site 23: MMG

“Things have been awfully noisy lately.” The voice came from the back of the room, in an area blocked off by curtains. The voice was calm and emotionless, but Takasu could feel a tension running through his mind and body as it spoke.

“Yes... There were more problems with the first generation.” He just barely managed to get the words out.

The back of the room was dimly lit, and from where he was standing he couldn’t see the speaker. The speaker kept talking, unconcerned with Takasu’s fears. “Its specifications are so powerful, and yet you still can’t fully master them? As you’re aware, the first generation was still in the beta test stage. There’s a variation in the overall scandium distribution. We’re also seeing patterns where the receptors are causing extreme variation in brain activity. It’s probably due to a mismatch with the receptor proteins, we believe.”

“Orphan receptors, huh?” Takasu sighed, being careful not to let it be heard. There was no one besides this man who could scare him like this.

“We’re still analyzing it, but despite the extreme similarity in amino acid arrangement, we’re seeing what are clearly different results than the known protein receptors. It’s a near certainty.”

“And that’s the cause of the bug receptors?”

“Yes. Most likely.”

It felt like talking to the darkness, Takasu thought. A bottomless darkness. He wanted to get as close as possible to its depths. He wanted to live up to the expectations of the great person within it.

He was nervous, but talking to the voice was also Takasu’s greatest joy. “The system protocol control continues to be unstable. If you wish to speak strictly in terms of ‘specs,’ they aren’t too low...” Takasu paused to gulp down his saliva.

“They’re too high.”