The alley remained as silent as before, no matter how many times Yun You walked through, there was no obvious change, and she couldn't walk out.
It seemed that she was always circling in this alley, never seeing another figure around her.
The only thing accompanying her was the ever-growing robotic remnants on both sides of the alley.
The girl seemed trapped in a death loop within the alley.
What was all the more despairing...
Yun You looked up to the sky, only to see that the silver moon and the stars hanging high above hadn't moved an inch.
This meant the "time" in the Death Domain might be frozen or slowed down, and the girl in it would never wait for the sun to dispel the darkness, and couldn't rely on "waiting" to win a chance for survival.
Yun You couldn't help but feel a bit annoyed.
She rubbed her sore eyes... The long exposure to the dark environment, illuminated by dim lights, made her vision gradually become somewhat blurry.
But just at this moment, the girl's eyes suddenly widened, those blurry eyes seemed to have glimpsed something through the darkness.
She discovered... After circling over ten times, those robots lying by the roadside seemed to have undergone slight changes.
Their eyes, once dimmed, and with only some unremarkable electric sparks within—caused by short circuits...
But now, in the eyes of a few of those robots, Yun You saw a faint orange-yellow glow...
This light was exceedingly weak, barely noticeable without careful observation, but being watched by it, Yun You inexplicably felt a chill down her spine... as if she was being watched by something.
It drew the girl's attention.
"There's something odd..."
Yun You slightly furrowed her brows.
The girl's memory was still clear, so she could be entirely sure that these faint lights only appeared after she had walked through the alley several times.
It seemed that these seemingly ordinary robots might not be so simple...
Thinking of this, Yun You took a deep breath and carefully walked to the side of the robots, beginning to examine this pile of scrap metal.
In fact, although Yun You had studied various weapons and poisons in the Nest City, she wasn't very familiar with this type of product, robots.
After all, the price of these humanoid robots wasn't low, and with Yun You's current financial situation, she couldn't afford to own one, let alone study it.
But if it was just recognizing the model, she could still manage.
"Hmm... most are [Home Model II] cleaning robots, costing around 5000 units fully paid, which is equivalent to my yearly wage from working at a fast food restaurant."
Yun You crouched down, gazing at the mountains of white robots before her, and quietly mused.
Due to policy reasons, the enterprises in Nest City could only manufacture humanoid autonomous robots.
Therefore, most robots were designed in the shape and appearance of human beings.
Their height was basically around 1.7 meters, with bald heads, coated in silver or black steel plates, with limbs and joints similar to human beings, and batteries installed in the chest and head.
As a result, when operating normally, their eyes emitted soft LED light to indicate different states: green for normal, red when malfunctioning or out of power...
But this orange color, Yun You had never seen before.
Despite their ordinary appearance, these robots were the crystallization of industry and technology in Nest City.
But then again, no matter how powerful they might be, escape from obsolescence was inevitable.
Like the most numerous [Home Model II] cleaning robots.
Upon release, these gadgets focused on floor cleaning, even claiming to remove all formaldehyde and chemical substances, ensuring residents' health...
The city's pollution problem had been severe, so it was highly anticipated and sold tens of thousands of units upon release...
However, regrettably, in the second year after this gadget was fully launched, the furniture giant in Nest City introduced "fully automatic cleaning floor tiles," which eradicated the pollution problem at its source, also cutting off the market for cleaning robots.
As a result, many cleaning robots were returned and dismantled, and those that couldn't be returned and lacked funds to be scrapped, ended up gathering in the Bottom District slums, becoming scrap that even dogs disdained.
"In this damn place of Nest City, even the machines can't escape being squeezed and despised as obsolete."
Yun You casually complained as she gently pushed aside a few white cleaning robots, continuing to examine other machinery in the corner.
"This pitch-black, oil-stained machine looks like a [Private Chef Robot]..."
"Half a year ago, it was quite popular among the middle class, but it was quickly discovered... it added immense flavor enhancers to the food, numbing people's tongues."
"Besides that, its dishes are just slightly warm, and the taste is not even as good as the low-class eateries."
The girl mumbled as she picked up and scrutinized the remnants of one robot after another.
"The Genius Home Tutor Robot... more expensive than private tutors by several folds, a complete intelligence tax."
"The Delivery Robot, invented to replace delivery guys, yet found out that it could only work 4 hours a day, beyond which it malfunctioned, less durable than humans... was directly scrapped."
"The Fighting Robot... a sparring partner in underground boxing gyms, yet due to policy restrictions, unable to exert mechanical strength as its punches were softer than cotton, it eventually got phased out."
"As for this... uh... and there's even a robot with a cartoon girl image. Looks quite lifelike... hmm, probably for children."
Yun You patiently searched.
Finally, after discarding over a dozen machines, she found the robot with the glowing eyes amid the heap of scrap metal.
It was a robot with synthetic skin, shaped like a man in his thirties, wearing a tattered yet clean suit, donning glasses, and holding something akin to a "baton" in his hand.
"It's the [Deductive Robot] produced by Huikang Company..."
The girl recognized the model.
"A machine specifically used to play music in mid to high-end hotels."
"Not cheap, even as second-hand goods, it costs at least 10,000 units, a true middle-class luxury, even deemed as the[Great Work]."
"What a pity though..."
Yun You glanced at the suit on the Deductive Robot, pausing for a moment, and muttered to herself, "After all, it's just an industrial product. The music it plays lacks a soul, so it can't escape being replaced and discarded."
"In Nest City, once outdated, even people are eliminated, let alone a machine..."
After throwing in a couple of comments, the girl pushed aside the jumbled thoughts in her mind and began to carefully examine the orange lights in the robot's eyes.
The robot's eyes had hard glass inset in them.
It obstructed the girl's view, making it difficult to see what was inside.
Yun You observed for a long time, discovering nothing but occasional flickers of the orange light.
She thought for a moment, then directly got closer to the robot's face, using one eye to peer within the glass.
But the next moment...
"...!"
The girl's pupils suddenly shrank, body trembling slightly, nearly falling from the mechanical heap.
She saw something she shouldn't have.
Through that glass, she saw a pair of sallow, bloodshot eyes, lined with blood vessels and faint yellow light, staring straight at her own eye... like a snake, with a frigid, piercing gaze fixed on Yun You.
And around the eyes... there were indescribably twisted lumps of flesh, deforming and writhing bit by bit under Yun You's dazed stare.
They squeezed within the robot's metallic body, melding with wires and components to form a grotesque, bloody anomaly.
At this moment, Yun You realized one thing.
That is...
The "light" in the robot's eyes wasn't LED light, nor was it an electric spark.
But a pair of mystically ominous... always watching her eyes.
The monster's eyes.