228: Chapter 228 The World Channel Carnival, Embarking on the Road to the Holy Mountain

Rumble—

Fortress No. 0819 strode forward on its four giant mechanical legs, entering the Black Forest from the mouth of the canyon.

With every step it took, the withered trees within a hundred-meter radius snapped in unison.

Before the fortress, the entire forest was no different from paper.

Atop the island superstructure.

Chen Du sat in a rattan chair, dangling a cigarette from his mouth as he took in the scenery.

An Nuonuo squatted by the mast, clutching a chain, staring intently at the Cardinal Bishop hanging in mid-air.

This number two figure of the Mechanical Divine Court was hanging from the mast's crossarm like a piece of cured meat.

Whenever the wind blew, he swayed back and forth.

"Stop swaying! You're making me dizzy!"

An Nuonuo pouted and tapped the mast with a wrench.

The Cardinal Bishop said nothing.

He no longer had any desire to speak.

...

Meanwhile.

On the outskirts of the Black Forest, many survival teams were scattered about.

A three-person squad was lying prone on the canopy of a withered tree, using binoculars to observe their surroundings.

"Boss, the ground is shaking."

The captain turned his binoculars toward the source of the vibration.

The image in the lenses made his entire body freeze.

A ship...

No, a steel fortress was sprinting through the forest on four giant legs.

The close-in weapon systems on both sides of the fortress gleamed with a cold light, and a flag with a black background and dark gold patterns fluttered atop the island superstructure.

Something was hanging from the mast.

"Is that... a person?" a team member rubbed his eyes.

The captain zoomed in to the maximum with his binoculars.

Scarlet robes, a metal face, severed limbs.

His hands began to tremble.

"Holy crap... that's the Cardinal Bishop in Scarlet Robes of the Mechanical Divine Court!"

"He's... he's been hung up there?!"

Another team member had already opened the recording function of the World Channel and hurriedly filmed a five-second video.

The channel exploded within three seconds.

[Did you guys see that?? The Cardinal Bishop in Scarlet Robes of the Mechanical Divine Court is being paraded around, hanging from the mast of a mobile fortress!]

[That's fake, right? What level of BOSS is the Cardinal Bishop? He's the Commander of three full legions!]

[It's not fake! Others caught it on video too! That fortress is numbered 0819!]

[It's 0819 again! It's God Du again! Just what kind of monster is this guy?!]

[You don't even walk a dog like that... This is flying a BOSS like a kite!]

[I'm dying of laughter, the Cardinal Bishop had his limbs removed and was hung on the mast, and there's a Little loli next to him watching him with a wrench. This image is too surreal, Hahahaha!]

The speed at which the World Channel was being spammed had already exceeded the system's capacity, and even messages began to lag.

The name "God Du" was now thoroughly etched into the mind of every surviving player.

On the deck.

Lin Keke leaned against the ship's railing, scrolling through the channel and laughing hysterically.

"Captain, look quickly! Someone made a meme! The Cardinal Bishop is hanging on the mast, and below it says 'Mechanical Divine Court Half-Price Sale'!"

Chen Du blew a smoke ring and ignored her.

His gaze remained fixed at the twelve o'clock position.

"Second Sister, what's the situation ahead?"

In the control room.

Xia Lai's voice quickly came through.

"Large-scale metallic aggregate detected! Distance four thousand meters, they are deploying a defensive formation!"

She pulled up a holographic projection.

A giant fortification spliced together from alloy plates appeared in the center of the screen.

Densely packed mechanical beasts were lining up.

This was the second line of defense for the Mechanical Divine Court.

"They want to stop us?" Chen Du stubbed out his cigarette butt, his tone flat.

"More than that."

Xia Lai zoomed in on the image. "The armor thickness of that fortification is at least two meters. Ordinary shells hitting it would be like scratching an itch."

Chen Du stood up and stretched.

Then he turned his head to look at the observation platform at the highest point of the island superstructure.

Xia Xin stood there.

Her hands steadily held that dark gold heavy sniper rifle—[Storm Ripper].

"Eldest Sister."

Chen Du called out.

Xia Xin looked back, the tips of her ears slightly red.

"Three thousand meters away, the power core of the enemy fortification."

"Shoot through it!"

Xia Xin pursed her lips and said nothing.

She leaned against the stock, her right eye pressed tightly against the scope.

In her field of vision.

The giant fortification three thousand meters away was infinitely magnified.

Every weld on the armor and the position of every rivet was clearly visible.

Her breathing slowed.

Her heartbeat dropped from eighty beats per minute to fifty.

Her index finger pulled the trigger.

Boom—!

A dull explosion that vibrated even the marrow of one's bones erupted at the top of the island superstructure.

A dark golden stream of light shot out from the muzzle, instantly crossing the three-thousand-meter distance.

Zero point seven seconds.

The stream of light hit the target.

The two-meter-thick reflective armor was no different from tofu before the dark golden stream of light.

The light pierced through the first layer.

The second layer.

The third layer!

It directly penetrated the fortification's core!

Boom boom boom—!!

Three thousand meters away, a series of explosions occurred!

Flames shot into the sky!

Within five seconds, the entire fortification transformed from a behemoth into a mountain of smoking scrap metal.

