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Chapter: Who's the Protagonist?

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The Cerberus growled as soon as it spotted us. I can see sparks of flames from its open mouth. "We need to defeat it quickly and get out before we get surrounded," I explained to Bag-E, *pew* who fired the laser gun at the dog.

It only made a shallow dent in its head but Bag-E continues to shoot *pew* *pew* *pew*, the Cerberus rushed to bite, but Bag-E expertly drove in reverse weaving through the things in the vault while firing at it.

"Who is the protagonist here?" I grumbled and was ready to join the fight before *thud* *whir* *step* I heard footsteps arriving. I turned to see three robots in the shape of dogs rushing inside. "HellHound?" I guessed and pointed my gun.

My body instinctively adjusted the posture of holding the gun, due to 'Past me' practicing with Braham, along with the experience of my previous life. *pew* I shot the robot dog near me, blowing a hole in its head.

'At least they are not durable as the Cerberus,' I sighed and began shooting it.

I destroyed as many dogs that arrived. I looked back for a second to see Bag-E dodging a trail of fire spewing from one of the Cerberus's mouths.

"Why do I feel like a sidekick clearing the Mooks while Hero is fighting the villain?" I grumbled as I dodged right as a claw struck *crash* then I shot its owner in the head.

I pedaled back to dodge a jaw, closing in on me before shooting it. I felt the gun in my hand heating, so I holstered it before taking another gun to fire it. But nothing shot from it.

"What the hell?" I cursed as I rolled left to avoid the claw of the dog.

I ran cursing "Fucking faulty weapons. One is heating up, another is not working," angry with the dogs chasing on my heel. I look ahead to find the vault in ruins due to Cerberus rampaging.

I'm happy to see the things built by the 'A. I' getting destroyed. I would have laughed gleefully if not for the annoyance chasing me.

I saw that one of the heads of the Cerberus is already destroyed by Bag-E and felt urgency. I patted the gun in my hand for it to work and fired it pointing back, *eennn* then I heard a pulsing sound 'It needs time to gather energy,' I realized *blam* *woosh* as a sonic boom originated from the gun sending all the dogs chasing me flying backward.

"Shit! This is not a plasma gun but a sonic gun," I exclaimed, then pointed the gun at the Cerberus and fired it in its side, it crash into the wall. "Run out of the vault," I ordered Bag-E while running towards the exit. The Bag-E has already begun cleaning the robots outside.

I turned to see the remaining intact Dogs and Cerberus standing up. "I will show you what Hell looks like," I yelled, throwing the incendiary grenade at them.

Then the classic scene of Cerberus swallowing the grenade, *Boom* exploding in Cerberus's stomach; *BOOM* creating a further explosion that produced a sea of flames swallowing all the dogs and items in the vault with it, *sizzle*.

"Woah! Cool!" I admired the flame then... following the path of destruction made by Bag-E.

"Does it really take me as a sidekick?" I grumbled, following it. "But I was the one who destroyed the Cerberus," I grinned proudly.

"If I think about it 'A.I' is the main villain, so my sidekick a.k.a Bag-E is defeating minions so that the protagonist which is me Can fight against the main villain without fatigue," I concluded shamelessly.*pew* Then shot a demon-shaped humanoid robot sneaking on Bag-E.

"Tsk tsk, Sidekick can't survive without the hero's intervention," I nodded satisfyingly and shot another robot. We soon reached the crossroad where robots are arriving from the other three directions.

So my participation also increased in clearing them. "Hey! breakthrough the right path," I ordered, taking another grenade.

Soon Bag-E turned right, and I took the rear. The pressure on me increased as I got scratched by many claws and began to bleed, soaking the bandage red. I gritted my teeth and then threw the grenade at the crossroad before kicking the robot in front and jumping backward. Only by combining my short height, flexibility, and reflex, I made it out alive from there.

I suddenly felt a blast of a cold wave from the crossroad *boom* *crackle* *crick* *creak* then I saw the robots in there frozen by the Cryo grenade.

These frozen robots blocked the path of the robots that arrived behind them. I quickly hit the robots in the knees that escaped the blast using the rod, pushing them down as they got crushed by the robots rushing behind.

*pew* *pew* I hastily shot the ones in the distance, clearing every robot, then I turned to glimpse at the frozen robots acting as a barricade. "Hope it can hold longer". I muttered, running in the direction Bag-E went.

"Why is the sidekick in a hurry?" I complained, walking anxiously, adjusting the bandages to stop the bleeding from the new cuts.

"I have to clean it to prevent getting an infection due to rust." I tightened the bandage at last and began running.

"But there is no time," I complained while running.

I turned the corner, only to dodge something flying toward me. I quickly got up. "Sidekick, be careful where you throw things," I grumbled, then looked at the object that nearly took my head off, only to be dumbfounded.

