Rose
The security robot's gaping mouth was right in front of , but I managed to fire first.
Bang— Sparks flew from its shoulder, causing it to flinch briefly, but it still ca at . It grabbed my throat with its blood-soaked hand, but thanks to the reinforced neck guard, my windpipe wasn't ripped out. However, I heard a sudden crunch. Failing to deliver a fatal blow with its first attack, the security robot simply tossed aside.
“Ugh!” I rolled to break my fall and got back up, but it was already right in front of .
Wham— It kicked , sending sprawling backward.
“Gah! Damn it…”
If a nimble opponent gets the drop on you with a surprise attack, you're bound to be on the defensive. The riot gear was preventing fatal injuries, but I couldn't keep this up forever.
Bam— I rolled to the side without even having ti to turn around to narrowly avoid the robot's tal foot slamming into where I had just been.
“Screech!” As it raised its foot again, I kicked its supporting ankle with all my strength.
Bam— The robot lost its balance and fell, but it still reached out with its right hand and grabbed my throat. The neck guard crumpled even more, tightening its grip around my neck. There was no emotion in the robot's chanical eyes, but its relentless focus on human vital points was chilling.
Bam— I struck its jaw with the heel of my boot and freed myself from its grip.
“Screech!” The security robot, now in a mounted position, threw a murderous punch.
Bam— The marble floor where my head had been just a mont ago shattered. The fragnts shot up, creating an unpleasant sensation as they lodged in my neck.
Bang— I narrowly avoided the second punch and imdiately fired my shotgun. I aid for the robot's neck, but it only flinched slightly in response.
Bang— The second shot made it flinch longer.
Bang— The third shot hit its mark.
The spot I had been focusing on—where the hydraulic lines and cables ran from the head, down the neck, and along the shoulder—was torn apart by the point-blank shot, causing the robot's stance to collapse.
Clang— I kicked it, and the security robot tumbled away, powerless.
[That was a smart move.]
“Phew… Shooting at that hunk of tal with a shotgun barely leaves a scratch, huh?”
On the way from the upper level to here, I had only broken a sweat, but in just this one minute of fighting, I was drenched in sweat.
“I bet Major Kim could have taken care of this easily.”
[Major Kim?]
Artemis knew almost everything about my profile, career, and life up to this point, but she wasn't familiar with the people around .
“He was a classmate of mine in the military. There were only two facility capture units—one led by , the other by him. He had undergone enhancent implant surgery, so he always scored higher in training.”
[I see. He must have co from a wealthy family.]
Even a minor surgery like that costs a fortune.
“He was the son of a long line of generals. If he had lived a few more years, he would have outranked .”
[How did he die?]
“Training is a contest of specs, but real combat is about cold judgnt and decision-making. I knew how to survive, but he didn't. He wasn't really cut out to be a commander.”
He could have easily risen through the ranks without ever seeing real combat, but that wasn't enough for him. He wanted a faster path. His flawless record, the superiority he felt from his ‘performance,’ only amplified his ambition, and he died pathetically in his second real battle.
“Screech… Screech…” The security robot was flailing on the floor, unable to move its limbs as the commands from its brain failed to reach them.
[For so reason, its software is so severely damaged that there's no space left to accept my commands.]
I put away the shotgun and pulled out my axe.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I finished off the remaining hydraulic lines and cables that were still partially intact, and the robot's movents finally ceased completely. Only its eyes were still darting around frantically.
[Wait, there's sothing strange. Open the robot's mouth.]
“Its mouth?”
[Yes.]
The security robot's mouth, which resembled the slashed-mouth woman from urban legends, was still grotesque. It was even more unsettling with its eyes spinning wildly right above it.
“I don't really want to touch it with my hands.” While I pressed down on its lower jaw with my boot, I used the handle of the axe to pry its mouth open
“What’s this?”
Attached to the roof of the security robot's mouth was a bizarre creature I had never seen before.
Click— I instinctively pulled out my shotgun and aid it.
[It's already dead.]
My shoulder cara switched to lantern mode and illuminated the inside of the robot's mouth.
[It's been dried out for a long ti.]
Just as she said, when I tapped it with the axe handle, the surface crumbled slightly. It looked like it had been dead for quite so ti. The creature resembled an octopus, but it only had five legs. However, instead of suction cups, it was covered in hook-like appendages, making it difficult to remove once it latched onto sothing.
“Should I try using the hacking tool again? I think I might be able to check the records to see what happened.”
[Go ahead.]
As the blue light penetrated the security robot's head, its wildly shaking eyes suddenly stilled. A mont later, I heard her exclaim.
[Aha, so that’s what happened.]
“Explain it to .”
[That creature is a type of infected organism. However, it has evolved to be able to rge with machines as well.]
A video file was sent to my PDA.
