Book 6 Chapter 33.4 - Storm
At this time, if one overlooked the great sea from the northeastern end of the continent, one would only be able to see a gloomy sky, turbid and ice-cold ocean waves, occasionally also able to see chunks of ice floe. After the nuclear war, the atmosphere became cold, and it was already approaching winter, which was why sheets of ice could be seen here. The wind was extremely strong and also extremely heavy, a great wet coldness long making weaker creatures withdraw into their nests, not many fish or other creatures left in the sea. Temperature that was too low would always be a great enemy of life, and activity always needed the expenditure of energy. Lessening activity during colder times as much as possible was already the instinct of various creatures, this was no exception even for mutated ocean creatures who hadn’t experienced a long period of evolution yet.
On a tall cliff resting against the sea stood the solitary figure of a young lady, her black long hair fluttering about in the ocean wind. What also danced about in the wind, was the tattered long dress around her body. It was unknown just how many tribulations she had faced, her long dress damaged to the point where it already didn’t serve much purpose, large amounts of fine jade-like skin exposed. The young lady’s skin still swirled with a faint radiance, but it wasn’t soft, instead giving one a feeling of toughness within the gentle exterior. The reality was also this way, her skin looking exquisite, but it would be difficult to injure in the slightest even if an electric saw was used. From the degree of rigidity, it was somewhat similar to Su.
This was a desolate and bleak land, forget about nothing like small towns visible in the vicinity, no traces of any past human activity could be found. Not only was there no life on this earth, below the roiling sea was a hard submerged reef, a place ships avoided, which was why there were no traces of human industry even underwater.
However, the young lady wasn’t alone, around her were more than a hundred combat bugs, floating a hundred meters above her was an off-road vehicle-sized miniature mothership. With the combat bugs being no more than a few dozen centimeters long, this large fella could indeed be called a mothership. The mechanical bug swarm flew around the young lady, quite a few of the scouting bugs’ perception organs already starting up. The intelligence network formed by several hundred bugs was in chaos, busy trying to figure out what exactly they were surrounding. From the data all types of instruments sent back, she seemed to be some special form that was something in between living and non-living matter, moreover leaning towards non-living. However, from the imaging analysis, she was 100% a human girl.
The mechanical bugs’ intelligence was strict and operated on logical basis, yet it lacked flexibility. All intelligence and data collected was verified through quantitative and objective means, so it was extremely difficult for them to understand what kind of concept 35% living was, was it alive or not? Did it pose a threat or not? However, the machines’ intelligence wasn’t as rigid as they thought. That black-haired young lady, Pandora, was currently listening attentively to the communication between this mechanical bug swarm and the great army in the distance. The information quantity was massive, yet it wasn’t complicated, because all of the mechanical bugs around her would summarize everything, while the several swarms of mechanical bugs in an unknown location far out would also separately form a single bulk of information, thus turned this into an exchange of information between several intelligent bodies. Meanwhile, because of Pandora’s special connection to Fitzdurk, she could accept and decipher the information connection between the bug swarms. This was especially the case after her father and mother’s genes were used to complete her body, thus further enabling her to easily accept and understand the large-scale information connection between mechanical bug swarms.
As she continued listening, a hint of a smile was formed on the corners of Pandora’s lips. “Because they cannot ascertain whether I am a living body or not, that is why they are going to call over other mechanical bug swarms to supplement their thinking? These fellas really have brains made of machines after all. Could it be that by having more numbers here, they can figure this out? En… it isn’t like there isn’t this possibility!”
Pandora’s smile froze on her face. She thought to herself, could it be that these mechanical bugs’ numbers, when they reached a certain degree, they truly will be equipped with a vague judgment ability? This was but a function only intelligent life had, and not something mechanical bodies with microchips and cores could accomplish. However, after carefully thinking things over, this didn’t seem like an obstacle that couldn’t be overcome. If they were talking about difficulty, it was instead the evolution of high level biological life forms like the human race that was more difficult.
When her thoughts reached this point, Pandora immediately laughed, saying quietly, “I apologize, guess I can’t give you all the chance to become a bit smarter!” The moment she laughed and said this, the biological side of the mechanical bug swarm’s probing immediately increased greatly, completely crushing the other side. Loud rumbling noises of engines starting suddenly sounded from the mechanical bug swarm, all of the mechanical bugs instantly completed attack preparations. In less than a tenth of a second, several dozen high energy light beams would penetrate Pandora’s body, while more than ten miniature guided missiles would serve as insurance immediately afterwards.
However, they didn’t have the chance to release this fatal blow at all, because Pandora suddenly moved. The young lady’s response was extremely simple, she only sent out a few kicks, bringing up large amounts of crushed rock, and then all of the surrounding mechanical bugs were shot down, to the extent where even the ones moving at low altitude also dropped. Then, after picking up a chicken egg sized rock, she chucked it at the miniature mothership in the sky, and as a result, dazzling fireworks erupted in the skies. Less than half of that tenth of a second had passed, yet Pandora’s surroundings were already clear. Meanwhile, the instant before the mechanical bug swarm opened fire, Pandora’s image had already been sent back. The black-haired young lady understood that clearly, yet didn’t try to stop it at all. She wanted Fitzdurk to see herself, this black-haired young lady body that was now named Black Flame.