Chapter 85 The Hunter "Scavenger"

Rumbling—

The very next second after the "ghost" rushed into the breach of the warship wreckage, the long-brewing magnetic field storm completely detonated behind it.

Billions of violent blue-purple electric arcs transformed into giant thunder whips that tore through the sky, frantically lashing this boundless land of steel. The entire world was submerged in a vast ocean of lightning filled with the aura of destruction.

The tide of "Scavenger Ants," briefly blocked by the high-temperature trench, fell into a total frenzy. They recklessly charged across the cooling lava, surging toward the warship wreckage like a grayish-black tsunami of death.

Watching the apocalyptic scene transmitted back by the rear sensors, Lin Yuan's chest heaved violently before he finally exhaled a breath of turbid air he had been holding for a long time.

"That was close."

If his reaction had been even a second slower just now, he and this most expensive "scrap drone" in history would have either become a handful of elementary particles in the magnetic field storm or a meal for those mechanical ants.

"Lin Yuan! How are you?!"

In the Command Center, Chen Weiguo's anxious voice pierced through the intense signal interference, coming through intermittently.

"Reporting to the Chief! I... I'm fine!" Lin Yuan shouted back at the top of his lungs. "I'm safe for now! I've hidden inside the wreckage of a warship!"

"That's good! That's good!"

Upon confirming Lin Yuan was unharmed, every tense nerve in the Command Center relaxed.

"You kid, that move just now was beautifully done!" Academician Wang's voice was full of irrepressible praise. "Making a prompt decision to use the Plasma Sword to cut an isolation zone and buy yourself time to escape! This on-the-spot reaction could be written straight into a special operations textbook!"

"Hehe, Academician Wang, you flatter me." Lin Yuan scratched his head, a bit embarrassed. "I just... had a sudden flash of inspiration. Back at the scrap yard, when we encountered a fire, we used to dig isolation zones like that too."

This honest remark caused a wave of good-natured chuckles to ripple through the Command Center once again.

This kid could always explain the most extreme maneuvers in the simplest language.

"Alright, stop joking around for now." Chen Weiguo's voice turned serious again. "Your current situation is still very dangerous. According to our estimates, this magnetic field storm will last for at least two hours. Until then, you'd better not leave that wreckage."

"Understood."

Lin Yuan acknowledged and began to carefully examine his temporary "shelter."

This place seemed to be... the interior of the main gun barrel of that giant warship?

The entire space was a massive circular tunnel over a hundred meters in diameter. The inner walls were as smooth as a mirror, yet engraved with countless complex, precision-engineered energy circuits and stabilization runes that were enough to make one's scalp tingle.

Even though they had long since dimmed and broken, one could still feel a cold, pure technological beauty born solely for power.

"Holy crap... this gun barrel is wider than the subway tunnels back home." Lin Yuan clicked his tongue in amazement. "If this thing fired at full power, wouldn't it blast the moon right out of the sky?"

He controlled the "ghost," slowly flying deeper into the gun barrel.

He wanted to see what good things might still be left inside this warship that had been silent for eons.

The interior of the gun barrel was extremely long, filled everywhere with metal structures twisted and broken by explosions. Lin Yuan moved cautiously and silently through these hideous ruins.

"Hmm?"

After going about several kilometers deep, his scanning system suddenly captured a faint energy reaction.

[Scanning...]

[Discovered a small amount of low-value alloy fragments three kilometers ahead.]

[Composition Analysis: Standard 'titan' class warship structural steel, containing trace amounts of 'Thorium' element. Can be used for repair and reinforcement of basic armor.]

"There's something!"

Lin Yuan's spirits were instantly lifted.

Although the system labeled them as "low-value," even the smallest mosquito leg is still meat.

Moreover, this was warship steel produced by "Titan Heavy Industry"! For Earth's current materials science, every single one of these fragments was a "god-tier material" that was hard to come by!

"Chief, Academician Wang, I think I've found some 'scrap.' I'm going to go recover it," Lin Yuan said into the communicator.

"Be careful! Pay attention to your surroundings!" Academician Wang immediately urged.

"Don't worry."

Lin Yuan controlled the "ghost," fine-tuning the engines and accelerating toward those alloy fragments.

Soon, he reached a relatively spacious area, which seemed to be an energy conversion node in the middle of the gun barrel.

On the ground in the center of the node lay a dozen or so metal fragments the size of human heads, shimmering with an enticing dark silver luster under the "ghost's" searchlights.

"That's them."

Suppressing the excitement in his heart, Lin Yuan extended the "nanocluster plasticity tool arm," preparing to sweep all these fragments up at once.

However.

At the very moment his mechanical arm was about to touch those fragments.

A sudden change occurred!

Beside those fragments, a cylindrical discarded turret that looked unremarkable and was half-buried in the metal wreckage suddenly "came alive"!

"Creeeaak! Creeeaak! Creeeaak!"

A series of tooth-gritting metal grinding sounds abruptly rang out in the deathly silent gun barrel.

From beneath that "turret," six giant mechanical limbs shimmering with a metallic cold light suddenly extended, like the long legs of a spider crawling out of a nightmare, hideous and terrifying!

It stood up from the ruins!

It was a twenty-meter-tall Six-legged Giant Mechanical Spider, cast entirely from dark red alloy and filled with a sense of violent and murderous beauty!

Its "head" had no facial features, only a cold electronic monocle flashing with an ominous crimson light.

On both sides of its body, dozens of dark gun barrels protruded densely!

The moment it woke up, that crimson electronic eye locked onto the "ghost" with a death grip!

A cold, emotionless, pure killing command instantly enveloped every cell of Lin Yuan's body!

[Warning! Warning! High-threat mechanical unit detected!]

[Target: 'Titan Heavy Industry' Standard-MK7 Field Recovery Mecha—"scavenger"!]

[Threat Level: Extremely High!]

[Analysis: This unit has no soul, only the most basic killing and recovery commands. Its core program is: Eliminate all active energy units not in the 'Titan Heavy Industry' sequence, and recover all valuable battlefield wreckage.]

"Holy shit! You sneaky bastard!"

Only this one thought remained in Lin Yuan's mind!

What kind of discarded turret was this?

This was clearly an elite monster guarding a "treasure chest"!

It had been playing dead all along! It was just waiting for a foolish "player" like him to come over and pick up the loot before launching a sudden attack!

"Lin Yuan! Retreat!"

In the Command Center, the horrified roars of Chen Weiguo and Academician Wang exploded simultaneously!

But it was already too late!

At the exact moment the "scavenger" stood up completely.

The tips of the dozens of dark gun barrels on both sides of its body simultaneously lit up with a blinding, crimson light filled with the aura of destruction!

"Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!"

Dozens of high-energy particle beams, faster than lasers and more powerful than cannonballs, shot out without any warning!

They were like a violent storm, like a giant web woven of death, instantly crisscrossing and tearing through the space ahead, forming an airtight barrage of death that instantly blocked all of the "ghost's" paths of retreat!