Chapter 173: Bitter Struggle

"That's all we can do." 9S calmed himself down slightly, then said to Anemone, who was still shooting in vain at the Engels, "Anemone, you go first. I'll fly the fighter to get you out of here!"

"No!" Anemone whipped her head around fiercely, her eyes full of determination.

"My companions are still here. I have to take them with me."

Although she already knew this trip would be extremely dangerous, and also knew that someone would definitely be sacrificed, she still couldn't bring herself to abandon her subordinates and leave alone.

"Then you take care of yourself." 9S knew he couldn't persuade her, but he also clearly understood that if it were him, he would make the same choice as her.

After that, he turned around and boarded the HO229 fighter jet, flying toward one of the Engels.

At the same time, 2B and 4B also moved into action. The two each faced off against one Engels, and the PODs floating beside them couldn't even care about energy depletion, directly going full power, various small missiles and beams fiercely attacking the Engels in front of them.

However, even in the earlier two-against-one situation, without heavy equipment, it was already difficult for them to cause effective damage, let alone now, when it's one-on-one, and all three Engels are gathered together, the oppressive feeling they brought was simply despair-inducing. Without using special methods, there was simply no chance of victory.

In the sky, 9S piloted the fighter skillfully, flying around an Engels. Because before he arrived, he suddenly encountered a large number of flying mechanical lifeform units attacking, most of the weapons on the fighter were already used up.

The only thing he could still use was the beam machine guns on both sides of the aircraft, but the beam guns' power really wasn't enough. Even if they hit the Engels, they only left some shallow dents on its massive body.

Although he could now still use hacking to invade Engels' internal data systems to seize partial control of its body, that required a stable environment.

'No good at all, it's completely impossible to win, we're definitely going to lose!' 9S was burning with anxiety, and suddenly had the idea to just forget about the mission and the lives of the other androids, and take 2B away from here first.

'But if I do that, Miss 2B will definitely resent me!' 9S suddenly thought again.

And just as he was conflicted, he suddenly saw in his view a black figure wearing a cloak jump down from a distant high platform, holding a slightly familiar long sword, rushing toward the bridge.

———

"A2, be careful!"

On the high platform, Yakor shouted toward A2. Although they hadn't known each other long, they had at least lived together for quite a while, so some feelings had developed. Besides, she also didn't want to see that person be heartbroken if something happened to A2.

"I know." A2 nodded toward Yakor, then said, "Yakor, take good care of him for me."

"Don't worry about that." Yakor patted her chest.

"Then thanks." A2 finished speaking, turned around, and jumped down from the high platform.

Watching A2 leave, Yakor turned around, walked to Aiden, then crouched down in front of him, looking at him worriedly. In her heart, she thought, 'Humans really are too fragile, it's no wonder they went extinct.'

'Androids are still better.' Yakor thought again, 'Why not just go ahead and turn him into an android too? Anyway, he's the only human left in this world, he can't reproduce, and a few decades later he'll die of old age or illness. Becoming an android would let him live longer.'

She didn't care about the so-called "future of humanity." In her heart, she had selfish thoughts instead.

'I just don't know if he'd agree…'

After watching for a while, Yakor seemed a bit dazed. As if possessed by a ghost, she leaned closer again, so close that her face almost touched Aiden's, to the point where she could feel his breath.

However, at that moment, Aiden suddenly opened his eyes, looked at her with a mischievous grin, "Leaning this close, are you trying to kiss me?"

"Pah! As if!" Yakor panicked a bit and shrank back, then put on a face full of disdain.

"Looks like I was overthinking it." Aiden said with regret.

"You were overthinking it…" Yakor muttered, then curiously asked, "When did you recover?"

Her scanning system was very powerful, but every time she scanned Aiden, something always blocked her, so she knew nothing about his physical condition.

"I recovered when A2 left." Aiden lit a cigarette. Since Yakor knew his real identity, there was no need to hide it anymore.

"That's… a cigarette? Strange, where did you get it?" Yakor sniffed the smoke Aiden exhaled, then frowned, "Analysis shows the smoke contains a substance called nicotine, which is harmful to your health."

"It's fine, this thing no longer affects me." Aiden said indifferently. With his current physique, even if he drank poison grass directly, it'd still be hard to kill him.

"Even so, you still need to be careful. I've heard that in the old times, many humans died from smoking." Yakor rolled her eyes at him.

"Are you worried about me?" Aiden held the cigarette in his mouth, smiling at her.

"I am not." Yakor mumbled, but didn't say anything else.

If he dies, then so be it. By then, she'd just make a prosthetic body for him, then use special methods to extract his soul and store it in the medium found in that world. That'd be pretty good too.

'Doing that shouldn't violate this world's rules, right?' Yakor thought.

However, she didn't understand why she thought that way. Could it be because she's been lonely too long and wanted someone to keep her company?

Shaking her head, Yakor decided not to think about it. The battle was still happening below the platform, so she asked, "Since you woke up long ago, why didn't you stop A2 from going down?"

