Security Dinosaur

She did not need to answer. Su Ming already knew.

Right before his eyes, the gigantic mechanical dinosaur slowly began to move, and an even deeper, larger shadow gradually enveloped him.

The mechanical dinosaur had been activated when Barbara connected to the mainframe port. Bliss had not chosen any firewall program; after all, once enemies entered the cave and began cracking the system, no matter how secure a firewall was, it could still be breached.

So she had used a "physical" firewall. After the mechanical dinosaur stomped everyone's bones into fractures, who would still be able to crack the system?

"Cindy~~~ You definitely need to see this."

"What is it this time? Men are such a pain." Cindy casually turned her head, then jumped in fright as well. "Damn it, Su, what did you do?"

"I did nothing. You should ask yourself what you forgot to do. This is a security measure in the Batcave."

Su Ming rolled aside to evade the dinosaur's jaws. It did not have a mouth full of teeth like a killing weapon, but being clamped between two enormous steel plates would still hurt badly.

"What is this? Shouldn't Batwoman's toys be bats?" Cindy was a little puzzled too. Last time she had come here, she had thought it was just a decoration.

"Clearly, she must have struggled for a long time over whether to become Batwoman or Dinosaur Woman."

Su Ming cracked a joke, then hooked his foot around the railing behind him and bent backward in a full-body arch, dodging the dinosaur's sweeping tail.

The tail swept past just centimeters in front of him. He could hear the rushing wind; the blow was incredibly powerful, tearing straight through the iron bars and sending them spinning away.

Even with Su Ming's current body and armor, he could not withstand too many blunt-force attacks like that. His internal organs would suffer serious damage, and his Healing Factor worked better on open wounds, so evasion was the sensible option.

Fortunately, the thing was not actually very fast, and its massive size meant it was bound to have weaknesses.

"Can you handle it?"

Cindy had no solution for the moment. The dinosaur seemed fixated on Su Ming, chasing him around the cave while crushing quite a few tables, chairs, bottles, and jars along the way. Su Ming led it toward the passage they had entered through.

"Probably." Su Ming darted between the dinosaur's legs and experimentally fired a shot at its crotch. Other than a dense spray of sparks, it had no effect. "Protect Barbara and the mainframe!"

Cindy nodded and drew her long staff. If any debris flew toward them, she could knock it away in midair.

Vicki's eyes lit up instead. She thought Deathstroke battling a mechanical dinosaur would make excellent material, and immediately directed Pete to film Su Ming.

The dinosaur was wreaking havoc in this place, but to keep the cave from collapsing and prevent Batwoman's mainframe from being damaged, Su Ming could not use C4 or an Electromagnetic Pulse. That made things rather difficult.

Batwoman wanted to force intruders to destroy both the Batcave and the dinosaur together. Only then could she guarantee the safety of her data.

Vicki was still shouting instructions from the side, constantly saying things like, "Stab its eyes! Kick its jaw! Pull its tail!" Su Ming completely ignored her. By now, he had gradually figured out the dinosaur's patterns.

"This thing needs a tremendous amount of energy to move. But obviously, it isn't steam-powered or an internal-combustion engine, nor is it a magical creation."

"Then it has to be powered by batteries or nuclear energy. Nuclear power is too absurd—even Bliss could not possibly equip it with that. Even her beloved Batmobile is not nuclear-powered, so some kind of battery is the only explanation."

"Using batteries, plus its ability to identify enemies and act independently, means it has its own processor and program. That can only be inside its body. In other words, this thing is hollow, like a medieval knight. A sturdy shell does not mean it has enough resistance to blunt-force impacts."

"So far, it has three methods of attack: stomping, biting, and tail sweeps. It has no ranged attacks or energy-based abilities. I can try this."

After thinking it through, Su Ming immediately laid out one plan after another in his mind as he watched the dinosaur before putting them into action.

All of his earlier analysis had actually been completed in less than a second.

He accelerated for several steps. The transition from stillness to wind howling beside his ears took only an instant. Facing the dinosaur's snapping jaws, he slid beneath them, passed under its crotch, and landed astride its tail.

Using the force of its tail swing, he seized the right moment and released both hands. Like someone flung away by an elephant's trunk, he landed on top of the dinosaur's head. The violent impact made his chest tighten.

The dinosaur was equipped with sensors across its entire body. Even if its "eyes" could not see him, it could still sense the pressure of a person standing on its head.

But that was the key to Su Ming's plan. Bliss's model was a Tyrannosaurus Rex, and its forelimbs were absurdly short, unable to reach the top of its head. Two of its three attack methods had been neutralized, leaving it with only one choice.

Its enormous tail immediately rose and slammed down at him.

That was exactly what Su Ming needed. He instantly dropped flat and rolled aside, gripping the rim of the dinosaur's eye socket and suspending himself in the air to evade the blow.

The dinosaur's steel tail struck its own head.

DUANG!!!!!

A deafening boom echoed through the cave. Su Ming nearly let go to cover his ears. It was like an enormous gong exploding beside him, making his vision blur for a moment, but his combat instincts immediately brought him back to focus.

The collision of two massive pieces of steel would not do much to the monster itself, but on top of its head, the dinosaur's dark green outer shell cracked under the heavy blow. A long strip of metal inside had warped, like a narrow irrigation ditch in a field.

He lured the dinosaur into striking its own head several more times, all at the same spot. A program was still just a program; once its behavioral logic was discovered, it could be exploited endlessly.

After the repeated thunderous impacts, a tiny gap appeared in the dinosaur's head where the metal had deformed.

Su Ming had been waiting for this. He drew the Katana from his back and stabbed it into the gap. Whatever was inside, he first gave it a vicious stir.

Sparks immediately burst from the crack like fireworks, spraying out and striking his mask, leaving several black streaks across the yellow section.

The more precise an instrument was, the more easily a single gear could cause it to collapse. That had been true in the steam age, let alone the information age.

There was no need to destroy its CPU or hard drive. Damaging a few circuits was enough. It was like opening up a computer case, rummaging around inside, and tearing out a few wires—it would definitely have an effect.

But this giant dinosaur truly was worthy of being Bliss's toy. Even after Su Ming had stirred up its insides with all his strength, it still did not stop immediately. Just in case, he pulled out the shotgun from his back, shoved it into the crack as well, and emptied every remaining shell in the gun.

The dinosaur stopped moving and slowly began to topple over.

Su Ming straightened up, standing atop its head as it safely carried him down to the ground.

A cloud of dust billowed up, then slowly settled. From within it gradually emerged gleaming silver armor and the mechanical dinosaur beneath his feet.

He bent down, forcefully pulled his shotgun from the crack, and began reloading it slowly, as if he had merely swatted a mosquito—nothing worth mentioning.