Clang! Clang-clang—
A series of sounds came from below. One jeep trunk after another was hurriedly thrown open, and people hastily pulled out all kinds of firearms—there were even two rocket launchers—as though they faced a great enemy.
Then, amid several tearing sounds, nearly ten young men and women, surrounded by their armed companions, raised their hands and ripped away their clothes, revealing the rust-stained mechanical bodies beneath—
One person tore open his sleeve, exposing his forearm. The flesh had long since vanished, replaced by two iron bones that looked as if they had been sawed off discarded mechanical arms.
Rusty bolts were firmly fixed at the elbow joint, while some blackened glue filled the gaps between flesh and machinery. Every time he clenched his fist, gears grinding out of alignment made a creaking sound.
Others ripped apart their trouser legs. One of their legs, below the knee, had been replaced with some old hydraulic rod, its surface still bearing the blurred, scratched words: "Decommissioned Military Industry." Black engine oil slowly leaked from cracks along the edges, dripping onto the ground with soft patters.
Someone lifted their collar and removed their mask. Half their face had undergone mechanical modification; embedded in one eye socket was a camera lens with cracked glass, rolling and turning. Even their ears had been replaced with old-fashioned Walkie-talkies, which occasionally emitted piercing bursts of electrical static.
Others went even further, simply taking off their shirts. Their entire chest cavities were practically exposed, their ribs replaced with Steel Rebar. Two massive batteries were strapped to their backs, wires running toward their hearts.
Yet at the location of his heart hung something resembling a light bulb. It slowly rotated with the man's breathing, and with every turn, it burst forth with a crackling electric spark.
—This man