Assault Specialist Luo Fei

The AllSpark's energy was the source of life for the Autobots and Decepticons in the Transformers universe. This energy could awaken consciousness in artificial machines, turning them into metallic lifeforms. The AllSpark was the greatest masterpiece of mechanical civilization, wielding power forever close to that of a creator.

But Luo Xia didn't yet possess such immense power. When he infused the AllSpark's energy into this nearly wrecked off-road vehicle, astonishing changes began to take place at the nanoscale, invisible to the naked eye. The ordinary metal atoms constantly rearranged themselves, becoming transformative elements with limitless possibilities.

Rumble, rumble—the engine, which had long since died, roared to life. The only remaining headlight on the right began to flash, as if greeting Luo Xia.

"What the hell is that?" The sudden change stunned the terrorists.

The others might not know the condition of the vehicle, but how could they not? Even its gasoline had been drained. There was no way it could start, even if it were repaired.

Luo Xia reacted faster than they did. He grabbed the shattered, twisted window frame and scrambled into the wrecked driver's seat. A dense burst of gunfire followed, but every bullet struck the off-road vehicle. Luo Xia remained completely unharmed.

"Ah! I've only just been born, and you're already shooting at me! Have you no humanity or compassion? You're the dregs of society, vermin, garbage, and unrecyclable waste!"

The off-road vehicle let out a cheerful electronic voice, then roared toward the terrorists firing their guns. With an unbelievable burst of acceleration, the half-destroyed vehicle reached over a hundred kilometers per hour within ten meters and sent three terrorists flying.

Then it made a sharp turn and swept past two more terrorists. As it went by, it opened its intact right-side door and smacked them away like flies.

"Fantastic! That's a home run!" The off-road vehicle played the sound of a sports broadcast, complete with cheering spectators.

At that moment, an arm reached out from the wrecked cabin and swiftly, precisely snatched up an AK-47 the terrorists had dropped on the ground.

The muzzle poked out of the window and fired at the terrorists. One burst was enough to kill three of them.

"Not bad. I haven't lost my touch." Luo Xia grinned from inside the vehicle.

The sight was so terrifying that even the terrorists couldn't help taking a few steps back. The terrorist leader from earlier had even hidden behind the off-road vehicle. He probably thought it was so bizarre that, like a person, it couldn't see behind itself.

But he didn't know that this vehicle could no longer be judged by ordinary standards. Soon, he heard a strange warning: "Reverse with caution, reverse with caution!"

Unfortunately, the warning was in Chinese, and the terrorist hadn't learned the language. Caught completely off guard, he was struck and sent flying by the vehicle as it reversed at a hundred kilometers per hour. He seemed particularly unlucky: he crashed into a bloody heap. It was the corpse of the prisoner who had been mauled to death by the vicious dogs earlier. Perhaps the dogs were startled, or perhaps the smell of blood stirred their aggression. Unable to recognize their owner's scent, they saw the man as an enemy interfering with their meal and pounced on him, tearing at him.

Screams rang out without end. He had just ordered the dogs to devour a person, and now they were devouring him instead. It was only fitting.

In little more than ten seconds, the terrorists had lost half their number. But the survivors had also realized that ordinary firearms were useless against the strange off-road vehicle, and some of them picked up RPG launchers.

These were the most common and cost-effective heavy weapons in the Middle East. Almost even children knew how to use them. All you had to do was aim roughly at your target, and the rocket could easily destroy anything.

This was the same off-road vehicle that had been wrecked by a rocket earlier.

Luo Xia switched from automatic fire to single shots and killed two terrorists holding rocket launchers with headshots. But on the other side, a terrorist had already fired a rocket at the vehicle. Luo Xia couldn't yet shoot a rocket out of the air with an AK.

But Luo Xia wasn't worried. The off-road vehicle beneath him was no ordinary machine anymore; it was no longer a helpless target that just sat there and took hits.

As the rocket flew toward them, just before it struck the vehicle, its two left wheels suddenly sprang outward. Their immense force lifted the vehicle into a sideways flip, spinning it a full three hundred and sixty degrees.

The rocket missed the vehicle's undercarriage by a hair and exploded beside the cave, sending rocks flying.

"Idiot! The same trick won't work on a Saint Seiya! Take this—Meteor Fist!"

As soon as he finished speaking, the off-road vehicle's twisted hood suddenly flipped open. A mass of car parts flew out like shotgun pellets, turning the terrorist into a bloody mess.

At that point, the terrorists' morale finally collapsed. The survivors no longer had the courage to fight and turned to run.

Luo Xia hurriedly picked them off one by one with his AK, but in the end he only managed to kill seven. The last three terrorists still escaped in a vehicle.

"What a shame. If I'd had a Type 95, they wouldn't have gotten away."

Luo Xia climbed out of the off-road vehicle and watched the terrorists disappear into the distance, feeling thoroughly frustrated.

The AK he'd taken from the terrorist was in terrible condition. It was reasonably accurate within twenty meters; beyond that, it was all down to luck.

He glanced back at the off-road vehicle and felt a bond of blood between them.

"So this is the power of the AllSpark?" Luo Xia murmured to himself.

Perhaps sensing Luo Xia's attention, the shell of the battered off-road vehicle began to split and transform with a series of clanks. In the blink of an eye, the wrecked vehicle had become a five-meter-tall, silver-gray robot. A prominent wound marred its right shoulder, leaving the entire arm hanging limply, as if it couldn't exert any force.

"Honorable Commander, assault specialist Luo Fei reporting for duty." A deferential electronic voice rang out, and the robot saluted Luo Xia with its intact left hand.

"Luo Fei? Are you an Autobot or a Decepticon?" Luo Xia asked.

"Reporting to the Commander, I belong to neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons. I am a combat robot under your command, Commander. Also, although the energy you possess is called the AllSpark, it is actually far more powerful than the AllSpark you know of. Therefore, I strongly recommend that you choose a name more impressive than the Autobots and Decepticons. I suggest Thunderbolt Mech Warrior or Invincible God Squad. Of course, there are even more impressive names, such as—"

"Shut up, Luo Fei. I think it'd be better if you turned back into an off-road vehicle for now."

Once Luo Fei started talking, he just kept going and showed no sign of stopping. His chatter gave Luo Xia a headache, so he had no choice but to order him to be quiet.

"Understood, honorable Commander." Luo Fei dropped to the ground and clanked back into an off-road vehicle, then sat quietly where he was.

Luo Xia wasn't interested in giving him some impressive name. This wasn't a shounen anime where the one with the loudest mouth always won. Even if he renamed him Thanos, that wouldn't mean he could shatter the universe with one punch. The only thing Luo Xia cared about was Luo Fei's strength—whether he could help Luo Xia carve out a place for himself in a world crawling with overpowered freaks and gods as common as dogs.

With that in mind, Luo Xia shifted his gaze elsewhere.

Luo Fei's unusual performance in the battle had not only frightened the terrorists into fleeing; it had also terrified the prisoners. The only one who had managed to stay calm was Doctor Yinsen. He was tending to the injured prisoners, so absorbed in his work that he hadn't even glanced over at Luo Fei.

Yinsen seemed like a genuinely good person, in the traditional sense. That was Luo Xia's first impression of him.

Just then, Tony Stark, who had been unconscious all this time, woke up.