Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 34: Chapter 28: Territorial Development Rights

Behind Petrol Town, the Intercontinental Auto Exhibition Center.

This center is formerly known as the Auto Exhibition Center, but now it has a new name, the War Center.

Early in the morning, one war vehicle after another drove into the hall, one Mechanical Hunter after another stepped out of the vehicles, fierce and aggressive, wherever they passed, they were detested by people and dogs alike, and finally, it was left to the team leader to step forward and receive their assignments in Hall No. 1.

The remaining Mechanical Hunters waited in the hall, smoking, and sweeping their comrades with dangerous, indefinable gazes.

The calibers of the weapons in their hands were each bigger than the last, some of which turned with the changes in neural sensors, making a ’creaking’ sound.

This former auto exhibition center seemed to have turned into a weapons exhibition center.

When an armed armored vehicle, like a steel fortress, drove into the hall, it instantly attracted countless gazes.

Although Automobile City is renowned for vehicle modifications and is considered a local specialty industry, this was obviously not any modified vehicle but a genuine armored war vehicle. Needless to say, this kind of military vehicle must have been smuggled in, driving so brazenly in front of Security Corps officials—so arrogant!

’Squeak—’

The heavy car door opened, emitting a strong jet sound, which was the sound of the air pump driving the door.

Experienced hunters could almost infer the horsepower of the armored car from this detail alone.

When compared to their own, darn, that’s just too exaggerated.

Gao Gong was the first to step out from the co-driver’s seat.

”It’s him!”

”Who is he, oh, no wonder.”

”The head rider of that big sister.”

”Turns out to be a little wolf dog.”

”No, this is at least a giant mastiff.”

The reputation of a Mechanical Hunter often correlates with the number of Radiation Beasts they hunt. And Gao Gong, in this past month, had hunted quite a few beasts, more than the average armed hunting squad.

Gao Gong scanned around, spotting many familiar faces. Matsushima Keiko, sitting on top of the car, gave him a sweet smile, with both hands resting on the handle of a Samurai Sword, full of indeterminate meaning.

”Guard the car, I’m going to register.”

If Gao Gong being the owner of this vehicle would not cause any doubts, then the next two people to come out certainly left others in confusion.

One was a semi-Mechanical Man with a modification level that was utter garbage.

The other was a chubby guy who only knew how to giggle and eat.

Just the two of them?

A strong sense of discontent arose in the hearts of several hunters who had failed their applications.

If only I were in there!

Naturally, Gao Gong didn’t care what others thought, and he walked straight into Hall No. 1. The Security Corps official responsible for reception gave the armored car a complex look and pointed to the meeting room.

”What does this mean?”

”Ordinary teams get their assignments outside, while some elites have someone specifically responsible for receiving them.”

Gao Gong smiled, said nothing, and pushed the door open to enter.

Immediately, a series of indeterminate glances swept over him.

”So many familiar faces,” Gao Gong laughed heartily.

Fire Thief Wilson

Mechanic Huang Wen

Assassination Master Miyamoto Sanzang

Three-Handed Daisila

Crawler

Gray-Eyed Adrian

The six hunting squad leaders most capable of fighting in Automobile City, either standing or sitting, posed differently.

Except for Daisila, who smiled at Gao Gong, the expressions of the others were not so friendly.

Lone Wolf-type hunters are enigmatic and unrestrained, often feared by others.

And the team leaders of Mechanical Hunters of similar levels have a particular sense of superiority over Lone Wolves.

”Little Gao, you’ve come,” the middle-aged man behind the conference table stood up willingly, patting Gao Gong on the shoulder with a smile.

”Manager Zhou.”

This Manager Zhou, the logistics manager of the Security Corps, was the one responsible for receiving Gao Gong when he delivered the Reaper’s head.

Manager Zhou’s attitude towards Gao Gong was significantly different from the others, which made the squad leaders’ expressions slightly change.

When they came in, the manager didn’t have such a good attitude.

”Sit, everyone, have a seat.”

Once everyone was seated, Manager Zhou pressed a remote control, and a Virtual Projection appeared from the camera.

This is the terrain map around Automobile City, with Scavenger City to the east, Blood Ore Hills to the west, another Oasis to the south, and the Sulfuric Acid River to the north.

Manager Zhou pressed the remote control again, and suddenly, the originally green areas were covered by hundreds of red arrows.

”So many!?”

”This is already approaching the intensity of a Beast Tide.”

”What about the legions at the front line!”

Even these well-informed squad leaders’ faces changed. This intensity wasn’t saying the Beast Tide had been stopped in the east; it seemed that the eastern front line had completely fallen.

Manager Zhou said with a heavy expression, ”Gentlemen, the warriors of the Security Corps are fighting on the front line, but many beast remnants are still slipping in through the gaps in the front line. Our goal is to eliminate them.”

Huang Wen squinted his eyes and said, ”How could there be so many loopholes in the Security Corps’ mechanical defenses? According to my calculations, with the manpower and weapons you deployed, the defense value should reach three million points. Even if faced with an attack from a regular Mechanical Legion, it wouldn’t be possible to achieve this in such a short time.”

”I don’t know either, but I assure you, the front line legion hasn’t been broken; it’s just that some very special issues are troubling the frontline generals. Once those issues are resolved, the defense line will be repaired immediately.”

