Translator: Atlas Studios Editor: Atlas Studios
It required four to five days to travel from Sanctuary One to Graymetal Ruins across the wilderness, so the convoy could only camp in the wild.
At around dusk of the first day after departure, at Han Xiao’s orders, the convoy found a safe terrain in the wild and settled down. It was dangerous to travel after the sun set, and many beasts were active during the night.
The soldiers of Dark Net patrolled the surrounding areas in shifts. Han Xiao gathered the important people in the team for a meeting—Assistant Huang Yu, Head of Construction Coney Fury, and Guard Captain Liu Zhao.
The blueprints of the Graymetal Ruins Modification Plan were laid out on the table, and Coney Fury was speaking.
“The initial modifications of the entire city were estimated to be completed in three months, including weeding, getting rid of the beasts, cleaning of ruins, then completing the basic layout of the shelter, planting of the electricity network and water pipes, etc. But this is a plan based on 30,000 workers. We only have 1,000 in the first month. There’s nothing we can do, not even cleaning the ruins.” Coney Fury sighed.
Han Xiao nodded without giving approval or denial. He looked at Huang Yu and asked, “Do you have any suggestions?”
Huang Yu said perfunctorily, “No.”
Noticing the careless attitude of Huang Yu, Han Xiao roughly guessed what he was thinking. But Han Xiao didn’t care about it; it was not like he needed an assistant. He turned his head and said, “Manpower is not a problem—I plan to complete the blueprint construction within a month.”
Coney Fury was stunned. “That will need at least 100,000 workers. Even Sanctuary One doesn’t have that many workers.”
“I have my ways.” Han Xiao did not explain his plan in further detail.
Huang Yu stood by and watched. The amount of money needed to hire 100,000 workers was extremely large, and even with so much money, it was not certain they could hire that many workers. He did not understand where Han Xiao got his confidence from.
Liu Zhao suddenly pressed his headphones and said hastily, “Mr. Black Phantom, an airplane is closing in!”
“Let’s go out and take a look.”
Walking out of the camp, the guards looked at the sky on alert. In the dark night sky, a large airplane flashing signal lights was heading toward them—whether it was friend or foe was unknown.
“It’s ok.” Han Xiao smiled. “That’s the airdrop I called.”
The plane flew past above their heads and dropped a few huge resources boxes that were tied together. The parachute opened, and it landed not far from the camp. The symbol on the boxes belonged to the Fabian Company.
Han Xiao made use of his relationship network and had Fabian’s plane airdrop him a large number of mechanical parts. It definitely was not free, but Han Xiao had a lot of money. Such a small spend meant nothing to him.
Everyone was relieved upon hearing that it was a false alarm.
Huang Yu was secretly surprised. To be able to call an airdrop from the renowned munitions company Fabian, Han Xiao’s relationship network was broader than he thought.
These parts were worth millions of dollars. Han Xiao ordered people to load them onto the resources vehicles and started to build a large amount of machinery. He was very rich now, so he could build all sorts of combat machinery, and they could be used to protect the team as well.
The most famous combat style of Mechanics was the sea of machinery.
Han Xiao stayed in the car and worked for the next two days of the journey.
…
The convoy had arrived at the desert. The sun shone brightly in the sky, and the high temperature had turned the sand as hot as burning steel. Even light was distorted around the air not far from the ground.
The convoyed stopped under a Barbera tree. This type of tree was unique to the desert of Planet Aquamarine. It was also called ‘umbrella of life’. Its shade was like an island that insulated the heat, and its juices were plenty and sweet, which could be used to quench thirst immediately.
The people were very thirsty. The soldiers patrolled around, and everyone was covered in sweat.
Boom!
The desert far away suddenly turned into waves. A huge number of enormous beetles crawled out of the ground. Each of them over half a meter long, they had brown and shiny shells, six feet, and two claws. They moved toward the Barbera tree like a wave.
“Beast attack!”
The alarm was activated. Three hundred soldiers immediately stood in position holding their guns. When they noticed that the sea of beetles had surrounded them from every direction and there was nowhere to escape, their faces became horrified, and their hands started trembling.
The Desert Blood Shell Crab was a strong predator in the deserts that destroyed every life form wherever they passed by, and there were at least 10,000 of them here.
“Into the cars and drive open a path!” Huang Yu yelled hastily. He then rushed up the helicopter and hurried the pilot to take off immediately.
No one had the thought of fighting when they faced this many bugs. When they heard Huang Yu’s order and were just about to enter the cars to escape, Han Xiao walked out of the car and said, “Don’t panic. Everyone stand in position. Get ready to face the enemy.”
“The number of bugs is too huge,” Captain Liu Zhao said hastily. “Our defense can’t cover all directions. We will most likely suffer a huge loss if we fight.”
“Black Phantom, come to the helicopter quickly,” Huang Yu shouted.
Han Xiao waved his hands.
