80: Chapter 80 Greedy Bait and Emblem Recognition

Promethium reserves 0.9%.

The dark spot on the right side of his vision swallowed his central field of view, pressing against his retina like a red-hot branding iron. Lin Yuan leaned behind a broken concrete wall, his right hand's Silver-wire Network sending waves of spasms as it resonated with his younger brother's exoskeleton. It was the THRONE-01 machine spirit simulating a heartbeat; every throb was accompanied by the stinging pain of burning nerves.

"Brother... there are seven heat sources ahead."

Lin Chen's voice struck directly into Lin Yuan's ears via bone conduction, carrying the static of metal friction. A dark red exoskeleton covered his right arm and chest, liquid metal flowing between the armor gaps like the blood vessels of a living creature.

Lin Yuan did not answer. He stared at the gap in the abandoned bunker thirty meters outside the broken wall, where seven figures stood. The man in the lead wore pieced-together ceramic armor, with a rusted railway spike welded to his right shoulder. People on the wasteland called him "Rustnail". The leader of the Scavengers was raising a modified melta rifle, its muzzle aimed at where Lin Yuan was hiding.

"Hand over that iron-shell brat," Rustnail's voice sounded like sandpaper rubbing against metal. "A pre-war military-grade prosthetic is enough to trade for a three-month clean water quota. You two cripples can get lost."

Lin Yuan's fingertips tapped lightly on the ground—three short, one long. This was an old-era tactical hand signal, meaning "bait in position."

His brother's breathing stalled for a moment in the channel. Lin Yuan could feel the boy's fear transmitted through the two-way neural empathy, like a cold tide washing over his spine. But he did not hesitate, his right hand pushing out suddenly. Lin Chen's dark red exoskeleton was exposed for a split second outside the broken wall, the reflection from the armor's surface cutting a piercing red line through the dim underground space.

"Catch him!" Rustnail's roar exploded.

Six Scavengers leaped out from behind cover simultaneously, their fire net instantly covering the broken wall. melta rounds exploded on the concrete into orange-red molten slag, the air blast flipping over Lin Yuan's tactical goggles. He dragged Camilla's battered body and rolled backward; the mercenary's left leg was as limp as a noodle, and the neural interface at her spine was emitting green smoke.

"You... are using him..." Camilla coughed up blood foam, her grayish-white pupils staring at Lin Yuan.

"Shut up and save your strength."

Lin Yuan's voice was colder than the ice of an underground river. He stuffed her into a drainage pipe on the bunker's flank, and as he turned, his right hand had already pulled out the last Promethium battery. 0.9%—only enough to support twelve seconds of full-power output.

Twelve seconds. Lin Yuan counted silently in his heart. The Scavengers' greed had given them a twelve-second window.

The dark red exoskeleton shuddered amidst the rain of bullets. Lin Chen knelt half-collapsed outside the broken wall, the machine spirit of THRONE-01 fighting for control with his biological consciousness. Lin Yuan could feel that tearing sensation through the neural empathy. Mechanical protocols demanded an immediate counterattack, while human fear made his fingers tremble. The shaking affected his shooting accuracy; the first plasma round missed, burning a molten hole at Rustnail's feet.

"The machine spirit... is howling..." Lin Chen's voice was intermittent. "It says... those are... the Seventh Legion's..."

Lin Yuan's pupils constricted.

His brother's vision was shared into his eyes through neural empathy. The crest on Rustnail's chest, that inverted triangle logo covered in rust, suddenly distorted and deformed under the dark red exoskeleton's scanning mode, turning into the outline of a double-headed eagle.

Memory fragments of the Great Crusade were activated in an overloaded state. Afterimages of the starry sky and warships flashed across Chen Duo's retinas, along with that figure sitting upon the Golden Throne.

"Seventh Legion... Imperial Fists..." Lin Chen muttered to himself, his voice carrying a metallic resonance that did not belong to him.

"Now."

Lin Yuan pressed the emergency release valve of the Promethium battery. 0.9% of the energy was injected into his right hand's Silver-wire Network in an instant; the pain of burning nerves made his vision go dark, but he gritted his teeth and swung that strike. The target of the attack was not the Scavengers, but the load-bearing beam overhead.

The snapped rebar smashed into the center of the bunker, kicking up dust that obscured everyone's vision. Rustnail cursed; he thought this was Lin Yuan's deathbed struggle, until he heard that sound.

Kacha. Kacha. Kacha.

Six mechanical legs dangled from the gap at the top of the bunker, each equipped with a melta blade. The compound eyes of the Reaper Mother lit up with a crimson glow in the dust. It smelled the scent of flesh and blood, a scent of Scavenger blood that was richer than Lin Yuan's.

"Damn it! It's the Reapers!" Rustnail's deputy screamed.

But Rustnail did not retreat. His eyes were fixed on Lin Chen's dark red exoskeleton, greed tangling around his reason like poisonous vines.

"Catch the iron shell first! The Mother prioritizes attacking moving targets!"

This was a tactical judgment based on wasteland survival experience, and it was also a fatal mistake. The Mother did indeed prioritize moving targets, but it prioritized flesh and blood even more. THRONE-01 was a fused state of metal and biology, while the Scavengers were pure protein.

The first mechanical leg pierced the deputy's chest. The melta blade sliced through ceramic armor like butter, and blood splattered across Rustnail's face. The warm, rust-scented liquid finally made him realize his miscalculation.

But it was already too late.

The Mother emitted a high-frequency screech, the sound waves resonating within the bunker and shattering everyone's eardrums. Lin Yuan took the opportunity to grab Camilla and drag her body toward the gap at the rear of the bunker. His brother followed behind him, the dark red exoskeleton's leg thrusters emitting pale blue flames. That was THRONE-01 consuming its last energy reserves.

