TtOW! - Chapter 4: A Mistaken Calculation

Rattingtale heaved a sigh.  He spoke and pleaded and bargained and threatened until his throat hurt.  But the man-thing had made good on her final declaration, and had not responded to him since.  It seemed she wouldn’t budge.

Which meant he could do nothing but wait, trapped in these wires and resting in the man-thing’s hand.  And watch, as she somehow shot beams of pure mana from her free hand, vaporizing every slime she came across.

His ears pressed against his head.

Maybe he should just consider himself lucky she had accepted his surrender.

Eventually, the sun began to set.  Rattingtale quietly grinned.

The man-thing had made a mistake.  Soon it would be night time.  And he knew that man-things needed to sleep at night.  Which meant he would have hours to himself, as the man-thing had no allies to take turns sleeping and standing guard.  All he needed to do was slip out of these bonds, and he’d be free.

And perhaps, if he slew the man-thing in her sleep, he could reclaim what was rightfully his.

All he needed to do was wait for her to sleep.

So he waited.

And waited.

And waited…

Rattingtale was just about to doze off himself when the first ray’s of sunlight filtered through the trees, causing him to wince.

His eyes shot open.

It…was morning?

He turned to look at the man-thing.

She was still walking at the same pace, looking no different than she had the day before.

“U-Um…boss-queen, you, um, don’t need sleep-rest soon?”

“Answer: This unit engaged partial standby mode on organic components while in transit.”

“What?  Are you saying you can, um, sleep-rest while walking?!”

“Affirmative.”

Rattingtale dropped his head against the man-thing’s palm.

“It’s not fair…it’s not fair…”

With his plans in shambles and a full night wasted, Rattingtale drifted off to sleep…

***

Rattingtale was startled awake.  It seemed as though the man-thing was trembling.

No, that wasn’t it.

It was the ground that was trembling.

“Boss-queen, what what’s happening?”

“Response: It seems a large energy signature is on approach.”

He fully woke up at that, his eyes shooting open.

“T-Then why aren’t you run-fleeing?!”

“Answer: Standard protocol requires investigation of all non-standard energy signatures.”

“Protocol?  Who’s protocol?!  That’s dumb-stupid!”

But NSLICE-00P said no more.  Rattingtale gulped.

They heard the sound of trees crashing to the ground.

Until…

They saw it.  A massive bear, only with a spiky turtle’s shell on its back and scales on its neck.  The creature snarled as it knocked two trees out of its path.

[Ursanus Alpha (Level 50)]

[A monster blending the best of ursine and reptilian features.  The only thing stronger than its mighty paws and poisonous fangs is its impenetrable defense.]

“Analysis: A standard creature…mutated by mana?  This unit was not aware mana had a mutating property.  Recording data…”

“W-What are you doing?!  Run-flee, you stupid man-thing!”

The bear rose on its hind legs, raising its front paws into the air.  It let out a massive roar.

“Observation: Comparison with standard ursine behavior implies hostile intent.  Preparing to purify area of hostile mutants.  Engagin termination protocols.”

NSLICE-00P activated her combat mode, stuffing a cursing Rattingtale into an empty compartment on her back.  She lifted her arms, both hands transforming into gun-barrels.

Her machines guns sang, bullets streaming through the air as metal cases clattered against the ground.

The creature landed on all fours and charged forward.

The bullets bounced off its shell and hide.

“Observation: Target armor above expected parameters.  Adapting.”

NSLICE-00P transformed her arms back into hands and held one arm out, pointing her fist at the incoming creature.  A panel opened on her wrist, a small missile lifting up out of it.

“Engaging anti-tank missile.”

The anti-tank missile soared through the air, smashing straight into the creature.  The Ursanus roared but it continued its charge.  NSLICE-00P was forced to dodge to the side as the Ursanus barreled forward.  The creature slid across the ground, digging in its paws as it turned towards the cyborg.

NSLICE-00P slammed both her hands together, pointing her palms at the monster.  Her core began to glow bright, the light traveling up her arms and gathering in front of her palms.

A massive beam of light tore through the air, slamming into the monster.

The creature roared…but it didn’t fall.  NSLICE-00P detected a thin barrier of mana resting upon the creature’s hide, preventing the beam from piercing through it.  The Ursanus charged at her.

She tried to push through but she couldn’t pierce the shielding.  The Ursanus swung a palm at her, forcing her to roll under the creature.  She activated her repulsors, boosting herself through the air as the creature turned around.

“Non-standard energy detected, engaging Equalizer.”

She split her hands, one firing a glittering rainbow beam, the other firing a regular laser.  The Equalizer beam tore at the shielding.

The Equalizer was a potent weapon, capable of destructively interfering with any energy type it encountered.  However, it had a major weakness.  Since it was destructively interfering, there was an upper limit on the magnitude of energy it could neutralize.

NSLICE-00P’s robotic eye flickered.  The barrier had been weakened, but as a whole remained intact.  Still, it did allow the laser to pierce through one part, burning a small hole into the creature.  The monster roared in pain.

It twisted about, causing the beam to go off target and strike an area where the barrier was still intact.  Worse, NSLICE-00P recorded the barrier repairing itself the moment the Equalizer wasn’t assaulting it…as well as seeping into the creature’s flesh, restoring what damage she had managed to do.

