Chapter 713: Arsenal

Mo Long cautiously traversed the sewage channel, then entered the sewer.

From within the sewer, he slowly made his way, following the map, until he arrived at the familiar Police Headquarters, which was the operational base for all Patrol Officers, Peace Officers, and Armed Security Officers.

This place housed a large amount of armaments, with over two Grade Six mechs available for the highest-ranking Police Chief and the Armed Security Chief Instructor, making it the center of the city's armed forces.

He planned to come here to take a good look and search for the organization.

If he couldn't find the organization, he would at least grab two sets of mech parts to bring back, so Li Qi could also wear a mech; with Li Qi's help, their survival rate would surely increase significantly.

Thinking this, he tried to dig through the headquarters' sewer, hoping to emerge directly from a toilet.

Unfortunately, as he dug, he discovered that protective panels had been installed underground; clearly, when this place was built, it had already been considered that people might dig in from underground during wartime, and his mech simply didn't have the power to penetrate such panels.

There was no other way; he could only enter from the outside, hoping not to encounter any enemies.

His mech was now covered in mud and filth, but Mo Long no longer cared about these things; anyway, the sealing was very good, and the main thing to do now was to enter the headquarters.

It would be best if he could encounter his own people; if not, he must still enter the armory.

He couldn't come for nothing.

Scanning above from under the sewer manhole cover, confirming there were no living beings, he carefully opened the cover, quickly stood up, and then closed the cover again.

The stench of filth on him was strong, and the optical camouflage was no longer effective, so he didn't delay, but instead rushed straight towards the main gate.

Entering the outdoor green space, he plunged headfirst into the landscape pond within the green space, his movements incredibly nimble, his entry into the water quite standard, with almost no splash.

He quickly used swimming to clean his Physical Body, then swiftly got up, entered optical camouflage mode, and hid within a thicket of a tree.

This entire sequence of movements was fluid, completed in less than two seconds; if someone hadn't been paying attention, with just a blink, he would have already arrived in the tree.

Using the cover of the tree leaves, he cautiously observed his surroundings.

Although radar was useful, his eyes were still better.

Confirmed, there was no one here.

His heart sank.

He went to check the interior first, because the main gate was open.

Upon entering the interior, Mo Long's steps faltered.

Bodies, remains—all of them were his former colleagues: the stern director, the kind gatekeeper, those fat guys from the intelligence department who always slacked off, and the household registration sister who always had drinks delivered to her every night; now they were all laid out inside.

It was clear that the attack on all Patrol Officers back then was premeditated; even Li Qi and Mo Long were attacked, so how could the core Police Headquarters not be specifically targeted?

Judging from the surrounding damage, these people died instantly, perishing in the blink of an eye, without any struggle.

Mo Long originally wanted to collect their bodies, but after thinking about it, he decided against it.

There wasn't enough time, he had to continue exploring inside to find some parts or something; Li Qi's craftsmanship was good, and the shelter also had equipment, at least capable of maintaining mechs and the like.

This was also one of the reasons Mo Long didn't dare to act; a mech was essentially a consumable, a skilled combat pilot could generally operate a mech for over a year, but if it engaged in combat, its lifespan would drastically shorten to a hundred time-rings, and each overhaul required replacing a large number of spare parts and ammunition, otherwise problems would easily arise.

Many parts and resistors were single-use, meaning that many modules on him would normally be discarded and replaced after a single use.

Under conditions of ample logistics and full industrial capacity, the Advancement Alliance could easily supply a large number of mechs, allowing every pilot to depart in the best possible condition.

But in this state of disaster, there were no spare parts to replace; even the mech he wore was made by Li Qi disassembling his own set and combining two sets into one, so he had to use it sparingly.

He quickly finished touring the office building.

Everyone was dead.

Mo Long found it hard to describe the feelings with which he continued his subsequent actions.

However, he still dismantled some equipment, finding a bag to put them in; some of these were computational hubs, some were personal computing terminals, and there were also some energy pipelines containing precious metals.

