Chapter 15. Galaxy Martial God Hall - Reincarnation (6)
I approached Siu, who had finished cleaning, with my wobbly, toddler steps.
"Is there something you need, Young Master?"
"I want a computer."
"You want a computer? ...How do you even know what a computer is?"
At Siu’s question, I pointed to the television embedded in the wall.
"Ah, did you see it in a documentary? Hmm... No, even so, how could you possibly understand that?"
Siu looked at me with a somewhat bewildered expression.
After all, what kind of baby, barely at the age where they’ve just started crawling and can barely say "Mom" or "Dad," would be watching documentaries and understanding the content?
But it was already too late to play dumb and act like a normal baby.
Siu had been teaching me footwork as "stretching" ever since I started walking, so there was no reason for me to act like a helpless infant.
I couldn't live like that; it was too frustrating.
So, I decided to be shameless.
"Computer! I want a computer!"
Siu pondered my request.
"Hmm... I still think a computer is a bit too early for you, Young Master."
"No. Not early."
"No, it’s not early? Computers may seem convenient, but they have many downsides as well. I’m concerned about you being exposed to the internet at such a young age, so I will get you one when you are a bit older."
Siu rejected my request.
Ah, if only she had just bought it for me, I wouldn't have had to resort to this Demonic Art.
My forbidden Demonic Art!
I initiated a tantrum!
"No! No! Computer! Computer! Buy me a computer!"
Siu was taken aback as I suddenly lay on the floor and threw a fit.
It was only natural, as I had been a quiet and obedient child until now.
"Pl-please, calm down, Young Master. Even if you have a computer, it’s useless if you don't know how to read."
"Computer! Computer!"
I don't care! I want a computer!
My house—well, since my parents passed away, it’s my house, not "our" house.
I’m rich, aren't I? I can afford at least one computer!
I’m not even asking for anything grand!
I’d be satisfied with something fast enough to search the internet!
Siu, who had been at a loss as I threw a tantrum like a child begging for a doll, thought for a moment before speaking.
"All right, Young Master. I will get you a computer."
"Really?"
"Really. But there is a condition."
"What is it?"
Siu set a condition in exchange for buying the computer.
"First, you must learn to read. It’s meaningless to buy one if you don't know the letters, regardless of what it is."
I, who had been lying flat on the floor, got up and nodded.
"Okay!"
Siu let out a sigh of relief.
She seemed to hope that since it would take a long time for me to learn to read, I would lose interest in the computer in the meantime.
However, perhaps thanks to the "Translation" skill provided by the Tower, or perhaps due to the abilities of the "Multidimensional Avatar," I understood the language without any difficulty.
"Let's do it now!"
"Right now? Then I will go purchase some children’s literacy workbooks and vocabulary books immediately."
"No, just teach me. We have paper and pens, don't we?"
Siu looked flustered, but she soon brought paper and pens, sat me on her lap, and began writing letters.
The Galaxy Murim used a common language derived from English, but she explained that I would also need to learn Hanja separately to master martial arts.
Siu read them out one by one to teach me the pronunciation, and I just nodded along vaguely.
The language was already fully embedded in my brain anyway.
I decided to just pretend to take the lesson and then claim I had mastered it all.
After an hour of pretending to diligently listen to Siu’s lesson, I spoke up.
"I understand."
"...Pardon?"
"The letters, I know them all."
I got off Siu’s lap, wobbled over to the bookshelf in the corner of the living room, pulled out a children’s fairy tale book, and began to read.
My pronunciation was messy, but Siu couldn't hide her shock as I actually read the text.
"You were a genius, Young Master!"
"Just a kid."
I denied it, fearing that unnecessary expectations would become a nuisance, but Siu didn't believe me at all.
Then again, how much would a one-year-old know about themselves?
Whether one is a genius or an ordinary person is for others to judge, not for oneself.
Still, I couldn't live pretending to be a baby forever; I would have died of frustration.
"Now, buy me the computer."
At my insistence, Siu nodded as if she had no choice.
"As for a computer, there is one that your parents used. However, please wait a moment while I install the child lock."
Ah, no! I don't need a child lock!
I was about to shout in panic, but Siu had already gone upstairs and brought the computer down to the living room.
The computer didn't look much different from the ones in the world I used to live in. It was a tower-type PC without a monitor connected.
"This is the computer your mother, Seo Gyeong-ae, used."
A computer bigger than my one-year-old body—I had expected it to be some sort of invisible, ultra-small nano-biochip by the 50th century.
I later found out that implantable nano-computers were discontinued 2,000 years ago because they could cause fatal errors if exposed to cosmic radiation while traveling in space.
Instead, ultra-small external computers existed, but they weren't very popular because they were so small that they were easily lost.
I mean, people lose wireless earphones all the time; a computer smaller than an earphone would be even easier to lose.
Everything has a convenient size.
Didn't smartphones grow from 3 or 4 inches to 6 inches because they were too small and inconvenient?
When we connected it to the living room TV and turned it on, a strange crocodile character appeared and waved—it seemed the child lock had been installed.
