My eyes went unfocused as I stared blankly into the distance… well, not entirely.

  In reality, it had taken half an hour before Mimi finally stopped nagging me.

  In my defense, my brain was still only half?functional after the cryosleep, not to mention this whole absurd situation I had woken up to. Could she at least consider that?

  Of course, I wasn’t stupid enough to actually say that out loud.

  I simply swallowed my resentment and looked away, escaping the lecture the moment it finally ended.

  What? People might think I’m a coward for doing that?

  Well, I once tried arguing back. She nagged me for an entire month afterward.

  I’m not stupid enough to repeat that mistake again.

  Now that the nagging had finally ended, I was walking down the long corridor toward the dock while Mimi walked beside me with measured steps, perfectly matching my pace instead of floating like she did in the command bridge.

  She often did this to simulate companionship… as if she were actually there with me.

  The corridor stretched ahead in a perfectly aligned passage, wide enough for several people to walk side by side without crowding. The floor was layered in polished stone?like composite, its pale surface reflecting the soft glow of recessed lighting set along the base of the walls. Each step produced only the faintest whisper of sound, as if the entire passage had been designed to swallow noise.

  The walls were finished in smooth panels of soft white metal, divided by thin lines of brushed gold trim that ran the entire length of the hall. Between these panels hung framed paintings and sculpted reliefs—subtle pieces rather than ostentatious displays—each evenly spaced with precise care. Thus making it felt less like a ship’s passageway and more like a gallery inside an aristocratic estate.

  Soft ambient lights were embedded along the ceiling in elegant linear patterns, casting a warm, balanced illumination that removed harsh shadows. This was the only element in the corridor that revealed the presence of technology. Doors lined the corridor at measured intervals, each one tall and seamless, their pale surfaces engraved with the golden crest of the Marquis household. At intervals along the passage, shallow alcoves held minimalist sculptures, carefully placed like decorations in a noble residence.

  Everything was spotless and meticulously maintained—just the way Mimi liked it. The utility bots clearly worked under her strict standards.

  I gave her a side glance. I could even hear the faint echo of her holographic footsteps matching mine. She started doing this after I refused to get any crew or heroes onboard Minerva. Because of the background story assigned to her when I created my character—my digital maid—her entire focus was on my wellbeing… and she had been nagging me endlessly about pride, lineage, and propriety.

  Which explains why the interior of my ship now looks like a five?star hotel. Dignity, prestige, propriety, honor—anything that wouldn't bring shame to my lineage—was clearly factored into the design.

  I love a futuristic, mechanical aesthetic, but my ship ended up looking like a noble fanboy’s fantasy version of whatever house.

  Beside that, the only change in our setup was that I was wearing a lightweight power suit now rather than the bulky power armor I usually wore.

  This was just an ordinary power suit that increased my basic stats and didn’t even have a power reactor. I took it from my room, since most of my equipment had degraded in one form or another. And being simple, it was faster to repair than the other power suit… and all my clothes there were ruined too.

  People probably wondering why I didn’t check my inventory? Well, this game doesn’t have a conventional inventory or storage. It focuses on being somewhat realistic and doesn’t include those things… though, of course, there are exceptions—like the item box and Alchemy box, which generate ore or materials each day. But those items were something you get from an event and most of what I have come from scavenging in the battlefield.

  Anyways, this power suit relied entirely on the user’s energy sources.

  In-game, there were multiple energy types and sources—mana, Ki, mentality, electromagnetic, and so on. I actually had three.

  The first came from my class, Mechanic: the Electromagnetic Force. It’s an energy type every Mechanic has. As you level up and gain mastery, you can unlock secondary effects or enhancements. I chose Gravity Force, which lets me lighten or increase the weight of anything my electromagnetic forces touch.

  The second came from my Void Dragon lineage: Void Energy, a chaotic energy source originating from my Void Heart. It is similar to the martial art Ki.

  The third came from my Demonic race, via the Mana Crown — similar to a demon mana core, except the Mana Crown is located in the horn. It serves as one of the mana sources for a demon and symbolizes rank and authority. This is why demons with many horns tend to have more mana and power. This allows me to use Mana as an energy source as well.

