An Asset Cheaper Than a Person: Jaeho Gets a Contract as S-62B, but His Name Disappears from the Record | NOV-HUM Ep. 4 Part 2
Jaeho gets the work he needed, but only as S-62B.
The next section appeared.
OPERATING HOURS
CONSECUTIVE NIGHT DEPLOYMENT PERMITTED
MANDATORY COOLDOWN CYCLE REQUIRED
MAINTENANCE CYCLE REQUIRED
Jaeho asked,
“What about rest breaks?”
Taegyu pointed at the screen.
“There’s the cooldown.”
“Cooldown.”
“Prevents overheating. Older units need it more often.”
“Is that when it rests?”
Taegyu looked at him as though the question were slightly odd.
“It isn’t resting. It’s cooling down.”
Jaeho closed his mouth.
“Oh.”
“Humanoids don’t get rest breaks. You stop them because operating safety standards require it.”
There was no malice in Taegyu’s voice.
“Run an old unit without cooling it and blow a joint, that costs us money.”
Jaeho kept his eyes on the screen.
MANDATORY COOLDOWN
When a company had required Jaeho to stop working as a person, it had been a statutory rest break. He was entitled to it whether he felt tired or not. If he was injured while working, there was a record. If he became ill, someone checked his health.
There was a similar rule on the screen now. A rule telling S-62B to stop. But the reason was different. It was not there so S-62B could rest. It was there to keep S-62B from breaking.
Jaeho did not put the distinction into words. He simply read the line again.
MANDATORY COOLDOWN CYCLE REQUIRED
He scrolled down.
MAINTENANCE RESPONSIBILITY
OPERATION MUST CEASE AND MAINTENANCE BE REQUESTED IN THE EVENT OF JOINT, CORE, OR EXTERIOR MALFUNCTION.
Next.
ASSET ACCIDENT
DAMAGE TO UNIT OR OPERATIONAL ERROR DURING WORK IS SUBJECT TO ASSET-ACCIDENT PROCEDURES.
Jaeho’s hand stopped.
“What about workers’ comp?”
Again, the words escaped before he could stop them.
Taegyu looked at him.
“What?”
Jaeho froze for a moment.
“Damage during work.”
“That goes under an asset accident.”
Taegyu tapped the screen.
“Here.”
ASSET ACCIDENT REPORT
“Repair liability is assigned to either the company or the asset owner depending on the cause.”
“What if it gets hurt?”
This time Taegyu gave him a distinctly strange look. Jaeho realized his mistake.
“Unit damage.”
“That’s what getting hurt means for it.”
Taegyu laughed lightly.
“You’ve got a pretty human way of putting things.”
Jaeho almost laughed too. He stopped himself.
“Legacy language data.”
“Good data.”
Still smiling, Taegyu moved to the next page.
There was no medical examination in the contract.
No medical history.
No musculoskeletal workload assessment.
No blood pressure.
No night-work fitness evaluation.
No occupational injury claim procedure.
Of course there wasn’t. It was not a person.
Jaeho thought about that for a moment. As a person, those were the very things that had kept him out. Now their absence was letting him in.
Taegyu said,
“Here’s how the asset-use fee gets paid.”
The screen changed.
ASSET UNDER TRANSFER GRACE PERIOD
ASSET-USE FEE → VIRTUAL SETTLEMENT ACCOUNT
FUNDS AVAILABLE TO AUTHORIZED PARTY AFTER REGISTRATION TRANSFER
Jaeho looked at the amount again.
“So can I get my—”
He cut himself off.
Taegyu looked over.
“Get what?”
“Can it be settled now?”
“After the transfer. Until then, it accumulates in the asset account.”
“So it can’t be withdrawn for living expenses right away?”
This time Taegyu paused. A cold sensation ran down Jaeho’s back. That had been far too human a question.
But unexpectedly, Taegyu simply nodded.
“Owners who need cash sometimes use advance-payment firms. The fees are high.”
Jaeho relaxed inwardly.
“Confirmed.”
Taegyu opened the last page.
THIS AGREEMENT IS NOT AN EMPLOYMENT CONTRACT.
The sentence had been separately highlighted. Checkboxes followed.
NOT SUBJECT TO HUMAN WORKER WAGE REGULATIONS
NOT SUBJECT TO HUMAN REST-BREAK REGULATIONS
NOT SUBJECT TO HUMAN HEALTH-INFORMATION MANAGEMENT
NOT SUBJECT TO HUMAN OCCUPATIONAL-INJURY REGISTRATION
Corresponding asset categories appeared to the right.
ASSET-USE FEE
MANDATORY COOLDOWN
MAINTENANCE HISTORY
ASSET ACCIDENT RECORD
Jaeho read them one by one. The things that had disqualified him as a person were gone. In their place were the things required for a machine.
