Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation
Niger, Africa, in a certain inhabited region in the Azawag River Valley.
Niger was located in the Sahel region of Africa. The Azawag River Valley took on a canyon topography that started from the Azhar Gan River further upstream. The entire region was positioned 300 meters above sea level and spanned across the Nima border. It was one of the regions in the world with the most rampant terrorist activities.
It was midnight. The moon illuminated the starry night sky above. Due to the absence of any environmental pollution, the region was largely preserved in its natural state. Mixed into the starry night sky above were hundreds of faint black spots slowly swerving among them.
These tiny black spots navigated the sky as silent as death itself, like a collection of quaint fireflies. They swarmed in from all directions, all of them were headed toward a small temporary base set up in one section of the canyon.
As the camera panned closer, it could be finally made out that the numerous black spots painted across the sky and illuminated by moonlight were a large assortment of unmanned drones, each one spanning an average of two to three meters in diameter!
The drones flew several hundred meters above the sky, each one of them looked like a tiny UFO from a distance. The largest among them was no longer than five meters wide while the smallest measured as short as one meter.
While coursing through the air, these drones were able to put their excellent sound muffling technology on full display. Under the protection of the night sky, they silently crept toward the temporary base like hounds stalking their prey.
There seemed to be something hidden beneath the butterfly-shaped drones.
It was a robot fitted with proper limbs. They came in all kinds of models, each of them curled into a ball like a Transformer. They took up minimal space while being carried underneath the belly of the larger drones.
As they inched closer to their destination, it soon became evident that the base was no ordinary base either. Watchtowers were erected in close proximity everywhere. There were fortresses with built-in battling guns as well. There was the red flag of a certain faction with intelligible phrases on top. This was the base of operations of a certain informal military organization.
When the drones each arrived at their respective designated positions, the larger drone models carrying the largest robots with reinforced platings were the first ones to descend from several hundred meters above the ground. They sunk into the dense mud on the surface, making a dull thump as they landed.
As soon as the robots landed, they appeared to have activated some sort of installed mechanism. There was a short, mechanical screech followed by two intervals of red lights blinking on their armor plate. Immediately after that, four gigantic joint hydraulic legs emerged from their bodies.
It took no more than a second for the robots to find their balance as they immediately positioned themselves upright after that. Meanwhile, two slender and nimble arms unfolded from their sides, revealing arms that were not reminiscent of regular humanoid arms, but a mighty display of multi-barrel weapons instead!
The arms of these robots were fully-fitted Gatlings!
The robots revealed themselves in all their glory. They were absolute monstrosities fitted with sophisticated armor that stood two meters tall and measured more than four meters wide. On the sides of their body was a label written with gray-colored font —
BW-XTN-002-1.
Approximately twenty of these models were deployed on the ground. Instead of being deployed together in one central position, they were split into six separate groups. They were positioned to cut off all the vital channels leading in and out of the base.
This was merely the beginning. While the larger drones deployed the monstrous machines on the ground, more drones had stealthily arrived at the airspace above the temporary base.
The smaller drone models began to disperse into multiple locations while the larger drones deployed tiny machines onto the base.
The violent thumps of machines crashing against the roof started to echo across the base. These devices impaled into the roof, some of them even pierced straight through the roof, forming a large gaping hole through the ceiling!
“Ah, what’s that!”
“What’s going on! Something fell from the sky!”
“D*mn, my leg! My leg!”
“It’s an invasion! Sound the alarm!”
In an instant, frantic screams and the hectic beating of tents being torn open sounded across the base. These people were either at a loss for words or were caught in a daze looking at the “shooting stars” falling from the sky. Some of them were still dreaming away soundly when they had their dreams cut short by a giant block of metal crushing them to death!
The village was thrown into chaos!
This was merely the beginning.
A young man who was woken up by the sudden uproar quickly snapped to attention and grabbed his AKM as he looked at the object in front of him cautiously.
Without even realizing it, a queer-looking metal block had punched through his tent and landed almost right next to his feet.
The metal block was painted with a fine layer of non-reflective matte black texture. The block-shaped structure was around forty centimeters wide and could not be any more than twenty centimeters thick. What made it stand out from the other devices was that it was composed of countless hydraulic pipes among its complex structure.
A string of labels that read BW-XTN-004-8 was written on top of its surface.
As soon as it landed, several red dots on it started to flicker briefly. It was immediately followed by a faint “beep”, which prompted the sophisticated mechanism to flap open suddenly.
In an instant, a robotic spider with eight fine, iron-tipped legs emerged from the metal block. It stumbled for two paces before finding its balance.
“What in the world are you…”
There was a flash of confusion in the young man’s eyes as he attempted to poke at this bizarre creation with the barrel of his gun. Within a second, the robotic spider launched itself forward using six hind legs and threw itself into the young man’s face!
“Ah–!”
“Clack clack clack clack clack…”
The sound of screams and the frantic rattling of rifles sounded like a warhorse. In an instant, the deployed robots were released from their cages and went on a terrible massacre!
Yes, a massacre!
“Report!”
A messenger stumbled to the center of the barracks. At this time, a middle-aged man with a gray beard and skin so dark they reflected light was chewing on a cigar as he rushed out of the only bunker with his soldiers.
“Report, general!”
