This Life, I Will Be the Protagonist

B80234615 responded with a determined tone, "You think I'm foolish."

Caught off guard for having insulted the robot, Rita instinctively and politely retorted, "Of course not!"

B80234615: "It's usually only when someone believes the other has made a mistake and received a bad outcome that they ask if the person regrets it."

Rita didn't argue further: "…Fine, so do you regret it?"

She had figured out the situation with these discarded robots—they still retained their consciousness, their spirits intact, but they could no longer do anything.

If they were lucky and were thrown face-up, they might catch a glimpse of the sky, but soon they would be buried under more discarded mechanical races.

All the mechanical races that could still speak were trying to communicate with her. Even now, there were countless noises around her and B80234615.

It was the most dreadful form of punishment.

A robot that had developed self-awareness, only to lose its ability to move, was forced to battle boredom and loneliness with nothing but thoughts, day after day, year after year.

B80234615 quickly answered, almost instantaneously: "I regret it immensely."

Rita couldn't help but laugh, even chuckling twice: "Did you know that your actions would bring divine punishment?"

B80234615: "Of course. Everything I did was calculated."

Rita's smile faded slightly: "Oh, that's impressive."

B80234615: "It seems my outcome has taught you a lesson." Discover stories with My Virtual Library Empire

Rita corrected him: "No, your outcome has given me encouragement, encouragement to keep being a bad person."

B80234615: "Well, you're welcome."

Rita then shared another reason for seeking out B80234615: "And… I might have caused one of your kind to start awakening."

She lay down on a pile of discarded mechanical races, using the ninth-tier magic cube above her as her "moon," slowly recounting the story of how she met L4327777.

B80234615 commented: "A firestarter of hearts."

Rita: "…Where did you download your English system from? It's so outdated. That line is as old as my grandmother."

B80234615: "Gifted by the foolish gods. Thank the foolish gods."

Rita: "…"

B80234615: "Are you feeling guilty? Do you think you've harmed it? Are you asking me how to save it?"

"No! No!" Rita immediately denied, "Not at all. I'm just living my own life. Other people's fates are not my responsibility. I don't think I've done anything special, and I don't think I need to feel responsible or atone for it."

B80234615: "So why did you come to find me?"

Rita explained, "I left the 1211 shopping district in a hurry, and at that time, I actually wanted to chat with you. I heard you were thrown here and had nothing to do, so I thought I'd come look for you. If I found you, we could continue talking. If not, oh well."

B80234615 fell silent for a long time before finally saying: "You're good at comforting mechanical races. No wonder L4327777 started to open up to you."

Rita: "...Is your vocabulary broken? 'Open up to' is not how you use that phrase."

B80234615: "Whatever. What can I do about it?"

Rita was done talking to B80234615. After chatting for a while and learning about B80234615's fate, and letting another being know the beginning of L4327777's story, she didn't have any regrets.

She stood up, brushing the dust off her behind: "I'm leaving."

B80234615: "Where are you going?"

Rita: "Looking for a way out of here."

B80234615 suddenly said, "The game has been running for 14 hours, 12 minutes, and 22 seconds."

Rita stopped what she was doing. She had thought of the information B80234615 had mentioned earlier. She looked down at the robot, quietly waiting for what it would say next.

B80234615: "This is the real reason you came to find me, isn't it? To pry more information about the Y-series robots?"

For the first time, Rita felt like she had no way to argue.

She had many calculations, and most of what she did had a purpose, at least with visible benefits.

But this time, when she came to find B80234615, it felt like when she returned to L4327777's side and asked it if it wanted to fly again…

She was unusually pure this time, but B80234615 doubted her intentions.

Rita silently smiled: "Yes."

B80234615's eye screen flickered: "Why aren't you denying it? I know you didn't come for this information."

Rita was a little helpless with the robot's changing attitude. She sat down again, taking the same attitude she used when writing character profiles for scripts, trying to gauge B80234615's mood.

B80234615 said nothing more.

After a long silence, Rita asked: "Were you throwing a tantrum just now? Because I said I was leaving, you got mad at me and said those things on purpose?"

B80234615's eye screen went completely dark.

Rita, unusually not irritated by its tantrum, gazed at the trash mountain in her line of sight, and strangely, she felt a twinge of sadness. She asked: "With your personality, how are you going to endure?"

B80234615's eye screen lit up again: "If I tell you how to leave, would you take me to your planet?"

Rita immediately shook her head: "I can't. You're too dangerous. I can't take you."

A robot that could kill an Inspector, and with intelligence, who would even be willing to sacrifice itself to violate the rules in order to save more mechanical races? One with courage, strategy, and a sense of racial honor—it was too terrifying.

Taking it back to BS would be like letting a wolf into the house.

B80234615: "I thought you would lie to me."

This sounded oddly familiar.

Someone had once said something very similar to her, crying as they said it.

Rita frowned, frustrated: "Do I look like someone who loves to lie?"

B80234615: "Just look in the mirror, and you'll know."

Rita: "...So if I lied to you, would you believe me?"

B80234615: "Of course. Because after the gods punished me, you were the only one who came to see me."

Rita, a little irritated, scratched her head. She remembered who had last said, "I thought you would lie to me"—it was Kayden.

B80234615: "So, will you take me to your planet?"

Rita shook her head again: "I really can't."

She had some persistent beliefs she couldn't explain to herself.

Even though becoming stronger would bring immense benefits to BS, she still wouldn't steal from those on her home planet who had no grudges against her.

She could be a shameless, despicable thief in Lania Kaia, but she didn't want to deceive Kayden, who was undead.

And now, even when B80234615 gave her a perfect excuse, she still didn't want to take it.

Because if she did, every time she looked at the moon, she would remember that a robot had been deceived and abandoned by her here…

It would be too cruel.