From the upper half of the robot’s head, a holographic light shined, blinding out the rest of the enormous facility from Tenner’s view. A screen at the end of the light contained a line of text -- “Do you have a clearance level?”

“None.” He struggled up, keeping his eyes on the screen.

“Leave this area immediately. Do you need to be escorted?”

“No.” Tenner stepped forward, grabbing the plank he’d dropped when the robot karate kicked his gut. Letting said gut make the choice, he hadn’t thought that the machines would--or even could--take such a cheap shot at him.

“I repeat one last time: leave this area immediately.”

Oh, Tenner would leave, but he’d only go back if he was dead and forward if there were three metallic corpses under his foot. As if reading his thoughts, the other two robots backed off and formed a half-circle around him.

Hours ago I was playing with kids at cards, now I’m having a showdown with a group of robots in a massive underground complex.

Tenner laughed at the absurdity. He swung his plank. The screen rippled. The wood shattered on the robot’s head, launching splinters everywhere. The robot’s yellow eyes flashed and its squad approached from both sides.

Tenner dodged the first wave of melee attacks. He went in circles, trying not to trip over the parts scattered on the floor as punches, kicks and rams whizzed by centimeters from his face.

The fight against a machine was different from a fight against man: no use of basic tricks, distractions, or abuse of humans’ faults. The robots used human moves but did so faster than any human could. The choppiness of their attacks made it hard to predict when they’d land.

If Tenner didn’t get the dodging down, he wouldn’t make it to the fighting back part. His focus went to his movement and pure practicality. The process was tedious. His muscles drained his energy by the truckload. The droids worked in tandem, had perfect awareness and didn’t waste a single move.

But because they didn’t have any human faults didn’t mean they didn’t have any faults whatsoever.

Kicking ass was like playing cards and even though he hadn’t been in a lot of fights, he was amazing at cards. In both, there was randomness, but if one were to look closely, the randomness came in patterns. A player couldn’t determine what he drew. It was random. But he chose the strategy and could see what his opponent had drawn through their methods. These robots had combos of attack, patterns that they constantly switch up -- randomness.

After looking deep enough, something off in the jumble of patterns glowed like a light in the night to Tenner. His joints vibrated with pain, his lungs couldn’t keep up, but he grinned.

In most simple terms, one robot attacked whilst the other two tried to trap him.

The smell of hot oil filled the air. The droid on the right came in for a grapple.

Dodging the grab, Tenner hopped left, bent away from a punch and crouched. As something flickered in his fist, the middle droid swung a punch. Tenner grabbed the metallic arms and pulled the robot after himself. It panicked. It tried breaking free. He held on and hugged. The cool metal washed the heat away from his skin and drops of oil reignited it.

The other droid couldn’t cancel its action, grabbing its friend. They detected each other as a threat. And they had to exterminate all threats. Tenner put his hands on their shoulders, loosed his muscles and boosted upwards. Years of getting tossed into the barrier paying off!

Tenner didn’t go high enough to stomp their heads. The air a few meters above ground was completely different. It let him smell his sweat for a flash. Then the floor called. Falling back down, he managed to grab onto a droid. The robot followed Tenner to the ground. Its crash almost shook his organs out of his sides and still dizzy, he climbed atop the metal body and punched until--one by one--all the lights on the robot’s face went out. Tenner let go and the pain overpowered him. He glared at hands purple from bruises. Then the droid slapped him away. Tenner’s face burned and jaw numbed, and he ground his teeth, and crawled back atop the robot, and it slammed a metal hand into his side. The robot stood up, looking as battered as an old card deck. The beating did something to its computer: it didn’t see its fellow robots as foes anymore. Two of them backed away, forming a wall. And the battered one went wild.

This is it, Tenner thought, starting to breathe through his mouth. Now I’m finally a threat.

The air around the droid’s punches rocked Tenner before they even hit. And they were precise, not letting him get away. He returned to the start and let himself forget about attacking. He had to dodge. He had to survive. No matter his efforts, the robot tripped him and kicked his guts.

Flashing warning signs, damage messages and a goofy video he’d made by the Comandotron to explain how screwed he was all appeared in his sight. But he couldn’t laugh. Laughing hurt. And blood spurted out of his mouth. Goodness, I hate that taste! Before a second kick could send his guts flying, he grabbed the droid’s leg and rolled out of the way.

Tenner was back at a safe distance. The robot was too damn fast. Three breaths later, it had caught up and Tenner fell to the floor. It kicked, but this time he rolled out of the way and went between its legs, straight towards a levitating toolbox.

Footsteps of the two-robot wall tightening the ring and one robot chasing shook the ground.

Tenner’s hand found a wrench. And yelping, he threw it.

