Robot Protection Zone Chapter 50

I put my smartphone in my pocket and decided to spend a little more time with his father. Just until my master came looking for me….

“Hmm, if the weather were nice, I would have suggested going to a garden…”

His father mumbled, looking up at the sky. The weather today wasn’t clear, but filled with gloomy clouds drifting by, scattering a cool breeze.

“Didi, have you ever been to the aquarium near here?”

“An aquarium? No…”

I shook my head. My master was someone who had no interest in such places. I had to pester him to go to the movie theater or the park, and usually, he seemed to seek out noisy drinking parties.

“That’s good. It’s a nice place to organize your thoughts, and it’s worth a look around at least once.”

An aquarium, I had never even been with my old master…. I had seen them in photos and videos, but this would be my first time going in person.

I slowly began to feel excited.

The place we arrived at was a magnificent building located right next to the river. At first, I thought a part of the building was being used as an aquarium, but it turned out the entire building was an aquarium.

I didn’t know it would be this big….

There were quite a few people, but because the building itself was so large, it didn’t feel crowded at all.

“Good afternoon, Chairman.”

An employee we encountered right after passing the entrance greeted us politely. His father gave a light nod in acknowledgement and walked inside with me.

I walked alongside his father and cautiously asked.

“By any chance… was this aquarium built by you, sir?”

“It was. I wasn’t going to say anything, but you’ve found me out.”

His father laughed, ha ha, with a playful smile.

The interior of the aquarium was generally dark with high ceilings, making it feel like we had entered another world. The entire wall surface was made of tanks, and inside them, colorful fish moved alone or in schools.

The lighting and atmosphere were so much like the inside of the sea that it really felt like I had entered the middle of the ocean. A place like this was certainly perfect for calming a complicated mind. Just standing still made my heart feel tranquil.

“Didi, look at this.”

His father gestured to me. As I moved closer to the tank, his father tapped on the glass wall.
Tap, tap.

Then, the fish inside the tank began to gather one by one toward his father. I couldn’t take my eyes off the amazing scene and marveled at it.

His father encouraged me to try it too. Tap tap, I lightly tapped the tank, and this time the fish swarmed in front of me.

“Wow….”

“Isn’t it amazing?”

“Did you train them or something?”

“No, it’s because all of these guys are robots.”

Robots?

I stared into the tank, wondering if I had heard correctly. To think that the fish swimming so beautifully in the water were robots just like me.

“All the fish in this aquarium are robots made using the outer skins of dead fish. They neither eat nor die, they just swim leisurely like this all day long.”

It was amazing that all these many fish were robots. Among them were small fish the size of my pinky nail, and he said those were all robots too.

As I watched the inside of the tank for a long time in wonder, the fish that had gathered in front of me gradually dispersed. Their movements were so natural that it was hard to believe they were robots.

To think all of this was made using dead fish…. Even the scale was extraordinary. The number of fish in just one tank looked to be well over tens of thousands. Admiration came out on its own.

“I think it’s a great idea. To make such a beautiful place with dead fish….”

“The businesses I run are mostly of this kind. I’m not really interested in making money, you see. Others might call it trivial, but I like seeing people happy.”

His words reminded me of my old master. Even just this aquarium, it was an idea that my old master might have thought of….

“Sir… you seem to resemble my old master.”

I mumbled the words without realizing it. Only after did I realize that Mr. William hated being compared to my old master and I hastily shut my mouth. What if his father disliked it too? I worriedly watched his expression, but thankfully, he didn’t seem particularly displeased.

“I’ve heard that often. But William resembles my wife. I don’t know how both of them can be so stubborn.”

His father laughed, ha ha, and patted my shoulder with his palm.

His father also showed me the dolphins, and I got to touch their heads. They were smooth, cold, and hard. My reflection was captured like a mirror in the dolphin’s large eyes. It was hard to believe it was a robot, it seemed so alive.

The aquarium was enormous, just like the magnificent building. We had been walking around for a long time, but there was still a lot left to see.

I walked under the aquarium tunnel with his father and marveled. Above my head, a school of thousands of sardines passed by in a group like a silver wave. It was so dense that it completely blocked the light, creating a shadow.

I was constantly in awe, captivated by the mystical scenery. Unaware of the continuous vibration from my pocket….

William, having finished his conversation with the last investor, turned on his heel with a blank expression. It was about time for the new product launch presentation to begin. His lips were on the verge of twitching after forcing a smile while trying to please the investors who had visited the site.

He rubbed the corners of his mouth and thought of Didi, who had left his seat a long time ago.

Come to think of it, is Didi waiting properly?

The corners of his mouth twitched on their own as he remembered Didi leaving his seat with a tearful face while glancing at him with his arm linked with the woman’s. He must be pouting a lot.

But this was a punishment for Didi, who had dared to try to distance himself from his master. He had tried to tolerate other things, but from the moment Didi brought up sleeping separately, he couldn’t forgive him.

Perhaps because it had become natural for Didi to be by his side, he couldn’t fall asleep at all when the side of the bed became empty. Because of that, William had barely been able to sleep lately.

After going this far, an anxious and impatient Didi would surely come to his room, asking if he could sleep together again. He was only now a little satisfied.

William thought he should go home and soothe his pouting robot, and turned his head in the direction where Didi should be. But the seat where the fellow should have been was empty.

“Didi?”

William looked around, puzzled. Did he go to the bathroom for a moment? He thought so and waited for a long time, but Didi didn’t return.

Where has he gone off to again?

William frowned. He had boasted that he would never disappear without a word again, but in the end, he had left his seat again. Did he move on his own and get lost in an unfamiliar place?

Still, William wasn’t flustered. Because he could check Didi’s location at any time. The leather collar with the tracking function had fulfilled its duty and broken, but the location tracking app was still installed on Didi’s smartphone.

He took out his smartphone to check Didi’s location and saw that a text message had arrived. The sender was his father.

I’ll be taking Didi.

William’s expression turned cold.

“This stupid robot….”

He had even warned him that if he disappeared without a word again, he would be banned from going out, yet he had dared to break that promise. And this time, he had even followed his father. The image of Didi’s excited expression as he looked at his father came to mind, and he ground his teeth. Fury instantly shot up to the top of his head.

“Spencer? Where are you going?”

“Don’t follow me. Something urgent came up.”

“Isn’t the presentation about to start?”

The woman urgently grabbed William as he headed outside. But William coldly shook off her hand and continued on his way.

As soon as William got in the car, he immediately checked Didi’s location. The place indicated on the map was an aquarium. And it was the one his father had built.

He clenched his jaw, started the engine, and called Didi.

—Ring, ring….

But only the ringing tone continued for a long time; Didi didn’t answer the phone. Even when the message that he was unavailable played, William continued to call Didi’s number again. He planned to keep calling until Didi picked up.

Click. Then the message finally changed. Thinking Didi had picked up the phone, he opened his mouth to get angry, but a mechanical voice came back.

—The customer’s phone is turned off….

“Damn it!”

The fellow who forgot to even charge his own body wouldn’t bother to charge his smartphone. A mere piece of junk was bothering its master.

The patience he had been holding onto by a thread finally exploded.

Even the speed of travel to the destination felt slow today. In the end, William turned off the autonomous driving mode, took the wheel himself, and stomped on the accelerator.