IMC Chapter 92

As a mouse who kept its promises, after the city darkened again that night, Shu Bao truly sneaked over, carefully checked each member of the Imperial squad, and left behind the corresponding healing potions.

After delivering the potions, Shu Bao returned to the camp without taking anything, feeling helpless. The potions prepared by the snake teammate clearly wouldn’t be useful to him, so it was better to give them to the hardworking team.

The next day, when the Imperial squad woke up and saw the potions by their side, they were stunned. One was terrified that someone could silently sneak up around them and the other was surprised that the person they were chasing would actually deliver potions to them.

This left the Imperial squad in a very complex mood. On the one hand, they felt gratitude, since the other party was helping them while also using them as a tool. On the other hand, they felt anger, as the other party was being too considerate. After all, they could have ignored them completely, letting them fend for themselves, or like before, stepped in to help when they couldn’t handle things.

“Stop thinking about it. Right now, this clear-cut strategy isn’t a bad thing,” one of them said.

“The potions have been checked, no problem. Drink up and let’s keep going,” another added.

“I never thought I’d receive valuable potions from the enemy,” someone remarked.

While eating and drinking their potions to replenish their energy, the squad members chatted, feeling conflicted. However, there was no need to dwell on it—thanks to these potions, they could indeed travel further. With three days until their next collective teleportation, as long as they could make it through those three days, they could return home with plenty of spoils!

After a brief rest, the Imperial squad set out again. Based on their progress over the past two days, they would have enough time to reach the center of the city in three days, where the energy column reaching the pitch-black sky was located. It was obvious that all the important buildings would be around that area, and it was also likely the most dangerous part of the entire city.

Crossing an entire city in five days was tough—not only because of the city’s vast size but also because of the relentless attacks and chases from the Mechanoids. Of course, the biggest challenge was spending a lot of time collecting resources.

The Imperial squad’s progress was still difficult, but after two days of battles, they had gained a better understanding of the Mechanoids. Their teamwork in combat had improved and they could handle various types of mechanical beings more effectively. Additionally, with Shu Bao and the others occasionally helping from the shadows, the squad hadn’t suffered any major injuries.

Before long, it was the fifth day. Standing atop a tall diamond-shaped building, they could already see the city center.

Along the way, Shu Bao and his group had roughly figured out the layout of this steel city. The outer areas were mostly for entertainment, leisure, and residential spaces, with scattered vaults likely used by the Mechanoids to store resources and facilitate financial transactions.

Other than that, they hadn’t seen any other functional buildings. T33674 explained that the Mechanoids’ consciousness was controlled by a central brain. In each mechanical city, a separate sub-brain was set up to control and maintain the normal functioning of the city.

The sub-brain didn’t possess independent consciousness. After the city entered the Chaotic World, it lost contact with the main brain, retaining only the basic functions for maintenance and defense. However, the sub-brain stores a large amount of data, including various technologies, historical records, notices, and other information.

“As long as I get close to the sub-brain, I can infiltrate the interface and then copy the information,” T33674 said, looking excitedly at the distant energy pillar. Having searched through so many ruins, he had either encountered places too dangerous to approach or faced energy depletion or self-destruction of the sub-brains. This was the first time he was so close to a functioning mechanical sub-brain.

The members of Shu Bao’s team were also excited, and so were the Imperial team. After four days of difficult progress, they had finally reached the core of the city. The gains from this journey had made them completely abandon the pursuit of Shu Bao and the others. Furthermore, the results of their constant probing over the past few days suggested that Shu Bao and his team were probably more difficult to deal with than the robots themselves.

The Imperial team, as usual, drank the potions and replenished their food before setting off toward the city’s center. Before they set out, they predicted that today would be especially difficult and dangerous. However, after walking for a long while, the surrounding area was eerily quiet! The robots that had relentlessly pursued them were nowhere to be seen.

The overwhelming calmness didn’t bring them a sense of security; instead, it raised a strong sense of impending danger. They didn’t think the city had suddenly stopped resisting, but rather, it felt like something was brewing in the background.

Without the interference of the Mechanoids, their progress on the fifth day was the fastest so far. The closer they got to the central area, the rarer the building materials and items became. They even encountered a palace made entirely of pure gold, floating in mid-air.

Even the steps leading up to the palace were made of pure gold. Walking on them was incredibly exciting. The palace had ten stories and covered an area of at least two to three thousand square meters. Looking up at it against the light from the energy column, it was almost blinding.

The Imperial team stood before the pure gold palace, both excited and frustrated. Excited because of the treasure in front of them, but frustrated because none of them had a storage space large enough to carry the palace.

