I was transported to a broken world, yet my dreams are connected to Star Iron?

　"According to the original plot, the train crew's mission underground was basically to consolidate the forces in the lower districts and gain Schwarz's help. Now that I'm here, I can help them complete this part of the mission ahead of time..."

　"Moreover, I also urgently need proof to support the plot information in my mind. It's too uncomfortable to be just a riddle-maker right now. Schwarz is good. As a robot that existed before the cold wave started, I can attribute a lot of information to him."

　"so……"

　After checking the map again, Lingmo headed towards the mechanical settlement shown on the map without hesitation.

　"Let's find Clara first, or go straight to Swallow."

　……

　"strangeness……"

　The next morning, in the mechanical settlement, a little girl with long white hair wore a strange expression.

　She took a small step forward and gently touched the automaton, whose body was mostly buried in the snow, with her delicate white feet that were directly in the snow.

　"Beep beep—A living being has been detected. Automatic power-on. Target recognition in progress... Clara, is there anything I can help you with?"

　Seeing this, Clara's expression became even stranger.

　"The mech has been completely repaired, but this shouldn't be happening..."

　As the most experienced engineer in the mechanical settlement, Clara knew the possible malfunctions of the lower-level mechs like the back of her hand.

　Besides the most common issues of damaged accessories and malfunctions in electronic components, problems with the intelligent modules are also a major problem troubling the residents of the settlement.

　Moreover, Clara could handle the first two issues, but when it came to the intelligent module, there wasn't much she could do. She mostly left the children to Mr. Schwarzroth.

　However, there is only one Schwarz. Most of the mechs with malfunctioning smart modules are basically left behind, waiting to be picked up and repaired by kind people, or to be scrapped naturally.

　But... Clara, who went out to do repairs early this morning, discovered something strange.

　Many of the abandoned automatons on the roadside inexplicably returned to normal, and the performance of many of them was even optimized. Just by dismantling one or two of them (which the kind-hearted Clara later put back together), Clara benefited greatly.

　More importantly, these restored mechs showed no signs of being moved, and most of them were still buried in the ground or snowdrifts exactly as they were.

　If repairing the automatons was still within Clara's comprehension, then the fact that someone could restore these automatons to their original state simply by touching their exposed heads, even when they were still in place or buried in the ground, was somewhat challenging Clara's common sense.

　"Can you tell me who fixed you?"

　"Processing the issue... Insufficient information to provide an answer."

　"Just like I expected..."

　Clara sighed. "This unusual maintenance phenomenon is starting from the periphery of the mech settlement. So far, we haven't found any mechs inside the settlement undergoing maintenance... What's going on?"

　"Beep—A problem has been detected and is being processed... Clara, a recording of the Repairer's voice is stored in the machine's memory. Would you like to play it?"

　"Huh? There's this too? Uh..." Clara's eyes lit up. "Can I hear it?"

　"Playing now..."

　"Alright, another one fixed... Belloborg's mechs are really strange. Despite their rudimentary parts and design, they give me the feeling that they might awaken their own consciousness at any moment... Hmm, whatever, there's still plenty of time. Before we find Schwarz, let's just consider this free care for these little guys."

　"Playback complete."

　"Huh? The person who punished you was a strange older woman? And her goal was to find Mr. Schwarz?"

　Clara paused for a moment.

　"Then, should I find her quickly...? No, I should go back and tell Mr. Schwarz first, and then ask him what to do."

　Although she is not very old, Clara is no naive child who has lived in the lower district for many years. Judging from the abilities she has shown along the way, this mysterious older sister is obviously not an ordinary person. However, judging from her actions in treating these automatons, perhaps this older sister is a good person.

　With this in mind, Clara quickly ran back to Schwarzro's camp and told him everything.

　"I am already aware of this matter. As for the reason, the other party has already entered the mechanical settlement."

　"Huh? We've arrived?"

　Clara exclaimed, "Then we..."

　"Under evaluation... Evaluation results: The target has the ability to quickly repair automated soldiers. Currently, its behavior is friendly, and its purpose is unknown. Considering that its ability has a positive effect on the protection of the lower zone, it is advisable to make contact and investigate its purpose."

　"Clara, go and bring her in."

　"No need to trouble Clara, I've already completed your trial. I waited at the door for ages but no one came, so I came in by myself."

