Chương 169: B3. 14.3 - Meeting New People Is Fun

Four Arms thinks I'm a Corebring? It might be because of the ball of energy inside my chest that powered my Pino body. It wasn't an actual Core, like those in Corebrings, but it did give off a lot of energy. Information about the Corebring's biology was scarce, so someone might assume that whatever I had inside my body was just a different variant of a Core.

"Yes, I am a Corebring." My voice trembled with excitement at this new role I had never expected to play. Good thing that it made me sound even more robotic. What fun this development was! I was fine with lying because I didn't think Four Arms had any means of debunking my claim. Even if his extensive augments included sensors that could detect an Adumbrae, there was no Adumbrae here! My original body, the actual Adumbrae, was far away.

I had no idea how I, as Pino, showed up in sensors—maybe a creature made of inorganic material with a powerful energy thingy in its chest? I definitely didn't look like the usual Adumbrae, but did Four Arms have a reason to think Corebrings were in La Esperanza? Four Arms held out his lower left hand. It glowed a mild blue as it crackled with electricity, shooing away the darkness and creating shadows. I could now see that he really looked like a robot, with no visible human part.

He was covered in interlocking plates of sleek black metal from head to toe. Even his face had many different moving pieces, probably to mimic human facial features. Why would portraying emotions be important to Four Arms? If I wasn't mistaken, those sticky bits all over his body were synthetic skin and flesh destroyed while fighting Trigger Happy. Seemed like an unnecessary expense for an android made for battle to look realistically human. Android or cyborg?

Cyborg was probably the correct term, a human with added-on machine bits. Plenty of machine parts, in Four Arms' case. Androids were robots made to look like humans.

"So, my guess was right," said Four Arms, examining me with eyes that started to glow gold. He's also a BID agent? Those were the same golden eyes that Trigger Happy had. Everyone knew that it was the trademark of BID agents. How could Four Arms be here? Was he a BID agent doing his job, or was he attached to some other shady organization? Did Dario call for him? Probably not, seeing that Four Arms had fought Trigger Happy. This night just kept on getting weirder.

This was the literal manifestation of expecting the unexpected. Wouldn't be surprised if a croissant-juggling clown riding a dinosaur strolled by.

"What guess are you talking about?" I indifferently asked, dozens of other questions swirling in my mind. It was easy to be nonchalant when my real body was safe with Deen. Also, it was interesting that he couldn't tell that I was an Adumbrae. I'd imagine that he'd immediately shoot if he thought I was one.

"That you guys are already in the city!" Four Arms boomed with boisterous laughter.

"I already heard a little buzzing about your movements. Don't underestimate our intel network. We keep watch on the Hive."

"Is that supposed to be a threat?" I asked. Half of me was overjoyed at the confusion I could sow while pretending to be a Corebring. The other half was startled by Four Arms' revelation. Corebrings were really in the city? That was what I saw in Glowy Erind's dimension. If that bitch of an artificial Core called them here…

"A threat?" Four Arms shook his head.

"How can we puny humans threaten the mighty Corebrings?"

"I, for one, consider myself human. Not many of us still do, but I'm an exception." Rattle off my lore to build on the lie. Insert a slight twist to make it more believable. If the rumors of Corebrings having a superiority complex were true, which Four Arms implied, then I was the odd one out. It'd be more suspicious if I went along with Four Arms' expectation, and it'd be easier to make friends with him if I were supposedly in touch with my human side.

"And you don't look so puny," I continued, walking forward until I reached the corpse of Trigger Happy between us.

"Quite a big guy, for a human. I might even be more human than you, since I only have two arms compared to your four. I suppose that my one eye is weird."

"Unlike you, Ms. Corebring, I have plenty of human parts." Four Arms tapped his head.

"My brain remains. I can't say the same for you. You don't even register as a living thing in my sensors, except for your core. It looks weird, weirder than my original face, I can admit." He chuckled at his own joke.

