134: Chapter 134 New Map, Dimensional Domination!

Boom—!

Gravity returned.

The Ghost Fortress's chassis maglev engines instantly engaged in reverse thrust. The forty-five-ton vehicle body hovered amidst violent inertia, and the electric arcs spewing from the rear scorched two charred marks into the ground below.

The panoramic windows lit up again.

Chen Chen gripped the control stick and looked up.

The world outside the window made his breath hitch for a beat.

Giant metal trees were suspended in mid-air.

True, thick dark-silver metal trunks with diameters exceeding ten meters had their roots suspended in the air and their canopies hanging downward. The branches and leaves were composed of countless shimmering metal flakes, slowly rotating within some kind of abnormal gravitational field.

The ground—there was no ground.

Beneath them was a boundless strong-acid swamp.

The dark green liquid surged with bubbles, and the instant each bubble burst, it splashed an acid mist capable of corroding metal.

In the distance, a broken branch from a floating metal tree fell into the swamp; within three seconds, it was dissolved until not even dregs remained.

Magnetic Storm Floating Forest.

The second map, a Level 2 map!

"Sister Bing, fleet status."

Shen Wanbing's fingers slid rapidly across the panel. The concentration ice heart necklace flashed a few times before stabilizing.

"All forty-four vehicles followed us through; the Fleet Link hasn't broken. They are all hovering within a three-kilometer radius of the lead vehicle."

Her voice paused for half a beat.

"The corrosion rate of the acid swamp on ordinary vehicle tires is—three millimeters per second."

The communication channel instantly exploded.

"The—the ground is acid?! My tires are smoking!"

"Damn it, I can't land! Someone pull me up—"

"Don't panic!" Iron Wall's voice drowned out all the noise. "Steady! Do not let your vehicles touch the ground!"

But their vehicles weren't maglev.

What were they supposed to do if they couldn't land?

The answer revealed itself automatically three seconds later.

The dark-silver halo of the Fleet Link continued to diffuse from the Ghost Fortress's chassis. Under every vehicle covered by the halo, a faint silver force field emerged beneath the body.

This force field—it propped them up.

They floated in low altitude thirty centimeters above the ground, their tires just clear of the acid surface.

Iron Wall's armored personnel carrier rose slowly. The moment the chassis left the acid, the smoking on the corroding tire surfaces stopped.

"—The shield... it's holding us up?" The adjutant's voice was trembling.

Iron Wall leaned over the observation port to look down.

The dark green acid surged thirty centimeters below the vehicle. A drop of acid mist bounced off the shield, creating a silver ripple as it was deflected.

The entire channel was silent for two seconds.

Then, one of the independents shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Long live the Boss—!"

The channel went wild.

"Incredible! Following the Boss, our cars don't even have to touch the ground!"

"What about the people from other zones? I saw a car in the distance fall into the acid swamp—it was gone in three seconds!"

"Nonsense! Anyone who didn't follow us is dead meat!"

The fanatical cheering in the communication channel made Jiang Jiuyou's fingers pause on the panel for a second.

She looked down through the panoramic window of the sub-command station.

Forty-four vehicles hovered neatly above the acid marsh, the dark-silver shield membranes standing out starkly against the dark green liquid.

Further away—

There were scattered fires and screams.

Survivors who had jumped from other regions lacked maglev engines and Fleet Link; they had dropped directly into the acid marsh.

Jiang Jiuyou withdrew her gaze.

"Chen Chen."

"Yeah?"

"What you said just now—"

Her ice-blue pupils stared at the floating metal jungle ahead.

"I haven't said no yet."

Chen Chen didn't look back.

But his finger on the control stick flicked slightly.

Shen Wanbing's voice suddenly rose half a pitch.

"Eight kilometers directly ahead—purple high-energy reaction! Energy signature determination—"

An extremely blinding purple cursor popped up on the holographic panel, with system-labeled text following beside it:

[Second Map · First Epic Airdrop Supply Crate]

"Two waves of unknown heat sources are exchanging fire. The bio-electric field frequency of one wave does not belong to carbon-based life at all."

Chen Chen pushed the engine power to full load.

"Full army assault."

...

The forty-five-ton Ghost Fortress tore through the acid mist, charging toward the purple light pillar with the dark-silver fleet halo.

The image in the panoramic window became clearer as the distance closed.

The airdrop crate had landed on a protruding giant rock in the center of the acid marsh, with the purple light pillar soaring into the sky from the crate's surface.

The acid around the rock was pushed aside by some kind of energy field, forming a dry area about sixty meters in diameter.

Two groups of people were squeezed into the dry zone.

