Chapter 52
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Judges II
Shin No-a
"Good heavens."
Half bewildered, yet with undeniable anticipation in the other half, I asked.
"Do you think zombies could really function as judges?"
"Tut-tut, not zombies. NPCs. Please don't make that mistake again. And as for whether it will succeed... well, I don't know myself, but it's certainly worth trying... isn't it?"
Though Noh Do-ha said those words, his sinister eyes glittered with anticipation he couldn't hide.
The two of us, like children playing pranks behind their teachers' backs, gazed at the zombie room—the warehouse where the texts of law codes were being endlessly recited.
Judges!
Reviving the function of 'courts' in this ruined world was a long-cherished wish for both Noh Do-ha and me.
The National Road Management Corps had succeeded in connecting the shattered land with thin spiderwebs of roads. However, running a nationwide court system was impossible.
'For major cases, I could temporarily act as a judge, or influential guild masters could gather and process them like a jury system.'
Neither I nor the guild masters were idle people. How could we handle the dozens of incidents occurring daily in an apocalypse world?
Ultimately, the guilds occupying each city had no choice but to run their own 'court-like systems.'
In short, we had handed gavels to thugs. How could things possibly run properly?
Cities like Busan, governed by a Lord like Dang Seo-rin with Intelligence 91 and Politics 95, enjoyed peace and prosperity (by apocalypse standards, of course), but most cities on the Korean Peninsula were ruled by corrupt magistrates. Unless you were Sim Cheong, you'd receive utterly unreasonable rulings. Even if you were Sim Cheong, it would probably still be equally shitty.
"How long do you think it will take to input all the law codes into their heads...?"
"Ah. Hmm, I've never made anyone memorize this amount before, so I don't know exactly, but a month should be plenty!"
At Cheon Yo-hwa's words, Noh Do-ha nodded. We sealed the warehouse door and returned to our daily lives.
Finally, one month later.
Noh Do-ha and I, plus the Saintess—the entire so-called Regression Alliance had gathered. Cheon Yo-hwa also participated as a guest member.
"Then I shall open it!"
Clunk—the heavy warehouse door swung open.
A pungent smell wafted out, like broth from a jobless shut-in steeping in a corner for three months.
And no one so much as furrowed a brow. Naturally. In these times, the proper attitude of modern people was to smell corpse stench outside their homes and simply think 'someone else died last night.'
"Hmm."
In the center of the warehouse, a zombie... no, an NPC stood with its mouth hanging open in an incredibly stupid expression.
I questioned whether that thing could properly memorize law codes, but not a single person in our party was foolish enough to judge someone by their appearance.
"It looks fucking stupid..."
Everyone except Noh Do-ha.
"Anyway, let's test it quickly. We're all busy people. Now, Cheon Yo-hwa, my junior...?"
"Ah, yes! Senior!"
Hop—Cheon Yo-hwa stood before the NPC. Then she reached out and stroked the NPC's head.
"You are a judge."
[....]
"When disputes arise between people or organizations, please determine which side is right or mediate between them!"
Swoosh.
As she whispered about 'the role of a judge,' pitch-black shadows seeped from Cheon Yo-hwa's forearm into the NPC's head. They wiggled their tails like tiny black snake hatchlings.
That must be Cheon Yo-hwa's necromancy.
Before long, the black snakes had all tucked their tails into the NPC's head. Cheon Yo-hwa waved her hand with a "Whew."
"It's done. This is my first time making a 'request' like this to someone, so I'm not sure how well it worked. Anyway, ask it anything!"
"Hmm."
I glanced at the Saintess.
Though her default expression was always blank, making it hard to tell, my skilled regressor eyes could sense that she too held considerable interest in the NPC before us.
After all, wasn't she the very person who turned dark in the 107th iteration because villains weren't properly punished and ran free?
Noh Do-ha, conscious of my gaze, yielded his turn to the Saintess.
"Why don't you ask the first question...?"
"...."
Nod.
The Saintess stepped forward to face the NPC.
Even with the gazes of the most powerful awakened ones on the Korean Peninsula fixed upon it, the NPC still stood with its mouth hanging slack.
Cheon Yo-hwa spoke cheerfully.
"First, please set up a situation!"
"...A middle-aged man entered an abandoned house. However, an 11-year-old child was actually living in that abandoned house. While searching for useful items, the man discovered the child, and the child immediately cursed at the man to get lost. Upon hearing the curses, the man flew into a rage and attacked the child, killing him by stabbing his neck with a dagger about the size of a kitchen knife."
"Oh my."
"The man believes he had no intention to kill the child. Please answer whether the killer had intent or not, and whether this affects the sentencing."
[Beginning answer. Intent in homicide does not necessarily require purpose of killing or planned intent to kill.]
Snap.
The NPC's head, which had been tilted about 10 degrees, suddenly straightened to proper posture.
[Awareness of killing is sufficient, and this 'awareness of killing' includes negligent killing. That is, unintentional killing as well.]
"...."
[Given that the defendant was greatly enraged by the victim's curses and rushed at the victim with a dagger, and immediately stabbed downward with full force to inflict a fatal wound to the victim's neck, causing instant death—judging by the method of the crime, it cannot be acknowledged that the defendant lacked 'awareness of killing' at the time. In light of the circumstances, measures to acknowledge the defendant's criminal facts as guilty in this homicide case are justified.]
"...."
[Answer complete.]
Thud.
The NPC lowered its head weakly again.
"Hmm."
