Star Rank Hunter

Original and most up to date translations are posted at volaretranslations.

Translator's Utterly Random Notes: Do you guys think if I write about my visual novel collection more people would pay attention to SRH? *has gone insane*

Chapter 185: Robot Kingdom [Part 1]

This time, their destination was the core planet of Sector G District F, planet G-F100. Its size was moderate, and although it was appointed as the core planet of District F, in reality its planetary habitability didn’t reach Rank A. It was a rank B planet that had poorer conditions.

The owner of planet G-F100 was called Robert Frentz. He was also the person who negotiated the contract with Falvey.

Speaking of the Robert Family; the GAL famous robot family, they actually did not number over a hundred people. They could be said to be the unconventionals of the unconventionals among all the other reputable families in GAL.

Unlike the other families, the Robert Family did not have human servants, bodyguards and so on. Instead, they were replaced with extremely realistic robots who looked so lifelike that many people could not differentiate whether the Robert Family’s robots were real or fake humans even if they were to stand right in front of them. These robots could even fool some scanner as well.

In the past, the Third B Squadron and Sixth B Squadron had only learned about the Robert Family’s robots through the reports in electronic publications. However, what they’d seen today with their own eyes obviously stunned them to a greater degree.

The starships parked at the space station outside the planet, and only a large majority of combat personnel and small minority of logistics personnel were going to set foot on planet G-F100. Shawton had only brought three teams with him, and Cillin’s team was one of them. As compared to Falvey’s disposition of forces, Shawton’s side was a lot more low-key. After all, they were only accompanying the Third Squadron, so they couldn’t possibly grab the limelight for themselves.

After descending from the spaceplane, Cillin cast a glance at a flock of birds flying by in the sky.

“These are all robo-birds.” the gray cat didn’t look conflicted just because these birds weren’t carbon lifeforms. In fact, it looked rather happy at the discovery. As a rare specie in the universe, its diet was incredibly diverse. Naturally, it could consume carbon birds, but it could consume robo-birds just the same. It’s not bad to eat something different for a change after all.

“Moderate yourself. The observers would notice if any one of these robo-birds go missing. It’ll be hard to explain things if their disappearances were traced back to you.” Cillin stretched out a finger and poked the gray cat’s head.

“I know, I’m just saying. I'll pretend that I don't understand what those robots are talking about.” the gray cat licked its paw, looked up and inhaled deeply, “What a familiar smell.” It was the smell of machines.

The planet’s layout looked almost the same as a rank A planet’s. In fact, it looked prettier than a rank A planet. After all, a robot would not generate as much daily garbage.

There were some people who were raising sheeps on a wide grassland. The grass was real grass, and the goats were real goats, but the same could not be said about the humans raising them. Perhaps they were all robots, but looked almost identical to normal people.

Falvey led the group over a stretch of road on the grassland before stopping to say, “It should be here; to the left side of the planet.”

Grasslands filled the left and right side of the group. They were spacious and empty, and the shepherds from earlier were all gone. They had not encountered anyone else along the way.

“This is the place we’ve agreed upon, so there should be no mistake. Let’s wait.” Shawton said to the Sixth B Squadron members walking towards him.

Since both the commanders had given their word, naturally no one would refute them. They waited obediently at the spot.

Scarlet Wind was obviously excited to see the grassland. The planet he was on earlier did not have such beautiful grassland.

A lot of animals liked grasslands. Snowball and the gray cat were already rolling on the grasslands. Tico’s little rabbit had also been set loose to feed on the grass. Dough’s body color was identical to the grassland’s, so it was impossible to see where it was unless one was paying attention.

“Actually, the reason this planet was categorised as rank B was because it had too little resources. However, this planet’s conditions slowly changed under Robert Frentz and his robot kingdom’s influence. After all, there were very, very few people who needed to eat on this planet. Most of the ‘people’ here only needed to absorb solar energy to function.” Shawton explained to the group.

“This was what made the Robert Family astounding. The robot kingdom is still the robot kingdom beneath this grassland.” Eudy said while looking at the scanner’s panel.

“After this planet was reformed, it became Robert Frentz’s kingdom, whereas Robert Frentz himself was the king of this planet.”

While listening to Shawton and Beaver’s words, Cillin also noticed the activity beneath the grassland.

The activity underground wasn’t big. In fact, it was almost indistinguishable above the grassland. However, the reason this grassland was able to grow so lushly wasn’t only because of the light shields. The ground itself was infertile, and the nutrients and elements necessary for the growth of all kinds of plants were lacking. That was why the machines beneath the ground had pumped nutrients and elements into this land.

Soil reform from underground was a lot more environmentally friendly than spraying the nutrients and elements directly on the surface, and the utilisation rate would improve by a lot too. This method was also closer to the Robert Family’s ‘realism’ standards, and it looked more natural on the surface.

However, what was reformed was reformed. No matter how lifelike they appeared, they were still reformed. Once the reformation process was stopped, everything would return to what it once was. The Robert Family was a group of people who enjoyed living in their own worlds.

