Your So-Called Higher Lifeforms... Are Kind of Weak

"Die!" Beyond seven steps, the gun was fast! Within seven steps, the gun was both fast and accurate! Watching the fellow riddled with openings, a barely noticeable sneer curled at the corner of Hunter's lips. Without waiting for him to finish speaking, Hunter raised his muzzle and pulled the trigger all the way back. Although a Gauss rifle without fully charged capacitors couldn't unleash its maximum power, using high-rate-of-fire mass rounds to suppress a target was more than enough! At the same time, he expertly reached his left hand toward the metallic hydrogen grenade tucked into the side of his armor, preparing to deliver a lethal blow to this arrogant fool. Yet just as he was counting his chickens, something completely unbelievable happened. The weathered suit of power armor seemed to take flight, hurtling head-on at his face at an unbelievable speed! The barrage of mass rounds sparked violently across the polished armor plating, yet failed to leave behind even a single dent! This definitely wasn't Dragoon armor! Neither in mobility nor in armor hardness! Hunter's pupils contracted sharply. He instinctively let go of the now-useless grenade and reached for his combat knife to slash at the wrist gripping the hatchet, but in the end, he was still a step too slow. "Too slow." A piercing agony and a faintly mocking voice hit him almost simultaneously as exploding molten heat slammed viciously into his left pauldron! All he felt was a scorching blast of air rushing from the blunt edge of the axe blade, followed by dazzling sparks erupting across his shoulder! "Aaaagh!" A tearing pain shot through his left shoulder. Staggering back two paces, he could even faintly smell the charred stench of roasted flesh. He had completely lost all sensation in his entire left arm! A terrifying gash was carved into his left shoulder, where a jet of molten metal injected through the armor had cleanly severed flesh, nerves, and bone. The overwhelming force struck a chill of terror into his heart. Especially when, out of the corner of his eye, he caught sight of his arm hanging limp from his shoulder as if severed, connected only by a twisted layer of steel... "What is that thing..." he gasped, stumbling backward in an attempt to open up some distance. Lao Bai didn't pay it much mind, merely watching this overly weak "boss" make his futile, useless struggle. "You mean this thing?" Flicking the short axe in his hand, Lao Bai grinned. "The formal name is 'thermal fusion cutting axe,' though we usually just call it the armor-cracking axe." In principle, the weapon was somewhat similar to shaped-charge armor-piercing rounds. While its pre-war purpose had been demolition work, the players' field tests proved that it was surprisingly effective against infantry power armor. Ever since the Level B7 machining center was unlocked, this piece of equipment—just like Fang Chang's Daybreak mechanical bow—could be purchased directly from the VM official store. Hunter stared unblinkingly at him, his gaze darting across Lao Bai's gleaming chestplate, seemingly trying to comprehend why his mass rounds had failed to punch through the armor. It was clear that the guy hadn't given up yet. Faint wisps of white smoke drifted from the breach in his left shoulder armor, and the mangled flesh was knitting together at an incredible speed. There was no need to guess—it was certainly some kind of biological prosthesis or genetic modification. Biotechnology was Torch's specialty, after all. Watching him nonchalantly, Lao Bai spoke concisely: "Surrender. Even your Holy Son has given up. There's no point in struggling any further." Captives yielded higher campaign points than corpses, so he still intended to make an effort to see if he could convince the man to lay down his arms. Clearly, however, his talk-no-jutsu wasn't quite up to Fang Chang's level. Hearing those words, Hunter merely sneered coldly. "Surrender? Heh, keep dreaming!" Pausing, he ground out another sentence through clenched teeth: "And we have never given up—neither the great Holy Son nor the Forerunners... Just you wait! Our Heaven is destined to descend upon this land, and in the end, it is you rotten degenerates who will be swept into the grave!" "Heaven... that 'Heaven' again." Lao Bai sighed and scratched his helmet, looking at this fanatic with utter incomprehension. "To be honest, there's one thing I just don't get. Is this 'Heaven' of yours something that's too awkward to explain to people?" "Enough talk... Die!" Hunter roared and suddenly surged forward, launching a frontal assault straight at Lao Bai. His speed was more than twice as fast as before! Swelling flesh bulged through the seams of his armor, spreading across the outer plating like crimson moss. At this moment, he hardly resembled a human being, transforming instead into some unstable subspecies—his flesh and power armor fully fused together! To offer his physical body entirely to supreme Heaven, to wholeheartedly embrace that supremely glorious evolution! This was his final trump card! Once he played this hand, there was no turning back. Even