MTLNOVEL Chapter 612: She Wants To Eat More
She was serious about eating the Power Armour…
I had asked if there was no way of restoring the Power Armour but Yumiko basically said it wasn't worth it anyway since this was the face of this pirate crew's Pirate Lord. So even if she were to restore it, she wouldn't be able to use it openly without completely rebuilding it.
And she also admitted that she preferred to fight with her swords than with the Power Armour anyway.
So after she took out the supplies that she had left in the Power Armour, she gave the go ahead for Renata to eat the Power Armour.
Renata still looked at me for permission so I gave her a nod and she gleefully hopped over to the Power Armour.
I thought she would break the armour up and start stuffing them in her mouth or something but she stood in front of it before her torso suddenly split open and stretched out to swallow up the entire Power Armour.
In just a single second, the entire thing was dragged into her body and the giant Power Armour that was several times her size disappeared into her body.
She really just swallowed up the entire thing just like that…
Then, as if all she did was just eat a cookie, Renata skipped back to me with a bright smile on her face.
"Mmmm~ Daddy! That was yummy!"
"Umm… I'm glad you like it? Just wondering… Do you need to keep eating such things to keep yourself alive?"
"Ah! Is Daddy wondering what I need for sustenance? I don't need to eat anything for survival but eating is just yummy!"
So basically she just eats for pleasure, not survival.
"Do you have a favourite type of food or something though?"
Her face lit up, "I like Daddy!"
I blinked at her, "You… Want to eat me?"
"Daddy is yummy! Especially your honey!" She giggled, right before she licked her lips in a rather lewd way.
Oh… Err… I don't know how to feel about that… So I'll just pretend I didn't see or hear that.
Instead, I turned back to look in Ries's direction to see how she was doing with fixing our Power Armour.
She was just in the midst of pulling out the cables that she had plugged into it and nodded at me proudly, "It's back up and running Boss! Give it a try!"
I did as she asked and approached the back of the Power Armour.
Sure enough, it activated and its back opened up to allow me to climb inside again, starting the machine up.
The suit's AI did its usual startup sequence and I was doing a check on the Power Armour's systems when I found Renata walking up to the front of the Power Armour and tilting her head at it.
"Is something wrong?" I asked her.
Renata said nothing and lifted her hand to press it against the side of my Power Armour.
I watched as the surface of her arm secreted a layer of liquid before it flowed onto the Power Armour.
Err… She's not trying to eat this Power Armour as well, is she?
The screen then flickered and the Power Armour's AI started shorting out and spewing gibberish like the earlier AI.
I thought it was shorting out from whatever Renata was doing until there was a soft pop sound and Renata's voice came in through the suit's speakers.
"Testing~ Testing~ Daddy, Daddy! Can you hear me?"
I was totally not expecting that so I was a little late in responding to her, "Renata? What did you do?"
"Yayyy~ Daddy! I thought you might prefer me instead of this silly AI helping you in this suit! With me here, you wouldn't need to worry about this getting hacked into like earlier!"
I looked at the Renata that was standing in front of me and I realised that she had not been opening her mouth to speak at all and yet her voice was being transmitted into the Power Armour.
"Are you speaking telepathically right now?" I asked.
Renata giggled, "Ehehehe~ I can split myself as well Daddy~"
Her voice then came from inside the Power Armour once more, "I'm another Renata, Daddy! Nice to meet you!"
…
Oh gods… She can multiply herself freely…
I'm… Not going to accidentally unleash an eldritch horde upon the universe am I?
Nah… I don't think I am that unlucky, am I?
"So… You're basically another Renata, right?"
The Renata in the Power Armour chirped up, "That's right!"
"Umm… Are you a completely different person?"
"Not exactly. Hmm… What would you call this? Oh! We're a hivemind!"
Ok… At least that is better than finding out she can create more versions of her and they're all completely different people…
Ries, who had been silently listening in on our conversation all this while, popped in from the side to stare at Renata.
"This is so awesome! How are you able to do this? Is this… Wait! I know now! You're making use of the nanobot's network, right?"
Renata giggled, "Ehehehe~ Something like that. I made my own network using Psionic energies so I can link myself with any additional splits I might make~"
"Ohhhh~ So that means you can't hijack them using normal tech. What about other Psionics?"
My Maochatte turned in the direction of Mara, subtly trying to suggest that Mara should try.
Surprisingly, our doctor shook her head, "I'm just going to say that Psionic that tries to get in her head won't be getting anything out of her."
"Eh? Why not?"
"Why don't you ask the person in question?"
Both Ries and I turned to Renata and she was giving me a proud look, "Because I'm always thinking about Daddy!"
I… Don't think that has anything to do with this? But what do I know?
Amber then came over to us, "Are we all done flirting yet? Because if you're not, I want in."
Right, I guess we're still kind of in hostile territory right now. Helen did say that some of the pirates ran away so they might still be somewhere around the facility.
I led the way as the others followed behind me.
Since Yumiko had lost her swords, she armed herself with one of the rifles that we looted from her dead men, though she did tell us that she wasn't that great at using it.
We retraced our steps back through the now silent corridors and it seemed like even as the pirates were retreating, they were still being hunted down by the AI as we found new corpses along the way.
I guess the AI was also busy taking care of things out here even while we were standing in front of it.
We proceeded further more cautiously but even after we walked out through the hidden door, we still found no other signs of life.
But it was clear that those pirates definitely came through here since the room was literally filled with corpses now, even though the last time we came through here there were only a couple of androids.
We pressed on but now that we were back in the main facility, I wanted to look for the shortest route back to the planet's surface but…
"Daddy, Daddy! Are you looking for the shortest route to the planet's surface?" Renata's voice came through the helmet.
I didn't even get a chance to answer her, my HUD was updated with a map at the corner of my vision to show a dotted route on the map.
"Right here! You can follow the route, Daddy!"
Oh wow, I'm already liking her replacing the rudimentary AI of the Power Armour already.
Following the route she gave, we walked through some unfamiliar corridors until eventually, we found ourselves standing in front of a door big enough to let even a B Class ship fly through.
It was then a simple matter of me hacking the door to open it and Renata was very interested in my Codex.
"Daddy? Can I eat that?"
"No," I answered her immediately. "Not this one."
"Okies~"
I was worried she might question my decision but surprisingly, she obeyed pretty easily.
As to why I didn't want her to touch my Codex… Since this basically came from the game and not this universe, I'm pretty sure there was no way to replace this if it's lost.
And sure, Renata might gain something from eating it and may even replace it, but that wasn't a risk I was willing to take.
Unless I knew for sure that she could actually replicate the functions of the Codex perfectly, I wasn't going to let her touch it.
The doors slowly slid open and we were greeted with the arid surface of the planet.
A wind blew through the gaps of the door as we stepped out of the facility.
The first thing I noticed was the fact that there were way fewer ships landed here than I remember, meaning there were pirates who managed to board their ships to fly out of here.
Guess the pirates had already ran off the planet before we even stepped out and Helen was the only one who was left behind.
Well… I'm just glad that we're finally out of there.