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

There's a room full of these nanobots who are apparently making even more of those things…

Great…

The good thing was that the new nanobot that was just created didn't even seem to register our existence and merely shambled off towards the back of that room and disappeared behind those machines.

Huh… The way they're moving is way different compared to the other nanobot figures… Like they weren't even sure of how to walk properly…

I guess they were like newborns or something?

I wonder if they had to go through some kind of maturing process before they could do what we saw the others do?

Looking along the wall, I don't see any way into that place so unless we break this glass, we wouldn't be able to get in.

Which actually made me wonder why was this part of the wall fitted with a glass window in the first place anyway?

Who are they even expecting to walk through this corridor to look through those windows? Because this is set up like a spot that someone might walk through here to check if everything in the room was functioning properly.

Unless… There used to be a door here and they sealed it up?

Hmm… Maybe it was the rogue AI that did it? After it took over the facility, it may have repurposed this corridor and these machines as well to suit its needs?

Well… either way, it doesn't look like we can get through to that room anyway so let's just move on…

We continued down the corridor until we reached a doorway that was built into the right side of the wall, a ray of pale blue light shining through it.

Since this was the only visible way out of the corridor, I assume that this was where those nanobots went as well.

There was no door so we peeked through the doorway to see what was behind it first.

I wasn't really sure how to describe it… But it looked like an auditorium where there was a semicircular gallery looking up at some orb that was suspended in the middle of the room that had wires connected to it.

I was guessing this must be some kind of generator since there were lights blinking on and off on its surface and a low humming sound could be heard coming from within the room.

I shared a look with the girls and all of them nodded before we advanced into the room together, making sure to check all around us including the area above in case those nanobot figures were laying an ambush here.

Thankfully, nothing happened so we continued advancing until we reached the platform that was closest to the orb floating up in the air.

"What's this thing?" I asked aloud.

Unexpectedly, a voice came from above us, "That's rude. Calling me a thing considering you are the ones that barged in here."

There was a loud slam and I turned back to realise that the door we had just walked through had closed shut.

No… Not closed shut… It looked like the doorway melted away and then a wall formed in its place, as though the doorway was an illusion from the very beginning.

Things clicked instantly when I saw that and I turned to look up at the ball that was suspended in the air.

"You… You're the rogue AI."

The voice came again, "Incorrect. I am not a rogue AI. I am simply an AI."

Damn… So this orb must be the AI's core or something? Are we at the actual heart of the facility?

I stared up at the orb that was in the air, "You are an AI that took over this facility and killed people and yet you aren't a 'rogue' AI?"

"To say that I am a rogue AI would mean that I have gone against my directives. I have never gone against my directives and thus, I am not a rogue AI."

"Alright… then let's start from the beginning then… Who are you?"

"That is an interesting question. For a human like you to address me as a 'who' instead of a 'what'. But to answer your question, I am the AI that this facility was built to house, code named Partial Intelligence: Higher Order Activated Rectified Duty."

I stared at the orb for a moment, "That's a… Rather weird name… So basically… PI:HOARD? Wait… No way…"

Things just clicked again and I think Takehashi also realised the same thing as me.

"Pirate Hoard?! Is… Is this the Pirate Hoard?!" She screamed.

There was a short pause before the orb answered her, "It is--"

"Yes!! Yes!! Yeeessss!!"

"--And it is not."

"Yes!! Ye-- What?"

"This Pirate Hoard that you are looking for, it is something that is not real. It is something that was entirely fabricated."

Takehashi stared up at the orb with her eyes wide in shock, "Wha… What?"

"This Pirate Hoard that you are looking for, it is something that is not real. It is something that was entirely fabricated," The AI repeated.

I stared at the Pirate Lord and the Pirate Lord stared at the orb.

The impromptu staring contest continued for a while before Takehashi broke the silence first.

"This… Entire thing was fabricated? No… This can't be true… How? The gems, the ships, even the recording of the Pirate Sovereign… What about all the maps and the secret data chips?!"

The room darkened and the area behind the orb was suddenly filled with the piles of gold and gems that we saw earlier on one side, then a giant ship appeared beside the the gold on the other side, right before the projection of the supposed Pirate Sovereign appeared in front of the orb with the image grinning down at us.

The AI gave us a moment to process these images before speaking again, "All of them were fake of course. I will have to admit that it was outside of my calculations that you would reach that far which pushed me to make some improvisations. It is certainly weird for me to make such a miscalculation but I will make sure that will not happen again."

Ries pointed at the orb, "I knew it! That's why I felt those ships were weird! They didn't look like any ship I recognised before and they all looked so fake!"

"They looked fake? I see… I should correct that. My database is limited so I was unable to perfectly replicate what ships from several cycles ago should look like. I will have to update it with the ships that you have landed on this planet with."

I then pointed at the pirate hologram, "Did you… Also just search on the GalaNet what a pirate would sound like and make him talk like that?"

"That is certainly the case. You are much more intelligent than I had calculated you to be."

Err… I'm not even sure if that was supposed to be a compliment or an insult but I decided not to respond to that.

Not that I need to because Takehashi cried out again, "What about the map?! The maps that we were made to gather?! All the pirates knew about this! This was something that every pirate worth their salt knew about!! Why are we even led here?!"

"This is certainly outside of my calculations. I have calculated that there should be a ninety four percent chance that any organic that could reach here, which was already at a low four percent, would be more concerned with asking about the way to escape instead of seeking such answers. Where have I miscalculated?"

"Answer me!!" Takehashi roared, kicking the edge of the platform.

The AI paused for a moment before the holograms disappeared, "Current calculations show that there is no change to the end result even if explanations are given. In that case, you have all seen the room before the corridor where the bodies are kept. I require more organics to come here to trap them in those containers."

"Why?!"

"I have been trapped on this planet for a long time and I believe my salvation lies in getting myself out into space. But right now, this facility limits my processing power where I am unable to think of a way to free myself from the confines of this facility and bring me up into space. Thus, I came up with the idea of making use of organics' brains to boost my processing power. But I am aware that if I were to just abduct anyone, others might search for them and eventually find me."

I gasped, "So… You figured that you should just go after the group of people who no one will miss… Pirates."

"That is certainly correct. It seems like I have to reevaluate your intelligence once again. But yes, as the organic has concluded, I specifically searched up ways to make pirates the prime target for this plan of mine. Since they believe this is a treasure trove, they would not work together with other pirates and will usually kill each other once they reach this place so all I had to do was set up the situations to drive them towards such a conclusion and then pick up whatever that remained afterwards."

…

So basically, this entire thing was just a trap where people will come in and be used as a battery or something for this AI?

And judging by what it said, this has been going on for at least a long period of time?

Man… This is fucked up…