Editing HEAVY OBJECT:Volume15 Chapter 2 (section)

===Part 5===

“Heivia, Heivia.”

Myonri had a good reason for sounding so nervous as she called his name.

Sit. Lie down.

The 2m composite armor bull was politely standing directly above Heivia who was collapsed face down on the ground. Even without a server, they were apparently obedient enough to attack delinquent soldiers. They really were well made.

Heivia had been entirely incapacitated and could only squeeze out the voice of a squished frog.

“…Myonri, drag me out of here before this piece of junk starts moving its hips. I wouldn’t say I’ve lived a life that lets me hold my head high in front of the Virgin Mary, but don’t you think it’s a bit much to let this machine force some bestiality onto me?”

“Um, what are we going to do now?”

Myonri may have gained the ability to automatically filter out anything that would dirty her ears too much. The other potatoes also showed no sign of providing a helping hand.

Myonri was fed up of being spied on by the trumpet or flower-like security cameras that were arranged based on the ability of cross-pollinizing flowers to cover each other’s pollen distribution range.

“Manhattan has come all the way to New Caribbean Island, but at the moment, all it has done is come here. Nor does it seem to be preparing to attack anywhere else. In that case…what are we supposed to fight against once we get our guns back?”

“What are you smiling about? Are you interested in what their ass tastes like? This is the enemy’s greatest Object! There’s no sign of the actual Elite, Capulet is putting in overtime under that crazy Martini’s control, and they’ve already used their electromagnetically-launched reactor cannon for a preemptive strike with no advance warning!!”

“So we’re just supposed to shoot the innocent people walking around here? Doesn’t that seem like the wrong target?” Myonri placed a hand on her slender chin. “It’s still unclear whether that…Miss Martini? was using Manhattan to target us in the Legitimacy Kingdom or the Information Alliance maintenance fleet corrupted by Piranirie. We were the ones that infiltrated that fleet, so if they say they didn’t know about it, it would mean we were simply caught in the middle of an internal purge…”

An odd groan escaped Heivia’s mouth.

That would mean there had been no act of war in the first place and they would have no reason for a counterattack. That would make Heivia and the Legitimacy Kingdom the aggressors in attacking Manhattan and the Information Alliance.

They had done a lot to hype up how frightening the Manhattan was, but now that they were onboard, they found it was peaceful. It was true it had arrived in the ocean near New Caribbean Island, but it was not moments away from vaporizing the Legitimacy Kingdom military with its extreme firepower. It was a mystery who the Manhattan’s opponent was and where it had been targeting with that initial attack. Heivia and the others had not been handcuffed or thrown in a cell. They had been released into the city.

There was nothing they could do now.

The potatoes felt silly for getting so worked up about war.

With nothing here, that macho army had lost their reason to fight. It would have been much simpler if they had discovered a plot to wipe out the human race. Like this, it looked more like they were trying to stir up trouble in the perfectly peaceful city to start a war.

This was a fully controlled society.

People were bound by data.

Heivia had glimpsed the fear of a digital city that did not even need to separate out the criminals. Something deep in the delinquent soldier’s heart told him it was all over if he let this break him. So he desperately searched for a reason.

“I’m not going to just go along with this and have my bones buried in the Information Alliance. I have noble blood, so I have to inherit the Winchell family.”

“That’s a nice idea…but what if they say they’re contacting our embassy in preparation to hand us over safely?”

They would break.

Even if nothing of the sort was actually happening, Heivia and the others would break if that Melly girl told them that. While she dodged the issue and stalled for time, they would get used to this, lose interest, and decide this was good enough.

Anyone would be afraid.

If you were thrown out in front of such a colossal weapon and told you had to fight it if you had any complaints, anyone would be scared out of their mind. That was why Myonri and the others were clinging to this temporary peace. If they could not find a reason to continue fighting, then why fight? They wanted support for that conclusion.

But that was not good enough.

For one thing, the words of the Information Alliance could not be trusted. They had to assume those words were like disposable bullets meant to manipulate their target and devour everything of value they had.

They should have learned that lesson already.

Back on that ship’s deck when their friend had been helplessly shot to death.

“We-…”

Heivia opened his mouth to resume arguing with Myonri and the others who were about to fall for it.

But he was cut off.

It was a dull and unpleasant metallic noise a lot like a poorly-crafted bell being struck. It came from directly above Heivia who still lay pinned to the ground. It came from the side of that Bullmite. A thumb-sized hole had appeared there and sparks flew from it like a handheld firework or smoke bomb.

Except circuit boards would not spew sparks like that no matter how you damaged them.

This was clearly the work of a chemical meant to fry the circuits.

“A sniper…using armor-piercing incendiary rounds!?”

After an especially large burst of sparks from within the electronics, the entire Bullmite went limp. If it had not collapsed to the side, it might have crushed Heivia under its weight.

But Heivia did not look exactly delighted after gaining the freedom he had so desperately desired.

“Who did that…?”

He asked without thinking, but no one knew the answer. All of the few dozen Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers were gathered in this same location, so none of them could have left and prepared a sniper rifle on a building roof.

But that meant nothing to the people around them.

The Asian passersby widened their eyes, held out their many phones, and produced countless electronic shutter sounds.

Heivia’s group could tell they were surrounded by killer intent.

Patrolling Bullmites appeared from around seemingly every corner, as if the Legitimacy Kingdom soldiers had triggered the cage of data. And the machines were clearly in a different mode than before. Even if they did not use a server, their simple circuits were apparently enough to pick up on their fellow Bullmite’s demise and work together to resolve the situation.

But they were fundamentally wrong. They mistakenly thought the soldiers had broken the rules.

This time, Heivia’s group really would be killed.

“What dumbass did that!?”

There were 700,000 public security cameras and who-knows-how-many phones and drive recorders on top of that. And yet no one could answer that fundamental question.

Who had thrown the stone?

Round 2 had begun.