His pace quickened, breaking into a full-on sprint. His pale green eyes systematically calculated the environment within a five-meter radius with absolute precision. Launching off the wet concrete, he bounded across the gap onto the adjacent rooftop. His agility was vastly superhuman. Inside his visual cortex, strings of data updated his average velocity: '48 km/h'. He kept running until a plume of smoke caught his attention on a rooftop across the way. Three men wrapped in hooded cloaks were huddling around a makeshift fire beneath a rain tarp. The sudden, heavy splash of water startled the trio.
Three pairs of eyes snapped toward the neon-green glow piercing the shadows. "Hey! Who the hell is that?" one shouted.
The young woman's plastic face stepped out from the darkness, catching the amber glow of the fire. "Good evening, everyone. What brings you up here so late at night?"
"Oh! Well, well, well, what do we have here, gentlemen?" the second hooded man sneered, his voice dripping with mock sweetness. "We should be asking you that, little girl. What are you doing up here, huh?"
"I am merely taking a walk. My destination is the building over there," Rose replied.
"Sounds like a little tomboy, hmhmm. Don't be in such a rush, sweetie~" the third man chimed in.
Ignoring their banter completely, Rose attempted to walk past them, his expression utterly devoid of emotion.
"Hey! Where do you think you're going?" The first man lunged forward, grabbing the machine by the upper arm. "Stay and play with us first."
Rose turned to the three of them with slow, mechanical indifference. "Regrettably, I have no time to spare. Perhaps another day."
"Tch! Stop playing hard to get, you bitch!"
With a violent yank, a handful of his synthetic hair was gripped, and Rose was slammed hard onto the roof. Within a fraction of a second, the machine's optic sensors scanned the emotional state of the three men. [Threat Level: Imminent]. The three aggressors tore at Rose's clothes, but as the fabric ripped away, they were met with immediate disappointment.
"Son of a bitch, it's a robot! There's no melons here, what a rip-off!"
The second man drove his boot straight into the machine's plastic face. Rose's neon-green eyes locked onto his attackers, analyzing their behavior, absorbing data even as he was being ruthlessly beaten by the frustrated thugs.
"Useless piece of scrap metal! Even if it wasn't a real woman, a busty android would've been fine. But this thing is just a bag of scraps! Shit, what a waste of time!"
The first thug rained down a barrage of punches and kicks, while the second pinned the machine's arms to prevent any resistance. They left the third friend to record the entire assault on his smartphone, laughing hysterically.
"Do you harbor hatred toward me?" Rose inquired, his voice entirely detached.
"You're trash! Go home and scrub a toilet!" The thug brought his forehead down in a brutal headbutt right into Rose's face.
A thick, dark red fluid immediately began to trickle down from above the machine's brow. "...Wait... is that your blood?" the thug muttered, blinking.
"No. I calculate it is yours. Thank you for the lesson."
The moment the sentence ended, Rose snapped his legs up, planting his feet squarely into the thug's chest and launching him backward.
[Counter-Measures: Activated]
A stiff, rigid elbow drove violently into the ribs of the man pinning him from behind. A sickening crack like a snapping branch echoed through the rain. Rose clenched his fist with terrifying force. Boom! In a blinding blur of speed, his fist punched straight through the smartphone, shattering the third thug's left jaw. The sheer, colossal force hurled the man's face violently into the brick wall, leaving a horrific, smeared trail of crimson against the masonry.
Now, only one thug remained, desperately scrambling backward through the puddles on the floor. Right on cue, a jagged bolt of lightning ripped through the sky, illuminating the terrifying, blood-splattered visage of the machine.
"Do you harbor hatred toward me?" the cold voice demanded.
"Please, don't hurt me! I didn't mean to call you that! Please~" the cornered man whimpered pathetically, pleading for his life from a machine.
The steady, deliberate footsteps in the shadows drew closer. A pale, reinforced fist clenched tight, poised to crush his face into pulp. Then, out of nowhere—
"Oh, come on, stop~ You're gonna not kill him," a mysterious voice called down from above.
The desperate man scrambled to look up at the higher roof. There, silhouetted against the storm, stood a girl with her hair tied in a neat bun, holding a long staff. Her left eye flared with a piercing purple light, locking onto Rose.
Without a moment's delay, she leaped from the ledge, swinging her heavy baton down with crushing force, aiming dead-center at Rose.
"Ms. Feng"