Behind Gasoline Town lay the Intercontinental Auto Exhibition Center.
"Auto Exhibition Center" was what it had been called in the past. Now it had a new name: the War Center.
Early in the morning, armored vehicles drove into the hall one after another. Mechanical hunters climbed out, their tiger-like eyes darting around, each wearing a fierce expression. Wherever they went, people hated them and dogs barked at them. In the end, their captains had to step in and collect their missions for them in Hall One.
The remaining mechanical hunters waited in the hall, smoking and sweeping their fellow hunters with dangerous, inscrutable gazes.
Even the calibers of the weapons in their hands grew larger and larger. Some of their gun barrels turned with a series of creaks as their neural sensors changed.
The former Auto Exhibition Center seemed to have become a weapons exhibition center.
When an armed armored vehicle resembling a steel fortress drove into the hall, it immediately attracted countless gazes.
Although Automobile City was famous for modifying vehicles and this was considered a local specialty industry, this clearly was not a modified vehicle. It was a genuine armored war machine. Needless to say, military vehicles like this had to have been smuggled in. To drive it so brazenly right in front of the Security Corps officials—how arrogant!
"Creak—"
The heavy door opened, accompanied by a powerful hiss. It was the sound of an air pump pushing the door open.
Experienced hunters could almost calculate the armored vehicle's horsepower from this detail alone.
Compared with their own vehicles, damn, this was way too outrageous.
Gao Gong was the first to step out of the passenger seat.
"It's him!"
"Who is he? Oh, no wonder."
"That big sister's top rider."
"So he's the little wolf dog."
"No, he's at least a Tibetan mastiff."
A mechanical hunter's fame was often proportional to the number of radiation beasts they had hunted. Gao Gong had killed far too many beasts over the past month, more than most ordinary armed hunting teams could compare with.
Gao Gong looked around and spotted quite a few familiar faces. Keiko Matsushima was crouching on the roof of a vehicle and smiled sweetly at him, though both her hands rested on the hilt of her katana for reasons no one could understand.
"Guard the vehicle. I'm going to register."
If Gao Gong being the vehicle's owner did not surprise anyone, then the two people who came out next left everyone else wearing question marks.
One was a half-mechanical man whose modification level was utterly terrible.
The other was a fat man who only knew how to grin foolishly and eat.
Just those two?
Several hunters who had failed their applications felt a powerful surge of resentment.
I could do that too!
Gao Gong naturally paid no attention to what others thought. He walked straight into Hall One. The Security Corps official in charge of reception glanced at the armored vehicle with a complicated expression, then pointed toward the conference room.
"What does that mean?"
"Ordinary teams collect their missions outside. Some elites are received by specially assigned personnel."
Gao Gong smiled without saying anything and pushed the door open.
Immediately, one inscrutable gaze after another swept over.
"There are quite a few familiar faces."
Fire-Stealing Wilson
Mechanic Huang Wen
Assassination Master Miyamoto Sanzang
Three-Handed Daisila
The Squirming One
Gray-Eyed Adrian
The captains of the six strongest hunting teams in Automobile City were standing or sitting in various poses.
Aside from Daisila, who smiled at Gao Gong, the others wore expressions that were less than friendly.
Lone-wolf hunters came and went like ghosts, with no ties or burdens, and were often treated with wariness.
Yet among mechanical hunters of the same level, team captains possessed a peculiar sense of superiority over lone wolves.
"Little Gao, you're here." The middle-aged man behind the conference table stood up on his own and smiled as he patted Gao Gong on the shoulder.
"Supervisor Zhou."
This Supervisor Zhou was the Security Corps' logistics supervisor. When Gao Gong had delivered the Reaper's head, he had been the one responsible for receiving him.
Supervisor Zhou was clearly treating Gao Gong differently from the others, causing the expressions of several captains to shift subtly.
When they had entered, this supervisor had not been nearly so cordial.
"Sit, everyone, sit."
After everyone had taken their seats, Supervisor Zhou pressed the remote control. A virtual projection descended from the camera.
It was a topographic map of the area around Automobile City. Scrap City lay to the east, the Bloodmine Hills to the west, another oasis to the south, and the Sulfuric Acid River to the north.
Supervisor Zhou pressed the remote again. In an instant, the originally green area was covered by more than a hundred red arrows.
"So many!?"
"That's already close to the intensity of a beast tide."
"What about the frontline army?"
Even these well-informed captains changed color. With this level of intensity, hadn't they said the beast tide had already been stopped in the east? From the looks of it, the eastern front had been completely overrun.
Supervisor Zhou said heavily, "Everyone, the Security Corps soldiers are fighting on the frontline. However, quite a few beast remnants have slipped through gaps in the battle line. Our objective is to eliminate them."
Huang Wen narrowed his eyes and said, "How could the Security Corps' mechanical defense line have so many gaps? According to my calculations, with the troops and weapons you've deployed, the defense value should reach three million points. Even an attack by a regular mechanical army shouldn't be able to reduce it to this state in such a short time."
"I don't know either, but I can assure you that the frontline army has not been defeated. Some very special problems are troubling the generals at the front. Once those problems are solved, the defensive line will be repaired immediately."
