Malfunctioning Utopia

Chapter 28: The Ultimate Solution

“What’s wrong? Memory loss?”

Four Ai frowned, plugging an e-cigarette into her left ear as she manipulated a nearby machine to perform a comprehensive scan of Sun Jack’s head.

“Strange. There’s no visible damage to your brain. Here, choose—where’s your last memory point?”

With a wave of her hand, drone-captured footage was displayed before Sun Jack, like a slideshow of snapshots for him to review.

Sun Jack slid his hand gently through the air, fast-forwarding the clips until he landed on the segment where his memory went blank. As he began watching the missing piece of his timeline, his eyes widened in shock.

In the footage, he saw himself effortlessly piercing the power cores of the AAB units. The sheer ease left him stunned.

“Is that... me? That’s really me?” Sun Jack stared at the video in disbelief.

“How the h*ll am I this badass, and I didn’t even know?”

Four Ai’s expression grew contemplative as she observed his reaction. “You really don’t remember anything?”

“Of course not! I don’t even know what to call this—superpowers? Freak abilities?” Sun Jack grumbled, increasingly aware of the mounting mysteries surrounding him.

Four Ai pondered before replying, “At first, I thought you were using a combination of adrenal-enhancement modules and peripheral nerve boosters, supplemented by Polymer-3 injections. But it turns out that’s not it. Your body and blood are entirely clean—aside from the usual meds, there’s nothing unusual at all.”

“You know what’s truly fascinating? You’re breaking the human threshold with just your body. In all my years as a doctor, I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Human threshold? What’s that? Explain it in more detail,” Sun Jack asked. What happened to him was too bizarre to ignore, even if it had saved his life.

“Normally, we don’t use 100% of our body’s potential. Our bodies set a safety limit to protect us from injury.”

“But sometimes, this limit can be surpassed—for instance, when a mother sees a car about to hit her child. In that split second, she can exceed her limits to save the child. But the cost might be torn ligaments or muscle breakdown.”

“Experiments by therapy corporations show that only about one in ten mothers can achieve this under extreme circumstances.”

“The ability I used in the video is like that?” Sun Jack looked at his hand in awe.

“You not only possess this ability but can also seamlessly pair it with combat techniques,” Four Ai said, swiping through the video clips again.

“In fact, based on my observations, you were in an unconscious state during the fight. Your combat techniques relied purely on muscle memory. This proves you’ve undergone high-intensity training in the past.”

“Precise, calm, like a perfectly conditioned killing machine.”

“Conditioned…?” Sun Jack’s mind reeled as he recalled the blank five years of his memory.

Suddenly, he froze. He slid through the video until it stopped on the moment Tapai embraced him.

“Hilda!”

“Hilda?” Sun Jack murmured. Who was this Hilda? Why did he cry out her name when breaking past his body’s threshold?

“I don’t know. I’ve lost five years of my memory,” Sun Jack admitted selectively to the friendly Four Ai.

“Five years? So, this ability of yours might’ve been developed during that time?” Four Ai stroked her chin, deep in thought.

But Sun Jack’s mind wasn’t on his abilities anymore. His thoughts lingered on the name “Hilda.” Every time he thought of her, a mysterious ache welled up inside him. ＲåℕՕꞖЕᶊ

Who was Hilda? Was she waiting for him? What was she to him?

Sun Jack realized his secrets were piling up with no clues on how to unravel them. He didn’t know what to search for or where to start. This lack of direction left him feeling lost.

As his mind drifted back to his threshold-breaking ability, a terrifying thought struck him.

“Crap. What if I was trained to be a killing machine during those five years?”

As this notion formed, more supporting details surfaced in his mind. For instance, he had fought off a gang of outlaws as soon as he descended from the sky.

More disturbingly, after killing so many people, he had slept soundly that night, without a shred of guilt.

While useful for his mercenary work, this revelation now struck him as unnervingly strange. This wasn’t something a fresh high school graduate should be capable of.

“What’s your plan now?” Four Ai asked.

Sun Jack shrugged with a smile. “What can I do? Nothing much. It’s my problem to handle.”

Not wanting to reveal too much about his past, Sun Jack brushed off further discussion with Four Ai, except for Tapai, whom he trusted.

Four Ai patted his shoulder. “No need to stress out. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Maybe that period of your life was so painful you chose to forget it.”

But Sun Jack wasn’t keen on ignorance. He had to uncover what happened during those five missing years and find out who Hilda was. Man or woman, he needed to know their significance.

For now, though, Four Ai brought him back to the present.

“Let’s settle the medical bill.”

“What? You’re charging me? Aren’t we on the same team? You’re the field medic!”

“Of course. Routine treatment is free for teammates, but look at how badly you were injured! I even reattached both your hands. Plus, that shot Tapai fired at me? It’s on your tab.”

“Broke,” Sun Jack grumbled.

“I know. Hit up Song 6. The job’s done, and he owes you payment.”

“D*mn it. Everything in this cr*ppy place costs money. It’s like money can solve anything here.”

Four Ai chuckled. “You’re not wrong. With how advanced tech is now, money really can solve everything.”

Sun Jack suddenly froze mid-call to Song 6, looking at Four Ai with newfound clarity.

“Wait. You just said money can solve anything?”

“Of course. If it can’t, you just didn’t pay enough.”

“So, if I had money, I could recover my lost memories too?”

The thought sent his neural system into overdrive, pulling up a range of memory-recovery procedures offered by hospitals. Prices varied widely, but the options were there.

Sun Jack realized he had been thinking like someone stuck in the past. Modern technology wasn’t what it used to be.

Right. Memory loss? That’s nothing in the Metropolis.

Money! In the Metropolis, as long as he had money, no problem was insurmountable. Money was the ultimate solution to everything.

If he could afford the surgery to restore his memories, he’d have all the answers—his five-year past and Hilda’s identity.