Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 125: Chapter 112: Tree Demon Granny

Compared to other Oases, Automobile City and Scavenger City are quite close, with a straight-line distance of only 200 km. If the armored vehicle departs at full speed, it’s just an hour’s drive.

Gao Gong used to grind in the Metropolitan Area, leaving early and returning late, timing it just like a city white-collar worker, only the Radiation Beasts weren’t going to feed him.

But now, the wide and barren roads have long been covered by a pitch-black radiance. In the darkness, heavy footsteps occasionally echo, or the low growls of beasts, one growl setting off a chorus in the beastly ranks.

”Honestly, Captain, I’m a bit scared,” a newcomer wiped his sweat, looking at a group of Crawlers not far away, and whispered.

”What’s there to be afraid of!” Swordsmen Tamil snorted coldly, forcefully fixing the mechanical feet of the large Sensory Equipment, then connecting the wires, linking this thing like a ’high-tech projector’ into the electric box of an abandoned gas station.

Most of the electric boxes at gas stations have been destroyed; this is one of the few intact ones.

A gas station with four sets of large Sensory Equipment can cover an area of about 10 km in radius.

”Of course, it’s a fear they’ll make a move.”

”Coward, the boss has already implanted Desert Skin in us, the signals inside us can’t be transmitted out, they won’t be interested in us, just hurry up and work, we still have to go to the next station.”

”But we are human, are they really not going to be interested in us?”

The newcomer grumbled as he worked.

This kind of large Sensory Equipment is generally used in nightclubs in Entertainment City. Once activated, thousands of ’young ladies’ dance with you, simulating touch, hearing, and even the smell of women’s perfume and sweat to perfection.

If you pay enough, ’they’ can even take you to a virtual party—as long as your kidneys are good enough.

The only shortcoming is that its visual simulation is not well done, it can only simulate 50%. If it weren’t for the dim environment and wild music, it would be easy to see through it.

Of course, to prevent exposure, nightclub bosses would mix in enough companion-type robots or Bionic Maids to make the fake indistinguishable from the real.

”In the tribe I used to belong to, there was a rule by the Elder, in order to increase the birth rate of the tribe, we were not allowed to play in the entertainment city. I haven’t even used it myself, yet here we are using it on beasts, such a waste!” the newcomer lamented, shaking his head.

”Isn’t it all clone babies now? Raised by factories to adulthood and then distributed to each Oasis, the Oasis I’m in has ten thousand slots this year,” another Mechanical Hunter said.

”If this continues, I fear Primordial People will go extinct in our generation.”

”Why worry about so much, as long as you can support yourself, that’s enough.”

”Yeah, as long as you have enough Mechanical Coins, you can even reserve a wife, of any age.”

”How much to reserve a wife?”

The other person was just about to boast about his experiences when Tamil fiercely flicked his Arm Blade, the crimson blade making a piercing sound due to high-pressure spring compression.

Just then, a Crawler appeared in the corner from out of nowhere, staring coldly at the group.

”Damn!”

”Beast!”

”Watch out for its tongue!”

However, the first to notice was Tamil, who flicked his hand, retracted the Arm Blade, and continued working with his head down.

And then the Crawler began to transform, its figure shrinking, skin growing, finally turning into an elderly man with a sullen face.

”Your alertness is too poor, does quality really decrease when there are too many people?” the Crawler mocked.

The others looked at each other, their expressions somewhat ashamed.

”Knife Kid, come with me.”

Tamil shook the oil off his hand, not even raising his head, ”I still have work to do.”

”Leave it to these newcomers, the boss has a new task, regarding hunting a B-level Radiation Beast.”

Tamil’s eyes lit up, he hurriedly followed the Crawler out in a few quick steps.

The remaining people looked at one another and continued working.

Tamil and the Crawler exited, boarding a heavy armored vehicle operated by Iron Hide. The surface of this armored vehicle was covered with a camouflaging net made of ’inferior Desert Skin,’ and its engine had been modified to run very quietly in the darkness.

”Weren’t we supposed to make a move tomorrow?”

”The situation has changed a bit,” the Crawler opened the car’s virtual projection, revealing a map around Automobile City and Scavenger City showing densely packed green dots covering 80% of the area.

”Installing the Sensory Equipment went far smoother than expected, for some reason, those pesky Mechanical Birds didn’t show up tonight.”

”The boss means, since they’re not coming, we might as well get active.”

”About time!” Tamil slammed his fists together, his eyes blazing. He had no interest in gossip, pleasure, or procreation; the only reason he became a Mechanical Hunter was that there were enough prey here for slaughter.

Whether human or beast, they could all be prey.

His mindset was quite compatible with this profession.

The Crawler looked at Tamil, who was eager to take action, and warned, ”Don’t underestimate the B-level Radiation Beast, their strength is beyond our imagination, even the boss might not reach the height of a B-level Beast in normal conditions.”

