100: Chapter 100: All Weapons Fire in Tandem! The Red Button is Pressed for the First Time.

The Polaris swept past the left side of the lv.3 fortress and did not continue its circle.

Lu Chen cranked the steering wheel all the way; at eighty-five kilometers per hour, he executed a 180-degree turn. The tread suction array welded the chassis to the ice during the extreme maneuver.

The twenty-ton steel monster completed its turn within a radius of less than forty meters, its tail carving an arc-shaped wake of ice shards.

After the turn, it faced the fortress's left wall head-on, with that three-meter-wide hole directly ahead, two hundred meters away.

White mist was still hissing from the severed ends of the steam pipes inside the wall.

Two broken load-bearing ribs were exposed crookedly at the edge of the hole.

Iron Spine's voice came through the communicator.

“You gouged a hole in my wall.”

“Three meters wide.”

“I see it.”

Iron Spine's voice was deeper than before; the pity was gone, the coldness was gone, and all that remained was unadulterated pressure.

“My repair team is already rushing in that direction. They can plug that hole with emergency steel plates within five minutes.”

“Where are you going to get five minutes?”

His right hand rested on that red button.

All-Weapon Linked Volley.

Ever since it was unlocked, this button had been waiting quietly on the control console.

Today was its first actual combat.

“System, sixth round loading for fragmentation grenades.”

[Consumed 50 Truth Points. fragmentation grenade: 12 rounds pre-loaded for the 6th volley. Current balance: 650 points.]

“System, recast two harpoons.”

[Consumed 20 Truth Points. Harpoon Cannon: 4/4. Current balance: 630 points.]

Six hundred and thirty points, ammunition full.

He activated the All-Weapon Linked Mode of the fire control center.

A red box popped up on the display screen.

[All-Weapon Linked Volley Mode activated. Currently linkable weapon systems: Twin-Linked Six-Barreled Heavy Machine Gun, Fragmentation Grenade Launcher Array, Armor-Piercing Explosive Harpoon Gun, Circumferential High-Pressure Steam Spray Gun. Confirm target lock?]

The automatic target-locking auxiliary system placed the crosshairs over that three-meter-wide opening.

The crosshairs stabilized.

The Polaris drove toward the opening at thirty kilometers per hour.

The gap grew larger and larger in the crosshairs.

Two hundred meters.

One hundred and fifty meters.

One hundred meters.

On the fortress walls, three turrets that could still rotate were aiming at the Polaris.

Bang!

A 105mm cannon shell flew head-on, striking the right side of the vehicle's ramming prow.

He sensed the force of the impact; it was three times heavier than a 75mm shell.

A thumb-thick scratch appeared on the prow.

There was no penetration; the Homogeneous Manganese Steel held it back.

If hit in the same spot repeatedly, there was a probability the third or fourth shot would break through.

Time was tight.

His index finger pressed the red button.

[All-Weapon Linked Volley Mode: Executing.]

All weapons fired within the same second.

Heavy Machine Gun: Six barrels rotating, a fifty-round burst, all ammunition poured into the opening.

fragmentation grenades: Twelve-round volley, detonating at a set height two meters above the opening, a rain of shards pouring into the hole.

Harpoon Cannon: One shot fired toward the wall base at the lower edge of the opening.

Steam Spray Gun: Four-corner nozzles simultaneously sprayed 200-degree high-temperature steam in a thirty-degree fan shape ahead.

The four types of weapons triggered in sequence within 0.5-second intervals, forming a four-layered three-dimensional strike ranging from a barrage to a rain of shards, to armor-piercing, to hot steam.

The sounds overlapped, forming the most violent volley since the birth of the Polaris.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch-ch!

Puff-puff-puff-puff-puff-puff!

Bang!

Hiss!

The Heavy Machine Gun bullets ricocheted and shattered against the load-bearing structures inside the hole, turning every corner of the inner wall into a sieve.

The fragmentation grenades exploded above the opening, and metal shards poured in from above, forming a cross-coverage with the Heavy Machine Gun bullets.

The harpoon hit the lower edge of the hole at the wall base, embedding itself; delay fuse, three seconds.

During those three seconds, two-hundred-degree steam surged from the nozzles toward the hole.

The high-temperature steam met the cold air blowing out from inside the hole, forming a dense cloud of white mist.

