Chapter 264: Chapter 253: A Decision

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As Fang Shuan fired the spear at lightning speed, time suddenly felt much slower.

Something on top of my head was moving, scratching and biting me, releasing the sound of a crying cicada.

“Goldie?”

[Your Familiar: [Heavenly Golden Time River Cicada Larvae] has activated the Skills: [Lesser Time Manipulation: Lv5], [Time-Distorting Wave: Lv4], and [Aura Of The Golden River Of Time: Lv3] in conjunction.]

[Their combined effects have created a {Temporal Domain}, for 10 seconds, time has become increasingly slower.]

This is…

For the first time, Goldie is doing something.

But why now? What’s wrong with him?

“Gyyyyhhh!”

Goldie was pissed with me.

Did he feel something?

Something…

I looked at Zero One.

Her eyes were closed, and a small tear fell from her left eye.

The spear was running towards her chest.

“…”

What am I doing?

Why am I standing here, seeing how a girl is about to get killed?

What have I become?

I looked at my own hands in disbelief.

“Thank you, Goldie; I get it now.”

Machine or not…

I don’t care.

If I’m right or wrong, I’ll find out later.

I’ll follow my heart.

I want to believe her.

I want to believe in a better future.

BOOOM!

I moved through the slowed time, blocking the spear with my shield, and then grabbing it with my bare hands, absorbing the aura of flames and holding it in my hands.n/o/vel/b//in dot c//om

“Huh?” Zero One slowly opened her blue eyes, looking at me in disbelief. “W-Why?”

“Young master Anna?!” Fang Shuan muttered. “H-How did you move so fast…? Wait, why did you…?!”

“Fang Shuan!” I roared furiously, looking at him with utter hatred. I felt angered right now. “How dare you do something without MY permission? You’re my Soul-Bound Undead, if you ever DARE do anything like this, I will not keep my promise, and I will quickly kill you.”

“A-Ah… Y-Yes!” He nodded, bowing to me. “I-I am deeply sorry; I apologize!”

“Hah…” I sighed. “The only way for him to understand is to talk to him in his same language, in a world full of bloodshed, hatred, and destruction. He only learns when you speak to him like this. If I am soft again, he’ll think I am weak. That he must do things for me when it’s the complete opposite. I don’t need anybody to take decisions for me.”

I looked into Zero One’s eyes, although I wasn’t really trying to be friendly yet.

“I want to believe you, Zero One,” I said.

“To believe me?” Zero One asked. “Calm down,” she looked at the drones as they flew back.

She slowly approached me, as I was in high alert.

If she tried something funny, then I could easily stop her even if she was one centimeter from touching my skin.

I wasn’t as weak as before anymore.

Yet…

“Thank you…”

The only thing she did was hold my hands and smile back at me, as more tears fell from her eyes.

“Thank you for wanting to believe in me,” she muttered. “Mother was right, you are different.”

“It’s not because I am a human; I am sure my brother would have killed you,” I sighed. “I am just a stupidly soft person, and I like to try to believe in people, even if sometimes it might feel completely hopeless. It’s a stupid thing of me.”

“No, you’re not stupid.” Zero One said. “You’re a human. Like the records said, with emotions, with doubts, with contradictions. Things that we, as machines, are unable to do, humans are fascinating, so much to learn from one. Your soft skin, your bright eyes, your warm body, and your beating heart… The Legacy our kind protected has come to us, even when we’ve lost almost everything.”

“…”

Their world is most likely a parallel Earth of sorts, a worldline of Earth.

One called Azure Star instead of Earth, and one where humans created powerful machines but slowly went extinct due to an incurable disease.

They left their creations completely alone, in a world without humans.

Without their creators and masters to serve, what purpose did they have?

The solitude they might’ve felt, the lack of purpose, and everything else.

That “Mother” decided to protect the legacy instead of just deciding that there was no longer any purpose anymore.

“Just a day ago, your kind tried to kill me several times,” I said. “Was that justified too?”

“That’s… From what I’ve gathered, it was because you attacked their nests first; they were defending themselves,” said Zero One.

“…Fine, okay, sure, you can say that,” I nodded. “I… I attacked first; you’re not wrong. But it was because they were extracting the resources of the island, which belonged to the Heavenly Demon. There was no method of communication either; would I have tried that, they would have attacked first.”

“You’re not… wrong.” Zero One looked pained after hearing that. “My kind does not deserve pity; don’t worry. We are all… flawed. And we’ve done atrocities that our creators would be ashamed of. Mother… perhaps she regrets them too.”

“Can you talk with her?” I asked.

