I am a mindless machine.

Regardless of whether she agrees or not... the weight of the machine-type is not as light as it looks.

Frett didn't say anything more and followed along.

..

...

"This is the village that was destroyed... It's so tragic." Forret sighed as he looked at the settlement, where all the houses were damaged and collapsed, and there were still traces of charring. There were marks on the ground of the settlement indicating that it had been hit by a huge object, which was why the exploration team had previously concluded that it was destroyed by stray bullets.

"If you continue to wallow in your sorrow, you'll only become the next one." Daniel coldly interrupted Forrett's lament, skillfully judging from the marks on the ground whether anyone of his race had passed through in the past few days. After confirming that it was temporarily safe, he pointed to a place in the distance—which looked like just a small hill—and said, "That's our target, the ruins of the Forest Elves."

After saying that, he nimbly ran off in that direction, seemingly intending to take his principle of doing more and talking less to the extreme. Knowing his personality well, Forrett immediately followed.

"(...Indeed, this place wasn't destroyed by stray bullets from the battle between the Dragon Spirits and the Skywings—if it were stray bullets from those two races, it wouldn't be this small.)" Yun You paused, glancing at the large crater with a radius of over eighty meters, and made this judgment.

Moreover, she had other evidence to conclude that there were never two overly dangerous races in this area from the beginning.

Machine-type machines don't act without reason, and the girl had wasted a full half-month obtaining a strategic map of the continent; perhaps there was one highly classified location that couldn't be confirmed. But most of the information was already imprinted in her mind.

—That was the reason she infiltrated the settlement where Bart lived at that time.

—Because without sufficient time, it's difficult to gather enough data for analysis from a single person. Yun You calculated that this settlement could naturally exist for more than a year without her intervention.

"(If that's the case... then this mark should be...)" Based on the traces left at the scene from five days ago, and the faint drag marks on the wood, Yun You quickly determined the result. "(Is that so...? It seems this search won't be fruitless.)"

"Hey! Yunyou, hurry up and catch up!"

From afar came Forrett's low shouts.

The girl nodded slightly in response, her face expressionless.

"—Okay, I understand."

After the three of them left, from a grove of trees not far from the village, came the rustling of leaves and the sound of trees breaking under the weight.

A colossal figure slowly followed the scent of food.

Chapter Twelve: This is 'Will (Human Race)'

Any information about Mori-sei is scarce and valuable.

After all, they are a race blessed by the Forest God and Kainas. From the moment they were born into this world, they naturally established a connection with the entire natural world. With just a flick of their fingers, they could connect with their innate spiritual power. Even the weakest Forest Spirit could instantly make plants bloom with fruit, or simply create new and unique plants.

For them, survival is a given; they can even squander their excess energy on war—but for humans, that would be a life-or-death struggle.

Even these despicable forest elves can contribute to the survival of humanity. Some important facilities in the settlement utilize forest elf technology.

No, it should be said that humanity has made the most of all available technologies that allow it to survive.

...

...

"How's it going, kid? — Did you figure it out?"

Clad in a cloak made of wild animal hides for warmth, and clutching a sharp dagger that would likely only offer psychological comfort to humans, with a wooden bow and quiver hanging from his robes, Daniel urged Yun You on in his usual menacing tone. But his wary demeanor wasn't feigned; his years of hunter's intuition told him something was amiss.

Even so, he couldn't retreat immediately upon sensing danger as usual—because he understood the importance of what they were looking for today. After today, who knew if this experimental ruin, disguised as a hill and which he had stumbled upon, would remain unchanged? In this world, even a large mountain could be leveled the next day; it was perfectly normal.

This was an opportunity he absolutely couldn't miss, and Daniel knew it all too well. So, compared to this opportunity—what did his own life matter?

"...The correct name for that fruit is the Ribifug Fruit." The girl showed no emotion towards Daniel's harsh words, but simply ran her fingers over the snake-like vines coiling and intertwining on the wall, lightly brushing across the tadpole-like twisted characters on the wall, and murmured softly, "It was developed by the Third Experimental Squad of the Fifteenth Academy of the Forest Spirits, and its purpose was to..."

