Translator: AnubisTL
Scar Dog gazed toward the mechanical race city.
All he could see was pitch-black darkness, divided as if by a sharp, descending line. On one side, it was daylight; on the other, absolute darkness.
This stark division created the unsettling illusion that the world itself might be artificial.
In a daze, Scar Dog reached into the darkness before him. His arm seemed to vanish completely, as if swallowed up to the shoulder.
At that moment, Li Hao's map manifestation flickered back to life, illuminating their surroundings.
They hadn't entered the mechanical race city, so its interior remained unmapped in Li Hao's mind and couldn't be manifested. Only the area surrounding the city had been mapped.
But that was enough.
Previously, attacking a mechanical race city required mapping its interior. The Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret had a short range, necessitating the use of phantom gates to transport the turrets inside the city for a successful bombardment.
But things were different now.
The Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret had a range of over 20,000 meters. They only needed to position the barrel near the mechanical race city to begin the bombardment!
Times had advanced.
"Begin," Chen Jiang ordered.
As his voice faded, Scar Dog swiftly selected the phantom gate's landing point on Li Hao's map.
Immediately afterward, a massive barrel, ten meters thick, slowly extended from a mountain peak near the mechanical race city, its red, glowing patterns invisible in the darkness.
Only the thunderous explosions echoed through the night.
Pitch-black energy bullets, utterly devoid of light, shot from the turret, slamming into the mechanical race city's energy shield and dissipating upon impact.
No light, only sound.
It was as if the monitor had been disconnected, leaving only the host connected to the speakers.
"Excellent," Chen Jiang murmured, his lips curving into a satisfied smile as he nodded in the darkness.
If information-based warfare was a crushing blow against ancient armies armed with bows and spears, then nightfall was the weapon that allowed him to strike from a higher dimension!
He could see his opponent and casually press the turret against the enemy's forehead, while the enemy couldn't even see him, let alone determine the direction of the attack. This was an utterly asymmetrical form of warfare!
Under Nightfall, all reconnaissance methods became useless.
Satellites, radar, holographic screens, drones—everything failed. Even the most primitive method of visual observation became completely ineffective, effectively destroying the enemy's entire reconnaissance system.
Against weaker or equally matched foes, Nightfall might offer little advantage. But against enemies wielding massive firepower, it was like blinding them first.
Instantly shifting from a disadvantage to a dominant position.
In truth, the human race had long employed similar tactics, such as throwing lime powder before a fight. The principle remained the same, regardless of the method.
He now understood why rule items were so coveted.
Their existence was practically a cheat code.
They could defy physics, science, and even the fundamental laws of the universe, enabling feats that should be impossible.
In certain situations, it could deliver a fatal blow to the enemy!
Just like now.
The entire mechanical race city had plunged into an impenetrable, pitch-black darkness!
"Damn it!"
In one of the mechanical race's Eight Great Satellite Cities, an elder roared, his face contorted with anger. "What's happening? All units, report your status!"
In that instant, darkness had engulfed his vision, including the massive display screen before him.
At first, he assumed the energy block had run out. But after fumbling in the dark to replace it, he realized that wasn't the problem.
The emergency lights hadn't activated either!
Most critically, when he touched the display screen, he could clearly feel the feedback and hear the system prompts, indicating the screen was still on—yet he couldn't see anything!
This situation left him utterly bewildered.
Soon, reports began flooding in from various units.
"West City Defense Team One reporting: The surrounding area is pitch-black. There's no light in the sky—it's as if the sun has vanished."
"North City Garrison Team Two reporting: All light sources have gone dark, including energy products and even the glow from energy bullets."
"..."
Soon, all the reports came in.
The elder stood frozen, his face grim. Though he struggled to accept it, he had to admit the entire city was plunged into absolute darkness, not a single glimmer of light visible.
Their weapons still functioned, but they couldn't aim. They couldn't even tell if their cannons were pointed inward or outward!
He had never experienced anything like this before and couldn't fathom any explanation for it.
As for the sun falling, that was even more absurd. Even if the sun had fallen, it wouldn't have extinguished all light from their energy products.
"Grandpa..."
In the darkness, Feng Jiutian groped his way to a pillar in the corner. Clinging to it for a sliver of security, he rasped in a voice barely concealing his terror, "It's Chen Jiang! It has to be Chen Jiang!"
"Those light bullets he fired into the sky must be the cause!"
Just then—
BOOM!!!
A massive explosion shook the mechanical race city!
Though they couldn't see it, the thunderous impact against the energy shield made it clear the projectile's destructive power was immense.
"Hah!"
Having weathered countless trials, the elder quickly regained his composure and barked out an order: "All personnel responsible for replenishing the energy shield with energy blocks must remain stationary from this moment forward!"
"You can't see the energy shield's remaining energy percentage, so from now on, you must continuously replenish the shield with energy blocks at all times!"
Originally, the energy shield displayed its remaining energy percentage. When it reached zero, the shield would inevitably shatter. However, the percentage was displayed on a screen, which was now completely dark, showing no light whatsoever.
This meant that the only way to prevent the shield from shattering was to constantly replenish it with energy blocks. Any excess energy blocks wouldn't be wasted, making this the most reliable approach.
After issuing these instructions, the elder finally let out a slight sigh of relief and turned toward Feng Jiutian's position in the darkness. "Stay calm. As the captain of the Fate Holder Squad, you need to maintain your composure."
"Based on preliminary analysis, whatever caused this effect is likely either a rule item or a rule talent."
"Whatever is causing such a powerful effect—whether it's a rule item or a rule talent—must have significant limitations!"
