Chapter 35: Booze!

"Yeah, luckily this guy had good luck just now, we didn't get hit. Otherwise, we might have to wait for a 'resurrection'. I've never seen such a crazy guy before, covered in grenades, isn't he afraid of blowing up?" Galil wiped her sweat, catching a glimpse under Renault's coat, nearly turning to run away.

Under the open coat were rows of tightly packed grenades. While there were some special rounds like smoke and tear gas, most were high-explosive, with grenades making up the majority.

"Ha? What are you guys talking about?" Unable to contact G&K Base and with electronic interference buzzing incessantly in her ears, Tokarev was getting impatient.

These two were talking about something she couldn't understand... what were they saying?

"Huh? Didn't you see it? That commander just now, he had a grenade launcher at his waist, and his coat was filled with grenades and explosives! If things had gone south just now, we'd all be heading to the repair shop together! Glug!"

AK47 swung her arms, gesturing dramatically, then pulled out a bottle tucked into her waistband, taking a hefty swig.

"It's... what time is it! Why are you still thinking about drinking?" Hearing AK47, Tokarev snapped back to reality, feeling relieved but also grateful they hadn't followed that guy inside. If there had been a firefight inside the building, AK47's and Galil's concerns might have become reality...

"But this isn't a reason for you to 'glug, glug, glug!' Give it here!" Snatching the bottle from AK47's hand, Tokarev immediately came up with a clever plan.

As long as I finish this bottle, this guy won't get drunk, will he!?

I'm a genius!

Glug, glug, glug!

"Burp!"

"Oops! My drink!?"

Completely unexpected of Tokarev's action, AK47 stared as Tokarev chugged down nearly half the bottle before realizing it, quickly snatching it back.

"Burp!" Tokarev, who drank half a bottle of the water of life, belched loudly, her previously anxious face instantly softening, tilting her head to AK47 with a warm smile...

And then collapsed straight to the ground!

Thunk!

"Hehehe!" Collapsed Tokarev, squinting, reached out and started scratching randomly, then hugged Galil's boots, rubbing against them...

"Uh, AK47, what are you drinking exactly? How did she pass out after a few sips!?" Seeing Tokarev squirming under her feet, Galil snatched the bottle from AK47's hand, looking at the label.

"VODKA, 96% vol..."

??? Without waiting for Galil to express her strong doubts, AK47 quickly snatched the bottle back.

"What are you drinking!?"

...

"Commander, is it really okay for us to do this?" Coming in hot and blowing up someone's house, and now we're going to pull them out and kill them directly... Doing these things inside G&K's controlled safe zone, won't it provoke Griffin's attack?

"Don't worry about Griffin, that unlucky commander is probably too busy right now. He probably won't have the time to pay attention to us, if anything, we're actually helping him."

Walking through the rubble-strewn ruins, Renault squinted, surveying the structure of the building. What he was looking for should be hidden somewhere in this building.

"Helping him?"

"That... commander, is this related to the unidentified file package we received before?"

M1 Garand and BM59, these tactical dolls, hadn't figured it out yet. But P38, who had been following behind M1911, whispered softly.

"The unidentified file package?" Hearing P38, Simonov and the others were somewhat surprised as they checked their neural clouds. They quickly found an abnormal file package that had been intercepted by the firewall.

This file package was highlighted in red in their neural clouds, but it had already been thrown into the pending destruction area by the firewall program. If it hadn't been for P38's reminder, they might not have even noticed it.

"What is this? What's in it?"

Seeing the red file package, Simonov instinctively wanted to open it, but her firewall intercepted her action and reminded her that she needed to delve into the deeper layers of her Neural Cloud to install this file package.

Wait....

Changing the base Root Protocols!? What on earth is this!

Seeing the dangerous warnings displayed on the firewall, even Simonov, who had just drunk a bottle of alcohol, broke out in a cold sweat, looking up at Renault with horrified eyes.

She remembered very clearly that the only time she had modified the lower-level protocols was when she entered G&K and erased her past memories.

And the memories she had before becoming a tactical doll suddenly recovered after being repaired by Renault, and along with those memories, or rather the newly appeared ability to autonomously modify her own Root protocols.

The original Root protocols she had were completely deleted by Renault, and facing humans no longer required further application for attack permission to her human superiors, protecting humans was no longer the top priority, and the execution of orders was all up to her own will...

It can be said that after Renault's repair, Simonov... or rather the other tactical dolls present, no longer have a substantive controller.

And that red file with warnings on it is a program that can use the aforementioned Root protocol modifications to modify her behavior patterns and even her mental memory. As long as this thing is installed, everything, everything, will once again be under someone else's control, and even more so than when she was in Griffin...

"What's wrong? Is there a problem with this file... huh? Why can't I open it?" M1911, curious, tried to install the file, but like Simonov, couldn't start it without delving into her own neural cloud.

"Not opening it is for the best. Best you delete it, trust me, you don't want this thing running in your Neural Cloud." Simonov said, decisively deleting the file.

P38 also immediately deleted the file upon hearing Simonov, lifting the camera on her body and looking at Renault.

Rattle!

Up ahead, Renault had already opened a collapsed door, seeing the devices inside the room. "This is it, the file should have been sent from here to every doll in the town, and there should be a signal tower nearby, probably in a high place."