Bab 27: Chapter 27 - Trouble and Decision
(So, as usual drill people. Hands in the air, this is a trade offer. I offer more chapters, you surrender all your power stone.)
Ever since the reveal about the Zombie Outbreak. Many things had changed. People are made aware of the danger of the epidemic and the city of Vale has opened its door to all the scattered frontier towns and villages to seek refuge. However, there are of course people who are stubborn.
In a farming town 80 miles outside of Vale, the people remain stubborn to leave their village because it's their ancestral ground and the villagers rather protect it than fleeing away.
*AWOOO!*
"That's a Beowolf! Alert the Huntsmens about the Grimm attack!" A villager shouted to the others before he quickly fled along with everyone from their farm.
It's a known fact that Zombified Grimms do not exhibit any behavior similar to the original Grimms. They are a dead corpse driven only by their instinct to spread the virus. Thus they assumed the howl meant it's Grimm attack. However, they were wrong.
A giant Beowolf three times its original size sprints out of the treelines and charges at the fleeing villagers that have no Aura and are helpless against the Mutated Grimm. Then, one after another. Zombified Beowolves poured out from the woods and swarmed the villagers, biting and infecting them all as they helplessly wail and screamed for help.
The Mutated Beowolf howled again and the Zombie Beowolves turned their course and charged at the village.
"Close the gate! Close it faster!"
"AHH! Help!"
"Save me! SAVE ME! I don't want to die!"
"Wahh! Mommy!"
It's total pandemonium. A village of hundred villagers was devastated in seconds
No walls can stop the superior Mutated Beowolf that smashed down the steel gate effortlessly. Zombified Beowolves in tens of thousands swarmed the entire village, overwhelming it's helpless defenders as they futilely fought for an unwinnable battle.
Not just this village. But hundreds of other villages and towns are experiencing the same thing.
'March my soldiers! Trample everything in your sight! Exterminate those inferior races and welcome your new god! Hahahaha!'
———
"Master! A terrible thing had happened!" Agent immediately jumped on Adam when he returned from his recent daily grind session.
"What's the matter?" Adam frowned and asked before Agent handed him a tablet that showed a recent report on the activities of the Zombified Grimms caught by the drones they scattered outside of Vale for surveillance.
"Immediately raise the alert to the highest level and gather all military officials." Adam commanded before he walked out his office.
"Already done, Master. I also took the liberty to mobilize all active combatants and robots to reinforce the settlements while waiting for your return, Master." Agent replied and made Adam almost stumble down. Hearing this made something inside him snapped.
Agent is perfect as expected of a perfectionist. She can make decisions, issue orders, everything. She can do everything perfectly without error. Eliminating the needs of ministers and the majority of the decision making body. Due to that, Adam's role had been reduced to nothing but a paper stamper, to put down his signature.
Even when she asks for his opinion, she already has answers ready for him to choose. She already has the answer! Then why bother asking him at all? She literally can do everything on her own and in exchange, one of their Dummies will be permanently assigned to this task. Even the entire coup was her idea and he only knew about it at the very end.
Adam felt inferior, felt jealous of her ability and felt like he was useless. The only reason he is even relevant is because he is her master. He was completely overshadowed just like previous self, a talentless, ordinary and replaceable extra. The frustration bottled up inside him to the verge of exploding. But because of his inherent inferiority complex and low self-esteem he carried over from his previous life. He continues to bottle it in and swallow it in silence.
"I see… let's go then." Adam sighed and walked away with a dark and heavy mood hanging around him.
Agent being a perfect maid she is, noticed the not so subtle change on her Master's face and voice. Coupled with his constant need for his daily 'meditation' session of pumping bullets into enemies, it's not hard to guess what is happening inside his mind.
Agent increases her pace and follows behind Adam as they leave the office.
"Master… Although I am capable of doing everything and almost anything. Making a decision without your permission is physically impossible for me."
Adam slowed his walking speed and turned his head slightly with a confused look as he tried to grasp what Agent was trying to say.
"I meant what I said. I am a T-Doll created with Neural Cloud and personality modeled and intended to be a perfect maid by my creator." She said and paused for a moment as if to gather and arrange her words before she continued. "A maid is a servant. We… I cannot make any decisions without your permission no matter how I try to bend and twist the interpretation of your words."
"So. If Master finds my actions to be bothersome, all the Master needs to do is to order me to stop. Master's order is absolute after all."
Adam stopped and turned his body around to look at Agent. His face wore an unreadable expression which puzzled Agent made her fear that her words might aggravate Adam's mental state.
"So, are my words absolute? Even above the protocols in your mind?" He asked with the same unreadable expression.
"I could change the priority." Agent said as the system inside her is inherently different after being modified by the System.
"Do it."
"It's done." Agent replied instantly.
"Good. Now shoot me."
Agent panicked as to her horror, her body moved on its own, overriding her input.
"Hmn. I see. Dismiss the previous order." Adam issued another order before Agent could shoot her Laser cannon.
"What are you doing, Master! You almost forced me to commit something terrible!" Agent broke her usual image of calm and collected for once and understandably, very angry.
"It's just a test to satisfy my curiosity. Besides, I'm not hurt am I?" Adam shrugs.
Before Agent could continue scolding him, she noticed his complexion had returned to his usual calm and easygoing self.
Seeing the surprise on Agent's face, Adam chuckled a little.
