I had no answer. That’s why I had hastily redirected the question back to him. Destroy enemies in the name of peace… It was hypocritical. I couldn’t come up with an answer. But. But I…
“Ms. A2. If it’s all right with you, you should stay and explore the village a little. I want you to know more about this village.”
I told Pascal that I would if I felt like it, and turned my back. I was already out of the village before I realized I had forgotten to return the reward.
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“Hey hey! B1g s1s!”
“B-big sis?!”
“Let’s play! Play w1th us!”
“I don’t have time to play with Machines.”
“N00! Play! Play w1th us!”
As soon as I set foot in the village, I was swarmed by Machine brats. I came back because I felt guilty that I hadn’t returned the favor.
No matter how much I pushed them away and shunned them, the brats squealed in delight and followed me.
“I’m an android, your enemy. I’m going to destroy you if you don’t listen to what I say!”
“Ahhh! s0 fun!”
“Why does that make you happy…”
“B1g s1s, more!”
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Big sis. Hearing that phrase suddenly brought back a memory.
A long time ago, the resistance I had fought beside called themselves a family. At the time I had no concept of family, and seeing the troops call each other sisters was bizarre and…
“Hey hey, b1g s1s, make us a t0y!”
“We need t0ys to play!”
“We need t0ys!”
“They sell s0me at the arm0ry 1n the village s0 buy s0me there!”
“Buy s0me there!”
After they started clinging to my arms and legs, I finally surrendered and agreed to go. They cheered, and I experienced a peculiar feeling. I envisioned, in my head, the smiling faces of the resistance. The faces of my comrades too.
Why now? Why were those memories coming back to me now?
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“Welc0me. Oh? T0ys f0r the ch1ldren? Ah, we’re 0ut of st0ck. 1f 0nly 1 had the mater1als. The mater1als are wr1tten here. 1f 0nly y0u c0uld br1ng me these mater1als, the ch1ldren w0uld be happy…”
The craftsman spoke while waving a piece of paper around. It was a list of materials. Starting with the children back there, everyone in this village was pushy.
But the only reason I searched for the materials without complaint was so I could distract myself from thinking. Thinking about…my fallen comrades.
e381bee381bee38199e59bb0e68391
Pascal’s villagers were all pushy, but they properly offered rewards every single time they asked a favor. Even if I declined, they just kept pushing rewards in my face.
I had originally planned to help so I would not be indebted. But if they rewarded me every time, the cycle was never-ending.
“Ah, 1t’s b1g s1s!”
“Thanks f0r making us t0ys!”
“Th1s 1s 0ur way 0f say1ng thanks!”
They piled my hands with ores and seeds. The children had probably gathered them around the village.
“Thanks b1g s1s!”
With this, I felt indebted yet again…
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It happened when I was making my way from the resistance camp to the village. I had been asked by Anemone to deliver a few materials to Pascal.
“Can you hear me, Ms. A2?”
“Oh, good timing. Pascal, I’m on my way to deliver…”
“Ms. A2! The village…it’s horrible! The villagers are… Ahh!”
“Hey! Pascal? What happened?”
The transmission cut off as abruptly as it had started. Pascal’s voice sounded urgent. I had a bad feeling.
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“Hypothesis: Pascal, a valuable source of information, is in trouble. Recommendation: Check on status of Pascal’s village.”
“I know,” I told Pod as I started to run. I didn’t have to go very far to see the gravity of the situation. There was smoke coming from the direction of the village.
“Pod! A transmission to Pascal!”
“Transmission unavailable.”
“Shit!”
When I finally arrived, there were fires burning in various places throughout the village. But the fire was not the only problem. Something unbelievable was happening in front of my eyes: Machines were eating Machines. The ones doing the eating, and getting eaten, were all villagers.
I headed further into the village, thrashing the ones that were eating. I heard a whimpering voice call, “Ms. A2!” How many villagers…how many Machines had I killed before I heard my name?
“Pascal! What happened?!”
“I don’t know. Some of the villagers suddenly went mad, and fell upon and began consuming others.”
“What about the children?”
“I evacuated them. But the other villagers are…”
“At this rate you’re going to be eaten too! I’ll take care of here so go on and escape!”
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After I pretty much forced Pascal to escape, I destroyed the rampant Machines one by one. Villagers that had, until just a little while ago, been shopping, gossiping, and living a peaceful life.
Though berserk, these were the Machines that “lost the means to confront powerful enemies.” It didn’t take long for me to destroy all of them. But it was too late to save the villagers that had been preyed on. They were already nonfunctional.
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Fortunately, the children were unharmed. Pascal had most likely prioritized their safety as soon as the cannibal riot began. The children were all huddled in the corner of the factory ruins. It was difficult to tell Pascal that I was unable to save the villagers because I knew how it felt to lose comrades too.
“Question: Cannot Machines be reconstructed as long as materials are on hand?”
“No. We have a unit called “the core” within us. It is the unit that contains our personal data. When that is destroyed, it becomes impossible to return to our previous state. This time, the victims, including their cores, were destroyed.”
“I see…”
Every time I had fought Machines in the past, regardless of how many I destroyed, new ones kept spawning out of nowhere. That’s why I had the misconception that they were immortal. But similarly to our comrades that had their black boxes destroyed without personal data backups, Pascal and the villagers had a concept of death as well…
“Report: Intelligence—there are multiple hostile Machines in this factory.”
“Intelligence?”
“Acquired from the regional Pod network.”
“You have comrades too?”
“Affirmative.”
At any rate, there was no time to mourn the dead. Leaving the children in their hiding spot, I confronted the oncoming Machines. The number of enemies was overwhelming, and it didn’t seem like Pod and I would suffice for the task.
That’s right. The Machines were never-ending. That’s the enemy we were dealing with. A familiar feeling of helplessness and despair washed over me…
“Ms. A2! I’ll handle these enemies!”
An unexpected savior appeared. It was Pascal riding a weapon of immense size. He had probably taken control of the abandoned apparatus.
Pascal’s weapon blasted away a horde of enemies. Enemy reinforcements arrived in waves, but Pascal kept fighting, showing no signs of backing down.
“I…have children that I need to protect!
His attacks were rather ferocious for a peace advocate. I heard Pascal scream, “I’ll kill you!” a countless number of times.