"I didn't ask you any of those complicated questions! Just tell me the important thing! Are there any seeds of that fruit and how to cultivate them in this ruin?" Daniel felt the gloom hanging over him growing heavier and heavier, and he couldn't help but frown deeply, interrupting the girl's words.

Daniel was utterly disgusted by the girl's nonchalant attitude, seemingly oblivious to the danger. He hissed at her, "Kid, maybe you've really suffered something terrible, or maybe you have a brain I can't possibly match to understand these cryptic symbols. But I'm telling you today, we humans don't need to know those things! Our greatest need is to survive—we've reached our limit with the knowledge that allows us to live!"

"Alright, Daniel. Let's talk about these things when we get back. The mission is more important now." Forrett stopped Daniel from continuing with a wry smile, but his expression showed that he agreed with Daniel's statement. He also believed that the limit for humanity was simply to survive, and everything else was superfluous. He had been worried that the girl might be frightened, but when he turned around and saw that she was still expressionless, he was relieved. "Yunyou, how is it? Did you get the information we need?"

The girl didn't reply immediately, but simply nodded slightly, glancing at the still-angry Daniel and the comforting Forrett, a subtle, data-driven glint flashing in her eyes. Then, following the direction of the writing on the wall, she walked to a certain spot, and her slender hand pressed down on a completely indistinct clod of earth—

"The remaining experimental species are all here. As for the cultivation methods... I'll have to go back and try them out."

Seeing the small bag of black seeds that slid out from behind the clod of earth and were neatly packed in a soft bag of unknown material, even Daniel couldn't help but smile—this was their future!

"Okay, then let's hurry back—"

Boom!

A deafening roar, as terrifying as thunder, interrupted Daniel's words. His expression immediately changed drastically; he quickly drew his bow and arrows from his back, gripped them in his hand, and looked at Forrett, asking rapidly, "Can you sense what race the enemy is?"

"Okay, okay!" Forrett didn't dare to waste any more words, and immediately closed his eyes—then gently pressed his fingertips against the ground. He began to speculate based solely on the frequency of the ground vibrations. Peeking out with his head would surely mean certain death, and if he pressed his head against the ground and listened with his ears, he wouldn't be able to hear any other sounds, so this was the most reasonable method.

But—he didn't need to give an answer anymore... because the enemy had already appeared before them.

"Hohoahahah——HHHHHHHHHHHHH——!!!"

The words "deafening" or "thunderous" are hardly enough to describe it. In fact, after the black monster stomped through the front of the ruins and charged in, roaring loudly, Forrett and Daniel's ears were already deaf.

The monster was at least twenty feet long, covered in tough black fur, and had human-like limbs—and exuded an aura of presence that no human could match.

"Roar! AHHH—HaHHHHAHAHHAHHAAAH——————!!!" It opened its mouth wide, revealing a gaping maw and ferocious teeth, and roared at Yun You and the other two again. The powerful airflow whipped up stones from the ground, creating a small whirlwind. It blew the three of them backward quite a distance. Then they crashed heavily into the ground, their bodies scraped and covered in blood.

The moment the monster appeared, Daniel instantly recognized it as a low-level troll among the demons—at least in appearance.

The only difference is that this troll is more than three times larger than the others.

He finally understood why he had coincidentally discovered the ruins from the crater, why the outer layer of the ruins looked strangely as if a layer of skin had been scraped off, and the odd way the village outside had been destroyed, which he had overlooked. Now the answer was clear—he wasn't the first to discover these ruins.

However, none of that matters now.

"...Run!" He coughed up blood, barely managing to sit up, and roared loudly in Yunyou's direction—but when he found his world completely silent, this hunter who had spent half his life hunting couldn't help but show a sorrowful expression. He could no longer smile and share his catch with his son, encouraging him.

But then, his hands gripped the arrows and dagger tightly—his head, severely concussed by the sonic boom, knew he couldn't possibly hit anything. He stumbled and staggered towards the trolls. Despite being deaf, a fiery roar still escaped his lips instinctively!

"—Oh my god!!"