One shot.

Just one shot!

The wilderness players watching from afar collectively turned to stone.

The World Channel crashed once again.

[Holy crap, holy crap, holy crap! One shot! One shot pierced through a heavy-armored fortification? What kind of weapon is that?!]

[Who is that woman with the sniper rifle? She's a human railgun!!!]

[I don't want to live anymore. Other people's teams have human railguns, while my team can't even fully pull back a slingshot...]

Xia Xin lay behind the stock and stole a glance at Chen Du.

The man was leaning against the rattan chair, giving her a thumbs up.

Xia Xin buried her face back into the scope, her heart beating faster than when she had fired the shot.

After the fortification was destroyed, the mechanical beast swarm lost its command.

But they did not retreat.

Hundreds of red-eyed mechanical leopards and heavy-armored mechanical apes charged toward No. 0819 like mad.

"Ha! It's finally my turn!"

Tang Ran had been squatting by the deck for a long time.

She held that pitch-black crescent war scythe in her right hand, a faint blood mist floating on the blade.

She leaped!

Jumping from the ten-meter-high deck, she landed and smashed a spiderweb-like crater into the ground.

The first mechanical leopard pounced.

Tang Ran swung her scythe!

The mechanical leopard was sliced cleanly in half at the waist, its two halves flying more than ten meters away.

"Refreshing!"

The life-steal effect of the [scythe of calamity] triggered instantly.

A trace of warm energy flowed from the scythe's handle into her palm, coursing through her meridians and throughout her body.

Tang Ran's eyes lit up.

She began to charge.

Three mechanical apes raised their hydraulic hammers and surrounded her, but Tang Ran didn't even try to dodge.

A hammer smashed into her shoulder, tearing the flesh and sending blood splattering.

But in the next second.

The wound healed rapidly under the life-steal effect.

And the more heavily she was injured, the higher her attack power became!

Tang Ran's strength was surging!

She laughed wildly as she swung the war scythe.

Wherever the scythe blade passed, the limbs of the mechanical beasts flew off in patches like harvested wheat.

Ten beasts.

Thirty beasts.

Fifty beasts!

She alone cleared a vacuum zone twenty meters in diameter in the middle of the beast tide.

The ground was covered with shattered metal parts and green slime.

"Satisfying! This is so damn satisfying!"

Tang Ran stood on the pile of scrap metal, covered in blood.

Her wounds had all healed, yet not a single mechanical beast remained standing around her.

...

The battlefield was cleared.

Fortress No. 0819 set off again, continuing to advance toward the Holy Mountain.

Chen Du leaned back in the rattan chair, closing his eyes to rest.

"Captain!"

Xia Lai rushed out of the control room, holding a projector in her hands.

"Come look at this."

A blue screen popped up.

It was a diagram of the internal structure of the Cardinal Bishop's scepter after it had been dismantled.

The metal casing was peeled back layer by layer, and a fist-sized spherical container was embedded in the core.

The container was transparent.

Inside was an eyeball... still throbbing.

"It's alive."

Xia Lai was somewhat surprised. "This eyeball still has life signs even now."

Chen Du stared at the projection.

"I did a compositional analysis of the metal casing." Xia Lai slid the panel, pulling up another set of data.

"The alloy is mixed with organic proteins; it's the living tissue of some high-level creature."

"Captain, the technology of the Mechanical Divine Court... isn't just manufactured..."

Chen Du was silent for two seconds.

He thought of the female survivors inside the hydraulic columns under Outpost No. 17, connected by tubes, their talent origins being continuously extracted.

Then he thought of the Tyrant's original Godhead being sealed three thousand meters beneath the Holy Mountain.

Everything was connected.

The god of machinery wasn't some creator.

It was a parasite.

"Hehehe..."

Just then, a harsh, dry laugh came from the mast.

Everyone looked back.

The Cardinal Bishop's face, covered in metal interfaces, wore a twisted smile.

"So what if you found out?"

"You think you're the hunters? Ridiculous!"

"The bells of the Holy Mountain have already rung. This scrap iron boat under your feet is the best sacrifice."

He let out a raspy laugh like a broken bellows.

"And every one of you... is a main course on the plate! The kind that delivers itself to the door!"

An Nuonuo was startled and took a step back, nearly dropping her wrench.

Chen Du walked over and patted the Little loli's head.

Then he looked up at the Cardinal Bishop.

"You're right."

"I indeed came to deliver the food."

"However..."

Chen Du tilted his head. "The food is you lot."

The Cardinal Bishop's laughter stopped abruptly.

Chen Du turned and walked toward the bow.

The thick fog ahead suddenly dispersed.

In the center of that basin so vast its edges were invisible.

What stood there was not a mechanical city at all.

But a hundred-meter-tall, towering statue, forcibly spliced together from billions of pieces of steel and writhing flesh... a half-mechanical, half-flesh monstrosity!

"Is this... the god of machinery?"

Xia Mo gripped the hilt of her blade.

Chen Du stared at that throbbing heart for three seconds.

Then he heard it.

A sound coming from deep within the statue's chest cavity.

It was a heartbeat.

And it was in perfect synchronization with his own heartbeat!