Chapter 7: The Nascent King

Chapter 7: The Nascent King

In the wilderness at night, Yun Huai found himself in a dilemma.

After realizing the robots, for some reason, did not attack him, Yun Huai began to tentatively make some movements.

He cautiously stepped down, and immediately heard a mechanical voice saying “No, no” from below.

He withdrew his action, and the robots repeated the four words “Protect, danger.”

Yun Huai looked towards the sky, wondering for the first time if he didn't look like an alien species, but like an Ita person.

After confirming the robots weren’t going berserk, Yun Huai again extracted thin strands of psychic power, unsure if all interstellar beings had such abilities.

And with such simple extraction, Yun Huai felt no fatigue whatsoever.

He used his psychic threads to wrap around a protruding meteorite and then dangled himself upside down from a height of over ten meters.

In his peripheral vision, the rusted war robots below exploded into chaos.

Literally exploded.

Yun Huai noticed many of them began emitting black smoke from their heads, as if encountering an unmanageable and unstoppable issue.

The leading, most intact robot even shuffled side to side, as if fearing he would fall from mid-air.

Yun Huai was quite confident, but this confidence was short-lived as he missed a piece of meteorite and swayed momentarily in the air.

The massive shadow below suddenly froze, and the next second, it leaped from the ground.

Yun Huai instinctively widened his eyes. In just the span of a breath, he found himself on the ground — if not for being caught in the arms of the war robots known in legend to recognize only the Ita tribe.

The robot’s pale white eyes flickered crazily a few times before gently and carefully placing Yun Huai on a small stone stool.

Standing on the stool, the youth could barely touch the robot's head.

"Dirty."

"Dirty."

"Impolite."

"Impolite."

The robot looked down at its own armor and then turned to try to wipe off the four hundred years of accumulated dirt and moss with its mechanical palm.

Yun Huai watched it futilely clean itself, then turn back to him, standing motionless as if waiting for an order.

For a moment, the air was filled with a probing voice, clear and gentle, a stark contrast to the cold mechanical sound.

"Do you... recognize me?" Yun Huai tilted his head slightly, "Am I a lost Ita person?"

War Robot: "No. No." Not an Ita person.

Yun Huai: "...You don't recognize me?"

The war robot's eyes flickered: "King. King." Referring to the king of the Ita people.

Yun Huai: "...You're too big to imitate a puppy's bark."

The robots didn't understand what a puppy was, but they sensed Yun Huai's displeasure and collectively stepped back, their pale eyes dimming.

Yun Huai gradually realized that these machines were not entirely emotionless; they seemed to be influenced by his words and actions, causing significant emotional fluctuations.

"Is it because of my psychic power?" Yun Huai said as he tentatively extended a thin strand of it, gently tapping the joints of the robot's mechanical hand, "Do you like this? Were you awakened by smelling it?"

A sound of mechanical friction and trembling was heard. AG-0781 looked down and saw the power that had awakened it from the Abyss.

It was the unique psychic power of the king, gently soothing it from up close. After four hundred years of slumber, AG-0781 felt its mechanical life was now complete.

Yun Huai watched its strange trembling. Suddenly, the massive "puppy" froze. Following its gaze, Yun Huai saw a circle of red blood spots on his wrist from an earlier attack.

"It's okay—" But before Yun Huai could finish, the robot suddenly raised its arm, gathering some silver-white energy, followed by a sonic boom in the air.

A crack opened in a distant meteorite hill with a loud noise, and Yun Huai noticed the robot's white eyes turn a dangerous red.

"Protect! Protect!"

It picked up Yun Huai again, indiscriminately attacking everything around it while retreating towards the location of the Abyss.

Yun Huai struggled in vain, saying, "It's okay, the injury isn't serious."

He didn't know what hidden program he had triggered, as a chorus of protective voices rose around him. They had laboriously climbed up from the Abyss and now stood at the edge of the fissure.

The deep, dark wind blew up from the bottomless abyss. Yun Huai swallowed hard and said to the suddenly tense robot, "Take me to a safe place, it's too dangerous here."

The red eyes flickered for a moment.

"Safe. Dangerous. Leave."

Yun Huai quickly nodded, "Yes, leave this place, back to the city—"

Before he could finish saying "go," Yun Huai's vision turned upside down. Three seconds later, he realized he was falling.

He was being carried by a robot, falling from the fissure in the Abyss.

The youth's grey-purple eyes widened in terror. Sensing his nervousness, the robot gripped him even tighter.

"Impolite. Impolite. Sorry. Sorry."

“……”

Yun Huai silently closed his eyes.

Apologies were not missed, and the rebellion was complete.

This batch of robots, some intact and some damaged, fell from the fissure like this. Just when Yun Huai thought he was about to crash into a pancake, a counteracting energy suddenly emerged from the robot's back.

It abruptly halted from its rapid descent, using the energy to swiftly fly away from the falling location, twisting and turning into a dark, narrow fissure cave.

Then there was a long flight.

Yun Huai had no idea how long he had been flying; he thought he had strayed far from his original location, perhaps never to be found again.

He was confident about returning to the city from the meteorite hill, but had no confidence in walking out of the Abyss cave without any equipment.

Suddenly, Yun Huai felt hungry, realizing from this sensation that it was now deep into the night.

He didn’t know where these war robots were taking him. By the time he saw light again, he was so hungry that he felt dizzy.

He was gently placed on a soft patch of grass, surrounded by strange stones emitting a faint green light.

This was an underground pile of stones, and not far away, Yun Huai suddenly saw a building that had come into view.