if he survived this duel, he could only wander the ruins like a walking corpse. But he didn't care! He wanted nothing more than to tear this arrogant bastard to shreds! Looking at the thoroughly deranged fanatic, Lao Bai sighed wordlessly and swung the thermal fusion cutting axe in his hand. The Limit Break talent granted him a 150% to 200% strength buff for three seconds. Combined with the dynamic vision provided by his Agility stat, the enemy lunging toward him looked as slow as a snail. "To be completely honest..." The viscous air parted like water, compressed by the high-speed swing of the axe into what felt like a solid wall! A piercing sonic boom echoed through the abandoned floor as a scalding shockwave slammed like a hurricane into Hunter's face. Scorching heat and near-vaporized metal blasted into his helmet, instantly charring the flesh beneath the steel to cinders. It was far too fast! He couldn't even see what had happened, nor did he have time to feel shock. Just before his consciousness snapped like a severed telephone wire and faded away, a pitying voice drifted into his ears: "Your so-called higher lifeforms..." "...are kind of weak." *** At the same time Hunter was smashed to pieces by Lao Bai's two resounding axe blows, the "power armor company" led by Fang Chang successfully eliminated the Retribution Squad guarding the entrance to the vault. The battle held zero suspense; it was a total, one-sided slaughter. Regrettably, although the fight ended quickly, they failed to capture even a single member of the Retribution Squad alive. These zealots, whose loyalty to Torch was branded into their very souls, were utter lunatics who didn't care about their own lives in the slightest. Especially after discovering that their leader, Hunter, had fallen in battle, the remaining dozen or so followed suit, turning themselves into mindless monsters to trade their sanity for greater combat power. As it turned out, it was nothing more than a deathbed struggle. For now, the players didn't know what had happened to these death-sworn zealots, or what sort of anti-human technology Torch had developed this time. However, once these samples were recovered, the Alliance's Institute of Biological Research should be able to provide some answers. The blast door of Vault 20 lay right before their eyes. Fang Chang signaled with his hand, directing two squads to hug the sides of the colossal gear-shaped door while he strode straight up to the entrance with rifle resting on his shoulder. As an Agility-type powerhouse, he had plenty of confidence in his ability to dodge any lethal attack. Nobody was faster than him! Of course, if he wiped out, pretend he never said that. The drone controlled by Karen drifted over to the vault entrance. Swiveling its camera to look at Fang Chang, she asked in a pleading voice over the comms channel to confirm once again: "You will help me... won't you? I was forced into this too. Everyone who refused to cooperate was disposed of. They're crueler to their own people than to outsiders. We had no choice but to do whatever the Forerunners of the First Sanctuary told us to do." "Of course we'll help you. That's what we're here for. After all... we still need your technology to clean up this mess," Fang Chang urged patiently. "Hurry up and open the door. I'd rather not end up recovering a corpse later." Seemingly frightened by his words, Karen—finally realizing she was in a very dangerous situation—hesitated no longer. She turned the drone's camera toward the tightly shut gear-shaped door. Fang Chang clicked off his rifle's safety, staring intently past the opening, ready to fire at a moment's notice. To his surprise, however, no vault security personnel were ambushing them behind the door. The entire lobby was empty. It was as if Torch's upper echelon had completely abandoned resistance, relinquishing the vault's most defensible main entrance straight to them. Carefully sweeping the lobby, Fang Chang confirmed there was no ambush, signaled to his teammates behind him, and led an infantry squad deeper into the vault. The twin airlock doors separating the vault's interior atmosphere from the outside stood before them. Karen, having already hacked into the vault's security system, opened them directly. Through the elongated buffer chamber, he could faintly hear clamor and hurried footsteps coming from behind the doors. Torch, having committed every evil under the sun, had finally met its destined doom, and its so-called leadership were screeching and wailing like monkeys on a crooked tree. To tell the truth, Fang Chang felt a slight tinge of disappointment. He had thought Ah Guang left a massive surprise for them in this vault—like some doomsday weapon developed by the Church of the Torch to counter the Alliance—only for them to wipe out the Retribution Squad in a flash and breach the main entrance with absolute ease. "Where are you?" Fang Chang looked at the drone hovering beside him. "Just in case, we'll head straight to you." "Thank you!" Karen said gratefully, flying ahead. "To be honest... the bodies of us core researchers are kept in incubation chambers deep