I Am Not a Robot. Beep-bop

Chapter 69: Let’s Go Find a New Friend 2

From somewhere, the sound of footsteps echoed, and then someone dropped into the underground tunnel where we were.

It was the doll I had sent to inform Sohi of our current status.

It should have been about 50 km away, but it seemed to have arrived faster than expected.

“Executive Director, the mission is complete.”

“Ah, good job.”

I accepted the note the expressionless doll handed me, but the doll stood still, as if waiting for me to give it something.

“Huh? Oh, right. Energy.”

Unlike me, who could replenish energy with organic matter, including meal kits, the doll made by Earnest Rail didn’t seem to have such functionality.

To be precise, even a few meal kits wouldn’t provide sufficient energy conversion to keep the doll operational.

Highly concentrated nutrient capsules could bypass that and supply crude energy throughout its entire system, but the human digestive process is surprisingly complex and inefficient, making it unsuitable for dolls.

It would merely satisfy taste buds, but since I wasn’t even sure if dolls had self-awareness, no one would likely try feeding them anything.

Perhaps only our immortal darlings would attempt such a thing.

Fortunately, the underground road was digitized in Earnest Rail’s characteristic closed-off manner.

A brief inspection of the area revealed bundles of wires, which became a precious energy source for both me and the dolls.

Of course, charging all 50 dolls would require a substantial energy cost, but since I wasn’t the one paying, it was a trivial matter.

However, the note’s content was rather odd.

[Mission Change: Befriend the North.]

“Uh, make friends with the North…?”

Something about that phrase felt off.

Even considering the significant memory gaps from my past and prior lives, this wording gave me an ominous feeling.

Doesn’t it sound like being asked to befriend some revolutionary pig with severe health issues?

Of course, I understood what Sohi meant by “friend.”

She must have been referring to the native inhabitants and external forces in this northern front, which Earnest Rail and Dawn had joined forces to push out.

“Hey, do you guys know anything about the external forces here?”

“Huh?”

“What’s that?”

“Ah! That’s not how you play the mom role!”

“Unintelligible…”

“Being a mom means also giving milk like this…”

“Squishy! Woohoo!”

It seemed the immortal girls didn’t know, perhaps because they were too busy playing house with the dolls.

For the record, the dolls also didn’t provide any useful information.

Even when questioned under the authority of Executive Director Earnest Rail, the dolls only contained data related to “human entities,” reflecting their missions focused on slaughter and combat.

【Human, there is no useful information in the dolls’ data aside from their combat capabilities.】

That was Theresa’s analysis while she was examining the dolls’ internal components, combat equipment, and inserted data.

It wasn’t surprising for her to say that.

The dolls were Earnest Rail’s weapons of war.

As tools created solely for destruction and killing, there was no need to include significant intelligence in their programming.

Rather than inputting detailed information about targets, a simple command like “kill all humans in a designated area” would be far more efficient and resource-saving.

【However, we have identified zones presumed to be residential areas for external forces and natives.】

“Well, no choice. Let’s head there with the kids.”

【Are you sure? The natives are likely to be wary of the dolls.】

“So, should I just leave them behind?”

The dolls followed me, but it was more like they seemed to follow rather than truly did.

As soon as the dolls separated from me, they would likely revert to their original mission of eradicating humans.

If a high-ranking officer of Earnest Rail with executive authority appeared, the dolls might instantly turn against me.

“Besides, Theresa, you still can’t hack their neural networks yet, can you?”

【The analysis of the dolls’ internal synapses is not yet complete. Attempting to hack them now could cause overheating, destroying their artificial brain cells.】

“Right, I can’t just abandon the ones I’ve managed to acquire.”

Theresa had been attempting to hack and analyze the dolls’ internals to transfer all of Earnest Rail’s authority to me, but such a process couldn’t be completed quickly.

【Understood. However, I also lack information about the external forces. Can you handle this improvisationally?】

“When have I ever had a proper plan while wandering around?”

【That’s true.】

“Hey, you’re supposed to deny it at times like this.”

【How could I lie to you, Human?】

Maybe the future version of me, fully matured and experienced, could handle this easily, but as I was now—a mind with the mental age of someone in their early twenties—I didn’t think that far ahead.

Somehow, it’ll work out.

In reality, things have always somehow worked out so far.

Though this might lead to significant trouble someday, I felt more at ease keeping the immortal girls and dolls within my line of sight.

