Death... and me

Chapter 3474: A City?

Qwerty knew that and quickly began to explain. "I just recovered my control when we entered this region. To be more precise, when I passed by these buildings. Before that, there was a certain thing controlling my body, and my will was suppressed. I could see everything, but I couldn’t have any interactions."

"I know what it was, though," Qwerty continued. "It’s my programming."

"Programming?" Abi narrowed her eyes. "Didn’t you say your memory was empty?"

"It’s different," Lotan was the one to answer that. "The programming is just what makes it work. For example, it allows Qwerty to know how to move his fingers. It’s not exactly a memory from past events like our memories. It is a pre-determined set of rules that tells the robot what it can and cannot do. We all can walk and breathe, can’t we? But we don’t consider these things to be a memory. In a certain way, that is our ’programming,’ you see?"

Rean couldn’t have said any better. "Lotan is correct here." Then, he turned to Qwerty. "Would you be able to show your programming? I would very much like to take a look at the codes."

Unfortunately, Qwerty shook its head. "Sorry, master. I can’t provide you something that even I don’t know how it works. I was able to tell that it was my programming since the loss of control I had was coming from myself. But other than that, I’m not very sure about what to do."

"It would be meaningless anyway," Hudiander commented. "We don’t have any equipment that can read the configurations of these robots, remember? We opened a bunch of them, and we never succeeded in putting them back together. We can’t even understand how they work."

Lotan and Rean nodded in disappointment. Indeed, they had tried it before, but they couldn’t find a way to analyze them.

Abi wasn’t very happy. "Doesn’t that mean we might lose control over Qwerty again?"

Qwerty went silent. It couldn’t say no since it wasn’t sure.

"It’s more about whether it matters or not," Roan finally spoke. "In the end, Qwerty is our only choice. For now, what we can tell is that Qwerty was forced to come to this place. There are many ruins and old buildings around us. It is a safe bet to say that Qwerty was most likely built in this place. Perhaps that was all that was to it. The programming will make sure he returns as long as he is close to this place. It doesn’t mean that it was made to lure us here. We need more information."

Abi and the elders looked at their surroundings. The sect was just above them now, its holophotes illuminating everything several kilometers around. Beyond the sect’s lights, everything was dark still.

"Then I guess we can make a quick test," Rean had an idea. "Qwerty, let’s fly back from where we came from. We barely entered this area, after all. If you lose your control again and fly back here, then we know you won’t be able to leave this place... at least not through this area."

"Yes, master!" Qwerty immediately flew back, leaving the region of the buildings. Basically, they left the ruins or whatever it was... for a few minutes. Ten minutes later, Qwerty was back, the lights that simulated his eyes with a sad expression. "Seems like master was right."

Indeed, as soon as Qwerty left the buildings’ range, his programming took control again, and he flew back inside before his will recovered the control.

"Don’t worry," Rean didn’t mind. "At least we know that you most likely didn’t come here to lure us but that it is simply part of what your program was designed for."

With that confirmation, everyone looked further ahead, although they couldn’t see anything past the range of their Divine Senses or the sect’s lights. "There is no point dwelling in this place. Qwerty, can you tell us where to go from here?"

Qwerty shook his head again. "The only thing I can tell is that the Divine Snow World is in that direction," Qwerty answered as he pointed back. "I don’t know what we can find in this place at all."

"That’s already something," Abi took that as a win. "At least we know we won’t be flying in circles. Alright, let’s move deeper into this city, settlement, ruins, or whatever it is."

Well, even though she said that, not all the Space-Time Realm experts of the sect followed the twins and Qwerty. Most of them returned to the sect, including Abi. Only Hudiander and Huhal stayed with Rean and Roan. Kentucky, of course, also returned to the sect and joined Celis, Rifindio, and Zangeshu.

There was one good thing about entering this ’city,’ Qwerty wasn’t moving in random directions anymore. From what Qwerty said, the illusory phenomenon didn’t seem to take place here. Thanks to that, Qwerty could fly straight, and the sect could follow them close behind. It helped since the sect’s lights illuminated further for them.

Suddenly, they noticed that the Sect’s lights stopped against something. Yet, there was nothing there. It was as if the light simply stopped in mid-air. When they approached the location where the light stopped, Rean threw a piece of rubble in front.

They saw the rubble passing through an invisible surface like it was falling inside of a lake. Ripples in space happened, or perhaps that was another illusion, it happened in a very similar way to the waves caused by the fall of the stone into the lake.

They all looked at each other. They didn’t press forward, of course. First, Rean took one of his simple puppets, controlling it to pass through the barrier. Turns out nothing happened. The puppet went through it and returned a few seconds later. No damage could be seen on it.

Then, Rean decided to try it himself, but Hudiander stopped him. "You and your brother are Qwerty’s masters. Let someone else try it."

Not long after, a disciple came from the sect and passed through. Just like the puppet, he returned a few seconds later, although his expression was of amazement. "Elder Hudiander! There is an entire city behind it!"

Everyone looked at each other, and finally, they passed through as well.

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