The buildings were very old, most of their volume fused with the surrounding ore and clay. The buildings were extensive, with finely carved patterns faintly visible.

Yun Huai realized that this was an abandoned ruin buried at the bottom of the Abyss.

Many years ago, K420 must have been prosperous and thriving.

But now, its surface was littered with piles of mechanical waste and inhabited by poor natives living in small, flat houses.

The war robots formed a circle around Yun Huai, extremely vigilant. Some were continuously moving glowing ores, while others brought him a source of clean water.

"Sorry. King, king, very poor, connect to main star." The condition is poor; need to connect to the main star.

Yun Huai swallowed a bit of water in a daze, "I know the network here is terrible, it’s impossible to connect to the outside. If you keep me here, I will die."

The word "die" seemed to trigger some program in the robots, as Yun Huai noticed they became more tense, with the leader even emitting a wisp of black smoke from its head.

"Here, energy fluctuation, rest, safe, safe."

Yun Huai looked at it struggling to speak and grew worried, fearing that this concentrated nuclear weapon might explode in front of him.

Such a death would be extremely gruesome and unsightly.

After drinking a bit of water, the burning hunger was somewhat alleviated, but Yun Huai still felt unsatisfied. He vaguely sensed something was off about the food, which didn't satisfy his hunger, but he couldn't think of anything else edible in this place.

Perhaps he would starve to death here before being blown up.

After spacing out for a while in this extreme situation, Yun Huai started to recall his childhood.

When he was very young, he must have felt loved.

It was a very distant memory; he lay in someone's arms, just as the robot had held him, being tightly embraced as a cherished cub.

Then the world became chaotic, some cities disappeared, others rose, and Yun Huai looked at the half-buried ruins of K420, realizing no civilization lasts forever.

They may face an apocalypse due to mutation or destruction due to war.

Is it true that only by becoming the sole dominant force can one possess and retain everything they desire?

As he thought quietly, his breathing was shallow, and AG-0781 would cautiously touch the youth now and then to ensure he was still there.

Yun Huai pushed away its mechanical finger, thinking it’s okay not to be so powerful. He didn’t have anything he wanted to possess or retain; he just needed a little bit of energy to survive.

In any desperate situation, life always finds its way.

Yun Huai looked at the newly grown moss and the delicate green grass leaves under his feet, illuminated by the green mineral stone’s light.

Perhaps he and they were no different, both just surviving in desperate situations.

But this survival was a bit strange. The youth again refused the water offered by the war robot with a leaf: "I don't want to drink anymore."

"No. No."

Yun Huai frowned: "I really don't want to—"

The robots’ red eyes gradually turned back to pale white, and they circled around him like a group of dirty little puppies, "Don't be sad."

Yun Huai was stunned.

These war machines, buried underground for who knows how long, clumsily comforted the youth: "Don't be sad. Protect, protect."

Yun Huai asked softly, "You’re protecting me?"

The leading AG-0781 nodded heavily.

Yun Huai gave a wry smile: "It's a bit of a waste, I'm not your powerful master, just a very weak being. Maybe I just look a bit like your master."

AG-0781’s entire mechanical skeleton trembled: "Newborn! Newborn! Guard, mission!"

They had found the newborn king! Guarding the royal family was their mission!

Yun Huai realized he was on a different wavelength from the robots, but he felt much better than before. Perhaps by finding the right way to communicate with these giants, he might still have a chance to return to the world above ground.

So, Yun Huai took out a small screwdriver he always carried and waved to AG-0781, "Come here, big guy."

AG-0781's eyes flickered for a moment. It stepped forward and knelt in front of Yun Huai. Realizing that even seated, the youth couldn't reach its head, AG-0781 bowed its most vital head further down.

Its overall structure was very powerful and beautiful, with two sharp, wing-like plates on either side of the head, resembling pointed ears.

It exposed its vulnerability completely, allowing the youth to tinker behind its neck with the small tool.

The robot kept repeating "hurt" "hurt."

At first, Yun Huai thought it was their malfunctioning parts that hurt, but gradually realized they were just worried about his injured wrist.

Yun Huai's heart softened for a moment, and he gently touched its large head.

"It's okay, it's just a small wound, I can't feel it anymore."

His intention was to communicate amicably with them, thinking that if he helped these giants a bit, maybe they could negotiate his return.

So, Yun Huai diligently tightened a component for it. When he looked up again, he saw a long queue silently formed behind the leading robot.

One of them even sheepishly swung its 360-degree elbow.

“……”

Yun Huai sighed deeply, feeling like he had taken on a huge task without any reward.

Just as he was about to call the next robot, AG-0781 suddenly pulled him behind its back. The war robots, which were relaxing moments ago, instantly stood up, their cold mechanical friction sounding eerie in the Abyss.

Yun Huai, puzzled, peeked from behind AG-0781 and saw a tall man silently standing on a derelict spire not too far away.

He couldn't see the man's face, but in the dim green light, Yun Huai saw he had a pair of rare, golden-colored eyes.

Those eyes were quietly observing him from the darkness, and he had no idea when the man had appeared.

Yun Huai opened his mouth, nervously gripping the screwdriver in his hand.

Was it a person?

Or a humanoid monster?

The youth swallowed hard, about to speak when he heard the man suddenly emit a short breath—

"Pfft."

Author's note:

"Rinzi, that's not polite. Ahuai is working so hard! Merit -1! (Yes, yes, this is the top, the top, the top!"

AG-0781: "Happy New Year to all fellow villagers!"

Xiyeya: "..." (smile.jpg)