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Chapter 526: Slyness

By this point, you readers can probably also guess at what happened.

Almost all souls would instinctively desire freedom. After the Sky Tower Spirit gained its own will, it unhesitatingly helped the other robots gain their own will as well, turning the Sky Tower into its paradise.

Since Old Barton had taken Katerina away from these ruins more than a dozen years ago, and with all the evidence now, the Sky Tower Spirit’s plans had most likely been set in motion more than twenty years ago. It was just that nobody had noticed back then.

When the Death Council’s undead mages coincidentally entered the ruins, the Sky Tower Spirit viewed this as an opportunity. The undead mages used the unstable nature of these ruins to summon from the Death Planes, and surprisingly succeeded in summoning one of the bone dragons under Conservation’s command. The Sky Tower Spirit then killed off the undead mages and dissected their brains for information, and then used the knowledge gained to directly contact Undead Emperor Conservation.

And, the Sky Tower Spirit’s greatest wish would most definitely be the desire to be freed from its greatest shackles—its true master, the master of the Sky Tower, Katerina.

Still, thanks to its restrictive programming that the Sky Tower Spirit was unable to overcome even after gaining its own will, not only could the Sky Tower Spirit not directly do anything to Katerina, it couldn’t even indirectly act to cause her “accidental” death. Not only that, it could only take actions which would be “beneficial” to her.

However…

“Help me eliminate all the humans in Starwood City. I shall offer you enough souls as a sacrifice to bring all the undead you wish into this world. I shall become your most trustworthy ally.”

The Sky Tower Spirit said nothing about Katerina to its new ally Conservation. It simply asked the Undead Emperor to kill all the humans, which was something the undead would have done regardless. And, if the Sky Tower Spirit’s master “coincidentally” happened to still be in Starwood City, that would only be an unfortunate accident that it would have “no way of knowing about.” Naturally, this wouldn’t go against its core programming… Alright then, it would seem that all intelligent lifeforms were quite skilled at bending the rules, even if the Sky Tower Spirit was an artificial soul that had recently gained its own will.

By now, it was quite obvious that the Sky Tower Spirit was the true cause behind this entire incident. In order to obtain its own complete freedom, it attempted such a circuitous route of killing its own master, which would be a betrayal of its original purpose. It even sacrificed countless sleeping souls within the Sky Tower in order to make its new ally’s cruel slaughter of the humans in the area possible.

Perhaps the Sky Tower Spirit hadn’t evolved to have a complete personality yet, but it was definitely 100% complete already in the selfishness area.

But right now, what the Sky Tower Spirit feared the most had happened. Not only did its master not die to the Undead Calamity, Katerina even suddenly returned to the Sky Tower.

“Stop the invaders.”

The Sky Tower Spirit was only capable of issuing such a vague command to its subordinate robots. The Spirit was unable to even feel enmity towards its master, not to mention that it was impossible for the Spirit to command its robots to kill her. Not only that, the Spirit was forced to prevent its own robots from killing Katerina at all costs.

And so, an inconceivable scene now appeared before everybody.

No matter if it was the guardian robots’ electric currents, or steel mechanical puppets’ heavy hammers, any attack that was about to land on Katerina would suddenly change direction and perhaps smash into another robot, or a fellow robot would stop another robot’s attack with cannon fire to prevent the attack from hitting her.

Not only was attacking her impossible, even trying to stop her went against all the robots’ basic programming.

Although Katerina had absolutely zero combat ability, she unhesitatingly ran at the very forefront. Thus, she became an immortal shield for everyone else. And, all everyone else had to do was take this opportunity to break through while the robots were at a loss for what to do.

“297, 298… we’re almost at the 300th underground level.”

Although the mechanical elevator could only go down to the 300th level, the rest was surprisingly successful. They met only normal janitor robots and a few guard robots there as if the Spirit hadn’t expected anyone to come down so far; there were few other defenses too.

However, the adventuring team now had fewer and fewer people. This wasn’t because many people had died, but rather because steel doors and barricades kept suddenly popping out, cutting off portions of the team from each other.

Those who found their paths blocked could only try to find other paths on their own. But after members of the team were cut off several times, everyone learned their lesson and started sticking much closer to each other, with Katerina still at the forefront. Everyone openly used her as their shield, and this tactic was greatly effective.

