Chapter 1 The Steel City

The city wasn't too large, but it was like a steel forest, with a complex network of roads.

Numerous steel bridges and lofts constructed a very three-dimensional city.

Suren wandered around for a while and had a general idea of ​​what was going on.

The largest building complexes in this steel city were various heavily polluting smelters. But this was clearly just the raw material processing stage; the real research institute wasn't here.

"I need to figure out where the research base is as soon as possible..."

Suren himself was from Old Lingdun, and he knew that these low-level miners couldn't possibly know about the existence of the research institute.

Thinking of finding a high-level person to ask, he walked to a street that looked like a wealthy area.

Here, there were no boilers emitting poisonous gas, and the air was noticeably fresher.

He hadn't taken a few steps when Suren stopped and let out a soft "Huh..."

Because he sensed that in a small building a few hundred meters away, there were actually several Tier 3 professionals.

Such a concentration of top combat power in this mine wasn't normal; there must be some important figure there.

Without thinking, Suren walked straight over.

Before he got close, he heard a woman's scream of humiliation: "No! Lord, please, don't do this. My husband is Mark, he's a hunting captain..."

Then came a lewd male voice: "Hehehe... You said that, and it excites me even more! Isn't that bastard Mark always sticking up for a bunch of poor ghosts and causing trouble for my father? Today, I'll show him that his abilities can't even protect his own wife!"

Then there was the sound of clothes tearing and a voice begging for mercy.

Suren frowned as he listened, and the plot immediately became clear from the dialogue.

Sure enough, there were always stories of powerful people bullying men and forcing themselves on women everywhere.

The commotion the guy was making wasn't small, but no one in the large neighborhood dared to come out and investigate.

However, hearing the name "Mark," Suren found it somewhat familiar.

Wasn't that the hunting captain he saw when he passed by earlier?

Suren raised his eyebrows and walked over calmly.

However, at this moment, a burly figure was faster than him, rushing straight towards the small building.

This guy was also fierce; he dispersed the obstruction of three Tier 3 professionals downstairs and instantly went upstairs.

"George, you despicable bastard!"

"Daring to attack the inner city guards is a capital crime, Mark. Do you know what you're doing?!"

"..."

Then there was a burst of fighting.

But it quickly subsided.

Suren sensed the movement in the house and walked over unhurriedly.

He teleported to the door and saw Captain Mark, his face covered in blood, being held down on the ground by three bodyguards. His eyes were full of hatred and humiliating bloodshot veins, and his gaze was as sharp as a dagger as he stared at the arrogant blond young man.

In the corner of the room, a woman with torn clothes was huddled, her face ashen.

The blond man had taken a punch to the face, knocking out half of his teeth. He looked at Mark on the ground with resentment and spat out a mouthful of blood: "Mark, you're just an outer city guy; you're nothing in my eyes!"

As he said this, he angrily ordered the bodyguards, "Break his limbs; I want him to watch with his own eyes..."

Mark, pinned to the ground, struggled in humiliation, but one of the bodyguards was a Mechanical Warrior, and his enormous strength prevented him from breaking free.

He was about to watch the tragedy unfold.

At this moment, a person strolled into the room.

Suren looked at Mark and thought, "[C-010-Bear] Beastification? There are signs that the talent needs to be awakened a second time..."

...

Suddenly, a stranger walked in, and everyone in the room was stunned.

The blond young man was getting excited, but seeing someone else disturbing him, he roared, "Who the hell are you?!"

But the sound stopped abruptly.

The three bodyguards couldn't sense the aura of the person in front of them, but their sense of crisis made them bristle instantly, and their faces changed drastically.

They wanted to do something, but before they could make any move, their bodies suddenly went limp.

Mark didn't see anyone enter the room, but he felt the enormous force restraining him suddenly disappear.

Surprised, he struggled to get up.

He looked up, and his expression changed drastically!