  The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.

  Besides this, there’s stamina and HP too, but those are mostly “imaginary” stats—the game doesn’t really show them as numerical values, after all.

  Some classes or races do use HP and stamina as energy sources, but I don’t—except for stamina, which almost every race uses, except undead.

  It sounds cool, having a hybrid of two races, but you only get three slots for traits. You can even pick multiple races, but traits tend to weaken the more races you combine. That’s why I only chose the two races available to me… well, rather than “choose,” they were forced on me when my background story was generated.

  Traits are something you can get upon character creation. You can pick any available from your race or a random trait assigned during background creation.

  Choosing both the Void Heart and Mana Crown already limited me a lot, because those two races had a lot of strong traits I left unselected. And having multiple energy sources tends to carry significant side effects. I was only lucky to get another available trait that allowed me to stabilize this build: Harmony. It’s simply a trait that stabilizes all my energy sources and some minor functions.

  Thus this power suit is nothing but an advanced clothing I'm currently wearing for convenience.

  As i was thinking about this thing while walking. Mimi on the other hand has multiple holographic panels floating around her as multiple diagnoses about the ship are being displayed in real time.

  “It seems like we were drifting on space for a hundred and nine years” Mimi reported as a matter of fact like it was an ordinary occasion. Well when the game has a major update, there tends to have a few years interval so it wasn't really new to her and treat it as normal gyrosleep function. But for me, this is definitely different from game update.

  The world is no longer as digital as before after all.

  And my race and her don't really have a concept of age as we can live for a very long time.. particularly dragon race and demon.

  But I wonder why the corridor still as clean as the last time I saw it?

  “20% overall damage on AEMP (Armour energy matrix plating) as multiple plating was detached from the ship exterior as we drift offline. The hall and armour integrity hardly damage while multiple secondary reactors need change of the stabilizer.” she reporting some minor damages the ship sustained as we drift offline and I would only do a slight nod to indicate I'm still listening.

  “Besides that…” Mimi suddenly stopped, her form flickering as she stared at one particular panel, full of doubt.

  When I glanced at it, I saw two modified Utility Bots and a LabBot.

  Eh???

  I froze, my own expression matching hers—doubt written all over my face..

  Well mine is full of curiosity probably different from hers.

  There are three active units aboard my ship: the utility bot with a humanoid appearance—Mimi always wanted to customize it to look like a maid, but I refused—the LabBot in the medical bay, a quadrupedal frame with extended arms on top, and the maintenance bot, similar to a quadrupedal frame but with an extra modular container on its back.

  But now, two utility bots had adapted a quadrupedal form—but instead of feet, the lower half had four additional arms. The upper body even had six arms, with an additional battery mounted on their backs. The smooth head they usually had now carried new types of lenses mounted on it, and multiple cracks could be seen across the facial surface to accommodate those modifications.

  And it seemed those extra limbs came from the same type of utility bot. Did they scrap other units, or take them from the maintenance facility?

  Meanwhile, the LabBot now had a crude upper torso mounted onto its quadrupedal frame with four arms. A modular pack was connected to the lower back of its body like a spider’s egg sac, its compartments unfolding to reveal rows of medical instruments that seemed to have been modified for botanical needs—precision laser scalpels, soil probe needles, micro-sprayers for nutrients and antifungal agents, and racks of sealed sample vials for harvested herbs.

  I didn’t even know how I could clearly identify those functions with just a single glance at those modified instruments.

  Self-modification is forbidden under Empire AI regulations, and any AI that does so is classified as a rogue AI. There are game events based on this, treating rogue AIs as enemies of the Empire. And there's a function for those types of AI and players.

  Thus, the Empire maintains very strict regulations and restrictions on AIs. Those placed on AIs like Mimi are particularly heavy—she doesn’t even have direct authority over Unit AIs or working bots. Only Supervisor AIs are permitted to control Unit or Working Bots. And since most units tend to have limited cognition anyway, it is highly unlikely they would ever go rogue.

