Volume 10 Bugs Chapter 90: Second Floor, Mutated Golems and Abnormal Passages
In this huge base with three floors, each floor has an important core area, which also explains the main function of this floor. For example, the core location of the first floor is marked as "combat machinery production plant" on the electronic map, which is also where the elite commando team sneaked in. From the map, the defense of this area is very tight, and the number of enemy troops stationed is far greater than elsewhere, so our route marked on the map bypasses this dangerous area.
The core area of the second floor is the "New Mechanical Design Work Area". I guess the powerful and bizarre combat machines among the enemies were originally designed from scratch here and then put into use. Judging from the name, I guess this area is responsible for enabling our enemies to make timely adjustments based on the opponent's response, better adapt, transform and create new members, and make them more perfect and evolved. Compared with this, the previous floor is just a production workshop for repetitive labor. Therefore, in a large sense, this floor is far more important to our enemies than the previous floor.
This is also true judging by the resistance we have encountered.
Although the area of the second floor of the base is almost the same as the first floor on our electronic map, if you are in it, you will feel that it looks much larger than the first floor. The reason for this feeling is that the roads on this floor are much wider and higher than those on the first floor; on the other hand, there are often some open, square-like venues here, making you feel that the space you are in is extremely wide. On the map, most of these venues are marked as "actual combat test areas."
Perhaps because the battle was so intense, we never saw any new types of machinery being tested on site. However, the combat machinery patrolling this floor was greatly enhanced in both quantity and quality compared to the previous floor.
On the first floor, most of the patrolling ones were mechanical puppets holding light bullet guns. Their attack methods were also very simple, they would only aim and shoot at us from a distance. Once they were approached by melee professionals like me, their fragile armor would completely lose its ability to defend, and we could only chop them into pieces like cutting melons and vegetables.
In comparison, the patrolmen on the second floor were much stronger. The wide roads allowed them to drive some huge chariots and large combat machines around. The powerful energy cannons of these chariots posed a great threat to us, and when we finally had the chance to engage in close combat under heavy gunfire, their heavy armor made them a big trouble that we did not want to face.
The various chariots and large combat machines were not the only problem. The combat puppets on this level were also greatly strengthened. Among these puppets, there was a puppet called "Fire Bat" that was much stronger than the others. Its movements seemed a little slow, and its body was covered with red color. Its two thick arms made it very different from other puppets with guns. When the battle began, these guys would not hide behind the chariots and shoot at us, but would rush forward and approach us with extraordinary bravery. When they began to attack, their two thick arms instantly turned into two magic flamethrowers, and blazing flames sprayed out from them, forming two huge pillars of fire that kept spitting at us. The lethality of these two pillars of fire was much greater than that of the light bullet guns of other puppets. When we just met, we, the unprepared invaders, suffered a lot. If it weren't for the fact that our guild leader, Lady Feiyin, happened to be an ice magician who could have a certain deterrent effect on fire attacks, and if it weren't for the fact that the dwarf priest Longbow Shooting Sun was no longer so brave as usual and was instead conscientiously fulfilling his mission as a priest to help his teammates recover their lives, I'm afraid it would have been difficult for us to overcome these difficulties and obstacles.
Of course, when I say that Longbow Shooting Sun is "no longer so brave", it does not mean that this irritable and aggressive dwarf suddenly changed his temper and became rational. It is because in this highly futuristic battlefield dominated by long-range shooting, his nunchaku staff that must be close to him to work can't play much role, and he is very proud of his powerful magnetic energy cannon, always wanting to experience the heroic pleasure of blasting the enemy to pieces with a long shot, which enables him to honestly stay away from the front line of the confrontation and protect the lives of our entire team in a safer position.
In addition to the appearance of these new "fire bat" puppets, there are many other new puppets with various variations, and they all have different roles in battle:
A puppet called "Gladiator" can create a circle of shock waves within a certain range like a minotaur when we get close to it, making the approaching invaders unstable and giving them a fatal blow;
There is also a type of "long-range sniper" that can shoot at us from far away . The light bullets they shoot have greater penetration and lethality than ordinary ammunition. Fortunately, their shooting frequency is not as high as that of ordinary puppets, otherwise we would be in big trouble;
A puppet called "Armored Grenadier" no longer uses ordinary light bullet weapons, but explosive weapons similar to the longbow shooting sun magnetic cannon. After the ammunition is fired, it will form an explosive attack. Once we are hit head-on by this weapon, we will lose a lot of vitality. Even if we are just in its explosion range, we will also suffer certain damage and produce a three-second stun effect.
