Cloud Nobility

Pang Xiang, an aboriginal baby, had nearly been boiled alive by his own parents because of his obesity.

Like one of the few lucky ones in the desert, radiation had robbed him of his intelligence, but it had given him something unique.

That was strength.

The combined strength of the two robots amounted to two tons, yet in their test of strength against Pang Xiang, they gradually began to lose ground.

"Crack." "Crack."

Those were the sounds of parts twisting inside their mechanical bodies.

Pang Xiang's face gradually flushed red as well, and an indescribable bestiality spilled from his eyes.

"You... get away!"

Pang Xiang's arms were like red-hot iron pillars. He slammed them forward, and with a thunderous boom, the two robots were shoved back three steps. After a sizzling sound of scorching metal, shallow five-finger imprints were left on their chests.

"Radiation organism detected..."

"Biological energy rising... Combat mode activated..."

The robots' eyes immediately turned red as they switched to infrared mode. At the same time, their palms retracted into their arms, and with a metallic clang, four high-strength carbon-alloy blades shot out.

"Don't come over! If you do, we'll attack!"

Ironhide panicked while gritting his teeth. He pulled back the charging handle of the submachine gun in his hand and glared hatefully at Zhao Xie, but a robot beside Zhao Xie had already activated guard mode and blocked him.

"May I ask what you intend to do to my dear subordinate?"

Zhao Xie's right shoulder sank. At some point, an arm had been draped over his shoulder.

His alarm system had not reacted at all, while the other party gave him the feeling of a man-eating beast.

Meanwhile, the carbon-alloy blade of the robot at the front hung suspended in midair, unable to move.

Looking closely, one could see a tiny claw wedged against the blade.

The other captains began watching the spectacle with interest.

"What are you doing? Stop!"

Manager Zhou clearly ranked above Zhao Xie. The moment he spoke, the two robots canceled combat mode and returned to patrol mode.

At the same time, the weight on Zhao Xie's shoulder disappeared.

Zhao Xie turned around, only to find Manager Zhou and several captains from the elite teams exiting the building. One of them was grinning as he held Fatty's head, seemingly saying something to him.

Zhao Xie's pupils contracted. This person was actually him...

"What's going on?" Manager Zhou frowned. He could ignore the fact that these bumpkins from the Mechanical Hunters usually looked down on them, but at this critical juncture, how could this newcomer lack even the slightest sense of the bigger picture?

"Manager, they're smuggling military supplies and selling weapons!"

"You can eat whatever you want, but you can't say whatever you want." High Engineer lazily rested an arm on Pang Xiang's shoulder and said, "Ironhide, take the document bag from the back seat and show it to the manager."

Manager Zhou frowned as he accepted it. When he opened it, he found a thick stack of authorization documents containing contracts for the retirement, modification, and sale of armored vehicles.

The documents certainly had problems if one examined them closely.

But if he truly investigated them, he would be the one with a problem.

"It's fine. These are legal transactions with proper retirement procedures."

Looking at the armored combat vehicles that were at least eighty percent new, Zhao Xie opened his mouth, but ultimately said nothing.

If he dared to object, he would be the one in trouble next.

"Nothing else? Then let's go. Pang Xiang did a good job this time. I'll treat you to a big meal when we get back."

"A big meal? All right, all right!" Pang Xiang nodded like a pecking chick, practically drooling.

Seeing that there was no more spectacle to watch, the other captains left one after another. Only a gloomy old man took the initiative to stop High Engineer.

His eyes were cloudy yellow and filled with blood vessels, like those of an aged eagle. His modified right hand was a gripping blade mechanism even more advanced than Keiko Matsushima's.

He had a blade mechanism but no blade—or rather, a hidden blade.

"Miyamoto, what is it?"

High Engineer narrowed his eyes. After advancing to "Dark Night Warrior," he could clearly sense the killing intent emanating from the other man. It resembled his own, but was far more intense.

This was a Mechanical Hunter who specialized in assassination, and one of the very best.

"I merely heard that High-san assassinated the Reaper Commander. Seeing you today, it seems the rumor was true," Miyamoto Sanzō said hoarsely.

In terms of combat power, the Reaper Commander was two to three times stronger than an ordinary C-rank Reaper. No one knew how High Engineer had killed it.

Thus, a rumor had spread that the Reaper Commander had actually been assassinated by him.

As one of the very best assassins himself, Miyamoto Sanzō naturally had to meet this "master assassin of the new generation."

"Haha, is that so?"

"You merely borrowed external items. That is ultimately not the proper path. High-san succeeded in the assassination because you used Mr. Little Finger's 'medicine,' right?"

High Engineer immediately understood. The rumor that he had assassinated a commander-level monster had most likely been spread by Little Finger.

He's using my name to promote himself? Next time we split the profits, I'll have to make him pay a promotion fee.

"So, what do you plan to do? Prove yourself through strength?" High Engineer asked with interest.

Miyamoto Sanzō shook his head and pulled a bottle of "protective cream" from his robes.

"What this old man means is that I now possess such unorthodox items as well. Combined with my own methods, the prey I assassinate in the future will inevitably be of a higher level than you."

"Uh..."

It was only after Miyamoto Sanzō left that High Engineer came back to himself. He smacked his lips.

"This old man is interesting."

"Brother Gao, are we heading out to hunt now?"

"Not yet. Let's return to the bar first. There are some things I still haven't figured out."

The Black Rose Gasoline Bar was unusually empty today. The loud metallic music had also been replaced by subdued jazz. The dim yellow lighting and hoarse female voice created an ambiguous atmosphere.

