117: Chapter 117 Iron Wall Head-on Feeding Blue Light! 2400 Points Received

"Battalion Commander Zhao."

"I'm here."

Zhao Tiezhu's voice came through the communicator, half a pitch lower than usual.

The metallic clanging in the background stopped.

The iron wall's engine maintained a low, humming drone at low power.

"You said it yourself, the front wall of the iron wall is ruined."

"Ruined." Zhao Tiezhu's voice was devoid of inflection.

"Can it be repaired?"

"All three main ribs are broken, there are six holes, and the wall is indented by half a meter." He heaved his chest. "I've been the battalion commander of the iron wall for eight years; I can't fix this kind of damage."

"Then what can the iron wall still do?"

"It can drive; the engine and tracks are undamaged, but the front wall will crumble at the slightest touch."

"Battalion Commander Zhao."

"What?"

"Give me the wreckage of the iron wall."

There was silence on the other end of the communicator for four seconds.

Zhao Tiezhu's voice emerged from that silence.

"You want to eat my iron wall."

"The ruined part of the front wall."

"That blue light of yours?"

"Yes."

"How many points can it give you?"

"Roughly estimated at two thousand to two thousand five hundred."

He was silent for three seconds.

"City-State Lord Lu Chen, the iron wall has been with me for eight years."

"I know."

"Eight years ago, when I was promoted from a mechanic who repaired tracks to a battalion commander, the wall of the iron wall was new, and I calibrated every single rib by hand."

He paused for a beat.

"Now you're telling me to tear it apart to feed your vehicle."

"Can I say no?"

"You can," Lu Chen's speaking speed didn't change. "If you say no, I'll only eat the wreckage of the Black Rock City-State, and I'll go hunting to make up for the rest."

"How much can hunting make up for?"

"An intermediate Mutant Beast in the Rustwind Wasteland is worth three hundred to five hundred Truth Points; a gap of twenty thousand points will require forty to sixty of them."

"At an efficiency of four kills a day, it will take ten to fifteen days."

"Ten to fifteen days." Zhao Tiezhu repeated.

"The Iron Hoof Legion will arrive in three months at the earliest."

"Three months is enough."

"But your thirty thousand people will have to wait an extra ten to fifteen days in a ruined city that can't move."

"What if an ice storm comes during those ten to fifteen days?"

"What if other threats come?"

Zhao Tiezhu was silent for a long time.

"Ten seconds."

Then he spoke.

"City-State Lord Lu Chen, you've been fighting for eight hours today."

His voice dropped half an inch.

"A single Lv.2 stopped two lv.3 fortresses, helped us dismantle Ice Thorn's tactics, and finally risked your life to ram the driveshaft of an Lv.4."

"You've done more than anyone else."

"I won't say no."

His chest heaved.

"Eat."

"Tear down all the ruined parts of the iron wall's front wall."

"Including the damaged rib structure behind it."

"Eat it all."

"Battalion Commander Zhao."

"What?"

"I won't touch the engine and tracks of the iron wall; the remaining intact parts can still be used as a transport vehicle."

"A transport vehicle?" A short puff of air squeezed out of Zhao Tiezhu's rough throat.

It was devoid of any humor.

It was the sound a veteran makes when watching his warhorse stripped of its armor and turned into a packhorse.

"Fine."

"A transport vehicle it is."

"At least it can still drive."

Polaris drove at a low speed toward the location of the iron wall.

The iron wall was parked two kilometers east-northeast of the Black Rock City-State.

The nearly hundred-meter-long steel behemoth lay silently on the ice.

The damaged area of the front wall was clearly visible under the searchlights of Polaris.

Six penetrating bullet holes.

Three broken main ribs protruded crookedly from the bullet holes.

The half-meter-deep overall indentation had pressed the middle section of the front wall into a crater.

The marks left by the dozen-ton armor plate that had flown over from the Black Rock City-State were still there, though the plate itself had already slid onto the ice.

Lu Chen parked Polaris thirty meters in front of the iron wall.

The Mechanical Arm ejected.

The gripper on the right arm grabbed an armor plate on the edge of the indented area of the front wall that had already detached from the main body.

High-dimensional degradation initiated the moment it made contact.

A blue light engulfed the armor plate.

[Degradation complete. Truth Points obtained: 156.]

"The second piece."

[Degradation complete. Truth Points obtained: 201.]

Zhao Tiezhu stood at the side exit of the iron wall.

He watched as the blue light lit up on the front wall, cluster after cluster.

The blue light reflected on his face.

Every time a cluster of blue light lit up, the front wall lost another piece.

His hands were shoved into his uniform pockets.

A cigarette hung from the corner of his mouth, unlit.

The people of The City-State had no matches left.

"Battalion Commander Zhao."

Lu Chen's voice came out of the loudspeaker of Polaris.

"Have all your people evacuated from the front area?"

"Evacuated; all three hundred people are in the rear section."

"I'm going to dismantle the front up to the third main rib, expected to go twenty meters deep."

"Go ahead and dismantle it."

The blue light continued to light up.

One piece, then another.

Each degradation was accompanied by a short, humming sound.

The broken main ribs were pulled out by the gripper and sent for degradation.

The indented armor plates were pried off in whole pieces and sent for degradation.

The deformed steel plates at the edges of the bullet holes were torn off and sent for degradation.

Fifteen minutes.

One-fifth of the iron wall's front wall had been dismantled.

Looking from the outside, a giant gap, fifteen meters wide and twelve meters high, had appeared in the middle section of the iron wall's front.

It was comparable in size to the gap Lu Chen had blasted into Iron Spine's lv.3 fortress.

This gap was not caused by explosives.

It was dismantled piece by piece by a pair of Mechanical Arms.

The difference was that the edges of a blasted gap were torn.

The edges of a dismantled gap were neat.

The blue light extinguished on the last fragment.

[Degradation of the iron wall's damaged front area complete. Cumulative degradation income: 2418 Truth Points. Current balance: 7518 points.]

Seven thousand five hundred and eighteen points.

Zhao Tiezhu took the unlit cigarette from the corner of his mouth and held it between his fingers.

"Are you full?"

"I'm full."

"Then go eat the big one."

Zhao Tiezhu jerked his chin toward the direction of the Black Rock City-State.

"City-State Lord Lin Xiao is waiting for you."