Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Ye Zi looked around in terror at the circle of people; almost none of them seemed normal. Each one appeared terrifying to her, with powerful machinery directly integrated into their bodies, producing ’creak’ ’creak’ sounds with every move, and metal palms that seemed capable of crushing her head if they wished.

”Move aside, move aside!”

Cowboy Apu unceremoniously kicked several of his peers away and gave Ye Zi a friendly smile.

”Hey, beautiful, we meet again!”

Seeing a familiar face, Ye Zi trembled all over before coming back to her senses and hurriedly rushing over.

”He, he, Brother Tamil he—”

”I know, I know, don’t worry, he’s not dead yet.”

Apu took a long time to console her. At this moment, Ye Zi was cautiously sitting in the corner, holding a cup of juice in both hands.

She originally planned to go to Flame Pass to ask Brother Tamil’s companions for help to rescue him, but she was captured halfway and realized upon coming to her senses that she was already here.

Later, she found out that the big figure in the Black Market, the Butcher, had ambushed people on every route leading to Flame Pass. If she had recklessly gone ahead, death would have awaited her.

In fact, Brother Tamil’s companions were already on it; they would take action as soon as the Butcher left the Black Market.

Ye Zi felt a sense of relief but also a tinge of shame.

She hadn’t been of any help; instead, she almost ruined their big plan.

Now, she was stealthily observing her surroundings, feeling as if she were in a dream in the high-tech environment, and she was startled when the virtual screen projected the image of the Butcher.

”No wonder he’s the Prosthetic Doctor; he must have an anti-surveillance device on him. Once a drone gets within a certain distance, he’s bound to notice.”

Zooming in her vision, she indeed saw a pager-like device at the Butcher’s waist. In the projection, it emitted very peculiar electromagnetic fluctuations.

”But little did he dream we are now monitoring him from above 8,000 meters, using a satellite positioning system.”

The satellite positioning system was relayed by the Sky Mother Ship, transmitted to the flying device, and belonged to a standard Level 2 technology, providing dimensionality reduction monitoring of the Butcher.

The Butcher used at least three ways to hide himself: one was moving in batches, dividing his men into five teams for separate actions, the second was ’body swap,’ creating a fake Butcher who was swaggering around the Black Market, and the third was various anti-tracking devices, with the electromagnetic wave locator being just one of them.

But all of it was useless; under the satellite positioning system’s mark, everything was exposed.

The biggest difference between a Level 2 Civilization’s satellite positioning system and a Level 1 Civilization is that it can perform ’mobile positioning,’ rather than just capturing high-definition photos.

For example, the Insight plan in Captain America 2 is a Level 2 Civilization-level satellite positioning which can target people anywhere on the planet in seconds, quite dangerous.

At this point, the real Butcher was blending into a caravan, quietly sneaking away from the Black Market.

”Finally left, it’s our turn to act.”

A hatch slowly lifted upward, and four mechas over four meters tall stepped out, led by Helli.

Inside the mecha pod, she expertly operated the mechanical lever; her head was no longer covered with electrodes but a dark helmet.

This newly developed helmet can effectively reduce a pilot’s neural stress.

”Artificial Intelligence, prepare to deploy.”

”Got it.”

The flying device began to descend steadily, as Ye Zi watched this girl about her age dumbfoundedly, suddenly feeling very envious.

”Let’s go!!”

At an altitude of over a hundred meters, as the cabin door slowly opened, one after another the mecha dropped down directly.

The greatest upgrade in the Enhanced Version of the Berserker is the power system; fist-sized jet nozzles were added to the shoulders, knees, and waist, making the mecha’s movements more agile but also demanding more from the pilot.

The pilots of these four mechas have the highest level of skill, including two females, one being Helli and the other Xiaoju.

In the Butcher’s dazed gaze, four mechanical giants descended from the sky, blocking their four directions.

The ensuing battle was hardly worth mentioning; unless you were a level 20 character or above, a mecha would just steamroll.

The Butcher’s men had decent combat abilities; some Transformers even had rows of mini-grenade launchers, but the current Berserker is not the empire’s silly big clumsy version; the four-meter-tall gigantic machine was almost as agile as a human, with only one unlucky fellow having a mechanical arm blown off by the mini grenades.

As more and more Mechanical Hunters descended from the sky, the Butcher finally despaired. He hesitated for a while and eventually gave up his plan of taking hostages.

”I surrender.”

”Smart choice.”

The Butcher turned, only to find his most trusted subordinate had an obvious change in build, with countless bony spikes protruding from beneath his skin. His palm yanked, tearing off his face to reveal a delicate face beneath, smiling gently.

”Had you acted a moment ago, you’d be the one dead.”

The Butcher was petrified; he had no idea when the other person got there.

...

”Alright, bring the person over here. I’ll prepare the surgical materials; since the arm is broken, it’s a good chance to reattach a new one.”

