Chapter 48: KING, did you see through Clara's hidden true strength?
"Hmm, this girl is very cute—"
KING blurted out subconsciously but stopped short before finishing.
Beside the barely noticeable tips of his hair under the brim of his hat, a bead of sweat the size of a bean trickled down KING's forehead.
"Phew, that was close. I almost followed Tatsumaki's words and praised that girl for being cute. It would have been hard to explain later."
KING thought to himself, letting out a long sigh, feeling as if he had narrowly escaped death.
"Cute... What do you mean? KING, why didn't you finish your sentence?"
Tatsumaki asked, frowning. She really disliked the riddle-like way of speaking, which was exactly the same as KING's elusive fighting style.
"KING probably meant that the girl named Clara is very scary, right?"
Metal Bat added,
"KING has experienced countless battles, and he must have dealt with many monsters who look weak on the outside but are actually very dangerous."
"So... KING means that the weakness shown by this girl named Clara is just her disguise?"
Pig God's mouth hung open in shock, while not forgetting to shove a handful of potato chips into his conveniently opened mouth.
"That's right. Earlier, I saw Clara and that robot named Svarog standing together. Svarog was quite friendly towards her. In my opinion, that big robot's fighting power is probably comparable to Drive Knight..."
Bang said, looking at the black mechanical cyborg in the corner of the conference room.
Drive Knight didn't speak or express any opinions, just calmly nodded.
"One who stands alongside the strong must also be strong... I see, is this Clara's hidden true strength? As expected of KING."
Tanktop Master is praised repeatedly.
Sitting diagonally across from KING was Atomic Samurai. He clutched his samurai sword tightly, staring intently at the light screen, at Clara's harmless little expression. Cold sweat like rain trickled down his forehead.
Strange... Why couldn't he see any hidden power in Clara?
Isn't she just an ordinary girl? Her expression, demeanor, eyes, movements of her hands and feet... Even with his keen observation, he couldn't detect the slightest hint.
But why could KING see it?
Could the gap between the two of them be so great that—
The more Atomic Samurai thought about it, the more terrifying it became, and the more terrifying it became, the more he couldn't help but think about it. When he came back to his senses, cold sweat had unknowingly soaked his samurai uniform.
He simply gave up thinking, as if he had experienced a great battle, and lay weakly on the chair, his eyes tiredly looking at the "strongest human" diagonally across from him, who had his hat pulled low and had remained motionless the entire time.
"...What a low-key and terrifying man."
—
「 The two sides exchanged some medicine, and both left Rivet Town.
After successfully completing the medicine handover, Natasha said that Oleg had something to tell them and that Dan Heng and March 7th had already gone ahead.
When they arrived at Oleg's place, March 7th seemed to have finally found someone to talk to and waved happily: "Here, here, you're finally back."
"Since everyone is here, I'll get straight to the point—" Oleg paused, "Your goal is the Stellaron, and our goal is to break through the blockade of the lower zone. In other words, our goal is both Svarog. Without solving that 'big boss', everything that follows is nonsense."
"Perhaps we can find a way to get him on our side, if the situation changes..." Stelle suggested using courtesy before force.
"Hmph, he's a robot, what does he understand? It's fastest to just chop down that pile of scrap metal!" Seele suggested going straight to force.
Oleg also agreed with Stelle's opinion, but Svarog was never willing to talk to them, so the probability of solving it through talking was very low.
After carefully setting up the plan, Oleg asked Seele to act with Stelle and the others, and asked a Fireland member to lead the way for them.
When everyone arrived at the place Oleg had agreed upon, standing there was... the pitch-black Hook.
"...Wait, Hook?" Seele looked surprised.
"It's, it's me, the pitch-black Hook! Do you need me for something?" Seeing such a group of adults inexplicably surrounding her, Hook was terrified for a moment.
"Uh, little friend, there must be a misunderstanding..."
Sampo didn't know where he had appeared from, but he was standing behind Hook, with a sad expression: "Oleg asked me to lead the way for everyone... It's really heartbreaking. You even thought of such a small child, but you didn't think of me?"
"Alright, alright, why bother with this? Since the boss asked you to come, hurry up and lead the way." Seele impatiently waved her hand.
"Alright, then you guys have to follow closely."
After a period of travel, the surrounding landscape began to change from the undulating terrain filled with mines and tracks to a vast, endless snowfield.
Everywhere in the snowfield, there were dilapidated robots. Some of them had rusted shells and scattered parts; some were half-buried in the snow, only revealing part of their outlines. The further they walked, the more similar the mechanical remnants were. 」
「 .....」
~Runeterra World~
"There are so many robots here. It would be great if I could build them into an army of mine."
Ambessa Medarda played with the short knife in her hand. She was following the progress of the Express trio, as their experiences along the way had given her a lot of insight.
After seeing the powerful robots in the lower zone, Ambessa Medarda started to think – she had never thought before that something made of a pile of iron could exert such terrifying power.
Robots that looked like fists could fight and explode, and robots with traffic lights on their heads seemed to be able to resist any attack. If these machines could be applied to the battlefield, wouldn't her army be invincible?
It seems... It's time to go to Piltover to visit her daughter.
—
「 "Sampo... are we there yet?" After walking for an unknown amount of time, March 7th asked impatiently again.
"Sister, you don't ask every minute, do you? Just two more steps, walk two more steps forward, and you'll be there." Sampo was also tired of being asked.
In the distance of the snowfield, tents of various sizes were faintly visible. As everyone went deeper, they saw not only more and more robots, but also more and more people.
Here, people and machines seemed to have reached a certain balance, and it was very lively.
"Alright, this is Svarog's lair - the Robot Settlement." 」
「 .....」