Three.

Two.

One.

Boom!

The internal explosion at the wall base completely tore open the lower half of the hole.

The three-meter-wide hole became four meters wide, and its height expanded from 1.2 meters to nearly three meters.

Penetrating structural damage appeared at this location on the wall; four load-bearing ribs were broken, and the visible subsidence on the wall surface went from slight to severe, with the middle section of the entire left wall caving inward by half a meter.

Iron Spine's voice came through the communicator.

There was no conversation this time, not a single word; his orders were delivered directly to the gunners.

“All cannons turn left! Hit that small vehicle!”

But the Polaris was no longer in its original position.

The City Lord had slammed the supercharger to the floor within a second of completing the volley; at eighty-five kilometers per hour, he broke away, vanishing from the line of fire in front of the hole and circling to the rear of the fortress.

The two exhaust ports at the rear of the fortress were still spewing black smoke.

The sound of the engine changed from intermittent gasping to a clanking sound of metal striking metal.

After the exhaust pipes were clogged by three hundred Heavy Machine Gun rounds, the engine's backpressure problem was steadily worsening.

The fortress's speed dropped from eight kilometers to five, which was practically stopped.

“City Lord Lu Chen!”

Zhou Yuan's voice cut in through the communicator.

“The movement speed of the lv.3 to the north has dropped significantly! From the heat source data, its engine output has dropped by at least sixty percent!”

“The engine exhaust is clogged.”

“You hit the exhaust pipes?”

“Clogged them with three hundred Heavy Machine Gun bullets.”

Zhou Yuan's sharp intake of breath came from the other end of the communicator.

“City Lord Lu Chen, the lv.3 to the south belonging to the Snow Shard Gang is also accelerating; its speed has risen from twelve to eighteen.”

“Accelerated?”

“Ice Thorn is urging the one to the south to speed up its flanking maneuver.”

“Position of the iron wall?”

“Thirty-three kilometers from The City-State. Battalion Commander Zhao turned on the supercharger and raised the speed to thirty-two. Estimated arrival in sixty-two minutes.”

Sixty-two minutes, a bit over an hour.

“And the front?”

“The Ice Thorn Main City has advanced to fifteen kilometers. The hit rate of mutual shelling is rising. The outer layer of The City-State's southwest wall has been pierced in eleven places, and structural fatigue cracks have appeared in the second reinforcement zone.”

“How much longer can it hold?”

“Horton's exact words were that holding for another forty minutes is no problem, but after forty minutes, the outer armor will start peeling off in large areas.”

Forty minutes. He glanced at the wall clock; he had to finish the lv.3 in front of him within forty minutes and then go help Lin Xiao.

“I'll finish this lv.3 to the north within fifteen minutes.”

“Fifteen minutes? It still has sixteen 105s and four 150s.”

“Its engine is dying; it can't run.”

The City Lord switched the communicator back to the direct frequency.

The Polaris circled to the right side of the fortress.

The right wall was intact, and he didn't need to hit it. The four-meter-wide hole on the left was enough; what he needed was to turn that hole into a penetrating, fatal wound.

“System, seventh round loading for fragmentation grenades.”

[Consumed 50 Truth Points. fragmentation grenade: 12 rounds pre-loaded for the 7th volley. Current balance: 580 points.]

“System, replenish Heavy Machine Gun ammunition.”

[Consumed 12 Truth Points. Heavy Machine Gun Ammunition: 500/500. Current balance: 568 points.]

Five hundred and sixty-eight points, enough.

The Polaris swept past the front of the fortress at high speed from the right, cutting back toward the location of that large hole on the left again.

The turrets atop the wall were rotating desperately to track it.

But after three rounds of fragmentation grenade carpet-bombing, only nine of the sixteen 105s could still rotate normally, and one of the four 150s had its barrel bent two degrees by shards.

The effective firepower had dropped from twenty guns to twelve.

Twelve guns firing at an lv.2 vehicle performing serpentine maneuvers on the ice at eighty-five kilometers per hour.

The hit rate was pitifully low.

Bang bang bang bang!

Four 105mm shells detonated one after another within a range of twenty to forty meters around the Polaris.

All misses.

Lu Chen aimed the prow at the four-meter-wide hole.

Distance three hundred meters; seventh round of fragmentation grenades, twelve of them, wash them in.