episode_0036

After clearing out Area 2 and sending Candy away, Harmon began to seriously look through the loot in Area 2.

Of course, before that, let’s start with the damage situation.

“Is Undine okay?”

“Yes, there is no problem. Some circuits are damaged due to overheating, but they are self-repairable.”

“I see. Just in case, let’s do a test after the self-repair.”

“Okay, I’ll let you know when the repairs are done.”

Undine boasted that she was indeed a combat humanoid, and despite the fierce fighting, she did not sustain serious damage.

Next is luck.

Lucky, who was shot multiple times in the abdomen, suffered a punctured liver and suffered massive bleeding along with vomiting blood.

It was an injury that would have caused an ordinary person to die in an instant from shock due to excessive bleeding, but Lucky survived unharmed, boasting that he was a mutant made of metal cells.

After manipulating the metal cells in his body to remove the bullet that had penetrated him and urgently repairing his blood vessels to stop the bleeding, he slowly recovered over the course of three days.

Without a single scratch, in perfect condition.

“Ha. I really want one. Metal cells. Doesn’t it hurt?”

“Yeah! It doesn’t hurt!”

“I see. Do you want to eat more?”

“King!”

Naturally, seeing Lucky’s tenacious vitality, Harmon wanted to have metal cells like crazy, but he gave up because there was no way for now.

Finally, candy.

Thanks to the shield that Harmon made, I was able to prevent major damage, and since it was for home use, I limited my combat activities to anything except defensive actions in emergency situations, so I suffered almost no damage.

After about two days of repairs and inspections, we returned to the Guldari Guild.

So.

Basement area 2 is now in Harmon’s hands.

The biggest loot is, of course, the square tank.

Although the circuit board and the outer surface of the square tank were completely destroyed by Undine’s unknown attack, the three small tanks inside that had popped out were able to be obtained more or less intact.

Of course there was some damage, but by disassembling the three tanks, reverse engineering them, and then stitching together the good parts, we were able to create one small tank.

“Hmm. Let’s name it Gematsal.”

“Isn’t that a spider?”

“Because it’s the first time we’ve opened up the basement. We named it after food to bring good luck.”

Harmon said as he stroked the crab meat with his symbol engraved on it.

The square tank wasn’t that big either, as it was big enough to walk around the basement passages, but the small tank was smaller, coming up to Harmon’s shoulder height.

“The texture is unusual… .”

I felt it when I was disassembling and reassembling it, but the metal used for the crab meat had a strange feel to it. It felt like it was sticking to my palm.

It was very different from the usual smooth or rough metallic feel.

“An alloy that has undergone a special process to generate defensive energy waves.”

As Undine scanned the crab meat and explained, Harmon said curiously.

“Yeah. What exactly is that energy? There are many different types of energy. Electrical energy, kinetic energy. Something like that.”

“Energy is… just energy.”

“So what is that?”

“It cannot be defined as one thing. Since it is a specialized field of knowledge, there is no detailed information in my database. However, the discoverer decided that it would be disrespectful to add another name, so it should be called energy, so it was named energy.”

Harmon frowned.

“I guess I’ll have to look into it separately.”

“I’m sorry I don’t know the details.”

“Okay. It’s not your fault.”

While talking to Undine, Harmon looked into the various functions of the crab meat and extracted data from the simple artificial intelligence contained within the crab meat.

A more elaborate map is created by combining the information about the two areas that the crab meat has with the holographic map that Candy created.

A perfect holographic map detailing every detail, even the destruction of Zone 2.

“Okay. Let’s go.”

“I will serve you.”

“Eh.”

Undine’s words made Lucky, who was about to eat, stop.

Undine, who saw that sight, turned off the food production machine that Lucky had started with an indifferent look in her eyes.

“Aah!”

“You were allowed to consume calories freely for the past 3 days to help you recover, but now that you have fully recovered, you should not do so.”

“Heeeek.”

“Okay, let me eat it until today.”

At Harmon’s words, Undine obediently handed the food production machine over to Lucky, and Lucky smiled and started operating the food production machine.

