Game
Thoughts
"Talking"
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"Sup," Gray said, doing his best to look friendly as he stared at the human-sized robot in front of him.
The robot didn't answer, instead just standing in front of the group of Saiyans motionlessly.
"Is… is it a person?" Cabba whispered to Kale, who just shrugged in response.
Gray could've mistaken the complex robot for a person piloting a mech, as it was huge and human-shaped. Its torso and lower legs were thick with metal, while equally as fit human-looking arms and legs were attached to its body. Each arm ended in a set of flexible hands, which had fingers.
The robot's head was a sleek and shiny dome of chrome with two crimson eyes in the center, along with a red dot where its mouth would be. The torso's solid middle part was fitted with intricate circuitry patterns that shined with a red glow. On the back of the large mass, there were five different circular bars of metal stretching upward, which looked cannon-like.
All of this combined meant that the robot looked very mecha-like, and it wouldn't have been absurd to assume there was a person inside.
But it's definitely a robot.
As Gray tried to observe the metal man, no window appeared. It was as if he were just staring at an inanimate object.
Even the androids on Earth had power levels. I don't know what separates this guy from those, but something does.
"This is Metal Knight," Fubuki intervened quickly, stepping up next to Gray, "He's the seventh-ranked S-Class hero."
"...Have you come to surrender, alien?" A robotic voice came from the metallic man, its red eyes staring down at Gray.
"Nah, but I'm not here to kill you either," Gray hummed, shaking his head, "I'm here to work with you - or your association, I guess. Bring me to the big shots in the Hero Association."
The robot just stared at Gray, its metallic face not giving away what the man controlling it was thinking, "...You have killed two A-Class heroes, and severely wounded Tanktop Master."
Yeah, I figured it wouldn't be that easy.
"It was an accident," Gray waved dismissively, as if his group hadn't literally murdered three people, "Tell him, Fubuki. Vouch for us."
"I am not vouching for you," Fubuki huffed, her face stern, "Stop acting like I'm on your side just because you protected me from Sweet Mask. I only brought you here because I can't handle you anyway."
"That's fair, but you remember the whole 'blowing up the planet' thing?" Gray shot back dryly, smirking lightly at her, "You'll be fine, because you're my portable gravity chamber, so I'm taking you with me after this mission. If you don't want to leave, consider it kidnapping."
"Stop calling me that! I don't even know what a gravity chamber-"
"Anyway, the rest of your race's life is in your hands," Gray cut her off bluntly, staring into Fubuki's eyes, "I'm being this cooperative because I don't want you to hate me, but if this 'Hero Association' won't work with us, then the rest of your race, and planet, is going to end up extinct."
The main reason is that having my gravity chamber hate me would be annoying, but working with these guys will help speed up the mission in the long run.
Gray assumed the Hero Association would have a lot more information about the rest of the planets, so he wouldn't have to go through this boring information gathering on each planet
"...Fine," Fubuki seemed only half convinced, but she begrudgingly turned to Metal Knight, "They killed Sweet Mask and One Shotter to protect me. It's not a well-kept secret that Sweet Mask will kill heroes he doesn't approve of, Metal Knight."
"For the record, it was an accident, too," Gray added in with a shrug, "He was pretty weak, so my friend kicked his head off unintentionally."
"Yeah! I hope all of you aren't as weak as he was, or I'm going to blow up-" Gray clamped a hand over Caulifla's mouth, looking down at her dryly.
"She's just kidding," Gray lied with an overly sweet smile, looking back at Metal Knight. The robot continued to stare at him, not moving an inch.
…
…
…
"Yo, you good?" Gray waved his hand in front of the robots face as he didn't say anything, "Did he run out of battery?"
"We are conversing," Was all Metal Knight said in response.
'We?' Who's we?
Unbeknownst to Gray, there was an intense conversation taking place within the robot's helmet.
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Hero Association Meeting Room
"We can hear them out." Busho decided.
"Have you finally gone insane?! They killed two heroes!" Jinruzen shot back, "One of which was Sweet Mask! Do you know how much that's going to hurt our defenses here?!"
"Of course I do," Busho simply nodded, "But this is exactly what the Monster Reformation Program was for, right?"
"That 'program' is a complete failure," A third voice intervened, belonging to the Minister of Justice with the Hero Association: Sitch.
Compared to the two middle-aged men in Busho and Jinruzen, Sitch looked to be on the older side of 'middle-aged.' He had a slightly wrinkled, plain-looking face, gray hair, and a rather normal-looking body, as the man hadn't fought a battle or lifted a weight in his whole life.
"There have been numerous successful cases!" Busho countered Sitch's words, "In fact, it's been successful the majority of the time!"
