Getting a Technology System in Modern Day

Chapter 1011: Oscar Worthy Performance

“We didn’t have enough time to get the permission as we gathered them in a hurry after receiving the news of… AUGH!” The man couldn’t even finish his sentence before he was hit by the butt of the gun of one of the robots who had come to do the final inspection. He stood in a T-position with his “wife” hiding behind him, shaking in fear of the guns pointed at them.

Although they had finished going through five different inspections, all of them were security-related; the only thing they checked was if there were weapons or volatile materials. Those checks were being done by the military. However, the current in-dock inspection was being done by the space station security team. They were the ones responsible for making sure that everything people had brought had relevant documents permitting them to carry them, and they didn’t.

“Only answer the question you were asked and don’t try to give me an excuse, as I don’t care about it,” the robot shouted as its metallic hand gripped the man’s face, squeezing it to the point that the man squirmed from pain. It released its grip only after the man nodded to show that he understood.

“So, mister Gavir, can you explain you carrying materials without having relevant documents to permit your carrying of them?” the robot once again asked in a non-intimidating tone as it walked to the worn-out captain’s chair, turning it to face the two of them. They immediately turned pale once the robot closed its hand into a fist, releasing a knife from under it before it stabbed the chair and tore the worn-out covers, revealing small canisters being carefully hidden.

“………..” The two people didn’t have anything to say as the woman increased her grip on the man, who had closed his eyes, having given up on trying to come up with an excuse, as the result of his previous attempt was still evident on his face.

“I had pinged the irregularity of why someone with such an outdated and worn-out ship would be leasing a private dock when the ship’s condition hinted that you are incapable of even repairing it. I came to check and found such valuable things. Looks like my algorithm is working right,” the robot said as it took one of the revealed canisters that looked brand new and quite heavy for its size before adding, “Mana canisters. Why do you have mana canisters when they are still one of the most expensive materials, despite the disgraceful Terra Empire nearly shutting down all of our operations by flooding the market with cheap and more mana-dense mana stones? You do know that having such materials without the permits can result in a prison sentence, and with the current situation, they might just execute you to avoid wasting resources, right?”

The man kept his eyes closed as his wife was now shaking in fear. He took a moment before he opened his eyes and said, “We were mana stone smugglers in the past but turned clean after the Terra Empire killed the business. Those are our final batch, which we had kept as insurance for sale in case the situation called for it,” while trying to act as calm as possible, but his shaking voice wasn’t helping him at all.

“You are very clumsy to be a smuggler, and you think I would believe that? I know this ship is not yours, but as for why you are determined to hide the actual reason by even risking a death sentence, I will take my time to learn of it,” the robot said before turning to the other robots and ordering, “Go on and check other parts of the ship for any other things that they are hiding and don’t have permits for. I will be enjoying myself prying the truth out of them,” with a cruel smile taking shape on its humanoid face as it slowly turned back to the two people.

The other robots turned and left to complete the orders they were given faithfully. Although the one who gave the order had what could be called sentience, or at least that is how many Yrall Coalition people thought, the truth is that they didn’t. It’s just that they were programmed so well that they acted no differently than a sentient robot. These robots were usually given control of robots who didn’t have that level of sentience to command, as this allowed the Yrall Coalition to reduce costs but also have them act as a means of surveillance to collect additional data on the sentient action robots in case something out of the norm happened. With the sentient-like robots having been in existence for quite a few years and not requiring any salary, the Yrall Coalition had slowly been placing them in many of the bottom-level positions to save cost, to the point that some of them were allowed to freely operate without Yrall people’s supervision, as nothing out of the ordinary had ever been caused by them, and they always did their job very well.

The robot walked towards the door to the captain’s room, closing it before turning to the two people he was now left alone with, his cruel smile still on his face before he said, “How was my acting? Up to par?” Had anyone heard it coming from the robot, they would have had the shock of their lives as they would realize that the robot was acting according to its assigned personality trait in front of the observation of other robots but had dropped that facade in front of these two people.

“Veronica, you even scared me for a moment, thinking we got the wrong unit,” the man dubbed Gavir said as he breathed a sigh of relief.

This was their point of contact for the supplementary missions they had decided to take.

“I will take that as a compliment, but you should feel proud as your acting was top-notch, and I have nothing for you to correct,” Veronica said as it picked up the mana canister that he had previously picked. Its chest opened, revealing a worn-out, dirt-cheap battery, which he took out with his left hand before replacing it with the mana canister.

He was one of the many robots in the top ten that the empire had managed to infiltrate through their Little Protagonist system and had given actual sentience, placing them at the same level as the main AIs in the empire.

After giving them sentience, their internal code was also modified to make them loyal to the empire.

“If I could feel like humans, this is what euphoria would be,” Veronica said, having closed its mechanical eyes as the dense mana in liquid form spread through its system. It was now finally operating on full power and was not running on minimal power, which was something the space station owners had implemented to reduce the operational costs of the robot group.

He took a moment to enjoy the feeling before walking to the co-pilot’s seat and sitting down. The chair powered up as it was a rudimentary atomic printer, which immediately started operating as it modified Veronica’s internals completely, upgrading it to the empire’s computing power standards while also adding the Q-communication chip, which instantly allowed it to connect to the Terra Empire’s main network.

“Let’s get started,” Veronica said the moment the modifications were completed and the diagnostics of its new systems came out clean, as it finally tapped into the Q-communication chip.

As for the robots that were still doing the ordered inspection, the data they were receiving from the captain indicated continuous screams from the two people as he continued torturing them, or at least that was how it appeared to them and would appear to anyone who would be monitoring this specific ship’s leader robot’s live data.