63: Inner city barriers! How hard is the king's tortoise shell?

"Charge! Don't run, you shorty in front! Leave that wrench behind!"

"Hahaha! The Outer City is ours! Slow down, brothers! Leave a piece of equipment for me!"

"Why is the road ahead empty? Are all the dwarves dead?"

A steel flood composed of thousands of Magic-Modified Motorcycles, after destroying the dwarven air force, advanced irresistibly along the broad main road of Black Iron City.

Wherever they passed, they left only scattered parts on the ground and the arrogant laughter of the players.

The spearhead was aimed directly at the Inner City and the Palace.

Connecting the inner and Outer City areas was a massive steel drawbridge spanning a Lava River.

The dozens of motorcycles at the very front had already twisted their throttles to the limit, preparing to cross the drawbridge at the first opportunity to claim the top merit.

However, just as the wheels of the leading vehicle were about to touch the bridgehead.

Buzz—

A pale blue light curtain, almost imperceptible to the naked eye, rose from the ground like a miracle, instantly enveloping the entire Inner City within it.

"Bang!"

A dull, heavy thud.

The player at the very front, along with his bike, was like a fly hitting glass, directly smashed into a cluster of high-speed flying parts and data streams.

"Holy crap! What is that?!"

"A wall! There's a transparent wall ahead!"

"Brake! Brake quickly!"

The piercing sound of brakes and the crashing of consecutive rear-end collisions blended together.

The entire motorcycle army was forced to a halt in front of the bridge, the scene falling into complete chaos.

A player, unwilling to give up, stepped forward and poked the seemingly non-threatening light curtain with his finger.

It felt as hard as iron, and there was even a hint of coldness.

"I don't believe this!"

He stepped back a few paces and raised his musket.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

The bullets hit the light curtain like a clay ox entering the sea, failing to stir even a single ripple.

"Try using Spells!"

Dozens of mage players acted simultaneously, throwing colorful Fireball Spells, Ice Spikes, and Wind Blades at it.

The result was the same.

All magic energy was silently absorbed the moment it touched the light curtain.

"Stop wasting your energy!"

Wang Wei (Luban No. 7)'s voice rang out in the communication channel. His goggles were reflecting strings of crazily scrolling analysis data, his tone filled with the excitement of a tech geek discovering a new toy and the irritation of a difficult problem.

"Damn it! This energy fluctuation is too stable! Stable as a dead dog!"

"This is a Phase Deflection Shield! Our attack frequency doesn't match its energy frequency; all attacks are being deflected into an unknown dimension! Simply put, it's unbreakable!"

"This level of technology is wrong! It's at least two generations ahead of the scrap metal in their Outer City! This is unscientific!"

Just as the players were at their wits' end facing this "Wall of Sighs".

Above the energy barrier, light and shadow distorted.

The massive face of the Dwarf King, Sorin Ironbeard—half flesh and half machine—slowly emerged, like a deity looking down upon all living beings.

His mechanical prosthetic eye flickered with a cold red light, sweeping over the group of players at the bridge who were as tiny as ants.

"Insects."

His voice, transmitted through an amplification device, spread throughout the city with a texture like grinding metal and undisguised mockery.

"Welcome to the true core of Black Iron City."

"Did you think you won just by smashing through a wall and defeating a bunch of backward guards?"

An extremely contemptuous expression appeared on the King's face.

"Naive!"

As he spoke, the image behind him began to change.

It was a massive core power room filled with pipes and instruments.

And in the very center of the power room, a Young Dragon, still small in size but with a ferocious silhouette, was pinned firmly to a metal pedestal by countless thick chains and sparking pipes.

Its skin had been peeled back, revealing the pulsing muscles beneath and the forcibly implanted metal skeleton.

Its heart area was covered by a massive, tumor-like energy extraction device.

With every pulse of the device, the Young Dragon's body would twitch violently, letting out a painful and weak wail from its throat.

Massive amounts of life energy were being continuously drained from its body, sent through those complex pipes to the entire Inner City to maintain this indestructible energy shield.

"Do you see? This [Aegis of Kingship] is powered by my clan's supreme treasure, the [Heart of the Hill]—this unruly Young Dragon. Its energy is connected to the pulse of this land."

Sorin Ironbeard spread his arms and let out a mad laugh.

"Its vitality is the shield's durability! And its vitality is infinite!"

