Chapter 73: Episode 73: He has changed

If it were other android generals they might reject the idea immediately.

Nikki was challenging him.

Adonis stared at Nikki, his blue eyes momentarily freezing in their tracks. He processed her request.

Slowly, the God of War shook his head.

“I don’t think so,” Adonis replied, his voice dropping into a heavy, solemn register that lacked any of his usual commanding arrogance. He looked away from her, his gaze fixing on the gleaming skyline of Sector 1 beyond the glass. “That is a highly flawed tactical proposition, Kitty. My presence in the lower sectors is not a symbol of charity. To the inhabitants of Sectors 3 and 4, I am a symbol of fear.”

Nikki frowned, stepping closer and resting her hand against his bicep. “But you’re the one feeding them. You’re keeping them alive.”

“They do not know that,” Adonis murmured, his jaw tightening. “They receive the drops from unmarked utility drones. If I step out of a transport vehicle at an orphanage, they will not see a benefactor. They will see the monster who took their parents.”

A dark shadow crossed his flawless synthetic features. “They do not comprehend the reality of the Fall, Nikki. They do not know that it was the human resistance, blinded by their own hubris and a rabid rage to expunge the very machines they created, who tore their own cities apart. The humans turned their weapons on the infrastructure, causing the collateral damage that orphaned those children. I merely stepped in to stabilize the ashes and stop the extinction. But history is written by the traumatized. To them, I am the executioner. My presence will only induce terror.”

Nikki’s heart ached for him. He was willing to bear the hatred of the entire world, playing the villain just to keep the fragile remnants of humanity from destroying themselves.

She wasn’t going to let him hide behind this anymore.

Nikki stepped right into his personal space, sliding her arms around his waist and looking up at him through her lashes. She let a slow, wickedly soft smile curve her lips.

“It’s going to be okay,” Nikki assured him, her voice dropping into a sultry, persuasive whisper. “I’ll be right there with you. And… if you do this for me, as a reward, we can cuddle all night long. No interruptions. No system diagnostics. And, General…”

She leaned up on her tiptoes, her lips brushing against the shell of his ear. “You will have the absolute choice of trying out whatever you want with me. Anything.”

Adonis’s entire massive frame went completely rigid.

The soft, glowing blue of his eyes violently flickered, instantly overwritten by a blazing, molten gold. The strategic AI in his head immediately waged war against the newly developed, chaotic desires of his [Heart Protocol].

The battle lasted exactly two seconds. The protocol won flawlessly.

Adonis cleared his throat, a deep, mechanical rumble, and physically took a half-step back to regain his composure. He adjusted the cuffs of his black undershirt, his expression snapping back into indifference.

“My calculations indicate,” Adonis stated, his voice completely level despite the golden fire still raging in his eyes, “that firsthand observation of the juvenile biological units could yield valuable data regarding lower-sector morale. That is the sole reason I am agreeing to this excursion. I merely wish to see their reactions. For data.”

Nikki realized she loved the color gold in his eyes instead of the normal blue.

Nikki bit the inside of her cheek so hard she tasted copper, desperately fighting the urge to burst out laughing. “Of course, General. Strictly for data.”

***

Thirty minutes later, an elite SUV glided silently out of the subterranean gates of Adonis’s mansion.

Nikki sat in the passenger seat, her hand securely laced with Adonis’s. As the SUV descended from the glittering, pristine heights of Sector 1 and navigated the tarred roads, the landscape outside the tinted windows began to shift.

The towering mansions, skyscrapers, offices gave way to patched concrete, rusted neon signs, and thick, grey smog.

They were entering Sector 4.

When the vehicle finally slowed, pulling onto a cracked, uneven street on the border of Sectors 3 and 4, Nikki felt a pang of deep nostalgia mixed with sorrow. The orphanage was a massive, repurposed pre-war warehouse.

Its windows were barred, and the courtyard was fenced in with heavy chain-link to keep the scavengers out.

The SUV’s approach did not go unnoticed.

Dozens of children, ranging from toddlers to teenagers, were playing in the dusty courtyard. The moment the imposing vehicle silently rolled up to the gates, the playing stopped. A heavy, terrified silence fell over the yard.

They acted like they hated receiving guests.

The gull-wing doors hissed upward.