  Besides the three branches—Government, Military, and Civilian—there is a clear hierarchy for all AIs in the Empire. At the top sits the Main AI, or Overseer, which supervises the entire system but has no direct control over lower units. Below it is the Executive AI, responsible for a specific field or department and guiding the Chief Operator AIs. The Chief Operator AI manages a single facility or ship, coordinating Supervisors under its command. Supervisor AIs oversee specific units or site and can issue direct orders to Unit AIs or working bots, which are limited in intelligence and execute only their programmed tasks.

  Beside, Mimi functions as the Chief Operator AI of Minerva. She also lost her physical body in order to gain the qualifications required to become a Chief Operator AI.

  Also, I only have a single Supervisor AI with direct control over the units in the Medical Bay, leaving most other bots under strict preprogrammed limitations.

  So… why do I have three modified bots aboard my ship? Moreover, they modified some of my Ship's facilities?

  In the panel, the two utility bot has modified the plantation and somehow able to turn it into a forest with a functioning ecology.. most of the plant there wasn't even something I recognised anymore.. there's even towering trees and rivers in there?

  On the other hand.. the herb garden has the same atmosphere but only a single LabBot is working on it..

  They seemed to have broken one of the production water facilities and turned it into a working water circulation system for these two facilities. How did they modify it? Did some maintenance bot do it?

  I was planning to check the other bots when the plantation interior around those utility bots suddenly morphed, multiple gun barrels pointing at them. Some broke through the ground, tearing the soil apart; others emerged from the walls, and a particularly large number of turrets unfolded from the ceiling.

  On the other panel, the security sentries were slowly being activated. Many of them appeared heavily damaged from the lack of maintenance, yet they still followed the command issued to them and began preparing to storm toward the herb garden.

  “How dare you destroy my young master’s house!!!!!”

  A raging voice suddenly echoed throughout the ship’s interior as Mimi’s holographic form, forms a furious raging Aura around her.

  The barrels seemed ready to fire at any moment.

  “Wait, wait, wait!!!! Mimi, calm down! Don’t shoot, don’t shoot!” I hurriedly tried to calm her down as I saw how enraged she was when the way she addressed me changed from Captain to Young Master.

  Young Master was her original way of addressing me from the very beginning, back when she was only a Unit AI at the start of my journey as Grim. It only changed to Captain as my ship grew larger and larger.

  So I knew exactly how angry she was right now. Mimi follows the Empire’s regulations with absolute conviction. Even my decision to run away from that political marriage was deeply condemned by her, and she has been nagging me about it ever since.

  Right now, if she had a real body, I would probably already be jumping onto her back and clinging to her, trying to stop her from killing someone.

  “There’s no way a Utility Bot and a LabBot could have done those modifications on their own… there’s just no way. So calm down… for a bit. Besides, it’s already been a hundred years since the ship went offline. It’s actually admirable that they managed to preserve those facilities this long without a proper reactor supplying energy to them. Besides, the ship’s interior seems well maintained for something that has been inactive for a hundred years.”

  Right now, all I could do was wave my hands in front of her and try to give her a reason not to shoot her own bots.

  It seemed my reasoning somehow stopped Mimi, as she finally looked a bit calmer. So, to seal the deal, I gave her another option.

  “How about we lock them up for now and focus on those pirates we captured a while ago? Yeah?”

  “Fine… understood. For now, we will postpone the disposal of this rogue AI.”

  We haven’t even confirmed that yet.

  She pointed at the screen panel, indicating for me to take a look, and tapped it a few times.

  “Don’t be naive, Young Master. A unit doesn’t have the capability or processing power to tremble like that in front of death. Those clearly show functions that were never programmed into them.

  You should know how the Empire views this type of uncertainty. It is part of your education.”

  “I’m your captain!!!”

  “An immature one at that.”

  I could only grind my teeth at her rebuttal.

  Seeing that I wasn’t backing down, Mimi finally relented. “Fine, Captain. Let’s drop this subject for the time being and focus on the urgent matter.”

  With that, the problem regarding the rogue units came to a temporary end.

  World Tree.