Starting as a Mechanical Hunter

Chapter 845: Chapter 13: Just a Little Short

”This really is one wave higher than the last.”

Looking at the chaotic scene, one member murmured to themselves.

In the current situation, it’s clearly beyond the scope of military suppression; in fact, the higher the force, the greater the probability of problems.

’Memory loss’ is just a viral illness; although it’s severe, very few people mess around because of catching a cold.

But ’personality reset’ is another matter entirely. A socially oriented personality turns antisocial, a corporate personality becomes anti-corporate, a housewife becomes a desperate housewife, a rich lady enthusiast turns into a lolita enthusiast.

These things, even thinking about them is terrifying.

However, for the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division, the third wave, ’neurotheft,’ poses the greatest threat.

The reason is simple: the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division is one of the Six Ministries, with the most combat personnel and the only force capable of deploying globally.

Once cyberpsychosis caused by ’neurotheft’ becomes rampant, the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division is obviously in deep trouble.

A logistics staff with Five Shells rushed past holding paper documents, their prosthetic foot twisted, nearly tripping dramatically. In just a month’s time, using ’intelligent plugins’ and ’intelligent prosthetic bodies’ has become a dangerous activity. There’s a saying around, that the waves of ’memory loss,’ ’personality reset,’ and ’neurotheft’ largely result from humanity’s misuse of technology.

In the past Cyber Test Field, this notion was unimaginable.

The main reason being, whether company executives, super Second Generation, advanced inspectors, Cyber Killers, underground world Dragon Heads—regardless of power and status, strength, gender, age, bionic or natural humans—all were hit randomly.

Now those who controlled others through technology and neural drugs finally get to experience the same rewards.

The logistics staff hurried into the operations room, slammed the documents onto the table, and shouted:

”Another ten places have problems!”

With the capability for global advanced force deployment, once problems arise, naturally, they are of a global nature.

”There’s no more advanced force available for suppression.”

”Everyone from the Ten Ministries has been deployed, including all the captains.”

”My side is more serious; a data processing center with all logistics personnel has no combat capabilities and is currently blocked by several cyber psychiatric patients!”

The heads of Five Shells exchanged glances, appearing somewhat helpless. Under the current circumstances, even these strategists felt a sense of imminent collapse and helplessness.

Suddenly, an alarm sounded on one of the ’Neurological Investigation Department’s supervisors. The previously genteel face suddenly became extremely ferocious, pulling out a personal energy pistol from his waist and blowing the head off a colleague.

Fortunately, in the next moment, several colleagues rushed over, pinning him to the ground.

”Who allowed him to bring a gun in here!!”

A furious supervisor exclaimed.

”Everyone hand over your weapons, no hiding! Not even a dagger!!”

Then yet another chaotic stir erupted.

”Mother City’s order will eventually be broken, even you, this world is about to fall into eternal chaos!”

Watching the crazed supervisor being taken away by guards, many faces showed expressions of fear.

”Supervisor, what if the perimeter guards become ’cyber psychiatric patients’ without personal weapons?” an employee couldn’t help but ask.

The supervisor’s expression froze, pausing briefly, then grabbed a radio (an old-fashioned device recently put back into use).

”Withdraw all modified human guards and bionic guards from defensive posts. Bring in mechanical guards without implanted personality modules, don’t use the most advanced ones, use the old-fashioned, controllable ones. No artificial intelligence now, only artificial idiots!”

After shouting for a while, the supervisor felt somewhat relieved. Just as they were about to offer reassurance, a red alert sounded again.

”Supervisor, a transfer station has been attacked!!”

”What’s going on!?”

The transfer station is perhaps the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division’s second most important structure, next to the Shell Attack Center. They are key nodes in the global force deployment system, with all ’pipelines’ transferring consciousness through them. Almost no hacker can breach them as they are within the defensive scope of the Planet Firewall.

But no matter how much one guards against outsiders, it’s hard to guard against family thieves.

”Weren’t the captains of the Sixth Ministry dispatched to suppress this?”

”But it’s precisely the Sixth Ministry Captain Forest Leopard who has entered the ’cyber psychosis’ state!”

”...”

Quickly, the news of Forest Leopard’s plight reached Gao Gong’s ears.

”Get me the transfer station coordinates.”

”Coordinates have been reported.”

Gao Gong nodded and in the next moment, a flash of purple light, the figure disappeared.

Meanwhile, in a ’Machine Factory’ miles away, or rather, a ’Transfer Station’ disguised as a machine factory, Gao Gong’s figure suddenly appeared.

In sight, the code wall began to split infinitely. With each new crack, Gao Gong’s vision became a little clearer. Then, he saw the ground littered with corpses, both robots and members of the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division. The injuries were the same: external depressions, internal disintegration.

The further he walked, the more corpses there were, and a strong smell of blood hit his face.

Soon, Gao Gong saw Forest Leopard. At this moment, this captain of the sixth division of the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division was sitting atop a pile of countless robot corpses, idly playing with the head of a level 60 robot, looking utterly bored. Upon seeing Gao Gong appear, he immediately showed an excited expression.

