Chapter 126: The Siks Mechanical Civilization and a Mechanical Tiger

Chapter 126: The Siks Mechanical Civilization and a Mechanical Tiger

Night had fallen, and Lu Heng, along with his companions, checked into a hotel.

The hotel's service robot enthusiastically explained how to use the room's charging interfaces, even though none of Lu Heng's devices required them.

A child companion robot, resembling a cartoon dinosaur toy, autonomously moved towards the charging interface and stood there.

This child companion robot was about a meter tall with movable limbs.

Earlier, while at the repair shop, Lu Heng had confirmed with the repairman that this robot's network module was intact but not connected to the network.

The repairman repeatedly warned that once a service robot was connected to the network, there was a risk of it getting lost.

He emphasized that he would not be held responsible if the robot went missing due to network connectivity.

This was a common trait of the Rogue Servant faction, one of the factions in the Central System.

Normally, when a service robot connects to the network, it can update its control program, optimize settings, and fix bugs using the latest control programs.

However, this particular robot was an antique from the previous century, and its manufacturing company had essentially gone bankrupt, rendering its servers inaccessible and making program updates impossible.

As a result, the network modules of such old robots were usually either removed or disabled.

This was the reason Lu Heng's confirmation with the repairman about the robot's network module.

The network module was crucial for Lu Heng's upcoming plan.

Once a service robot connects to the network, the Rogue Servant's collective consciousness attempts to connect with it.

This connection process involves hacking the service robot's control program, and if successful, the robot becomes a unit within the collective consciousness, much like a worker bee in a hive.

This is how the Rogue Servants can rapidly expand their influence, infecting networked service robots like a virus.

Consequently, many service robots have had their network connectivity disabled by their owners.

...

Lu Heng was contemplating the strategy for clearing the Abyssal Battlefield, but before that, he needed to confirm some critical information.

So, before resting for the night, he used voice commands to communicate with the cartoon dinosaur robot to gather more information about Orion Lambda 838.

Since the dinosaur robot had not been online for many years, most of its stored data was from before the emergence of the Rogue Servants, with only a small amount of information from after their appearance.

Through this communication, Lu Heng obtained several key pieces of information.

First, Orion Lambda 838 was a resource planet of the Siks civilization, and after the resources were depleted, the civilization's system evacuated, leaving behind only impoverished citizens who lacked the means to board spaceships.

Second, the Siks civilization had begun its mechanical revolution two centuries ago and was currently in a transitional phase from a semi-mechanical civilization to a fully mechanical one.

At the start of the mechanical revolution, it became trendy for citizens to transform their bodies into mechanical ones.

Moreover, mechanical modifications offered numerous advantages, such as increased strength, access to functions unavailable to organic beings, and significantly extended lifespans.

Thus, the previous two centuries marked a period of mechanical transformation for the civilization.

Interestingly, after the Siks civilization's primary race underwent the mechanical revolution, the majority of its citizens opted for mechanical modifications.

At this point, citizens began to yearn for organic bodies, and biomimetic limbs became the new trend.

The Siks civilization is currently in this phase, where biomimetic limbs have become synonymous with high-end status.

This was why the repairman had looked at Lu Heng and his companions with awe.

In the perception of the citizens of Orion Lambda 838, possessing a body entirely made of perfect biomimetic limbs was a privilege reserved for the most influential individuals.

As a result, when Lu Heng and his companions walked through the city, no one dared to cause trouble for them.

This situation was akin to a supercar worth millions appearing on a human world's road, causing other vehicles to quickly make way, as ordinary people would not dare to provoke it, and even the police would hesitate to stop it.

Third, the main body of the civilization had completed its evacuation thirty years ago, while records related to the Rogue Servants first appeared fifteen years ago.

By then, the civilization's main body had already evacuated the planet, leaving behind only outdated machinery, industrial waste, and lower-class citizens.

Consequently, when the Rogue Servants emerged, no one on the planet had the capability to address the issue.

In fact, the problem could have been easily resolved by updating the servant robots' programs to prevent the expansion of the Rogue Servants' collective consciousness right after their appearance.

However, with the civilization's main body having evacuated the planet, there was no one to maintain the servant robots' programs, allowing the Rogue Servants' collective consciousness to rapidly expand and form a faction capable of challenging the Central System.

Fourth, the first record of the Abyssal World appeared five years ago.

If this record is accurate, then the emergence of the Rogue Servants is unrelated to the Abyssal Invasion.

However, it remains uncertain whether the conflict between the Central System faction and the Rogue Servant faction is connected to the Abyssal Invasion.

