146: Chapter 146 Gladiator Mech

Just as the Governor of Mobius Prime was rushing to mobilize the military factories in preparation for an all-out war.

The surface camp of the Fire Seed Shelter was equally restless.

Because, the first Gladiator Mech in the entire server, belonging to [This Dumpling Is Also Delicious], was finally officially delivered today!

In an open space outside the Shelter's surface residential area.

A gray-painted bipedal tactical mech stood quietly in the morning light.

A large circle of curious players had already gathered around.

Looking at this steel behemoth radiating industrial brutalist aesthetics, the players were practically drooling.

"Holy shit! That metal texture! Those hydraulic lines!"

"So cool! Let me touch it!"

A crowd of people swarmed forward like monkeys gawking at an alien UFO.

One touched an armor plate, another rubbed against a mechanical leg, all shouting in excitement.

"Hey, hey, hey! What are you all doing!"

Dumpling squeezed out of the crowd in a hurry.

He slapped away a few players who were trying to pry at the autocannon barrel, his face full of heartache.

"Don't touch my wife, okay! Can you afford to pay if you break it?!"

While grumbling, Dumpling heart-wrenchingly lifted his sleeve and vigorously wiped the armor plates that other players had just touched, as if afraid they would leave fingerprints.

The crowd stepped back a few paces.

The full view of the mech was clearly revealed before everyone's eyes.

This Gladiator Mech stood about 5.5 meters tall.

Its left arm was a multi-barrel rapid-fire autocannon with an attached ammunition belt box, its barrel terrifyingly thick;

The right arm was a massive cutting claw made of high-strength alloy.

Furthermore, at the shoulder joints of both mechanical arms, there were clearly visible physical interfaces and power lines for quick detachment, obviously designed to facilitate the later replacement of other tactical weapons.

The mech's legs featured a reverse-jointed bipedal design.

This design provided better shock absorption during jumping and running, allowed for faster crouching and concealment, and lowered the overall center of gravity, which was very much in line with combat mechanics.

Currently, the mech was in a standby crouching position, making it easy for the pilot to climb in.

The most eye-catching part was its torso.

Which was where the cockpit was located.

It was designed as a polyhedral wedge structure.

This sloped faceted armor could greatly increase the ricochet rate for live ammunition and energy weapons.

And at the vulnerable joint where the torso connected to the leg hydraulic rods, a thick ring of geometric skirt armor had been specially added, tightly protecting the weak point inside.

Dumpling stood under the mech, looking up.

Although he didn't know anything about military design, just looking at the solid craftsmanship, he could tell that this thing's design was definitely top-tier.

In the surrounding crowd.

The player [Qianlong Wuyong], who had an official scientific research background in the real world, stood with his arms crossed, scrutinizing the mech with a sharp gaze.

As he watched, he nodded inwardly.

"As expected of a single-soldier war machine designed by a higher alien civilization."

Qianlong Wuyong quickly evaluated the data in his mind,

"Such an entity would definitely perform better than traditional tracked tanks in complex terrain."

"On an open battlefield with no cover, tanks with more powerful firepower and thicker armor would certainly dominate. But once they enter environments like Hive City ruins or narrow street fighting, this mech's smaller turning radius and that terrifying mechanical claw's melee capability will be more than a tier above tanks!"

"But hover tanks seem to be able to avoid this weakness..."

Just as everyone was watching.

Dumpling stood in front of the mech's sensor probe and seemed to perform an identity authentication.

"Hum—"

The inside of the mech emitted a faint, low hum from the reactor.

The wedge-shaped chest armor opened smoothly to the sides, revealing the cockpit filled with neural conduction wires.

Dumpling was so excited his face turned red; he climbed up the mechanical leg in a few quick movements and dove into the cockpit.

The hatch closed.

Accompanied by a heavy sound of hydraulic exhaust.

The mech's reverse-jointed legs suddenly braced, carrying its massive five-meter-plus body as it stood up steadily!

On the huge cutting claw on the right arm, a blinding dark red high-frequency thermal fusion light instantly lit up.

"Brothers! I'm going to test drive it now!"

Dumpling's wild laughter came from the mech's external loudspeaker.

The Gladiator Mech first turned flexibly in place, testing the bearing lubrication.

Then, the mechanical legs exerted force suddenly.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!"

The heavy metal giant feet stepped on the wasteland, splashing up large clouds of dust.

This five-meter-tall steel behemoth erupted with an agile speed completely inconsistent with its size, starting to sprint across the wasteland!

