Lowering the car window, Yvette sat in the driver’s seat, quietly observing the mechanical girl beside her. Her dark red eyes showed neither sadness nor joy, providing no indication of a response.
An awkward silence settled around them. After waiting a moment, the mechanical girl spoke again, slightly awkwardly: “Um… kind lady, could you please give me a ride?”
“I’ll agree if you answer a few questions,” Yvette’s voice was calm and steady, betraying no emotion.
Her earlier silence had been an attempt to hack into the mechanical girl’s systems, but, surprisingly, there were no accessible ports on her body. It was unclear whether they were turned off or malfunctioning, but either way, she hadn’t been given an opportunity to invade.
Thus, verbal communication remained her only option, though she was unsure of how this mechanical being—who appeared to have gained self-awareness—viewed humans.
“Sure,” the mechanical girl readily nodded.
“Where are the human survivors?” Yvette asked.
“Humans? Haven’t they been extinct for a long time? Where would any survivors be?” The mechanical girl looked puzzled. “You don’t know this?”
“I’ve been isolated on a very remote island,” Yvette chose to reveal a portion of the truth selectively.
“Oh, I see.” The mechanical girl accepted this explanation without skepticism.Noticing her nonchalant demeanor, Yvette squinted slightly, uncertain whether the girl was simply adept at hiding her emotions or if she genuinely hadn’t noticed that a living being was right in front of her.
Yvette decided to push her still further: “What do you think I am?”
“Another machine, of course,” the mechanical girl replied matter-of-factly, as if the answer was obvious.
“Don’t you think I resemble a human?”
“Well, you’re kind of like me, right?” The mechanical girl tilted her head to scrutinize Yvette, before saying, “Hmm, you do look a bit similar. That’s impressive. I wish I could look like that too.”
From her tone, it seemed being human-like was a good thing? Yvette felt a flicker of confusion in her mind but chose not to affirm anything immediately.
It appeared that the mechanical puppets were in the process of forging a new civilization, and revealing her human identity would likely lead to unnecessary complications.
She continued her questioning: “Why are you called the Mechanical Race? What about the term ‘mechanical magic puppet’?”
“Isn’t that our ancient name?” The mechanical girl tilted her head in confusion to the other side. “Call it whatever you like, I suppose.”
“You mentioned you came from the Silver Mirror Continent. How did you cross the sea?”
“I prayed to the great mechanical god in the sanctuary, and a messenger from the Kingdom of Rentu, or Rift Kingdom, brought me to the Black Tide Continent.”
“Which god… is that?”
“The Great Mechanical God. How do you not know this? Haven’t you received any divine message?” The mechanical girl’s tone now held a hint of skepticism.
“…My island is too isolated.”
“Oh, poor lady,” the mechanical girl added a slight note of pity, “But that’s alright. With my help, you’ll quickly return to the embrace of the divine.”
“…Next question, please tell me about your identity.”
“My name is Ice Rain, and I am a citizen of the Kingdom of the Sky, a free traveler.”
“Kingdom of the Sky? Is that your country?”
“Yes,” Ice Rain nodded.
“Are there other countries?”
“From what I know, there are only the Black Tide Kingdom, the Ashen Scar Kingdom, and the Rift Kingdom. This is my first time leaving the Silver Mirror Continent, so I don’t know much about the others.”
Upon hearing this, Yvette fell silent, lost in contemplation.
The Black Tide Kingdom, Ashen Scar Kingdom, Rift Kingdom, and this Ice Rain’s Kingdom of the Sky were clearly named after the four major companies from the origin civilization: Black Tide Company, Ashen Chemical, Rift Enterprise, and Heavenscape Technology.
Unlike the other four super corporations, however, these four entities all engaged in mechanical puppetry, magical soldiers, and Mind Core operations. Among them, Heavenscape Technology and Rift Enterprise were the strongest, followed by Black Tide Company and Ashen Chemical.
Could it be that these mechanical puppets were the remnants of these companies left after the apocalypse, that over the long years of existence, they had gained intelligence and formed social bonds through their creators?
Snapping back to reality, Yvette glanced at Ice Rain and said, “Get in the car.”
“Oh! Thank you, kind lady.” Ice Rain immediately hopped into the vehicle, even remembering to buckle herself into the passenger seat.
Under Ice Rain’s guidance, the motorcycle began to move slowly in a specific direction. After traveling about two kilometers, Yvette noticed a small vehicle parked by the side of the abandoned road.
It was a motorcycle that looked battered, covered in welding scars and patches, evidently a patchwork of countless discarded parts.
Though Yvette could directly recharge the motorcycle’s power board, restoring its depleted elements, she didn’t want to showcase that ability; instead, she allowed Ice Rain to tie the motorcycle onto the roof of the larger vehicle.
Returning to her seat, she asked, “What’s this sanctuary you mentioned? Where is it?”
“It’s a place to pray to the great mechanical god for help; all the kingdoms have one,” Ice Rain replied matter-of-factly. “I prayed before coming to the Black Tide Continent, and the god indicated that there was a kingdom nearby in this region, and that I’d reach a supply station when I landed, just south of the Agash City ruins.”
“A kingdom… how many people does it typically have?”
“I don’t know. The people in our Kingdom of the Sky are quite numerous, around a thousand,” Ice Rain shook her head. “Other kingdoms are smaller, with only two or three hundred people. But I don’t know much about the Black Tide Continent; I only know there are believers of the god here, probably just a few hundred.”
A thousand? Two to three hundred?
Yvette was taken aback. In their earlier conversation, she had envisioned these mechanical kingdoms as a silicon-based civilization that would gradually rise from the ruins and could soon sweep away aberrant creatures and venture into the universe…
Yet the population of a kingdom was so small? Wasn’t that the same as a village?
No, it might not even compare to a village!
…
Driving the vehicle toward the nearest mechanical kingdom, after covering about four or five kilometers, the outline of a small town comprised of crumbling walls and ruins emerged on the horizon. As she drew closer, she began to see slowly moving figures among the dilapidated buildings.
When she got near enough to see clearly, it became apparent that these stumbling figures were all old, rough mechanical puppets. Their shells were riddled with welding scars and patched with rivets, and magical wires twisted out in the open, rusted power boards creaking under the weight of their frames with each slow step they took, exuding a sense of weariness and impending collapse.
“Hello, may I ask where this is?” Yvette remained seated in the driver’s seat, delaying her descent until she saw Ice Rain step down and cheerfully greet them.
Then, an old mechanical puppet with a cracked shell and large spiderweb-like fissures in its lenses approached, speaking through its worn-out speaker, “This is Agash branch of the Black Tide Kingdom. Welcome, distant travelers!”
Indeed, the puppets with the Black Tide Company logo were presumably linked together in this way, Yvette mused. She wondered if this might lead to brand discrimination, where the four major corporations appeared more prestigious while the lesser-known, smaller companies’ puppets faced scorn.
Then, noting that there weren’t many of these mechanical kingdom puppets— perhaps only a few dozen—and observing their amiable demeanor, she felt sufficiently safe and decided to step out of the vehicle as well.
But as soon as she did, she was startled to find that all the mechanical puppets’ gazes seemed magnetically drawn to her, locking onto her figure as if paralyzed.