　Under their watchful eyes, Lingmo slowly walked into Schwarz's residence.

　"..."

　Schwarz silently took a step forward and said.

　"You passed the trial in one minute and six seconds, far exceeding the scheduled standard time of 30 minutes. Your average repair time for each mech was 1.3 seconds, surpassing 100% of visitors."

　"Analyzing... Analysis results: The target may possess certain special items or abilities that can target all of Belloborg's mechs."

　"It's smaller, the layout is smaller."

　Lingmo waved her hand and laughed, "Actually, I come from another planet, and this ability isn't just targeted at Beloberg, you know?"

　"..."

　Swallow fell silent again, then after a moment, a red light flashed in his eyes, and he spoke in a low voice once more.

　“The target’s condition is being reassessed… After scanning, the target’s physical attributes and clothing material are clearly not in the Belloberg material and style. Background: unclear. Category: unknown information.”

　"Based on our assessment, the target may have a significant impact on the living environment of the lower zones. Therefore, I am giving you a chance to speak. Please state your purpose briefly and clearly."

　"That's easy, I want to work with you."

　Lingmo stepped forward: "I need you to provide me with all the information about the star core, and to cooperate with me and my companions in rescuing Beloborg. That's my purpose. As for the reward..."

　"Banned word detected: star core".

　Schwarzko's eyes suddenly glowed bright red.

　"The Builders' directive: Any attempt to make contact with the Star Core will have serious consequences. Reassessment in progress - Target threat level has reached its highest."

　"Hey, hey, you're going to attack before I've even finished speaking? That's way too hasty..."

　Lingmo sighed, then snapped her fingers: "Since that's the case, I can only... try to control you a little."

　"So, can you still find any forbidden words or the Builder's instructions now?"

　"Reassessment in progress... No prohibited words related to the star nucleus were detected. Searching the memory... Prohibited word records related to the star nucleus were detected."

　"A conflict has occurred, and the logic system has detected an error... Cause: System tampering caused by an unknown reason."

　"Conclusion: Target threat index has been raised to the highest level... Raising failed? Target threat index has been forcibly locked at the lowest level."

　Schwarzkopf's eyes flickered red, and after a moment, he suddenly took a step back, completely shielding Clara behind him.

　"Activate Supreme Command: Protocol 3, Protect Clara - This command has the highest priority level and forces targets other than Clara to be raised to the highest threat level."

　“Command conflict detected: Threat level upgrade for this target failed... Bypass conflict command. In order to protect Clara’s safety, indiscriminate attack privileges have been granted.”

　"Who...are you?"

　Chapter 91 Clara: Why is everyone persecuting me?!

　"As I've already said, we're just travelers from outer space. Because the star core is blocking our path, we've been forced to stay near this planet. If we want to continue our journey, we must first resolve the problem with the star core."

　Lingmo glanced at the still vigilant Schwarz and said, "Actually, you should be able to see that I can control you at any time if I want to. You can indeed attack me by using this method of bypassing permissions and playing word games, but... that only depends on whether I want to or not."

　"When I touched the first mech of Beloborg, I had already reverse-engineered your 'source code'. After all, your existing mech technology is based on the assistance of the company before the Star Core Catastrophe. Even the firewall that the Black Tower specially made for me could not stop my power, so naturally yours, which is hundreds of years out of date, cannot."

　"Reassessing... Assessment complete. Conclusion: It cannot yet be proven whether your ability is as you claim, effective against any mech, nor can it be proven that you can ignore my newly updated self-defense mechanism. I need more evidence."

　"Just updated? It's already built a new set of protective measures while we're just chatting? No wonder it's the strongest AI in the entire lower zone... Wait, no, how come this..."

　Lingmo couldn't help but smile.

　She had just said that she had underestimated Schwarz's computing power, but it turned out that instead of quickly building a new firewall to counter Suzumo's abilities, the other party ran a program specifically for logic correction.

　In other words, this program is meaningless in protecting against Suzumo's abilities. Its main purpose is to find bugs in his own system. Since Schwarz knows very well that his system is not a new model, as long as he can find vulnerabilities in his system as before, and bypass Suzumo's control to force the machine to fire, he can essentially ignore Suzumo's control.

　Suzuma responded to this by saying, "That's a good idea, but don't think like that next time."

