Chapter 191: The Robot ‘Czedow’ [Part 1]
“Hey Cary, what’s wrong?”
Xiao Shang got up and asked when he saw Cary instantly tensing himself into high alert mode.
At the same time, the rest of the people inside the room swiftly took out their weapons, fell into their best battle ready state and moved towards the entrance vigilantly.
Cold sweat formed on Cary’s forehead as he watched the stranger before him.
This person was absolutely not a member of the Sixth B Squadron. After so many years, Cary was very familiar with every person in the Sixth B Squadron. It didn’t matter if said person was a combat, technical or logistics personnel, because he had memorized them all in his head.
However, this person probably didn’t belong in the 3rd B Squadron either. Cary was sure that a person like this would’ve left an impression in his mind if he existed in the 3rd B Squadron. In fact, he thought that it was impossible to forget someone like this after the first meeting.
He had no breathing, no heartbeat, and no warmth. He didn’t possess any humanlike qualities other than the fact that he looked human from the outside. He felt just like an inanimate object…
The tip of Cary’s eyebrows rose.
Was he a robot acquired by the commander from Frentz?
But that couldn’t be right. Ever since they’d gone through that robot rebellion both squads had suffered bit of robophobia. Since no one could shake off the feeling that a robot was a hidden threat, they didn’t ask for a robot at all.
In that case, what on earth was this thing before them?
While Cary was staring closely at the stranger before him and was ready to react to anything, Xiao Shang and the others shown up behind Cary and saw the person standing before the entrance while wearing a gentle smile on his face. They could sense neither any malice nor humanity from the person at all.
Moreover, Xiao Shang discovered that their communicators had been completely cut off from the outside world. All signals had been completely lost.
What the hell was going on around here?!
“Who are you?” Cary said in a heavy voice.
The rest of the group were holding weapons in their hands. They would attack without hesitation the second this person acted beyond the norm.
The person smiled warmly and raised his hand, “Hello.”
A muscle twitched in Cary’s face. Was he asking for a handshake? But who would be stupid enough to shake hands with a complete stranger under such circumstances?!
Therefore, Cary continued to do nothing and ignored the person’s outstretched hand. As long as the guy before him didn’t try to do anything funny, he wouldn’t react carelessly as well.
The guy didn’t look angry in the slightest at Cary’s ignorance. He withdrew his hand but continued to wear a gentle smile on his face. He looked very sincere.
“Hello, everyone. My name is Czedow.”
His voice was calm, unhurried and pleasant to hear.
“I don’t care what you’re called…”
Cary was interrupted before he could finish his sentence, “I know who you guys are. You’re Cary, Xiao Shang, Ba Dao…”
Czedow cast a glance at Cary and the rest of the people in the group, voicing their names one after another.
While everyone was watching Czedow attentively, Czedow nodded towards them and took a step towards Cary. A shadow jumped out of Czedow’s back at the same time.
“Walala~”
Cary nearly swung his light blade, and Xiao Shang and the rest nearly fired their guns due to the sudden voice that had came out of nowhere and the one step that had attracted all their attention while they were highly tensed.
“What the… f*ck!!”
For a second, Cary thought that his heart would jump out of his throat. He pointed a shaky finger at the head of a certain cat that had popped up from behind Czedow, “Y-y-y-y-you…”
Despite ‘you’-ing for a long time, Cary wasn’t able to spout anything coherent from his mouth and simply panted heavily where he stood. Xiao Shang and the others shared more or less the same reaction as him.
“We got them good, Cillin. Haha!” the gray cat said proudly on top of Czedow’s shoulder.
The rest of the people finally relaxed when they saw Cillin walking over from behind Czedow.
Xiao Shang leaned against the door looking like he was about to run out of gas, “F*ck! I was wondering if he’s someone from ‘Grim Reaper’!” Xiao Shang wiped the sweat on his forehead while saying this. Even his back was drenched in cold sweat. Goddammit, he nearly had a heart attack.
“I also thought that it was ‘Grim Reaper’.” Ba Dao moved his overly tensed muscles and said.
Xiao Shang cast a glance at his communicator and found that it was working normally once more. He shook his head and said, “LC Cillin, are you punishing us for not attending our duties or something?”
Cillin simply smiled at Xiao Shang’s complaint before pointing at Czedow, “Allow me to introduce him. He is an AI robot and what I’ve been working on for the past time. His name is Czedow.”
“Is he really a robot!?”
Cary came over and walked circles around Czedow twice before saying, “Something’s different. He doesn’t feel like Frentz’s robots. I’m not sure what it is, but he’s just different from them.”
