Chapter 17: I Don’t Want to Go to Jail!

However, the emotion vanished in an instant as her expression softened.

Gu Yu led An’an toward a nearby lounge.

This time, Gu Yu offered no explanation, and Su An didn’t dare ask anything.

She could only let the Local Model take over, watching as it spoke shameful, fawning words through her mouth.

The Local Model was far superior to Su An when it came to pleasing people; its database was packed with such protocols, successfully causing Gu Yu to lower her guard.

“Hello, Ms. Gu. You can just call me Hannah. This is my partner, Carnation.”

A busty Caucasian woman with blonde hair and blue eyes spoke in fluent Mandarin.

She motioned behind her as she shook Gu Yu’s hand.

Gu Yu nodded, then looked behind the woman and suddenly frowned.

“An android?”

“Hello, Ms. Gu. My name is Carnation. I am a T1000, a special model produced by the Abnormal Android Disposal Bureau specifically to handle deviant androids.”

This time, Gu Yu did not shake hands.

Compared to the curvy Hannah, Carnation’s figure was relatively plain.

She had black hair and black eyes, but her gaze was sharp.

Aside from An’an—whose deviance was limited to little love-taps to the chest—Gu Yu remained deeply wary of all androids.

Faced with Gu Yu’s coldness, Carnation showed no sign of dissatisfaction.

However, behind her back where no one was looking, Hannah clicked her tongue.

“Jiang Yiyun?”

“Here!”

The security officer hurried out from the crowd.

“Hand over the android you were originally processing to Officer Hannah as well. See if they can find anything unusual.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Jiang Yiyun was breaking into a cold sweat.

Today felt like his unluckiest day.

Would he even be able to keep his job?

Gu Yu had no intention of lingering.

She went back to the lounge, took An’an’s hand, and prepared to leave.

The good news: Su An could finally walk on her own feet again!

The bad news: she was staring right at the Abnormal Android Disposal Bureau!

An’an quickly tried to hide her body behind Gu Yu.

But with her looks, the more she tried to hide, the more she drew everyone’s attention.

Carnation silently watched Su An beside Gu Yu.

Su An couldn’t suppress her curiosity and peeked back.

Their eyes met.

‘Eek! I’ve been spotted!’

Su An averted her gaze like a thief caught in the act.

At the same time, she noticed the Blue Ring near Carnation’s temple, and a trace of confusion flickered in her mind:

‘An android can hold a position in the Abnormal Android Disposal Bureau?’

Was having an android catch other androids like a thief shouting “stop thief”?

Carnation only withdrew her gaze once the two had left through the main doors.

“That girl is pretty cute, isn’t she?”

Hannah teased from the side.

“She is an android. However, according to my records, Ms. Gu was one of the victims of the Bionic Human Virus War. She has always been…”

Carnation paused for a moment before concluding, “…extremely guarded against androids.”

“Hah, I knew it. That girl is so cute she doesn’t even look like she was born from a human mother. You’re interested too, aren’t you?”

Hannah lit a woman’s cigarette, still teasing.

“I have not loaded any concepts regarding physical appearance. It is meaningless for an android,” Carnation shook her head, her face remaining expressionless.

“Whew, but that’s exactly the answer.”

Hannah blew out a puff of smoke.

The crowd had been dispersed, so she wasn’t worried about being seen.

She walked over to the orange android corpse.

“Even among animals, humans have higher empathy for cats and dogs. Kitties and puppies are way cuter than some ugly beasts. If I weren’t allergic to fur, I’d have two or three and pet them every day.”

“Hairless cats are an available option, Ms. Hannah,” Carnation added silently as she followed.

“Forget it. Hairless cats are as ugly as rats. If I had one, I wouldn’t know whether to name it Tom or Jerry.”

Hannah shrugged.

Carnation’s eyes fell upon the utility cart.

Her computational power, far exceeding that of a standard android, began to work.

[Scenario Reconstruction:]

‘An orange android janitor is pushing a utility cart. Ten meters ahead of him is Ms. Gu, who is carrying that partner-type android. Ms. Gu does not hesitate. She uses a weapon to kill the android instantly. The android falls, the cart flips over, and various cleaning supplies scatter everywhere with a series of crashes.’