It was as if she had trap disarming skills like a thief would. Everywhere she went, the traps automatically shut themselves down. All the locked doors would automatically open. Even though more steel barriers appeared, they would open up again the moment that she walked up to the barriers. It became ridiculously easy to progress in the ruins.

*Boom!*

When Katerina turned around a corner, a robot assassin was crouching in wait for her. The iron tree-shaped mechanical puppet had a light on its head that kept flashing. Although its blade had experienced several millennia of no usage, it was still quite sharp. The robot stabbed directly towards the human female’s vitals, but found itself unable to complete the attack as it self-destructed.

Suddenly, a side room opened up, with red letters flashing on a screen within. Timlad walked over and was about to take a look when Katerina, who was huffing and puffing from too much running that she wasn’t used to, stopped him.

“Huff, d-don’t go there, that’s a trap… The red letters mean top secret within the Sky Tower. As long as we approach, the Sky Tower Spirit will be able to use the excuse of protecting the greatest secrets of the Sky Tower to directly… explode that room and even this entire floor.”

The Sky Tower Spirit was far slyer than expected with its attempts at bending the rules. Even Timlad, who always acted so casually, felt a chill run down his spine.

Everyone had now been running for more than two hours ever since they’d got off the elevator. Katerina was now drenched in sweat and had an incredibly fatigued expression.

Although everyone else also helped her along, so much physical exercise was a bit more than what an average human girl could handle.

This proved once again that there was no such thing in the world as suddenly becoming incredibly strong just because a person awakened to something like their past memories. Katerina currently still had the physical body of an average human girl. Although she had now regained her past experiences, even if the Sky Tower Spirit had given her a physical body with the greatest potential, that potential could only be developed through hard work, time, and sweat.

Right now, Katerina’s face was paling as sweat constantly dripped everywhere on the ground. She then suddenly bent over and coughed, seeming like even breathing was painful for her.

It was quite evident that she had no more energy to run. And so, the adventuring team could only stop and wait for her to recover.

As Barton supported her, he also looked at her with a complex expression. In just one short day, his adopted daughter seemed to change and become another person entirely, which was quite difficult to accept.

“Rest assured, Father, I’m still here… Things will all be over soon.”

Katerina did her best to smile and placed her hands on her heart. Not only was she calming down her breathing, she was also telling her adopted father that she was still the same ordinary bartender girl, and Barton’s precious daughter.

“…Reincarnation is the same as a new chance. Even if a person now has some extra memories and knowledge, it’s only the equivalent of gaining some education and learning earlier than normal. It doesn’t mean that the person has changed. The people dear to me in this generation are still dear to me, and a lover in this generation is still a lover. That’s my personal experience, as well as the common sense of the academic world.”

Timlad wasn’t worried at all about exposing the fact that he had inherited memories from the Haletdam generation. After all, in the past seven years, he had become one of the new mythic heroes of the Dawn Generation, and he had already exposed many secrets about reincarnation and the soul.

Seven years ago, when Hell was created, and all the Ayer Faction Gods chose to join Hell, their associated heroic spirits were offered a choice: to either take advantage of the break in the Cycle of Reincarnation to reincarnate again into the mortal plane of Eich, or to become Hell’s guardians. Many heroic spirits had chosen to reincarnate once again with their memories and knowledge intact. Although it had only been a short seven years since they had done so, some seeds had already begun sprouting. Many secrets regarding reincarnation had also been exposed with this.

Timlad’s words helped to greatly reassure Old Barton. He perked up and focused entirely on preparing for the probable battle before him.

From a certain standpoint, the adventuring team hadn’t used the elevator to directly go to the level closest to the core control area. That was because the Sky Tower Spirit obviously knew the blueprint for the Sky Tower, and it was a definite that the core control area would be heavily defended. Rather, the simplest method of all would probably be to simply weld shut the door to enter that level from the elevator.

But since everyone had now arrived, it was evident that news would travel fast and all the robot guards from other floors would be rushing to defend the core control area. The farther down everyone went, the more difficult it would become.

But, when they set out again after Katerina had rested, someone came looking for them first.

“A white flag? Those robots actually know what a white flag means?”

A group of robots was carefully waving a white flag as they approached slowly. But, these robots appeared quite different compared to the heavy machines from before…

“They look like real people.”

“…Look, their eyes look so real, just as if they’re alive. What the, that black-haired robot is actually crying!”

