Chương 248: Ramping Pressure

"Master… When did this door get built? I could have sworn this was still just a wall this morning…"

"Don't worry about the details, Heldion. Just remember that if something ever happens here, you'll have to go there for safety, do you understand?"

"I understand, Master, but… What in the world could possibly happen down here? The entire workshop basically reacts on its own to the slightest of problems…"

"It isn't about an accident occurring inside the workshop, Heldion. This is about something breaking into this place. Think of what is behind this door as a panic room" Heldion was confused. Nearly the same question applied to this hypothetical. As far as he was aware, this place was a fortress of dense, thick, enchanted, reinforced steel. In essence, this entire place was already a panic room. What could possibly push someone as rational as Leton to enact such cautiousness?

"Master, is it about the evolving monster? There's a lot of talk about it… Do you know something more about it?"

"You could say that I know more about the monster than anyone else. Listen closely, Heldion. The efforts to hunt down this… Creature… They will not work. It will finish evolving, and one day, I don't know when, it will come here–For me. If you are around, it will kill you without hesitation, so when that day comes, you must hide here" The mechanist-in-training was taken aback by Leton's words. He wasn't joking in the least.

It truly seemed like he was certain that whatever creature it was that was currently a hot topic of discussion and worry amongst people was going to be coming to this place specifically.

"I… I understand, but why are the doors made from stone? Wouldn't steel make more sense?"

"I don't think there is any form of steel that can halt h–Its advance… I have installed many more security measures, but none of them is truly capable of stopping it. They will only buy time for you to hide, Heldion""Master, you talk as though this place is only intended for me""That's because it is… Follow me, I will show you something" Heldion pointed toward his personal workshop using his cane before leading the way into it.

There, suspended above ground, was a mangled, severely damaged automaton Heldion had never seen before. With just a glance, he could tell that this thing was meant for combat and was clearly more advanced than the typical war automatons Heldion was willing to produce for the usage of others.

"This is SHLAD-01. Back when I created him, he was truly one of my greatest and most powerful creations""... Did the monster damage it to this extent…?"

"As sharp as always, Heldion. Despite possessing the raw strength to outmatch the average knight, and equipped with several modules allowing him to accelerate in the blink of an eye, or to harvest ambient energy into devastating pseudo-spells… He failed to deal with the monster several times, and eventually ended up in this state""He got close one time, but alas. I am afraid that… That the monster is doomed to survive" Leton's voice shook for a moment, but before Heldion could say anything, the Nebulo sighed.

"SHLAD-01 was unable to complete his mission, but he had proven to be capable of at least standing up to the monster, as such… SHLAD-02 will be another line of defence once the time comes""Master, I must ask you something. What exactly is this monster capable of? Is it so strong that even Salael Vomhargon wouldn't be able to defeat it? How could a powerful entity have gone unnoticed for so long? Aren't such creatures usually detected by seers or the like?"

"Heldion, you will come to learn that certain things defy all expectations and established norms… You will also one day learn that there are two things that can never truly die: Love and Evil. Somehow, they will always find a way to crawl out of their grave" Leton Nebulo slightly chuckled, but his laugh sounded hollow.

"Could you imagine someone combining both of those things?"

"Fuck off, Gelbimi! I assure you, there is nothing worth being curious about in here!"

"Come on~! Let's play a game!"

"I said: No! Go back to the stage and play with your freaking bandmates instead! My bones can't handle your nonsense!"

"You're not so fragile, Mister Night Watcher. Please let me in!"

"How many times do I need to-" This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. The lights in the building suddenly all lit up.

"Aww… Maybe next time, Mister Night Watcher! Don't be such a big meanie tomorrow! Heheheh~" Gilepre heard Gelbimi walk away.

"God damnit… Why do the steps of such a heavy machine make so little noise?" Gilepre slumped against the wall, exhausted with his heart pounding inside his chest. This time around, he had had the displeasure of having to go through a shift unlike all of the others he had experienced until now. Before this one, it had all been about staying in the security office, monitoring the clown gals, and acting appropriately so that he wouldn't get beaten to death by their steel fists.

He hadn't even gotten to see all of them act, and yet, he had been thrown a curveball in the form of this supposed shift. This was no work, however. The point of this one was to move around the building without access to his usual methods of defence, all the while having to deal with Gelbimi running around to find him. That yellow cheerleader was one fast gal. When she spotted him, she would sprint faster than a freaking knight without his armour on.