“Not… yet” she said. “Mother is busy, managing resources, redistributing and storing data, and many other things. She keeps everyone updated about many things. As I learn, she will update everyone. If I develop more and distribute what I learned, my kind might also grow to be much… Perhaps more considerate would be the word? I don’t know if I am considerate myself. My creation was complex. Mother implanted into my memory the emotions and memories of a child known as Raven; she was the last human. I believe my appearance mirrors her as well.”

“Raven…?” I felt surprised. “Wait, what happened to her?”

“Perhaps… I could talk about that later,” Zero One looked down. “I… What must I do now? I never imagined I would get this far…”

I looked back at Fang Shuan and Yang Shen.

“Wait for a bit; I need to talk with them.”

I moved back to talk with them.

“Young master Anna, I…!”

“Ying Shen, before you speak, remember you said you would follow me anywhere and would always be loyal to me,” I said. “Now speak.”

“…” He remained silent. “I won’t go back on my words. If young master Anna decides to… to believe in them, then I will as well.”

I smiled a bit.

“Thank you…” I nodded. “I really appreciate it, even if you’re forcing yourself… And I’m sorry too for doing this. I know it hurts you; the machines destroyed part of your world, and…”

“It’s fine, young lady Anna; I responded rashly at them; I was angered. And I still am, but…” he muttered. “I know there must be something right with what you’re doing; you inspired me to do better, to be myself. Maybe deep down there’s also a part of me that wanted another resolution other than destruction. As someone raised to be an assassin who never wanted to be one… Reaching peace is perhaps what I also wish we could accomplish between people and machines.”

“Ying Shen…” I felt moved by his words as I hugged him.

“I might not be the best at saying this; I grew up sheltered, away from all of this,” he sighed. “So perhaps… I am just talking without having seen the true horrors.”

“It’s fine,” I said. “You were born after everything happened; you shouldn’t feel forced to inherit the hatred your ancestors had. Form your own opinions and your own thoughts; what do you want to do? What do you wish the world to become?”

“I… I don’t know yet, but I want to know them better, the machines… Despite how there’s so much of me hating them for destroying everything, I also want to know what they are and what drives them,” he said.

“Okay then,” I nodded. “Fang Shuan, don’t misbehave now.”

“I-I am really sorry… I don’t know what possessed me back then; I was full of hatred; perhaps I… I remembered something—old memories of my previous life,” Fang Shuan apologized again. “I remember how one of my sisters… She was killed because of this very tactic, and I couldn’t… I couldn’t stay calm.”

“I-I see… I’m sorry to hear that,” I said. “It’s ok though; I’m strong enough; sneaky attacks shouldn’t work on me so easily.”

“I can tell,” Fang Shuan nodded. “Whatever your decision is, I will follow it; as the person who gave me a second chance at life, I won’t hesitate.”

I don’t know how the Heavenly Demon or the Heavenly Empress will react to this decision. To what might come now in the future.

It was certainly not something anybody would ever predict to happen, and even I am afraid of the decision I’ve taken.

Just as Zero One said.

What’s next?

What do I do?

How do I explain this to the survivors that hate the machines more than anything?

If I tell the Heavenly Empress, will she understand, or will she try to kill Zero One immediately?

She’s not as compulsive as the Heavenly Demon, so maybe…

Thankfully, at least in appearance, she looks very human-like.

Even her skin is soft, she can cry, and she has the smell of a human, not metal.

But as I look deep into her existence through my Ki Senses, I can tell she’s machine very easily.

Skeleton made of metal, synthetic muscles created out of silicon, a core instead of a heart, overflowing with electromagnetic energy.

She also has miniature solar panels in her skin that absorb sunlight to keep accumulating energy to work indefinitely.

To be honest, her entire creation is so incredibly detailed, it’s insane.

But that’s not really what’s important right now, not at all.

I moved back to Zero One.

“I’ll bring you along, but the drones... I am afraid they can’t come,” I said. “Also, were they attacking the island?”

“Oh, we were originally deployed to defend the Silver Tree because we detected attacks recently,” she said. “But once you appeared, the units were forced to concentrate their firepower on your group after detecting high levels of hostility. I’m sorry.”

“Hmm, okay,” I sighed. “I would destroy them now if I could, but… I’ve decided to bring you along, and… Well, that would be cruel in your eyes, right?”

“Yes,” she nodded. “They might be cold and hard and have no expressions, but these are children. I want to protect the children.”

She looked at them with pity, caressing them.

The drones flocked towards her, gently tapping her body with the tips of their bodies.

“Are you happy we got along, everyone?” she smiled. “I-I’ll work hard for a future where you won’t have to fight… or die.”

