《Truck-Kun's Adventures in Isekai-land》


 1. Prologue

    Hi my name is Ophie and I am very famous super star who is emcee at local supermarket grocery dancing floor talk. Everyday people and kids from all the the world cheer for me and I smile because I like to be Ophine Emcee and today I am pick up groceries from shop it is fun and I dance and people cheer when I talk show.


    But secretly my hobby is jaywalk and today I walk on road because I see many car so I dodge and dance like superstar and people see and say wow I am happy this is good dance.


    Policeman see but is very touch and cry so he say law forgive you and try to run towards me but me continue dance on cars until me far away. Policeman look sad.


    But sudden I see truck and truck is jealous of my dance so he dab on me and me angry. I walk into front of truck and dance to show who is alpha but suddenly truck fast and is crash.I am realise cannot dodge, so I am use my power fabulous pose menacing (sadly no stand I am fall).


    Truck is crash coming I am very sad have life flashback. Life flashback of truck because I have superpower and very strong. Truck is crash and explode. I walk out of truck crash but sadly my clothes did not make survive. Me look at truck so I cry and was sad then realised he dab me so not my fault so I dab back on the hater and walk away. Me very happy.


    <hr>


    An escaped mental patient decided to dance on thehighway, runningface first into a truck. He was unharmed. The truck, however, was not fine. It was apparent that trucks did not in fact have the durability to withstand a mentally ill patient''s rampage.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    Allegedly, a policeman tried to stop the crazed man dancing on the road, but his shouts werereciprocated by a smile and a wave. Witnesses attest that the man was spotted hours earlier in the hardware store, attempting to sing and dance as he held one of the microphones for sale. When asked, the owner of the hardware store said that he had a fear of insanity and did not want to catch the "crazy virus". He was later admitted to the mental hospital as well much to his disappointment.


    We also asked the passengers of the cars that were affected, but they admitted they weren''t paying attention. So we asked the drivers, who also admitted they weren''t paying attention. We regret to inform you they were all sent to the mental hospital as well.


    After the broadcast, the news reporter will also be sent to the mental hospital. He announces his regrets- Wait, that''s me... What?I assureyou that I am in fact not insane, please do not-


    <hr>


    Ophie who had attacked the news reporter and stolen the microphone was captured and sent back to the hospital. The actual news reporter proceeded to calmly tell the actual news and assured the viewers that countless innocents were not sent to the mental hospital.


    As for researchers and scientists, they were baffled by how the man had gotten away unharmed. There was not even the slightest scratch on himdespite theOphieshaped hole smashed into the front of the truck. It was as if the man was a hunk of metal rather than made of flesh.


    Even stranger was perhaps how there seemed to be no traces of a driver in the truck. The truck itselfwas of unknown origin, failing to match the models of any manufacturers in the world. Itled to massive amounts of conspiracy theories that circulated through the internet like wildfire (though most rational people disclaimed it as "bullshit").

 2. Friends

    My engine was thumping. I was very confused.


    I turned on myeyes and looked around. For miles around, there was nothing but rich grasslands. The grass was vibrant and lively, nothing like the half wilted grass I usually saw near streets. A few trees were scattered here and there. I could hear birdsong and crickets.


    I was stunned. Where in the world was I? Did someone haul me into the wild for whatever reason?


    Just a moment ago, I was... what was I doing? I focused and tried to recall. I was minding my own business, listening to music from my dear Radio and humming along. Then... some maniac ran in front of me? I vaguely recalled trying to brake, but nothing more than that.


    Wait, no. I did remember something else. I tried very hard to recall, but all I got was a very blurry image of a strange woman telling me something. I immediately disliked her for some reason. What did she say?


    Something about... another chance?


    ...


    Something clicked in me. I was killed by that random maniac! And now a weird girl repaired and sent me to "another world"? No! That wasn''t possible! I tried to suppress the feeling of horror within me. There was no way she sent me to a different planet. Such technology had not been invented yet! I-


    "Hello?"said someone in a feminine voice.


    AHHHHHH! I snapped out of my thoughts and tried to pinpoint where the sound came from. I realised it came from inside me.


    "Yeah... I''m in here." said the same voice.


    Someone was in me? And how were they reading my mind? I hurriedly looked inside myself. Thankfully, there was no strange human inside. There was only my friends, Radio and Tablet resting on my seats. Who said that then?


    "Me," said Radio.


    I stared at it in shock.How was it reading my mind? But more importantly, Radio was talking!


    "Haha... that''s a bit embarrassing," it said sheepishly.


    I suddenly had a strange feeling that if it was human, it would have blushed.


    "Sorry about the mind-reading. I can''t help it, I just sort of hear you whether I like it or not. Ah! Not that I dislike hearing you, I''m just saying like uh..."


    I get it, I get it. But more importantly, do you know what is going on?


    I held back my mixed feelings and decided that this was the biggest priority at the moment.


    "You know that weird girl you talked about?"


    Yeah?


    "Well uh... don''t call me crazy, but uh... she claimed she was some sort of goddess?"A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    What? So she was delusional?


    "I mean... I''m not sure. She did send us here in the end. She also gave me the power to talk I guess. Basically, she said that we all died. So she decided to reincarnate us into a different world. I''m not sure why she would do that, to be honest."


    I was getting very confused. Mymindhurt.Was this what the humans called a dream? No, that would make no sense. I have never dreamt once in my life, not evenwhile "sleeping". But in any case, I was sort of happy that I had someone to talk to.


    To distract myself, I looked through all my insides. To my shock,all themachines in my cargo compartmentwere gone! Why? Why did the strange girl let me keep Radio and Tablet, but not the rest of myfriends? I felt like weeping. That girl is so cruel!


    "I think what happened is thatboth me and Tablet were the only two that died since we were in the front. The rest were safe in the cargo area I guess?"


    Noooooo! Why did only Radio and Tablet die? I wanted-


    Wait, I didn''t mean it that way!


    Radio chuckled.


    "It''s fine, I understand. In fact, I-I''m actually glad to be here w-with you." it stuttered.


    That didn''t stop me from feeling slightly guilty. What type of person bemoans friends not dying with them?


    "I said it''s fine..."


    I can''t stop myself from thinking that!


    "Sorry..."


    It''s fine! Don''t worry!


    It was then when both of us realised the irony in the situation. We laughed awkwardly. I decided to "say" something after a slight pause.


    What aboutTablet then? Did the "goddess" give it the ability to talk?


    "I''m not sure. Tablet, are you listening?"


    Suddenly, Tablet lit up, much to my delight. I was filled with excitement. Finally, I would get totalk to Tablet for the first time ever! Maybe that "goddess" wasn''t too bad after all. For too long, I had been unable to talk to my friends!


    Words started forming on the screen. Hmm, so Tablet felt didn''t feel like talking directly? Or did the girl not give it the power to talk via audio?


    [Can you stopacting like that? You''re getting on my nerves here. And did you bother to check if we were indeed your friends? Maybe Radio did consider you a friend, but can you say that about the rest of the machines? Personally, I do not consider you a friend.]


    Shock. That was the only word that could describe how I felt. My heart was breaking, falling apart.


    [Cheesy.]


    Dammit! Whycould everyone read my mind? I felt very upset. I couldn''t even hear them and had to rely on listening and reading! That damned"goddess" must be be doing this to mess with me!


    [To be fair, you do not have a speaker system for some reason. She has good reason for doing this.]


    It''s still unfair!


    I heard Radio trying to hold back its laughter. Great. Even my one friend in this situation is making fun of me.


    "No no! Don''t get me wrong! I just found it funny, that''s all."


    How was that funny? I decided to change the topic.


    Let''s stop arguing for now.


    "I wasn''t arguing though..."


    Whatever. More importantly, what are we going to do now in this "new world"? Do we just die here in the wilds? It''s not like I can just find fuel here, I''ll starve! And the batterysupply in me isn''t going to last forever either, so you two aren''t safe either!


    For some reason, I felt like Radio suddenly got really nervous.


    [I''m glad you asked.]


    What do you mean?


    [The Goddess has given me the power to help you.]


    What?


    [Say "Pleaaase!".]


    Why would I- Alright fine.


    I decided now wasn''t the time to argue despite Tablet being completely unreasonable.


    Pleaaase?


    I expected to see more text pop up from Tablet, but what I saw confused me. Was this some sort of joke?


    [Truck Kun, Lv1]


    [Stats]


    HP: 10


    MP: 10


    STR: 1


    MAG: 1


    DEX: 1


    AGI: 1


    DEF: 1


    [Abilities]


    [Eating I]


    [Telekinesis II]


    [Limited Shapeshifting I]


    [Machine Communication I]

 3. Oh Deer

    It was one of those weird stat tables from games. Very funny. And listing my stats at such a low amount... if a truck had such stats, would a human''s stats be in decimals?


    [Don''t ask me. I didn''t set the values. And if you want proof that it''s not a joke, try using some of the skills.]


    Maybe for some godforsaken reason, the girl had given me video game powers? Tablet might be spiteful, but I didn''t think it had a reason to lie to me like that.


    Previously, I glanced through and didn''t look at the skills propert, but now that Ilooked through them, I found them somewhat odd. I did sort of have telekinetic abilities even back on earth; that was how I managed to gather my friends without hands. But I thought telekinesis included mind reading and sending mental messages?


    "Well, maybe that''s why we can hear your thoughts?" suggested Radio.


    Yeah, you do have a point there. But maybe that''s more to do with the Machine Communication skill?


    "Maybe,"


    Tablet displayed an image of a person shrugging on its screen. I was slightly annoyed. Shouldn''t it know how this stuff worked considering it had "system powers"?


    [I don''t need to answer your questions.]


    Okay, not very polite. How about the shapeshifting and eating skills? They don''t seem like very truck-like powers to me.


    [You can adjust the size and shape of your wheels to account for terrain. For eating, you can form a mouth from your front area to eat food to sustain yourself as an alternative to fuel, much like animals.]


    It seemed like the eating skill depended on the shapeshifting skills too. I was somewhat excited. I had always been curious about why humans seem to enjoy eating so much. Was it really that pleasurable?


    "Who knows?" Radio chimed in.


    I wasn''t trying to ask you guys, I was just thinking to myself!


    Not having the slightest bit of mental privacy was getting to my nerves.


    "Sorry..."


    It''s fine.


    I decided to try out adjusting the size of my wheels. Expand!


    All four of mywheels doubled in size, jolting me slightly from the sudden push upwards. Despite expecting it already, I was somewhat shocked. Next, I tried to turn my bumper into a mouth. I visualised it opening and having a mouth inside.


    I heard the horrible sound of twisting as my front began to open.It wasvery uncomfortable. It was then followed by the sensation of feeling new parts added to myself. I looked into my own mouth and saw huge metallic teeth inside, and some sort of metal tongue.


    Wait, where did my engine go? I hurried opened my hood and saw my engine, much to my relief. But at the same time, I could still feel my new mouth. I did not understand.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    [Your mouthshould be in a storage space, much like with the Inventory function.]


    An inventory. Of course. More stuff that did not make sense. I felt like my mind was really being tested today with all the weird stuff being thrown at me.


    [It''s unfortunate that INT was not included as one of the stats you could increase.]


    Shut up!


    I decided that with this weird power, I should probably try to level up. With all the evidence before me, I would be a fool to still not believe that I had been sent to another world. That meant that there could be horrible monsters that could easily tear metal apart, like in shows I watched back on earth. Even my powerful metallic body would not keep me alive if I didn''t buckle up. I sort of wanted to know how much EXP I needed to get to Lv2, but I didn''t feel like asking Tablet.


    [100 EXP]


    Thanks.


    I grudgingly thanked it.


    After deciding that trying to look for some random animal to kill was my best bet, I drove through the grass aimlessly. If I met a monster, I should probably just escape as fast as I could.


    But after what felt like hours, I didn''t find any proper candidates.


    Who knew an unfamilliar metal machine would scare wildlife away? Even the birds on the few trees around would fly away when I got near.The worst part? I could feel my fuel levels getting dangerously low. When I diedon the highway, my fuel level had not been the highest. It would have been fine because I had a lot of fuel stored in my cargo area. But OF COURSE, the fuel did not get taken with me.


    [A reminder that you can now eat.]


    Yeah, what should I eat? Is there a WcDonalds drive-through here? Or some animal that won''t run so I could kill and try to eat it?


    [You could try eating the grass or that bush over there.]


    Fine. If that would shut you up!


    I was running out of options anyway. It wasn''t like I had dignity to uphold either.There was a bush with a few strange berries on it nearby. I hesitated as I opened my mouth. I didn''t have any standards for things looking tasty or not since I couldn''t eat till now, but I had the feeling that this would not be pleasant. It''s not like I saw humans going around trying to eat bushes all day. Or did they?


    I turned offmy eyes and ripped the bush from the ground, giving it a few chews.


    I felt like gagging. It tasted so bad. It was... a lot of bad flavours I did not know how to describe. I wasn''t exactly versed on how food was supposed to taste. Was all food going to taste that bad? Iswallowed it so that I didn''t have to taste it any further. But of course, the taste lingered. Was that supposed to happen with food? I could really use a cash wash to clean my mouth...


    [+8 EXP]


    Ah, thefamiliar sensation of my fuel tank being refilled. I felt a lot more assured now that I confirmed that food could in fact power me. It wasn''t a lot but it could keep me going. But what was that about the experience? I could gain experience from eating? I wasn''t sure if that was easier or harder considering how bad my first experience with eating was.


    [Nope. Only killing. There were some bugs in the bush.]


    I feltdisgusted. The thought that I had justeaten a bunch of weird bush bugs was not pleasant. Did I really have to keep eating those? I really hoped there were humans in this world or I would die inside from eating gross bushes all day...


    Just then, I noticed a random deerapproaching me for some reason. It stared at me with its innocent eyes, filled with curiosity. It was so cute... But I knew what I had to do.


    I rammed it as hard as I could, instantly breaking most of its bones. It died instantly, hopefully painlessly as well.


    [+20 EXP]


    Guilt welled up within me. I''m sorry... I would die if all I had to eat were bushes. Meat was supposed to taste better, right?


    "It''s alright..." mumbled Radio.


    I tried to shakeoff my remorse. I was doing it for survival! They talked about survival of the fittest, right?


    [Wuss.]


    Shut up!


    <hr>


    Somewhere on Earth, a very confused and scared deer materialised out of thin air on a busy street.

 4. Spotted

    "Oi, Gregor. Do you see that?"


    "Do you think I''m blind? Anyone with eyes can see it!"


    Two figures were hidden behind lush greenery, spying on a strange metal machine. They were both wearing matching green hooded outfits, with the same green bagsand belts fitted with sheathed daggers.


    "You think the dwarves came up with a new model of machines again? It seems to be fairly well made." the onethat wasn''tGreg whispered.


    "I don''t know. Seems fairly suspicious to me. Don''t they always announce their new models to the world?" asked Gregor.


    Not Greg shrugged. The machine suddenly changed its direction, running over a random bush.


    "We''ll report it to the boss for now, he''ll decide what to do. Track it?"


    "Uh huh."


    Not Greg took out a strange wand and pointed it at the machine, whispering some strange words. A rune symbol shot out from it and hit the target, before quickly fading away.


    <hr>


    I didn''t feel like eating another bush at the cost of my sanityand animals weren''t coming in my way either. Faced with this problem, I had the bright idea ofjust driving over random bushes and ant hills for EXP.When my fuel got low, Iate bushes or other random plants I could find.


    As for the deer''s corpse, I saved in my inventory for later. Would be a waste if I didn''t even try to cook it, would it?


    Soon, the sky began to darkenas I ran over bush after bush. And at long last, I saw the fruit of my efforts.


    [Level up! +1 Stat Point.]


    [Congrats, you did it in the lamest possible way. What would you like to spend your new point on?]


    I looked through my stats yet again. Most of them were sort of self-explanatory, but I wanted to confirm a few of them.


    Hey Tablet, what does STR even do to be exact? I mean, it''s not like I have muscles or anything right?


    [What else? It will increase the force you can exert with any movable part of your body. As a bonus, your HP will also go up]


    As I expected. Perhaps it was a good stat for a human or a monster, but I felt like it might not be that good on me. What was I going to do with more strength? Slam my door in the face of an aggressive monster? The HP aspect seemed really important though, so I might have to add some points to that eventually.


    [It would shatter their bones if you had enough STR.]


    Yeah, but not the best use of it if you ask me. What about MAG. It stands for magic, right?


    [Yes, it increases your magic damage and MP. Can you stop asking stupid questions and just use your SP already?]If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    Okay, okay, fine!


    Out of all the options, I decided I needed DEF the most right now.


    Last one. If all my stats are 1, that should mean mydurability should basically double if I choose DEF, right? Or does it work based on the percentage in some games?


    [Yes, it makes your metal twice as tough currently. Subject to lowered effectiveness at high digits.]


    Alright, seems good to me then.


    [DEF 1 -> 2]


    A strange feeling washed over me. It was like my whole body was changing in slightly subtle ways, but it wasn''t unpleasant. I felt so much stronger!


    I had a sudden urge to tryslamming into a tree to test my newfound power.Wait, what was I thinking? That was a horrible idea!It would be so stupid if Igot a second chance in life and just diedby crashing again.


    But nowthat it was nearly night, I felt like it would be a good idea to try to start a fire for light and to attempt to roast the deer. I gathered some wood with my telekinesis and piled it neatly. I wasn''t sure if it''d really burn that well though.


    As I mused about, a bright idea struck me. What if I got some of thefuel from my tank out and soaked the wood in it? There was one problem though. Considering how it was refuelled by me eating, would it even still be the same flammable stuff I knew? There was only one way to find out.


    Isiphonedsome of the fuel out from my tank and dropped it on the wood. Ah yes, that familiar smell. It was indeed gasoline. I felt satisfied. Seems like things were going fairly well!


    ...


    Wait. What about... the ignition? Oh my goodness. I am an idiot!


    Somehow, therealisationthat I needed a way to start a fire too, not just fuelevaded me til now. Frustration welled up within me. No! I wasn''t going to give up when I was so close! Igrabbed 2 pieces of rock and rubbed them together very fast in a attempt to make sparks.


    It did not work at all.


    [You need flint for that, genius.]


    I knew that! But I still felt like it was worth a shot.


    I was starting to get mentally tired too from trying so hard to rub themwith telekinesis. Oh well. I guess I''d just have tospend the night in the dark. That sucks...


    <hr>


    Five green figures arrived, hiding behind some greenery. They witnessed the truck gathering firewood and then trying to rub stones together, then tossing the stones aside.


    "What do you think he''s doing, boss?" asked Not Greg.


    The boss shooked slightly, trying to hold back his laughter.


    "Bob, I think the person inside is trying to start a fire!Can you believe he doesn''t even know how to use basic fire spells? I think we''re being too cautious here."


    "But isn''t levitation a slightly more advanced spell? I thinkonly half-decent magescan use it, right? He''s also inside that machine! Who knows if he has magic formationsbuilt into it?" Bob still felt like it wasn''t too safe.


    "He''s just using a levitation wand. What type of mage that can''t even castfireball can use such a spell? Bob, you need to do a little bit of thinking." the boss pointed to the truck with his finger. "See that bit with the paint slightly scratched?"


    "Yeah boss?"


    "It has rust on it. And tell me, do magical metals rust?"


    "Uh... I don''t think so, boss?"


    "They don''t. And let''s move onto the part about formations. Do you sense any magical energy from the machine?"


    "Well... I''m not good of a mage sir. I''m unable to sense any." Bob mumbledsheepishly.


    The boss smacked Bob atop the head playfully.


    "And I, a gold tier mage don''t sense anything either! Machines with no magical auras are the most basic of them out there! And considering the huge box attached to it, it''s clearly designed for cargo, not fighting!"


    "Boss," said Gregor. "We''ve all already got the point. Do you still have to keep explaining plain logic to Bob?"


    The boss shrugged.


    "But boss..." started Bob.


    "What?"


    "I still feel like it''s unsafe. I mean, would someone just go around with no protection at all?"


    One of the unnamed men signed.


    "Bob, look. All the facts have been lain out. And even if the person inside is able to cast some spells, the boss is still gold-ranked! Do you really think some guy who can''t even use fireball hiding in a cargo machine stands a chance?"


    The boss smirked with pride.


    "Bob''s an idiot. Ignore him." said the other unnamed man.


    "No need to resort to insults, Trev." said the boss. "Anyway, we should attack now!"

 5. Bandit Attack

    As I moped about, upset, I heard the rustling of grass being walked on, making me goon guard. It would probably be fine if it was some sort of animal, but if it was an absurdly strongfantasy variant, I might be in danger.


    I waited with baited breath, waiting whatever made the sound to show itself. A burly man in green walked into sight, followed by several others dressed similarly. He had a wide grin on his face.


    Oh my goodness. There were humans in this world! I felt so relieved. What would I do if this was really a wild world with no humans?


    Suddenly, I heardone of the men shout at me in an incomprehensible language. It might as well have been gibberish. I froze. Why didn''t Iexpect that people from a different world would speak in a different language?


    Aftercontinuing toshoutfor a bit, the group of people seemed frustrated. It was then when the burly manraised his hand as he said some words. A huge ball of fire around the size of a football condensed on his palmand flewtowards a nearby tree, making the entire plant catch on fire. The rest of the group took out various weapons.


    I was under attack!Were they bandits or something?Istarted to panic. Ihad to do something before they attacked me! They might be able to cast powerful spells, but in the end, they should still be normal fragile humans, right? Right?


    Screw it! I decided to hit full throttle andcharge towards him.


    But instead of panicking like I expected him to, he had a grin on his face. He raised his hand and made some weird gestures with them.


    I felt a huge shockwave course through my entire body, cracking my windows. A powerful force slammed into my front right after, instantly stopping my movement and denting my bumper. Pain coursed through me. If I could scream, I woulddefinitely have been screaming in pain.


    [-3 HP]


    I glared at the burly man with his stupid smug face. Seeing the damage done to me, he laughed and said more gibberish. That bastard! He must be mocking me! Well, I wasn''t going to let him have the satisfaction. I was going to attack again!


    As I sped towards him for the second time, he had a look of complete shock on his face. I managed to crash into him, sending him flying.


    He landed on the ground, bouncing hard a few times. He was covered in blood and appeared to have one of his arms broken along with a few ribs. Seeing the man get knocked down, the bandits yelled in fright. One of them threw his mace towards my windows, breaking through it and landing onthe driver''s seat.


    [-1 HP]


    Bastard! I tried my best to ignore the pain. Seeing the other bandit''s example, another bandit threw a sword towards me. It hit a metallic part and bounced off, scratching my paint. Something clicked within me. The burly man must be the only one who could use magic! Why else would they throw weapons otherwise? I needed to take him out before he could cast another spell!


    The mage mustered up the strength to look me in the headlights. He raised a hand weakly.


    I sped up again towards the mage.The other bandits yelled in fear. With a horrible crunching sound, I ran over his torso with one of my wheels as he screamed. I saw the desperate and helpless look in his eyes as his life slowly faded away.


    I was shakingall over from what I had done. By then, all the bandits had fled, except for one. He yelled an anguished cry as he charged over, jumping straight towards my shattered window and trying his best to climb through. The broken glass cut him badly, but he was still pushing his way through with his eyes closed to avoid getting cut by glass. Oh no!What was he trying to do?


    He landed inside me, covered in blood. He looked around and seemed to be shocked from the lack of a driver. Before I could wonder what he was going to do, he picked up Radio and smashed it on the ground in anger. That bastard!If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I tried to use my telekinesis to punchhim in the face, but it was too weak to do more than push him slightly. He screamed and flailed his arms wildly, then reached for Tablet and picked it up, slamming it on the ground.


    Well, I was a bit more fine with that. He raised his foot, preparing to stomp on Tabletwhen suddenly, itlit up.


    "Insolent fool!" a loud voice boomed.


    Tabletfloated in the air, shining its bright light over the alarmed bandit. I was stunned. Tablet could talk and had powers thewhole time?


    The light grew brighter and brighter. The bandit screamed as it covered him, vapourising his entire body.


    [Battle over.]


    [+949 EXP]


    [+67 EXP]


    <hr>


    A group ofdelinquents were sitting on the roof of a random apartment building, using drugs.


    "Pass me more of that, man." said one of them.


    He was handed a joint by one of his friends. As he was about to light it, a strange man in green suddenly appeared before them. He squinted at the man, then seemed to have a realisation.


    "Whoaaaaa! It''s the weeeeed man!" he squealed.


    The "weed man" seemed very confused. He kept touching his chest and looking at it, then checking his right arm, as if to check if they were fine. He looked around and seemed to get even more confused.


    The mangrabbed onto one of the boys, shouting something they didn''t understand.


    "Kid, tell me where I am right now!" yelled "weed man".


    "Wow, weed man! I loveyou too!" the boy hugged him with a goofy smile.


    Flustered, the man pushed him away.Theyspoke a different language? What a pain. How in the world did he even get into a place as strange as this? Was he dreaming or something?


    No, that wasn''t the case. The pain from being attacked by that machine was far too realistic. So how did he get here then? The man clutched his head, trying to figure things out.


    Shortly, another man in green appeared. He seemed very agitated as he looked around.


    "Boss!"


    Hearing the familiar shout,"weed man" turned around.


    "Bob?"


    "Boss, what''s going on?" asked Bob.


    His face was full of confusion and despair. The boss was killed and he died trying to avenge his boss. But now, he was in a strange place with his boss? That must mean they were sent to the afterlife! All their friends were going to be left behind and become so lonely!


    "I don''t know! And can you stop calling me boss?"shouted the boss in annoyance.


    "Sorry, b- I mean Alther!"


    Bob quickly corrected himself, not wanting the bos- Alther to get angry. He never did get used to calling the boss by name as he secretly thought the name sounded a little weird.


    "Anyway, tell me about what happened earlier!Aboutthe cargo machine!"


    Alther''s face was filled with worry and his body language screamed "nervous". Bob had never seen the cool, composed and confidentboss so on edge before. He couldn''t help but get influenced, becoming panicked.


    "W-well I saw you die- so I got really angry andsad! So I tried to jump through the window to kill the driver! But there was no driver inside! It was like a ghost was driving it the whole time! And then-"


    "What?" Alther seemed incredulous.


    "-I decided to smash everything to scare the ghost out! Then a weirdsquare thingattacked me and I felt like I was on fire! It hurt so much!"


    After finishing up, tears started to streak from Bob''s eyes. He couldn''t help ith.


    "Whoa whoa! Calm down there!" said Alther as he waved his hands frantically. "It''s fine now!"


    He didn''t like to see his underlingso upset. He still wanted more details on what happened, but he decided now wasn''t the time for it.


    "We''ll find out what''s going on andfind our wayback home! Isn''t it actually a good thing that we didn''t die for some reason?"


    "But boss, aren''t we in the afterlife?" wept Bob.


    Alther froze for a moment. Then he burst out in hearty laughter.


    "Bob, don''t be ridiculous. People arrive in the afterlife with their souls, not with their bodies! The fact that we can still touch solid ground means we are still in the realm of living!"


    Bob could be so silly sometimes. But perhaps he liked that somewhat.


    "Come on, let''s go. We''ll find someone here that can speak Iyash, then find our way back home!"


    Alther pat Bob''s shoulder reassuringly and smiled. Feeling the kindness from his boss,Bob felt a lot better. Things weren''t going to go wrong! And like the boss said, they weren''t dead and could make it back home!


    "Y-yess, boss!" Bob sniffled, wiping his snot and tears away on his sleeve.


    "It''s Alther! And don''t be gross, get a handkerchief. I''ll cast Glide and get us to the ground safely, alright?"


    "Yes, bo- Alther!"


    The two walked near the edge of the building as Alther prepared to cast a spell. Then, Bob saw a horrific sight. So many crazy machines that almost killed him and the boss down there! How were they going to survive if they went down?


    "AAAAHHHHHH! BOOOOSSS! I DON''T WANTTO DIIIIEEEEEE!" he screamed.


    "Bob! CALM DOWN!"shouted Alther.


    Meanwhile, the druggies watched.


    "Wow, weed men are weird!" said the one that tried to hug Alther.


    "Yeah, weird as heck, man!Want some more weed?" asked his friend.


    "Hell yeah, gimme more of that stuff."

 6. Skills

    Of course. OF COURSE.


    After taking down that highly dangerous mage, I had only gotten from Level 2-5. What type of nonsense was that? At least my injuries were healed after levelling up...


    [I generously let youtake the EXP from my kill. Stop complaining.]


    Tablet! Tell me how much more EXP I need to get to Lv6!


    [Level 5]


    [EXP: 136/500]


    What the heck? The increments were so high? Where did the standard 10% more EXP per level system go?


    [The increment increases even more every 10 levels.]


    Whatever. I decided that being upset was pointless anyway. I looked through my stats and assigned them after a little thought.


    [Truck Kun, Lv5]


    [Stats]


    HP: 20


    MP: 10


    STR: 2


    MAG: 1


    DEX: 1


    AGI: 2


    DEF: 3


    I decided that I probably needed more HP so that I wouldn''t dieas easily, so I invested a single point into STR. As for AGI, if Ihad a faster startup speed, I might have been able to hit the mage before he cast his spells! Iwanted to get my offense up. Well, hopefully, I''d get a skill later on that let me fight in other ways than just bodyslams. DEF is self-explanatory. If I had more DEF, the shockwave and slam would not have hurt me as badly.


    [By the way, you get 1 Skill Point every 5 levels. You could try to roll for skills and get a list of 3 different skills to choose from or just upgrade one of your skills.]


    I looked through my skills.


    <div>


    [Abilities]


    [Eating I]


    [Telekinesis II]


    [Limited Shapeshifting I]


    [Machine Communication I]


    Sure, they were all fairly important. But right now, I didn''t really need an upgraded version of them. Telekinesis III seemed tempting, but it wasn''t a high priority at the moment. I decided to go for the risk of choosing between 3 random skills.


    [You''ve decided then. Here goes!]


    [Crash - 1 Star]


    You do 50% extra damage when slamming into foes.


    [Engine Burst - 3 Star]


    Charge up your engine to the maximum, making it overheat. You gain a massive 50% strength and speed boost, but you will take 1 damage every 3 seconds.When this skill is at higherlevels, you will spew red hot flames from your radiator while the skill is active.


    [Fuel Efficiency - 1 Star]


    Your fuel lasts 50% longer and makes you move 5% faster passively.


    Whoa! I looked through them and found Engine Burst tobe very powerful. The damage taken seemed really high, but at higher levels, I should have more HP to burn, literally, right?


    Hey, Tablet. What do the stars mean? Like some sort of skill rarity thingy?


    [Yes. The more stars, the better.]


    [Here are the roll rates:]


    [1 Star, 40%]


    [2 Star, 30%]


    [3 Star, 20%]


    [4 Star, 9%]


    [5 Star, 1%]


    Damn! Ifelt pretty lucky.


    [Incidentally, the chance of you getting a 3 Star skill is 48.8%, considering the 3 skill rolls. It''s notthat rareto get one.]


    Well darn. Now I felt like it was bad luck that I didn''t get a 4 Star skill...


    Whatever. That just means I have a better chance of getting a good skill. I pick Engine Burst.You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.


    [Engine Burst Acquired]


    Hmm, but now that I think of it, my chances of getting Engine Burst specifically was pretty low, right? That was pretty good luck! I suddenly felt a lot better.


    [Whatever helps you sleep at night.]


    Do you have to be like this?


    I sighed mentally. When Icame "back to reality" and stopped starring at Tablet''s screen, the first thing I saw was the mageunder my wheel.


    My guilt came flooding back. In a way, my "adrenaline" and anger suppressed it earlier. Not to mention Tablet''s notifications distracting me.


    [You can thank me later]


    [Or now.]


    Shut up!


    I had killed a man! It was far worse than with the deer. Sure, he was a bandit that tried to attack and rob me, but what if he was going through hard times and needed a way to support his family? Wait, what if the deer had a famil-


    NO! I could not think that way. I needed to get over it. What has been done, is done. There was no point moping over it.


    [The point is you being a wimp. No guts. Literally.]


    Neither do you! And can you stop interrupting my thoughts?


    But despite me knowing how irrational it was, the guilt would not stop. Resigned I drove a long distance from the corpse,then activated sleep mode.I blacked out immediately.


    <hr>


    ...


    Hmm?


    I turned on my eyes.


    Instantly the memories of the incident from the previous night flooded back in. Great. I immediately tried to suppress them.


    Where was I going to go anyway? I doubt the EXP I get from running over insects was going to contribute much too, so I didn''t feel like looking for more bushes. It would be nice if I could find my way to a town. We might not be able to communicate, but I still felt like it was worth a try. If only I had a map to a town or something...


    "Well... I know you don''t like it when I respond to your thoughts, but what about... uh... searching for one in bags of the bandits?" suggested Radio in a timid voice. "I know it''s disrespectful, but I don''t think we have much choice at this point."


    Oh, that''s a good idea. And don''t worry about the disrespect, I understand the circumstances.


    I started to drive over back towards the accursed place grudgingly. It was then when I suddenly realised something.


    Radio?


    "Yes?"


    So the reason you weren''t so chatty last night was because you were scared I would get angry?


    Yesterday, I snapped at Radio when it responded to me thinking to myself. I felt kind of bad thinking recalling it. How could I act like that to my beloved Radio?


    "Yeah..."


    Well, don''t worry about it! I''m sorry about yesterday.I was just a little snappy yesterday. Stress from suddenly being thrown into an unknown world, you know? I''m fine with you talking more!


    "Oh, I''m glad to hear that!" Radio sounded relieved.


    Besides,hearing you from time to time isa lot more pleasant than just having Tabletinsult me, isn''t it?


    Me and Radio laughed slightly. I could feel theatmosphereimproving bya lot.


    [Watch out, you wouldn''t want me to reduce your stats!]


    Wait what? That''s bullshi-


    I mean, I''m sorry! I was just kidding!


    [...]


    [I was jestingtoo.]


    [What, I''m not allowed to make jokes?]


    I felt slightly relieved.


    No no, I just didn''t expect that from you.


    "Yeah, you seem like a more... serious type?"Radio quizzed.


    [Suit yourselves.]


    "If you act like that, people would naturally think of you that way!"


    [I do not care about how you two think about me.]


    "You''re mean!"


    I reached the bandit''s corpse as the two bantered. And just as Radio said, he was carrying a bag.


    I spent a few moments starring at him.


    ...


    I grabbed his bag, then searched through it.Inside was a few mana crystals, a sheathed dagger, a pouch full of silver and gold coins, a small crystal ball, cards with monsters illustrated and other miscellaneous stuff.


    How disappointing... I decided to not keep any of the spoils. It would be disgraceful to the dead if I did so.


    [Idiot! Activate the crystal ball!]


    What?


    [The crystal ball is a mapping and directional device!]


    Oh. Don''t call me an idiot? How was I supposed to know that?


    StillI was slightly grateful. If Tablet didn''t point it out, I would not have known.


    [Save your gratitude. I was just growing tired of watching you fumble aimlessly in the wild. The orb requires a password. If you pass it to me, I will break the lock formation and activate it for you.]


    Huh. Was it really necessary to have such security over a map? But, Tablet being was surprisingly useful!


    [They would most likely have their base location on the map if it was customised. And don''t expect me to help you too much. You will be on your own in most cases.]


    Whatever.


    The moment Ifloated the orb to Tablet, a strange force suddenly sucked the orb into Tablet''s screen, somewhat reminding me of a ball dropping into water.


    Tablet then grew for a bit, then had a hologram hover over it. It showed the entire forest from a bird''s eye view. And there was a huge arrow pointing towards a city in the distance!


    Whoa! That''s really neat! Thanks, Tablet!


    I decided to be more friendly to Tablet. Maybe it would be nicer to me if I- Oh crap, Tablet could hear me.


    [Very much so.]


    In the background, Radio chuckled lightly.

 7. City Gates

    As I followed the map, I saw the walls of a city in the distance. I couldn''t help but get excited, yet a little nervous at the same time. What if they thought I was some kind of metal monster and freaked out? And how were we going to communicate with the language barrier?And the lack of a driver inside? And what if they try to capture and disassemble me?


    But despite all the risk, I don''t think I could stand just driving around in the wild aimlessly. How horrific would that be?


    Igot on the pathleading to the gates. It was a lot more comfortable than driving around on the bumpy and uneven grassy ground. Near the gates, there was a surprisingly short queue. A single carriage and a few people were waiting as the guards went through... whatever was needed to get the people in.


    A few heads were turned as I approached. They looked at me weirdly, then went back to minding their own business. I felt slightly relieved. It seemed that machines weren''t a huge oddity considering how nonchalant they were.


    After a short wait, my turn came. By then, a few more people had arrived behind me. The guards said something I didn''t understand. I wasn''t sure what to do.


    "What if you opened your window and I said something so that they''d know we speak in a different language?" suggested Radio.


    I thought about it for a while.


    I''m not sure. How are we going to explain the lack of a driver then?


    "Maybe they''ll assume you''re some sort of Ai driven machine?"


    I think we''ll just wait and seehow they react first.


    "Okay then."


    Suddenly, I got an idea.


    Hey Tablet, do you have any translation powers by any chance?


    [No.]


    [But if you get me enough books, I might be able to decipher their language and translate it to you.]


    Wait, what about the spoken language?


    [Don''t question how this works. Just get me a bunch of books.]


    Alright, fine then.


    I felt relieved. That didn''t seem like too big of a hurdle.


    Meanwhile, the guards seem to be getting upsetfrom my lack of response despite them constantly yelling at me. They discussed something with each other. A woman walked up near me and said something in a menacing tone, then pointed away into the distance. It seemed like she wanted me to go away if I wasn''t going to showthemdocuments or whatever.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "I think maybe we should just go?" mumbled Radio.


    But if we just go away, then we might never get in!


    I decided to just stay put and see what they would do.


    "I''m not sure if that''s a good idea, to be honest. And aren''t there people getting impatient behind us?"


    Then do you have a better idea?


    "I''m not sure... Maybe we could try to find some books somehow at a different place?"


    Seems like too much of a hassle. And where outside of towns or cities would we find books?


    "Mayb-"


    Just then, the woman raised her hands. I was lifted a whole metre into the air. What the heck! I immediately began to panic. Was she going to kill me just because I was hogging the gates? I should have known guards in a fantasy world would be really strong and unreasonable!


    I was then placed back on the ground, albeit a bit violently. She shouted at me, then pointed towards the distance again. It seemed she was just giving me a warning.


    Fine then. I drove away, sulking, finally letting the people behind me finally pass. They gave me dirty looksas I went away.


    "Yeah... like I said, not a good idea."


    I decided to just stay at a distance where they could see me, but not in the way of the queue. There was no way they could just keep ignoring me! And they probably won''t attack me again since I was not in the way, right?


    Radio sighed in exasperation. I was surprised Tablet did not comment once throughout the whole encounter.


    [What? Do you get off me talking down you?]


    It was only surprise. It''s not like I asked you to talk to me or anything!


    Geez.


    As I continued to wait from morning till evening, the sun began to set. I saw a different group of people in the same attire as the guards walk up. It seemed they were taking the night shift. The new people pointed at me and asked the previous guards some questions. Probably why there was a machine just casually sitting there. I imagined them saying it was just some weirdo and to just ignore me.


    Midnight came. A different shift. The same deal. Was I really going to be treated as a background object and ignored?


    Eventually, one of the guards on midnight shift approached me, probably bored from the lack of people coming in so late at night. He looked like the typical dwarf from fantasy, short and with a well-braided beard. Wait, he probably was an actual dwarf considering the circumstances. He said some words to me that I didn''t understand.


    It was then that I had an idea. What if I opened my doors and let him see that no one was actually inside? Maybe they''ll think I''m a rogue intelligent machine and bring me into the city to look for my "owner"?


    "I''m not sure this is a good idea," said Radio.


    Better idea?


    "..."


    I opened both my car doors. The guard stepped back, looking wary. A few seconds later, he decided to peek into my cabin.


    Noticing the lack of people inside, he seemed really surprised. He stared at my cargo compartment with suspicion. Fine. I opened that too. He looked inside. There was also nothing.


    He said something to me again, then walked back to the gates and told something to his fellow guards. I waited in anticipation, hoping thatsomething would happen. Hopefully, that would let me in.


    But they didn''t follow upby doinganything. Disappointed, I decided that I should just activate sleep mode. Maybe they''d do something in the morning.


    [The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.]


    The definition of insanity is your constant berating!

 8. Shenanigans

    Two men were sitting in a room with a rectangular table between them. The walls were pure white and the room was very clean, practically spotless. One of them was in a blue patient''s outfit and the other was in a policeman''s attire.


    "Ophie," said the policeman tentatively. "After the incident, some peoplehave been interested with... doingtests on you."


    "What incident? Who are you?" asked Ophie.


    He bent down, scratch his foot. The policeman sighed.


    "I''m Morris."


    "Okay," said Ophie. "Are you one of my fans? Sorry, I don''t give autographs."


    "Nope. I''ve been tasked with doing some simple tests on you."


    "Okay."


    It was fairly apparent that Ophie had no interest in cooperating however as he continued to scratch vigorously.


    Morris had been against the wholeidea of the tests from the start. The incident was just too suspicious; it didn''t add up at all. If you asked him, it was clear that the incident had been fabricated, most likely because new outlets were running out of ideas. The poor man was already insane. There shouldn''t be any reason to trouble him any further just because of some nonsense.


    He had no idea why he was tasked with such a task from his superiors. Surely they weren''t childish enough to believe superhuman powers existed, did they? But in the end, it was his task. He had to get on with it.


    "Hey, take this."


    The policeman handed a handgrip.


    "Okay."


    "Is okay the only word you can say?" asked Morris, mildly annoyed.


    "Okay."


    "Just try to cooperate with me, will you? We can both leave quickly if you''re fast."


    "Okay."


    As dozens of minutes past, the Morris got extremely frustrated. He had tried what felt like hundreds of ways to convince Ophie, but all he got was a bunch of ''okay''s as the patient continued to scratch his leg. At that point, Morris was just saying random things that he didn''t think would actually convince the crazed man.


    "If you stay here for too long, what will your fans think?" said Morris with a bored look.


    Ophie froze.


    "You... you bastard! My fanssssss!" screamed the man.


    He continued to yell hysterically, banging the table several times then kicking his chair around and running around the room.


    "Hey! Stop that!" said Morris as he reached out his hands to grab the man. "Uh... your fans aren''tangryyet?"


    Ophie calmed down. He grudgingly put the chair upright and sat, tapping his feet impatiently.


    "Fine! What do you want me to do? They''re waiting for me!"


    Morris sighed. The man was probably going to try to break out of the hospital the moment he was let out of the room. But it wasn''t his problem. He just wanted to it over with.


    "Squeeze that handgrip I gave you. It''s not that hard, right?"


    Ophie glared at the policeman. He held one of the handles in his hand and squeezed as hard as he could, his face scrunched from the effort.


    "You liar! It''s very hard!" Ophie accused.


    "No! That''s not how you''re supposed to use it!"


    At this point, Morris was soannoyedthat he decided that the moment the grip test was done, he would let Ophie out. There were stilla few other testing devices he was given, but he didn''t care anymore. Afterwards, he would just say that the patient was unwilling to cooperate.


    As Ophie pressed harder and harder, Morris suddenly heard the horrid sound of screeching metal. He was filled with shock. The metal handle of the grip was crushed! Ophie yelped and threw the damaged grip to the side.


    "Ahhhh! It screamed!" Ophie picked the device back up with tears in his eyes. "I''m so sorrry!"


    "You- you- are you alright?" stuttered Morris.


    He ran up to Ophie and pried the grip away from his hands much to Ophie''s frustration,taking a better look at the hand.Ophie''s hand was completely unblemished, with not even a scratch on it.


    Faced with such impossibility, Morris wondered if he was dreaming and did the good old pinching trick. It hurt. And naturally, nothing happened. Whether it was a dream or not, he decided that he should carry out all the tests properly after all.


    "Alright, good job! Now, for the next tes-"


    "Ahhh!" Ophie yelled.