within the vault. The First Sanctuary used that as leverage to force us to work for them." Bai Gei Dai Ju chimed in, "So you normally get around using drones?" Karen explained, "There's an android modeled after my biometrics, but that android is currently inside the security room... After preprogramming a set of commands, I locked myself inside. The security guards shouldn't be able to do anything to me for the time being." The Holy Son had already left. She was certain that fellow was definitely not here; otherwise, dreaming of sneaking into the security room and seizing control of the vault's security system would have been pure fantasy. Bai Gei Dai Ju nodded blankly, not understanding why Torch went through such pointless, convoluted trouble to turn living people into androids. Corner Camper, standing beside him, had his eyes light up and blurted out: "Are you still going to use that android?" "Still use it?" Karen paused, then shook her head. "No, I just want my own body back." Corner Camper chuckled, rubbing his hands together bashfully. "Then... once this is over, could you give it to me?" Karen: "?" "Give your ass. Have some shame and buy one yourself!" Fang Chang swiped at the back of Lao Liu's head in annoyance. Ignoring the latter's aggrieved expression, he gave crisp orders: "Squad One, advance toward the security room. We need to secure control over the vault's security system. Squad Two, follow me. We're going straight to that... canned goods warehouse." "Ignore non-combatants unless they grab weapons and aim at you." "Move out!" During their brief conversation, Karen had already transmitted the map of the vault to his visualized tactical battlefield system. Hearing Big Brother Fang Chang's command, the irreverent players instantly dropped their clowning around and answered in unison with crisp vigor: "Sir!" The squad of players in exoskeletons and power armor moved swiftly, advancing toward their designated objectives under the guidance of the battlefield HUD system. Seeing these bloodthirsty Alliance soldiers storm into the vault, despair washed over the faces of nearly every researcher. "Don't shoot... I was forced into this!" "Holy Son above... oh no, I mean, our Holy Son is already gone! He abandoned us completely!" "I can work for you..." Most researchers clearly had no desire to sink with the doomed ship that was Torch, and some bolder ones even stepped forward on their own initiative. Fang Chang looked at them rather speechlessly. While he was glad they were surrendering willingly, he couldn't help lamenting that these folks had completely shattered whatever sinister prestige Torch once possessed. Karen felt somewhat embarrassed as well, but still tried to explain in a small voice: "Some of these researchers were indeed abducted by Torch from other vaults... They really had no choice." "We'll separate them," Fang Chang replied. He fired a burst into the ceiling, then, watching the researchers scream and drop to a crouch with their hands over their heads, he added bluntly, "As you can see, Torch is finished. Your leadership has run away with their tails between their legs. Surrendering and following our orders is your only way out." Pausing to ensure nobody dared object, Fang Chang continued: "Now, stay where you are and don't move. The troops coming up behind us will tell you what to do... If you don't want to get hit by stray bullets, you'd better not run around." Nearly everyone nodded. Those who hadn't moved nodded like pecking chickens the instant his gaze swept over them. Satisfied with their cooperation, Fang Chang led his squad past the researchers, pressing deeper into the vault. Upon reaching Level B5, a heavy door resembling a bank vault stood before them. "This is it..." A tremor of excitement entered Karen's voice. Unable to wait, she flew over and opened the alloy door. Yet the sight that met her eyes froze her in place the moment she flew into the storage chamber... "How... how can this be?" Hearing the despair in her voice over the comms channel, Fang Chang frowned slightly and stepped through the doorway. "What happen—" The words froze on his lips. Arranged within the warehouse were not incubation pods holding living human bodies, but row upon row of cylindrical culture tanks. Tender pink brains floated submerged in dark green fluid, entangled with a crisscrossing web of cables and tubing. From the very beginning, she never had a physical body; Torch's leadership had deceived her all along... The drone Karen controlled sank despairingly to the ground. Fang Chang involuntarily swallowed hard. Beside him, Bai Gei Dai Ju stood dumbfounded as well. "What the hell?!" Did this mission count as a success or a failure? Just as everyone was wondering, a leisurely voice drifted from directly ahead: "Surprised, aren't you?" Fang Chang narrowed his eyes and looked in the direction of the voice. There stood a young man draped in a pristine white robe. Karen's voice trembled. "Holy Son..." Fang Chang wasted no words. Aiming his muzzle straight at the guy acting all high and mighty amidst a room full of brains, he ordered in a deep voice: "Take him alive."