43: Chapter 43 Encountering a Formidable Enemy: The Mechanically Modified Legion

"Lin Xiao... I'm not as good a fighter as Qing Qian, so I can't accompany you through life and death; nor am I as smart as Luo Yao, so I can't help you solve those complex technical problems..."

Her voice was soft and trembling, carrying a hint of humble pleading.

"But I will always be here. In this infirmary, in this kitchen, in every corner of the Black Iron."

"As long as you return, I will cook hot meals for you, prepare your bathwater, and... tend to your wounds."

"So... don't leave me behind, okay?"

These words lacked grand, dramatic vows of eternal love, possessing only the simplest and most sincere air of domesticity.

This was exactly the gentle harbor that Lin Xiao, a man who lived on the edge of a knife every day in this apocalypse, craved the most.

"Silly woman."

A certain string in Lin Xiao's heart was plucked fiercely.

He raised his hand, gently caressing Shen Man's gentle and beautiful face, his thumb tenderly wiping away the tears from the corners of her eyes.

"Who says you're useless? You are the chief housekeeper of the Black Iron, my financial minister, and even more so, my 'supportive partner'."

"Without you, this group of women would have blown up the carriage long ago, and I would have starved to death."

"So, for the rest of your life, don't even think about getting off the train."

Shen Man broke into a smile through her tears, a smile like a spring flower after the rain, breathtakingly beautiful.

"Mhm, I won't get off. I'm sticking with you."

The distance between the two grew smaller and smaller.

The surrounding air seemed to be heating up.

Their breaths intertwined, their gazes locked in a lingering connection.

Lin Xiao no longer suppressed the fire in his heart; he applied a little force and pressed Shen Man down onto the clean and tidy hospital bed.

"Since you are my supportive partner... shouldn't you fulfill your duties as a wife?"

Lin Xiao's voice was low and hoarse, filled with aggression.

Shen Man's eyelashes trembled violently; she did not refuse, but instead slowly closed her eyes, slightly lifting her long, swan-like neck.

"As long as you need it... I am willing to do anything."

In this quiet infirmary, there were no sandstorms outside, nor the roars of monsters.

There were only two hearts that needed each other, at this very moment...

(Ten thousand words omitted here... those who know, know. Lights out.)

* * [The next day, early morning] * *

The Black Iron's wide tracks finally crushed the last patch of mud, charging out of the gray-green toxic fog of the Death Swamp.

Sunlight, long-lost sunlight!

Although it still carried the desolation of the apocalypse, that blinding golden color made everyone in the carriage cheer.

"Finally out! I was almost vomited by the smell in that swamp!"

"Yeah! It feels like seeing the light of day again!"

Luo Yao stretched lazily in the control room, took off her tactical glasses, and rubbed her eyes.

"Luo Yao, activate the solar auxiliary charging panels. Although we have nuclear power, every bit we can save helps."

Lin Xiao walked into the control room, refreshed, holding a cup of goji berry tea brewed by Shen Man herself.

After last night's "in-depth communication," he felt completely elevated.

Shen Man's plump, soft body and gentle-as-water personality were simply the best antidote in this wasteland.

"Received!" Luo Yao obediently typed on the keyboard.

Afterward, she glanced at the screen, and her little brows suddenly furrowed.

"Squad Leader... the situation doesn't seem right."

Luo Yao's voice became serious, her fingers operating quickly on the keyboard to pull up the long-range radar scan images.

"Ahead is a desolate Gobi desert, the terrain is flat. But..."

"The radar has detected a large number of high-energy signatures! They aren't biological signals! They are... mechanical units!"

"Mechanical units?" Lin Xiao put down his teacup and walked to the screen.

On the holographic projection, less than ten kilometers in front of the Black Iron, a large, dense area of red dots appeared.

This was not a group of stragglers, but an army with a tight formation!

Billowing yellow dust rose into the sky, obscuring half the heavens.

"Zoom in!" The image zoomed in.

It was a steel torrent composed of hundreds of strangely shaped chariots.

These chariots had no tracks, but instead relied on mechanical legs similar to spider legs to move quickly across the Gobi desert, at extremely high speeds.

And what made one's scalp tingle the most were the "soldiers" sitting on the chariots.

They, or rather "it," were half human flesh and blood, while the other half had been brutally replaced by cold metal machinery.

Some had huge Gatling guns for arms; some had their lower bodies directly connected to track chassis; even more extreme, half of their heads were encased in metal shells, revealing only a single electronic eye flickering with red light.

