Cipher then opened his Cheat Shop. The current cards were Blank, Class, and Mirror . He took all of them. The packs this time were a normal Code Pack and a normal Mod Pack. He opened the Code Pack. Inside was Commit, Fork, and Debug . He took the Fork with no hesitation.
He decided to reroll three times as always. This time the cards were Seed, Patch, and Exploit . He took the Patch and Seed before rerolling a second time. This time he got Fork, Soul, and Refactor . He took the Fork.
He had two Forks now. He just needed two Merges and he could upgrade a skill.
He rerolled for the final time. This time the cards were Rework, Malware, and Optimize . He didn’t hit the Merge he wanted, but he still got something good nonetheless. He took the Optimize and Rework.
He glanced at his points. They were decreasing quite fast.
Suddenly, he sensed danger from behind and twisted his body, barely avoiding a claw attack from a robot. But it wasn’t over yet as he felt another one from behind him. He flipped, landing on its head and jumping up.
From above, he observed the robots. They had somehow gained wings and were now flying towards him en masse. He had been too engrossed in the cards that he had forgotten this was a battlefield. Unlike people who you could tell if they could fly by their skills displayed through Appraisal, for robots it was different as it was an intrinsic trait of their bodies.
Cipher flew in circles, avoiding the incoming robots as he analyzed the situation. Seeing as they had decided to gang up on him after noticing how he was sniping their high ranks, it could be said that they had some sort of thinking. And the way they were moving... he wondered if it was some sort of hivemind. He wondered if it was possible to communicate with this creature.
He stopped and raised his hand. "Is someone there? We come in peace," he said.
But the robots didn’t stop and just charged at him, chanting <Outsider!> in their robotic voices.
Cipher sighed. "Figured," he thought as he turned around and began flying towards his teammates.
"How are you guys holding up?" he asked as he closed in.
"Would be better if you didn’t bring ’that’ towards us," Selene responded.
Cipher just smiled. "This is free EXP. What are you so worried about?" he said. "Have you two entered B-rank yet?" he asked.
"Yeah," Selene answered.
Ryker, who was crushing a monster under his foot, turned to look at him. "I just did," he said.
"Good. Then come help me with this," Cipher said.
"You want us to kill all those robots?" Ryker asked.
"No, I just need them to be immobile," he said.
"I see." Selene instantly understood and jumped forward, passing by Cipher and catching one robot before descending with it to the ground. Smashing it down, its mechanical wings tore instantly. She then grabbed the arms and ripped them straight off before doing the same to the legs. "Is this good?" she asked.
Cipher and the others observed her nervously. "Ahem, yes. That’s perfect," Cipher responded before joining her to dismantle the robots. Ryker just sighed before also joining in.
After all their work, now only the B-rank robots were left. Cipher, Ryker, and Selene stood opposite the ten B-rank robots. They’d been evading them as they systematically immobilized the other robots, and now they seemed quite pissed.
"You two, try taking on one together," Cipher said.
He then charged towards the robots. His blade began glowing with a blue aura as he met the robot at the front, sidestepping and cutting its head clean off. He proceeded to the next one, catching its punch mid-strike and throwing it into the others. Before they could recover, he charged forward, stabbing straight through two of them with a single thrust.
He then turned to the remaining seven. Usually, if someone witnessed his brutality at eliminating their comrades, they would be taken aback and some even shaken. But the robots didn’t have such emotions and just charged at him like before, as if nothing had changed.
He activated Phantom Step, moving like a shadow among them to avoid their attacks.
One robot swung at him - he ducked under and severed its legs before proceeding to rip its core right off its chest. Another fired a laser - he twisted aside and drove his sword through its chest.
They were ganging up on him but he spun, his blade carving through metal as if it were paper.
Three fell in quick succession.
Now there were just two left.
The ninth lunged at him, and he caught it by the head, slamming it into the ground before crushing its core with his boot. Within seconds, only one remained. He caught it by the throat mid-charge and slammed it down, pinning it to the ground with his knee.
He looked up at the two. "I can’t hold it down much longer. Are you guys ready?" he asked.
The two just stared at him in awe, still shocked at his display of power. It had just been a little over twenty seconds since he’d begun, and nine B-ranks were already gone.
"So strong," they thought in unison.
"Hey! Anyone home?" he called out, and they finally snapped back to their senses.
"Ah, yeah, we’re ready," they responded in unison.
"Alright," Cipher said as he let go of the robot and rushed towards the two. The robot instantly charged forward. He moved past Ryker and Selene, and they were now standing before the B-rank robot.
...
"Will they be okay?" Maya asked, rushing towards Cipher.
Cipher didn’t bother looking back. "They should be fine," he said.
"Should?" Maya asked.
"What are we going to do with these broken robots? Are you going to take them back home?" Dante asked.
"Not exactly," Cipher said.
He activated Map Editor and placed a floor on the ground. He then placed walls on three sides. As for the front wall, he placed it then edited it to leave a small opening at the front. Dante and Maya watched on in interest as he proceeded to raise the walls a few levels high.
After raising the walls, he then extended the platform above. After that, he picked up the immobilized robots from the ground and filled them onto the platform above.
He then floated down to the opening. A robot was trying to pass through the opening.
"What do you think?" he asked, looking at the two.
They just wore confused expressions. "Umm, what’s this?" Maya asked.
Cipher smiled. "This is my Mob Farm 1.0," he said. He walked over to the opening and stabbed the robot with his sword, killing it. After it was dead, the materials were automatically collected into his inventory. Now that it was gone, due to the pressure, another robot was being pushed through the small opening.
"You stand here and stab the robot, it dies and you gain EXP, then wait for another to appear and the cycle continues." He handed Maya his sword, which she held awkwardly. He placed his hand on Dante’s shoulder. "You too. You two should kill them alternatingly and level up," he said.