Departure

In a ruined battlefield where the fire of war was raging, a man was standing alone as he looked at a blank space.

The man looked around to be in his early twenties. However, there was something different about him.

His right arm— instead of flesh— was replaced with a mechanical one that looked rather futuristic.

And over his body was a dark cloak that had red stripes going down sideways. In the center was a yellow symbol of what looked like two gears and a mechanical skull.

And in front of him was a floating message.

[Sector cleared]

He had never been so happy seeing that message. It was a message that signified everything to him— his suffering and success— his loss and wins...

...All led to this very moment.

His face— which was scarred from the endless battle he confronted to reach this stage— for the first time since forever, smiled.

"It's over..." He muttered with a wry smile as he looked at the floating system window in front of him.

Tears began to well up in his eyes as he finally received the freedom he deserved. He wiped his years with his right mechanical arm and looked behind him.

There stood thousands of robots. Some were standing up, some crawling, while some were flying.

It was the army he alone created in this lonesome world filled only with fungus.

"Everyone..." He slowly heightened his voice and raised his left arm to a fist up to the sky. "WE WON!"

"Our lord!" Almost immediately, the mechanical constructs kneeled as they celebrated their lord and creator's success. "Hail the Mechanical Overlord!"

The three giants that were at the center of the army— The colossal robots he had achieved, also showed their fealty to their Overlord. There was only one of their kind since it was hard to make them.

They stood as the pillar of his army. And they are also the manifestation of his hard work. It took a lot of resources to make them, but in the end, they made a crucial role in this final battle.

The first was 'The Reign', which is a colossal robot that acted as the vanguard. It belonged to the offensive ground unit, which comprised ground units that were essentially tanks in games.

The second was the 'Toxopid', which is an eight-legged colossal mech that always leads the front of the army because of its high offensive abilities. It belonged to the crawler unit.

And finally, the most important colossal unit— 'The Eclipse'. It served as a flying death battleship that brings down destruction in its path. There, the Overlord has made residence.

The overlord looked at the army he had made and felt an overwhelming sense of pride from what he had reached.

'I'm finally able to get out of here...'

Five years. He had spent five years on this God-forsaken planet ravaged by sentient and intelligent fungus capable of manipulating technologies.

He was just a normal high school student back then. But a series of events led to him getting stabbed by a drug addict— which resulted in his transportation to this strange world.

At first, he was hunted down by the fungus that was able to control robots. However, when he managed to subdue one and tried to scrap materials from one of the robots, he managed to unlock something.

It was the ability to [Dissect] and [Construct]. [Dissect] lets him analyze parts of something and then it into a blueprint and [Construct] lets him use those blueprints— making something in a matter of seconds or minutes that would otherwise take hours or days.

With those two abilities, he managed to dissect more robots and built his first base away from the fungus hive.

Additionally, he also managed to copy the technology of the fungi and made them his own. Furthermore, he also made some upgrades to them.

Slowly, he built and upgraded his mechanical empire. Starting from Tier 1 units to Tier 5 Colossal units.

Since the fungus was also smart, they adapted to his attacks and his endless battle with them raged on for five years.

But today, everything ends.

[You have conquered the planet Serpulo, do you wish to leave?]

The black system interface appeared in front of him promising his freedom. Looking at it, the overlord couldn't help but recall his struggle for the past five years.

However, he soon removed those thoughts and focused on the current situation. He once again looked at his legion of mechanical soldiers.

He brought up his right mechanical arm and tapped some buttons to increase his voice's sound. He then spoke,

"Hear me, my legion." He said as his voice spread all over the destroyed ruins of the base he and his army just destroyed.

"From now on, increase all production and initiate 'Plan Stellar'." He ordered them.

He knew that one day he would one day leave this planet. However, as strange as it is, he also had memorable moments here.

As such, how could he leave the army he alone created on this desolate planet?

His yellow eyes then glowed and a floating system window appeared in front of him. There, all of his soldiers were listed from the Tier 5 units to Tier 1.

He then opened the map and looked at a specific part of the map— which was where he was at. 'Looks like I have enough materials.'

He then touched his right mechanical hand once more and typed something on what seemed like a keyboard. He then muttered, "Rebuild the Interplanetary Accelerator."

"Rebuild it immediately and increase production of units in other sectors." He added. "After that, make at least three Tier 5 air support units."

"After doing all that, leave some of you here while the others get into the Interplanetary accelerator and move to other planets to..."

His voice grew colder as he waited for a mere second before continuing. "Conquer."

"Did you get all that, Aiden?" He asked.

Soon, a series of texts replied to him on the screen on the arm. [Yes, my lord.]

It was an Artificial Intelligence he found after he took over one of the strategic sectors of the fungi in the past.

At first, the AI was hostile to him and sent numerous machines to attack his forces. However, after a couple of days of fighting, he defeated it and dissected it then reconstructed it for his use.