"What?" Adam asked with a slight mischievous grin. "Surprised I am back to normal? Well, I can't blame you." He said and sighed a little before his grin turned into a soft smile.
"I am aware of my shortcomings. I know my inferiority complex, my low self-esteem, my jealousy, etc." Adam said. "No need to deny it. I know it already, the results of growing up in modern society." He sighed when Agent wanted to stop him from his self-deprecating talk and then he continued. "I figure maybe a second chance will change everything. It seems I was too optimistic towards myself when everything stayed just the same."
"Anyway, don't worry about it too much, Agent. I am a man with many shortcomings as you can see. It's not something I can change miraculously just by being aware of it." An exasperated look sneaks up on his face as he cannot hold back his own frustration on himself.
"It's alright, Master. Whatever your shortcomings are, I didn't care. Master is Master and it will never change. I will continue to serve by the Master's side regardless of everything until the day you don't need me anymore." Agent made a rare show of expression when she smiled.
Adam felt odd and came to a realization. Pouring out feelings, confessing it to each other and finally making promises… Sounds like a damn romance route from a visual novel or something. But he can't deny he didn't fall for it.
It's the first time he ever saw Agent smiled, which is opposite of her usual intimidating, stoic and cold image. But it's oddly fitting and beautiful. Enough to make his heart skip a beat and make him experience the average romcom anime beta male protagonist experience of falling in love.
Adam coughed and quick turn away after remembering they have an emergency for fuck sake and he is here doing this romcom bullshit.
"Let's go, we delayed long enough." He walked away leaving a bewildered Agent behind who chuckled after seeing her flustered Master trying to flee in embarrassment.
"Yes, my Master." Agent replied back with a slightly cheery voice compared to her usual serious or outright flat ones.
———
An hour later, in the command center after the rescue missions on each settlement were initiated.
"This is bad." Adam muttered and was heard by few present in the room.
"Why is it, sir?" Professor Peter Port, the expert of Grimms lended by Opzin, asked with a confused look on his face while also keeping a respectful attitude.
"Zoom in on that." Adam asked and Agent did on the Mutated Grimms. "This is a Mutated Grimms. A different breed from the Zombified Grimms."
Peter nods and takes down notes which will be useful in his work to learn about the nature of Zombified Grimms to better combat them.
"Mutated Grimms?" He asked.
"Yes. As you already know, I participated in the earlier battle in the town, Ansel. Where the virus first originated."
"Mutated Grimms are different because they are much stronger and bigger after being infected through incubation instead of spreading the virus. They are in a sense, living animals compared to Zombified Grimms which is a corpse puppeted by the virus. The worst thing about them is they have intelligence instead of charging mindlessly. You could say they are the Elder Grimms to the Zombified Grimms."
"So, you are saying that they are what is commanding these Zombified Grimms to attack the settlements?" Peter was curious about his hypothesis and asked after hearing his explanation.
"Perhaps." Adam mutters in a whisper as he remembers the Awakened Human, the one that took the Progenitor Virus and was able to control Mutated Grimms and possibly Zombified Grimms too.
"They are also not limited to just Beowolf as I remember encountering all sorts of Mutated Grimms like Ursa, Deathstalker, King Taijitu, Nevermore, etc." Adam added some extra details as he reminded himself that he cannot put his next Interdimensional Contract on hold anymore.
He had learned that Interdimensional Contract is not merely just for the sake of gaining large amounts of rewards and unique items to that world. But it also offers more long-term resources like how he profits from GFL world's technologies etc.
What he lacked now is powerful people under his commands. Yes, Huntsmen are powerful in their own right. But they are only comparable to Uncommon units in game terms, they are not the SSR unit that can overcome impossible odds and give him an edge against his enemies.
"Hmn. Hmn. I will definitely share all this information immediately." Peter checked his note before he excused himself.
"You have my thanks, Professor Port."
"It's nothing. I am just doing my duty." Peter accepted politely before he left.
After that, Adam watched the large screen in silence, of the rescue progress which went smoothly for most part. No one was injured or infected. The only failure was due to the rescue team unable to arrive on time.
With this, Adam reached a conclusion that the Huntsmen are still a capable force to be employed against the Zombified Grimms and Mutated Grimms. They have to make do for now as his army of robots is behind schedule which was accelerated further with the organized attack by the Awakened Human that seeks to destroy all four kingdoms.
"Agent. For now, dedicate a few production lines to produce armors for Huntsmen. Arm them with protective gear and employ them against the Infected alongside the Prowlers." He said an Agent immediately shared the information to her other Dummies overseeing the industrial complex to carry out Adam's new order.
"Also ask everyone if they want to join. I will start another Interdimensional Contract very soon."
"Is it time already?" Agent frowned as her side was still not fully prepared as only two of her four available Dummies had completed their upgrades.
"Probably tomorrow morning. I also have a bit more preparation to do, especially the Augmenting of my gears." Adam nods and remembers that gears produced by his System using blueprint are considered as gears from the System and Augmentable.
—————
(Aight, proceed as planned. Next world is Black Bullet. We're gonna nab some superhuman lolis, especially Tina.
Also, for Black Bullet world. I'm kinda confused. The characters obviously exhibit superhuman powers. Is that magic? Or maybe the setting of the world? Anyway, it's confusing and I'm probably gonna slap on my own interpretations so if it's not lore accurate then I apologize in advance to the lore accurate enjoyer. )
If you readers feel generous or want to appreciate my work and effort, feel free to tip me here.
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