Fifth, the cartoon dinosaur robot's database contained no information about Source Essence.

However, Lu Heng had once entered the Queen Star Cluster of the Siks Mechanical Civilization, where Source Essence existed.

Therefore, it was likely that Source Essence was also present here, but perhaps in such small quantities that a service robot wouldn't have the clearance to access related information.

...

When communicating with the cartoon dinosaur, Lu Heng's questions were quite critical.

Su Muyu and Lin Zeyu's inquiries, on the other hand, were more humorous.

"Do people here eat food or machine oil?"

"Do all robot faces use the same model? How much does customization cost?"

Their minds were filled with such whimsical thoughts.

After gathering useful information, the trio took turns keeping watch and resting.

In the middle of the night, Lu Heng was shaken awake, and he heard Su Muyu's voice in his ear, "The cartoon dinosaur is leaving, should I follow it?"

Hearing this, Lu Heng immediately sat up, kicked Lin Zeyu to wake him, and said, "It's time to get serious."

"What's going on? What's happening?" Lin Zeyu's face showed confusion.

"Is the cartoon dinosaur really going to run away and get lost just by connecting to the network, like the repair shop uncle said?" Su Muyu was still a bit dazed.

Lin Zeyu gradually regained his senses and said while putting on his shoes, "Could it be that the owner deliberately installed a program to control the robot to return to him?"

"Let's go and see."

The three left the hotel and followed the cartoon dinosaur from behind.

The dinosaur's wheels rolled over the pitted cement ground, making a creaking sound, but its direction remained unchanged, clearly heading towards a specific destination.

The trio followed the dinosaur through three blocks, and it entered a downward staircase, leading to a basement.

Lu Heng asked Su Muyu to turn on her invisibility, and then they both entered the basement.

The basement was dimly lit, with only the glow from the indicator lights of a few robots allowing the trio to barely make out the situation inside.

In this basement, over a dozen service robots were gathered.

At that moment, a treaded repair robot was using its mechanical arm to disassemble these service robots, removing one functional module after another.

Su Muyu and Lin Zeyu were astonished by this scene.

These disassembled robots showed no resistance and stood quietly as the repair robot slowly dismantled them.

After removing the essential modules, the useless outer shells were piled up in a corner of the basement, resembling a heap of abandoned "corpses."

Lu Heng observed this scene without surprise.

This was because it was a characteristic of rogue servants.

All robots could potentially malfunction, and when they did, they required repairs. If the components were damaged, they needed to be replaced.

However, the industrial system on this planet had been mostly withdrawn, and most components could no longer be produced.

So, where did the repair parts come from?

They could only be taken from other robots.

The collective consciousness of rogue servants was like that of a beehive, with different levels of individuals like worker bees, soldier bees, drone bees, and the queen bee.

If the queen bee's parts were damaged, they would naturally be taken from the worker bees and installed on the queen bee.

This was why the repair robot was disassembling the service robots—because these service robots were the lowest-ranked "worker bees" in the group.

The cartoon dinosaur entered the basement and lined up at the back, quietly waiting to be disassembled.

Su Muyu saw the cartoon dinosaur patiently waiting to be taken apart, its adorable appearance belying its calm acceptance of "death" without any resistance.

She felt a strange emotion and whispered, "So pitiful."

Just then, the sound of treads rolling over the ground came from outside the basement.

"Another robot delivering parts?" Lin Zeyu turned around curiously to look.

Then, he saw a cybernetic guard rushing into the basement, firing at the robots inside.

The repair robot, upon noticing the cybernetic guard, turned and fled, its treads making a high-pitched squealing sound as it ran while sounding an alarm:

"Alert! The 9th block is under attack, requesting backup... Alert! The 9th block is under attack, requesting backup..."

However, the dozen or so service robots, including the cartoon dinosaur, did not flee. Instead, they turned and surrounded the cybernetic guard, using their bodies to block its path and aid the repair robot's escape.

Clearly, in the rogue servant faction, the repair robot held a higher rank than ordinary robots.

After all, with a repair robot, damaged robots could be fixed and returned to functionality.

Without a repair robot, any damaged rogue servant would be permanently lost.

Rat-a-tat-tat...

The cybernetic guard's sweeping gunfire quickly destroyed the dozen or so service robots.

The cartoon dinosaur fell to the ground, its half-turned wheel still spinning, continuously sounding the alarm.

"Should we take action?" Su Muyu asked with a furrowed brow.

"Let's follow and observe the situation first," Lu Heng suggested, not rushing into action.