"Unless you can overturn the entire Black Iron City, you will be forever blocked outside this gate until you turn into dust beneath my feet!"

The King's image was full of provocation and showing off.

He expected to see expressions of despair, anger, or fear on the players' faces.

However, he was disappointed.

After a brief silence, the communication channel erupted with a cheer even more enthusiastic than when they had won the air battle.

"Holy shit! Did you see that, brothers?!"

"The BOSS's health bar is showing! Although it's showing a mana bar, it's losing mana!"

"That extraction device! That dragon's MP is continuously dropping! The shield has a cost!"

"Isn't this just a super-multiplied continuous mana-drain DEBUFF?!"

"Doesn't that mean if we attack the shield, we can speed up its mana consumption?!"

"Quick, quick, quick! Don't just stand there! Everyone come over! Damage the shield! Empty that mana bar for me!"

For the first time, an expression resembling 'confusion' appeared on Solin's cold mechanical face.

These insects... why aren't they angry, but instead even more excited?

Aren't they... afraid?

Before he could figure it out.

The players at the bridge had already taken action.

They used every ounce of strength and every means possible to frantically attack that solid shield.

Fireballs, bullets, grenades, even Entrenching Tools and power hammers.

Although all attacks still vanished without a trace, the players were tireless, each fighting with great joy, as if the shield wasn't an enemy but a super mining node that could drop equipment.

"Keep it up! I saw its energy fluctuation flicker!"

"It must be thanks to me! My Fireball Spell just landed a critical hit!"

"Bullshit! It was the brick I threw that triggered true damage!"

Wang Wei looked at this group of lunatics and shook his head helplessly.

"It's no use. Our attack intensity is too low; the consumption we cause isn't even as fast as its natural recovery. If we keep fighting like this, we won't break it even by the next version update."

Just as everyone was at a stalemate, a steady voice rang out in the command channel.

It was the Retired Soldier King, Retired Soldier King.

He hadn't participated in that carnival-like attack, but had been silently observing the surrounding terrain.

He pointed to the massive cavern ceiling overhead, where countless stalactites hung, and then to the rushing Lava River beneath their feet.

"A frontal assault is the behavior of a fool."

Retired Soldier King analyzed calmly.

"We are fighting an asymmetric war with the dwarves. We have the numbers, and we aren't afraid to die. So, we don't need to follow their rules."

"Since the bridge is impassable, then... why do we still have to use the bridge?"

Everyone fell silent and looked at Retired Soldier King.

Retired Soldier King looked up, his gaze as sharp as a hawk's, sweeping over the fragile rock structure above.

"What if... we create a large-scale artificial cave-in, using tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands of tons of rock to fill in this section of the Lava River below?"

"We can directly pave a path, bypass this bridge, and bypass this damn shield!"

The entire command channel instantly fell into a deathly silence.

Everyone was stunned by this extremely crazy idea.

Fill in the Lava River?

Is this a tactic a human can come up with?!

However, a few seconds later, Wang Wei's voice broke the silence, carrying a suppressed frenzy as if he had discovered a new continent.

"Feasible! Theoretically, it's completely feasible!"

"The rock structure here is very unstable! As long as we place enough explosives on a few key load-bearing points, we can trigger a chain reaction! The workload is massive, but... but we have tens of thousands of free laborers who aren't afraid of death!"

Just then, the roar of an engine approached from a distance.

Li Qiang rode back on his flashy Magic-Modified Motorcycle at lightning speed. Tied to his back with a rope was a golden, still-bleeding chest.

He clearly hadn't captured a live one but had brought back the spoils of war.

He screeched to a halt at the bridgehead, looked at the massive energy shield and the King's still-present image, and cursed:

"Damn it! I just snatched a treasure back, why are you guys staring at a tortoise shell? How do we break this thing?"

Retired Soldier King didn't speak, but silently pointed overhead.

Li Qiang looked in the direction he pointed, looking bewildered.

"Why look at the ceiling? Is there a path up there?"

Wang Wei walked over and patted Li Qiang on the shoulder. His goggles reflected the ghostly blue light of the shield, and his eyes beneath the lenses sparkled with a light called 'madness.'

His voice, carrying a hint of seductive magic, rang in Li Qiang's ear.

"Brother Qiang."

"What Old Zhao means is..."

"What if we... blow the ceiling down to use as a road?"