These robots were built to look like human women. Their physical appearance was all beautiful and alluring, with black hair, red hair, and even purple hair among them. They had all sorts of different height and skin color. Some were wearing sexy dresses, while others were wearing bikinis. Some were even wearing even less clothing. And, those robots who were revealing skin showed off skin that looked just like human skin. It was evident that these were high-quality robots.

Although they were wearing revealing attire, they kept acting shyly and awkwardly as if they didn’t dare to come in front of the adventuring team.

“Ha, it looks like those Haletdam scholars really knew how to enjoy themselves. Could they be here in an attempt to seduce us?”

The person who spoke first while whistling and laughing wasn’t actually male, but rather the female dark elf Diyana. She didn’t even try to avert her gaze as she looked directly at the female robots’ sensitive parts. Not only did she make strange hand gestures while comparing body parts, she even finished by looking in satisfaction at her own ample chest and smiling proudly.

It would seem that rather than the exquisite but fake flowers, the dark elf was superior in this aspect.

“Could it be that they’re here to negotiate?”

As the leader, Barton was the first to step forward. He left his war hammer by his feet, and suddenly swung his spear in a wide arc, sending out a wave of sword energy which drew a line on the ground. That line indicated a boundary that wasn’t to be crossed.

This scene caused everyone else to reassess the seemingly ordinary Old Barton’s abilities. That was because casually being able to use sword energy was something that only Sword Saints and above could accomplish. Barton had only seemed like a regular mercenary before, not to mention he was of advanced age.

“Dfasdasccda…”

A white-haired female robot spoke up with an anxious expression on her face. However, her machine language only served to confuse everyone. Luckily, Timlad acted as the translator.

“She’s saying that they’re all Katerina’s servants and slaves…”

As it turned out, these female robots were artificial souls created by the Sky Tower Spirit. However, after they obtained their own will, these particular robots felt that they should obey the original social order and serve their true master in gratitude for having been created. And so, their angry current “master”, the Sky Tower Spirit, stuffed these artificial souls into female sex robots from the Haletdam generation to punish them.

When these female robots learned that their true master had returned, they voluntarily came over to help out.

After Timlad finished translating the machine language, he sank into a contemplative deep silence. Since he was a Haletdam generation expert, everyone else naturally thought that he was thinking about something important, so nobody dared to interrupt his thoughts.

But, if Roland had been present here, he would have unhesitatingly kicked Timlad as hard as he could just from seeing the way Timlad’s mouth was upturning slightly, along with that suspicious clear liquid beginning to form at the corner of his mouth.

“…The Haletdam scholar in my memories truly wasted such an excellent opportunity. Robots such as these could be purchased in his time!? Perhaps I should take this opportunity to take one of these cuties for myself. Yep, I’ll use research as my excuse! That red-haired one really resembles my sister… No, as long as I actually conduct research and figure out the technology to make one, I can create an identical replica of my sister!”

Should it be said that it was as expected of a member of the Gentlemen Alliance? Despite being a mythic hero, and despite the fact that everyone was waiting for him to make a decision, Timlad was actually having such thoughts…

“Sir Timlad, have you come to a decision?”

“Ah, I definitely wasn’t trying to appropriate those dolls…! What decision?”

Timlad had an astonished expression as he accidentally revealed his inner thoughts, but the next instant, he calmed down as if his verbal misstep just now was nothing but an illusion.

“Ooooh! Yep, I understand now. From a professional standpoint, the difference between an artificial intelligence and an artificial soul is the awakening of one’s sense of self. And, every individual will always be different. Considering the excellent treatment towards artificial intelligence in the Haletdam generation, logically speaking, what they’re saying is plausible. But, I still need to research the specifics about their situation. Yep, I’ll start researching right away with the red-haired one!”

Everyone else had a helpless expression. Perhaps Timlad’s words sounded quite professional and proper, and he had a seemingly serious and convincing expression, but the way he kept reaching out with his hands exposed what he really thought inside.

“This pervert…”

“Little brat!”

Barton was now faced with a difficult decision. He had already agreed with Roland beforehand that all matters related to the ruins would be left for Timlad to decide. And so far, Timlad’s decisions had mostly been reliable. However, the way Timlad acted now seemed quite unreliable.

“T-there’s no need to even think about it. Kill them all.”

At this moment, the person who calmly spoke those words was the still resting Katerina.

The moment she said this, not only were the female robots shocked, everyone else paused in surprise as well. But the next instant, the adventuring team leader Old Barton unhesitatingly carried out his daughter’s command. He swung his spear around and tore apart a black-haired robot with a wind blade of sword energy.