Gao Gong hung up the phone, while Professor Han, without looking up, said, ”Just in time, we can test the new biological chip.”

At this moment, inside a cellular incubator, a tumor-like object was floating in the nutrient solution.

Biological Chip: A very special biological plugin composed of different radiation cells, capable of adjusting the ratio of different cells to provide the Transformer with various types of hunting methods.

”Want to give it a try?”

Gao Gong nodded, placing his hand over the nutrient solution. His fingers transformed into five ’Enhanced Bloodthirsty Legs,’ which upon contact, absorbed it into his body.

[Your cultivation system transformation rate +1%]

[Your agility +1]

[Your perception +1]

[You acquired the skill ’Basic Knife Technique’]

[Your swordsmanship has advanced from ’Ordinary’ to ’Advanced’, obtaining Reaper Blade Technique]

In the next moment, Gao Gong felt like he had transformed into a gigantic Reaper, lurking in the forest. In the distance, a massive prey walked past, and the Reaper’s yellow eyes narrowed slightly.

The next moment, the Reaper sprang up, its six blade limbs transforming into bright slashes, cutting the bull-sized prey into six pieces.

Reaper Blade Technique (Biological Chip): A hunting knife skill mastered by the Radiation Beast Reaper through years of hunting, known for its speed, ferocity, and precision.

Additional State: One Slash Eight Skills

One Slash Eight Skills: A single slash that, through special techniques, can consecutively emit eight slashes, causing eightfold damage.

Gao Gong closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment, his hand knife flashed like lightning, and the next moment, eight slash marks appeared on the wall.

”Feels pretty good.”

Gao Gong moved his body but didn’t feel any rejection.

”Nonsense, this is a biological chip cultured from your cells, how could there be rejection?” Professor Han retorted, ”For others, that might not be the case.”

However, Professor Han also smiled for once, ”But we finally made it, the next steps will be easier.”

As long as the key technologies for mecha and biological chips are solved, the rest is just mass production.

It’s worth Gao Gong spending nearly a million experience points over the past two days, gambling on almost a hundred biological blueprints to finally break through this technical barrier.

Just like the ’External Neural Connection Device’ is the key technical point for mechas.

The ’Chip Circuits’, ’Protein Structure’, and ’Microscopic Cell Carving Technology’ are also among the challenges.

Among these hundred biological blueprints, even if it’s the same technology, there will be different technical routes.

Gao Gong and Professor Han experimented for a long time and finally found the most suitable route.

Thanks to the NPC Template for enabling the alliance, allowing the use of alliance experience to gamble on blueprints; otherwise, with a million experience points, Gao Gong would be spitting blood.

”Now, in terms of potential, Biological Hunters will surpass Mechanical Hunters,” Professor Han said.

Gao Gong nodded, expressing his agreement.

Although biological chips are not occupation-exclusive, ordinary people can only install one at most, while after special transformation, Biological Hunters can implant about 3 to 5 chips, and after level 20, they can even form a ’Chip Combination’.

”Are you really leaving?” Professor Han suddenly voiced.

From the perspective of faction operations, the ’Mechanical Hunters’ are undoubtedly on the rise; it feels a bit strange for the leader to leave at this time.

”Yes, some high-level scientific knowledge can only be live-extracted from large companies, and the investigation of Network Bionics and Molecular Bionics can only be found by going out.”

...

Tamil seemed to have a long nightmare; in the nightmare, he was repeatedly tortured and beaten. In the latter part, the nightmare took a turn.

He seemed to have become prey, pursued by a group of Steel Reapers, these monsters slicing him into countless pieces and devouring them.

Then he returned to human form and continued to be chased.

He kept fleeing and fighting back, but no matter what he did, the result was the same.

Eventually, he became numb.

He had a high fever, vaguely hearing people speaking.

”This guy has a strong will.”

”Not bad, worthy of being under my command.”

Is that the boss’s voice?

He didn’t know how long it lasted, and just when he doubted he would never escape this nightmare, the nightmare seemed to change again.

After being devoured, he didn’t ’revive’, instead, he slid out of a very crowded place.

He struggled to open his eyes, and the first thing he saw was two scissor-sized blade limbs.

Has he become a Reaper cub!?

”You’re awake!”

Tamil woke with difficulty, finding himself lying on an operating table. A familiar Genetic Girl showed a pleased expression.

Not far away, three dirty children were leaning against the window, watching as a mecha patrol squad passed by with eyes full of longing.

The leading mecha seemed to have noticed them and extended its giant mechanical arm, saluting the trio.

”Wow! So cool!”

”That’s amazing!”

”I want to pilot a mecha when I grow up!”

’What’s so great about piloting a mecha, you three brats,’ Tamil sarcastically thought to himself, as grogginess overcame him and he fell asleep again.