I saw my sidekick, struck to the wall on its back, "Oh! No! Sidekick, are you alright?" I rushed anxiously to check it. I saw the lights on its body flicker before stabilizing, to my relief.

I pulled it out of the wall and checked it, to find a dent on its stomach bending the door and its right hand is sparkling electricity.

"30%...*btzz*… structural. *zzz*. Damage," it reported to my relief. The upgrade in the vault has strengthened it.

"Check if you can use these parts to repair?" I instructed, pointing at the destroyed robots around.

"I will avenge you," I looked towards the path it flew from. "whoever they are," I declared, picking the staff and rushing in.

'I need to destroy it quickly before the robots break through the ice,' I resolved, reaching the end of the corridor, which is a huge room. In there, a big robot with seven snake-like heads is guarding the path, two of its head are destroyed and is smoking.

I glared angrily at it "I don't care if you look like a Hydra, I'm going to destroy you for hitting my sidekick in the stomach," I declared *eennn* *boom* firing the sonic wave from the gun successfully blasting one head.

"Do you know it has my bag inside it?" I revealed the reason for my rage. "What if things inside get damaged?" I yelled angrily as it roared.

It used one of its heads to bite me. I dodged and shot at it with a laser gun, making potholes on its surface and destroying some of its eyes. 'It looks easy. How did Gar-bage got hit?' I thought, looking around vigilantly.

As I dodged one head, I suddenly saw its body was doing something before I could see what it was. Another head arrived, distracting me.

I hit the head with the staff angrily, breaking its jaw and sending it flying. That head hit the nearby head due to momentum.

"Wow! This staff is awesome," I exclaimed before my instinct warned me to dodge, so I quickly fell to the ground and *swoosh* I felt the wind whipping above my head. I saw the tail of the Hydra retracting and found that it used its tail to whip around.

"That's how Bag-E got hit," I concluded and used this chance without any obstruction and threw a grenade toward its body. The grenade rolled under its body before a blue semi-sphere-shaped plasma wave rushed out, destroying its body completely.

"I thought it was a pulse bomb," I muttered, relaxing slightly after seeing the body destroyed, *eennn* *boom* then I heard a sonic gun firing. I turned to see one head of Hydra fall down, that was trying to sneak up on me. Then I spotted Bag-E standing there with a gun.

It looked at me, "Negligence," and stated, then fired at another head. I looked surprised. "Did it just taunt me?" I muttered, then joined it in destroying the remaining heads.

I noticed it using the weird demon claw of the demon robot to replace its right hand.

Then we continued towards the destination. I ate a half food pill and then stored the remaining in the belt bag. We soon reached a door blocking our way. I shot at it using a laser and sonic gun but it didn't budge, 'Do I need to use impact Dial,' I thought.

'But my hand will become useless,' I rejected the idea.

'If only I can replace the hand like it', I enviously looked at Bag-E's new hand. 'He can use it right,' I thought before Bag-E approached me, snatched a bomb dangling from my belt, and rolled it at the door.

"Hey! I already had a plan," I protested *poof* *puff* as it covered the door in green gas and began to corrode due to the Chemical grenade. The door looked weak as paper and a small poke will create a hole in it. I ordered Bag-E to get a distance away from here as I took an EMP bomb.

I poked a hole in the door, using the staff to see numerous weird robots gathering on the other side. "YO!" I waved and threw the EMP grenade inside through the hole before running away.

*eennn* *crackle* I heard it go off with a pulse spreading inside the room. We stopped running as the lights stopped going off here.

I turned to see the area become dark due to EMP, *thud* *clank* *clatter* I heard a crashing sound behind the door from here.

"Come on," I called Bag-E and went towards the room. The door is already broken due to pulse and shows the robots piled up behind it, unresponsive.

I found a different type of robot that has wings, 'So flying robots are finally deployed', I observed. 'But the gun's energy is about to run out,' I looked worriedly as we move to the next area. It took my sidekick longer to move around the fallen robots because of its thread wheels.

I checked to find that I only have a Frag grenade and two unknown grenades 'I hope these two are powerful,' I thought, patting the two grenades. Then I pushed Bag-E to climb the pile of fallen robots, and then it used the grappling 'claws' from the top of the pile to swing across.

In the next area, there were many flying robots that we quickly shot down before the energy in our guns ran out. We threw it into the group of robots as it self-destroyed, destroying many robots with it.

"It's Melee time," I grinned as I swung my staff, hitting a fly-shaped robot flying around. Some arrived are the robots that are carrying weapons like swords, hammers, etc.

The injuries on me started to pile, even though they are only skin wounds due to evading the attack quickly, but they will become unbearable if stacked.

"Die assholes!" I threw the unknown grenade.

The grenade blasted silently, creating a black hole sucking everything around it. Flying robots were the ones that got caught first, followed by the others. After the black hole disappeared, there were remains of the robots compressed together in a sphere shape.