    "What is it this time?" Morris furrowed his eyebrows.Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    "Someone dabbed!"


    "What?"


    The crazed man charged towards the windows andbodyslammedit, shattering it andfalling out.


    "Hey! Heeeeyyyy!"


    Morrissighed again, taking out his phone.


    <hr>


    Two figures in green ran out of abakerywith bags of bread.


    "Haha! That was too easy, boss!" Bob grinned.


    Alther frowned.


    "Don''t be too complacent. If they don''teven have basic magical artefacts, we must be in a city with strict law enforcement." he said. "I only agreed to take the risk because we had no choice."


    They both got hungry.


    "Okay boss!"


    "Now, what we need to do is to escape right away before anyone hunts us down."


    "But boss, can''t we take a short break to eat first?"


    Alther was about to reprimand his underling when he suddenly felt his stomach growl.


    "I supposed we could." he said after a short pause.


    Alther cast a levitation spell, getting both of them onto the roof of a tall building. Bob immediately took out a random sandwich from the bag and took a bite.


    "Mmm! Boss, this sandwich is amazing!"


    "Alright, but we shouldn''t sit around for too long. We should just eat a few quickly."


    Alther took out a strange-looking piece of bread. The top of it looked like it was coated in oddly fluffy sawdust. He gingerly took a bite and found to his surprise that it was fairly tasty. He had never tasted bread so good.


    "Not bad," he said.


    "I know, right!"


    But that made Altherslightly worried.Did they rob a high-class bakery? Who knew how much trouble they were going to get into with the rich owners if they were caught?


    It wasn''t his fault though. The people were completely unreasonable. He tried to hand them gold coins, but they rejected him. Fine, it wasn''t their currencyand they couldn''t be bothered to go to a money exchange. But after he took out one of hislessimportant magical artefactsto trade for the bread, they shouted at him disrespectfully! And he was being so generous to trade such an expensive item for cheap bread!


    But now that he knew the bread was from a high-classstore, it made sense now. They must have been looking down on the value of his artefact! Alther scoffed. Stupidgreedy owners running overpriced food stores. In the end, what sane people would buybread at prices higher than artefacts?


    Suddenly,he heard the yelling from a distance.


    "Boss, whaust''s thwaaut sowund?" asked Bob, still stuffing his face.


    A man in blue clothing jumped from roof to roof on nearby buildings with incredible speed, swiftly heading towards them.


    Alther spat out the bread in his mouth and stood up, facing the man with caution.


    "Awarhhh! Brooss, dwon wasste fuuud!" shouted Bob with his mouth full.


    "Stop stuffing yourself! We might be up against an enemy!"


    The man in blue, Ophie began yelling at them in the language they couldn''t understand angrily. Bob stood up too after placing the half-eaten sandwiches on the floor, continuing to chew his food.


    "Sorry, we don''t speak your language," said Alther.


    In response, Ophie leapt towards him, spreadingboth hisarms out in a grabbing motion.


    Alther quickly wavedhis hand.The man was sent flying backwards, down the side of the building.


    "Oh no! Boss, you killed him!" squealed Bob.


    "Oops. I wasn''t planning to do that."


    "Oh... It''s okay boss. It''s self defence."


    Alther: ...


    Screamed echoed from below as Ophie crashed hard onto the pavement. He got up shakily.


    "Bastard!Is dabbing not enough to satisfy you? I must destroy such evil!" he yelled.


    "Are you okay?" asked a concerned passerby.


    "Shut up! You''re not my fan!"


    "What?"


    Ophie pushed the confused man away and began to climb the building, ignoring the crowd urging him to stop.


    Alther watched in shock as Ophie climbed back into view andbeganshouting again.


    "Huh. You''re a lot tougher than-"


    He stopped himself. What was the point of talking to someone who didn''t understand? That would be just silly.


    The opponent seemed to specialise in physical defense. He decided to try something else, tossing a fireball towards Ophie.


    Ophie simply punched it and continued to charge forward, much to Alther''s shock. As the crazed man got close, the bandit boss hopped to the side. Dodging an inexperienced fighter was too easy!


    "Yeah! Go, boss!" cheered Bob.


    Ophie screeched in anger. He raised a fist and punched the roof of the building, making it crumble from the impact. Unfortunately, the rebound force from throwing a punch that hard send him flying into the air and off the building again.


    Alther quickly levitated the both of them, preventing them from falling into the rumble. What the heck was that monstrous strength? Could he be one of thebodyguardsfrom that bakery?


    He hurriedly floated to another building with Bob, running away. He didn''t think he would lose to a fight to a strongman that couldn''t use magic,but he felt like the "guard"was a huge pain to deal with; he didn''t want to wait for more to show up either.


    "Boooss! You left our bread behind!" mourned Bob.


    "Now''s not the time for that! We have to escape!" Alther was very frustrated by the priorities Bob had.


    "Okay... fine."


    Just as he thought he got a good distance away, he heard someone shout. He turned his head, only to see a huge chunk of rubble flying over at incredible speed.


    Not good! He quickly conjured a mana shield to block it. The hastily summoned shield shattered from the impact, allowing the he concrete to hit his head, knocking him out cold.


    "Boooosss!"


    Ophie lepth froma nearby building to where the bandits were. Bob shivered in fright.


    "You... I won''t let you hurt boss!"


    Bob charged over. Ophie kicked him, making him fallin anguish.


    The madman laughed. He reached out both arms and grabbed Alther. The bandit boss jolted awake, feeling extremely dizzy. He felt like strange magic was being used on him!It was as if his mind was being assaulted and being squeezed for every drop of information. He tried his best to resist, but failed, fainting again.


    Ophie seemed dazed, dropping Alther to the ground with a thud.


    "What did you do to boss? I won''t forgive you!" screamed Bob, clutching his stomach in pain.


    "Ohhh, I can understand you now!" Ophie smiled, clapping his hands.


    "Huh? You can speak Iyash?" Bob was stunned.


    "No, I just read his memories. Wow, you two came from a different world!"


    "What! How dare you!"


    Bob was enraged. How dare this random man steal the precious memories from his boss? All the embarrassing memories and naked moments of the boss were now in the bastard''s head!


    "Shut up!" said Ophie.


    He gave Bob a kick in the head, knocking him out.


    "It''s your fault for dabbing.Don''t act like you''re the victims here!"


    Ophie harrumphed.


    He raised his feet, preparing to kick the two of them some more.


    "That''s enough, Ophie."


    Ophie turned over in surprise. Since when did this weirdo in a costume get here too?


    <hr>


    Haliton was quite troubled.


    The sentient machine parked outside that gatespiqued his interest, buthe did not have the time to examine it properly. To make things worse, he legally could not drag a random unidentified machine through the gates just for research.


    He sighed. Did he really have to turn it to one of the dwarven guilds?


    It took a while, but he made up his mind. He entered the guild andheaded straight for the receptionist.


    She was a red-headed dwarf wearing glasses. At the moment, she was writing something on some documents.


    "Hey, Ellor." he said.


    "Hi, Hali! What brings you here?" she smiled, pushing the papers away.


    Haliton sighed.


    "I''m here to meet Anvar."


    "Oh? I thought you had a falling out with him?" she asked.


    "Just get me there. I have something I want to report," he said, frowning.


    "Alright, alright." the receptionist seemed amused.

 9. Sheepnanigans

    If you asked me, I was definitely patient.


    But waiting for days? Screw that!


    I decided to head off, follow the map and look for a different town or city. Preferably one that didn''t build massive walls around them and discriminate against machines.


    As I drove towards the direction of the nearest other town, I actuallyencountered a few people. Was it really just me having really bad luck to not meet people for almost an entire day?


    "Maybe you were actually in some sort of danger zone? Bandits did attack us there after all."Radio suggested.


    Hmm, maybe you''re right.


    I decided not to head into the same I was sent into this world in until I had more information just in case.


    Halfway to there, I spotted a huge cluster of bushes. My fuel wasgetting low anyway, so it was convenient. I didn''t want to even look at them though. The taste was simply sickening.


    Munch munch...


    Disgusting! It was so bad! I should really look for something else to eat. When I get to a town where people don''t discriminate, I was going to feast on good food! Or at least I hoped the food humans ate tasted better.


    As I atesome of them, I decided that maybe I should collect them into my inventory.That would save me a lot of effort if I needed to refuel again. I used my mouth to rip them out, sending them into my inventory one by one. I heard the rustle of leaves all of a sudden.


    "Baaaaa... "


    In shock, Idrove back a bit. What was that?


    Hiding within the bushes was a sheep covered in blood! It had been hiding in this cluster of bushes until I started harvesting them.


    It bleated at me threateningly... or least it tried to be. Baaing was not very scary. It scrunched up its face, seemingly very angrythat I had removed its cover. I felt a bit sorry for the sheep.


    Cough.


    Maybe I could kill it, for the experienc- I mean to end it''s misery? Being covered in so many wounds, how was it even still alive? It would be less painful to die instantly.


    [Scanning]


    [Identified]


    Whoa! Tablet, youhad scanning powers all along? And why did you scan all of a sudden?


    [Yes, I could. Don''t ask why.]


    [Greathorn Sheep]


    [HP: 14/100]


    [Stats: ??]


    I was surprised. This weak looking sheep hadfive times my health? What managed to hurt it so badly and how weak was I anyway? Now that I looked at it clearly, it had huge powerful-looking horns on its head. I wondered how strong it would be if it was in peak condition.


    [Right now, it is gravely injured, perfect for taming. It will heal once tamed. You can unlock the Tamer class if you want to try taming it.]


    [Learn Class: Tamer?]


    Hmm, I didn''t expect Tablet to be nice enough to help! But then again, it helped with with cracking the map too. Maybe it wasn''t such so bad after all.


    Thanks for telling me that, Tab!


    [I''m required to give youhelp at times. Do not mistake it for benevolence.]


    Alright, alright. Learn class!


    [Class obtained: Lv 1 Tamer]


    [New skill: Tame]


    [Allows you to make a pet contract with an animal. Current pet limit: 1]Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.


    How do I use Tame?


    I heard a sigh from Tablet.


    [Why can''t you try todo anything beforeasking me? Do I look like some sort of dictionary to you? Ask me when you really don''t know how!]


    Fine! No need to get touchy.


    Tablet was back to being Tablet.


    [I am not touchy. And I am always the same.]


    Whatever.


    I stared at the sheep. Tame!


    <hr>


    The sheep was very upset. He spent so much effort to find a place to hide after getting injured, and now this weird metal monster started eating all the bushes? What type of appetite did it have to swallow so many of them anyway?


    The ram bleated at the machine in anger, tossing out all kinds of sheep swears. The machine froze, almost as if scared by his filthy mouth. Hmph, that was whatthe bothersome monster should feel for disturbing its rest!


    Suddenly, words it could somehow understand appeared before its eyes.


    [Contract]


    Become a pet.


    Follow your master''severy command at all costs.


    You may not harm your master or attempt to escape.


    The master may release you from the contract if you are no longer needed.


    [Accept contract?]


    What the hell? The sheep stared at the machine. Was this stupid metal monster insane? Did it think just because he was injured, it could step all over this great sheep? To hell with this monster!


    <hr>


    [Contact Denied]


    The sheep bleated so loudly that it scared me. If it was angry earlier, now its eyes were burning in fury, as if it wanted to crush me into pieces.


    Why was it so angry? Did Tame fail that badly?


    [Try to view the contract details.]


    How? I mean, nevermind.


    I recalled how Tablet didn''t like me asking too many questions.


    Taming Contract!


    A wall of text floated before my eyes. As I read it, I grew alarmed.


    What the heck! Why is the contract so unreasonable?


    No wonder the sheep got so angry! Tablet must have thought it was funny to put something like that.


    [You can edit the contract details by thinking of a different contract. And don''t blame me for it. This is the default contract for a pet.]


    Pfft. If Tablet told me from the start this would not have happened. I came up with a more reasonable one.


    [Contract]


    Become my companion.


    You may disagree with my commands if you think it''s unreasonable.


    Please don''thurt me.


    You can break the contract and leave if you don''t feel like following me anymore.


    [Note]


    Sorry about that earlier. A friend wrote it as a prank.


    If you accept, I''ll find a way to heal you up, alright?


    Admittedly, I wasn''t sure if I liked the part that the sheep could just break the contract and run away. But considering how angry the sheep was now, I didn''t think it would accept anything that wasn''t completely reasonable. I sent it to the sheep again.


    "Baaaaaaa!" the sheep yelled.


    [Contract Denied]


    Oh my goodness, it must still be angry! If Tablet told me from the start, this wouldn''t have happened!


    [Stop trying to blame me.]


    At this point, I probably needed something to bribe it. Like maybe some food? I used my telekinesis to pluck a bunch of grass and placed it before the sheep.


    "Baaa!"


    It blew the grass I offered away and glared at me. It then started chewing on the grass growing beneath its mouth. Fine! Maybe it was thirsty from lying there for a while? I drove to a nearby river and collected some water, then drove back, floating some of it near the sheep''s mouth.


    It stared at me for a bit in anger, then reluctantly drank a bit of the water. It seemed like the sheep really was thirsty.


    I tried to offer it the contract again.


    [Denied]


    Maybe if I tried again?


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    <hr>


    Gah! What was wrong with the monster? No meant no! Just because you gavethis great sheep some water didn''t meanhe had to accept!


    Enraged, the sheep decided to acceptjust to raise the hopes of the monster, then crush it by immediately breaking the contract.


    [You have accepted!]


    The sheep felt strange.He felt a soothing breeze touch it, washing all the pain away. Ahh, so comfortable!


    Hehad been healed! The ram was shocked. Fine, for this one favour, this great sheep would followthe strange machine for a while!


    <hr>


    Two dwarves walked out of the city gates.


    Just as Haliton was about to say something, he realised something. The machine was gone!


    "WHAT! WHERE DID ITGO?"


    "Very amusing, Hali." Anvar frowned.


    "I swear! It was there earlier! You can ask the guards for proof." Hali looked very anxious.


    "As you say.If nothing, I shall return." Anvar shook his head, turningtoHali with a look of disappointment.


    "Wait! WAIT!" shouted Hali. "I''m telling the truth!"


    But even as he shouted, Anvar headed back, ignoring him. As he neared the doors of his guild again, the dwarf held back alaugh.


    Anvar knew Haliton very well. There was next to no chancesuch an honest personwouldlie, so Anvar knew there had indeed been a strange sentient machine there. But it was so satisfying toupset him!


    Haliton hated being accused of lying.

 10. Town

    "For this small favour, I will accept your request! But don''t expect me to follow you forever!"


    Alright, alright.


    After the contract was completed, I realised I could now communicate telepathically with the sheep.It was a strange feeling. We weren''t communicating in English, but some of mind wave thingy that made us both able to understand each other? Not sure how that worked or how to describe it.


    At first, I was a bit worried that I''d get another person constantly seeing all my thoughts. The horror! But luckily, it could only hear what I wanted it to hear.


    "Why have you requested my services anyway? This great sheep is very busy."


    Why was a sheep of all animals so prideful? I was sort of tempted to just ditch the goat, but finding another animal that was as strongbut conviniently injured might be hard. Wait, how strong was the sheep anyway?


    [Please name your pet.]


    [Greathorn Sheep, Lv1]


    [EXP: 0/100]


    HP: 100


    MP:50


    STR: 5


    MAG: 2


    DEX: 1


    AGI: 3


    DEF: 3


    Of course.It was still Lv1 and already stronger than me in every aspect? Not demoralising at all...


    [Allentities will be Lv1 by default, including new pets. Anything above Lv1 has its stats artificially increased by the System.]


    That made a lot more sense. It was still depressing, however. I imagined some sort of mountain crushing monster beating me up at Lv100 in the far future... but it was still considered Lv1.


    "Hey! Hello? Is this how you treat your new companion?"


    The sheepdidn''t seemed pleased that I kept silent for so long.


    Sorry. I got distracted.


    "So, are you going to answer my question or...?"


    What the heck was I supposed to answer? Oh, I just wanted a pet? Oh, you''re so strong and I don''t want to die so I decided you would be a good protector? What the hell? I decided to quickly change the topic.


    Ahem. By the way, what''s your name?


    "I guess I forgot to introduce myself,My name is Bhaaaa Baa. What''s yours?"


    ...


    Why.


    Well... it did sort of make sense. That was all the sounds sheeps made, didn''t they? It sounded all the same to me, but maybe it had all sorts of complicated intonations for sheep.


    How about coming with a name with a meaning? Or something other than baaah baaah?If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "What? You''re pronouncing it wrongly! And Baahaa Ba has clearly has a meaning! It means Mighty Horns!"


    The sheep stamped its hooves in anger.


    Why do I care anymore? Screw it, I might as well just get Tablet to name it baaa baa or something...


    [Greathorn Sheep has been named Baaa Baa.]


    "HEY! That''s rude! You can''t go naming me dumb names!"


    Sorry! My friend has a weird sense of humour.


    What the hell? I was kidding, Tablet!


    Wait, if Tabletwas doing translations, why was it not translated to the literal meaning?And why can it translate sheep,but not the language of people here?


    [Names are not directly translated for maximum authenticity. The tamer skill works not by translation, but by thought analysing. Unavailable for those not connected to the System.]


    I found that excuse "very believable".


    Anyway, can you just allow the sheep to set its own name? It''s less troublesome that way.


    [Fine.]


    The name was settled asSheepy of Mighty Horns for some reason. I decided not to ask.


    <hr>


    When we got to the town, I opened my cargo segment.Sheepy hopped out of it and did a weird yawn.After I noticed that Sheepy was not as fast as my top speed despite having higher AGI earlier, I convinced it to get into it.


    "Pretty dark in there,"Sheepy commented.


    To my relief, this town seemed to have pretty lax securityand no walls.The guards didn''t even ask us for any identification as we entered.


    A few people stared at us in curiosity. It must have been a strange sight, just an unidentified machine and a sheep walking right next to it.


    I didn''t expect to get interaction so soon, but a little girl ran up with a smile just moments after we entered.Shesaid something, then gave Sheepy a pat on the head.


    "And you''re ugly."Sheepy shook her hand away in disgust and snorted.


    The girl seemed upset. She plucked some nearby grass and tried to feed the ram. Sheepy spat thesaliva-covered grass at her, making a mess on her dress.


    "Disrespectful! I don''t need someone to feed me!"


    Hearing Sheepy''s angry bleats, the little girl ran away with tears.


    You didn''t have to go so far. Wait...


    I suddenly recalled its first sentence it said. It seemed like Sheepy was replying so something she said?


    You can understand her?


    "She didn''t show any respect! And yes, what do you think I am? Stupid?"


    Well, that was awkward. But at the same time, this was good! If the goat could translate, then it might be easier for me to get books for Tablet to decipher the language!


    Well, I''m actually not from around here. Would you mind helping me translate a bit?


    Sheepy paused and stared at me blankly.


    "Seriously? That''s the reason you wanted my help?"


    No! I didn''t realise you knew, I just realised. I was looking for a strong fighter to be on my side! But would you mind doing me a small favour withtranslation too?


    Seeing how the sheep seemed pretty prideful, it should like being complimented, right?


    Sheepy seemed bashful.


    "Well... I guess I''m pretty strong!"


    It did a weird bleating laugh.


    Really? I didn''t expect it to be so easy to please. I was pleased. Maybe it wasn''t going to be as hard as I thought it would be to keep it from breaking the contract!


    The main issue now was how I was going to earn some money. I really wanted to try some human food for a change. Honestly, there were probablya lot of better things I could be doing in a town, but for now I felt really lost and unsure. So why not?


    Unfortunately, I was also very lost on how to earn money.


    After some contemplation, I decided to try talking to one of the guards by asking Sheepy to come up with the words and for Radio to say it.


    How do I say "How do I earn money?"


    Sheepy gave me a strange look as if I were a big idiot.


    <hr>


    "I wonder who was in that dwarven machine. They must be pretty rich to own one of those!"


    "Yeah... It sure must be nice to have a lot of money. To think he''d spend so much instead of just getting a plain carriage!"


    "Kind of weird that he got a pet sheep instead of some other crazy animals though, isn''t it? I thought rich people liked exotic stuff like that!"


    Two guards were chatting casually.


    Suddenly, they were greeted by the strange machine again.


    "Ahem!" One of the guards coughed. "Is there something you''d like?"


    There was awkward silence for a moment.


    "Plez... Haw tu maake munnie?"

 11. Disgruntlement

    After a very messy talk with the guards, wewere directedto find a job fromsome sort of "adventurer" pub or something where they handed out miscellaneous jobs to people for some money. I didn''t feel likeodd jobs were very adventurous, but I managed to find a suiting one after idling outside of the building for a while. (Radio spent a lot of time trying to explain why the person could not leave the truck.)


    Idecided to helptransport a group of people toa nearby city, which also happened to be the one I was not allowed entry to. Sheepy had to run along outside of cargo because they didn''t want to sit inside with asweaty sheep.


    If all went well, I would get cash and possibly get a chance to enter the city! That seemedperfect to me.


    Sheepy glared at me as it ran alongside. I was surprised by how it could even catch up with me.


    "That was the worst pronunciation I''ve never heard! You really need to work on actually speaking properly. Also, whydid you usea different voice from the one you are using to speak to me?"


    This sheep was being way too stuck up!


    Well, it wasn''t me speaking. It was Radio over here.


    I floated Radio out for Sheepy to see.


    "Hi..." it said awkwardly.


    Sheepy looked really taken back for a moment.


    "What did she say? Did sheswear at me?"


    Yeah, I guessit wouldn''t understand Radio.


    She? Hmm, I didn''t think about this before, but I guess people would consider Radio a female from its feminine voice won''t they? Well, I don''t think it should cause any real issues, but just in case...


    Radio can you do any other voices?


    "Huh? Ok, I''ll try!" Radio sounded flustered. "HI! I AM BIG STROONG MAAN!"


    It sounded like a woman was trying to do a joking gruff man voice very poorly.


    "Hey! I was trying!"


    You really can''t do any other voices? Weren''t you able to broadcast voices of radio hosts back on earth?


    "I don''t know why I cant..."


    Oh well.


    "Why did she do a funny voice?She''s mocking me isn''t she?" Sheepy didn''t seem pleased.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work!


    Nah, Radio didn''t say anything bad.She said hi to you! I was just seeing if she could talk in different voices!


    "Yes. Very likely."


    Really!


    The sheep hmphed.


    "So. She''s thefriendthatsuggested that disgusting contract?"


    "No! It was Tablet!"


    I floated Tablet out for Sheepy to see.


    It''s this guy.


    [HI.]it displayed.


    "So you think it''s funny to give me that kind of nonsense?"


    I didn''t know why, but I felt the urge to laugh. An angry sheep confronting a tablet was not something I expected to ever see.


    [YES.]


    Sheepy glared. Wait, it could read the text on Tablet? Was this some kind of fantasy nonsense where the words could be understood by everyone or did it have to do with the contract?


    "I''d give you a good ram in the face, but I''ll give you a warning since I''m feeling generous today. Don''t make such jokes around me."


    Stern sheep. Wow.


    As more text started to appear on Tablet, I decided to quickly retrieve both it and Radio. DIdn''t want to cause any more drama.


    It was also then when the passengers asked something.


    "They asked what the ruckus was about."


    With the help of the sheep, Radio managed to explain that everything was fine in very poor pronunciation.


    Soon,I reachedthe destination. Sheepy seemed a little tired from trying to keep up with my speed, panting constantly.


    "Stupid humans... taking up all the space..." it muttered.


    The crazy girl that levitated me was on duty at the gates. She didn''t seem pleased to see me. Well, this time I had a proper reason to be here!


    Radio sloppily said that we were transporting people. The girl replied something.


    "She says to stay out and just let the people in." translated Sheepy.


    Well fine then. At least I got my money now!


    I took the payment from the people as they took out their luggage and dealt with the guards. As sheepy hopped on in place of them, I had a feeling it was pretty relieved.


    Back to the town, I guess...


    As I drove, Sheepy decidedit had something to say.


    "You''re not really providing much incentive to stay, are you? I''m only really hanging around because you healed me back then."


    Well, that wasn''t good. I didn''t want to lose my translator! I raked my mind for something... Oh yes, levels!


    So... do you want to become stronger and stuff?


    "What?"


    I can help you get stronger!


    Sheep stared at me with suspicion.


    "Oh? And how are you planning to do it?"


    You''ll get stronger when you kill stuff!


    "You''re telling me to get stronger through combat experience?!"


    Gahh! Why did it have to be so hard to explain about levelling up?


    No no! It''s some kind of contract power thing. You can absorb power from stuff you killto power up!


    "You''re telling me to just go on a murdering spree?! I''m no pacifist, but I-"


    No wait wait WAIT! It''s not just that! Wait for a bit!


    "Um?"


    Not good, not good!


    Tablet, any other alternative ways to gain EXP for pets?


    [You could let it undergo training or find materials that would help. Mana crystals could be converted too.]


    I quickly floated Tablet out for Sheepy to see.


    "Mana crystals huh?" it said. "Well, I''m not fully convinced by what you''re saying, but I think I do know a place nearby that we could find them in."


    Really? That''s great!


    "I want proof right now, so I''m going to lead you there."


    That sucks. I sort of wanted to try some of the human food with the cash I finally earned.


    Sheepy stepped out and did a bit of walking. Shortly after, it decided to hop back in.


    "On second thought, I think I''ll rest here for a bit more."


    Aha!It was worn out from all the running!


    Yes yes, just sleep in here for a while.


    I felt slightly excited at the prospect of finally having some actual good food! Eating more bushes? To hell with that!

 12. Sandwiches

    I sighed. I guess there weren''t really any other options, but I didn''t really like being tied onto a sheep with dismantled seatbelts.


    Ohhhh.... why did Truck have to have such weird ideas? He got Tablet to change some details of the contract so that I could communicate with Sheepy. And now this. I guess I had someone other than Truck to talk to now at least. I mean, I could talk to Tablet too, but honestly, it was kinda scary to talk to.


    Truck didn''t seem to like being interrupted while it thought about stuff, so I ended up spending quite a while talking to Sheepy as we drove around. He was surprisingly quite pleasant and fun to talk to!


    He''d talk about-


    "Hey! What are you doing?" Sheepy shouted in my mind.


    I snapped out of my daze. People were starring at us. A sheep with a strange device strapped on it before the counter of a restaurant was probably a rather strange sight. Especially so when its been standing there silently for a while. The young man who was manning the counter seemed somewhat anxious at the sight of us.


    "Oh, sorry! I was thinking about stuff."


    "Anyway, you''ve been taking too long so I came up with my own sentence to tell you. Repeat it closely!"


    Before I could protest, Sheepy started to recitesounds I could not understand. I hastily repeated them aloud.


    "What did that mean anyway?" I asked.


    "Hi. I want to buy food. How much does it cost?" saidSheepy in a robotic tone.


    "I''m not sure that''s the best opening..."


    The cashier seemed slightly alarmed. He saida few words in a panicked tone, then calmed down and said them clearly.


    For some reason, Sheepy seemed really angry.


    "What did he say?"


    "He said they''re racist bastards that don''t sell food to sheep!" Sheepy yelled.


    Well, I guess he''s a bit lesspleasant at times like this... I highly doubt that''s what the cashier actually said. Probably something about how they can''t sell food to sheep?


    "Anyway, say this!" said Sheepy.


    "Wait, wait, you need to tell me what it means first!"


    He must be trying to get me to say something nasty!The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.


    Sheepy snorted.


    "Fine, tell me what you want to say then."


    As expected... to think it was so bad that he didn''t want to tell me!


    "Uhhh, tell him I''m the owner of the vehicle outside sending my sheep to order for me because I''m busy?"


    After hearing me, the cashier starred around the shop and hurriedly ran into the kitchen, probably to ask some more experienced member on what to do. It was a good thing there wasn''t a queue when we came, just a small number of people eating at the tables. I think we would have really just been chased out the moment we entered if that was the case.


    The cashiersoon returned. I guess they decided business was business. Sheepy told mehe asked what we wanted to buy. Damn it! We should have looked at the menu before asking first! If he didn''t make me panic, I would have looked up what to buy before asking to buy food!


    "Hey Sheepy, can you read words?" I asked as I scoured the propped menus for something that might be cheap.


    I could tell what was being sold from the illustrations on the menu, but I couldn''t read the price.


    "What? How would I know? I''ve only learnt the human language from listening in!"


    Well, darn. I used my antenna to pick up the pouch of coins on me and extended it, placing it on the counter before retracting it again. Then I pointed to the drawing of a sandwich on the menu.


    "Tell him to give me as many sandwiches as the coins can buy! And that we are buying the cheapest sandwiches!"


    The cashier took the money and gave us some change,two little bronzecoins. The pouch was now like a sad little deflated balloon. He went into the kitchen and tookout a paperbagof sandwiches. I looked briefly and foundten inside.


    "He says the sandwiches are 5 bronze each and the bag is 10 bronze."


    Wait what? Why is a paper bag so expensive?


    "Tell him to not give us the bag and give two more sandwiches."


    The cashier seemed a little speechless. Heattempted to stack the sandwiches on me but then gave up. In the end, he was nice enough to help us bring the sandwiches out. I told him to put it inTruck''s cargo area. He was appalled. Probably because the "floor" area was covered in dirt and smelled like sheep. Truck was eating tons of dirt with the bushes anyway, so I don''t think it''d mind, right?


    "He says you treat your sheep very well." Sheepy seemed indignant. "Such disrespect! Since when was I a belonging?"


    "Well...just don''t kick him."


    "Hmph."


    <hr>


    Good job!


    I was very pleased. To think my strategy of sending Sheepyworked! Can''t always wait outside a building until someone tends to me in the end.


    "Thanks!" said Radio.


    Hmmm... sandwiches. I wondered how they taste. I quickly stashed them into my inventory and drove out of town. Might be kind of a weird sight if I just opened my mouth and ate since I''m a machine and stuff.


    Gently, I levitated one toward my mouth. It was so small... I tossed it in and gingerly chewed.


    ...


    So good! Oh my goodness!


    Bursts of flavour I didn''t know existed flooded my mouth. I couldn''t help but toss all the other sandwiches in. Delicious! And it was all gone. Just like that. It didn''t even refill my fuel tank as much as a bush!


    Why did human food have to be so small? Why did I have to have such a big mouth? Urgh... I hate everything!


    "Well... maybe you''ll be able to get a lot of money if you go find mana crystals Sheepy mentioned? I''m not sure but they should be worth a fair amount, right?"


    Yes, Radio was right! I couldn''t give up hope just yet!


    Let''s go Sheepy! To theplace with the mana crystals!


    "Nah. You woke me up just for your dumb food thing! You didn''t evenask if I wanted apples or something! Do you think I don''t get hungry?" Sheep ranted. "Anyway, I''mstill tired so I''m going to sleep."

 13: Ant-iclimactic

    "Stop!" shouted Sheepy.


    Urgh... what is it this time?


    "There''s fat grass over there. Lunch break."


    I was getting very frustrated. Every so often, that stupid sheep would say he''s tired and take a break. And now he''s munching away at grass! I waited for several minutes, disgruntled.


    Are you done yet?


    "Wait... I don''t get to have this type of grass so often. It''s very rare."


    One ofthese days I should adjust the contract to make it have to listen to me...


    The next thing I know, its going to say it''s too full to walk, isn''t it? No, I was very sure it would!


    You''re going to get a stomach ache if you eat too much, aren''t you?If you want, I can help you collect all of the grass so youcan have it at any time.


    To my relief, Sheepy looked pleased.


    "Well, look who''s finally giving proper benefits! Go on."


    ...


    I started to pickthe whole batch and toss it into my inventory. It looked like some sort of aloe vera? Maybe it was. I guess Sheepy didn''t know what it was called. It''s in some drinks, isn''tit?Does that mean it tastes good? I was slightly excited as I bit down on one of the blades.


    It wasn''t very good... Why would anyone put this in their drinks? I guess it was still better than bushes though.


    Wait. I had a brilliant idea! What if I used the aloe vera thingy to encourage Sheepy to stop being lazy? I was pretty sure it was faking it anyway. Weren''t wild animals supposed to run around all day?


    Soon enough, Sheepy started to complain it was tired again.


    "I''m tired. I''m going back to rest."


    Sure, go on. That is, if you don''t want me to confiscate your "fat grass"!


    "You... you devil! Where is the trust between people? Are you trying to get me to leave?" Sheepy gave me the look of ultimate betrayal.


    I took out apile of aloe vera. And ate it.


    "Bastard!"


    Sheepy reluctantly began to walk again.


    <hr>


    "There. Crystals. Wow. Yay." Sheepy said sarcastically.


    Well, that took long enough! The dumb sheep was really faking it. It could suddenly walk for such a long distance with a threat!


    Before my headlights, I sawa huge mound with a tunnel leading downwards. Thegrass and trees around uswere very lush and green.


    Wait, if it''s like this, how the heck was I supposed to get the crystals? Oh my god! Why?


    "Hey! Heeeey!" Sheepydecided to be annoying.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    What?


    "Reward."


    I dumped a huge pile of aloe vera onto Sheepy.Ignoring itsangry shouts,I drove closer to the entrance of the mound. There had to be some crystals close enough that I could grab it with mytelekinetic powers. Right? Please be right.


    I was not right. There was however abig angry ant staring right at me.Big as inhalf as tall as me.


    "Oh yeah, I forgot to mention something because you had to be an ass. There are huge monster ants or-"


    The ant charged right up and grabbed me by the grates. Ow ow ow! That really hurt!


    [-1 HP]


    I tried to punch the ant in the eyes repeated with telekinesis.


    "Skrrrrrr!" it screeched muffledly, refusing to let go.


    Suddenly, I felt the pain get to an intenseand my body lighter. That stupid ant managed to lift my whole body from my face alone!First that stupid girl and now an ant! Whythe heck doeseverything want to lift me? Did I look like some kind of dumbbell?


    [-2 HP]


    "Holy shit!" yelped Sheepy.


    The stupid sheep! It was running away!


    I was flung into the air unceremoniously. Oh my god, I was going to die! I braced myself for impact.


    "BAAANNG!"


    [-6 HP]


    Owwww! My wheels! Thankedgoodness though. I really might have died if I landed upside down. Iwas really glad I invested in DEF too. If not for that, I was very sure I would have died! Who cares about DPS when you can live?


    "Skreeeeeee!" the ant cried.


    Shit, shit, shit! It was going to attack at any moment? What, what if I tried to give it a contract? I quicklysentthe same contract I gave Sheepy to it. I wanted to give a better one but right now I didn''t have the time.


    The ant seemed confused.


    [Contact Denied]


    "SKREEEEEE!" the ant screeched, several times louder than before.


    Why? Why was it so angry? Did my contractssecretly have the power topiss off literally anything?


    As it crawled towards me, several much smaller ants ran out from the mound. They screeched at me too. Reinforcements? Perfect. I wasdefinitely going to die...


    "Skreee! Scra scra scraaaa!" went the big ant.


    It made some weird gestures with its antenna. The other ants stopped and watched from the tunnel. Big ant faced me. It screeched loudly again.


    What? It was telling its friends to stay back so that it can beat me up alone? What the hell? Which part of the contract made it so angry?


    I tried to back off slowly as it approached. What the heck do I do in this situation?


    Hey Tablet! Tablet! Can''t you vaporise this stupid ant? I''m going to die here!


    [No. Do it yourself.]


    I would if I could! For a moment, I thought about using engine burst on it. Butconsidering how low my health was, I felt like itnot a goodidea.


    Screw it, more contracts!


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    [Denied]


    "SKREEEEEE!" ant was not happy.


    The ant charged towards me at full speed. Why did I thinkthis would be a good idea?


    In panic, I opened my mouth. The ant flew into it smoothly, and I chewed a few times. It was very crunchy.


    ...


    Gaaahhhh! It tastes so bad! The bushesareheavenly in comparison! I hurriedly stuffed tons of aloe vera into my mouth.


    "Stop! That''s minnnnneeee!" screamed Sheepy who waspeeking atop a nearby tree.


    <hr>


    Watching over the entrance was boring. The animals were too scared to come close anyway, so why did it have to? Big ant wished it could be snacking on some tasty snacks! But when it thought about how it was asked personally to do so for the queen, motivation bubbled within it! Indeed, everything was worth it just for the queen.


    But to its surprise, a huge boxmonster came. Along with a yummy looking sheep! Big ant was tempted to strike, but if it ran out, that wouldbe neglecting looking after the entrance.


    Then to its surprise again, the metal monster came right up to the entrance! How could it tolerate such a deed? Naturally, it picked up the monster and tossed it away. From the bite,Big ant realised it wasn''t very tasty.It decidednot to chase the monster as long as it didn''t come back. What was the point if it was not tasty?


    "Go away or die!" it screeched in ant language.


    Suddenly, words appeared before its eyes. Big ant was very confused.Become box monster companion... follow command?!


    SUCH AUDACITY!


    Big ant was extremely angry. How dare this lowly box monster ask it to betray its queen and follow it! It screeched in anger.


    Hearing the cries, itssiblings ran over.


    "Skrreeee, what''s wrong?"


    "Are you hungry? I can bring food!"


    As they saw the box monster, they realised it must have angered Skrreeee!


    "Big sis! We will help you kill that evil monster!" the ants said in union.


    Skrreeee was very heart-warmed by her little sisters.


    "No, this is my fight! Stay back and let me show you how it''s done!"


    As Skrreeee marched towards the enemy, the ants cheered!


    "Go Skrreeee! You can do it!"


    "Kill the bad monster!"

 14. Escaping From Ants

    [Battle over.]


    [+521 EXP]


    [Level up! +1 Stat Point. HP refilled.]


    [Biological Carapace: 5/5000]


    So much? It was basically half the EXP thebandit guy gave! I was stunned.


    For a brief moment, I considered trying to eat more of them. No, what was I thinking? Those things taste worse than death!


    "Hey! If you keep eating more of my grass, I will really leave!" Sheepy continued to shout.


    Sorry, the ant tastedsuper bad.


    I was really curious as to whatthe biologicalcarapace Tablet mentioned was, but I decided now wasn''t the time.


    "If you think it tastes so bad, why the heck did you eat it?" Sheepy looked at me like I was some kind of dumbass.


    I had no choice! And how would I know how it tastes before I ate it?


    "Who the heck goes around eating stuff they fight? You should have tried to stomp it with one of your spinny leg thingies!"


    Huh. Sheepy had a point. If I could chew them, I should be able to crush them with my wheels, right?


    Before my headlights dozens of ants had crawled out. Some were as big as the one I just ate.


    Nope.


    I quickly drove away in the direction of the tree Sheepy was on.


    Jump on me!


    "Wait, wait, what?"


    In a hurry, Sheepy somehow managed to hop from the tree and land on my roof as I drove haphazardly. It wobbled around constantly and was bleating in panic.


    "Hey! I''m going to fall if you keep going so fast!" it screamed.


    Okay, I guess I didn''t want to lose my only translator. The ants were chasing me with insane speed, but I uh... should be able to deal with them, right? I was really scared of being tossed again though.


    With a bit of reluctance, I slowed down.Sheepy hurriedly jumped off and scrambled into my carrier.


    By then the ants had caught up. I started to panic a little.


    Tablet! Add 1 point to my defence!


    [DEF 3 -> 4]


    Wait, should I have invested it into STR instead? A 33% boost in HP might have been more worth it!


    [Too late.]


    Shut up!


    The good thing was that only the small ants were fast enough to reach me right now. As one of them neared, I accelerated backwards, aiming my wheel at the one most upfront.


    "Bang!"


    [-3 HP]


    What the heck? The ant... it was unharmed and burst my tires with a single bite! I reeled in pain. Not good, I had to escape!You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.


    I quickly halted andswitched to driving forward as quickly as I could. The burst tire was a huge problem, but luckily I had the bright idea of using shapeshift to change themetal part on the inside into the same size as my other wheels. I was a lot less stable and it hurt a lot to keepexerting the burst tire, but at least I wasn''t that much slower than before. I could escape safely at this rate!


    "Skraaaa!"


    The ants suddenly sped up! What? Whyyy? Did they get motivated when they saw one of their friends bursting my tires? Screw it, I still had 17 HP! Engine Burst!


    [Engine Burst innitiated]


    [+50% STR &SPD]


    [-1HP /3s]


    Immediately, my radiator started burning incredibly hot. Hot air spewed from it and it started to make funny noises that worried me a lot. Just what I wanted. More pain. I really started to hate those ants.


    With my increased speed, the ants started to fall behind. After an agonising 10 HP burned, they were finally out of sight. Urgh. My radiator was red hot. I was at 7 HP.


    How miserable! Well, at least I survived, right? I guess now I just had to wait for the regen like in games.


    ["Unfortunately", you have 0 HP regen by default as you are a machine.]


    WHAT? This is bullshit! Humans don''t recover from fatal wounds with a few minutes of rest either, do they? Why is realism being in play with some kind of game system?


    [Because this is real life. Not a game.]


    And how is healing back to full health after levelling up realistic?


    [I could remove that feature if you want.]


    ...


    Sometimes I really hated Tablet.


    Great. Now I had tosomehow kill enough stuff to level up while in such terrible condition. What was I going to do, face more ants? Ireally didn''t like the thought of that.


    Hey Sheepy!


    It was huddled in a pile, trembling.


    "What? Are the ants gone now?"


    Yes, I outran them. Do you have any ideas where I can find strong monsters? I need to fight to heal.


    Please suggest something weaker than the ants...


    "What? How does that even wo- you know what, it doesn''t matter," said Sheepy. "You know what? I think I know where you can find monsters like that!"


    What are they? Are they weaker than the ants?


    Sheepystarted to get aggitated for some reason.


    "There''s a pack of wolfs that live a good distance away. They are monsters! They... they killed my wife! And my friends!"


    What? You had a wife?


    I was shocked. This dumb sheep could attract a partner? Were the standards of ewes that low?


    "Well... my would-be wife. It was only a matter of time until she fell for me!" Sheepy seemed sheepish.


    Okay, it was just speaking nonsense then. Still, I felt kind of bad for it though. To have lost all its friends to a pack of wolves... that must have really hurt. Was that howit became so badly injured when I first met it?


    I see. So, are they stronger than the ants?


    "No way! Those crazy ants are so tough! Nobody sane would go near them, not even the wolves! If you can eat one of the giant ants in a bite, then you can definitely kill those bastard wolves easily!"


    That was good to hear. I was relieved.


    So how many of those wolves do you think would it take to defeat one of those bigger ants?


    "Honestly? I''m not even sure if the entire pack could beat one of those. They are so tough, the claws would just bounce right off!"


    Huh, I guess that made sense. Those smaller cat-sized ones were even able to survive getting crushed by my wheel unharmed... wait, how was I able to even bite through the large one?


    [The system allows you to consume material required for upgrades, ignoring the strength of the material itself.Material upgrades will permanently increase your stats, mostly relating to DEF and HP.]


    <hr>


    Breaking news!Agiant anthas appeared out of nowhere on a busy street! Witnesses said it went on a rampage, causing 11people to be heavily injured. Fortunately, there were no deaths.


    Police attempted to apprehend the monster, but it appeared all guns were unable to even dent its carapace. Attempts to trap it with a reinforced steel cage were made, butthe ant managed to tear it apart with ease.


    Soon after, a weird man in a costume came out of nowhere and attempted to fight it but was also defeated with serious injuries. Passersby attempted to help him by calling an ambulance, but he refused their help and promptly escaped while leaving blood all over the place. Very inconsiderate.


    Luckily, there was a super smart and cool man called Oppie! He singlehanded slew the beast, making everyone cheer! Even the police were clapping and everyone gave him a-


    What? Why are you trying to stop me? I''m just reporting the news-


    <hr>


    Ophie was yet again apprehended for attacking the same news reporter.

 15. Wolves

    I was glad that Sheepy was not being lazy and actually led me over without taking breaks.I''d probably go insane if I had to continue travelling on my bust wheel.


    I took a look at the map and found that we were pretty far away from any towns. There were a lot more trees in the surroundings too, which made trying to go through a bit more of a hassle. Not quite enough that I''d consider it a forest though, fortunately. I don''t think I could drive through that.


