Humanoid Weapon

(This chapter is free.)

As time came to a standstill, everyone froze in place in a bizarre fashion, with only the three gun-wielding thugs as exceptions.

This was because Time Stop locked all of a target's states in place, meaning no outside attack could possibly harm someone affected by it. Pandora had used Time Stop only to protect the innocent people at the scene from being caught up in this. As for those three armed thugs, there was no need to protect them.

It seemed Pandora did know, more or less, how to save me some trouble, even if she had never understood why I was so afraid of trouble.

The sudden change left the three men, who had been incredibly arrogant just moments ago, stunned where they stood. A sight that belonged only in movies had completely confused them.

The burly man in the middle was the first to react. He discovered that the skinny student he had been holding hostage was now as immovable as a mountain. No matter how hard he pulled, he could not move him even an inch. He decisively released the hostage, drew another pistol from his waist, instantly transforming into a mighty dual-pistol man as he warily scanned his surroundings.

"Emperor," Pandora's voice came through the mental link. "Without support from the Shilin Outpost Base, Time Stop can only last fifteen minutes."

"Alright," I said to Pandora in my mind. "They're already in complete disarray. Our next step is..."

"For the Empire!" Pandora, who had always shown no emotional fluctuation whatsoever, suddenly shouted with Hot Blood. Before I could react, she had already charged at them like a streak of white lightning.

What? What was this situation? The emotionless loli had suddenly become a violent, hot-blooded young girl? No, no, no, that was not the key issue here...

Pandora's huge movement immediately drew the attention of the three thugs. With everything else frozen, it was impossible not to notice a little girl in strange white armor and a face mask suddenly rushing out.

Their nerves already stretched to the breaking point, they had no time to think about what was causing this strange phenomenon or who this little girl was. Almost instinctively, all three raised their guns and aimed at the white figure charging toward them.

Several gunshots rang out. My heart tightened as I thought, Oh no!

Moving at high speed, Pandora abruptly stopped in a way that completely defied the laws of motion. Her right hand spread open, reaching straight ahead, and she stood motionless like a statue. The stark contrast between her sudden movement and stillness almost made me think her furious charge just now had been an illusion.

Ripples like water spread out before Pandora. Several warped metal cylinders were blocked by the barrier, then fell helplessly to the ground.

...I should have known. How could someone whose civilization surpassed humanity's by several levels fear humanity's crude, primitive firearms?

The cocky men were completely dumbfounded. The strange phenomena around them and the bizarre loli before them made them feel as though they were no longer living in the real world.

Just then, Pandora's emotionless voice sounded.

"Attack confirmed. Threat level zero. Initiating deterrence measures—"

Along with Pandora's utterly emotionless voice, her outstretched right hand suddenly changed. Black metallic components rapidly emerged from the air, assembling at a dazzling speed into a massive rectangular cannon four meters long and half a person tall. Between the cannon's complex components, pale blue energy lines pulsed like blood vessels. Starting from the rectangular muzzle, they extended all the way to the rear of the cannon, converging into several thick cables that completely fused with Pandora's right side.

"Pandora 1000mm Anti-Ship Psionic Cannon entering firing warm-up state..."

The three people at the scene were utterly dumbstruck...

So was I...

"Th-this... it's a monster!"

The mighty dual-pistol man in the middle suddenly cried out and turned to run. Yet just as he turned, Pandora's left hand rapidly assembled into a triple-mounted six-barrel rotary cannon. Accompanied by the thunderous roar of its firing, the dual-pistol man's legs gave out beneath him. He collapsed to the ground and immediately wet himself.

Ignoring the terrified looks from everyone else, I carefully examined the two enormous weapons equipped on little loli Pandora's hands. Leaving aside the rectangular Psionic Cannon, which was practically the size of a support pillar, even the triple-mounted six-barrel rotary cannon was larger than Girl's body. Now I could finally be certain that beneath Pandora's emotionless exterior lay a heart filled with violence and the desire to fight!

Besides, loli plus giant weapons really was unexpectedly pleasing to the eye...

"Y-you... what... are you...?" A red-haired young man among the three stammered incoherently. The gun in his hand clattered to the ground—compared with Pandora, this ultimate Humanoid Weapon, it did not even qualify as a toy.

Pandora ignored his question entirely. She merely shook her right hand, and the massive weapon emitted two clicking sounds. Then, dazzling blue-white light began gathering inside the rectangular muzzle of the "Pandora 1000mm Anti-Ship Psionic Cannon," which resembled an engine exhaust nozzle.

"That's enough, Pandora." Only then did I realize what Pandora was doing. As a "Shilin General," killing enemies was as ordinary to her as eating and drinking. If I did not speak up and stop her, these three unlucky fellows would surely become the first humans in history to be vaporized by alien Anti-Ship Weapons.

Though they were criminals who treated human lives as nothing and deserved death, killing them like this would definitely cause chaos once the Time Stop effect ended.

"Understood."

With Pandora's reply, the two enormous weapons rapidly folded away and vanished into the air. Pandora's partially mechanized body also returned to normal.

At that moment, the three men, who were already somewhat mentally unhinged, finally noticed there was another human at the scene who could move. Though I looked utterly ordinary, judging from how I had commanded that "monster" just now, I was definitely no ordinary person.

So, the next second, all three looked at me as though they had seen their savior.

Being stared at so directly by three broad-shouldered, muscular men... was simply hell!

The burly man who had been frightened into wetting himself by Pandora's burst of fire was now weeping bitterly. "Please spare us! You're a magnanimous person, so surely you won't lower yourself to deal with ordinary humans like us..."

...Was he saying I was not human? It was perfectly normal for him to make that connection after seeing Pandora like that, but brother, let me tell you, you just mocked me...

"Foolish Carbon-Based Lifeforms," Pandora's icy voice rang out, accompanied by a strange electronic tremor. "Do not attempt to confuse the Emperor's judgment!"

Ahem... Pandora, you just used Area Taunt...

First, I had accidentally been excluded from the category of humans. Then my own little sister and subordinate had inadvertently looked down on me. Somewhat awkwardly, I said, "Let's not discuss species for now. Pandora, it would be better not to kill them. Otherwise, there'll be a lot of trouble once time starts moving again. Do you have any way to erase their memories, or..."

"Or turn them into idiots or something?" Finally, I switched to the mental link and said it to Pandora in my mind.

After all, I was still quite humane. If the three unlucky fellows across from us knew their intelligence was about to drop to the level of rats, they would probably collapse on the spot.

Pandora nodded, then walked toward the three former thugs, who had all collectively wet themselves. As she walked, her right hand transformed into a blue-and-white cone-shaped object around a foot long, with a long probe gleaming blue at its tip.

The three men let out desperate wails.

From that day on, there were three more idiots in this world.