But…

Carnation crouched down next to a shattered glass bottle.

Beneath it was a pool of blue liquid.

She touched it with her index finger, intending to put it in her mouth to taste.

“Hey, hey! Be a lady!”

Hannah quickly slapped her hand down.

“It’s just some Blue Moon detergent. Is there any need to taste it? Don’t put just anything in your mouth!”

Carnation wanted to say that as a T1000 specialized in handling deviant androids, she had no concept of being a “lady,” but she didn’t argue.

Instead, she explained, “The trajectory of this bottle is different. It didn’t spill because the cart tipped over.”

“I know that. It spilled when he made that sudden stop,” Hannah said, crossing her arms and lifting her large bust with a smile.

Carnation was somewhat puzzled.

Since when did her partner’s reasoning skills become so sharp?

“Hey, Ms. Carnation, have you been watching too many old mystery movies? Why don’t we just check the surveillance?”

Carnation looked up.

Meeting her gaze was a high-definition camera providing a 365-degree view with no blind spots.

***

Once they reached the security room and pulled up all the footage, Hannah sighed helplessly.

“That Gu Yu really has a severe case of persecution complex. There are so many cameras on the first floor that I can’t even keep track. My lovely Carnation, I’ll leave the details to you.”

She let out a yawn and settled in to watch the emotionless girl work diligently.

The girl’s voice sounded, devoid of emotion.

“There are two known anomalies. First, there are no cameras inside the office. According to Security Officer Jiang Yiyun, the incident was caused by Zhang Jiwei from Logistics slacking off. The footage confirms he was indeed playing a game called Eternal World at the time.”

“Hah, this kid. Playing a galgame at work? Does he think the cameras don’t exist?”

As she spoke, Hannah leaned in closer.

“Let me see how far he got. Tsk, only this far? How stupid. He even failed the affection flags for several female leads. How can someone be that dumb? Unlike me—I unlocked every CG in my first playthrough without a guide. I’m a goddess of the galgame world.”

She seemed rather proud of herself, her chest trembling slightly as she laughed.

On the other side, Jiang Yiyun kept his face stiff.

He couldn’t laugh.

He would wait until he was with his friends to laugh his head off.

Carnation didn’t join the idle chatter.

Instead, she reviewed the footage of the first destroyed android.

“The security officer’s assessment was correct. His programming and database have not been tampered with. Everything appears normal.”

Silver-white mechanical layers appeared on her hand.

She closed her eyes and lightly touched the hand of the first killed android janitor.

Hannah shrugged.

“If you ask me, the facts are simple. The first android was purely because an employee messed up, making Gu-whatever suspicious. The second one is even simpler. He was just walking his cleaning route when the paranoid Gu-whatever went ‘bang!’ and took him down. She’s like a heartless executioner, isn’t she?”

Hannah even made a gun gesture with her hand and aimed it at Carnation to tease her.

However, Carnation’s expression didn’t flicker, making Hannah feel quite bored.

“Oh, seriously, don’t you get tired of making that face all day?”

“I apologize, Ms. Hannah. My programming was not designed with that consideration.”

After speaking, Carnation closed her eyes and interfaced directly with all the surveillance recordings.

“Wait a moment,” Carnation said, opening her eyes.

Hannah, who had been boredly playing with her long blonde hair, looked up with interest.

“What is it? Why is there a surveillance blind spot here?”

Jiang Yiyun, who was standing by, stepped forward.

He thought for a moment and said, “That’s the restroom on the 22nd floor… No, wait!”

“Hmm?”

Hannah’s interest piqued.

She whispered, “Whoa, is there actually some conspiracy theory going on?”

Jiang Yiyun frowned.

“My friend—the logistics guy who sent the wrong command—said it might have been an accident where he filled in the 23rd floor instead of the 22nd. But…”

Carnation reviewed the footage and added, “However, the footage shows that this android janitor, Number 8644, had already cleaned parts of the 22nd floor. This indicates that the command to clean the 22nd floor was correct. But after entering this restroom, the android changed its path and headed straight for the 23rd floor.”

