(Heaven’s Key, Euclid’s Domain, Bedroom)

[https://i.imgur.com/ldK9X7J.png]

Unlike the woody, antique atmosphere, my prefered resting room has white walls, various dolls along the shelves and has a light red and pink theme. I got a large, girly bed fit for two people.

I take off my artists’ overalls as well as the shirt, and strip myself down to my string panties. I fold them neatly, and place them across the edge of a chair. Then taking a moment to smile at myself adoringly in the full body mirror, I dive under the sheets.

Soft beds and soft pillows are the best. I snuggled into a comfortable position underneath the sheets and got some shut eye.

As a human, I used to be glued to my seat, but if one is doing serious mental work, the best position to do it is prone. Bath is also not bad, but you can’t spend all your time in water. Once I get a synthesis pod, I think floating in its gel would be the most comfortable of all.

With those thoughts in mind, I start my initial attempt at optimizing the assault drone.

(Ruins Exploration, Research Facility Zillen Outpost X-22, F1)

[https://i.imgur.com/AnUxmKu.png]

  Nature rewards most those who most oppose it.

  - Loading Blurb

The gas mask on my face, I try challenging the level again. Before the elevator door can open, I immediately duck into a corner, out of sight from the cameras. To my side, the doors slid open. I wait a little to see if the alarm will go off regardless, and it does not seem to be the case.

With that out of the way, even though I already have plenty of cans on my person, I start synthesizing new ones. Cupping my hands in front, I give the mental order and a black fog starts coalescing in the shape of a can. I spend a minute and a half making 4 cans, and when that is done, securing them in one hand, I pitch them into the hallway one by one with the other.

The smoke inside them gets released, flooding the level in smoke. The alarm starts blaring.

It is so thick that I can’t see more than a few centimeters in front of the gas mask. Relying on my hearing, I venture out into the hallway. I took out my handgun which has a suppressor attached to it, and shot out the lights on the ceiling, giving the level a further degree of obscurity. Then I strode over to the forward end of the before stopping in front of the door, shooting out the rest along the way. It does not have any keys on it, instead to open them, I need to use a mental command via my brain core.

Vary that I do not get jumped just as I am emerging, I stick to the walls and give out the command to open it. The smoke floods into the neighboring room, and unable to see with my eyes, I listen to the alarm sounds bouncing around to get a sense of the area. With mechanical sounds, the 3 drones that are inside turn to look at the direction of the door opening, but otherwise make no movement to go inside the smoke.

This gives me a sense of relief, that I do not hear them wheeling closer to my position.

Not pausing, I toss a few smokes to flood the new area properly and obscure it. Then I shot out the lights in this room as well, flooding it in absolute darkness.

The room is generally baren apart from the enemies, but has a few shelves with nothing on them. I carefully make my way around them, perking my ears for any change. I am actually quite good at basing my location from my stride, so I wouldn’t even need the sound to move around.

One thing I haven’t realized before is that the spiderbots have some kind of headlight. It is good that I used smoke instead of just shooting out the light otherwise I would have been spotted right away.

Inside the smoke it is pure black as it is absorbing the light, but as I get closer to some of the enemies I see it becoming brighter. The room has two doors, so I make my way towards the left one.

Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa! Wiiaaa!

With the siren blaring, I do my best not to make a sound as I move, and I am good at it. It is a tense situation, where a single mistake could get me killed, but I have a firm grip on my mentality.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

I give a mental command for the left door to open and hurriedly step away just in case one of the spiderbots fires. I hear their mechanical joints creaking as they turn towards the source of the sound, but no guns start blazing.

I take a smoke grenade from my arm pocket and take a throwing position. I hurl it into the newly opened hallway. I intended to have it hit the wall or the floor, which would give me the sound information of what is in the room beyond, but against my expectations, it gets shot out of the air and explodes in a cloud of smoke. Based on the sound, I realize that the room opens in a perpendicular hallway. At the end of it, is a floor mounted turret, and right next to it is a door, presumably where I need to go. I am aiming to go deeper into the complex, and the other way would lead me closer to the beginning.

Hoping that the smoke would obscure the turrent’s sensors, I step into the firing range and feel relief when nothing happens. I lightly chuck an EMP grenade at the turret. I can’t tell whether that took it out, but to test it, I chuck a smoke grenade at the wall behind it. It makes a knock and explodes in a smoke cloud, but the turret does not react, so I assume it is safe.

