Gasoline Town in Turmoil

Gasoline Town was undoubtedly the core of Automobile City, but today, it had undergone a few small changes.

The previously empty entrance now had several Security Corps inspectors.

What they were inspecting were the mechanical hunters' prey.

The factory's military supply depot had reopened, and some precious military equipment was now available for sale. In exchange, every mechanical hunter had to bring back the corpse of an E-grade irradiated beast each day.

What if they had nothing to show for it? In that case, sorry, but they could not enter Gasoline Town.

In this irradiated zone, going without supplies had only one outcome—death.

"Take another look. Look carefully! This is the tail stinger of a self-destructing scorpion, a standard E-grade beast corpse."

"What about the rest of it?" the inspector asked coldly. Both his arms had been replaced with mechanical hands, and he repeatedly examined the prey.

"The blood of a self-destructing scorpion is all flammable chemical fluid. Managing to preserve even one tail stinger before it exploded was already good enough." The mechanical hunter with a metal skull widened his eyes as he spoke.

The inspector fell silent in thought.

"Let me see." A figure approached.

"All right, Captain."

The inspector stepped aside, yielding his place to a young man dressed in a military uniform. This young man had undergone extensive mechanization; even his exposed neck had been transformed into a mechanical body.

Zhao Xie gave it a single glance, then sneered. "The tail stinger of a self-destructing scorpion is equivalent to a detonator. You're telling me the self-destructing scorpion you killed exploded, yet there isn't a single trace of an explosion on this stinger?"

The metal skull was just about to argue when the two heavy robots guarding the entrance seized him from either side, carried him out of the gate, and threw him outside.

The metal skull flew into a rage and cursed, "You're the ones begging us to hunt irradiated beasts! Without us, would any of you be able to live in peace?"

Bang!

Zhao Xie did not waste a word. He drew his pistol and shot the other man in the head.

The metal skull's head snapped back. He toppled to the ground and never moved again.

The surrounding mechanical hunters' expressions changed, and their hands instinctively pressed against their weapons.

Zhao Xie said calmly, "Mechanical hunters sweeping through beast hordes is only right and proper. The military supply depot can even exchange the corpses of hunted beasts directly for supplies."

"With benefits this generous, if you still refuse to fight for your lives, then you have no right to live in this oasis."

Zhao Xie's cold gaze swept around the area, and not a single person dared meet his eyes.

"Remember, mechanical hunters are a bunch of shameless scum. From now on, any prey whose inspection is unclear will be rejected without exception!"

"Yes, Captain!"

Not long after Zhao Xie left, a battered off-road vehicle rolled up to the entrance of Gasoline Town. Seeing its fellow hunters obediently standing in line, the driver paused, then clicked his tongue.

"So obedient? Now that's a rarity."

The inspectors soon reached Gao Gong.

"The prey's in the back. Go take a look yourself."

One inspector was just about to inspect it when another colleague stopped him. "This one isn't necessary. Let it through."

Gao Gong grinned, pressed his index and middle fingers together, raised them toward the other man, then stepped on the gas and drove away.

"Why? Didn't Captain Zhao just say—"

"This person is different. He's a veteran hunter."

"So what?" the man said, somewhat unconvinced.

The other shook his head. "Leaving everything else aside, this person hunted thirty E-grade beasts this week alone. Do you really think he'd have nothing to show for it today?"

"Thirty? That many? All by himself!?"

The inspector was astonished. After all, even an armed squad from the Security Corps might not acquire that many prey in a week.

"He's a lone wolf with no partners. He's always operated alone. Experts like him are different from those rookies. They're people we should win over."

The man paused, then continued, "Before long, small beast hordes will be spilling into this area. He'll be extremely valuable."

The inspector nodded thoughtfully.

Gao Gong drove his somewhat battered off-road vehicle around Gasoline Town.

Gasoline Town had visibly declined.

After all, more than half of its customers were still wandering around outside.

When he drove all the way to Rose Gasoline Bar, he found the doors tightly shut. He honked at Little Finger, who was squatting on the doorstep and smoking morosely.

Little Finger glanced at him, climbed straight into the passenger seat without ceremony, and shut the door.

"During wartime, bars aren't allowed to operate," Little Finger sighed, flicking his cigarette butt out the window.

"Fair enough."

"But the military supply depot is still providing alcohol."

"Looks like they have connections." Gao Gong pulled out a cigarette case and handed him one.

"They won't be able to keep that up for long!" Little Finger said disdainfully. "Our local business isn't something a few outsiders can crush."

"What about you? Now that the war's begun, isn't this the perfect opportunity for a cybernetic doctor like you to make a fortune?"