He tried to tell himself this was good. This was what he had wanted. A place that did not ask about his health. A place that did not ask his age. A place that did not calculate whether he needed to rest. A place willing to believe he could work through the night.
But the contract was not believing anything about him. It had classified him as something those questions did not apply to in the first place.
Jaeho looked at Taegyu.
“Can I keep taking night assignments?”
“We’ll mark the asset for consecutive deployment.”
“How many days?”
“Depends on the schedule. For now, all week.”
Taegyu added,
“It’s convenient. We don’t have to build a shift rotation the way we do for people.”
Jaeho smiled. The smile came a little late this time.
“Still gets paid in the end.”
Taegyu smiled too.
“Sure. From the receiving side, that part’s the same.”
Jaeho held on to that sentence.
The part where you get paid is the same.
That was enough. He needed to live. He needed to pay his debts. If he walked away now, all he would have left was a rental deposit tied up as collateral and a wrecked S-62B.
A signature field appeared at the bottom of the screen. The familiar blank from human employment contracts was missing.
EMPLOYEE NAME
There was no such field.
Instead:
OPERATIONAL ASSET
S-62B
Below it:
AUTHENTICATION SIGNATURE PENDING
Jaeho moved the core inside his vest close to the terminal.
Beep.
A short tone sounded.
S-62B AUTHENTICATION COMPLETE
LABOR ASSET USE AGREEMENT EXECUTED
Jaeho stared at the screen. As a person, he had failed fourteen times. As a machine, he had gotten a contract on the first try.
It would have been a lie to say he was not happy.
That was what made it so strange.
By evening, the assignment board had been updated. Human staff names occupied the upper section.
Haewon Jeong.
Two drivers.
One night-support worker.
Their starting times and rest periods appeared beside their names.
A line separated them from another section below.
OPERATIONAL ASSET ASSIGNMENTS
Jaeho found his number. It did not take long.
S-62B
NIGHT CASKET-TRANSFER / MEMORIAL-ROOM SUPPORT
CONSECUTIVE DEPLOYMENT
COOLDOWN CYCLE: PER OPERATING STANDARD
It was there the next day too.
S-62B.
And the day after that.
S-62B.
His own name was nowhere.
Jaeho stood in front of the board for a long time. The office administrator handed him a sheet of paper.
“Your first-day assignment.”
Jaeho took it. The same information was printed there.
OPERATIONAL ASSET: S-62B
NIGHT TEAM
DEPLOYMENT START: 21:00
The name Jaeho Yoon did not appear anywhere.
Out of habit, he looked toward the bottom of the page. At his old jobs, seeing his name on a work schedule had told him immediately where he belonged that day.
Which route.
Which team.
Who he was working with.
Who would come looking for him.
Today he was clearly here to work, but there was no way to find him by his own name.
He told himself it was temporary. His name had not disappeared. They simply were not using it here.
Jaeho Yoon still existed.
Back in his room, mail still arrived under that name. His identification still carried it. The debts he had to repay were still his under that name. He was only using a number while he worked.
Put that way, it did not seem like much.
Jaeho folded the assignment sheet in half. Then folded it once more. He put it in his pocket.
Someone was walking toward him from the far end of the corridor. Black funeral work clothes under a light vest. A name badge was visible on the chest.
HAEWON JEONG
Haewon glanced at Jaeho while passing but did not stop. Jaeho did not speak first either. Today was only for the contract. He would join the actual night team on his next shift.
He watched Haewon walk away for a moment. Starting tomorrow, someone would have to call him something.
Would they say S-62B?
Would they spell out S-six-two-B every time?
Being called by a number might not be such a big thing. Factories used employee numbers. Delivery drivers had route numbers. That was how Jaeho chose to think about it.
The assignment board refreshed again. One line in the human staff section changed.
HAEWON JEONG — NIGHT SUPERVISOR
The line below remained the same.
OPERATIONAL ASSET S-62B — CONSECUTIVE NIGHT DEPLOYMENT
Jaeho looked from one line to the other.
One person had a name.
One asset had a number.
The number could earn money.
The number could get work.
No one had asked his age.
No one had asked about his health.
No one had asked whether he needed to rest.
All the questions that had mattered when he was a person were gone.
For the first time, Jaeho found that slightly strange. He had thought the questions were gone because they were inconvenient. He had thought their absence was setting him free.
But the questions were not the only thing missing from the record.
The one those questions were meant to be about was missing too.
Jaeho pressed a hand against the folded assignment sheet inside his pocket. The paper crumpled beneath his fingers. He did not let go.
He had a job.
That part was real.
Starting tomorrow, he had somewhere to report for work again. For the first time in months, that alone brought him relief.
Jaeho walked toward the exit. After two steps, he looked back at the board once.
He was not looking for his name.
He already knew it was not there.
The same words remained on the board to the end.
OPERATIONAL ASSET: S-62B.
Still holding the folded assignment sheet in his pocket, Jaeho walked down the corridor toward the work area.
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