He hoped they would be useful to Li Qi.

He made a makeshift package out of a blood-stained tablecloth, prepared these items, and then began moving towards his most important objective this time.

The armory.

It contained all the headquarters' mechs, repair equipment, and spare parts.

It even included some heavy firepower.

If this place was fine... he might even have a chance to establish an organization himself and then resist those half-human, half-insect invaders.

He approached the armory, still very cautious, because he wasn't stupid.

Even a fool would understand the importance of the armory, so those invaders would definitely prioritize it; perhaps someone was guarding it.

Mo Long cautiously approached the armory.

Indeed, it was guarded.

Two people were at the entrance, guarding the main gate; they were vigilant, but not fully focused, likely believing that the situation was settled and there were no more resistors, so they were slightly relaxed.

They weren't those gang members, but the assassin mechs that had attacked him before—military-grade products, much stronger in performance than ordinary Patrol Officer mechs.

However, the one he was currently wearing had been modified; Li Qi had strengthened its output, and it also had two cold fusion engines; as long as his nervous System could withstand it, then...

Ambush them.

Mo Long charged forward fiercely!

At that instant, he directly activated the mech's pre-set attack program.

This was a common Move for combat pilots; they would integrate their attack routines and self-judgment into a program, allowing them to focus on decision-making without having to think about how to lift their hands or Move their feet, as these things would be handled by the mech's pre-set program itself.

This kind of pre-set combat method was not a rigid, mechanical setup of a series of actions that would be completed with a single button press.

That kind was too clumsy and could not be applied in actual combat.

The actual pre-set combat method was essentially a decision tree algorithm, which sought possible expected values by constructing a decision tree, breaking down a certain Move and combat method into decision nodes and opportunity nodes, just like human thinking, capable of performing feasible and effective analysis and responses to external stimuli within a relatively short period of time.

As such, this pre-set combat method could even achieve on-the-fly Move changes, feints, and fakes, and would even temporarily learn from the opponent's actions; even relatively weaker true Grade Seven practitioners might not be able to outplay such a pre-set program.

But when encountering a more powerful Grade Seven, the opponent would be able to seize weaknesses; at such times, the pilot needed to exercise his own intelligence.

Which program to activate, when to terminate it, and so on—these things required experienced pilots; mass-produced, fully program-controlled unmanned mechs did exist, but they were difficult to undertake high-precision offensive missions.

The extraterrestrials were not fools either; they were also very intelligent, and facing mechanical programs, they would also use their brains to find ways to crack them, ultimately still requiring human decision-making to suppress them.

However, when the pre-set program activated, Mo Long felt—

Something was wrong.

This wasn't the pre-set combat method he was familiar with from the Patrol Officer.

This was a completely new Martial Skill!

When Li Qi modified the mech, he also changed his pre-set program!?

Despite his surprise, he didn't stop.

Because as a pilot of no low skill, he could perceive that this brand new pre-set combat method program... was much, much stronger than the original.

His attacks were like surging ocean waves, one after another!

The rapidly moving afterimages of the mech were like the ocean and its roaring waves sweeping in, tides surging, rushing forward!

The ocean was a whole, raising waves every minute and every second; each wave crest was independent, those wave crests were fists, these fists pushed and covered each other, the peaks swelling, forming sharp edges.

When these edges collided, they would immediately break open, producing a powerful burst! But it was silent, not a sound.

The reason was simple: although there were strong vibrations, the frequency of these vibrations had already far exceeded the range the ear could capture, turning into ultrasound.

Ultrasound swept around, the sound of each exploding wave crest was masked, followed by explosions and collapses, one wave striking another, merging into one, surging and powerful!

This was a Martial Skill from the world.

Carp Current Intent!

It could temporarily burst forth with double the power, like a carp leaping over the Dragon Gate, fighting with all its might!

This was the only Martial Skill Li Qi had learned from the Doctrinal Canon.

But clearly, this Martial Skill appeared so profound at this moment, its technique of exerting force already surpassing the Advancement Alliance's understanding of Martial Skill in this world.