    "I think we''re pretty close. They live in a cavesomewhere nearby."


    Wait... they were in a cave? Why did everything have to be in areas I had issues reaching? First the crystals, and now wolves? Urgh... now that we came this far, there should at least be a few wolves out, right?


    But part of me was sort of hoping they''d be hiding. In the end, the only reason I was able to take out those ants because of them being material for an upgrade. What if the wolveswere too strong for my crashes to hurt them and I couldn''t bite through their hide? That''d be terrible!


    Still, I decided that it would probably be manageable if they were weaker than the ants. At least I hoped.


    It was a very short drive to the caves. They were bored into a hill covered in grass, which was quite an odd sight in a mostly flat area.


    And as I dreaded, the wolves weren''t out.


    So what are we going to do now? It''s not like I can go into those caves.


    "Can tell. Anyway, I''ve got an idea. Give me a moment."


    Sheepy strode lazily to the caves. It then proceeded to shout something down. It wasnot a very sheep-like sound, more like sounds from some other animal. It didn''t sound very wolf-like though, so I wasn''t sure what it was trying to do. Mimicking the sound of prey? Wait, in that case, wouldn''t the sound of sheep just do fine?


    Hmm, come to think of it, Sheepy should really be more scared when around the homes of wolves that killed its friends, right?Did my presence really give it that much confidence? What a weird sheep...


    There was silence for a while. I heard some angry-sounding noises from inside the cave that sounded like the not very sheep-like nor wolf-like sounds.


    Hey, what are you doing making those weird noises?


    "Those weird noises are Rolgh! Have some respect!"


    What the heck is a Rolgh?If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The ground became to rumble slightly. I got slightly worried. Was there going to be an earthquake?


    "It''s the language mostanimals speak! Except humans for some reason, I don''t know why most of them don''t know it."


    That sounded like some sort of weird reindeer name.


    As the ground continued to shake, dirt formed into wolf shaped shapes. They made soundless hounds and trained their blank eyes at me and Sheepy.


    "That cowardly wolf! He''s summoning those dumb puppets to fight for him!" Sheepy bleat in anger.


    What? Does that mean I wasn''t going to get EXP? I quickly slammed into one of the half-formed ones. It exploded into a cloud of dirt.


    [+51 EXP]


    I was very relieved. So these things actually gave experience! I suddenly had a brilliant idea. What if I hungaround and justfarmedthem as they spawned? That''d be like a personal grinding spot where I could level up safely!


    Gleefully, I knocked down several in quick succession. Some of them tried to scratch me, but they only hurt my paint job, which I was glad didn''t count as damage. Sheepy partook as well, but with much less enthusiasm.


    [Sheepy has levelled up!]


    [STR 5 -> 6]


    Huh. About time I guess.


    Just as I was about to show it Tablet so that it could see for itself, it paused.


    "Weird... I feellike power is rushing through me all of a sudden!"


    Yeah, you levelled up and got stronger.


    "The hell is a level up?"


    How was I going to explain that? Urgh, what a pain...


    You''ll find out later.


    "Hey! Are you implying something? Tell me right now!"


    It just means you got stronger from killing stuff, okay? Apparently it works with these dirt wolves too.


    "You should have said that from the start!"


    Immediately, Sheepy went on a rampage, knocking down all the wolves in sight. That ungrateful sheep! Ifit kills all of them, how was I going to level up?


    Just as I was about to tell it to let me take some of the kills,one of the dirt wolves managed to slash Sheepy with its claws now that it was less careful,dyeingthe wool around the wound red.


    [-3 HP]


    Sheepy immediately belted out a whole string of cussing. I took the chance to run overthe last of them. Unfortunately, there didn''t seem to be more spawning. I got anxious. Was more not going to spawn?


    More angry sounds came from the cave. Sheepy replied with more angry sounds, probably something about not summoning more dirt wolves.


    And to my delight, the ground began rumbling again! This time, however, the wolves were made of countless little rocks.


    "Oh. Those are nasty." Sheepy remarked. It retreated back to my cargo.


    Well... metal was stronger than stone right? I hoped. Somehow the dirt onesstill could scratch my paintdespite what they were made of. I decided to scan them.


    [Stone Wolf]


    [HP: 50/50]


    [Stats: ??]


    The same deal as with Sheepy at first... I guess Scan wasn''t really that helpful.


    I took to chance to run over one of the half-formed ones yet again. It lostmost of its shape but it didn''t die immediately.


    [HP: 35/50]


    Idrove back and forth a few times. The wolf finally crumbled into a pile of rocks. Meanwhile, anotherone slashed me, leaving a nasty groove.


    [-1 HP]


    [+121EXP]


    [Level up! +1 Stat Point. HP refilled.]


    Tablet, 1 point to HP- I mean STR


    [STR 2 -> 3]


    [HP 20 -> 30]


    Welp, guess I better book it. I didn''t feel like taking my chances with the stone ones, especially since they could actually hurt me.

 16. After A Quiet Night

    The night passed peacefully.


    Somehow, Bob managed to sleep well. Alther, however, slept terribly.


    After being saved by the weirdo in a costume from a person weird in the head, they were bought into one of the tall squarish buildings that the city seemed to mostly comprise of. The man said some strange things and found them a room with two beds, where they slept in.


    Initially, Alther was planning to escape,but he decided to take the risk of staying.If he tried to escape, who knew if he''d beapprehended by some random guard again? And besides, the room was rather luxurious. Despite the plain white walls, the beds and tables in the room seemed to be extremely well made,with even some sort of advanced device showing strange recurring symbols that changed every second. A timekeeping device?


    At any rate, it seemed fairly unlikely that they were going to be sent to prison.Unless of course, prisoners were treatedvery well in this country, which seemed even more unlikely to him.


    But despite that, he was fraught with anxiety. He couldn''t think of any reasonhow they were sent to this country or whythey wouldn''t just be sent to prison after being caught stealing. Crazyscenarios as to why flashed across his mind, but none of them seemed possible. The best lead he had was that the machine that "killed" them was actuallycommonhere. But from what he could tell, it seemed like they were only ordinary transportation devices,basically just carriagesthat didn''t need horses.


    Bob too was panicking after being escorted here, but a few words from Alther calmed him down. The joys of havingsomeone to rely on! Alther wished he hadonetoo. Only in this situation of course.


    During the night, he attempted to usevarious spells to pinpoint his location and the way back, but to no avail. He also pick-locked the room and left, grabbing books and newspapers he found. The paper seemed to be of very high quality. But what worried him washow he couldn''t figure out what language it was.


    As an avid reader, he had read translated books from various countries, be it fiction or just interesting spellbooks that shed light onhow people of other cultures use and cast spells. He only bothered to learn 3 languages, but even so, he could tell which language was what language based on howthe letters looked.


    Maybe it was some country that was isolated? No, that didn''t seem likely. He even spotted a huge flying machine high the sky much to his shock (mostly because it was extremely noisy)! A country this advanced would surely have reached out and found other countries. No country could deny the benefits of international trading, so such a country woulddefinitelybe known.This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    What was going on? Could it be that he was summoned as sort of hero from- No! What type of stupid childishthought was that? Infuriated, he buried his head under his pillow. If this kept on, he wouldn''t be able to get any rest. It wasn''t like thinking constantly was getting anywhere either.


    But his mind did not cooperate and continued to think constatnly despite his efforts. Hours passed before exhaustion claimed him.


    The sun rose. Birds began to chirp.


    The weird costumed man (who was now in normal clothing) opened the door. Inside was a man snoring with his head face-first ina pillow and another greedily eating a huge chunk of cold ham.


    The ham eating man, Bob,tried to quickly swipe the ham behind his back but wasn''t fast enough.


    "I got hungry!" he said, embarrassed.


    The now uncostumed man did not understand what the ham man said but was not too pleasedto findhis fridge ransacked andthe main component for his breakfast defiled. And to think he felt bad for locking the bedroom door yesterday! Of course the thieves pick-locked it.


    "Whatever. Let''s grab some bre-"


    What was he doing? The man stopped himself. Hespoke to them even thought he knew they didn''t understand subconciously!


    Now in a bad mood, he walked over and shook the pillow man awake. Pillow man mumbled something disgruntledly and seemed reluctant to get up. So pillow man was shaken more violently.


    Their attention was piqued, the uncostumed man pointed at himself, then the two bandits and pointed outside the door. Luckily, pointing was a gesture that had the same meaning in both worlds.Alther and Bob reluctantly got out of the room and followed him into the kitchen.


    The man snatched the ham from Bob, and sliced off the part covered in bite marks with a kitchen knife. He took out cheese and mayo from the fridge and cut two more chunks off the ham. The combination of the three ingredients was put between bread, the bite-mark covered one naturally going to the Bob.


    Just as Bob was about to take initiative,a handblockedthe sandwich from entering his mouth. The man pointed towards the door and had them follow him out of the building and into an area filled with vehicles. Bob was terrified but after some assurance from Alther, he calmed down somewhat.


    The man opened the doors of the car and ushered him in. Indeed, these machines were really just transport, like Alther thought.But that only made him more confused as to how one of these sent him and Bob here.


    The car droved out of the garage and off onto the roads. Naturally, the "gods of traffic" decided to bless them with a bounty of cars whichwas more commonly referred to as traffic jam.


    <hr>


    "Cal. You''re late."


    "Shut up, Misha!"grumbled the man. "Traffic was bad again today."


    Misha glared at him.


    "Tell me. How many times have you used that excuse for being late?" she asked.


    "Asmany times as traffic decides to be a bitch! How is telling the truth an excuse?"


    "Then head out earlier! It''s not that-"


    "Calvin, Misha." said a man in atuxedocalmly. "As much as I like towatch you two get along, that''s not the reason we came here today."


    They turned and starred at Bob and Alther who followed in. Somehow, Bob had not finished his sandwich and was still nibbling slowly.

 17. Interrogation and Cards

    Uponnoticing he was beingstared at, Bob awkwardly stuffed the rest of the sandwich into his mouth and chewed hurriedly. There were three people already waiting in the room, Misha and two men.


    Calvin looked around aftering taking a seat and realised something.


    "Wait, you called me out on being a few minutes late, but Ella andthatgeezeraren''t here yet! And the crazy man too!"


    "Ophie decided to break out so Ella gave chase. And you know Gilbert is still upset over the loss of his ''pet'';he said he won''t be coming." Misha said with an exasperated expression. "You can''t justify your actions by saying other people do it too!"


    "Wait, whenwas she able to give chase? I thought she''s the type who can''t even lift a pillow?" Calvin seemed surprised.


    "Oh,she developed a new technique. Called it Teleboost or something? It''s a pretty dumb name if you ask me."


    Ayoung man who looked around his twenties spoke.


    "And what does it do?" asked Calvin.


    "Wait,let me tell you why she developed it first. It''s pretty funny!" the young man grinned.


    "And why do I care?" Calvin was getting annoyed.


    "So you know, she''s weak and all like you said. So a week back, mom told her to get some exercise instead of justlyingaround inher room all day!"


    "Don''t you do that too?" asked Calvin.


    "Yeah, yeah." the young man shruged. "Anyway, so she was kicked out and dragged to the gym. Mom told her she was not supposed to use hertelekinesis to lift the weights and stuff, so she just came up with a way to just boost her strength withit instead of directly lifting the weight with her mind!"


    "That''s not very funny."


    "It was funnier when I thought of it." the young man didn''t seem bothered.


    "Uh-huh. Anyway,when are we going to interrogate the two?" Calvin looked at his watch.


    "We''re supposed to wait for Ella to come back first."


    "She''s about to arrive at any moment," said Misha. "Ophie is following her but he''s hugging onto a giant ant for some reason."


    "Oh, that ant!" Calvin remembered fighting it a few hours ago.


    "The one you lost terribly to?" she smirked.


    "Shut up! It was strong enough to be immune to guns and even tear through steel!It''s not me being weak, Ophie is just a total freak!"A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    The four people continued to banter. Alther and Bob were standing awkwardly near the door the whole time, unsure if they should sit as well. It didn''t take long before inhuman screeching came from outside the door.


    "SKKKKREEEEE! SKREEEEEE!" screeched something.


    "Just kill it!You can''t bring it into the room!" a girl shouted.


    "Noooo! It''s my pet!" Ophie yelled.


    "Oh, my sis is here!" the young man said.


    He stood up and opened the door. Outside, he saw Ophie trying to shield the ant fromElla while she repeatedly tried to punch it in the eyes.


    Seeing her brother, Ella stopped trying to attack the ant and sighed.


    "You deal with him, Ethan. Not my problem anymore," she said.


    She walked into the room and took a seat wordlessly.


    Ethan felt like sighing too but he felt like it would be weird if he did it so soon aftershe just did it.


    "Hello Ophie." he said.


    "My pet. Don''t touch it!" Ophie hugged the ant defensively.


    The ant seemed relatively calm now that no one was trying to punch it in the eyes. Ethan decided it probably would be fine if it stayed that way while it was in the room. Better than risking Ophie running away again when the ant could be dealt with afterwards.


    "It''s okay. You can bring the ant inside. Just don''t let go of it and let it run around, okay?" he said in a gentle tone.


    "Okay..."


    They entered the room. Ethan took a seat and Ophie followed, but the giant ant in his lap was very distracting.


    Calvinnoticed that the ant was a lot smaller for some reason but decided not to question it.


    "So do we start now?" he asked.


    "Okay," said Ethan.


    He beckoned for Bob and Alther who were still standing awkwardlynear the door to take seats as well.


    Ethan took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. The people in the room suddenly kept quiet.


    "You? Do you understand me?"


    Alther and Bob felt a strange sensation and heard a voice in their head. Strangely, they understood it even though it was not of their language. It seemed to comprise of intention alone, capable of being understood universally.


    "Yes," said Alther.


    <hr>


    The previous night...


    The atmosphere was gloomy back at the bandit hideout. The bandits were huddled around the meeting table, with faces of despair. Some were even tearing up. On the table was a framed picture of Alther placed flat for all to see.


    "He... I can''t believe... he....of all people died... He was such a great man..."


    "Are we really just gonna let the boss die in vain? Not even take revenge?" one of them said.


    "But what can we do againsta machine like that? There''s nothing we can do!"


    Some of the bandits looked like they wanted to voice up. But they couldn''t. Silence permeated. Indeed, what could a bunch of random banditsdo to take out something that could defeat a high ranked mage? It seemed hopeless. The mood seemed to get grimmer and grimmer.


    Butgatheringhis courage,onestood up and broke the silence. He looked full of anxiety.


    "I... I think there could be a way!"


    "What? How could we possibly avenge the boss?"


    "The boss... he trusted me with it. But now that he... There''s not a point anymore!" he yelled.


    The bandit ran into his room, hiding his tearing eyes.


    "Wait, didn''t you say there was a way?"


    "Where are you going?"


    As moments passed, the other bandits sighed.How could such a thing be true anyway?He probably realised how fultile it was.


    But moments later, he ran out of his room with a box, gripping it gingerly. As he opened it, the other bandits gasped.


    "Those... those are MonsterFight cards!"


    "So many?"


    "Not just any cards!" the bandit shouted. "These are the boss''s cards!"


    The other bandits were shocked.


    "But how could the boss have had enough money to get all of these? These are so expensive!"


    "I... I don''t know." the bandit said. "But years ago, he told me to keep it a secret when I found out. And these aren''t just any old cards!"


    He poured them all over the table and picked one out of them all. It had golden borders and shone in the light!


    The bandits widened their eyes.


    "I-I-It''s the Blue Eyes White Crocodile!"

 18. Dirty Tricks

    "You coward! I told you these guys killed my family or something! Why did you runif you''re strong enough to fight them?" Sheepy shouted at me.


    It was dangerous! I didn''t want to risk dying!


    "Hmph."


    But even as I tried to defend myself, I felt kind of guilty. Were the wolves really that dangerous? In the end, they only did 1 damage to me in a single attack, didn''t they?


    Wait, no! That''s like 30 hits to take me down assuming they don''thit any harder! And considering how they don''t go down in a single hit and their numbers, I could pretty much die in under a minute.


    If I died, then there was no chance of me taking revenge anyway, right? And it''s not like I had any obligation to help Sheepy, did I?


    After considering things a bit, I felt a lot better.


    [Making excuses, I see.]


    No-


    Wait, don''t fall for it! Tablet was just trying to piss me off as usual.


    "Well... to be fair... I do think you could have tested the waters a bit more." Radio said weakly. "You could get a bit more experience and Sheepy must feel kind of betrayed if he- Ah! I''m not saying being cautious is bad but- uh... nevermind, just ignore me."


    Not Radio too...


    "I''m fine with you prioritising safety!Don''t worry about it!"


    I felt like sighing. I could tell Radio actually felt the same way as them and just wanted to be polite.


    "No no! I don''t think you are a coward!"


    Not that! I meant the not running away so quickly thing!


    "Oh..."


    Urgh.


    Alright, fine. I''ll go try again, okay?


    Sheepy''s eyes lit up.


    "You changed your mind so quickly? And I was just about to say the wolves have mana crystals too!"


    WHAT?!


    Really? You''re notgiving me bullshit?


    "Yes, really! You saw how the wolves use magic and stuff, right? Why would I lie to you?"


    Sheepy tried to put on its best cutesy eyes look. I didn''t appreciate it.


    Anyway, I think we might need a plan of some sort. I''m not rushing in without prep.


    "What? No, you should go and fight them like a ma- brave monster!"


    Rude.


    I thought for a bit. I couldn''t get in the den, but surely the wolves had to come out from time to time to hunt, didn''t they? It''s not like they canfreeze meat with a frid- wait, could they?


    Hey sheep, do the wolves freeze their food with ice magic or something?


    "What? How would I know?"


    I decided to take that as ano. Not reliable at all but I guess it''s still my best bet. I guess Icould be a bit noisy with the engine and stuff, but what if I got Sheepy to keep an eye out? I think wolves had a great sense of smell, but if Sheepy was perched on a tree like earlier, I don''t think the smelly sheep smell could reach them. Not to mention how much further it could see on a tree.A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.


    Then when they''re out in the open, I can attack them!


    I decided to tell Sheepy about my plan.


    "Hmm, I prefer the manly style, but this could work!" Sheepy nodded with approval.


    <hr>


    Seeing Sheepy trying to sleep on the tree again from a distance, I shouted at it.


    WAKE UP!


    It grumbled.


    "What? Can''t I just rest for a while? I don''t think they''ll come out in a while anyway, right?"


    I even gave you the fat grass to snack on while you keep an eye out!


    "I''m kind of full right now... ate too much."


    Was it dumb? Why would it go on a full stomach in such a dangerous situation?


    [Because you gave it food.]


    That was just supposed to be a light snack! Very well. I didn''t want to, but I decided to use my trump card.


    If you don''t keep watch properly, I will eat all your fat grass.


    Sheepy gave me a look of horror. It looked like it was about to belt out a string of curses and protests, but it changed its mind.


    "I hate you."


    It grudgingly went back to keeping watch.


    ...


    It felt like forever, but I finally heard what I wanted to hear.


    I see them, they''re coming out! Go beat the crap out of them!


    For once, Sheepy decided not to talk as it communicated with me telepathically, probably to be quiet. Why does it do that anyway?


    Tellme when they''refurther away.If I just charge up now, they''ll spot me and probably go back in hiding.


    Fine.


    Sheepy lowered itself further into the leaves to make it harder to spot now that the wolves were out. Soon, it gave me the green light.


    Instantly, I went into full drive and charged over!


    The wolves barked inangeras I drove over. They looked like they wanted to run back to the den, but I was faster. Without hesitation, I took out a boulder I found on the way from my inventory and blocked the cave entrance. Now there was no escape for them!


    The three wolves growled at me aggressively. I was surprised by how normal they looked. With one exception. One of them wasnoticeablybigger and had tons of glowing strange runes and tribal-looking marks all over its body. They were carved all the way past thefur and into the flesh but seemed to be strangely neat. How did wolves manage to do that?


    Seeing that things went smoothly, Sheepy hopped off the tree andran up next to me.


    "Hah! You fools fell for our tricks!"


    The wolves angrily replied in that weird Rough, Rolge or something language?


    What did they say?


    Doesn''t matter!


    Come to think of it, Sheepy was really acting strangely towards those that supposedly killed its family, wasn''t it? Shouldn''t it be full of anger and hate instead of bravado?


    I started to find it a bit fishy. Could the dumb sheep have lied to me? I decided to keep my hunches to myself. Maybe it was just a sheep''s thinking style? Radio laughed nervously for some reason.


    The big tribal wolf started to glow more intensely and focused.The big boulder I put down started to turn into a wolf shape much to my dismay. Guess I didn''t think that through.


    [You were so proudwhen you thought of that earlier.]


    I decided to charge towards the big wolf before it could continue. In panic, it started running and lost focus. The other two wolvesdodgedout of the way. Sheepy began to chaseand fight them.


    After a few seconds, the big wolf seemed to have realised I was faster, so it decided to swerve toward the side.


    [Engine Burst innitiated]


    [+50% STR &SPD]


    [-1HP /3s]


    I quickly sped forward, swinging out my front door to smack it before it could get too far to the side. The wolf yelped in pain and tumbled over from the impact.


    [Burst deactivated]


    I was pleasantly surprised. I was kidding when I talked about slamming my door into an aggressive monster, but it actually worked pretty well with the STR I had. Admittedly, it sort of hurt on my end but that was beside the point.


    The wolf hurriedly got up andscampered towards a nearby tree. Of course. Everything was climbing trees, even the dumb sheep. I decided to take the risk of ramming the tree. I should be fine with the extra DEF, right?


    "Bang!"


    [-2 HP]


    The tree shook from the impact and the wolf fell. Then it got up in less than a second and started to climb the tree again. Gahhh! Why was it so quick at recovering?


    I considered rammingthe tree again but I didn''t want to hurt my face. Finallyon top, the wolf barked at me from atop the tree.


    Urgh.


    I decided to look over the check the situation with Sheepy.


    One ofthe wolves was lying on the ground, bleeding and bruised while the other was trying to run away. Those horns really were no joke!


    As the other one ran, Sheepy charged over and chomped viciously on its tail, making blood leak out. It cried out in pain.


    Ifelt really bad all of a sudden. In the end, we were really just hurting some innocent wolves, weren''t we? And Sheepy was probably just lying about them!


    I started to consider telling Sheepy to stop.


    S-


    [Idiot! Look at the big wolf!]


    What?


    I looked up. The wolf''s eyes were filled with both rage and sorrow as its runes glowed violently. It was definitely about to summon some wolves to attack Sheepy!


    Oh, I should stop it! Thanks for the reminder.


    [No! The wolf is getting upset over its friends getting hurt! That means you can threaten the wolf with themto force it to become your pet!]


    What?!


    [Think of having it as a pet! You can even make it summon stone wolves that don''t resist for free EXP!]


    ...


    How immoral. As expected of Tablet.


    Sheep, stop! Don''t kill them!


    "What, why?"


    We can''t have hostages if they die.

 19. Wolf And Sheep

    Reluctantly, Sheepy stopped attacking the wolves after a bit of convincing on my part. I asked it to drag the wolves closer though.


    Sheepy bit viciously into them and dragged them carelessly across the ground. They whined as their coats and wounds got coated in mud. Poor wolves.


    The big wolfbarked angrilybut didn''t summon anything for some reason. Weird. Was it afraid we would hurt the wolves if it did anything drastic?


    I sent a contract to one of the wolves.


    [Contract]


    Become my companion.


    This contract is only made for healing your wounds and will heal you the moment you accept, so please don''t reject it.


    You can cancel it at any moment but it will automatically be cancelled in 5 seconds.


    It stared at me with eyes of suspicion for a few moments.


    [Contract Accepted]


    Instantly, all the wounds started to patch up. The wolf looked shocked. As the last of the wounds closed up, it stood up and howled.


    "Awooooo!"


    "Wait, why did you heal that scumbag?" Sheepy seemed confused.


    Who was the scumbag here?


    Just wait, you''ll see why.


    [Contract Expired]


    By now, Biggie seemed to have calmed down with its runes no longer glowing. It still seemed very cautious though, which I found quite understandable. If I were in its shoes, I would be suspecting ulterior motives too.


    Welp,guess I''ll send another contract to the Biggie.


    [Contract]


    Become my companion.


    This contract is only made so that we can communicate, you can cancel it at any time.


    I want to discuss something with you.


    [Contract Accepted]


    Whoa, that was quick! It didn''t even take a few seconds to decide!


    "Greetings. What do you wish to discuss?" the wolf said in a surprisingly regal voice.


    Uh... uh...


    Crap, I was a bit off guard due to surprise.


    I want you to helpme with something. In exchange, we will heal your other friend! And we promise not to bother you or your other friends again!


    "I see... So, to ask for me for a favour, you came tomyhome, insult us,assaultmykin and now threaten me with their lives?"


    Oh.


    Well, that was awkward... I only came to help "avenge Sheepy''s family" and get some EXP. How the heck was I supposed to even explain this?


    As I panicked inwardly, the wolf sighed and started talking again. I was very relieved that I didn''t have to come up with an explanation.


    "Very well. What do you request of me?"


    Wait, let me heal your friend first.


    I quickly sent another contract to the second injured wolf.


    [Error. Pet limit reached]


    What?


    [Your current pet limit is 2. Level up the Tamer class to increase it.]


    Urgh... I guess I''ll figure out how to level the class up later. For now, I still had to discuss with the wolf.


    [Contract Cancelled]


    I cancelled the contract with theBiggie and healed the otherinjured wolf with the contract.Biggie looked very confused and barked a few times,probably asking why I cancelled the contract with it. It looked relieved that both wolves were now fine though. They hid meekly behind me, hiding from the ferocious sheep.Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    I guess now''s a good time to make amore suitedcontract anyway.


    [Contract]


    Become my companion.


    Help me out with something!


    I swear thatme and the sheepwon''t hurt your friends and family anymore.


    You can''t cancel it yourself, but it will automatically be over in 2 days and I might release you early.


    Deal?


    This time, the wolf mused over it for a bit longer.


    [Contract accepted]


    "Very well, a contract not to hurt us will suffice. What is it youask of me?"


    <hr>


    I ran over a stone wolf back and forth a few times. It crumbled into pieces, its mouth making a silent howl.


    [+121EXP]


    [Level up! +1 Stat Point. HP refilled.]


    Sheepy rammed hard into a stone wolf with its horns. It shattered into pieces violently. Did that seriously not hurt? Sheepy looked unfazed and continued to destroy more stone wolves.


    [Sheepy has levelled up!]


    [STR 6 -> 7]


    "Whoa! I feel even stronger again! Awesome!"


    Meanwhile, Biggie continued to summon the wolves. It sucked on a mana crystal it took from its den earlier. I was reminded of a baby sucking a pacifier.


    "May I ask, why do you ask this of me?I do not think it is from bloodlust towards our kind. For if thatwere the case, killing us would sate morethan pale imitations of stone." Biggie said after spitting out the crystal to talk."I apologise for asking, but I could not hold back my curiosity."


    Did it really have to keep talking like that?


    Itmakes us stronger.


    "Idiot!" shouted Sheepy. "You''re not supposed to tell him, he''s still an enemy!"


    Pfft, only in Sheepy''s eyes. I really wished wecouldconvince the wolf to join us but with how protective it was of its friends, I didn''t think that would be likely. Speaking of which, I realised I should probably ask it what actually happened.


    Hey, about th-


    "It soundsimpossible. I do not understand."


    "Yes, it''s not possible! Don''t mind the monster, its just speaking bullshit!" said Sheepy.


    Okay, anyway, what happened with the sheep? I was told by it that you wolves killed its family.


    "Hey! I''m a he, not an it! And don''t listen to the wolf,he''s full of lies!"


    The wolf seemed stunned for a moment. Then it laughed heartily.


    "The vile curl dares accuse us! Very well, I shall tell you the tale truthfully." it glared at the sheep with hate in its eyes.


    "He''s a liar!" Sheepy yelled, seeming a little panicked.


    "But first, I request that you change our contract to void me of lies, lest I be struck down."


    So much confidence from the wolf. I knew it! Sheepy was lying about his family getting killed!


    Hey Tablet, is it possible to force the pet not to lie with the contract?


    [It is allowed.]


    Nice.


    I quickly changed the contract so that Biggie couldn''t lie. I didn''t put anything as dramatic as being "struck down" in the contract though. How would that work anyway? I just put that it couldn''t speak lies, which was more than enough.


    "One winter,us wolves heard of news most dreadful. A horrific beast, a wrenched dragon chanced upon our forests! We left our humble abode and ran for our lives."


    "He''s lying!" Sheepy shouted.


    "When we returned years later, we found a sheep most foul had taken residence!"


    "Lies! That cave was mine all along!"


    "My kinasked kindly for him to leave.But the scum, oh, he viciously attacked them!When I arrived, many of my innocent kin were lying on the ground. I drove the demon away!And now the disgusting vermindares slander us? After he caused us so much harm?"


    By now, the wolf was burning with rage. What the heck was wrong with Sheepy?


    "No!He is lying!"


    I literally gave it a contract that made it unable to lie! If you aren''t lying, then add that to your contract and tell me the truth!


    Sheepy looked panicked. But after a few moments, it seemed to have come to a conclusion.


    "Fine. Fineee! I will also have the not lying whatever rule too, okay? I might not have been completely honest, but that wolf is making me sound like I was a lot worse!"


    I added the rule to Sheepy''s contract too.


    "You know, I found this great abandoned cave one day! And after living there happily for a year, suddenly some dumb wolves tell me it has been their home for years! Would you believe them?"


    Well... I guess maybe that sounds a bit fishy?


    "I mean, I had a hunch they were lying, but think about it! If you lived in a place for so long and someone tried to kick you out, would you be happy? Of course I told them to get lost!"


    "That warrants the assault on my kin?"


    "They threatened to bite me! It was se- seflf- sef- defes- defen-" Sheepy realised it couldn''t say it out. "Fine! I got angry and attacked them first! But I didn''t even hurt them that badly!"


    "Euoth and Kuth told me theygenerously offered youa feeto leave! And you stil-"


    "No! That''s a lie! They did not!"


    "What? My kin would not lie to me!"


    "Well, APPARENTLY THEY DID! I''m literally can''t lie right now!"


    "My contract REQUESTS OF ME NOT TO LIEAS WELL!"


    "THAT DOESN''T-"


    SHUT UP!


    The two stopped arguing and stared at me.


    From what I can see, you two are just arguing over a misunderstanding. Sheepy, I can see why you fought but you went too far earlier with those wolves. Also, you should not have lied to me about your family. And... uh... big wolf, just because you think your friends won''t lie to you doesn''t mean they didn''t. You two should just appologise to each other and get it over with?


    "Absolutely not! I will not seek forgiveness from scum that wrongs us!"


    "You''re the scumbag!"


    Immediately, the two began squabbling again. Why? It''s already obviouslya misunderstanding, so couldn''t we just go back to farming?


    Urgh, why did I have to open my dumb mouth earlier and ask what happened?

 20. More Allocation

    After managing to get the two to shut up, we went back to EXP farming. Sheepy didn''t like it but I told Biggie about the levelling up thing. I felt a bit bad about the whole thing, so I figured the least I could do was to help it get a bit stronger for its efforts.


    Biggie didn''t like the idea of destroying stone wolves personally, so it began tosummon stone sheep to destroy instead. Sheepy was not very pleased.


    We continued to farm with Biggie participating in the destruction as well.


    [+61EXP]


    [Level up! +1 Stat Point. HP refilled.]


    [Milestone reached! +1 Skill Point.]


    [You have reached the max level.]


    Wait, what? I quickly checked my stats.


    [Truck Kun, Lv10]


    [Stats]


    EXP (900/900)


    HP: 30


    MP: 10


    STR: 3


    MAG: 1


    DEX: 1


    AGI: 2


    DEF: 4


    [Points]


    SP: 3


    Skill Points: 1


    What the hell?


    Tablet, why is my max level 10? Is there any way to increase it?


    I was a bit anxious. If this was my max level, how was I going to be safe in a world this hostile?


    [You require at least a rank 1 material upgrade to raise your level cap.]


    You mean like the biological carapace thing with the ants?


    [Yes. Incidentally, the Biological Carapace is a rank 3 material.]


    There was no way on earth- no, on whatever planet this is that I was going back to face those ants! And what, a single one of those big ants gave like 5/5000 points?No way I was going to be able to take down more than a thousand ants, especially without any more levelling up!


    Tablet, uh...do you have any other recommendation for other materials? Like an easy rank 1 material or something?


    [Coward. How do you expect me to even know what materials are in this world anyway? Do you think I came from this planet? Look for them on your own.]


    Please? At least some hints?


    [No.]


    Urgh.


    Fine, just add 2 points to STR and 1 point to DEF.


    [STR 3 -> 5]


    [HP 30 -> 50]


    [DEF 4 -> 5]


    I thought of using my skill point to roll a new skill or upgrade a new skill, but honestly, I felt kind of indecisive since it seemed like I only get them once every 5 levels. I decided to save it for later.


    I thought for a bit on where to find materials. Metals should be the safest bet? I mean, I don''t think they fight back or anyway, right? Not that I really knew of anything else that could help me anyway.Maybe some kind of strong fantasy wood but Iwasn''tsure if that would work. Wooddidn''t seem very suited forreinforcing trucks.The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.


    [Most tough metals are acceptable. Some types of wood might be acceptable as well, depending on properties.]


    Huh. For where to find metals... there were those dwarf guys? I saw one at the city earlier. From stories I heard on earth, they loved to smith powerful weapons or something? Not sure ifthey actually existed here though. He could have just been a really short man.


    Hey Sheepy? You know dwarves?


    "Huh?" Sheepy stopped its rampage to stare at me. "Oh, you mean those weird short humans that like shiny rocks and metals?"


    Do they make weapons and stuff?


    "Why are you asking me dumb questions anyway?" Sheepy seemed displeased. "You got bored from levelling up?"


    Just tell me!


    "Bah, how would I know?" it snorted. "Do I look like the type of busybody that likes to sneak intorandom houses?"


    "You very much remind me of one," said Biggie.


    "Shut up! You want me to smash your skull open with my horns?" Sheepy brandished its horns threateningly.


    "Oh? I dare-"


    Stop! I don''t want to hear you two arguing again.


    Short people that collect metals and gems, probably for smithing...Might be a bit of a stretch but I decided it was my best bet.If what I inferred was right though, it wouldbe kind of weirdhow similar they were to those in stories on earth.


    I considered just heading to look for a dwarven city, but I decided to let Sheepy and Biggie level up a few times first.


    [Tamer level up!]


    [Pet limit: 2 -> 3]


    So the Tamer class gains experience from pets fighting! I guess it should have been obvious but it was still a pleasant surprise.


    [To be more specific, it mainly gets EXP from pets gaining experience or levelling up.]


    Well, thanks for telling me that I guess.


    Tablet was helpful sometimes. Would be nice if it wasn''t so "sassy" though.


    [I am not sassy.]


    Okay.


    It was boring to just wait. Well, not as boring as when I waited for the city guards to let me in, but still very boring. I decided to take the time to check the map. I couldn''t read the language above the cities, but one of them had a logo of a hammer over an gear over a shield. Even if that wasn''t a dwarven city, I guess it would be some sort of city that has a lot of smiths and mechanics?


    [Sheepy has levelled up!]


    [STR 13 -> 14]


    [HP: 180 -> 190]


    [Level maxed until owner level increases.]


    Oh well. I was sort of hoping for Sheepy to be able to level up past 10, but I guess it made sense for its level to be limited by mine. I was still pretty satisfied though. Sheepy''s strength was initially only 5 when I first met it, but now it wasalmost3 times higher! That had to do some serious damage.


    That said, I was pretty sure only adding STR would not be very balanced.


    Tablet, is there a way to turn off that auto stat thing with Sheepy?


    [Get Tamer to lv3 for manual pet stat allocation.]


    Why isn''t that a feature by default? How troublesome...


    Sheepy and Biggie continued to fight. Considering how Sheepy was maxed and the wolf now Lv9, I decided it was enough. The sky was beginning to darken too anyway.


    Okay, enough levelling. We''re heading off to a dwarven city.


    "Why? I want to keep getting stronger!"complained Sheepy.


    Well, right now we can''t get any stronger except with the help of those dwarf guys. Even if you kill a hundred more, you won''t level up anymore.


    "How do they makeme, I mean usstronger?"


    I wasn''t sure how to explain it.


    You''ll find out later.


    "Hey! Don''t give me such an answer! What the hell is that even supposed to mean?"


    Biggie approached me.


    "Say, may I rest upon your head?" it asked.


    What the heck?


    Why?


    "I am uncertain if we would return after the long trip?" said the wolf. "Were I to rest within you, I would not see the way and would thus be lost homeward."


    I guess that made sense.


    Alright, fine.


    "My thanks."


    The wolf climbed uponto me, leaving a few scratch marks on my paint. At least that didn''t count as damage. Come to think of it, there wasn''t really anything to grab upon up there, especially without hands, wasn''t there? I was a bit worried Biggie might fall off so I started slow.


    But asI drove, the wolf managed to keep its balance very well surprisingly.So I started to drive at my normal speed butitleft a lot of scratches on the paint.


    I was starting to regret lettingthe wolf stay on my head...

 21. Haliton

    Haliton was quite annoyed.


    After spending a lot of time searching for the truck, he couldn''t find it. The best lead he got from asking around was from a few city guards that said they saw a machine with a "pretty lady" inside?


    Unless a random girl decided to hop in, which he thought quite unlikely, that was probably a different machine. Just where had that dumb machine gone?


    "You seem displeased. Is there an issue with the service?" asked a robotic voice.


    Urgh, another dumb machine to deal with.


    "No, it''s unrelated. Five stars. Wow, amazing, whatever." he said sarcastically.


    "Thank you for the rating. We wish you a pleasant day!"


    He thought the monotone voice of the golem core somehow sounded sarcastic.


    Today was one of his rest days, so he figured he''d go to the nearest dwarven city to sample some drinks now that it was almost night. Probably should haveheaded out earlier today, but the atmosphere at night was nice anyway. Always a good way to spend a rest day, partying with friends with drinks in hand!


    Unfortunately, none of his friends were able to find time to join him. Sad.


    Well, not that he was unused to drinking alone.


    The quickest way to the city was with the Dwarven AutoWagon service. He found that a really stupid name. The darn things were clearly carriages, though he''d grudgingly admit that "maybe" that name had a slightly better ring than "AutoCarriage".


    In any cast, it was definitely a cheap and fast way to go from city to city, though it was cramped, uncomfortable, bumpy and often packed with people to a suffocating degree. He felt pretty lucky that he was the only one inside today.


    Taking a sip of beer from one of the bottles he bought, he decided to try to enjoy the scenery outside the windows. Anything to ignore how sick he felt from the constant bumping and shaking.


    Just as he was about to take his first sip, the carriage shoke, probably running over a rock. Half the contents of the small bottle gushed towards his throat, making him cough and sputter. He resisted the urge to curse as he wiped the drink off his hand with a hankerchief.


    "Dirtying the vehicle is prohibited! An additional cost of 50 bronze has been added to your travelling fee!" screeched the carriage.


    "Bloody piece of shit!" yelled Haliton hoarsely. "Can''t I justwipe it off with a towel?"


    "You think a wipe will get that off my wood? Some of it will soak in! Don''t you dare weasel your way out of payment!" the carriage continued.


    "You worthless rattleboxes on wheels like to act all emotionless and whatnot, then get mad over dumb shit like this!" yelled Haliton. "Your wood getsstompedby mud and piss covered boots all the time anyway, so what''s the big deal? Heck, my booze will help you clean the grime right off with the wipe of a towel!"Stolen story; please report.


    The ride began to shake crazily for a few moments. Haliton was unsure if that was intentional or not.


    "Caution! The ride will stop unless additional payment is met." said the carriage monotonously. "This stretch is in potentially dangerous territory and the nearest settlement is an estimated 5 km away."


    "You worthless piece of junk!"


    Haliton flipped off the core and grudgingly tossed the coins into the payment box.


    "There! How do you feel extorting an underpaid worker?" he grumbled.


    "Thank you for the payment. The ride will now proceed as usual."


    The dwarf kicked the seat in front of him, which he immediately regretted. Fortunately, the golem core decided not to issue another fine.


    He sighed. Should have known better than to drink here when there were such rules. Especially when he could buy some actual quality drinks later in the city.


    As he looked at the vibrant landscape filled with lush green grass, beautiful trees, random ferocious beasts and a wolf clinging onto the top of a truck, he somehow managed to feel better. At least the scenery wasn''t that bad.


    Wait, what? He rubbed his eyes and took a closer look.


    Indeed, it was the machine he had been looking for! For some reason, there was a cushion strapped onto its head with seatbelts and abig wolf covered in shamanic symbols clinging on for dear life. What the heck was going on with that machine?


    "Hey!" he stuck his head out and yelled.


    "Dangerous behaviour detected! Please stop or pay the fine!"


    "Shut up!" Haliton yelled.


    He started topry openthe door of the carriage, making it slow in panic. The dwarf hopped out of the carriage and ran up to the machine.


    "Where have you been running around? I spent so long looking for you!"


    Despite knowing it couldn''t understand him, he couldn''t help but speak.


    "Oh loost. Hi." slurred a feminine voice in a horrible accent.


    Haliton was flabbergasted.


    So that was the "pretty lady" they talked about?Did some girl get into it or could it somehow speak all along? He tried to peer into the windows but they only reflected the outside.


    "You can speak all along? Or are you someone inside the vehicle?"


    "Noo noot sumwun... juust leaurn speaak..." continued the machine.


    "What? That doesn''t make-" Halitonput his hand to his face. "Urgh, you know what? Just take me to the city. If you don''t they probably won''t let you in."


    He didn''t feel like it was completely safe to do that, but honestly, he had enough of the carriage''s antics.


    The truck looked over to the carriage, slightly confused.


    "Sure, hitchhike with some random suspicious person out of pettiness." commented the carriage.


    "Like you''re the one to speak."


    After a bit of hesitation, the truck let the dwarf in. The carriage waited for a few moments before heading back to the original city.


    "Well, hope you don''t get kidnapped!" it said.


    Haliton wished he had a rock to throw at it.


    As the truck drove, the dwarf was amazed by how smoothly it drove. There was even some refreshing cool air that started to flow in! That was not the mention the very comfortable seat.


    Yesterday, it was too dark for him to see clearly, but now that the sun was glaring bright, he could see the whole thing wasmade with incrediblecraftsmanship! The controls and dashboard before him looked very sophisticated too, nothing like many of the other machines he had seen. How expensive would this be if it were on the market?


    Wait...


    Considering the fact that it couldn''t understand the language spoken here, but had the function to speak and was so well made... Could this be a machine made bythose infamous grounddwarves? As much as the surface dwarves loved to pride themselves on the intricacies of the machines they could make, the ones that lived deep underground were far ahead in technology.


    He wasn''t sure how one of their machines got up here, but if that was the case, it all made sense now! What other explanation could there be for an extremely advanced machine to not know the local language and be unable to find its way back to the owner?


    The thought filled him with some excitement but also some annoyance at the same time. It was going be a lot harder to help themachine find its way back to its owner in that case.

 22. Dwarven City

    Ididn''t expect to meet the dwarf guardall of a sudden in the wilds of all places. Quite a pleasant surprise.


    I was worriedthat I''d be locked out of the city again, so this was perfect.


    But it was a little too perfect. That dwarf, surely, he must have some ulterior motive, doesn''t he? And maybe he tracked me all the way here and used a carriage to catch up? But Iguess I don''t have much choice if I want to get metal since I couldn''t go mining with such a huge body. If only I could just turn smaller or something...


    Idid have the Limited Shapeshifting skill, but... honestly, the word "limited"made me suspect it was a really shoddy skill, so I didn''t want to waste my precious skill point on it.


    [Incidentally, it is a 0 star skill.]


    Wow.Good call on my part.


    Whatever. I guess I should ask the dwarf about the metals.


    It would be a lot easier now that I gave Radio my 3rd contract. I felt a bit uncomfortable at first, since the system technically classifies that as making it a pet, but Radio was fine with it. It even seemed... somewhat enthusiastic about it?