Huang Yu cursed in his head. Seeing that the sea of bugs was coming even closer, he told the pilot to take off immediately without caring about Han Xiao. The pilot was afraid as well; therefore, he followed the order and piloted the helicopter off the ground.
The troops on the ground did not dare disobey Han Xiao’s order. They stood their ground and watched nervously as the swarm of bugs rapidly approached.
At this moment, Han Xiao took out his laptop and pressed a few buttons.
Hum!
Twelve Combat Rangers drove out of the logistics vehicles as fast as normal cars. Everyone’s face was filled with shock as they looked at these rover robots rapidly spreading out into all directions like guards of iron. The cold metallic color reflected the light shining through the leaves like pieces of golden scales.
These rovers were the newest and improved generation 2.5. Han Xiao had leveled up the blueprint many times. The basic attributes of the machinery that he had built was much higher, and its quality was at blue as well.
The Generation 2.5 Rovers were all equipped with an auto fire control system, which improved its firepower and magazine continuation ability. They were around the same height as humans, and their mobility was much higher because of the triangular caterpillar tracks that they were equipped with, which could traverse much tougher terrain.
Han Xiao knew that it would not be peaceful during the journey when the mission notification showed up, so he had called for airdrop and built a lot of machinery over the past two days.
Han Xiao’s building speed had become much quicker, and the rover robot that would have taken him days to complete at LV 20 could now be completed in just tens of minutes.
When the building speed of a Mechanic exceeded a certain limit, they would be able to build on the spot in the battlefield. With enough materials, weapons could be built non-stop. Only high-level Mechanics could have this ability after learning [Instant Assembly]. This was also a very important factor in the rise of Mechanics in version 3.0.
“Unload all the round metal plates in the car and place them in every direction.”
The Dark Net soldiers completely followed whatever he said. They immediately did as they were told and placed the twenty round metal plates on the ground. Han Xiao activated the program, and the plates started to transform. Their base fixed into the ground, and the stacked modules assembled into gun barrels. The entire process only took four to five seconds.
These were Mini Folding Batteries. Han Xiao had also leveled up the blueprints, and they now had smart firepower control.
Seeing the thick, black, and long gun barrels, the soldiers felt safer.
When the swarm reached within 400 meters, the generation 2.5 Rovers and the mini batteries fired simultaneously. With the camp under the Barbera tree as the center, a storm of bullets bloomed toward every direction.
The sound of fire was in sync, and the rain of bullets spread all over the place!
Ta ta ta ta!
In an instant, green-colored gunk exploded within the swarm as steel and fire penetrated the huge beetles one after another. In the face of the killing machines built by mankind, the shells that the Desert Blood Shell Crabs were so proud of were as fragile as egg shells.
A trench had formed 400 meters away from the camp, filled with corpses of the bugs, stopping the swarm from moving closer. Even the desert was damped by their blood. After a round of fire, the swarm became at least a third smaller.
A few Rangers drove out of the camp. They were equipped with Sunworm flamethrowers. The cone of fire covered the swarm, and the sound of bugs being burnt alive soon reverberated in the convoy’s ears. The claws of the Desert Blood Shell Crab could not harm the platinum alloy armor of the Rangers at all.
With the fearsome firepower, it was a one-sided slaughter.
This was the brutal force of a mechanic!
Group combat was the advantage a Mechanic had. Esper and Pugilist might be very strong fighters, but their physical strength had its limits.
However, money was the limitation for a Mechanic. That machinery had cost millions of dollars, and even a max level player in version 1.0 could barely afford it. The ammunition cost was also extremely expensive as thousands of steel core armor piercing bullets were used every second.
Money had been a problem for Mechanics since the beginning. Building an army of machines was a very strong combat style of the Mechanic class, but it was also the most expensive one.
When the average level of the enemies become higher and they become stronger, the machinery army had to have higher standards and technology in them, which meant that their cost would increase as well.
Normal players could not master the army combat style very well. Even if they used all their money to build an army, they would not be able to withstand the cost of repairing the damage after combat. The army style was usually used as a last resort. However, Han Xiao was not bothered by the money problem since he had his ways of making a lot of money. He still did not want to go for the army combat style—he just wanted to build a simple guarding team that had enough firepower in times of need.
Liu Zhao held his assault rifle all the time and waited to fire when the swarm entered the range of 300 meters, but the swarm was completed stopped at 400 meters away by the rain of iron.
His hands were even tired from holding the rifle, yet he still did not see any need to fire.
This firepower is way too strong.
Liu Zhao looked at the batteries beside him that were firing bullets continuously, their bolts moved front and back automatically, the bullet shells poured onto the ground, some even hit his face.
With surprise, Liu Zhao realized he had nothing to do, Black Phantom’s machinery had dealt with all the enemies; the guards assigned by Dark Net had been of no use at all. There were completely not any need for them.
