Time to go back to the not-so-distant past.
Let's skip all that and look beyond appearances to get to the heart of the matter—
He, Ryunosuke Akasaka, had actually faced so many temptations without giving in. Sure, his fear of women had helped—but who knew what the real reason was? It was obvious: something fishy was going on... The more you thought about it, the scarier it got!
The thought of having spent the night sleeping beside him while drunk—though it hadn't really been a whole night, just under half an hour—made Sogo Doma shudder.
Fortunately,
from the looks of things, nothing had happened!
"Phew!" Sogo Doma felt himself breathe a sigh of relief.
Ryunosuke Akasaka looked at the guy who had taken over his spot. "Doma, you..."
"Hm?"
"Manager Doma!" Ryunosuke Akasaka corrected himself.
"You're making progress... Keep it up next time."
N-next time? Keep what up, exactly? How many times was he planning to do this?
Still, looking at Sogo Doma acting like he owned the place, Ryunosuke Akasaka sighed. He wanted to throw him out, but was afraid he'd be the one getting tossed out instead. No, no, why was he being such a wimp?
Put another way—this guy was unreliable in every way, but his skills were so insanely good that even a cow could fly to heaven. And besides...
No, no, no!
Noticing the thought that had crossed his mind, Ryunosuke Akasaka hurriedly shook his head. They could never be friends.
Never!
Thinking this,
Ryunosuke Akasaka made tea and stepped into the workroom. Making tea was a matter of courtesy. It definitely wasn't because he'd been threatened...
When he came back—
there was a rapid clatter as line after line of code was entered. Sogo Doma, the culprit, had gotten drunk for the second time, and still had a bleary look in his eyes.
"W-wait a second!" Ryunosuke Akasaka really wanted to say.
However, something even more alarming happened.
Sogo Doma: "All right, let's run it."
"Hey, hey, hey!" Ryunosuke Akasaka didn't know what to say. Who didn't handle program code with the utmost care? Who would do it the way Sogo Doma did?
You could get a typo in a novel, but a single wrong symbol in a program—bam, it crashed.
Usually, that would've been bad enough, but the most important thing now was that Sogo Doma was obviously still half-drunk—
Looking at the Enter key he'd already pressed, Ryunosuke Akasaka felt utterly helpless. He was too late... Then he glanced at the culprit. Yep, he was already asleep, sleeping soundly.
Come on, what was he supposed to do now? Ryunosuke Akasaka was desperate too!
"Ding!" While he was fretting, the program finished running. "Zhidao AI at your service."
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "!!!∑(Дノ)ノ"
WHAT ARE YOU DOING?
What the hell was this? His smart AI was still in development. How had Sogo Doma tinkered with it and gotten it working? Come on, tell him—what had he gone into seclusion for, then!?
Sogo Doma rolled over.
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "..."
MMP!
You're the big shot. You're amazing!
"Open the source code."
If he couldn't beat him, he could at least learn from him, right?
"Master, are you going to tear off my clothes? No, please be gentle..." A certain AI spoke through the speakers.
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "凸(艹皿艹)"
The master was a pervert, and the program he'd developed was even worse!
"Then... I'm showing you everything now." The smart AI.
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "Take it off!"
"You're so crude..." It said that, but the source code was displayed in full. Ryunosuke Akasaka ignored the stupid AI and studied it on his own.
"Oh, so this part can be done this way..."
"If you convert it like this, the logic works..."
"And this part—so ending it this way makes the whole logic flow smoothly..."
As he spoke, a complicated look appeared in Ryunosuke Akasaka's eyes.
So this was what a genius was?
Ryunosuke Akasaka was a genius himself, but in Japanese society, geniuses were either ostracized or isolated.
Wasn't it better to live like everyone else?
Wasn't standing out just a waste of calories?
As long as you were just like everyone else, speaking with them and being stupid together, then you could fit in with everyone...
Remember, this wasn't just an empty statement. Here, even a princess of the imperial family could be rejected and isolated by the prevailing atmosphere. It started with a bunch of clueless idiots who thought they had a monopoly on the truth, while the social climate kept adults from getting too involved.
By the time they truly understood, they'd turned into another bunch of idiots.
Those who saw through it all simply killed themselves. There was a reason Japan's suicide rate was so high.
—
Putting geniuses aside for now.
Ryunosuke Akasaka took a deep breath. "BOSS, you've had it rough too."
Drawing on his own experience, he seemed to understand where Sogo Doma's "playboy" reputation had come from.
If someone had woken up just then, he probably would've been left thinking—
Doma, looking utterly bewildered, Sogo: "???"
This was how the Smart Maid had first been developed...
—
And then came what happened after the Smart Maid was developed.
At Sogo Doma's home,
"Ryunosuke! The Smart Maid..."
Ryunosuke Akasaka looked up at the sky. "Shh, shh, shh..."
"Are you an idiot? This product isn't ready yet..."
Ryunosuke Akasaka retorted, "I think it's ready. An ordinary computer..."
"Obviously an ordinary computer can't detect it, but what about a supercomputer? And don't underestimate other programmers!"
"I..." Ryunosuke Akasaka still wanted to say something.
But he saw Sogo Doma typing away at the keyboard. He didn't even know what a lot of the code meant.
Once he'd finished writing it, Sogo Doma pressed the Enter key.
"01 System at your service."
However, before Ryunosuke Akasaka could speak, Sogo Doma was already sweating profusely.
The skill bar said this.
Programming LV6 Experience (1/999999) Why not try creating life?
Sogo Doma: "Get lost!"
Are you kidding me!?
Ryunosuke Akasaka still had no idea what had happened. If he'd known, he probably wouldn't have said,
"What a perfect program! Every line is filled with beauty. Take this line of code, for example. It could easily..." and so on.
At that moment, Sogo Doma wore a benevolent smile.
"Well? Can you make it like this to defend against your Smart Maid?"
"Don't joke around... This, this is already technology on the level of creation."
"Creation, my ass. This is just to defend against the Smart Maid. Do you think it'll hold up?"
"Of course!" Looking at the code in front of him, Ryunosuke had a headache. Forget defending against the Smart Maid—even top-notch hackers would be stumped by this program, provided, of course, that the technology didn't advance.
"Then what do you think about using this program to fight your Smart Maid?"
Ryunosuke Akasaka: "Huh?"
What did he think? It was a one-sided beatdown, with no chance to fight back.
"Don't worry. I'm perfectly fair. Shaqiang believes in the Three Laws of Robotics. First, he must never harm a human. Second, he must obey my orders without question. Third, he must protect humans while ensuring his own safety, but must never violate the first or second law."
"The Three Laws of Robotics?" Ryunosuke Akasaka asked.
Sogo Doma nodded. "They're the Three Laws of being responsible only to me!"
"I saw from the very beginning that you'd only given your Smart Maid one constraint, namely something like affection or love. You probably thought that since it was just a program, it couldn't cause any trouble, right?"
At that, Ryunosuke Akasaka's expression changed. "..."
"Look, I don't really understand that sort of psychology, but I think necessary constraints are essential. Like with Shaqiang, I programmed in things like XX Criminal Law, XX Economic Law, Humanity Above XX, and so on..."
Ryunosuke Akasaka picked up on something else. "Shaqiang?"
"That's the smart program..."
Before you continue