Tech Hero in Another World
Chapter 111: [110] Memories from Ren’s past

Chapter 111: [110] Memories from Ren’s past

As Ren slept, he usually didn’t dream the way most people did. No memories, no dreams—just an endless sensation of falling. Drifting between cracks in reality, in silence so absolute it could make one forget what noise ever was. That was his "sleep."

But this time... it was different.

It wasn’t a dream, but something sharper. More vivid. A flashback—as if his mind had chosen to replay a page from his past that he had tried so hard to bury.

The year was 20XX. Ren had just turned fifteen. It was graduation day—one of those milestone moments in every Japanese student’s life. The school was dressed in red and white ribbons, the auditorium packed with family and classmates ready to usher in the next Chapter.

"Yeah... I’ll help look," said Kiriya, flipping his phone closed after speaking with the staff. He stood with Ren’s parents, who looked around anxiously.

"Sorry to trouble you, Asano-san," Ren’s father said politely.

"It’s no trouble. He’s my friend," Kiriya replied, already scanning the campus. No sign of Ren. Figures. Off doing who-knows-what again, he thought.

He made his way toward the old building next to the gym—deserted. There, Kiriya pulled out his phone and dialed a number he could recite even in his sleep.

It rang a few times before—

"Hello?" a laid-back voice answered.

"Oooh, who could this be?" Ren replied, clearly joking.

"Don’t play dumb. Where are you?" Kiriya pinched his temple, already exhausted.

"Ehh... remember what I told you about something dangerous after I came back from Sudan? That peacekeeping mission?"

Kiriya clicked his tongue. "Don’t start. First, you illegally went to Sudan with your homemade Iron Man suit. Then you dragged me into being your operator. Now you wanna play superhero again? Get over here. The ceremony’s about to start. You really want your parents embarrassed ’cause their kid bailed on graduation?"

"Relax. Five minutes," Ren said casually. "But you haven’t answered my question."

Kiriya sighed. "Yeah, yeah, I remember. That nonsense about—"

"I got it," Ren said, calmly.

"WHAT!?" Kiriya shouted.

"I found it. The super AI."

Kiriya froze. His brain lit up with internal alarm bells. "Ren. Please tell me you’re joking. Tell me I’m not being dragged into another international incident."

"Chill," Ren chuckled. "Nobody’s being dragged anywhere. But listen, this AI... it’s too dangerous for our time. It can think. Learn. Disguise itself. Traffic cams, streetlights, satellites... all of it could be under its control."

Kiriya’s pulse shot up. "Ren... that sounds exactly like Japanese Ultron."

"Exactly. If it ever decides humans aren’t fit to run this world, we’re a nuclear fireworks show waiting to happen."

High above the school, Kiriya sat on a bench outside the storage shed, staring up at the cloudless blue sky and wondering for the thousandth time: Why does my best friend always pick the path farthest from normal?

"But don’t worry," Ren continued on the phone, "I hacked their central system. Turns out, they stashed the AI inside a nuclear sub. I’ve got one week to locate and intercept it—thankfully, it surfaced near Okinawa, close to a U.S. base."

Kiriya gripped his head. "How long have you been there!?"

"Only about three hours ago."

"Three—!? YOU SAID YOU’D COME TO SCHOOL WITH ME THIS MORNING!"

"Sorry ’bout that..." Ren replied with zero guilt, which only made Kiriya angrier.

"Screw this. Just get your ass over here. Now!" Kiriya checked his watch. They were out of time. Teachers were already calling students to line up.

"Be there in a sec. Oh—there it is."

"What!?" Kiriya instinctively looked up at the sky.

Just like Ren said, a thin white streak sliced across the blue sky. A faint trail of smoke curved downward toward the school like a guided meteor.

"No way—" Kiriya muttered, standing with his mouth half open.

From above, the object slowed just before hitting the ground, hovering with a blast of air that kicked up dust and dry leaves.

In seconds, an optical camouflage shimmered off its surface, revealing a sleek, violet-black armor with sharp edges—its helmet reminiscent of Gundam Exia, complete with glowing blue lenses.

"Yo," Ren said casually, as the helmet’s sides peeled back like mechanical petals.

Kiriya stood frozen. His mouth moved, but no words came. He didn’t know whether to punch Ren or hug him. Every time Ren showed up, he broke the laws of physics, common sense, or both.

Kiriya clenched his fist. "You know... I have about a million reasons to deck your smug face right now."

Ren smiled that infuriating grin. "If it makes you feel better, I’ll give you one free hit."

"...ONE’S NOT ENOUGH!" Kiriya finally exploded.

But before the punch landed, the school bell rang.

The graduation ceremony had begun.

They paused, locked eyes—and then burst out laughing. Loud and honest, standing beside an empty gym shed... like two idiots against the world.

