Corpo Age-Chapter 255: Ideals

Ralph - ???

“You are to mobilize at the first opportunity. Am I understood?”

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“Yes, sir!” Ralph saluted the mysterious figure on the other end of the call before it abruptly cut off.

He then glanced over at his virtual reality pod, pondering deeply about something. After some time, he shook his head and got back into the pod. He logged in and greeted his fellow guild mates.

He was quickly invited to a party, where he entered the voice chat. There was only one other person in it.

“If it isn’t the great Alex dominating the player battlegrounds!”

“Please. It’s impossible to do anything as a solo. Hurry up and get your ass in here.”

“Of course, my queen. Anything for you. Oh, by the way, I happen to be visiting District Seven tomorrow. Do you want to go for lunch?”

“Hmm, sure. Just message me in the morning.”

“Got it. Okay, I’m ready. Queue us up.”

“The order of things matters,” my guardian angel replied. “I didn’t become a corpo until much later.”

“Then you sure came up in life pretty fast—”

I swallowed several questions down. If what he said was true, it meant he had turned coat after The Gamer’s demise. It sounded like there was a lot of history behind that, but I couldn’t bear to ask.

“I know what you’re thinking. No need to tiptoe around me. The reason I joined the corporate world was to finish what my mentor started. And all that will revolve around you.”

“I still don’t know what you’re talking about,” I reflexively replied as I ruminated on the new information.

“My mentor may have used his advantages to improve his direct combat strength, but I’ve been with him long enough to realize you operate on the same principles. Real combat that takes lives fuels your growth. It seems to me the direction you took maybe even easier to leverage against our opposition than what my mentor had done.”

“That—I still don’t know what you’re talking about with regard to the opposition. Do we even share enemies? For all I know, people are only targeting me to get at you. To deny what you want.”

“Sit down,” he gestured to the seats in front of his desk. “I’ll explain everything.”

It was only now that he pointed it out that I remembered we had been standing near the doors this entire time. It was too late to back out, so I did as he suggested. There was nothing wrong with getting comfortable, especially now that we had come so far. We were all ears.

I nodded at Thorne and Claire, and we quickly took our seats before the cyborg executive with hundreds of robotic hands.

Once we were seated, a projection of some files appeared on the desk between us and the NPC. It was filled with the names of people we hadn’t ever heard of before.

“No need to comb through the entire list. The only name you need to pay attention to is Silas Vexel.”

Our eyes instantly scored the document for that name. It didn’t take us long to learn he was another executive of SocialCorp.

“And what is special about him?” I asked.

All we saw was his official title and the departments under him. It didn’t paint a clear picture.

“You can say leads the other party of this war. As I’m sure you’re able to tell, that means we are ideologically opposed.” The man then made the screens show another scene depicting a lush green planet. “This is where our contradictions reached a boiling point. Through our latest means, we were able to terraform a new planet in the neighboring solar system. Silas had been in charge of that project, and that unfortunately allowed him to test some disturbing ideas that bolstered the confidence in his ways.”

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NPC stopped to regard us, checking to see if we were still with him. He then went on to explain the details of this secret project, where SocialCorp had tested the ways humans could be managed. Or to be more precise, shepherded.

In Silas’ framework, humans were cattle and couldn’t be trusted to do any critical thinking. The few exceptions such as himself would make all the decisions to optimize society. This project eventually was deemed a success, which emboldened him to try to replicate this method back in our solar system.

The grand scale on which SocialCorp operated made it surreal. I had been tricked by the ‘Corp’ in their name. With how powerful they were, I don’t think it was even accurate to call it a simple company.

“So,” I weakly said. “What about you? What is your cause? Or maybe it was your mentor’s cause?”

What Silas supported, at least according to what his rival was saying, was what I had always feared. Our lives were in the palm of those at the top. They could topple it at any time. It was one of the reasons why I had still been working so hard to grow. To prevent people like Silas from imposing their will on me.