"You can ask the Mother Core about it," I said.

"So, what are you here for, fellow human?"

"I'm chasing an Adumbrae. But that's only one item on my list of things to do. I don't even know what my to-do list is, to be honest with you. This is a random journey turned into a surprise. A very serious surprise. Before jumping into serious business, introductions are in order, won't you agree, Ms. Corebring?" He gestured at me with a twirl of both his right arms. As an intruder on American soil, I should introduce myself first. But that was against Rule #3.

I also had to mix in some Corebring haughtiness, despite saying that I considered myself human. The slight inconsistency made the Corebring face I presented more realistic.

"How about you go first, Mr. BID Agent? I'm a bit shy that you found me." I added that last part because this eccentric-sounding guy might appreciate the whimsy in our conversation.

"Agent Matt, at your service." Even though Four Arms bowed, he was still taller than me. Matt? My brain froze at the mention of the name. Four Arms. BID agent. This voice. I had met him before! I usually sucked at recalling people's names. The exception was if there was something exceptionally exceptional about them. Having four arms, a humongous body, and being a BID agent was exactly that. I didn't immediately recognize Agent Matt because his suit and face had been burned away.

Plus, I didn't really expect there'd be another BID agent prancing through the tunnels. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. (Erind, are you okay?) Deen asked. (I felt something…) I rapid-fired an explanation. (Met a BID agent. Second one. The BID agent with Dario is dead.) (Did you—?) (I didn't kill him.) I was claiming credit for it, though. (Why—?) (I don't know why a second BID agent is here.) I could tell the rest of Deen's sentence from the accompanying emotions. (Let me focus on finding out.) I didn't want to expend brainpower on a second conversation. But I did have to concentrate on not leaking any of my inner thoughts and emotions to Deen while weaving the lies that I'd drape on Four Arms. Sounds quite poetic. I had an inkling that Deen was starting to suspect that something was wrong with me. There was a ready explanation for any inconsistencies with my face—the Adumbrae was affecting me.

But I didn't want Deen to think that.

"Good evening, Agent Matt," I said with a sudden spike of cheer.

"Or good morning. Is it past midnight already?"

"A quarter of an hour to go before it's Saturday," Four Arms replied. He didn't click with my type of humor.

"And you can call me Matt. There's no need to tack on 'agent' all the time. I'm not a stuffy kind of guy." Uncanny how such a relaxed way of talking came from a bulky war machine.

"Well then, Matt. My name is Pino. Pino, the random Corebring passing by. I hope you're not angry that this happened to your pal." I nudged the headless corpse of Trigger Happy with the tip of my foot. The scene of Trigger Happy's exploding head was fresh in my mind. The glowing eyeballs turning dark before popping out of their sockets. The fireworks of blood and metal. The wet splat of minced flesh on the walls. Simply amazing. And amusing.

I wanted to keep replaying it, but it might leak into Deen's mind through our link.

"He attacked me with no explanation," I went on.

"On my part, I wanted to explain things, but he would have none of it. I don't know why he killed himself. Maybe… you know? Correct me if I'm wrong, but he seems afraid of you. Were you two fighting earlier? You look a bit roughed up."

"A bit roughed-up? Yeah, I agree that I am. You're also right that Agent Blue down here, what's left of him, is afraid of me. He's afraid because I caught him being a traitor. But you should already know that. Right, Pino the Corebring?" Four Arms is fishing for info. The fact that he didn't ignore me to continue chasing Kelsey meant that I had a higher priority in his eyes.

He might even think that I was the key to uncovering what the hell was happening to La Esperanza, with Adumbrae coming out of every nook and cranny. Some sinister Corebring operation or something. What I wanted to know was why he showed up. Shouldn't it be Tower Cop who should—? Did Tower Cop tell Four Arms about my call? I didn't expect him to do that!

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I said.

"Eh, to be candid, I sort of do. But that's none of my business, your internal stuff."

