Chapter 30 Chapter 30: What About the Bargaining Chip Placed on the Other End of the Scale?
Chapter 30: What About the Bargaining Chip Placed on the Other End of the Scale?
Until the very last explosion just now, the others simply had no chance to intervene in this fight—most of the Wildfire members were still using mining picks as their primary weapons. Could you expect them to step forward and block bullets with those?
Even Seele, whose expertise lies entirely in speed, couldn't get anywhere near the center of the explosions.
From everyone's perspective, it almost looked like Kevin was first covered by a hail of firepower, then Svarog charged into the explosions to launch an attack. And in the very next moment, as the dust settled, Svarog was already half-kneeling on the ground, unable to take any further action.
"System warning: Body shock rate at 54%. Main engine has entered low-temperature freeze mode. Attempting to restart main engine... Restart failed."
"Conclusion reached: Battlefield situation is overwhelmingly disadvantageous. Remaining probability of victory does not exceed 1%. Annihilation action failed. Permission granted to initiate self-destruct protocol..."
Upon closer inspection, although Svarog appeared largely intact on the surface, frost had actually formed at his various joints, emitting cold air. The true condition inside his body was even more unimaginable.
"Initiating... self-destruct protocol..."
Logically speaking, for a machine built entirely for combat, its actual self-destruction process wouldn't have some ridiculous countdown like in movies. But for some unknown reason, Svarog seemed to be stuck at this moment.
"No, you can't be destroyed. Otherwise, that little girl would hate me to death."
Kevin, standing calmly before Svarog, gently patted the dust off his shoulders. Although it was called a fight, he hadn't even used the baseball bat that could barely be considered a weapon; he had acted purely with his bare hands.
Compared to destroying this robot that was originally created to protect the Underworld, he was actually more curious: why did it target him as an enemy?
"Wait, please don't hurt Mr. Svarog!"
As soon as she saw the fight had finally ended, Clara rushed forward and spread her arms, shielding Svarog. It wasn't because she thought Kevin wouldn't hurt her, but because she instinctively disregarded her own safety to do so.
"Mr. Svarog... Mr. Svarog definitely didn't mean to hurt anyone on purpose. He's always been very gentle normally, and everything he does is so that everyone in the Underworld can survive longer. It's just... it's just..."
Clara desperately wanted to try and speak up for Svarog, but she also knew very well that Svarog's attack just now was clearly aimed at killing someone. At a time like this, nothing she said would likely be of any use.
No matter how sweet the words, they couldn't change this ironclad fact. If Kevin hadn't been capable enough, he would have already perished in the explosions earlier, with no chance to listen to her explanation.
"...Mr. Svarog, why did you suddenly launch an attack?"
After calming down for a moment, Clara finally grasped the crux of the issue. As a mechanical lifeform, even if Svarog's calculation results might not align perfectly with human emotional sensibilities, they should absolutely not be wrong.
"Clara... System analysis results indicate that the target is an extremely threatening special non-human entity. There is a high probability it could affect the continued existence of the Underworld and even accelerate Belobog's destruction process."
Judging solely from this result, someone unaware might think Kevin was some terrifying monster of enormous size. This description simply didn't fit a human.
Clara glanced at Kevin, then immediately looked back at Svarog with concern: "But... this gentleman looks completely like a normal human no matter how you look at him? He just saved me earlier; he must be a very kind person... Has Mr. Svarog's calculation module malfunctioned?"
"Calculation result questioned by Clara. System re-checking... Detection result: Calculation module normal. Maintaining original conclusion."
"Mr. Svarog?!"
Any fool would know that at a time like this, you should at least admit your mistake and apologize. Is Mr. Svarog an idiot?!
"So why did you arrive at such a calculation conclusion? What's the reason?"
Kevin was well aware of his body's true condition. On a purely biological level, it was indeed difficult to classify him as human. And in terms of threat level, forget Belobog; completely destroying the entire planet wouldn't be a problem for him in his current state.
But Kevin didn't believe that just any robot could easily see through his true nature.
"Request received. Attempting to retrieve calculation process... System error: Log does not contain entry for this target... Attempting to retrieve again..."
"Since Mr. Svarog can't even state the reason, then his calculation module must definitely be malfunctioning! There's no mistake about it!" Seeing that Svarog seemed stuck in a logical error loop, Clara gave his metal head a firm slap. Her tone was filled with a determination and conviction far beyond her years.
Mr. Svarog's head is definitely broken! She'll have to handle this!
"Variable detected. Assessment system rebooting... Variable one: Clara's doubt; Variable two: System log missing... Amending calculation conclusion: Reducing target threat level to normal."
Witnessing this situation, Kevin couldn't help but sigh softly and mutter: "Should I say it's typical of a robot? In some ways, completely impervious to reason."
However, Kevin could also roughly guess what was going on. Even if the robot before him was merely a product of this planet's civilization at its peak—something current Belobog couldn't possibly replicate—could they really lack even the most basic operational capabilities?
He didn't believe this incident was truly some coincidental system malfunction.
But from another perspective, this indeed proved that woman named Cocolia possessed enough audacity.
So then, what was the bargaining chip she placed on the other end of the scale?
"You took such a fierce attack... and you're completely unharmed?!"
Seele had struggled mightily to wait until they resolved the issue before speaking up. She stared at Kevin's body, looking left and right, almost reaching out to touch him directly.
"This is truly impressive. Before today, this old man would never have believed that young people nowadays could be so robust."
Oleg, who arrived a step later, also marveled at Kevin's body, which barely had a speck of dust on it. These people weren't focusing their thoughts on the actual matter at hand until one Wildfire member suddenly realized something.
"Since Svarog can't move anymore now... does that mean we can head to the Overworld anytime?"
"It seems... yes?"
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