"Thrilling."
The wind lashed his face painfully as the vehicle surged and plunged like a roller coaster.
Rein clung to the tail of a Mechanical City that had been dismantled down to its frame, hugging the steel skeleton tightly and struggling to keep from being jolted off.
It had to be said that without its immense load, the Steam Boilers capable of driving a massive steel fortress became so fast they practically "flew."
No, it really was flying!
Whenever it hit a pothole, the Mechanical City would leap high into the air from sheer speed. Like a clumsy jumping toad, it would crash back down with a metallic clang, scattering metal parts everywhere and shedding who knew how many useful steel components.
As it raced onward, it dropped rivets, nuts, wheels, and other chunks of iron all along the way.
Rein clung on in terror, praying that this skeletal Mechanical City would hold together rather than completely fall apart after one of its leaps.
Still, his luck seemed pretty good.
The more parts the Mechanical City lost, the lighter it became, and the faster it went. It raced for over ten, maybe twenty kilometers.
In the end, it actually took the lead and successfully broke out of the encirclement.
Before long, when Rein looked back toward Storm Lake, the "black market trading grounds" had already become a sea of flames.
More than a dozen War Elephant-class Mechanical Cities from the Oma Royal Legion had been lying in ambush around the perimeter. Leading countless troop carriers the size of tanks, they formed an enormous encirclement and slowly closed in.
The encirclement had gradually taken shape, like a sack being drawn shut around the thousands of Mechanical Cities belonging to the bandit crews by the lakeside.
Only a small group of bandits who had immediately chosen to abandon their cities and travel light had escaped before the "pocket" closed.
Rein was one of them.
After a frantic sprint with shells occasionally screaming over his head, riding a skeletal Mechanical City that could fall apart at any moment—
Rein, whose face had been twisted by the freezing wasteland wind, discovered with surprise that no pursuers had come after survivors like them.
"Did I really get away?"
His eyes shone with excitement, yet he found it hard to believe.
Could it be that his bad-luck aura had finally worn off and his fortunes were about to turn?
But his instincts told him things did not seem that simple.
Rein might not understand military formations, but he had read plenty of Romance of the Three Kingdoms in his previous life.
Looking at the battlefield before him, he suddenly felt that the scene overlapped with certain tactics from his memories.
Was it some kind of siege tactic called "surround on three sides, leave one open"?
At that thought, Rein could not help muttering, "Could there be an ambush ahead?"
Then, in the next instant, he wanted to slap himself!
Thud, thud, thud—
As the skeletal Mechanical City drew closer, the dense roar of engines like tractors starting up came from nearby.
Looking again, he found that the thick wasteland grass had somehow filled with ambushers.
As far as the eye could see, there had been no large Mechanical Cities, which was why they had not been spotted beforehand. Hidden in the grass was an enormous force of strangely shaped Mechanical Cavalry.
"What the hell is that? Steam Motorcycles?"
It was Rein's first time seeing such bizarre Steam Machinery.
These strange Steam Locomotives looked like Harley motorcycles encased in giant iron rings. They were around three meters in diameter, with toothed tracks around the outer wheels for traction and large-caliber six-barreled guns mounted on either side. Their miniature Steam Boilers chugged out white smoke, carrying that same dark industrial style.
"They really are motorcycles?"
This country bumpkin Rein had truly had his eyes opened.
You could call them backward, but even with the advanced technology of his previous life, he had never seen motorcycles this flamboyant.
Yet if you called them advanced, they were steam-powered monstrosities.
The brass-cast legion emblem on the motorcycles was unmistakably the insignia of the Oma Royal First Legion.
This was the Oma Empire's most elite force—the Royal Steam Mechanists!
Clearly, now was not the time to wonder how those iron-ring motorcycles had been created.
There were several hundred Steam Locomotives ahead, and like cavalry, they quickly caught up.
Without armor protection, the bandits' Mechanical Cities had practically become live targets.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The large-caliber six-barreled guns mounted on the motorcycles spewed flames, turning the Mechanical Cities into honeycombs in a single volley.
Only then did Rein understand where the follow-up to "surround on three sides, leave one open" lay.
The mastermind behind the Oma Empire's plan had long anticipated that those who escaped would be lightly equipped Mechanical Cities. Against bandits without armor or heavy firepower, a lightly equipped Mechanical Cavalry legion was more than enough.