"Hey, don't mention it." With a gloomy expression, Little Finger pulled out a medal engraved with a wired-up metal head.

"A Security Corps medal? So you've been recruited? Congratulations." Gao Gong gloated. "Looks like you'll be heading to the front line soon."

"Forget making money—I even have to risk my life!" Little Finger said bitterly. "If I'd known I'd end up like this, I never should've left Free Shore!"

"Free Shore? Aren't you from Sleepless City?"

Realizing he had let something slip, Little Finger's expression stiffened. He quickly changed the subject. "What are you doing at the bar?"

Gao Gong smiled and did not press him. "This car's not holding up. I wanted to ask Sister Rose whether she had any way to get a military armored vehicle."

"Rose isn't here. And military armored vehicles are ridiculously expensive. Don't even think about one without six figures' worth of mechanical currency. Do you have that kind of money?"

"I don't need a new one. A used one will do."

"That's the price I'm talking about—the used ones."

"Tsk."

Seeing Gao Gong looking at him strangely, Little Finger's expression changed. "Don't look at me. I don't have a car, and I'm definitely not lending you money."

"I'm not asking to borrow money. I want to discuss a business deal with you."

In the end, the "new surgical procedure" Gao Gong mentioned won Little Finger over.

Although he did not believe the other man could produce a second surgical procedure in such a short time, Little Finger figured that he had nothing better to do and might as well see what Gao Gong was up to. Thus, he brought him to his underground clinic.

"Doctor Finger."

"Get lost!"

Little Finger shoved aside the soldiers at the door with a dark expression and entered with a look of utter annoyance.

The two Security Corps soldiers glanced at each other and shrugged.

After all, cybernetic doctors were high-tech talents. They did not receive the same treatment as mechanical hunters, those rough laborers.

"Excuse me, let me through."

Gao Gong followed close behind. A difficult-to-describe stench wafted from the sack in his hand.

The soldier had just opened his mouth when Gao Gong had already pushed through the door and locked it from the inside.

"What do we do?"

"Just turn a blind eye."

Gao Gong swept his gaze around. Aside from the operating table he had returned, there were at least a dozen types of high-tech surgical equipment. Satisfied, he nodded.

"I need a protein extractor and a plasma membrane separation machine."

The former was responsible for extracting a special protein from worm glands, while the latter transferred the metal antibodies out of the protein.

The procedure itself was not complicated—provided one knew the formula.

"What are you standing around for? Come give me a hand."

"You want me to assist you?" Little Finger pointed at himself, his face full of disbelief.

"Yeah. And while you're at it, bring me a stool."

"If you can't produce anything at all, I'll have someone kill you later!" Little Finger ground his teeth.

Half an hour later—

"Impossible. This is impossible! How did you do it? You actually intercepted it!"

Little Finger watched the changes in the cells through a microscope. When radio waves swept over the cells, antibodies visibly formed.

Gao Gong, meanwhile, had it much easier.

The system panel explained everything.

[A biological injection with an effect similar to an electromagnetic-shielding coating]

"Do you know what this means?" Little Finger suddenly turned around and stared fixedly at him.

"It means mechanical hunters no longer have to worry about being seized in close combat."

"It means classical mechanical hunting will rise again."

"It means that, to some extent, we're going to change the course of the desert war."

"It also means I'm going to get rich."

Gao Gong shrugged. "At least I'll have enough money to buy a car."

Little Finger's face flushed red. He paced back and forth, his mouth moving nonstop, but Gao Gong could not make out what he was saying.

Unable to bear it any longer, Gao Gong interrupted him. "I advise you not to get ahead of yourself."

"What do you mean? Are you planning to keep it all for yourself?" Little Finger shouted. "Do you want me to kneel and beg you?"

"Uh, it won't come to that. It won't."

Gao Gong rubbed his nose. "The biggest problem is that the raw materials are hard to find. A desert worm only has one gland, and each gland can produce at most one dose."

"In other words, this thing can't be mass-produced in the short term."

"Desert worms, desert worms... We need to notify the people below immediately and have them catch worms. Catch every worm they can! It'll be too late if they miss their chance!"

"Although it can't be mass-produced, the experts among the mechanical hunters will absolutely understand its value. They definitely won't mind paying a hefty price for a dose that could save their lives."

"Exactly. Although these experts are willing to curry favor with me, getting them to wholeheartedly work for us has always been incredibly difficult."

Little Finger slapped the table, his voice filled with excitement. "With this, won't we have these people right where we want them?"

As long as these experts performed brilliantly in the hunting missions to come, they would naturally drive the revival of classical mechanical hunters.

Gao Gong had once said that he would set off a craze for cold-weapon hunting. He had not been saying it just for show.