The tool ripped off a sheet of metal that hid some of the droid’s innards. Now, the fight was closer to fair.

Ignoring damage that would’ve killed a soldier, the robot leaped at Tenner.

He stood his ground at the sight of a metal machine rain. Even when his instincts showed death. Then he punched the open part of its face. His knuckles cracked. The robot, for a moment, convulsed. It fell beside him. The two-robot wall stole even more area from the fighting ring.

There were terminals and floating toolboxes, and no way out.

You didn’t corner me! An idea flashed through his mind. Just changed my strategy! He grabbed a screwdriver. He rammed it into the robot’s eyehole. It spawned glitched text around itself. Grunting, Tenner kicked the robot in the chest then stomped on its head.

Metal shattered under his foot. The robot, at last, went limp.

“You are extremely hostile. I shall use deadly force unless you give in,” the two remaining robots shined holograms and grabbed weapons--black sticks with small blades sticking out--from hatches in their sides.

Yeah, they’ll do what they want. But I killed one of them and the rest aren’t far behind. Tenner grabbed every tool the toolbox contained and started throwing. A few missed. One tool hit a glowing pillar. Lightning bolts shot out from the shattered screens. This is the most awesome thing I have ever seen.

With the rhythm of the lightning behind them, the droids swiped and slashed. Tenner dodged and threw tools. The pain from the beating got to him and his accuracy died.

The electrical chaos ended and the room seemed as dark as the neighborhood in the night.

The inside of the pillars was half molten, half red hot. No matter the darkness, the droids neared. Tenner pushed them back with pliers in one hand and a hammer in the other: the hammer swung from point to point, stopping the attacks from crushing his face while the pliers worked slicing the other droid. Dodging, attacking and sucking up a few weak blows left Tenner exhausted beyond words’ explanation. There’s gotta be another way to defeat these things. He glanced at the metal corpse on the floor and the carnage all around.

“Stop!”

The robots didn’t register his words.

“I give in!” Tenner pleaded. “Escort me back, pleeeeease!”

“Understood. You are no longer hostile. You will be escorted back to your clearance level area, Tenner,” the robots responded with a pair of screens.

That was easy, Tenner chucked the tools backward and he fell to the ground. But you’re a dumb pair if you think this is the end of me. The glowing pillar shattered and fired three red bolts: the first and second zapped the first robot, melting its skin whilst the third knocked the second droid to the ground.

The sounds, the sights, the feeling of electricity and the heat were utterly awesome, but the annihilation of a foe who deserved it dwarfed everything.

In a snap, the storm ceased. You’re dead. Tenner got up and inspected the carnage. You’re dead and you’re-- not. One robot clung on, rolling on the floor, releasing sparks and an array of glitched holograms from its head.

“You imprisoned me, locked me in the same neighborhood as my parents and tried to kill me,” Tenner said. “Screw you.” He stomped on the head.

Pain blasted through his forehead.

[Congratulations! LVL up | Reward: +1 Intelligence; +1 Strength; +1 Endurance; +2 Dexterity; +1 Reaction | Simple health bar]

[Congratulations! Gained perk: Way of the Door-opener I ]

***

The sensory overload subsided. Slowly, Tenner sat up -- moving even a centimeter was a fight. After a few tries, he got to his feet, and two more later, he managed to stay standing on those feet. Less enjoyable than getting thrown into the barrier, he thought, shaking his head. But at least brought me a level up.

[Name: Tenner

Username: ---

Class: ---

Health: ++

Money: 12C$

LVL: 2

LVL EXP: 75

BP: --

Intelligence: 5

Charisma: 3

Luck: 8 (+1)

Eyesight: 6

Reaction: 5 (+1)

(-)Dexterity: 6

(-)Stealth: 3

(-)Strength: 3

(-)Endurance: 1]

[Way of the Door Opener I

Bonus: +1 Reaction; +5% chance to succeed in picking a lock

Fate Is My Weapon I

Bonus: +1 Luck; 2% chance to impair surrounding CHEK’s physical skills]

So much carnage for so little…

“It’s nice, isn’t it, a new health bar and a few skills for destroying a small army of metal killing machines? Why do you ever give up our methods when the world’s like this?”

Two figures appeared on the edge of his vision. He was too exhausted to engage them. Fighting the twitching, Tenner grabbed the chip that cast the holographic map and put it into his pocket. An overview of the whole complex floated in the bottom right of his vision. High time to get out.

Tenner had come from a massive circle--Realm 349--traveled down a long line--the maintenance tunnel now infested with rats--for a short while before diverging into a tiny room -- the operating machines’ backup warehouse. Many little tunnels came out of it. The one he’d chosen ended up in the massive server room that contained dozens of entrances and exits, most of them broken. The few that still operated also required a clearance level. Luckily, with the Commandotron, and some help from laziness, he’d given himself clearance to every exit.