Since that brat is so smart, he should understand—who is the one who should survive here!

With warm blood in his mouth, he thought to himself as if cursing. Then, he continued running with all his might, roaring, in the opposite direction from Yun You—

There is no point in confrontation, just as he himself claimed—humanity’s only goal is survival.

Then he noticed that he wasn't the only one doing this. The brown-haired boy who had always seemed like a kind old man was now also rushing forward recklessly, blood streaming from his ears and a crazed expression on his face. His mouth was wide open, and although Daniel couldn't hear him anymore, Fletcher was definitely shouting at the top of his lungs, for the first and last time in his life, without caring about attracting anything, or perhaps that was his purpose.

Thinking this, Daniel felt a violent gust of wind pressure coming at him from behind. In this last moment of his life, Daniel couldn't help but want to turn around and look at the girl, to know if she still maintained that unchanging, boring face in this desperate situation.

—To maintain that state of having nothing... living in such a world could easily drive you crazy.

boom.

With a tremendous burst of air, the two roars that had been echoing across the sky disappeared.

...

...

"The guess was correct; it really is a mutated demon species."

Yun You murmured to herself softly, remaining in place to observe after being blown away. Looking at the monster in the distance, howling at the sky with instinctive joy after killing someone, her brows seemed to furrow for a moment, but this was probably just an illusion.

Even now, despite understanding that the two people sacrificed themselves as bait to protect her, she still felt nothing.

Like a calm lake, so calm that even she felt a little nauseous.

Why do I feel so calm? — She tried to ask herself this question.

Is it because there is no heart?

"........."

she does not know.

"...Then, I'll conduct another test first." As she watched the monster shaking its head, trying to find the corpses of the two people it had just swatted away as food, Yun You paused for a moment and then said this softly again.

Then, she revealed her tail and began to absorb the surrounding spirits (energy) like a dry sponge.

"[Read] - Script activation for combat unit Kai-type standard weapon number S163A57B68 - [Script Opening] -"

With this calm declaration, the robe that had covered the girl's body crumbled away with the light particles, revealing her slender body filled with mechanical devices. Her red eyes calmly gazed at the monster—as if looking at a corpse.

There's no such thing as a 100% certainty. Moreover, this is the girl's first battle since arriving in this world, so there's always the possibility of unforeseen events.

However, the girl had already determined the outcome of this battle.

Chapter Thirteen RIP

The pitch-black monster looked up and let out a terrifying roar—

"ROAR Aa ...

The roar of its enormous size was like thunder from a bottomless abyss, causing the entire world to tremble—distant rocks tumbled down, and the black ash covering the earth was stirred up by the sound waves... For a moment, it gave people the illusion that the sky was falling and the earth was splitting apart.

Although the one who made this roar was just a demon (troll) that no one respected in the great war—a monster created by the demon king, a mutated version of the fantasy species.

The troll rejoiced, driven by instinct. About five days earlier, he had found this area and, by sheer luck, had eaten a Ribifug fruit that had been carried by an animal, discovering its properties. He then devoured all the fruit in the vicinity and, in doing so, destroyed the nearby village.

However, his still-undeveloped intelligence believed that this was not enough.

He wanted to become even stronger.

The troll did possess intelligence, but only at a rudimentary level. He didn't know if there were any of those fruits left, so the idea of ​​hiding near the ruins where the good stuff (the gigantification fruit) was hidden and waiting for prey to come to him was already an extraordinary feat.

And fortunately, his wait was not in vain.

—Although this was also his misfortune.

...

...

The troll bent down towards the insect he had easily swatted away, trying to find something that had given him the same aura as the fruit. But he didn't find what he was looking for.

His foolish brain started to work again, and he was shocked to realize that there should have been three insects, but now only two remained in front of him—after a few seconds of pause, he let out another furious howl towards the sky—

"ROAR Aa ...

Enraged, he decided to eat the two insects' corpses first. Although he had eaten many of this kind of insect five days ago, and they didn't taste good, now that all his hopes had been dashed, this was the only way he could vent his anger.

He stretched his hand, which was several times larger than his actual size, towards the ground...