”Minister, I knew you would come!”

Gao Gong looked at him bewilderedly, ”Usually, people with cyber psychosis behave differently from normal people. How come you seem almost normal? Or has your brain been messed up for a long time?”

”Minister, let me tell you a little secret, ever since I got the psychosis, I’ve become much more normal.”

Forest Leopard slowly got up, his waist half-bent, eyes glowing.

”I’ve wanted to fight you for a long time!”

The next moment, Gao Gong’s vision blurred as Forest Leopard disappeared, with the sound bursts flashing more than a dozen times in succession, the sound waves covering Gao Gong like a giant pot. At this moment, the space parameters even changed slightly.

”I must say, killing so many comrades, even if it’s due to your episodes, it puts me, as the minister, in a difficult position.”

A flash of purple light, and Gao Gong walked out from another direction, speaking calmly.

”Then please, Minister, focus more, be diligent in cleaning up a black sheep like me, rather than be absent-minded!”

”I’ve wanted to try it for a long time, Minister, your legendary continental annihilation-level combat power.”

The next moment, not only did his vision blur, but his hearing, smell, and intuition all blurred, as if the entire machine factory had turned into a massive air mass.

[You are affected by ’Tier 3 Skill - Air Cannon’, senses entering a chaotic state]

’A large-scale ultimate move, quite rare.’

Trusting his intuition, Gao Gong felt this move could at least inflict over 100,000 damage.

”Interesting.”

Gao Gong extended a finger, a small piece of flesh sprouted from the tip, and then accelerated at a rate of tens of thousands of times, forming a thick flesh wall in less than 0.5 seconds, wrapping around Gao Gong layer by layer like a city wall, with each layer containing numerous airbag-like structures inside.

S-Level Talent - Physical Absorption

S-Level Talent is considered quite high-tier, but even amongst talents there are useless types, however ’Physical Absorption’ is different. Gao Gong could be certain that even at Cosmic Life form, the SSS level, ’Physical Absorption’ would still be very useful.

As the flesh wall fully unfolded, Forest Leopard’s ultimate move was also ready. The entire machine factory was enveloped in ’sound waves’, transforming into a vortex that shredded steel into iron flakes scattering in the air. The vortex viciously slammed against the flesh wall.

The airbags within the flesh wall slowly inflated, absorbing all the damage one by one.

The upper limit of Physical Absorption is 100,000, just enough to neutralize the opponent’s ultimate move.

”As expected of the Minister, you’re strong enough!”

With Forest Leopard’s frantic shout, in an instant, the flesh wall was broken open, and he appeared clad as if in ’Golden Saint Armor’, his hands hammering through the air, a barrage of energy bullets sweeping over like a storm.

’Biological Magnetic Field Energy? Impressive, so you’re also SS-level life!’

A hint of excitement flashed in Gao Gong’s eyes, with a single hand reaching through the void, unleashing the ’Field of Destruction’. A black light swept across, neutralizing positive and negative energies, annihilating the energy bullets.

Field of Destruction (Tier 3 Talent): As life grows, it accumulates an unperceived negative energy from outsiders, this energy being the ’Field of Destruction’, contrary to the life magnetic field. Anything subjected to the ’Field of Destruction’ will have its attributes weakened by 10%/20%/50%/100%.

When the Field of Destruction swept over Forest Leopard, he grunted, and the ’Golden Saint Armor’ on his body started to emit smoke.

’Divine Power!!’

In an instant, Gao Gong’s biological magnetic field materialized, as if a giant enshrouded in radiance descended from the heavens, fiercely pressing down on him, immediately creating a giant pit on the ground.

This was neither Gao Gong’s talent nor Gao Gong’s skill, but one of the ’S-Level Bloodline’ that Gao Gong had assimilated, an ’S-Level Radiation Beast of the Divine Spirit type.’

After assimilating the other, Gao Gong could temporarily summon its avatar to suppress enemies.

Though suppressed to the ground, Forest Leopard showcased his prowess as the first battler of the Ghost in the Shell Mobile Division, his eyes bloodshot, hands gripping outwardly, fiercely resisting the ’Descending Divine Spirit’, with every pore on his body excreting blood nearly as hot as lava, a powerful yang energy erupted.

”Open, open, open it for me!!!”

With a roar nearing his limit, as if to tear the entire space apart, he actually managed to wrench open this S-Level divine avatar, but it didn’t end there. A metal giant ape appeared behind the Divine Spirit, its metallic eyes like searchlights, coldly staring at him.

The next moment, the fist shadows of the steel pile driver rained down on him, seemingly endless like a perpetual motion machine.

By the time the King Kong Giant Ape transformed from ape to human form, the ground where Forest Leopard was had already turned into a giant pit, while Forest Leopard himself had turned into a humanoid mass of flesh. However, his eyes seemed to regain clarity, and he weakly said:

”Minister, you really are invincible.”

”You were just a bit off,” Gao Gong comforted him.

”Don’t lie to me.”

’Just a bit more, and you would have forced out my second form.’

Gao Gong silently thought to himself.