Chapter 99: When You Have the Chance to Make a Choice, Don’t Let Yourself Regret It

"Heave… ho… heave… ho…"

Stelle carried the heavy mechanical shell alone.

Clara stood nearby, her voice tinged with concern. "Big sister, are you okay doing this by yourself? Clara can call other robots to help!"

"N-no, it's fine! I promised Clara I'd do this myself, so I have to see it through!"

Stumbling along the way, Stelle finally made it back to the base just before collapsing from exhaustion.

Svarog: "Welcome back, Clara, Trailblazer. My further analysis of the subject is complete."

Stelle flopped onto the ground, her voice hoarse. "Hold on… let me catch my breath first…"

At this point, the focus of the scene shifted entirely to Clara.

After some discussion,

Clara learned that even Svarog couldn't determine Pascal's true identity.

And due to compatibility issues, the risk of malfunction would only increase.

Clara immediately prepared to replace the shell. Now resembling a cybernetic angel in white, she gazed gently at Pascal.

"Pascal, we're going to give you a new shell now. It won't hurt, I promise!"

The scene cross-cut, skipping over the actual replacement process.

The next moment, Pascal had been fitted with the "DireWolf" shell.

But,

Pascal still malfunctioned, fleeing toward Rivet Town right in front of them.

Clara watched Pascal's retreating figure and cried out in alarm,

"Big sister, we have to follow it!"

Svarog, however, stopped them. "Leave it to me. I will dispatch—"

"No, Mr. Svarog! Please don't!" Clara clearly knew what would happen if Svarog intervened.

"Let Clara handle Pascal. After all, it was my decision to keep it in the first place… so I have to take responsibility.

I believe Pascal wouldn't hurt anyone.

If anything goes wrong… let Clara be the one to resolve it.

Is that okay, Mr. Svarog?"

Instead of forcing his way, Svarog asked Clara for her reasoning.

The camera lingered on Clara's face in a close-up.

She spoke with sincerity and emotion,

"In Clara's eyes, Pascal has 'emotions' just like Mr. Svarog.

Of course, 'emotions' aren't always warm—there are many bad ones too.

That's when 'reason' and 'responsibility' have to step in.

Clara wants to take on that 'responsibility' herself."

Svarog nodded in an eerily human-like manner. "Understood, Clara. I support your decision.

Unless the situation becomes irreparable, I will not intervene."

At this, Clara finally smiled—bright and sweet.

Accompanied by Stelle, they set off for Rivet Town.

Before long,

Clara and Stelle found Pascal, badly damaged, facing off against an "Grizzly" Automaton.

"Stay back, Clara. This entity is a Fragmentum creature. Threat level assessed as—extremely high."

Stelle's eyes widened. "A Fragmentum monster? Since when did living things evolve into machines?"

"Stand aside. This unit will proceed with neutralization of the Fragmentum entity."

To protect Pascal, Stelle had no choice but to fight.

With Clara carefully reminding her, Stelle managed to defeat the patrol bot without damaging its core.

A small blessing—Clara noticed the patrol bot's shell was still intact.

"Mr. Svarog said Pascal's original hardware was either 'DireWolf' or 'Grizzly.' Let's try this one! But why was Pascal mistaken for a Fragmentum creature?

Hmm… I can't figure it out. Let's not worry about it for now."

Afterward,

Clara transplanted Pascal's core into the decommissioned 'Grizzly' Automaton.

Pascal finally stabilized—though its speech was still jumbled, at least the static was gone.

Clara jumped for joy. "Pascal's finally back to normal!"

Stelle smiled in relief. "A perfect ending! Time for the reward."

But Clara unexpectedly interrupted. "No, big sister. We still need to ask Pascal why it was stealing parts."

Pascal mentioned words like "parts," "collect," "return," and "workshop" before leading Clara and Stelle to a location in Rivet Town.

The journey was uneventful,

but strangely, the long-abandoned Rivet Town was inexplicably lit up.

As they investigated further, Clara and Stelle finally arrived at the Quenching Workshop,

where the full story came to light.

Pascal had once been one of Rivet Town's guardian robots.

Shortly after the town was evacuated, Pascal's backup power activated for unknown reasons.

When it awoke, Rivet Town was already empty.

So, Pascal decided to gather parts, repair the town, and wait for everyone to return.

But for some reason, Pascal was frequently attacked by other Automatons,

as they identified it as a Fragmentum creature.

Pascal's logs revealed the cruel truth behind the stolen parts and the illuminated streets of Rivet Town.

Knowing all this, what would become of this poor robot?

Neither Stelle nor Clara could decide.

In the end, Clara suggested returning to Svarog's base to discuss the possibilities.

——

The camera then panned upward, moving toward Svarog's base,

before descending again to show Clara.

"That's how it is, Mr. Svarog. But there's one thing Clara still doesn't understand—why was Pascal… identified as a Fragmentum creature?"

"This unit utilized components contaminated by the Fragmentum for self-repairs over an extended period, causing networked Automatons to classify it as a Fragmentum entity. Replacing the components will resolve the issue. No further concern is necessary."

Clara tapped her chin lightly.

"I see! Clara also wants to know—has anything like this ever happened in Mr. Svarog's mechanical network before?"

"Negative. Probability of autonomous consciousness developing beyond control parameters: less than 0.1%. For non-networked units, this probability increases to 3.23%.

This estimate is theoretical. In 700 years, no actual cases have been recorded."

Stelle frowned slightly. "But the robots here all seem pretty smart, especially that 'traffic light' model!"

"..."

Clara turned to Svarog. "So… what should we do about Pascal?"

Svarog's suggestion was to reset Pascal to factory settings, then place it under his direct control.

Good news: Pascal would most likely return to its original state.

Bad news: Pascal would lose its "emotions."

In other words: This would be no different from erasing a "life."

Clara then shared her own idea, also explaining why Pascal had malfunctioned.

Because Pascal had been attacked by other robots for so long—and because it wasn't under Svarog's control—its system had gradually developed corrupted code: "data noise," which had become intertwined with the "emotions" it had developed on its own.

Clara hoped Svarog could create a program to isolate the "noise,"

after which she would guide Pascal to learn kindness toward others.

However, this was only a temporary fix. It would place a heavy burden on Clara, and public safety still couldn't be guaranteed.

In the end, Svarog left the final choice to Stelle.

What followed was a monologue from Stelle:

"Both of them have given their solutions.

What's the core of the problem?

Think carefully, choose one of the options, and convince the other."

Just then, the screen froze—

The interactive video had reached its first branching path.

"Svarog" or "Clara"?

At the same time, bold red text appeared in the center of the screen:

"When you have the chance to make a choice, don't let yourself regret it…"