The group didn’t wait for too long when a flying car flew over from afar. It made a beautiful turn once it approached the group, stopped in the air before them and slowly descended to the ground.

A person walked out from inside the car. He looked very fit, and he wore a warm smile on his face. After roughly sweeping a glance across the people on the grassland, he walked directly towards Falvey.

“Mr. Falvey, I apologize to have kept you and your men waiting for so long. My boss was held up with something, and he could not to clear up the time to come personally. Please accept our apologies.” the person said clearly and walked before Falvey. After saluting in the manner of an aristocrat, he said, “My name is Carl. My boss has ordered to welcome you.”

“Mr. Carl, I am very happy to see you. We have not waited for long either.”

Falvey did not reveal much emotion on his face, and the ‘happiness’ he spoke of did not show at all. Of course, this did not mean that he was angry. Falvey’s expressions were just scarce to begin with.

Carl continued to smile gently. After the brief introduction, he said, “Please follow me, everyone.”

A spaceplane descended from the sky following Carl’s voice. Carl made an inviting gesture, but he did not follow the group into the spaceplane. The spaceplane had a pilot inside already.

The spaceplane flew away when both squadrons had gone up the vehicle. Meanwhile, Carl leaped into the flying car he sat in before and followed them from behind.

The destination of the spaceplane was a village-like place. Here, there were no high rise buildings, and no atmosphere of bustling cities like other planets. It looked more like an isolated world.

The group were all a little amazed by the sight before them.

The ‘men’ carried many bags of packed crops into the warehouse. The ‘women’ were bantering with each other and drying clothes beside pomegranate trees. The ‘children’ were playing games in groups, running everywhere with soil stuck on their bodies.

“They’re all…” Cary looked a little suspicious.

“They are all robots.” Eudy said.

“They’re all robots?!” Tang Qiuqiu stared curiously at every person on both sides of the street. These ‘people’ looked different from the robots she’d seen before. Don’t they look a little too… real?!

“Wah——”

A child’s cry broke through the air. Several kids had accidentally kicked another kid while they were playing, and as a consequence the kid who was kicked did not snatch the playing card he wanted in time.

The crying sound was truly indistinguishable from the real one, drawing tears from anyone who heard it and shocking those who learned about it. The tears in the kids’ eyes were especially realistic, smearing his already dusty and soil stained face even dirtier than before.

“Are they… really… robots?” Cary asked again.

This time, Eudy and Beaver fell silent too.

A man walked out of the house because of the kid’s cries and picked him up from the ground. He wiped the tears from the kid’s face and tried to calm him down with a smile. He handed over a playing card to the kid, and finally the kid who had cried so hard that his face was swollen red finally broke into a smile.

Eudy and the others continued to maintain their silence. Even Shawton did not dare to guess recklessly, or it would be embarrassing if they made a mistake.

Carl who was leading the way in front simply smiled faintly at the sight. He continued to guide them forwards.

When he passed by the chair the kid had sat down on earlier, Cillin extended a hand and wiped the tear of the crying kid that had been left behind on the chair seemingly at random.

“What is it? Did you find something?” Cary moved over and saw the water on Cillin’s hand, “Is that a tear?”

The gray cat that was originally lying on Cillin’s shoulders grew energetic and stretched its neck over. Seeing this, Cillin wiped part of the tear on his finger directly onto the gray cat’s whiskers.

The gray cat shook its head in disdain, ‘Tsk, water.”

“Yes, water. That is all there is to it.” Cillin said.

Cary didn’t quite come to realisation just yet, “What do you guys mean?”

Tico, dressed in a big white coat walked over and explained, “If it just just water, then that kid just now really is a robot. A human’s tear does not contain just water. If we are to categorise them, they can be differentiated into basic types, reflexive types, emotional types and so on. For example, the tears leaked when a person is sad or moved are different. The composition of the tear is different. Be it the metallic elements such as sodium, potassium, manganese etc or enzymes, the composition of a tear is different depending on the situation.”

This was the complexity of a human being. Unlike human beings, a robot could only leak water from their eyes no matter how realistic they appeared to be. They were not as complex as a human’s tear.

“I see.” Cary nodded in understanding.

“Even so, Robert Family’s robots are just too shocking.” Eudy lamented. It was real, too real. The sensation of touch and the blue veins popping from the ‘man’s’ arm when he held up the kid looked very realistic.

However, they were all robots. In Robert Family’s robot kingdom, every ‘person’ here could instantly change modes and transform into a combat tool that was no less dangerous than the Third Squad and Sixth Squad’s combat personnel if needed.

This was just the robots in Robert Frentz’s robot kingdom. What about the domain of other members of the Robert Family? Did they look about the same as well?

“Robots like these could sell for at least eight figures per unit outside.” Beaver said. He was aware of the Robert Family’s special robots’ selling price at least.

“Maybe we can buy an arm if we sell me.” Cary mumbled to himself.