156: Chapter 156 All NPCs Will Work for Me!

Everyone looked up at the same time.

The forty-five-ton Ghost Fortress didn't slow down at all.

The grade a maglev engine dived from an altitude of five hundred meters at its limit speed of three hundred and forty yards.

The dark gold grade a+ composite laminated armor reflected a piercing cold light under the sun, while the diamond prism of the grade s Void Annihilation Matrix on the roof spun at high speed, its ghostly blue light sweeping across the ground.

The Execution Apostle's red optical lenses flashed frantically, and the data stream exploded into a sea of red warnings in his field of vision.

“Wha—”

The Ghost Fortress smashed into the very center of the Zone 046 convoy's formation.

Forty-five tons. Three hundred and forty yards.

Three heavy armored vehicles were instantly crushed into iron pancakes, with metal shards and parts flying in all directions.

The air blast rippled outward from the point of impact, knocking over dozens of cultists nearby, as mechanical parts and severed limbs rolled all over the ground together.

The wandering survivors on the rock platform all crouched down, holding their heads as their ears rang.

The Execution Apostle was blown off the roof of a vehicle by the blast, the hydraulic cylinders of his mechanical legs letting out an ear-piercing metallic screech as he landed.

He rolled for over ten meters before stopping, half of his red optical lens shattered.

“Fire!! Everyone fire!!”

He roared as he scrambled up.

The electromagnetic cannons of the remaining twenty combat vehicles turned toward the Ghost Fortress simultaneously, the hum of the cannons charging up merging into one.

Twenty electromagnetic cannons fired in unison.

Armor-piercing rounds, high-explosive rounds, electromagnetic pulse rounds—every type of ammunition poured onto the hull of the Ghost Fortress.

Firelight swallowed the entire vehicle.

The sound of explosions lasted for a full eight seconds.

The smoke cleared.

The Ghost Fortress didn't budge an inch.

The grade a energy dome didn't even show a single ripple.

With twenty-two thousand points of defense plus the thirty percent bonus from Jiang Jiuyou's affix, the total defense was close to thirty thousand.

The firepower of this scrap metal wasn't even enough to scratch it.

Inside the Execution Apostle's red optical lens, the data analysis result popped up—Damage: 0.

His mechanical leg took half a step back.

The armored door of the Ghost Fortress popped open.

Jiang Yanxue was the first to rush out.

The Shadow Instant-Kill Blade was coated with Blood Rose's pink toxin, and the sound of the blade slicing through the air was lighter than the wind.

She landed on the hood of the nearest combat vehicle and slashed down—

The entire vehicle split in two from the middle.

The cultists inside the vehicle were still in their firing positions, but their bodies had already been split into left and right halves, the cross-sections smooth enough to reflect a person's image.

“One.”

Jiang Yanxue's high ponytail whipped around as her dark red pupils swept toward the next target.

Blood Rose stood on the roof of the Ghost Fortress, her burgundy curls swirling in the air currents.

She opened her mouth, and large clouds of thick pink mist poured out from between her teeth.

grade ss Succubus Poison Body, full power output.

The pink poison mist spread out with her as the center, covering a radius of two hundred meters within three seconds.

The movements of the cultists within the poison mist area instantly became sluggish.

Some dropped their weapons, some knelt on the ground and began to giggle stupidly, and some simply collapsed, their limbs twitching.

Jiang Yanxue moved through the collapsed crowd, every slash so fast that only dark red lines could be seen.

“Four.”

“Seven.”

“Eleven.”

The Execution Apostle watched his convoy being torn apart in less than a minute, all the data in his red optical lens turning into red "KIA" markers.

His mechanical left arm deployed, and a rapid-fire cannon aimed at Jiang Yanxue's back.

He didn't get the shot off.

Because a hand had clamped onto his mechanical arm from behind, snapping it in the opposite direction like a twig.

Crack.

Hydraulic lines snapped, and lubricating oil sprayed everywhere.

The Execution Apostle screamed and turned his head.

Chen Chen stood behind him, gripping his broken mechanical arm with one hand, his expression indifferent.

“You—which zone are you from—”

Chen Chen released the mechanical arm and took a step back.

The Execution Apostle thought he had a chance to breathe and violently tore open the metal armor on his chest with his right hand.

Beneath it was embedded a crystal emitting a dark gray light—the Mechanicus Cult's Faith Core.

“Stupid heretic! The glory of the Mechanical God—”

The crystal began to expand.

Dark gray energy surged from his body, condensing into a blurry mechanical humanoid silhouette in mid-air.

A God Projection.