As soon as High Engineer entered, before he could react, Sister Rose shoved him onto the sofa. It took him quite a while to struggle back up. He gasped for breath, a bloody taste lingering at his lips—his mouth had been bitten open.

Good heavens. An ordinary rich woman wouldn't have this kind of combat power. Is this the force of a domineering female CEO?

"I'm very satisfied with your recent performance."

Behind the bar, Sister Rose personally mixed High Engineer a drink. Her jade-green eyes narrowed slightly behind her red hair, and she held a women's cigarette between her fingers as she smiled seductively.

She was probably referring to "Desert Skin."

High Engineer picked up a tissue and wiped his mouth, then smiled. "Has everything been resolved?"

"Resolved—or rather, compromised."

"How did you resolve it?" High Engineer asked curiously.

"I personally broke into his territory, held a gun to his head, and made him sign the contract. I also took several of his illegitimate sons out for a round of fun."

Good heavens. A true big shot. Definitely not someone to provoke.

High Engineer stuffed the cherry from the rim of his glass into his mouth and asked in confusion, "Why did the Security Corps give in so much? Autonomy, development rights... Were they really willing to give those up?"

"Why wouldn't they be?" Black Rose sneered. "The Security Corps itself is just a label slapped onto something else. It only has temporary authorization from the Mechanical Overmind. They're using a tiger's skin to pass themselves off as a real tiger. If they do a poor job, the authorization can simply be revoked."

"Temporary authorization? You mean the Security Corps isn't included in the Mechanical Legion's official roster? But who could alter the Overmind's underlying logic? Even the most elite cyber cowboys couldn't do that."

"I've heard that the Overmind of Nocturnal City has the strongest computing power among the nearby mechanical cities."

"Have you heard of the Cloud Nobility?"

Of course he had. They were the planetary nobles who lived aboard the orbital space station known as the "City in the Clouds." In his previous life, the final main quest of the Cyber Test Field had been to obtain ark tickets from those nobles and escape the planet after it was blown apart.

According to Sister Rose's explanation, the Security Corps itself was actually a semiofficial organization operating in a morally gray area.

The reason it had been able to thrive in the Iron Sand Desert was that one or perhaps several members of the Cloud Nobility had used their privileges to obtain temporary authorization to control the desert from Nocturnal City's intelligent Overmind command database.

Although this authorization was temporary, through certain crafty manipulations, its "temporary" period could be extended indefinitely.

There was only one condition: the authorization required them to guarantee the desert's "safety."

Once the desert ceased to be "safe," the authorization would immediately be revoked. The true Mechanical Legion would replace the Security Corps, take control of the desert, and fight the radiation beasts.

And once the Mechanical Legion moved in, this enormous gray profit chain that had lasted for decades would be severed in an instant.

Very few people knew about this. The only ones in the know were several desert magnates—and, of course, the Black Rose in front of him.

"So, as long as they can preserve this source of profit, they'd rather let someone else sit at the table than let the AI flip the table over."

The Mechanical Overmind and the Cloud Nobility maintained one kind of balance.

The Cloud Nobility and the local powers maintained another.

The desert magnates also divided their spheres of influence among themselves and maintained a balance.

Once this balance was broken, it would be like something going wrong in the food chain. Everyone would want to become the predator one level higher.

Wang Tian had thought the same way. That was why he had been eager to swallow Black Rose's underground intelligence network, expand his power, and use it as leverage to negotiate better terms with the Cloud Nobility.

Then he had been beaten black and blue by Sister Rose, whose background was even more formidable.

"So the Cloud Nobility would rather divide the profits among unaffiliated Mechanical Hunters than hand them over to these local snakes."

"That's right."

Sister Rose's red lips looked especially alluring beneath the dim lights, yet the words she spoke were exceptionally forceful and domineering.

She pointed at High Engineer.

"So, you must become the number one hunter this time."

"No problem." High Engineer grinned with indescribable confidence.

Black Rose narrowed her eyes. "You don't need my help?"

"At least not this time." High Engineer grinned. "I never lie, especially not to you."

Black Rose once again felt that he was a stranger. The person before her had always been extremely confident, but his former confidence had stemmed from a ruthless disregard for everyone. His current confidence, however, contained something she could not see through.

That inexplicably filled her with excitement.

"Think this through carefully. If you fail at this, your fate will be miserable."

Sister Rose always kept her word. Even if the other party was her little wolfdog, if he failed to fulfill her ambitions, she would punish him severely—or even kill him on the spot.

"I won't say the same thing twice either."

High Engineer leaned forward and gently wiped the corner of Sister Rose's lips with a tissue. Her bright red lipstick looked good but was impractical; it had smudged a little.

It wasn't that High Engineer had especially high moral standards. It was simply that, based on his experience from his previous life, some rich women and powerful figures liked this kind of push-and-pull. If you shamelessly hugged their legs, they would turn around and kick you away.

This melodramatic attitude of "you can have my body but not my heart," or "I like you for who you are, not for your money," really scratched their itch.

Sure enough, a gleam flowed through Sister Rose's jade-green eyes. Her red lips parted lightly. "Then you'd better do a good job. Otherwise, I'll punish you properly."

There was not the slightest trace of killing intent in her tone. It was purely flirtatious.

"Then how are you planning to punish me?"

"Kneel."

"Do you think insulting me in that position will work? Do you take me for someone who only knows how to flaunt his verbal skills?" High Engineer flew into a rage.

"Are you kneeling or not?"

"All right."