Chapter 43: Recruitment

"Are you ready to go in person?" Before the person around him could finish his question, Shengxia called in another group of research teams through the information link. Then, before everyone appeared a dense array of drones neatly deployed, as dense as a swarm of bees.

"These drones can't possibly dive, can they?" someone asked, perhaps to break the awkward, bewildered atmosphere of staring at each other. Shengxia turned around and smiled, "How do you know they can't dive?"

A group of people who were originally silent: ...

As each drone matrix computer was debugged, Shengxia input the corresponding instructions, allowing the computer responsible for building the three-dimensional model to import the map data of the underground river into the drone matrix data network.

With a loud bang, the drone seemed to come to life instantly, turned on its own lights and took off autonomously, making all the people on the scene's scalps tingle.

At the same time, in Area C of the Underground River, a small quarrel broke out among the terrorist organization members who were still huddled there since they lost surveillance of Area B, where the commander of the Underground River planet and the federal security team were located.

The content of the argument was whether to leave the underground river through the secret passage and go to the hot spring area where the top leaders of the arms faction were, or to stay and fight to the death.

Honestly speaking, if it was a hand-to-hand fight, the terrorists would have been more than happy to fight. They had ample defensive machinery and gunpowder, not to mention that for a long time, their technological level had completely surpassed that of the federal authorities, which gave them a sense of superiority.

Looking at the federal authorities is like looking at the little ants on the ground. You don’t even need to do anything yourself. Just a tap on the keyboard can make these people feel the pain of being separated from their wives and children.

However, just now, after they saw the robot dog sent by the planetary commander, which could complete human-machine collaboration with the federal security team and even repair pipes, their sense of superiority gradually turned into a sober panic.

They tried to calm their minds and began to analyze each other:

"It's already quite difficult for the planetary commander to obtain this cutting-edge equipment in such a short time, but this is only possible once. We must not lose our composure."

"Really? To achieve human-machine collaboration, we've been to a symposium in an alien world before. The relevant details and challenges to overcome can't be explained by simply acquiring a cutting-edge product."

"Then how do you explain that the planetary commander used her simple classroom and equipment to teach students and soldiers how to practice human-machine collaboration in just three weeks?"

“…”

“…”

After an awkward collective silence, someone tried to break the deadly atmosphere by deliberately suggesting that maybe someone was helping the planet commander behind the scenes?

"who?"

As soon as these words came out, there was a dead silence again.

“…”

“…”

If there are better talents on the planet Volk, they must be in the hands of the Arms Faction. But how could the Arms Faction send people to help the planet commander?

"So what do we do now?"

Finally, after an unknown amount of time, someone stopped asking about the planetary commander's advanced technology and instead asked what to do next given the current situation. However, someone in the organization couldn't help but start a conspiracy theory:

"What if the top brass of the Arms Faction really did reach some secret agreement with the planetary commander and sold us out? Ultimately, we're just thugs helping to solve this dirty business."

"Would the top leaders of the Arms Faction be willing to lose this group of our talents?"

"When Dr. Scream got into trouble, everyone thought the planetary commander would die. But she's become even more aggressive. Have you seen any unusual activity from the higher-ups in the arms faction?"

“…”

“…”

Just as everyone was continuing to speculate on this conspiracy theory, even scaring themselves, someone suddenly changed the subject: "But she opened the Melt Cave for free."

As soon as these words came out, everyone subconsciously turned to look at the optimistic dwarf in the team. Seeing this, the dwarf explained that he said this to prove that the planetary commander might not have reached any agreement with the top leaders of the arms faction. Otherwise, how could the arms faction really let the planetary commander open the melting cave for free and let her send troops to the underground river so blatantly?

"From an economic perspective, the planetary commander already spent a lot of money to open the Melting Cave for free. If she can't make up for this financial loss elsewhere, she will definitely take action against the Arms Faction. The top leaders of the Arms Faction will definitely not surrender so easily, and naturally, they will not give up on us easily."

After the dwarf finished speaking, the other people in the terrorist organization couldn't help but raise their eyebrows, and turned to praise him for his good ideas, while the dwarf also shrugged subconsciously.

"Then we retreat?"

"Wait, I think something's wrong. After analyzing the surveillance video just now, I found that the planetary commander had people specially search the location where we planted the bomb. What does this mean? It means that our higher-ups may have betrayed us all a long time ago."

“…”

“…”

"Are you serious?"

