High Above

"The alchemy engine shut down in an emergency, and it will take an hour and a half to start again to clean the cooling slag in the furnace."

"The supplies are sufficient and the ammunition has not mutated. The communication equipment can be used, but the interference is great."

The technical knight reported to Tres and Ian the relevant reports after the crawler transport vehicle stalled. He finally came to the conclusion: "Captain. I think this is because the Azure City and the virtual realm overlap too deeply. There is a history in the Knights' materials. According to records, in places with a high overlap rate with the virtual realm, such as Fairy Country, many devices do not undergo special processing and can easily conflict with completely different laws, stall or self-destruct."

"We have brought relevant processing equipment this time, which can resist some anomalies, but the processing time will take about three to five hours."

"Go forward on foot."

Tres gave the order decisively. He turned around with a frown and looked at the steel behemoth behind him. Although the knight had a regretful expression on his face, he understood what was important in this mission: "Take out all the things you need to carry with you." With the supplies we carried, we built a simple camp with the transport vehicle as the center, and then with the camp as the center, we explored the surrounding situation as a team of five people.”

"Yes, Captain!"

Ian didn't object to Trace's approach because it was the right response.

Of course, they didn't have more than three hours to repair the car. At the speed of the Ascendants, even in a defensive posture, one and a half hours was enough for them to reach the perimeter of the laboratory.

"I don't think this was an accident."

Ian patted the tracked transport vehicle. This huge steel beast was a true war machine. Each carriage was six meters long and wide. It was equipped with heavy armor shields, psychic disruptors, two alchemical cannons and vehicle-mounted The machine gun can also travel at a speed of eighty kilometers per hour for three days and three nights.

And the alchemy furnace core it uses is not even the most advanced technology of the empire, it is just an enhanced version of the ordinary civilian furnace core.

This is Terra's mechanical technology, and of course, it is also Ian's technology - every time Ian sees a new alchemical creation, he will record their structure with a silver chip, and he knows every detail of them.

When he went back to farm, these design drawings and structural drawings obtained for free were priceless treasures.

It is precisely because Ian knows so much about the crawler transport vehicle that he can be sure: "This is an attack. The enemy has discovered us, so they used a virtual pulse to interfere with the engine's source pressurization chamber, causing the pressure to rise. If you don’t go, turn off the engine.”

"Right away, enemies will attack us. Tres, prepare for battle first."

Of course, there is a little knowledge of alchemy, but the most important thing is Ian's precognitive vision.

He just looked around and saw a group of people glowing red.

Danger is coming. Although it is not too dangerous, it may also cause loss of personnel.

How could the prophet be attacked by surprise? It's just a matter of finding an excuse.

"is that so?"

Tres had no doubt that he was there, so he issued an order asking everyone to be on alert and beware of possible attacks.

It turns out that Ian was right.

Just when the entire team formed a defensive formation with five shield guards laying mines in the front row, and all the alchemy artillery and various firearms on the transport vehicle were fully loaded, an abnormality occurred.

In the dark streets of Azure City, white fog filled the air. From time to time, the sound of footsteps could be heard in the thick fog, as if there were some invisible monsters walking around the entire team's formation, looking for weaknesses.

On the side, the thick roar of the monster seemed to be pressed from the throat, and the uncertain red beast eyes stared at the team of patrol knights with unchanging faces in the shadows. Substantial pressure came from the shadows, as if they would come from the shadows at any time. Jump out and kill everyone.

Then, a large group of walking corpses controlled by fungi walked out from the other side of the street. They roared indistinctly and charged towards the position that was already covered with mines. They were as fast as a 100-meter race. athletes, not corpses.

If it were an ordinary caravan, even a more professional escort, facing this battle, I'd be afraid that half of its life would be frightened.

"Except for those corpses, everything else is an illusion."

Ian, on the other hand, remained calm and inoculated the team members: "Continue to be on guard, they are still looking for opportunities."

Although it all looks like you have mistakenly entered a supernatural film set, for the Ascendant, in theory, it should be the ghosts that you should be afraid of.

As for women crying, children laughing, and all kinds of noisy whispers, they have long been ignored as white noise.

Boom boom boom - even before the alchemical cannons and machine guns were fired, the mines exploded most of the fungus zombies into pieces.

After all, no matter how hard the fungus is strengthened, these corpses were just ordinary people when they were alive and could not withstand explosives.

And there are not many of these walking corpses. They are all corpses that are still intact after death. After all, they are too broken and the fungus cannot make them move again.

"The real enemy is coming."

Ian and Tres saw three shadows flashing past in the darkness almost at the same time. The difference was that Tres could only see the shadows, but Ian could see them more clearly.

"One alien beast, two phantoms. The alien beast is a honey badger with iron claws. Its claws have been modified and an alloy blade has been inserted into it. It is very fast. It is currently moving counterclockwise from the ten o'clock direction to the six o'clock direction. Team members behind, be careful."

Ian calmly described the current situation on the channel in the Inspector Knight: "The other two phantoms, one is a male, holding a carpenter's knife in his hand, the body is very strong, about three meters tall, they are powerful and corrupted without consciousness. Phantom. The other one is a woman, also unconscious. The fingers on her arms seem to have turned into sharp needles, moving very fast... Huh?"

He suddenly let out a light sigh, and then said: "I'll deal with this. You go deal with the Iron-clawed Honey Badger."

"The male phantom is too big to get past the fire net."

"Listen to you."

He happily agreed. With Ian here, Tres had completely given up thinking.

To be honest, this feeling is quite good. It feels like my brain is being massaged, softly and very comfortably.

Although there may be a possibility that the brain will become smooth in the future, at least it feels good now.

And just when Tres started to mess around happily, Ian was still observing the 'test unit' sent by the enemy.

Obviously, these monsters are the vanguards sent by the surviving laboratory sublimates in Azure City to test their strength.

They have already destroyed a team of patrol knights. They must have the second level of force, but they definitely do not have the third level. Otherwise, they would not be so cautious.

The strength of this alien beast and the two phantoms are not low. Although they are only around the first level, they each have special abilities, especially those of the phantoms. If you are not careful, you will suffer big losses.

The strength of virtual phantoms is different from their real strength, especially when the virtual world is abnormal.

In reality, an ordinary butcher shop owner is slightly strengthened in an abnormal virtual environment, and his projection turns into a four- to five-meter-tall semi-giant man. However, by accident, the sublimate in reality may not have the same projection power as Lu. Crispy bone bird.

On the way to Azure City, Ian and others encountered an ordinary-looking phantom.

She looked like an ordinary, weak woman sobbing under a big tree. Some of the patrol knights even thought that she was a survivor who escaped accidentally.

But after being disturbed by the transport vehicle, the phantom burst out with astonishing power. It swooped onto the transport vehicle and almost broke the barrel of the alchemy cannon.

Silver Chip said that this kind of phantom is called "Crying Witch", and most of its original incarnations are women who are often bullied or abused, and are full of resentment in their hearts.

It will not take the initiative to attack, but once disturbed, it will burst out with the power of hatred hidden deep in its heart, killing everyone who makes it stop sobbing.