Writer’s spot: Greetings friends! And from now on, just as Insania is Cygna’s Cult, this shall be the Beepers network! BEEP, MY FRIENDS!

SO, Seems like I managed to do it. A double release. As I said before, since this will have shorter chapters, there is a greater chance for double releases than Insania, so here we go. Keeping my promises, even if the chapter is only as long as the last one.

BESIDES, tomorrow should also have a chapter as usual. With some luck, maybe even two? Still, names for the goddess are still being accepted. I already have one in mind, but if you guys find one that interests me more, I will take it.

BESIDES(II), Here I wanted to give a small glimpse of how the robots act on this world. Some of it will sound very sci-fyish, others very fantasy-ish. But as a man once said, any advanced enough technology is undistinguishable from magic. Still, hope it’s at least interesting.

BESIDES(III), As a small token, the girl is based on my character back at FFXIV. Up to the yellow clothing that she wears, which was the last equipment I had on her the last time I played (never got her high level, but I really liked her and wanted to put in a story.)

Enjoy your story! Beep!

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[Hey, Gaz, cheer up!] The nameless goddess said to the robot.

[…Why?] Asked the robot with a tone as if the very world was ending.

[Well, look on the bright side! At least we are going towards the robots I sensed!] She said cheerfully.

[Oh, really?] The little robot asked, suddenly a lot more cheerful. [Well, maybe being a pet isn’t all that bad then. It IS a lot safer with these guys around.] He said while analyzing his situation.

If you understood the meaning behind his words, you will see that his infallible plan ended up failing. Not that there was that much thought put behind it to make it infallible, to tell the truth.

During the night, while the group slept peacefully, Beepy… I mean, Gaz tried using his welding flame to burn through the rope, but it ended up waking the girl, who immediately stopped him before he could free himself and made him sit through a half-hour lecture that he didn’t understand a single word.

The second attempt, he tried creating friction against the rope, by closing his outer shell and then spinning them into two opposite directions. This succeeded into decomposing the rope, but it sadly coincided with the Dwarf waking up and trying to get him once again. But his armor made too much noise and ended up waking the girl, who taught him a lesson that left him groaning in pain for the rest of the night. Afterwards the girl tied him up again and petted him gently, before going back to sleep.

The third attempt, he remade his same strategy as before and managed to get out of the rope, but the moment he started to move away, the girl suddenly grumbled something in her sleep and turned towards him, hugging him tightly during her sleep.

With that, he was left without any means of escaping, so he gave up in trying to escape and spent the rest of the night quietly.

Morning came, and he once again had the rope tied around his core, but this time the girl tied the other end to her belt, making sure that he wouldn’t get too far from her. Thus he simply followed behind her quietly.

And after the goddess words, he couldn’t help but think that being with the group was a good idea in the end. After all, these weapons did look a lot more dangerous than his feeble cable-like tools, so he did have a good reason to follow them. As well as a good one for NOT trying to run away, since it didn’t seem that the girl would let the dwarf try and take him apart.

Well, leaving that aside for now, he took his chance to look around the woods as they walked, trying to find signals of other life-signs besides his own group.

For the first two or so hours, he didn’t see anything besides what looked some old trails, but after the elf suddenly signaled the party to a stop and sent the girl to scout ahead, she came back and seemed to tell them that the path ahead was clear, because the group advanced through the path that she told them.

Then, he saw his first sizeable robot besides himself.

It was large, being closely the size of a horse, and his whole body was covered in some kind of metal plates, with two large horn-like structures on his head. If something, he would say that this was a kind of robotic antelope. But there was one thing that bothered him.

The robot raised its head towards some kind of fruit hanging on the tree and bit it off. As soon as it finished chewing, he saw as the seeds rolled down a groove on his neck going towards its back.

[That robot ate?] He asked surprised.

[Well, processing biological matter is highly efficient! As long as you have enough fuel, of course.] The goddess said proudly.

[Then… I also need to eat?] He asked confused.

[No, your body is very small and efficient, so you only need solar energy.]

[Well, that’s nice then.] He said impressed. [But why did he eject the seed then?] he asked confused.

[I… Don’t know. That one is completely different from the ones I made…] She said shyly.

Soon after, he had his answer, as one of the plating on its side suddenly opened downwards and from it poked a small head. A bird, a feather and meat bird. Different from any of the birds he had ever seen, of course, with two pairs of wings and short legs, but otherwise, a red bird.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

Following that single bird, five others popped up from the same hole and quickly flew from inside the robot to the groove on its back and started gorging themselves on some seeds while spitting others out from the robot and towards the ground.