"Our energy block reserves are ample. Just the energy blocks we've placed around the energy shield replenishment points are enough to sustain the shield's high-consumption state for a full six hours!"
"Could this darkness really last six hours?"
"Rule items have many restrictions; they can't be used so recklessly!"
"I bet it won't be long before dawn breaks, everything returns to normal, and we just need to wait patiently until then. Once it's light, we can reacquire Chen Jiang's location and carpet-bomb him!"
"In the end, we'll still win. This is the foundation of the mechanical race."
Hearing his grandfather's words, Feng Jiutian felt a slight sense of relief. He couldn't help but gaze admiringly into the darkness, toward the direction of his grandfather's voice, and sigh, "Thank goodness for you, Grandpa. If it were up to me, I wouldn't have known what to do."
He couldn't see his grandfather in the darkness, but he could still roughly determine his direction by the sound of his voice.
If the mechanical race could have seen the energy shield's remaining energy consumption percentage at that moment, they would have realized the shield's energy was draining at an alarmingly rapid rate!
Each of those ten-meter-diameter shells slammed into the city's energy shield at a rate of 20,000 rounds per minute. The fact that the shield hadn't shattered yet spoke volumes about its exceptional strength.
The rate at which energy blocks were being replenished barely kept pace with the shield's energy consumption.
The implication was clear:
Any slight delay in replenishing the energy blocks would cause the shield to collapse instantly.
However, the players in the mechanical race city remained unaware of this critical information.
Had they known, those replenishing the energy blocks might have worked with even greater urgency.
Scar Dog stood outside Nightfall, listening to the relentless explosions within. He couldn't help but marvel aloud, "These mechanical race guys are tough! They've held out for over half an hour already?"
"Even Wu Jinshen's wife's castle energy shield crumbled much faster."
"And that shield wasn't even directly hit—it was just caught in the blast radius. But this mechanical race shield is taking the full force head-on! Could their technology really be more advanced than ours?"
"It's different," Chen Jiang said, shaking his head. "Wu Jinshen was just a merchant. His energy shield was a decent one he bought with money. But this energy shield is the pinnacle of mechanical race technology. After all, this city looks like their main base."
"Still, after thirty minutes of bombardment, it should be close to breaking. Let's give it one final, massive blast."
The Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret's ammunition capacity allowed for ten minutes of continuous bombardment. Chen Jiang had already fired for thirty minutes, using two energy cartridge replenishment guns to reload.
Now he was about to use the third.
The turret's ammunition capacity was quickly replenished to full. Chen Jiang patted the barrel lightly.
The next moment—
[Giant Super Annihilation Bomb]
BOOM!!!
A deafening explosion erupted nearby, the shockwave tearing through the air. But unlike previous blasts, this time there was no blinding white light searing across the sky.
Instead, countless ear-splitting screams, overlapping and distorted, faintly echoed in their ears.
"It's broken."
Chen Jiang nodded with a satisfied smile. He knew the energy shield had shattered because his fusion points had surged by a full 10,000 points.
This meant the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb had killed 10,000 mechanical race players.
A bit underwhelming, perhaps.
But it was understandable, considering most of the energy had been spent breaking through the shield.
Next, the turret entered a three-minute cooldown period, but that was no problem—he still had the Crimson Light Pillar!
Near the mechanical race city, the turret's barrel shuddered twice before unleashing a crimson light pillar that pierced straight through the ice-blue city walls, which had seemed impenetrable.
The pillar didn't stop there; it continued to extend forward!
Empowered by Nightfall, the Crimson Light Pillar's destructive force had been greatly amplified!
The once-scarlet beam now blended seamlessly into the darkness. Mechanical race players vaporized by the pillar didn't even realize what was happening before losing consciousness.
Chen Jiang's Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret had no accuracy whatsoever, nor did it require any aiming. Fortunately, he didn't need such precision.
The crimson light pillar, now completely fused with the darkness, showed no mercy or restraint as it savagely plunged into the mechanical city before him, churning wildly.
Soon, the crimson light pillar ceased its assault, and Chen Jiang's Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret entered its cooldown phase.
This single attack had already earned him nearly 160,000 fusion points.
"So many?" Chen Jiang murmured, slightly surprised. It seemed the mechanical race city housed a considerable number of players.
Now, all he could do was patiently wait out the cooldown.
Before long, two minutes and forty seconds had passed.
The familiar thunderous bombardment erupted again from the darkness!
A staggering 200,000 ten-meter-diameter shells rained down on the mechanical race city at a rate of 20,000 per minute, unleashing a relentless, indiscriminate barrage.
On the fusion point rankings, Chen Jiang's score rapidly climbed.
Yes.
This city was one of the mechanical race's Eight Great Satellite Cities, representing nearly the full might of their current military power. It boasted a vast arsenal of high-firepower weaponry.
In fact, the starship bomb that had been launched earlier had originated from this very city.
But what did that matter now?
This time, there was no stationary, precise coordinate for the mechanical race city to leisurely bombard. With no intelligence to gather, their only option was to endure the relentless assault.
Chen Jiang refrained from using the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb this time.
While the Giant Super Annihilation Bomb possessed immense destructive power, its lengthy cooldown period prevented sustained bombardment.
Normal artillery shells, on the other hand, were limitless as long as he had enough energy cartridge replenishment guns to refill his weapon.
An energy cartridge replenishment gun cost 1,000 human race merit points and could fully replenish the energy cartridge of a Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret once. However, the merit points earned from a single volley fired by the Steel Sword Autonomous Rotating Turret never amounted to four digits.
(End of the Chapter)
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