Integrated Core Zone.
This was the planned deployment area for the Protocol Core.
A bunch of panicked Landbreakers were wrecking equipment everywhere.
Among them was what looked like a squad leader barking orders at the others—his voice hoarse, like he had phlegm stuck in his throat.
"Hurry up! Don't keep the boss waiting—you know what happens if you do!"
He shouted curses nonstop, yet somehow never lifted a finger himself.
And his gear looked different from ordinary Grindbone Marauders—his mask was red, and even the machete in his hand was a vicious dark crimson, reeking of blood—
Elite Marauder.
An elite Landbreaker combatant strengthened by Mistfire and equipped for melee.
Their equipment, stamina, and close-combat technique had all been comprehensively enhanced.
They still didn't compare to a Grindbone Executioner who could flip an armored vehicle barehanded—but among the "short ones," this guy was the picked-out super-soldier.
That was why the other Grindbone Marauders didn't dare disobey him. They could only go around smashing things, then let him claim the credit.
Too bad for them, they weren't going to be smashing anything for much longer.
Because the righteous heroes had arrived!
BANG!
Hao Fan fired.
He was hiding in a corner, taking a cold shot from far away.
He didn't have the guts to hard-brawl a crowd head-on—but he had plenty of courage for righteous ambushes.
And after pushing through the under-construction zone and clearing a safe route, his shooting had improved a lot through real combat.
At the very least, his accuracy during sneak attacks was now reliable!
"Damn it—You animal!!!"
One Landbreaker screamed in agony, profoundly unfortunate: the bullet had nailed him right in the ass.
This wasn't Hao Fan's weird hobby.
He simply aimed for the torso to maximize hit chance, ignoring limbs and head.
Where exactly on the torso it landed…
That was fate.
So the "Landbreaker got shot in the butt" incident was purely that guy's bad luck.
But the others didn't see it that way.
"Doctor, even if they're Landbreakers… this is still a little too vile," Chen Qianyu muttered, stopping mid-charge to complain.
She knew plenty of Endfield sniper-operators who used handguns well.
She'd never seen anyone deliberately aim for an ass.
It was… way too shameless!
"I didn't want to either! It's just—he had his back to me, otherwise I would've hit…" Hao Fan cut himself off halfway and awkwardly changed the subject. "Ahem. Anyway—you all rush them. I'll cover you from the rear!"
Hit what, exactly?
Given Chen Qianyu's IQ, she probably wouldn't guess.
"No problem. Leave it to me!"
Chen Qianyu—now "protected" to the front—drew her two stupid-looking swords and sprinted in without hesitation.
Then she kicked the Landbreaker who was still clutching his ass clean off his feet, successfully intimidating the rest.
"I'm going to call reinforcements—hold them!"
The Elite Marauder turned and ran without hesitation, using his underlings as a human shield.
His combat experience was solid—he judged instantly that the enemy this time was dangerous, and that he might not win.
After all, there were supposed to be plenty of Landbreakers guarding the route here. No one should've been able to slip past.
So there was only one answer:
Those Landbreakers had already been taken out.
The Elite Marauder believed he couldn't do that—so he concluded he wasn't a match.
But the underlings still hadn't grasped how bad things were.
"Prey! It came to us—YEE-HA!"
They were rattled for a second.
But the Landbreakers' vicious nature kicked in, and they rushed in.
"Grab your blades! Kill them all! Kill them!"
Several Grindbone Marauders stormed forward, machetes raised, eager to show these "civilized people" what violence meant.
They were promptly taught a lesson in applied physics.
"Formation Sequence!"
The Administrator lifted her hand and unleashed Originium Arts—massive originium crystal clusters erupted from the ground in an instant, launching the Landbreakers into the air.
Chen Qianyu followed up immediately, pressing the advantage.
"Break when it must break! Sever when it must sever! Abandon when it must be abandoned!"
Her high-speed figure cut through the space in seven slashes in a blink—cold as frost—drowning every Landbreaker ahead in a dense storm of sword-qi.
"Biting Frostwind!"
Chen Qianyu sheathed her blades with swagger.
Behind her, the Landbreakers were already all down.
And then, a cocky, hoarse voice rang out:
"Haha! You're surrounded now!"
The Elite Marauder—who'd just fled—had returned with several Grindbone Ambush Shooters, apparently hoping to solve this "troublesome enemy" with a cheesy two-sided pincer.
But when he saw the pile of already-finished Marauders on the ground, the grin vanished.