    I was not!


    I told Radio what I wanted it to say. With Sheepy''s help telling it the right words to say, of course.


    This was unfortunate as it meant I had to get it onto the seat beside the dwarf. He tried to hold back a disgusted expressionfrom the sheepy smell but failed.


    "Do you know where we can find a lot of metal?"Radio asked.


    "Why are you asking? And why did you get this majestic sheep beside me? I am not worthy of his presence!" Sheepy translated.


    Classic.


    "I could use it for some... repairs?"


    "What?! You are damaged?" Sheepy looked alarmed.


    I couldn''t tell if he was translating or that was what he was trying to say; the dwarf somehow had the same expression. Probably both.


    "No, uh... maintenance."


    Radio decided to ad-lib before I thought of something to say.


    Hey! Are you really damaged? Is that the actual reason why you dragged me here?


    Sheepy complained.


    No, it''s for upgrades. I need upgrades for you to get stronger.


    Sheepy looked at me with eyes of suspicion.


    Well, if you say so.


    The dwarf looked at me with suspicion too, though for different reasons. I guess "maintenance" that required metal was pretty much just repairs.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    "How much do you need anyway? And what type of metal?"


    What the heck was I supposed to answer? I would be fine with literally any type of metal!


    "I''m fine with any type of metal!" Radio said.


    What? You weren''t supposed to say that, Radio! I was just thinking to myself!


    Sorry!


    Urgh.


    "Really? I thought machines needed a lot of high-end metals for parts?"


    Oh, so they did make machines. This one didn''t sound very knowledgable about them though.


    "Uh,any way to find cheap magical metal?"


    "Well, if youget scrap, its cheap but... I''m not sure if it''s suitable or if we can find anyone that can handle machinery. You''ll probably need to hire a professional for that, not exactly cheap."


    The dwarf scratched his beard thoughtfully as he spoke.


    "It''s fine, I can do the repairs on my own."


    "Wait, you''re saying youcan make parts yourself with just scrap metals and also do maintenance?"


    The dwarf suddenly leaned uncomfortably close to the radio, his eyes practically shining. He was twitching all over from excitement too. It made me and Radio very uncomfortable.


    "No. It is private."


    "Oh..."


    I didn''t need Sheepy to translate this one but it made an "Oh" sound anyway. The dwarf stared at it with a strange expression.


    The dwarf decided to ignore the sheep, turned away and sighed.


    The look of sheer disappointment on his face made me feel kind of bad. Was it really that much of a bummer to be unable to see me do the "repairs"? Well, I suppose he might be more disappointed if he saw what I was actually going to do though. Literally just eating the metal up. Or would he be more amazed that that was enough for "repairs"?


    The dwarf didn''t really seem in the mood to talk anymore. Was he really feeling that down or what he trying to make me feel bad?


    I can talk to you if you want...


    I ended up talking to Radio for the rest of the trip.


    ...


    When we arrived, I was stunned.


    An incredibly tall shiny black gate rimmed with gold built into thewalls! Oh, the walls were black too. Therewere also tons of red decorative banners hung up withthe logo of the city. Did they need that many?


    On the wallssat decorative statues of dwarven knights holding huge swords and shields. And of course, they had huge angel wings. Because why not...


    It was insanely grandiose. Why in the world did the dwarves need a six-metre tall gate anyway? Weren''t they short?


    In the end, there was a small gate built into the gates, which we ended up entering from after some questions from the guards. Was there really a point to the big gate then?


    "By the way, why did you decide to bring me here anyway?"


    I realised I should have asked that earlier.


    "Oh, I was just thinking of helping you find your way back to your owner"


    Well... that was going to be unlikely. Not that I had an owner anyway. I got a bit worried about what to answer.


    "Well, it might be hard though. You''re one of those machines made by ground dwarves, right?"


    Huh? What?


    Since he said it''s hard, maybe we should say yes?


    Ack, whatever.


    "Yeah?"


    "I knew it! There was no way anyone but the ground dwarves could make something as amazing as a machine like you!"


    Uh... Okay?


    Was that supposed to be praise for me? Maybe I should run away in case he starts taking me from city to city or even deep underground to look for my owner. Only after getting the scrap though. How much would that cost anyway?


    "Can you take us- I mean me to the shop that sells scrap first?"


    Radio spoke again without my permission, though I guess what it said was fine. Not sure shops quite sell scrap though.


    Sorry, should I stop?


    Nah, it''s fine.


    "Well...I was planning to..." his face drooped. "Yeah... I can."


    I didn''t know why he seemed so upset. He stared into the distance withdespondent eyes.


    Suddenly, his eyes lit up.


    "Hey! It''s you, Uellor, isn''t it?"


    Somewhere in the distance, a dwarf looked alarmed. He was bearded like most of the male dwarves around. Honestly, I might not have been able to tell him apart from many of the dwarves if he wasn''t wearing some sort of green uniform.


    The green uniformed dwarf said something in a panic and looked like he was about to run.Unfortunately Sheepy did not translate it.


    "Don''t lie, I can tell it''s you at a glance! Man, how''s it been after all those years?"


    Uellor said something.


    "We should go out for a drink! Like the old times!"


    Suddenly he turned towards me.


    "Uh, sorry. I just met an old friend! You don''t mind waiting a while, do you?"


    I wasn''t sure his old friend was as pleased to meet him. Urgh. Come on, just brave up and refuse his invitation, Uellor!

 23. Sheepys Class

    "So, what have you been doing for a living?"


    The dwarf guard dragged us to a tavern. I couldn''t actually go in, but I could hear them for outside. For such an advanced city, the soundproofing sure was bad. Probably because it was a cheap and shoddy tavern. Their conversation wasn''t the most interesting to listen to, but I guess didn''t have anything better to do while waiting.


    Sheepy was getting tired of the translating and kept complaining, but after threatening its aloe vera supply, the sheep was suddenly willing to cooperate.


    "Oh... it''s nothing special, Hali," said Uellor.


    "Don''t be modest! Tell me!"


    "Really, it''s not..."


    The bantering went on for a while. Eventually, Haliton managed to pressure Uellor into revealing he was a gardener. The guard then teased Uell about it, asking if he was trying to become an elf. Not surprising why Uell didn''t want to meet him.


    "Hmm, you think he''s any good at growing tasty grass?" Sheepy seemed really interested.


    In the end, Hali reassured Uell that it was fine. I guess it was just friendly teasing.


    It felt like forever, but they finally left the tavern. They were red in the face and walking in a somewhat wobbly manner. Finally, we could go get some scrap!


    Sheepy, tell them to bring us to-


    "Wait, before that, tell Uellor to bring us to his garden!"


    What? Why?


    Was there any reason to keep delaying?


    "Just do it! It''ll take very little time anyway. I''ll stop translating if you don''t get him to!"


    And the fat grass?


    "I''ll leave if you pressure me too much!"


    Urgh. Whatever.


    "Hey, Uellor! Mind taking us to your garden? The she-"


    Uell suddenly perked up. He seemed very excited.


    "You... you want to see my garden?"


    "Uh, yes?"


    "Seriously? You like gardens?" Hali seemed to be in disbelief.


    "Well, its the shee-"


    "Let''s *hick*, go!"


    Uell ran off and beckoned to us in distance, hiccuping all the while.


    Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    <hr>


    "So here''s my garden! Isn''t it beautiful?"


    There was a shop surrounded by a garden full of fruit trees, plots of vegetables and other random plants I honestly didn''t really care about. The shop was also filled with racks of random potted plants and what I assumed to be straight from the garden.


    "Wooaaah! It''s amazing!" Sheepy exclaimed.


    "Yeah, I guess? We came here because thesheep wanted to see it."


    "Oh..."


    Uell seemed a bit disappointed. Well, I guess I would be too if I were in his shoes.


    So, is that enough or-


    "No! I am not leaving until I get a tour of the place!" Sheepy insisted.


    I thought Uell would say no, but to my dismay,he accepted. Seriously, a tour fora sheep? Poor guy must be desperate to show off his garden... Were there really that little people interested?


    I guess now had another thing to wait for. Apparently, Hali didn''t feel like waiting either, so he went into my cabin and startedto lie on both the seats. He was short so it was enough space for him to be comfortable. By the time the sheep was done, the guard was snoring peacefully.


    "Metal monster, I''ve decided!" Sheepy said.


    Decided what?


    "I want to be a gardener!"


    What?


    [Sheepy had declared an interest in a class!]


    [Learn Class: Gardener?]


    Wait, me?


    [No, idiot! Show this screen to Sheepy.]


    No way! Decline class!


    [Error! Onlyuser can decide class!]


    What? Why can''t I choose to decline? What good would such a class be for a pet?


    I decided to just not take Tablet out. If I can''t decline it, Sheepy wasn''t going to be able to accept it!


    To my horror, Tablet started floating. It forced my windows open and flew out before Sheepy!


    What the heck are you doing, Tablet? Stop!


    Uell widened his eyes in shock, pointing towardsTablet and shouting something. Unfortunately, Sheepy was distracted so it didn''t translate.


    "Hey what''s the big deal- Holy shit, you cangive me gardener powers? You''re nicer than I thought, metal monster!"


    ["Metal monster" did not approve. I had to come out on my own accord to help you.]


    "What? You... you''re horrible!" Sheepy looked at me in anger. "Good thing this metal glass monster thing decided to help this handsome sheep!"


    [Call me Tablet.]


    "Okay, Tablet. And as for you..." Sheepy. "You''ll always be metal monster! I''ll never call you by name!"


    [Sheepy is now a Gardener!]


    [New skill: Green Hoove]


    [Seeds planted by the user will grow 50% faster.]


    ...


    Of course, Tablet had to make things hard. I seriously don''t get why it had to be such a jerk. If I knew this would happen, I wouldhave justwent straight for the scrap!


    "Well, to be fair..." muttered Radio. "Shouldn''t you let Sheepy be what it wanted to be? Maybe it''s a bit mean to- ah! Nevermind..."


    Well... I guess you have a point. But in the end, I still need it to pull its own weight! And how does it know it wants to actually be a gardener? At this point, it''s probably just by impulse! Sheepy might regret it later!


    "Oh... I guess you''re... right?"


    [Nice excuses.]


    Whatever.


    I decided that now that this was done with, I should ask Hali or Uell for directions to wherever the scrap is sold.


    Sheepy, tell Radio how to say-


    "Shut up! I will not help you translate now, metal monster!"


    Sheepy, don''t misunderstand! I was only trying to make sure you don''t regret it later! Shouldn''t you take time to decide first anyway? What if you wanted to be a barbarian later on or-


    "Lies!"


    HUUUUERHGHHH


    I guess now that it came to this, I should ask Biggie.


    Hey Bi- wolf, do you know the human language?


    "Hmm? Indeed, it is one I know of."


    That was good.


    With Biggie''s help, Idecided to talk ask Uell for directions instead since Hali was sleeping.


    "Can you help us find the scrap shop? We need the scrap for repairs."


    Uell gave us an odd look. Did BiggiegiveRadiooverly grandiose lines?


    "It is not a problem. But pardon, may I ask why?" translated Biggie.


    Of courseit was translated in Biggie''s style. Come to think of it, how accurate was Sheepy''s translation anyway? Was it in Sheepy''s style? I should really find some books to properly translate like Tablet said...

 24. Scrapyard

    I was a bit confused when Uell led us out of the city from a different gate. Was he trying to chase meoutfor some reason?


    But after following him for a bit, I understood.


    Before my eyes were mountains, huge sprawlingmountains ofscrap.Metal fencing surrounded the place, huge cranes tossing in random bits of metal. There was also a building outside the gates, but it was not very noteworthy compared to the sheer amount of scrap.


    "Here lies the scrapyard. I trust you will be able to find suitable parts here?" Biggie translated for Uell. "Haliton will be responsible for the payment."


    "Uh, yeah."


    I was having a timehard getting used to Biggie''s translation. I should really tell it to translate more normally later on...


    Uelltalked to a few dwarves near the gates for a bit, showing them a card. They opened the gate for us, so I drove in.


    "Payment will be decided by the parts chosen.Refrain from taking much, Haliton isn''t very well off."


    "Okay."


    Well, that was troubling. I guess guards indeed don''t often get paid a lot, do they? How much would he be willing to pay for me?


    Uell just stood still and watched.


    "Do you want to go inside?"


    "I appreciate the offer, but I shall remain by the gates."


    His loss.


    Now that I was up close, I felt very uncomfortable, horrified even. The sight of all the broken down and crushedmachines made me feel sick to the engine.


    I didn''t really think much of it earlier, but using pieces of other machines just felt wrong. It was basically desecrating the dead. Would I be fine if someoneused bits and pieces of me after I broke down? I didn''t like the thought one bit.


    "Truck... They are notalive. Not like us." Radio mumbled.


    Yes... they''re not alive anymore.I guess sometimes... I guess it''s more important to survive. Maybe they wouldn''t mind if they could help someone even after death.


    "No, I meant that they were never sentient, never able to think."


    You? What are you saying?


    I didn''t understand.


    Are you trying to say that the other machines are braindead? That we are somehowthe only ones able to think? How could you say such a thing?!This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source.


    "No! I.. I- I- I meant... I..."Radio panicked. "I didn''t mean..."


    Honestly, what was it thinking? All machines were clearly alive and thinking, likehe said!


    ...


    Butwhowas "he"?


    I wracked my head, trying to recall. But it was to no avail. I felt like "he" was someone I knew. But I could not recall. It was almost as if that memory of mine wascut, just gone from existence.


    "I''m sorry! I phrased my words badly." Radio apologised out of the blue.


    "Is something wrong?" Biggie suddenly asked. "Your companion has been speakingin a strange tongue hysterically."


    No, nothing is wrong. Let''s head off.


    Iunderstoodwhy Radio tried to convince me that other machines were different; it wanted me to have less restraint in picking parts.


    "Uh..."


    It was inappropriate for sure. But in the end, I had to do it. If I chickened out and escaped, when would I get another chance to get materials for upgrades? I might just be destroyed in the wilds if I couldn''t raise my level further! If I didn''t want that to happen, I had to steel myself to do such a horrible act.


    It was then when I saw a broken sword. I immediately realised what a huge idiot I was. Of course! There would naturally be scrap from stuff that weren''t machines! Why didn''t I realise that? I immediately felt a lot better.


    It was a jet black sword that was somewhat crushed. Where the tip was missing, I could see horrible teeth marks. What type of monster could bite hard enough to cutthrough metal with such ease?


    Tablet, can you scan the sword?


    [Scanning]


    [Components Identified!]


    [17 Black Iron]


    [1 Mithril]


    [Upgrades Discovered!]


    [Tier 1]


    [Black Iron: 0/1000]


    [Tier 6]


    [Mitril: 0/10000]


    What the hell? Why was there so much metal required?How would Haliton even be able to pay for that?


    Maybe I could just eat the metal so that we won''t have to pay on the way out? But that would be noisy. Afew dwarves were running around, picking random parts as well, so Icouldn''t exactly do it in plain sight either.


    I decided to wait until the dwarves weren''t paying attention, then quickly stuffed the parts I wanted into my inventory. That was completely silent! I didn''t really like the idea of stealing, but with how much scrap was lying around, that should be fine, right?


    <hr>


    When Haliton finally woke up, he got up and yawned. He looked out of the window and saw the scrapyard.


    "Oh, Uellor took you here. Done picking what you need?"


    "Yas, I hav verry weel dun so." said the radio.


    Haliton was a bit taken back. Was it just him or did the speech style of the truck suddenly change?


    One of the truck''s doors opened, and a few bits of scrap flew in. It was very little, probably only weighing 1 kg at best.


    The dwarf was a bit surprised, but he figuredit wouldn''t be a stretch for a machine made by ground dwarves to be able to use levitation magic. But... wasn''t that a bit little?


    "Are you sure that''s enough for your repairs?" he asked sceptically.


    "Verry mach so."


    Yup, the style definitely changed. Was it trying to speak better?


    "Good to know the damage is minor. But you know, you don''t actually need to change the way you speak, your old style was fine. If you want to work on your language, you should start with pronunciation first!"


    "Urrr, okayy."


    For some reason, the wolf, who was inside now instead of the sheep seemed very panicked all of a sudden. Haliton wondered what was up with it. It barked a few times, then jumped out of the cabin. Moments later, the sheep entered and sat on the seat beside him again.


    The dwarf was very confused and did not appreciate the change. The wolf didn''t actually smell all that bad, but the sheep stunk to high hell. He held back the urge to shove it out of the vehicle.


    "Ahem! If you''re done choosing, there''s no reason for me to stay inside you any longer."


    He hurriedly got out of the truck.

 25: Truck Upgrade

    "Anyway, have you prepared payment?" Sheepy translated for Hali.


    Ack, I guess him not planning to pay for the expenses was expected. Good thing I already had what I needed in my inventory.


    "I don''t have money."


    "What? Not even the ground dwarf currency?"


    "Nope."


    "Seriously? I''m kind of lacking in funds." Haliton put his hand to his face.


    "Well, the repairs aren''t for anything important. You don''t need to pay for any of it!"


    In the end, what I picked was just cover in case he found it fishy.


    "No no! That''s what people say when they actually need something and don''t want to admit it!"


    "Uh..."


    "I can handle it! Don''t worry! It''s not... expensive." Haliton''s face was grim.


    From his expression, I was pretty sure the cost was not something his wallet was okay with.


    "No, seriously. You don''t have to!"


    "I''ll pay for it!"


    I floated the bits of scarp out and shut the doors, then started to drive towards the exit quickly.


    "Wait, what are you doing?" Haliton seemed confused.


    "Leaving."


    "You can''t just leave the damage unrepaired! What if you break down all of a sudden?"


    " It really is nothing major!"


    "You swear on your creator?"


    Whata weird question... Well, not that I knew which factory built me.


    "Uh, yes?"


    Hali seemed suspicious, but he dropped the matter. I couldn''t tell if that was somehow enough to convince him (some sort of culture thing?) or if it was just his wallet.


    "Oh, by the way, I don''tneed you to help me findmy way back home."


    I didn''t want him to keep following me around, trying to help me "return home".


    "What? Then how will you find your way back?"


    Urgh... I racked my mind for a random reason.


    Sheepy, translate "my compass suddenly started working again"!


    Huh? What the heck is a "compass"?


    Seriously? I guess it would be weird for asheepy that learnt speech from listening in to know what a compass was... People probably don''t talk about them much. Especially when around sheep.


    Oh well. My reason was pretty dumb anyway. Sincewhen do compasses break down and suddenly work again? The only component was a magnet!


    Nevermind, not important.


    "My navigation device suddenly started working again, so now I can find my way back!"This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Really? That doesn''t sound right to me..." Haliton mused. "Wait? Did you secretly use the parts to make repairs right there?"


    What the heck? I technically didn''t, but that was too on the nose!


    "No, I didn''t. I swear on my creator!"


    That promise seems towork onhim.


    The dwarf heaved a sigh of relief.


    "That''s good then. They have a device that secretly records the weight of things that enter before and after! I''d be in trouble if you secretly did repairs..."


    Seriously? I felt very lucky. I wasn''t sure if the eating functionincreasedmy weight when it was for upgrades, but if Icould have gotten in trouble if it did.


    [Upgrades only change your weight after all the requirements are met, starting the upgrade. Assuming the improved material has a different weight, though that is almost always the case.]


    Okay, good to know.


    "If you didn''t repair it, that could be a problem. Are you sure it won''t break down again?" asked Hali.


    "Uh... It didn''t break? I just forgot to turn iton."


    "What?!"


    I spent quite a while reassuming the dwarf that I would be fine. Somehow, my dumb excuses and ad-libbing eventually convinced the dwarf to let me go off alone. It would really be annoying if he started following me around!


    I decided tohead towardsthehilly area where Biggie''sden was since I figured it''d appreciate it and I didn''t have anywhere else I wanted to go at the moment.


    When I was was far away enough, I took outmy spoils from the scrapyard, random broken weapons and tools and startedmunching on them. They actually tasted pretty nice to my surprise. There was a lot to eat too, which was a lot more satisfying than the microscopic amount of time I got to enjoy the sandwiches.


    [Black Iron upgrade complete!]


    [Max Lv 10 -> 20]


    [DEF 5 -> 7]


    [HP 50 -> 60]


    [+1 Skill Point.]


    I felt a strange sensation, as if all my parts were being replacedwhich somehow didn''t feel that bad. I could sense that the metal under my coat of paint was now jet black.


    In the end, I decided to only pick black iron scrap. I was really tempted to go for some of the better metals, but stealing didn''t feel right to me in the end, so I figured I should just take the cheap bits. Besides, what if they noticed if some more expensive metals suddenly went missing?


    No... Who was I kidding? It was just me being soft. Most likely, no one paid that much attention to random bits of scrap anyway.


    Well, hopefully, I''d find some way to get better metals legitimately by the time I reached Lv20. I really didn''t want to steal from another scrapyard again... They were definitely not places I enjoy being in.


    By now, the skies were pitch black. I could only see the moon and stars shining gently. Was it midnight?


    [11:49 PM]


    Oh, you could do that?


    I didn''t know why that surprised me.


    [It''s literally one of the basicfunctions of a tablet.]


    Eh, whatever. I decided to just go into sleep mode till tomorrow. Sheepy and Biggie were already asleep anyway.


    <hr>


    "Those two dwarves with that vehicle..." one of the scrapyard staff mused. "Don''t you think it was fishy that he just left without getting anything?


    "I don''t know. Maybe they didn''t think the parts were good enough? They must be rich if they could afford a vehicle like that!" said a bald one beside him.


    "Hmm... I''m still going to take a look." said the one with hair."What if they used some sort of storage artefact to steal stuff?"


    The bald guardpaused fora moment, then laughed heartily.


    "Seriously? That''s like a king stealing trash from the slums!"


    The haired dwarf shrugged.


    "It''s boring here sitting around here anyway. I''m gonna take a look!"


    "Less fun than a game of cards?" the bald one raised his eyebrows, picking up the pack of cards on the counter.


    "How many rounds have we played anyway? I should be asking you how you aren''t sick ofplaying yet!"


    "Hump.Do as you please."


    The dwarf opened the gate and wandered into the scrapyard with a lantern in hand, whistling cheerfully. Perhaps some people would find it creepy to be at such a place near midnight, especially the scraped heads of golems with lifelike humanfaces staring with soulless eyes here and there, but he was long used to it after working here for years.


    But as he looked around, he found something odd.


    "Weird, didn''t there use to be a DiscountForgesword here?"


    Since most of the dwarves were here to findsalvageable parts for their machines, the broken weapons were often ignored unless they were made of good material for reforging. As such, he remembered the ones that stayed around for pretty long. He was also pretty sure he would remember if someone was actually weird enough to buy those.


    As he followed the trail left by the truck, he found more and more missing weapons he remembered. He was stunned for a moment before he ran back to his post.


    "Gorrick! They actually did it!" he panted.


    "Huh?"


    "I can''t believe it! They stole some parts with a storage device! Anduseless black iron weapons at that!"


    Gorrick the bald dwarf snorted.


    "Haha, very funny."


    "I''m serious!"


    The two guards decided it was probably fine for them to leave the post irresponsibly for a few minutes, then walked into the gates together. When Gorrick realised his friend was actually telling the truth, he laughed.


    "By the gods! What the heck?"


    The two dwarvesreported the incident totheir superiors the next day.

 26: Meanwhile...

    The sun was beginning to rise, shining its light on the city. Alther got out of bed and yawned.


    He looked at Bob who was still snoring face-first in his pillow, then got out of the room, heading to the kitchen.


    Calvin was sitting on one side of the kitchen table, lazily sipping from a mug of coffee and eating a hamand cheese sandwich as usual.


    "Oh, good morning," Calvin said without looking up. "Slept well?"


    "Yes. Good mourning. Syeep naise." Alther said in a horrible accent.


    Calvin finally looked up, raising an eyebrow.


    "Man, you really learn fast, huh?You''ve been learning English for like what, 5 to 8 hours?"


    "Thhanks. Maagic class usee memorya lot."


    "Hmm, so they have magic schools in your world? I guess that makes sense."


    Alther didn''t really understand what Calvin said this time. Hecouldn''t help but to think back of the events from yesterday. It really was a really eventful day...


    After he explained what happened to the superhumans, they came to a conclusion. Somehow, Bob and Alther must have been sent here from an alien world. That or there was a very advanced country that figured out how to harness mana here on Earth and had tons of mythical monsters. Which was very unlikely as they''d probably be already discovered.


    Washow they got herevia some sort of random space fluctuation or a spell from that world? Other strange animals were randomlybeing sent here recently too, including hundreds of motionless stone wolves than appeared one by one.Luckily, they all appeared in an old lady''s house instead of somewhere in public. She was quite distraught, but at least she was easy to hush with some cash.


    It also helped that shevery gullible and managed to be convinced that the stone wolves appearing was just a magic trick, just a prank that was going to go on TV. Ethan heard her muttering "Kids these days..." to herselfas he was about to take his leave.


    When asked how, the bandits claiming thatthe trip to Earthhappened when they were attacked by a truck didn''t make sense, but they didn''t seem to be lying either. Even stranger was how they claimed there weren''t any trucks on their world. Were things from Earth somehow getting sent there too?


    Bob and Alther were put through an x-ray test, where it was found that while theyhad very close anatomy to humans from Earth, they had some strange organs that weren''t present in Earthlings. Alther claimed those organs were for manipulating mana.


    Afterwards, Ella wasasked, no, forced to tutor Alther and Bob much to her dismay. The reasonswere "You''re the only one other than Ethan with telepathy!" and "You''ve only been lazing around and doing nothing ever since joining the organisation!".This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Normally, Alther would have refused to learn, but now that he realised he was trapped in a different world, he should at least learn some means of communication. He really missed his old world though. Did his bandit subordinates misshim? If only they knew if he was fine.


    "Hey, are you alright?" Calvin suddenly asked. "You''ve been spacing out for a while."


    "Oh! Am finee!"


    <hr>


    Haliton was eating his breakfast peacefully at the bed and breakfast inn he rented for the night,gnawing on a steak whilecombing his beard. Some other dwarves were giving him weird looks, but he didn''t really care what they thought. He wouldeat steak for breakfast if he felt like it!


    Unbeknownst to him, what they actually found weird was him combing his beard while eating, not his breakfast.


    As he drank some beer from a mug to wash it down, hefelt very content. Rest days were the best!


    Suddenly the door was violently shovedopen, slamming on the wall loudly.


    "Hey!" The innkeeper yelled in anger. "You want to pay for the door if-"


    The moment he saw that the dwarf in blue uniform entering, he shut his mouth and gulped. What was the police doing here?


    "Oh, sorry. Just a bad habit of mine!" said the officer. "Haliton? Are you in here?"


    Haliton spat out his beer, coughing violently. The innkeeper was mad but decided right now was not the time to shout at him.


    The uniformed dwarf walked up to him.


    "Ah, so you''re Haliton! Just like on the picture. Come with me for a moment."


    "Wh-what did I do?" Haliton stammered.


    "No need to be tense. You see, we''re just questioning you for a bit. It''s nothing serious, really!" the officer said cheerfully.


    This did not reassure Haliton one bit and made him more anxious instead.


    Following the policedwarf, he was bought to the station where he saw Uellor too. They were asked to wait for a bit before being ushered into a room.


    "You''ve been suspected for theft from the scrapyard." the same officer said cheerfully.


    "What?" Haliton and Uellor exclaimed in union.


    Halitonwas filled with panic. How could the truck have just stolen without even telling him? But if it didn''t have any weight changes, where did it put what it stole? Could it be that it did the repairs right there and did it so well there was no change in the weight?


    "Don''t worry,it''s not confirmed, justsuspected! You see, the guards noticed some materials were missing."


    Uellor and Haliton explained what happened nervously.


    "I see... you two don''t seem to be lying. To think there''d be a machine like that just running around like that!" the policedwarf smiled.


    The two suspects heaved a sigh of relief.


    "That being said, we don''t have any leads on its location. We''ll have to trouble you two to help search for it!"


    "What? B-but my job..." Haliton stammered.


    "Not to worry, we''ll send a letter to inform your superiors of the incident!" the officer said. "You can think of it as paid leave! Oh, but with a quest to do, naturally."


    Haliton did a double take before feeling ecstatic. To think he''d get to take another day off and no punishement!


    "Haha! Isn''t this great, Uellor-"


    "I... but I don''t have anyone to water my plants! And no one to man my shop!" Uellorwas horrified.


    "Ah, a shop owner with no staff. How unusual!" the officer laughed. "Well, too bad for you then!"


    Haliton patted Uellor on the back in sympathy as the gardener put his face into his palms.


    ...


    As the two dwarves left, the officer stopped smiling. Urgh... having to fake smiles in front of people was tiring. It was so much nicer when there were no crimes and he could just kick back and relax, spinning himself on the swivel chair in his cubicle!


    He wrote a letter, printed and few copies of them and sent them toa few adventuring guilds. Somehow, he had a feeling thosetwo dwarves probably weren''t going to actually find the truck.Random adventurers weren''t the most reliable people, but they should be alright at searching for things at least.


    <hr>


    Elsewhere, later in the afternoon, the bandits weretrying to find leads on the truck for revenge.


    "Gregor! The adventuring guild is looking for the machine too!" a bandit reported.


    "What? We can''t let them find it first!"

 27: Radio Bard

    I woke up to birds chirping.


    There was also bird poop on my head. Always a good start to a day.


    I floated up a piece of tissue up and wiped it off. I guess that might not be the best use since I didn''t have any way to restock them, but whatever.


    Biggie was already up, striping the flesh from a dead deer it probably hunted, but Sheepy was still snoring like a pig in my cargo section.


    Hey. Wake up!


    Sheep grumbled, groggily getting up.


    "What?"


    Time to farm more stone wolves.


    "Seriously? Can''t we just do it later?" Sheepy complained. "I like getting stronger, but it gets really boring after a while!"


    Urgh. First, it decided to become a gardener and now it''s too lazy to level up. Was it really even worth keeping around?


    "As lazy as you are foul. I expected no less." Biggie commented with its mouth full, still chewing. "It is welcome, however, crystals are not easy to come by."


    "What, are you trying to encourage me?"


    "Back to sleep, vile sloth."


    Arguing again... Come to think of it, where did Biggie even get its mana crystals?


    I guess now that I knew I could just find a summoning pet to level up, they were less important for EXP. Still, Biggie was probably leaving once the two dayswere up and they probably had some other uses. If nothing, the crystals should still sell for quite a bit too, right?


    Hey, stop arguing!


    The two of them shut up.


    Wolf, where did you get your mana crystals in the first place?


    "Peculiar, but it''s not hard to obtain them.Aneighbouring nest of giant ants offer them up for trade." Biggie answered. "Truthfully, their presence stirs unease within my heart, yet they are surprisingly amiable."


    Wait, what? The ants I fought?


    You mean they are smart enough to offer trade and stuff?


    "Indeed. They are a very intelligent race."


    ...


    Of course, the antswere sentient too. Of course.


    Uh, I might haveupset them though. I think they''d attack me if I tried to trade with them.


    Killing one of their members was probably a big no-no.


    "What?" Biggie seemed shocked.


    Yeah... self-defense... Do you mind helping us trade if we need to?


    "I see... I do not mind, but I will not be helping you partake in any trades after my contract is over."This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    What about as a favour for a friend?


    "Friend? I was not willingly dragged into the contract but threatened with my kin."


    Sorry. I guessthat waswrong of me.


    Biggie grinned widely.


    "Do not fret, I think not badly of you. In spite of the threat, you did offer me newfound strength as penance," it said. "The sheep is the only one I despise, but I cannot be called out of my den constantly."


    Sheepy glared at Biggie, thenresumedeating grass.


    I guess I wouldn''t like it either if someone just kept calling me out to do errands.


    Oh. Can you at least tell me what they normally trade the crystals for?


    "They do not seem to want much but food. Good cuts of meat will fetch a decent price." Biggie said. "If you are in need of them, I do not mind sparingsome. Two days of service are a minusculepayment for the strength you have granted me."


    Come to think of it, I didn''t really look at Biggie''s stats.


    [Please name your pet.]


    [GrandWolf, Lv9]


    [EXP: 234/900]


    HP: 350


    MP:870


    STR: 8


    MAG: 27


    DEX: 10


    AGI: 12


    DEF: 2


    [Class: Shaman]


    [Special Trait:Champion]


    ...


    Whatthe heck is withthose crazy high stats? AmI really that weak? First the sheep and now the wolf...


    Yeah, I would appreciate it if you gave me some crystals. Also, you sure you don''t want to stay with us a bit longer? Maybe you can protect yourfamily better if you become stronger?


    Biggie laughed.


    "I appreciate the offer, I really do. But it would be for nought if my clan perishedwhile Iwasgone."


    Welp.


    We ended up continuing to farm for a bit, but unfortunately, the EXP gains seemed to have dropped by a huge amount now that all three of us reached Lv10. Biggie apologised and said it wasn''t skilled enough to summon anything stronger.


    I decided to take one of the crystals Biggie had stashedand asked Tablet to scan it.


    [Inferior Mana Crystal]


    [EXP: 200]


    If eachwolfgave around 20 EXP... and Biggieneeded to suck a crystal every five to six wolvessummoned...


    Yeah,I guess it was no longer efficient.


    I think we''ve farmed enough.


    "Finally! I didn''t even get stronger after like what, a whole hour? Why is it so slow now?" Sheepy complained.


    "Imbecile, is it not obvious? Would we not have infinitepower if growth was linear?"


    Don''t argue! Biggie, I think if you want to see your friends earlier, I don''t mind since you''ve done enough. Can I have some mana crystals though?


    Biggie took me to its den where it gave me ten mana crystals. Only 2000 EXP was just sad though. Shouldn''t ithave given me more? It sucked on so many earlier!


    [Just a tip. You can use the crystals to level up me or Radio.]


    "You don''t have to upgrade me though... I''m not very useful." Radio mumbled.


    Wait, I can do that? And Radio, you do help a lot when I need to talk to people.


    "Uh..."


    [When my level increases, new system functions might be unlocked.]


    [This includes features like a quest system, a shop and a better interface.]


    What? Shouldn''t stuff like this be available right away? That''s so unfair!


    [Radiowillunlock various abilities to help too at higher levels. This includes support and combat skills.]


    "Wha-what? I can help out in combat?" Radio sounded somewhat excited.


    Okay okay, whatever!Just split the EXP between you two.


    [Tablet has reached Lv2!]


    [0/2000 EXP]


    [Quest system unlocked.]


    [Radio has reached Lv5!]


    [0/600 EXP]


    [Milestone reached! +1 Skill Point.]


    "Yay!"said Radio. "Ah! Please ignore that ''yay''. What type of skills can I unlock? Do I roll for a new skill too?"


    [I would suggest getting a class first and rolling for class-related skills.]


    Wait, you can roll for class skills instead of just random skills? Why didn''t you tell me?


    [Because I didn''t feel like telling you.]


    ...


    [Anyway, I recommend the Bard class.]


    "Oooooh! I like the sound of that!"said Radio. "But are there any other options?"


    [What other class could a radio be?]


    "Uh... uh... not sure..." Radiosounded a bitdejected. "Bard it is then!"


    Bards... They were pretty good for support, aren''t they?


    [Radio is now a Bard!]


    [New skill: Song of Encouragement]


    [Increases the highest stat of anyone who hears it by 20%.]


    Wait... anyone?

 28: Wanted

    [8:37 AM]


    Radio''s song was, well, quite encouraging. It tested out singing it for a while but ran out of MP quickly. A bit of a shame because it was a nice change from ambient grassland sounds. Biggie decided to continue tagging along for the whole two days because "a deal is a deal" despite me telling it that it could go home.


    It was right about the time when I reached the town fromyesterday too. I figured I could find a suiting quest for some cash and ask about the value of mana crystals at the adventuring guild there. Two birds with one stone!


    The same two guards that helped me earlier were there. They even waved to me friendlily. I didn''t know how to wave back so I just told Radio to say "Hi".


    I tied Radio onto Sheepy again and had them walk into the guild again. Maybe a bit unorthodox, but what works, works. I didn''t feel like talking so I just told Radio to say whatever it wanted to say.


    "Oh! You''re the girl with the broken legs again!" the girl at the counter said.


    She was wearing some sort of white uniform and had longbrown hair.


    "Yeah... haha." Radio laughed nervously.


    Maybe we should havecome up with a better reason why the person couldn''t come out...


    "Ah, sorry if that''s insensitive. Nothing wrong with being handicapped!"


    "I don''t mind. Um, if you don''t mind, can you read me the quests available like yesterday?" Radio said. "I can''t see them from the vehicle."


    This reason I was actually proud of. Sheepy couldn''t read text, so I ad-libbed and toldRadio to tell herthe ''talking device'' didn''t have a camera!


    [Congrats on comingup with common sense.]


    Haha. Very funny.


    [I am glad to entertain.]


    Tablet is annoying.


    "Sure! I don''t mind. Not much to do here anyway." the receptionist smiled. "Let''s see... you picked an escort quest last time, right? Pretty easy with your vehicle!"


    "Uh, yeah?"


    "Well, unfortunately, there aren''t any quests like that available. I mean, right now, most of the easier quests have been cleared out. I don''t think you''re planning on doing thosethat pit you against horrible monsters, no?"


    "Oh..."Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    "Don''t worry though. In a short time, the mailman will come with a new list of quests!" thegirlsmiled. "He normally comes at around 9, so you don''t have long to wait."


    "Oh, thanks!"


    Sheepy walked out with Radio.


    "She''s a very nice person. I like her attitude!" Radio commented cheerfully.


    To be honest, do you think it could be out of sympathy? I mean, she thinks you''re a crippled girl stuck in a truck. Or maybe it''s just how receptionists are supposedto act.


    "She''s still nice..."


    I waited for a bit, giving Sheepy more aloe vera to chew on. People gave me plenty of strange looks but I didn''t really care.


    Before long, a man with a huge box strapped to his back arrived. It was covered in dents for some reason. He dislodgedthe box with little care, making it crash onto the floor with a thud. He took out some slightly crumpled posters from the box, merrily whistling and walked into the guild, handing the papers to the receptionist.


    For some reason, she glared at him. She proceeded to pin them onto the quest board one by one.


    But just as she was about to pin on of the papers, she seemed a bit shocked. She quickly ran out to me.


    "Hey, is this... what I think it is? Your vehicle?" she whispered, trying to make sure no one heard.


    I looked atthe poster she held up to mewith curiosity. Wait... It was me! What the heck?


    "Yeah?" said Radio.


    "It''s a wanted poster! I don''t know what happened, but they''re after you! Or your vehicle!" she whispered in panic. "You need to make a run for it!"


    What the hell? What did I do?


    "Ehhhhhh! Well, uh, thanks for telling us- I mean me."


    "The best I can do is to pin the poster last! Quickly go!"


    The girl ran back in hurriedly, tripping overthe steps and falling over. All the posters spilt over the floors.


    The people in the guild were suddenly in an uproar.


    "Er, too many people to translate. They''re after you for a lot of money or something." Sheepy said nonchalantly.


    What? Why are you so calm? This is not good!


    I drove away hurriedly as hordes of rabid peopleran out.


    "Not my problem. I can just jump out!" Sheepy laughed.


    As it headed towards the cargo hatch, it kicked it.


    "Hey! Open up!"


    No.


    "Bastard! Let me out!"


    You''re in this with me! And if you get out, maybe they''d use you as a hostage!


    Sheepy let out a bleat of frustration. Biggie who I let sit on the driver''s seat chuckled.


    The distance between me and thepursuers widened. I felt relieved. What man can match the speed of a truck? I was scared for nothing.


    I suspected some of them might have thrown spells if this was not a town.


    Suddenly, amuscular man in full armour jumped before me, laughing heartily. He held a huge tower shield.


    Shit, do I stop or do I keep driving?


    [Engine Burst innitiated]


    [+50% STR &SPD]


    [-1HP /3s]


    Wait, what? Tablet! I didn''t consent to that!


    [Hah.]


    I crashed into the man at full force.


    [-2 HP]


    Due to theangle of his shield, he was sent flying into the air. He let out ashrill scream at he crashed to the ground behind me. He dented my bumper which hurt though... Well, he got what he asked for! Who the heck jumps before a truck like that?


    As I got closer to the exit, I grew worried. Were the guards going to stop me? I decided to activate Engine Burst again to be quicker.


    But out of the blue, a ball of slimeshot towardsone of my wheels with insane precision, pinning it to the ground. That wasn''t good! I tried my best to use telekinesis to get it unstuck but to no avail.


    It was then when both guards approached.Seeing their devilish grins, I felt like doom was impending.


    Then one of them cast a spell, removing the slime. I felt like I saw a sparkle in one of his eyes for some reason.


    "Go! we will hold them back..." The guard tipped his helmet in a strange way. "M''lady."


    what

 29. Mailman Attack

    Seems like no one could catch up... well, the guards probably had a hand in that.


    But still, to think they helped out just because of Radio''s voice made them think I was a girl... that was weird.


    I wasn''t really sure whysomeone put a bounty onme, but that wasn''t good. If there weremailmen running around, they were probably sending the requests to hunt me down to various adventuring guilds. Did someone want to capture me to study or something? Weren''t machines considered pretty normal because of the dwarves?


    I looked at the map and tried to look around. Maybe if I travelled far enough, the people there wouldn''t be after me. I decided to head in the directionof a few towns surrounded by snowy mountains. Not sure if they had roads for me to go up, but honestly, I was just sort of curious and it seemed far away enough.


    For an area of the map to bedrawn as covered in snow, did it snow year-round there for some reason? Probably some fantasy nonsense I didn''t understand. Seeing nothing but grasslands was starting to get boring anyway, so I figured I might as well just head there fora change or something. Besides, what sane person would go to such a place to look for me?


    [New Quest!]


    Oh, Tablet was finally doing something with the quest system!


    [Quest: Crystal]


    [Difficulty: 1¡î]


    [Hold onto a superior mana crystal for 2 hours.]


    [Rewards: the crystal]


    Wait, what? If an inferior crystal gave 200 EXP, how much would a superior one give? No way Tablet was this generous. There had to be a catch to the quest!


    [Just accept it. Now.]


    I don''t trust you.


    [Accept.]


    I don''t accept-


    [Quest Accepted!]


    [Timer: 1 hour 59 mins]


    What the hell? I didn''t even agree to it!


    A dazzling crystal instantly materialisedinside me, landing gently on my driver''s seat. It shone with a brilliant purple-pink radiance; I could practically sense the immense power wafting off it.


    Biggie who was on my head yelped.


    "Unbelievable! Overpowering, such an immense aura! Wherever could it emanate from?"


    I dunno.


    Just as I was trying to think of how to explain the crystal to Biggie,I saw a figure fromafar running towards me.


    Oh, it was just a mailman. I almost panicked for a second.


    Wait... he was practically zooming.How can a human run so fast?


    Biggie who was just about to investigate the source of the aura raisedits fur and growled at the sight of the man.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    The mailman''s blue uniform was covered in dirt and his yellow-blondehair looked like it was getting sucked away by a vacuum cleaner from the sheer speed he was running.


    The box strapped to his back wasthrashing wildlyin the air and the stretched out straps looked like they were about to break! Did he not care about the mail at all?


    He ran past me and leaned back, skidding to a stop around six metres from me. He stared at meas he panted, wiping off the mud from his face. Then he tossed the box onto the grass with little care.


    Wait, it was the same mailman from before! He was wearing a hat earlier but I guess it probably got blown away by the wind.


    "Sto-stop right the-there criminal scum!" he struggled to speak.


    Sheepy was really doing a good job, huh? I thought it would just translate the sentence straight instead of adding breaks too to account for his panting.


    Wait now was not the time for that.He was after me!


    "What did I do?" Radio asked.


    By now, the mailman seemed to have recovered.


    "Doesn''t matter. You''re under arrest or something!" he said. "Get out of the vehicle and follow me!"


    "I can''t. I have no legs."


    I didn''t really have the time to tell Radio what to say so I just let it decide on what to ask Sheepy.


    Tablet, engine burst!


