"This is one of our secret safe houses."
"It's hidden in the town's ruins."
"The Mutated Ones will never find it."
BT brought Qin Ze to one of the weapons' safe houses.
Though small, it had everything it needed.
Inside were all the tools and supplies the humanoid combat weapons could need when injured or resting.
Among them were a large workbench and several things that looked like charging stations.
BT stood beside one of the charging stations. With a soft click, her mech armor opened automatically at the back.
As easily as taking off clothes, BT stepped out of the mech armor.
"That's so lifelike!"
Qin Ze finally understood just how lifelike humanoid combat weapons could be.
Without her mech armor, BT wore only a one-piece, skintight undersuit that showed off her tall, curvaceous figure.
BT connected a cable to her mech armor. It went "biu" and entered charging mode.
"I'm terribly sorry, sir."
"No humans have ever been here, so we haven't prepared anywhere for you to rest or any food for you to eat."
BT spoke apologetically.
Qin Ze waved a hand. "It's fine."
"Come to think of it, don't you need to rest or eat?"
BT shook her head and explained, "Only our outer layer of flesh is made of carbon-based cellular tissue. Our bones and internal organs are mechanical."
"So we don't get tired and don't need to rest."
"We don't need to eat either. Replenishing our energy fluid is enough."
BT took a bottle of white liquid resembling a nutritional drink from a cabinet nearby.
Qin Ze unscrewed the cap and sniffed it. It had a pungent motor oil smell.
BT, however, downed it in one gulp and was full of energy afterward.
"If you're hungry, sir, you'll have to hold on a little longer. There'll be food you can eat on Sky Island."
Qin Ze said, "The aircraft crashed. How are we supposed to get to Sky Island now?"
BT said, "I've contacted Galaxy, Sky Island's central dispatch AI. Headquarters will send another aircraft to pick you up. We just need to wait here."
"What about the others?" Qin Ze asked. "When will they be back?"
Streams of data flashed through BT's eyes.
"The standby signals of seventeen weapons have completely disappeared."
There had been too many Mutated Ones, including an advanced Mutated One.
They could have evacuated safely. Everything they had done had been to cover the human lord.
Qin Ze sighed, feeling a sense of loss.
There was no expression on BT's face, however.
"Your companions who faced life and death with you are dead. Aren't you sad?" Qin Ze asked.
BT tilted her head. "Why should I be sad? Death is every weapon's final destination, especially when they died for the human lord."
"Humans protect all living beings, and all living beings follow in their wake."
Weapons?
Call him a sucker for good looks or a sanctimonious bleeding heart, Qin Ze found it hard to equate them with disposable weapons.
They had minds of their own, souls of their own, joys and sorrows of their own.
One moment they had been calling him "human lord" at every turn; the next, they had all returned to dust and earth.
And they had died because of him.
Qin Ze took three cigarettes from the pack in his jacket pocket. He had swiped them from the shelter.
After all, it was the apocalypse outside, and cigarettes were in short supply. He had planned to use them to bribe the local natives.
After lighting the three cigarettes, Qin Ze set them on the table and pressed his palms together.
BT watched the human lord's strange actions in puzzlement, unable to tell what he was doing.
"Where I come from, there's a custom: when someone dies, we offer three sticks of incense as a sign of respect and wish them smooth sailing in their next life."
"There's no incense here, so I'll use cigarettes instead."
BT froze for a moment.
So the human lord was sad about the weapons' deaths?
She couldn't understand it.
There was no such program in her emotion module.
"But they weren't human."
Qin Ze said calmly, "That spirit of sacrificing oneself for others is far nobler than the vast majority of humans."
Then Qin Ze closed his eyes. "Have a safe journey. Be human in your next lives."
BT blinked, then copied Qin Ze's actions and quietly murmured, "Have a... safe journey..."
As the last wisp of smoke dissipated, the three cigarettes burned out.