"…Holy shit."
Clearly, the enemies he'd run into were even stronger than he'd expected.
This experience would surely be useful in the future—
BANG!
Another cold shot, with no warning.
Under the handgun's emergency-enhancement effect, the Howling Guard's bullet power temporarily increased.
With surprise on top of that, it instantly maimed this Mistfire-enhanced Elite Marauder.
"Ah—my KIDNEY!!!"
He'd been hit in the waist—more precisely, the kidney—and doubled over in screaming pain.
Seeing the ambush, the Ambush Shooters beside him immediately raised their crossbows and loosed a volley toward the direction the bullet came from.
"Holy crap—this is scary…"
Hao Fan, crouched behind cover, saw the bolts slam into his barricade and felt a chill crawl up his spine. He didn't dare peek again.
Luckily, these Landbreakers only had basic shooting training—their accuracy was garbage.
Otherwise, he'd probably have been instantly headshot.
"Yeah… ranged weapons are way more dangerous than melee, at least for a beginner like me."
Still shaken, Hao Fan stayed glued to cover—no interest whatsoever in "mid-lane sniping duels."
He had two handguns.
They had four shooters.
But more than that, he noticed something else: the Elite Marauder didn't seem to be in immediate danger of dying from that shot.
"Terrans are ridiculously tough… The handgun still doesn't hit hard enough. I wonder if Meshco Industries has higher-quality models in the same line?"
He looked down at the Howling Guard.
He really liked Meshco's industrial aesthetics, so his curiosity about the rest of the product line flared up.
As for the battle itself?
There was zero suspense.
The kidney-shot Elite Marauder, along with the Ambush Shooters who didn't have time to reload, first got struck by Perlica's lightning—paralyzing them and leaving them unable to move.
Then the Administrator and Chen Qianyu pulled their own "two-sided pincer with cheese" and cleaned up the remaining Landbreakers with ease.
The fight was over.
One thing worth noting, though:
Even knowing they couldn't win, the Landbreakers never tried to run.
They fought to the last moment—and paid for it with their lives.
"These guys don't even seem to know fear…" Chen Qianyu glanced at the Elite Marauder's corpse. "You all okay?"
That guy—shot in the kidney—still fought stubbornly. He was the last one to drop.
As an enemy, he deserved at least a little respect.
"Good warm-up," the Administrator shrugged. She wasn't injured—she just didn't want another round.
After fight after fight, she was feeling real fatigue.
"I'm fine. Just… kinda scared."
Hao Fan stepped out from behind cover and answered honestly.
"Really?"
Chen Qianyu instantly looked worried and tried to check if he was hurt.
But the Doctor outfit covered Hao Fan completely—she couldn't see even a scratch, let alone his expression.
"…Lying. (눈_눈)"
"Ugh! You tricked me again! (〃＞皿＜)!"
To stop Chen Qianyu from worrying, Hao Fan chose to bullshit her—and privately concluded she really was kind of dumb.
Perlica, however, noticed something suspicious in the surroundings.
"This is strange."
She frowned, scanning the area.
"The Landbreakers have set up camp here, but there's still a lot nearby that hasn't been moved."
"Doesn't that mean losses are smaller? Isn't that good?"
Chen Qianyu tilted her head, not understanding what was suspicious.
"But it doesn't add up," Perlica explained patiently.
"These wandering gangs usually invade settlements to loot supplies. I expected to see something far worse."
"So… they're ignoring the good stuff nearby just to hold this place." Chen Qianyu—rare moment of insight—offered a more solid take. "Less like looting, more like occupying."
"…Occupying?"
Perlica fell into thought.
And just then, their radio crackled with a familiar voice:
"Administrator, Supervisor Perlica!" Andre called in, sounding urgent. "The cleanup team and I are already on the move. Hold position for now!"
"Oh—it's that fat big bird—why'd he only mention you two?" Chen Qianyu's focus was bizarrely petty, like a sulky kid.
Hao Fan soothed her casually:
"He didn't mention me either. Probably because we call him 'Fat Big Bird'… Fat Big Bird's really petty."
"Yeah! Fat Big Bird is petty!"
"Ahem." Perlica cut off the weird topic. "We'll talk about the Landbreakers later. Deploying the Protocol Core comes first."
She set aside the earlier suspicions for now and prepared to do the real work.
"Mr. Andre and the workers will arrive soon. We can clear out this area together…"
"The Landbreakers' illegal structures."
....
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