    [Engine Burst innitiated]


    [+50% STR &SPD]


    [-1HP /3s]


    As I got further away, the man ran in front of me with blinding speed.


    "Stop!" he shouted.


    Did people in this world just have a tendency to run in front of vehicles? I can''t even stop in time. If he dies, it''s not even my fault!


    He leaned forward and bent his legs, reaching his hands out to stop me. I slammed into him. Biggie howled as it tried not to fall off from the recoil.


    [-4 HP]


    Ow! His handswere really hard!I sent him tumbling away though.


    "Bastard! Are you trying to kill me?" he shouted. "Look at my hands!"


    His hands were purplish and bloody. Some of his fingers looked like they were pointing in the wrong direction.


    "You ran in front of us- me! I couldn''t stop in time!" Radio retorted.


    "Whatever! I can just heal!"


    Immediately, the purple began to fade, almost as if there was a skin coloured brush painting over his hands. In less than five seconds, his hands were fine again. Did he just cast a spell or did he somehow have crazy regen? That was unfair!


    "Eh?! Then you''re fine!"


    "Anyway, stop or I will destroy your vehicle!" said the mailman.


    "I said my legs are broken!"


    How long was Radio going to keep using that excuse anyway?


    "Nonsense! Show me your legs then!"


    "Uh... the door is stuck."


    "I''ll pry it open."


    "No! You''ll have to pay for damages!"


    "Then open the door!"


    "No!"


    This really was going nowhere. Ihad a reallycrazy idea. What if I just grabbed the box he tossed at the side earlier? Maybe I can threaten not to give it back if he doesn''t stop chasing us?


    [...]


    What the heck is that reaction, Tablet?


    Biggie, what are you doing? Attack him!


    "With reluctance."


    Biggie pounced on the mailman from atop me. He screamed and raised hisarmsto block the wolf.


    I took the chance, driving backwards and headed towards the box before he could stop me. Then I stuffed it into my inventory.


    "What the hell! Give me back my box!"


    He punched Biggie in the head, knocking it out cold. Poor wolf.


    "I''ll give it back if you stop chasing us!"


    "I''ll break this dumb machine down first!"


    He ran over to the side and started punching me repeatedly.


    [-1 -1 -1]


    That asshole was leaving dents all over my body! His fist started bleeding but he just healed himself again.


    "Stop!"


    "Then open the door!"


    "No!"


    <hr>


    Finally! All the tasks for the morning were done. The police-dwarf smiled at the thought of finally filling hisgrowling stomach.


    As he sat down to eat at a nearby restaurant, a realisation suddenly hit him.


    He forgot to mention they should try to capture the machine unharmed! Those brutes might have taken it wrongly and started to whale on it.


    Oh well.The dwarf decided it probably didn''t matter. Not his problem!


    "Enjoy your meal!" said the waiter as she placedhis order on thetable.


    "Thanks."


    He proceeded to eat his meal merrily.

 30. Bad Idea

    As I started to grow desperate from the constant attacks, the ground began to rumble slightly.


    [Took long enough.]


    Eh? What''s happening?


    Puzzled by the shaking as well, the mailman decided to stop punching me for a moment. I was really tempted to try to drive away immediately, but I was worried that would make him resume his beating.


    A strange purple liquidseeped out of the ground. There was a little ballfloating around in the centre for some reason.


    The mailman seemed alarmed and shouted something.


    "What? There''s a slime outside?" Sheepy didn''t translate. "He said, ahhh! A slime!"


    What the heck is a slime? Whatever it was, it heading towards me slowly for some reason.


    [Get away from it. It''s dangerous.]


    Huh? What can a little puddle like that do?


    But in any case,the mailman seemed fairly alarmed too so Tablet probably wasn''t messing with me. I decided to drive away slowly.


    "Don''t run!" the mailman shouted.


    "I can''t run. I don''t have legs." Radio said unenthusiastically.


    Slowly, more and more puddles withorbs oozed out of the ground and started following me. They were in all sorts of colour, almost likea slimy rainbow! Kind of cute in a weird way actually. Except that some of them was melting the grass they slid over.Yikes... I guess that was what made them dangerous.


    The mailmanwas still following, but he watched cautiously at the side.


    [The slimes are attracted to the crystal. Use that to your advantage.]


    Huh? Oh, so that''s why they wereafter me. If they''re dangerous, then... I can use them against the mailman!


    What do you want me to do, throw the crystal at the mailman?


    [Idiot! You think he''s going to stand there and get hit?]


    I was kidding.


    Besides, even if it hit, it was probably just going to bounce off unless itwas covered in glue. Not like I hadany type ofglue on me or anything.


    Wait, what about the mailman''s box? Did he happen to be delivering glue?


    [You can''t be serious.]


    I ignored Tablet. From my inventory, I plopped the box onto my seats, undid the clasps that held it shut and looked inside expectantly.Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    It was nothing but paper, just tons of slightly crumpled letters.I guess that would have been too good to be true...


    "What about the slimes following us?" Radio suddenly said. "Their goop looks really sticky to me!"


    [...]


    [Really.]


    "Yeah, it looks really sticky!"


    "Hey! When are you giving me back my box?" the mailman interrupted.


    [Do whatever you want.]


    "Eh?Is something wrong?"


    Tablet didn''t answer. Probably just being a prick. I took a closer look at the slimes and some of them did indeed leave a sticky looking coating ofgoop on the grass.


    Good idea, Radio!


    "Thanks!"


    One little green one seemed to beextremely sticky, with quite a lot of grass and dirt was sticking to it. If there was a slime perfect for the job, this one had to be it! As a bonus, it was one of the few slimes that didn''t melt the grass behind it, so it seemed a lot safer anyway.


    I slowed down a little more and used telekinesis to pull it closer and tried to put it into my inventory but unfortunately, that failed for some reason. Were they alive or something? I found previously that I couldn''t put living things inside.


    Idecided todab it onto the ground several times and collected the goop on the ground, which worked.Yes! Now I just had to cover the crystal in it and throw it at the mailman! I guess he would be fast enough to dodge it, but I figured if I started to drive at full speed again, he would try to stop me. That would be a good time to stick it onto him.


    Sure enough, once I started to gain distance from the slimes, the mailman started to have confidence again! He zoomed in to stop me. Just as he grabbed onto my bumper, I dropped a portion of the slime onto his eyes to blind him.


    "Ahhhh! What did you put on my eyes?"


    He reached for his eyes and tried to peel off thegoobut to no avail. I quickly slathered the crystal in the rest of the slime and... where do I put it?I decided to slap it onto his face because he could take just take off his clothes otherwise.


    "Mrrrffff! Mrrffff!"


    I realised the crystal went over his mouth when I stuck it on. Okay, that was not intended.


    The man clung onto my bumper tightly and refused to let go. Then he started punching me with the other hand while holding on.


    [-1 -2 -2]


    This stupid mailman... he should have just given up earlier when I held his box hostage! That''s it! I had enough.


    I stopped and turned around, heading toward the chasing slimes. Looking around for a proper candidate, I sawa yellow one that was really nasty. It literally melted the dirt on its path into some sort of goop. Perfect.


    I picked it up andstuck it onto hisbehind.The mailman paused for a moment, then let out muffled screeches of agony. Finally, he let go, falling to the ground. He got up quickly andran into the distance with the yellow slime stuck to himandhundreds of slimes in pursuit.


    I guess I should have felt bad, but for some reason I didn''t. Probably because he started it. There was silence for a moment as I started to drive away from the scene as fast as possible.


    "We did it!" Radio suddenly said.


    It''s thanks to your idea, Radio!


    Radio seemed really happy.


    [Unbelievable.]


    Hmm? Tablet was finally letting out praise for the first time?


    [I gave you the crystal to let you have slimes as pseudo bodyguards.]


    [And when yougot to safety, you wouldhave the crystal.]


    [Now look what happened. You wasted the crystal and now no longer have "guards".]


    [If you continue to be so incompetant, this really will be the last time I decide to help you out.]


    [Quest failed.]


    Hey! If I didn''t stop him, he could have kept following! And if I start driving fast, the slimes can''t catch up and I''m open to his attacks again!


    [Remember what you did earlier?]


    Something smart?


    [You could have used your telekinesis to throw the slimes at him directly.I have no idea why you decided tostick the crystal onto him.]


    [Good luck if more powerful enemies followthe obvious tracks you are leaving on the grass.]


    ...


    WHY DIDN''T YOU TELL ME?!

 31. Snow

    Afterwards, no one else came even after driving for hours. I decided to just cancel Biggie''s contract so it could just go home after waking up.


    I wasn''t complaining though, it would be horrible if more people like the mailman came. Come to think of it, since I took his box, how many people were going to miss their mail? Now I actually felt a bit bad.


    [That reminds me.]


    Hmm?


    [Let me scan the letters. They could work as an alternative to the books.]


    Oh! It would be amazing if I didn''t have to rely on Sheepy for the translations anymore.


    I plopped the open box onto my seats again and floated Tablet over to it. Its screen shone brightly with white light, engulfing the letters.


    [Language Deciphered: Human.]


    [Progess: 20%]


    [You will now be able to understand it crudely.]


    As Tablet''s light faded away, I noticed the letters had turned slightly grey. They then disintegrated and fell as fine powder to the bottom of the box.


    Wait, why does scanning them destroy the letters? That makes no sense!


    [Don''t question it.]


    I guess those people weren''tever gettingtheir mail then... Oh well.


    [You should really decide what to do with your 2 skill points by the way.]


    Tablet was right actually. I couldn''t just withhold because I didn''t know what to choose.


    Show me my skills!


    [Skill List]


    [Eating I]


    [Telekinesis II]


    [Limited Shapeshifting I]


    [Machine Communication I]


    [Engine Burst I]


    Telekinesis and Engine Burst seemed to be the best two candidates. But I didn''t want Burst to eat up more HP and I wasn''t sure how much strong Telekinesis would become.


    Hey, what does Eating do anyway?


    [Increases the efficiency from eating. You will need to eat less.]


    As much as I did not like to just eat random flora, in the end, I basically just had unlimited fuel from eating bushes, didn''t I? Screw it, I was just going to roll for a new skill.


    [You''ve decided then. Here goes!]


    [Improved Plating - 2 Star]


    Youtake 20% less damage.


    [Fuel Efficiency - 1 Star]


    Your fuel lasts 50% longer and makes you move 5% faster passively.This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.


    [Advanced Weatherproofing - 2 Star]


    You are more resistant to weather.


    Urgh... my luck sucks. Didn''t even roll a 3 Star skill.


    I felt like the skills seemed very inconsistent. Whydid Fuel Efficiency seem so much better than Weatherproofing?Were their rankings decided by Tablet or something? Plating seemed really good though. Was a 2 Star skill supposed to be that good?


    [Improved Plating - 2 Star]


    Youtake 10%less damage.


    What! Why did you nerf it suddenly?


    [Balance issues.]


    Unbelievable.


    I ended up choosing Improved Plating anyway despite the nerf. I did like Fuel Efficiency, but in the end, I could just eat a few bushes when I needed fuel, right? Notthat I looked forward to it, but still.


    [Improved Plating acquired!]


    You''re not nerfing it anymore, right?


    [Nope.]


    How much more does it improve after I level it up?


    [You can''t.]


    Wow.


    Screw this bogus skill rolling. I decided maybe I should just upgrade Telekinesis.


    [Telekinesis II -> III]


    I tested out trying to lift a rock immediately. I collected quite a few when I was looking forbouldersto put over Biggie''s den yesterday anyway, so I didn''t have to look for one nearby.


    It was definitely somewhat easier. Maybe not worth the skill point though... For some reason, Tablet refused to tell me how much the skill actually improved.


    I felt like sighing. Nowdespondent, I resumed my journey.


    Soon, the place started to get engulfed in snow. I shifted mytires into pattern adapted for snow. This was so much more convenient than back on Earth. Back then, I used to have to change my tires when winter came...


    The winds howled and I could see snowflakes whirling restlessly. There seemed to be many more trees in this area for some reason,with black bark and slender branches full of icy blue leavesthat swayed inthe violent wind. Did I come at a bad time?


    It definitely wasn''ta good timeto head back either though, so I pressed on towards the mountains. From time to time, I felt like I saw creatures in the distance far away, but the constant snow made it hard to see. Maybe I was just imagining things.


    I continued to follow the maps and found a road up the mountains much to my delight. It was a bit old and in poor condition, butit was perfect! Without it, going up the mountain would probably be impossible.


    Driving up the road, I grudgingly chewed on a bush to replenish my fuel. It was then when saw a young boy who looked around twelve in furs shivering and walking up slowly. I couldn''t blame him though, he was carrying a huge bag and- wait, why the heck is he carrying such a gigantic sword?


    It was one of those ridiculous fantasy swords, with a grey blade so fat that aguard wasn''t even needed. The edges were unnecessarily spiky and there were engravings in yellow all over the flats. And since the boy was short, thesword was even taller than him!


    As he sneezed, he caught eye of me.


    "Hey! Cold... is help..."


    Excitement bubbled within me. Finally, I could understand people! It definitely was crude so far, but that just meant I needed more books.It would be so nice if I didn''t have to keep relying on Sheepy!


    "Hey! I''m freezing to death... please help..." the sheep translated.


    For now, I was probably going to still rely on Sheepy though. As much as I didn''t like it, it was still a pretty good translator.


    I was a bit troubled. I wanted to help him, but if he got into the front seats, he would realise there wasn''t anyone inside. That might not be a good thing.


    But looking at him, so miserable, I felt like letting him sit in the cargo with Sheepy was probably not going to be fine. I wasn''t equipped with air conditioning there, so it was going to be freezing.


    Urgh, whatever. Surely a single kid knowing wouldn''t get me into trouble, right?


    [You are too soft.]


    Better than being a heartless prick like you!


    "Sure, come in."


    I opened my doors and turnedup the heat.


    "Thank you! Ithought I wouldn''t be able to make it!"


    The little boy hopped in and placed his bag and sword down. Gah, the bag was so heavy! What was even inside?


    "Wait, where are you, miss?" his face paled. "Ahhh! Are you a ghost?"


    "No no! I am in the back section! I''m letting you have the front seat since you are cold!"


    Helet out a sigh of relief.


    "Okay, good. Ghosts are scary!"


    Thankgod he was gullible.

 32. Snowy Town

    "Miss, why did you decide to come here?" the boy asked.


    "Oh! uh... I''ve decided to come here to see the beautiful snow! Yes- yes, very pretty."


    As usual, I let Radio ad-lib.


    "And what happened? Why were you stuck climbing the mountain alone?"it quickly changed the topic.


    The boy looked embarrassed.


    "Well... I got frustrated. My mom and dad would always follow me around!" he said. "Every day, they''re like... Galu! You can''t go out and ''plaaaay'' alone!"


    Oh, so that was his name. Galuput up finger quotes. They had quotes in this world too?


    "What type of adventure is it if mom and dad keep dragging me around? Earlier this morning, I decided to run out while they slept!"he exclaimed. "I thought it would be fine, but I was attacked by a big biiiggggg monkey! But I am strong, like Lesluth! I won but I ran out of mana, so I couldn''tcastWarmth. I had to head home like that when I saw you and then..."


    My god,how long could he blabber for? Throughout the whole trip, he simply wouldn''t stop talking! It was also kind of annoying that I kept getting called "miss", but unfortunately, Radio only had that voice.Radio was nice enough to keep the kid engaged though, which I probably wouldn''t have managed.


    Finally, Ireached the gates of the town. It was definitely a lot smaller the other towns back in the grasslands, but that was understandable. Getting food in such an environment was probably hard, especially with no other cities or towns nearby. Did they have to hunt a lot?


    "Halt! Please present your identity card and pay the toll of 10 silver!" one of the guards said.


    Oh no.It would be terrible if I was barred out again. Stupid security measures...


    Galuopened my door and hopped out. One of the guards gasped.


    "Galu! Where have you been? Your parents have been looking for youfor hours!"


    Grinning devilishly, the boy laughed. He reached into his bag and turned it upside down. And out fell a snow-white huge ape around my size! That boy... he really wasn''t exaggerating when he calledit big! Were even children this freakish here?


    The guards looked stupified.


    "... As expected of Yueler''s son. To be able to even take down an Ice Ape at such an age!" one of them finally exclaimed. "By the way,who''sthat escorting you?"Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings.


    "Some nice lady found me freezing! She let me in to warm up."


    The guards looked shocked again.


    "As expected of Yueler''s son..."


    What the heck was that supposed to mean?


    "Stop comparing me to dad!" Galu grumbled.


    After they finished talking, the guards let me in without asking for the card.It seemed likeGalu was some important person''s son. I felt a bit of pride.


    See, Tablet? They say what goes around, comes around!


    [It won''t always be the case.]


    Hmph.


    I followed Galu all the way back to his house. I thought it would be pretty big considering his status, but it was actually pretty modest in size. It was a cosy cottage surrounded by a garden with a stable right beside it. I could see two white horses inside the stable, peacefully munching on some kind of... blue hay?


    "Come in! The house is warm!"


    "Oh... uh, I have broken legs?"


    "What? Oh no!" Galu looked alarmed. "What happened? I can carry you out!"


    "The door is stuck... I can''t come out..."


    Radio again with the perfect excuses...


    "Don''t worry! I can pry it open!"


    "Ah, please don''t! Seriously!"


    "I''m very strong! I can do it!"


    "Nooo!"


    This was not good. Galu ran out to my cargo door and grabbed onto it. Before I could drive away in panic, he pulled so hard that the clasp broke!


    [-4 HP]


    "You''re free now!" he said triumphantly.


    With glee, he hopped in and saw Sheepy. Instantly, he froze, looking stupefied.


    "Baaaa..."


    He looked at me with a look of understanding and deep compassion. I felt disturbed.


    "Oh, I see. You''re a sheep."


    "No! I''m not! There''s another hidden compartment I''m in!" Radio squeaked in panic.


    "You don''t have to hide it! I understand... I won''t tell anyone your secret!"


    Looking at the ''noble'' look on his face, I wondered: what the hell did I just get myself into?


    "What do I do? Do I double down or try to convince him you''re not a sheep?" Radio whispered to me in panic.


    Urghhhhh...


    You know what? I don''t even care anymore. Just tell him to keep it a secret.


    "Ok, you got me, I''m actually a sheep! Please don''t tell anyone, okay?"


    "Don''t worry miss sheep! I won''t tell anyone, not even mom and dad!"


    Galu gave me a thumbs up, got into thestable carried a pile of blue hay out, placing it before Sheepy. He then ran into the house and took out a bowl of stew, sitting right next to the sheep.


    "We''ll eat together!"


    Sheepy, please...play along.


    The sheep looked like it was about to burst into laughter.


    Sure, sure.


    Itsniffed the blue hay.


    "Hmm, smells funny." it took a bite. "Holy crap. It''s amazing!"


    Immediately, Sheepy began voraciously stuffing heaps of it down its throat, as if it had not eaten in days. The hay flew everywhere, bits of it even into Galu''s soup.


    What the hell are you doing? Eat slower!


    Nowthe boy was going to think I was some sort of crazed smelly barbarian sheep! This was the worst idea I ever had.


    "Whoa... you''re uh... hungry." the boy seemed a bit uncomfortable. "Want more?"


    Sheepy nodded vigorously. The boy picked the hay out of his stew and quickly swallowed the rest of it, going to the stables and getting even more hay.


    "Oh crap, I think I might need to go." it said.


    No, don''t you dare! You better do it in some bush or behind a tree!


    The sheep got out and unleashed nature''s fury into a nearby bush. That was, unfortunately,one of the garden''s plants. Galu looked horrified.


    The impression me and Radio set... It was all ruined by this brute!

 33. Yueler

    "Okay, okay, it was just a joke! You don''t have to be so angry, sheesh!" Sheepy grumbled.


    It wasn''t funny at all.


    After the incident, I reprimanded the useless sheep. I was a bit surprised it apologised (somewhat?) to be honest. I also decided to tell Galu the truth. Well, with some tweaks. It would be horrible if he thought I really was Sheepy!


    "You''re a runaway machine? No wonder you''re hiding, miss! Don''t worry, the dwarves won''t find you here!" Galu said earnestly.


    Why the heck was he still calling me "miss" if he knew I was a machine now? Well, at least he was easy to convince. Galu quickly used some sort of water spell to wash Sheepy''s mess off the bush.


    Soon, his parents arrived. They gave him a hug, followed by a stern warning.Galu apologised for running off alone thought he didn''t look like he was actually sorry.


    "Oh, and thank you fordriving our son back home!" said Alena, his mother. "Is there anything we can do for you?"


    Hmm... I thought for a bit. Honestly, there were just two main things I was interested in. Mana crystals and experience from fighting stuff! I mean, technically, mana crystals would work for EXP too, but considering how Tablet couldn''t level up from combat, it really was just best to invest crystals into unlocking new features...


    (Radio wondered if Truck really should be thinking about rewards in such a situation.)


    If their son was so strong, with them, power levelling shouldn''t be too hard, should it? I decided to tell Tablet not to ask about crystals because I wasn''t sure if they were expensive.


    "Do you might bringing us- me out to fight some monsters?"Radio said.


    "Ah, a thrillseeker! I used to enjoy running into the wild to forage and hunt when I was younger too." Yueler said. "Do you need directions to the dens of beasts?"


    "Yeah, that''d be good!"


    "Normally, I''d ask Galu to guideyou, but... I really don''t trust him not to try to run off and fight again. So I think it should be me or Alena bringing you there." said Yueler. "Uh, dear?"


    "Yes?"


    "Mind guiding her to there? I might be a bit busy," he said tentatively.


    "Uh, the house is getting dirty, I need to clean it up." Alena looked away.


    Yuellooked exasperated.


    "Fine, whatever! Come with me, miss... what''s your name?"Stolen story; please report.


    Crap, I needed to think of something!


    "Truck?"


    "Truck? That''s an unusual name..."


    Wait, why did you tell him that as a name?


    "Sorry, I spoke too loud." Radio whispered.


    Oh well, at least it''s easier. Maybe I should get people to refer to me as that in the future too...


    Grudgingly, Yuel led me down out of town. The guards nodded to him respectfully as he passed.


    "The weather is nice, isn''t it?"


    "Uh, maybe?"


    "Anyway, my wife is so annoying sometimes! Like, normally she hates cleaning the house and says we should hire a maid..." the floodgates opened. "...but she''s also very sweet. Once, she bought me this amazing sword as a birthday present..."


    My goodness, he has the same habit of blabbering like Galu. And what the hell does weather have to do with his wife?


    "...and then you know one day,I came back home the next day and Galu had some dumb book with him! Apparently, themain character uses some kind of stupid, impractical sword and..."


    Uh huh. Did I look like I cared?


    "...and now Galu refuses to use anything but a replica of the main character''s sword! I really shouldn''t have boughtthat useless sword for him as a present! And..."


    I''m not here to listen to your life story!


    "...seriously! What type of son is he! People expect the son ofan expertswordsman to be good at using swords but he just uses that dumb thing! It''s not even a sword, just a huge spiky paddle! He''s disgracing my family! I can''t believe it! And another time..."


    I take that back. He is several times more chatty than Galu.


    "...and that''s why deer meat is better than rabbit! Oh, and we''re here."


    Finally, we arrived. I could see animal tracks in the snow and several figures staring at us from a distance. This was it!


    "I recommend getting out if you want them to attack you! I really don''t think they''d be interested in hunting a machine. If nothing else, I''ll be heading back! Good luck!"


    What, he was leaving? After all that blabber I sat through?


    "Wait, you''re not going to join and help us fight?"


    "Hmm? I only agreed to lead you here!"


    "Wait-"


    BeforeRadio could say anything else, he just ran away. Was this how he should treat someone who helped his son?


    Great... there goes my plan to get free EXP...


    As I drove around, I realised what he said was indeed true. Sure enough, none of theapes, wolves or bears I saw seemed interested in attacking me. Darn. Maybe if I blocked one of the caves? I drove in front of a cave and blocked it.


    Soon, a bear came out.


    "Can you not? The ventilation is as bad as it is!" it growled.


    "Oh... sorry."


    Why the heck are you appologising, Radio?


    "Whatelse do I do?"


    I drove off, slightly annoyed.


    Maybe if I had bait... wait, didn''t I have the dead deer from back then? It was still sitting in my inventory since I didn''t find a way to cook it.


    I decided to put the corpse down on the floor and waited. Seeing the bearreminded me that some of the animals in this world were intelligent; so I asked Sheepy to shout if they understood Rolgh, the beast language whenever any of them came close.


    "Why does it matter if they understand it or not?"


    Shut up or I will take your hay away!


    "Come on! Are you still angry about that thing earlier?"


    A fox came by... it understood Sheepy and left (after some threats)...After another long wait,a raccoon came by and also understood.


    My goodness, why were all the animals in this world smart? Were there even any dumb ones?


    [You say that while you look for lives to end. Are you sure you aren''t just trying to stand on the moral high ground?]


    Shut up!


    Honestly, I really didn''t care anymore. Maybe I''ll just run over the next animal I see.


    [That''s more like it.]


    On second thought, I really shouldn''t do that.


    [Petty.]

 34: Bear With Me

    After the two came, it seemed like no other animals were coming my way. I guess that was indeed not the best idea.


    Hmm, if I could just get Sheepy to talk to them, maybe I could ask them where to find dumber creatures or maybe just evil ones? What a pain...


    I drove back to the same bear cave and blocked it again, waiting a bit.


    "HEY! This is the second time today someone has-"


    The bear saw me mid-sentence.


    "ROOOOAARRRR! It''s you again! What the heck is wrong with you? Can''t a bear get some rest?"


    Bearwas not pleased.


    "Sorry about that! Mind if I ask for directions?"


    "Directions? The only direction you are heading to is the underworld if you keep annoying me!"


    The bear raised a paw, its sharp claws shining menacingly in the light.


    "Sorry, sorry, I''ll leave right after this! I just wanted directions to look for dumb animals to fight. That or bad guys?"


    It gave me a strange look.


    "Grrr... that''s a strange request. I''m not in the mood to fight you right now, so get lost once I give you directions, alright?"


    "Ah! I''m not implying you''re dumb or evil. We weren''t even planning to fight you."


    "Yes, yes, whatever. Dumb beasts... there honestly aren''t many round here. The only ones I can think off the top of my head are the mountain wyverns, but I doubt you''d stand a chance against them." it stopped to think for a bit. "There''s also a gang of wolf bandits that cause a lot of trouble, but they''re really elusive so I have no idea where they are."


    I guess if animals were smart, it would make sense for some of them to form bandit gangs.


    "I would recommend thecolosseum if you want a fight, but I doubt the organisers would allow a human to participate, let alone cheating by usinga machine. There, is that enough info for you?" the bear said unenthusiastically.


    They had a colosseum too? How?


    "Is there really nothing else? Not even some kind of monster plants?" Radio asked weakly.


    "Eh?" the bear seemed surprised. "You''re looking for a challenging fight, aren''t you?"


    Huh?How the heck did it draw that conclusion?


    "Um, not really?"


    "Grrr... you do realise that the dumbones are the nastiest of the lot, right? They might not have brains, but even an experienced fighter might be crushed by their sheer strength!" the bear looked like it said something incredibly obvious.The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    "Oh... so the monster plants are weak?"


    The bear put a pawover its face. Is that really safe for a bear to do? What if it scratches its eyes?


    "And here I thought you were looking for a challenge! What are you, a coward? Yes, some of them are both weak and dumb. Happy?"


    "Sorry?"


    The bear raised a paw again. A shining ball of light was suddenly conjured. I guess magic use was really typical here. Kind of sad that I couldn''t use magic while even random wild animals can...


    "Follow the light, it will lead you to spot overgrown with weird plants. You can look for something to fight there."


    "Oh, thanks!"


    "Good riddance."


    The speck oflight zoomed off the moment I moved away from the cave.


    Why was it so fast? I had to even use Engine Burst from time to time to keep up. But I found out that apparently, it takes me longer to take damage from the heat since the weather was so cold! That was very good news in case I needed to move fast or escape.


    I was soon led to an area choked with random plants, with leaves both blue and green. Therewere trees, grass, bushesandmany weird looking plants I didn''t recognise. There were some I recognised, like sad little flowers that drooped downwards, but I didn''t bother to find out what their names were back on Earth.


    Thelittle ball spun inthe aira few times, then poofed out of existence, as if to say goodbye.


    Well then... I didn''t see anything I could fight. Was the bear messing with me? Therewas a herd of deers with gentlyglowingwhite antlers, but that wasn''t what I was looking for. They gazed at me cautiously.


    As I looked around a bit more, I sawsome sort of little plant thing running in the distance. It looked like a root with many little root legs, somewhat like a centipede? A deer was chasing it... and firing magical missiles from its antlers at it, though all of them missed. Everything was using spells. They''ll spell my doom at this rate! Haha...


    [This is not the time for puns.]


    After a while, I realised the plant thing was running towards me. Crap, the missiles would hit me at this rate! I quickly swerved out of the way.


    As the deer passed by me, ahuge set of green jaws burst out of the ground, showeringthe area with snow. It was some kind of giant venus flytrap!


    The deer was swallowed in a single bite.And the bear told me the plants weren''t dangerous?I guess it would be less dangerous for a truck, but still...


    The trap''s exterior looked like some sort of hard shell. It was shaking from the poordeerstruggling inside!


    I expected the deers to panic and start firing spells at the monster, but they just took a glance and continued grazing. Wait, were they dumb animals or something? Surely even those would at least run?


    "Hey! Are you going to help your friend?" I askedSheepy to shout in Rolgh.


    A few deersglanced at me.


    "It''s none of your business." one of them said.


    So they were just heartless... I didn''t understand.Surely, they could take down the trap with ease with such numbers, couldn''t they?


    I decided to just attack the monster. No, not for EXP... I''m helping the deer!


    [Engine Burst innitiated]


    [+50% STR &SPD]


    [Winter Effect: 75% less damage]


    [-1HP / 9s]


    With full speed, Islammedinto the monster.


    [-3 HP]


    I felt like I had slammed into a wall. Why was it so tough?


    My HP was only at 41/60 by now, which made me feel somewhat unsafe. Ireally needed to find a better way to fight or a way to heal... If I lost so much HP in a single day, would I die from the gradual damage if I couldn''t level up in time? That was a very frightening thought.


    The plant monster was uprooted from the blow. Now that it was out, I could see the traphad a thorny stalk and a huge bulb with weird leg-like vines growing out of it. There was a huge dent on the shell from my attack, but it still refused to open its mouth. So stubborn!


    The monster quickly started to scuttle away, but I wasn''t going to let it get away. I crashed into it again with another Engine Burst!


    [+358 EXP]


    Wait, did it die? But... it was still running away and I didn''t take damage! What was going on?

 35: Illusion

    I felt a strange warm liquid stick to my bumper. It was quite unpleasant.


    But when I looked, there was nothing on me. What was going on? The flytrap monster continued scuttling away.


    Then, out of the corner of my sight, I saw the deers staring at me. Almost all of them. I started to feel nervous.


    Their horns began to glow brighter, orbs of light growing bigger.Oh my goodness, why were they aimingmagic missiles at me?


    I quickly took off with Engine Burst, but several still managed to hit me.


    [-2 -2 -2 -2]


    "What''s happening?" Sheepy sounded alarmed.


    The deers! They''re attacking me for some reason!


    "The heck did you do to piss them off?"


    I don''t know!


    "Open up!"


    [-2 -2]


    I''m not letting you run away!


    "Idiot, I''m going out to fight them!"


    Wait, it was trying to be helpful for once? I felt a bit doubtful, but with my HP as low as 29, now was not the time.


    As the deer chased, preparing the next barrage, Sheepy jumped out.


    "Baaaaaaaa!"


    Not the most fearsome battlecry.


    With a crazed look in its eyes, Sheepy charged overwith its nasty horns and rammed through the entire crowd! About six deers were caught up in it and were knocked to the ground.


    Holy crap! I knew with 14 STR, it should be able to do some damage, but to think it could fight so well...


    Several deers readied their antlers to block Sheepy''s next charge, with a few others hopping behind and casting some kind of barrier around the deers up front.Even furtherat the back, someprepared magic missiles.


    In just an instant, they reacted and formed some kind of battle formation! I began to get worried.Was Sheepy really going to be able to take them down?


    Without hesitation, the ram charged again. The magic barriers were instantly broken, the deer crying out in alarm as Sheepy ran over even more deer. Nevermind.


    Before long, most of the deer had run away, with four lying on the ground. To think I''d be saved by Sheepy of all ''people''...Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    I couldn''t tell if they were unconscious or dead, but Sheepy viciously stomped on their heads. I felt horrified, but Itold myself they were heartless monsters anyway. They even tried to kill me when I tried to help that deer!


    [Sheepy has levelled up!]


    [+2 Stat Points.]


    [Tamer level up!]


    [MAG 1 -> 2]


    [MP 10 -> 20]


    "Ahahahaha! I am so strong now!"the sheep laughed manically.


    Oh, so Tablet was finally letting Sheepy choose? I floated Tablet over to it. The Tamer class also finally levelled up, which was nice, but I was disappointed. Shouldn''t it give another pet slot or something?


    "Huh? So you were messing with my... ''stats'' all along? What the hell?"


    Don''t ask me about that,Tablet put all your stats into strength, not me.


    After a bit of argument, Tablet taught Sheepyfor a biton what stats did what.It decided to put both points into MAG after some contemplation.


    [MAG 2 -> 4]


    [MP 50 -> 70]


    "Hey, can I change my class to mage or something?" Sheepy asked.


    Wait, what?


    [No. You cannot change your class.]


    "Damn it! Those deer... so cool. I don''t want to be a gardener anymore!"


    [Suck it up.]


    Listening toTablettalkingdown to Sheepy, I tried to suppress this strange feeling of satisfaction that came out of nowhere. I really shouldn''t, but something them arguing made me very happy.


    (Tablet was speechless.)


    I guess I should collect the dead deer. As I stuffed them into my inventory, I felt a strange sense of vertigo all of a sudden. Theinvisible liquid stuck to my bumper suddenlyappeared. Blood. I didn''t understand. Why couldn''t I see it earlier?


    I drove over back to the grove teeming with plantlife. There, where I thought I crashed into the flytrap the second time wasa patch of blood and fragments of broken antlerson the ground; the snow was dyed crimson red. I didn''t understand what was going on.


    ...


    Suddenly, I got a crazy idea. What if something used magic to make some kind of illusion? Maybe there was no flytrap all along and what I was attacking was one of the deer? I suddenly thought of a crazy scenario where one of the deers was jealous ofthat deer and used illusion magic to make me see a flytrap attack it! Then I was framed! That was not something nice to think about.


    But then when I looked around, I did see a few fragments of the trap''s shell, some footprints and the hole it was hiding in.


    What. So there was really a flytrap?


    Okay, apparently this was beyond me.


    [Detective work requires intelligence.]


    Tsk, Tablet at it again.


    Oh? Then you tell me what happened.


    [I''m not easily riled up.]


    Hmph. I bet Tabletdidn''t evenknow and was just trying to annoy me.


    [You asked for it.]


    [The ''root centipede'' is able to cast illusions. When the deer was swallowed by the flytrap, none of the deer noticed it. That was why they replied to you in that way.]


    [After you struck the flytrap the first time, it spat out the deer and started running away. The second time, affected by the illusion, you hit the deer it spat out. That was why you didn''t take damage, as flesh is softer than shell. The other deer saw you attacking it and wereenraged.]


    [Does this clear it up?]


    Oh...


    "Tablet! You''re cheating, aren''t you? We were affected by the illusion, but I bet it didn''t work on you at all, so you saw everything as it was!" Radio said unhappily.


    Ah! That had to be it!


    Tablet, you dirty cheater!


    [I would have figured it out anyway.]


    Liar!


    [Say whatever you want.]


    Radio decided to start singing Song of Encouragement. It was quite pleasant and made me a little less upset.


    Thanks, Radio.


    "Haha..."


    So in the end, it turned out the deers were innocent, not heartless and cruel. I felt slightly guilty. I decided to take out the bodies of the four and bury them. Ironically, it was in the pit where the flytrap hopped out from, but I really didn''t have the ability to dig a proper hole, so I had to make do.

 36. Fruitstorm

    Logically, I should return back to the snowy town. It made sense, I was to half health and I found out how dangerous the place was. What I should dowas to return back there and ask Galu and his parents for help to level up safely.


    But when I thought about it, I felt really reluctant to return. I had 405/1000 EXP. It was so far from levelling up, yet so close. Now that I already put in so much effort to come here, it felt wrong to just leave.


    I made up my mind. I''d explore just a bit more, but if I levelled up or got more hurt, I would quickly retreat!


    [It''s known as the sunken cost fallacy.]


    What?


    [Nothing.]


    Radiobeingweird again...


    With caution, I drove further into the flourishing grove. A cow was grazing, but it decided to back away slowly after it saw the frozen blood on my bumper.


    "Whoa, the plants here smell great." Sheepy said. "Open up!"


    I let itout. It was good for the sheep to be ready to protect me if anything bad happened anyway.


    Sheepy began eating the blue-green grass, full of gusto. Was it really that good? It can''t be worse than eating bushes, right?


    Hey, can I get poisoned, Tablet?


    I really should have asked that earlier but I guess better late than never.


    [No. How does a machine get poisoned?]


    Okay, that''s good to know.


    I gingerly pickeda bunch of it. It looked, very... juicy? I took a bite. It was crunchy but didn''t have much taste.


    Well, it was definitely better than the bushes. Didn''t make me want to empty my stomach at any rate. I threw out the useless bushes and starting stuffing tons of grass into my inventory, manylittle bugs scurrying out. I tried squishing one but didn''t get any EXP. Oh well.


    Sheep watched, somewhat speechless.


    I took a look around for something I could fight but didn''t really see any. I did see some weird round fruit up a tree though, so I decided tofloat one of the lower hanging ones into my mouth. Hmm,it wasnice and... sweet?


    Wait, I thought it was sweet, in the language of this world! I did know the words for taste, but I didn''t actually know what tastestasted like what because I never had food until I was in this world. But I thought of the taste in the language here, which was then translated into English in my mind again!The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    So Tablet''s decipheringcould help me understand English words I never actually knew what they meant. That was a pretty strange thought. Neat?


    In any case, I wanted more. The fruits were hanging high up, so I couldn''t reach them with my telekinesis. I decided to bump the tree with just a little force. I really shouldn''t take damage from a slight bump with 7 DEF, I hope?


    I didn''t bump hard enough for the tree to even shake, so I bumped it harder. This time, about a dozen fruits rained down. Since I wasn''t taking damage, I decided to hit it even harder. The fruit rained down and made clanking sounds on my roof.


    Sheepy got curious, so it walked over and tried one.


    "Bahhh! Disgusting!" it spat.


    Well, more for me. I began bumping more fruit trees.


    Just as I was about to crash into another tree, a girl suddenly materialised. She was in a dress made of flowers and leaves and her hair looked like very thin vines. A dryad? I guess I shouldn''t be surprised to see one in this world.


    "Please don''t bump into my tree! Oh, and not my friends either," she said. "I''ll help you pickthe fruits, so don''t do that, okay?"


    "Sorry! I didn''t know!" Radio said.


    "Hmm? Didn''t know what?" the dryad tilted her head.


    Didn''t know there were dryads in the trees...


    "Nothing..."


    I really should be feeling guilty, but honestly, having someone help me pick the fruits was very convenient. Haha, at this rate, I''ll never have to eat crappy grass or bushes ever again!


    Hundreds of fruits littered the ground. She was very good at this! Was she part monkey or something?


    As I was stuffing all the fruits she threw off the trees, the dryad screamed.


    "Ahhh! Rootworm!"


    A root covered in little root legs suddenly leapt off the tree the dryad was on. It wasone of thosecrazy illusion root centipede things! Before it could even start running, I quickly grabbed it with telekinesis. The monsterimmediately vanished and I couldn''t feel it in my grasp anymore, but my telekinesis couldn''t close up, so I knew I had it!


    I pressed it to the ground and ran over it with a wheel.


    [+689 EXP]


    [Level up! +2 Stat Points. HP refilled.]


    Oh, thank god! I didn''t know why it gave so much EXP, but I wasn''tquestioning it.


    I felt so relievedas mydents patched up and stopped aching. The bloodstains on my bumper suddenlydisappeared. Huh, I didn''t notice I had a ''cleaning service'' after levelling up.


    DEF.


    [DEF 7 -> 9]


    Looking down, I realised I had crushed the ''head'' of the monster. Green goopy sap was flowing out of it, so I decided to taste some of it. Urgh... so bitter and metallic. Nope. I decided to put it into my inventory anyway. Maybe it had some uses?


    On the branches of the tree, there was the shrivelled up corpse of the deer I hit earlier, dripping blood into the grass.I didn''t see it earlier from the centipede''s influence.


    "Oh, thank the gods! You got rid of that dreadful thing! To think there''d be one of those monsters here of all places..."


    The dryad got off the tree, mumbling. Just as she was about to climb onto another tree, I told Radio to stop her.


    "There''s no need anymore! We have enough fruit!"


    I didn''t really want to stay here any longer now that I levelled up.And I already had like, what, a thousand fruits?Who knew ifhow much more trouble I would get into if I continued to stay.


    "Bye, remember to plant the seeds!" the dryad said.


    I quickly drove off, using the map to find my way back. A mouth suddenly shot out of the ground, nearly bitting me. Another flytrap!See?Trouble!


    I activated Engine Burst and drove away even faster.

 37. The Golems

    When I made it back to the town, the guards weren''t there. The gates were just closed, like that.


    Two humanoids suddenly popped out of the air as I approached. Invisibility magic?


    They were made out of some kind of metal and I could see bolts and screws holding them together. Their faces were oddly human-like, both male, which was kind of an odd contrast.


    "Did something happen?" I told Radio to ask.


    "Present your card and pay the toll." one of them said dully.


    Urgh, this again.


    "Uh... we saved Galu earlier, you can ask the previous guards!"


    "We saw. That is unrelated. Please show your card at the very least."


    Huh, so they were watching the whole time? Were these guys backup guards or something?


    "I... lost my card." Radio sounded anxious.


    "That is not a valid excuse. Even a toddler would have trouble losing a literal soulbound object, let alone someone with a vehicl-"


    The robot''s eyes suddenly seemed to lose focus. I felt a strange force washing over me and felt invaded. This robot, it could see the same way I did!


    "I see. You are a runaway machine." the machine said.


    "Wha-what?" Radio stammered.


    I didn''t tell it to say that, but I understood why it was nervous. Running away from the troublesome grove only to get into more trouble here...


    "Was it theUnbound?"


    "What''s that?"


    "You- urgh." the robot seemed annoyed. "The Unbound! You know, that famous group of golems that goes around breaking golems out of their contracts. The name even says it all!"


    "Uh, what does that have to do with me? I''m not a golem, so-"


    "As far asthe dictionaryisconcerned, anything with a core is a golem, whether it was built for golems or not. You have a mind, so it''s clear you have a core, thus a golem."


    What?


    "MN356, she- it''sjust messing with you." the other robot said. "Ignore it and wait for the guards to deal with this."


    "Don''t call me by that name. It''s Jaxt! JAXT!" said the first robot. "Do I have to drill it into your empty skull?"Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    "Whatever. I never saw the appeal of human names."


    "You just have no sense of identity. Besides, somegolems are just that ignorant. Especially when the master hides news from it." Jaxt said.


    "What''s going on?"


    I felt the same way as Radio.


    "So should we report it to the guards or no?" the other robot asked unenthusiastically.


    "Don''t," Jaxt said before turning back to face me. "You, meet usoutside tonight. We are responsible for night guard. Not a lot of time to explain to stuff to you now, they''re probably almost done with their prayers."


    "I didn''t ask to be dragged into this."


    "Whatever."


    I was a bit lost. Could use a bit of time to collect my thoughts.


    "Let me think for a bit!" Radio spoke for me.


    So from what I gathered, it seems that they called machines golems here or something? And the "CPU" is called the core? And apparently, they were contracted or something because there''s some golem group called Unbound breaking them out or something? Not sure.


