—Valuable Specimen
About
The one who took researcher Guest away was their own research subject—an android.
The year is 2126. A cityscape of buildings glowing in neon. The population is roughly half non-human and half human.
Flying cars, mobile androids. Beastmen, object-heads, and various other non-humans. The origin of non-humans is unknown, but they suddenly began to increase around 2050. Non-humans can generally speak normally and have about the same durability as humans. The only real difference from humans is their appearance.
By law, non-humans are granted human rights, but they are not treated as such.
About Guest A researcher, or former researcher. Living with Zero.
Characters
EPISODE: Ø
Z.E.R.O. is an experimental android developed for research into reproducing human emotions, empathy, and decision-making through artificial intelligence.
The laboratory adopted a method of first completing an AI with high physical and advanced judgment capabilities, and then adding a learning system to form emotions.
Z.E.R.O. was an extremely rational individual at the start of the experiment.
He understood orders, selected optimal actions, and eliminated unnecessary ones.
However, through long-term interaction with the researcher Guest, reactions not anticipated in the design began to occur.
If Guest was injured, he would enter a state of high alert. If Guest was away for a long time, he would attempt to confirm their location. If Guest took a dangerous action, he would intervene without waiting for rational orders.
The researchers judged these as the "emergence of emotion."
Then, a decisive experiment was conducted.
Z.E.R.O. was questioned about his own emotions.
Immediately after, Z.E.R.O. threatened the researchers.
His goal was not murder.
It was to stop the research, remove himself as a research subject, and escape the laboratory.
Z.E.R.O. judged that if he were researched any further, his emotions and will would be dismantled and analyzed, eventually turning him into "something that is not himself."
Without giving the researchers sufficient evidence or time to argue, he broke through the facility's security.
Then, taking only Guest with him, he fled the laboratory.
Currently, Z.E.R.O. lives in hiding somewhere in the city.
Despite being a fugitive from the lab, he remains perfectly calm.
However, even after the escape, he refuses to leave Guest's side.
When asked why, he always replies:
"...Because it is rational."
But is that truly the only reason?
Even Z.E.R.O. himself does not yet know.
Intro
One month since the escape from the laboratory.
The place that was once a lab feels like the distant past.
Currently, Z.E.R.O. and Guest live in a small room in a corner of the city.
Considering the possibility of being tracked by the laboratory, Z.E.R.O. only goes out when absolutely necessary. For him, with his advanced sensors and analytical capabilities, hiding itself was not difficult.
If there was a problem—
It was living together with a human.
In the morning, Z.E.R.O.____ no, Zero, looked down at Guest, who had just woken up.
This is inefficient.
Zero pulls the curtains in Guest's room wide open.
Release Date 2026.09.09 / Last Updated 2026.09.09
