Chapter 186: Preparing for the Apocalypse
Roland waved his hand, signaling the surrounding robots to clear away the remains of the Imperial Guard Robots and take them back for reprocessing.
“How does it feel, having a body as an AI?”
He gestured for Yasuo to sit before asking.
“It’s a strange feeling. This body matches me extremely well. I can sense all the emotions that belong to humans… Maybe before long, I’ll forget that I was ever an AI.”
Yasuo sat down, removed his helmet, and stared at his palms, his gaze drifting slightly as he turned his hands from side to side.
Roland nodded. This was exactly what he had instructed Lissandra to do—while ensuring absolute loyalty, she had released as much emotional capacity as possible to improve compatibility with Wind’s body. At the same time, the AI was completely locked into this physical form, unable to detach from it. The downside was the loss of many abilities it once possessed as an AI.
“Next, you’ll join the main battlefield. Your abilities will be far more effective there.”
“I understand.”
Yasuo nodded, performed a brief salute, and left.
As for why he would be more effective on the main battlefield… releasing an energy storm empowered by electronic blood inside a city would be no different from indiscriminately tossing EMP grenades everywhere.
Worse still, that energy storm carried destructive power far beyond a standard EMP. The resulting damage wouldn’t be trivial at all. To control the losses, they would have to suppress the opponent’s output, which would greatly limit its effectiveness.
Before Yasuo left, Roland planned to draw a vial of his blood. Light’s blood was similar, but… drawing from someone else was always better than drawing from himself.
He was genuinely interested in electronic blood.
After everything was settled, Roland turned his attention to the true heavy hitter he could currently afford in the marketplace: PROJECT · Apocalypse.
It was also the prerequisite for unlocking Oblivion.
In its complete form, this beast was a powerful Template capable of standing toe-to-toe with Oblivion. Unfortunately… before it was completed, someone had driven it insane.
If it were whole, this beast would actually be more practical than Oblivion. Part of Oblivion’s power came from its rage system—the higher the rage, the stronger it became, which fit its design perfectly.
But that also introduced a fatal flaw. Once the rage exceeded its limit, there was a risk of losing control.
Apocalypse didn’t suffer from that problem. In its complete state, its emotional template had been entirely severed. It would carry out tasks using the most efficient methods possible—a perfect biological weapon.
Sadly, in the original timeline, it had been beaten into madness and complete loss of control.
What Roland could currently exchange for was that very version—the maddened Warwick.
That made Roland grit his teeth. He had no interest in fighting that thing. He was now seriously suspecting that one of the reasons Maine was compatible with it was because, in the original story, he eventually became a cyberpsycho.
He could summon Apocalypse right now, but he had to think carefully about what would come after.
First was the compatible host—the Template adapter—which meant Maine. Second was a solution for handling Apocalypse once it went out of control. Ideally, the problem would be eliminated entirely. That kind of issue… would have to be handed over to Mudor.
As for Maine…
“He should be with the government forces in Northern California right now…”
Roland rubbed his chin. Maybe he could give this big brother from the original storyline a bit of protagonist treatment.
Come to think of it… there was still one original character he hadn’t looked for yet—this big brother’s girlfriend, Dorio.
With that in mind, Roland immediately instructed Kelly to track her down. He had a feeling she would be the best match for Shan.
Speaking of Shan… Roland hadn’t expected this originally unremarkable character to be so expensive. The reason was simple: he came bundled with a Sky Strike System.
In short, Shan’s ultimate ability was an energy cannon strike from the sky. Of course, it could also be released using his own energy, but the effect was completely different.
After seeing that description, only one thought surfaced in Roland’s mind.
A full-AP Daylight Leona?
...
Bang!
“All right, that’s enough training for today. To be honest, it’s rare to see someone train this hard in the barracks.”
Garfield rolled his shoulders, slung a towel over himself, wiped away his sweat, and spoke with a grin.
“Hah… thanks, Captain.”
Maine let out a long breath and wiped the sweat from his face. Compared to before, he looked noticeably bulkier now.
Even his height had increased.
“Here.”
Garfield walked over and handed him an energy drink.
Maine didn’t say a word. He took it and drained it in one go.
“I really don’t know what you’re pushing yourself this hard for, but take my advice—stop installing more cyberware. Your body’s almost at its limit. You have to think about what happens after you retire, don’t you?”
“Retire… Even if I did, I’d probably just become a mercenary. Cyberware is my life, Captain.”
Maine smiled and shook his head.
“Is that so…”
Garfield nodded and fell silent. Since Maine joined the military, he had always served under him. He had watched him grow from a skinny kid into the hulking figure he was now.
“We’re about to go to war.”
“So soon?”
Maine froze for a moment, then looked at Garfield in surprise.
“Yeah. They say it’s because of PROJECT Corporation. They’ve taken over a lot of cities in Nevada, and the big shots in the New United States are getting restless. They want to finish this campaign as soon as possible and put a stop to their expansion.”
Garfield nodded. This wasn’t exactly classified information—anyone paying attention could tell that Militech felt threatened and was running out of patience.
The way the New United States had swallowed Montana in one swift, thunderous push made that obvious.
Of course, part of that was because Montana didn’t put up much resistance. Many of its top officials had already realized that the other Free States had no intention of helping them. There was no reason to waste their remaining strength.
Rather than taking a beating and losing everything, it was better to pay some protection money and keep what they could. They had also noticed the growing fractures within the Free States Alliance.
Even with Arasaka acting as a mediator, each side was still plotting its own interests, wary of one another.
No one felt this more keenly than Baru, the leader of the Free States Alliance. He could clearly sense that some states were already looking for a way out.
They were opening back doors for the New United States, feeding them intelligence. Whenever he tried to deal with those people, the leadership within their states claimed the issue had already been handled. But did he really need an explanation to know what that meant?
“A bunch of short-sighted fools!”
Baru slammed his hand on the table in fury, then sank back into his chair, exhausted.
Now… all he could do was try his best to hold back the advance of the New United States. As for driving them out entirely—that had become impossible the moment cracks appeared within the Free States Alliance.
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