Chapter 70: Explosives
Hum—
In , deep in the abandoned underground parking garage of the residential complex, tens of thousands of blue light points lit up at once within the complex structural network of the , which had been operating silently all along.
The dim blue radiance spread rapidly along the metallic veins, illuminating the entire massive underground garage like a scene from a sci-fi movie.
[“ ” Drone Combat System (Lv.2) upgrade complete.]
[New unit unlocked: “ ” suicide drone.]
[New unit unlocked: “ ” replication drone.]
[New module unlocked: modular construction platform.]
Along with the prompts in 's consciousness, the flat metal floor panels at the bottom of the extended outward, and a modular platform covering more than three hundred square meters slowly rose.
The platform's surface was covered with precision robotic arms, material conveyor belts, high-energy laser cutting heads, and several smelting furnaces of different sizes.
[Consumed 200 . Materialized “ ” replication drone x100.]
[Current : 8,830.]
didn't hesitate. He spent 200 and immediately materialized one hundred “ ” replication drones beside the construction platform.
They were slightly larger than the ordinary bomber drones. Beneath their bellies hung a pair of foldable precision robotic arms and cutting devices, and a small material storage pod was mounted at the tail.
The instant they materialized, all one hundred replication Worker Bees lit up pale green work lights, their propellers spinning rapidly as they hovered over the construction platform.
[Task command issued: collect, produce, replicate.]
The instant the command was issued, the one hundred drones scattered from the construction platform. Some prioritized cutting up the remaining vehicles in the garage for the raw materials they needed.
The rest, escorted by laser drones, surged out of the underground garage exit and spread out across .
Abandoned cars, collapsed steel rebar from buildings, damaged machinery—all scrap containing metal and polymer compounds was now their target.
The Worker Bees' cutting lasers swept across the old machines, sparks flying, slicing off pieces of the required shapes, which the robotic arms then clamped firmly and stowed in the tail compartments.
Once their collection quotas were met, they returned to the underground garage at high speed and dumped their full “loot” onto the construction platform.
Then the sorting work began, sending materials to different places according to specific rules.
The smelting furnaces glowed orange-red as copper and aluminum were melted, purified separately, and recast into standardized part blanks.
Then the processing arms ran in sync, cutting, polishing, and assembling the blanks.
The preliminarily assembled modules were then given their final assembly by the drones.
Ten hours later, at the far end of the construction platform, the first brand-new replication drone slowly flew out.
Its indicator light blinked once, then it automatically flew up and joined the queue producing new drones.
In addition to producing new Worker Bees and Soldier Bees, part of the resources was set aside specifically to produce a more complex hexagonal module—the unit.
These replication drones were capable of carrying basic mother-units and reassembling a second “ ” in more distant locations. By default, however, the new mother machine's power cables would be daisy-chained from the original .
This obviously increased the risk of circuit overload, and a series connection was never as safe or stable as a parallel one.
So the new would have its power supply network rebuilt by dedicated personnel, just as they had specially retrofitted this first .
had already chosen the new 's location—at the junction of and , beneath an abandoned overpass.
That was the only route from into , 's second most prosperous urban area—perfect as a forward outpost for exploring .
Watching the fully automated unit-spawning process, immediately felt his reactor core ease considerably.
The production speed still wasn't fast, but as collection efficiency rose and more replication Worker Bees came into service, it would only get faster.
This was it! Idle automation was the true god.
***
Meanwhile, at the exit of the underground tunnel at the Iron Mine.
Whew—
crawled out of the temporary seal that had been dug open again. The sunlight hit his face, making him squint involuntarily.
After so many days, setting foot on this land again still made his skin crawl.
The entire mining area was still so clean, so silent.
“ , this place... is still as ominous as ever,” a young team member said in a low voice, tightening his grip on his rifle.
didn't answer. His gaze swept toward the mine pit.
The enormous open-pit mine lay quietly in the sunlight, the exposed rust-red rock layers on its walls clearly visible.
There was nothing. Nothing could be seen.
But he knew—beneath it lurked something extremely dangerous.
Behind , led the members out of the passage one by one.
Behind them came five Robots. The micro-missile pods on their shoulders and the guns on their robotic arms gleamed with cold metallic luster.
This time, they had come prepared.
In fact, according to the original plan, after recovering the armaments from the garrison training base, they should have come to deal with this place.
But the string of incidents before had forced everyone to divide their attention, so the schedule for resolving the mine's mysterious monster kept getting postponed.
Only now, with most of initially cleared, recaptured, the brought under control, and more than fifty survivors found and brought into the , had everything returned to calm.
Only then did and the others finally have room to consider “going a round” with the mysterious creature in the mine pit. After all, 's was still stuck here!
Based on the data on the monster's appearances collected by Robots on rotating guard duty, had roughly found the pattern: the creature appeared on the mine's surface at intervals cycling through six or seven days, then two or three days.
So, taking advantage of the end of the previous short cycle, immediately organized personnel to come and carry out the operation.