"Right, successful on weak 'monsters' and criminals that can barely qualify as C-Class," The fifth person in the room, and the one with the most power in the Hero Association between the group of Busho, Jinruzen, Hana, and Sitch as an Executive, spoke.
Sekingar looked to be a couple of years younger than Busho, and he had a clean-shaven slightly handsome face, short brown hair, and a metal prosthetic eye in place of one of his eyeballs. His body was a bit more muscular than Sitch's, but it was clear he wasn't as trained as Busho was.
"All attempts to reform any monster above Tiger-level have not only failed, but caused casualties in the process," Sekingar shut down Busho, "Considering this group has not only destroyed an entire city but also defeated Tanktop Master, they must be designated as Dragon at minimum."
"But they're willing to cooperate!" Busho shook his head, "Blizzard of Hell is not only alive with them, but is also vouching for them! They're not insane or mindless like most Demon-ranked monsters are!"
"They're aliens!" Sitch raised his voice, his eyes narrowed at Busho, "Not just any aliens, but they're wearing the same armor as the Dragon-ranked disaster from before! I'm sure you remember the one that almost killed Superalloy Darkshine, right?!"
"That could've easily been avoided," Busho raised his voice back, "If that moron McCoy didn't give into the Scientific Department, then he could've been contained better! He was literally ranting about what the moon would do to him!"
Though Busho couldn't help but admit that Sitch had a point. The incident he was referring to was the one previous time aliens in the same armor had landed on the planet, where it had taken the combination of 7 A-Class and 12 B-Class heroes to take them down. However, at the request of Director McCoy, the leader had been left alive and given to the Scientific Department for research.
Said leader had then been exposed to the moon at his own request, thus turning into a giant monkey and eliminating the majority of the Scientific Department. It had taken Superalloy Darkshine and a flurry of A-Class heroes to take down the monster in the dead of the night.
"If we give them the chance to speak, they'll kill us," Sekingar shot down Busho again, shaking his head, "Negotiating with monsters that could kill you at any moment isn't advantageous. If they don't agree to our conditions, then they'll just kill us."
"Then we wait until the S-Class heroes arrive," Busho tried again, "If things turn sour, they'll protect us."
"What S-Class heroes?" Sitch shook his head again, "Very few of them are on the planet right now! They took down Tanktop Master and Sweet Mask together - which is pretty much two S-Class heroes! We'd have to recall all of them, and that's assuming they all show up!"
Busho gritted his teeth, knowing Sitch was right. Despite the Hero Association having authority over the S-Class heroes, there was no guarantee that the few still on the planet would come at the drop of a hat. S-Class heroes tended to be eccentric, and some had no fear of blatantly disobeying the Hero Association.
"I think the young man is correct," Every staff member in the room jumped as another voice resonated out, spinning around to the door as a man leaned against the wall casually.
"S-Silver Fang!" Sekingar greeted the 3rd-ranked S-Class hero, as none of the occupants in the room had even heard him enter.
Compared to the middle-aged group of staff members, Silver Fang, known by his actual name of Bang, was much older. He was in his early eighties, but the only thing that gave it away was his hair and face. He had spikey gray hair, a gray mustache, and even gray eyebrows, which fit with his wrinkly yet defined face.
Aside from his face, his body looked like a martial artist's in his prime. It was muscular, sleek, and well-defined, which was visible even through his loose black shirt.
"What do you mean, Silver Fang?" Sitch asked, raising an eyebrow at him.
"They are strong," Bang said simply, a small grin on his face, "They'd be good allies to have."
"T-They killed two heroes, Silver Fang!" Jinruzen shouted, "They can't be trusted! Not even to negotiate with!"
"Ho, killing someone does not inherently make you evil," Bang chuckled, thinking back on a certain apprentice of his, "It's not as if we heroes are blood free. Will you hold the Tornado of Terror to the same standard?"
His words shut the mouth of Jinruzen, as he couldn't deny that. Despite being the 2nd-ranked S-Class Hero, the Tornado of Terror, also known as Tatsumaki, had a track record of being destructive in her battles. When she went to subjugate a monster, no other heroes were allowed to support her because they ended up dead more often than not.
"Besides, I believe you will soon find the situation is more dire than you think," Bang said ominously.
Busho opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but suddenly a phone sitting on the long table started to ring. He reached out, grabbing it and holding it up to his ear.
"T-This is Gish, Director of City Z! I need heroes over here right away!" The voice yelled through the phone, "T-There's monsters appearing everywhere! Send some A-Class! N-No, send an S-Class over!"
"Monster's appearing everywhere? What are you-" Busho was cut off as Jinruzen called out panickedly, a phone also in his hand.
"W-We need multiple S-Class heroes to be sent to the remains of City J! The ocean creatures we reached an agreement with have left the ocean, and are marching toward City I!" Jinruzen shouted, but the door to the meeting room burst open before Busho could even process his words.