-Hello~! I’m Ellie!
"This is Ellie, a user-assistance AI for children. You can use the keyboard and mouse, or you can give commands verbally and Ellie will execute them, but..."
My hands were small and my pronunciation was poor.
"If that is uncomfortable, you may use this brainwave controller."
Siu handed me a thin headband.
A brainwave controller—that’s very sci-fi.
I later learned that while it was originally developed for people with physical disabilities, it became popular because it was more convenient than traditional controllers for operating IoT (Internet of Things) devices.
The headband type was the most common, but there were also patch types that attached to the temple, glasses types, and helmet types for professionals.
I put on the headband and examined the screen.
The mouse pointer moved according to my gaze and thoughts.
"Wow! Amazing!"
The basic feel—is it more like a Mac than Windows?
What is the exact OS?
Since it’s a different world, there’s obviously no Linux or Android.
They probably don't use JavaScript or C language, either.
Since the ports wouldn't be compatible, even if I took this high-performance computer back to my home world, I wouldn't be able to use it.
Even if it were a personal computer, 3,000 years of technological advancement would make the performance gap like comparing a stone axe to a rifle; if I brought this back, it would be considered an out-of-place artifact.
I focused on the computer and spent time exploring information.
Though, it did take longer than expected to get used to the computer of the future.
* * *
As time passed and I was able to toddle around without any issues, Siu taught me martial arts and footwork, followed by fist and leg techniques.
The martial art was called the Azure Wood Fighting Style, a technique where one stood still and deflected the opponent's attacks before countering.
Since it was based on Chinese martial arts, stability in the legs was paramount, but since I wasn't even two years old yet, I was only following the forms of the techniques.
The room dedicated to martial arts training was surrounded by mirrors on all sides so I could check my movements, but the sight of me flailing my arms looked like a toddler showing off.
"Is this right?"
As I practiced my pronunciation, I could speak more clearly, even if it wasn't perfect yet.
Siu smiled at my question.
"You are doing well. It is only because you lack pure physical strength and cannot use internal energy yet; once you gain muscle and can utilize internal energy, the form will come to life."
After practicing the Azure Wood Fighting Style, I trained in the Azure Wood Footwork, and then the Azure Wood Art.
Since I was still a child, there were many breaks in between, but it felt like the training time was gradually increasing.
She seemed to be extending the training time to match my progress as I obediently followed her guidance; for a normal child, this kind of training would have been considered child abuse.
Well, since the reason I came to this world was to master martial arts, it wasn't a bad thing for me.
"Now, that is all for today's practice. It is not good to overwork your body at such a young age."
When all the training was finished, Siu would massage my body and perform "Cleansing the Meridians."
I searched for it and found that even a master of the Transformation Realm would be exhausted after one session, but Siu showed no such signs.
Is it because her body is mechanical that she doesn't know fatigue?
Siu would occasionally practice cultivation herself, but the internal energy she consumed while performing the Cleansing the Meridians was replenished by detaching her external Dantian and plugging it into a charger.
Shockingly, the Dantian of an Android was not integrated but a detachable, replaceable unit!
No wonder they called it an "external" Dantian; to think it could be swapped out like a battery.
External Dantians were used not only by Androids but also by Cyborgs.
Unlike Androids, which were made of machines from the start, Cyborgs were humans modified into machines, and legally, they were treated as humans, unlike the "Androids with Singularities" which were considered quasi-humans.
However, because the scope of what constituted a cyborg was so broad—ranging from people using prosthetic hands to replace a missing finger to those who had modified their entire bodies except for their brains—it was ambiguous to divide who was human and who was quasi-human.
The only clear standard for distinguishing between a cyborg and an Android was the "brain."
Even if one was born human and had their memories copied into a mechanical body, they were legally classified as an Android if they lacked an actual brain.
The reason Androids were legally classified as quasi-humans was due to those who had copied their memories from a cyborg body to an Android one, or those who had copied their memories into an Android in pursuit of eternal life just before death.
Of course, there was the philosophical question of whether an Android with copied memories should be considered the same person.
Regarding that, for the time being, international galactic law deemed an Android with copied memories to be that person.
However, since that person was considered to have died once, their assets were distributed to their bereaved family according to inheritance law, and the Android with the copied memories was treated as a sort of "zero-degree" relative to whom the assets were distributed.
Naturally, since it was an inheritance, inheritance taxes had to be paid in accordance with the laws of the region.
Even if it seemed unreasonable, one had to use an Android chip utilizing singularity technology to fully copy memories, so for those who could afford such things, money was not a major issue.
For reference, it was said that about one-third of Androids using singularity technology were memory-copied Androids.
It could be said that memory-copied Androids made a significant contribution to the improvement of Android rights.
After all, it was impossible to distinguish between a memory-copied Android and a regular one just by looking at them.
Having finished the Cleansing of the Meridians, I lay down and let out a sigh.
Recently, I had been unable to return to my original body and had been living continuously in the body of my avatar.
0 Comments