Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 35: Chapter 29: Cloud Nobility

Fat Xiang, a native baby, was nearly boiled alive by his biological parents because of his obesity.

Like the few lucky ones in the desert, radiation deprived him of his intelligence but gave him something unique.

That is power.

The combined power of two robots is two tons, yet in the struggle with Fat Xiang, they gradually fell into a disadvantage.

’Crack’ ’Crack’

This is the sound of parts twisting within the mechanical body.

Fat Xiang’s face gradually turned crimson, a hard-to-define beastliness overflowing from his eyes.

”You guys... move away!”

Fat Xiang’s arm, like a glowing hot iron pillar, fiercely punched out, with a loud bang, pushing the two robots back three steps, leaving a shallow five-finger burn mark on their chests after a ’sizzle’ of a scorch.

”Radiation creature detected...”

”Biological energy increase... combat mode activated...”

The robots’ eyes immediately turned red, switching to infrared mode, while their palms retracted into their arms, with a ’swish,’ four high-strength carbon alloy knives ejected out.

”Don’t come closer, otherwise we’ll take action!”

Iron Hide, both panicked and gritting his teeth, cocked the submachine gun in his hand, looking at Zhao Mechanism with hatred, yet a robot beside Zhao Mechanism had already activated guard mode, blocking him.

”May I ask, what are you planning to do to my dear subordinates?”

Zhao Mechanism’s right shoulder slumped, at some point, a hand rested on his shoulder.

His alarm system didn’t react at all, and the opponent gave him the feeling of a man-eating beast.

The robot at the front with the carbon alloy knife was suspended in mid-air, unable to move.

Upon closer look, a small claw was stuck on the blade.

The other team leaders, seeing the scene, started enjoying the show.

”What are you all doing, stop!”

Manager Zhou’s ’priority’ was clearly above Zhao Mechanism, and as soon as he spoke, the two robots immediately canceled combat mode and resumed their patrol status.

At the same time, the weight on the shoulder disappeared.

Zhao Mechanism turned around, only to find the manager and a few elite team leaders coming out, one of whom was laughing while grabbing the fat man’s head, saying something unknown.

Zhao Mechanism’s pupils contracted; this person was actually him...

”What’s happening?” Manager Zhou frowned, usually looking down on these mechanical hunters, just mud legs, but at this juncture, this newcomer had no sense of the big picture at all.

”Manager, they’re smuggling military goods, selling weaponry!”

”You can eat food carelessly, but you can’t talk carelessly,” Gao Gong lazily patted Fat Xiang on the shoulder, saying, ”Iron Hide, show the manager the document bag on the back seat of the car.”

The manager frowned, took, and opened it, finding a thick stack of authorization documents containing some contracts concerning armored vehicle retirement, refurbishing, and transactions.

Whether the documents had issues or not, with careful inspection, surely there would be.

But if he truly inspected carefully, then he’d have an issue.

”No problem, it’s a legal transaction with a formal retirement process.”

Looking at the armored combat vehicle that’s at least 80% new, Zhao Mechanism opened his mouth but ultimately said nothing.

If he dared to rebut, then it would be his turn to have problems.

”No problems? Then let’s go. Fat Xiang did well this time, I’ll treat you to a feast when we get back.”

”A feast, yes, yes!” Fat Xiang nodded like a chicken pecking at rice, drooling was about to come out.

Seeing there’s no entertainment, the remaining team leaders gradually left, except for an old man with a gloomy aura who actively stopped Gao Gong.

His eyes were dull and bloodshot, like an aging eagle, while his modified right hand was a knife holder even more advanced than Matsushima Keiko’s.

Having a knife holder but no knife or, in other words, hiding the knife.

”Miyamoto, something wrong?”

Gao Gong squinted; after promoting to ’Night Warrior,’ he could clearly sense the similar yet denser killing intent from the other.

This was a mechanical hunter walking the assassination stream, and among the top tier.

”I just heard that Mr. Gao assassinated the Reaper Commander, and upon meeting today, it’s indeed true,” Miyamoto Sanzang said hoarsely.

In terms of combat power, the Reaper Commander was two to three times that of an average C-level Reaper, and no one knew how Gao Gong managed to take it down.

Thus, a rumor emerged, saying that the Reaper Commander was actually assassinated by him.

As a top tier assassin, naturally Miyamoto Sanzang wanted to meet this ’New Generation Assassin Master.’

”Haha, is that so?”

”Just borrowing external objects, ultimately not the right path, Mr. Gao used Mr. Finger’s ’medicine’ to succeed in the assassination, correct?”

Gao Gong immediately understood, such ’rumors’ about assassinating commander-level creatures, nine out of ten were released by Little Finger.

Advertising even on my head! Next time we split the money, make sure he covers the advertising fee.

”So, what do you plan to do, prove yourself by strength?” Gao Gong asked with interest.

Miyamoto Sanzang shook his head, taking out a bottle of ’Protection Cream’ from his chest.

”My meaning is, now that I also have some wicked items, combined with my means, the prey I assassinate in the future will surely be above you.”

”Uh—”

It wasn’t until Miyamoto Sanzang left that Gao Gong came to his senses, smacking his lips.

”This old man is quite interesting.”

”Brother Gao, are we heading out for the hunt now?”

”No rush, let’s head back to the bar first, there’s something I haven’t figured out yet.”

