Chapter 1 Mechanical Warrior

The sound of Mechanical Warriors fighting is very distinctive; the noise of their steam boilers carries far.

From a distance, Sullen watched the firelight of the battle and immediately guessed that something had gone wrong at the auction house.

And, unsurprisingly, he suspected that the blueprints that the Mafa Empire people had won were now under siege.

After all, the "Empire Iron Hammer" Legion Commander, Blur Turner, represented a powerful empire at the auction, and his bid was only affordable by the Luying Royal Family.

Thinking about it, Sullen was also curious about what chips the Mafa people used to win the blueprints, and a thought flashed in his mind, "Could it be that there were some top-notch extraordinary materials in the auction chips, or... power?"

To win those blueprints, it definitely wasn't just a matter of money.

The pirates' appetite wouldn't be that small, otherwise, they would have sold them directly to an arms dealer; there was no need to put them up for auction.

Moreover, if it was just money, those arms dealers were not lacking.

It seemed that there were also special chips, such as titles.

It was like the Liangshan heroes being recruited and given a false name. These pirates could also be used to create some trouble for Luying behind the scenes.

A thought flashed through Sullen's mind, but he didn't dwell on it.

It had little to do with him.

The sound of the battle was terrifying. Mafa had an overwhelming advantage over Luying in hot weapons technology. The dense explosions sounded like carpet bombing, and buildings on Oak Street in the distance collapsed in swathes.

People scattered and fled everywhere on the streets, and screams and wails pierced the tranquil night of Jialangte Port amidst the gunfire.

Sullen had no intention of getting involved in this level of battle. He jumped onto a tall tower on the pier and observed the battle from afar.

...

The area near Oak Street, where the auction house was located, was illuminated like daytime by flares and flames, and no night vision was needed to see clearly.

Sullen looked over and saw the Mafa Mechanical Warriors being besieged by all sorts of people.

Lord Count Osaka's "Flame Lion Legion" had also joined the battle, along with the city defense team, navy, security team, and various professional fighters of unknown origin.

People were fighting everywhere in the streets and alleys.

All firepower was directed at these Mechanical Warriors.

But these hundred people were stubbornly fighting and retreating against dozens of times their number.

"These battle mechs are so strong..."

Sullen looked at the battle mechs being targeted, and his eyes flashed with a strange light.

When he saw this batch of battle armor before, he speculated on some of the mechs' functions, but now seeing them in actual combat, his eyes lit up even more.

Whether it was magic or physical attacks, if they couldn't break through the mechs' defenses, there was absolutely nothing they could do to these iron lumps.

Even large-killing methods like rockets could be blocked by the alloy round shield, and the mechs would only pause slightly without suffering any damage.

And the counterattacks of these Mechanical Warriors were particularly sharp.

From the perspective of hot weapons alone, the firepower of the two sides was not on the same level at all.

Sullen watched as the originally closed armor on those mechs popped open, revealing various small missiles, flame throwers, electric arc guns, overpressure air cannons, steam hinges, spray guns, six-barreled cannons spewing blue flames... all kinds of technological and magical equipment revealed their fangs.

In particular, those ultra-destructive steam-enchanted weapons used for attacking cities and breaking ships were a deadly threat even to high-level professionals!

Knives, hammers, axes, saws...

The steam hammer with faintly visible magic patterns, charged up and slammed down, could smash through brick and stone walls several meters thick, and no one dared to directly block its edge.

A two- or three-meter-long warship knife slashed through the air, and the vibrating alloy blade could easily cut down half a building...

The arc-wielding saw, with its high temperature, could easily melt steel...

Rotating axes...

Each set of mech armor was like a mobile war fortress, showcasing Mafa's most cutting-edge military technology.

Moreover, although there were only a hundred or so people, they were all well-trained and coordinated elite warriors.

Three-man groups, ten-man rows, orderly offense and defense, and combat power multiplied geometrically.

...

But even though Mafa's Mechanical Warriors were so powerful, the "Lion Knights" charged again and again, using their flesh and blood to collide with the mechanical armor.

They seemed to have received a death order, and they had to keep this Mafa delegation at the cost of their lives.

In the blink of an eye, the ground was covered with corpses.

The battle was extremely fierce.

...

Sullen watched the combat weapons on these mechs appear, and his eyes were opened.

The Mafa Empire was really far ahead on the mechanical + alchemy black technology route.

This was pure war weaponry.