There is another type of "Light Sword Warrior" who completely abandons guns and ammunition for long-range attacks. These metal puppets are faster and more flexible. Each "Light Sword Warrior" wields a scimitar with a red glow in his hand. These light swords, which are attached with unknown power, can not only be used for slashing, but also add a layer of fire damage after hitting the opponent.
The most troublesome thing is a kind of metal puppet called "Phantom". They don't look much different from ordinary puppets, and the light bullet guns they carry are also ordinary standard weapons. But the fatal thing is that these puppets are attached with some kind of magic, which can hide their bodies like wanderers. They sneak up behind us without paying attention and shoot at us when we are not on guard. Although their stealth technology is not flawless, if you observe carefully in the direction of their shooting, you can see the flow of light and shadow due to refraction, but not everyone can stay vigilant at all times in a fierce battle. We were ambushed by them many times, and even Feiyin and Dingding Xiaoge, the two magic professionals with the lowest defense ability, were killed by them more than once.
Flashbang is a good way to make this "phantom" puppet show up, but unfortunately we didn't equip many of these throwing weapons, and the flashbang's indiscriminate attack on the enemy and our own vision made us feel extremely painful. But even so, before completing one-third of the journey on the second floor of the base, we had thrown all the flashbangs in our hands.
What impressed us deeply was that even though there were many difficulties and obstacles along the way, even though we had to deal with numerous, well-armed, brave and ferocious enemies, we had a clear goal, a firm will and high morale, and finally we stumbled and crawled all the way and successfully approached the entrance from the second floor to the third floor.
"Look, the elevator is there!" When the entrance finally appeared in front of everyone, Red Wolf shouted excitedly.
"Where is it? Where is it?" Changgong Sheri asked repeatedly while being protected by a group of sword warriors.
"It's right in front of me on the right, do you see it?" Red Wolf kindly pointed out the direction for Longbow Shooting Sun.
"...What the hell did you see? You were hiding, who knows where the right front of you is!" Changbow Sheri said angrily while waving the staff in his hand to resist the attacks of the lightsaber warriors.
Just as he finished his words, a thin shadow suddenly appeared behind a fire bat, followed by two short green flashes, tearing the metal puppet that was about to spray flames into two halves.
"Can you see it now?" Red Wolf asked, pointing in the direction of the entrance.
"Can't you see that I'm surrounded by a group of people below the belt?" The dwarf priest complained unhappily while being surrounded by a circle of white metal thighs.
"Hold on, I'll come to help you right away!" I just successfully killed two armored grenadiers, and now there is only one left. You know, puppet soldiers like this that can easily cause huge damage must be eliminated before they launch an attack, otherwise once they launch an attack, they are likely to cause fatal damage to us.
"I'm almost done here!" Ding Ding Xiaoge lay behind a pile of scattered metal plates, shooting at several long-range snipers in the distance while cheering for Longbow Shooting Sun. At the same time, he also controlled the Demon Prison Battle Soul to rush towards a group of invisible phantoms.
Along with the Demonic Prison Soul, the magician Feiyin also attacked. Although the invisibility of these special puppets is not as strong as that of the Red Wolf, as long as you look carefully, you can always see a blurry and distorted light and shadow, but the annoying thing is that they can still remain invisible when attacking. Fortunately, during this period of fighting, we gradually figured out some ways to deal with them: Feiyin's large-scale offensive spells made them unable to resist, and the Demonic Realm Soul's powerful close combat ability provided good cover for our magicians. Their destruction was only a matter of time.
With our increasingly skilled coordination, we tore the puppets into pieces one by one. When I finally cleared the enemies in front of me, I saw that Changgong Sheri's life was only about one-third left, and his magic value was almost at the bottom. In front of him, there were four almost unharmed light sword warriors, who were slashing at him fiercely. If he hadn't used the "Holy Light Protection" defensive skill in time, he would have been in trouble now.
"Longbow, run quickly, I'm here to save you!" I rushed towards him with a gun in one hand and a sword in the other, fearing that if I was a little later, I would only be able to collect the body of this reckless dwarf.
"Don't come over. I don't need you to save me!" Changgong Sheri seemed to be unconcerned about his current dangerous situation. He rejected my help magnanimously and began his countdown:
"Five, four, three, two, one, yeah, charging is complete!" He cheered excitedly, put away his nunchaku staff at a speed that ordinary people could hardly reach, then turned around and pulled out - or more precisely, "swung out" - the twin magnetic energy cannons at his back, then stuck the muzzles down on the ground and fiercely pulled the trigger...