Another sign of my ingenuity. Tenner grinned. I could foresee something like this happening.

There were a few Realm exits on the other side of Realm 349 and one at the end of the maintenance tunnel. A blurred path surrounded by glowing warning signs of all colors of the rainbow led to it as well. Somebody really didn’t want Tenner to find whatever they were hiding in that shortcut. Tenner took a wrench he had fought with and tucked it behind his belt, then turned to the dead robots, grabbing one of their weapons.

“Inspect?”

[Name: ???

LVL: ???]

[Error: inspect blocked]

Even from the dead, they’re screwing with me. He sighed. Have some honor, droids! You lose a fight, you bow to the winner!

[Weapon: Razorod

Damage: min. 4]

At least inspecting the weapon worked. Yes, the CHEK showed the bare minimum, but that was enough, for now. Tenner had gotten lost in the holographic screens and didn’t notice one big detail: the razorod was in his hand, but the dead robot hadn’t let go.

Tenner frowned, pulling harder.

The robot’s arm stiffened and the mechanisms inside it shifted. Gears creaked, pressure released and rust crawled into his nose.

A rush of adrenaline helped Tenner win the tug of war. The robot’s upper body ripped away from its legs. The two halves shook as if possessed by the spirit of a long-dead earthquake, and used the little movements to boost towards Tenner.

Tenner swung the razorod at the upper half of the robot. Metal clashed. The machine overpowered the attack and knocked Tenner farther back. He’d already won once and gotten what he needed. But that robot had disrespected him. It had to die. Regaining his balance, he went in.

[Warning! Damage: -5 to health]

The two halves knocked Tenner even farther back into the maze of servers. Now, the odds tipped in favor of machine and the rematch started seeming like a bad idea.

Can’t stop now.

Tenner graciously jumped around the robot’s remains, attacking with the razorod. He carried everything out perfectly, but his tired muscles missed the needed oomph. The robot’s remains kept blocking, landing blows, making him retreat so deep into the maze that the sole source of light in some of the corners was his glowing map.

This isn’t working, Tenner’s back landed on a server. He took a few deep breaths. The metal in the air stung his lungs. He started climbing the server. It rattled. It swayed. It held off the robot remains. It crashed.

Tenner started digging himself out. No time to waste.

The robot’s upper body--which had demolished the tower--grabbed Tenner and brought him through another pair of servers. On the verge of death, it didn’t care about its responsibility of upkeeping the place -- it had to kill the intruder. Else he might do more damage than just ravage the servers.

Tenner collided with a server and, holding on, kicked. The robot’s legs kicked too. They were stuck in a stalemate where none could stop for even a split second if they didn’t want to be turned into mush.

The stack of servers behind him crashed, clearing the way for a retreat. Everything turned red -- some sort of light flashed from behind him. With all his force, he pushed the legs away and staggered to the source.

All sorts of warning signs of all colors of the rainbow floated around a pit in the floor.

***

Wreckage stuck out of the brown cave walls while destroyed armor and pools of crimson covered the ground. No wonder there had been that many warning signs. Tenner--hands clenching the wrench, back to a piece of wreckage--hyperventilated.

Come on, metal legs, I’m waiting. But my responsibility to erase you from this planet doesn’t have too much patience.

This short break, of course, was only fair, considering that he fought two opponents at once and how exhausted he was. This level of tiredness could only compare to running from a mob for half a decade. So he enjoyed its every second. He tried to take deep breaths and drag the moment out for longer. Naturally, it went by in a flash.

The robot, or what was left of it, wouldn’t come down.

For the first time, Tenner looked away from the pit above and faced the darkness. Having regained quite an amount of energy, he could rush out and finish the droid. His arms twitched in anticipation and inside he knew how easily he could destroy those legs, and how much they deserved it. Yet for a second, the rare doubt crept into his head: he was in awful shape, had lost all of the fight’s momentum and already failed to defeat them once -- what would change now? Lastly, he was alone in this. He didn’t need to listen to his parents. He didn’t need to prove to anyone he could do it.

That second had done enough that when his confidence returned, he still went against his instinct and stepped into the darkness.

After a while, the aftermath of a gruesome scene faded and led into a bright section of the cave: green and cyan crystals stuck out of the rocky walls, giving it a surreal look.

It’s like I’m walking among the stars, passing galaxies…

Tenner grinned and touched a crystal.

The blue one was cold while the green -- hot.

The more the cave widened, the fewer crystals came into view. In the vast darkness, faint glimpses of light glimmered. And the lights were, a creature grumbled.