Story/Normal 11-3 (Part1)/Script

[1910 hours, in a corner of Belgrade’s residential district.]

RO635: How did your investigations go, SOP2?

M4 SOPMOD II: I went through another 200 dolls’ worth of visual databases, and I found her at last...

RO635: Thanks for the hard work, SOP2.

M4 SOPMOD II: Hah… you know what the hardest part was? Thanks to your orders, I saw all kinds of… striking scenes...

RO635: Ah… well, it is visual data from civilian dolls, after all… how did the analysis go?

M4 SOPMOD II: It was probably recorded about an hour ago. I gathered up all the visual data concerning her location. You can put it all together.

RO635: Alright, I’ll sync my data up with yours too. That way we’ll be able to work out her behavior patterns and travel route.
Over there, on the right side of that red sports car by the road. That’s the maid, right?

M4 SOPMOD II: It’s definitely her. Look at the next piece of footage.
She’s moving. Who knows if she’ll end up at the source’s place.

RO635: If the source’s really that cunning, she might not just return home to check without a good reason.

M4 SOPMOD II: That’s fine. We’ll find her behavior pattern and then we’ll follow her afterwards. That source is going to slip up at some point.

[5 minutes later.]

M4 SOPMOD II: RO… have you gone through all the data?

RO635: Yeah… something’s odd...

M4 SOPMOD II: Don’t you think that sports car in the distance is kind of familiar...

RO635: It’s not just familiar, it’s the sports car from her starting point...
That maid… she was walking down different paths, but the fact was that she was actually going round in circles all this time.

M4 SOPMOD II: Why is that? What kind of weird “take a stroll” order is that?

RO635: According to my experience, there’s only one possibility for this…
She sensed someone was following her, and perhaps her master gave a signal to her, so she could not leave the streets and risk being kidnapped. Therefore, she was trying to find the best path to lose her tail, but the opposition kept waylaying her and forced her to circle around the vicinity in search of a way to break out.
M4 SOPMOD II: DId she find us? It can’t be, we just collected this info... and also, it’s from an hour ago, right?

RO635: I don’t think it’s possible either, so…
I think there’s someone else following her.

M4 SOPMOD II: Huh? You mean… there’s someone else on her tail?

RO635: It’s very likely. We’re definitely not the only ones who want to learn more… and they’re most likely not friendlies either.

M4 SOPMOD II: Whoever they are, we can’t let them get their hands on the maid!

RO635: Correct. Ideally, we should find the enemy’s position and then take care of them before they detect us.

M4 SOPMOD II: Want a hint?

RO635: What did you find out?

M4 SOPMOD II: I secretly connected to the public network through another doll just now.
That way, we can greatly expand our visual data collection range and check if there’s anyone suspicious nearby.

RO635: A stalker huh… Visually identifying them is definitely a solution.

M4 SOPMOD II: Look there, on the left, between the safety barrier and that hobo. There’s a guy in a coat looking down and playing with his handheld game console. You see him?

RO635: Yeah, what about him?

M4 SOPMOD II: I think there’s something weird about his actions.

RO635: Hmm… dolls aren’t like humans, they have a very faint delay in their movements. He might be a doll in disguise.

M4 SOPMOD II: Really?
He’s been moving along these few streets, and while he’s pretending to be moving very naturally, his course shows that he’s been keeping a fixed distance from that maid all this while.

RO635: Did you… actually notice all that? I didn’t expect it...

M4 SOPMOD II: Hehe, my senses are really keen. I’m a pro at tracking, you know!

RO635: Well, that is your forte, but are you sure? He’s not moving fast and she could lose him quickly.

M4 SOPMOD II: Maybe he doesn’t need to be quick, hm?

RO635: … I see. He’s not the only stalker. They’re all following their own courses.
They’re slowly drawing the net shut, and in the end they’ll capture the maid.

M4 SOPMOD II: An old trick, but an effective one.
Want me to start taking out the stalkers one by one?

RO635: No. That would be too slow and it’d be too easy to miss one.

M4 SOPMOD II: Then…
Someone’s been observing this entire area all this while form the fourth floor of the building to the right. While he’s away from the window, I can faintly sense his signal origin.
That might be the command doll… my EW abilities are weak and he might detect me if I try to force a connection, so could you start from him?

RO635: Understood.
Once I hack into that doll, I can follow him to the rest of them.
Leave it to me. You keep your eyes on that maid.

M4 SOPMOD II: Just watching her isn’t safe enough. If they decide to take immediate action, we won’t be in time to protect that maid from them.

RO635: So… but exposing ourselves now is too risky.

M4 SOPMOD II: I’ll try to disguise myself as a normal pedestrian like them, then slowly, sneakily make my way closer.
You can help make a chance for us, then I’ll take her out of this lockdown area.

RO635: Understood… take her as close to the plaza from just now as possible. They won’t be able to take direct action easily if there’s too many people around.
We can use the crowd as cover to lose your tails… assuming that maid is willing to believe you.

M4 SOPMOD II: No problem! One look at me and you can tell that I’m on the side of justice!

RO635: Just going by your looks… well, I don’t know about that...

[......]

[SOP2 leaves the corner and surreptitiously moves to the streets.]
[RO635 activates EW mode and her module simulates the entire street area as a digital environment.]

RO635: Let’s start… with the first pursuer.

[RO635’s consciousness climbs up to the floor above her target.]

Doll Pursuer: This is the 23rd time the target has evaded my pursuit, but she remains within the street area.
Query: Is there a need to change the plan?

RO635: This communication signal’s special characteristics...

RO635: Wait, they’reー!

RO635: Dammit, so it was them after all, they were the ones we met on the train too...

RO635: Why… why do they keep showing up where we do?
Is it a coincidence… no, it can’t be… are we their objective, or...

Doll Pursuer: Order received. We will continue observing and change actions after the target repeats the same action 7 times.

RO635: There’s no time to investigate, I need to stop them...
I can overload this doll and make it look like it went offline, but if it’s connected to the outside world, remote diagnostics will be able to recover its functions very quickly.
If i wreck it, they’ll find out that someone is helping the maid, and she’ll be in even more danger.

[...zzz...zzz…]

Doll Pursuer: …? Report… my...

[Zzzー!]

Doll Pursuer: No abnormalities. Everything is fine.

RO635: Got it!

RO635: SOP2, do you read me?

M4 SOPMOD II: What is it?

RO635: I’ve hacked into the enemy’s Level Two layer, they’re from the white faction.
They’re more numerous than I expected and we can’t win in a straight fight.
However, I can incapacitate a couple of the dolls blocking off the exits. If that maid’s reactions are fast enough, she’ll notice the opening.

M4 SOPMOD II: And then I’ll cover her escape and prevent the enemy from launching an attack?

RO635: That’s right. I’ll find all the pursuers and then overload them all with a backdoor program.
I’ll start overloading the pursuers once you begin your exit. By the time they realize they’ve been hacked, it’ll be too late for them to react.

M4 SOPMOD II: Roger! I’ll subdue her once we get out of the danger zone. We’ve got a looooot of questions to ask her!

RO635: Alright, then let’s do it!