62: Chapter 62 Changing Equipment

Three hours later.

The survival counter in the top right corner ticked down from 30 to 21.

This meant nine top-tier cross-district teams had perished in this graveyard of magma and obsidian.

However, in this death zone that terrified countless survivors, the vibe of [Cloud Top Fortress] was bizarrely different.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The blue beams of the high-energy electromagnetic main cannon and the crimson fire of the bombardment matrix intertwined, almost never ceasing.

The barrels, having operated at high load for three hours, were glowing red and had to be cooled by coolant, emitting huge clouds of white steam.

Zhou An treated this entirely as a "mowing" game.

With 170 million in high-tier resources, energy consumption and ammunition replenishment were negligible to him. Energy low? Convert materials directly! Barrel wear? Repair with resources! Plus, he had the [Smallest Giant] talent.

Under this nearly infinite firepower, the fierce local volcanic monsters were unlucky.

They fled within the 300-meter height limit, only to fall into the magma like wheat being harvested. Zhou An's three-tier warehouse was filled with a small mountain of glowing resource chests.

"Awesome! So awesome!"

Zhou An watched the kill notifications, eyes shining with excitement.

Just as he prepared to turn the cannons to pursue another group of low-health Tier 3 [Fire Poison Wyverns], the wide-area life radar suddenly issued a sharp air defense alarm!

[Warning! Giant artificial vehicle energy source detected 15 kilometers ahead!]

[Warning! Locked on by high-energy fire control radar!]

No public channel shouting, no testing. In this enclosed adventure space, it was either friend or foe, and meeting meant a fight to the death!

"Evasive maneuvers!"

Zhou An's pupils constricted as he yanked the joystick.

Boom—!!!

Almost the moment the fortress veered, three blindingly white beams of light whistled past the Tier 4 composite energy shield, slamming into the obsidian mountain behind and melting three bottomless, terrifying holes.

Through the optical detection screen, Zhou An finally saw the attacker's true form.

It was a massive aerial fortress, no smaller than [Cloud Top Fortress], dark gold in color, with rivets and giant gears in a steampunk style. The most conspicuous part was the huge number painted on the side: 573.

"People from District 573..."

Zhou An sneered.

"EVA, full firepower. Teach them what saturation bombardment means!"

"Main cannon charged, drone swarm deployed!"

In an instant, two massive aerial fortresses collided in the narrow volcanic canyon.

No tactical maneuvering, just pure, violent bombardment!

Countless missiles dragged long tails of fire, weaving a dense net of flames in mid-air. The shockwave from the explosions even pressed a huge depression into the magma river below.

However, after ten minutes of high-intensity bombardment, the situation fell into a strange stalemate.

"Boss, something's wrong!"

Luo Ning's fingers flew across the console, staring at the energy data with furrowed brows.

"Our attacks are hitting them, but the energy absorption rate is ridiculously high. That dark gold turtle shell of theirs must be a legendary-grade energy defense matrix! Conventional firepower can't break its critical point!"

Zhou An looked at the enemy fortress's calm dark gold shield and clicked his tongue: "No wonder they dared to fire first. They were relying on a hard shell."

At this point, District 573 clearly realized that [Cloud Top Fortress] was difficult to deal with, as Zhou An's Tier 4 shield repaired too quickly.

Thus, they decisively changed strategy, abandoning high-burst weapons for continuous high-frequency beams that clung to Zhou An's shield like a maggot on a bone.

[Warning! Shield energy is rapidly depleting!]

"They want to use this low-loss, high-frequency attack to slowly drain our vehicle's energy!"

Luo Ning immediately saw through their intention, her face darkening.

"No one can get supplies in this forbidden zone. Once energy is exhausted, we won't even be able to hover and will have to fall into the magma and wait for death. They are trying to outlast us!"

"Outlast us? Compete on resource consumption?"

Hearing Luo Ning, Zhou An wasn't panicked; instead, he laughed.

"Trying to outspend me?"

Zhou An's eyes turned cold. He opened the resource conversion panel on the console and unhesitatingly funneled hundreds of thousands of energy resources into the fortress's energy furnace.

"Max out the shield output. Take their beams head-on!"

Zhou An gave the order methodically.

"Also, don't stop the main and secondary cannon matrices! No need to aim for weak points, just blast their turtle shell to death! If they want to drag this out, I'll play along and see who gets drained first!"

Increasing defense while firing wildly!

"Got it!"

Luo Ning grinned and sat back down at the fire control console.

"Boss, you're just trying to crush them with money."

He wasn't afraid of this war of attrition; after all, his resource reserves were bottomless. Few in the entire district could outlast him. But it felt like walking down the road and getting gum stuck to his shoe that he couldn't shake off.

Couldn't break through, couldn't shake it off.

What annoyed him most was that this meaningless standoff was severely affecting his great cause of farming treasure chests.

...

After a long time, seeing that this stalemate wasn't working.

"Luo Ning, do you have any new gadgets to crack this turtle shell?"

Zhou An stared at the unshakable dark gold shield on the screen and turned to look at Luo Ning.

"Hehe, Boss, I've been waiting for you to say that!"

Luo Ning's eyes lit up.

"I 'physically activated' those tentacles we cut off that were still twitching, and created a big guy that definitely counts as contraband-grade!"