Honestly, with this level of combat power, Earnest Rail’s battle units didn’t seem all that frightening.

Unless a terrifying and malicious Overseer unit allied with Earnest Rail suddenly dropped from the sky, we wouldn’t be at a disadvantage in our current state.

‘Well, to be honest, I don’t even know how strong Overseers actually are.’

Theresa had gathered as much combat data as possible on Overseers, Hunters, and Executors, but it was limited to information publicly available.

Since we couldn’t bypass the security procedures of certificates or the “I Am Not a Robot” system, I didn’t know anything beyond that.

‘The third-class Overseer who once picked a fight with me in Ark didn’t seem all that strong…’

It hasn’t been that long, but I can’t even remember their name.

Am I really an android? How can I forget things this often…?

“Well, since we’ve got the mission to befriend the northern friends, let’s give it a go.”

“Wow! Teacher, are we going on a picnic?”

“Picnic!”

“Woohoo!”

“Huh, are we not bringing supplies?”

Some of the kids seemed to like Earnest Rail’s underground tunnels.

Or perhaps they simply enjoyed moving the goods from the supply trains passing through here.

Their eyes sparkled as if they wanted to play the game of relocating… I mean, liberating the evil corporation’s supply goods one more time.

Hmm, since we need to make a good impression on the northern friends, going empty-handed wouldn’t be ideal…

“Alright, let’s grab one last haul before we go.”

“Yay~!”

“Sounds good!”

“Squishy!”

—Keeiiing!

Just then, a new supply train was approaching from the distance.

It seemed the situation on the northern front was dire.

Despite knowing about us, the raiders in the area, and losing train after train, they kept sending reinforcements.

Of course, Earnest Rail wasn’t stupid either; to address the repeated thefts, they started deploying decoy trains, hiding the real supplies securely, or loading the trains with Dominator Robots as reinforcements.

However, once Theresa took over the train’s Main System, she could immediately locate the real supplies.

Most Dominator Robots were also neutralized after the first day, as Theresa took control of their neural networks and overheated them, rendering Earnest Rail’s efforts and money wasted.

“Woohoo! Success!”

“Another successful material relocation today!”

Initially, the nine-minute time limit was tight, but now, with the immortal girls, we could infiltrate the train and steal meal kits in under a minute.

Without even fighting, we managed to secure enough meal kits to feed hundreds for several days—a haul worth an astronomical amount of money.

“Cannot comprehend. The Executive Director’s actions in looting supply trains require documentation and debate.”

“Cannot comprehend. The Executive Director appears to be committing embezzlement by appropriating Earnest Rail’s assets.”

Some of the dolls seemed puzzled by our actions.

Well, from their perspective, it might look like the Executive Director—me—was misappropriating company property.

What a minor misunderstanding.

“Phew, listen, everyone. This isn’t looting or embezzlement.”

“Acquiring premium meal kits meant for the northern supply routes and claiming them as personal property is categorized as embezzlement.”

“Stopping a train outside designated routes, damaging company assets, and taking supplies is defined as looting.”

Wow, these guys are logical.

They seem to have an intelligence stat 10 points higher than the immortal girls.

For reference, I estimate the immortal girls’ IQ to be around 70.

Somewhere between the level of a child or borderline intellectual disability—something like that.

“Now, listen carefully. This isn’t looting or embezzlement. Looting and embezzlement, regardless of methods and definitions, involve taking someone else’s property, right?”

“Affirmative.”

“Affirmative.”

Nods.

“Squishy!”

“But I’m not taking this supply for myself. I’m simply relocating it for a while.”

“What nonsense…”

“Shh, quiet.”

One of the dolls showed signs of logically countering me, so I used my authority as the Executive Director to silence it.

“Affirmative. The Executive Director does not privately acquire the supplies and merely leaves them on the ground.”

Some of the dolls accepted my explanation.

This was due to the nature of the immortal girls.

I typically distributed Earnest Rail’s supplies to the immortal girls, who were neither human nor typical organic beings, making it impossible for the dolls to define their existence.

They could communicate but weren’t human.

While they played house with the immortal girls, their conversations were far from logical, to the point of inducing brain damage.

They weren’t human and had communication difficulties, so it might be accurate to consider them quasi-human, but the dolls’ data didn’t contain a clear definition of such beings.

Thus, since the dolls’ information only included details about humans as targets, they categorized the immortal girls as natural phenomena or animals.