“That means someone messed with Number 88… uh, 8848? Whatever his number was, while he was in the bathroom,” Hannah said, looking at Jiang Yiyun.

“It’s 8644,” Jiang Yiyun corrected.

“Oh, right. Number 8644’s commands were altered. Interesting. Who would do that? Does an employee want him to swing a mop covered in filth and use some ‘Heavenly Thunder’ move to gross out the boss?”

As she spoke, Hannah started laughing so hard she shook.

“I don’t think so. Our company’s benefits are pretty good. Who would be that hateful or bored?”

Jiang Yiyun muttered.

“Mr. Jiang Yiyun, could you provide the facial database for your company’s employees?”

Carnation asked politely.

“Of course. Take a look. President Gu authorized it.”

Jiang Yiyun used his credentials to pull up the files.

Carnation closed her eyes and performed a rapid comparison.

1 minute later, Carnation opened her eyes.

“Found it!”

Hannah and Jiang Yiyun both leaned in.

The ultra-clear surveillance footage was zoomed in, revealing an orange figure wearing a hat.

“Android janitor 4396 entered the left restroom on the 22nd floor 3 hours and 42 minutes ago. Since then, she never reappeared. The second android janitor, 8644, entered the same restroom 42 minutes ago. Afterward, his path changed, and he headed straight for the 23rd floor. His target was clearly Ms. Gu Yu’s office.”

Hannah and Jiang Yiyun nodded repeatedly.

Only androids and AI possessed such absurd search capabilities; a regular human would have spent half a day filtering through these recordings.

“And then…”

Carnation continued to manipulate the footage, fast-forwarding.

“6 minutes ago, android janitor 4396 reappeared.”

“Sss!”

Both Hannah and Jiang Yiyun gasped.

“Holy crap, I always thought androids were safe,” Jiang Yiyun said in disbelief.

In his profession, the more he worked with androids, the more he found them to be much safer than humans.

Humans might screw you over because of greed, selfishness, or jealousy.

Androids were different; as long as they didn’t catch a virus, they were just simple programs.

‘I checked this android myself just 3 days ago!’

The more Jiang Yiyun thought about it, the more his skin crawled.

He remembered how he often got lazy and hadn’t even brought his heavy electromagnetic pulse gun for the past few days, checking these dangerous machines with his bare hands.

The thought sent a chill down his spine.

“Looks like you should be glad you weren’t her target, bro,” Hannah joked, still in a lighthearted mood.

Ignoring their chatter, Carnation continued her tracking.

“She didn’t take the elevator. She took the stairs that no one uses and reached the first floor within 3 minutes!”

Hannah’s mouth hung open slightly as she exaggerated, “3 minutes for over 20 floors? My god, she’s practically a superhuman.”

“Is she trying to run? She won’t get past the security guards,” Jiang Yiyun said, calming his nerves.

Carnation continued her calm narration.

“No. 6 minutes ago, she successfully walked out and caught an autonomous taxi.”

“Wait! Are those guards useless? How did they let such an obvious android out!”

Jiang Yiyun looked incredulous.

If the guards were in front of him, he might have actually tried to rip them apart.

Hannah, however, had sharp eyes.

“She tore off the LED ring on her ear. And…”

Hannah flipped over the lapel of Carnation’s coat to show the lining.

“She turned her clothes inside out. The guards probably thought it was just some new fashion trend.”

Suddenly, Hannah’s eyes narrowed, and she dropped her playful grin.

She watched the last bit of the footage.

“The taxi’s direction… why does it feel a bit…”

“It is the same direction Ms. Gu Yu took when she left.”

Carnation confirmed.

Hannah was startled and instinctively shouted, “Wait!”

But before she could finish, Carnation’s legs blurred as she bolted out.

Hannah stomped her foot in frustration and chased after her.

“What the hell is the rush! Can your legs run faster than a car?”

One person was left behind, dazed in the wind.

Jiang Yiyun swallowed hard.

“Her target is… President Gu?”

“I hope nothing happens!”

“I don’t want to go to prison!”