Before she finished her words, she flashed like a flash of red lightning, grabbed the simple equipment bag she had prepared nearby, and rushed resolutely towards the dark and unknown entrance to the emergency passage deep inside the command center, leading to the abandoned pumping station. Her figure was instantly swallowed by the darkness, leaving only the piercing sound of alarms and the suppressed breathing echoing in the command center.
The ruins of the old industrial district, after the Alliance's collapse, seemed even more dead and eerie. Once the heart of the Alliance, drawing the city's blood, now lay only twisted steel, rusted pipes, and countless shattered concrete blocks, like the decaying remains of a giant beast. The air was thick with the pungent smell of rust, chemical residue, and a lingering, suffocating sense of decay.
Lu Chenheng stalked among the ruins, his movements like a ghost, each step precisely avoiding loose rubble and clanging metal fragments. However, his physical condition was rapidly deteriorating.
The excruciating pain in his skull had evolved from sharp stabbings to a constant, agonizing pain, like a high-voltage electric drill churning through his skull. Cold sweat had already soaked through his inner clothing, and the icy air outside froze it against his skin, bringing waves of biting chills. Even more terrifying was the abnormality in his vision—the world before him began to fragment, overlap, and flicker. One moment, it was a rusty pipe, and the next it might twist into the cold white corridors of Pandora Labs, or the image of Wen Shifei's bloodstained yet resolute face. His ears were filled with auditory hallucinations: sometimes the cold logic instructions of the chip, sometimes Wen Yuan's final cry, and sometimes the inhuman, flat electronic synthesized voice of "Zero."
[Emotional module redundancy…interfering with subject judgment…executing the stripping procedure…]
[Eliminate target: Wen Shifei... Coordinates being corrected...]
[Resistance is futile... Willpower is being quantified and disintegrated...]
Each time he was struck by hallucinations and illusions, his control over his body decreased. When he tried to cross a broken concrete beam, he stumbled and fell sideways uncontrollably, his elbow slamming heavily on a sharp piece of broken metal.
"hiss……"
The pain of flesh being cut ripped open was felt, and blood gushed out instantly. This brief, excruciating pain, coming from the outside of his body, unexpectedly flashed like a bolt of lightning, splitting the chaotic fog in his mind and bringing a precious, fleeting moment of clarity. Lu Cheneng leaned against the cold metal wreckage, panting, looking down at the bleeding wound on his arm, his violent breathing condensing into white mist in the cold air.
At that moment, a faint electronic hum, like the fluttering of insect wings, mingled with the sound of the wind and the strange noises of the distant ruins and reached his ears. The source of the sound was not far ahead, behind a giant, half-collapsed, oil-stained condensation tower.
Lu Chen's eyes glared, and he endured the dizziness and severe pain as he quietly crept along a thick pipe. He cautiously poked his head out.
The scene before him made his pupils shrink suddenly!
Three! Three "Scavenger" III autonomous combat robots! Like giant, malevolent metal spiders, they lurked silently in the open space beneath the shadow of the Condensation Tower. These robots were killing machines used by the Alliance in its later years to suppress riots and clear high-risk areas. They were equipped with high-speed alloy chainsaws, high-energy pulse guns, and thick composite armor. They were supposed to be paralyzed when the Alliance collapsed.
But at this moment, the three "Scavengers" had clearly been reactivated! Their surfaces were thickly coated with dust and oil, and abnormal, dark blue arcs flickered at their joints. Several armor plates bore visible signs of repair and welding, evidently having been repaired and reactivated with extremely crude, almost barbaric methods. They formed a loose semicircle, the single, dimly glowing composite sensor on their heads pointing in unison in the same direction—the approximate location of the Firefly command center in the lower city!
They're not patrolling autonomously! They're gathering! Waiting for orders!
An icy chill instantly gripped Lu Chen's heart. Pandora Labs! Only that place has the authority to remotely activate and control these "scavengers"! They're preparing a surprise attack on the heart of the "Firefly"! Wen Shifei... and those who had just ignited the flame of hope...
The immense anger and worry brought on by this realization, like boiling magma, instantly broke through the icy shackles forcibly imposed by the chip! The will of "Lu Chenent" erupted with astonishing power at this moment, briefly overwhelming the icy flow of instructions!
They must be stopped!
Action quickened his thinking! Lu Cheneng, like a long-lurking cheetah, suddenly leaped from his hiding place! He chose no long-range weapon requiring precise aiming, but instead unsheathed the carbon nanoalloy tactical short blade fixed to his leg, the one that had accompanied him through countless life-or-death situations! The cold blade flashed a deadly glint in the dim light!
The target is the fragile neck joint below the head of the nearest "Scavenger", which connects the sensor array and the main control core!
His speed was extremely fast, with a tragic momentum of almost dying together!
“Sizzle!”
The sharp sound of metal friction and cutting suddenly rang out, accompanied by dazzling sparks!
Lu Chen's short blade pierced the gap in the target's joint with incredible precision! The immense impact sent him and the heavy "Scavenger" tumbling out together! He gripped the hilt tightly, using all his strength, even using the force of his falling body to twist it hard!
“Crack!”
A teeth-grinding sound of metal breaking rang out! The metal head, glowing red, was abruptly severed from its body and rolled to the ground, its sensors still flashing red in vain.
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