The Automated King

Hand to Hand

 “This is way above your rank, Pufferfish.”

“Why? I am an intermediate, Miss no-name.”

“Ellen has stated that this mission was for the Veteran or beyond. You have to ask for permission to our General for it.”

Ah, the damnation of ranking mechanics. I could meddle myself in the uppermost objective if I have the sufficient level to do so, situated upon the Mr.LORD’s manual for dummy. Otherwise, I need the warrant from my superior and assistance from the member with suitable class for the objective, a pain to my back.

“Hmm, how about the mentor? Are you eligible, Mr. veteran?”

“I am, and you have my word on that for certain.”

“So, the problem is Ellen’s approval....I could handle this myself, I think.”

“Good luck, my boy. You’ll pass the test, I am so sure of it.”

Test? I wonder what’s it all referred to be.

“Haha, This is the trouble that I mentioned way back, Regi. You need to break the fire-wall of the mission to get in.”

“Some kind of hacking, perhaps?”

“No idea, I’m always following the conducted level of my own class, you know.”

“A dare-devil in heart, a small kitten in reality. Silly Mon-mon.”

“Hey, quit the cute nickname! It’s for my love, not for an ape like you.”

“Hahahahaha.... Your sweetheart must be broken inside to have you up her sleeves.”

“Ergh, come here, you bastard!!”

I am confused with their random explanation. Let’s hope the test wouldn’t be harsh and cruel to have.

---

“Are you ready for the test, Regi?”

“First of all, Why am I not objected to this sort of test previously?”

“Well, to be exact, Being intermediate level in our organization means that you have to be eligible on the conductory wants and needs of it. On the other words, you have to be well-known of the duty before entering the reality. The intermediate level occupation is a greater mission to behold, after all.”

Ah, so that is the reason for those examination. The responsibility of my mission is mounting each level, and Mr. LORD impinged ourselves to bear the truth and know-how for it. It’s my random deduction, though.

“What kind of question would it be, Ellen? Does it in the same row as a regular test?”

“I’m afraid not, Regi. You wanna be more prepared to it, huh? Sorry, I am not disclosing this issue to you. Open the module to ease off your curiosity, Okay?”

“Alright, suit yourself. When do I have to start over?”

“Anytime you wish, honey. Mr. LORD is working 24 hours for the job.”

 “Better now than never, plug me to the system, Ellen.”

“I am your director, so please do it by your own credits. Good luck, Regi.”

(Bzztt..)

Okay, let’s search the module’s whereabouts...... Nice and shine, located down at the bottom of the list, as if Mr. LORD himself shunned any chance to prompt the mission ahead of the actual level at all cost.

“Good evening, young combatants of Repugnare. Welcome to the ‘k****e of valor.’ As the name persists, you are considered as the bravest combatants to ever challenge a mission way beyond your own responsibility. Shout ‘ready!’ to continue.”

“READY!!!”

Ah, this bot must be joking.

“Error 404, please try again.”

“READY!!!!”

“Processing...... The trigger, confirmed. You passed the first test of valor.”

What? Are you sure? It’s already on the way....

“For the second test, you might need to recall your last mission, Mr. Reginald Lambardi. Please explicate in brief of the amount of experience you’ve had from the surveillance mission at the Malia.”

“Uhmmm, Could I begin?”

“You can start speaking after the ‘blip’ sound.”

“Okay, that’s the cue. Good evening, Ladies and Gentleman...”

“You are not implied to do the greetings. Give us the short explanation of the last mission, after the ‘blip’ sound.”

Argh, this trial is bothering me a lot.

“In short, My last mission was meant to gain a lot of diversified intelligence out of the direct sources, or Malia itself to talk about.”

“Processing..... Correct. Tell me the sum of your deeds for the sake of successful mission last time.”

This is gotten embarrassing...

“I tried to save the princess from an attempt of abduction. My partner and the mentor of the mission, Simon, helped me to get out from the cornered situation that I had to face. furthermore, He is our nexus for achieving the most goals of the night, a kind of unfortunate for me.”

“Processing.....You passed the second trial. For the third, apply your logic to answer the following query.”

It goes along the way... I could say this is an easy question for anybody, huh.

“The mission that you’re trying to bypass is an assignment to rescue a colleague of Repugnare, Maria Bowman. She is under ordinance to delve into the depth of Fishman kingdom’s secrecy.”

An identical assignment to me and Simon. It seems harder, though, since Fishman kingdom’s detestation towards our kin would be a world of impediment for her.

“By yesterday’s night, at precisely 08.00 o’clock of the dusk, Maria Bowman and Brody Grauss were stopped contacting Repugnare’s headquarter to notify the team of any information that they could divulge.”

It went down the same with the one Serafina had informed to us.

“In the course of your current mission, which one would be your choice to save, if she was going against Mr.LORD’s decree? Being deserter, for instance. She would be a harm to Repugnare and our homeland if she does defected to enemies’ kingdom.”

Damn it. This is morality-based question...... I do have a clear reply to this sort of query, but....

“Hmm, I guess we have to mop things up a bit. Does she actually has any sign of desertion somehow?”

“Processing..... Pardon me, but answer the question in brief. I am afraid your inquisitiveness would not be necessary to reply.”

It’s automatically a failure if I answer this otherwise. This robot has deemed logical response to his question.

