In the face of such a bizarre phenomenon, the maid remained expressionless. In her dictionary as an intelligent machine, there were no words like “shock” or “confusion.” Although she didn’t understand the situation, she quickly turned around and looked back toward where the gunshot had just come from.
Logically, whoever fired the shot and saved her from the monster’s mouth should at least harbor good intentions towards her. Perhaps she could get some information from them.
But when 86 actually looked in that direction, she was momentarily stunned, as if experiencing a brief short-circuit.
Because
What the maid saw was another maid.
Another one, identical to her.
The other was holding a sniper rifle. Seeing herself looking over, she didn’t even spare an extra glance and quickly aimed the gun elsewhere, continuing to fire with bangs.
And when 86 followed the line of sight of this gun-wielding maid, she realized that she was now in the midst of a…
Battlefield.
Under the blood-red sky above, countless bizarre, twisted Miasma monsters, like the one Eileen had just transformed into, were rampaging across the land.
Their dense numbers stretched as far as the eye could see, forming a black tide threatening to devour everything.
But the reason this tide of monsters was forced to halt its advance was due to the intensely concentrated barrage of gunfire.
The bombardment of artillery fire landed precisely at the monsters’ feet, each strike perfectly blowing a dozen or so monsters into the air.
Some giant monsters, as tall as small buildings, relied on their immense size to forcefully break through the bombardment. But whenever this happened, beams of azure blue lasers would precisely target and pierce through the limbs of the giant monsters. After disabling their mobility, familiar sniper rifle shots would follow.
The scorching armor-piercing rounds pierced through the monsters’ shells, hitting their cores. The behemoths could only let out a reluctant roar before falling to the ground, motionless.
Whether it was the artillery fire, the laser energy beams, or the sniping at the core, all the resisters against the tide of monsters on the battlefield were her, them.
That’s right.
In fact, compared to the side of the monster tide, although those monsters all emitted a strong Tainted Miasma aura, becoming deformed and bizarre under its influence, at least each of them looked different.
But on the other side, it was a uniform sight of maids, all with exactly the same faces, all with expressionless expressions.
This was a mechanical army composed of dozens of “hers.”
It was evident that each one of them was several times stronger than the monsters, with one of them being more than a match for ten, and their coordination with each other was incredibly in sync.
This is why they could fight against hundreds, if not thousands, of monsters with just a few dozen of them. .
However, ammunition always runs out eventually, and gun barrels can become overloaded and overheat. When the overheated weapons needed to cool down and the suppressive fire of the gun barrage weakened, it was the monsters’ cue to launch a counterattack.
They ran wildly across the sandy land, their eyes reflecting the same madness as the blood-red sky above. Leveraging their numerical advantage, they steadily closed the distance with the maids.
When the distance had narrowed to the point of close combat, the maids put down their firearms and grasped the particle light swords they were equipped with, transforming from precise shooters to fearless swordsmen in an instant.
But obviously,
Once it came to close combat, the numerical superiority of the monsters became even more apparent. Although the maids’ thermal light swords cleaved the monsters in front of them in half, forming a circle, back to back, they were like a meat grinder amidst the horde.
However, when one of the maids was hit by a monster’s spike, causing a breach in their defense circle, it led to a complete breakdown and rout.
Some of them had their chests pierced by the tails of the monsters, some had their necks bitten off, with wires and sparks flying from their severed necks, while others were crushed underfoot by the earlier giant beasts.
Some had an arm sliced off by the monsters’ scythes but still continued to swing their swords unflinchingly, killing one after another, like a machine. No, they were indeed machines.
86, as an observer, watched her “sisters” fall one by one on the battlefield. It wasn’t that she didn’t want to help, but she found herself unable to move.
She could do nothing but watch everything unfold, unable to do anything outside this battlefield.
Or rather,
She was never “in” this battlefield to begin with.
With the casualties mounting, the already vastly outnumbered maid troops were completely overwhelmed. The tide of monsters engulfed this unit, tearing them into mechanical wreckage scattered across the land with their fangs and claws.
In an instant, the only remaining members of the maid troop were 86 and the sniper who, like her, was positioned far at the rear.
When the sniper fired the last bullet, facing the oncoming tide of monsters rushing towards her, she made a different move compared to the previous actions of the maid troop.
She discarded her sniper rifle, leaving her back completely exposed to the ferocious monsters rushing towards her, all for the sake of setting her gaze upon 86.
Facing this identical version of herself
She locked eyes with 86.
Her lips moved slightly. Due to the distance, no sound reached 86, but she could still quickly interpret the intended message from the movement of the lips after analysis.
It was
[Your turn now]
*Boom!*
Before the tide of monsters behind the sniper maid even got close, a loud noise erupted from the ground beneath her. Chunks of earth flew, and from the gaping hole in the ground emerged a giant abyssal maw, like a flesh worm’s mouth full of sharp teeth.
This Miasma flesh worm, bursting suddenly from underground, bit the defenseless maid in half at the waist. Electric sparks burst from her waist, tracing an arc in the air along with her severed body, which then crashed to the ground and was quickly trampled into remains by the pursuing horde of monsters.
Throughout the process, 86 could do nothing but watch helplessly as the tide of monsters continued toward her, eventually engulfing her as well.
*Swish!*
“86! 86! What’s wrong with you! Hey! Don’t scare me!”
“Damn it! Did I accidentally damage some critical part of her?”
“Can it still work if I pat it like before? No, I need to hurry and take 86 to Old timer!” .
When 86’s vision cleared again, the first thing she saw was an anxious Eileen. Looking around, she found herself back beside the fountain under the night sky.
The previous monsters, desolate land, maid troop, and… that blood-red sky had all vanished.
It was as if everything had been just a momentary… illusion.
Do robots experience illusions?
The answer is definitely no.
86’s chip was frantically processing, and after multiple analyses, she could only find one reason for the explanation.
[Abnormal data]
It was that set of foreign data that spontaneously appeared from her master’s first “dream” and those scenes just now were probably from that data.
Moreover, although it was strange for a robot, 86 had a strong intuition.
That sniper maid was the one who left her the data.
No.
Rather, it was the entire maid troop. They were all one, all sisters of ‘Zero.’
So…
What exactly were those scenes? Where were they really, and what were they fighting against? What was the purpose of leaving her with these images? And
What did that phrase [Your turn now] mean?
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