Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

”We won’t fall out of the top ten, right?”

Upon entering Red Rain Street, Baozi nervously glanced around. After confirming there were no players on the street, he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Eldest Brother Hui was holding a pacifier like it was a cigarette, spinning it around his mouth. He drew a line on the ground with his finger and took a sniff.

”A dense smell of blood.”

Eldest Brother Hui took out the pacifier and spat out some milk, saying seriously:

”There was a big battle here, and the number of participants was likely not small.”

With that said, he signaled with his eyes to the only remaining bodyguard, who silently nodded and ran toward the source of the bloody smell.

Eldest Brother Hui drew a pistol, sticking close to the wall as he walked in. As he reached a window, suddenly, a face popped up.

It was a woman’s face corroded by acid, with one hollow eye staring right at him. Her mouth opened and closed, and a sweet voice that completely contradicted her appearance came from the built-in voice generator.

”May I offer you service, master?”

”May I offer you service, master?”

Eldest Brother Hui’s eye twitched fiercely, and he climbed up to the window with forceful limbs, looking down from above. Sure enough, he saw the processor on the back of the woman’s head was missing a corner.

”A Bionic Man with a damaged emotion template, huh.”

He continued walking forward and ended up hearing beast-like roars from inside a house.

Eldest Brother Hui carefully pushed open the door. Through the crack, he saw a ’lion’ chained with a thick iron chain. The lion had normal human hands and feet, its surface was a greenish-black and it twitched madly, like it had Parkinson’s. The human face was faintly visible through the yellow fur on its head.

”Human-animal cell hybrid, a defect from a biological experiment.”

Eldest Brother Hui investigated a dozen houses, and in almost every house, he found a ’patient’. Some were heavily addicted to electronic drugs, some were robots deteriorating from aging parts, some were blind AI with malfunctioning visual sensors—in short, none of them were normal.

It’s quite incredible to gather so many ’patients’ here in some sense.

”Might this be a mental asylum?”

Eldest Brother Hui couldn’t help but quip.

Just then, Baozi’s voice came from upfront.

”Boss Hui! Boss Hui, where are you?! Come sign in quickly!!”

Eldest Brother Hui quickly jogged over, his short legs moving with surprising vigor.

In front of a building that seemed to be a ’Dao Field’, Eldest Brother Hui saw six figures, aside from Baozi and Rich Lady’s Little Wolf Dog, one co-playing Pay-to-Win Player, there was Mr. Taichiro and his two buddies.

”Damn, are there minors in this game!”

”You idiot, that’s Boss Hui, heir of the Black Society, future gang leader,” Mr. Taichiro paused: ”Though I admit, Boss Hui, in that body you’re definitely underage. By the way, are you still in diapers?”

Eldest Brother Hui stayed silent for a moment, looking at Baozi.

”Why aren’t you going in?”

Baozi pointed at the check-in machine at the entrance.

Eldest Brother Hui walked to the entrance, looked up at it, paused again, then turned: ”Give me a hand.”

Baozi stifled his laughter and picked Eldest Brother Hui up. After checking in, the number changed to 7.

”Maybe we have to wait until all top ten are here to trigger the cutscene,” Baozi speculated.

”That sounds about right. Also, you can put me down now.”

”Oh, right.”

Baozi quickly set Eldest Brother Hui down. Eldest Brother Hui put the pacifier back in his mouth, the action remarkably like an old habitual smoker. The adopted gangster son stood with his arms crossed, frowning, lost in thought.

”Since we’re here, should we see if there are any side quests?” Baozi suggested.

”I’m not going, anyone who wants to can go!” Mr. Taichiro shook his head like a rattle.

”How about you guys?” Baozi looked at the other two players.

”We did a quick look around earlier, and let’s just say, it’s giving serious Silent Hill vibes. We’ll wait for the mainline,” the two players dryly chuckled, dismissing the idea too.

”Alright then,” Baozi also gave up on the idea. He wasn’t afraid of the horror theme but after a morning of Welfare Gang battles, he was quite tired.

He figured he’d come back if he got another chance.

No one spoke for a moment, everyone waiting for the last three lucky players.

Due to the ’Mechanical Blade Master’ randomly killing, players who reached this place were mostly just lucky. No one knew who the last three players would be.

After about 10 minutes, a lazy voice piped up.

”Pretty lively here, you all waiting for me?”

A young man wearing a hood walked over, a tachi strapped to his back, looking very assassin-like.

”What’s your name, bro?” Social butterfly Baozi initiated the greeting.

”Lingling Water, profession is Business Assassin.”

”Business, Assassin?”

Baozi made eye contact with the Red Flower Demon, simultaneously thinking of the long-missing Brother Umbrella.

”What is a business assassin?” another player asked curiously.

”You know what a business spy is?”

”Of course.”

”I’m the kind of person who takes out business spies.”

”Uh, fascinating!”

Lingling Water wasn’t socially awkward, but he wasn’t much for chatting either. After a brief greeting, he leaned against a pillar and closed his eyes to rest.

A few more minutes passed, another player approached. Oddly, this player was carrying a lantern in broad daylight.

This somewhat gloomy player glanced at the others and nodded.

”ID: I Always Like Zhang Aiping, Business Investigator.”

”Investigator, investigate what?”

”Currently investigating AI.”

Even Lingling Water, who had been resting with eyes closed, opened one eye, curiously examining this strange player.

This Zhang guy appeared to be one of those very standoffish types, especially with that lantern of his, emitting a peculiar electronic glow.

Could this thing actually summon spirits?

Baozi opened his mouth but then simply shut it again.