He saw a line of blood appear on the neck of young master George, his arrogant expression still frozen on his face, and a warm human fountain erupted.

Mark was shocked.

It was as if his reason couldn't believe what he was seeing.

He instinctively followed the dead man's gaze and saw a young man with a indifferent expression walking in.

Looking back at the three corpses beside him, he stood there blankly, his mind filled with uncontrollable shock: "How is this possible... These are Super Mechanical Warriors and two veteran Tier 3 professionals. They were... they were killed in an instant?"

Suren ignored his shock, not even giving him a second glance. The phantom of the Death God emerged behind him and directly reaped their souls.

The appearance of the phantom brought with it an indescribable terror.

In that instant,

Mark felt his hair stand on end, as if he had seen a god.

...

"The inner city? So this steel city has these levels."

Suren raised an eyebrow.

He was just thinking of finding a way to learn more when these people delivered themselves to his door and happened to know the information he needed.

After reaping these memories, Suren already had a clear understanding of the layout of the entire underground mine.

Now that he had killed someone, he needed to act quickly.

He didn't want to delay here and turned to leave.

Seeing Suren turn to leave, Mark suppressed the shock in his heart and said quickly, "Thank... Thank you for saving my life..."

How could there be such a terrifyingly strong person?!

For a time, the great shock in his heart lingered.

Suren looked at Mark as if he saw himself back in Old Lingdun, thinking that Tier 3 was the ceiling for professionals.

A thought flashed through his mind, and he took out a storage ring.

Mark wanted to say something, but everything went dark, and he passed out.

Suren didn't intend to explain further.

There were hundreds of thousands of miners here, and he couldn't possibly take them all away. Moreover, the situation in the Alchemic Plane might change in the future, and going out might not necessarily be better than staying here. The storage ring contained the materials needed to advance to Tier 4, which could be considered a glimmer of hope for the people here.

Just like the "Mirror" in Old Lingdun back then.

...

Humans are social creatures, and over time, they naturally divide into classes.

Like Old Lingdun, this place also had an inner city, where the powerful lived.

It was in another mine a few kilometers away from Steel City.

It required a special ID card and had strict guards, and ordinary miners weren't qualified to approach it.

But this didn't stop Suren in the slightest.

After reaping the memories and learning the layout of the entire underground city, he teleported a few times and appeared in another large mine space.

What came into view was a more luxurious group of buildings, extravagant buildings with gold roofs and silver pillars. At the very top, a huge castle with walls adorned with gems was built against the rock wall.

In terms of the crude extravagance of the architecture, he hadn't seen it anywhere else except for the Frederick Palace.

But thinking about it, it made sense.

Gold and silver might be very valuable outside, but in the mine, they were just some building materials.

He sensed that there were many Tier 2 and Tier 3 professional guards in the inner city.

Although they were well hidden, their positions were completely exposed in Suren's perception.

These guards couldn't possibly discover a "Super Tier Professional."

Suren easily blended in.

The inner city didn't have those heavily polluting smelters and forges. Apart from some unique houses, there were several heavily guarded tunnel entrances.

This was the "secret laboratory" for researching Mechanical Magical Beasts!

Suren ignored the guards at the door and sensed the spatial layout. There was indeed a huge space behind the door, and he teleported directly in.

The surrounding scenery changed, as if he had traveled directly from a medieval mine to a modern laboratory. Purple alchemical lamps illuminated the area, and there were sterile channels with a strong sense of technology all around.

Researchers in white coats were busily walking around in the laboratory.

Suren avoided their sight and walked through the channels.

Those high-precision, encrypted mechanical password doors were useless under his spatial abilities, and he teleported all the way through.

Before long, he saw a laboratory covered by a large transparent glass cover.

Inside were a group of researchers in white coats, skillfully dissecting the nerve tissue of Magical Beast Spiders.

The biological limbs of the Magical Beasts were removed, leaving only the key nerve tissues, and some sensitive metal parts were added. Then, they were placed in Petri dishes and soaked for a period of time. Those without rejection reactions were qualified products.

Like a cannery, thousands of glass jars filled with green potions were placed here.

Suren wasn't unfamiliar with this process because Mechanical Octopi were made in the same way.

As long as their nerve tissues gradually adapted, mechanical limbs could be directly added later, turning them into true Mechanical Magical Beasts.

Of course, there were also many defective products in this process.

But looking at the scale of the laboratory, there must be a mature Magical Beast breeding ecosystem.

And that was the benefit of a Mechanical Magical Beast army.

Originally, these [Cave Demon Spiders], which didn't even have the combat power of a Tier 1 Magical Beast, could instantly reach the combat power of Tier 3 and Tier 4 professionals after being transformed with various mechanical limbs.

These Demon Spiders had a strong reproductive ability, and the cost could be almost ignored after the technology matured.

With the mine providing an endless supply of various metals, it was truly an excellent manufacturing base.

...

"Duke Raphael has truly taken advantage of the perfect timing and location..."

Suren looked at the mature Mechanical Magical Beast production line and was extremely envious.

He didn't know how many years that Duke had secretly researched to achieve such fruitful results.

Not only the technology, but these high-precision devices were also invaluable, and couldn't be bought outside.

And these researchers.

To put it bluntly, without these devices and technicians, you wouldn't be able to build anything even if you had the blueprints.

If he wanted to research the corresponding precision equipment on his own, even with Mafa's ultra-high technological level, it would take an unknown number of years.

But right now, these high-precision devices were readily available!

"I'm going to get rich..."

Suren once again felt the joy of being a pirate.

In his eyes, these things were already his for the taking.

He didn't stay outside this laboratory for long and continued on his way.

Area A1, Area B3, Area C5...

As Suren walked, he also discovered that these laboratories were divided into independent units, with clear divisions of labor and extremely high production efficiency.

Not only were there laboratories manufacturing Mechanical Spiders, but also Mechanical Bears, Mechanical Crocodiles, Mechanical Snakes...

The types of Mechanical Magical Beast armies that appeared in the battle in Lingdun could all be seen here.

There were laboratories dedicated to mass production, as well as scientific research laboratories.

This group of researchers here worked day and night to research various plans for Magical Beasts to be made into Mechanical Magical Beasts. Then, they selected a portion with practical significance and mass-produced them on the assembly line.

It was not difficult to imagine that, in addition to the finished products he saw, their "technical database" also contained more research results, which were truly invaluable.

This was exactly what Suren was lacking!

...

Suren sensed that this underground laboratory was as large as dozens of floors.

Moreover, in his perception, there was a very spacious space in the center of the base not far away.

Since he hadn't been discovered yet, he wasn't in a hurry to start plundering. Instead, he curiously went over to check things out first.

He came to a password door that was heavily guarded by Mechanical Warriors and teleported directly through.

Then, the surrounding scenery changed, and he was immediately stunned by the scene before him!

This was a huge laboratory with a height of nearly two hundred meters.

The space was filled with densely packed scientific research equipment, various giant mechanical arms, giant devices...

The most eye-catching thing was the eight giant glass jars, each nearly a hundred meters tall.

In the green potion, there were huge Magical Beasts soaking.

Tier 8 Deep Sea Giant Beast [Tyrant Moray], Tier 7 [Deep Sea Dragon Crocodile], Tier 7 [Giant Troll Lizard], Tier 7 [Titan King Kong Ape]...

When Suren saw this, his gaze couldn't help but freeze, and he said in shock, "They're already researching the Mechanical Modification Plan for Giant Magical Beasts?"

Seeing that these giant Magical Beasts already had partial metal limbs, he was both surprised and delighted.

"Hiss... Duke Raphael actually has such trump cards!"

Suren's breathing was slightly heavy as he watched.

He knew the difficulty of Mechanical Modification of Deep Giant Beasts.

Because he himself had the [North Sea Giant Beast Kraken] captured in the Roman Sea earlier. It was precisely because he didn't have mature technical support that he didn't dare to modify it rashly. Even Dr. Banks only used its genes to cultivate large octopi.

But these high-level Magical Beasts had already mastered very strong Law powers. Rune machinery could give them even stronger combat power and allow them to adapt to various battles.

If they were successfully modified, their combat power would be unimaginable.

To some extent, size was dominance.

It could be said that in future naval warfare, these giants would be the bane of any warship!

Moreover, this was an idea. In the future, he might be able to mechanically modify more Magical Beasts, such as: Mechanical Flying Dragons!

Too many images had already appeared in Suren's mind.

But before he could think about it, an alarm suddenly sounded, and red lights indicating danger flashed.

"Alarm! Foreign enemy invasion!"

"Alarm! Foreign enemy invasion!"

"..."

The mechanical alarm echoed throughout the base, all the gates closed, and the emergency plan was activated.

Suren didn't know how he was exposed.

But it didn't matter.

Looking at the ten or so Super Mechanical Warriors coming towards him, he didn't even bother to make a move. As soon as the Domain of Death opened, the guards all fell to the ground before they could even get close.

Suren looked at the laboratory in front of him, his lips slightly raised, and he quickly pinched a Warlock Seal.

He raised one hand forward, and a spatial black hole appeared, from which hundreds of figures filed out.

The members of the Dawn Squad looked excitedly at this secret base, having long been unable to suppress the excitement in their hearts.

"Everyone, pack up all the materials you can take. For the ones you can't take, set up spatial marks. And don't let any of the researchers go, and try not to injure them..."

"Yes, Mr. Suren!"

"Hahaha... Brothers, let's move out!"

"..."

A crowd of people swarmed out, rushing towards the various laboratories like wolves among sheep.

The average Tier 4 or 5 combat power of the Dawn Squad, compared to the average Tier 2 combat power of the mine world, was simply a dimensional crushing.

Moreover, after the trip to the spatial secret realm, the members of the Dawn Squad had more or less mastered spatial abilities, and those heavy alloy mechanical doors couldn't stop them at all.

The researchers were terrified, not knowing where so many intruders had come from, but they didn't have much power to resist.

...

Qiantiao also appeared beside Suren, looking at this highly technological secret base and exclaiming, "Oh, this time we're going to get rich."

Suren was also quite envious and replied, "Yeah."

If it weren't for the fact that he couldn't move it or fit it, he would have even wanted to stuff the entire base into the Little Void Realm.

He took out the Rune Black Umbrella and sensed around. After a few teleports, he killed several troublesome existences in the base.

The only thing left was to plunder.

The members of the Dawn Squad were prepared, and each of them carried a large number of storage rings. They stuffed various data, small objects, and research instruments into the storage rings.

Then, they captured the researchers they encountered, concentrated them, and set up spatial alchemical arrays on the large equipment, waiting for Suren to collect them later...

Everything was proceeding in an orderly manner according to the pre-arranged plan.

However, a Mafa spy colonel who had infiltrated the base was also caught off guard by this sudden pirate raid.

She never expected that someone would break into this laboratory base.

More importantly, she was also captured!

"Damn it, where did these pirates come from? How did they get so deep into the mine?! Could it be that I guessed wrong, and there are no top professionals guarding Digging Gold Island?"

In the crowd, the weak female researcher with glasses cursed inwardly.

Her plan would be completed in a year or so, and then the entire base would be the Empire's.

But pirates invaded at this time?

Looking at the experimental equipment and data being robbed, her heart was bleeding. These were all the future spoils of the Empire...!

Moreover, regardless of whether the pirates succeeded in the robbery this time, the location had now been exposed. It was conceivable that this mine would definitely be heavily guarded by Duke Raphael in the future.

The whole plan was ruined!