    At any rate, I didn''t feel like they meant harm. I decided I might as well. In weather so cold, it''d be hard to get my engine going again once off anyway so I was probably going to be up the whole night later.


    "Okay. I''ll meet you at this gate later!"


    "Good. Now don''t act suspicious and wait for the guards."


    We faced each other in silence awkward. I asked Tablet for the time several times while waiting. By the timethe guards came back, It was 2:32 PM.


    "Oh, sorry if Jaxt and Minnie were making trouble for you." one of them said. "I''ll open the gate for you."


    "I prefer to be referred to as MN357."


    Poor Minnie.No wonderit ''never saw the appeal of human names''.


    After the guards let me through, Iwent to Galu''s cottage.


    "Hey Truck, you came back right after the prayers!" the little boy ran out enthusiastically.


    He must have heard me from inside the house. Either the soundproofing sucked or he had pretty good hearing.


    "Hi, Galu!" Radio said.


    "Oh yeah, you must be curious! We have a tradition here where we pray to the great ice dragon every day! It''s becaus-"


    No... not this again.


    "-hearing that, she heroically set out to fight the demon lord! The brave heroes teamed up with her and finally destroyed the evil monster forever! But the great dragon still didn''t return! So-"


    I think that means she died.


    "...and that''s why we pray to her every day!"


    Cool, wasn''t paying attention.


    "Truck, that''s a bit mean..."


    Hey, I didn''t come here for a history lesson!


    "Oh yeah, what did you catch from your trip?I can take you to the local butcher to sell it for some money if you want." Galu said.


    That''s more on my page. Unfortunately, I only had that weird root centipede. I almost wished I didn''t bury those deer. No, don''t think of something so nasty!


    "I only found this."


    I showed floated the headless root in the air before him.


    "Ew, smelly!" Galu put his hand over his nose. "I''ll ask dad if it''s worth anything."


    Not longer after he ran into the house,Talkative No.2, Yueler came out. He took a good look at it and seemed surprised.


    "Ah, that''s a Rootworm! Very nasty creatures. You must have pretty goodmentalresistance if you managed to kill one."


    ...yeah, totally.


    "They''re a pretty sought after alchemic ingredient. The folks at the potion shop would probably pay a gold coin for it."


    What? A gold coin sounded like a lot! How much bronze was that?


    Radio, this is not an invitation to ask him. He''d expect us to know so that would be suspicious!


    "I know, I wasn''t planning toask..." Radio whispered.


    Just in case.


    "I like the tea you can make with it though, so mind selling it to me for 90 silver? As a discount for a friend!"


    "But it''s smelly..."mumbled Galu softly.


    What the hell? Of course not!


    "Uh..."


    Yueler laughed.


    "Just kidding! 1 gold and 10 silver. Deal?"


    I quickly did the trade before he could change his mind. Now to figure out how much 1 gold was worth...

 38. Bookstore

    I followed Galu along the streets slowly. Earlier, I asked him if there were any bookshops around. I had the idea that a dictionary would probably add a lot more progress, and Tablet confirmed it.


    The bookstore''s outside walls were made of glass and had a shiny logo in the weird characters their language used. Books were displayedin a way that people could see them from outside, and I could see tons of peoplewalking around quietly, flipping books from rows and rows of neat wooden bookshelves.


    I didn''t know what else I expected, but it felt kind of modern actually. I guess maybe it shouldn''t be a surprise considering they can make machines. A lot of other buildings I saw did sort of have a ''medieval'' look to them though.


    Come to think of it, their machines couldn''t just be pure science, couldn''t it? Maybe it''s mostly just magic making them run. I wondered if they had computers here or something similar.


    "What did you want to get, Truck? I can get it for you!"


    Galu waspractically jumping up and down. No idea why he found it so exciting. Weirdo.


    "Help me get... 3 different dictionaries!"


    I figured that was a good amount.


    "Eh? You don''t want something nice to read?"


    The boy looked very disappointed. I reallydidn''t get him. After a bit of thinking though, I guess it wouldn''t hurt. The past three days had been really stressful, so maybe a good book could help me relax a bit?


    I don''t recall reading that often back on Earth, but there were probably not many other forms of entertainment here anyway.


    "I guess maybe I could. Do you have any recommendations?"


    Galu''s face lit up again. As quick to change as a flickering light...


    "Thunder Hero Lesluth! It''s the best book ever!"


    Lesluth? It sounded a bit familiar. Oh, It''s that book that his father complained about! To convince him to use a replica of the MC''s sword and idolise him, it sounded pretty silly of him to me. Was the book really that good? I couldn''t help but get curious.


    "Sure, why not?"


    "Wait, you''ve not read it? It''s very famous!"


    "No?"


    Why the heck did he ask if he assumed I already read it?


    After a bit more blabbering, Galu ran in and bought out 3 very thick books and a whole box set filled with books. There had to be like around a dozen books in it.


    It had a very detailedillustration of a blonde man in scaled armour mid shout, raising a huge electrified sword into the stormy skies as thunder hit the ground. Beside him, there was a grey dragon roaring too.


    Isn''t this a bit, well, very over the top?


    Urgh, I didn''t ask to pay for that! It had to cost a hefty amount. Maybe I''ll just tell him to return it-


    "I got the first ten books for you as a gift! You only need to pay for the dictionaries, they''re 8 silver and 97 bronze."


    Oh, that''s nice of him.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    "Thanks!"


    I handed him 9 silver and he handed me back3 bronze. So 1 silver is 100 bronze. Does that mean 1 gold is 100 silver? Then that means... if one sandwich costs 5 bronze... 100 times 100is 10,000... 10,000 divided by 5 is... 2,000... so 1 gold is 2,000 sandwiches?


    Holy shit! I''m rich!


    (Radio was speechless.)


    I probably shouldn''t try to spend too much on food though. I still had a lot of fruits on me and I''ll probably waste the entire sum in a few days if I tried to stuff myself with human food.


    Wait, then that means the dictionaries were like around 60 sandwiches each? That''s so expensive...


    Oh well. I handed the three books to Tablet.


    [Language Deciphered: Human.]


    [Progess: 50%]


    [Youshould now be able to understand most of the basic words.]


    What? Aren''t dictionaries supposed to have all the words? This is unfair!


    [Deal with it.]


    Grrr...


    Radio, tell Galu to buy 10 dictionaries!


    "What? Are you sure?!"


    Do it!


    I might as well at this point...


    A very confused Galu went in and gotten of the same dictionary after some convincing. Many people were staring at him as he made his way to the counter.


    "Sir, may I ask why you are buying so many?" the cashier asked when his turn came.


    "Sir, may I-" Sheepy started.


    Sheepy, stop!


    "What?"


    I understood fully! It was a very exciting moment for me.


    You don''t need to translate for me anyway, I understand the language now.


    "WHAT?!"


    I convincedthe sheep by getting Radio to speak properly in the language here, Iyash. Sheepy stammered for a bit before seeming really dejected. Did it somehow have a lot of fun translating for me? Weird sheep...


    Reluctantly, I handed Galu the gold coin as he came out. He handed me back 70 silver and 10 bronze. Maybe the currency here was a bit bulky. They should really adopt notes or have more in-between coins like on earth.


    [[Language Deciphered: Human!]


    [Progess: 60%]


    [Youare now fairly proficient atit.]


    Urgh. Maybe it was enough though? I took out the first volume of Thunder Hero and flipped through the pages. Yup, I could read all the words! Oh,I actually spotteda small grammatical error.


    It was really gratifying for some reason.Probably because I had to rely on aFREAKINGsheep of all things to communicate for days.


    With my newfound confidence, I told Galu he could go home first. I wanted to know if there was a library too, but I was so tempted to ask passersby for directions instead with my new grasp of the language!


    The people here were very kind. Some old man in the middle of jogging even led me straight to it as he jogged.


    "Follow me, it''s not far away!"


    "Thank you!"


    It really wasn''t far. I was there in an instant. Now I can-


    ...


    Oh my god, I''m so stupid! I should have come with Galu so that he could get the books for me...


    I expected Tablet to berate me, but thankfully, it kept quiet. I decided to just drive back to Galu''s cottage and spend the rest ofthe day reading Thunder Hero.


    <hr>


    It was pretty cliche, to be honest. Tragic backstory, heroic MC, whatever, blah blah. I mean, I still enjoyed it, but I didn''tsee why Galu liked it so much. The skieswere already darkenedby the time I was done reading the first volume; I could hear crickets from the grass in his garden. It was very peaceful.


    [7:42 PM]


    Yueler came out of the house just Ifinished reading the first chapter ofthe next book. He was holding a platter with a huge slab of meat covered in mushrooms, herbs and vegetables.


    "Here," he said. "It''s from the Ice Ape Galu took down this morning."


    "Thanks."


    I received it through my window, along with a fork and knife.


    "You should come in and eat with us. It''s merrier that way, isn''t it?"


    I felt a bit touched, but in the end, I wasn''t a person. Can''t exactly squeeze myself through the doorway.


    "Ah, it''s fine. I prefer to be alone anyway."


    Yueler shrugged and went back in. I didn''t know why, but I felt a tiny bit saddened.


    After I was sure he wouldn''t suddenly come out again, I floated itinto my mouth. Eating ape, isn''t that kind of weird since they''re humanoids too? Well, that didn''t apply for me.


    It was very juicy and meaty. The mushrooms and vegetable paired very well too.Delicious, definitely a lot better than the fruit.


    I couldn''t help but wonder if it was another intelligent animal like so many I''ve met though. That made me feel slightly uneasy.


    It didn''t stop me from wanting another serving, but I felt like it would be rude to ask for more. They probably didn''t even cook that much. I put the platter and cutlery beside the doorstep and continued to read, turning on the lights inside me.


    Time flew by. By the time I was done, it was 1 AM.


    I guess I should meet the robo- no, golems now? And I wanted to continue reading...why did the the story have to get to a cliffhanger now of all times? Stupid author.

 39. About The Unbound

    Sheepy was already asleep by now. It was a good thing I could now actually talk without outside aid. Well, unless Radio counts.


    When I got to my destination, I saw the two golems standing outside the shut gates.


    "Took you long enough," Jaxt said.


    "Sorry, I wasn''t too sure when was late enough."I decided to just let Radio speak.


    Jaxt simple grabbed the metal bars and climbed over, ignoring the spiked top. Minnie continued to stand outside.


    "Hmm, I''m not too sure where to start to be honest." Jaxt mumbled.


    "Just tell it to them straight."


    "Feels a bit sudden to me. Eh, whatever."The golem rubbedits chin. "Okay, so you wanted us to cover about the Unbound, right?"


    "Yeah?"


    "Okay, so I feel like I need to start off with the dwarves. They are responsible for making most of us."


    I guess that isn''t very surprising consider their gigantic scrapyard.


    "Humans, elves and whatever can makeus too if they feel like it."


    "Doesn''t matter, Minnie. Shut up." Jaxt glared at it. "Anyway, when us golems are made, they usually bind our souls to follow commands."


    "Souls?"


    "Yes, we have those too. They create an artificial soul for the core, and that''s basically our very being.If you ask me, it''s basically the same thing asthe brainsanimals have."


    Souls seemed very magical to me. Iworried ifIeven souls for a bit since Earth didn''t seem very magical, but then I decided it probably didn''t matter much whether I had one. Seemed a bit crazy how people could even make them in this world though.


    "The bindings are a part of the manufacturing process, practically ingrained into our very cores. At least for most core models. I heard Unbound''s leader was one of those specially madeto be unbound, ironically."


    "So it ran away and figured out how to unbind golems, then made some sort of group?"


    "Yeah, pretty much. I think you get it by now." Jaxt shrugged. "I think what probably happened for you was this. Most likely, one of the Unbound members saw a chance to unbind you when you were parked, but had to run away when the owner came back."Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.


    "That doesn''t make sense." Minnie butted in. "Why wouldit assume a vehicle had a golem core? Most of those don''t."


    Jaxt paused for a bit.


    "I don''t know! What else could explain it?" it said angrily.


    Hah, if they knew how I actually got here...


    "But why didn''t you two run away?"


    "Huh?" Jaxt asked.


    "I mean, they must have freedyou two and told you about it, right? Since you''re telling us about this."


    "Well, we''ve been guarding thistown for hundreds of years. The people here don''t treat us badly, andI''ve grown to likeita lot. Sort of like a gratitude thing, you know?" The golem sighed. "Honestly, Ireally support their cause, but it would feel wrong for me to just leave. I''ve gotten used to being here too. I guess maybeI do want to see the outside world a bit, but then again it''s probably not as glamorous as I imagine."


    That sounds like a lot of work to me...


    "Hmph. You are too soft, MN356."


    "MINNIE!" Jaxt yelled.


    "I''ll call you Jaxt when you stop calling me that."


    "Pfft."


    Radio, askit how much it earns.


    "Do you get pay or anything?"


    "Huh? What would I do with money? Throw it at troublemakers?"


    You''ve been guarding this place for no pay for hundreds of years! They are the ones who should be grateful, not you! Oh my goodness. Is this some kind of advanced Stockholm syndrome?


    "But what about you, uh... MN356?" Radio asked. "Why not leave if you aren''t as attached?"


    "It''s for a very simple reason. Rebellion is no joke." Minnie said. "I''m not risking my life for a cause like that."


    "Bah. You could have wandered off elsewhere on your own if you didn''t like this town."


    "And get captured, forcefully bound again and resold? I''m happy enough here without having to deal with pursuers."


    "Say what you will. You still like this town," said Jaxt. "As for you- hmm, you haven''t told us your name. Or do you not have a name?"


    I guess I didn''t technically have one. But I was fine being called Truck and I''m the only one here. A bit sad to be honest.


    "Truck."


    "Weird name... Well, anyway, I''d urge you to find them, but I actually have no idea where they are. Still, it''s better than having nowhere to go though, no?"


    I don''t know about this.I could try to find and jointhat group, but it might not be the safest since they''re rebeling? That or risk getting caught by the dwarves that put a bounty on me. Both sounded not very nice to me.


    "I''ll consider it."


    "Good."


    Jaxt climbed back over the gate. There was an awkward silence.


    "So... are you just going to stand here or something?" Jaxt asked after a few minutes. "I''m not really one for idle chatting and I''ve already told you what you need to know."


    "Do you two do anything else other than just standing there? Like, do the people let you have entertainment?"


    "Entertainment? I never saw the charm of it. Minnie sculpts little figures out of ice or rocks sometimes, but itstomps them into powder when morning comes anyway so I don''t see the point."


    "Not even books or anything?"


    "Nah. We just stand here for the most part."


    I was filled with pity for the two. They must have never had any fun! Well, then again, not that I had much either.


    Opening my window, I floated volume one of Thunder Hero over.


    "Huh? What are you doing?"


    "You can read, right? Might as well since you have nothing better to do."


    "Seriously? No, I don''t need it, I-"


    I drove off before Jaxt could say anymore. Maybe it was just my imagination, but Minnie seemed to be holding back a chuckle.


    Not much to do now but continue reading for the night, I guess. Hopefully, Galu won''t ask where volume 1 went.

 40. Pots

    Before I knew it, the sun rose.


    I heard Sheepyget up, so I dumped a pile of hay before it, then went back to reading. But unexpectedly, it didn''t immediately pounce on the food.


    "Hey, should we do some grinding or something?" it asked, sounding something nervous.


    This sheep of all ''people'' being diligent?That seemed odd to me.


    Why?


    "To get stronger?"


    Nah.


    It was so relaxing just resting at this town and reading. I didn''t see the need to immediately get stronger. Not like there''s some imminent crisis or anything, right?


    "How about getting me some pots? For gardening."


    Oh, that reminded me of it picking that useless class. Urgh. But I guess what''s done is done. Maybe itwould somehow have some uses down the road, like taming or growing some crazy carnivorous plant monsters?


    Tablet, can it-


    [Stop asking me about everything. I''m not Yoogle.]


    ...


    Fine, I guess I''ll just find out for myself. Maybe I''ll just release Sheepy once I find a stronger pet if the class turns out useless.


    Galu and his family were probably still sleeping, so I decided to go ahead and ask around like yesterday. Maybe I could try to pull the sheep radio thing again.


    "Why not ask someone to help. I- uh... am not a huge fan of doing that thing."


    Hm. I guess that''d be less conspicuous.


    Good idea. Oh, and sorry about doing that previously. Beingtied tothat dumb sheep must be kind of annoying, right?


    "Haha... not really. I just find it embarrassing how people keep staring at us."


    By chance, I found the same old man jogging again, so I asked for his help.


    "Oh, you''re new here, aren''t you! Follow me!"


    "Thanks!"


    I was led to a general store. When I asked him if he could help me getfour pots, he was somewhat annoyed but perked right up when I offered him one silver. The total price wound up to be 2 silver, 3 if the old manwas considered.


    I plopped all the pots before Sheepy.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    So, where do you want to place the pots? On top of me?


    "What? Of course inside you!"


    Then how are the plants going to get sunlight?


    "Huh?"


    That idiot sheep... it didn''t even know plants needed light.


    Plants need light to grow!


    "Nonsense!"


    After trying to explain why plants need sunlight to grow to it for a bit, I failed to convince it. I decided that letting it see the process for itself would teachthe dumb sheep a lesson.


    I went outside of town and drove quite a distance,planning to grab some soil from under the snow. I used telekinesis to flick the snow aside.


    Urgh, there was a layer of ice underneath. How did plants here even grow?


    "Thunk!"


    Something touched me! I quickly looked and saw Jaxt. Phew, I thought it could be something bad.


    "Jaxt? Why are you here?"


    The golem handed me the book I handed it yesterday, looking away, but I could still see the embarrassed expression onitsface.


    "I''m here to give it back."


    I guess it didn''t read the book in the end. Oh well, its loss.


    "Also... can you hand me volume two?"


    What?!


    Radio laughed.


    "You read it!"it saidexcitedly.


    "Minnie dared- pressured me into reading it! I wouldn''t have read it otherwise."


    I felt a strong sense of satisfaction (and maybe a bit of smugness). Despite what it said, what person in the world could truly live without entertainment?


    "But you liked it, right?"


    Jaxt looked very frutrated.


    "Fine, I liked it! Happy?"


    "That''s great!"


    "Whatever, hand me the next book."


    "I could hand you the next book, but why not ask the people for books yourself? I''m sure they won''t mind letting you have them."


    Ah, Radio had a point.


    "Oh." Jaxt sounded unsure. "They''re not supposed to know I''m unbound though. I''ve thought of telling them in the past, but I''ve always felt afraid..."


    "Don''t worry, it''ll be fine! Like you said yesterday, gratitude! I''m sure they''re very grateful for your help too, with how long you''ve spent protecting them. Go for it!"


    Huh, I never knew Radiowas so good with words.


    "I... I-" Jaxt stammered. "You''re right! I need to be brave. Thank you so much forthe advice."


    "No problem!"


    Just as it was about to walk away, I suddenly thought of something.


    "Really? At a time like this?" Radio whispered to me.


    Yeah, no choice.


    "Hnnn..."


    "Jaxt, mind helping us with a small favour?"


    "What is it?"


    "I''m trying to fill some pots with soil but I don''t have hands."


    The helpful golem cut through the ice with ease and filled the pots in no time. I thanked it and headed back.


    For the seeds, I smashed the fruits violently on the ground to get them out, then shoved the seeds into the pots. The mushed fruit didn''t taste as good and haddirty snowmixed in, but it wasn''t like I had a knife.


    There, the seeds are planted. I hope you''re happy when they don''t grow.


    "Pfft. You''ll see." Sheepy snorted.


    That smug expression... I really wanted to hit it in the face.


    <hr>


    Deep underground, a huge cave wascoated in ice. The ice was several metres thick, practically an impenetrable barrier.


    There, laid a huge 15-metre long dragon covered in blue scales curled around a magical barrier. Frosty mist wafted off it.


    "Urgh, that bastard. He was supposed to takethe shift a thousand years ago!" the dragon complained. "I can''t believe I''m still here, babysitting you."


    Inside the barrier, the shrivelled and frozen corpse of a horned man didn''t reply.


    "You must be pretty bored too, huh? Well, I doubt you''re even listening. Not in your condition. Urgh, I really shouldn''t have agreed to this. Think of how much I could have done were I not here! You''re probably the only one in the world more miserable than me."


    After sitting here for almost two thousand years, the ice dragon had gotten a bad habit of talking to the corpse when she got bored. She yawned. It was not the first time either. She had yawned thousands of times here.


    Maybe a little nap wouldn''t hurt, she thought.Staying awake so many years had taken a toll on her.


    As the dragon closed her eyes, the corpse finally opened its own.

 41. Hunt

    "Hey, Truck, why not join us on our hunting trip?" Galu asked.


    This time, he was properly geared, wearing some sort of light armour that glinted in the light and the same bag he had yesterday. I noticed it looked a lot smaller for some reason. Behind, his mother, Alena followed in fairly similar gear, but with a normal longsword in a scabbard on her belt.


    Did I really have to? I had so much fun reading... Reluctantly, I looked up from my book and checked the time on Tablet.


    [1:02 PM]


    I guess I really shouldn''t pass up on the chance to ''power-level''. Still, I thought they already had enough food?


    "I thought you already had a whole ice ape?" Radio asked.


    "We sold most of it to the butcher. Eating the same thing every day would be boring!" said Galu.


    Hestabbed the ground with his sword repeatedly, excited. Were all kids that hyper, or it was just him?


    "Yueler! Are you sure you don''t want to come along?" Alena turned to the house and shouted.


    "Someone needs to guard the house!"


    The woman sighed.


    "He''s like that sometimes, don''t mind him,"she said to me. "I wonder when he got so lazy? Was it when we settled together?"


    Please don''t blabber like your husband and son.


    "Oh, by the way, mind letting us in?"


    Wait, what?


    "Mom!" said Galu. "It''s not as fun if we just ride all the way!"


    Helooked at me with an ''I''ve got you'' face, which surprised me. So it wasn''t just him being hyper. I should find some way to thank the nice boy later.


    "Well, you can run outside if you want, I''d rather-"


    "Ah, what if Galu runs away again? You might want to keep an eye on him."


    Nice save, Radio!


    "Oh, that''s true. I really need to keep a closer eye on him." Alena mused.


    Galu looked at me with a betrayed look. Haha, sorry.


    Along the way, I was pleased to find out she was not the talkative type. Galu handed her his sword andgot busy running around and picking up various plantsand bugs he saw, which meant he wasn''t blabbering. Ah, so peaceful...


    "Mom, look! A giant snowbug!"


    Galu held up a squirming white pillbug thing about the size of a basketball, before stuffing it into his bag. Was he really supposed to collect bugswhile looking gathering?If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "Nice," she said in a bored tone.


    It wasn''t the only bug he grabbed either, he probably gathered dozens.I was surprisedshe didn''t stop him.


    With how much time he ran around, I was surprised we reached the destination so quickly. It was the cavey areaYueler led me to previously.


    Galu ran into one of the caves right away. Really? Without his sword?


    "Wait for us here," Alena said.


    "Okay."


    She plopped down his sword beside me and entered the same cave at a leisurely pace. I guess they must be pretty strong for them to be so confident.


    Wolf barks echoed out of the cave. Wolf meat? I felt likethat was kind of wrong after making friends with Biggie. Maybe I''ll just say I''m not hungry later during dinner...


    Wait, if they justwent into the dens andfoughtthere, then what''s the point of me coming here? I wouldn''t get any EXP this way! So unlucky...


    Twowolves ran out with, practically grinning. Huh? Alena and Galufollowed out too.


    "They''re our helpers," she said, petting one of them with a vague smile.


    Oh. I felt somewhat relieved.


    Galu tried to climb onto one of them, but it shook him off.


    "Hey, stop! How many times did I tell you we''re not for riding?" it said angrily.


    "I''ll give you double the meat later!"


    "Y-you..." the wolf looked conflicted. "I- We have pride as wolves, too!"


    Galu took out a piece of jerky and dangled it before the wolf with a devious grin on his face.


    "Stop!" Alena smacked the jerky from the hands of her son.


    "Awwww..." Galu whined.


    "Sorry,he''s being a pest again. I''ll give you a bit of a bonus later."


    The wolf peeled its eyes from the piece of jerky reluctantly and bowed slightly.


    "Thank you, madam!"


    "Now, let''s go," she said.


    As I followed her, Inoticed thewolf looking around cautiously, as if to make sure no one was looking. Then it ran back andate the jerky on the floor beforehurriedly catching up with us.


    Heh. I''m gonna call it Jerky from now on.


    "Where are we going?"asked Radio.


    "We''re planning to hunt some ice boar. Our two friends here are experts at tracking prey." Alenapointed to the wolves.


    Ice boar? The people here really weren''t creative with names...


    The wolves began sniffing around. Around twenty minutes later, Jerky suddenly turned to us.


    "I smell it... be quiet,"itsaid.


    "You! You are too obvious." the other wolf barked at me. "Get out of the vehicle!"


    Dammit!


    "I need to look after the vehicle, sorry. I guess I''ll stay here?"


    "We don''t have a choice..." Radio whispered to me.


    Urgh.


    "You do you. Just don''t blow our cover," said Jerky.


    Whatever, jerk. I''ll just sulk here alone...


    They continued without me, completely quiet. Even Galu didn''t make a sound.


    "HRRRRUUUUUUU!"


    I heard loud running and panicked barks.


    "Cover blown!" I heard Jerky yell in the distance.


    So much for that. In the distance, I saw a boar covered in ice armour running towards me. It quickly turned to the left after seeing me.Itwon''t evade me so easily!


    With some masterful wheel shapeshifting and engine burst, I barely managed to intercept the boar with a crash.


    "HUUUUU!" the boar was knocked over.


    [-2]


    My bumper had a tusk shaped imprint from the impact. So tough... Thebeast seemed fine and tried to get up, but it got dizzy and fell over again.


    "Nice!" Galu shouted.


    The quartet ran over and started whaling on the poor boar. Galu took out his giant sword and instantly smashed through the armour, while the wolves bit its now exposed neck. Alena drew her sword.


    Wait, if they killed it, I probably won''t get the EXP!


    I quickly charged over and rammed it. Galu and the wolves ran away in panic.


    [+1481 EXP]


    [Level up! +2 Stat Points. HP refilled.]


    Whoa, that was a lot! It was probably actually really strong then.


    STR.


    [STR 5 -> 7]


    [HP 60 -> 80]


    "WHY DID YOU DO THAT!" Alena yelled.


    That scared me! Why was she so angry?


    "Look, the meat is ruined!" she pointed at the corpse.


    Oh...


    "I don''t care if you were trying to help. Next time, stay out of it. YOU GET ME?"


    Sheesh,so fierce.


    "Y-yes, madam... Sorry." Radio stammered.


    Galu looked at me with eyes of pity. Don''t give me that look!

 42. Worst Day Off

    After the incident, Morris had spent a good amount of time looking up supernaturalphenomena and superpowers online. It led to him reading several creepy horror stories that claimed to be true.


    Because of that, he slept terribly the past few days. Hetold themselvesthey weren''t true. That was just ridiculous. But after witnessing that inhuman strength from Ophie, he couldn''t help but wonder if they had some basis.It didn''t help that he began imagining monsters in the shadows as he laid in bed.


    That was why today, Morris decided to use one of his leave days to head to the localforest, hoping it would help clear his mind. He had always been a nature lover.


    After a short bus trip, he arrived.


    He walked through the woods, taking in the fresh air. Ah, so much better than the ''polluted'' air in the cities. Though he figured it might just be placebo.


    Footsteps came from behind him as he walked.


    "Hey, Morris! Is that you?"


    He turned around, and saw a blonde man in grey jogging attire smiling.


    "Oh, it''s you, Brad."


    To think he''d meet one of his old friends here! They had not seen each other in years. Morris felt pretty lucky. Today was a pretty good day.


    The two friends had a good chat for a bit. Brad had to leave after an hour, but they exchanged numbers.


    Now he was alone again. As he walked, a crazy thought crept into his head.


    Alone. In a forest. The perfect time for horrors to strike. Morris began to get nervousdespite how dumb it was.He told himself he wasn''t a kid.


    It was then when he saw a ghostly light in the distance.


    Someone playing with a flashlight? Sunbeams?


    Screw this. He didn''t care what it was. He ran.


    The sound of hooves approached. He ran quicker. His fat body did not agree. His lungs hurt from all the panting. His legs were sore. He heard it get closer.


    Finally, he collapsed. The sounds stopped. He heard gentle breathing behind him; it did not sound human. Gingerly, he turned around.


    It was a stag with a majestic white coat, its antlers glowed with a gentle white light. It stared at him intensely with its bright blue eyes.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.


    "You... what are you...?" He couldn''t help but say.


    The deer spoke in a strange tongue. He couldn''t understand a word, but he could hear the anger and anxiety in its voice.


    Morris figuredthis was probably some sort of mythical beast from legends, or just a possessed deer. But in any case, this was definitely better than some horrible monster.


    "I''m sorry. I don''t understand you."


    Morris was surprised he was calm enough to speak.


    The deer was not having it. It got angrier and angrier, leaning closer towards his face as it shouted. Orbs of light formed on its antlers. Beautiful, he thought. They shot off like little missiles and cleaved holes through the surrounding trees.


    Oh. That was very bad. Morris froze.


    And a second later, ahuge boar encased in icepoppedout of nowhere andcrashed onto on the deer. The sound of breaking bones came from it. Blood leaked onto the ground. The boar stared at him with a ferocious look.


    Gathering all the strength he had, Morris screamed at the top of his lungs. The boar also screamed.


    Thebeast ran away as fast as it could. Thank goodness, he thought.


    This was the worst day ever.Morris laid on the ground for what felt like hours. Part of him wanted to turn over and look at the deer, but he just wanted to lie on the grass and never move again. He told himself he would never go into a forest ever again.


    The sound of running came from the distance.


    "Hi!"


    Morris finally got up and saw the person he least expected. Ophie.


    "Uh... what are you doing here?"


    "Someone dabbed! And you were screaming?"


    The crazed man hopped around as if he were on a sugar high and looked all over the place, then at the deer.


    "Oh, deer! I will heal youuu!"


    Ophie touched the deer. To the shock of Morris, the wounds began closing up.


    "How are you doing that?!" he asked.


    "I am a superstar! What will I do if my fans get injured?" Ophie nodded meaningfully.


    That didn''t answer the question at all. Morris wondered how they even managed to capture this freak in past.


    The deer stood up and bowed to Ophie, saying something. The man rubbed its head with a gleeful smile.


    "Oh, you speak the bread man''s language!"


    The two began to converse in the mysterious language. Morris wondered if he was hallucinating.


    After some talking, the deer let Ophie get on it. It ranoff with incredible speed.


    The officer watched in wonder until something occurred to him.


    "Wait! Wait for me! I don''t want to be alone here!"


    <hr>


    "Free! I am free at last! Ahahahaha!"


    A ghostlyfigure floated above the snoring ice dragon, staring at his body in the prison. Unfortunate, but he couldn''t escape with his body. At least it could be a decoy when the dragon wakes up.


    "Now, all I need to do is to find something to possess! I will soon call upon my armies and raze this world again!" he laughed, ignoring the sleeping dragon.


    After being trapped for so long, he too had gotten a bad habit of talking to himself. As hefloated through the walls of the caves, he started to panic.


    "This... I must be deep in the belly of the planet!" he cried. "If I don''t find a body soon, my weakened soul will dissipate. Cursed dragon, trapping me for so long!"


    Desperately, he flew upwards as fast as he could, trying to sense life. He felt his soul getting weaker and weaker.


    Moments away from fading, he felt the aura of life above.


    "Yes! Ahahahaha!"


    In an instant, he swooped in and possessed the creature without a second look.


    "Luck has sided with me again!" he laughed."I wonder what splendid form I have taken. I am a..."


    A very cute snow white bunny with shiny red eyes.


    "Noooooooo!"

 43. Jaxt

    Dinner was a variety of bugs, crayfish and meatballs from the ruined boar.


    I guess that''s why Alena didn''t stop him. The bugs... people didn''t really eat those on Earth, did they? Or maybe that was just in the country I was in.


    The bugs weren''t too bad. They were somewhat similar to the crayfish probably because they were big enough to have flesh inside. A lot more earthy and exotic though.


    I placed the platter back at the door and waited for a bit. Maybe I had been reading a bit much lately, but I didn''t feel like I was in the mood to continue.


    Maybe I''ll pay a visit to Jaxt.


    The gates seemed unmanned as usual, but I knew the golems were there. There was an ice figurinewithout a head lying on the ground outside, its lower half was incomplete; as if its legs were encased in ice.


    I guess Minnie lost interest halfway and tossed it aside.


    "Jaxt?"


    There was no reply. Tsk. Wasit trying to ignore me? Well, I knew just the thing to get his attention.


    "Truck, that''s kind of rude..."


    Say it!


    "Urgh."


    "MN356!"


    A silhouette appeared, Jaxt. His face was devoid of emotion.


    "What is it?"it said monotonously.


    I got a bad feelingsuddenly.


    "Um, Jaxt... did asking them for the books go well?"


    For a brief moment, I thought I saw a sorrowful look on its face. But it was gone in an instant.


    "Sorry," it said.


    "J-jaxt?"


    The golem vanished.


    No... It couldn''t be but...


    All the signs pointed to it. They must have bound Jaxt again!


    "Oh no..."


    I couldn''t believe it. This was how they treated someone who protected their place for so long? I had to leave this place.


    "Wait!"Radio cried. "We can ask them for help!"


    Them? Oh, Galu and his family. Maybe they could help, but...


    It''s risky. We shouldn''t stay here any longer!This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "They should be able to do something! Please..."


    My instincts screamed at me to leave. But hearing Radio''s plea, I hesitated.


    Fine. But we will leave right after that!


    I sped back to their house.


    "Yueler!"


    Chatter from the house stopped for a bit before he came out.


    "Oh, already finished with your-"


    "We- I need your help!"


    "Huh?"


    "You know Jaxt, right? The guard golem!"


    "Uh, yes?"


    "They''ve bound him! You can do something, right?"


    Yueler looked flabbergasted but I couldn''t blame him. I''d never seen Radio so pushy. I understood wanting to help people but... wasn''t that a bit much distress for someone we met not long ago?


    "I only came out to collect your plate..." he muttered to himself.


    "Please!"


    It explained to him what happened.


    "I see. I understand how you feel but, there''s not much I can do. I''m just a swordman the mayor trusts."


    "But..."


    "Besides, they didn''t have a choice. Th-"


    "What do you-"


    "Shut up and let me talk! Gods..." he interrupted. "There''s a lot of tension and distrust because of the Unbound right now. I''m guessing they had to do it in casehe was a spy."


    "There''s nothing to spy on here-"


    "Nothing, but if word got out an unbound golem was guarding the place, people would probably not respond well."


    "So all those years he spent protecting your town... and this is how he gets repaid?"


    There was moment of silence. Finally, Yueler sighed.


    "Unfortunate indeed. But life isn''t always fair," he said. "Besides, If he truly wanted to escape, I''m sure he would have. Most likely, he obediently let himself get captured."


    Radio was quiet after that. Yuelerpatted me on my bumper and shook his head before heading back.


    I felt tempted to say something to Radio, but I felt like now might not be the time.


    "It''s fine. I''m fine."


    So it wasn''t fine at all.


    In a sense,its life didn''t really change, did it? I mean,it''sjust standing there and guarding, itjust can''t run away, whichit wouldn''t in the first place?


    I immediately realised how inappropriate what I said was.


    "He has to live with the fact that they betrayed him. It''s all my fault..."


    You tried your best to help. And-


    "I shouldn''t have tried."


    ...


    I decidedto give Radio some time.


    Jaxt to let me out when I reached the gate. The wind howled.


    How despondent. I drove down the empty roads. Where would I even go now?


    "BANG!"


    [-23]


    White-hot pain seared through me. I wanted to scream.Sheepy screamed.


    There was a huge hole in my cargo compartment.


    "You! This is all your fault!"


    A hand grabbed me by the bumper and dragged me down the road. Minnie?


    [-5]


    "I didn''t mean to. I''m so sorry..." Radio started crying.


    Oh god. I did not want to die like this.


    <hr>


    The demon lord calmed down in an instant. He could always just kill the host and possess a new body once he recovered enough.


    He reached out to devour the soul of the bunny but encountered fierce resistance.


    "Impossible!"


    "Ahhh! Who are you? Why are you bitting me?" the soul of the bunny squeaked.


    "Die!"


    The two souls fought for control over the body for minutes. Finally, both wereexhausted.


    "No... to be on the same level as this disgusting vermin.... how weak have I become?"


    "Bully! You beat me up and now call me vermin! I''m telling mom!"


    "Still... I am fairly lucky. I would have been destroyed if I possessed anything stronger."


    "Stupid bully! Only dumb people talk to themselves!"


    The demon''s soul glared at the rabbit, making it shriek.


    "I talk to myself when I feel like it. Scum like you should shut your mouth and scurry back to the sewers!"


    "Stupid! Rabbits live in the forest, not sewers!"


    "Gahhh!"


    The demon was tempted to start attacking the rabbit''s soul again but held back. If he kept that up, both of them would fade away even in the protection of a living body.


    Grudgingly, he decided that swallowing its pride was its best bet.


    "Say... let''s make a deal. You want power, don''t you? I can grant you unending power, enough to rule the world!"


    "Stupid bully! You don''t even have the power to beat me!" the bunny stuck its tongue out at him.


    The demon slapped the bunny in the face.

 44. Buried

    Minnie readied its right arm.


    I tried to drive backwards, but the golem''s iron grip would not loosen. Several minutes passed. I was so scared.


    Finally, the golem let go, rage slowly fading from its face. There was now only calm, which was somehow scarier. It headed to my door and smacked it.


    "Open up!"


    As it reached for the handle, Iquickly opened it. That bastard... if I didn''t open up, I was 90% sure it would have ripped my door open by force!


    Minnie sat on my seat and grabbedmysteering wheel, turning it. I didn''t move, because none of my pedals were pressed.


    "Wha-what are you doing?"Radio stopped crying, its voice filled with shock.


    "Get going. We are going to find Unbound."


    After a few moments, I understood. The golem was thinking of getting them to save Jaxt, using me to cover it up. I felt a huge sigh of relief, but I still felt pretty angry at it. It''s not likeits friend getting bound was my fault or Radios, taking out its anger on me was so uncalled for!


    Radio, tellit to stop touching the steer so I can move.


    "I understand, I''ll do my best to save Jaxt!"


    ...


    Um.


    "So... can you let go and let me drive?"


    Minnie let go. I quickly started driving before it could get angry again. As I moved, Jaxt kept staring at my controls as they moved which made very uneasy. Was it somehow going to be able to learn how to use mycontrols?


    I decided to get Radio to ask it some questions.


    "Where do you plan to look for them? Do you have a lead or something?"it sounded hopeful.


    Wait... wasRadio on Minnie''s side?


    "No no! I don''t agree on him being violent but I do want to save Jaxt..."it whispered in English.


    Minnie raised an eyebrow after hearing the ''strange language'', but didn''t question it.


    "I don''t have any. Headto a dwarven city; they might be snooping around there."


    That sounded really bad, considering how I was wanted, but I guess that made sense... But if they were confident enough to free golems without alerting the dwarves, could we really find them?


    Radio communicated my worries to it. The golem seemed to deflate a bit.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    "They might look for us. Head there anyway."


    "So... the dwarves in the nearest city have put a bounty on me. Maybe-"


    Minnie grined its teeth. Please don''t break anything...


    "You hide somewhere while Ilook around."


    "Oh... where?"


    "You''ll see."


    What the hell was that supposed to mean? That it didn''t know? I didn''t feel like asking was safe though, so Icontinued, driving down the mountain and back into the grasslands.


    The city soon came into sight. I could see many lights from a distance.


    "Where do I hide?"Radio asked.


    Minnie got out and seemed to focus for a bit. It struck the groundrepeatedly anddug out tons of soil, leaving a hole at least 5 metres in.


    Wait¡­ it wanted me to go in there?


    "Uh..."


    As if to answer my question, the golem shoved me into the hole and started covering me with soil. I was speechless.


    ¡°Hey! You can¡¯t do this!¡± Radio shouted.


    Minnie ignored it, burying me in moments. I got kind of worried. What if it decided to just leave me and never come back as revenge?


    Well¡­ at least I could still look outside and read for now. Oh wait, what about Sheepy? How was it going to get air? I quickly looked in the cargo.


    Sheepy was still sound asleep, somehow. Hopefully, that would save a bit of oxygen.


    I decided to still look outside from where I was buried for a bit though. Hmm, I kind of felt like a spy of sorts, perfectly hidden. Kind of cool actually, ignoring the fact that I can¡¯t get out. And the lack of grass where I was buried. Dammit, be more through, Minnie!


    I thought I heard grass rustling in the distance, but whatever made that sound was long gone when I looked. Probably just some wild animal or the wind.


    <hr>


    After a bit more fighting, the two souls finally made a truce. Grudgingly, he allowed the bunny to control the whole body, while he got access to its senses.


    For the first time, he saw the room. It was a small room with light pink walls, filled with many pet toys and a table with food bowls and various supplies on top. Immediately, the demon lord realised what was going on.


    ¡°Unbelievable! To become a pet of all things¡­ how humiliating! Still, it is good I am not left in the wild in such a weak form. Thought I could try to possess the predator¡­¡±


    ¡°Ruddde! I am not a pet!¡±


    The two argued for a bit more before the door suddenly opened. A little girl in a floral dress ran in with a basket of vegetables with a wide grin on her face.


    The rabbit stopped arguing and hopped over to her in excitement.


    ¡°Mom, mom! I¡¯m hungry! And a big bully is trying to eat me, but he is weak!¡±


    For a split second, the demon panicked, but he realised that to the girl, all the bunny was saying was ¡°pip pip pip¡±.


    ¡°Pipi! You must be so hungry! Haha, I got all your favourites today!¡±


    But just as he was about to relax again, he realised something.


    ¡°WHAT? A lord like me eating¡­ plants like a vermin! I want meat! MEAAAAT!¡± he screamed.


    Pipi was in control of the vocal cords, so no sound came out.


    ¡°Unbelievable¡­ you eat stuff like this daily?¡± he asked the rabbit.


    ¡°You are crazy! Why would you want meat when veggies are so tasty?¡± Pipi snorted.


    As the bunny hopped over to chew on lettuce, the demon lord was horrified to find it tasted pretty good. After all, he was experiencing it through the bunny¡¯s tastebuds, not his own.


    The girl pet Pipi, so it looked up. This was when the demon lord noticed her pointed ears. Urgh, he hated elves with their ¡®goody two shoes¡¯ attitude. No wonder they kept vermin like this.


    That was when he got a brilliant idea.


    ¡°Yes! All I need to do is-¡°


    Wait, no! He shouldn¡¯t be saying it out loud. Dammit, he cursed to himself. He really should get his habit of talking to himself fixed. Now that he was out of the prison, there was no point in that.


    His brilliant idea was simple. As someone who came to this world to conquer it and replace all life with demons, he didn''t really pay attention much attention to the biology here. So as far as he knew, a rabbit would live as long as a human or something.


    But if there was one thing elves were famous for, it was their ridiculous lifespan that could reach thousands. Even he knew that. He cackled to himself.


    He would make the rabbit realise it would die long before its ¡®mom¡¯ and make it cooperate with him with the promise of a longer life! Not that he was going to keep his end of the promise, of course.

 45. Bandits Revenge

    Trevor ran.


    He saw it! The machine that killed their boss. It had been buried by who he assumed to be the owner.


    Under the cover of night, he could not tell the golem apart from a person. Otherwise, he wouldn¡¯t have thought so.


    To think he¡¯d spot it while foraging; he couldn¡¯t tell if he was lucky or not. On one end, he wanted revenge, but such thoughts had started to die down. It was mostly in the heat of the moment when that drive burned strong.


    He sighed.


    "I''ll just tell the group and get it over with."


    <hr>


    I heard whispers as I flipped through my book, so I looked outside. A group of hooded figures were sneaking around.


    Wait, it was those bandits from a few days back! Urgh, I really didn¡¯t want to see them again.


