Chapter 2: Best of Luck (1)
After five years.
Zzzzt---! Clang!
The lady, hiding her surprise at the sudden turn of events, looked straight at the threatening face of the grumpy man with whom she had a conversation minutes prior. A hint of fear sprouted inside her, but on the outside, she was seemingly unfazed.
The chair where the man sat was now on the floor, and two of its legs were badly crumpled due to the impact of being hurled towards her.
Thankfully, the chair didn't reach her, as the barrier between the imprisoned and the free is as thick and strong as the tempered glass of an oceanarium's tank.
Bang!
When the man finally left, she felt she could finally breathe.
Phew.
'Damn it.'
Her assistant, who was watching from the other side of the door behind her, immediately came to her to give her a cup of coffee. A mix of fear and relief was plastered on her face.
"A-are you alright, ma'am?"
"Ah, I've never been better."
She answered coolly, as opposed to how she truly felt. Internally, she was muttering a litany of negative adjectives and curse words.
'These beastly, vile, dirty, sons of ---'
She sipped on the hot coffee that almost burned her tongue; even her favorite drink was not making her feel any better.
'I shouldn't have come; this is like gradually shaving years off of my life.'
For each individual she interviewed, it felt like a year was shaved off, and the cranky guy who just left is just the tenth person out of fifty!
But despite all her internal grumblings, she had no choice but to complete her quota.
"Call the next interviewee."
"Yes, ma'am!"
When her assistant exited, she quickly read the profile of the person coming up.
"Ah."
She immediately wanted to tear up.
Right then, from the door on the opposite side of the barrier, a clean-looking young man came in, which would make one wonder why he'd come out of the side where the criminals are. He looks like a university student who just got lost.
"Hi."
'The fu---? Damn, headache incoming.'
In her book, a dumb, irritable man is much better than a composed intellectual.
With an innocent smile, the young man slightly bowed to her, to which she only responded with a nod. After getting a new chair himself, the eleventh interview began in earnest.
"Should we start?"
"If you please."
"Now, tell me about yourself."
What came to pass was like any other job interview a normal adult would have experienced at least once in their life.
The young man calmly introduced himself, stating his background, then went on to explain how he ended up in the detention center and why he was applying for the recruitment.
Of course, the explanations on the latter part were nothing but crap, just like with the ten guys before him.
The introduction went on for about ten minutes, and then the real interview started with her asking the questions according to the manual.
In a small room of a secured and isolated facility sat the lady and the young man, who were not only right opposite each other but also wearing opposite expressions.
While the man was all smiles, answering the questions thrown at him, the lady frequently bit her lips to hide her complicated feelings and distracted herself by repeatedly tapping the table with her pen.
Tap, tap, tap...
She has long forgotten to take down notes for her assessment.
The man continued to speak through the little holes in the thick glass barrier between them.
"As I've been saying, I was framed. I was involved, but I am innocent. Well, partly."
Sigh.
'How many times did I hear of this today? Five times?'
Tap.
The lady fixed her slipping lenses and stared at the man in front of her, who immediately widened his smile in return.
Over all, the interview went against her expectations.
'This guy isn't particularly bad; in fact, he seemed normal on the outside. My problem is that he's too eloquent; I can't be sure if he's just deceiving me.'
The worst thing is, playing with people's emotions might be possible for the young man.
In front of her is the notorious hacker "Liberator," the person behind the release of thousands of high-profile international criminals from the floating Achaz Great Prison.
The most noteworthy thing about the case is that it was handled flawlessly, rendering the entire facility irreparable forever.
It could be said the guy was the first to totally erase an artificial intelligence from existence.
'…and he was 18 at that time? Crazy.'
She could only think that the talented guy would have been great in a more positive light, but then she shrugged it off. Well, it was only the case three years ago, when competitions for technological developments were still in bloom and there was peace.
Unfortunately, a lot has happened in the last five years that has rendered almost every technological advancement useless.
'What can a hacker do now?'
She was even sent to recruit those whose minds haven't been corrupted yet by their own evildoings, because currently the world is employing every bit of manpower it can muster to defeat the evil brought by others.
'And he's been consistent in his statements that it wasn't his doing.'
"How can we trust you?"
"Are we talking about qualifications?"
