Death… And Me

Chapter 3484: A Long Time Ago

It wouldn’t be before a week that the CAU units finally decided to attack again. However, the robots in SANS city were prepared, and the CAU army barely made any gains.

Another attack followed two and a half weeks later, just for the same result to repeat. Then another one in ten days, another one in twelve, and one more after a month.

The same thing continued to happen. The SANS Units retaliated, driving the CAU forces out of the city as always. In fact, they were much better at this now. At any signs of danger, the entire city mobilized, and they made sure the CAU Units couldn’t do much damage. If anything, the CAU Units sometimes came out without any gains whatsoever, only losses.

This kind of random attack continued for four months nonstop. However, during this entire time, Qwerty and the twins’ group hadn’t appeared even once. It’s not that the CAU Units didn’t want them to come, but that Roan refused to join them.

That obviously caused tumult within the CAU Units. After all, Roan and his group were majorly living beings, and they didn’t have a good reputation. All Roan kept saying was that it wasn’t time yet.

To be fair, Roan wasn’t wrong. The defenses in the SANS City were much better than ever before. Since the CAU Units knew what Qwerty could do, the SANS Units obviously did too. The very reason the SANS Units were putting so much effort was to guarantee no one would ever get close to the Zoshia Enterprise Building. Sure, the twins’ group was strong, but they couldn’t really fight tens of thousands of robots and their weapons by themselves.

Even though Roan didn’t take part in the attacks, he always observed from afar. He checked the Zoshia Enterprise Building at the center of the city when the CAU Units broke the protection barrier. Even from such a distance, Roan could see how the building was completely surrounded by even more SANS Units. He would be an idiot if he couldn’t guess that the insides should be even more so.

After returning from one of those attacks, CAU431 went to see the twins’ group. ”This is not working, friends. The displeasure of the CAU Units as a whole is growing nonstop. They aren’t idiots. They know that the SANS City is being this hard to attack because we got you and the HAF100 Unit.”

Roan glanced at him, sipping some tea from a cup on the table. ”Is that so? I’m surprised you guys gained sentience but still haven’t noticed the huge issue with the current situation.”

”What are you talking about? The fact we can’t acquire parts for maintenance? Everyone noticed that a long time ago,” CAU431 spoke, sure of this problem.

Rean was also there, playing with some runes with Zangeshu. Even though they are here in the midst of the robots, they aren’t allowed to touch the robots’ systems. Neither Zangeshu nor Rean were surprised. Would you let the living beings have access to your system if you were in the robots’ place? Obviously not, and that’s exactly what was happening. Neither Zangeshu nor Rean could study the robots and their system at all.

”431, think about what you just said,” Rean gave him a clue.

CAU431 went silent for a moment. In the end, he couldn’t understand where the twins were coming from. ”I give up. What is the big issue other than the problems we already have at the moment?”

Roan sighed, getting up and walking outside. ”Assemble all the CAU Units. There is something I need to tell all of them. You will see where the big problem lies at the moment, especially how blind you are.”

CAU431 didn’t know what to say. ”Why assemble them? Just tell me what it is, and I can pass the message to all of them through the network.”

Roan shook his head, though. ”I want them to hear it from my mouth. Believe me, you will want to hear this too.”

CAU431 couldn’t really give such an order, so he contacted CAU03 instead. -03, that’s what Morty asked. What will you do?-

CAU03 had been ignoring the twins’ group for a while. He knew the SANS City was this hard to attack because they had Qwerty, but CAU03 wouldn’t give up on Qwerty even if things could go back to how they were. -That’s very brazen. Does he really think we are at his beck and call? Were it not for HAF100, I would have kicked his group away a long time ago. What bullshit help? They haven’t taken part in a single attack so far. That Demon Tree has been nothing but a useless piece of wood.-

CAU431 couldn’t agree more. Yet, seeing Roan walking to the main field outside, he felt something wasn’t right. -I know, and I agree with you. However, even the HAF100 seems to trust them so much, and he is using the collar, so he isn’t being controlled.-

-What are you saying? That I should assemble everyone just because a living being said he wanted to talk?- CAU03 didn’t relent.

Yet, on his side, another robot spoke to him. He had been hearing that conversation. ”03, they indeed didn’t help, but the way things are going, we might truly run out of parts. Let’s give the guy a chance. If he doesn’t say anything worth listening to, then we will simply send them out, even if HAF100 has to go with them.”

CAU03 looked at his friend, going silent for a moment. Finally, he accepted. -Alright, CAU9981 has a good point. 431, go to the main field, I’ll tell everyone to gather there.-

Soon, the field was packed with CAU Units, and they didn’t seem very happy to see Roan on the main stage. It’s just that CAU03 and 431 were also with him, so no one said anything yet.

”Look at all of you, cracks all over your bodies, barely kept maintenance, some of your cores are even leaking, and yet you have no replacement,” Roan began to speak. ”You guys look like a bunch of junk just waiting to be scrapped.”

Sure enough, that caused anger to blow.

”Who the hell are you to speak to us like that?”

”CAU03, what’s the meaning of this?!”

”Let’s kick them out! His group is the reason SANS City is so hard to attack now!”

CAU03 and 431 were also angry. Was that why Roan called them all here? To humiliate them?

However, Roan’s next words immediately caused the entire field to freeze. ”Why can’t you see this? That is exactly the problem at the moment. The SANS Units are pushing you to the brink, and yet they are still resilient in defending the entire city. It doesn’t look like they are putting any real effort at all in maintaining such a tight defense.”

CAU03 finally lost his patience. ”Stop with the roundabout shit and speak!”

Roan wondered if the sentience caused those robots to lose their intelligence instead. ”You guys are a disappointment. So be it! I might as well say it straight. The SANS Units... could have done it a long time ago!”