Kai hesitated, staring at the metallic sphere hovering faintly above the ground.
His instincts screamed caution.
The word Defective stamped across its surface was enough to make him wary.
He considered simply storing it in his inventory for later study.
That would be the safest option… analyze it when he wasn't alone in the middle of a hostile fortress.
He turned the sphere over in his hands, inspecting the grooves and faint etchings across its surface.
It was cold, unnervingly so, and there was a strange wave of residual energy that vibrated faintly against his palm.
It was probably the reason why it was floating in the first place.
'A standalone A.I. Core…'
The appraisal had already told him it was autonomous, disconnected from the A.I. Army's network. That made it even stranger.
Why would the machines discard something that wasn't tethered to their hive mind? Is it precisely because of that?
