Fatal Fireworks

Twelve hundred years ago, steam mechanical technology was discovered by explorers from ancient civilization ruins, and human civilization entered the Steam Mechanical Age.

With the protection of steel castles, humanity was no longer dominated by darkness and fear, and the population entered an era of explosive growth.

From that time on, humans transformed from a weak race barely surviving on this continent of mist into a powerful species at the top of the food chain.

The great scientist who built the first steam steel city was named Dorena Spuglin, and he became the first emperor of the Oma Empire.

It was also from that time that the ancient slave kingdoms split into the two great empires of today: one is the "Xid Empire," which continued the ancient lineage, and the other is the "Oma Empire," which followed the path of steam technology.

"Steam technology" is the foundation upon which the Oma Empire was built.

And the steel monster slowly emerging from Storm Lake before them was the crystallization of the efforts of several generations of scientists from the "Oma Royal Academy of Sciences," a mechanical city representing the pinnacle of steam technology – the [City of Destruction]!

This is an ultimate war fortress of "Behemoth Lord-class," a pure war machine.

Although it doesn't have ordinary residential buildings and its volume is smaller than some lord-class steel castles, its firepower and mobility have an overwhelming advantage among mechanical cities of the same tier.

All the designs on this entire mechanical city exist for war.

Giant, exaggerated composite tracks support this conch-shaped steel behemoth, as indestructible as an iron can.

The first thing that catches the eye is the defensive armor wall, over two hundred meters high and as solid as a reservoir dam. Looking further up, between the layered spiral floors, are densely packed super cannons with terrifyingly large calibers, aiming in all directions with no blind spots.

The most advanced large steam boilers, steel melting furnaces, city breaker cutters, war arm hammers, destroyers, whale harpoons...

It is a steel monster armed to the teeth.

The moment it emerged from the water, its pressurized steam cabin released its immense pressure with a roar, spewing white mist. It was like a behemoth emerging from hell, exuding an overwhelming ferocity.

The three War Elephant-class main mechanical cities of the "White Wolf Bandit Group" were like hyenas trembling at the feet of a lion in front of this [City of Destruction].

"This thing is too over the top!"

From a distance, Rein watched the mechanical city suddenly appear from the lake, unable to help but swallow.

The steam machinery before him, representing the world's peak technology, gave him a hundred times more shock than seeing an aircraft carrier in his previous life. The tech tree had grown in a terrifyingly skewed direction.

This "Black Market Trade Fair" had gathered the vast majority of bandit groups from the southern part of the Oma Empire.

With over a hundred bandit groups' main mechanical cities, plus supply and troop transport micro-mechanical cities, there were as many as a thousand.

In the brief moment he was stunned, the [City of Destruction]'s first wave of artillery fire had already descended densely.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

The dense artillery fire exploded everywhere, deafening.

In an instant, thousands of shells rained down like a storm on the bandit groups' mechanical cities by the lake, igniting large swathes of fire.

What made Rein's jaw drop even more was...

At this moment, he personally witnessed the mechanical monster slowly coming ashore "devour" a small steel city like a whale!

Yes, devour!

After the steel city landed, a huge opening appeared in its exaggerated city walls, like a giant beast opening its mouth, revealing a high-temperature steel refining chamber like a volcanic crater.

Then, dozens of whale harpoons shot out, easily piercing the nearest small mechanical city. Like a captured prey, the mechanical city struggled with all its might but couldn't break free.

The winches reeled it in. Before the bandits inside the steel city could escape, the entire castle and its occupants were pulled into the furnace, instantly turning into molten iron.

It crushed its way onto the battlefield with an invincible posture!

"Steam boilers operating at full pressure, stokers, add coal, add coal!"

"Artillerymen, load ammunition and counterattack..."

"Everyone, don't panic, large cannons take a long time to reload. Everyone, take this chance to scatter and escape!"

"..."

The bandits' combat response was also extremely fast. After being caught off guard by this round of artillery fire, the team commanders quickly reacted.

Steam mechanical cities revved up their engines and scattered in all directions.

Although their artillery power was inferior to the top-tier technology of the [City of Destruction], the distance was enough for them to concentrate fire and destroy some of the castle's structures.

After all, no matter how powerful the enemy was, it was only one mechanical city.

The area around Storm Lake suddenly descended into chaos.

At this moment, [White Wolf] Bazel finally understood the source of his bad premonition.

He glared fiercely at the Oma members before him, his voice dripping with killing intent: "Do you all think that by ambushing a Behemoth mechanical city like this in advance, you can capture all of us hundreds of bandit groups?"