”Is there a Beast King?” The bearded Wilson asked with a serious expression.

”No, definitely not!” Manager Zhou said unequivocally.

”With just the power of us Hunters, even if we all went out, it’s impossible to block so many Radiation Beasts,” Daisila crossed her arms with her three hands.

”You don’t need to worry about defense. Our diplomatic personnel have already secured support from some local forces. They will alleviate our pressure from another direction.”

Local forces, that means the warlords. The expressions of the present Hunter captains all changed, not looking very favorable.

The relationship between local warlords and Mechanical Hunters is not quite like fire and water, but they do find each other disgusting. The former sees the latter as a source of chaos, and the latter views the former as humanoid beasts.

Seeing the atmosphere growing tense, Manager Zhou thought for a moment and decided to throw out a carrot: ”To let everyone fight on the front lines without worry, our Security Corps has decided to offer 100,000 Contribution Points as a reward for this hunt.”

100,000 points!

Gao Gong could clearly sense the surrounding breathing growing heavy.

Manager Zhou added fuel to the fire with another sentence: ”Moreover, to commend everyone’s contributions, our Security Corps has decided to open the governance rights to the Central Oasis and the development rights to the New Oasis.”

”As long as you can rank in the top ten in this hunting war in terms of contributions, you can hold an official position in the Central Oasis, like the mayor of this Petrol Town.”

”And if you get first place, you can obtain the development rights to the New Oasis. Not only can you possess machine construction from factories, but you can also independently negotiate businesses with large enterprises. If you successfully develop it, you will be the absolute ruler of the new territory. By then, maybe I’ll be begging for food under you.”

Manager Zhou humorously added.

The breathing grew heavy once more.

The Security Corps, as a monopoly-grade armed group, has earned mountains of gold and oceans of Mechanical Coins in the desert over the years, and now, they have the chance to become part of an interest group.

And if one can successfully develop an Oasis, one could even become independent outside the Security Corps!

Everyone knows this is a big pie, but it’s so tempting.

So tempting that even just a whiff would intoxicate someone with the taste of power.

The only person whose expression didn’t change was Gao Gong.

It’s not that Gao Gong is aloof, but in normal history, everyone in the Iron Sand Desert had died.

When there are no people, what’s the use of the pie no matter how delicious it is?

More importantly, the system task hadn’t been triggered, leaving Gao Gong indifferent and devoid of any taste.

This expression caught Manager Zhou’s eye, causing a hint of surprise to flash on his face, thinking to himself how strong this person’s mindset is, remaining unchanged even in the face of a collapsing mountain.

”Everyone, due to the energy interference in the Radiation Zone, our monitoring system often fails. There are bound to be a lot of beasts appearing around Automobile City.”

”I’ve already distributed the data of all the exposed beasts to your tactical communicators, including their numbers and weaknesses.”

”But I believe that with your efforts, we will surely win this war!”

...

Manager Zhou was rallying people inside, while other members of the Security Corps were rallying other Mechanical Hunters in the hall.

Although the specifics were unknown, once the 100,000 Contribution Points, the governing rights to the Central Oasis, and the development rights to the New Oasis were announced, everyone became excited!

”Kill the Radiation Beast!”

”When I become an Oasis Leader, the first set of laws I’ll issue is to reinstate the droit du seigneur!”

”Finally, the opportunity is here!”

”Kill! Kill! Kill!”

Fat Xiang stood dumbfounded at the scene, finally turning to ask Iron Hide, who was calm:

”What are they saying?”

Iron Hide snorted coldly, holding an e-cigarette, with disdain.

”Is that important?”

”Isn’t it important?” Fat Xiang scratched his head.

”Of course it’s important,” Iron Hide sighed, ”The problem is my hearing aid just malfunctioned, so I didn’t hear what they were saying either.”

”Oh.”

Engines roared one after another, as various modified vehicles madly raced out of the Auto Exhibition Center, the maniacal laughter perfectly fitting with the desert’s temperament, as flames spewed from exhaust pipes.

It seemed as if just their actions could easily handle the Radiation Beasts.

”We should get in the car too, Brother Gao should be out any moment now.”

”Wait a minute!”

At that moment, a figure suddenly appeared, blocking their path.

Zhao Mechanism looked at Iron Hide coldly, his gaze quite hostile.

”You’re not dead? How are you here?!”

”None of your damn business!”

Enemies meeting, eyes ablaze with hatred, Iron Hide’s rage shot straight to the CPU, thinking fortunately he hadn’t completed the full bionic transformation, otherwise that shot at the door last time would have really killed him.

Zhao Mechanism’s eyes shifted from the person to the armored vehicle, his brows furrowing once again.

”Such audacity, actually daring to steal a Security Corps combat vehicle!”

”Bullshit, that’s our captain’s vehicle!”

With a flick of Zhao Mechanism’s eyes, two robots came over from left and right, intending to drag Fat Xiang standing at the car door away and confiscate the vehicle.

However, to Zhao Mechanism’s surprise, even working together, the two robots couldn’t move the fat man there.

”What are you doing?” Fat Xiang asked foolishly, as underneath his clothes, thick snake-like muscles bulged.