Robots Have No Rank...
Perhaps because the robots had no rank worth speaking of, he didn't even need to imbue his strikes with Chaos—and that made them wonderfully convenient.
He had raked in a considerable store of Chaos before coming to the Illusion Realm, so his reserves were hardly low. Even so, they weren't enough to personally charge every blow against this many machines. Seen that way, enemies he didn't have to cut with Chaos were hardly troublesome opponents for Yujun.
Swords drifting through empty air found their marks, and the robots erupted one after another. The detonations never let up. Every laser fired at him died against the sword-screen he had spread.
This really is an invincible combo.
Spread the screen, then massacre whatever stood in front of him with the blades left hanging in the air. His offense and defense were both beyond comparison, which only made the tactic more effective. The sole drawback was that he couldn't hold it for long—though he had to wonder whether any enemy could endure his assault long enough for that to matter.
There were more robots here than on any floor before. Yujun still cleared them without effort. When the last of them blew apart, he broke into a run toward the supercomputer.
He had a feeling he knew what those numbers meant. They were almost certainly tied to the nuclear warheads mounted on the missiles. When the count hit zero, it would not end with his death alone.
"So that's the supercomputer?"
A monitor of staggering size filled his view, and beneath it, more cables than he could count tangled off in every direction. The sight alone was enough to give him a headache. Yujun did not destroy the machine on the spot. He took out the video orb and tried to reach Doctor Sammington.
Perhaps the doctor knew how little time remained—the connection went through at once.
"What is it?"
"You can see it, right? The supercomputer. This is definitely the one?"
"Ooh! You actually pulled it off. That is the supercomputer. Now you need to wipe that place clean."
"Then what's this time limit? There's less than three minutes left."
"...Hold on. Just a moment."
"If you've got something to say, say it fast. We're out of time."
"Could you bring the view in closer on the screen?"
"Nothing easier."
Yujun held the video orb up to the supercomputer's enormous display.
"This is bad."
"Don't tell me you can't pay the reward. You said if I blew this floor, you'd give it to me. You were clear about that."
"...The situation has changed, hasn't it? Don't start getting unreasonable."
"Unreasonable? You want me to actually blow the whole thing? You do remember I'm not from around here, right?"
"I—I'm sorry! That was a slip of the tongue."
He hadn't truly meant to level the place, but watching Doctor Sammington drop into such a cringing posture was rather satisfying. Making threats in the middle of a crisis took a considerable amount of nerve.
No matter how I look at it, this isn't a virtual world.
His senses were screaming warnings at him.
"So? Two minutes and forty seconds left."
"Destroy the supercomputer first. Don't go rashly blowing the base."
"You are reading that and then telling me, right? All I can see are strange characters and numbers."
"I've interpreted it. The problem is whether the missile launch can be canceled. The method is extremely finicky."
"Didn't you say all I had to do was destroy it?"
"That was because I didn't know the situation precisely. It's more complicated than I expected."
"Isn't that a little irresponsible?"
"I did everything I could to stop it, too. Do you think I want to watch the city fall?"
"Explain the method first."
"Even if you do exactly as I say, it'll be difficult... Have you destroyed the large screen yet?"
"Doing it now."
The blast rolled through the chamber, and Yujun's head turned toward where another screen waited.
"The time's still running."
"I thought it would. There should be a large keypad nearby. Find it."
"It's right in front of me. Head over there?"
"Yes. A keypad marked with incomprehensible symbols. You must press them exactly as I describe, and in order."
"Right."
"The problem is that even if I were standing there myself, I couldn't enter all of it in time."
"...And you're telling me this now?"
"Well, I did say it would be difficult."
"So you want me to just give up?"
"Try, at least. You might be such a genius that you stumble onto the answer while typing and hammer the keys at a terrifying speed."
"That's ridiculous..."
A deep crease settled between Yujun's brows. A little over two minutes remained. He could keep pressing the keys as Doctor Sammington instructed, but at this pace it was hopeless.
That was when Harp spoke.
"Dad."
"Yeah?"
"I think I can take care of it."
"...Huh? How?"
"I just have to seize the supercomputer's brain."
"Brain?"
He seemed to mean the computer's CPU. Or perhaps not.
"I'll borrow that energy of yours for a moment."
Harp began drawing on Yujun's Chaos. In a flash it was scraped down to the bottom—and Harp flew off, plump backside on full display.
"What are you doing?"
"Harp says he can do it."
"You mean that pale thing from earlier?"
"Yes."
"...If he meddles carelessly, he may only bring the explosion forward. Tell him to stop."
"Does bringing it forward matter? Aside from what he's trying, there's no way to solve this right now."
"That doesn't mean we can simply leave things so that failure is guaranteed."
"Who says he's going to fail?"
"..."
Doctor Sammington let out a sigh that sounded like surrender—and in that very instant:
"Dad! It's done!"
Harp came flying back, beaming.
"Done?"
"I ordered it to stop. That scrap heap won't give you any more trouble."
"...Ordered it? A computer?"
"I think so?"
Yujun hurriedly checked the screen where the time was displayed.
The numbers weren't falling. They had stopped dead at one minute and twenty-seven seconds.
