TROA) Among The Death And Decay (Patreon)

I watched as the spider bot, or should I say hexa-scavenger bot, began to melt into the ground, leaving behind an item on the ground. “This is?” I picked it up and put it into my inventory. From there, I could finally see what it was.

[Hielo Processing Chip]

[A chip used in robots and computers to supercharge processing power. Highly useful in Artificial intelligence. It is a dark matter-based chip that can integrate into any system.]

I couldn’t help but whistle. This kind of chip was way beyond human understanding. But what I found strange was that I had taken apart the spider bots before and never found such a chip inside. “Well, it is now mine, and it will definitely become useful.”

“Ai! Are you okay!?” Jen called out behind me. I turned and smiled at her.

“Yep. I leveled up!” I was very happy to be able to level up so soon.

[Host]: Inoue Ai

[Age]: 16

[Race]: Human

[Realm] Mortal

[Level]: 2

[Health]: 300/300

[Nano]: 200/200

[Strength]: 15

[Vitality]: 15

[Intelligence]: 15

[Agility]: 15

[Skill Points]: 10

{Mechanical Engineering (Lvl 3)} {Robotics (Lvl 3)} {Artificial Intelligence (Lvl 3)} {Martial Arts (Lvl 3)} {Close Combat Weapons (Lvl 2)} {Ranged Weapons (Lvl 4)} {Metal Manipulation (Lvl 1)} {Quantum Creation (Lvl 1)} {Earth Manipulation (Lvl 1)}

Now that I know I can level up, I can actually start looking at the skills menu in more detail. If I can find some useful skills, I will be able to do much more! I knew right now I had a strange expression, but I was okay with that! I had just grown stronger across the board. How could I not have a silly, happy expression!?

“Leveled up…. So your system thing?” Jen asked, to which I nodded.

“Yep! I am now even stronger!” I replied proudly. Jen pursed her lips and walked over to me, and hugged me from behind. She then pressed her head into my back.

“Will you leave me one day?” Jen’s words seemed choked up, which made me panic a little. I quickly pulled her around me and held her face, looking directly into her eyes. “Never in this life will I ever leave you. Jen, I promised I would never leave you alone. So no matter how strong I get in the future, I will be with you, okay?”

“Mmmm…” Jen nodded and finally smiled. I guess she was worried that I would get so strong that I would not want anything to do with her anymore.

“We will keep going. You still need to kill one yourself, and I also want to see if I can get any more drops.” I explained.

“Drops?” Jen asked in confusion.

“Yes, it seems these things give me items. It just dropped a dark matter processor. I am hoping I can get a few more before we return.” I really wanted to make a few A.I.s for around the base. While I had some simple ones, the current processing speed that it takes to build a smart A.I. is lacking. I have yet to try to make a quantum processor yet.

“Okay. Then let’s find more of these spider things.” Jen nodded. Now that she had seen how easy they were to kill if you were careful, she felt like she could easily take one on. She had hunted many different animals. Many of them were very fast while training, like mountain rabbits, for one. They were smaller than a spider and very fast.

“Then let’s go!” I smiled brightly as I grabbed hold of Jen’s hand and pulled her along.

You would think among a scene of death and decay, you would not see two girls, sixteen years of age, happily walking down the street without a care in the world. But here we were, those two exact girls chatting happily about this and that as if the death around us was not there at all.

Even as the cars became denser due to getting closer to the city and more bodies laid strewn about, even as we stepped on and over the dead, our expression did not change. It was as if this was all normal.

It was good we were going to the city now. Because once the next wave starts, they will hit it with a few tactical nukes. Although I really do not really need anything from the city anymore. I have collected a lot of the chemical needed to create phase energy. So, no matter how many drones and other robots I make, I can always power them with ease.

Although, now that I think about it. The research facility that the government gets the data on phase energy from was the one I robbed earlier…. Well, I guess it’s best if the military does not have a way to fight back since it only ends up with humanity losing its humanity. In a way, I am doing a service to humanity. Of course, this could just be my assumption, and in fact, the government had always known how to make such weapons but never released them to the public. The blackout the government has that keeps the people in the dark is quite insane.

“Ai, do you think we will see more people here?” Jen’s question was a good one. I was not too sure about the city right after everything. I was not sure if the spiders went floor by floor or what.

“We can only find out by exploring a bit.” If we can find some survivors who were worth taking in, why not right?