The moonlight calmly sprinkled over Aiden and A2, soft, calm, peaceful, making people unable to resist the urge to sleep.
However, A2 covered her eyes with her hand, as if the moonlight was even more dazzling than sunlight.
"Humans on the Moon are just a bunch of bastards." A2 whispered in Aiden's ear.
"One day, I will go to the Moon and kill them all."
Aiden was shocked upon hearing this, 'This android girl's hatred for humans is a bit too deep.'
"I think humans are okay, after all, they created us." Aiden said good things, trying to defend himself.
"Watch less human books in the future… No, it should be, watch fewer storage devices left behind by humans. Those will affect your way of thinking." A2 continued whispering in Aiden's ear, sounding like a warning.
Aiden didn't know how to respond, so he simply fell silent. Anyway, as long as he didn't speak, there wouldn't be a mistake.
Luckily, by late night, he finally saw light, it came from the android camp. He didn't have to stay silent anymore.
"It wasn't that far, so why did it take so long to get here?" Aiden was able to talk now, and spoke with righteous confidence.
"There's a problem with my memory database." A2 said flatly, as if she'd forgotten that earlier she had just been bragging that her memory database was the best among all YoRHa models.
Aiden shut up again. Dealing with women had taught him that arguing with them was never a good thing, even if the girl was an android.
Silently approaching the android resistance camp, a few androids jumped out. Some were holding swords and knives, while others held old-fashioned firearms, looked like AK family guns.
The evolution of mechanical lifeforms seemed to be related to weapons too. The more advanced the weapon they encountered, the faster they evolved. At least that's what some people said in those commentary videos Aiden had watched before.
There was no need to reveal their identity, these androids had built-in scanning systems. After a simple scan, they determined that the two in front of them were androids, and then made way for them.
One of the androids even kindly reminded, "There's a repair department inside the camp. Your companion can undergo some basic maintenance there, but you'll need to offer something valuable in return."
Aiden politely nodded to him, then turned to ask A2, "Do androids also use currency transactions?"
"No matter where, currency transactions are necessary. It's a part of society, and inescapable." A2's tone was somewhat lazy, sounding completely unmotivated.
'The android social system, huh? So it really did form after all.'
Aiden lowered his head and pondered for a while, then continued asking, "Then what kind of things are considered valuable? Money? The paper left by humans should've already turned to ash, right?"
"Gold, silver, copper, iron, basically all types of metals are fine. The more precious, the better." A2 began talking a lot more, which completely didn't match her usual quiet and cold character.
Aiden let out an "oh," freed one hand to search himself, then took out a gold bar.
"This thing should count as something valuable, right?" he asked.
A2 nodded, "This is the most valuable."
Gold has unparalleled value in industry, especially when it comes to machines, completely indispensable. Aiden understood this, so he was asking on purpose.
"In that case, let's go to the repair department first and have you get some maintenance and repairs." Aiden put the gold bar away, continued walking into the camp, and pulled aside a female android to ask where the repair department was.
The female android very politely pointed him in the right direction, but after glancing at A2 on Aiden's back, she frowned with a very human-like expression.
"Don't place too much hope in the camp's repair department. With the technology here, if they can even find paint that matches me, that's already impressive." A2 seemed to strongly dislike going to the repair department, and even gave Aiden a preemptive warning.
"Judging from what you said, it's like you're really happy to let me carry you around." Aiden felt that's exactly what she meant.
"We're the same kind, aren't we?" A2's reply was slightly off-topic. She squinted her eyes and looked at the repair department not far ahead of Aiden, not knowing what she was thinking about.
"Hello, I'd like to give my companion some maintenance and repairs."
As soon as Aiden entered the repair department, he shouted loudly.
Inside was only one female android. She was wearing glasses, it was unclear whether she was actually nearsighted.
Hearing the voice, she glanced at A2 on Aiden's back, and then Aiden saw her glasses emit a visible light beam that rapidly scanned across A2's body.
"A model I've never seen before, repairing her might be a bit difficult," the female android said.
"Then just give her a paint job. Her paint's peeling off." Aiden hadn't forgotten the scene from last night. Parts of A2's body were severely worn and discolored. Though she still looked beautiful, and had a kind of damaged beauty, perfect beauty is still better.
The female android pointed to the side and said, "Pick the paint you want yourself. But I've never seen a body like hers. There probably isn't a matching one here."
"Take a look." Aiden turned and spoke softly, afraid even his breath would spray onto A2's face.
"No need." A2 shook her head. "There isn't one that matches me. I'm an experimental model, one of a kind."
'Nonsense, there were clearly over a dozen models like you.' Aiden thought silently. Of course, Aiden would never say that out loud, because among those dozen models, only A2 survived. Saying she's unique isn't wrong either.
Since not even the paint matched, Aiden had no choice but to carry the android girl out of the repair department. There were lights in the camp, so he quickly found a place to stay.
A row of wooden houses, very simple. The beds inside were even simpler, just some wooden planks with a dirty cloth thrown over them.
