Chapter 438 - Unit Number 01

Gabriel was shocked to see the n.a.k.e.d young lady sleeping inside the pod and he became even more shocked and embarrassed by his younger sister's comment.

He blushed in shame at her words but tried to keep himself composed.

"It's not my fault that she's n.a.k.e.d, is it?"

"Then you should keep your eyes off of her now, right?" Angelia countered.

"..."

"I saw you looking at the girl for a good few seconds. Savoring the sight?"

"Please, let's not dwell on that. Also, clean up the rest of the pods and we'll try to wake them up."

"Sure~ big brother," Angelia said in a teasing tone.

Gabriel tapped her forehead with his finger and just went over to the other pods. Each pod similarly had a n.a.k.e.d person sleeping inside of them. After cleaning every one of them, Gabriel noticed a slight peculiarity with all of the humans inside the pods.

"These humans... why don't I feel any life in them? Are they all dead...?" Gabriel questioned.

"I can't feel any life in them...but I do feel mana still circulating in them. It's faint, but it's there. So I think they're still alive?" Kira said.

"Let's just wake them up. We'll be able to find out whether or not they're alive then!" Angelia said.

"Wait...let me find it first. You two don't touch anything!" Gabriel warned the two children before walking over to a large control panel with numerous buttons and screens on it.

The setup of the room was rather modern and greatly resembled that of a science laboratory. The only difference was that the language used wasn't English or any of Earth's native languages.

Gabriel looked at the control board and was a bit confused. He didn't know which button or panel started the awakening sequence of the people inside the pods. He didn't want to recklessly touch something that may cause harm to the sleeping people.

"Hmm, there should be some symbol here that—oh, this must be it? Hopefully...?"

Gabriel saw a panel that had what seemed to be the universal sign of activation or something similar to that. Just before he was about to press it, the black crystal that had been hovering above his head sent him a message straight to his mind.

The message translated the words and symbols on the panel he was just about to fiddle with.

[Termination Sequence Start Up]

"Eh?"

Gabriel quickly retracted his hand away from the panel and looked at the black crystal. He moved his hand close to the panel again and the message was once again projected into his mind.

He started moving his hand close to the other buttons, keyboards, and panels on the control board, and more messages were projected into his head until he finally found the one he was looking for.

[Awakening Sequence Start Up]

"Huh, so it's this one. Weird symbol to indicate 'awakening'..." Gabriel said to himself.

"Big bro, did you find it already?!" Angelia called out impatiently.

"Yeah, I just did. One second."

"Hurry up~"

Gabriel quickly pressed down on the button that started up the awakening sequence but he was only met with a long message that was projected into his mind after pressing the button. Then a message appeared on the large screen located in the middle of the control board.

[Initiate the Calibration Upload]

Gabriel continued to move according to the instructions that were given to him. He thought that the black crystal was rather convenient, being able to translate all of the messages from a foreign language that he didn't recognize.

Finally, the final step to the pod's awakening sequence was reached.

[Ego Synchronization and Authority Transfer Sequence]

[Provide one drop of your blood]

"A drop of my blood?"

Gabriel hesitated for a bit but after getting to this step, he didn't want to turn back. He quickly placed his hand on top of the panel that had suddenly popped up and felt a slight prick on the center of his palm.

The panel dropped back into the control board and the awakening process finally began. Gabriel clenched and unclenched his hand repeatedly. He was staring oddly onto the weird pattern that had suddenly appeared on his hand after he placed it on top of the panel that pricked his palm for the drop of blood for the awakening process.

He shook his head and waited for the people sleeping inside the pods to wake up. Angelia and Kira were waiting in anticipation after seeing Gabriel finally finish executing the awakening process.

It took a while so Angelia was bored. She was naturally curious about the people inside of the pods so she couldn't wait for them to come out.

However, contrary to her expectations, the people in the pods weren't immediately awakened. Instead, some weird transparent blue fluid started flooding into their pods.

"B-brother, are you sure you executed their awakening process?! How come they're being drowned in that fluid instead?!"

"Uhh, I think that fluid is some kind of energy injection? I mean, they've been sleeping inside those pods for who knows how long, right? They'd be weak so maybe this—"

"C-Captain, I don't think that's the case. Look!"

The three quickly came over to the first pod that held the young lady and saw something magical happening inside the pod that was now flooded with the transparent fluid.

Clothes began forming around the young lady's n.a.k.e.d body. Once the clothes formed, next came the armor which in Angelia and Kira's eyes, looked really cool. After that, the blue liquid began forming weapons which were held or wrapped around the young lady's arms, legs, and other body parts.

"W-what is this?!" Gabriel exclaimed in shock.

"Cool!"

"Wow!"

The two children however were amazed at this development. Once the blue fluid was completely depleted, the young lady inside the pod had transformed into a metal Valkyrie. The same went for the other humans inside the pods.

They all looked really powerful at a glance. This made Gabriel cautious. He was afraid that once these people stepped out of their sleeping pods, they'd immediately attack Angelia, Kira, and himself.

Before he could contemplate any further, the lids on the pods began opening. Gabriel immediately pulled the two children away and moved back towards the elevator. He slapped his hand onto the wall and injected his mana into it, quickly opening up the elevator's door.

"H-hey, what gives, big bro?!"

"C-Captain?"

Angelia and Kira exclaimed together in confusion.

"You two, get into the elevator! Once these humans show any signs of hostility, hit the button and run away!" Gabriel commanded. His words left no room for argument so the two children could only nod their heads in compliance. Kira stayed near the button while Angelia peered through the open door and watched as the now armed humans stepped out of their sleeping pods.

"..."

Gabriel remained vigilant as he eyed the humans who now stood in front of their opened pods. Their genders and forms varied, but the most eye-catching one was without a doubt the young lady from the first pod who was now in the form of a fierce-looking metal Valkyrie.

All of their eyes were closed and they just stood idly in front of their pods without making any movements. After a few seconds passed, the Valkyrie was the first one to open their eyes. The young lady blinked a few times and looked blankly ahead before looking around.

She eyed the others like her and nodded before she looked around elsewhere like she was searching for something.

Gabriel saw this and readied his weapon while gesturing towards Angelia and Gabriel to get ready.

When the young lady saw Gabriel, her eyes scanned him for a moment before she began walking over to him.

"Stop!" Gabriel quickly said in warning when he saw her movement.

The Valkyrie immediately stopped in place. Gabriel frowned a little before asking, "Who are you?"

"%*%&#*. @*&%#!"

The young lady spoke in an unknown language that Gabriel didn't understand, but thankfully for him when he heard the words the black crystal quickly translated it for him.

[Foreign Language Detected. Searching Database... Downloading Language]

"...What?" Gabriel involuntarily questioned and surprisingly, the young lady was able to fluently reply to his question in the next second.

"Unit Number 01, Valkyrie Model. What are your orders, commander?" The girl said in a rather stiff and mechanical way.

"Eh?"

The words coming out of the young lady's mouth were understandable now, and yet, Gabriel could only reply with a dumb look on his face as if he couldn't understand what the young lady was saying.

"Come again?"

"I am Unit Number 01, Valkyrie Model. Commander, what are your orders?" The young girl repeated. This time, her wording wasn't so stiff, but her tone was still cold and robotic.

"..."