11 Chapter 11 - Planning
(A lot of talking. Not much action. But next chapter we will get lots of actions.)
"You gotta be kidding me… this will take forever!" Adam smashed his hand angrily at the desk.
"Well… Look at the bright side, Master. At least we confirmed there is no other exit other than going up. As long as we contain them below the mine, the infection will not spread as much." Agent also sighed, rethinking her life.
From a SF ringleader working to exterminate humanity to a T-Doll working with a human to save the world from a deadly epidemic. Not that she dislikes it. She does not have the capacity to like or dislike in the first place. Her purpose as a T-Doll is simple and it's to serve her Master. The codes are deeply ingrained in her Neural Cloud after a mysterious virus overwrote the Parapluie virus inside her system.
Adam didn't respond and instead looked at the security footage on the screen. Green and red pods all over the mine. No matter where he turns the camera to, pods everywhere with Mutated Grimms patrolling the area and feeding the green pods more animals, humans and even zombies.
However, what he worried the most is one particular screen that shows the deepest section of the mine that has a special kind of pod. A large one. Ominously large red pod that looks more like an egg that is pulsating and twitching as if it was alive.
"This is impossible to clear no matter how hard I think of it. Who knows how many pod nests there are pumping out thousands of Mutated Grimms." Adam sighed hopelessly on the table with his eyes locked on the screen.
"Master! Don't be sad! Alice will kill those bad monsters for you!" Alice came to cheer Adam up with her eyes briefly showing a red glint of bloodthirstiness.
Adam sighed again, not knowing how he should explain that odds are stacked very high against them. Not that she would care really. She is very eager to earn affection and pleasing him. Even if the order will get her killed, Alice will not hesitate if Adam gives the order.
Well, he is very pleased and flattered to have such an obedient and cooperative companion like Alice, Agent and Eric. None of them ever said no to him and followed his order to the letter.
"I should reward them later…" Adam mumbles while rubbing his chin with one hand and rubbing Alice's head with another.
"So, Agent. Do you have any suggestions or plan how to approach this matter?" He points at the screen showing the security footage.
"Based on the calculation and simulation I made, our chance of success is very slim even when we factor in the Atlesian Specialists as our helper."
"Based on the analysis of our encounters with the Mutated Beowolf, not only do they show remarkable increases in strength, they also have greater durability and resilience that it takes me 20 times more effort to kill compared to normal Beowolf. With potentially thousands of them down in the mine and other species of Mutant Grimms. I would say Eric, Alice and I will only be a dead weight because our ammunition is already running low and we have no method to resupply Alice's rifle." Agent said concluded her reason why this task is doomed to fail.
"I see…" Adam realized while Agent and Eric can simply charge themselves since they use Laser cannons, Alice uses ballistic rifles that shoot bullets.
While he was thinking, his guns came to mind. He can simply purchase bullets for his guns with SAS $ from his System. His System has ways to mass produce and fabricate all types of ammunition for all his guns because that is what it's specialized for. Then, couldn't he just do the same? Buy ammunition for Alice's rifle.
"Alice. Let me borrow your rifle for a bit." Adam turned to Alice and asked for his rifle which she gave to him before he could finish his sentence. Then she looks at him curiously, observing what he is doing with her rifle.
Adam takes a hold of the rifle and looks at the bottom of his HUD which will usually display the image of the said gun, remaining ammunition and the price for the ammunition per bulk. But, the rifle he held in his hands somehow didn't even register as one as the HUD shows he isn't wielding one in his hands. Dejectedly, Adam returns the rifle back to Alice.
"Why not lend us your firearms instead, Master?" Agent suggested after he guessed what Adam was experimenting on and he failed.
Adam took her suggestion and opened his inventory. He has 4 guns in total, two Raptor AR with one being Standard and another is Red, one RIA 30 Strikeforce Shotgun and one Sabre Pistol. He placed them all on the table for them to choose.
Agent is the first to take the shotgun and fiddle with it before she looks satisfied.
"Remarkable craftsmanship and design. Are these even human made?" Agent wondered once she scanned the internal mechanism of the shotgun that allows it to shoot 8 special projectiles that will light anything burnable on fire. Basically a flamethrower but pack the punch and stopping power of a shotgun.
"Maybe. But as far as I know. In the 4th Millennium, they probably had an automated factory to create those guns."
"4th Millennium?" Agent's head snapped to Adam with shock in her eyes. "Of course… that would explain all those near impossible technologies you are using." Agent said while staring at Adam's ACE Suit which she knows is literally an Exo suit that was made entirely out of NanoTech and nanomachines otherwise it would be incredibly bulky with all the functions it had. It was an impossible piece of technology even by her standards.
"Anyway. How about you, Alice?" Adam looks at the Raptor. Since Alice is a T-Doll imprinted to use an AR, Raptor would suit her well since it's also an AR.
Alice took one of the Raptor with red glow and also fiddled with it and soon pulled the trigger which shot a burst of three bullets that pierce the iron wall easily.
Alice didn't look like she liked or disliked the gun. Instead, she looked confused.
"Gun is very light but the recoil is too strong…" Alice commented which Adam can see when she has difficulty controlling the recoil.
To be honest, Raptor looks more like SMG than AR. But shoot like an AR.
It's not surprising since Raptor is manufactured by Shotlite, a subsidiary of Shiplite, a manufacturer of spacecrafts, spaceships, space stations, etc. They heavily use their patented ultra-light materials used on their ship building on their guns and armors to make them extra light but still deadly and durable.