Luo Ning rushed into the lab. In less than five minutes, she returned to the combat platform, panting as she pushed a long case wrapped in lead-gray high-density alloy plates.

The moment the case opened, a suffocating, cold aura swept through the cockpit like a physical force.

[Warning! Extremely high concentration of pollution source detected. SAN value dropping rapidly!]

[Current SAN value: 85... 82... 78...]

"Hurry up, this thing comes with a debuff aura!"

Zhou An felt the stinging pain deep in his brain and couldn't help but growl.

He looked closely, his eyes twitching. It was a heavily distorted heavy rocket launcher. The barrel wasn't pure steel but fused with the purple active flesh of those abyss tentacles.

Translucent veins pulsed frantically on the barrel, as if the weapon itself were alive. The front of the launcher didn't have a conventional muzzle but a fleshy slit filled with fine, sharp teeth, greedily breathing the surrounding air.

"It's called 'Abyss Gaze'."

Luo Ning sneered, shouldering the creepy weapon and skillfully locking it into the right shoulder slot of her LV4 exoskeleton armor.

In the anti-radiation ammunition box next to her, ten pitch-black rounds covered in tiny granulation were neatly arranged.

"Did you fucking fuse that monster's living tissue directly into the weapon?!"

Zhou An widened his eyes in shock.

"Aren't you afraid that the moment you fire, this thing will backfire and swallow you?!"

Seeing Zhou An's grave expression, Luo Ning patted the gun body nonchalantly, her tone as cheerful as if she were introducing a new toy: "Don't worry, Boss. My talent didn't even trigger, it's no big deal!"

This bizarre logic left Zhou An speechless.

Luo Ning went to the outer deck alone.

"You turtles, ready to accept the gaze of the abyss?"

Luo Ning's eyes flashed with extreme madness, and she slammed the trigger!

Whoosh—!

The first pollution round cut through the sky. Creepily, it didn't make the sound of a missile breaking the air, but the sound of overlapping baby cries!

The black shell hit the opponent's legendary-grade shield. There was no violent explosion; instead, it turned into a large mass of writhing, spreading black viscous material.

Then, a bizarre scene occurred.

The impenetrable legendary defense barrier, upon touching this black substance, sounded like paper splashed with high-concentration sulfuric acid, making a teeth-gritting "hissing" sound.

The originally flowing energy halo instantly turned gray and shriveled, and clusters of purple mold even began to grow on the energy layer!

"Defense critical point is collapsing! Hit them again!"

Luo Ning had completely entered crazy mode, her eyes filled with excited red bloodshot veins, fingers pressing wildly.

The second shot, the third shot... the tenth shot!

In that short minute, Luo Ning poured out all ten pollution rounds without hesitation.

The originally flawless dark gold barrier was now a tattered fishing net, full of huge holes corroded by abyss energy.

The edges of those holes were still twitching like biological tissue, completely rejecting system repairs.

Only then did the other side realize they were facing total annihilation.

A panicked, desperate roar suddenly cut into the public channel: "Lunatics! You bunch of lunatics! How dare you use live biochemical weapons in this forbidden zone! Do you want to mutate everyone and kill us all here?! Stop it..."

Accompanied by the roar, the enemy fortress began to reverse and turn frantically. All secondary cannons fired aimlessly, attempting a final death struggle to gain distance.

"Want to run? Too late!"

"Now! EVA, give it the final blow!"

Zhou An seized the timing, his eyes scarlet as he slammed the main cannon fire button.

Rumble—!!!

Losing the protection of the legendary defense barrier, the enemy's aerial fortress was as fragile as a thin piece of foil before [Cloud Top Fortress]'s full-power electromagnetic main cannon and bombardment matrix.

The azure electromagnetic beam instantly pierced the heavy outer armor, precisely destroying the power core.

Accompanied by a earth-shattering series of explosions, the massive dark gold fortress snapped into two halves above the magma canyon, swallowed instantly by billowing smoke and soaring flames.

"Decompose! Salvage!"

Zhou An showed no mercy and immediately ordered.

The tractor beam at the bottom of the fortress lowered, frantically collecting the wreckage falling from mid-air.

As the enemy commander's final desperate scream was swallowed by the magma, the system settlement screen scrolled wildly before Zhou An like a waterfall:

[System: You destroyed the core fortress of District 573's 'Iron Rock Guild'.]

[Decomposition obtained: Level 4 Metal Unit 50,000, High-Concentration Nuclear Battery 100...]

[Due to the high level of the enemy vehicle, rare blueprints dropped:]

[Blueprint: Gravity Interference Anchor (Purple Epic)]

[Blueprint: Dark Gold Composite Armor Plate (Purple Epic)]

[Core Blueprint: 'Immovable as a Mountain' Defense Matrix (Gold Legendary)!]

"We got it!" Luo Ning screamed, throwing the pollution launcher to the ground and pointing at the blueprint radiating sacred golden light on the screen.

['Immovable as a Mountain' Defense Matrix (Legendary Grade)]

Attributes: Vehicle Defense Module.

Special Effect: When facing energy attacks, forcibly scatter 40% of the damage, and convert 30% of energy into the shield's own recharge.

Evaluation: As long as the enemy's firepower isn't strong enough, you are always charging yourself.

"With this blueprint, our Cloud Top Fortress will truly become an impregnable fortress!"

Luo Ning was dancing with excitement, completely forgetting how much SAN value she had lost from firing at close range.