Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 902: Section 598: Trial (Part 2)

Chapter 902: Section 598: Trial (Part 2)

Red ankle boots stepped on the stairs, and the catgirl with shoulder-length curly hair beamed with joy as she neared the opening at the top of the Bell Tower. Approaching the exit, the hovering intelligent eyeball behind her began scanning the platform above, outlining two humans in its master’s field of vision.

One stood at the back of the stairs, the other to the right. Both were armed, and the shorter one was even wielding a compact assault rifle.

"Green, how about you take care of the short one?" The girl glanced at her intelligent AI companion.

"No problem, but with your current state, can you handle the big one?" The eyeball sized up its master.

"No problem," the catgirl said as she took off her bag and stretched her body, then crouched down: "Let’s start."

"Let’s begin."

As the master synchronized with the mechanical intelligence, the girl leaped, pushed against the steps with her arms, and flew directly to the ceiling. At the same time, the round stone above her head turned intangible. The moment she landed on the platform, she stretched out a finger towards the short one who had seen her. A flash of light danced on her fingertips. In the next instant, a beam of light pierced through the red dot on the back of the handgun held by the half-human and then through his right eye, instantly rendering the electronic eye from reliable to scrap.

As the half-human screamed, clutching his right eye socket, the eyeball machine surfaced from outside the platform. Its probe underneath aimed at the burly man who was turning to attack something behind him, utterly unable to react to the machine and its assault.

The next second, an electric shock needle struck the big man’s neck.

While the big man staggered and lost balance due to the strong electric shock interfering with his artificial spine, the catgirl’s cute little red leather boots landed with a whoosh on the man’s face. As half of his teeth were expelled along with his forcibly twisted head, the big man cleared the electrical interference with his artificial spine. Roaring, he flailed his left hand attempting to grab the tiny creature. But as his target ducked under his swinging arm, her small hand had already gained a dagger, thrusting horizontally into his side.

Normally, this would damage the large blood vessels at the upper part of the big man’s heart, making it a fatal blow, but the man’s left hand swung back as if nothing happened.

This is the distinct advantage of an artificial heart. It allows the blood vessels to be bridged to the artificial heart from the left side, right side, or even the bottom, without worrying that the heart won’t be able to pump the blood.

Even the big man’s lungs were artificial; otherwise, the blow would have cut his lungs. Even if the heart were unharmed, blood flooding the lungs would spell the end for the big man and prevent him from counterattacking as he was now.

You see, the world is so wonderful that humans can arm themselves with mechanisms all over their bodies.

Releasing the handle with regret, the girl leaped, dodging the strike. Then her feet stepped on the man’s head, pushing the head, shining like a top-grade Engineer’s, together with its dignity, into the stone floor.

This time, the man, who suffered a heavy blow to the head and neck, failed to retaliate. Jumping down from the kneeling head, the girl turned around and shook her head at the machine intelligence that was still pressing an electric shocker against the half-human’s crotch, relentlessly discharging.

"Green, as a male in your settings, we are all men here. Why do you harm each other so?" she said.

"If I had a humanoid mechanical body, I could fit a thing bigger than his arm, with built-in joints for 360-degree rotation. Swing it and it could smash his head to pieces," her smart AI companion retorted sharply.

"That’s exactly why I won’t buy you a humanoid body," the girl sighed, then used Blink to evade her ardent suitor who tried to embrace her from behind. In the next second, a high-tensile wire wrapped around the man’s neck. Before he could react, the girl hoisted him up, and the previously ancient bell, now minimized, rolled on the ground, while the new guest struggled on the hook, like a goldfish out of water, floundering in futile efforts as if having only seconds of memory.

After securing the wire’s end to the railing of the Bell Tower edge, the girl walked over to the still convulsing half-human: "Mr. Big Toe, can you talk?"

The half-human was still twitching. The girl extended her hand, and her AI considerately used a mechanical arm to fetch a small handgun from her satchel.

Seeing his master take the small handgun and keep looking at it, the AI thought for a moment and then took out a silencer from the bag: "Use this, dear master."

"Though I hate to admit it, you really are the most considerate male I know, aside from myself," the girl said with a smile as she took the silencer and screwed it onto the barrel of the gun.

"Mr. Big Toe," the girl lowered her head to look at the half-human still clutching his wound, whose pants were now soaked, making the girl somewhat melancholic: "Green, look how deeply you’ve hurt him."