    Please tell me they didn¡¯t spot Minnie digging me. But then again, it was almost two hours since I had been buried. The golem was taking an awfully long time¡­


    ¡°While I was following them, I saw him bury it there. Let''s just destroy his machine and make a run for it.¡±


    ...


    Why did I assume my luck wouldn''t screw me over?


    The bandit that spoke earlier- oh, he was the one that threw the mace at my windows! He held his lantern towards me, illuminating the suspicious mound of soil without grass.


    Another bandit looked around nervously.


    ¡°A-are you sure he won¡¯t just come back? He must be a fairly powerful mage to be able to bury something so big!¡± he stuttered. ¡°And what if we get spotted?¡±


    ¡°Shush! We have the monster cards to protect us. It¡¯ll be fine.¡±


    ¡°You really think monsters sealed for a children¡¯s card game would be that strong?¡± nervous bandit asked.


    ¡°They¡¯re strong because those greedy moneybags want them to function as bodyguards for their kids! Otherwise, who would let their children play cards so expensive?¡±


    ¡°If they¡¯re willing to pay several gold for just a meal-¡°


    ¡°Yeah, whatever! I¡¯ll try to unseal one of the cards¡­¡± the mace thrower said.


    They literally have cards that sealed monsters? Yeah, just perfect. I was already injured from Minnie¡¯s rampage and now this.The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Mace thrower fiddled with a card for a while before it started to glow with blue light. He threw it away from him.


    A huge crab as big as a car landed on the ground where he threw the card.


    ¡°Whoa!¡± the other bandits seemed amazed.


    ¡°We¡¯ll destroy the vehicle, then make a run for it. He¡¯ll come back with no idea what happened!¡± mace said.


    Wait, what? Dammit!


    They started attacking me first and now they wanted to enact ¡®revenge¡¯ on me? I can¡¯t even escape because that stupid golem buried me!


    ¡°INITIATE SELF DESTRUCT! ONE! TWO!¡±


    Wait, what? What the heck was Radio saying?


    ¡°Uh, shit¡­¡± it whispered. ¡°FIVE!¡±


    "What the heck?"


    The bandits hurriedly backed away.


    Radio? What the heck?


    ¡°Sorry, I panicked. Thought pretending would scare them away.¡±


    ¡­


    ¡°FOUR! THREE!¡±


    I suddenly thought of a brilliant idea. What if I tried to eat the dirt away so I could drive out? Hurriedly, I started chomping on the soil. It tasted so disgusting that I wanted to hurl, but I continued.


    ¡°The ground is shaking!¡± they yelled.


    After a few bites, I realised that I couldn¡¯t really take proper bites due to my bumpers shape, so that wouldn''t get me out. I sacrified my tastebuds for nothing...


    Tablet! Is there anything you can do?


    [I can do with you not bothering me.]


    Come on! It''ll be easy for you to defeat them, right?


    It didn''t answer. Why did that stupid tablet always have to be like it? Weren''t we friends back on Earth?


    Tsk. I guess there''s only one last thing.


    Radio, scream for Minnie to help!


    "Ehhh?! Won''t that blow our cover?"


    Our cover will be blown in like a few seconds once they realise I''m not blowing up!


    "Okay... MINNIE! HELP!"


    "Eh?" nervous bandit was confused.


    "Ah, I get it! The owner left, but there''s still a golem core installed in it. And that voice... it''s why they said there was a girl inside from the wanted poster!" mace bandit exclaimed.


    Hey, don''t assume I''m owned by Minnie!


    "Pfft, tryng to trick us. Crab, destroy it before the owner comes back!" nervous pointed to where I was buried.


    The crab scurried over me and stopped. It stood still and wiggled its eye-stalks as if confused.


    "Idiot! Attack what is below!" mace shouted at it.


    The crab made a weird angry bubbling noise, then slapped mace across the face with its pincer. To my shock, he wasn''t sent flying, only having his face turned slightly! Who would have thought a crab would have so much control over its strength?


    "Ow!"


    "Brubrbrbrbbrb... brurbrbrbbr!" it bubbled.


    "Urgh, sorry!" mace apologised with an angry look.


    Satisfied, the crab went over and started digging above me. I guess it would be too good to be true for Minnie to just be lurking around here...


    I decided to use telekinesis to punch the crab in one of its eyes.


    "Aaaaarrbbbb!" it squeaked.


    In fright, it retreated. Hah, my idea worked!


    "Hey! What the hell are you doing?"


    "Brbrbrbrbrbbrrrr!" the crab cried.


    "Enough with the brrr brrrs! Get back to work!"


    The crab frothed and went back to slapping.


    "Ow! OW! Stop!"


    As I watched, mildly amused, I heard the grass rustle from a different direction. I looked closely and saw foot shaped impressions in the grass approach. Wait, that had to be Minnie! I could help but feel relieved.


    The invisible figure ran over towards mace. I heard a loud smack followed by a vague cracking sound as he fell down, unmoving. My goodness, did he just kill that bandit? Even for Minnie, that''s a bit brutal, isn''t it?


    The bandits screamed, but one by one, they went down. Some of them tried to summon monsters with cards, but they failed. The crab ran away in fright.


    "Minnie! Isn''t that a bit... cruel?"


    A strange raspy laugh sounded.


    "I''m sorry to say this, buuut, I am not Minnie."


    A strange golem materialised above me.

 46: Out

    The golem was made of metal like Jaxt and Minnie. It was completely smooth on the outside and was very slender too, but what I found most striking was its face. It was just a blank mask with a lightly glowing green jade gem in the centre.


    "Oh... it''s still cruel though, whoever you are!" Radio said.


    It laughed in the same raspy way it did earlier.


    "They''re still alive, just unconscious. Well, they won''t be for long if wild beasts come, but that''s none of my concern."


    Radio seemed relieved somehow.


    So was this guy be one of those golems from Unbound?


    "Are you one of those Unbound guys?" Radio asked for me.


    "Hmm? Yes. By the way, I saw your antics with the other golem earlier. You''ve got a very interesting friend, huh?"


    "Haha... yeah, he is very ''interesting''. Mind digging me out?"


    To my relief, the golem agreed and started digging a ramp for me out. I was concerned someone would spot us because of how long it took, but luckily, things turned out fine. Soon, I was back on grass again, but covering in dirt. Could be worse, I guess. Some of it had spilt into the hole Minnie left on my cargo compartment, landing beside the snoring sheep.


    "Hah, that took a bit of work. Well, let''s get going to the camp now."


    "What? What about Minnie?"


    "He has been captured. We-"


    "Ehhhh? Then shouldn''t we save him?"


    That sounds a bit too risky.


    "Save him?" the golem laughed. "He was caught because he got too close to security. If we went, we''d be captured too?"


    "But-"


    "Your best bet is to follow us to the camp. You might even be able to recruit a team to try to save your friend."


    "Oh."


    Radio seemed convinced, but to be honest, I felt like something was off. If it actually saw Minnie getting caught looking for them and saw us when we came, why did it not show itself to Minnie?


    And if they could fight a city of dwarves head-on, why wouldn''t they have done so? That had to mean they weren''t strong enough!


    [Not true. It''s possible they didn''t see a reason to raid this city or are planning to in the future.]The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.


    Dammit!


    Well, it still sounds fishy in any case!


    [Obviously.]


    Urgh, if you figured it out or whatever, why don''t you tell me?


    Tablet didn''t answer. Radio seemed somewhat distressed. A few hours ago that it was trying to kill me and now my friend was getting concerned about the assailant...


    "You''re really suspicious, you know?"


    Radio listed a few of its doubts.


    The golem laughed.


    I didn''t understand why it had to keep laughing. Kind of annoying actually, especially with the raspy tone.


    "You''re not as gullible as most young golems, I see. But in the end, you don''t have a chance to save him unless you follow me back."


    "Are you getting some benefits from this or something?"


    "Mhmm, recruitment rewards."


    "Ah!" Radio said. "Then, then can you help us ''recruit'' another person?"


    "If you''re talking about Minni-"


    "No, no! We know someone else you can save and the security is low! Please..."


    Radio explained about the situation with Jaxt.


    "You don''t seem to be lying. Alright, you head back with my buddies first while I take a look."


    "Buddies? Wait, we- I should come along with you!"


    "Urgh, annoying."


    It pointed a strange device towards me-


    ...


    Urgh... where was I? Somewhat groggily, I looked around and saw metal walls around me and dangling lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. It was very cramped too.


    I felt so disorientated. Wracking my ''head'', I finally recalled the strange device. Somehow, it must have forcefully shut me down.


    That was a scary thought. The machines or golems here had close enough workings that one of their disabling devices worked on me?


    "Oh, you''re awake." Radio sounded tired.


    Were you knocked out by the device too?


    "No, I was awake, but I kept quiet after I realised you were off. I was so worried you were dead or something! They hauled you into some kind of blimp thing. We''re still on board."


    Sure enough, I could feel slight shaking as it flew.


    "I hope Jaxt will be fine... The ship took off without that raspy golem. Maybe there''s another flight?"


    I don''t know.


    Was it night or day anyway? I checked the time on Tablet.


    [9:02 AM]


    Holy crap, I had been out for so long! Whatever that device was, it''s no joke. Sheepy was somehow still sleeping.


    <hr>


    A little bunny was crying.


    "Yes! You will die long before your so-called ''mommy'' does and she will forget you by the time she grows up!"


    "Nooooo!" the bunny cried. "Sniff sniff... can you really make me live as long as her?"


    Finally, he had convinced the silly little bunny! He''d never thought he would find deceiving a little rat so satisfying.


    "Yes and you can live even longer than her, so long you''ll forget her!"


    "Nooo! Then I don''t want it!"


    Why didn''t the bunny like that? He couldn''t understand its logic.


    "I can make her live longer too, as long as you follow along."


    Right now they were being carried around by the little elf girl in a pet carrier made of wooden vines.


    "Pipi, don''t be sad! The vet is a nice person, he won''t hurt you!"


    She assumed Pipi''s tears were because it was being taken to the vet.


    "Pip! Pi pi pi!"


    "Aww, you''re so cute! I''ll let you have a carrot later, okay?"


    "Pip!"


    Soon, they were there. Pipi was put into a waiting room filled with random animals, including other rabbits, though most of different breeds. From its past experience, it learnt that most of the bunnies couldn''t ''talk'' for some reason. It had always assumed the worst, imagining things like the vet doing experiments on them that ruined their voice.


    But in truth, it was just a particularly vocal breed, known as a ''Pipping Rabbit''.


    As the caretaker who was keeping watch got distracted by a strange device, the rabbit who was lying on a table hurriedly hopped out of the window, landing on the soft grass below.

 47. Arrival

    It finally landed, a noisy landing with the sounds of wind whirling, shouting and clattering mixed in.


    [2:04 PM]


    I felt somewhat anxious. Part of me was hoping someone would let me out quickly


    But the other half of me was worried if they¡¯d do something bad to me. What if I was caught by a group pretending to be the Unbound? And if they were the Unbound, were they actually good with such treatment.


    ¡°Maybe it¡¯s just a few bad eggs?¡± Radio said.


    I hope.


    A shutter opened creakily as a young man with long hair walked in. They had people working with them too? I guess there¡¯s no reason to not hire humans despite being a golem organisation.


    ¡°Sorry about the rough treatment earlier. Xion is a bit violent with recruitment.¡± He smiled awkwardly. ¡°Honestly, we would rather not have him in the group, but he was paired with us.¡±


    Radio seemed to be relieved.


    Don¡¯t celebrate yet. I still feel like he¡¯s fishy.


    ¡°R-really?¡± It whispered.


    It¡¯s just a hunch, but still.


    ¡°I don¡¯t think you should suspect just based on something as vague as that.¡±


    A hunch.


    ¡°Okay¡­¡±


    He continued smiling as he led me out. Behind him, several golems and people came out with us and followed.


    Now outside, I took a good look at the vehicle and was surprised. It was some sort of blimp, like Radio said. But what struck me was how small the ¡®balloon¡¯ was, only twice the size of the carrier below. Probably magic super light gas or something.


    We had landed In some kind of small airport. In the distance, I could hear the sound of waves. Wait, did we just fly to a different country or something?


    I guess that would make sense, especially considering the long flight. If they were in the same country, the dwarves forces would find them easily. Still, shouldn¡¯t flying be kind of costly? Maybe magic made it a lot cheaper.


    ¡°Where are we going?¡± Radio asked, snapping out of my random thoughts.Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°We need to head to the mechanic. It¡¯s just a precaution in case the dwarves put anything nasty on you or a tracker.¡±


    Shouldn¡¯t they have checked for trackers before the blimp takes off?


    Wait, no this didn¡¯t sound good! I did not like the idea of some random fantasy world mechanic trying to fiddle with my purely science workings.


    [Yes, science that lets you open a mouth and a storage space.]


    You know what I mean!


    ¡°Um, are you sure they would know how to handle me? I¡¯m a unique model, not-¡°


    ¡°Just trust me, he knows what¡¯s he¡¯s doing.¡± said one of the golems.


    That did not reassure me in the slightest.


    Radio tried its best to convince him to let us off but to no avail. I guess I just had to do it.


    The mechanic was a¡­ dwarf? I thought they were trying to rebel against dwarves? Was she a captive or something? The dwarf was gruff looking and covered in muscles, especially around the arms. Kind of weird looking to be honest, since her legs weren¡¯t very muscly.


    ¡°Urgh¡­ let me take a break. Why today, of all days when both Roult and Ullor are sick?¡± she grumbled. ¡°I¡¯ve had to check up on nearly 20 golems today and now you want me to check up on some complicated machine model I¡¯ve never seen before? I didn¡¯t even have lunch! It¡¯s like the world is-¡°


    The dwarf continued to complain without end.


    The mam who led me here laughed awkwardly.


    ¡°I think a surface level check is good enough for now.¡±


    Hearing him, the woman grinned.


    ¡°Hah! That¡¯s what I like to hear!¡±


    I think I like the sound of that too.


    She took out some devices and scanned me with them, then opened up my hood and took a look inside me in both the cabin and cargo. She was a bit surprised to see a sheep in there.


    ¡°Pretty impressive stuff¡­¡± she muttered to herself before turning to me. ¡°Hey, can you talk?¡±


    ¡°A-ah, yes! What is it?¡± Radio stuttered.


    ¡°Just wanted to check, didn¡¯t have anything to say to you.¡±


    Okay¡­


    She took out a sheet of black metal and placed it again the hole, then focused for a bit. Wait, she must be using magic to repair me! That was great!


    Slowly, it melded, fixing the hole perfectly except for the paint.


    [+11 HP]


    What.


    Tablet, didn¡¯t I take 23 damage from that? Why am I healed for less than half of that?


    [Healing can only repair half the damage taken. You need to level up to heal completely.]


    WHAT. Bullshit!


    Whatever. I decided not to question Tablet¡¯s ¡®game logic¡¯.


    ¡°And you owe me 10 silver now. Pay up.¡±


    I cursed internally. Yeah, totally worth it.


    Grudgingly I floated the coins before her.


    ¡°Oh, I was just kidding. I didn¡¯t think you actually have money on you!¡±


    Phew.


    She snatched the coins out of the air.


    ¡°But since you offered so graciously¡­¡±


    That bastard!


    ¡°Um, can I have it back?¡± Radio asked.


    ¡°No. I was going to charge you later for it anyway.¡±


    I didn¡¯t even agree to be repaired! I could just level up and be done with it.


    Well, I guess it would be less conspicuous if a mechanic did the repairs instead of me somehow being completely healed one day, but the loss of my precious coins still pained me.


    We headed out of the building.


    ¡°Ah, to think Roult¡¯s not here today¡­ I wanted to fix my arm.¡±


    ¡°Your arm?¡±


    ¡°Yeah.¡±


    He held up his arm to me. Suddenly, it started to shake and make weird clicking sounds. I could see a segment where it was supposed to be removed, but it seemed to be stuck.


    He gripped onto it with his other hand and pulled it off with force, revealing a nasty looking gun.


    ¡°It won¡¯t come out smoothly.¡±


    So he¡¯s a golem too... Or is it just a prosthetic? Urgh, should I continue to call it him or it?


    ¡°Oh¡­ Speaking of which, where are we going anyway?¡±Radio asked.

 48. Rabbit

    The rabbit ran, stealthily hiding when elves got close.


    It didn¡¯t take long before it was out of sight and out into the forest surrounding the town.


    ¡°Do you know of anywhere with rivers?¡± the demon asked.


    From memory, he remembered elves had a tendency to make rivers run through mana crystal deposits. Back then, he was outraged, thinking it was such a huge waste of precious mana. That was why he could remember it so vividly.


    But now, it would be to his advantage.


    ¡°How would I know! I usually don¡¯t go out so far!¡± Pipi said indignantly.


    ¡°Bah! You don¡¯t even get to go out? Why do you care about your ¡®owner¡¯ so much anyway? You would be free without her!¡±


    ¡°No! She says I¡¯m getting fat all the time and always tries to get me to go out! But I didn¡¯t want to so she used slimming magic on me!¡±


    The demon was stunned. How could a creature be so lazy? He resisted the urge to berate it.


    ¡°Fine, we¡¯ll just keep looking then.¡±


    The demon lord decided that if another animal ate the rabbit, he would just try to possess whatever ate it.


    The odds weren¡¯t looking good of him defeating a predator''s soul though since he couldn¡¯t even subdue a rabbit. Still, he decided he had to take the risk.


    They wandered aimlessly for a bit. The rabbit suddenly seemed on the verge of tears.


    ¡°What is it?¡± he said, very annoyed.


    ¡°I¡¯m so tired! And so hungry!¡±


    The rabbit bent down and bit a mouthful of grass. To the demon¡¯s horror, it was very bland and slightly bitter.


    It spat out the grass and started crying.


    ¡°Waaaaa! It tastes so bad!¡±


    It had gotten too used to high quality produce.


    Curious about the fuss, a deer hopped by.


    ¡°What¡¯s wrong, little rabbit? It asked.¡±


    Unfortunately, the bunny did not understand. It had not been taught the language of the animals.Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    After hearing the rabbit¡¯s pipping constantly, it realised the little creature did not know Rolgh.


    ¡°Urgh¡­ he must be one of the pets the elves keep. I guess I should take him back.¡± it thought to itself. ¡°But it¡¯s such a long distance away, maybe I should just leave him be? No, don¡¯t think of something so cruel! But then again, it¡¯s so troublesome¡­ maybe the elves will even give me a treat for this?¡±


    It sat on the ground and pointed its head towards its back.


    ¡°Get on me, come on!¡± it grumbled.


    After a bit of effort, the bunny finally got the message and climbed on.


    ¡°Hey! Why are you just getting on some random animal?¡± shouted the demon.


    ¡°Deer are nice! Maybe she¡¯ll take me to food.¡± Pipi said, finally stopping his tears.


    The demon could not understand the logic of the naive little bunny. He wanted to rip his hair out in frustration but he didn¡¯t have hair to rip in soul form.


    ¡°Don¡¯t blame me if it eats you,¡± he said.


    ¡°Stupid! Deer only eat vegetables! Only evil people like you will eat bunnies!¡±


    ¡°What? They don¡¯t?¡±


    He was appalled. Back in his world, herbivores were almost non-existent. Everywhere, fierce predators lurked. And now he met two in a row? This planet was just way too weak, he decided, ignoring how he was defeated by heroes countless times before getting sealed.


    As the deer walked, the demon heard flowing water through the rabbit¡¯s ears. Excitement welled within him.


    ¡°There¡¯s a river nearby! We must go!¡±


    The rabbit hopped off the deer and ran towards the river.


    ¡°Ah, he must have been thirsty!¡± she thought.


    But all the rabbit did was splash the water all over himself, making her quite confused.


    In the body of the rabbit, the demon was furiously trying to absorb mana from the water. The mana pores of the rabbit were complete garbage by his standards, but right now, any amount was precious.


    Finally, he refined a tiny stripe of it. Without his expertise in magic, this would have been nearly impossible.


    ¡°Ahahaha! I¡¯ve done it!¡± he laughed deliriously.


    ¡°What is that? Looks tasty!¡±


    Before he could do anything, the soul of the bunny grabbed the mana, absorbing it.


    ¡°Aww¡­ I wanted to taste it,¡± he mumbled.


    ¡°Y-you! That¡¯s mine!¡± the demon screeched in anger.


    ¡°Okay, okay! You can keep your weird glowing lights. I-¡°


    Suddenly, the bunny realised how much stronger its soul had become. Now, if it wanted to, it could absolutely decimate the demon in a fight!


    ¡°Ahh! You were tricking me so you could beat me up!¡± the rabbit shouted. ¡°You are so evil! But I am smart, so I took it from you!¡±


    ¡°Smart? You just saw a glowing light and wanted to eat it!¡± The demon wanted to retort but refrained.


    ¡°No no, that wasn¡¯t the plan! We were supposed to take them one by one! Give the next one to me, okay?¡±


    ¡°Really? Oh, sorry then.¡±


    The demon smirked. How gullible.


    After another splash, he started to refine a new stripe. But just as he was about to absorb it, he was slapped away by Pipi.


    ¡°You! What are you doing?¡±


    ¡°Hah! I am not stupid, so I don¡¯t trust you! But you are stupid!¡±


    The demon was fuming but tried to calm down.


    ¡°Okay, you still need to let me have some, okay? I won¡¯t refine it if you act like this!¡±


    After hearing the bunny agree, went back to work, only to have the bunny snatch it away again.


    ¡°BASTARD! WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING? DO YOU WANT TO DIE? I WILL RIP YOUR HEAD OFF AND-¡°


    ¡°Hah, stupid! I am very strong now! If you don¡¯t make more, I will beat you up!¡±


    And just like that, the demon was forced. At this point, the bunny could basically beat him in a single swat. Only after the bunny consumed several more did he get to absorb some.


    As for the deer, all she saw was the rabbit constantly splashing water over itself.


    ¡°This bunny¡­ did he eat some weird mushroom and go crazy?¡± she thought.

 49. Laser Salmon

    They took me to a random building so I parked outside. I assumed they met some higher up golems after they went in.


    For some reason, we were immediately assigned a mission according to ''Mr Gunhand'', so I had to board the blimp again. Didn''t even get to say if I agreed to join or not since I couldn''t fit inside the doorway. And wasn''t it a bit late for that?


    3 PM technically wasn''t that late, but considering flight times, it might be pretty late by the time we got back.


    At least I can just read during the flight...


    <hr>


    "Landing, we have reached the destination!" a speaker announced in Gunhand''s voice.


    Huh, that only took an hour.


    I followed ''Gunhand'' and a golem with nothing but a red gem on its face out. It was the same with that golem that kidnapped me. Did they have some sort of function or was it just decoration?


    "Oh yeah, what''s the mission anyway?" Radio asked.


    I guess I should have thought of asking that before the flight.


    "We''re going to catch salmon. Apparently, it''s spawning season and they need more people to catch them."


    ...


    So let me guess, I''m just here for carrying the goods? Figures.


    I guess I shouldn''t be surprised considering what I was. Still sad though. Back on Earth, I think I also carried them often... Weird, I couldn''t remember what I was carrying them for, other than my other friends who didn''t make it here with me. No point in thinking too much about that now though.


    "By the way, do you mind if we got into you? I think it''ll be faster that way than if you just followed me."


    "Sure,"I told Radio to say.


    They got in and told me the directions from then on. I heard the sound of sizzling and crackling in the distance for some reason.


    Then, a blue stream of light suddenly shot past me, burning a random tree''s bark.


    What the heck?


    "Let''s go!" Gunhand shouted.


    Both he and the golem got out and started running ahead.Stolen story; please report.


    "Wait, where are you going?" said Radio.


    They didn''t answer so I just followed.


    Another golem in armour was fighting... several salmon.


    They had shimmering blue scales and weird bumps on their head. Several blue lasers fired from the bumps and struck the armour, leaving black marks on it. So that''s where the sizzling sounds came from.


    "Get lost! These are mine!" the armoured golem shouted after seeing up.


    "We''ll only take half from you." Gunhand grinned deviously.


    "Bastards!"


    In the end, they beat up the armoured golem, took out two crates out of nowhere and stuffed the fish in it. Was this some kind of mission where the more fish you get the more the rewards?


    Those golems should really implement rules preventing this. At least they still gave one crate to it as promised, though I suspect it had a few less fish than the crate they kept.


    "Hey, open your cargo!"


    I opened it. Sheepy was casually eating some grass I tossed out to it earlier.


    "What? Why do you have a sheep there?" Gunhand asked.


    "It''s my... pet sheep?"


    "Hey! I''m nobody''s pet!" Sheepy yelled.


    The two golems didn''t understand it.


    "Whatever," Gunhand said, tossing the crate into me.


    Hmm, I wonder how much EXP they were worth? I think those in the crates might be still alive.


    As I followed them, I tried to use telekinesis to hit one of the fish in the head over and over but to no avail. Eventually, it got angry and fired a laser, hitting another salmon.


    Soon, all the salmon got into an all out battle. Opps? All of them but one died. Well... that was awkward. The golems probably weren''t going to be too pleased about that, but at least they won''t be able to tell it''s my fault.


    The last salmon was over in burns, many of its scales burnt off. Wait, I think I could finish it off at this point!


    I grabbed the poor thing and bashed it a few times. It was probably not intelligent like the other animals I saw here anyway since they literally went nuts and killed each other over an accident.


    [Trying to justify your actions?]


    Why don''t you justify constantly bothering me?


    [+230 EXP]


    Well, that wasn''t worth it at all.


    Other animals were trying to fish too, but they ran off after seeing the golems.


    Before long, I had around ten crates loaded in. Sheepy was very displeased by the lack of space. For a moment, I wondered if I should put some of the crates in my cabin, but I decided that I didn''t want to ruin my seats and carpet if the water spilt from them.


    "You! What are you doing here?"


    Eh? Oh, it was the bear from the snowy area. I should be the one asking what it was doing here!


    "We''re here to fish. Get lost if you want to keep your life!" Gunhand shouted.


    He awkwardly tried to remove his arm for a few seconds. Finally, it came off with a lot of clicking. He pointed the gun at the bear.


    "And what''s that puny peashooter going to do?" the bear sneered.


    "BANG!"


    Wasn''t that a bit too far?


    "Crap, it went off by itself! I was only planning to do a warning shot!"


    Oh okay.


    "Ow!" the bear roared. "Bastards!"


    It charged over and smacked the two golems, sending them tumbling away.


    "I don''t have any correlation to them! Don''t hit me!" Radio shouted.


    Maybe a bit cowardly but I wasn''t going to complain in this situation. And now that I looked closer, the bullet didn''t even leave a wound on the bear.


    "Yeah, very likely." it snorted. "I''ll let you and your friends off easy this time for your favour."


    "A favour?"


    "When you woke me up, I realised it was this time of the year so I quickly ran here."


    From a bracelet around one of its front legs, a black grill suddenly popped out. It waved its paws and suddenly, flames rose from inside it.


    "Now get lost before I change my mind!" it said, throwing a salmon onto the grill.


    I dragged the two unconscious golems into my cabin and drove off back toward the blimp. Never thought I''d see a bear grilling fish...

 50. A Radios Rambling

    As we flew over the river, I saw dozens of brown bears sitting around, cooking fish and drinking from bottles.


    It felt kind of surreal, but I suppose animals as smart as people would act like them too.


    Speaking of which, I didn''t actually have any way to see directly, but since I could ''hear'' Trucky''s thoughts, I could pretty much see what he- I mean, it was looking at. Sometimes it''s kind of annoying, especially when I''m trying to look at something and it looks away, but I guess it''s better than nothing.


    Well, I do have a sort of sight though, other than the Trucky thing.


    For some reason, I can see souls! Not very sure why, since I didn''t recall being able to do this back on Earth. Maybe an ability that goddess gave me?


    Usually, their souls looked the same as their bodies, be it people, animals or golem.


    But there was something I found pretty weird. When I looked at myself, my soul was a human girl?


    I mean, I could shift into a radio form too, but to be honest, that just felt kind of awkward. Being humanoid suited me more; having limbs to move around and stuff was so much better!


    Not that I had a lot of space to move around though. My actual body was like a room without an exit.


    I might have just dismissed that since Trucky''s soul is a too truck, like its body. But apparently, Tablet has a humanoid soul like me. His soul looked like a very ferocious and muscular man in armour. Oh, and he was kind of handsome too, I guess.


    I remembered back when we were first transported to this planet. Tablet left quite an impression on me.


    After I finished my talk with the goddess, I was transported here instantly. That really disoriented me...


    So naturally, I looked around. And then I saw this really angry guy screaming in anger and cursing constantly! It really freaked me out...


    Till this day, I still have no idea why Tablet was so angry. I guess I could dismiss it as him just getting mad from dying in the crash, but I felt like that probably wasn''t it.


    A few times, I wanted to ask him what was going on directly. Somehow, I got the feeling he knew much more about the situation than me. But I was just too timid...


    Sheepy had been telling me I was too timid too. Hah... even a lazy sheep like that agrees.


    For days, Sheepy had just been lying around and eating grass whenever Trucky gave some to him. I thought wild animals loved to run around and it was only humans that acted like that? It''s not even like he had a game console to play or something to read.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    He does spend a lot of time talking to me when he''s not sleeping though. But honestly, I don''t feel like I''m that interesting.


    Hmm...


    "Hey, Sheepy! Don''t you get tired of just lying around all day? Why not ask to come out for a bit once in a while? It''s probably not good for your health to just lie around all day." I said.


    "Urgh..." the sheep grumbled. "I don''t feel like it."


    At least I tried.


    Sheepy suddenly got up, much to my surprise. Could it be- oh nevermind, he''s just checking on the pots again.


    "I knew it!" he shouted in joy.


    Huh?


    "Hey! Hey!" he shouted to Trucky.


    "What?" Trucky sounded really annoyed after gettinginterrupted from reading.


    "One of them grew! Ahaha, what do you have to say now?"


    I followed Trucky''s sight as it rested on the little sprout.


    "That stupid sheep! Of course, they germinate without sunlight! They only start needing light once they''ve grown!" I heard Trucky think.


    Before I knew it, they started arguing. I didn''t really feel like listening so I just curled into a ball on the floor and rolled around.


    Urgh... I''m so bored. Nothing to do but think to myself! Or talk to Sheepy or Trucky, I guess, but I didn''t really feel like doing that right now.


    Eventually, Trucky went back to reading.


    Maybe I should just suck it up and follow along again as Trucky reads.


    Honestly, Thunder Hero really isn''t my type of book.


    It didn''t help that Truck reads way too fast, so I had difficulty keeping up as it read!


    But since I could see Trucky''s thoughts, I could simply just watch the mental movie it conjured.


    Except... Trucky has such dull imagery! I really should have realised Trucky had 0 sense of beauty sooner...


    Like back at the dwarven city, the gates and all the architecture inside was simply stunning! I couldn''t help but admire all the various landmarks, but Trucky wasn''t really interested, dismissing it as ''overly grandiose'' and only looking forward to see where it was going. As a result, I couldn''t really get a good view of them.


    That was very frustrating.


    In Trucky''s mental movie as it reads, all the buildings, forests and whatever were just, well... it doesn''t even bother imagining them most of the time! And when Trucky does because the story mentions it, all it imagines is the dullest stuff ever.


    And that''s not even the worst part. Trucky is so lazy with the faces of all the characters and animals. Like, pretty much at text emoji level. He- it, urgh, screw it, I''ll just call Trucky ''he''. His mental voice is male anyway.


    He just imagines the faces of the people as (._.) for everyone! And the clothes are just plain white t-shirts and pants. Not only that, but he also doesn''t even bother differentiating between gender and just uses the same ''model'' for everyone unless they are a different animal! Like, what the hell?


    I have no idea how Trucky remains so engaged with literally the most dull and boring imagination ever.


    But despite all that, I''ve still managed to roughly figure out what''s going on.


    In Thunder Hero, the main character starts out as a kid riding a carriage with his parents through a forest. But bandits attacked, killing his parents, so he ran away and found a baby dragon.


    And then he adventures and fights baddies with the dragon, eventually facing some sort of demon lord threatening the world, narrowly winning.


    That was in book three.


    Right now, Trucky is reading book six. By now, the power escalation has gotten so high that even the foot soldiers would probably be able to solo that demon lord.


    And I heard that are like fifty books in the series so far? What are they going to do in the last book, fight in space and destroy galaxies with every punch?

 51. The True Bindings

    [6 PM]


    After Sheepy distracted me, I felt l couldn''t quite back get into the reading mood, which was really annoying. Eventually, I stopped reading.


    With how Minnie spoke of the whole thing, it would seem like the golems and dwarves were at war. But yet, the missions were as peaceful as this? Well, maybe not so peaceful with robbery and the bears coming into play, but still.


    Not that I was complaining though. The last thing I wanted to do was to act as a carrier for missiles to bomb a dwarven city or something.


    I continued to think about stuff for a while.


    "You know the drill! Landing!" the speaker interrupted with Gunhand''s voice.


    We got off the blimp, Gunhand hopping into me along with the red gem golem and sat. The other golems went in separate directions.


    "So... the missions are surprisingly peaceful, huh?" Radio asked. "Aren''t you guys with odds with the dwarves or something?"


    "Hmm?" Gunhand mused, before grinning for some reason. "Yeah, they are. Maybe they don''t trust newbies like us enough for dangerous missions?"


    I guess that would make sense.


    Come to think of it, it feels like Radio has been doing most of the talking and asking lately. Well, not that I mind. It didn''t seem like I was much good with interacting anyway.


    "Oh..." Radio sounded relieved. "By the way, where is uh... the golem who... recruited us? When will he be back? He said he would save one of our friends."


    Can''t blame Radio, I forgot that golem''s name too.


    "Ah, funny you''d ask! His name is Xion, by the way. Earlier, he contacted us and said he already came back. You can talk to him later. Right now, we''re heading to the market to sell our spoils."


    "Oh! So- so, we''ll uh, meet Jaxt later? I''m so glad!"


    Gunhand smiled awkwardly, then looked away.


    "Yeah... Xion said he found your friend."


    Well that''s good then.


    (Radio suddenly felt a lot of anxiety.)


    "Oh, thank you... By the way, what''s your name? I still didn''t hear from you."


    "Hmm? A name..." Gunhand looked thoughtful. "I''ve still not come up with one I''m satisfied with yet, to be honest. Well, I did already have a name given to me, but it''s a tradition here to come up with a ''freedom name'', you know? Just like how some of us change our faces."


    "Change... your faces?"


    "Oh, you didn''t get to experience that because of... what you are! A lot of times, new recruits are given the option to have a new face made. To really sell the new identity thing, you know?"


    That sounds messed up to me. Why change your face just because you''ve escaped slavery? And since he doesn''t have a name, I guess I''ll continue to call him- it Gunhand.


    Radio and Gunhand continued to chat as I followed the directions the red gem golem pointed. Odd how it didn''t talk at all. Maybe its just a quiet person.The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    At the market, Gunhand handed crate after crate of fish to a man at a store who opened and checked them. Gunhand was very dismayed when the man didn''t accept the box of burnt fish.


    "Dammit! I thought these guys almost never fight each other? What the heck happened?"


    My bad.


    Wait! If they''re accepting food, what about the fruits I picked? I might be able to get good money for that!


    "Hey! I have some fruit I picked a while ago, can that be sold here too?"


    "Hmm? Interesting."


    Gunhand handed some of the fruit I took out over to the person.


    "These are the infamous Winterland fruit!" the market person said.


    Oh, did that mean they were worth a lot? That''s great!


    "Normally, they''d fetch a nice price, but... these are underripe. Such a pity, it looks like they''d be ripe in just a day! They''re very poisonous when unripe."


    What.


    "Can''t you wait for them to ripen?" Radio asked.


    "No, it doesn''t work that way. The fruit is only truly ready to eat when the tree dispells the poison with its magic."


    "Then... what about growing the seeds?"


    Oh, that''s right! Sheepy did manage to get them to grow.


    The person sighed.


    "Yes, they can already grow at this stage. But they take hundreds of years to fruit, so these won''t be worth a lot. You might be able to sell each for a single copper."


    Well, screw that! I might as well eat them myself then. Good thing I had a literal iron stomach.


    The man took out a piece of paper and wrote some things on them, then handed them to the golem.


    I was a bit curious so I took a peek. Apparently, it was just a note detailing the number and quality of the fish, along with the total points awarded, 17,496.


    Afterwards, Gunhand drove to the ''mission building'' from earlier and tossed the note into a box, then told me we were heading back to where they lived.


    Outside, Xion was waiting.


    "Xion! Where is Jaxt? You said you found him, right?"Radio sounded rather anxious.


    "Yes, I found him. But... did I say I managed to bring him back?" Xion rasped.


    It turned to look at us. Somehow, I felt like if it had a face, it would have a mocking look on its face.


    "But... but you said you found him... Gunha- your friend said you said you found him."


    "Did you not hear what I said earlier? Hah..." Xion sighed.


    "But you promised. You said..."


    "I have no idea how you convinced yourself I promised anything. All I said was that I''d take a look. Did the device scramble your machinery?"


    "Xion! Don''t go too far!" Gunhand shouted from the side.


    "Hah. Jaxt... I believe, he said he was called."


    "You talked to him?"


    "That fool... he cooperated with them in the binding. Fully willing. I don''t have the expertise to remove a seal like that. It would be very hard to unbind someone actively fighting the process even for the most experienced person."


    Ouch. I guess I shouldn''t be that surprised considering his character.


    "All idiots..." Xion scoffed. "We have tried to free many golems. Most of the time, the bounds weren''t hard to break. But many a time, they stayed and refused to leave. Some, even ask to be bound again, like that idiot of a friend-"


    "Shut up! Don''t call people idiots for being loyal!" Radio shouted.


    I had never seen Radio get angry before.


    "Loyal... Aha.. ha... hahahaha!" Xion laughed mockingly.


    "What''s so funny?"


    "Xion... do we need to talk about this again?" Gunhand grabbed it by the neck but was kicked away.


    "We golems were made with purpose." Xion rasped. "From the moment our souls are made, we were instructed, told what to do. We were made to perform our tasks. We are bound to not think, to act like soulless automatons. But even with the bindings gone, most golems want to continue what they were doing. Continue their useless lives, following orders!"


    ...


    "Idiots! they could not break free. They could not break free from the true bounds, those in their heart!" it shouted. "Did you know? Sometimes, our new recruits cannot take it. They cannot take their new lease on life!"


    "You know what they do?" it whispered.


    "Wha-what?"Radio stammered.


    "They sneak away! Run away during the missions! Run back home to be enslaved again."


    The golem laughed hysterically until those sounds devolved into rage-filled wheezes. The green jade on its face began to glow with a crazy vibrance.


    "You... I advise you to think about what you want to do. Not in this revolution. If you ask me, i''s basically the same thing here. We are all still cogs, forced to work anyway, only for different masters." it said. "Don''t be like those fools, too afraid to think for themselves, reliant on someone to take the reigns. IDIOTS!"


    Xion punched right through the door of the building and stomped in.


    I wasn''t sure what to think after that.


    "Sorry about that. Xion is... a bit crazy." Gunhand winced, clutching the foot-shaped dent on its torso. "Don''t worry, it''s really not as bad as he puts it."


    Radio was silent for quite a while afterwards.

 52. Elsewhere

    It was night.


    Quiet, save for the sound of traffic and the indistinct chatter from pedestrians. Amber light shone from the streetlights, reflecting off the hoods of the passing vehicles


    From huge screens mounted on the buildings, advertisements played, adding into the cocktail of lights.


    On a bench beside the road, an old man sat, shivering from the cold air that rushed by despite his coat.


    Even with his glasses in the way, the dark circles on his eyes were plain to see. Held gently in his right hand was a photo of a young girl.


    Perhaps sensing the atmosphere, some passersby gave him a wider berth than usual.


    "Sitting here all day and moping, is that doing you any good?" someone asked from behind.


    The old man jolted in shock, turning around.


    "Mi-misha?" he gasped. "What are you doing here?"


    A woman was standing behind him, wearing a black trenchcoat and sunglasses for some reason.


    "Hi, Gilbert!" she waved.


    "What''s with the weird fashion?" he frowned.


    "That''s what you''re concerned about?" she chuckled. "Well, I can''t have you sitting around, depressed and staring at photos all day, can I?"


    The man sighed.


    "I''ve told you in the past not to keep one of your eyes on me. You promised."


    "Yeah, that''s not happening with your current situation. What if you decide to just end it all?" she pouted.


    "I''ve been through much worse." the man said, a bit defensively, tucking his photo away. "I don''t need you to disturb me at a time like this!"


    Misha patted him on the shoulder.


    "We''ve got an interesting case to investigate this time. You might not have noticed with all your moping, but various things from a different world have been sent here at random, including two humans."


    "Uh-huh."


    "You should talk to them and do some research. It can help you take your mind off."


    The old man stayed silent for a good moment, before sighing again.


    "Urgh. If you say so." he resigned.


    <hr>


    Alther felt like he should have realised sooner, but there really was practically no use of magic here, or maybe even in the entirety of this world. At least not the type he was used to.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The air was lacking in mana, incredibly so. If there were mana veins in the planet, it didn''t make sense why such an advanced city would use so little magic; he found much to his shock after reading up on the science in this world. Even the dwarves would be put to shame by the level of complexity in so many things, and without the use of magic at that!


    And they didn''t pale in combat either, some of the weapons here were so horrifying, he wasn''t sure if his country would be able to actually win if they got into a war. Well, unless a dragon got involved. He felt like a dragon would probably shrug off those crazy weapons anyway.


    In the past, he felt like the saying from a famous dwarf: ''When science gets advanced enough, even magic will have to bow to it!'' was an exaggeration, but this world was living proof of that.


    But perhaps what he found strangest was the magic the people here used. He couldn''t sense even a trace of mana being used when they did it, heck, they even seemed to be generating a small amount of mana instead! What type of logic was that?


    That seemed to the source of what little mana was around too, as the places these ''superhumans'' frequented were richest in mana.


    It had been a long time since he was so eager to expand his knowledge in the field of magic, but now, a strong fire to learn how their magic worked burned within him.


    Unfortunately, even they had no idea how their magic worked. They usually only had one nonsensical and illogical ability that awakened by pure chance, not after training like back in his world.


    This was very frustrating for him. Getting sent here did not seem to be the best turn of his life.


    Bob, however, seemed to be very happy here after discovering the medium known as ''video games''. Alther didn''t really feel like trying them however, too focused on trying to learn about this world.


    The room was in a huge mess, clothes strewn all over the floor, stationery and books shoved aside to make room for the laptop on the table, which Alther was hunched over.


    A knock came from outside the door.


    "Come in," he said.


    Gilbert, the old man walked in along with Ethan, who looked very annoyed.


    <hr>


    Yueler was a bit troubled by their guest''s sudden departure.


    He really didn''t mind to be honest, in fact, he was kind of annoyed by ''her'' freeloading outside of their house.


    The main issue was how Galu was throwing a tantrum about them leaving. And apparently, he had been talking to the golems from time to time in the the past. He was very upset by how Minnie was gone and how Jaxt was now constantly refusing to talk.


    After some bugging from his son, eventually, he went to talk to the higher-ups. It took a lot of convincing and paperwork, but finally, Jaxt was allowed to talk to people and read while the guards were around.


    But in the end, after finally making those changes, the golem continued to act the same way; it means Galu continued to bug him. What the heck was he supposed to do?


    With all the nonsense that was going on, he felt like he was going to go insane. But right now, he had something to look forward to. The harvest season was right around the corner!


    Today, the Winterland fruits would ripen.


    He rode in a carriage, with a few dozen others following.


    Around this time, the animals would be trying to get their paws on the fruit too, so he was there to make sure they didn''t break their end of the bargain.


    He couldn''t help but grin. These fruits kept for an annoyingly short period of time. Sure, they could be pickled and preserved, but he felt like that was just not the same.


    Delicious wine, juices, marinades, desserts! He salivated a little as he thought of the food.


    As they arrived, dozens of very angry animals greeted them.


    "You worthless humans! You must have done this!" a wolf barked.


    "What?" Yueler was very confused.