"That's why I thought the way you made a bed was special. Here, a bed is just a word for something you can lie on. But in a place even more basic, you made a somewhat comfortable bed." As if seeing Aiden's confusion, A2 spoke in his ear. It was a pity the android girl couldn't breathe fragrant air like orchids, otherwise Aiden would've been quite distracted by now.
"It's all the same to me." Aiden said casually, then entered an empty wooden hut.
This camp was just a small android resistance camp. If their numbers exceeded a hundred, that'd already be impressive, so everything was very simple.
And androids had basically no demand for material comforts. The rooms had no decorations, not even windows, just a simple bed, not even a nightstand. Extremely bare.
Aiden laid A2 down on the bed. The wooden planks creaked loudly. Aiden looked at the bed with extreme worry, afraid it would collapse the next second. After all, a 300-pound girl was no joke. If it were a human underneath, they'd probably be crushed to death.
Thankfully, androids were very aware of their own weight. The bed was made sturdy, it didn't collapse.
Aiden withdrew his worried gaze, tossed the bag hanging in front of him to the ground, and was about to go out and find something to eat.
He had only eaten a few fruits in the morning. Though A2 said those had high sugar content, his stomach wasn't like an android's digestion module. He couldn't absorb it well, he was already starving.
"Can you eat meat?" Aiden asked A2 before leaving.
"I can absorb iron too, but that's only for repairing damaged parts. To provide energy, I still need high-calorie things. Batteries work. I don't mind solar power either. Uranium would be even better." A2 suddenly sounded like she'd been factory reset, her tone was very cheerful. After a few sentences, Aiden was left speechless.
Aiden began imagining A2 eating batteries and solar panels, then imagined her swallowing uranium raw, his brows furrowed instantly. This scene was even scarier than ship girls chewing aluminum and drinking oil.
"I've never heard of YoRHa models being this advanced. Do you have a universal reactor built in?" Aiden looked at A2's calm face, she didn't seem to be lying, which made his thoughts run wild.
After a moment, he cautiously asked, "What purity of uranium do you need?"
This time it was A2's turn to be stunned. She realized Aiden didn't seem to be joking, so she said, "Just kidding. Meat is fine too, just hard to absorb. Do what you want."
"Alright then." Aiden didn't care about the android girl's 'just kidding', he just nodded and turned to leave.
"Wait a second." A2 called out to him.
Aiden turned back to look at the android girl. His face under the sandproof scarf was full of confusion.
A2 pointed to her body and said, "According to humans, I should be considered a patient. Shouldn't you cover me with a blanket?"
"Oh!" Aiden understood what she meant, took off his cloak, and covered her with it.
At the same time, he thought to himself, 'Androids who awaken self-awareness really are no different from humans.'
Leaving the wooden hut, Aiden began strolling around the camp, looking for where to get food while also observing the activities of the androids.
But after walking a whole circle, Aiden didn't find any androids selling food. Instead, he saw quite a few androids surrounding generators, charging themselves.
Thick power cords were connected to them, one end to their sockets, the other to power storage devices beside the generators. Aiden found it fascinating and stopped to watch for a while.
But he only watched briefly, then left the camp to search deeper in the forest for food.
In fact, his system space stored a ton of food, lots of self-heating meals. But all the packaging had printed dates, and even if he removed them, if A2 took one bite, she'd probably sense something was off about the source. So he couldn't let her eat them.
But he could eat them himself. After leaving the camp, he took out a can of beef and started eating.
It had been two days since he came to this world, this was his first proper meal.
He wolfed down the entire can of beef, feeling much better. Looking at the empty can in his hand, he put it back into his system space.
This thing wouldn't be a big deal in his own era, even in ancient times, but in this era, if mechanical lifeforms or androids saw it, it would cause big trouble.
After all, it was a can with a production date from over nine thousand years ago!
The war between humans and alien life had greatly affected the entire planet, terrain, climate, and environment had all changed.
But life on Blue Star remained astonishingly resilient. Unlike humans who went extinct thousands of years ago, there were still many small animals surviving.
And due to the influence of magical particles from another world and radiation from this one, some creatures had mutated, gaining a more fantasy-like appearance. (Magical particles, special elements descended from the Drakengard world to Blue Star. The appearance of magical beasts seems related to them, and they're one of the reasons for human extinction.)
Aiden found a giant insect in the forest. He couldn't tell what it was, looked like some kind of beetle, it could breathe fire. But in the end, he killed it.
According to the scan from his POD, the mutant beetle's limbs contained a lot of meat, and no toxins at all, no different from regular beef or mutton.
Actually, that made sense. Normal animals that contain toxins do so to avoid being eaten. But mutated creatures, or magical beasts, weren't prey but predators. Naturally, they had no need for toxins.
Aiden drew his lightsaber and cut off several limbs. They were heavy, dozens of pounds at least. The carved meat would easily last him ten days to half a month.
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