"How deeply? Should I sing it for you? Just now you called me a cherubic caretaker, and now am I the evildoer who recklessly causes harm? I really wanted to be a policeman," the AI Mr. Green lamented with a middle-aged man’s sadness.

"If you’re so ambitious, go talk to the Chief Justice who has been preventing AIs from becoming law enforcement officers," the girl said, giving her AI a glare: "Really, next time choose a different spot, okay? It’s too harmful like that, what if he dies?"

Being looked at by his master, Mr. Green the AI ultimately sighed: "On account of whatever reason, don’t look at me with those eyes... Fine, next time I won’t target natural human males there, I swear. Don’t look at me with those puppy eyes, please, my master."

"That’s good." The girl cheerfully lifted her foot and stepped on the half-human’s neck: "Dear Mr. Big Toe, did you see your friend there? That’s a piece of military-grade wire, and now you’ve got thirty-two seconds to spill the beans on your target, or he’s going to hang there, since even the most powerful artificial lungs and hearts are useless without an artificial brain—the carbon-based life is still very fragile, after all."

"We, we were ordered to protect a target in the Mage Tower, his photo is over there," the half-human quickly replied.

"How nice of you, really looking out for your friend," the girl reached out, and her best friend, the most manly intelligence machine, and the cutest little sidekick had already fetched the photo for her.

"Chen Mingzhen? Wait, you just said you are protecting him? Who are you?" The girl let go of the photo and started to work the bolt, ejecting a bullet from the chamber.

"Who are you?" the half-human retorted.

Then a triangular emblem appeared before him, with ears of wheat at the bottom of the triangle, and in between the wheat and triangle, there was a combination of hammer, axe, and sickle.

When the half-human saw the rusty triangle emblem and the pastoral staff inside of it, he looked at the girl with incredulity: "Shepherd? You?"

"Yes, I am Shepherd," said the girl as she turned her gun-holding hand behind her and fired, breaking the wire and fundamentally saving the life of the bulky figure: "I always thought you were assassins from the ancient order. You are here to assassinate the Just Member of the Temple Knights who is about to arrive, aren’t you?"

The half-human patted his head: "No, Sister Shepherd, we are here waiting for the ancient order’s assassins, who, according to intelligence, are planning to kill Brother Chen who is picking up the Just Member."

Then he stood up, the half-human took a deep breath as he looked at the intelligence machine, becoming invisible in the corner and finally turned to the girl: "Sister Shepherd, my brothers and I are members of the Master Wu Brotherhood from the Eastern District of the Order, and you are Shepherd under the Holy Mother from the Harvest Mother of the Western District... I thought you wouldn’t come to the East."

"...Yes, I thought I wouldn’t come here either, and may the grains reap as they sow, may the granaries be filled," said the girl, turning and extending her hand to the bulky figure who was retching. He looked up fearfully but eventually extended his hand and accepted help from the girl.

"May justice prevail, may righteousness endure, I salute you and the fourth tier of the Ladder, Sister Shepherd, this is the most profound failure of my life." The bulky figure looked sick, but he knelt on one knee in front of the girl and touched his chest: "You have taught me that there is always a higher power and prevented me from losing my way with strength."

"You and your companion’s response was commendable. Losing in strength and strategy is not your fault," the girl smiled as she reached out to touch the face of the bulky man, and visibly, his face’s swelling receded, he covered his mouth and then spat something into his hand before him.

Several teeth were in his palm.

"A powerful Healing Spell, I always thought such magic was lost," the half-human exclaimed, his face filled with admiration as he looked at the girl: "It seems we should pay our respects to the third tier, to our revered Bishop."

"The Holy Mother no longer has a Bishop, I am just a humble Shepherd from the millennial covenant list," said the girl, noticing the commotion in the alley below.

She and the two members of the Master Wu Brotherhood stood on one side of the Bell Tower alley.

A group of four odd individuals wearing hooded robes entered the alley.

"Are they your people?" the girl looked toward the child on the other side of the alley, frowning... Wait, she seemed to have seen this child before.

She recalled for a moment, then remembered — when she felt she was being pursued, she would look back many times, but each time to no avail, and during those glances, this child... seemed to be holding his candy bag all along.

How could I have not been suspicious of him?

With such doubt, she noticed that the ancestral assassins quickened their pace.

She also heard the child speaking the common language of the Western Human World, with a clear Sydney accent.

Why... is the voice so unfamiliar, yet it makes her feel warmth and safety?

Why, who are you?

A fierce tiger with the appearance of a young girl asked herself this question.

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