Some people couldn't believe it, but soon as the analyzer's results came out, everyone else in the terrorist organization subconsciously took a deep breath and began to fiercely curse the top leaders of the Arms Faction for being unfaithful. After the curse ended, the people in the organization suddenly remembered that Ji Zhuifeng mentioned before leaving that the Arms Faction still had some goods to be destroyed. So now they had two options before them:

Either surrender and use this money to negotiate terms with the planet commander;

Either fight to the death, and then use this money and the current situation to negotiate with the top leaders of the arms faction. In fact, most of the "hidden agents" who have been exposed once can be safely transferred to the alien domain by the arms faction to live the life they want. Sometimes "sacrifice" is a good thing.

So after everyone looked at each other, greed and relief that they had finally made it to the end appeared in their eyes. Instead of surrendering, they might as well seize the opportunity to defraud the top leaders of the arms faction. After all, they still had the goods in their hands.

This is an important negotiation condition.

The decision was made, and everyone stopped talking and began to quietly handle their own tasks. The person in charge of setting up the communication band with the top leaders of the Arms Faction headed out of the underground river to prepare to activate the new communication equipment; the person in charge of guarding the goods that the Arms Faction was going to destroy began to gather the goods; the rest of the people turned the entire C area into a "level game area" where unmanned robots and killing machines coexisted.

As long as the planetary commander dares to send real people to explore Area C, she will definitely pay a heavy price. And if it is her trump card "Robot Dog" that comes, these complex levels will be enough to scrap her trump card, which will be a huge financial bill.

However, they also thought clearly that they had to resist two to three waves of attacks from the planet commander. Anyway, for the planet commander, she certainly did not want the explosion of the underground dark river to affect the melt hole on the ground, so naturally she did not dare to let go of the attack. Therefore, with this constraint, after the two to three waves were resisted, the contact person over there should also get in touch with the top leaders of the arms faction.

If the communication is not effective, they can use this money to discuss a compromise plan with the planet commander. After all, as long as they fight with them, they will naturally know their value, and then it will not be a loss no matter which side they go.

"Hmph, the mechanism I designed is a continuous fire mechanism. When the time comes, as soon as the mechanical dog comes in, it will self-detect and fire. Boom."

"But what if the robot dog transforms?"

"Don't worry, their reconnaissance accuracy is better than you think." Before he could finish his words, he heard a buzzing sound coming from far away. At first, the terrorist organization members thought it was the sound of the machines at hand, but they soon found that the sound seemed to come from the inexplicable appearance in the surveillance footage... a swarm of drones?

"How did they get past our surveillance and come towards us?"

"My control has been taken away. Damn it, it's a more advanced language invasion." "It's not a language invasion, it's data silencing."

Suddenly, the various instruments in the terrorist organization began to make strange noises, indicating program errors. Upon closer inspection, they discovered that these drone swarms could not only swim perfectly in a streamlined manner along the water flow, but also had data silencing capabilities. Even the most advanced radar technology in their hands could not detect the places where they flew over, and on the contrary, they would be restrained.

This matter was completely beyond the comprehension of the terrorist organization members. It was like an alien object. All the machines at their disposal were suppressed and became like a pile of scrap metal. Their attempts to resist were futile.

The overwhelming number of drones attacked them like a swarm of locusts. What made them even more terrified was that from the only underwater surveillance, they could see a continuous stream of drones swimming vertically down from the shore.

The planet commander seemed to have deliberately left this only underwater surveillance to intimidate them. Otherwise, based on the planet commander's existing silencing technology, she could have easily removed this underwater surveillance.

The speed at which the drone swarm spread out was much faster than that of the federal security team and the mechanical dogs. The entire underground river tunnel was filled with drone swarms in milliseconds. At a glance, it was densely packed with not only the drone swarms in the air but also the mechanical dogs that split and poured in simultaneously.

The explosion or resistance that the terrorists had envisioned, like one or two waves, simply did not exist. It was like a black tide that covered the sky and the sun. Wherever it was swallowed by the black tide, whether it was unmanned machinery or killing machines, they all went from silence at the beginning to disconnection now.

The red alert caused by the disconnection gradually spread from one side of the terrorist organization's monitoring computer to the other as the black drone swarm moved forward.

The members of the terrorist organization could easily imagine the terrifying number of drone swarms. They didn't even need to open fire. A simple physical collision could completely destroy their existing weapons.

But the strange thing is that there is no sound of any mechanical explosion coming from the underground river. What lingers in everyone's ears is only the roar that is getting closer and closer, and is more and more shocking to the depths of everyone's heart.

Meanwhile, Shengxia, who was inside the assembly center hall, watched the drone swarm fly by and gave orders like a miser: "Hey, this thing is good, take it in," "This machine looks quite new, take it in," "This machine looks like it can be modified later, take it in," "This thing looks very innovative, take it in"...

For a moment, all that lingered in everyone's ears was the planet commander's slightly humorous and light-hearted words of "recruit, recruit", which was completely different from the fierce battle situation reported back by the drone swarm that they could see.