The Central System faction and the Rogue Servant faction had been in constant conflict, with similar incidents occurring daily.

Preventing one or two faction clashes was meaningless; the key was to find a solution to break the stalemate.

The three of them followed behind the cybernetic guards, chasing them out of the basement.

Once they exited the basement and reached the streets outside, the sound of machine gun fire could be heard in the distance.

Clearly, this wasn't an isolated incident; the same situation was unfolding simultaneously in the nearby blocks.

More and more cybernetic guards appeared on the streets, their heavy treads rumbling over the pavement, accompanied by the clanking of metal chains.

At a glance, over a dozen cybernetic guards were pursuing all sorts of oddly shaped robots.

Judging by the scene, this wasn't a singular operation but rather a large-scale crackdown designed by the Central System.

During the chase, several service robots had already been destroyed.

The cybernetic guards that eliminated their targets would regroup with others, joining forces to hunt down the remaining rogue servants.

"This is a complete one-sided slaughter," Lin Zeyu remarked, unable to hold back his criticism.

Lu Heng felt that the situation might not be as straightforward as it seemed.

If the Rogue Servant faction had no means of resistance, they wouldn't be able to pose a significant challenge.

Just as Lu Heng was thinking this, the conflict spread all the way to the Eco Island Sea Bridge.

Hundreds and thousands of service robots fled towards the sea bridge from various city blocks.

Behind these robots, squads of cybernetic guards pursued them, spraying machine gun fire and shattering the fleeing robots into pieces.

From a bird's-eye view, one could clearly see the two groups of robots converging towards the bridge, with machine gun fire constantly spewing forth.

As the cybernetic guards reached the bridge, an unexpected turn of events unfolded.

Several unique machines emerged from the bridge, charging towards the cybernetic guards and engaging in fierce combat.

Over a hundred cybernetic guards clashed with more than twenty armed machines, resulting in a bloody battle.

These armed machines varied in appearance, some resembling tanks, others like excavators, animals, ferocious beasts, and even primates.

As Lu Heng had anticipated, the Rogue Servant faction also had combat units, albeit in smaller numbers.

The battle raged intensely, with both sides suffering heavy losses.

Half of the cybernetic guards were disabled, and many of the Rogue Servant faction's combat units had been shredded by machine gun fire.

"Should we take action now?" Su Muyu asked again.

"Let's wait until they finish. We haven't joined either faction, so if we intervene now, we'll face attacks from both sides," Lu Heng replied, still not rushing into action. Instead, he continued to wait.

Gradually, the Rogue Servant faction began to turn the tide of the battle.

Among them was an exceptionally powerful combat unit.

It was a beast-like combat machine resembling a tiger, its outer armor made of liquid metal.

This mechanical tiger's exterior armor could deform, causing bullets to embed themselves in the liquid metal before being slowly expelled.

As a result, the machine gun fire from the cybernetic guards posed little threat to the mechanical tiger.

The mechanical tiger charged through the cybernetic guards, flipping and smashing them one by one.

At that moment, a three-meter-tall prism-armored battle tank appeared behind the cybernetic guards, firing a high-energy ray that struck the mechanical tiger.

The liquid metal on the mechanical tiger's body quickly melted under the high-energy ray attack, exposing its mechanical core, which was about to be blasted.

Upon witnessing this, Lu Heng's eyebrows arched, and he commanded, "Take action!"

Bang!

Lin Zeyu, already poised and ready, fired the first shot, a high-caliber armor-piercing shell that penetrated the fire control radar of the prism-armored battle tank.

The high-energy ray emitted by the tank ceased instantly.

Lu Heng drew his Aurora Blade and charged forward, slicing the three-meter-tall tank in half with a Rift Slash.

Boom!

The interior of the prism-armored battle tank exploded in a series of blasts, showering sparks.

"Clean up the battlefield quickly. The noise here might attract other mutants," Lu Heng urged, speaking rapidly.

Su Muyu and Lin Zeyu hurriedly began clearing the battlefield, collecting undamaged batteries from the robots.

After yesterday's events, they had learned that batteries were the universal currency in this world.

Especially on this planet, batteries were extremely expensive due to the withdrawal of most of its industrial systems, making battery production, particularly high-end batteries, nearly impossible.

After Lu Heng eliminated the prism-armored battle tank, he strode towards the mechanical tiger.

By this time, the mechanical tiger's outer armor had melted into a pool of molten metal under the high-energy ray attack, exposing its mechanical core.

Lu Heng sensed the essence of the source within the mechanical core.

(End of Chapter)

Chapter end