　"Well, in a sense, this is also a symbol of your awakening of self-awareness. After all, machines as tools cannot reach your level. Perhaps, you can now be called a true intelligent machine life form."

　"However... this method is actually useless to me. Since you want proof, I'll give you one."

　Lingmo snapped her fingers softly.

　"Swarovski, listen to me... Play the memory items that have been backed up the most times in your memory bank. If the number of backups is the same, randomly select a portion with the highest weight to play."

　"External command detected, evaluating the necessity of execution... Logical negation in progress... Negation procedure failed, execution initiated."

　"Currently playing item: A recording of Clara explaining human behavior [sleeping in] to me while I was lying in bed late in the morning..."

　"Hmm...Eh?!"

　Clara, who had been nervously watching Schwarzkopf, suddenly had a very "interesting" expression on her face.

　"Mr. Schwarz, how come this is the file you backed up the most...?"

　"Because these are records related to Clara, they have all been backed up multiple times for easy retrieval and access at any time."

　"Oh no, how could this happen..."

　"Since Clara has no further questions, I will continue playing."

　"No, no! Hasn't Sister Lingmo already proven herself to you?"

　"But she hasn't given the stop order yet."

　At this moment, Clara realized that the real "mastermind" was Suzumo, who was secretly laughing to herself.

　After all, she wasn't some complete novice who knew nothing about mechanical principles. If Suzumo had the ability to ignore all of Schwarz's defense mechanisms, then she should have known from the beginning that Schwarz had the most backup memories. The reason she chose this option was probably because...

　Clara immediately looked at Suzumi, whose face was full of "joy," with her watery red eyes, a little shy and embarrassed.

　Before Suzuma arrived, she was actually quite excited about what kind of changes this mysterious older sister would bring. After all, she had been trying to persuade Schwarz to give up his unilateral "protection" of the Lower District and instead help the people of the Lower District return to Beloborg and face the possible disaster together.

　Although Suzuma's attitude has been a bit aggressive so far, Clara's impression of Suzuma is actually not bad because Suzuma had repaired at least one or two hundred automatons that were on the verge of being scrapped along the way, and because of Clara's own feelings.

　And now...

　It's so bad, prepare to stare with your eyes!

　Why does this Lingmo sister like to play tricks on people so much?!

　"Ahem... Okay, okay, Schwarz, you can stop now."

　Clara looked at her with such a pitiful expression, and Suzumo felt her heart melt. She quickly told Schwarz to stop repeating the text.

　After all, having her embarrassing past of trying to fool Schwarzkopf while sleeping in public was a bit too much for Clara, who is rather thin-skinned.

　"So, do you believe me now? If I want to, I can indeed control all the machines in Belloborg in an instant. If you still don't believe me, then I can only make all the automatons in the lower district shout 'Miss Clara is our light' together."

　"Thinking..."

　"Mr. Schwarzlo!"

　Seeing that Schwarzro actually hesitated, Clara quickly tugged at his sleeve.

　"We shouldn't be so stubborn anymore. After all, Sister Lingmo doesn't actually need your permission to access your memory bank. The reason she insists on getting our consent might just be out of respect..."

　"Evaluation system restarting... Variable transformation in progress..."

　"Variable 1: Clara's demands... Variable 2: The outsider's abilities..."

　"The assessment results have been updated. The probability that the outsider has the ability to save Belloberg is over 99%. The decision-making power will be transferred to the outsider variable 'Rinma', and she will be allowed access to information about the star core."

　"Phew... They finally agreed. So, we can consider this a successful collaboration."

　Suzuma breathed a sigh of relief and looked at Clara: "Thank you too, Clara... In return, I'll tell you something~"

　Lingmo's voice suddenly took on a cheerful tone at the end: "Actually, your shy look just now was also recorded by Schwarz, and several copies were made and archived in a folder called [Clara's Cute Moments]."

　"W-what? Mr. Schwarz, don't use memory to store such embarrassing things!"

　Chapter 92 Lingmo: No, sister, was I really this bad in my first playthrough?

　"So, Sister Lingmo, what are you planning to do next?"

　"The answer is simple."

　After circling around Swaro's base, Suzumo found a suitable spot, then took out her hibernation pod: "Just wait."

　"wait?"