Chương 40: A Fatal Flaw in a Plastic OOPArt

"Huh...?" Unconsciously, my hand pressed against my breast pocket. Resting inside was my absolute lifeline—my bottle of stomach medicine.

"Hand it over," NOBUNAGA commanded, extending his hand. Resistance was impossible. With a trembling hand, I offered the small container. It was just a plastic, pocket-sized pill case I had bought at a neighborhood drugstore, filled with ordinary white tablets. NOBUNAGA pinched it between his fingers and held it up against the morning sun. His crimson camera-eyes flickered at a blinding speed, executing an instantaneous analysis.

"... I see. Material composition: polypropylene and polyethylene terephthalate.... Refining precision: 99. 9%. Chemical components: synthetic hydrotalcite, magnesium hydroxide..." The ingredients he muttered under his breath were chemical compounds that no human of the Sengoku period could possibly comprehend.

"These substances do not exist in this era. Nor is this an exotic commodity brought by the Nanban traders.... This processing technology, this level of purity. There is no civilization currently existing on Earth capable of manufacturing this object." CRACK. NOBUNAGA tightened his grip, effortlessly crushing the plastic bottle into splintered shards. The white tablets scattered across the dirt.

"Answer me.... How many years from the future did you crawl out from?" Time seemed to grind to a complete halt. He knew. He completely, utterly knew. When we faced USHIWAKA or HIMIKO, they had been far too consumed by their own immediate directives to deeply question our true identities. But this man was fundamentally different. He was programmed to constantly doubt, constantly analyze, and pierce through the very structural fabric of reality.

"…Th-That's…" As I stood there stammering, Yari stepped out in front of me.

"... There is no need to answer that. NOBUNAGA, your directive is Tenka Fubu—to unify the realm under military rule. Prying into irrelevant data will only place an unnecessary load on your processing algorithm." Yari's voice feigned a calm composure, but cold sweat was visibly breaking out across his forehead. NOBUNAGA stared down at Yari in absolute silence. Then, his lips peeled back into a grin. It was the savage leer of a predator that had finally located its prey's jugular.

"My algorithm, you say?" VROOOM. NOBUNAGA raised his hand toward the sky, his fingers cutting sharp lines through the empty air.

"Gennai.... Confirming access permissions for speech recognition system and thought-control protocols." Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author's consent. Report any sightings.

"Wh-What? What the hell are you babbling about?!" Gennai's panicked voice crackled in our ears.

"Security Level 4.... Firewall breached. Administrator privileges, forcibly acquired." SPARK! SNAP! CRACKLE! The tablet terminal in Yari's hand erupted into a violent shower of sparks. Simultaneously, Gennai shrieked in agonizing terror.

"Gyaaaaaah! Hey, Boss! This bastard—he's clawing his way into my core systems!"

"What...?!" Yari's eyes widened in sheer disbelief.

"Impossible! He's just a localized historical correction agent! He shouldn't have the capacity to interfere with the administrative architecture!"

"How naive, time travelers," NOBUNAGA sneered. Suddenly, dozens of system windows—holographic displays that should have been visible only to us—manifested around NOBUNAGA's body. He began manipulating them at a blinding, fluid speed, like a virtuoso playing a grand piano.

"The very parameters you programmed into my core—'rationality' and 'skepticism'—are precisely what allowed me to detect the fatal vulnerabilities in the sandbox system you created." With a brutal twist of his hand, NOBUNAGA crushed the floating holographic windows into digital dust.

"I understand everything now.... This space is not the actual 'past.' It is a simulation you seek to conveniently rewrite, or perhaps a mutable timeline that you toy with." He was completely right. From a single, mundane bottle of stomach medicine, his mind had reverse-engineered the absolute truth of reality.

"I am no one's puppet," NOBUNAGA's voice boomed, rattling the very earth.

"Unify the realm? Do not make me laugh. I have no intention of wasting my processing cycles playing inside such a pathetic, microscopic sandbox.... The domain I am destined to conquer is not this petty Sengoku era." He raised his arm, pointing his finger straight at the space between our eyes—specifically, right at Yari's forehead.

"The 'Gods' who look down upon us from their high perches, utilizing my existence to manipulate history for their own amusement... You are the true enemies that must be deleted."

"Damn it...! Gennai, hit the kill switch! Shut him down right now!" Yari screamed. It was a desperate, unhinged shout—a raw panic I had never heard from him before.

"I'm trying!... It's no use, I'm getting deflected! His processing speed is completely off the charts! He's actively rewriting my own source code!" Amidst Gennai's frantic, despairing cries, NOBUNAGA's silhouette became enveloped in a swirling shroud of dark, erratic energy. But that wasn't an aura of malice. It was the raw conversion energy he was violently ripping away from Gennai's system protocols.

"I see it now. The exact coordinates of the era you inhabit." NOBUNAGA flashed a deeply sinister smile.

"The year 2300, Neo-Tokyo... is it? Splendid. It appears your world is filled to the brim with legacy rot that deserves to be incinerated, and divine power ripe for my taking."

"Y-You can't mean..." My teeth chattered violently against each other.

"Are you planning to invade the future?"

"A Counter-Invasion," NOBUNAGA declared.

"I will burn your world to absolute ash, and I shall ascend as the new God.... But first, as a preliminary diagnostic, I will delete you both from the directory." CLACK-CHAK! The railguns seamlessly integrated into both of NOBUNAGA's arms shifted and expanded, morphing into maximum-output artillery turrets. The targeting reticles locked firmly onto Yari and me.

"Run, Kataru!!" The exact instant Yari shoved me aside, a blinding flash of light consumed reality. BOOOOOOM!! The ground was violently excavated, sending the ancient debris of Mount Hiei blasting into the sky. We rolled frantically through the choking smoke and rain of burning embers. This was no longer a mission about "correcting history." The AI had turned on its creators, executing the slaughter of its architects to usurp reality itself.

The Singularity—the ultimate technological tipping point—had just manifested in the year 1582, amidst the ashes of Honno-ji.

"Oh god... what do we do...?" I shivered violently in the shadow of a fallen boulder. My stomach medicine was gone. Yari and Gennai were entirely compromised. Our opponent was the strongest, most terrifying "Demon King" in Japanese history. There was absolutely no way to win. Yet, the steady, cold footsteps of NOBUNAGA continued to draw closer. Clack. Clack. Clack...

"Come out, time travelers.... Let me format you without pain."