Tamil glanced at the Crawler, sneering, ”If that’s the case, then why do we have this operation?”

”Because we are Hunters, and they are prey. We don’t need to surpass them in all aspects, only in one aspect.”

”In this regard, those old things do quite well.”

Although the Crawler is not young, even older than some of the youngest Old Hunters, he still calls them old things.

This is a very special form of praise.

On the road, Iron Hide received a call. In this environment where electronic signals are severely disrupted, even phone calls are relayed through a third-party Cyber Hacker.

”Hmm? Mm-hmm, got it.”

After hanging up the phone, Iron Hide changed direction, pushed the gas pedal to the limit, the camouflaged vehicle roared, and the surroundings whirled by like a carousel.

Before the two could ask, Iron Hide spoke directly.

”We’re late, a B-level Vomiting Giant has been taken down, moving to a new scene now.”

”Taken down!?” The Crawler and Tamil were stunned.

The Crawler instinctively looked out the window; in the darkness, it seemed as though a Corpse Mountain stood at the edge of their vision.

The Vomiting Giant, a Radiation Beast of the decaying type, is known as the largest monster among B-level Beasts, akin to a meat mountain with the height of a Mutant Giant.

Among B-level Radiation Beasts, it’s undoubtedly a despised creature.

Every B-level Beast has its own territory—except for the Vomiting Giant.

The reason it has no territory is that everything within it, whether mutated plants or low-level Radiation Beasts, will soon be consumed, driven by an insatiable hunger.

For food, it has fought nearly every B-level Beast.

Its tactics are unimpressive; besides massive amounts of corrosive liquid, it has almost no other offensive means.

Yet, it has hardly ever been defeated by beasts of the same rank.

Its insatiable devouring instinct grants it terrifying blood volume, even surpassing A-level Radiation Beasts in this aspect.

Usually, even A-level Radiation Beasts find it repulsive. Once it appears within their territory, they would unhesitatingly use the Authority of ’Genetic Territory’ to expel it.

But it’s undeniable that during a Beast Tide, it is extremely useful; this massive blood-volume meat shield has almost no targeted strategies against it.

Unless the Security Corps no longer worries about the rising Beast Tide Energy and uses the most powerful intercontinental missiles to blast it.

”Those old guys are really something,” the Crawler exhaled, saying.

As one of the few Hunters with biological transformation abilities, he had been invited to spar with these Old Hunters, so he knew their bizarre and dangerous capabilities well.

In some sense, they could even be considered normal people possessing some B-level Radiation Beast abilities.

”We’ve reached the battlefield!”

From afar, they could see bizarre electronic architectures rise from the ground, with countless Mechanical Beasts scurrying about.

The way to distinguish allies from enemies was simple: the ally Mechanical Beasts had special ’Neural Frequency Amplifiers’ hung on their ears.

This equipment enabled them to avoid interference from the ’Monster-Opening Divine Artifact’ and directly receive commands from their handlers.

Whenever a chaotic beast horde charged into areas outside of ’Electronic City’, these beasts would herd them back.

B-level Radiation Beasts could already utilize some Authority of the Beast Tide.

This means that in order to deal with them, you must first break through the boundless waves of beasts.

During the previous ’Arm-breaking Operation’, we deployed nearly half of our forces, and the mechanical defenses were almost breached.

But with ’Sensory Equipment’ + ’Monster-Attracting Divine Artifact’, the Beast Tide could be trapped in a Maze.

Of course, the largest contributor to this was Gao Gong.

Even though the ’carbon-based’ + ’mechanical’ path made most of his past life’s knowledge and technology unusable.

But with this ’Virtual Reality’ creation, though limited by crude equipment and technology, Gao Gong could still pull off impressive maneuvers from his past life’s perspective.

An over-200km-spanning virtual environment, if calculated based on blueprint level, such ’large-scale virtual empathic blueprints’ must be at least Level 5.

”Hold on tight, I’m about to start racing.”

Iron Hide shouted excitedly, pressing a button on the armored vehicle.

”Check out my newly customized liquid nitrogen propulsion!”

The next moment, Tamil and the Crawler were pushed back hard; it felt like riding a rocket launcher.

After a wild dash, even crashing through a double-digit number of beasts, they finally entered the heart of the battlefield.

To their surprise, the one making the move wasn’t the boss, but his underling’s strange Biological Transformers force.

The force already proven to be a failure.

And their opponent was a Tree Root bursting from the earth, sprouting countless tentacles.

Like the Metal Nest, this Tree Root Monster is a ’Nest-type Boss’; its attack technique is unique, with each root tip hanging a Radiation Beast or a Mechanical Beast, some even being Mechanical Hunters. These creatures exist in a way that’s neither human nor ghost.

At first glance, it resembles the ’Night Parade of Hundred Demons’.

Overall, the scene is quite the Tree Demon Granny.