It seemed that in Riku's eyes, he had a difficult time outside, stuck between those two non-Imanity races.
Thinking of this, Su'er inexplicably wanted to laugh.
"It's actually fine," Su'er said easily as scenes of living with Think and Jibril appeared in his mind. "It wasn't as difficult as you imagined. They helped me a lot. Well, we're actually pretty good at getting along."
"Is that so?" Riku nodded thoughtfully, not knowing what he was thinking of.
"Instead of talking about my things, I'm more curious about you now?" Su'er said with a mischievous smile, poking Riku's ribs, "You couldn't have met Miss Schwi just by staying in the settlement, could you? Won't you tell me about it? Your legendary adventure?"
Riku sighed a long sigh. He knew that Schwi's true nature couldn't be hidden from Su'er.
After all, compared to the women in the settlement, even if you only looked at her face, you could see that Schwi was abnormal - she was too beautiful.
In this era where both men and women had to work and go on adventures, and also lacked various skincare products and had insufficient nutrition, the Imanity of this time would not have such a beautiful appearance. It was a kind of beauty and exquisiteness that was unique to non-Imanity races.
To put it simply, if you saw a beautiful one, you could be sure that it was definitely not Imanity.
"...What legendary adventure?" Riku smiled bitterly when this was brought up. "And you might not believe me, but I really met Schwi while I was staying in the settlement. It wasn't a lucky encounter during an expedition."
"Huh?" Su'er made a disbelieving sound.
It was clear that the reason Riku did not appear immediately after Su'er returned was because he was having a headache due to Schwi's existence. However, after some struggle and serious advice, he finally chose to reveal Schwi in front of Su'er.
Under the flickering lamplight, Riku slowly began to talk about how he met Schwi and what had happened in the two years since Su'er had disappeared again.
Schwi appeared by Riku's bedside one night, almost scaring this man sick. He was covered in cold sweat... uh, it seemed he was already covered in white hair.
In short, about two months after Su'er and his group had briefly stayed in the settlement and left again, Schwi suddenly appeared in front of Riku, which was an unexpected scare. And her race was also very obvious and was recognized by Riku immediately - the Ex-Machina.
Her exposed mechanical and seemingly flesh-and-blood body were perfectly combined. The mechanical wings and long wires that extended from her body were also very easy to recognize. And it was precisely because he had already known about the Ex-Machina from Su'er in his heart that after the initial shock, Riku immediately grasped the key point of the problem.
Why would an Ex-Machina appear in front of him?
Why was only this one Ex-Machina in front of him?
Think had once told Su'er about the difference between life and biological beings among all the races, but in the time that followed, she also talked about a very special race among all the races, which was the Ex-Machina.
A race that was born even before the great war happened. It has continued from the distant ancient times until now. The race itself is a mechanical race, so special that it cannot even be considered a living being. Its form of existence is also completely different from other races.
They are like a beehive-like race, but they are far more efficient and powerful than a beehive. The thoughts and consciousness of every individual are connected to each other, and they act in a group called a connection. Being discovered by one individual means being discovered by the entire Ex-Machina race, and being hostile to one individual means declaring war on the entire Ex-Machina race at the same time.
If they only had this one special feature, it would not have been enough for them to survive until now in the great war. What made other races fear and avoid them more was their strength.
As long as any individual is attacked, they only need less than a second to analyze the type of attack and quickly design an armament that can be equivalent to that attack. If it were just the ability to reproduce the attack, it would not be enough to make people afraid. What was even more terrifying was the upper limit of this reproduction - whether it was the Elf's magic or the Dhampir's Spirit Armor, even the strongest blow of a Dragonid before its death could all be reproduced and counterattacked. At least for now, it is completely impossible to find the upper limit of the power that this race can reproduce.
When Su'er first heard about it, he exclaimed that the Sharingan and the Saint Seiya were not a match for them.
And in the long great war, the Ex-Machina have been evolving endlessly in this way. Theoretically speaking, they are a ferocious race that can become infinitely stronger. Defeating a huge Demon Race that gives Think a headache can be done with their bare hands.
Of course, becoming infinitely stronger is only in theory. This is because this seemingly powerful race has a weakness that cannot be ignored, which is creativity. All of their attack methods until now are all based on absorbing and replicating the attack methods of all the races that have waged war against them throughout the long years. And they are only designing and replicating. They have never independently developed a unique attack that belongs only to them... or perhaps this replication ability itself is already unique enough.
They were undoubtedly a very powerful race. However, the reason why such a powerful race has not yet eliminated other races and won the position of the Only God is that they have lost the ability to create their own Old Deus, and with it, they have lost their direction. The entire race wanders aimlessly on the continent like lost sheep, as if they were truly simple machines without a will of their own.
They never act on their own and have no proactive goals. Even if they are attacked, they will retaliate, but as long as they are not hostile, they will not attack.
This was also the abnormality that Riku noticed immediately when he found that only one Ex-Machina, Schwi, had appeared in front of him. These guys, who always acted in groups and had no purpose... why was this one acting alone?
"Was she disconnected?" Su'er repeated Riku's words and continued to ask curiously, "Why was she disconnected? Does that mean she can be reconnected?"
"According to her, she was directly discarded because multiple logic breakdowns occurred while she was analyzing the unique Imanity language called 'heart.' I don't really understand what she's referring to by 'heart' or anything," Riku sighed more and more.
"Hmm... so you just picked up an Ex-Machina and brought her back?" Su'er felt that he completely understood. "Then you must have hit the jackpot, right? This is an Ex-Machina. Even if she claims to have been discarded, her power is still far greater than most races. Why do you look so troubled?"