It then turned to his personal task manager, responsible for issuing his commands to the other sectors scattered around the planet. It helped him a lot.

As for why it was named Aiden... he can't just keep calling it an AI, so he gave it a name.

"Good," He said. He then looked at his army which was leaving to do his command one more time.

The time he spent here and his struggles had given him the true meaning of how social human beings truly are. As the only human on this planet, he only talked to his mechanical constructs and, at some point, saw them as his children that he alone created.

It was a strange feeling.

'At least with this, I can leave all of you one last legacy,' He thought with a faint smile. 'Never stop expanding, and grow the empire.'

"Expand to new worlds and conquer them, leaving behind our legacy as the Gearborne Empire." He said to himself and the AI on his arm. "Until one day, we would grow to encompass many galaxies."

[Commands issued.] Aiden sent a text to him that appeared on the screen on his arm.

Seeing this, The Overlord finally felt satisfied. He looked at the question that was being shown to him.

[You have conquered the planet Serpulo, do you wish to leave?]

[Y/N]

'Will this take me back to Earth or another planet?' He thought. Honestly, he couldn't even think of blending in with human society again. It had been a long time. 'What a gambit...'

He then extended his arm and touched the system interface and clicked the 'Y' button. 'Guess I'll just have to find out. If I do indeed go to another planet... well...'

'I can always start again.' He thought with clear confidence.

Suddenly, the Overlord's body began to glow a blue hue. A moment later, tiny bits of his body slowly began to disappear as if bricks were being pulled out of him.

The Overlord saw this and didn't resist it, he merely closed his eyes and accepted what was about to happen.

A few seconds later, he had completely disappeared.

The Mechanical Overlord— the one who conquered a whole planet by himself while fighting technologically-advanced alien fungi species with his own— had finally departed.

But his legacy would forever live on in his army.

*

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In another universe...

Herta Space Station— a space station founded by Genius Society's Herta. It serves as a location for various researchers to conduct research on Curios and relics from all across the galaxy.

It served as a haven for researchers and a veritable museum for some people... well... at least until today.

Boom!

Suddenly, a loud explosion was heard on top of the station and red lights began to set off.

"Agh!"

"What the heck?!"

"What in the—"

Various researchers shook as they heard the explosion and wondered what had happened. Was the space station being attacked? That was their first thought.

And indeed, they were correct.

Appearing outside the station were numerous entities who looked rather menacing. The blades on their hands mean one thing— they have malevolent intentions.

Woom—

Suddenly, a portal appeared inside the station and three of those entities appeared out of nowhere.

"It's the legion!" Someone shouted as they ran. "It's the Antimatter Legion!"

"The legion is attacking?!" Some were stunned at what was happening and quickly ran to safety. However, the entities followed with a clear intention to kill.

It was then...

"Quick! Go to the evacuation zone! Run!" Almost immediately, someone blocked the blades of the entities and bought enough time for the researchers to leave.

"Tch," The person clicked his tongue. He was Arlan, head of the security department. He swiftly blocked off the enemies and strategically defeated them. However, one managed to escape.

Seeing it retreat, Arlan clicked the piece on his ear. "This is Arlan— the Base Zone has been attacked!"

Immediately, he received a reply in a mere moment from a rushed voice. "This Asta— to all personnel— The Antimatter Legion has attacked the Station. All Security Department personnel are to evacuate all researchers to the master control zone!"

Receiving the order, Arlan nodded to himself and decided to find more researchers to do as what the Lead Researcher Arlan stated.

Suddenly, he caught a glimpse of something not far away.

Sitting down near a wall was an unconscious man with dark hair and glasses. Like the other researchers, he too had a purple uniform on him. However, it was torn so it revealed what was below. Under it was a long-sleeved button-up white shirt.

However, Arlan noticed something— the man was bleeding from the head!

Panicked, he quickly ran to the man and immediately started calling for a response. "Hey! Are you alright? Can you hear me?"

However, there was no response from the unconscious man.

Arlan looked at the man and saw that he had a researcher's badge on him. He looked at it to know the man.

"Locke, a Junior Researcher of the Ecology Department?" Arlan read his name and information.

Nodding to himself, he checked the man's condition and was relieved to feel that his heart was still pulsing, albeit his breathing was weak.

He then took the man and carried him on his shoulders. "Just wait a little while, sir. I'll get you to the Base Zone and into the medical cabin— Just hang on!"

After saying this, Arlan began to run to the place he mentioned while carrying the injured person.

However, unbeknownst to him, the seemingly 'unconscious' man slightly opened his eyes which revealed his yellow pupils.

'Where... Is this?'

And so starts The Mechanical Overlord's journey once more.

***

A/N: New series!

If some of you don't know, the previous world he was in was from a tower defense game called Mindustry. It's a great game.

Also...

Hey google, play "Without Me" by Eminem