"Is there a Beast King?" Bearded Wilson asked solemnly.
"No, definitely not!" Supervisor Zhou answered decisively.
"Relying only on us hunters, even if we all spread out, we still couldn't stop so many radiation beasts," Three-Handed Daisila said with her arms crossed.
"You don't need to worry about the defense. Our diplomats have already secured the support of some local forces. They'll share our burden from the flanks."
Local forces meant warlords. The expressions of the hunter captains present immediately turned unpleasant.
The relationship between the local warlords and the mechanical hunters could not quite be called mortal enemies, but they certainly detested one another. The former viewed the latter as sources of chaos, while the latter considered the former human-shaped beasts.
Seeing that the atmosphere had grown heavy, Supervisor Zhou thought for a moment and decided to offer them a carrot first. "To ensure everyone can fight on the frontlines without worries, our Security Corps has decided to put up one hundred thousand contribution points as a reward for this hunt."
One hundred thousand points!
Gao Gong could clearly feel the breathing around him grow heavier all at once.
Supervisor Zhou poured oil on the fire and added, "Furthermore, to commend everyone's contributions, our Security Corps has decided to open up the administration of Central Oasis and the development rights to the New Oasis."
"As long as your contribution ranks among the top ten in this large-scale hunt, you can take up an official position in Central Oasis, such as—say—the mayor of Gasoline Town."
"And if you take first place, you'll obtain the development rights to the New Oasis. Not only will you possess the authority to build factories and machinery, you'll also be able to negotiate independently with major corporations. As long as you develop it successfully, you'll be the absolute ruler of a new territory. By then, I might even have to beg for food under your command."
Supervisor Zhou made a humorous remark.
The breathing grew heavy once again.
As a monopolistic armed organization, the Security Corps had earned wealth like mountains of gold and silver in the desert over the years. Now, they had a chance to become members of the interest group themselves.
And if they could successfully establish an oasis, they might even be able to divide the desert and rule alongside the Security Corps!
Everyone knew this was a huge promise, but it was simply too tempting.
It was so fragrant that merely catching a whiff left them intoxicated by the deliciousness of power.
The only person whose expression did not change was Gao Gong.
It was not that Gao Gong was above worldly concerns. Rather, in the normal course of history, everyone in the Iron Sand Desert would die.
With no people left, what use was there in how delicious the promise sounded?
More importantly, the system quest had not been triggered, leaving Gao Gong utterly unmoved.
That expression fell into Supervisor Zhou's eyes, causing a flash of surprise to cross his face. What an incredibly strong mentality. Is this the kind of person who can remain calm even when Mount Tai collapses in front of him?
"Everyone, due to energy interference from the radiation zone, our monitoring system frequently malfunctions. The number of beasts appearing around Automobile City will certainly be no fewer than expected."
"I've distributed the data on all the beasts that have appeared to your battlefield communicators, including their numbers and weaknesses."
"But I believe that through everyone's efforts, we will definitely win this war!"
Supervisor Zhou was pumping up the people inside, while the other members of the Security Corps were pumping up the other mechanical hunters in the hall.
Although no one knew exactly what they had said, once the one hundred thousand contribution points, the administration of Central Oasis, and the development rights to the New Oasis were announced, everyone erupted!
"Kill the radiation beasts!"
"When I become the oasis leader, my first decree will be to reinstate first-night rights!"
"The opportunity has finally arrived!"
"Kill! Kill! Kill!"
Fatty Xiang stared blankly at the scene. After a long while, he turned to the calm Ironhide and asked,
"What are they saying?"
Ironhide snorted coldly. With an electronic cigarette between his teeth, he looked completely disdainful.
"Does it matter?"
"It doesn't?" Fatty Xiang scratched his head.
"Of course it matters." Ironhide sighed. "The problem is that my hearing aid suddenly stopped working. I didn't hear what they were saying either."
"Oh."
Engine roars erupted one after another. All kinds of modified vehicles charged wildly out of the Auto Exhibition Center, the mad laughter and flames spewing from their modified fuel tanks perfectly matching the character of the desert.
It seemed that as long as they took action, the radiation beasts would be theirs for the taking.
"Let's get in the car too. Brother Gao should be out soon."
"Wait!"
Just then, a figure suddenly appeared and blocked the two of them.
Zhao Xie stared coldly at Ironhide, his gaze extremely hostile.
"You're not dead? How did you show up here?!"
"None of your damn business!"
When enemies met, their eyes turned red. Ironhide's fury shot straight into his CPU. Thank goodness I didn't complete my full bionic conversion. Otherwise, when we met at the entrance back then, that shot of yours really would have killed me.
Zhao Xie's gaze shifted from the man to the armored vehicle, and his brow furrowed again.
"You've got some nerve. You actually dared to steal the Security Corps' war vehicle!"
"Bullshit! That's our captain's vehicle!"
Zhao Xie's eyes flickered. Two robots approached from either side, intending to drag Fatty Xiang away from the vehicle door and confiscate the vehicle.
However, contrary to Zhao Xie's expectations, the two robots working together could not move the fat man in front of them.
"What are you doing?" Fatty Xiang asked foolishly. Beneath his clothes, thick veins bulged like snakes.
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