"Don't look back, run!" Lin Yuan roared.

The sound of flesh and bone tearing came from behind. Lin Yuan didn't need to look to know that the Scavengers were buying them time with their lives. The Mother's six mechanical legs tore open the chests of three Scavengers, the scorched smell of melta blades cutting through bone mixing with the scent of blood as it flooded his nose.

This was a classic trap on the wasteland: the greedy become bait, while the rational survive.

But Lin Yuan felt no joy of victory. He could feel his brother's pain; that self-loathing from utilizing a loved one corroded his nerves like stomach acid. The two-way neural empathy amplified this emotion twofold, making his right hand tremble uncontrollably.

"Brother... that leader... there's something in his backpack..." Lin Chen suddenly stopped, the dark red exoskeleton's sensors aimed toward Rustnail.

Rustnail was still alive. He had made the correct decision when The Mother tore apart the third team member: give up the capture and flee instead. But before fleeing, he tore off his backpack and threw it toward Lin Yuan. Metal fragments slid out from the tear in the backpack, and the moment they touched Lin Yuan's right hand's Silver-wire Network, a blood-red warning suddenly popped up on the system interface:

[stc fragment detected: Unknown template resonance]

Lin Yuan froze for 0.5 seconds. It was those 0.5 seconds that allowed him to see the object sliding out of the backpack. A piece of black metal fragment with Gothic inscriptions he couldn't understand carved on its surface, its material identical to THRONE-01's armor.

The Mother tore apart the fourth Scavenger. Its serrated mouthparts chewed a mixture of ceramic armor and flesh, while the remaining two Scavengers fled toward the bunker's flank in screams, only to be swept into two halves by the sixth mechanical leg.

The seven-man team collapsed instantly. Having entered a digestive stagnation state, The Mother temporarily stopped its pursuit. Its compound eyes turned toward Lin Yuan, but sonic detection showed it was gathering energy, preparing for a second charge.

"Go!" Lin Yuan grabbed the backpack and dragged Camilla as he jumped down the gap behind the bunker. Below was an abandoned subway tunnel, the sign for B-17 Sector glowing with a faint green light in the darkness.

They fell three meters, hitting the rusted rails. Lin Yuan's knee struck the rubble, the pain of a bone fracture making him groan, but he immediately scrambled up to check on Camilla. The mercenary's breathing was faint, and her lower limbs had completely lost sensation.

"System, scan."

[Scan complete: T7-T12 spinal nerve necrosis is irreversible, countdown 02:00:00]

Two hours. Camilla had two hours to find a pre-war medical pod, otherwise the nerve necrosis would become permanent.

"You... didn't give up on me..." Camilla's fingers gripped Lin Yuan's tactical vest with surprising strength, "18%... you could have..."

"Shut up." Lin Yuan interrupted her, pulling the black metal fragment from the backpack. The fragment emitted a faint hum in his hand, resonating with THRONE-01's machine spirit. His brother knelt to one side, pale golden coolant seeping from the armor gaps of the dark red exoskeleton. That was a sign of the machine spirit's overexertion.

The sound of metal friction came from above the tunnel. Rustnail's face appeared at the edge of the gap; half of his face had been burned by The Mother's melta blade, the flesh peeled back, but the hatred in his eyes was more hideous than the wound.

"I'll remember you, iron-shell brat." Rustnail's voice sounded like it had crawled out of hell. "The Scavengers will not forget this face. For every extra day you live on the wasteland, my eyes will be watching you."

Lin Yuan did not answer. He picked up Camilla and dragged his brother toward the depths of the tunnel. The exit to B-17 Sector was blocked by collapsed concrete, but they had gained fifteen minutes of breathing room.

His brother's dark red exoskeleton emitted a dim red glow in the darkness, illuminating Camilla's pale face. Lin Yuan stuffed the black metal fragment into his tactical pocket; the system warning was still flashing: [stc fragment detected: Unknown template resonance].

Beneath the ruins, there were other technological inheritances. This realization sank into Lin Yuan's stomach like a stone. He sat down against the tunnel wall, the resonance between his right hand's Silver-wire Network and his brother's exoskeleton gradually stabilizing, but that sense of self-loathing from using his kin still lingered at his nerve endings.

Camilla's breathing gradually steadied, and she fished a data chip out from her waist, stuffing it into Lin Yuan's hand.

"Scavengers... power distribution... all strongholds..." Her voice was weak but clear. "You deserve... absolute loyalty..."

Lin Yuan gripped the chip and looked up at the top of the tunnel. The sound of The Mother's metal friction echoed again, but this time, it seemed to hesitate. The Scavengers' flesh was still in its digestive sac, and the prey in the tunnel had entered its detection blind spot.

Fifteen minutes. They only had fifteen minutes to repair his brother's nerve damage, treat Camilla's spine, and figure out the origin of that stc fragment.

Lin Yuan opened the military log and wrote the first line with blood-stained fingers: Day 80, Promethium reserves 0%, obtained Scavenger power intelligence, added new hostile faction markers, Camilla entered nerve necrosis countdown.

His brother leaned against the wall, the eye sensors of the dark red exoskeleton going dark, revealing the tired human eyes beneath. On the edge of blurred consciousness, he saw that image once again. The white house, the bronze bell, and that figure standing within the sound of the bell.

But this time, he did not say it out loud. Only the ticking sound of the Promethium battery running out remained in the tunnel, along with the low hum of The Mother gathering energy in the distance.