A violent energy storm suddenly expanded, rolling up a circle of ferocious hurricanes on the ground, accompanied by green energy lines flying and jumping all over the ground. Within the range of this powerful explosion energy, everyone felt a violent and dangerous force, as if it wanted to tear everything into pieces. When the aftermath of the explosion finally dissipated, we saw that the four sword warriors surrounding Changgong Sheri had been torn into pieces all over the ground, and there was no danger at all.
Facing my astonished gaze, Changbow Sheri proudly turned the barrel of the gun, placed the handle on the ground, and then... stood on tiptoe and blew complacently at the muzzle of the gun, which had no trace of smoke at all, and leisurely cast a healing wave on himself.
Honestly, I have no interest in the whimsical show-offs of the dwarf priests. I just think that the people who developed these weapons seven thousand years later are too boring: they repeatedly emphasize that they use a kind of "technology" rather than "magic" to show their difference from their predecessors, but in my opinion, they just created other tools and used the power of magic in another way. For example, the explosion of the magnetic energy cannon had no effect on the longbow-shooting Japanese and our comrades, but only caused damage to the enemy's metal puppets. This is obviously the "caster's subjective consciousness hostile selection and guidance nature" of the magic power. It's like Feiyin's range attack spell "Ice Freeze" doesn't need to worry about hurting her own people no matter how chaotic and dense the battlefield is.
This kind of practice of using specious academic language to make something that is very familiar to others look unfamiliar and make people feel that they are very smart is actually the most boring...
Hey, why do I suddenly feel that this idea makes me feel guilty?
…
After clearing all the enemies, the entrance to the third floor appeared in front of us. This time it no longer looked like a completely enclosed small room, but a huge open platform. This platform was large enough to accommodate two of the huge armored vehicles we had seen before. It seemed that it was designed and manufactured to transport these large equipment.
The atmosphere around us was very quiet, so quiet that it was a little strange. According to our long-term adventure experience, whenever we came to an important passage from one area to another in the dungeon area, some extremely powerful enemies would suddenly appear: some ugly and huge monsters, some dangerous and huge mechanisms, or some ferocious and huge alien creatures... and so on. Of course, I believe you have noticed that they all have one common feature, that is, "huge". I don't know where our enemies got such a consistent aesthetic growth and development method. These most ferocious enemies are all huge monsters, and they can be seen clearly from two or three hundred steps away. Such a coincidence is really incredible.
However, the strange thing here is that this is a very empty place. Even in the second floor of the entire base where the "actual combat test area" is very concentrated, it is the largest open space I have ever seen. Everything here is clear at a glance. There is no deep pond or tall temple. Even ordinary creatures like us with short statures are so eye-catching here, not to mention those huge and powerful enemies that should appear here. Within our sight, we didn't even see a ghost, and this sudden strange and quiet atmosphere made our nerves tense more than ever.
If there is a target worth noting, it is a large vehicle parked next to the transport platform leading to the third floor. It has a dark red front with two huge chimneys. Although it looks very majestic, I still don't think it is a war vehicle because there is no weapon system on it from beginning to end. If we need to beware of it, what should we beware of? Beware of it crashing into us head-on without paying attention - such an attack method is too primitive.
In fact, I guess it is just a carrier used to transport large equipment, because it has a huge carriage towed behind it, which is large enough to carry a heavy tank.
This huge trailer is very different from any other vehicle we have seen seven thousand years later. The difference is that it has wheels. Not only wheels, but also many wheels, both on the huge front and the oversized trailer at the back. I think this design should also be related to its purpose: judging from the common sense of alchemy, the weight that vehicles that rely on jets of fire can carry is limited after all. When the objects that need to be carried are too heavy, perhaps these primitive tools with wheels can play a better supporting role.
You can imagine how familiar I felt when I saw such a primitive, traditional round tool after seeing all kinds of vehicles flying through the air with red or blue flames below. However, I did not pay too much attention to it, because in this dangerous environment, I had to be on guard against powerful enemies that might appear at any time.
However, to our surprise, even though we had reached the edge of the transport platform, everything around us was still extremely quiet and peaceful.
It seems that there are no enemies guarding here. My fear just now was just my self-doubt. Actually, our guesses all come from our previous adventures, which have no reference value for the world seven thousand years later. Besides, there has never been any rule or axiom that every important passage in a dungeon must be guarded by a big monster.
As we all watched in joy, our president, Lady Feiyin, walked up to the operating instrument on the transport platform and pressed the start button...
