Crossing the World
II - Shelter (Karen)

I was sitting in the palm of a giant robot, waiting for the elevator I had to open the door.

It turned out that the shelter had been deep underground. I wonder how the founders made this deeply buried shelter.

Actually I could've gotten out of the shelter with a teleporter. However, the AI said that my teleporter could only be used once, so I could not use it carelessly. If I use it now, then I will have to manually transport one cubic kilometer of water. How annoying that is.

While I was still falling into my daydream, the elevator doors began to open. I immediately regained my senses and stared towards the front, looking at a narrow plain room. Slowly, I controlled the T-13 to walk out of the elevator.

"Is this the bunker Annie often brags about when she comes home from expeditions?"

My left eyeball caught the metal door on the left wall. So, I moved the T-13 to get there and pressed the button with the display of the door opening symbol.

At once the door opened, sending me to the outside world for the first time.

The orange sky was plastered so wide, as if there was never an end to it. Pebbled soil and weathered trees as far as the eye could see were fused with the sky at the end of the horizon. The warm air and dusty wind hit my face as soon as I came out of the bunker.

"What a horrible sight." I let out a breath.

"Let's see how this place is doing."

I focused on the T-13 vision that was scanning, and then saw all the details that were plastered.

"Ray level is about thirteen percent. It seems that microscopic life still exists and ferns are also quite numerous. But the tree does not exist at all. Is it because the environment is not suitable or because it has not evolved?"

As I muttered, my consciousness moved the T-13 to walk.

"The temperature is quite warm, but the atmospheric pressure is less high. Oxygen and nitrogen are easy to find. Why does hydrogen not exist? Is the planet's gravity weakening?

"Can plants live? Or do we need to terraform? Carbon dioxide levels also appear to be normal even if they are slightly higher than they should be."

My scenery still remains a dry expanse of land overgrown by small grass and weathered mossy trees. There is absolutely no perfect life form other than myself. Whatever, my goal is the sea.

The T-13 began to use its propulsion to move faster, following a virtual map left by an expedition team a thousand years ago.

As we ventured further and further away, T-13 suddenly detected a swarm of life forms. Of course I'm very happy with this fact. They could be the civilized society in this world that people often talk about. If so, I can ask them for help.

Not with the excitement I felt, I forced the T-13 to go faster than ever.

"There! That's them! They're right there!"

I saw about ten people with dark red skin. They are very muscular and use only a seedy cloth to cover the lower part of their body. Moreover, all of them carried metal sticks that looked like ancient spears.

Oh, oh .. how primitive is~

I stopped the T-13 exactly a few feet away from them. This made everyone startled and instantly alert towards me. Ah, I didn't think I'd meet a living creature.

"Greetings of lowly beings with imperfect brains. My name is Karen."

When I tried to communicate, they were even more alert and raised their spears up high.

[Failed to install language. The species before you is a creature without intelligence.]

"Eh? What do you mean-"

As all my thoughts were fixed on the problem I was having, a spear suddenly shot out and hit the left shoulder of the T-13. One of them must have thrown a spear at me. Worse yet, their throws were really strong.

Damn, everything's fucked up!

"Tu-wait a minute!"

Two spears shot out again. I directly activated the thermal shield to melt it, but a small part of the spear was still able to escape from my shielding radiation. Fortunately, nobody hit me and the T-13.

"Damn it! You asked for it first!"

I got off the T-13 and fired at them with an old-fashioned submachine gun I was carrying. I also made the T-13 shoot at them with the anti-tank rifle he had. We both rained down on the ten stupid species until they collapsed.

"What the fuck was that?"

I replaced my magazine and T-13 with a new one. Then, through the eyes of the T-13, I did an examination of their corpses.

"Yiks. Their strength was even equivalent to a T-13 and their skin was thick. Looks like my rifle wasn't very effective, thankfully I was carrying an anti-tank gun."

While I was still inspecting it, a spear suddenly shot out from the sky and struck not far from my position. I was shocked and immediately checked the surrounding area using the T-13. That's when my eyes widened as if I couldn't believe what I was seeing.

This place is surrounded. They may number more than two hundred. I don't have any more time. Now it's better to back off and go back to the shelter first.

As I prepared to retreat, the orange sky was suddenly filled with tiny spots. It didn't take long until I realized the danger.

"Damn it, it's a spear!"

Using a thermal shield would be useless. Avoiding it is also impossible. There was no choice but to sacrifice it!

I ducked on the ground and T-13 ducked above me. His sturdy body I made my last line of defense while I activated the thermal shield to protect us.

The rain of spears hit our area continuously as if it never ran out. The number of enemies has also increased many times over and is rapidly approaching our position.

How could I be cornered in a place like this? If only there were exoskeleton armor, I would have fried them in one go. Ah ... That damn AI didn't say anything about this. If I make it home, I will ask him to take responsibility!

My shield couldn't hold all the spears so some managed to pierce through it and hollow out the body of the T-13. I was also hit when the spears pierced through the body of the T-13, but thanks to the carbon primorial clothing, I was not scratched.

If this continues, I will die. I refused to use it, but there was no other choice. Better now or not at all!

I focused on my gloves and activated the teleport feature. I put in the coordinates from the shelter I had difficulty memorizing during military training and prepared to make a space jump. But then, bad things happen again.

T-13 power source hit by attack. This resulted in a power leak that instantly stung my body.  I screamed in pain, trying to distance myself from the T-13. Unfortunately, the electric shock of the alternating current made all my muscles tense and difficult to move. So, I desperately activated the teleport in hopes of escaping this painful sting.