©NovelBuddy
From Abyssal Invasion to Bursting Stars with a Single Sword-Chapter 149 - 126: Sikes Mechanical Civilization, A Mechanical Tiger_2
"Do you guys eat food, or do you consume motor oil?"
"Are the faces of robots all standard models? Is customization expensive?"
Questions like these were wildly imaginative.
After gathering useful information, the three took turns keeping watch and resting.
In the late hours of the night,
Lu Heng was shaken awake and heard Su Muyu's voice next to his ear, "That cartoon dinosaur has walked out; should I go after it?"
Upon hearing this, Lu Heng immediately sat up, kicked Lin Zeyu to wake him, and called out, "Time for business."
"What's up? What's going on?" Lin Zeyu looked completely bewildered.
"That cartoon dinosaur has run off; could it really, as the repair shop owner said, get lost once it's networked?" Su Muyu was still a bit confused.
Lin Zeyu gradually regained his senses, and while putting on his shoes, he said, "Could it be that the boss deliberately installed some program to control the robot to return to him?"
"Let's follow it and find out."
The three left the hotel, following the cartoon dinosaur.
The wheels of the cartoon dinosaur crunched over the uneven concrete surface, making creaking noises, moving in a consistent direction, clearly with a specific destination in mind.
They followed it through three blocks until the cartoon dinosaur entered a downward staircase and into an underground chamber.
Lu Heng had Su Muyu activate invisibility before following into the underground chamber.
The lighting in the underground chamber was very dim; only the indicator lights of a few robots emitted enough light for the three to barely make out the situation inside.
In this underground chamber, there were about a dozen service-type robots.
At the moment, a tracked maintenance bot was disassembling these service bots with the tools on its mechanical arms, removing component after component.
Su Muyu and Lin Zeyu were quite startled by the sight.
Because the disassembled robots did not resist at all, they just stood there quietly while the maintenance bot dismantled them piece by piece.
After the vital components were removed, the useless shells were piled in the corner of the chamber, like a stack of discarded "corpses."
Lu Heng, however, was not surprised by this scene.
Because this was one of the characteristics of rogue Mechanical Servants.
Any robot could sustain damage, and once damaged, it would need repairs; if parts were damaged, they would need to be replaced.
However, the industrial systems of this planet were mostly withdrawn, making most parts unproducible.
Where would the spare parts for repairs come from then?
They could only be taken from other robots.
The Gestalt Consciousness of rogue Mechanical Servants was a collective entity, resembling the consciousness of a bee swarm.
However, within a bee swarm, there are workers, soldiers, drones, and the Bee Queen,
Each individual has a rank. If the Bee Queen's parts got damaged, naturally they would be taken from the other "workers" and installed onto the Bee Queen.
That's why the maintenance bots could be seen dismantling service bots because these service bots were the "workers" in this group, the lowest rank.
After the cartoon dinosaur entered the underground chamber, it lined up at the end, quietly waiting to be dismantled.
Seeing the cartoon dinosaur quietly waiting to be dismantled, seemingly cute but calmly awaiting "death" without a hint of resistance, Su Muyu felt a puzzling emotion and whispered, "So pitiful."
At that moment,
there came a rapid sound of tracks rolling over the ground from outside the chamber.
"Another robot bringing parts?" Lin Zeyu curiously looked back.
Then, he saw a mechanical guard burst into the chamber and began to riddle the robots inside with bullets.
The maintenance bot, spotting the mechanical guard, turned and fled, its high-speed tracks screeching as it zoomed away, sounding the alarm:
"Alert! Ninth District is under attack, requesting backup... Alert! Ninth District is under attack, requesting backup..."
The dozen or so service bots, including the cartoon dinosaur, did not flee but instead turned and surrounded the mechanical guard, using their bodies to block the guard and help the maintenance bot escape.
Obviously,
Within the ranks of rogue Mechanical Servants, maintenance bots held a higher status than ordinary robots.
After all, with maintenance bots, other damaged robots could be brought back to work.
Without maintenance bots, the rogue Mechanical Servant camp would lose a bot with every casualty.
Da da da...
A volley from the mechanical guard reduced the dozen service bots to ruins.
The cartoon dinosaur lay on the ground, its half-rotating wheel still spinning, continuously sounding the alarm.
"Should we intervene?" Su Muyu asked, furrowing her brows.
"Let's follow and assess the situation first," Lu Heng said, not rushing to act.
The Central System Camp and the rogue Mechanical Servant Camp were locked in constant combat, with incidents like this happening every day.
This 𝓬ontent is taken from fгeewebnovёl.co𝙢.
Stopping one or two skirmishes meant nothing; the key was to find a breaking point in the deadlock.
The three followed the mechanical guard out of the chamber,
Exiting the underground chamber into the street above, they heard similar gunfire in the distance.
Clearly, the incident wasn't isolated; similar events were unfolding in nearby districts.
More and more mechanical guards appeared on the streets, their hefty tracks rolling over the pavement, the sound of vibrating metal chains resonating.
Looking around, one could see around a dozen mechanical guards chasing a variety of oddly shaped robots on the streets.
Judging by the scene, this wasn't a one-off operation; it was likely a systematic siege orchestrated by the Central System.