"T-There's an emergency!" A rather plain-looking man in a suit burst into the room, his face panicked, "T-There was a call from City T! There's aliens raining down from the sky!"
"What the hell is going on!?" Sitch shot up from his chair, looking over at Bang, "Do you know what's happening, Silver Fang?!"
"I think that's a question for Metal Knight," Bang simply shrugged, continuing to lean casually against the wall behind him.
"M-Metal Knight?" Sitch called out, staring at the holographic camera from Metal Knight's suit, which was staring at the group of Saiyans as they lazily waited. The room was silent for a moment, but finally the less-robotic voice of Metal Knight rang out from the table.
"Monas has developed a substance to greatly enhance one's power, as well as a method to turn humans into monsters," Metal Knight dropped the bomb of information far too casually. "They are using the aliens' arrival as the starting point for their attack."
"W-What?! We have an alliance with them against the aliens!" Sekingar shouted incredulously, "Why the hell are they turning on us now?! Why didn't you bring any of this up before, Metal Knight?!"
"...The enhancing substance has made them confident that they no longer need us," Was Metal Knight's blunt response. "They intend to turn useful humans into monsters, and kill the rest."
Bang smirked as Metal Knight didn't answer the second question. The mad-scientist-esque hero had robots on every planet from Harro to Monas, and was supposed to act as the information network back to the Hero Association, but he had thrown aside his duties in this situation. The elderly martial artist had been around Metal Knight for years at this point, and he knew the man was much less heroic than he seemed. He benefited and even participated in the rampant corruption within the Hero Association, so it was easy to see why he hadn't reported the new enhancement substance.
He wanted it for himself, but it seemed that whatever plan he had in place to get it was no longer viable.
"Fuck! Send out the recall for the S-Class heroes again! Make sure they know it's mandatory and urgent!" Sekingar shouted at the man standing by the door, "Not just here, but on every other planet! If Monas's leader is betraying us, then they're not safe anymore!"
"O-On it!" The man shouted, rushing out of the room.
"Start making calls, all of you! We might really have to give these alien bastards a chance," Sitch ordered, turning back to the holographic table, "Metal Knight! How bad is this new substance?! What do you know about it?!"
There was a tense silence for a moment as Metal Knight didn't answer, but after nearly ten seconds, he finally spoke again.
"...It changes depending on the user, but it can increase one's strength by as much as twenty times," Metal Knight stated, causing Sitch's eyes to go wide, "They call it…"
"The Tree of Might."
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Gray Tanaki:
[Saiyan S-Class Squad Captain]
Age: 18
Wallet: 20,218,020 Coins
Lvl: 24 (11,603,942/15,000,000 XP)
PL: 6.7 Billion
Available Points: 1,750
HP: 2,995,000/2,995,000
TKI: 3,472,980/3,591,475
TMP: 570/570
STR: 2010
AGI: 2235
END: 1490
INT: 1525
CHA: 1245
LUK: 1345
KI: 2355
MP: 570
HREG: 1470
EREG: 1500
Skills: [Observe LVL 10], [Running LVL 20], [Determination LVL 22], [Ki Control LVL 20], [Ki Gun LVL 18]. [Ki Enhancement LVL 15], [KI Suppression LVL 14], [Ki Sense LVL 15], [Pushup LVL 20], [Punch LVL 25], [Kick LVL 23], [Jump LVL 20], [Flight LVL 15], [Prediction LVL 12], [Zenkai Boost LVL 6], [Cognitive Acceleration LVL 15], [Ah! Lord Freiza! LVL 7], [Mouth-Beam LVL 11], [Ki-Blade LVL 14], [Cooking LVL 10], [Ki Barrage LVL 16], [Ki Explosion LVL 10], [Ki Vision LVL 9], [Attack Boost LVL 5], [Swimming LVL 11], [Clothes Materialization LVL 1], [Seal of Weakening LVL 7], [Portal Creation LVL 2], [Lie Detection LVL 4], [Reflect LVL 10], [Instant-Transmission LVL 7], [Healing LVL 8], [Multi-Form LVL 7], [Gigantification LVL 2], [Tracking MP Blast LVL 1], [MP Conversion LVL 12]
Perks: [Gamer's Mind], [Gamer's Body], [Double-edged Sword], [Legendary Super Saiyan], [Perfect Ozaru], [A Cute Pawn], [A Humble Master],[Ladies Man]
Fighting Styles: [Boxing Style: Kolra LVL 4], [Fighting Style: Broly LVL 5]
Party: [Empty]
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AN: Thank you for reading! Sorry for no chapter yesterday, I ended up being sick, but the next chapter will be out tomorrow!
You can also read the next 10 chapters (20 Parts) on Patreon.com/Koyon !