The man's smile that reached his eyes was unperturbed even during the few seconds of silence.
"No, just how can we be sure you are for humanity? You are saying you are innocent and were falsely accused. Wouldn't that be a serious ground to betray humanity and hit us in the back? There were innumerable cases."
"Pfft ---"
'Ah, apparently he isn't normal either.'
That's what five years of isolation do to people.
In a way, she's happy that there was something remarkable; the last 30 minutes were too run-of-the-mill for her taste.
The man laughed as if what she said was the most ridiculous thing.
Of course, she didn't show any trace of emotion on her face; she was well acquainted with these kinds of reactions. Her anxiety and all the cold sweat flowing down her back were in no way shown in her demeanor.
"Ma'am, I am a man who no longer has anything. I just want to at least die outside."
"Mm, you said so."
"And I mean it. My 18 years as a free man only revolved around my family. You may already know this; I had my mom and two siblings. I do not have anyone I could particularly call a friend, not anymore. All I had was my tiny world and my supercomputer, and that was okay."
Leaning on the table, he smiled even wider with his palm on his face; he looks as if he is reminiscing about the good times, although the next words were anything but good.
Unlike his demeanor and her first impression of him, the young man was quite a talkative guy.
In the perspective of an oblivious outsider, the retelling, despite the man controlling his expressions, was done in a way that arouses pity.
To be honest, it was enough to tug at her, what with all the years of the talented young man ending up being wasted.
However, she was trained not to be swayed by any type of emotion, especially that of compassion.
From time to time, she would look down and pretend to scribble on her notes to keep her composure.
"…and I told you, I am only partly innocent. Making a mistake is a sin in itself. Unbefitting of what I aimed for by taking the name, the great, vigilant Hundred-Eyed Argus was careless."
He criticized himself like he was just talking about the weather.
"In the first place, I trusted the wrong person, and that's it. There's nothing I can do about it anymore. I also heard the bastard Kerioth has faced his demise at the hands of the Otherworlders."
"It seems so."
"Serves him right, really."
"You can say that."
"I hope the other guys did as well."
'Did what?'
The other guys he was talking about are those he was saying were truly the culprits of the "Liberation".
She knew of the recruit Kerioth from a year ago, while she was in her training; admittedly, he was trash and a total psychopath.
It would have lightened the sentence for the Liberator in front of him, as there arose a question of Kerioth's reliability, if not for the bigger issues the world was occupied with.
'But how can I guarantee that this man is not a pea of the same pod?'
Nevertheless, she remained vigilant. After all, the person in front of her was a hacker with a strong background in social engineering. It was truly unfortunate that she doesn't have the ability to discern lies from the truth.
Sigh.
As she pondered, the man continued to talk.
"Well, even so, I have no motivation to exact revenge or whatnot. I have no place in this world anymore, and no one knows if this world could even last. But I just want to die under the sunlight at least."
"Ah, death outside might not be as you have imagined."
"I'll manage."
The lady slightly knitted her eyebrows as she gazed at the man. She couldn't help but notice the incompatibility with the worn-out face's happiness; there were once people like that, but it shouldn't be similar to this case; Liberator is an incomprehensible existence.
"Alright. I think that ends the interview for now. We'll see you in a week for the results."
"Thank you, ma'am. It was nice talking to you."
He stood up and politely bowed, a smile still lurking on his face.
The lady was left in the small room in contemplation, massaging her temples due to the onset of a throbbing headache that only came about unexpectedly in the last few minutes.
'… death outside might not be as you have imagined.'
There was not a hint of lying in her statement.
Because the world has changed.
"Perhaps it would be even better to die inside this facility. Ah, Liberator, Argus, should I grant you this death?"
In the penal military unit, death was inevitable.
Yes, her job was just to determine who would die earlier than others.
"Heh. Damn it."
"Are you alright, ma'am?"
Her aide entered the room to replace her now-empty cup.
"As always. Please call on the next."
She could only hope against hope that the young man was indeed the "Liberator" and the only one.
And she decided to play the part of being fooled.
CREATORS' THOUGHTS 
100EyedArgus
100EyedArgus I deleted the uploaded chapters because I realized they were too long! It will go the same way but I'll try to cut them by parts. Enjoy reading!
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