After all, this was merely a technology-oriented civilization; for useless techniques like Physical Body Martial Skill, they tended to directly perform human body modifications.

But at this moment, the burst of power, combined with the sneak attack, almost instantaneously flattened the two assassin mechs.

They were truly... flattened alive, turning both the opponents and their mechs into two-dimensional objects.

Thankfully, the ground in this area had protective plating, which was why Mo Long couldn't dig in earlier, but now the plating helped him successfully inflict maximum damage.

If it had been muddy ground below, most of the damage would have dissipated into terrain changes, but the plating completely absorbed all the impact without damage, causing the opponents to suffer 100% of the damage.

This was like the difference between smashing concrete and landing on water.

Mo Long felt a bit dazed; he had just performed a Martial Skill that was completely not his, which put some pressure on his nervous System, but it was fine.

A little over a second later, he awoke from his daze.

Li Qi... truly lived up to his reputation as a rich Young Master; this combat method was probably developed by his family, right?

So powerful.

Thinking these thoughts, he immediately accelerated.

The armory door was locked, but there were signs of it being opened; clearly, the opponent had already bypassed it using technical means; from the interface, it seemed they had used the identity information of a high-ranking headquarters official to directly open the door.

Fortunately, it wasn't a program overwrite; it seemed this security System was quite robust, after all, it came from the capital, so its grade was definitely high, and it was normal for them not to be able to break it for a while.

Then, he scanned his iris on the armory.

Identity verification successful, the door opened.

He entered, then immediately locked it from the inside.

Before him lay sets of mechs, including spare mechs, and various repair parts, etc.

He took a deep breath and immediately began collecting and organizing the parts.

These were all essential supplies for the future, very important.

However, at this moment, he suddenly noticed the sound of clapping.

This made Mo Long stop what he was doing and look towards the source of the sound.

"There truly are still fish that slipped through the net; it's not in vain that I took time out of my busy schedule to stake out here for you all. Everyone else thought they were all killed, but I knew, there definitely weren't." He saw a half-human, half-insect cultivator, clad in armor, speaking the Advancement Alliance's language in a strange tone.

Mo Long didn't waste a single word.

Engine overload! Full power!

In just an instant, he had already flashed before the opponent, plasma light blades extended, their high temperature capable of cleaving world barriers, the blade body composed of magnetically confined fusion fuel, its temperature reaching sixty million degrees! This was the high temperature of a stellar core, his Great Sun True Fire directly outputted from his fusion engine!

In the Advancement Alliance's technology tree, this was a blade that mortal matter could never withstand; it could cut through any solid matter upon contact, and even forming such a blade required strong magnetic confinement.

Only protective panels with field properties could withstand it.

And living organisms rarely possessed such an ability.

The supersonic blade directly pierced the enemy's chest.

The feel was wrong, this was an afterimage!

Where did he go? The radar didn't detect him at all!

No wonder he hadn't been able to find the opponent despite so many scans before; the opponent seemed to possess some kind of detection-blocking power, because he had no equipment on him.

He achieved this through his Physical Body!

Those aliens were truly terrifying.

Thinking this, his mech immediately activated its force field barrier; a repulsive wall appeared on the mech's outer shell, enough to make most attacks 'slide off'.

The next moment, a blade appeared behind Mo Long, striking fiercely against the repulsive layer!

Most of the force was deflected, but the power of this blow was simply too immense; a small portion of the force actually forcibly broke through the repulsive layer, leaving a scar on his mech.

The mech, composed of high-strength alloy, was actually gashed by this blade!

Was this truly the power a biological entity should possess?!

Mo Long knew that some extraterrestrial civilizations focused on self-improvement, but he had never actually seen it, only heard rumors.

But today, he finally witnessed such an existence.

With only the power of his Physical Body and a strangely shaped cold weapon blade, he could actually confront his mech head-on!

And—was his nervous System having problems?

Behind the opponent... why was there a phantom presence? And its energy signature was terrifyingly high!