"It's real...?"
"I did good, right? I did good, didn't I?"
Harp shoved his head forward, begging to be praised. Yujun stroked it.
"Harp. You're really something. How did you do it?"
"I just overpowered it!"
"That's possible?"
"That energy you have can do anything! If you put your mind to it, you could even create a new planet or a whole world. Just like illusion magic!"
"...Really?"
"If you stockpile a lot of it! What you have now isn't nearly enough."
"...Figures. Anyway, thank you, Harp. Thanks to you, it looks like Dad's getting a promotion."
"Is that a good thing?"
"Yeah."
"I'm so happy I could help you, Dad."
Yujun smiled, warm and fond. The little one was too admirable, and far too cute. Doctor Sammington, who had watched the entire scene through the video orb, seemed to have lost the power of speech.
"Are you certain it has stopped? Check properly."
"If our Harp says he did it, of course it stopped. You're an awfully suspicious man. Oh—this isn't because you don't want to hand over the Stone of Omnipotence, is it?"
"I don't want to hand it over, true. Not badly enough to break a soul contract."
"Less that you don't want to give it, and more that you don't want to die."
"You've read me exactly."
"I'll check."
Yujun closed his eyes and focused his senses, searching out the place where the warheads and missiles were kept.
Good. The energy supply to those facilities has been cut completely.
Harp had handled it on his own.
"Harp. Can you do me one more favor?"
"Just say the word!"
"Can you dispose of every nuclear warhead and missile?"
"One moment."
Harp rolled his eyes this way and that.
"It says it can break them down into extremely small units and annihilate them."
"Who does?"
"That lump of scrap."
Calling a supercomputer a lump of scrap... well, it wasn't entirely wrong.
"Do it."
"Okay!"
"And can you make the robots obey me?"
"That's not hard! From this moment on, I control this entire facility."
"Oh, perfect. Gather every robot from every floor here."
"Yes, I will!"
"What exactly are you planning?"
Doctor Sammington's voice came from inside the video orb.
"Huh? What—this thing was still on?"
"W-wait—"
Yujun cut the connection.
He was about to do some stealing, and if someone was watching, it could no longer be called stealing. So he hung up.
More than a thousand robots gathered on a single floor, packed so tightly there was nowhere to set a foot.
Feels like a scene from a movie.
Every emotionless gaze was fixed on him, and for no reason he could name, it raised the hair on his arms.
"Dad. Except for the ones that can't move, they're all here."
"If I'd known it would come to this, I should've gone a little easier on them."
"Human affairs are unpredictable, after all!"
"Oh, you even know sayings like that. You've grown."
"Hehe."
"Have those robots take my orders now."
"Yes!"
Then Yujun opened his inventory.
He had been turning the idea over for a while: these robots had real use. He had only endured their fire because he was who he was; the machines themselves were ferociously armed. Gather even ten of them, and almost no player could weather that barrage.
Mix Chaos into their energy, and they might get even stronger...
The question was whether he could take robots out of the Illusion King's world at all.
If this isn't a virtual world, yes. If it is, no.
There was another condition beneath that one. He had to be able to carry this many robots at once. He took out a single item.
◈ Can store goods that are not items.
◈ The free space within the subspace widens as the owner's magic power increases.
What set it apart from an inventory was that it had a physical form, and that it could hold things which were not items. It was a one-of-a-kind piece, too precious to waste on food and odds and ends, so he had been saving it unused.
More than anything, food leaves a smell...
Even though both were subspaces, the Subspace Capsule was a little different from an inventory.
Use it now.
His magic power had climbed to a level that was difficult even to measure. The subspace would be more than wide enough for the robots. He began feeding them into the capsule one by one. Neither living creatures nor items, they were practically made to be stored in it.
And best of all, they don't smell.
The one thing that worried him was how much energy they had left. They ran on neither electricity nor oil, but on a neo-energy, and he had no steady way to replenish it.
"Harp. Can you bring all the energy in this base?"
"...I can. But there's an awful lot of it. Is that all right?"
"The more, the better."
"Got it. Leave a few of those robots. I'll send them to fetch it."
"Okay."
That was when Heminine came down.
"Shin Yujun. Is it all fin—"
"It's dangerous!"
Yujun shouted. Heminine startled and shot straight back upstairs. In the space she left, he hastily threw up a barrier.
"Harp. Let's finish this quickly."
"Dad. But is there a reason to hide it from that pretty big sister?"
"Why do you call everyone you meet pretty?"
"Because they all are?"
"..."
He had no answer to that. The beauty of the Illusion Race was famous, and Heminine was royalty besides. Even among them, her looks stood apart. It was only natural that Harp, who had a quiet weakness for women, would take a liking to her.
Then the robots arrived, hauling stack after stack of aluminum drums filled with neo-energy.
"Making off with quite a haul this time. I really hope it doesn't vanish."
He wasn't without unease. If this place was a virtual world, everything he had just acquired might turn out never to have existed—and Doctor Sammington's reward along with it.
Better hope it isn't.
Yujun decided to trust himself. More precisely, the luck that had never once betrayed him.