Physically, Josh—who hadn't even used the super-soldier serum—was likely still slightly stronger than them. But in terms of abilities, they weren't even on the sa level anymore.
With years of drinking from the Pool Of Eternity, he had accumulated magic power and mastered the magic of the Five Elents.
He had also honed his gun-fighting skills and carried all sorts of advanced gadgets—shield generators, space-ti teleportation belts, and more.
If Josh wanted to kill them, there was nothing they could do to him.
Besides, they had already scouted the area. It seed safe.
But they had been a little too optimistic—sothing did go wrong along the way.
Though, thankfully, it wasn't anything too serious.
As Josh walked through the forest and was about to step onto the beach, a sudden sound of sothing cutting through the air ca from above.
Without even looking up, he instantly materialized a strange-looking weapon in his hand and slashed at the source of the sound with a swift Arican-style iai strike.
With a loud bang, the attacker's upper body was instantly gone.
The scattered blood and flesh was blocked by the shield that had automatically activated around Josh.
As the remaining half of the corpse hit the ground, Josh turned and glanced at the attacker's clothing—it was a native.
He shook his head, unimpressed. It wasn't the first ti he'd killed soone.
When he reached the shore, he waved his hand and several massive hover transporters materialized one after the other.
After all, beyond just robots, the I, Robot world had plenty of advanced technology—like Howard Stark's hover cars, which were already common there.
After summoning about fifty transport vehicles, Josh decided that was enough. Each one carried a thousand NS-5 robots.
Fifty vehicles ant fifty thousand robots—more than enough to transform this island.
Next, he brought out a fleet of conventional transport trucks, all preloaded with various building materials.
When the entire beach was filled, Josh finally climbed into the driver's seat of one of the vehicles, pulled out a smart tablet, entered a command, connected to his satellite, and completed a DNA verification.
With the sound of a machine starting, the fifty chanical giants ca to life and began moving toward the airport—fully autonomous and driverless, nothing like Tesla, so no safety concerns!
The forest in their path was instantly leveled, sending flocks of birds flying in panic.
Environntal concerns? Nobody in this era cared about that.
Besides, this island had no rare species or valuable ecology—there were no restrictions on how much it could be modified.
The deafening rumble of the transport convoy imdiately alerted the bodyguards at the airport, as well as the tied-up captives.
Even though Josh had warned them in advance, Vito and the others couldn't help but tense up when the mont arrived.
Especially when the fifty massive vehicles stopped neatly at the edge of the airport, their doors opened, and rows of identical robots were revealed inside—it was a shocking sight.
Only when Josh stepped out of one of the trucks did they finally relax.
Without delay, the fifty thousand robots began their assigned tasks, building the airport.
Josh didn't need to issue any further orders—the entire airport plan and island data had already been uploaded to the robots' database. They simply got to work.
The goal wasn't to build a fully equipped, permanent airport—just a temporary one capable of handling large jet transport planes.
But with fifty thousand robots, the construction wasn't limited to just an airport.
They also had to build a military camp for at least a hundred thousand troops, warehouses, and various other facilities.
In short, nearly the entire 100-square-kiloter island was due for a complete overhaul.
Without the efficiency of the robots, this would have been an enormous project.
Ignoring the now massive construction site, Josh took one of the robots and went into the room where Vito and the others were guarding the prisoners.
"Did you get anything out of them?" Josh asked as he looked at the three disheveled prisoners tied to the pillars.
"We did. They really are rebels. Ha, I thought they'd be tough, but one punch and they spilled everything!" one of the bodyguards said with disdain.
Hearing that, Josh glanced at the three miserable rebels and the vomit on the ground, wrinkling his nose. Damn, you're a super soldier—it's a miracle they're still alive after one punch!
"Good. You clean this up," Josh said with a smile, patting the bodyguard on the shoulder before walking out. Behind him, Vito and the others chuckled, leaving the unlucky guy standing there in shock.
The sll was awful, and with nothing urgent to do on the island, Josh figured he might as well go to the beach, do so fishing, and enjoy a barbecue.
But just as he reached the shore, his watch communicator buzzed.
It wasn't from Vito's group, but from one of the robot teams he'd sent out earlier.
"Team D-23, Unit 9527 reporting: In the central area of the island, we found a section of terrain that differs significantly from the data in our database. Scans indicate a large underground chamber deep beneath this area. There is no record of such a structure in our database. Awaiting your orders," the robot voice reported.
In I, Robot, the geography of Earth was the sa, and that included Atauro Island. The data Josh had uploaded to the robots ca from that version of the island.
But he had clearly underestimated the differences.
Even if two worlds seed identical on the surface, deeper down things could be very different.
These NS-5 robots had only just begun their survey, and they had already found sothing unexpected.
"An underground cave? Interesting," Josh mused. He hadn't expected sothing so intriguing on what was supposed to be a simple trip.
The question was: was this underground cave natural or man-made?
"No excavation has been done yet, so we cannot determine that," 9527 replied.
"I am coming over now. Start excavating carefully, but don't do too much damage," Josh instructed.
"Understood, sir," 9527 confird before ending the transmission.
Josh then pulled an off-road vehicle from his system inventory and drove toward Team D-23's location.
By the ti he arrived, the robots had already begun preliminary excavation. Most of the team had entered the underground cave, including 9527.
Josh looked down into the tunnel they had dug. It was dark and deep.
"9527, upload a live feed," Josh ordered, pulling out a tablet-like controller and linking it to 9527's visual feed.
Soon, footage from the robot's perspective appeared on the screen.
What appeared was clearly a man-made structure.
"Can you analyze the origin of this ruin?" Josh asked, frowning at the sight of the underground complex.
"No matching architectural style found. No identifiable samples found. Unable to determine at this ti. Further exploration required," 9527 replied with three consecutive "No data available" ssages.
Josh's curiosity shot through the roof.
These robots had access to data on all known Earth civilizations from the I, Robot world.
And yet this ruin didn't match any of them?
That ant it wasn't an Earth civilization.
Could it be another Kree ruin like Attilan? Or was it sothing from so other alien race?
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