I walk up to the door, and give it the mental command to open, letting the smoke from the one I am in flood into it.

Safely hidden beyond the corner of the door, I chuck a few smokes to flood the area properly.

Based on the sounds made by the grenades landing as well as the alarm, I can make out two spiderbots in the room beyond. The 2m versions. They are standing guard at a door, most likely my target. Besides them, there are various objects in the room like desks and chairs as well as drawers.

Synthesizing two EMP grenades in my hands, with soundless steps I slide into the room and toss them at the two machines. Hearing some sparks, I notice the machines lock up.

Without making a sound, I move to the door and give the command to open it. Hiding behind one of the drones for protection, I listen to the alarm sounds bouncing from the walls, and realize the room is really small. It has only a desk with an orb in a holder.

I did it!

With steady, soundless steps I step into the room and tap the orb once with my finger to activate. As the mental connection gets established, I feel the light of teleportation taking me back to the starting base.

(Ruins Exploration, Ellipsis Base)

> EBA: Drone schematics have been stored into the database, my lady!

> Level Selection

> Loadout (80/200)

> Database (5 new!)

Having been teleported back into the base, I waste no time taking a look at what I’ve received.

* Symbiotics Base Scouting Drone Sc-1 (rank 2.7)

* Symbiotics Base Assault Drone As-1 (rank 2.8)

* Symbiotics Base Mobile Weapons Platform

  + Light Mw-1 (rank 2.5)

  + Medium Mw-2 (rank 2.6)

  + Heavy Mw-3 (rank 2.7)

Here they are. I check out their schematics.

(TODO Image: Title - Symbiotics Base Scouting Drone Sc-1. A smallish, sphere-like mechanical device with a big eye, only 10cm in diameter. Has straight wings with propellers at its side for thrusting and hovercraft style rotors underneath for hovering movement.)

This one is the most important of the 3 for me right now. Had I possessed this back then, I would not have lost in the match with Inglene. I would have been able to sprint unhindered to a favorable position, while keeping close watch on my opponent. It is 1kg heavy. It can’t carry any light weapons such as grenades. The inbuilt battery can last it for an hour of persistent flight.

(TODO Image: Title - Symbiotics Base Assault Drone As-1. A medium size, predatory looking mechanical device with a big eye, 40cm give or take 10 in various dimensions. Has straight wings with propellers at its side for thrusting and hovercraft style rotors underneath for hovering movement. Compared to the scouting version besides being large, it looks a lot leaner and pointed. The propellers are larger as well.)

This one is nothing to be scoffed at either. It requires specialized drone weaponry, so I can’t make use of it right now except as a bad scout, so it will have to be shelved for the time being. It is 25kg heavy. Has a shorter battery life of 20 minutes compared to the scouting drone.

(TODO Image: Title - Symbiotics Base Mobile Weapons Platform Mw-1. Platform with a pair of spider-like legs ending in wheels. 10cm in height)

The smallest one is like a toy car, capable of carrying only things such as grenades. It is disposable. The medium one can carry anything a human could, and has various mechanical arms for mounting weapons. The heavy one has 6 legs, and is the size of a car. I could use it for artillery and the kinds of machinery that I would not have any hope of carrying by myself, no matter how good my personal chassis was.

Since it has legs, that gives it a lot of versatility to move in buildings and areas where pure wheel-based vehicles couldn’t.

They come with rudimentary AIs that I will have to reprogram. I’ll definitely put my programming skills to the test before the next match. Its computing device is not the brain core, but something much weaker, some kind of PIM chip that has only about the capacity of the human brain. Still, it has good latency.

I’ll radically downgrade my memory and make a behavioral program suited for them before uploading myself. Unless I did that, I’d need to train the devices from scratch in order to replace their crude AI.

Had they the brain cores as their computing devices, the drones could do nanotech synthesis. That would make them extremely powerful. If possible, I would like to get the synthesis programs for the brain cores from Eloe. Their synthesis program should have a rank 7, so it is unlikely that I’ll be able to get it so easily.

But even having this much is great. I zip the data and send it to my other self in the Heaven’s Key scenario.

As a reward for a job well done, I take off my clothes and take a bath. If I was a guy, I wouldn’t be doing this so often, but I like giving the imaginary viewers an opportunity to gawk at my wonderful body. Imagine life as an anime and get those viewer ratings up! Amongst others!

Not receiving a reply from my fork by the time I got out of the water, I started F2, loaded out in a couple of drones.