From a distance, one could see a carriage with a unique two-wheeled machine in front—a two-wheeled car-like structure—pulling the whole metal carriage, and behind were six people on different beasts, which were far from normal animals, given their speed matched that of the carriage. Two individuals, in particular, dashed through the area belonging to darkbanes or nightbanes.
"Doodle, scan my brain," Joseph commanded, and thus succeeded in ordering the carriage's neural engine to scan his brain, given how he definitely felt that at the last moment he had heard a series of commands from Doodle that prepared to kill Nathan.
Among those commands, one was to save itself or recover the data. Ludo had embedded locks within his brain, which was one of the things that Doodle had learned from experience in this world.
Joseph, having used his neuro-engine mostly for battle purposes and needing an exoskeleton numerous times, commanded the engine to use his brain as a place to store its log codes in case there was a chance that the engine felt it would go through a hard reset.
At that moment, he contemplated that maybe due to some accident or shock, his neural engine might reset.
[Scanning]
[Found a few irregularities in brain]
[Embedded system logs with the same encryption as mine and several professional skills are detected which mismatch the user's previous brain scan]
"Overwrite yourself with those logs," Joseph said, feeling somewhat satisfied that the system, at the last moment, had done what it was instructed, as there was hope to recover Doodle to its overdrive mode, which was crucial for him.
Unlike in his previous life, he wasn't able to unlock Doodle's complete potential. He needed to rely on himself until the end.
[Overwriting in progress]
[ERROR]
[Trying again]
[ERROR]
[Overwrite unsuccessful]
"Check the reasons," Joseph seated calmly with his hands folded, knowing the reason but still inquiring to reconfirm it, given it was the sole reason why he had made these people enter the area of Darkbane.
[Engine's main firewalls are prohibiting any changes in primary code]
"Overwriting the logs after initiating mental resonance is possible, right?" Joseph had previously experienced in his past life a situation where the neural engine's main defense, programmed to protect the chip from any damage, activated the moment it needed to protect Joseph's brain—clearly showing that its priority was to preserve his mental well-being rather than its own.
[Yes, it's possible]
"....Let's see then." Through the small windows inside the garage, Joseph looked outside towards the forest, which appeared more like shadows metallized out of black ink, turning solid as the whole area was black, knowing that they were now going through the darkbane area.
As in literature, "bane" means a cause of great distress. When "dark" is added, it becomes similar to a curse. The primary area where dark pains are felt is mental strength, numbing one's mind and causing nightmarish pain that directly leads to brain damage and, ultimately, brain hemorrhage.
So, he was going to risk his life, which he knew would be protected due to the presence of that woman, clearly keeping a short distance from his carriage as protection. Given the orders from the Earl, he was just going to use them to overdrive his neural engine once again.
"Come out," Joseph, now putting aside the fact for which they had entered the darkbane area, called out his meta beast, given his control over the ability to provide it space and throw it out of his body. Suddenly, a light streak formed like starlight before materializing into a rat big enough to swiftly sprint near a corner, trembling with its body coiling like an armadillo, revealing a body design more like an armadillo than a rat.
"Peepi-Peepi..."
Joseph looked towards the meta beast trembling in fear, its tiny hands under the coiled shell, trembling as its eyes were shut, not wanting to look at him. The sheer terror and trauma attached to its behavior were clearly visible.
"What now?" Joseph looked at the beast's state, clearly recalling how, according to the plot of the game, the original Joseph, under the pressure of his mother to become a perfect heir, had tormented his beast, beating it, not giving it food daily, making it do excessive exercises, and putting pressure on its body until the beast went into an amorphous state—a state where the beasts, on the brink of death, turned into starlight to sleep within their soul bounds.
Living in this world, Joseph understood the difference between a mecha and a beast. Simply put, beasts have emotions. They are willing to die for their masters. Unlike mechas, which were just machines with enough potential to reach several heights, beasts were trying to cross their own limits based on emotional connections, as if they were a counterpart of humans.
But of course, emotions always break hearts and make others weak, which made mechas much better than these beasts. Even if they were to be destroyed, Joseph could just make another one or reprogram it without the hassle of consoling the mind of an already traumatized beast.
"Hey, little one, you see, I am sorry—" Joseph had just called out to the little trembling creature, which was definitely larger than his head, but given his child body, it was simply the size of a rabbit, trembling at each word. The moment Joseph spoke to the creature, even its body trembled more due to fear of being beaten.
"Peepi-Chu! Peepiii!"
It was as if his voice had instilled some nightmare in the beast's body.
"What should I do now?" Joseph, who had never once been close to a beast and had never had that kind of connection, found it difficult to talk with it, making him sigh before snapping his fingers as he called the beast back once again.
The little creature turned back into starlight before starting within his body, vanishing from its form, making Joseph realize that once he overdrives his neural engine, he would need to create an emotional bond with the beast, which was already traumatized.
"WE ARE SURROUNDED, EVERYONE, PREPARE FOR BATTLE!" The sharp voice resonated from Ytrisia as she called out to other members of the battalion. Suddenly, sensing how shadows around them started to move, signifying that darkbanes were already here, surrounding them, even before they could leave this place.
"YES, COMMANDER!" One after another, the members on their beasts swiftly increased pace as they surrounded the carriage which was now at a halt; given the speed of darkbanes, where they literally teleported through shadows, outmatching them in terms of speed was impossible, leaving them with no chance but to kill one or two of them to make the group run away.
'!'
'Finally,' Joseph as he heard the voice, tightened his hands before swiftly moving towards the small window. Through there, he saw the black monsters with bodies covered in white bandages. While an amethyst glow filled their bodies in the form of vines.
As the jaws sharp enough, damp with dripping saliva and an antenna over their heads gave away their appearance being that of nightbanes, which were one of the most dangerous wild beasts in terms of mind attacks, and it became evident the moment the carriage halted instead of moving.
'A chief?', Joseph knowing the attack pattern of the thieves of the nightbanes which create a fake illusion for the survivors or the tamers fighting them by instilling in the mind how nightbanes could teleport and move faster than any other beasts or even the machines creating a myth where people even considered them one of the fastest beasts, but in truth, the mind attacks made others slow rather than them faster.
"Ytrisia! Move the carriage, there is a chief among them!" Joseph, knowing what he needed to do, directly called out for Ytrisia as she had just arrived near the garage gate to protect Nightwings from entering it. As she did, hearing such words from the young master confused her, prompting her to look around before turning back at him.
"It's fine, Young Master, we will be able to deal with them by maintaining our formation," Ytrisia replied as she noticed how Joseph was aware of nightbanes having a chief. But even she had previously dealt with them; she assured him.
But soon enough, Albrian's voice reverted as he yelled,
"EVERYONE, ATTACK! WE NEED TO KILL THESE WILD RATS NOW!"
'!?'