On the left—twelve humanoid creatures with wings on their backs.

Gray-blue scales covered their entire bodies, their wingspans exceeded three meters, and they held energy spears flickering with electric arcs.

Feather-Scale Alien Race.

On the right—amidst the wreckage of seven chariots welded with bone decorations, over twenty humans dressed in grayish-white cloth robes, their chests uniformly printed with a distorted flame totem.

Fanatics of the Bishop of Ashes.

The two groups were fighting intensely.

An alien was pierced by a spear and fell into the acid marsh, letting out a shrill roar.

A fanatic was swatted away by a wing, crashing into the rock while still muttering some prayer, his face full of fervor.

Chen Chen scanned the Radar data.

The individual energy fluctuations of the aliens were between the peak of the Second Stage and the Third Stage, while the strongest among the fanatics was roughly middle Second Stage.

Weaklings.

A raspy human voice suddenly cut into the communication channel—the public channel—with heavy electrical static.

"—Attention unknown fleet! This area is covered by the glory of the Bishop of Ashes! The airdrop supplies belong to Zone 068! Immediately hand over your vehicles and supplies, exit your vehicles and kneel, and accept the baptism of purification—"

Chen Chen cut off the public channel reception.

"Jiuyou."

"Present."

"I'm giving you fire control authority. The heavy machine guns plus fleet concentrated fire will be enough; no need to touch the Matrix."

"Range?"

"Clear them all, leave none behind."

Jiang Jiuyou swiped three times on the holographic panel.

Something was burning in her ice-blue pupils.

"Full fleet fire-power grid integration—"

Her command was transmitted simultaneously to the communication terminals of the forty-four vehicles via the Fleet Link.

"Vehicles Three, Seven, and Twelve, encircle the left flank. Military Echelon One, frontal suppression. Dark Division Echelon Two, cut off the retreat."

Forty-four confirmation signals popped up on the panel. Response time—two seconds.

"Lead vehicle heavy machine guns, thermal imaging lock. Coverage area—the entire rock zone."

The B-grade twin-linked heavy machine guns on the roof of the Ghost Fortress automatically turned, their black barrels aiming at the dry zone six hundred meters away.

The fanatic leader seemed to sense something. He looked up at the approaching steel beast, and the prayer in his mouth hitched.

"Fire."

When those two words came out of Jiang Jiuyou's mouth, her voice was terrifyingly steady.

Thirty-millimeter armor-piercing incendiary rounds wove into two chains of fire.

The machine guns of the seventeen military armored vehicles in the rear fired simultaneously, the barrage crossing and covering from three directions.

The six modified off-road vehicles of the Dark Division charged out from the flanks, their vehicle-mounted rapid-fire cannons picking off targets with precision.

The fanatic leader's mouth had just opened for half a word—

An armor-piercing round drilled into his left shoulder and flew out of his right waist.

He glanced down at the massive hole in his chest; his eyes were still rolling, but his body was already falling backward.

Forty seconds.

All twenty-three fanatics had fallen.

The seven bone chariots were riddled with holes. Burning parts fell into the acid marsh, sizzling with white smoke.

The Feather-Scale Alien Race reacted faster.

Seeing this level of firepower output, the twelve aliens didn't say a word; they flapped their wings hard and bolted straight for the sky.

Five-story Dome Sniper Tower.

Qin Hongye lay on the 360-degree zero-dead-angle shooting platform, her dark brown pupils activating the A-grade Eagle Eye talent.

The automatic ballistic correction auxiliary sight locked onto the first airborne alien target—Fatal Lock triggered.

A crimson crosshair mark lit up on the fourth joint of the alien's spine.

She pulled the trigger.

The Gauss projectile left the chamber in a blue-white flash.

The projectile penetrated the alien's spinal joint, dealing 100% true damage.

That alien's wings instantly lost control. Its body tumbled twice in the air before plunging headfirst into the acid marsh.

Second shot, third shot.

Qin Hongye's rate of fire was so fast that the sounds of the bolt cycling merged into one.

Every single shot hit a weak point.

The Feather-Scale Alien Race had nowhere to hide within the shooting range of the Dome.

The last one tried to use the canopy of a floating metal tree as cover, but Qin Hongye's trajectory directly pierced through the metal flakes, shooting it through from behind the canopy.

Twelve aliens, zero survivors.

From the start of firing to the end—one minute and seventeen seconds.

In the communication channel, Iron Wall's adjutant's voice trembled: "One minute... including the aliens and fanatics, over sixty targets, in one minute..."

Iron Wall turned down the volume of the communicator.

"Don't make a fuss over nothing."