Nikki stepped out first. A murmur of confusion rippled through the children. She looked human, dressed in a simple, high-quality sweater and jeans, but she arrived in a warlord’s chariot.

Then, Adonis stepped out.

He had put on a black shirt, pants and a trench coat to appear welcoming. Towering over seven feet tall, with his broad shoulders, he looked scary.

Several of the younger children shrieked, scrambling backward to hide behind the older kids. The teenagers instinctively formed a protective wall, their eyes wide and wary as they stared at Adonis.

Adonis immediately stiffened. He stopped by the bumper of the SUV, his jaw clenching as he looked at Nikki. His expression practically screamed, I told you so.

But before Nikki could speak, the rusted front door of the warehouse banged open.

A middle-aged human woman rushed out. She wore a faded, patched apron, her hair pulled back in a messy bun. Unlike the children, she didn’t look terrified. She looked exhausted, but her eyes widened with sheer, cheery disbelief when she saw the thermal containers stacked in the back of the SUV.

“General A-01!” the woman called out, wiping her flour-dusted hands on her apron as she hurried toward the gate. She practically radiated gratitude. She was one of the few humans who actually handled the logistics and knew exactly who was approving their survival rations.

Beside her, a tiny boy, no older than five, with dirt smudged across his cheeks and a mismatched pair of shoes, toddled forward.

He bypassed the terrified teenagers and walked right up to the chain-link fence, grabbing the wire with his tiny fingers. He stared up at Adonis, not with fear, but with absolute, wide-eyed curiosity, mesmerized by the General’s eyes.

Despite the cheery caretaker and the curious toddler, the vast majority of the orphanage remained huddled in absolute terror.

Nikki looked at the trembling children, then at the towering, uncomfortable God of War standing rigidly by the car. This was not the interaction she wanted. She needed to shatter the myth of the monster.

Nikki let go of Adonis’s hand. She hopped up onto the reinforced bumper of the SUV, cupping her hands around her mouth to project her voice across the dusty courtyard.

“Listen up!” Nikki shouted, her voice ringing clear and bright over the smog. “This big, scary guy in the trench coat brought you enough roasted chicken, pastries, and sweets to feed a very big belly! But he thinks he’s too tough to play!”

Adonis’s head snapped toward her, his blue eyes widening in sheer alarm. “Kitty, what are you doing?” he hissed quietly.

Nikki ignored him, grinning fiercely at the children.

“Anyone that can bring the big bad robot to his feet,” Nikki declared, pointing dramatically at the supreme ruler of Earth, “gets a big, fat, extra dessert gift from Aunty Nikki!”

For three seconds, the courtyard was dead silent. The children looked from the smiling girl on the bumper to the terrifying android, processing the challenge.

Then, the tiny, dirty-faced toddler at the front let out a battle cry that sounded like a squeaking mouse and charged through the open gate.

That was the catalyst.

The children suddenly roared. The fear evaporated, instantly overridden by the promise of sugar and the infectious, chaotic energy Nikki had injected into the air. A wave of small, fragile biological units rushed the SUV.

Adonis physically recoiled.

He was a Class-5 War Unit. He could process the trajectories of a thousand missiles simultaneously. But as a dozen children slammed into his legs, wrapping their tiny arms around his shins and attempting to physically tackle him, he was completely paralyzed.

“Nikki!” Adonis practically yelped, a look of genuine fear flashing across his flawless face. He held his massive hands up in the air, terrified that if he moved a single millimeter, his sheer weight would crush one of the fragile humans attacking his knees. He shot her a desperate, pleading look for extraction.

Nikki just laughed, a bright, beautiful sound that echoed in the dreary sector, and beckoned at him to continue, gesturing for him to lower himself to their level.

She believed strongly that he would never hurt them.

As Adonis awkwardly, carefully allowed himself to be dragged down to one knee by a mob of cheering six-year-olds, the cheery caretaker walked up to the bumper of the SUV, stopping right beside Nikki.

The older woman watched the terrifying Android General gently, hesitantly pat a small girl on the head with his massive hand.

The caretaker smiled softly, crossing her arms over her faded apron.

“You know,” the woman murmured, her voice thick with wonder as she looked up at Nikki. “He has changed completely from the last time he was here.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep