Chapter 1 The Beginning

Hao Ren was shocked by the sight of the giant mechanical monsters before him—not because he was amazed at how advanced they were, but because he was shocked that the steam civilization could even develop this kind of tech tree! This thing, covered in pressure pipes, valves, and gauges, constantly spewing high-pressure gas from every joint, looked clumsy and complex, yet it was actually steam-powered!

Wasn't this thing unscientific?

But Hao Ren's thought was fleeting: how many of the demons and monsters standing beside him were scientific? Compared to Lily's ability to transform after eating a mouthful of spicy sticks, these things at least adhered to the law of conservation of mass... Besides, if they didn't have steam technology, they had runic magic.

Anyway, these strangely styled steam combat robots appeared just like that, and they seemed quite advanced.

After surrounding everyone, the giant mechanical monsters didn't make any further moves. Instead, they opened the armor on their backs, and weapon platform-like structures rose from the armor. On each weapon platform stood warriors wearing metal armor, gripping heavy guns and cannons, their faces hidden beneath steel.

"The Steam Six!" Wendell exclaimed in horror when he saw these people. "We're in trouble!"

Hao Ren didn't think it was that much trouble, but he was still curious and asked, "What do they do?"

"They're the highest level combat force in Twilight Capital," Wendell said urgently. "They rarely mobilize, only when the entire city faces a huge threat—like a large-scale riot or an ancient monster that occasionally wanders in from the Dark Wilderness. But neither riots nor dark monsters have appeared for hundreds of years... I didn't expect them to mobilize today!"

Lily stared at the steam-wreathed giant robots, casually pulled a pack of spicy sticks from her small bag, tore open the package, and poured them into her mouth like a garbage disposal, muttering indistinctly as she ate, "Leave the ones on the left to me later!"

She had judged the size of the enemies and realized they weren't as big as she was in her full transformed state, so she immediately stopped being afraid.

Little Elizabeth also jumped up, holding a wrench. "Don't anyone try to take the rest from me!"

Wendell didn't react for a moment. "You're going to..."

Before he could finish, Lily's spicy stick energy had reached its peak. The next second, a gust of wind rose from nowhere, a wind the likes of which Twilight Capital had never seen before.

"Awoo—Woof!!"

A somewhat familiar but louder roar came from the wind. The wind swept out in all directions, even shaking the huge steam machines, and accompanied by equally heavy footsteps, a majestic, fanged, and clawed beast strode out of the storm.

The beast glared at the steam machines, then lowered its head and licked Hao Ren's head with a serious expression: huff, huff...

Hao Ren, with his shield, was knocked sideways by Lily's big tongue, then deftly flipped onto her back, riding on Lily's head to form a dog knight combo. He waved his hand. "Charge! Just don't kill anyone!"

The science-obsessed troops of the Steam Six clearly didn't expect anyone to resist when surrounded by steam behemoths—they had been an invincible authority in this city for too long. So when Hao Ren and his group charged up, they were a bit taken aback. But elites were elites after all. After a short period of confusion, the steam behemoths, carrying large amounts of high-temperature, high-pressure gas, met the enemy with mechanical roars.

And in the chaos, Hao Ren heard someone exclaim loudly, "Ancestors! What on earth is that monster!"

—Clearly, no one here recognized what a fully transformed werewolf was.

"Boom!"

The super husky and the steam behemoth collided violently. Lily's sharp teeth and claws were not at all inferior to the steel body. The seemingly extremely heavy machine monster waved several mechanical arms to meet Lily's bites and pounces, while Lily roared back with even more violent collisions. Because Hao Ren had ordered her to hold back, Lily's attacks were fierce but restrained: she was just using her brute force to push away these clumsy iron lumps and trying to open a path.

"Hold steady! Hold steady!" a commander's voice came from inside a steam machine. "Use the electric arcs and restraining cables! Use the elec..."

The steam machine's voice stopped abruptly halfway through. Its two mechanical arms suddenly spewed out a large amount of gas as if the pressure had been released, and then the entire machine slumped crookedly. A piece of armor plate on the machine's abdomen was kicked open from the inside, and the little demon Elizabeth excitedly jumped out, holding a complex mechanical device. The little girl was so happy that snot bubbles came out of her nose.

"My spiral stabilizer!" The hatch on the other side of the steam machine was pushed open from the inside, and an operator wearing a leather cap and mechanical eye waved his fist in exasperation. "You little devil! Put that thing down!"

Elizabeth pretended not to hear. By this time, she had already climbed onto the long legs of another "machine spider" with a small wrench and pliers. The high-temperature, high-pressure steam attacks didn't bother a demon who bathed in magma all day long. The little girl happily laughed as she took apart the parts, and soon she had laboriously removed a leg...

The situation was chaotic. The Steam Six's seemingly mighty machine spiders were soon overwhelmed by the superwomen on Hao Ren's side. They were indeed the top combat force in Twilight Capital, and to be honest, they were quite threatening. But the controllers of these machines had a huge limitation: they had never seen any creatures outside the Twilight Barrier since they were born!

Hundreds of years ago, there were still some ancient monsters wandering in the dark night of Midgard, surviving from the twilight of the gods. But now even those monsters had died out, and the people left in the Twilight Barrier could only learn about those bizarre super-creatures from the distorted and incomplete legends of their ancestors. For centuries, the Steam Six had been a top force whose symbolic significance outweighed its practical significance. The large machines they were equipped with might indeed have the power to fight alien monsters—but the operators of these devices had no experience in this regard. They had never seen a dog bigger than a machine spider, nor a violent loli who wasn't afraid of high temperatures, nor a landlord who was invulnerable and had a few tricks up his sleeve.

But as the saying goes: elites are elites.

They lacked experience, but they had training, operating manuals, and mental fortitude!

After the initial panic, the machine spiders miraculously recovered their formation. The operators realized that these guys were completely different from ordinary rioters. The skills they usually practiced in training manuals and simulated venues suddenly seemed to have a use. The machine spiders that were still able to move, sputtering steam, quickly reorganized and began to launch an orderly counterattack.

Strong electric arcs burst out between the long legs of some machine spiders, forming electrostatic fields that made it difficult for enemies to approach, while other machine spiders opened their back armor, and various strange equipment flashed with a metallic glint.

The warriors operating on the weapon platforms came back to their senses from their astonishment. They propped up heavy Gatling guns from under the steel frames, and with the sound of hissing air, the Gatling guns began to accelerate slowly.

"Don't get bogged down in battle!" Hao Ren clamped Lily's nose hard with his legs (actually, a part of the fur on her nose: this girl was too big now), and pointed forward with his spear. "The target is the elevator!"

"Awoo!!"

Lily let out a long and loud howl. Before the "Woof" came out, she had wrapped herself in a gust of wind and charged fiercely towards the weakest point in the machine spiders' defense.

The machine spiders, having fully reorganized, were still a bit of a problem. Everyone didn't have time to tangle with these iron lumps.

Vivian summoned a powerful cold air storm, making all the machine spiders extremely sluggish. Anton summoned a barrage of arcane missiles that blotted out the sky. Even though the machine spiders had anti-magic shields formed by runes, they swayed and found it difficult to aim under the impact of the arcane barrage. Izhaks held up the rear, blocking all attacks. Even Nangong Wuyue exploded with huge potential: she had transformed into a sea serpent, crawling quickly while also giving everyone on the team various buff effects and healing spells. But after all, she was cowardly at heart. To embolden herself, she had to wrap her tail around something and swing it as she ran, which could at least give her some courage.

Nangong Sanba seemed to have some objections: the thing Wuyue was wrapping her tail around was him.

The machine spiders made all kinds of horrifying roars. The armor-piercing bullet barrage swept out by the Gatling guns created layers of ripples on the evil energy shield and the rigid shield. However, all of this had limited effect. Hao Ren and his group quickly ran to a place that the warriors of the Steam Six could not reach. Elizabeth, carrying a huge mechanical leg, waved it at them from afar. "Thank you for the legs!"

They rushed through the blockade line in a blaze of glory.