"Because I'm cooperating with someone's plan." Aiden recalled the plan Anemone had mentioned a few days ago.

"Plan? Whose plan? What plan?" Yakor asked curiously, one question after another.

"No comment."

"Fine, don't tell me." Yakor snorted, but didn't press further. To her, those things weren't important anyway.

After a while, seeing Aiden light a second cigarette, she couldn't help frowning, "Smoke less, it's bad for your health. Also, are you really okay with letting her go alone? Even with her, they still aren't a match for those three Engels. Aren't you afraid something might happen to her?"

Aiden confidently said, "It's fine. When the time comes, I'll make my move."

"Oh? So confident?" Yakor got curious again.

"Don't tell me, you have a second one of that kind of robot?"

The power of the Gale Robot Aiden summoned earlier, she naturally saw. One-on-one it could take out a fortress-class mechanical lifeform, which surprised her quite a bit.

But what surprised her more was, she couldn't understand where Aiden's robot came from at all. She was very familiar with the technology of all android bases on Blue Star and in satellite orbit, and had never seen anything like that robot.

"Just relying on Gale isn't enough, but I have other methods. You'll see in a bit." Aiden said.

He could now use all the skills of the Mechanic, including the awakened ones. Summoning Gale was just a minor skill. If he used the other "ultimate moves" from the awakened path, not to mention three Engels, even a few more could be handled easily.

"Then I'll wait to watch your performance." Yakor stared at Aiden, then turned to look at the bridge.

———

[On the Bridge.]

Anemone, covered in injuries, lay among rubble. As a normal resistance android, her strength was far inferior to YoRHa models. Whether in physical capabilities or reaction speed, when dodging missile attacks from Engels, she was almost directly hit.

If 2B nearby hadn't noticed and saved her, she'd have already been blown into a pile of scrap. But even so, she still suffered injuries of various degrees. The surface-level synthetic skin and muscle made from polymer on both her legs were burned away, revealing the metal skeleton underneath.

After resting a while, Anemone struggled to sit up. Looking at the Engels recklessly destroying the bridge, she couldn't help but feel despair.

'This time… I probably won't make it back.' she sighed, thinking.

She wasn't afraid of death. In fact, few androids feared death. Besides, she had already experienced near-death during the Pearl Bay operation.

She just had a little regret, regret that her plan wasn't finished yet.

"Fortunately, someone appeared who cares about you. Otherwise, Number Two, you'd be all alone." Anemone thought of A2, muttering to herself with a bit of relief.

But at that moment, a cold voice appeared behind her, "You really want to leave me like this? My friend… Anemone?"

Anemone was stunned. Then she turned back with surprise and joy, and saw A2 holding a long sword, not far behind her.

"Number Two." Anemone called out.

A2 smiled slightly, though no one could see it under her hood. Then she quickly walked over, picked Anemone up under her arm, and turned to leave.

"I'll take you somewhere safe first."

This time, Anemone didn't refuse. She just lowered her head slightly, because all the resistance members she brought with her had already died.

When she reached the end of the bridge, A2 stopped, gently placed Anemone down, gave a few instructions, then turned back to the battlefield.

She was going to support the YoRHa squad.

Before coming down, she had seen 2B rescue Anemone. As an android who valued comrades deeply, she decided to help the YoRHa squad, even though she had killed them before, even though she knew she wasn't a match for those three Engels.

'Yakor, I hope you take good care of Aiden.' As she ran, A2 looked back in the direction of the high platform, thinking to herself.

———

"Hey hey hey, she went over, are you really going to keep watching?" Yakor, who had been watching the battle closely, turned to Aiden and said.

"Wait a bit more. It's not time to act yet." Aiden said calmly.

In truth, he was a little nervous inside. His eyes didn't blink, staring at A2, and all his muscles were tightly tensed.

"Tch, pretending to be calm." Yakor said with disdain. Then she continued watching the bridge.

———

"Thanks!"

2B looked with lingering fear at the massive mechanical arm that had smashed where she had just been standing. Then she turned to thank A2, who had just pulled her away.

A2's whole body was wrapped in a cloak, so she naturally didn't recognize her, she just felt a sense of familiarity.

A2 didn't respond, just frowned and stared at the huge mechanical monster ahead, thinking of a solution.

But she also understood, this kind of monster was stronger than any mechanical lifeform she had ever faced. Just relying on her own strength, it was almost impossible to defeat it.

Seeing she didn't respond, 2B didn't mind, just curiously glanced at the sword in her hand.

It looked a bit familiar, she seemed to have seen it somewhere before. Its appearance was also quite similar to weapons used by the YoRHa squad.

But she didn't think too much. Over the years, the Bunker had launched many descent operations. Too many YoRHa androids had died on the surface, their weapons being picked up by others wasn't strange.

Just as she was distracted by these thoughts, she suddenly felt her arm grabbed and was pulled aside. Then she heard A2 say, "Getting distracted in battle is a big mistake. After all these years, you still haven't learned that?"

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