They all wore a uniform emblem: a gear surrounding a beating heart, with a dagger stabbed into the heart.

* * [System Alert: Encountering an extreme faction — "Mechanicus Cult" fanatics!] * *

* * [Faction Description: A group of madmen who believe that "flesh is weak, machinery is ascension." They worship pre-war AI and are dedicated to transforming all of humanity into semi-mechanical "perfect beings." Extremely xenophobic, highly technologically advanced, and extremely dangerous!] * *

"Mechanicus Cult?" Lin Xiao narrowed his eyes.

Good grief, just out of the wolf's den and into the tiger's mouth.

The monsters on this wasteland really come one after another.

Just then, the Black Iron's public radio frequency was suddenly forcibly interrupted.

"Bzzt... bzzt..."

A harsh, synthesized electronic voice rang out in the command room, a sound with no emotional fluctuation, making people as uncomfortable as fingernails scraping against glass.

"Unknown wanderers... This is the Mechanicus Cult, 13th Judgment Legion, Commander 'Zero'."

"Your vehicle radiates light that pleases the True God... it is a pure, supreme nuclear energy fluctuation."

On the holographic screen, a bust of a man appeared.

Or rather, it could no longer be fully called a human.

The left half of his face was still human, pale and cold; but the right half, including his right eye and half of his skull, had been entirely replaced by silver-white metal and complex circuitry.

That red electronic eye was staring at Lin Xiao through the screen without any emotion.

"Hand over your energy core... hand over that great creation..."

Zero's voice was bone-chillingly cold, carrying an unquestionable arrogance.

"As a reward, the Cult will grant you the qualification for 'ascension.' You will shed these dirty, fragile flesh bodies and become eternal steel apostles."

"If you don't hand it over... we will crush your bodies and extract your souls!"

Clearly, the "micro cold fusion reactor" that the Black Iron had just installed was as dazzling as a searchlight in the dark night to these energy-obsessed mechanical fanatics.

They were coming specifically for this thing!

"Squad Leader... there are so many of them... and those mechanical spiders look like they have heavy firepower." Luo Yao pulled Lin Xiao's sleeve, worried.

Although the Black Iron was strong now, facing this kind of organized, regular army whose technological level was not inferior to theirs, this would definitely be a tough battle.

"Don't be afraid." Lin Xiao patted the back of Luo Yao's hand, then picked up the communicator's microphone.

He didn't even stand up, just leaned lazily in his chair, a wild and uninhibited sneer curling at the corner of his mouth.

"Hey, half-faced tin can, can you hear me?" Lin Xiao's voice was full of provocation.

"Want my core? Want my vehicle? Sure."

He leaned fiercely toward the microphone, a strong murderous intent erupting in his eyes.

"Come and trade your life for it!"

"Also, I hate it when people act all mysterious and spooky with me. Today, I'll teach you bunch of scrap metal... what real 'firepower saturation' is!"

"Click!" Lin Xiao cut off the communication directly.

He stood up abruptly, tore off his bathrobe, revealing his toned, muscular body and the tactical inner armor he had just put on.

"Luo Yao! Pull the emergency alarm! The whole vehicle enters the highest combat state!"

"Su Qingqian, Zhao Xiaotang, Liu Ruyan! Bring your gear and follow me to the roof platform!"

"Don't these lunatics like mechanical ascension? Today, I'll use the electromagnetic cannon to send them to see their mechanical God!"

"Click!" The communication was unilaterally cut off, and the image on the holographic screen instantly turned into static.

The wild wind on the Gobi desert whipped up sand into the sky, beating against the Black Iron's heavy titanium alloy armor, making a fine rustling sound.

But in the train's command room, the atmosphere instantly dropped to freezing point.

"Ungrateful heretics..."

In the Mechanicus Cult camp, kilometers away from the Black Iron, on that huge command vehicle that looked like a mobile fortress, the red flickering electronic eye of "Zero" erupted with extremely dangerous murderous intent.

His half-mechanical face twisted, his right arm raised abruptly, and a harsh, synthesized electronic voice blared: "For the great mechanical ascension! Crush them!"

"Except for that nuclear energy core, all other life forms are to be erased!"

"For the True God! Flesh is weak, machinery is ascension!"

Hundreds of chariots driven by tracks and mechanical limbs emitted a deafening roar.