Chen Chen turned and walked back.

“Fire.”

On the roof.

The diamond prism of the Void Annihilation Matrix stopped spinning and locked on.

The grade a nuclear reactor extracted dark energy.

A ghostly blue beam shot out from the roof.

The Execution Apostle, the thirteen combat vehicles behind him, the condensing Mechanical God projection, and the rock layers thirty meters deep beneath their feet—were all erased on a physical level.

It left behind a straight, vitrified trench that extended to the end of the horizon.

From the moment the Ghost Fortress landed to the end of the battle.

Two minutes and forty-seven seconds.

...

The rock platform was deathly silent.

Three or four hundred wandering survivors lay flat on the ground; not a single person dared to look up.

A few who were close to the trench had already wet their pants.

The Bearded Mechanic's hand, gripping his wrench, was shaking.

The Elf Pharmacist didn't even notice when the potion bottle in her hand fell to the ground, spilling emerald green liquid everywhere.

The Rune Blacksmith's goggles slipped from his forehead and covered his eyes, but he didn't push them back because his legs were too weak to stand.

Chen Chen walked back from the edge of the trench, his combat boots stepping on the gravel at a pace as casual as a stroll.

He came to a stop in front of the three NPCs.

The Bearded Mechanic swallowed hard and tried to make his voice sound less shaky:

“What... what do you want?”

“What was it you said just now?”

Chen Chen stood with his arms crossed, “Ten thousand catties of high-tier Aberration materials in exchange for a month of technical cooperation?”

The Bearded Mechanic's face turned red.

“That... that was the price for them...”

“And for me?”

The Bearded Mechanic opened his mouth but didn't dare to name a price.

Chen Chen pulled something out of his storage ring.

It was a fist-sized piece of metal with dark gold energy vortexes flowing over its surface.

A high-grade vehicle core.

The kind with overflowing quality—the product of Shen Wanxing's tenfold critical hit, with an extra layer of golden patterns on its surface and an energy density three times that of a normal high-grade core.

The Bearded Mechanic's pupils dilated.

His professional instinct allowed him to complete an appraisal within 0.5 seconds; the energy purity of this thing was enough for him to upgrade his forging station from grade b to grade a.

“This... this is...”

Chen Chen pulled out another one.

Then a third, and a fourth.

He lined up five high-quality overflowing high-grade vehicle cores on the ground.

“Is this enough?”

The Bearded Mechanic's Adam's apple bobbed three times.

His gaze moved from the cores to Chen Chen's face, then back to the cores.

The Elf Pharmacist knelt down, her slender fingers hovering two centimeters above the cores as emerald green energy threads automatically sensed the cores' fluctuations.

Her pointed ears twitched twice.

“This purity... I've never seen anything like it...”

The Rune Blacksmith knelt down directly, his knees hitting the ground with a thud:

“Boss! Do you think my rune-engraving skills are good enough for you?!”

The Bearded Mechanic glared fiercely at the Dwarf, but his own knees were also buckling.

He threw his wrench to the ground and rubbed his hands hard on his leather apron.

“Boss!” His voice was still like thunder, but his tone had completely changed.

“Look at my blacksmithing skills—forging, modifying, repairing, I can do anything! Just give me something to eat!”

The Elf Pharmacist stood up, her long emerald hair whipping behind her as she regained a bit of her composure: “My condition is—”

“You have no conditions.”

The voice came from behind Chen Chen.

Yi Chang stepped forward in her black stiletto heels.

Her pace was much steadier than it had been ten minutes ago.

The tight hip-hugging skirt outlined the lines of her newly transformed legs very clearly, with silver invisible scale patterns on the outside of her thighs faintly appearing beneath the hem.

Her white shirt was buttoned up to the very top, and her ice-blue vertical pupils swept over the three NPCs from above.

She took a holographic contract from her storage ring and projected it into the air.

Densely packed clauses floated in the blue light.

“Permanent Employment Agreement.”

Yi Chang's voice was calm, carrying the coldness unique to an alien ruler.

“After signing, your forging stations, potion formulas, and rune engraving techniques will all belong to the Floating City.”

The Bearded Mechanic leaned in to take a look, and his expression changed: “These... these terms are too—”

“Article Seven,” Yi Chang took a step forward in her stilettos,

“Eighty percent of monthly output belongs to the territory. Article Twelve: no taking private commissions without the Lord's permission. Article Nineteen: violators—”

She paused.

Her vertical pupils swept toward the vitrified trench behind her that was still faintly glowing with a lingering ghostly blue light.

“You all saw it just now.”