The Rose Petrol Bar was unusually empty today, and the high-pitched metal music had turned into low, sultry jazz. The dim lighting mixed with a husky female voice created an ambiguous atmosphere.

As soon as Gao Gong stepped inside, he was pushed onto the sofa by Sister Rose before he could react. It took him a long while to struggle up, gasping for air, with the taste of blood in his mouth from a bitten lip.

Wow, ordinary rich ladies don’t pack that kind of punch. Is this the power of an overbearing female president?

”I’m very satisfied with your recent performance.”

Behind the bar, Sister Rose personally mixed a drink for Gao Gong. Her emerald eyes narrowed over her red hair, a lady’s cigarette between her fingers, her smile full of allure.

She must be referring to ’Desert Skin.’

Gao Gong wiped his mouth with a napkin and smiled, ”Have things been resolved?”

”Resolved, or rather, compromised.”

”How did you resolve it?” Gao Gong asked curiously.

”I personally barged into his turf, pressed a gun to his head, and asked him to sign the contract. By the way, I took his few illegitimate kids out for a spin.”

Wow, truly a big shot, not someone to mess with.

Gao Gong popped the cherry from his glass into his mouth, puzzled, ”Why would the Security Corps make such concessions? Autonomy, development rights, are they really willing to give those up?”

”Why wouldn’t they,” Black Rose sneered, ”The Security Corps itself is just a rebranded knockoff, a temporary authorization from the Mechanical Main Brain. They’re just pretending to be a real tiger while wearing a tiger skin. If they don’t do well, they get dismissed.”

”Temporary authorization? You mean, the Security Corps isn’t even listed under the Mechanical Legion’s rosters. But who can even modify the Main Brain’s bottom logic? Not even the top Cyber Cowboys can do that, right?”

”I’ve heard that the main brain of Nightless City has the most powerful computational power among the surrounding mechanical cities.”

”Have you heard of the Cloud Nobility?”

Of course he had heard of them, the planetary nobles living in the so-called ’Cloud City,’ a ring-shaped space station. The final main quest of the last cycle’s Cyber Test Field was about obtaining an Ark ticket from these nobles to escape this blasted planet.

According to Sister Rose’s explanation, the Security Corps itself is actually a semi-official, gray-area organization.

The reason it thrives in the Iron Sand Desert is because one or several members of the Cloud Nobility have used their privileges to gain temporary control permissions from the Nightless City Intelligent Main Brain’s instruction library, allowing them to govern the desert.

Though this authorization is temporary, under some manipulations, the ’temporary’ period could indefinitely ’extend.’

There was only one catch: the condition of this authorization was ensuring the ’safety’ of the desert.

Once the desert becomes ’unsafe,’ this authorization will get revoked immediately, and the genuine Mechanical Legion will replace the Security Corps to control the desert and combat the Radiation Beast Swarm.

Once the Mechanical Legion takes over, this massive, decades-old gray interest chain would be immediately severed.

Very few people knew about this; only a few desert magnates and the present Sister Rose were in the loop.

”So, to protect their interests, they’d rather have outsiders at the table than let AI flip it.”

The Mechanical Main Brain and the Cloud Nobility maintain a balanced relationship.

The Cloud Nobility and the local power players also maintain another balance.

Among the desert tycoons, they also carve up territories and maintain balance.

Once this balance is disrupted, it’s like the food chain encountering a glitch; everyone wants to become the higher-level hunter.

Wang Tian thought so and was eager to swallow up the underground intelligence network of Black Rose to expand his influence, using it to negotiate better terms with the Cloud Nobility.

Then he got his head smashed by Sister Rose, whose background was much deeper.

”Therefore, the Cloud Nobility would rather share profits with rootless Mechanical Hunters than hand them over to these local bullies.”

”Yes.”

Sister Rose’s red lips appeared especially alluring under the dim lights, but her words were exceptionally strong and domineering.

She nodded at Gao Gong.

”So, you must become the first in this hunt.”

”No problem,” Gao Gong grinned, exuding confidence.

Black Rose squinted her eyes, ”You don’t need my help?”

”At least this time, no,” Gao Gong grinned, ”I never lie to you.”

Black Rose once again felt a sense of unfamiliarity. This person had always been very confident, but his confidence now carried something she couldn’t quite discern.

This inexplicably excited her.

”You’d better think it through. If you don’t succeed, you’ll face severe consequences.”

Sister Rose’s word was law; even if the person concerned was her boy toy, failure to meet her ambitions would result in harsh punishment, perhaps even termination.

”I won’t repeat myself.”

Gao Gong leaned over, gently using a napkin to wipe the edge of Sister Rose’s lips, her crimson lipstick smudged and attractive yet impractical.

It wasn’t that Gao Gong had high moral standards, but based on his past life’s experience, some rich lady bosses liked this push and pull; if you were really spineless, hugging their thighs, they’d turn around and kick you away.

This, ’You got my body, but not my heart,’ or ’I love you for who you are, not your money,’ kind of cliched scenario, really hit their sweet spot.

Sure enough, Sister Rose’s emerald eyes shimmered, red lips lightly parted, ”You better do well, or I’ll give you a good punishment.”

The tone was entirely flirtatious with no sign of hostility.

”How do you plan to punish me?”

”Kneel.”

”In that position, do you take me for someone seeking petty advantages?” Gao Gong snapped angrily.

”So, are you going to kneel or not?”

”Alright then.”