They initially planned to disassemble it and store it, but the palace was made using some method, entirely forged from pure gold and not assembled. Moreover, its hardness was not like that of gold, making it impossible to disassemble forcefully. Yet, after testing, it was confirmed to be pure gold.

The Imperial team lingered in front of the palace for a long time before reluctantly moving on, their hearts heavy. As they continued on, they would still occasionally look back, admiring this miraculous structure.

Then, during one of their glances back, the incredibly dazzling golden palace had disappeared!

The Imperial team stood frozen for a moment before quickly realizing that the palace had been taken by Shu Bao and Fu Qing! Their emotions were more complicated than they had ever felt before. Regardless of the mixed feelings, they had no choice but to continue moving forward.

Fortunately, the further they ventured inward, the more pure gold items they encountered. Eventually, they found some smaller pure gold buildings, enough to keep them excited.

The enormous gains nearly clouded the minds of the Imperial team. Before they knew it, they had reached the energy column.

The energy column was surrounded by a circular, fountain-like low building, its bright white light containing massive energy. They could look directly at the light column, though after staring for too long, it would cause temporary blindness. Aside from that, they couldn’t feel any heat, indicating that the energy conversion rate of the light column was extremely high, with almost no heat loss.

The Imperial team circled the energy column several times but couldn’t find the source of the energy, leaving them uncertain about how to exploit it.

The surroundings remained silent and the light column made no sound as if the whole world had turned into a still picture. Unable to bear the silence, the Imperial team began testing the light column. After all, it seemed that the most valuable thing in the entire city was the energy column.

They first carefully tried attacking the light column with magic, but as soon as the magic made contact, it disappeared, as if absorbed by the column. Seeing no reaction, the Imperial team began throwing objects into the light column.

Regardless of what they threw, it instantly vanished upon contact with the column, leaving them uncertain whether the objects were absorbed or transported elsewhere.

Just as the Imperial team was about to continue their testing, a wave of energy suddenly spread through the air, an invisible force driving the entire team away from the energy column.

The whole city seemed to awaken and began to tremble slightly, while the building supporting the energy column rapidly began to rise.

The Imperial team instinctively retreated, sensing that the tremors were unusual. However, the next moment, all the buildings surrounding the energy column began to rapidly dissolve into liquid metal and flow toward the energy column.

The Imperial team was terrified and used their fastest speed to escape, fearing that if they were even a second too slow, they would end up like the surrounding buildings.

Since Shu Bao and the others were farther away, they had a clearer view of the scene. They could see that all the buildings around the energy column were melting, gradually reforming into a single entity centered around the energy column.

As they retreated and looked back, Shu Bao gradually made out the shape of the massive entity. It was an enormous mechanical giant! The energy column had now become a sword in its hand, an unstoppable weapon.

Wherever the sword passed, steel was neatly severed. With a gentle swing of the giant’s arm, three members of the Imperial team, unable to escape in time, were instantly killed!

The three were severed at the waist, but there were no bodies left on the ground, not even a drop of blood. In the instant they were cut, they were absorbed by the energy column! Yes, in front of the energy column, humans were just a form of matter, and matter could be converted into energy to be used for its own purposes!

Once the giant had fully formed, the melting of surrounding buildings ceased. Within a thousand-meter radius of the energy column, everything disappeared. The skyscrapers, the vast, towering clusters of buildings, were all gone, transformed into flat ground.

The remaining seven members of the Imperial team hid in the building complex. After just one glance, they understood that this entity was beyond their ability to defeat. Fortunately, the spatial teleportation would soon be ready. Now, they only hoped to leave here safely.

“Is that the sub-brain?!” T33674’s usual mechanical voice was laced with shock. No wonder their people had been searching the universe for centuries, yet no one had ever brought back any core data from the Mechanoids. If this was indeed the sub-brain of the mechanical city, what could possibly defeat it?

The appearance of the mechanical giant made Shu Bao and Fu Qing incredibly cautious. The ease with which the giant had swung its arm earlier before they could even react, demonstrated just how fast it was. Even more intimidating was the energy column it held. That column maintained the immense energy of the entire city. A light touch from it could reduce something to nothing—without leaving even a speck of ash behind!

“Looking at the length of the energy column, it seems to be the exact limit of the magical attack range we’ve encountered these past days. It’s been precisely calculated. In the disconnected state, the sub-brain can’t upgrade its defense against magic, but it can still keep all attacks outside of its attack range,” Fu Qing said in a low voice, his eyes locked on the moving mechanical giant ahead.

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