Those fanatical half-human, half-mechanical believers, like killing machines that knew neither fatigue nor fear, were like a torrent of steel, carrying the sand-filled sky, charging madly toward the Black Iron!

Charging at the very front were dozens of "half-men" whose lower bodies had been modified into track chassis.

Their arms were directly replaced with six-barreled Gatling guns, the barrels already spinning wildly, spitting out blinding tongues of fire half a meter long!

"Da da da da da — —!!!"

The dense rain of bullets, like a metal storm, instantly crossed the distance of several kilometers, slamming fiercely into the Black Iron!

"Warning! Sustaining high-intensity physical firepower attack!"

"Energy shield fluctuation rate: 1.5%... Nuclear reactor power output is stable, shield is intact."

Luo Yao sat in front of the console, looking at the data on the screen, her small mouth shaped into an "O".

Outside the carriage window, that layer of deep blue [Primary Vehicle Energy Shield] rippled densely under the pouring rain of bullets.

Those large-caliber bullets, capable of turning ordinary armored vehicles into sieves, lost all their kinetic energy the moment they touched the light screen, as if they had sunk into the sea, clattering to the ground.

A shield powered by nuclear energy, facing this kind of conventional gunpowder weapon, was simply a dimensional strike!

"Is that all?" Lin Xiao stood on the firepower platform on the roof of the train, letting the war rage outside, yet not a single hair on his head was out of place.

He had just come out of Shen Man's infirmary, feeling refreshed, as if he had endless strength in his body.

Looking at those mechanical believers charging over like mad dogs, he sneered.

"Liu Ruyan, take the mobile squad and greet them for me!"

"Yes! Conductor!" Liu Ruyan, who had long been lying in ambush at the shooting ports on both sides of the carriage, shouted sharply.

She was wearing a black tight leather suit today (made from the skin of a Level 3 crocodile), which wrapped her graceful and hot figure perfectly, even her posture while holding the assault rifle exuded a charming murderous intent.

"Sisters, fire!" Dozens of assault rifles roared at the same time!

However, an unexpected scene occurred.

The dense bullets hitting those charging mechanical believers only sparked a series of sparks!

"Clang, clang, clang!"

Most of these believers' torsos were covered with heavy bulletproof steel plates; even if a few bullets luckily hit the remaining flesh parts of them, they didn't even frown.

Mechanical modification had cut off their pain nerves; as long as the brain chip and power center were not destroyed, they would keep fighting!

"Squad Leader! Ordinary bullets are useless against them!"

Liu Ruyan emptied a magazine, looking at the monsters getting closer and closer under the rain of bullets, her face turning pale.

"Not afraid of pain, huh? Then I'll break your dog legs!"

Lin Xiao's eyes hardened.

If these lunatics were allowed to get close to the train, although the shield could hold, it would be quite troublesome if they used some kind of powerful self-destruction method.

"Luo Yao! Full-frequency electronic jamming!"

"Qing Qian, Xiao Tang! Take the melee squad and charge! Strip their iron skin off for me!"

"Received!"

Luo Yao excitedly pushed up the [Tactical Smart Glasses] on the bridge of her nose.

"Let me show you the power of this genius! Electronic Ghost, infiltrate!"

Luo Yao's consciousness instantly followed the amplification of the tactical glasses, turning into an invisible torrent of data, brutally smashing through the Mechanicus Cult's crude local area network firewall.

On the battlefield, the mechanical legion that was originally charging in coordination suddenly experienced an extremely eerie pause.

"Bzzt —"

The few tracked machine gunners charging at the front suddenly had the red light in their eyes flash crazily, and the six-barreled Gatling guns actually turned their muzzles and fired a burst at their companions nearby.

"Error... logical conflict... underlying code tampered with..."

Some mechanical believers simply froze on the spot, twitching like a stuttering slide show; in some communication channels, the children's song "Two Tigers" recorded by Luo Yao played, and the scene was once very comical.

The biggest weakness of mechanical ascension is its extreme reliance on electronic signals.

In front of Luo Yao, a top-tier hacker, their coordination ability was instantly paralyzed by half!

"Well done! Now it's our turn!"

Zhao Xiaotang shouted excitedly and jumped down from the roof of the train!

She was wearing a tight black sports vest and tactical shorts today, her wheat-colored skin shimmering with a healthy glow in the sunlight.

Because the movement was so large, her proud bust seemed about to burst the vest at any moment, full of wild, powerful beauty.