Academic gathering with a lich-Chapter 564 - 517 Liches? Liches!

Numbers are quite an advantage.

Lyle, who was running desperately, had etched this belief in his mind. In his hand, Nia’s tendrils were tied around an obedient sphere. This auxiliary robot, known as Snowball, due to its rounded appearance and somewhat clumsy movement, was regarded by Lyle as a mascot of sorts.

One could hardly imagine that this seemingly harmless little thing could form the mechanical torrent roaring behind them, making the pipe thunder and feel like it would collapse under its burden any moment.

Lyle attributed the surge of adrenaline in his body entirely to SS. If the opportunity arose, he wouldn’t mind showing that perfect machinist the methods of a perfect Spirit Summoner. Yet now Lyle, pressing down his anger, sounded slightly anxious as he sought help through his earpiece—the path at the end of the tunnel was locked. Only SS, the one who caused Lyle’s predicament, could address this dilemma.

"Haven’t you found a solution yet, SS?" Lyle, with Nia strapped to his back, watched her tendrils eject, smashing a cleaning Snowball that almost touched his coat—a futile resistance against the endless army behind.

"Just a moment longer! Wait a little bit more!" In the room, the tapping sounds from SS had turned into a tempest, with windows popping up and scrolling code transforming into extending bars of data, the green and black percentages climbing rapidly.

The engrossed SS didn’t see the soul fire light up in the eyes of the three Liches sitting in a row on the sofa behind him, becoming less well-behaved.

"Plague Doctor is in danger, I warned him not to trust a friendly stranger, especially when you can’t see their soul fire."

"He seems to be fiddling with something. Should we stop him? Although he claims to be helping Plague Doctor, who knows if this might be another trap."

Flexibility watched the light and shadows wavering in the dark on the screen, with Lyle’s shouts drowned out by the roaring din.

Flexibility suddenly had a stroke of inspiration and extended a hand to stop the eagerly prepared pair.

"I’ve got it!"

"?"

Mr. Flexibility smiled confidently.

"Do you really think that Andrei Academy’s rising star, the top student Mr. Plague Doctor, would fall into such a predicament?"

"But, isn’t the boss asking for help now?"

"He has asked more than a dozen times, and then? Did the situation change? Did his circumstances get worse?"

"...No, but isn’t that a good thing?"

"Doesn’t that show that Plague Doctor is more than capable of handling the current situation? Moreover, if he were in an urgent situation, why wouldn’t he ask us for help, instead of that robot who got him into this mess? Don’t you find that odd?"

"Could it be that he thinks we can’t help? Besides, we really can’t."

"Wrong!" Flexibility declared emphatically. "We are the Dead Spirit Model Society, a group of the most trusted members. We are Plague Doctor’s support! We cannot say we are incapable! Even if it’s true, Plague Doctor doesn’t know that!"

"...That kind of makes sense."

"Yet, Mr. Plague Doctor didn’t ask us, his most trusted allies, but chose SS. Can’t you see it now?"

"Because we’ve been stabbed in the back by the president too many times?"

"Naive! Would our president be so petty! Do you think Plague Doctor is asking for help? In fact, he’s taunting! He’s effortlessly dealing with the trouble SS has caused and even finds it not stimulating enough, so he uses screaming to egg SS on to ramp up the pressure!"

Shiny and the controller shivered, looking at Mr. Flexibility in the center with awe.

"So that’s how it is."

"I can’t believe I understand Plague Doctor less than you do, what a failure. Alright then, Flexibility, what should we do?"

The pair who admitted their mistake handed over the floor to Flexibility, who, looking at the busy SS, smiled.

"Those buttons, they must be the control device for that deadly pipeline."

The soul fire of the Liches was burning.

"Let the storm come even more fiercely!"

In the pipeline, the pale reflective door in the field of view kept getting bigger, and Lyle finally heard the heavenly voice.

"It’s done, Lyle!"

It was an oasis in the desert, a flame in the darkness. Lyle felt an instant surge of confidence.

"What should I do?"

"I’ve rewritten your electronic camouflage; now slowly stop, let the Snowball army scan your information. They will mistake you for me, their creator, and deactivate attack mode. But stay calm, don’t overreact, I have prioritized cleaning to the top of their program."

Having no other choice, Lyle made a snap decision, stopped in his tracks, tucked Nia away, dropped Snowball, and turned to face the large group of Snowball robots.

The large group of white surged forward, truly like an avalanche.

Lyle took a deep breath, the Snowball he brought activated its projector, scanning up and down over Lyle’s surface, forming a layer of blue-green data.

The Snowball army surrounded Lyle, their cameras had a small square nozzle at the bottom, which was a low-energy electric shock muzzle installed by the SS. Low energy yes, but in such numbers, enough to electrocute any electric eel.

Lyle stood still, his eyes on the dangerous red light in the massed cameras, as they slowly approached, squeezing the space around him.

Then scanners popped out of the cameras, swinging up and down together with the camouflage green light.

"Can you guarantee your camouflage will work one hundred percent? SS."

"What do you think, I designed their scanning program. The difference between my personal info code and the magical emission on a dirty surface is quite notable. Don’t worry, there won’t be any..."

Then a noisy interference suddenly filled Lyle’s headset, the tumult in the room where SS and others were located caused a pain in Lyle’s ears.

"SS? SS!" Lyle still didn’t dare to make any rash movements, because the scan had entered a critical stage.

Soon, the Snowball army’s red light turned into a reassuring blue-green light, they deactivated cleaning mode, Lyle was safe.

And soon, SS’s voice also rang out.

"I’m okay over here, it’s no big deal."

Everything went smoothly, and Lyle walked deeper into the pipeline surrounded by a large group of Snowballs.

"What happened over there?"

The headset was silent for a moment, and SS ultimately chose to tell the truth.

"Lyle, there’s a vivid red button on the underside of my workbench, that’s the self-defense button I hid."

"And then?"

"And then, while I was compiling the camouflage program, your... three friends pushed the button, and then they were made into sieves by the machine-gun cameras guarding me. They’re sprawled on my floor, filled with casings and minced meat..."

Lyle took a deep breath, covering his face.

"I’m very sorry."

"No big deal."