From the dolls’ perspective, when I placed Earnest Rail’s supplies on the ground temporarily, these “natural phenomena” or “animals” would sneak up, take the supplies, or consume them.

This made it difficult for the dolls to classify the actions as embezzlement, misappropriation, or looting.

‘Of course, that’s nonsense.’

One of the slightly smarter dolls had tried to call my reasoning nonsense, but I used my authority as Executive Director to silence it, leading the other, slightly less intelligent dolls to conclude it wasn’t misappropriation.

By majority opinion, the dolls decided my actions didn’t constitute looting or embezzlement.

Now there was nothing left to hinder us.

【Such absurdity, Human.】

‘Hey, absurdity? Let’s call it logical thinking.’

【That’s what absurdity means.】

Having secured the cooperation of the dolls, we headed straight to the northern front’s edge.

There was no need to climb through the forest.

Earnest Rail’s underground roads stretched in all directions like a spider web, and with the right bearings, we could reach the external forces’ hideout directly via the underground paths.

“Kyahaha!”

“Let’s go~!”

“Combine!”

The boisterous girls rode on the dolls’ shoulders or played by squeezing their cheeks.

“Here, eat this!”

“…Ingesting organic food is unnecessary for dolls… ack!?”

“Eat it!”

“Ehehe, it ate it!”

“Nom nom…”

“Is it tasty!?”

“…It is delicious.”

The dolls lacked the ability to convert food into energy, but since they were originally human, they weren’t entirely incapable of eating, which led the immortal girls to share their meal kits with them.

Originally, the dolls wouldn’t have responded to the girls, but since I had ordered them to interact and play along, the dolls seemed to be doing their best to entertain the girls in their own way.

【Human, an abnormal signal has been detected.】

“An abnormal signal? Is it Earnest Rail?”

【No. Rather than a machine signal… it’s a mana wavelength.】

Mana wavelength.

That indicated the presence of something closely tied to mana.

Could it be a progenitor or a dragon like last time?

But I soon realized I was wrong.

When we stepped outside, all we could see was a forest.

“Teacher, it’s just a forest!”

“Isn’t this the right place?”

“Ehhh~”

My eyes, however, saw beyond that.

This was a barrier that deceived lifeforms, including humans.

But I was an android.

What I saw had to be different.

Perhaps even the dolls, made with human bases, would only see the forest, just like the immortal girls.

【Human, this is a “Wandering Spell.”】

Theresa, seemingly recognizing the spell surrounding the area, immediately identified it.

Theresa was the one who dismantled the Holy Sword and the Demonic Sword with mere knowledge.

Noticing a spell like this wouldn’t be difficult for her.

【I will dismantle the Wandering Spell.】

Mechanical tendrils extended from my spine.

The tendrils pierced the ground with their needle-sharp tips, and droplets of mana formed at their ends.

What began to form was a pattern—a familiar one.

I recognized the pattern.

“Theresa, I’ll take over from here.”

【Understood.】

The control of the tendrils transferred from Theresa to me.

Magic.

Something nostalgic that I hadn’t used in a long time.

But it was something I hadn’t forgotten.

Though energy conservation has prevented me from fully utilizing magic now, I, who once lived as the Demon King in a past life, would never forget it.

Even if I didn’t know it intellectually, the shapes of magical barriers and magic circles were instinctively engraved into my soul.

‘This feels familiar…’

It was all so familiar.

How could I not grasp every form of spell and mana in my hands, even while moving my body like a dance with my eyes closed?

The mechanical tendrils traced the reverse direction of the spell circle, dispelling the Wandering Spell.

Hidden like this, the essence of the external forces was entirely concealed behind the veil, which explained why Earnest Rail and Dawn hadn’t been able to completely drive them out.

Beyond the faint darkness stretching below the cliff, figures, structures, massive rocks, and jagged cliffs unfolded amidst vast natural surroundings.

Though obscured by the dense forest and towering mountain ranges, the visible presence of buildings here and there confirmed that this was indeed a place inhabited by people.

“This place…”

【Mana wavelength detected.】

It felt too familiar.

It was something so familiar and nostalgic that I could only stand still.

【Demons. Demon Territory. Demon Territory confirmed. Human, this place is the Demon Territory, and the life signatures of demons are detected.】

“…….”

Demons.

This was the place I once resided in as their pinnacle.

And now, it was unfolding before my eyes.