I Am Not a Robot. Beep-bop

Chapter 35: The Failed Party 5

Jinhyung, who fell into the world of Ark, had lost most of his abilities based on the stats he originally possessed.

However, unique abilities such as the status window and inventory remained, and among them, the most important to Jinhyung was the ability called “Plunder.”

Plunder was not a power that absorbed energy like mana drain or blood absorption but rather the ability to take or transfer ownership of items used by others.

It allowed him to control equipment he handled for the first time as if he had always used it and to claim items that seemed to have come straight out of a game.

‘With this, I could gift Christina and Aileen weapons of dragons or royal equipment…’

However, the activation conditions for Plunder were quite strict.

The concept of ownership itself was ambiguous, requiring Jinhyung to have a clear awareness of the original owner, and with all his stats reduced, ownership could be reclaimed if the original owner were still alive.

For these reasons, Jinhyung’s primary method here was killing party members.

Fortunately for Jinhyung, the weapons used by Ark’s hunters were based on electronic assembly systems capable of internet and AI authentication, and if the original owner was dead, Plunder allowed ownership to be transferred.

It was thanks to the power of Plunder that Jinhyung had not been suspected of killing other hunters’ party members.

Attacking a party member and also gaining ownership of their equipment wasn’t something others could achieve, allowing Jinhyung to sell the equipment of attacked party members to sustain his living expenses.

As for the armor, it was taken from a party member he had ambushed long ago.

Jinhyung’s motivation for attacking Alice was also rooted in the power of Plunder.

‘If only I could get that…!’

Alice’s numerous mechanical tendrils were enough to make Jinhyung’s eyes light up.

Had she not displayed such power and skill, he might have considered her a shy heroine worth pursuing as a good companion or even a romantic partner.

Even in a game world, one needed someone to give their heart to.

However, after witnessing the mechanical tendrils deal with fifty spawns in such a short time, Jinhyung’s priorities shifted from Alice herself to her equipment.

The tendrils were versatile, appeared incredibly strong, and numbered many, even able to handle dirty tasks on his behalf.

Above all, they could freely wield the demonic sword and holy sword that he could no longer lift.

If he could just claim those tendrils, his miserable life as a bottom-tier hunter would finally be over.

An A-rank hunter.

No, an S-rank… perhaps even the position of a First-Class Overseer might be within reach!

While proving his achievements might be necessary, imagining himself wielding the holy sword and demonic sword simultaneously with the mechanical tendrils made it seem entirely achievable.

“……….”

“……….”

But why wasn’t she collapsing?

No, logically speaking, the greatsword had pierced right into her head.

She should have been bleeding profusely and fallen dead immediately, yet Alice continued to meet Jinhyung’s gaze.

Her head was twisted 180 degrees.

At first, Jinhyung thought the weight of the greatsword had broken her neck unnaturally, but upon closer inspection, no blood was dripping from Alice’s head where the sword was embedded.

-Thud!-

“Ah.”

The moment Jinhyung registered the oddity, Alice collapsed forward.

Though the lack of blood was strange, the demonic sword, imbued with evil energy, absorbed and corrupted the blood of living beings.

Even without blood, it wasn’t too unusual.

The twisted head could also be explained by the heavy greatsword breaking her neck.

“…I feel a little sorry, but I have no choice if I want to grow stronger.”

Jinhyung approached to retrieve Alice’s mechanical tendrils.

Alice’s hands, blackened from rummaging through the corpses of spawns to collect mana stones and dark liquid, were motionless.

“The tendrils came out from her waist, right? Ugh, here we go.”

Her body was slightly heavier than it looked.

‘She’s probably heavy because of the equipment housing the mechanical tendrils.’

Though it felt eerie, as if Alice’s lifeless eyes were staring at him with her head skewed and the sword lodged in her head, Jinhyung reassured himself that she was just a fictional character from a game or novel.

There was no need to feel guilt over such things.

“…What? Where is it?”

Checking Alice’s back, Jinhyung was startled.

There was no storage compartment or equipment housing the mechanical tendrils where they should have been.

All he saw was a smooth back clad in her suit.

The zipper on the top of the suit was slightly open, revealing a sliver of Alice’s skin, but Jinhyung had no interest in wasting time on the body of someone already dead.

“Haah, could it be equipment implanted beneath the skin? This is troublesome.”

Should he cut her open to check?

“Besides, her skin is here, but why is it so… hard inside—?”

-Push!-

However, Jinhyung’s words were cut short.

