A2 stared blankly at the system prompt.
["Golden Toilet" has accepted the invitation.]
Normally, someone who had just been invited into this "Hyperdimensional Channel" would panic, or at least tread carefully, right?
But this person had accepted a stranger's invitation without the slightest hesitation, without even having time to understand anything.
Were they not afraid something would happen? Was there danger? What were they thinking?
What was she supposed to do now?
A new set of instructions popped up. She could make the other party appear right beside her, or teleport them to a specified location within a certain range.
So what should she pick? Of course she should choose a specified location.
But she could not just choose anywhere. For example, could she set the destination to the moon? Impossible.
The teleport coordinate had to be a specific, fixed point within her field of view. Only then could she mark it as the destination and have the other party appear there.
And after that, what then?
After that, she could perform the same operation again and send the other party back.
What an annoying function. Why could it not simply cancel the invitation from the start? Why did it have to be a round trip?
And she needed to decide quickly, because a new warning appeared.
If she did not respond, the system would automatically teleport the invited person directly to her side.
Still, this "world invitation" really did mean bringing someone physically into her world. That alone proved the "Hyperdimensional Channel" was not some virus-induced delusion in her head.
Because of that, A2 felt both anticipation and unease about this invitation.
So, where should she teleport them?
There, then. The ancient city ruins outside the forest, while she hid within the forest and watched.
A2 moved with razor focus, leaping beneath the branches of towering trees.
The scenery on both sides fell away in a blur, and the leaves that had been blocking her view gradually thinned, revealing a wider swath of light ahead.
She jumped again. This time, instead of landing on a branch, she lightly placed a foot on the trunk itself and climbed higher along it, until her upper body rose above the treetops.
Now she had a far broader view.
She could see the vast expanse of urban ruins.
That would do. A place that looked like a plaza, with relatively level ground.
The operation itself was simple. It resembled the interface of the visor she used to wear, where she could mark and lock onto a point in her field of view through a system overlay.
Only this time, the "Hyperdimensional Channel" system acted directly within her brain, aligning with her sight as though her eyes themselves had gained the visor's functions.
Confirmed.
And then—
"What?!"
A2 could not stop herself from crying out in shock.
She had heard other people in the channel describe what materialization looked like, but seeing it with her own eyes still hit differently.
Inviting someone from another world into this one did not mean a swirling vortex of light appeared, with the person walking out.
It was not some so-called spatial rift opening, with them emerging from inside.
It was not a beam of light suddenly dropping from the sky onto the plaza, with the person appearing where it struck.
There was no sign at all.
In the instant she confirmed the point, the target was simply there.
The target was not human?
Roughly two meters tall, their entire body was covered in steel armor. They looked cumbersome, like an iron man.
The armor had a rusted, weathered look, but on closer inspection those "rust stains" looked more like something that had been smeared on, like blood.
The surface of the armor was also visibly scarred—some marks resembled cuts from blades, others looked like bullet impacts, and more besides. It was battered from end to end.
Honestly, if she had not seen the target appear out of thin air with her own eyes—appear exactly where she had designated, as the guest she had invited—A2 might have assumed it was some ancient robot.
Or perhaps a mechanical organism.
Why did she not simply assume it was a heavy suit of solid metal armor, the kind an ancient warrior might have worn?
Because A2 could sense unknown electromagnetic signals radiating from it.
If there was a person inside, then this "armor" was likely powered armor, though it looked like the technology would be rather crude and backward.
The armor was, of course, equipped with weapons.
A chainsword-like weapon was strapped to its back, and what looked like a rifle hung from it as well. In its hand, it held a shorter, brutish-looking pistol.
This "Golden Toilet" was visibly startled for the briefest moment at suddenly appearing in a completely different environment, but immediately snapped into a guarded stance, scanning the surroundings.
Then—orange light flashed from one direction, and A2's expression changed.
Before she could do anything at all, the iron-clad figure in her view was swallowed by the flames of an explosion.
The shockwave blasted outward, hurling chunks of debris in all directions and kicking up a thick cloud of dust that spread across the plaza.
A2 knew an attack like that all too well.
It was clearly artillery fire from machine lifeforms.
This was bad. She had not expected machine lifeforms to still be present in the city.
And the one who had been hit—there was an eighty percent chance they had been torn into pieces by that strike.
Perhaps the metal armor would prevent them from being blown apart, but the shrapnel would likely punch the plating full of holes.
The close-range shockwave might even crumple the armor into something like a flattened tin can.
For a moment, guilt rose inside A2.
Her carelessness had gotten the other party killed, had it not?
Wait.
They were not dead.
She saw the figure burst out of the dust cloud before it had even dispersed.
Their armor had gained plenty of fresh marks, but none of it had been breached.
It seemed they had not taken the blast directly—only the spray of fragments afterward.
Even so, surviving that at such close range without the armor being torn open meant the plating was exceptionally tough.
And under that kind of heavy armor, their sprint was startlingly fast.
Clearly, she could not be fooled by appearances.
Suddenly, the figure halted, then sharply raised the crude pistol and fired into the air.
With a flash of orange, the shot streaked out trailing a red-hot tail, like a lance of light, slamming into a flying machine lifeform.
A thunderous boom.
A tank-sized flying machine lifeform was blasted out of the sky, dropping like it had just taken a direct cannon hit.
But there was not only one machine lifeform.
By A2's estimate, there were dozens—large and small, nearly fifty of them—closing in.
Should she keep observing? Should she go help? Should she send the invited person back?
But she was beginning to think her worry was completely unnecessary.
That armor looked heavy and unwieldy, like something that should move poorly, with technology that should be unimpressive.
Yet the figure moved with agility utterly at odds with its silhouette.
Against the oncoming machine lifeforms, the pistol's strange explosive rounds and the rifle's streaking shots turned targets into scrap.
Aside from the very first moment—when they had been caught off guard and clipped by that opening blast—everything after was almost entirely one-sided.
They were overwhelmingly strong.
It was less a battle than a slaughter.
(End of Chapter)
[Get +30 Extra Chapters On — P@tr3on "Zaelum"]
[Every 300 Power Stones = 1 Bonus Chapter Drop]
[Thanks for Reading!]