“Come with me, little buddy. I’m taking you someplace wonderful where you’ll be cleaned off, fixed up and have plenty of friends.”
He does care for this “hero 1” robot just like it was a human. Perhaps even more, because it can’t defend itself. “Erik approached him to investigate” a cute little talking dog 🐕. Imagining it, he is completely surrounded by robotic creatures he actually rescued himself. He interacts with the just like they all are a living organism. That’s kind of exciting and tempting as well.