A searing pain like fire suddenly surged in his abdomen.

-Buzz!-

The pain didn’t subside.

No, it grew worse.

Looking down in alarm, Jinhyung saw a small circular electric saw attached to a tendril slicing into his stomach.

“Ugh, uwaaaaagh!!!!!”

-Thud! Squelch!-

“Kugh, huh!?”

As he hurriedly tried to pull away, mechanical tendrils shot out like snakes from the pond and the wall, piercing his arms and legs.

In his previous world, he might have avoided them with quick reflexes and footwork, but Jinhyung, fully convinced Alice was dead, had let his guard down.

‘W-what is this…? Are the tendrils moving on their own?’

He didn’t have much time to think.

Since Alice was dead, the tendrils were now masterless equipment.

“P-Plunder!”

Though it hurt unbearably to have his limbs pierced, Plunder’s power should work fine on ownerless equipment.

* * *

【Combat Mode Deactivated】

“H-haah, haah. Did it stop?”

Although his arms and legs were pierced painfully, it wasn’t a loss if he could acquire the tendrils.

Yes.

If only he could have.

-Bzzz!-

【Commencing revised…】

【Butcher Mode.】

“D-don’t move! It hurts! That’s an order! Your owner commanded you to stop!”

“Who’s the owner here?”

But then, Jinhyung froze in terror at the voice he should not have heard.

“Ha, what’s with that look? I’m at a loss for words.”

It was Alice.

Even with a massive greatsword lodged in her head, she staggered to her feet as if nothing had happened.

The sight of her moving with her neck twisted backward resembled a grotesque puppet show.

Her staggering steps didn’t seem to be due to pain or a serious injury but rather an effort to balance against the sword’s weight.

“You, you… how are you even alive…?”

“Just a while ago, you were trying so hard to get close to me, and now your expression is just priceless.”

With her face split vertically by the sword and a grin spread across it, Alice looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

“Your, your head… your head is like that, so how are you even alive?! Are you a zombie? Are you even human?!”

“What’s funny about humans is that just because something looks human, they assume its weaknesses are also human.”

Alice was an android.

Her entire body was a fusion of magic engineering and advanced, enigmatic mechanical engineering, with her personality and memories stored in the Main System dispersed throughout her body like cells.

Humans are fragile creatures whose lives end when their brains or hearts are destroyed.

However, machines have no such limitations.

If a brain or heart is destroyed, why not simply make countless replacements?

As long as even a single backup synapse the size of a fingernail, containing fragments of her main personality, remained, Alice could not die.

There was no reason for her to die.

“An-answer me! From the start, you planned to trap me like this…!”

“Wow, the nerve. I was just trying to enjoy a peaceful party experience, but you were the one who stabbed me in the back first.”

Alice reached up to slowly pull the greatsword from her head.

“Ahaha, this is hilarious. My face is dangling vertically.”

“Mo-monster…!”

“Monster? Oh, it’s been a while since I’ve heard that one.”

However, her arms were too short to reach the sword’s handle, so her tendrils naturally extracted the demonic sword instead.

Alice forcibly brought her vertically split face back together, laughing as she did.

“I wondered if you had some grand reason for stabbing me in the back, but I guess you were just that greedy for what I had.”

Alice twisted her neck back into place and looked at him.

“Ugh! If it were my original strength, you’d be nothing to me…!”

-Thwack!!-

“Ugh, aaaargh!?”

【Multipurpose Drive System Activated】

“I’m not the type to listen to nonsense for too long.”

Molten metal oozed from the split in Alice’s face.

The liquid, which flowed like blood, activated the reconstruction system and rapidly restored her skin, flesh, and the wounds caused by the demonic sword.

“I noticed you were trying something interesting with my tendrils.”

“Guh, huh… huh…?”

Plunder.

The moment Plunder’s power targeted Alice’s tendrils, she became aware that she had lost control of them for the briefest moment.

Of course, as long as she was intact, the tendrils still belonged to Alice.

“Which brings me to this.”

-Bzzzz!-

Surgical knives, circular electric saws, spikes, and pincers emerged menacingly from the ends of her tendrils.

“W-what are you planning…?”

“If ownership can be stolen… it can also be transferred, right?”

-Click!-

“There’s something I want from you…”

“D-don’t come closer. Don’t come… don’t…!”

【Operational Purpose】

【Torture】

“You’ll give it to me, won’t you?”

Alice’s smile deepened, as if asking him to share a toy.