Iron Wall, Steel Fortress

"Don't move!" Scorpion's pulse rifle was already glowing blue.

As Uncle Gao finished his last word, Bai Ying had already taken a step forward.

"If you were discussing this with me at the dinner table two days from now, perhaps your emotions would be much better," Uncle Gao poured himself a cup of tea. "I didn't drug the tea. Dragon Bud is a tea that needs to be savored repeatedly. For those who are trying Dragon Bud for the first time, 'tea drunkenness' is a perfectly normal reaction."

"Where's the merchandise?" Bai Ying clenched her fists tightly, her red pupils fixed on the calm and collected Uncle Gao.

"Rare treasures, highest bidder wins." Uncle Gao put down his teacup and dropped his smile. "Of the first-generation mechs, only Xing Tian survived. The second-generation mechs were almost all lost in the Boundless Sea. The third-generation mechs are considered the strongest combat power by the allied nations, scarce in number, and priceless."

"Liar!" Bai Ying spat out the words, almost through gritted teeth.

"When General Chen placed the order, I did intend to sell it to you. It's just that this batch was targeted by a buyer I can't afford to offend." Uncle Gao's tone carried no hint of guilt, as if he wasn't the one who made the decision. "To be honest, price was only a secondary reason. Even if you could offer a higher price, I wouldn't dare to sell it to you."

"Who is the buyer?"

In Bai Ying's eyes, no one in this world dared to snatch something from the forces of the Watcher Alliance!

"No comment. I advise you to give up on this." Uncle Gao seemed to have anticipated Bai Ying's question. "Ultimately, the responsibility lies with me, so I've prepared a second-generation standardized Striker mech, nine-tenths new, at cost price. The remaining money will be refunded, how about it?"

If viewed purely from a cost perspective, this plan was at least half as cheap as the original.

As for cost-effectiveness, that would depend on what Xuanse Cangqiong thought.

But no matter what, Xuanse Cangqiong could only make a decision within the framework of Uncle Gao's proposal. There were no other options besides acceptance or refusal.

But Bai Ying didn't see it that way.

"Who is the buyer!"

Bai Ying came here to get the best upgrade for Xing Tian, not to choose from defective products offered after the other party broke their contract.

"I intended for you to stay here comfortably for two days and then contact General Chen yourself to consider my offer." Uncle Gao shook his head slightly. "It seems unnecessary now. I'll discuss it with General Chen myself."

With that, Uncle Gao walked towards the luxurious desk and used the communicator to connect with General Chen.

He wanted to let Bai Ying hear General Chen's reply firsthand, to make her understand that this was not something a young, immature girl like her could decide!

"Xing Tian!" Bai Ying shouted, as if calling out to her mech.

"Pfft... girl, have you watched too many anime?" Scorpion couldn't help but laugh out loud. "Shouting at the air twice won't summon a hero to save you. And you're calling out to that ancient mech. If I remember correctly, Xing Tian doesn't even have a smart system installed, does it? Can it understand you calling it?"

"What, are you saying Bai Ying is speaking Morse code and I don't understand?" Yu Xiao, on the other end of the communicator, muttered to himself. "Who do you think you're looking down on!"

A few minutes ago, Yu Xiao had already learned through the communicator that Bai Ying was getting into a fight over there, and he had heard their entire conversation!

Thousands of words boiled down to one sentence: his equipment had been stolen.

Could he stand for this!?

I, Xing Tian, walked six hours to get here, my feet almost submerged in the sea, and you're telling me the merchandise is gone? Are you bullying my old and weak Xing Tian?

He, Yu Xiao, had to vent this anger!

In the spacious hangar, Xing Tian, which had entered sleep mode, suddenly reactivated. Its single red eye lit up in the darkness, and its two gleaming Slasher wrist blades were unsheathed!

Yu Xiao had to find a way out first.

A dark red light spread through the air, gradually covering the entire hangar. This was Yu Xiao scanning the material properties of the hangar walls and doors.

But the result surprised him greatly.

"Who are you defending against!?"

The entire hangar was constructed from expensive artificial super-strength alloy. This was an experimental cutting-edge metal developed by the Omega Research Complex. Its unique microscopic structure and special synthesis process endowed it with unparalleled toughness, capable of resisting most physical attacks. Even fusion-level energy strikes could only slowly dissolve the super-strength alloy.

But like most of Omega's cutting-edge technology, the cost of this metal was astronomical. It was estimated that twenty cubic meters of super-strength alloy cost as much as a brand-new second-generation mech!

However, the super-strength alloy used in this hangar was not the original version. It was more like a secondary super-strength alloy, sacrificing some toughness but significantly reducing the cost.

Even so, the cost of this hangar alone could build ten brand-new Xing Tians!

After a second of intense internal struggle, Yu Xiao decisively abandoned the idea of a violent exit and retracted his Slasher wrist blades.

He had to use a more elegant method.

[Scanning network ports... 647 potential targets found]

"Huh?"

Ever since Yu Xiao installed his new power core, he had gained two combat skills. One was [Harden], which could temporarily increase his body's strength, and it was the means by which the intelligent AI resisted the Red Hurricane's Heated Sword when it took over Xing Tian.

The other was [Network Intrusion], which seemed to be usable only against the human faction. Yu Xiao had thought he would never use this skill, but he didn't expect to be proven wrong so quickly.

Both combat skills could be upgraded by spending evolution points, but the upgrade costs were high enough for Yu Xiao to buy himself another core component.

Each Aggregate Beast he had killed only awarded 200 points. After all, it was a youthful version of a quasi-level 3 monster. For Xing Tian, it was a tough opponent, but for the Red Hurricane, it was basically one punch per monster.

If he could afford the black technology in the store, he wouldn't be fighting with people from the Silent Cemetery over these second-hand goods!

Truly, "a single coin can stop a hero," even after transmigrating, he had to worry about money!

But now, a more pressing problem had arisen.

The network architecture of the Silent Cemetery was something no sane person could have devised!

Xuanse Cangqiong's system was composed of a main control system and countless sub-modules connected to it. Therefore, if Xing Tian infiltrated any sub-module, it could quickly reverse infect and control the entire system.

But the Silent Cemetery's network architecture consisted of a main control system plus hundreds of independent, randomly encrypted sub-systems!

Rather than the main control system managing these sub-systems, it was more like the main control system was just a "central post office" responsible for receiving and sending information. It didn't even have the authority to control these sub-systems.

This network architecture would directly increase the system's data processing difficulty by several orders of magnitude. Without spending a large sum of money to purchase top-tier hardware to support its bandwidth and capacity, this system simply couldn't operate normally!

But the advantage was security, extremely high security!

Yu Xiao's dream of infiltrating the entire system was shattered on the spot!