Editing City Series:Volume8a Chapter9 (section)

===Algo’s Sight Mode: Inside DT Castle===

'''<Algo’s Over Reload>

Algo switched to Sight Mode when he entered the audience chamber.

A red carpet formed a bridge crossing the hole where the floor should have been.

Three people stood on that bridge: Algo himself, little Alternative on his shoulder, and Suedomsa.

Algo opened a window in front of himself. It displayed the status outside.

It showed a tower jutting high into the blue sky.

The footage came from a camera on the castle rooftop and it was a bit lacking in clarity. But the blue smoke rising from below the giant structure was still plain to see.

“Looks like Mekton has successfully taken Babel. He might be cut off from us, but there’s nothing to worry about with his Pseudo Load Emblem, Tribes. That lets him become the commander.”

Then he looked to Suedomsa.

Suedomsa was looking at him, but his eyes were slightly unfocused.

That meant he was in Board Mode.

But Algo still smiled.

“Is something wrong now that you’re actually doing it?”

“I know they aren’t going to understand. It’s a feeling I haven’t felt in so long. The same one I felt during my Lives research in Japan, before I began calling myself a Minus Elite. No one but my family ever understood me, so I kept struggling and getting into fights with others.”

He offered the three program trigons in his hand to the dove on his shoulder. The dove hid them all away in its wings.

It had absorbed them.

“So a great god will soon be born. We once created every part of this city in order to summon that great god. We erased all trace of the original industrial city, erased all human presence, and spent hundreds of years creating a Minus city.”

Algo asked a sudden question.

“Is that why I see biblical references around the city even after it lost its memory?”

“Yes, it is. There were 12 primary researchers and we offered up a vessel to be turned into a god.” Suedomsa slowly turned toward Alternative on Algo’s shoulder. “Our vessel for the 1st Godtact Experiment was an NPC Body I had created. One equivalent to the current Michael-class. The Pseudo Load and Pseudo Grandload are both the result of us trying to turn an inhuman vessel into something greater than human…but that experiment was a failure. It all came down to my NPC Body.”

“And the godtact ended up reaching Yuo instead, didn’t it?” said Algo.

Suedomsa nodded once, but then he lowered and shook his head.

“The 12 researchers became 13 with the girl included. They reached the number of betrayal. Then the girl chose to become the great god and quoted a passage from the bible to the one bearing the name of Beelzebub”


''A time is coming and in fact has come when you will be scattered, each to your own home. You will leave me all alone.

''Yet I am not alone, for my Father is with me.

''I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace.

''In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.


Small Alternative trembled on Algo’s shoulder.

Suedomsa failed to notice and continued speaking.

“I wonder what she meant when she said ‘for my Father is with me’. Was it because I had been ignoring her for so long with my research and staying in Board Mode? Any Minus-leaning person who has a family will have to pay the price eventually.”

<But we know why you ended up like that, dad.>

Suedomsa shook his head when he saw Alternative’s window.

“I’m not going to blame you two, Alternative. As a Minus researcher, I was more a cracker than a hacker. I didn’t just want to show off my power, discuss all knowledge and phenomena, and reveal anything that was hidden.” He took a breath. “I wanted to actually use those things and that sometimes led me to forget what really mattered.”

After a pause, Alternative responded.

<You’re a lot like Shouzou.>

'''<Algo’s Over Zoom>

Suedomsa suddenly looked up and turned his somewhat unfocused eyes their way.

Alternative accepted his gaze and placed a slight smile on her small lips.

<Six years ago, when that martial artist came to steal the title of Martial Arts Master while Uncle Ungyou and Algo were away, Shouzou came running even though it meant abandoning the precious time he had left with Yuo.>

<Which is why I think the Daughter of Zion is not afraid now.>

Alternative lowered her gaze.

<But there is one thing I don’t understand. Dad will hang my Minus dropout of a sister on the cross and Algo will nail her to it. But how will a Plus dropout like Shouzou wield the lance?>

Algo cleared his throat to respond, but Alternative placed a hand on his shoulder and opened a window.

<Personally, I’m not so sure the people who aren’t Plus Elites or Minus Elites really are wishy-washy dropouts. If they keep struggling there and refuse to give up, how can we really call them dropouts?>

She took a breath and patted Algo’s shoulder as his throat-clearing continued as a coughing fit. She also looked over to his face.

<Are you okay, Algo? Not even a Martial Arts Master can defeat a Lives disease like Words Warn.>

“Yes, I am fine. I was prepared for this. This was the only way to combine my impurely-obtained immortality and the purity of someone with a finite lifespan.”

He coughed again and spoke to Alternative.

“Master Suedomsa’s Lives collapse from Words Warn will occur at 3 PM. Yours will happen at 3:40 PM. That is why I made this choice. Once Master Suedomsa is stopped as a representative of the past, I can carry on as a representative of the present.”

He nodded.

“That is why I chose to combine with your Mind Lives, including your Words Warn, so we could always remain together as a new vessel.”

'''<Algo’s Sight Mode has ended>