Chapter 451: 451
At that moment, ROOT’s anger had reached its prime, she did not expect things to reach this stage. Even though she had confidently gloated to 23 about her ‘predictive ability’ and ability to see into the future, but as ZERO said… ROOT’s power was not complete, she could only see pieces of the future.
But… ROOT could use her super calculative and analytical power to predict and speculate the contingencies of events based on the parts that she saw. But ZERO’s method was different from hers, ZERO could directly access the full data chain, that was the difference in essence between the two of them.
If Feng Bujue was there, he would have seen through this already. If ROOT could really see into the future, further than ZERO, then she wouldn’t need to conduct the process of ‘elimination’, she would know where Phantom Dawn was and called her people to capture him. Clearly, she had linked the data chain after she saw Phantom Dawn. But even so, she still had many missing parts that she couldn’t calculate, like… The Golden Maggot Number One.
“Want to run?”ROOT’s cocoon roared angrily as she made her move. The cocoon as big as the robot, it was suspended in the air and did not touch the ground and it moved… surprisingly fast. Golden Maggot 1 was a robot that moved depending on the levers so it couldn’t be that fast and it did not know how to fly, so… before it landed, it had already been caught up to by ROOT.
“Qie… She moves so damn fast…” Matcha Cookie lost her cool. She quickly moved her hands and came up with a counter. The robot’s upper body turned 180 degree and raising its arms, it followed it up with Big Wheel Punch (One of the Great Mazinger’s ultimate, a further expansion of ‘Rocket Punch’. When used, the kinetic energy would be gathered by spinning both arms 360 degrees before stopping them, this is used to produce centrifugal force to swing the punches out. It has 3 times the power of a normal punch.)
Creak—
With a strange sound, a layer of metallic web shed from the surface of the cocoon and shot at the robot. The punch hit against the web and was halted. The web was surprisingly firm. After the punch collided into it, it felt like he was punching against a ball of bubblegum and failed to pierce through it. And the most troublesome thing was… the hands were stuck to the web and were impossible to pull back.
“As I expected…” ROOT mumbled to herself. At that moment, in her battle analysis menu, the danger level of Golden Maggot had lowered to ‘low’. Obviously, what happened earlier was just a coincidence. Because ROOT’s fourth form lacked movement speed and had limited attack method so it was perfectly countered by Golden Maggot Number 1. But if ROOT was in her other form, even if her weakest form, she would not lose to this robot.
Kuang—
Golden Maggot One bent its knees and slowly dropped to the ground. It looked more and more strange by the house. Other than its upper body that was turned differently than the rest of its body, it had now lost its arms.
…
“Hmph… Trash will always be trash…” ROOT soon chased after it. In few seconds, she already consumed both arms into her cocoon.
Creak—
Another shot of metallic web and this time Xiao Tan was unable to do anything.
“Warning, machine is under serious physical damage. Please initiate emergency evacuation.”
“Ah… Even without that warning, I would have done that next…” As Matcha Cookie spoke, she already prepared the method. The next second, with a bang, a safety hatch bounced out from the crotch of the robot. It flew more than 100 metres away and knocked into a building, throughout this process Xiao Tan had not stopped screaming.
“Very good… the burden is gone.” Matcha Cookie focused her gaze. Her hands moved like shadows and they worked the virtual panel. “I swear I’ll take you down if it’s the last thing I do!” Undoubtedly, she was prepared to commit suicide to bring down the enemy. Like she swore earlier, even if she was to die, she would die inside the robot…
“Unloading rate has reached maximum. Positron Cannon activated.
“Warning, target is too close, please confirm whether to force activate the cannon.”
“Hmph… Go to hell. You creep!” Matcha Cookie did not hesitate. But, just at that moment…
Bang, another sound signified another safety hatch bounced out from the back of the robot. She too was sent out of Golden Maggot Number 1.
“What’s happening? I did not key in that order?” Due to the rebound, Matcha Cookie was swung around in her seat but her mind was clear, she had no memory of pressing the evacuation button.
I shed no tears (Da-da-da)
Because I am a robot, I am a machine (Da-da-da)
Yet I know of what friendship is about
Together we shall strike out evil
Super attack! Thunder Break
Together we shall defeat the forces of evil
Gold Typhoon! Whip up a storm
I am Gold—Golden Maggot Number One!
