NOVEL NEXT Chapter 144: Artificial Humans
As the day passed, what had started with Adam being lectured by his older siblings slowly changed.
Instead of Raiden and Miya explaining things to him, Adam was the one doing the teaching.
Adam stood up, holding a small insect-like machine in his hand.
It resembled a centipede, its segmented body made of polished bronze plates with faint blue lines glowing between the cracks.
Each leg moved in perfect unison, clicking lightly against the table as it tried to crawl away.
He pointed to a small disk near the middle of its body.
"This part here.... see it? That's the stabilizer node. It keeps the centipede balanced when it climbs walls or crawls over rubble. Without it, the legs won't sync properly, and it'll just topple over."
Raiden leaned forward, his cold expression showing a flicker of curiosity.
"So it's not just for movement?"
Adam nodded.
"Right. It also doubles as a sensory relay. The machine uses vibrations to map its surroundings, kind of like sonar. That's how it avoids traps and unstable ground."
Raiden's eyes narrowed slightly.
"Interesting… we never learned that. I always thought they were just disposable scouts."
Adam's face held no expression as he explained further.
"These machines were never built just for combat. They were meant to rebuild civilization, not destroy it."
Compared to his siblings who were focused more on being combat stream hunters because a leader doesn't get the luxury of being one-sided.
If you only rely on brute force, you'll fail when the enemy changes tactics.
And if you only study technology, you'll collapse the moment a battle starts.
A team leader has to be good enough in all areas to cover his people's weaknesses.
Otherwise, the whole team falls apart.
...
As the study session ended, Adam stood up.
"Let's go now."
Raiden and Miya didn't reject his words.
They also rose to their feet, falling into step beside him.
Based on how easily Adam had answered every single question thrown at him, they had no doubt he would pass the trial.
There was no need for them to worry anymore.
For themselves, the review was also enough.
A few days of preparation, with Adam's explanations filling in the gaps, had refreshed their understanding of the sixth floor's technology.
The three of them walked through the ruins of the city, passing tall, half-broken skyscrapers patched with glowing wires and metal plates.
Artificial humans roamed the streets.
Their faces were blank yet strangely lifelike, and they moved as though they were living in a time before the city had fallen.
Some stood behind food stalls, shouting as if selling skewers and roasted bread...
But the stalls were empty, and their hands held nothing but air.
Some walked in pairs, laughing as though sharing jokes, yet their laughter was stuck in an endless loop, the same tone repeating every few seconds.
Others sat on benches, flipping through newspapers that had no words, only blank pages.
It looked like a lively city at first glance, but the longer they stayed, the more unnatural it felt.
The ones who were walking never went anywhere.
They simply moved back and forth between the same corners.
The ones talking repeated the same sentences over and over, their lips moving like broken records.
And the sellers...
No matter how much they shouted— didn't have a single product to give.
Miya hugged her arms tightly, her face pale.
"I've always found this floor creepy... It's like watching ghosts pretending to be alive."
Raiden's expression remained cold, though his eyes lingered on the scene.
"These are the last evidences of the civilization that built this place. They programmed their machines to imitate daily life, even after they were gone. What we're seeing is just an endless playback of their memories."
Adam narrowed his eyes at the artificial crowd.
'A world that tried to live on through imitation… No wonder this floor is about knowledge. Without it, all that remains is hollow repetition.'
As they continued deeper into the city, the artificial humans slowly turned their heads.
One by one, their hollow gazes locked onto Adam's group.
Noticing the stares, all three siblings fell silent at the same time.
[ChrisTempest has donated an F-tier gift]
[You have received +2 Soul Cores]
[ChrisTempest asks why they suddenly went quiet]
[lineupliam has donated an F-tier gift]
[You have received +4 Soul Cores]
[lineupliam] Maybe they're scared? Even I find this creepy.
[Aberrant of the Flesh] They're staying quiet to avoid suspicion.
[Nael_Longguard has donated an F-tier gift]
[You have received +2 Soul Cores]
[Nael_Longguard] Suspicion from what?
[Watcher of Iron Rings] If the artificial humans don't recognize you as one of their own, they'll rip you apart.
[Deviator of Fate] Uh, sorry if this sounds dumb… but what do "lineupliam" or "ChrisTempest" stand for?
[Frog Eater] Ah… a new guy.
That was the peculiarity of the sixth floor.
Although artificial humans had been created in the image of humans, time and decay had warped them.
They developed fragments of sentience...
One that seemed to be formed from broken, twisted thoughts— which turned them hostile toward anything they deemed an outsider.
The siblings walked carefully down road.
None of them dared to speak.
From the corner of his eye, Adam caught a chilling scene.
A fellow stream hunter was being dragged into an alley by several artificial humans.
Their hands, sharp like blades, cut into him as though gutting a piece of meat.
The man screamed, but his cries were drowned out by the monotone voices of his attackers.
"You abandoned us. You abandoned the cycle."
"You will not leave again. You will stay."
"You will stay. Stay. Stay…"
The phrases repeated in eerie unison, like a choir of broken machines.
Raiden's expression didn't change, but his hand drifted toward his weapon.
He muttered quietly, just enough for Adam and Miya to hear.
"Don't look. Just keep walking."
The sight wasn't new to Adam, but it still left him uncomfortable.
What's worse was the he couldn't help, otherwise he'd be targeted by the entire city...
Although he was strong and confident in his abilities... what was he compared to a nuke?
Compared to guns that that were faster than his senses?
The three siblings walked on, surrounded by machines that lived out dead routines, while behind them, the stream hunter's screams faded into silence.