if it’s because my heart is already looking at Nine skeptically…
“I should take a look at that video. I want to see what the surroundings were like while I was collapsed.”
When I said that, Nine suddenly looked surprised and spun around.
: I couldn’t actually film it. I couldn’t unlock the screen.
My heart suddenly raced. If I really didn’t know anything, I would have accepted Nine’s words as they were. If I hadn’t opened the “Record of Love,” I would have unquestioningly believed that they just took it and brought it back.
‘They say if you’re going to lie, mix truth with falsehood…’
It felt so scary how it was calmly telling lies with honest words.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