They kept making electric sounds; I couldn’t understand anything, but I could feel something.

She said she had an artificial soul…

Could they truly have one?

…

“Anyways, can you return to the main tree for now? Please tell Mother that there’s no need to keep hostilities. I will try to chance things,” she said.

“Brrrhhh,” they made a metallic sound; a few started flying away, but a few dozen remained, perhaps around forty of them.

“You don’t want to go?” she wondered. “Eh? You don’t trust them? But everyone…”

“So they don’t want to leave you?” I wondered. “Hmm, it’ll definitely make a fuss if they go; keep them away for now.”

“Okay,” she nodded. “Can you stay here? For me?”

The drones looked at one another and seemed to somewhat agree, although they gave me the “side eye” from time to time.

Machines were more expressive than I ever imagined.

Maybe I was never paying attention at all…

Was I blinded by the thought that the enemy was a mindless walking pile of scrap?

No, it’s not like what they committed is not bad either.

Zero One is different, and she’s trying to protect them.

I still can’t understand what she’s trying to do, but at the very least.

I want to believe that there is another solution.

“Let’s go; sit behind me, Zero One,” I told her.

“O-Over that creature?” She wondered, looking at Violet with interest.

“Yes, Violet is very nice,” I nodded. “Right baby?”

“KRIEEEH!” Violet, however, hissed back at Zero One.

“C-Calm down! Hey, let her sit down; it’s ok,” I told him.

“Kkkrrrr,” he gave a weird insectoid sound, but Zero One managed to sit down.

“A very hard… seat,” she said.

FLASH!

“UWAAH?!”

She panicked as we flew at max speed—faster than the drones could achieve, actually.

In a couple of seconds, we arrived above the island.

The presence of the Heavenly Empress was strong; she seemed to have noticed our arrival.

“Stay behind me and don’t talk unless I introduce you,” I told Zero One. “Okay?”

“O-Okay, I understand,” she nodded, looking around. “So colorful, so loud! Are these the jungles?”

However, despite saying she understood, she started wandering around the jungle and not even following our group.

I had to run towards her and drag her back.

“Zero One!” I told her. “What did I say?”

“A-Ah! Right, yes, yes, I shall remain in silence,” she nodded, quickly correcting her posture.

She was more humane than I ever imagined; machines wouldn’t get distracted so easily.

Maybe it is because of how her mind was created.

“We’re here.”

In front of us was the golden barrier of the Heavenly Empress Domain.

“I’m back, master.”

I touched the barrier as it let me in.

I quickly stayed in between, letting everyone else enter.

Except Zero One.

“Eh? I can’t enter…” Zero One wondered, touching the barrier.

“Ah…” I sighed. “Master, she’s good… I mean, I am trying to understand her. Please, let us talk in private. I got this: if she tries anything funny, we’re going to kill her immediately. Please trust me, I’ve grown much stronger.”

“If this works,” said Zero One. “Here.”

I walked out of the barrier as she gave me one of her fingers, her pink finger from her left hand.

“This finger contains a special button at the end; by pressing it, my systems will be completely shut down,” she said. “If I ever become a threat, please use it; you may try it now.”

“Hm, like this?” I pressed the little red button.

“Ye-”

BAAM!

She dropped into the floor like a hard piece of steel.

“Ah, it worked?!”

I grabbed her, carried her around, and threw her.

But she did not wake up.

I could easily destroy her into pieces.

I pressed the button again, and she slowly woke up.

“Aaaahh… That was weird,” she muttered. “I think I died and revived.”

“Does it feel like dying?” I wondered.

“I… don’t know,” she sighed. “But somehow, my system thought it was the correct word?”

I looked back at the barrier.

“Her life is in my hands…” I said to my master. “Please…”

We took a step together as I held Zero One’s hand and…

We passed through, the two of us.

“Master…”

I knew she would understand.

I know I might be acting stupid and naive right now.

But if I were always ruthless, cold, and emotionless.

Wouldn’t I become the same as my brother in the original story?

I want to change…

And I want to create a different ending.

If I go by what is perceived to always be the “correct solution,"  then I will never reach the ending I want.

“Woooaaah! So this is the town the people built? So beautiful! All made of wood, so well decorated, so colorful!” Zero One looked around. “Hmm? What is that delicious smell? Dumplings?! They look yummy!”

And perhaps to create a new ending.

I need to make it myself, with my own decisions and following my heart.

Not as the protagonist would do, but as myself.

As Anna.

“Come on, don’t get distracted, let’s go!”

“A-Ah, yes!”

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