It just felt utterly alien to have a gun that weighs basically near nothing but the pack punch of a high caliber rifle. For a human adjusting is easy but for Alice… adjusting is very hard especially with how their weapon imprinting works.
"How about you use this instead?" Adam took out his Sub-light COM2 AR and gave it to Alice while he took back Raptor.
"Oh! Master's gun! I like it! Hit hard and powerful." Alice basically hugged the gun when she took it from Adam's hand.
"Now, try reloading it." Adam said to Agent and Alice.
They nod and try reloading the guns. Agents follow the motion like how Adam usually reloads his Ronson 5X5. Simply grasping the air and clip of shotgun shells appeared in her hand like magic. Alice tried hers too, she removed the magazine first and dropped it and a fresh one appeared in her hand as she swiftly loaded the fresh magazine onto the rifle.
It's mind boggling and probably would burn her head before she could figure out the technology behind this blatant teleportation. Adam hinted it has something to do with quantum physics.
Once their problem is solved, Adam turns back to Agent and asks her. "So, what do you think of our chances now?" Agent looks at her shotgun and Alice rifle with a long stare as her mind works through the simulation. "46.78% chance of eliminating all enemies with zero casualties."
"Hmn… High enough." Adam mutters and then looks back at Agent. "So, what are the causes of our failures?"
"That." Agent point at the screen of the security footage which shows Grimms like Ursa, Deathstalker, snake-like Grimm, boar-like Grimm and gorilla-like Grimm deep in the mine.
The weakest Grimm Beowolf already can give them that much trouble. What about other already stronger Grimms in their base form once they turn into mutants?
He even starts to question if Agent calculated correctly because he thinks their chance to succeed should be much lower than what she just stated.
"How about the strategy to kill them?" Adam asks.
Adam already has his own strats, using the corners and tunnels as choke points to slowly whittle down the enemies and wipe them out in large groups using his Artillery Strike very strategically. The strategy Agent explains to him is basically almost the same. Well, that's the only obvious choice they have with such small numbers against enemies that not only outnumbered them over a hundred but also were very strong individually.
"Of course, if the worst comes to worst. We can collapse the whole mountain along with the mine. They have quite the stock of explosives used for mining operations." Agent pointed out the Fire Dust infused dynamite she found in the equipment storage.
"*Cough* I know that collapsing the mine is very effective. But what about us?" Adam quickly points out the problem with her plan.
"Worry not. I will not suggest it if the plan will get us killed." Agent reassures Adam that she follows the rules he set up which is zero casualties.
Agent walked over to a wall with the diagram of the entire mine and basically a map of the mine. "Over here. When I was scanning through all the information in the terminal. I found out there are several ventilation tunnels and discharge channels along the mine. We can use them as an exit." She took a pen and scribbled on the diagram as she explained the other exits she discovered.
Adam nods while he is trying to absorb all the information Agent is cramming into his head while Eric and Alice are fighting in the background for reasons unknown to him.
"I see. Well done, Agent." Adam nods and Agent simply states it's her duty to help him to her maximum capacity that is possible.
"But first, we will need to loot the warehouse. Although I wouldn't want to collapse the mine. I think we wouldn't have a choice…" Adam gazed at the footage that shows the giant pulsating and twitching red pod.
"Also Alice, stop trying to kill Eric." He sighed at the two antics as Eric expertly climbed up his shoulder before narrowing his camera on Alice as if he was taunting her. Meanwhile Alice is growling and has to lower her gun because she wouldn't even imagine aiming a deadly weapon at her Master. Much less actually doing it.
———
As they made their way to the warehouse close to the supervisor office of this mining outpost, Adam got an inspiration which suddenly just appeared in his head while he was gunning down the mutated Beowolves they encountered.
"Why not dual wield them?" Adam thought to himself as he realized he is too rigid on doing things by the rules of the game that do not necessarily apply to real life like the present.
Raptor on his left and Ronson 5x5 on his right, Adam took a more 'active' approach in his combat like applying Gun Fu as opposed to just standing still and shooting like a turret or something.
It actually worked!
They were already close to the warehouse. But three Mutated Beowolves appeared because they were attracted by the noise they made.
Adam immediately used Adrenaline to increase his movement speed and sprint toward the Beowolves and shoved a Cryo grenades down one of the Beowolf that wanted to howl and attract more of their kind like the previous one did.
*Hiss!*
The grenade detonated and release a cloud of freezing liquid oxygen made with Oxozone compound that instantly turn anything it touched into solid statue with temperature below -200°C.
Without breaking his momentum, Adam turn his body around and rammed one of the Beowolf with his shoulder and made it stumble while the girls and Eric are peppering it. The other one charged at Adam but his left arm is quicker to angle Raptor at the Beowolf face before emptying loads of lead on its ugly ass mug in three burst action. The frozen one is easy to kill as Adam lined his shotgun on it's frozen head before blowing it apart with his mighty rod.
The result? Gun Fu increase his battle effectiveness indeed compared to just standing still and waiting to get charged by the enemies.
However, this only work because their enemies is just three Beowolves. Adam doubt Gun Fu would work when hordes of Mutated Grimms are charging at him in waves. Still, it's worth investing on getting better on Gun Fu.
"Well, here we are. At the warehouse." Adam look at the metal door locked and plastered with many hazard signs that tell the warehouse contain a lot of dangerous stuff other than the Fire Dust infused dynamite.
While the his companions on the look out, Adam swipe clean everything 'useful' he can found in the warehouse.
—————
(You bet Adam swipe clean everything that isn't nailed down. Those miner not gonna need them after Adam blow up the place after all hahahaha.)
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