I Am Not a Robot. Beep-bop – Chapter 118

Chapter 118: True Ancestor Agatha 3

[Drain]

“Ah, ah, ah!”

Agatha felt her mind go blank the moment she sensed the touch of the mechanical tendrils embedded in her body.

This was not an ordinary attack.

It was a power that seized life force, stealing everything, including the vitality and essence of others.

Such techniques were inherently forbidden to humans.

This was because a mere human vessel could not absorb and retain the complete life force of another without breaking apart or mutating.

Even if overflowing life force was poured into a human body, it would either burst or transform uncontrollably.

However, Alice’s Drain was different.

The android body, in other words, was akin to an empty vessel.

While life force would be converted into energy for immediate use, Alice’s body itself was empty enough to store the life force of a true ancestor without any overflow.

“No, no! Nooo!!”

The true ancestor, who existed to take, was now having her own life force stolen.

Overcome by the terrible sensation, the agony shook the very foundation of Agatha’s being, one that thrived on absorbing and plundering the vitality of others.

Her screams reverberated alongside the outcry of mana itself, causing the surrounding atmosphere to quake violently.

As if in a desperate final struggle, Agatha thrashed wildly, but Alice denied her even the possibility of resistance.

Mounting Agatha, Alice drove the thorned wings she had stolen straight into Agatha’s body.

“Ku, kuh…!”

“You’ve always lived by stealing from others, haven’t you?”

“No, no, no! I don’t want this!!”

“Then you should’ve been prepared to be stolen from too!”

【Drain Activated】

【Full Synapse Drain Mode Engaged】

【Draining the target’s life force.】

“Aaah, AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!”

Agatha let out a desperate wail, as though a pure maiden was shrieking in agony.

My life force.

My blood.

My essence is being stolen.

I can’t understand it.

How did I lose like this?

Why couldn’t I even put up proper resistance!?

How can that woman mimic, adapt to, and replicate us true ancestors!?

Of course, a true ancestor isn’t just a fool.

‘Did you think I would die this easily…!’

true ancestors.

Outwardly, they resembled organic life forms similar to humans, but their true essence was a collection of mutated viruses and cells.

A single cell was the true ancestor itself, and the body as a whole.

Even if the physical body were completely incinerated, as long as a fragment of a cell remained and there was life force to absorb, a true ancestor could revive at any time.

Life force absorption?

This is an opportunity.

Do you dare attempt to absorb the true blood and life of a true ancestor?

You’ve lost your mind!

A mere third-class Overseer.

You lucked out, got promoted by a stroke of fortune, and now you think you can do anything!

Agatha, having absorbed the true ancestor’s blood and life force, devised a new plan to seize control of Alice’s body.

Ordinarily, such a feat would have been entirely possible.

When an organic life form absorbed the true ancestor’s blood, the body’s control and life would inevitably fall under the true ancestor’s dominion.

But Alice wasn’t just any organic life form.

[Huh?]

The true ancestor within Alice’s body realized something.

…This isn’t human?

What is this?

What in the world—?

No, wait.

This is seriously a robot!

A fully mechanical body, a hunk of metal!

Does Ark have androids of this caliber?

That’s impossible!

And it wasn’t even just any android.

Until Agatha was directly absorbed into Alice through Drain, Alice appeared entirely human to her.

It wasn’t just her outward appearance; the abundant life force and the vibrancy characteristic of organic life forms could be distinctly felt from Alice.

But now, as Agatha was absorbed and attempted to seize her body, she discovered the truth—a hollow android, entirely mechanical.

[No, no! We can erode both organic and inorganic materials!]

Naturally, the true ancestor preferred organic life forms, but as evidenced by the Caracas Heavy Industries’ staircase succumbing to blood contamination, the true ancestor Virus could also erode inorganic materials.

Although the fact that Alice was an android presented a perplexing factor, there was no reason Agatha couldn’t erode this body…

【Welcome, Agatha.】

[What?]

What was this voice?

Agatha suddenly became alert to something whispering to her.

Although she had no physical body to tense up, the voice carried an unsettling feeling, as though it regarded her as prey. Instinctively, every one of Agatha’s cells froze in an instant.

【I understood Gaia’s case. Whether for better or worse, it aided Alice. Twisted vitality, infinite life force, and the roots of the Biological Factory, all of it.】

[Gaia? What is that supposed to…?]

【However, no one is willing to welcome a mosquito as a new tenant.】

At that moment, Agatha saw it.

A massive purple neural network that seemed to be opening its jaws at her.

[Ah, ha…ha….]

The instant Agatha faced it, she resigned herself.

【Do not worry. To the very last fragment of your cells.】

Alice could now detect mana and even manifest magic through it.

This also meant that Theresa, Alice’s auxiliary personality, found it equally simple.

【For Alice. I will use everything without reserve.】

Who.

Who was the real monster here?

The one harboring something like that inside their body was far more monstrous.