After running a long distance.

The left arm's multi-barrel autocannon began to pre-heat and rotate.

"Da da da da da da—!"

The deafening sound of gunfire resounded through the camp.

Several huge weathered rocks in the distance instantly shattered into clouds of stone dust under the autocannon's barrage!

Seeing this, the players remaining at the scene were all ecstatic.

"Damn! So cool!"

"I've decided! I'm not buying power armor anymore! I'm going to save up points to buy a mech! A man's romance is piloting a Gundam!"

Behind the crowd.

[Liver Emperor] watched the mech sprinting and firing in the distance, his eyes also flickering with longing.

"Old Ming, how about our legion gets one to play with too?" Liver Emperor nudged Ming Shen with his elbow.

Ming Shen calmly shook his head.

"Honestly. While this mech thing looks fierce, its tactical role can actually be completely solved through infantry-tank coordination," Ming Shen analyzed,

"Our Scourge Legion is currently working on hover tanks and heavy artillery tanks. Spending points on this isn't cost-effective. We don't need it right now."

Liver Emperor wasn't happy to hear that:

"But it's cool! When we play a game, showing off is definitely the most important thing!"

Liver Emperor stroked his chin, his mind starting to conceive of some cheeky maneuvers,

"I have to get one regardless. And I've already thought of a modification plan. After I buy it, I'll replace its chassis and install six mechanical legs! Just like that Daemon Engine Defiler we blew up last time! A six-legged mech, walking sideways on the battlefield, it would be fucking cool!"

Just as the two were chatting.

Hand of God legion commander Black Tiger A-Fu, accompanied by Bailey, also arrived at the Shelter's plaza, chatting and laughing.

"Yo, Old Ming, Old Liver, you two are here watching the mech too?"

A Fu walked over and greeted them, "Why don't I see that kid Flash?"

Liver Emperor turned his head and chuckled:

"Don't mention it. That kid has been busy taking care of his pregnant wife in Shahe Town lately. Serving tea and pouring water, he's been too busy to even do his daily tasks."

After saying this, Liver Emperor's gaze naturally fell on Bailey, who was beside A Fu.

After resting and recovering in Shahe Town for this period, and having cleaned up and changed into a clean set of clothes.

Bailey's foundation wasn't bad to begin with, and her current appearance was quite striking.

In those gray eyes, there was once again a spark of life.

"Hehe."

Liver Emperor raised his eyebrows at A Fu,

"A Fu, your wife is quite good too! You've got a good eye."

Bailey had been sticking with A Fu every day lately, and had even hung around with the Scourge Legion players for a long time.

She could understand some of the Mandarin and internet slang that these modern people were constantly spouting.

Hearing Liver Emperor's blunt teasing, Bailey's cheeks instantly flushed, and she shyly hid behind A Fu.

A Fu rolled his eyes at Liver Emperor impatiently:

"Go away, go away, you can't expect ivory from a dog's mouth. By the way, you guys are so busy, are you here to recruit new players?"

Ming Shen nodded, his expression becoming serious.

"Yeah. I heard that for this sixth batch of closed beta spots, five thousand people were let into the server at once."

Ming Shen lowered his voice and said,

"Moreover, I heard some news through internal channels. It's said that among these five thousand people, a full fifth of them have deep backgrounds in Earth's reality. Various countries, major conglomerates, and monopoly corporations are all trying their best to shove people into this game."

"The quality of this batch of players should be quite terrifying."

A Fu nodded in agreement:

"Indeed. The commotion this game has caused is too big to hide. And now foreign players are also starting to enter the server on a large scale. You know that newly established legion [Hellfire], right? It was led by a Chinese-American, and most of the core members are Americans."

"It's said that they even set up an exclusive community on the foreign internet, specifically for reposting and translating content from our official website, analyzing this world's tech tree every day. The popularity is even higher than our domestic forums!"

Ming Shen smiled: "That's normal. Who wouldn't covet a holographic world with a complete alien tech tree? Alright, the countdown is almost over, the newcomers are about to come up, let's go. Let's go to the B6 level and grab some people."

...

Shelter, underground level 6.

Inside this space that seemed vast and boundless.

Five thousand newly produced clone culture pods, under the same system command, opened their hatches simultaneously, accompanied by the uniform sound of air pressure release.

White gas spread across the metal plates like a tide.

Just like the scene that appeared when the previous batches of closed beta players first arrived, it was once again playing out in this vast underground space.