However, he had also inquired before that this batch of battle armor was not Mafa's regular military-made armor.

Rather, because this group of people was the delegation's accompanying military officers, they were equipped with "officer-level" battle armor as Mafa's face. The materials and weapons used were almost all customized according to individual abilities.

Moreover, although the mechanical armor had amazing defense and fierce firepower,

The shortcomings were still obvious: limited ammunition and energy.

Just like firearms need to change magazines, the armor had limited storage and could not sustain high-intensity output. The trajectory and movement speed had many predictable elements.

Since Luying dared to take action, they were obviously prepared.

[Quicksand], [Swamp], [Slow]...

The high-level spells cast by the magic warlocks turned large swaths of the streets outside the city into quicksand and mud. Even if those mechanical armors had the ability to jet and leap into the air for short distances, after all, the escape route had been blocked in advance, and no matter how hard they tried, they couldn't avoid the overwhelming spells.

In addition to control-type spells, there were also some mysterious attack techniques, such as various curses, illusions, hypnosis, fear, weakness, mind control...

This was the most effective attack method against mechs, which could directly attack the soldier's body through the armor.

Even if the full-coverage armor isolated most of the auditory and visual illusions, these special methods were equally difficult to defend against.

These mysterious techniques were cast in the dark, directly leading to the paralysis of most low-level armors on the street.

The Mafa people were also very decisive. Seeing their companions "crash," they unhesitatingly triggered the self-destruct program, directly detonating the mechs.

Sullen frowned slightly as he watched the self-destructing mechs.

They all self-destructed, and the idea of picking up a bargain was lost.

In a blink of an eye, he looked at the dozen or so high-level officer armors still fighting, and his eyes focused on the runes that faintly shone on the armor during the battle. He analyzed in his mind: "Composite runes and shielding plating can greatly weaken mysterious techniques. These are all rune languages I've never seen before. Mafa has indeed improved a lot of new rune systems suitable for mechs on the basis of traditional runes..."

Sullen sighed in his heart, and his real thought was: I want it!

He immediately thought of his "Iron Man."

Those ancient runes were obviously unsuitable for steel mechs, and Mafa had gone far on this road.

Sullen also identified the materials of the armor in his eyes, and he became more and more envious: "No wonder it can resist. The helmets of fourth-order or higher officer armors are mixed with [Invigorating Divine Gold] to a certain extent, which can shield mental power to varying degrees. Not only the materials and runes, but also the energy system has a lot of black technology. Alas... I wish I could get a set to study."

The more than a dozen armors can withstand this first round of attacks, unless the enchanted runes on the armor are worn out and consumed, it will not be easy to destroy them later.

The battle turned into a life-and-death struggle in an instant.

Both sides were fighting to the death, and high-level warlocks also came down to fight in close combat.

Once the big moves were activated, it immediately turned from a hot weapon war into a duel of advanced techniques.

Sullen's pupils shrank slightly.

He watched the sixth-order Mechanical Warrior in the distance raise his hands, and a white alchemy array lit up under his feet. Looking again, countless bullets shot at him were actually shielded three meters away in front of him, as if blocked by an invisible force. Then he pushed again, and the bullets accelerated and reflected away.

Knives, swords, guns, shields, iron fences... as long as anything was stained with steel, it was manipulated by him at will, either as an attack method or as a defense...

One person was like a god of war.

Sullen was slightly surprised and also saw that this was a natural ability: "It turns out that the Legion Commander Blur's natural ability is to control magnetic force, or is he a second-stage ability user?"

[B-077-Magnetic Field], this talent is very strong.

But the reason why it is ranked so low in B-level is because this magnetic field is almost only aimed at "iron".

However, in this era of steel and steam, it is definitely one of the talents that can best convert ability into combat power.

Thinking of this, he sighed again: "It's really a talent with a super high degree of compatibility with Mechanical Warriors..."

Watching Blur manipulate the surrounding steel to cover his teammates' retreat, a caped man in a suit among the besiegers refused to be outdone and jumped directly from a small building.

During the fall, he pinched a warlock seal, and his body immediately ignited with a raging cold flame. In the blink of an eye, the cold flame fluttering in the wind grew and took shape, and in a blink of an eye, it condensed into a blue flame-clad giant. The flame giant glared angrily, holding a fire spear, and six groups of blue cold fire condensed behind him.

