บท 8: Chapter 8: Humanoid Weapons
บรรณาธิการ: Atlas Studios
With everything frozen in place, everyone was eerily still, except for the three armed assailants.
This was because the time freeze would lock all the targets' statuses, which meant that no external attacks could harm a time-frozen target. So, Pandora had only stopped time to protect the innocent on the scene from getting involved, but there was no need to protect those three armed assailants.
It seemed Pandora somewhat knew how to save me from trouble, even though she never understood why I hated trouble so much.
The sudden anomaly left the three previously arrogant men momentarily stunned. Such scenes were only seen in movies, completely rendering them incapable of reacting.
The burly man in the center was the first to react. He found the scrawny boy he was holding suddenly immovable, like a mountain. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't drag the boy an inch further. So, he decisively let go of the hostage, pulled out another handgun from his waist, and instantly transformed into a dual-wielding gunman, vigilantly scanning his surroundings.
"Emperor," Pandora's voice came through our mental link, "without the support of the Xyrin Outpost Base, the false static can only last for fifteen minutes."
"Got it," I responded to Pandora mentally (this form of communication sure was convenient), "what is false static?"
"A secondary time freeze phenomenon," Pandora seemed to wobble on her feet but patiently explained, "it halts information interactions within a certain zone, causing a phenomenon similar to a time freeze but cannot interfere with the normal timeline and can only execute the static operation, hence called false static."
"Okay, I don't get it," I nodded hard, declaring with flair, "they're already in a total panic; our next move is…"
"For the Empire!" Pandora, usually emotionless, suddenly shouted passionately. Before I could react, she charged toward our enemies like a white lightning bolt.
Wait a minute! What's happening? Did the emotionless Loli suddenly turn into a violent and passionate beauty? No, no, no, the critical issue isn't there… Where's my battle plan?! My only purpose is to state the battle plan, and you just ran off before I even said it!
Pandora's significant movement immediately drew the attention of the three assailants. In a state where everything was frozen, a little girl dressed in weird white armor with a masked face suddenly running out was hard to ignore.
At this moment, already on high alert, they couldn't even consider the anomaly's cause and who the little girl was. Almost instinctively, the three simultaneously raised their guns, aiming at the charging white figure.
Bang bang bang, several gunshots rang out, and my heart sank, thinking, "This is bad!"
Pandora, moving at high speed, suddenly stopped in a manner totally defying the laws of motion. She stretched her right hand forward, fingers spread wide, like a motionless statue. The stark contrast between the two states made me almost believe that Pandora's fierce charge was an illusion.
A wave-like ripple spread out in front of Pandora, blocking several misshapen metal cylinders, which then powerlessly fell to the ground.
… Should have figured. The Xyrin Empire, vastly more advanced than human civilization, couldn't possibly fear primitive human hot weapons.
The armed men were utterly dumbfounded, the surrounding anomalies and the weird Loli in front of them making them feel they were no longer in the real world.
At that moment, Pandora's cold, emotionless voice came through.
"Confirmed under attack, threat level zero, initiating deterrent measures—"
Accompanying Pandora's emotionless voice, her outstretched right hand suddenly transformed. A swathe of black metal with harsh lines appeared in mid-air, assembling at blinding speed into a massive rectangular cannon over three meters long and half my height. Between the intricate parts of the cannon body, light blue energy webs pulsed like blood vessels. These energy webs extended from the rectangular cannon muzzle back to the base, merging with Pandora's entire right side.
"Pandora 1000mm Ship-to-ship Ghost Energy Cannon, entering firing preheat mode…"
The three men on site were completely stunned…
Frankly, so was I…
"This… this is a monster!"
The burly dual-wielding gunman shouted, turning to flee. But as he turned, Pandora's left hand rapidly morphed into a triple-barreled, six-tube machine gun. As the giant machine gun roared to life, the gunman's legs gave way, and he collapsed, a huge wet patch quickly spreading beneath him…
Disregarding the horrified stares from the scene, I just carefully observed the giant weaponry in little Loli Pandora's hands. Never mind the colossal rectangular Ghost Energy Cannon, the triple-barreled, six-tube machine gun alone was bigger than Pandora herself. Now, I could finally confirm that beneath Pandora's emotionless facade lay a heart full of violence and a desire for battle—lucky I chose to bring her along. Otherwise, she would have surely gone out conquering the world from boredom if left home alone…
Besides, a Loli with colossal weapons, this scene was unexpectedly pleasing to the eye…
"You… who are… you…" A red-haired young man among the three stammered, his gun clattering to the ground—it didn't even qualify as a toy compared to Pandora, the ultimate humanoid weapon.
Pandora ignored his questions. The massive weapon in her hand clicked twice before the "Pandora 1000mm Ship-to-ship Ghost Energy Cannon" began gathering blinding blue-white energy at the rectangular muzzle like a jet engine intake.
"Enough, Pandora." I finally realized what Pandora was doing. As a "Xyrin General," killing enemies was as routine to her as eating and drinking. If I didn't stop her now, these three unlucky souls would surely become the first humans vaporized by alien ship weapons in history.
Though they were criminals who disregarded lives, well-deserved of death, killing them like this would undoubtedly cause chaos once the false static effect ended.
"As you command."
With Pandora's response, the two giant weapons rapidly retracted, dissipating into the air, and her partially mechanical body returned to normal.
At this point, the three already mentally unstable men finally noticed another human still moving on the scene. Though he looked ordinary, given he had commanded the "monster," he definitely wasn't an ordinary person.
So, the next moment, the three men gazed at me like they'd found their savior.
Being stared at so intently by three hulking men… felt like hell.
The burly man who had wet himself earlier was now crying and begging, "Spare us! You must be magnanimous and wouldn't bother with us ordinary humans…"
… Was he implying I wasn't human? Although such an assumption was normal after seeing Pandora, brother, I must tell you, you just taunted me…
"Foolish carbon-based life," Pandora's cold voice interjected, accompanied by an eerie electronic tremor, "do not attempt to cloud the Emperor's judgment!"
Ahem… Pandora, you just group-taunted…
First, being unceremoniously excluded from humanity, then inadvertently disdained by my sister and subordinate, I awkwardly said, "Let's not discuss species issues, Pandora. We shouldn't kill them outright, or we'd have a lot of trouble when time resumes. Do you have any way to erase their memories or…"
"Or turn them into idiots or something?" Finally, I switched to the mental link, speaking directly to Pandora in my mind.
Pandora nodded, then walked toward the collectively incontinent former assailants. As she walked, her right hand morphed into a roughly one-foot-long blue-and-white cone, with a flashing blue probe at the tip.
The three men wailed in despair.
Thus, the world gained three more idiots.
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