While everyone remained silent, Noh Do-ha let out a grunt. Or rather, it was closer to a groan than a grunt.
Everyone had their own habits when lost in thought.
In Noh Do-ha's case, he fiddled with the black gloves he always wore. He would pinch the tip of the index finger and pull it this way and that as if grooming invisible fingernails, then tuck them back in.
"Hmm. Well, at this level...?"
Snap—
Noh Do-ha pulled the leather gloves taut, stretching them to the breaking point.
A sinister chuckle flowed through the shabby warehouse.
"Let's test it in the field immediately...."
4
To state the conclusion first, the beta test results of the 'AI Judge' were not promising.
"What? AI Judge?"
"What use is something like that?"
That was because the guild masters occupying each city didn't feel any particular need to introduce AI judges.
They already enjoyed status practically no different from warlords. Why should we separate judicial power? Separation of powers was an outdated concept anyway, right?
However, even if guild masters acted like tyrants in their own neighborhoods, there were limits. Conversely, once they stepped outside their neighborhood boundaries, they instantly became pushovers.
"Their guild invaded our turf first!"
"That's not your turf, it's our territory! Besides, you guys killed our people first!"
For instance, disputes between guilds.
In such cases, guild masters typically fought to the death or asked a third party to mediate.
And there were only three people on the Korean Peninsula whom everyone could acknowledge as 'someone fit to handle mediation.' Dang Seo-rin. Noh Do-ha. And me.
"Chief of the National Road Management Corps!"
"Chief, please make a judgment for us!"
Noh Do-ha put on an expression showing he wanted to empathize with their circumstances as much as possible.
"My, my. Such things happened. As always, I will mediate with all my heart, ensuring no inconvenience or resentment remains...."
"Oh my. We're counting on you, Chief!"
"Yes."
The problem was that the three of us couldn't be perfectly fair.
Of course, we tried to be as fair as possible. But whether that appeared so to outsiders was another matter.
It was nearly impossible to satisfy both sides in a dispute, so whenever we proposed mediation, quite a bit of 'behind-the-back talk' followed.
"But everyone. Have you perhaps heard of the AI Judge that's recently come out? It's truly an amazing thing...."
"Huh?"
Noh Do-ha targeted this exact point to push AI judges to the guild masters.
And as Noh Do-ha always did, he peddled his snake oil here too.
"You know I worked as a civil servant before the world turned out this way, right...?"
"Ah, yes. That's a famous story."
"Actually, back then, the government already discussed whether to introduce AI judges and how much authority to grant them if introduced. The legal community's consensus was that rather mundane cases that just needed to be judged according to precedent could be left to AI judges...."
"Ah... I see...."
"Recently, our patrol team salvaged some computers from government buildings, and one of them had an AI program installed. This is a real AI that was actually used in practice. What do you think, everyone? How about using this opportunity to test it out and hear a verdict...?"
"Oh."
"Of course, I have absolutely no intention of leaving judgments to some program. It's just—let's hear it for reference, thinking 'what kind of verdict would a court have given if civilization were still intact?' The world has changed so much that we can't apply verdicts directly, but I think there's merit in asking for an objective opinion from a third party other than 'us'...."
"Oh, oh."
With the Chief of the National Road Management Corps selling snake oil like this, the guild masters weren't so shameless as to say 'I don't like it.' After all, this was the head of the organization that built roads and paved streets for them.
More importantly, I was standing behind Noh Do-ha. The presence of an awakened one who had single-handedly crushed the heads of ten people made the warlords think twice and thrice.
"Well then, shall we just hear what it has to say, just this once...?"
And the guild masters realized that the AI judge was reasonably fair and surprisingly convenient to use.
[Verdict. A shall pay B 200 million in damages.]
"Good heavens. How do we get 200 million won worth of cash in this day and age?"
Noh Do-ha laughed darkly.
"How about it? If you're not satisfied, I can ignore this program's opinion and mediate from scratch instead...."
"...."
"...."
The guild masters fell into thought. Interpreting their gazes, it went something like this:
'If it's goods worth 200 million from before the country fell, wouldn't that be about the level of handing over one small workshop to them? That's cheap for settling a dispute, isn't it?'
'Anyway, it took my side, so if I let Chief Noh Do-ha mediate and he tells me to just let it slide for the sake of good relations, wouldn't that actually hurt my reputation?'
The guild masters exchanged glances.
"Uh, hmm. Can we try to work it out among ourselves first, and ask for your help again if that doesn't work?"
"Of course, anytime. I'll even distribute a few of these NPCs with the AI installed to each of you, so use them as you see fit...."
"Oh? Is that really okay?"
"Of course. Heh. They're free...."
The judge NPCs that Noh Do-ha had created were distributed evenly among the cities of the Korean Peninsula.
The guild masters returned to their respective cities and pondered how to use their new toys.
And naturally, even if one guild managed one city, numerous factions existed within.
"Your guys invaded our turf first!"
"That's not your turf, it's our area! Besides, you guys killed our people first!"
"Boss!"
"Boss, please judge!"
"Uh...."
Whenever disputes arose between factions, it was naturally the guild master's role to mediate.
By rendering appropriate judgments in such situations, guild masters could demonstrate their power, but even so, earning a reputation for being fair in all matters was not easy.
And finally, the guild masters realized.
What role this interesting but outdated and seemingly impractical AI judge could perform.
"By the way, guys. Have you heard of the AI Judge that's recently come out? It's truly an amazing thing...."
"Huh?"
AI Judge, nationwide debut confirmed!
A Regressor Who Tells Stories