As I diligently entered commands into the machine using the eagle typing method, artificial meat began to come out of the machine.

“Ehehe.”

When Lucky saw that, he opened his mouth and laughed heartily, and the artificial meat that came out went into Lucky’s open mouth as soon as it came out.

“Yum yum.”

The good fortune of receiving artificial meat as if drinking water. Hamon and Undine watched the ceaseless flow of meat before speaking.

“There’s no need to do that. I’ll just go with this.”

Harmon said this and sprayed the drones he had created into Area 2.

* * *

Area 2 consisted of more than ten large and small rooms and passageways connecting them, and its area was more than ten times that of Area 1.

All paths lead to the north and south barrier walls that lead to a large avenue that converges in the center of Area 2. The southern barrier wall was blocked by a large twisted barrier that had been lowered, while the northern barrier wall was damaged and the passageway collapsed in the middle.

Judging by the signs of a battle, it seems that this basement was invaded by an outside force in the past, and a battle broke out. As a result, the southern barrier was lowered to block the outside intruders and the battle took place in the north.

And that means.

“Well, I thought it was strange that the outer and core areas were directly connected.”

The external entrance to this core area was a hastily constructed escape route during the so-called fighting period, and the defensive facilities installed in the passage were merely traps installed to prevent intruders from following them.

‘The same goes for restore.’

The reason why items like Restore are placed in the core area is to safely repair broken robots or weapons.

Perhaps the area where the original Restore was installed was destroyed by the invaders, and when they retreated, they moved the Restore that was there to the most heavily fortified core area.

To safely repair broken machinery.

‘That means there’s a real entrance somewhere else that connects the basement to the outside.’

I figured it would be a good idea to find it so that no one could come into the basement. For that reason alone.

‘I need to build my own team of collectors as soon as possible. I’ll discuss this with Isaiah.’

Having learned this new fact, Harmon next began to examine the mechanical equipment and research data scattered throughout Area 2.

Then Harmon discovered some information.

[On the possibility that machines can become complete independent life forms -3, Redefining mechanical life forms under the correct definition of independent life forms -]

[Observation data on machines growing in the no-life zone -7-]

[A month-long evolution process of an artificial intelligence that allowed self-evolution]

“Hmm? Machine lifeform?”

Defining machines as complete living beings, part of nature, not as human creations.

Not just defining it, but all kinds of research and experimental data to get that definition recognized by others.

‘That’s an unusual research topic. Was it something Ian Black was researching? Or was it something another researcher who was staying at the ruins was researching?’

First of all, data is data, and because research data that was tested under all kinds of assumptions was quite useful, Harmon classified the research data separately and put them in a database.

‘Something else is more important than this vague thing.’

As he wandered around, he could also see human corpses. Naturally, around the corpses were various pieces of high-tech equipment that they had been using, so Harmon actively searched for the corpses and collected their equipment.

Although much of it had been damaged by the passage of time or destroyed during combat, the equipment protected in this underground environment was in much better condition than the countless machines left exposed to the harsh wilderness.

Thanks to this, Harmon was able to quickly absorb and learn technologies through reverse engineering.

“Ah, good. So sweet.”

Powered suit technology.

Robotics.

Autonomous machine weapons.

Many of the facilities were destroyed, and most of the weapons used in the battle remained, but because of this, Harmon’s power was able to develop rapidly.

And above all.

“Is this a metal cell?”

“Yes, Master.”

After meeting Lucky, Harmon was able to discover the metal cells he had been longing for.

Metal cells.

It was contained in a transparent tube about the size of a thumb.

It was in the form of a liquid with a bright silvery glow, and its weight was so heavy that it made Harmon’s wrists hurt if he held it for a long time.

‘Was this also for the purpose of studying machine life forms?’

No, that didn’t matter.

“Undine.”

“Yes, Master.”

“How can I turn my body into metal cells?”

Harmon smiled greedily as he looked at the secret of immortality and longevity in his hands.