"Then tell me, what is your business?"

"Same as you. Killing Adumbrae. Saving people."

"Did you kill the Adumbrae at Belvedere Village? I saw the videos of it exploding—I knew it had to be the handiwork of Corebrings. Was it you who did it? Your companion?"

"How come you're sure that I'm not alone?" I asked. Four Arm was so weird. His fellow BID agent just turned his head into bloody confetti, but he was chatting with me as if we were at a social gathering. Four Arms pointed behind me.

"Because you're talking with me instead of chasing the Adumbrae, which is your job. Come on now, Pino the Corebring. I wasn't born yesterday. You have a buddy hunting the Adumbrae while you're here dealing with… this." He nodded down at Trigger Happy.

"Which makes me think… Do you know Sgt. Jeremiah Hall?"

"Perhaps. What are you thinking?" Whatever theory Four Arms was molding inside his metal skull, it'd surely be way off the mark. And I was going to support it. People really liked being right and would usually defend an assumption once confirmed, even if the confirmation was revealed to be a lie later on. Four Arms placed his two lower arms on his hips while crossing his upper arms.

"Tell me if this story sounds right. You guys are barred from entering our great country unless given permission, which the President wouldn't give because that runs against his campaign platform of being a country so great that we don't need the help of others.

"It turns out that we're also great at fucking up. I don't know what's going on here, but I can say it's some great Adumbrae fuckery. There's this bunch of people turning rich bastards into Adumbrae. There's another bunch of people making a Purple Bloom. Apparently, a bunch of government officials and cops are connected to this great mess."

"And BID agents," I added. Four Arms wasn't aware of the Professor's organization. He must've assumed that Trigger Happy was connected with the 2Ms and the Adumbrae attacks. Four Arms nodded.

"And BID agents, unfortunately. Continuing my little tale, the mess is so great that it caught the attention of the Hive. I'd even venture to say that you guys already knew about this way before it became this bad. Let it be so that humans will learn our lesson to rely on you, am I right?"

"Not so," I replied.

"Else we wouldn't be hiding. To rub it in your faces, we would've done a big announcement of offering help, right? Actually, we should've waited for things to get much worse."

"Ah, you're right, you're right… The Hive thinks that we're going to mess up handling the situation, so you got sent over. There's no official request using the channels of the Washington Protocol, so you had to hide your presence. The situation is becoming much clearer now. But this is just the introduction of the story. Onto the next part! Tell me, Pino the Corebring, did you call Sgt. Hall, asking him to come here? He did mention a robotic voice…" Four Arms really came with Tower Cop. Funny how things developed.

The universe saved me the first time I met Four Arms at the condo lobby—he was too distracted with his work to scan me. Didn't even care enough to look my way. Now, the universe had brought our paths together again.

"That was me. I did call Sgt. Hall." I could've lied, and Four Arms couldn't prove otherwise. But telling the truth was so much better.

"We needed a witness to come across this." I gestured to Trigger Happy.

"A dead BID agent?"

"I wasn't planning to kill him. He did that to himself—you saw it. I'd incapacitate him and turn him over to Sgt. Hall, explaining that this guy was releasing Adumbrae into the city. I'm not sure if my companion has already taken care of that. From our research, Sgt. Hall was the least likely to be compromised." The authorities could trace the location of my call to Tower Cop. I was using a burner phone, but if Tower Cop saw me in one of the video footages, he'd think something was up.

My lie would make the authorities assume that Corebrings misdirected the call to cover their tracks. My Pino body did look like it could hack computer systems.

"But someone much better came," I said.

"You proved for yourself that cockroaches scurry among your ranks."

"You want my thanks?" Four Arms bowed.

"Thank you, Pino the Corebring. But this isn't all there is to show me, is it? Tell me more. Help us humans, the puny and the not." A lightbulb clicked in my head.

"I have something else to show you." Dario better make sure he was already out of the PCM base.