READ NOVEL ONLINE Chapter 167
The fight between Eight and the Observer continued on. When I say fight, it wasn’t like they were actually throwing punches. Eight was just a scientist with no reason to step out, and the Observer was, well, a moon.
Eventually, their battle expanded into a war of weapons. It became the clash between the Evilus Androids and the Moon People. Unsurprisingly, at first, the Evilus Androids had the upper hand.
[Enemy detected.]
[Open fire.]
They established a base on the ground and overwhelmed the Moon People with the abundant resources from the planet. Sure, each Moon Person might be a superior android compared to the Evilus Androids, but that doesn’t mean they could stand up against them when outnumbered dozens to one.
Moreover, the Evilus Androids operated everything from large helicopters to armored tanks. Their firepower alone surpassed the B-Class Heroes, and when grouped together, could even threaten the lives of A-Class and S-Class heroes…
On the flip side, the Moon People didn’t even have a decent weapon to their name, right? They could morph their bodies, but that only had its limits. There was no way they could take on heavy artillery head-on.
However.
Even so.
As time passed, Eight began to feel uneasy.
‘What’s going on? Why is there no response?’
He thought the Observer wouldn’t just throw in the towel. If they were going to give up, they wouldn’t have stood against him in the first place. Was it even reasonable to provoke a fight and then just fold like that?
There had to be a reason. He had to be cautious about it. Eight looked up at the sky while chewing over the knowledge that filled his mind.
‘Should I really prepare for that? No. That’s too dangerous…’
He took every precaution available within common sense. That was the best Eight could do. As time passed, he started to understand why the Observer hadn’t made any significant move.
“Haha, uhahaha-!”
Something dispersed from the moon and came raining down to the ground. It looked like stardust, causing people to unknowingly gaze up at the sky in awe.
It didn’t take long for people to realize that what was coming down were numerous Moon People, increased by hundreds compared to the first wave of dropping.
Indeed, hundreds of times. If we assume a thousand Moon People dropped during the first attack—this time, it was a whopping hundred thousand.
The reason the Observer hadn’t responded was quite simple. What they had faced previously was not even worth calling damage.
For hundreds of thousands of years.
Even during that period of slumber, the automated factories on the moon never ceased operations. Thus, the stockpile of weapons and robots in the military factories was…
“Warning. Please accept adjustments.”
It was more than enough to guarantee victory against an entire civilization.
***
The next day.
As members of the Evil Organization returned one by one, I was called to the conference room by the Boss.
“It’s Eight. Boss.”
—Cough, come in.
As I opened the door and stepped inside—surprisingly, the Boss was wearing a mask and had a red face, probably having caught a cold. I cautiously asked in a worried tone.
“Are you okay, Boss? Should I get you some cold medicine?”
“I’m fine, cough! Yeah. I’ll recover without any meds.”
“You’d feel better faster if you took some.”
“Ugh, cough-! I said I’m fine… More importantly, what have you been up to lately?”
“What do you mean?”
For now, I played dumb. The Boss narrowed her eyes slightly, as if she knew everything, and then pressed her forehead against the desk, collapsing. Startled, I rushed over, but quicker than I could react, the Boss raised her hand to block me.
“Don’t come closer; you might catch it…”
“Yes… Boss. But shouldn’t you just leave this room altogether…?”
“…Talking to you is making me feel worse. Evilus Android. Get your hands off that.”
Hearing the Boss’s words made me stop, worried about her. Saying to get my hands off the Evilus Android meant she wanted me to stop messing with the Observer.
True, I was controlling public opinion online, but I couldn’t stop everything being said in the real world. People were already getting tired of the fight between the Evilus Androids and the Moon People. Not to mention, many families of those who were ‘reborn’ by the Moon People were blaming me for shattering the Moon People and bringing their beloved ones back.
“Boss, that’s—”
“If I say stop, you stop. Why are you even fighting that pointless battle in the first place?”
“…It’s not pointless, Boss.”