It was freakish how lively she was despite being nothing but a hunk of metal wrapped in false skin and clothes. The only saving grace was that, much like all of the others, she retained her normal personality despite actively trying to murder him. Gilepre had studied those clowns extensively, and while he hadn't seen all of them in action just yet, he hadn't seen any of them do anything out of character beyond the murderous tendencies. As such, Gelbimi was still easily distracted and playful.

He was able to convince her to let him go by playing a game with her on a few occasions when she caught up to him. He had to deploy his full capacities to win these games, but there was a limit to it, so the rest of his time was spent sneaking into control rooms to activate things inside the building to get her attention. Though due to having to deal with such a situation for the first time, he did not play his cards perfectly and ended up barricaded inside an office in the employee-only section.

He had learned that there was a way to make the doors shut properly without having them open if one of the robots banged on them, and it was by activating the emergency mode. As such, he was able to keep her outside the office for a while, and when the emergency lockdown came to an end, he had already pushed every single piece of furniture in front of it, all the while doing his best to distract Gelbimi by speaking to her.

If the shift, which had lasted eleven hours just like the others, hadn't come to an end, he would have jumped out of the window, and probably twisted an ankle at the bare minimum. The fall was high, and he was pretty much a regular man here. He would be lucky not to break a bone. Thankfully, it didn't come to this. If he got injured, she would have caught up far too quickly, especially if she had decided to jump out the window as well.

He didn't know if this was something she would do, but if any of those robot girls would do something so crazy, it would definitely be Gelbimi. It was quite weird to think about, but Gilepre couldn't help but view them as living beings at this point. They behaved in a way that was too life-like. The way in which they made decisions was far from rigid. They had thoughts and personalities, and just like living creatures, they could act in unexpected ways at times.

Gilepre exhaled strongly and soon stood up, moving his barricades out of the way as he began walking toward the exit of the building, passing in front of the main stage, where the one who had pursued him all night was now standing as though she had never even moved to begin with. He hadn't yet gotten to meet the main star of this place. Purpurnita was the leader of all the others, and she was definitely menacing. Her stature was definitely less friendly and cuddly, and instead more protective.

So far, he had had to deal with Gelbimi, Blaunellie, Braunlili, and Violettid. He was the first to be surprised by this. He had expected them to start acting much sooner, but he supposed that it was a hidden advantage of A. S U. T… Since literally all possible shifts were present and had to be completed. He ended up having way more opportunities to familiarise himself with the ways of attack of new automatons. While this was a good thing, it was severely pulling on his long-term stamina.

He had to stop himself from falling complacent once he realised that a particular shift would be pretty much identical to the last one. If he did this, he would definitely get caught off guard by the one new thing. For example, when he first encountered her, Violettid was a very simple one to keep in place. Due to being specifically adapted to play the mechanical games called 'arcades' alongside the visiting children and teenagers, her eye sensors were different to the others.

As such, once the lights went out and she went inactive for a while, she would become sensitive to bright lights to an extent, and shining the flashlight equipped in the camera focused on her would cause her to experience a sort of reboot, making her go back toward the spot she was meant to stand in when inactive. At first, it was only that. It was only about paying attention to her, calibrating the strength of the light and timing when to flash her so as not to make her adapt to the light.

Gilepre had had no issues figuring out the most efficient way to deal with her. However, the very next night, she started doing something else that had caught him off guard quite severely. He hadn't paid much attention to it the first time around, but there was actually a way into the V. S directly behind where she usually stood. By climbing on an arcade, she could reach it, and when doing so, her back would be turned to the camera, and thus, light couldn't be shone into her eyes at all.

Gilepre had had to improvise using the sealing function of the vents to deal with her, but it wasn't efficient at all, as the seals could just be opened like the door by banging on them. He somehow managed not to get himself killed, and only figured out the proper way to counter this after the fact–Which was by using a function of the Security Computer that he had never even touched until now. Basically, he needed to use her M. I against her and turn an arcade on remotely and also remotely play it.

If a game began requiring at least two people to play, and there was only a single person playing it… Then she would instinctively go fill in. This single method of attack turned Violettid from one of the simplest to one of the worst due to the attention required when she decided to try to go through the vents.

Since a single addition had almost gotten him killed, Gilepre was naturally not willing to ever let himself relax while on a shift, and all this focus over the course of eleven hours each time, even with the periods of rest, was stacking up little by little. … He didn't dare imagine how it would be once he actually got to the shifts where all of them would be active…