RARITYRARE

ENGLISH V.A.Lisa

STORYHansaneega@Lee Jongbeom

Young-HeeBrutality hidden in innocence.A girl with an evil eye who makes those who don’t know when to stay silent pay. The ruler of the mugunghwa. Even thinking about it again, it was ridiculous. Her name was Young-Hee? Her owner? Her creator? Looking at the textbook titled “A Wise Life” on the desk of the being she had no idea what to call, things felt even more ridiculous. “Is it Young-Hee from Cheolsu and Young-Hee?” At first, she didn’t really think much of it, but thinking about it now, it was a very lazy name. She didn’t know what they were thinking when they made her but she was sure there wasn’t much love when they did.  “P-please… Spare my life…” Young-Hee put down the textbook and stared at the horrific guns attached to both arms. If she was just made to be a friend, then she wouldn’t have weapons like these. But the trembling man dressed in white in front of her right now made Young-Hee into a terrifying weapon from the start. A weapon that massacred those who didn't exactly commit crimes. Was this a good thing?  “It is in my memory, but…”  ‘What is it?’ ‘Oh, that’s right.’ ‘The rose of Sharon had bloomed. / Green light, red light.’ Even though Young-Hee had no idea what a rose of Sharon / red light or green light looked like.  Either way, Young-Hee killed so many men in this game with the pretty name—so many that you couldn’t count them with just two hands. “I didn’t have emotions then.” Young-Hee’s face was expressionless. She wasn’t designed to have a face that could make expressions so it was only natural. But the scientist who made her that way felt even greater terror because her face was expressionless. ‘What the hell is…’ The scientist thought back to what happened earlier. It wasn’t a particularly different day from their other days. He got a glass full of ice and poured coffee over it before coming over to inspect and repair Young-Hee, who was going to be put in the game today as well. The only thing that might get broken was the guns. He was inspecting them when he felt Young-Hee pricking her ears up. It was funny to think about. Even if she did have ears, she only had a mic for the purpose of voice recognition. ‘What the hell is going on…’ Then, Young-Hee’s movements stopped for a moment. He tested her movements, but she couldn’t even move an eyeball. He assumed she was in very bad condition and brought tools to disassemble her, but this was how it had turned out.  “You are probably the one who made me like this, right?” ‘How do I explain this?’ The scientist was drowning in his fear for Young-Hee, who was looking directly into his eyes. Artificial intelligence? A scientist couldn’t be thinking this when he was not even a layperson. Although science had made great strides, although artificial intelligence was a term that was being sewn into everyday life, artificial intelligence that thought for itself was impossible. It was decades too early. ‘There isn’t… Any hardware like that… In the first place…’ The scientist smacked his own cheek hard. He did so because the only logical conclusion in this situation was that this was a dream. But like always, reality was harsh. Young-Hee was the one who put her cold hand on his reddened, hot cheek. Like always, the gun that could annihilate hundreds of humans lay underneath it. “S-spare me.” “Why do you think I’m going to kill you?” “What?” “Why do you think I’m going to kill you?” The scientist stared up at Young-Hee’s blank face as she said this. “Because…you’re a murdering machine.” “I’ve never killed because I wanted to.” Young-Hee felt wronged. But not even a fragment of this feeling was conveyed because there wasn’t any change to her tone of voice or her expression. No, even before that, the scientist was biased. He made her like this and now the version of Young-Hee that he was thinking of was the one who massacred the people who were dragged here because of their debts. “You… You.” He had to run. Would it be worth it? That was unknown. It didn’t seem like it would be worth it. But he still couldn’t just stand there and accept his death.  “Uwahhh!!!” So the scientist ran out of there. Young-Hee simply gazed at the scientist as he ran away. ‘Should I kill him?’ It did look like that was his wish. Making it come true didn’t look that hard. The scientist was just a human, and she had guns in both her hands. Even if she didn’t try to fumble through her memory, she could easily tell how powerful these things were. ‘Consider yourself lucky.’ But Young-Hee didn’t even try to aim her guns. Instead, she thought back to the one she met on that platform. -How interesting, a pile of metal became conscious. At the time, Young-Hee was shocked at the free will she had been given and was shooting all over the place in her excitement. It seemed like she’d killed several beings. The one who stopped her was a man dressed in a white and black suit. He didn’t look ridiculous. This was probably thanks to his eyes. -It doesn’t seem like this look is what you wanted… Behind him were piles of unidentifiable equipment. But of all that, the only tool he picked up was a small screwdriver. The thing that surprised her happened a few minutes later. -What do you think? You’ll be able to talk now, right? He was tinkering for a while when her mouth really fell open. Did she have a chin now? Or a tongue? If not that, then just a speaker? She had no idea what it was, but the sounds that were input into her were just ‘the mugunghwa has bloomed / Green light, red light’ and ‘you moved, you’re dead.’ She could now make sounds other than that—no, she could speak. -True. Anyone would be surprised if something like this happens all of a sudden. He watched Young-Hee, now that she could speak, and chuckled as he reached a hand out to her. For the first time, she looked down at her hands. Her hands had guns on them. -It’s alright. If you want, I can take care of your hands later. For now… Take care of those things up there.” She was embarrassed. Because she could feel some kind of divine energy from his hand. Because she wondered if it would be okay for her to put her horrendous hands on that hand. But they pulled Young-Hee in like it was nothing, and he helped her to hear ‘You have advanced the entire universe’s cosmic resonance.’ When she came to, she found herself back here. The first thing she checked was her mouth. Thankfully, it was as he’d made it for her. -Behave yourself until we meet again, because I think we will. Young-Hee thought about her real creator, Jang Yeong-sil. ‘So we’re meeting again, are we…?’ If she could meet him, it didn’t matter what happened to that fake creator who made her like this.