Sullen looked at the familiar cold flame and immediately guessed that this was someone from the Luying Royal Family,啧啧称奇: "[Wu Shi] The guardian god condensed by the great achievement of secret art, is really strong..."

Not only this, but also many masters, one by one emerged...

This is a battle between old-school warlocks and new-school warlocks.

...

The battle in the distance became more and more fierce. Various masters, implants, and collisions of abilities emerged one after another, which opened Sullen's eyes.

It also finally gave him a clear understanding of the combat power of the professionals in the ground world.

The professionals in the ground world are not as watery as the sea snake gang. The nobles have absolute social resources, and the professionals they cultivate have rarer talents and more special implants...

But the fierce fighting has little to do with Sullen, who is watching the excitement.

If he wanted to pick up a bargain, he couldn't find a good opportunity.

Sullen looked at the Mechanical Warriors retreating towards the pier, and suddenly some doubtful thoughts emerged in his mind: "These Mafa Mechanical Warriors are strong, and they won't be defeated for a while, but it's not easy to leave..."

The group of Mechanical Warriors seemed to want to rush to "Pier One".

That is the noble-only pier, where an armored ship of the Mafa delegation is parked.

But at this moment, Pier One has become another battlefield.

Not only are people destroying the hull, but warships outside the port are surrounding it.

Once the Luying people take action, they definitely don't plan to let these people leave by boat.

No matter how you look at it, that armored ship is definitely unable to leave the port.

Thinking of this, Sullen looked at those Mechanical Warriors fighting and retreating, and thought of something again: "That's not right, why do they seem to be stalling for time?"

Logically speaking, they abandoned those low-level mech warriors, and now concentrating their elite forces is a good opportunity to break through.

But looking at this conservative style of fighting while retreating, it is obviously not right.

Moreover, since the Mafa people dared to bid for that thing, they should naturally have the confidence to take it away.

Sullen suddenly became interested, and his thoughts turned in his mind in an instant: "They can't escape by land, and the seaport is blocked. There are not many options to choose from. To escape, it can only be in the sky..."

He looked at the starry night sky and immediately shook his head again.

If it is a steam airship, that kind of large target with a slow moving speed will probably be shot into a sieve by the cannons all over the city before it lands.

Thinking of this, Sullen's eyes fell on the deep sea, and he suddenly guessed something, "Or, is it... in the sea!"

...

People in a world cannot imagine the existence of things that do not exist.

But for Sullen, a transmigrator, he naturally knows the existence of submarines.

Now the technological gap between Luying and Mafa is a bit like the late Qing Dynasty and the United States of the same era in his previous life.

One already has modern submarines, and the other is still being disliked by the old-school power holders who think that "Yi technology is harmful to the country".

Land is a dead end.

Sea... although that armored ship is strong, its sailing speed is slower than that of sailing ships, so it cannot escape.

Sullen felt that other than the "submarine" method, these Mafa people today could not fly out even if they had wings.

Even if he killed all these people in front of him, masters from other territories would continue to come to support him, and it would be absolutely impossible for them to leave alive.

Although Sullen didn't know what level Mafa's technology had reached, watching their mechanical armor just now, he knew that they definitely had the ability to manufacture submarines.

There is no problem with the technology, and there is also a need for naval warfare, so the war product of the research direction of "submarine" will definitely appear!

The more Sullen analyzed, the more he felt that his guess was correct: "They are stalling for time to give the submarine time to enter the port!"

However, he guessed the beginning, but he didn't guess the process.

He thought that the submarine was the Mafa people's means of escape, but he didn't expect that the submarine would emerge in front of him!

The battles in the harbor were concentrated on the steel warship at the No. 1 noble pier, and no one noticed. At this time, the sea surface of the No. 7 civilian pier suddenly stirred quietly.

The workers at the pier suddenly shouted, "A monster has emerged from the water!"

The huge object came out of the water, causing the sea ships in the pier to sway for a while.

Sullen looked at the dark, whale-like thing emerging from the seabed, and his eyes tightened: "It really has been researched..."

Seeing the submarine appear in front of him, he retreated immediately without any hesitation.

Because at this time, the center of the battlefield was about to shift!

Obviously, they had been prepared for a long time. When the more than a dozen Mechanical Warriors of Mafa saw the submarine emerge from the water, the steam boiler charged up and sprayed, covering them with a large amount of smoke. They left a few to cover the retreat, and then rushed towards the No. 7 pier together.