---

That afternoon, after the graduation ceremony, Ren and Kiriya made their way to their secret base—a run-down house nestled at the edge of a hill. The yard was empty, the neighborhood abandoned, surrounded only by pine trees swaying lazily in the early evening wind. The house never drew attention; most locals wrote it off as a leftover inheritance property with no actual heir.

Technically, it was registered under the name of Kiriya’s deceased parents. But in reality, it was Ren’s domain—meticulously prepared to house every insane project he ever dreamed up. And Kiriya, though reluctantly dragged into this chaos, had become the "legal" face of all things thoroughly illegal.

They didn’t use the front door. That would’ve been too ordinary for two teenagers harboring world-class secrets. Instead, they slipped around the side of the house, entering through a shed half-concealed by tarp and wild shrubbery.

"Still can’t believe we graduated," said Ren as he opened the shed door, revealing a fake wooden floor beneath.

"Still can’t believe I lived long enough to attend the ceremony after you dragged me into hacking a military satellite last year," Kiriya replied flatly.

Ren chuckled, then opened a hidden panel. A retinal scanner scanned his eye quickly, and the floor shifted open, revealing a staircase descending underground.

The staircase led to a subterranean base that bore zero resemblance to the decrepit house above. Cool blue-white LED lights filled the room. Computer panels, server stacks, holographic monitors, and shelves of metal components lined the walls. A robotic arm quietly worked on an auto-solder in the corner.

"And... back to the nest," Ren said dramatically, leaping down onto the lab floor.

Kiriya followed more slowly. "I swear, you really need to rethink your interior design. This place looks more like an alien mothership than a high schooler’s hideout."

"Was that a compliment?" Ren grinned, placing his armor’s helmet into a docking station that locked it magnetically.

A panel lit up as Ren touched it. Holographic data burst into the air—so dense and technical only Ren could probably read it without getting a migraine.

"So, about that AI..." Kiriya began, dropping his backpack onto a couch. "Are you absolutely sure you destroyed it?"

"Sure? Nah," Ren said casually. "But I nuked their servers, wiped ten years of research from existence. All of it, gone—courtesy of a fifteen-year-old. Because if that AI ever ended up in the wrong hands, not even the UN could stop what’d happen next. So yeah—I destroyed theirs... and made sure only I kept a copy."

Kiriya’s brow shot up as Ren tapped a panel on the central table. A floating digital brain lit up in the air, pulsing blue like an organic circuit.

『Hello. I am the ultra-logical AI: Ultro.』

The voice was neutral—just human enough to make it unsettling.

"WHAT!?" Kiriya jumped from the couch. "Ren! You said destroyed! Not rebuilt!"

"Yeah, I figured that’d shock you," Ren said coolly, legs crossed on his chair.

"Ren, this is too far! We could become international fugitives for this!"

"Haven’t we been that already?" Ren smirked. "Remember that whole drone incident with the UN?"

"That was different!" Kiriya pointed at the AI, now projecting a slowly rotating globe. "This isn’t just a tool. This is a digital entity! It could hijack nuclear systems if it wanted!"

"Kiriya, what’s the difference? Back then we were also one button away from causing global catastrophe."

"God... what am I even caught up in now?" Kiriya muttered, massaging his temples.

"Relax. This is the last time," said Ren—though his voice didn’t exactly ooze certainty. "I’m done with field ops. Once this is over, I’m dismantling the armor. For real."

Kiriya glanced at the Mark I helmet still mounted on the back wall. "Funny... pretty sure I heard that same promise two years ago."

"This time, I mean it," Ren said, looking directly at Ultro. "I only need him for one thing."

"And this AI... it’s not that Ultron knockoff, right?" Kiriya asked, unconvinced.

"Nope. Built from scratch, not from their code. Ultro’s a blank framework—I gave him my own moral constraints," Ren explained. "I need a divine-level brain. The internet’s too slow. Libraries are ancient history. Ultro can process it all... without traditional hacking."

『Clarification: I do not hack. I simply predict and restructure data through applicable legal loopholes.』

Kiriya looked at the floating hologram like it was a polite alien asking for directions. The brain’s pulsing blue glow made it feel less like tech—and more like something alive. Something capable of growing.

"...Okay. This AI now references legal loopholes. We’re doomed," he muttered, half to Ren, half to himself.

"Don’t overthink it," Ren said, spinning in his chair. "The more you think, the worse it gets. Just go with the flow."

Kiriya stared at him, red in the face, then stepped forward, grabbed Ren’s shirt collar, and yanked him forward. "If murder weren’t illegal, I’d jab a chopstick right through your stupid ass."

Ren blinked, then put on a dramatically fake expression of fear. "Bro... please... come back to the light."

"I’M NOT JOKING, AND I AM NORMAL!!!" Kiriya shouted, his voice echoing off the underground walls—while Ultro simply observed in silence, perhaps learning what true friendship looks like: chaos.

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