However, that didn’t mean I would blindly listen to everything my benefactor had said. There was one thing that was true among all corpos. They were all greedy for profits. I had to understand what sort of profit my ally was seeking because I had a hunch of where he would soon lead this conversation. Before that happened, I needed more information to make a proper decision.

“My mentor—he had a wife and kid, you know? Our current system allowed greedy corporations to take all that away from him on a whim. It’s why he fought against them. It’s why he’s regarded as a terrorist nowadays. Our cause is simple. To stop this corporate nonsense and bring law and order back to this world.”

“That’s quite vague. How exactly do you plan to do that?”

“Technology.”

“Technology? You think technology will just solve all our problems? At the end of the day, technology is just a tool. Humans are the ones in charge. The corrupt humans are what we have to fix.”

“Right. You should know the potential of AI, though. You’ve created your own sentient AI, correct? It can easily solve this problem. You know exactly how effective they are.”

“You—want to put AI in charge of governing humans?”

The crazed cyborg in front of me nodded gleefully.

The idea was more radical than allowing AIs to control all our weapons. They would literally be our overlords if that was the case. The slightest chance of them going rogue could reduce humans to their slaves. It was crazy to go through with the idea even if there was only the slightest of chances of that happening.

“As long as we set up the initial AI properly, and educate the masses enough so they can monitor the AI for any tampering or deviation, we’ll be able to create a government that is truly incorruptible and efficient. You’re the key to unlocking this for the world.”

“You want me to use my system to create this AI, then?”

“Yes. For now, you can use it to vanquish our enemies first. On that note, I ask that you share how your system works. I have a faint idea from observing my mentor, but he never elaborated. Do you simply need to kill?”

I said nothing, neither confirming nor denying. I couldn’t get behind his idea. I knew it was better than his rival’s but still.

“There’s no time for hesitation. There’s ongoing fighting throughout the entire solar system. The longer we wait, the more people die. We need you to develop something that can definitively end the war. Perhaps an improved energy shield or devastating ship-grade cannons. Couple that with mobility and we should be able to suppress the enemy fleets.”

“It’s not something I can make happen with the wave of a hand. It’ll take time—”

“Of course, that can be expedited. I have prepared just the thing. Come.”

Our host graciously led us toward the portion of the room that was behind him, with all the large screens and equipment needed to operate this battleship. We arrived before a set of control panels, where he used his biometrics to unlock some terminals.

“Just press this button and you should be able to satisfy your conditions.”

“What do you mean? How would pressing a button do that?”

I felt Claire pull on my sleeve and saw Thorne give me a look to be cautious. Their warnings were redundant, as I didn’t plan to blindly do as instructed. Instead, I carefully examined the terminal while I continued to press for answers.

“So? What are you trying to make me do?”

“It’s better you don’t know. Just press it and save our society.”

If he knows the system gives me power in exchange for killing people, then pressing this button can only mean one thing…

“Tell me what it does,” I replied in a tone a few octaves colder, enunciating each syllable.

It caused NPC to sigh, but he relented. Another screen materialized between us, showing a flourishing megacity. It took me a second to recognize it as Elevate City. The place was enormous and without the space elevator in the background, it was just a concrete jungle, but I could still see a few familiar buildings.

The screen specifically focused on a wealthy neighborhood near the Oceanic Palace, the largest mall in the city.

“We’re setting up for the new world here,” my guardian angel continued. “The new can only come when the old is gone. It’s time for these selfish devils to pay for their sins and benefit society instead of harming it. Let us kill two birds with one stone. Eliminate these old guards to fuel your power!”

A large area was then highlighted within the neighborhood. I would have to be missing a few brain cells if I hadn’t understood his meaning by now. The button was to fire some sort of weapon or bomb that would flatten everything in its crosshairs.

He wants me to commit mass murder. I could only look back at him in shock.