The Luying encirclement was mainly on the road from the auction house to Pier One. Their move directly caught the besiegers by surprise!

...

Sullen looked at the surprised eyes of those pursuers, obviously, these people had never seen anything like a "submarine".

He thought that with this strange trick, these Mafa Mechanical Warriors could escape smoothly.

But the Luying intelligence department had a lot of treasures in their hands. Knowing that they were going to intercept Mechanical Warriors, they also had means.

Seeing that people were about to run away, they finally released their backhand.

At this time, on a high-rise building in the distance, a person suddenly took out a longbow in a sealed box.

He held up the longbow and immediately made a drawing motion.

At this time, a magical scene appeared!

On the originally empty bowstring, an alchemy array lit up and quickly condensed an arrow of light.

Sullen was curious about this move, and after identifying it, he realized that it was another "forbidden object".

And it is a sharp weapon aimed at Mechanical Warriors.

[Chronos's Bow of Time Curse]

Quality: Legendary

Description: Time is like an arrow, fleeting

Curse characteristic: An arrow of time shot at the target, ignoring obstacles on the level of laws no higher than the law of the bow and arrow itself, and taking the target's life after hitting; those who have not mastered the law of time need to consume the user's life to condense the arrow; the consumption of the target's life is related to the life style;

Detailed explanation: If your life style is not as hard as the opponent's, then you need to consume more life;

The "ignoring obstacles" attribute is aimed at Mechanical Warriors.

Sullen looked at the detailed explanation. This forbidden bow was a bit similar to his black scythe. They were both things that hurt the enemy one thousand and hurt themselves eight hundred.

However, the curse backlash of this arrow is very special.

It is not that if you hurt someone for a hundred years of life, you will lose a hundred years.

Also multiply by one

"Life style" is a very special existence, and the definition Sullen found in the classics is also very vague.

The general explanation is "the quality of life".

For example: one hundred years of life for a beggar is roughly equal to one month of life for an emperor (no occupational discrimination, just an example)

That is to say, the more important a person's existence is in this world, the stronger his life style will be.

A person with a strong life style may be able to consume all the life of a person with a weak life style by consuming one year of life with this bow.

A person with a weak life style may only hurt someone's life by one year if he consumes a hundred years with this bow.

Because both life style and lifespan are "uncertain factors", no one can say for sure who has a hard life.

This cursed object is a real gamble on life!

...

Sullen watched the pursuers take out this bow, and his eyes became very strange: "This bow does restrain mech warriors, but it is not easy to kill people..."

The Mafa are all officers, maybe they can become generals in the future. It also means that their life style is not comparable to ordinary people.

The cost of killing people with this bow here is not small.

However, Sullen still underestimated the imperial authority.

This group of people obviously received a death order and had to keep those people.

He watched the cursed longbow being taken out, and the person drawing the bow did not hesitate.

One arrow per second.

Pull it, change to another person.

"嗖" "嗖" "嗖"...

Arrows of light shot out non-stop.

Those who drew the bow instantly changed from being strong to old men in their twilight years, and some even died on the spot.

Sullen, the onlooker, felt his scalp tingling and his eyelids twitching: "There are really many evil methods in this world..."

One person consumes decades of life, and one person can be killed alive, not everyone has the fate of the protagonist and can live to the end. The life style of most ordinary people is about the same.

What's more, no matter how strong your life style is, how much can it withstand the life of many people?

If one doesn't work, then ten will come!

Is the bow and arrow strong?

Are the death soldiers strong?

No, Sullen felt the power of power for the first time.

However, the effect was immediate.

Mechanical Warriors are fast, but their ability to change direction is a weakness, they are not flexible enough, and they are very easy to predict.

The Luying Royal Family took out this cursed bow, and naturally they would not send some minions to shoot arrows.

That would only waste valuable chasing opportunities.

Sullen watched the people drawing the bow were not weak in momentum and had a high ideological awareness. It seemed that they were all cadre-level existences.

This is really exchanging lives for lives.

Both sides are taking senior talents to fight!

In this way, three or two arrows can often shoot down a Mechanical Warrior.

When the dozen or so high-level Mechanical Warriors rushed to the No. 7 pier, there were only five or six left.

Sullen doesn't care about who wins or loses.

If he is not mistaken, the arrow of time only hit the person who controlled the mech, and the mech was intact?

Moreover, just one fell into the sea at the No. 5 pier?