[Operation begins.] 's voice sounded in everyone's communication channel.
[The next “ ” active cycle is expected in four to five days. We must complete all preparations before then.]
“Copy!”
No one hesitated; they immediately split up.
's geological was responsible for operating the equipment and setting up the detonation points.
, meanwhile, led the straight to the mine's explosives warehouse.
The plan was simple: find explosives, set them in specific positions, wait for the monster to appear, and then—“boom!”—see if they could blast it to death.
You couldn't blame them for the crude plan. They were simply out of options—they still had far too little intelligence on this thing.
They didn't even know where it disappeared to. had set up traps before, trying to use Sentinels to catch a few worms.
But when the mist dispersed and they went to check the results, the worms were still gone.
Even stranger, even with geological detection radar, they couldn't detect these worms underground. There wasn't even a visible burrow, as if they had never existed.
Since that was the case, and the others could only channel the spirit of plain materialist warriors and use an explosion to test the other side's purity.
Using the mining-area map found in the office, they quickly located the explosives warehouse inside the mountain on the north side of the mining area.
The heavy blast-proof door was locked. A team member pulled out a pair of hydraulic cutters and, with a “crack,” snipped off the lock handle.
walked to the door, gripped both handles, bent his legs slightly, and the power armor's hydraulic system let out a low hum.
“Creak—” the heavy blast-proof door was slowly pushed open.
The warehouse was dry and cold inside. Crates of industrial explosives—emulsion explosives, ANFO explosives, and matching electronic detonators and detonating cord—were neatly stacked on shelves.
The stock far exceeded everyone's expectations.
“If this still can't blast it to death, then it really is haunted,” said with a light laugh.
“Nothing wrong,” a team member reported after checking.
nodded. “Start moving. According to the plan, set up primary blast points A, B, and C at the bottom of the pit, plus twelve auxiliary blast points.”
The team members immediately set to work hauling the heavy crates of explosives out.
The moving went faster than expected. The mine itself had hand-pushed flatbed carts for transporting explosives, which saved a lot of effort.
Meanwhile, led down to the bottom of the pit.
The rock at the bottom was dark brown and hard, with neat striations on the surface left by large machinery.
Without hesitation, they immediately began drilling according to plan. Even though they knew the odds of the monster suddenly appearing were low, they didn't want to stay in this dangerous place a moment longer than necessary.
Two pneumatic rock drills found in the mining area were pushed to the first marked point. Sharp drill bits bit into the rock, sending debris flying.
To ensure full coverage above and below ground, they drilled three two-meter-deep blast holes at each point and stuffed the explosives in.
Every blast point's position was precisely calculated, ensuring the blast would perfectly cover the core area of the whole pit.
“C-3 blast point in place.”
“Detonator circuit connection test normal.”
“All blast points ready. Can detonate at any time.”
The reports came through the communication channel one after another.
The setup had gone far more smoothly than expected, but looking at the detonation lines spread across the pit bottom, no one felt any lighter.
Though they could be sure the explosion would be violent, the enemy was, after all, an incomprehensible unknown, and they couldn't help feeling unsettled.
“ , all preparations are complete,” reported.
[Good. All personnel, withdraw and return to the underground entrance.] issued the withdrawal order.
[The detonation will be executed automatically by the Sentinels by then. You don't need to wait here.]
“Copy!”
and the others took one last look at the deep pit, then prepared to return to the underground tunnel entrance.
But just then, a sudden change occurred. An extremely faint mist began to seep out of the pit bottom with no warning whatsoever.
Almost at the same moment, the Sentinels under 's control detected a special infrasound frequency.
“What's going on?” and the others were alarmed. Hadn't they said the monster wouldn't come out for several more days?
[Warning! Abnormal infrasound signal detected! Suspected cause of the anomaly!]
[Now performing full-power scan! Sound source locked!] 's voice rang out at the right moment.
Then transmitted the sound-source location jointly scanned by the five Sentinels to everyone.
The source was behind an abandoned building near them. A glaring high-temperature humanoid silhouette was clearly visible, its body temperature even higher than 's had been back then.
[Enemy attack! Third floor of the office building to the southeast!]
Almost as spoke, the monster inside the office building seemed to realize it was exposed.
Boom—!!!
The third-floor wall was smashed through as if it were paper, bricks and stones flying everywhere!
A black shadow shot out of the dust at a speed the naked eye could barely track. It showed no intention of fleeing—instead, it charged straight at the detonation device not far from the group!
reacted instantly. It wanted to stop the explosion!
Fortunately, reacted just as fast! The vector nozzles on the back of the “ ” armor burst with pale blue exhaust, and he shot out like a silver meteor, slamming into the black shadow!
Bang—!!!
A dull impact resounded across the mining area!
, in a standard blocking stance, used his armor-covered forearm to firmly catch the monster's spike.
Sparks flew, and the shrill scraping sound made everyone nearby frown.
“Fall back! Keep your distance!” and the others finally snapped into action, hurrying toward the underground entrance and putting more distance between themselves and the monster.