CHAPTER 58: CHAPTER 51: NEW BATTLE SITUATION (REVISED DOUBLE-LENGTH CHAPTER)

"B-Black God, I’m not talking about you!"

The Mechanical Giant chugged a barrel of gasoline beer, then smashed the barrel fiercely on the opponent’s forehead.

"You insult him! How dare you insult him! Only I can insult him, only I am fit to kill him!"

Like a pile driver, the metal fists pounded the opponent’s head again and again. After an unknown number of times, with a ’pop’, the ’Old Face’s’ head burst open like a watermelon.

Amid the horrified gazes of the crowd, Black God casually tossed the headless corpse aside and staggered out. Mechanical modules had penetrated his legs, waist, hips, and back, and as he walked, blood seemed to faintly seep from the implantation sites.

Ranked ninth on the hunter list, Black God was also a Lone Wolf.

Meanwhile, in a private booth in the bar.

Fire Thief Wilson heard the commotion outside but remained motionless, only focusing on drowning his sorrows. On either side of him were two cybernetic prostitutes, barely covered by small scraps of cloth.

"Alright, Wilson, stop drinking," Daisila frowned as she glanced at him.

"You two, leave," Huang Wen calmly instructed.

The two bionic prostitutes stood up listlessly; they were like walking corpses, at the mercy of their patrons.

Simply put, whoever pays, calls the shots.

Obviously, the person orchestrating this scene was Mechanic Huang Wen.

Looking at Wilson, who was covered in bandages, Daisila sighed.

"Old Huang, you called us here specifically, what do you want?"

Huang Wen looked like a delicate teenager of sixteen or seventeen, but this ’innocent face’ was due to bionic modifications. His real age was over forty, making him the oldest among them.

He was also a veteran and unlike other down-and-outers surviving in the desert, he once held a rather privileged profession, a Mechanical Engineer in Factory No. 18.

People with great ambitions can endure setbacks without losing heart; among the three, Huang Wen was the calmest.

"In the Battle of Scavenger City, our three squads suffered heavy losses. Wilson’s Mechanical Legion was completely routed, half my team had their neural systems infiltrated by wild viruses and remain comatose, and Daisila, your team lost a third of your personnel."

"Damn that Beast Tide and damn the Security Corps, they sent us to our deaths!" Wilson cursed angrily.

Among the three, Huang Wen was on the southern line, Wilson on the northern line, and only Daisila was on the eastern front near Scavenger City.

Yet, one massive battle planned by General Hels brought them together.

The target was the impending Beast Tide in Scavenger City.

A united army from three oases.

Every strong hunter from the Central Desert converged.

The Security Corps spared no expense, offering all the weapons used in the battle free of charge.

Even prosthetic bodies were free to install.

Despite such generous terms, what awaited them was an unprecedented massive defeat.

The purely mechanized army pulled from the front lines was shattered by the Beast Tide, let alone Wilson’s small mechanical team.

Huang Wen’s firepower line was immediately infected by a dozen types of wild electronic viruses, turning on allies and killing many.

As for Daisila, she fled as soon as she sensed danger, yet still lost a third of her forces.

This is why the ranking list saw a near-total turnover in long-established teams.

Huang Wen remained quite composed, softly saying, "Let’s collaborate; it’s the only way forward."

"Collaborate?" Daisila was taken aback, Wilson too stopped his cursing.

"Merge our three hunting teams into one; it’s our only chance to vie for the top spot."

"You still want to fight?"

Wilson looked at him in shock as if seeing him for the first time.

After witnessing the despair-inducing might of the Beast Tide, yet this man still wanted to fight.

"Do we have any other options?"

"Yes, wait for the Mechanical Legion to deploy!"

"What if they don’t?"

"Impossible!"

Daisila paused, letting out a sigh.

"Old Huang, it’s not that I don’t want to help; it’s just that my manpower truly can’t sustain the next phase of the war."

"Not to mention, outside Automobile City, are there still any stray Radiation Beast Swarms?"

Daisila chuckled self-deprecatingly; now the threshold for being called ’stray’ isn’t just one beast, but an entire swarm.

Huang Wen furrowed his brow, surprised at how heavily the Beast Tide had impacted the two of them.

If the veteran captains were like this, what of the rookies?

"What do you think, Wilson?"

Wilson burped, succinctly spitting out a single word.

"Scram!"

...

Not satisfied with the drinking, Wilson staggered out of the bar, bumping into several people along the way. Those he bumped into dared not complain; clearly, a tiger fallen loses its authority, but at least in Petrol Town, the name of this bearded man still carried significant intimidation.

He scoffed at Huang Wen’s proposal.

Huang Wen had a background, but Wilson wasn’t just some bumpkin. After all, no one doing well in this Desert of Cannibalism was without a history.

He managed to assemble hundreds of mechanical exoskeletons; without internal help from the Mechanical Legion, how could he have purchased them?

In fact, his bid for the oasis development rights was supported by factions within the Legion itself.

Yet the higher the hope, the greater the disappointment.

Under the overwhelming assault of the Beast Tide, the effort he’d poured years into was annihilated in one battle.

His mentality completely shattered.

"This place is no longer sustainable."