★

★

★

“Ah, that was delicious.”

It tasted better than expected.

If you ask what it tasted like… hmm, it’s like durian.

I’m not joking; it’s true.

Having devoured numerous humans, it had the stench of rotting corpses and an unsettling texture, but the taste itself was reminiscent of cream with a hint of walnut.

But I don’t feel like eating it again.

Looking around, the scene was complete chaos.

The Silion Residential Zone, which the true ancestor had briefly swept through, was about one-third destroyed as far as the eye could see.

If the true ancestor hadn’t been careless or had gone on a full rampage, the entire zone would have been obliterated.

‘Phew, if she hadn’t let her guard down from the start and fought at full strength, I honestly can’t say what would’ve happened.’

I had pretended to be calm throughout, but truthfully, I had been terrified.

Even with my android eyes, I couldn’t track the true ancestor’s blood spear that pierced my body.

The speed and manifestation of her attacks were almost at the speed of light.

Theresa barely managed to analyze the blood spear embedded in my body, and if it hadn’t been for Gaia’s vitality helping me endure, it wouldn’t have been Agatha, that mosquito woman, who ended up in pieces—it would’ve been me.

‘If it had been the dolls or Marlang in my place… they would’ve become the true ancestor’s new hosts or been consumed without question.’

Fortunately, Marlang and the fifty dolls had been absent for equipment inspections.

-Flap!

“Well, at least I got a useful item out of it.”

Apart from the blood spear Agatha mentioned, I was quite satisfied with the new thorned wings I acquired.

They seemed to have been created by materializing the blood spear into wing shapes, but instead of forming them from human blood like the true ancestor, mine were made from the liquid metal stored in my body, making them more akin to steel wings.

Everything that followed proceeded relatively smoothly.

Thanks to the reconstruction drones dispatched from above, the destroyed residential area was fully restored in less than three days. The Executors under my command bowed 90 degrees in gratitude.

I heard that many Executors in the Silion Residential Zone were originally from the lower realms.

It was rare for people from the lower strata to become Executors or Overseers, but it seemed there were some who still considered this place their hometown even after taking on such roles.

Later, I heard that hunting a single true ancestor at the cost of a third of the Silion Residential Zone was considered a bargain.

Normally, no matter how much a true ancestor was destroyed, if even a fragment survived, it would immediately consume the blood of another human and revive endlessly.

This infinite resurrection, constantly transferring between hosts and stealing life force and blood like a plague, earned true ancestors the nickname “hideous mosquito bastards” among Ark’s Overseers.

Anyway, when news of my successful hunt of a true ancestor reached higher-ups, Rilstia joyfully sent me a congratulatory message like a child.

Even Oriana, who was always busy, couldn’t hide her astonishment and sent me a video letter commending my achievement.

She said I was living up to the contract we made at the start by becoming a proper Overseer.

She reminded me not to forget that she would help me become a proud Overseer, but in return, I would have to help her one day.

I haven’t forgotten.

Honestly, I wouldn’t have made it here without Oriana.

Apparently, once the full situation was assessed, I would receive various rewards from above.

But the fact remains that many people here died.

Especially the people of the Silion Residential Zone.

It’s true that Agatha killed people openly to insult and destabilize me, resulting in more deaths than the number of collapsed buildings.

“Then, we shall begin the joint memorial service.”

Together with the Executors who hailed from the lower stratum and the Hush gang members, I held a joint memorial service for those who died in the Silion Residential Zone.

It wasn’t anything grand.

We wrote down the names of the identified deceased on nameplates, burned something resembling incense, and bowed our heads together.

Apparently, even in Ark, rituals or ceremonies to honor the dead exist.

I said I didn’t feel guilt for their deaths because it wasn’t me who killed them but Agatha.

Still, it’s not like I felt absolutely no responsibility for their deaths.

Of course, it was that mosquito Agatha who caused the deaths of innocent people, but that doesn’t mean I wouldn’t mourn the dead.

Somehow, the fact that I, an Overseer, held a memorial for people of the lower stratum seemed to move the Hush gang members and the Executors from the lower ranks.

But I didn’t start this with some grandiose or saintly intent, so I hope there are no strange misunderstandings.

I’ve never been someone extraordinary or saintly.

I created the artificial sun recklessly, and it swept people up in its aftermath.

Even the artificial sun was something I made solely for my own satisfaction, to create a better world than yesterday.

“Hey, Theresa.”

【Yes, please speak, Human.】

“That true ancestor, Agatha.”

As soon as the memorial ended, I muttered to myself, watching the setting artificial sun.

“How do you think she knew I was an Overseer and that I lived here?”

【……】

Agatha already knew from the start that I was the one who created the artificial sun.

She also knew I was an Overseer and that I resided in the Silion Residential Zone.

Such information isn’t easily accessible to outsiders, but it’s easily obtainable for someone in the administration.

“This really seems like… one of the administrators is in cahoots with that mosquito bastard, doesn’t it?”