Chapter Sixty-Nine: A Brief Respite in Daily Life

"Ah, finally out," Zhuang Xiaoyuan said, standing at the doorway of the room where she had just replenished her energy, stretching her arms wide in relief. At last she was free to move around—finally, freedom. She never wanted to go back in there again.

"Move aside, you're blocking the way," said a voice behind her, accompanied by a finger poking her back.

"Ah, sorry, sorry. Xiaosi, your energy is fully restored, so where are you planning to go next?" Zhuang Xiaoyuan stepped out of the doorway, making room for Zhuang Xiaosi, and asked as she did so.

"Standby," Zhuang Xiaosi replied blandly, and walked off in the direction she had already determined.

"Standby? What do you usually do when you're on standby?" Zhuang Xiaoyuan fell in step beside her, continuing her questioning as they walked.

After dozens of hours of fighting, the invading demons had finally retreated. Though no one knew when they might return, the battle had allowed the machine girls to record the demons' data in their archives. Should they reappear, handling them ought to be easier—unless more powerful demons showed up.

With the departure of the demons, the machine girls returned to their usual state. Zhuang Xiaoyuan was quite curious about what Zhuang Xiaosi did in her daily life. Machine girls did not express emotions; even if they felt them, they suppressed them. This meant they lacked desires.

What did machine girls without desires do when they had nothing to occupy themselves? Surely they wouldn't just sit in a corner and stare blankly; with their rational, utilitarian mindset, idle daydreaming would be considered wasteful.

"Standby is just standby," Zhuang Xiaosi replied to Zhuang Xiaoyuan's question.

Soon enough, Zhuang Xiaoyuan saw what Zhuang Xiaosi meant by standby. It truly was just sitting still in one spot. The green data streams in Zhuang Xiaosi’s eyes flashed continuously—she must have been wandering through the central host’s database. No wonder she knew things others didn’t. So, that was what standby was.

At that moment, Zhuang Xiaoyuan and Zhuang Xiaosi were in Area Five, to the left of the base’s center. Area Five, together with Areas Twelve and Thirteen further to the left, were the usual standby spots for the machine girls. Aside from Zhuang Xiaoyuan and Zhuang Xiaosi, there were many other machine girls in standby nearby, most of them members of the assault team who had recently escaped the demon horde together.

"Hey, Xiaosi, don’t you have any other ways to pass the time? Don’t you find this boring?" Unable to tolerate the silence, Zhuang Xiaoyuan sidled up to Zhuang Xiaosi and whispered.

"Pastime? Boring? I do not understand," Zhuang Xiaosi’s eyes reverted from green streams to their usual color as she regarded Zhuang Xiaoyuan with her characteristic calm gaze.

"Ah, I can’t take it anymore. Isn’t there anything interesting to do?" Normally, Zhuang Xiaoyuan wasn’t so impatient, but after completing the third trial of the Guardian, the fourth task was still locked. She had no idea why. Was she supposed to wait for a specific time? Her inner restlessness made her outwardly agitated.

"Interesting things are meaningless. 'Interesting' is a completely useless concept," Zhuang Xiaosi retorted, though she didn’t ignore Zhuang Xiaoyuan’s complaints, continuing her data connection as usual.

"Ah, wait. Xiaosi, is there anywhere here that can make something like cards?" Sitting on a hard metal bench, Zhuang Xiaoyuan swung her legs in boredom, paying no heed to Xiaosi’s dismissal. Suddenly, her eyes brightened as an idea struck her, sparkling with anticipation as she turned to ask Zhuang Xiaosi.

"Cards? You can make them with that," Zhuang Xiaosi replied, tilting her head in puzzlement though her expression remained placid. She pointed to a machine nearby—a gray metal box resembling the drink vending machines Zhuang Xiaoyuan remembered from her previous life.

"Oh! I hadn’t noticed it before. It looks so advanced—definitely has that sci-fi vibe," Zhuang Xiaoyuan exclaimed, following Xiaosi’s finger to the 'vending machine box' beside her.

It was a gray metal box taller than Zhuang Xiaoyuan herself. On its front, at face level, was a huge virtual display screen, explaining in detail the functions and usage of the device.

According to the screen, this was a Concept Generator. It could produce parts based on designs stored in the user’s chip. For example, if a machine girl found flaws in a weapon after using it, she could improve it herself. By connecting to the machine, she could directly generate the weapon she envisioned using her chip’s data.

Whether the resulting weapon was usable, however, was outside the machine’s purview. If the machine girl’s data was accurate, the generated weapon would undoubtedly be functional. If there were errors, the generator would not make corrections. It was convenient, but not something the machine girls used often.

With their lack of emotion, very few machine girls possessed the creativity to modify weapons. Most of the weapons in the arsenal were generated by the central host, which adjusted old models based on combat records. Even the central host, with its superior computing power, could not create entirely new weapons.

The electromagnetic railgun Zhuang Xiaoyuan had discarded earlier, for instance, was an ancient concept created by the prehistoric species—humanity—which the machine girls later manufactured into a usable weapon. Yet, due to its bulk and enormous energy consumption, no machine girl had ever chosen to equip it. Without usage data, such weapons lost their chance for further upgrades.

Consequently, the Concept Generator was rarely used. While it could produce commonly used weapons according to the machine girls’ data, the arsenal’s dedicated weapon factories were dozens of times more efficient.

Although the Concept Generator wasn’t much use to the machine girls, it was exactly what Zhuang Xiaoyuan needed. Grinning slyly, she connected to the generator. As her data transferred, the item from her memories was uploaded to the generator’s records. With a press of the generate button, a complete set of cards dropped from the output slot.

"Done! Xiaosi, let’s play," Zhuang Xiaoyuan said, turning around and holding the stack of cards high for Zhuang Xiaosi to see.