"I didn't expect this much reaction," I panted, looking fearfully at this, due to nearly getting dragged into the black hole. I pulled the staff out from the head of the robot, then looked at the battered Bag-E.

I thought for a while, then finally made a decision. "I have a plan, but before that, how much time will it take to change your arm?" I revealed, then inquired about it.

"Five minutes," it stated, moving its arm. "No, three minutes. You should try changing it in three minutes. It does not need to be perfect," I ordered it helplessly.

I took an Impact Dial, then taught it how to use it, then handed it over. Now Bag-E held Impact Dial in one hand and my staff's other half in the other claw leading the way.

The quantity of the robot started to decrease but quality increased as we further continued, earlier it took one-two hits to destroy a robot but now it took four-five hits to destroy it.

But with Impact Dial, we reduce the danger as we destroy the robots easily using it. It also reduced the durability of Bag-E's arm, so it needs frequent changes.

We once again reached a large space where many robots are waiting there "Change to new arm," I instructed, then as usual I threw the final unknown grenade inside the group. The grenade released a huge black sphere from the center of the room, covering most of the robot. There was no sound or lighting, and it appeared and went quickly.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, looking at nothing in front of me. There is a huge smooth crater in the center, with the robots missing there. The robots at the edge of the blasts have missed their body parts after being touched by the blast.

I quickly destroyed the remaining robots, then carried on after Bag-E changed its arm. We neared our destination in a similar method and I used the final Frag grenade while the Bag-E changed the new arm.

"From here on there are no tricks," I determined as I tightened my bandage over the new wounds.

My whole body is red as the bandage is soaked in blood; I look like I really came through hell. I looked at Bag-E, which is in worse shape.

Its entire right side is creaking due to frequent use of the Impact dial, surprisingly the arm holding the staff is intact, this arm is not damaged since I met it, and the Grappling claw is really durable.

It is struggling to move due to its busted right wheels. I sighed and began to doubt whether we can reach there alive, but there was only one corridor between us and the server.

"Hey! Open it," I panted, patting the dented stomach of Bag-E. It looks at me and then stayed silent for a while.

I began to lose patience. "Struck!" it replied, inserting a claw through the gap in the door, trying to pry it. I look taken back by this, "I should have tormented that Hydra," I gritted before inserting the staff and prying its stomach door open difficultly.

I took the bag and secured it on my back. "The load is reduced so you can move better." I pointed at its wheel; it tried to close the broken door, annoying me further. "Just remove the door," I bellowed at it, so Bag-E removed it reluctantly.

'After watching the movie it looks different,' I observed as it turned to look at the door after moving every step, looking sad. 'It is evolving and has some emotions now,' I concluded before forcefully dragging it away.

Only by our short height and speed did we reach so far by destroying the robots - receive the attack using the Impact dial, use it back on the robot's knees, pierce its head after it fell down, then repeat.

I will pierce the head as Bag-E brings them down. Sometimes I break the knee, making robots fall, and Bag-E finishes them off.

Overall, the main contributor to our survival is - The Staff. It is very durable and the slight bulge on its tip is useful for cracking heads. We continued forward to find the robots standing ready in front of A.I's server room.

I glanced at Bag-E and nodded, who lead as I followed one step behind due to the bag I carry on my back. The robot in the lead attacked which Bag-E caught on impact dial and then broke its knees with the staff, bringing it down.

Then it dodged the next robot's attack and used the impact on it, blasting it and crashing it into the robot behind.

I pierced the first robot's head, which is on the ground, then rushed toward the fallen robots due to using of impact dial, finishing them off.

We proceeded forward steadily towards the final door, destroying the robots. Suddenly we heard a long-lost voice "Do you think I will allow you near after all these years of preparation?" A. I shouted.

"Wait to get trashed," it declared, falling silent.

I became alert, looking around vigilantly for any danger before I saw a robot flying at the back of the group 'Flying Robot? No,' I denied it after seeing it falling again.

Then more robots started flying around at the back 'Something big is rushing, plowing through the robots,' I concluded as I watched it is already near.

'It is fast,' I panicked after looking at Bag-E on its path "BAG-E, dodge!" I yelled at my 'sidekick',*boom* *crash* *thud* but it was late. When I suddenly saw something burst out from the front of the robots crashing through them, and sending them flying.

As I was looking for danger after the A. I spoke, I was further behind, sparing from the impact, but Bag-E got caught in it as I saw its right arm holding the Impact Dial falling in front of me.

I looked blankly at it before looking up to find a Bull standing in the front at Bag-E's previous place. *whirl* *click* *clank* *thud* it stood up in its two legs carrying a huge hammer.

'Bull? A fucking Minotaur,' I muttered, looking at the 6ft pure machine.

'Ok! A. I, you win,' I accepted its goal of making hell.

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