2 – Two Questions

"All the doors in this building are stuck or blocked by rubble." The armored figure started to cry. "And I can't activate another companion drone. Once again, you are my only hope."

I glanced at a shelf in one corner of the room. It was a place for companion drones that had yet to be activated, but many had been destroyed.

"Okay." I tried to calm myself even though the situation was confusing and scary. One thing is certain, I have spent thousands of hours playing Project Axiom. Hopefully, I can use my knowledge in this world. "You mentioned a monster earlier, right? What monster are you referring to?"

"Mantis…. Red mantis." The armored figure let out a long breath.

"Then which doors we can't get through?" I continued asking. This is weird. I can suppress my panic with relative ease. Could it be because I've become a mental object with electronic circuits?

"The west and north doors are covered in rubble." She started to explain. "And the south door was locked because one of my friends tweaked it to make it open more, but the opposite happened. And unfortunately, you can't bypass it. The monster has destroyed that door's computer terminal."

"You are not alone?"

"The seven of us entered this place to look for supplies." Her voice cracked. "Only I am left."

There's no point in asking more about it. I have to take care of her mental state. She is my partner in this, after all.

But the problem now is I don't know the map of this place. The data regarding that thing should be inside me, but… Aah….

A transparent blue screen appeared in front of me, and it displayed a map of a building.

[Lanceford military base]

"So, are you going to help me or not?" The armored figure's voice grew less and less energetic. It seems she can't see what's in front of my eyes. "If not…."

"I'm looking for a way out. Wait a moment." At first, I used my hands to zoom the map, but it turned out that I just needed to do it with my mind. "We have to go down to the basement where the military vehicles are stored. I don't know if the door can still be open because I can't connect to the network from this building."

"Let's go then. Lead the way." She started walking, but I had other intentions.

Still using my mind, I opened the screen that displayed her status.

—

[???]

Strength: A-

Dexterity: A-

Agility: C-

Crafting: E

Defense: B

—

The condition of the right leg and left shoulder of her E.E.S. is not one hundred percent, but the other parts are still normal.

"What are you waiting for?" She looked at me again. "Come on."

"There is a possibility that the monster will still attack us even if it escapes from this place." I hovered closer to her. "So, I have two questions for you."

***

The first question is whether she has eaten or not. Since she hadn't had any food in days, I took her to the food storage.

He needs the energy to get through all of this.

"Food!" The armored figure ran like a child when she found ready-to-eat meal boxes on the shelves.

From the large number of those things, I guessed that maybe no one had made it to this place.

Maybe they ran away or were killed before they could get the food. While making a trip to this place, I found corpses in poor condition in varying degrees of decomposition.

Not only that, but I also found large slash marks on the walls.

The armored figure removed her helmet. Because the warehouse was dark and she was using the night vision from her mechanic armor all this time, I gave the light using the built-in flashlight from me.

"Thank god." She opened one of the boxes and took out a silver food container. As she opened the lid of the container, she stared at me. "You are not surprised by my appearance?"

"Well, I can't express my surprise because I don't have a face like a human. But believe me, I was." I answered that blonde-haired girl. "I didn't expect a young girl like you to control E.E.S like this."

Her face is cute but very child-like, different from the female soldiers I imagined. Not to mention her shrill voice, like that of a girl who hasn't reached puberty yet.

She chuckled, brushed her neck-length hair aside, and started consuming the ready-to-eat curry rice in her hand. "Even though I look like this, I'm already over eighteen. Well, people call me baby face because of that."

I wanted to ask why she uses the voice-changing device on her helmet, but I guess the answer is obvious.

She was not confident with her child-like form.

"And my boobs are adequate." She spoke again while continuing to chew.

"Okay…." Her words got me caught off guard. "By the way, my name is Axel."

She stopped eating. "You can call me Bonnie… Before this, I had never come across a companion drone that gave itself a name."

"Let's just say I'm special." I just forgot that I'm not human anymore. "You may still want to enjoy your meal, Bonnie. But we have to hurry. After eating, pack some of the food, and we'll look for some ammunition."

My second question earlier was whether she has the tools to fight. She replied that her ammunition ran out, so I would take her to the armory after this.

Without energy due to a lack of food and not having adequate weapons, she is very vulnerable.

"Relax." She continued to put the curry rice into her mouth. "On an empty stomach like this, I will…."

Bonnie's words were interrupted by a creaking sound from the warehouse's entrance. I turned to that spot and found an eight-foot-tall red mantis monster sliding the door.