And the more fruits the antelope ate, the more seeds came rolling down its neck, and the more the birds ate. After feeling satisfied, some of the birds flew back inside while others darted away with incredible speed. One of them flew towards the group and floated in front of them for a moment, but after a while simply flew around them.

The robot briefly looked at them, in wonder, before turning away when one of the birds sang from another position.

As he watched it in wonder, he felt a sudden tug on the rope as the cat-girl pulled him so he could start rolling around together with them, so he quickly complied.

“Beep.” She said.

“Beep.” He answered.

…

Another day went by, and his translation software went up to five percent, and hearing the groups conversations, he gathered some information.

First, the dwarf was called Ross and he seemed to be some kind of weapon-smith, as he spent most of his free time tinkering with the group’s weapons.

The elf was called Sorius, and he had some kind of strange magic slash skill, where he would create lightning in his hand and then shoot it. He mainly used it to light up the bonfire.

Lastly, the girl was called Yllivia, and she was surprisingly quiet, spending most of her time simply hugging him and saying the occasional beep. And she was strong, fact proven by the heavily armored dwarf coiling in pain every three or so hours.

Lastly, another word he heard a lot while following the group was ‘Leaper’. He couldn’t quite get what it was, and thought that it was the elf’s nickname, since the Dwarf was the one who spoke it the most, but it didn’t seem to be the case, because after some time he also started to hear the dwarf mention pistons.

Lastly, it seemed that robots weren’t all that strange in this world, since he saw at least another four of the nestelope (name provided by an impressed goddess) and many others cyberflys (name provided by a bored Gaz). In fact, the girl seemed to have a strange bracelet that attracted the nearby cyberflys to land on it, where she would then watch it with amused eyes, and sometimes even scratch one of the colorful circuits out of its transparent wings and put it on a small phial.

But robots weren’t the only thing he saw while walking with the group. He also saw a pack of two-tailed wolves, that watched the group from a distance before moving away, as well as a normal antelope that had massive horns. This one tried to charge at the dwarf, but it was stopped when he discharged the massive pistol upwards, scaring it.

On the end of his third day, the forest started to thin out, slowly changing into a plains that went on for ages on every direction. The group decided to stop on the border of the forest, where they made one more camping site. But instead of simply going to sleep like last time, they took out their equipment and passed it to the dwarf, who started to check them more meticulously.

As he watched them prepare their equipment carefully, he heard a sudden sound coming from far away in the plains. Yllivia also seemed to hear it, because her ear twitched slightly and she looked towards it. Curious, Gaz also turned with her, and saw it.

Out in the distant plains, a small cloud dust was moving. When he focused his camera a bit, he could barely see it, some kind of robots were rolling around the plains fair away, seemingly heading towards a small concentration of bushes far ahead.

[Gaz, that is one of the groups I sensed earlier.] He heard the Goddess say in his mind.

[Really? What are they? I can’t quite see from here.]

[No idea…] She said curious, but the answer came quickly.

“%^$@$!leapers! &^%24@$pistons!&^$#&@” Ross said whit a large smirk on his face.

“$&@!%$@dangerous.!#@Sleep!$*#&^#%.@&$Beepy@$$%” Sorius said while holding the dwarf by his neck and pulling him back, then turned towards Yllivia to say his last words. She nodded in agreement before picking the robot and taking it with her.

Once she sat down besides her bed once again, she turned to Beepy and made sure that he was looking at her directly.

“!#%@beep@*@$” She said seriously, but since Gaz couldn’t understand her, he simply watched her confused. She sighed lightly before repeating the words again, slowly. “NO beep @*@$” A new word passed through, so he became surprised.

He stopped to think for a moment. It seemed that those robots he saw were the ones they called leapers, he couldn’t quite know what they were, but if their weapons meant anything, they were very probably going to attack them. So maybe she wanted him to keep quiet during the attack next day? It could be it.

But then, he had no idea how those leapers were. Maybe he could somehow talk to them and have some help? He was new to the whole robot thing, so he couldn’t be so sure. Deciding to leave the decision to the moment, he nodded for now, which seemed to please Yllivia, as she let go of him.

And while he spent some time to think on his course of action for the next day, the others started to prepare for the hunt.