"Extinguish your boilers and surrender! You will be spared!"
"Resist to the end, and you will be killed without mercy!"
"..."
The cavalrymen on the motorcycles kept calling for surrender.
Unfortunately, the bandits who chose to flee were mostly desperate criminals with blood on their hands. No one was foolish enough to surrender without a fight.
A fierce gun battle broke out between both sides.
The bandit crews' firearms were premium goods bought on the black market, and their power and accuracy were no worse than the Empire's standard-issue weapons.
Once the shooting began, neither side could gain the upper hand.
Bang, bang, bang, bang—
Muzzle flashes scattered, and iron bullets flew everywhere.
Rein was completely overwhelmed amid the hail of gunfire.
"What am I supposed to do now?"
Bitterness filled Rein's heart. He was trapped between a rock and a hard place.
Hitching a ride had felt great just moments ago, but now that people were hunting them down, he could not even get off.
Still, the one fortunate thing was that perhaps because the "white coat" he wore marked him as a doctor, or perhaps because he had not made any move to raise a gun and shoot—
The Gunslingers on the Steam Locomotives had tacitly avoided firing at him.
Even so, fragments flew as densely as rain, and the ricocheting shrapnel still injured Rein in several places.
If this dragged on, he would sooner or later either be captured or shot to death in the crossfire.
Behind Rein and the others, dozens more miniature Mechanical Cities belonging to bandits escaped the encirclement one after another.
But the Oma Empire clearly had more ambushing troops. Wave after wave of Mechanical Cavalry appeared, pursuing and steadily whittling down the fleeing bandits like hyenas hunting buffalo.
The bandit crews were not foolish enough to break through in a single group. Instead, they scattered and raced in all directions. Both sides chased each other across the vast wasteland, stretching the battle line farther and farther.
Rein had considered jumping off.
He had even deliberately observed the situation. The battle line had become long and scattered, and the Oma Empire's main Mechanical Cavalry force was focused on surrounding and killing the Mechanical Cities.
A nobody who jumped off alone or in a pair would not attract much attention at all.
But if he jumped off within this area, his ultimate fate would be to get caught and taken prisoner by the soldiers cleaning up the battlefield.
So he needed a high-speed vehicle to escape the ambush zone.
And the individual Steam Motorcycles before him were the best choice!
"Huh... if it works like a motorcycle, why not give it a try?"
Suddenly, as Rein looked at the Steam Motorcycles that had been shot down behind him, he could no longer suppress the bold idea in his mind.
The Mind Core had already analyzed how those riders drove them, and it seemed no different from motorcycles in his previous life.
Rein, once known as the "Little Prince of Motorcycles," had never feared anyone in a race.
If he could steal one of those motorcycles, there might not be anyone on this wasteland who could catch him!
"Let's do it!"
After making his decision in an instant, Rein decided to take the risk.
Since he had no intention of becoming a prisoner, how much worse could the outcome of jumping off be?
With that thought, he did not hesitate at all and decisively jumped from the skeletal Mechanical City, which had reached an insane speed.
Leap, land, roll, play dead.
Fortunately, just as he had guessed, no one cared about a small fry who had jumped off a vehicle.
All the motorcycle cavalry continued chasing the Mechanical Cities.
After the main force thundered past him, Rein did not even stop to catch his breath. He quietly crept over to a Steam Motorcycle that had fallen to the ground, pulled off the corpse lying on it, and climbed aboard himself!
The motorcycle's miniature Steam Boiler had not gone out. The moment he twisted the throttle, its huge wheel began spinning at high speed.
A violent surge pressed him back, making him feel as though he were riding an enraged bull.
"It worked!"
Rein was ecstatic.
With his extensive motorcycle experience, he only needed a brief adjustment before he could easily handle the Steam Locomotive.
Then, he chose a direction completely opposite the main force and sped away at full throttle.
Just as he had expected, no one cared about a lone fish that had slipped through the net.
Even when the Mechanical Legion spotted this "deserter," no one came after him during the encirclement.
Besides, even if they wanted to chase him, they might not be able to catch someone as swift as the wind.
Thanks to the attentive readers who helped catch typos~ I missed some errors and caused everyone trouble. It's Monday, so please send some recommendation votes my way. Thank you~
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