The messenger was drenched in blood, his face and stomach had been cut by some kind of weapon as fresh blood seeped out of the gap in between his torn flesh. Despite all that, he was determined to report to his superior, “We’re besieged by unknown forces. They are robots! The entire camp is covered by spider-like robots!”
“You mean ones like these?”
The general bit down on his cigar and unveiled a golden Magnum which he pointed at the direction of the messenger’s head!
“Bang!”
The deafening ring of a gunshot. The messenger shrieked with his hands over his head and curled himself into a bell. Right behind him, a robot spider was blasted away by the enormous impact generated by the firearm!
“Squeak!”
To their amusement, the robot spider sent flying away by the bullet was still alive and kicking. The region around its stomach started to zap uncontrollably. It would appear its circuitry was damaged. Despite all that, it squirmed on the ground like a real insect and screeched horrifically as it attempted to get back on its feet.
This time, without being prompted, the general’s subordinates took aim with their AKM and unloaded on the enemy!
“Brr, brr, brr….”
After a barrage of gunshots, four of the robot spider’s limbs were demolished. The remaining two limbs could no longer sustain their weight or allow any further movements.
With that, the middle-aged man finally scoffed as he knelt to pick up one of its severed legs. The leg reflected an icy gleam of light when he picked it up. They were immensely sharp fine-tipped blades!
“Report, general!”
Yet another messenger charged to the general. The messenger was relieved upon seeing the general and exclaimed in between fervent gasps, “General, we can’t hold our ground any longer!”
“Relay my message to all our comrades in our organization. There aren’t many enemies, we can overcome and defeat them!”
The middle-aged man roared ferociously as he headed outside.
However, the outlook on the battlefield was far worse than he had ever expected.
It was largely due to it being an unexpected ambush. The majority of the soldiers barely had time to react before they had murderous robot spiders coming right at them.
These robot spiders could even scale the walls on their own!
Facing such frontal assault, although there were no more than fifty of these spiders, they still caused a severe amount of casualties in the military base.
However, just as the middle-aged man was about to take command over the battlefield, the ground quaked violently again!
This time, the sound of objects crashing against the ground was more volatile!
“Watch out! General!”
One of the general’s guards caught the glimpse of something in his peripheral which caused his pupil to shrink into a ball. He immediately leaped forward and pushed the middle-aged man to the ground some distance away. The other guards were not as lucky. They had reacted just a split instant slower and ended up obliterated by a metallic object crashing on them from above!
A baffling amount of blood and guts poured out and splattered all over the general. However, the general was hardly disturbed by this. He immediately calmly helped his nearby guards to his feet and made them retreat with him.
At this moment, all the guards formed a half-circle with the metal block that just fell from above at the center of the circle.
The general inspected the sky above intently but could not identify anything notable.
After that, he proceeded to direct his attention to the metal block.
This metal block was several times larger than the robot spiders that they had seen so far. Within moments, several beams of light started to flicker along its surface. It appeared as if it was going to activate any second!
“Fire!”
As the general barked an order, his subordinates immediately unleashed havoc on the iron block. In an instant, deafening gunshots and the strong scent of gunpowder filled the space around them. The gunpowder brought up a cloud of smoke that surrounded the iron block!
After expanding the first round of ammo, the well-trained and disciplined guards began swapping out their magazines. The general man chewed his cigar and stared intently at the object hidden underneath the cloud of smoke.
Before the smoke could fully disperse, a beam of red light suddenly shot through the cloud of ashes. It flickered endlessly and turned green abruptly with a swift click, immediately followed by the distinctive sneeze of hydraulic gas pumping out!
Everyone gazed at the metal block as it slowly assembled itself into a figure that looked like a regular human. First, it was a metallic head that popped out of its top and emerged through the smoke, its eyes flashing red. After that, its limbs emerged, then it constructed its torso…
“What in the hell is this supposed to be…”
The general bit down hard on his cigar as he beheld the indestructible monster. Within a second, with an instantaneous “bang”, the general’s body became contorted into a cylindrical shape before he exploded and splattered his blood, guts, and other remains in a ring around him! There was hardly any time for him to react!
Everyone watched in horror as the general was shredded into pieces by an immutable force!
At last, the robot skeleton emerged from the cloud of smoke, carrying a mighty weapon. It fired its first shot that signaled the start of another round of massacre…
“Thump thump thump!”
There was the dull thump of bullets punching into human flesh. There was hardly any window for these guards to try to escape their fated deaths. Before they could react, specially crafted shuttle-shaped hollow bullets punched through their bodies. The bullets twisted the moment they entered the human body, which created a whirlpool-like effect that spun their flesh in a ring!
Horrific screams emerged from the crowd. The ones who were hit first did not even have time to utter so much as a whimper before their flesh was blended into pieces. It only took one swift round before the guards all lay dead on the ground, covered in puddles of blood…
The arrival of the humanoid robots made the robot spiders seem like the warm-up round. The situation was quickly spiraling out of control. The military base that was supposed to be well equipped for resistance was immediately decommissioned…
“Target: Any humanoid subjects carrying weapons. Total identifiable targets: Less than 300. Threat assessment: Low…”
A sequence of data appeared on the top left corner of the robot’s vision field. The camera zoomed outward to reveal several men dressed in military uniforms seated around a roundtable in a conference room. The lowest rank among them was at least a Colonel, they focused their attention on the giant display in front of them.
“This is the footage of the suppression of armed forces in the Azawag River Valley of Niger on 20 February that was commissioned by the local authorities.”