What Do You Mean I'm The Captain Of A Yandere Mercenary Company?

Chapter 92: Pre-AI Tech

I picked up the two chips that Amber said she claimed to be unable to connect with her personal terminal.

Looking at it closely, I realised that the chip kind of resembled those memory cards you might find in a smartphone from my old World.

I turned to Amber, ”Have you seen a chip like this before?”

Amber chuckled, ”If I knew, I wouldnʼt be wondering what they are over here. Iʼve never even seen a connecting port like this one before.”

Hmm… I wonder…

”Could we just scan this and try to search what it is on the GalNet or something?”

Amber shrugged, ”You can try I guess? Though I wouldnʼt bet on it giving any results.”

Alright then, letʼs see here… There should be a ʼsearch by imageʼ function on the Codex…

Wait… How do I initiate that again?

I know the Codex has a picture mode that players would use to take in game screenshots… So… Ah, there it is.

First open up the camera function… Then I focus on the two chips here and then do a search on the GalNet.

…

No results?

Wait, are you serious?

I mean, I wasnʼt expecting it to tell me what they are supposed to be but I was expecting it to at least show the memory cards as something that resembles the image. Yet thereʼs absolutely no results?

Wait…

I turned back to Amber, ”Amber? That AI rebellion thing… Did they wipe out the internet at some point?”

She tapped her chin with a finger, ”Hmm… I think so? It was quite bad for a time I think? It happened quite a while ago and Iʼm not someone who studies history anyway.”

”Hmm… Donʼt you know the saying about people who donʼt study history though?”

”What saying is that?”

”That people who donʼt study history are doomed to repeat it?”

”Really now?”

I chuckled, ”Yeah, though thereʼs a second line after that. Those who study history are doomed to watch those that donʼt, repeat it.”

She rolled her eyes, ”So either way, youʼre screwed anyway.”

”Yes, but it is quite interesting to learn about history. Putting that aside… Umm… I donʼt know why but it feels like these two chips might come from a time before the AI rebellion, so it canʼt be read by current gen tech.”

”Eh? Wait, wait… Thatʼs a pre-AI tech?! Are you really sure?” She cried out, suddenly pouncing towards me.

I was a little surprised by her outburst so I waved my hands to calm her down.

”Iʼm not too sure if it even is that… I just had a feeling like Iʼve seen this before on some older devices.”

”Oh wow… Just how far back are those memories of yours?”

”I wish I knew,” I half lied.

I picked up one of the memory cards in between my thumb and index finger, ”Anyway… Let me see if my personal terminal has a slot for this…”

I started inspecting my Codex, looking for a possible slot that might be able to accept the memory cards to be slotted inside it.

Hmm… The only hole I see is the slot that is used to slot in the Credit Chips which is obviously too small to accept this memory card.

I guess weʼll just need to look for an adaptor or something… But where can we even find such a thing if this was supposed to be some old tech that existed before the AI rebellion?

”Do you know of any place where you might be able to find old tech from before the AI rebellion?”

”Hmm… Iʼm not too sure… Anything from before that time period would be regarded as an artefact by now and most certainly would not be tossed in a scrapyard somewhere unless the person doesnʼt know its value. Perhaps if we were to visit some of the old battlegrounds during the war with them, we might find some remnants of it.”

”Hmm… And how close is one such location?”

”Theyʼre all within the inner colonies, Tera. The outer colonies here were only established after the conclusion of the war. And honestly, I donʼt even know if you would be able to find anything since treasure hunters have scoured these places for such artefacts and picked them clean for years.”

Thatʼs unfortunate…

”Hmm… Maybe we can just go back and ask the pirate lord where he got this from? Do you think the military will let us talk to him?” I asked.

Amber made a face at me, ”I highly doubt it… And I would actually strongly suggest that you donʼt try to ask them either.”

”Eh? Why not? They seem like reasonable people at least.”

She shook her head, ”Theyʼll definitely ask why you need to speak with him and once you reveal that you have pre-AI rebellion tech, theyʼre gonna want to take it off of you for themselves, saying something like it could contain some rogue AI or other bullshit like that.”

”Eh? Why would they even want something like this?”

Amber gave me a serious look, ”Tera… This is pre-AI Rebellion tech. There are people out there who would happily pay more than a hundred million Credits just for something like this.”

”Eh? Then Iʼm surprised that this wasnʼt your first suggestion from the start…”

”I was going to suggest selling it next, actually. But you seem to be quite interested in it so I didnʼt.”

I looked down at the memory cards, ”I mean… I am interested in what data these two might store inside. Who knows? It might be some secret that might lead us to an awesome artefact or something. Oh hey! Maybe itʼs some kind of treasure map! Why else would that pirate lord keep this here, right?”

”I doubt it… Iʼm pretty sure that stupid pirate only kept this so that he could find someone to sell it off to in order to make a quick Credit. People like him wouldnʼt care about something like this after all.”

Hmm… I guess thatʼs true…

I placed the memory card back down, ”I think weʼll just keep them somewhere for now and see if we can find something that can read these cards. It wouldnʼt be too late to sell them later if we canʼt find one anyway.”

”Mmhmm~ But what about all this blackmail material that we got? Any plans on how to make use of them?”

”What do you recommend?”

Amber crossed her arms and thought for a moment, ”If you want to make a lot of Credits… Then you can find the people that these are meant to blackmail and sell it back to them. Although the risk might be a bit high because they might bear a grudge against us and make trouble for us later on…”

”Hmm… Because they want to silence us for knowing about their weakness huh?”

”Thatʼs right. Although we could also just keep them and make use of them for ourselves but that means we wonʼt be able to sell them, of course. The other possibility is to hand them over to someone from the UTG and have them deal with it. Weʼll most likely be paid rather little but this would get rid of these problematic people from their position.”

”So this is a question of whether we want to make a lot of money very quickly with high risk… Get benefits that might help us later on… Or make society better for little reward?”

”Pretty much.”

I gestured to the data chips, ”What kind of blackmail material are we talking about?”

Amber picked one up and slotted it into her personal terminal, letting it project a holographic screen in the air for me to see.

It looks like the data chip contained a video recording of some sort…

In the video, some girl was tied up to a chair and was in the process of being punched in the face by some other guy in an empty room.

It continued for a few seconds before the girl went limp and someone walked in from outside the frame.

”Thatʼs enough. You can leave now.”

The guy who had been punching the girl nodded, ”As you wish, senator.”

”I told you not to call me that here.”

”My apologies.”

The guy who had been beating up the girl then left the room without another word.

The new guy then held the girl by her chin and grinned at her, ”Now… This is perfect. Alright, smile for the camera, why donʼt you? At least look good for your last recording.”

He then started to pull down his pants before proceeding to strip the girl that was still tied up to the chair, his intentions clear.

”Ok, ok. Stop it,” I pleaded.

Amber immediately stopped the video as though she already expected me to request that of her.

”Is that the worst of it?”

”No… Thatʼs the most tame one actually. And I did not even go through all of them yet.”

Fucking hell… How fucked up are these people? No wonder that pirate lord kept all this on him because this would certainly raise an uproar if it was shown to the public…

The people here are so fucked up…