“It should be dealing with the deserter, I guess...”

“Processing.... Correct. For the next, please input your oath to fulfill the mission by this clause: I will eradicate the enemies, traitors and any form of delinquencies  for the well-being of humanity.”

“I will eradicate the enemies, traitors and any form of delinquencies  for the well-being of humanity.”

“Processing.....You passed the final test. The requirements for accepting the respective mission has been completed. Good luck and stay safe, Mr. Reginald Lambardi.”

I would be in remorse of this so much later on....

---

“How is it, Regi? Do you finish the trial?”

“Yes, I am. It’s nothing out of commonplace, but....”

Reginald, in deep sorrowful facial expression, bends down within the clutch of sadness upon the hill of meditation.

“Are you okay? You look depressed by the test.... Is there something happened to you?”

“It forced me to kill Maria....I don’t know how to settle myself if she did actually didn't proceed as such.”

“Hoo, a code of conduct. I suppose you haven’t been told by Ellen of this matter.”

Reginald is raising his head in shock.

“So, you aren't refuse this notion, Simon?”

 “We are warriors, Regi. I’ve speaking a lot of this in the first mission of yours. The death of our fellow friends might be necessary for the greater cause of our race.”

Simon pats Reginald’s back a few times as the mark of his convictions. Reginald, in contrary to the pamper, staged a deeper gloomy expression on the rail.

 “It’s awful.... but I can’t deny the truth. I guess it’s better to find out, or else I would be bound to the mirage forever.”

“That’s the spirit, brother! She wouldn’t let go of her morality as humankind, I’ll have my faith on it.”

---

The encampment of Repugnare were filled with busy schedule. All of the settlers were set their vigilant stance to avoid being caught off-guard. Some of them were preparing their basic needs, the rest are on the roll of bulking the strength for the upcoming objectives. Nobody is sitting in their solitude, since the work is on the way to greet them in any minute onward.

“Come on, you bastard!! We have to be fit for the job! If you dare to slack off in front of me, you’ll receive the punishment that you won’t forget.”

Their leader, Serafina, is the orchestrator of the grunt’s melodious symphony. Her authoritative feature amassed all of her subordinates into one solid group of work, mold them up into consolidation to one another.

“Hey, is that too much for your junior, Serafina?”

Serafina glared to Simon in her vicious look, chewing his face with her deathly stare of old.

“Mon-mon, your belligerent attitude is annoying. See your junior, and repent of your bad accusation of disciplinary acts over me at the moment.”

On the other way, Reginald is leaning down in relaxation, acting as if nothing was out of needs to be concerned about in the time being.

“Sorry, Ma-am. I’ll scold him out for good! Hey, Reginald!”

Reginald quickly rise himself up to stand for the immediate call.

“What is it, Simon?”

“Do you have some time tables of daily routines? I mean, schedule to work out or something.”

“Yeah, daily sprint of the morning to my workplace. It’s not regularly planned, though.”

“Have you been in study of martial arts on your life as a manager?”

Reginald is scratching his head in confusion.

“Of course it’s not. Why do I have to spare my time on some physical exercises? I am not vulnerable to danger at any moment of my shift.”

“Hmm, How about a short-term lesson on this subject, Regi? I could give you some advice on several technique that I usually do.”

“Okay, I’ll look into it.”

“No, you have to work on it as well, Regi. Don’t try to outsmart me on this one.”

Simon prepared his stance to present his prowess upon the martial arts style.

“I’m gonna show this once, and you’ll gonna follow it in step.”

In his steady stance, Simon threw a diagonal punch above his head in a straight array.

“I call this one ‘talking to the moon,’ it’s mainly designed for a huge body of your enemies.”

Reginald proceed to mirror Simon’s movement and succeed to do it without much trouble.

“Nice, now this is my favorite.”

After returned to his stance, Simon set both of his arms forward in widened fashion.

“I’ll show you the throw technique. This could be utilized to shove your energy to the body of your enemies, throwing them out of the ring.”

He is starting to turn his body clockwise, set both of his arms swirling in the similar direction.

“Pretend the blank space here as the body of your opponent. This posture would be conventional to use if you are in possession of enhanced strength.”

Reginald tried to duplicate movements and followed the prior example from Simon. He succeed to do so, but still has a limp posture in the end.

“Argh, it’s not that good, but I’ll let that one pass for this time. Now, I’ll show this movement to you in real-time situation. Brace your stance in front of me..... Right, there you go.”

In his domineering position, Simon prompted to throw Reginald. However, his trial occurs to no avail, as Reginald’s body were laid unscathed upon the ground of fist-fight.

“Are you really mastering all of this technique? You are a blademan, right?”

“I’m a swordsman, not a blademan, Mate. Well, I guess my power wasn’t enough to carry your body as a whole.”

Reginald put his hands to the waist.

“Hmm, this is useless. It’s fine, Simon. I could thrive with my usual mode of combat.”

“What is it, then? Mind if you present those proud ability to your mentor?”

“Watch and learn, Master-blademan.”

Reginald is shoving a continuous array of fists into the vacant space ahead of him. It sometimes went straight and firm, but most of them were a bit missed in context.

“Not bad, sensei in the making. I guess you could cope up with those sort of aimless punch later on.”

“The more the merrier, Simon. That’s my motto.”