*** Change and Conflict ***

The Masters eventually suppressed the mechanical robots’ massacre, with the users appearing after being sent a new mission request two hours into the attack. However, by that point, the damage was already done. The number of people who died worldwide was close to 100,000. These weren’t casualties from a war zone or an underdeveloped country; they were from the epicenters of the modern world. The mechanical robots targeted and attacked areas with high [population densities], such as Seoul, the Liberation Monument Square in China, and the Eiffel Tower in Paris, which Merlin had visited in the past. Hence, most people couldn’t push aside the losses and reality as a [distant matter].

The world fell into a state of shock.

Outside of the mind-blowing number of losses, the most shocking aspect for most people was that they didn’t know or understand the identity of their ‘enemy.’

National organizations had retrieved the mechanical robots that invaded their respective countries and initially tried to contain the release of any information regarding the assailants. They knew that the level of technology possessed by the robots was beyond...