Although the [City of Destruction] was invincible, the idea of capturing all these hundreds of bandit groups with just this one super mechanical city was pure wishful thinking!

In his opinion, this encirclement would end up as fruitless as countless previous attempts.

He paused, then added with an unfriendly expression: "Although the [City of Destruction] is powerful... before we escape, we still have time to take your lives!"

"Oh? Then we shall see."

The Oma members stood calmly in place, as if completely unfazed by the threat.

"Hmph!"

Bazel snorted. The silver wolf he transformed into stopped wasting words, its muscles bulging as it gathered strength. It looked as if it was about to strike.

"Brothers, whoever kills this Oma prince gets a bounty of 100 million!"

Surrounded by desperate outlaws living life on the edge, the bandits howled with excitement at the mention of the bounty. They were just waiting for the leader to make a move before swarming forward and tearing the members of the Oma royal family to shreds.

But just then, the situation took a sudden turn.

Suddenly, bursts of blood-red colored powder exploded in the sky.

PIU~ BANG!

PIU~ BANG!

PIU~ BANG!

A series of fireworks shot into the sky, exploding into large clouds of blood-red dust. Within a few breaths, the air around Storm Lake was filled with a faint red mist.

"What are these guys up to now?"

Bazel sniffed the air, catching a faint medicinal scent, and a hint of suspicion flickered across his face.

What puzzled him was that this dust wasn't poisonous, and the explosions couldn't hurt anyone. What was it for?

Vaguely, he felt a sense of unease, and his wolf claws hesitated for a moment.

And at this moment, the black-robed advisor next to the First Prince Quentin swept his gaze over the bandits and spoke again, "I have been planning for this day for three years. You didn't think I would let you escape so easily, did you?"

Planned for three years?

Bazel shuddered at the thought.

Ever since he had been tricked and ambushed earlier, he had keenly sensed that there was something very strange about this situation.

Firstly, there were no traces of any large mechanical cities near Storm Lake. This meant that the "City of Destruction" must have been lurking in the lake for at least several months.

Secondly, the location for this "Black Market Trade Fair" was also decided upon by him and the leaders of several major bandit groups. Now, they had fallen right into a trap.

This meant there was a "mole" within the decision-making levels of the major bandit groups!

All signs indicated that they had fallen into someone's calculations for this trade fair a long time ago.

Thinking of this, Bazel knew that if they delayed any longer, there might be unforeseen complications.

With a single command, he directly initiated the attack.

"Attack immediately and kill the First Prince of Oma!"

And at this moment, the members of the Oma royal family were also well-prepared.

The heavily armored Knight Commander Rhine, his battle qi surging, unhesitatingly blocked the bandits. As the foremost knight of the court, he possessed incredible defense capable of withstanding artillery fire!

The Archmage "Enma" Blackmoss had also finished chanting his magic incantations. The hexagram flashed with light, summoning four "Hellfire Demons" over eight meters tall to protect the First Prince Quentin.

For a time, the Hyacinth Tavern erupted into a fierce battle.

Meanwhile, Rein, who had already fled several kilometers away, naturally noticed the "red fireworks" exploding in the sky.

"This dust... could it be some kind of graphite bomb? Speaking of which, is the technological level of this world really this high?"

As soon as this thought crossed his mind, the dust fell and entered through the filter of his gas mask.

The smell was like a cat encountering mint, giving him a jolt.

"Huh? That's not right. This is medicinal powder?!"

Having been an alchemist's apprentice for several days, Rein was no stranger to the smell of medicinal ingredients.

As the red dust entered his respiratory tract, it was as if cold water had been poured into a hot oil pan, causing his blood to boil.

"Something's wrong, this medicinal powder is problematic!"

The abnormality in his body made Rein's face instantly pale with shock.

His intuition told him that disaster was imminent!

Just then, he felt a tingling sensation all over his skin, as if his fine hairs were being blown by the wind, causing an itch.

He raised his hand to look, and on his exposed skin, red lines were growing wildly like fine hairs!

"What is going on?"

In just one or two breaths, his pores had grown nearly an inch of red hair, making him look like a red-furred baboon.

The red hair grew longer and longer, accompanied by severe dehydration and blood loss, and a strong sense of dizziness surged into Rein's mind.

He looked at his physical condition projected by his "Smart Brain" and finally understood!

[Warning! Catalyst intrusion, "Zombie Potion" activated. Host death predicted in 30 seconds.]

[Warning! Large number of unknown life forms detected.]