A large number of newly awakened players crawled out of the culture pods, naked.

They looked around blankly, at the cold metal walls and the blinding lights overhead.

Although they were already familiar with the claims of 100% realism for this game on the forums.

But when they truly personally felt the cold air and the real sensation of breathing, everyone was still plunged into immense shock.

"Holy shit!!"

"Awesome! These textures! This lighting rendering!"

"Someone slap me! I want to see if the pain system is real!"

"Slap!" A crisp slap rang out.

"Fuck your grandpa! You actually hit me?!"

A group of foreign players on the periphery even held their heads exaggeratedly.

"Oh my god! This is unbelievable!" "Hey bro! This is fucking awesome for my ass!"

Listening to the ghost-like howling from this massive crowd of newbies.

A group of old players who had been waiting on the side for a long time quickly stepped forward to maintain order.

"Stop yelling! Hurry up and get clothes from the supply cabinets next to you to put on!"

"You've all memorized the newbie manual in advance, right? Line up quickly!"

Lin Li stood on a high platform in front of the plaza.

He looked down at the dense, chaotic mass of five thousand new leeks.

Listening to the noise, which was like a wet market, in his ears.

"These bumpkins who have never seen the world. They're giving me a headache with all this noise." Lin Li complained frantically in his heart.

He cleared his throat, picked up a simple megaphone, and turned on the loudspeaker.

"Quiet!"

Lin Li kept his cold NPC face, and according to past practice, began to recite the opening speech he had already recited until he was sick of it, expressionlessly.

"Welcome, newly awakened Fire Seeds..."

Lin Li spoke extremely fast, like a machine gun, reciting a string of opening lines.

Following the end of the last slogan, "For the revival of humanity".

Lin Li didn't even pause for a second, directly dropping the megaphone.

Turning around, he slipped back to his exclusive elevator and made a quick getaway.

Leaving the mess of these thousands of people to the robots holding [Niu Bi Xiao Zi] PV devices, preparing to distribute them to the newcomers.

As soon as Lin Li left, the recruiters from the major battle groups immediately dived into the pile of newbies like sharks smelling blood, starting to crazily poach people.

In the crowd.

A polar bear with snow-white fur all over its body and a huge build suddenly stood upright like a human.

[5A Combo] looked at his own furry white bear paws and let out an arrogant, wild laugh:

"Hahahaha! My luck! I actually drew the noble Beastman hidden race! And a white bear at that! With this build, wouldn't one slap shatter a Green Skin's head?!"

However, he had only laughed halfway through.

A crisp female voice suddenly came from the side:

"Holy shit! Can people actually spawn as bears in this game?!"

5A Combo turned his huge bear head and looked at a female player standing beside him.

This female player actually looked quite pretty.

"How about it? Sister."

5A Combo deliberately flexed his arm, which was thicker than a human thigh,

"Is my look cool or what? By the way, what's your ID? I think we hit it off, want to add each other as friends and form a team?"

After finishing, 5A Combo directly leaned his bear head over, trying to look at the PV screen the female player had just put on her wrist.

The female player's face changed, and she quickly reached out to cover the screen, not wanting him to see.

But the white bear was just too tall, looking down from above, and he still caught a glimpse of the player ID on the screen.

5A Combo was stunned for a moment, then subconsciously read the ID out loud:

"Devil Muscle Thor?"

He scratched his bear ear,

"This name... why does it look so familiar? Isn't this that famous troll on the forums who complains about the game every day?"

[Devil Muscle Thor], seeing his identity exposed, immediately got anxious.

He quickly stretched out both hands and grabbed the white bear's mouth tightly, wanting to make him shut up:

"Alright, alright! What are you yelling for! Don't let people hear!"

Afterwards, to cover up his embarrassment, he immediately restored his true colors as a troll and started pointing at the surrounding robots to complain:

"What kind of shitty game is this anyway! There isn't even a decent newbie tutorial at the start? You just throw people here and that's it? Trash! There's no user experience at all!"

5A Combo, listening to his merciless complaints, was directly amused.

This girl, he had been posting on the forums to troll for months.

Now that he had finally managed to draw the qualification to enter the server, he still couldn't change his troll habit of having a foul mouth.

"You girl, your mouth is really fucking tough!" The white bear laughed until he was rocking back and forth.

And in another corner of the hall.

A male player with a buzz cut and eyes as firm as a blade did not shout like the others, nor was he in a hurry to find a legion to sign up for.