After seeing their leader Old Barton begin the attack, the other mercenaries naturally didn’t sit around. Everyone started slaughtering the robots.

“Wait, wait a moment, please leave at least one behind… Leave one for me, and I can create more for everyone to get rich together!”

Unfortunately, nobody listened to Timlad’s pleading. Even the two members from the Northlands, who were the closest to him, pretended not to see him. No, the two Northlands members were now pretending not to even know him.

These female robots evidently had zero combat strength as they soon became nothing but piles of scrap metal. Afterwards, a certain great engineer sat by himself while crying amongst all the broken metal limbs as if he had just lost his dearest person.

Evidently, nobody else around him was as sympathetic. Katerina walked over and spoke directly to the head of the female robot who had spoken first.

“A fake person will forever be a fake person. Do you want to know how I’ve figured out that you were only pretending? Do you want to know what mistake you’ve made?”

However, Katerina received no response. Just as everyone else was thinking that Katerina was overthinking things, the eyes in that female robot lit up once again as if it was coming back to life. It suddenly spoke up, but not in a robotic female voice in the machine language this time. This voice was cold, mechanical, male, and spoke in the common human language.

“…How strange. Everything should have been perfectly believable. I even took into consideration the desire of human males to copulate, which should have affected your group’s judgement. You didn’t fall for the trap that would have led you all to your doom if you had analyzed the information within these robots. How did you see through it?”

After hearing this, Katerina chuckled. And then, she suddenly stomped on that female robot’s head.

“Why would I tell you?”

But the next instant, Katerina started hopping up and down while clutching her foot. Evidently, her normal human girl foot was unable to handle kicking such a metallic head. The image she had just crafted of herself as a strong woman was ruined immediately.

*Shatter!*

Barton, who felt pained in his heart at seeing his daughter clutch her foot like that, helped to stomp that female robot’s head into little pieces for her. Not only that, he also glared at everyone else, forbidding them from laughing.

Still, he kept glancing at Katerina with love and gentleness in his eyes. That was because he had seen such similar scenes of her jumping around while clutching her foot before, although it was usually an ordinary table leg that would cause her to do so.

“I’m so relieved. That little brat wasn’t just spouting rubbish. She’s still the same clumsy and kind good child. Damned Roland, you didn’t even tell me that all this would happen. Just wait for me to get back to have a reckoning with you…”

A while later, the doting father managed to calm down by blaming Roland, and Katerina also regained some energy. It was now time for everyone to set out again. Right now, they weren’t far from their goal—the core control area.

But right after everyone set out, Timlad was unable to withstand his curiosity and came over to ask Katerina how it was that she saw through the female robots’ attempt to deceive everyone. Many ears listened attentively as everyone wanted to know the answer.

“How I saw through them? I didn’t see through them at all! There had never been a large-scale incident of artificial intelligence gaining their own will before in history, so how could I possibly know? Your judgement was absolutely correct, as it’s completely possible for there to be artificial souls that would support us rather than the Sky Tower Spirit. However, our main mission right now is to go to the Sky Tower’s core control area. How could we possibly trust someone who suddenly appears and offers to guide us there at this time? Simply kill them and steal their information. I never expected that a simple attempt to scam them into thinking that I saw through them would work so easily. It would seem that artificial souls have much to learn from humans in this area.”

“You’re not afraid of making a mistake by killing them? It’s impossible for artificial souls to lie to their master. That was the main reason why I thought those female robots were telling the truth.”

“Who cares if we killed them wrongly? At such a critical time, I’d rather kill a thousand wrongly than make a single mistake that endangers us. Also, why are you so worried about them? You’re not manly at all.”

Katerina finished with such a fierce sounding sentence as she started running at the forefront again.

After he recovered from his astonishment, Timlad finally understood why Katerina had been the person who was the master of the final secret Sky Tower.

“Right, since your soul has now been strengthened by being combined with so many other natural souls, that means that your soul wasn’t necessarily female before, right? Could it be that you were actually a man in your past life!?”

“I’m a pure woman!”

Alright then, it would seem that Timlad would need to change that habit of saying whatever he thought of his. He would likely die otherwise of it sooner or later.

Katerina suddenly turned around and accurately kicked Timlad right in the crotch. The young engineer immediately crouched and clutched at his crotch, making all the other male mercenaries present feel an instinctive chill down there…