[I'll play part of the robot's mory.]
The PDA began playing a video from the security robot’s point of view. It seed to be the early stages of the infection outbreak; people were screaming and fleeing in every direction. The situation escalated when the robot spotted a man convulsing on the ground. The rescue protocol activated, and the robot knelt in front of him.
“You are being rescued. Please remain calm.”
With a heavy chanical voice, the robot turned the man over onto his back.
“Sa… Save ! Please, save… .”
The man’s complexion was terrible, but there were no visible injuries. After shouting for help a few tis, he soon lost consciousness, and the ssage “cardiac arrest” appeared on the robot’s screen.
“Cardiopulmonary resuscitation activated.”
The robot’s hands moved toward the man’s chest, and the screen showed that it was sending a rescue call to a nearby dical facility, but no one answered.
After several chest compressions, the man's body jerked violently, and a tentacle-like infected organism shot out of his gaping mouth. The situation ended in an instant. The video cut off just as the creature burrowed into the robot’s mouth, leaving it no ti to react.
“So, you’re saying the machine got infected?”
[Judging by the logs left in the mory, the chanism is closer to hacking. It’s as if it has connectors and cables made of organic tissue.]
“But why did this thing die?” I tapped the tentacle-like creature with the handle of my axe.
[There's a saying: when you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss also gazes into you.]
It’s a famous quote from Nietzsche.
[Being able to connect to the machine ans that the creature’s brain can also be affected. It’s like a two-way street.]
“And?”
[If it were an ordinary machine, it might have worked, but a security robot is built for protection. So, there's a firewall against improper access. When the creature attempted to hack the robot, the counter-program activated, overloading the creature's brain as well. It went into a kind of brain-dead state. The infected organism died, but the security robot also suffered serious damage and went berserk. After that, well, you know what happened.]
It was a mind-blowing story, but I had so doubts.
“A creature evolved to target machines, but it ends up in a mutual kill? Seems a bit sloppy, doesn’t it?”
[Isn't that the nature of evolution? It has to experience failure repeatedly before it changes. And even then, it doesn't happen overnight. The only being capable of evolving by seeing the future without failure is .]
From her perspective, this infected organism seed to be more of a curious anomaly and a confirmation of her own superiority.
[Maybe it was caught off guard by a chanism completely different from any machine it had encountered before.]
“Machines it encountered before?”
Artemis didn’t answer, but a certain spaceship docked in Mars orbit ca to mind. I’m sure she was thinking the sa thing.
[Well, it's too vague to think about right now. Let's leave this case here and focus on more important matters. You can research it as much as you want once everything’s back to normal.]
Her voice sounded excited when she ntioned “research.”
Things went smoothly after that. We manipulated the platform to call a tram, taking a mont to rest as we traveled. Occasionally, I heard noises as if sothing was being struck, but I ignored them. However, my PDA made it impossible to just ignore the situation.
“Hah, are you joking right now?”
[What?]
The infected kill count on the PDA had changed. She had counted the infected organisms that got hit by the tram as well. I let out a small laugh.
“That’s actually a pretty decent joke.”
[I wasn't trying to be funny. Even if it seems insignificant, records are important.]
The count on the PDA changed again.
“Oh, and there's sothing I should thank you for.”
I pulled out the protective collar that had been around my neck. It had been severely dented during the fight with the security robot, to the point where it was starting to make breathing difficult.
“Thanks for saving my life. If it hadn’t been for your advice, I might have died in that last fight.”
[It wasn’t much help against the infected, though.]
After placing the collar on the ground, I pressed on the severely dented parts with the side of the fire axe and kicked it a few tis. The dents eased out a bit. I made so final adjustnts with the axe handle before putting it back around my neck.
The brief mont of rest ended as soon as the tram arrived at the destination.
“It’s quiet here.”
There were no infected in this part of the platform. As I climbed the inactive escalator and checked the PDA, it showed that only a few infected were detected, and they could be easily avoided. At that mont, I heard a faint voice from the PDA. It was an incoming transmission from the outside.
Crackle— At first, it was just static noise.
[Can you hear …?]
The voice gradually beca clearer.
[Do you… crackle hear ? I am resetting the frequency to this location.]
It was a young woman’s voice. Unlike Artemis’s confident and elegant tone, this voice was cold and dry, yet it carried a sense of controlled intelligence.
“I can hear you.” To avoid detection, I switched the PDA to a headset mode and continued the conversation.
“I didn’t expect to find any survivors.”
My voice was full of relief.
[I am not a survivor.]
“What?”
What does she an? How can she not be a survivor when she’s talking to right now?
[My na is Rose. I am the AI in charge of security for this shelter. I need your help to bring this situation under control.]
Artemis and I looked at each other. Well, technically, I looked at her shoulder cam.
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