Intermittent singing came out from the robot’s speaker. It was hard to tell whether it was the circuit burning or ‘it’ was trying to say something. The large figure who was trapped and swallowed by the metallic web shot out the safety hatch at the last moment before it was destroyed. Then it followed its final orders and used Positron Cannon on everything within its sight.
Dididi
ROOT seemed to sense something danger and she could not help but curse under her breath. “Damn it…”
Hong—
The supernova of an explosion lit up the night sky. The brightness blinded everyone and the blastwave shook the ground. At the centre of the explosion, Golden Maggot 1 and ROOT in her 3rd form died together.
“Phew… this time, it should really be over right…” 10 seconds later, Xiao Tan who crawled out from the safety hatch said as he watched the pool of dust and lightning spark. At that moment, Matcha Cookie also crawled out from her hatch. She was not far from Xiao Tan. “hmm… I seemed to have been saved by some strange dude…”
“hey!” Brahma shouted from the other end of the street. “Can you come over and help? We still need to deal with about 40 enemies here!” By then, half of Anomalies had been wiped out. About 40 remained. Looks like Golden Maggot Number 1 had done quite a lot earlier. Furthermore R2- Sharp Gale had joined the battlefield and shared the burden off Brahman’s shoulders.
“it’s not over yet…” 23’s words was like a pail of cold water over the players. “it is… far from over…”
“indeed…” ROOT’s voice came from the centre of the explosion. “This is just the beginning…”
After the dust settled, a new ROOT appeared before them. She regained her female form and had a giant pair of butterfly wings behind her. The metallic skin had turned a dark grey color and had a big difference from her initial silvery color. Once she showed up, ROOT snapped her fingers. A white pillar of light suddenly appeared and exploded 10 metres behind her. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone there but after the light pillar appeared, a figure staggered out from the edge of the pillar and crumbled to the ground in a pool of blood.
“You are far cleverer than you appear… Red Iron.” ROOT turned around to say, “You wanted to sneak over there to wake up Phantom Dawn is it?” She sneered, “You like I will allow that to happen?” With blood on his lips, Red Iron’s left arm had completely evaporated. With a bitter smile, he held onto his missing arm, and stopped struggling. He breathed out. “Hah… and I thought I would succeed… so sorry, everyone… this time, I really can’t get up anymore.”
Phantom Dawn was about 200 metres behind ROOT and the players, organization Z and the Origin were before ROOT. Now it was clear that ROOT had purposely set up a defensive line. Ever since she melted with her doppelganger, she had been holding this line. Even when faced with the attack from Golden Maggot 1, she never budged from this spot.
“The entertainment is over.” ROOT said, “As the party to send me away from this dimension… there has been more than enough surprises.”
The butterfly wings fluttered. In this moment, 23 noticed the enemy’s approach, she crossed her arms before her chest in a defensive posture. But ROOT only reached out a finger and lightly touched on her arm… to create a strong energy explosion and blew off both of 23’s arms. 23’s body twirled in the air. ROOT danced around her like a bloody butterfly.
Boom boom boom.
One explosion after another, and 23 was losing badly. She turned all her focus into evasion and recovery but even so, she was cornered.
“Rankyaku… Hakurai!” Seeing her superior in danger, Sharp Gale charged to help but…
“The skill name is quite cool.” ROOT commented with derision. With a flick of her wings, she gathered a wing blast to bounce the attack back. Sharp Gale had just finished an attack, and his defence was open. Hakurai was deflected right at him. But… his attack was not pointless, at least it helped 23 temporarily escape from the consecutive blasts.
“Sharp Gale… you just guard the players… I will handle this.” 23 said as she removed the tattered protective gear and abandoned the outfit that held her back.
“oh? Are you finally ready to die?” ROOT said coldly.
“If I die here, then I won’t need to worry about passing through SCP-004 any way.” Under 23’s protective gear was a black jumpsuit, similar to how she looked in the previous scenario, ‘Going up’. But at this moment, she was covered in wounds. Dried blood, scorched skin could be seen everywhere.
“Hmmm…. You have a point there.” ROOT jeered. “Then I shall lend you a hand!”
Xiu—
As ROOT planned to charge forward, suddenly a golden light cut through the air.