Why do all these strange players keep coming?

He glanced at Eldest Brother Hui, oh, forgot, this guy doesn’t seem very normal either.

Luckily, the last batch of players were finally normal people, a standard five-person team, dressed flamboyantly in street style. Their weapons matched too: Whiteboard pistols, spiked baseball bats, mechanical brass knuckles, mechanical crossbows—Baozi sold them the crossbows, by the way.

These five were from the same street gang in the Outer City District, acquainted with Baozi, often visiting the small shop. Though most of the time, they’d just window shop and drool over the advanced prosthetic bodies.

After understanding the situation, the five discussed among themselves and finally decided to let Squad Leader ’Gugu Duddu’ clock in.

”Brother Baozi, this crossbow has crap quality, it broke a string after a few uses,” Gugu Duddu complained.

”Nonsense, would I sell you something with decent quality? Ahem, would quality stuff come at this price?”

”Scoundrel!”

”Don’t look for discounts from me in the future.”

”Bro, I was wrong!”

When the number of people clocked in reached 10, the door creaked open.

In fact, players could easily knock down this fragile wooden door with a gentle push.

But isn’t this just following the process, and players inherently have a ”non-destructible mission item” mindset, not even considering this.

Inside the ’Dao Field’, a mechanical girl sat cross-legged, a sword planted before her.

Checking out her looks, then her physique, the players instantly went wild!

”Holy crap, a mechanical girl!”

”Her chubby cheeks, so adorable and cute!”

”Too bad she’s flat-chested.”

”What’s wrong with being flat, the key is she’s cool!”

”I want to draw cards and invest in a waifu, how come this game doesn’t even have a card-drawing feature!”

”All hail the pay-to-win players!”

”Full mechanical transformation, holy crap, how much did this cost!”

Prosthetic body enthusiasts were drooling.

”Why does this sword look familiar?” Baozi muttered, ”Is it using the same weapon model?”

Just like Kobayashi Hideyuki, Xiao Yu’s attributes appeared as question marks to the players, even marked ’Highly Dangerous’ exactly the same.

Xiao Yu’s eyelids kept twitching, while players observed her, she was secretly peeking at them.

With so many people, she felt a bit scared.

But at least she hadn’t forgotten Gao Gong’s instructions. Her tri-energy spouts began to glow slowly, blue particles seeping through the gaps in her body, a gentle breeze blowing her short hair up and down.

Stimulated by energy, the distant Demon Blade started trembling, its intelligent chip automatically evolving the blade’s path.

In the eyes of players, this sword transformed into a giant boa as thick as a tank, its blood-red eyes like searchlights, scales the size of washbasins, its massive body slithering around the ’Dao Field’.

All players received a ’Advanced Biological Suppression’ negative state, with all attributes reduced by 30%.

The boa’s movement became faster, its snake eyes occasionally turning to the players, glaring hungrily, its body sweeping by, raising a heavy stench. When the snake flicked out its meter-long tongue, most players broke into a cold sweat down their backs.

This game always shines when it comes to attention to detail.

The boa slowly rose, obscuring the sky, pausing ten stories high, then suddenly lunged, its massive bloody mouth snapping toward the group of players.

”Holy crap!”

”Monster start?”

”Isn’t this just a cutscene?”

”It’s not showing a health bar!!”

Just when players were scared to death, the boa’s actions suddenly stalled. Everyone looked over, only to see the mechanical girl’s mech fingers gripping the scales tightly at the boa’s tail.

In the next moment, the boa disappeared, replaced by Xiao Yu wielding the Demon Blade, practicing an ancient sword skill originating from the Empire. The intense aura and exquisite swordsmanship made everyone feel as if they had returned to the Mechanical War era, where the mechanical girl fought alone against countless Octopus Monsters, each slash like a butcher’s cleaver, slicing through monster armor seams, directly into the Octopus Monster’s energy core.

Xiao Yu’s sword skill bore a 70% resemblance to the Nameless General’s in a Mechanical Scroll.

As she swung her sword, the girl’s eyes lost any trace of confusion, filled only with unwavering determination, her expression sacred, riding the almost berserk mechanical body performance, she mastered it completely and entirely.

With one final slash, Xiao Yu held the sword with both hands, let out a yell, even triggering a small energy tide resonance. Numerous energy remnants gathered onto her body, and with a secondary burst from the energy spout, erupted into turbulent flames and light, engulfing almost half the arena.

Amidst the flames, only the girl wielding the blade, her gaze like fire.

Battle Angel:

Effect 1: Combat form, normal attack +200%, weakness attack +300%, greatly increases the chance of a one-hit kill

Effect 2: Angel form, purifying everything through the expansion of the life aura, utilizing fire, thunder, and wind energy, covering a 10*10m area

Effect 3: Battle Angel, entering Battle Angel mode grants the battle instincts of a higher life form

Specialty template, entirely creating a gap between player and NPC combat strength.

Xiao Yu still has two of this type of template.

Xiao Yu spoke word by word. Although pausing as if searching for words, combined with her immense aura, created a certain shock.

”Welcome, strangers.”

’I am Xiao Yu, the voluntary Peacekeeper of Red Rain Street. This is the solitary island of the Cyber Test Field, the only Land of Starfire in the Nightless City, where we offer voluntary protection for all critical patients, experiment failures, and transformation failures.’

’The Mechanical Era is advancing wildly, human transformation touching the taboo, Cyber Space devouring intelligent life, but we will not give up. Though the chance is slim, a lifetime is a hundred years, our path is not solitary; there will always be someone with us.’