And then the Ursanus was upon her.

She had still been calculating her next course of action in light of these new phenomena, and so did not have time to fully dodge.  She held out a hand to block the blow.

The Ursanus tore one of her arms clean off.

In that moment, NSLICE-00P’s human eye widened slightly.  Despite her emotional controls, her heartbeat sped up, and she felt her chest constrict.

How could she not respond?

After all, her arms were bionic components designed to compete with superheroes.  And she was the prototype, the unit built to prove the program was viable.  No expense had been spared on her components, built of the most advanced and durable allows money and science could come up with.  She was over ten times stronger than the average person, and could survive a direct hit from an anti-armor round.

So for a creature like this to dismember one of her bionic arms in a single blow?

That rated it amongst the most powerful threats she had ever encountered.

“Readjusting threat calculation.  Warning: risk of critical damage or unit termination at unacceptable level.  Recommending immediate withdrawal.”

NSLICE-00P put as much power into her remaining thrusters as she could, rocketing away from the Ursanus.  She smashed through a tree but didn’t stop.  Eventually, she pointed her remaining arm down, redirecting herself up and above the canopy.  She shook about, wobbling this way and that as she tried to glide her flight with only half her normal flight stabilizers, but she managed to stay in the sky, flying away from the area.  The Ursanus roared at and chased after her, but it couldn’t keep up.

Soon, she lost sight of it.  Her sensors continued to track the creature.  It followed after her direction for a time, until eventually, it turned around, patrolling about the area.

NSLICE-00P’s heart-rate finally started to stabilize.  She began scanning the canopy, looking for a safe place to land…

***

NSLICE-00P shook about in the area as she approached the ground, but she just managed to land safely.  She kept all weapons at the ready as she scanned the area, but she didn’t detect any energy signatures in the vicinity.  She finally disengaged her helmet.

And then a slight tinging noise reminded her of her passenger.

She opened up the panel on her back.  Rattingtale fell out, cursing and squeaking the entire time.

The rat was just about to spew a stream of curses at the man-thing when he took a look at her.  His mouth fell open and his eyes went as wide as they could.

“What-What happened to you, boss-queen?!”

NSLICE-00P took a moment to respond, her robotic eye spinning about.

“...Analysis: It seems this unit significantly underestimated the threat level of the opponent.  Current arsenal was insufficient.  This unit suffered severe damage as a result.”

Both rat and cyborg fell silent after that.  NSLICE-00P ran through all of her records and data.

She came to a sobering conclusion.

Her mission was at a critical risk of failure.

The opponent had not been the most dangerous thing she knew existed.  Even when she worked for her original creators, there were threats she had never been allowed to encounter, as they were too powerful to confront.

But this was different.

In the prior world, threats had been known.  The organization had data on most of its foes, and even the ones that they didn’t were easily detectable.  But now?  Now there was non-standard energy everywhere, even in the atmosphere.  That had partially hidden the full scale of the energy signatures she was detected.  Even the prisoner, who would have been easily identifiable as non-standard previously, now faded into the background.  So she had underestimated the energy signature when she moved to investigate.

And more, the creature she faced had more power than just the non-standard energy she detected.  Its muscles and hide were far stronger than she predicted.  Stronger than should have been possible.  It was clear now that even basic creatures could have biology that would rival a superhero…or surpass them.

And then the interactions and applications of the mana had surprised her.  The users of mana she previously encountered simply used them for spells, obvious and external applications that could be easily tracked and disrupted.

This creature had mana woven into its very being, empowering its body, protecting it from harm, and repairing damage at will.  The Equalizer had had an impact on it, but it was not the instant fight win she had anticipated.  The scale and scope of the uses of mana here were on an entirely different level than what the Equalizer had been designed to deal with.

It was clear that her prior data was woefully insufficient on these phenomena.  And as a result, her calculations had utterly failed to predict the severity of the threat she faced.

And if her calculations and protocols were that far removed from her present situation, she could not safely travel through this region.  Likewise, her arsenal required a full-scale upgrade if threats like that were common.  She didn’t know if that creature was an anomaly or not, but given the sheer amount of mana all around her, she could not safely assume it was unique.  She was at risk of termination even before she re-established contact with civilization, even before considering the severe damage she had already experienced.

However, she was still operating under the assumption of independent action.  There were no maintenance personnel to repair the damage to her system, much less an organization that could research, manufacture, and supply new upgrades.  She would have to find a solution herself, with the resources currently available.

Her calculations arrived at only a single solution.

“...Request: Prisoner His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third stated there is a way to request upgrades without assistance from maintenance personnel, correct?”

It was time to confront the malware.

Author’s Note:

…wait I thought I was making NSLICE-00P blatantly OP, what happened?

Well, I suppose she is OP…compared to a regular human that is.  Bears are also OP compared to regular humans.  And this bear is OP compared to regular bears so…

…And His Royal Majesty, Excellion Formantus Rattingtale the Third is technically OP compared to regular rats!

Anyways!

What will this malware end up looking like?  Can NSLICE-00P find a way to safely navigate this apparently extremely dangerous world?  Can the author successfully make her blatantly OP once more?  Tune in next time, to find out!