“Hmph hmph! Cillin and I have spent much effort to research and create this guy. Of course he’s incomparable to the robots that Frentz created!” the gray cat stood on top of Czedow’s shoulder with his nose high up in the air as it spoke.
Cary, the others and even Cillin himself twitched his lips at that statement: You and Cillin? Do you seriously think anyone would believe that? You were probably eating fish biscuits at the side while Cillin was researching on his lonesome, aren’t you?
Their guess was in fact 100% correct. It’s just that they couldn’t say it without being scratched by the gray cat, so they didn’t.
In reality, the gray cat’s contribution in Czedow’s creation was undeniable. If the gray cat hadn’t found the ideal material to create Czedow, then his birth would have probably been delayed. That was why the gray cat had immediately labeled Czedow as one of its own while Cillin was creating him. To be exact, the gray cat saw him as its underling.
Xiao Shang moved closer and pinched Czedow’s arm curiously.
“This feeling… is he really a robot?” not only could Xiao Shang see the arteries beneath the skin, he could feel the liquid flowing inside it. Shit, this really is a vein, isn’t it?
Czedow didn’t say anything. Instead, he stretched out a finger and somehow caused his fingernail to grow longer all of a sudden. Then, he cut a two centimeters deep wound on his other arm.
There was no blood. The wound looked almost the same as a fleshy-colored human wound, but no blood was flowing out of it. Then, the wound swiftly regenerated and restored itself to exactly the same look as before under everyone’s shocked gazes.
“What the… f*ck!”
Now even Cary wasn’t sure what to say.
They had all seen the battle between robots during that robot rebellion. When the fourth and fifth rank robots were torn apart by the rank two robots, the color of their flesh absolutely looked nothing like Czedow’s.
Czedow’s body looked so realistic it could fool almost anyone’s eyes. At the very least, he looked a lot more lifelike that Frentz’s robots.
“Please don’t treat Czedow like one of Frentz’s robots. He can develop his own intelligence, and he can adjust the state of his body to share the same body temperature and heartbeat as human beings.”
Cillin briefly introduced Czedow’s characteristics to Cary and the others, but it didn’t do much to wipe away the worries they held towards Czedow’s existence. If this was before the robot rebellion then they would’ve raised both hands in agreement, but the fact was that they’d just gone through a large scale robot rebellion at Frentz’s planet. Everyone was extremely sensitive towards the word ‘robot’ right now, so there were definitely a lot of people who would voice their objection against Czedow’s existence.
As it turned out, Cary and everyone else’s worries were not unfounded. When Cillin presented Czedow before Shawton and the other lieutenant commanders, more than half of the votes were against it.
Shawton had not expressed his opinion since the beginning. He had been staring quietly at Czedow.
The gray cat nearly blew its top a couple of times throughout the meeting as it lay on top of Czedow’s head. If Cillin hadn’t told it to keep quiet, it would’ve charged forwards and scratched up a storm already. How exactly is our Czedow in anyway lousier than that bunch of trash you call subordinates, huh?! (T/N: ooh. Ouch. Mercy, sir cat)
Shawton himself would be flipping some tables if Cillin allowed the gray cat to voice its opinions. Cillin knew from the start that the gray cat had no concept of control the second it started spouting things in anger, which was why he told it to be quiet from the start.
Shawton tapped a finger on the table, instantly quieting the discussion inside the meeting room.
Shawton looked at Cillin and said, “Cillin, how can you say for sure that he won’t lose control just like Frentz’s robots? And please don’t use the 1st generation robots as your justification. As you know, that incident was just a tentative attack by ‘Grim Reaper’. No one can say for sure whether they actually have the ability to control the 1st generation robot.”
“I am the only person who knows the ultimate terminal control code. If anyone else attempts to hack him, it would only backfire against them. This is the improvement I’ve made after analysing Frentz’s 1st and other generations’ robots and the robots developed by other GAL robot manufacturers.”
The rest of the LCs wanted to say something in rebuttal, but Shawton raised his hand to stop them, “You are sure that nothing like Frentz’s incident would happen?”
“I am sure.” Cillin stared straight at Shawton as he said this without hesitation.
“Alright.” Shawton looked at everyone’s faces before continuing, “I will allow Czedow’s existence. However, in consideration of everyone’s opinions, he may only operate within your team’s area for now.”
“No problem.” Cillin was okay with this. Even if Shawton did allow Czedow to move around the squadron, he wouldn’t have allowed him to leave his team’s area either.