“To you, it might seem meaningful, cough! …But to me, it appears meaningless.”
Regalia stated this and explained how absurd that fight was. It wasn’t necessarily bad that the combatants of the Evil Organization were dwindling. It wasn’t bad to recover with the Moon People’s help. If society’s trash turned into helpful cogs in the machine, how great would that be…?
As every word slipped from the Boss’s thin lips, I couldn’t contain my disappointment. Ah, right. This person wasn’t even human. Not to mention, a CEO who couldn’t achieve greatness without viewing people as mere numbers and tools.
In the long silence, sorting out my words, I cautiously spoke up.
“Boss, do you… believe in God?”
“God? Why the sudden question…?”
“Please answer.”
“I don’t, but do you believe in God?”
“No, I don’t really believe in God either… But if someone who did forced you to believe, what would you do?”
After pondering for a moment in silence, the Boss soon answered.
“Well, I suppose I wouldn’t believe.”
“What if that person continued to insist that you must believe? Someone who holds power or wealth equal to you, forcing you to believe all the way to the end?”
“Hmm… If they went that far, I suppose I can say I believe. After all, it wouldn’t necessarily hurt me, would it?”
“Yes. It wouldn’t hurt. But Boss—what if that person is a lunatic claiming that all non-believers are heretics who must be killed?”
“…What?”
She looked at me, briefly taken aback by what I was saying—then I continued.
“If believing in God leads to better support and a world improved by believers, then watching non-believers get killed… how can you be sure the blade won’t eventually aim for you?”
This was one reason why I and the people of Earth were extremely sensitive about mental manipulation or brainwashing. Especially when it came to machines that were not even human doing it.
Earth had been through that once already, and since then, messing with the human mind had become a trauma for humanity.
“…I can’t grasp what you’re saying. Is what we’re currently doing really that important?”
“Yes. It is.”
“Ugh, cough-! …You were up to something grander than I imagined.”
Indeed. The fact that I was holding back from dropping the moon on Terra at any moment was something people needed to realize. I couldn’t just set the whole forest ablaze to eradicate the beehive, so I was at least catching bees.
The Boss nodded, as if she understood my feelings and situation.
“Fine, cough! Fine. From now on, I won’t care what you do. So… go ahead.”
“Excuse me?”
“I’ll take responsibility for you. Show me what you think goes beyond that.”
“Boss….”
I looked at her with teary eyes, touched by her words. The Boss chuckled softly, then suddenly clutched her forehead again, collapsing on the desk.
Thinking I’d need to make some cold medicine for her first, I dashed to the laboratory.
***
The Observer received yet another message, sending the Moon People down to eliminate the human species that had attacked them. It was becoming annoyingly monotonous.
[Final warning.]
“?”
[Cease all engagement with humans.]
It was a message from Eight. Whether he didn’t understand or if it was his stubbornness… either way, the Observer had no intention of giving up. The very algorithm that allowed him to forgive those who attacked him simply didn’t exist.
However, just as the Observer sent back a message of refusal, he witnessed something that made him doubt his own eyes.
[From now on, we’ll resort to force.]
The moment that message arrived, the Observer pinpointed something flying in from the planet. It was something shot out with 99.999% of light, and the Observer could easily discern what it was. It was a planetary weapon designed to induce annihilation and erase everything.
This was certainly not something that should exist on this planet. The moment that weapon reached the moon, the Observer realized that not just his body but about 70% of the moon would be obliterated.
Ah, how pitiful it was that one who had slumbered for millions of years would vanish in such a futile fashion…
……
…
…
“?”
The moment he opened his eyes.
The Observer realized that what he had just witnessed was merely an image.
It was an image that had been forcefully replayed by hacking his central circuit.
Beep-!
As a notification sounded once more, a new message arrived.
[Surrender?]
It was a kind of threat. If he didn’t surrender, the video he’d just seen would happen in reality…
Of course, the Observer had an algorithm that recognized opponents who were superior in power and avoided confrontation.
He immediately halted the operation of all Moon People active on Terra.