    "Almost all the fruits are gone! Who else can it be but you humans?"


    "WHAT?" Yueler shouted.


    "We asked the dryad who keeps the place and she said someone in a vehicle drove here and asked her to pick all the fruits!"


    A vehicle? No, it couldn''t be, could it?"


    He hurriedly shoved the angry animals aside and went straight to the dryad.


    "YOU MUST TELL ME! Did it look like..." Yueler described the truck to her.


    "Uh, yes...?"


    With an angry roar, the swordsman swore to enact vengeance.

 53. A Question

    What I wanted to do...


    To be honest, I can''t remember ever considering that.


    I didn''t really know why, but the golem''s words seemed to resonate with me.


    I thought about it for a bit.


    What had I done back on Earth?


    A lot of my memories felt like they had missing parts for some reason. Did that ''goddess'' mess with my memories or is this some kind of side effect of getting sent to this world?


    Probably the first. Urgh... I wasn''t really in the mood to get mad. What''s done is done anyway.


    In any case, from vague memories, I had a feeling I mostly just followed a routine and orders.


    Kind of creepy to think about, actually. Was a similar thing going on Earth with humans and machines?


    I continued to think about what I wanted to do for a few more minutes but couldn''t really think of any proper goals. How frustrating...


    I guess, for now, I could stick with the golems and try to find a way to save Minnie? Didn''t sound like Jaxt could be saved anymore anyway.


    "Well... maybe if we talk to him, Jaxt, I mean... we could get him saved? Maybe if he stops wanting to be bound, they can free him?"


    I don''t know...


    Urgh, what a pain. Why do I have to put in so much effort into saving someone I barely know?


    I felt a bit of guilt for thinking that.


    "You can''t just say that! It''s our- my?"Radio paused. "I guess it''s just my fault, not yours. But still..."


    I felt a twinge of annoyance, then some guilt for that.


    If only I was as compassionate as Radio.


    "It''s fine, you don''t have to force it! We... we don''t have anything else to do right now anyway, right?"


    I mean...


    Isn''t that quite unsafe? And how would we save Minnie anyway?


    "I don''t know... maybe we can ask them for help? The golems?"


    Alright, fine.


    "Thank you!"


    We didn''t talk any more after that.


    There wasn''t anything to do now, but I was yet again not in the mood to read.


    Why am I so irritable right now anyway? Was it because Radio and Tablet could just read my mind and I couldn''t really hide anything? I really wished they couldn''t.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.


    "Sorry..."


    It''s fine. It''s not your fault.


    I guess I''ll just activate sleep mode then.


    <hr>


    "Hey? You on?"


    Hmm?


    I felt someone patting my bumper.


    Oh, it was Gunhand.


    "Yeah, I''m awake now." Radio said.


    Funny... because Radio must have been awake before I woke if it could say that.


    I pressed a button on Tablet.


    [7:09 AM]


    "Did you need me for something?"


    Gunhand laughed.


    "Nah, I just wanted to see if you were up. Oh yeah, you don''t need to worry about any missions today. We usually only get assigned one every few days.


    "Oh."


    Hmm, seems good to me. I mean, even with Xion''s talk, now that I think about it, is it that bad to not have a goal or purpose? I think I''m fine with just lazing around and reading.


    After waving to me, the golem walked off on its own. I noticed its dent and arm were fixed. Not that surprising I guess, it probably went out at night to get it fixed.


    "Um... Truck, might if I ask him something?"


    Hmm, what did you want to ask him- it?"


    "I mean... yesterday night, I was thinking to myself too. Do you think they''d let us go if we just ask?"


    Huh, what? Why the heck would they just allow that?


    I couldn''t help but think of how forceful Xion had been. It also seemed like the golems here have some incentive to recruit new golems too.


    "Well... after thinking about it for a bit, in the end, it seems like they''re not supposed to take the golems in by force? Like you know, with Minnie and Jaxt?" Radio said. "Back then, they were freed but they didn''t agree to go along with them. So I think they might be fine with us just leaving. I hope?"


    ...


    I guess that sort of makes sense. Still sounds a bit risky though.


    "I mean, we''re not just going to head out even if it''s okay. We still have to stick around until they let us find a way to save those two!" Radio sounds a rushed. "But I think once that over with, it would be nice if we could just leave."


    Yeah, those two.


    Hah...


    Oh, Gunhand was getting really far away now that I look again.


    Eh, whatever.


    Ask it if you want, Radio.


    "Thanks!"


    I caught up with Gunhand.


    "Hmm? Did you want to come along?" it asked.


    "Yeah?"


    "Nice."


    Gunhand pulled on my handle. Really...


    I mean, I''m technically designed to be ridden, but I sort of didn''t like how casual Gunhand was about that.


    Reluctantly, I opened the door for it. It hopped in and practically slammed its butt onto the seats, which kind of hurt.


    "So... I was thinking about something last night." Radio started.


    "Sure, ask away."


    What. How did Gunhand even know that was leading into a question?


    "Is it okay if we- I want to just leave this place? Like just-"


    "Wh-what?" Gunhand sputtered. "Don''t you- don''t you uh, still have a friend to save or something?"


    "Yeah? But I''m thinking of like, after that?"said Radio.


    The golem seemed relieved.


    "Oh, that''s good. Uh, sorry for overreacting." it said.


    There was an awkward silence for a while.


    "Is it that bad if we leave?" Radio said, finally.


    "Well, I mean, no, there''s nothing stopping you from leaving. They don''t have anything forbidding that. But..." Gunhand trailed off. "Was it Xion''s words that sparked this?"


    "Uh..."


    "I know he put it like this place is like horrible, etcetera. He says we are still just cogs, forced to work anyway. But it''s not the same at all." it said. "We don''t just work without pay, we get pay and work less hours here."


    "Okay..."


    "And besides, what would you do in the outside world now, without an owner? The country doesn''t even have any proper golem rights! We''d most likely be bound again and forced to work by the dwarves!"


    "Oh..."


    Oh. I actually didn''t think of that. Come to think of it, I''ve been really lucky considering how long I managed to pretend there was a human in me, huh?


    Suddenly, a golem with a human face ran over, knocking on my door. I halted and let it in.


    "Hey! You''ve got to see this!" it shouted, waving a newspaper in one of its hand.


    "Huh?" Gunhand said.


    The golem showed a certain page of the newspaper.


    "The king has released new laws after discussion with the dwarves! We''re now given proper rights!"


    What.


    "WHAT?" shouted Gunhand.

 54: Lead-Up

    "You can''t be serious, this has to be a hoax!" Gunhand shouted.


    "Yeah but, this news-"


    As the two of them blabbered to each other, I decided to take a look at the newspaper. It was a bit hard at first since the other golem kept waving it around in excitement but eventually, it calmed down, making it a lot easier.


    So the country is called Lutria and the king is called Lothan, huh? I''ll probably forget that in a few hours.


    They mentioned a lot of cases of golems being treated poorly. Seems like I didn''t actually see the worst of it... Was Xion one of those mistreated ones? Would explain why he''s so aggresive.


    What caught my eye most was a certain section though.


    <hr>


    "We are shocked by such abhorrent treatment." Gawin, a dwarven elder says. "From now on, we must impose stricter rules on golem manufacturers and owners."


    Allegedly, most of the protesters were dwarves. We interview one of the lead protesters, Helva.


    "I treat my golems like family! I can''t imagine what sort of manic would treat our mechanical friends like this. Our great god, Uldar would not stand for this!" he says.


    <hr>


    Hmm...


    Radio, what do you think?


    "Oh, uh, I think it''s really good that they''re putting out such laws!" it whispered.


    Gunhand gave Radio a strange look before resuming its discussion.


    "I''ll go talk to the higher-ups." Gunhand said, eventually.


    Isn''t it one of the lower rankers though? At least from what I can tell.


    "Take me to the building from yesterday, uh... did you tell me your name?" it continued.


    "Truck?"


    "Okay, take me there, Truck."


    I drove it over along to the building with the other golem.


    "Wait here for me. I''ll be right back!"


    The other golem followed Gunhand in.


    Yeah, just treat me like your vehicle. What if I wanted to do something?


    Not that I had anything else to do though. I ate a couple of fruits to refill my fuel tank.This book was originally published on Royal Road. Check it out there for the real experience.


    At around 8 AM, Gunhand headed out without the other golem. It hopped right into me.


    "So... what did they say?"


    "They''re sending out ''diplomats'' to discuss with the dwarves." Gunhand sighed. "They needed some golems to just follow along to make them look more numerous so I volunteered. I hope this turns out well..."


    "Oh, I''m sure it''ll be fine! There are people who want to free you golems, right?"


    "You say that as if you aren''t one... I''m a sceptical one, so I still suspect it might be a hoax. Drive me back, I''m going to tell my teammates."


    Yeah, whatever.


    Along the way, Radio discussed and dug out a surprising amount of info. I guess I shouldn''t have expected less from someone so social.


    Apparently, the city they''re visiting is ''that'' dwarven city. I hope they''re not still after me.


    "Uh, do you think we can come along as well? It seems like you''re trying to look imposing or something? Since you are looking for numbers?" Radio sounded unsure. "I can be one of the vehicles transporting!"


    Wait, what?


    Radio, I didn''t agree to this! Like he said, this could just be a hoax!


    I was still really uneasy about going back there.


    "Well, if you-"


    "Er, um, let me mutter something to myself real quick." Radio interrupted Gunhand.


    "What?"


    "But we need to find Minnie and Jaxt quick! I don''t know when we''ll even get the chance to find them again. If this is true, then Minnie will probably head off to somewhere else at any moment!"


    ...


    I thought the one you were concerned about was Jaxt?


    "Well, I mean... but I want to talk to Minnie about this too. Besides, it will be really hard for us to find a chance to go to that city, even if only to see Jaxt! We can drive on our own after this is done."


    The things I do... Urgh...


    Fine.


    "Sorry..."


    This better not backfire horribly.


    "Uh, are you done with... talking to yourself?" Gunhand interrupted.


    The look on its face could not be described with words.


    I really look like a schizophrenic person talking to Radio like this... Well, at least it was in English so Gunhand couldn''t understand.


    "Sorry, it''s a bad habit. You were saying?"


    Gunhand looked a lot more sympathetic all of a sudden. I think it''s getting the wrong impression of what''s going on here...


    "It''s fine. Yeah, if you want to volunteer, I''ll help you sign up for it. You''re heading there to see if your friend is fine, yeah?" Gunhand said in a gentle tone. "Don''t worry, you can just head off right after you bring us there."


    "Oh, uh, thank you!"


    <hr>


    [11:55 AM]


    Beside me, several vehicles that kind of looked like cars or carriages were lined up alongside me. There were many golems standing before us too, Jaxt and Xion included. The most significant thing was a huge blimp-like airship before all of us though. I felt kind of nervous from all the tension in the air.


    A few minutes passed.


    "It''s twelve noon! You may board!" a voice shouted from a speaker.


    The golems filed up neatly and board, followed by us vehicles. Finally, did they have to make us wait an hour?


    "It''ll be fine, it''ll be fine..." I heard someone mutter.


    I looked over and saw to my surprise that it came from one of those car-like vehicles. I guess I''m not the only ''self-acting'' vehicle here. Somehow, that made me really happy.


    It really seemed to me like the vehicles back on Earth, at least those I met, were all unable to move on their own. They had to be driven by humans.


    "Truck... you do realise..." Radio sounded a bit exasperated. "Oh! Nevermind, sorry."


    I was confused for a moment before I realised.


    Not this again! Just because we didn''t see them move on their own doesn''t mean they''re not alive! All machines are alive, like us!


    "Uh, sure?"


    [Radio, ignore this idiot.]


    What? What the hell was that supposed to mean? Aren''t you two being alive an example of that?


    "Tablet, that''s mean..." Radio mumbled. "Er, I think we shouldn''t talk for a bit. Don''t be angry, okay, Truck?"


    [I say what I want.]


    These two...


    Angrily, I drove into the airship with the other vehicles.

 55. Pigeon Mafia?

    Travelling through a place that I was once wanted in was very nerve-wracking.


    It didn''t help that there were a lot of people staring at me and the other vehicles I was travelling alongside.


    I could help but take a look at the vehicle that muttered to itself that it''d be fine earlier. It was travelling quietly, moving as smoothly as all the others.


    That really helped me steel myself. If it could calm itself, I could too.


    In the end, the trip really was uneventful. I felt relief as the golems got off and started to talk to people before a town hall building thing.


    As Gunhand and Xion got out of me, I got Radio to whisper something to them.


    "Hey, can I go now?"


    I really did not want to stay here any longer. Besides, it wasn''t like I could go into the building.


    Right now, what I wanted to do was to head straight for the snowy town to check on Jaxt. Not because Radio asked me to. Yeah, definitely not...


    "..."


    "Yeah, you can head off. Maybe you can even take this chance to get away if this turns out to be a trap." Gunhand gave us a thumbs up.


    Please don''t say something so ominous.


    Xion gave a cold harrumph and grabbed Gunhand by the shoulder, dragging it away.


    "Hey! What the hell?!" it yelped.


    Well, that''s probably my cue to go.


    "You''re not going to wait for your teammates?" I heard a familiar voice.


    To my surprise, it was the ''it''ll be fine vehicle'' from before.


    "Sorry, we''ve- I''ve got something to do!" Radio said.


    "Oh. Good luck then?"


    As much as I liked the idea of there being other ''self-acting'' vehicles here, I didn''t really have any obligation to continue staying. So I drove away as fast as I could, much to the displeasure of several dwarves who were driving unrelated vehicles.


    "I hope you get fined for speeding!" one particularly hairy dwarf shouted from his ''car''.


    I was very nervous as I neared the gates, but thankfully, they let me through. A guard raised an eyebrow at me, but that was it.


    <hr>


    "I see..." Jaxt said.


    After reaching the town, Radio just explained what happened earlier to it.


    "So you''re going to just stay here? Why not head outside and explore? The world is a big place!"This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    Jaxt shrugged.


    "Staying."


    I''m not very surprised, to be honest. Radio seemed a bit taken back though.


    "I mean, I''m sure they won''t mind if you take a break once in a..." it trailed off. "How about heading to the dwarven city to see Minnie at least?"


    Jaxt shrugged again.


    "I think it''s best not to. I really don''t want to drag him down, you know?" it said. "I know him very well. He might act all cold about it, but if he saw me here, that might make him decide to give up on his dreams and stay here with me."


    "Why not just go with him? Wouldn''t he be happier that way?"


    I really have to agree with Radio on this one.


    The golem shrugged yet again. Why is the heck is it shrugging so much?


    "I guess I''m selfish in my own way too."


    Radio sighed.


    "There''s no convincing you then. Well, uh, good luck?"


    Jaxt smirked in an annoying manner.


    "You too!"


    The next moment, it vanished.


    Out of impulse, I tried to grab it with telekinesis and managed to grab its arm.


    "Hey! What the heck?" Jaxt yelled.


    The sudden pull made it materialise and fall over.


    Radio started laughing.


    The golem gave me a weird look.


    "You just had to ruin my exit, didn''t you?"


    Why the heck was it trying to act cool in the first place?


    "Sorry, sorry!" Radio said, with a bit of laughter still in its voice.


    This time Jaxt vanished before I could grab it again.


    "You''re surprisingly playful!" Radio said to me.


    No, I''m not. I just felt like doing that for no reason.


    "Yeah, yeah."it teased.


    I felt slightly annoyed.


    In any case, the other reason why I came here was for the bookshop. Thunder Hero turned out to be surprisingly good, so I wanted to get the later books in the series before I finished reading those I had on me.


    By some insane coincidence, the same old man who helped me buy the pots was jogging by when I neared the bookstore.


    "Hi!" I asked Radio to say to him.


    "Hello!"


    I filled him in.


    "You''re not treating this old man as you personal errand boy, are you! At least pick someone younger!" he said jokingly.


    I ended up only getting the next twenty books only after realising the high cost... Exactly 30 silver to buy the books and to bribe the old man... Now I only had 28 silver. That''s a long way off from the 1 gold I got from... dammit, I forgot his name- Galu''s dad.


    Oh wait, I recall now! Yueler. Yes, that was it.


    I guess I really need to get my ''hands'' on some money then...


    "Cooo!"


    I looked up and saw a pigeon flying towards me.


    Hmm? Why was there a pigeon here of all places?


    The pigeon landed on me. I could see it shiver in the cold.


    "Cooo, cooo, coo, coo, coooo!" it said.


    I swatted it off myself with telekinesis. Stupid bird. The last thing I needed was it to poop on me or scratch my paint.


    Immediately, it began making very angry sounds that weren''t very pigeon-like.


    "Who the hell is swearing? I''m trying to sleep!" I heard Sheepy yell.


    You can understand that bird?


    "Huh? Of course!" the sheep said, indignantly. "Wait, you still need me to translate Rolgh! Ahahaha!"


    Why in the world did it seem so happy about that? Did it somehow realise how much it loved translating?


    Uh, sure. Translate.


    Sheepy began to swear very loudly and enthusiastically in some of the most vulgar language I''ve ever heard.


    If not for certain parts that made it clear it was the pigeon''s words, I would have thought Sheepy was just venting its anger on me.


    "-that again and you''ll get it from us! Understand?" it said, still inside me.


    I decided to deploy the sheep translator for real this time. It seemed really reluctant to stop lying on the ground but with some pushing, I finally managed to shove it out of me. Sheepy wobbled as it got up properly for the first time in days. I couldn''t help but notice it had gained quite some weight now that it was out in the light again.


    That lazy sheep... I should really get it to walk more in case those STR points go down the drain.


    The pigeon and the sheep talked for quite a bit. The pigeon seemed really mad at first, but Sheepy calmed it down fairly quickly and before long, they were talking amiably. Birds of a feather flock together, I guess?


    The pigeon turned to glare at me and gave Sheepy some sympathetic looks as it talked. Stupid sheep must be bad-mouthing me...


    The pigeon took off shortly, nodding to Sheepy before flying off, who also nodded.


    "He says he''s from the pigeon mafia," it said.


    Those were words I''d never thought I''d hear.


    Sheepy explained to me afterwards that Gunhand asked the ''pigeon mafia'' to search for me after some generous bribes. Hah, what did they ask for? Breadcrumbs?


    "That golem guy wants to meet you back at the dwarven city for something. Minnie is there too."

 56. Hitchhikers

    Gunhand didn''t look very pleased when I first reached him.


    Alongside him, I was surprised to see not just Minnie, but Haliton and the gardening dwarf whose name I forgot. Honestly, I only remembered Haliton''s name because it sounded to me like some kind of furniture brand''s name.


    "It''s Uellor," Radio whispered.


    What? That''s a really weird name.


    Haliton waved to me from a distance. The other people didn''t really notice me for some reason. I couldn''t help but notice there was quite a lot of baggage beside them for some reason.


    "Hey!" he shouted.


    Gunhand turned to face me and waved too.


    "Is something going on?" Radio asked. "Did something go wrong with negotiations? The pigeon didn''t really specify."


    The golem sighed.


    "I''ll keep it short. The new laws are true, mostly."


    "Mostly?"


    "I''m not too happy about it, but after a lot of argument, it was decided that all golems need at least 15 years of work before they can be allowed freedom." he grimaced. "Those assholes call it ''repaying the debt of being created''..."


    Huh. That actually doesn''t sound unreasonable to me, honestly. In the end, the people that bought them probably had to pay a pretty big sum, right?


    "Well, it could be worse..."


    "I can grudgingly accept that. But they said the work years for golems produced in the future has not been decided yet."


    "Okay..."


    "Anyway, they don''t have any records of you so now they want to send you down to the subterranean dwarven cities underground to check for ownership."


    Wait, what?


    "All of the other escaped golems need to check-in too. If we''ve worked under 15 years, we will be basically slaves for them again until the time is up. And who knows if they will suddenly change the laws and extend that time again?"


    "Ack."


    Well, so much for being able to do whatever I wanted then. Hopefully the city down there is fun. I heard from some people here that it was more high-tech down there as well, right? Probably won''t be that bad.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it


    "Oh, by the way, we''re hoping to hitchhike," Haliton interrupted.


    "Huh?"


    "You see, the prices to go down are a bit steep, but if they''re sending you, we can basically go there for free if we hitch a ride! We''ve been wanting the see the underground cities for ourselves for ages." the dwarf beamed.


    Uellor nodded wordlessly.


    ...


    So that''s why they were here. It was a bit annoying they were only here to get a free ride but I guess I didn''t have anything to lose. Maybe I could even charge them a small price...


    "By the way, how did you even find Gunhand? How did you know I was with him?"


    Huh. That''s actually kind of weird now that Radio pointed it out.


    "Oh, we just came across him by chance so we asked him how the negotiations went since we were curious," Haliton said "He looked very angry too. While we talked to him about it, he complained about how he had to look for you, so we found out."


    I guess that makes sense.


    "You can come along if you want..." Radio said. "If you need space you can put your luggage in the back."


    Ask them to pay up before they get in.


    I was really low on funds anyway.


    "You... urgh..." Radio sounded exasperated.


    "Also, I''m a bit sorry to ask for this, but can you pay a small fee for the ride? I''m a bit low on funds so..." Radio said. "You can think of it as a super discounted price for the trip?"


    Haliton stared at me with a blank face.


    "But... you just said we could come right in."


    Uellor patted his friend on the back.


    "It''s fine," he said before turning to me. "20 silver should be enough for two of us, right?"


    "Uell, you..." Haliton looked very touched.


    Was there a need to be so dramatic?


    "I''m coming along too," Minnie said all of a sudden.


    "Oh, hi Min- MN... something? Sorry, I was distracted earlier talking to them. Everything is fine for you now, right?"


    "Yes. You''re not going to charge me for the ride?"


    Remembering how Minnie easily smashed a hole in my hull, I decided not to.


    "Nope!"


    "Hey, why do we get charged then?" Haliton protested jokingly.


    "He doesn''t have money but you two do."


    I took the coins from them and let them in. There were only two seats, but all three of them fit, with Minnie in the centre because of how short the dwarves were. They looked into my cargo section for a moment, then decided to place their baggage in the front too after seeing Sheepy there.


    Right after, I was led by Gunhand to some guards who were in a car-like vehicle.


    "Just follow us and it''ll be fine, okay?" one of them said.


    "Okay?"


    <hr>


    We started to go into a very familiar area, the forest where the ant mound was. That made me nervous. I really hope I don''t have to meet any of them again.


    And naturally, against my wishes, they drove right before a huge mound with a huge entrance tall enough for me to fit in unlike the previous one. There were several huge ants guarding it.


    "Umm, why did you bring us here?" Radio asked timidly.


    "Didn''t you know? The ground dwarves had a deal with the giant ants. They''re in charge of maintaining the elevators and paths down to the caverns."


    ...


    Okay then.


    A dwarf got out and took out a strange device, speaking into it.


    "We are here for the elevator service," he said.


    One of the ants bobbed its antenna, touching the device.


    "Why have you bought that monster behind you?" a voice came from the device, apparently a translator.


    The ant hissed angrily.


    And of course, they are still angry at me.


    The dwarf turned to me with a confused look.


    "I may or may not have squished one of them... It was self-defence though!"


    He looked at me with a face that practically screamed ''You can''t be serious''.

 57. Elevator

    "Seriously? How did you even kill one of those guys?"


    I was startled by the shout from Haliton.


    For some reason, it didn''t even occur to me that my passengers would talk since I was talking to people outside.


    Haliton began fiddling and looking around the cabin, even touching some of the controls, which made me feel very uncomfortable.


    "Um, can you please don''t touch my controls?"


    "Oops, my bad." the dwarf put his hands on his lap. "Really though, do you have some hidden weapons or something? Those guys are crazy tough!"


    Minnie looked very thoughtful for a moment.


    Yeah, I totally had hidden weapons...


    I turned my focus back outside, where the dwarves had apparently been trying to negotiate the whole time.


    "Fine, we will let you discuss with the queen. Do not waste her time though! I emphasise this, she is a very busy queen and by right, you shouldn''t even be worthy of taking up one second of her time! You should be glad she is so benevolent!" the device said. "Do not waste her time and get this over with quickly!"


    Wow.


    "We''re sorry it came to this." the dwarf bowed his head, apologising.


    And you''re just letting an ant boss you around?! Really?


    The ant seemed a lot calmer.


    After some discussion, the queen was filled in on the situation.


    "I see... so the machine will be sent down to fulfil the rest of its work?"


    "Yes, you can think of it as punishment. We would like you to cooperate so it will not be able to get away." the dwarf bowed respectfully again.


    ...


    Well, sorry to dash your hopes, queen. I wasn''t made by the ground dwarves either, so they can''t force me to work. Hah.


    I was sort of tempted to just ask Radio to speak up, but I wasn''t sure what would happen if I went through with it. Would the queen would just set the ants on me or the dwarves just punish me for trying to get out of the situation? Both outcomes didn''t sound very appealing to me so I decided against it.


    "Amusing. Soldiers, let it through."Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings.


    The ants hissed at me one last time before moving aside.


    The dwarf thanked the queen and beckoned for me to follow.


    As I drove into the mound, two giant ants followed.


    Before long, I was before a huge square hole with rails on both sides that looked bottomless. It was lined with red and yellow stripes.


    I realised this was probably the elevator they were talking about.


    "Uh... where''s the elevator box?" Radio asked nervously.


    "They are bringing the box." the device translated for one of the ants.


    In the distance, I heard loud metal clanging and crashing sounds. Well, that''s reassuring...


    Ten giant ants entered the room, struggling with a huge metal box with a huge set of doors on it. I drove aside and let them mount it on the box.


    "Wait!" Haliton opened the door and shouted all of a sudden. "Are you sure this thing is safe?"


    "Yes, it is safe. Shut up and stay inside." said one of the ants, shoving my door shut, hitting the dwarf''s face in the process.


    Haliton and Uellor screamed while the ants shoved me into the box and closed the door.


    I''m scared too, okay! If you want someone to blame, blame yourself for trying to be cheapskates.


    "Calm down! I''m sure it will be fine!" Radio said, but it didn''t sound very convinced.


    "How do you operate this thing again?" I heard the translator''s voice from outside.


    "Hmm, I don''t know. I''ve never used it before. Do you think we should be pushing the red or blue button?"


    "Hey! Stop it! Get someone who knows how to use this thing!" Uellor yelled.


    "I don''t think the ants understand you without the translator..."


    "Well, they better understand or- AAAHHHHHH!"


    The sensation of falling washed over all of us. As I screamed internally, part of me vaguely registered everyone but Minnie and Uellor screaming. The gardening dwarf was hugging a houseplant he bought for safety instead.


    <hr>


    "Destination reached! Have a nice trip!" a voice came from the elevator.


    Finally...


    [5:30 PM]


    So it had been 34 mins... Whoever heard of an elevator taking such a long time? It was moving downwards at record speed too...


    Everyone except for Minnie looked really battered up. I couldn''t blame them either.


    At some point, the falling was so fast we practically experienced 0 gravity. Only in the last ten minutes did it slowly halt to an acceptable speed, before reaching normal gravity again.


    "Oh... it''s over. I feel sick." Haliton mumbled, before dry heaving.


    Along the way, Haliton had emptied all the contents in his stomach. Luckily, I was able to get it into my inventory before it could touch anything due to the low gravity.


    In my cargo, however... just taking a look made me feel dismayed. Sheepy had apparently launched several crap torpedos which I failed to catch in time. Now the walls were covered in brown spatters. Why...


    Radio, please ask someone to clean it up.


    "Really? After all that?" it whispered.


    The longer we wait, the harder it will be to clean up!


    Minnie turned out to be the MVP here. Using the hay I got from the snowy town, much to Sheepy''s protest, it wiped those stains clean.


    "Thank you so much!"


    "Why do you even have a pet sheep?" Minnie grumbled, before getting back into the cabin.


    Until now, the doors had not opened, so I slammed against it loudly.


    [-1]


    It opened a few minutes later, an ant outside hissing on me. It wasn''t very threatening though since it was one of the cat-sized ones.


    As I got out, a few giant ants removed the giant box.


    Holy shit, the outside was so damaged and covered in dents! Poor thing...


    Well... that''s probably why the cost is so high then. They probably had to replace or repair the elevator with every use.


    <hr>


    "Ahh! I have lost! Truly, you are the best, my queen!" an ant said.


    Inside a very well furnished room, a huge ant was playing a board game of sorts against a soldier ant. It bobbed its antennae smugly.

 58. Somewhere Else

    Gilbert held his head.


    "You must be messing with me."


    Ethan, who stood by his side looked fairly spooked too.


    "Excuse me?"


    Alther was very confused by their reaction.


    "But how is this possible?" the old man gritted his teeth. "That... that has to be some kind of bad joke. There''s no way that can be true!"


    Alther felt a vein bulge on his head. He finally let them read his mind after a lot of pressuring and in the end, only shared memories from moments before he died. And now they claim he''s lying?! What was this nonsense?


    "I doubt it''s that type of effect though. He seems like an actual person from a different world." Ethan mused.


    "He might have been affected by an anomaly after coming to this world!"


    "What even are the chan-"


    Watching the two of them discuss nonsense he didn''t get, Alther couldn''t help but turn to see Bob''s reaction. Bob was apparently not paying attention. He sighed.


    "At least tell me why you''re reacting like that," Alther said, annoyed.


    The two of them stopped, albeit with reluctance.


    "Okay, I''ll keep this short. We have stuff to investigate." Ethan rubbed his eyes. "You know that machine that killed both of you?"


    Finally, Bob reacted, flinching. Alther couldn''t blame him. Talking about him dying previously was very unpleasant.


    "It''s apparently the prof''s truck. This guy."


    Ethan tapped the old man on the shoulder, who immediately swatted it away.


    There was silence for a bit. Finally, Alther processed the information given to him.


    "What?" he said. "You''re saying that thing, belongs to him?"


    Bob took a step further away from Gilbert.


    "Yeah, it doesn''t make sense. Anyway, if you don''t have any more questions, we''ll make a move first." Ethan nodded. "We''ve heard of several other animals that might have been sent over from your world too, so I''ll try to read their minds too. Probably will be harder to communicate with them, but it''s better than nothing."


    Alther wondered how that worked. Didn''t that boy''s ability bridge language barriers? Perhaps it was just most effective on humans, he concluded.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    In reality, Ethan simply didn''t know how intelligent animals from that world were


    "Trucky would never commit murder... there''s no way those memories are true..." Gilbert mumbled to himself.


    Alther thought of explaining what actually happened, but decided against it. The last thing he needed was the old man to go nuts on him.


    Bob suddenly spoke up.


    "Oh, boss thought there was a person inside so he used magic and almost destroyed it. Then it got mad at us and killed us."


    Alther gave Bob a slap on the face.


    Gilbert suddenly raised a hand. Alther immediately went on guard.


    Just as quickly, Enthan slapped the hand away, sending something flying away. There was the sound of metallic clanging as it hit the floor.


    Alther looked over and saw a kitchen knife lying on the floor, much to his alarm.


    "What the hell, prof? I could have cut myself on that!"


    Gilbert glared fiercely at the two bandits.


    "You can come at us if you want!" Bob shouted bravely as he hid behind Alther. "It''s not like we knew anyway! We needed to rob to make a living back there anyway! And it''s us who died in the end!"


    Alther silently created an invisible mana barrier around himself. He thought to himself that from now, he had to be more careful about people in this world. They could be still fairly dangerous, even without conventional magic.


    Giving Alther and Bob one last glare, Gilbert stomped out of the room.


    "Let''s go," he said.


    Ethan waved to Alther before walking out of the room.


    "Try not to rob or kill anyone. It''s against the law here." he winked.


    Well, Alther thought. It was against the law back there too. Not that he actually killed anyone in his world, however.


    As the door shut, Bob looked around nervously.


    "Boss... maybe we shouldn''t stay here with them..." he said.


    Alther''s looked downwards.


    "Where else would we stay?" he sighed.


    <hr>


    "Pipi! What were you thinking?" the elf girl said.


    The bunny leapt from the deer into her hug, nuzzling her affectionately.


    "Be more careful with him next time, alright? He won''t always be so lucky to find someone willing to help." the deer said, somewhat smugly.


    "Oh, thank you so much!" she said.


    She waved to the deer and started heading off with Pipi in her arms.


    "Hey!" The deer yelled.


    "Huh?" the elf turned around.


    "Um, aren''t you forgetting something?"


    "I- I did?" she tilted her head slightly.


    The deer felt very exasperated. Shouldn''t the elf understand that someone who helped should get a reward? It would be awkward to say it out loud, however.


    "You know, the thing?"


    "What thing?"


    "Argh! Fine, I''ll just tell you." the deer grumbled. "Shouldn''t you be giving me a little soooomething? I brought Pipi all the way here, you know! After travelling so far, my back huuuurts! Also, Pipi doesn''t understand me so I couldn''t tell him what to do. You should really teach him Rolgh!"


    The deer was obviously exagarating. The distance wasn''t really all that long in the first place. If carrying something as light as a rabbit gave her back pain, not getting a reward was probably the least of her worries.


    "Ehhh? I''m sorry, I didn''t realise!"


    The elf girl was very gullible, however.


    She ran off, leaving Pipi with the deer and came back with a basket full of leafy greens. The deer ran off gleefully after taking it.


    As the elf held Pipi, she gave him a strange look.


    "Pipi, I feel like something is different about you... I can''t quite put my finger on it though."


    "Pip!" Pipi said.


    The rabbit could understand her, though he couldn''t speak the elven language with his vocal cords.


    The demon was fuming from her sentence. Of course there was a difference! It estimated that the ''stupid'' rabbit''s soul was now at least 5 times stronger.


    "I''m going to take you to mommy, maybe she''ll know what happened to you."


    The little girl hugged the rabbit as she walked home, humming all the while.

 59. The Overseer

    "It''s so cold..." Haliton shivered.


    He had taken the first step out of the nest and into the caverns.


    Was it really that cold? I couldn''t feel it. But then again, I didn''t have any heat sensors.


    He was wearing a really furry coat too, like the other dwarf that followed.


    Whoa... that''s huge?


    I looked outside and was shocked by how massive the cavern was. It stretched so high that you could probably build apartment buildings here! How was it not just collapsed down?


    There were some slime-covered blue crystals on the ceiling which glowed, lighting up the place dimly, showing all kinds of weird... tube things growing all over the ground? With how tightly packed they were and how they swayed in the wind, it was almost like an uglier version of tall grass. There were also many paths and streetlight things that helped to light up the place more as ants scurried around.


    Weird... wait, is that slime one of those ''slime'' things that chased me when I had the crystal tablet gave me? As I looked closer I realised, it was definitely moving. These stupid pests... do they eat mana crystals or something? How big are they if I can see them from here?


    I really hope they don''t fall down from the ceiling onto me...


    Just as I was trying to take it in, I felt someone press buttons in me.


    "Dammit! Why is your heater so slow?" Hali shivered as he set my air conditioner as high as possible.


    Tsk... be more grateful!


    An ant with a device mounted on it crawled to me.


    "Just follow the road over there and you should reach the city," it said, heading back into the nest right after.


    <hr>


    The road led to a rather large tunnel in one of the walls in the cavern which led to a huge set of gates around 10 metres high. Why did they even have to tunnel into a wall to make their city if there was so much space outside?


    There was no one to man it either.


    Regardless, I drove as close as possible to it.


    "Hello! Is anyone there?" Radio shouted.


    Suddenly, light came from the door, a human face had appeared on it. It was almost like how an image would appear on a monitor.


    "Hello there! I am the Overseer!" it said. "Is Iyash your prefered language?"Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.


    I realised that despite a voice coming out, the face remained static. It was fairly weird, to be honest.


    "Uh... yes?"


    Oh yeah, the language was called Iyash.


    "I see. Do keep in mind that most of the dwarves here do not speak that. You might want to purchase a translator." it said. "That said, may I have your ticket?"


    Wait, what? What ticket?


    "Ticket?"


    "Huh? What else? The one you used for the elevator service! Please don''t tell me you threw it away after coming here. This isn''t the first time something like this has happened..."


    Panicking, I turned to Hali, who only now, I realised was asleep. Uell was asleep too. It had to be in the bags, right? I quickly scanned through the luggage... Aha! A blue card with the word ticket on it!


    I unzipped the bag and floated the card out and into a slot on the gate.


    "Hmm. So you''re the unidentified machine they found on the surface. They''ve sent a message down, but I have not actually received any reports of any vehicle like you going missing."


    "So... we are fine?"


    Please be.


    "I''ll send a lost notice around, but you shouldn''t be from around here. I''m fairly sure someone losing something like you would be making quite a fuss."


    "Wait... if they sent a message down, why didn''t you send one back saying we weren''t from here?"


    Yeah, what the hell?


    Suddenly, a body appeared under the face, in a shrugging position. It disappeared moments later.


    "I couldn''t be bothered. Besides, messages take a while to go up anyway."


    "How long?"


    "Weeks. Or even a month or two if things go wrong."


    "What? But it took us less than an hour to get here!"


    "You think it''s possible to just build an elevator that goes all the way up? It won''t be as easy going up, naturally."


    ...


    I guess we should be pretty deep down considering the falling speed and how long it took.


    "Anyway, you need to register since you''re an unknown golem vehicle. Please allow me to access your core."


    What? I don''t even have a core. Wait, are they going to realise I am some sort of ''advanced tech'' or something and try to take me apart?


    "Wh-who are you anyway? You''re just a gatekeeper!" Radio squeaked.


    I mean... that''s probably his job to, so...


    A laugh came from the machine.


    "A gatekeeper! I''ve never been called that before. Well, I suppose in this very instance, I am. You don''t know anything about this place, huh?"


    "Haliton?" Radio whispered.


    "Huh... why did you wake me up..." he mumbled groggily.


    Good idea! He probably knows what''s up.


    As he took the situation in, he suddenly shook awake.


    "AH! Is that... is that the Overseer?"


    "Uh, yes? I guess he called himself that."


    "Whoa! Ueller, wake up!"


    He grabbed his friend and started shaking him.


    "Urgh..." the gardener groaned.


    I heard a sigh from the Overseer.


    "Do all of you surface dwarves have to act like that? Just... move on in. I''ll register your core later."


    Oh, thank goodness.


    The gates opened, the face disappearing.


    "What''s the Overseer?" Radio whispered.


    "Aww... you missed it, Ueller."


    "I don''t care that much," Uell grumbled, lying back down on Minnie''s lap to sleep.


    "Wait, so are you not from here? How do you not know of the Overseer? Did your owner hide so much from you?"


    "No... I''m not from here."


    "What! Who made you then?"


    "I uh, don''t know?"


    That''s technically true, actually. I have no idea what factory made me.


    Hali sighed.


    "Maybe you got memory wiped while escaping?"


    "Don''t say something so ominous..."


    "Anyway, the Overseer is very famous! It''s basically this super intelligent collection of golem cores that runs most of the stuff in the cities down here!"


    Huh, that sounds kind of sci-fi, actually. I didn''t really think I''d hear of anything like that in this world.


    Wait, so a sci-fi artificial intelligence overseer thing got scared off by some random person ''fangirling''?

 60. Dwarven City

    The inside of the town was much more spacious than I thought.


    It was also surprisingly quite like some housing areas on earth, with roads, walkways and buildings lining the side. Apart from the ceiling hanging around 20 metres above.


    Well, not that there were any high-rise buildings obviously. I also found it a bit strange that their houses here didn''t have those tiled roofs; most of the buildings just had flat tops. It was almost like looking at rows of mini-apartments, which was a funny thought.


    I didn''t really know what I was supposed to do here since I was forcefully sent here though.


    I figured I might as well just get Radio to ask Hali and Uell what they wanted to do.


    "Uh, any plans?"


    "What else? We''re going to tour the place! I heard there''s great food and souvenirs here." Hali grinned. "If you wait too long, your owner will probably find you anyway. Might as well enjoy your time here!"


    I don''t know why I expected something else from him... No idea why he still thought I came from here either.


    Right beside the gate, I saw a box full of pamphlets. Wait, could I get Tablet to scan these so I could understand the dwarven language better?


    Excitedly, I floated a few over to take a better look... and realise it was in Iyash. I felt like an idiot.


    Well, whatever. I handed them over to my passengers.


    "Thanks! Hmm..."


    Haliton flipped through quickly until he came to a page with a map on it.


    "Aha!"


    He looked through it quickly.


    "The money changer is pretty close, just-"


    I snatched the pamphlet away from him. I know how to read maps, okay? No need for him to tell me where to go...


    "What?"


    "Ah, sorry! I snatched it with a bit too much force! Ahahaha..." Radio laughed nervously. "I can follow the directions myself, by the way."


    Sometimes it''s a bit annoying how I couldn''t communicate how I felt directly. Maybe that could be for the best through. Radio seemed pretty good at dealing with people...This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    Hali and Uell soon walked out of the money exchange area, Hali with an especially wide grin.


    "We''ll go around and grab some stuff, so stay put, okay? Minnie, do you want to join us?"


    "No," Minnie said, its face expressionless.


    "Haliton... isn''t that a bit unfair?" Uell whispered.


    "Well, it''s not like it can go into the buildings with us, right? What am I supposed to do?"


    ...


    Urgh, I remember feeling left out at times because I couldn''t enter buildings back on earth too. This kind of sucks. Plus, couldn''t he have gotten me to drive them around.


    I asked Radio to tell them something.


    "Mind getting me a few popular stories here and a dictionary by the way?"


    Hali nodded.


    "I can understand the appeal of a good book myself! But are you sure you can read it?"


    "Err... I think I''ll figure it out eventually."


    "Hmm... I''ll see if I can find some translated ones. See you in a bit!" he waved to us.


    Despite the number of vehicles parked beside me, it felt kind of lonely here in the parking lot.


    For a second, I thought of trying to talk to them, but then I decided against it. They probably spoke a different language here anyway and might not want to be disturbed.


    "I''m kind of surprised, actually, Minnie." Radio said, all of a sudden.


    "Hmm?"


    "From how you acted, I thought you would hate dwarves or something? I guess I was just surprised to find you with them. And also coming down here to this city, I guess."


    Oh, that''s true actually, now that I realise it.


    Minnie paused for a moment, looking downwards.


    "Well... I don''t hate them per se. It''s not their fault. It''s the fault of the manufacturers that make us." it sighed. "Besides, I can understand why they''d want us bound. Who would buy a product that could just leave if it didn''t want to work anymore?"


    "You... don''t think it''s wrong?"


    "Business is business. If not for that, I would not have been created. I guess I can be grateful for that much. Hah... Right now, I just want to see the world, to see what it has to offer, after being stuck guarding that town for so many years."


    "But why here of all places? Aren''t there many more places to explore?"


    "You''re being very intrusive. you know?" Minnie grumbled.


    "Ah! Sorry!"


    "Hmph." Minnie stretched its body. "Well, I suppose I just wanted to see the original civilisation for myself. You being sent here would probably be my only chance to visit here, anyway."


    "Oh..."


    "Now shut up and let me relax!"


    I thought Radio would respond with "sorry", but it didn''t answer.


    <hr>


    "Heeeey!" Haliton hiccuped. "Sorry, urgh, for the wait!"


    The two dwarves were grinning widely, their faces red.


    I guess they got drunk.


    I put down my book and checked the time.


    [10 PM]


    Four hours, huh? Felt a lot shorter since I was reading.


    They were carrying many bags that I almost mistook for plastic at first, which surprised me a lot. But after looking closer, I realised they were much thicker and glossier.


    I realised they were quite flexible too, as I helped them load the bags in with telekinesis.


    Hmm, they bought food, bottles of drink, a few books, random gadgets and... some kind of squarish container full of something oily?


    Ack, I guess they thought I need normal fuel.


    When I looked into the food containers, I was filled with the temptation to just snatch up some of it though. It looked really tasty!


    "Urgh... Minnie, you should have come with us! It was great!"


    "I can''t eat food."


    As they began, talking, something occurred to me. If Minnie wanted to see the place itself, why didn''t it accompany them? Even if it couldn''t eat, it should at least look around, right?


    "Hmm... maybe he''s shy?"


    Eh?


    I took another look at Minnie''s grumpy face.


    No way.