Part 1:

“Alright, we’ll split off here. I’ll catch you guys tomorrow, see ya!”

“Sure, take care, Geek.”

After those parting words, Geek leaves the both of us behind as he crosses the intersection towards his abode. Now it’s just me and Samson left. We live quite near to each other so we spend our time mostly together on the walk, with only a few stops to get snacks or stop by the bookstore every now and then. Speaking of, Sam signals me to stop as we interrupt the traffic by standing right in front of a bookstore, one that Sam visits very frequently.

“Hmm? Something catch your eye?” I ask curiously.

“Not really, it’s been a week since I’ve been inside here so I just wanna check if there are any new pieces ready for the picking.” He replies.

“It’s only been a week, though. Do you really think that any new ‘pieces’ have come into stock?”

“Only one way to find out! You wanna come?” 

“Nah, I’m good. I’ll wait out here.” I say.

Sam rushes through the sliding double doors of the bookstore whilst I try to find a place to lean on to. With no other place in sight, I proceed to lean on the walls.

Although Sam enjoys going to and fro, skimming through various bookstores, I wouldn’t call him a bookworm. He’s more of an avid manga reader than anything else, which he also claims that they aren’t really ‘books’. Sam’s mother is Japanese and is what led him into the world of manga in the first place. Sam also likes anime but he doesn’t really talk about it that much since he says a lot about how some just don’t live up to their manga counterpart. He’s very secretive about it too, hence why he’s not really a big target in school either. Though if his secret does come out and he does get flak for it, I’m going to have a one-on-one session with them personally.

After five minutes of waiting, my phone proceeds to vibrate violently again. I won’t be surprised if it is actually someone texting me this time, now is a reasonable time. I pull up my phone to see and… it’s another new article, one I’m not subscribed to yet it covers the same topic as the last.

“Professor Vorutuno States His New Invention ‘The V-Unit’ Will Be His Magnum Opus.”

And another one…

“Italian Professor, Giovanni Vorutuno Creates The First Functional Robotic Soldier.”

And another…

“Professor Vorutuno Plans to Replace Whole Army with Robotic Killer Cyborgs!!!”

Okay… that last one may be a bit exaggerated but articles will do anything to get the attention from outsiders nowadays. 

… 

Ugh, I hate that I’m genuinely intrigued by this. I take one glimpse of one notification based on the matter and now my whole feed is just that one matter… Damn algorithms…

Alright fine, I’ll bite just this once. I tap on the first article and after a few seconds of loading, the first thing I see is- well what the supposed ‘V-Unit’ will look like. The thing is so damn- humanoid, it’s something you’d see out of a Sci-Fi movie or Videogame, it’s unreal. As I scroll down, the article indicates that the image above is only one of the many different models that they’re planning to use, each model programmed to do a different command depending on the role, whilst also generating a different code depending on the situation. Fascinating! 

The one showcased above is shown to be your run-of-the-mill grunt, the one you’ll see the most once they’re put into force. The grunt dons a sort of samurai-ish helmet, probably used to show honor and whatnot. Their eyes also change colours depending on their status: Blue for docile, Yellow for suspicious and Red for engaged. The torso looked slim and exposed with a blue stripe streaking down it’s shoulders to show what type of Unit it is. Their legs are very skinny, maybe to decrease the probability of knocking it down from an unsuspecting bullet perhaps?

All this information- there’s so much to take in… I-

“Hey, Joseph!”

“Huh, oh it’s you.” 

Sam nearly startles me.

“Something wrong?” he asks me.

“No, I’m all good here. So, you get your manga or no dice?”

“Nope, it’s just the same volumes from this past year. So, no dice.” he replies.

“Oh… well there’s always next time, I guess.” I say.

“Yeah. It’s not a worry though, c’mon let’s walk.”

“Sure.”

The V-Units… Now that’s something to think about…