Nicole and the other two followed Eous at full speed for nearly half an hour before safely making it out of the Cretan Hollow.
But after Eous came out, he simply stood motionless, the display over his eyes still a jumble.
Billy waved a hand in front of Eous's eyes and called, "Manager? Are you there, Manager? Manager?!"
Anby moved closer to examine him too, then said with her usual poker face, "No response. After he inserted the data chip into Eous, he led us out of the Hollow in this state."
Nicole tried patting Eous on the head, then folded his arms. "Sigh, judging by Eous, something must have gone wrong on Wise's end again. Let's head over and take a look."
Billy sounded worried too. "I hope the managers are okay. I was planning to rent a few videotapes from them to watch once this trip was over..."
"Nicole, should I call that doctor and have him come with us?" Anby took out her phone and asked Nicole.
Nicole smacked a fist into his palm. "Right, bring that doctor along. He might come in handy. Of course, even if he doesn't, those siblings will be paying the house call fee."
Anby worked on her phone for a while, then said, "It's arranged. We're meeting outside the Sixth Street subway station. He's already there."
"Good. Billy, go get the van." Nicole casually tossed Billy the keys, rubbing his hands together as he said:
"I'm going to see if we can take the data chip straight out of Eous's forehead from the outside. Ahh, I can already see a mountain of Denny beckoning to me. Heh, heh..."
Billy saluted Nicole. "Roger!"
But what they didn't know was that, on the rooftop of the building the three of them had fallen from earlier...
Huojin stood like a statue at the edge of the roof, watching from afar as Nicole's group of three (plus one Bangboo) left the Cretan Hollow, then climbed into their own work van and drove farther and farther away toward Sixth Street.
"...Looks like things here are more or less over. Data for a super-algorithmic intelligent system specialized against Hollows, a product of intelligent technology countless times more precious than Rosetta Data.
"That minor... yet special, famous Proxy really got a bargain."
Huojin stopped standing idle, turned, and walked back a few steps before asking the butler who was always at his side, "Butler, how are the preparations for the territory coming along?"
Butler: "Master, progress on the plan has reached 32.1%. Completion is expected tomorrow."
Huojin: "Hmph, looks like that grand reunion after so long will have to be pushed back a little further. I'll have to think of a reasonable excuse for the surprise later... Never mind. Butler, what's next on my schedule?"
Butler: "Master, you scheduled a TOPS meeting for this evening. The heads of TOPS's current top thirty family-owned companies and enterprises will attend."
Huojin: "Mm, let's go, then."
"...Terms and conditions of use... must not authorize others to use...
"...must not transfer or otherwise convey...
"...You agree to grant full authorization when necessary to protect the mutual interests of yourself and this entity..."
Terms... of use? Ugh... what is it saying...?
"...Do you agree to the above user terms?"
Ugh... information is churning through my brain... it feels awful...
"...Do you agree to the above user terms?"
Stop! It hurts... my eyes... all my organs are going to...
I agree... I agree, okay? Stop tormenting me...
"Authorization agreement signed. It is a pleasure to serve you.
"...Together, let us take New Eridu..."
Meanwhile, outside New Eridu...
?: "How surprising. One of the 'keys' has already been activated."
??: "Huh? Really? Which one? Ghost? Jinni? Youkai?"
?: "None of those. It's Fairy."
??: "Oh my, oh my. Now this is interesting."
Inside the video store on Sixth Street...
Lying on the sofa in the first-floor living room (it was probably the living room?), Wise struggled to open his eyes. His head still throbbed a little, and he felt groggy.
Belle: "Ah! You're finally awake, big brother! Don't worry, everything's okay now. You're safe at home!"
Wise: "Where's the data chip? Where are Nicole and the others? And how did I get back?"
Belle: "Easy, easy. You've only just recovered. Don't get too worked up.
"I'll explain everything in a bit. First, tell me what happened after you read the chip."
Wise nodded at that and gave a full account of the painful, bizarre sensory-link experience...
Belle: "Hmm... that sounds like sleep talk, or a conversation log from a psychiatric intensive care ward...
"Anyway, I have a rough idea of what happened to you now. My turn.
"After you read the data chip, our Bangboo went out of control. He seemed to enter some sort of overloaded state, flashing like a disco ball on the dance floor at 404live.
"We thought the escape plan had failed, but then the Bangboo suddenly started moving and led Nicole and the others straight toward the exit.
"During that time, you fell unconscious and kept convulsing and mumbling."
Wise: "Belle, you didn't secretly record any of that, did you?"
Belle: "That's what you're worried about? If I'd known you'd be this lively now, I should've recorded it!
"All right, all right, let me finish. While I was at my wit's end, Nicole and the others arrived with a secret doctor they knew, and we finally managed to pull you out of the HDD.
"Nicole and the others have already gone to investigate what really happened. The good news is that he kept his word and paid off his debt. Though most of it went toward your medical fees and the Bangboo's repairs...
"But I haven't told you the real 'bad news' yet. Go take a look at the computer. Brace yourself."
Wise was a little puzzled by Belle's last two remarks, but he had already recovered enough to get up and walk over to the computer desk. He thought the HDD had been damaged beyond repair or hacked again.
Belle: "Don't get scared, okay? Ahem... Fairy? Are you there? The person you wanted is here."
Wise followed Belle's gaze and saw only an icon moving around on the screen. Just as he began to think something was wrong with Belle's head, a response came.
Wise: "Sis, this is...?"
Before he could finish, the lights in the room began flickering. The television switched on, but seemed to have a network error, and even Eous, sitting on the sofa, began having problems.
Wise: "What's going on?"
Wise saw the computer screen flashing wildly as notification windows kept popping up and closing, until the HDD system's loading screen finally appeared. Just as Wise was thinking their home had been hacked again, a mechanical female voice rang out.
Fairy: "System startup complete- -I am a Type III general-sequence integrated general-purpose artificial intelligence. Development codename: Fairy.
"Hello, Master."
As Wise watched all this, he inexplicably felt a sense of unreality...