BT stared blankly at the cigarette butts on the table, lost in thought.
Knock, knock, knock~
Half an hour later, a sudden knock sounded at the door.
The drowsy Qin Ze got up to answer it, but BT stopped him.
BT shook her head at him and quickly put on her fully charged mech armor.
At the same time, the alloy door suddenly exploded inward with a bang.
BT stepped in front of Qin Ze and cut it in two with a single stroke.
"An aberrant!"
Qin Ze saw a massive, shit-yellow aberrant outside the door.
"I knew it. Not a single safe house is safe."
BT scooped Qin Ze up around the waist, leaped out the window, and flew into the sky.
From above, Qin Ze saw that the safe house was already surrounded by a dense mass of Mutated Ones.
The advanced flying aberrant from before had also caught up, with a whole gang of underlings behind it.
"There's a mole," BT murmured.
"What?" Qin Ze looked utterly baffled.
"The locations of all the safe houses are top secret. The Mutated Ones couldn't possibly know them unless a weapon told them beforehand." BT's pretty face was tense.
"Didn't you say their signals had all disappeared?"
"I called weapons in the other districts over the public channel. They know where we are too."
Looking at the pursuers in the sky and on the ground, Qin Ze knew he wouldn't be getting to Sky Island today.
"Back to Jiang City."
They weren't far from Jiang City, and Qin Ze planned to leave the otherworld through the shelter.
As he was now, he was far too weak and could only rely on BT for protection.
Once he had developed a bit, he would bring Brother Devour next time.
He still had a new soul orb on hand, enough to give birth to another Brother Devour.
BT said, "I just contacted Galaxy. Sky Island's aircraft has already arrived."
"There are Mutated Ones all around the safe house, so the aircraft couldn't land. It's on an abandoned highway fifteen kilometers away."
"You'll be safe as soon as you board it, human lord."
The advanced aberrant behind them was drawing closer and closer. It was clearly much faster than BT.
It would catch up with them in less than ten kilometers.
"Back to Jiang City."
Qin Ze's voice was low.
The shelter's doors were thick. The Mutated Ones couldn't break through them head-on; no matter how many came, it would be useless.
That was the real safe house.
"Yes."
BT didn't question him at all.
In her programming, human orders always came first.
Jets of flame spewed from the advanced aberrant's mouth.
BT couldn't dodge in time. Her back took a direct hit, damaging the thruster on her leg.
The two crashed to the ground. Fortunately, BT shielded Qin Ze in her arms, and he wasn't hurt.
"Are you all right, sir?"
BT's mech armor was badly damaged, and half her body was scorched black.
Qin Ze looked back toward the shelter. It was less than a kilometer away.
"We're almost at the shelter. Hang in there," Qin Ze said.
"Go on, sir. I'll cover you." BT shook her head.
Only then did Qin Ze notice that one of her lower legs was broken.
"Cut the crap!"
Qin Ze gritted his teeth, hoisted BT onto his shoulders, and unleashed the first layer of the Fate Reversal Technique.
The Mutated Ones in the sky had arrived, surrounding Qin Ze from every direction.
"Human lord, if I die, will you light three cigarettes for me too?" BT asked softly from Qin Ze's shoulders.
Qin Ze gritted his teeth and sprinted at top speed.
"We won't die. None of us will die!"
They soon reached the shelter doors, and Qin Ze used the administrator terminal to open them.
The doors would take some time to open. Qin Ze pulled out the Weilong and fired wildly, picking off one underling with each shot.
BT's breathing grew fainter and fainter. She couldn't even lift a hand.
"If the doors open all the way, the Mutated Ones will follow us in. Then none of us will get away."
After speaking softly, BT's eyes suddenly turned red.
"Hidden back energy source activated."
As an electronic voice sounded, Qin Ze felt the weight on his shoulders lift.
BT turned into an afterimage and charged into the horde of Mutated Ones.