Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 9: Chapter 3: Desperate Realm Counterkill (Part 2)

The lower part of the bioimplant consists of a bunch of sensor elements, nerve branching elements, and chemical catalysts, with electrical sparks mixing into the blood, emitting white smoke.

[You have killed a Knight Order artificial soldier, Experience +100]

Two firepower chains immediately swept over, but fortunately, Gao Gong was prepared. With a flick of his wrist, four black shadows shot out in four directions.

In the visual capture of the artificial soldiers, the heat source split into four, shooting off in different directions.

The gunfire suddenly became chaotic.

Gao Gong’s normal attributes were a notch higher than those of the artificial soldiers. To quickly resolve the battle, he used ’Basic Mechanical Repair’ to put his internal motor system into an overload state. In this state, his five main attributes increased to around 16 or 17 points, nearly double that of the artificial soldiers.

Although this state could not be maintained long, lasting less than three minutes, it was enough.

In the eyes of the artificial soldiers, the heat sources multiplied, two, four, eight, as if a special forces team had descended from the sky, surrounding them.

Among them, one heat source was elusive. Every time it appeared, it brought death.

[You have killed a Knight Order artificial soldier, Experience +100]

[You have killed a Knight Order artificial soldier, Experience +100]

Until the last artificial soldier was throttled by Gao Gong, they never understood how these heavenly enemies appeared.

’Sizzle~,’ Gao Gong panted heavily, the smell of burnt artificial protein wafting from his body. From extreme motion to extreme stillness, some mechanical implants in his body finally couldn’t hold, and his elbow joint abruptly popped like an exploded appliance, leaving a scorched black surface.

”Damn, pain pain pain pain!”

Players can adjust the sensation of pain. Unfortunately, NPCs don’t have this feature.

Gao Gong’s right hand lost sensation, hanging down, his forearm forming an odd arc with his upper arm.

Overload comes at a price!

The ore fragment in his hand naturally fell to the ground.

’Heat source’ is simple, not some high-tech gadget, just ignited Energy Ore.

Energy Ore is a by-product of energy pollution, resembling multicolored crystals. The simplest use is burning. A finger-sized piece can burn for three days and nights and is the cheapest fuel in the Iron Sand Desert.

When ignited, Energy Ore not only turns into a heat source but also emits a type of energy radiation, which interferes with the visual capture of artificial soldiers.

—Turning them blind under ’infrared mode.’

If you were an artificial soldier, logically, you should deactivate battle mode and use normal vision instead.

Actually, you can’t.

Once the combat program of an artificial soldier is activated, the infrared horizon is locked until all enemies are dead, letting it switch back to normal.

The intention behind this lock mode was to boost the combat desires of these artificial soldiers. No one expected such a hardware problem would occur.

In the end, it still boils down to the fact that artificial soldiers are considered ’low-end consumables.’

Low-tier troops aren’t high-end goods; as long as they work, no need to put effort into debugging.

Gao Gong was sure that this squad of artificial soldiers likely only recently arrived at the Iron Sand Desert.

In the player-participated ’Beast Mechanical Disaster’ DLC, countless artificial soldiers were killed off like this, and only then did the Knight Order’s production line fix this issue.

Indeed, the early stage of the game is the best; bugs are everywhere, and gear is easy to get.

Gao Gong pulled out a cigarette box from a corpse, featuring a seductive bionic woman covered in pipes on the cover.

’Smoking is hazardous to health; the Seagull No. 2 Virtual Experience Machine offers you a more advanced spiritual enjoyment.’

”What a crappy ad.”

With a cigarette between his lips, Gao Gong awkwardly collected the spoils single-handedly, with his consciousness beginning to blur again.

In his current state, forget about artificial soldiers; even ordinary people could kill him.

What makes this game realistic is the lowering status with decreasing blood volume.

This is why Gao Gong had to take a gamble.

Not that it was unprofitable, Gao Gong casually grabbed a gun, the system panel auto-identified.

Name: Assaulter

Type: Kinetic Submachine Gun

Quality: Whiteboard

Weight: 2.8kg

Caliber: 7.62mm

Basic Attributes: DPS:156 (damage per second) Attack Power: 16 Fire Rate: 8.89 attacks/sec, Magazine Capacity: 35, Effective Range: 120~220m

Scope Slot: empty, Plugin Slot: empty

Note: This is a weapon with decent performance, except for the fact it can’t hit anything.

”Bull, where do you think we are, Mother City or something, where you could add a prosthetic body plugin, throw in an intelligent template, or better yet, a mini rocket launcher? Dream on! This is the radiation zone, the edge, where firearms themselves are the hard currency, alright!”

Gao Gong, while complaining about the system, lovingly explored the gun grip.

”These guns are obviously military weapons privately sold by overseas arsenals, quality stuff!”

He rummaged around, confirming his haul: four Assaulter submachine guns, four sets of bulletproof vests, five pistols, five daggers. The market price for a submachine gun is 100 Mechanical Coins; those from an arsenal could add at least 50. Pistols 50~60, along with bulletproof vests and daggers, the entire haul valued at about over a thousand Mechanical Coins.

Mechanical Coins are the dedicated currency in the Iron Sand Desert, used for trading with factories.

In the Petrol Bar, a tube of Nutrition Paste costs only 1 Mechanical Coin, while a shot of Radiation Protection Medicine is 10 Mechanical Coins. If not extravagant, a Mechanical Hunter’s monthly living expenses are just 100 Mechanical Coins.

And for a typical mission, the original host’s earnings were just that much. Often, with mission failures, instead of getting paid, he had to spend money to repair his gear.

Yet, in the original host’s memory, that reserve citizen certificate cost him an astronomical six-figure sum!

Just thinking about it made Gao Gong feel breathless with heartache.

Oh, but he has a Mechanical Heart, he can’t feel heartache.

”There’s definitely something fishy about this mission, someone bribed the Knight Order, specifically targeting me!”

”Just wait, once I investigate, find the mastermind, not one shall be spared!”

At the thought of needing to repair the mechanical body, his already deflated wallet would bleed again; Gao Gong’s heart ached once more.

”I wonder if these can be sold.”

Gao Gong glanced at the four Iron Hide heads in the car’s backseat; these ”soldiers” were all in hardware-damaged states, and with some fixing, they could still be used. Companies in the city should be interested in the Knight Order’s biotechnology; if sold, it could be some income.

”203, respond, 203, respond!” A gruff voice came from the walkie-talkie.

”Not buying insurance, not buying houses, no loans, no cards, all above calls are recorded, scammers scram.”

”Who are you?”

”I’m your unseen daddy,” Gao Gong introduced himself while opening the car hood.

The Knight Order’s vehicle was a disguised off-road car, running on an extract from Energy Ore. The motor system and vehicle power system were quite similar to his past life’s electric vehicle, except the motor was one size bigger, and the ’battery’ appeared like a high-tech steam engine with a cold metal texture surface, extending with numerous pipes, vaguely visible gas flow, full of a wasteland vibe.

With the knowledge boost from [Mechanical Transformation], he quickly understood the principle, opened the trunk, found tools, skillfully divided the circuits, and inserted three black rubber-coated cables, the other end plugging into the knee-side and wrist-side interfaces (one was broken).

After the circulatory system was modified, the heart was no longer a fatal organ (although being pierced was still a severe injury), but a large battery instead.

And this was just the first step of the original host’s wild ambition.

The original host’s ultimate goal was to replace all human parts in his body with electronic organs and bionic parts, evolving from a human form to a pure mechanical man.

In his mind, the mechanical body is the strongest!