The system is four years ahead of schedule, but Weird is still a cub.

The birth of "First Sequence Hermes" ushered in an explosive growth period for the city's productivity.

Under the precise calculations and control of "Hermes", the first truly "high-precision CNC machine tool" was officially put into use a week later.

Under the command of the "biological brain," the robotic arm demonstrated for the first time the fluidity and precision of its movements. Pieces of purified, incredibly hard "flesh-and-blood alloy" were precisely cut, polished, and shaped into standardized parts of the "Predator" armor, gleaming with a metallic sheen.

Meanwhile, under Ellie's leadership, another brand-new production line was quietly established on the other side of the city.

— "Bio-battery" production line.

Ellie led her team to crush and purify the large number of low-level, bizarre tumor hearts that had been previously disposed of.

Then, using the "psychic energy conversion" biotechnology extracted from the psychic creature, it is made into "biopsychic energy blocks" that are only the size of a palm but can provide stable high-energy output.

These two production lines, representing the highest level of technology in "Iron Heart," produce the "skeleton" and the "heart," respectively, and are ultimately assembled in the largest final assembly workshop located in the city center.

On this day, Shen Ge, A Lai, and all the heads of departments gathered here, and everyone's eyes were focused on the center of the workshop.

A massive industrial robotic arm, personally controlled by Hephaestus, was carefully embedding the last "bio-battery" into a groove on the back of a nearly completed exoskeleton powered armor.

The moment the battery was inserted, a dark red energy beam, like a blood vessel awakening, instantly spread throughout the entire armor.

The small reactor on his chest emitted a soft light, and the optical sensors in his eyes lit up as well.

The Raiders Generation... has officially arrived!
It stands quietly on the display stand, exuding a "technological feel" that combines a metallic texture with biological resilience.

Unlike the bulky steam armor of the "Gear Guard," it perfectly conforms to the lines of human muscles, with every joint and every armor seam filled with a sense of precision design.

Shen Ge felt that he was like a more perfect version of the supernatural armor created by the Special Operations Department in "reality".

"Who wants to give it a try?" Hephaestus's voice carried a hint of excitement; this was a work to which he had poured countless efforts.

All eyes turned to Kyle and Roca, who were undoubtedly the best candidates as the captains of the "Iron Heart Guard".

The two brothers exchanged a glance, both seeing barely suppressed excitement and longing in each other's eyes. Finally, Kyle, the older brother, took a step forward.

"I come!"

Under Hephaestus's guidance, Kyle took off his shirt, revealing the well-developed muscles he had honed through countless battles.

He walked behind the "plunderers".

"laugh--"

With a soft hydraulic sound, the back of the armor slowly opened, and Kyle looked at the intricate machinery before him, took a deep breath, and stepped inside.

The armor closed the next second.

Kyle's body was encased in machinery, with tiny biological probes extending from the inner wall of the armor, gently piercing his skin and linking to his nervous system.

A brand-new data-driven combat interface instantly appeared before his eyes.

He could feel an unimaginably powerful force continuously flowing into his body.

Kyle tentatively raised his hand.

The giant mechanical arm outside made the same movement at a speed perfectly synchronized with his.

Kyle felt no delay or sluggishness whatsoever; the armor seemed to be an extension of his body!

"How do you feel?" Roca asked enviously.

Kyle's voice, filled with surprise and disbelief, came through the communicator.

"I feel... amazing! I can even take on a high-level deep-sea monster single-handedly, and I feel every part of my body is full of power!"

Kyle slowly clenched his fist, the huge mechanical hand emitting a piercing metallic scraping sound, like the cracking of bones when a person clenches their fist.

“Let’s conduct basic performance tests,” Hephaestus said excitedly.

He walked to the main control panel and brought up the monitoring footage of the test site.

He then shouted into the communicator to Kyle inside the armor: "Captain Kyle! Respond if you hear me! Now, proceed with the movement test! Target: the alloy obstacle wall ahead!"

"Roger that!" Kyle's voice was filled with excitement.

He simply put the thought of "moving forward" into his mind.

next second!
"boom!"

With a muffled bang, the hydraulic power system under the feet of the "Raider" armor instantly unleashed a powerful thrust, and the entire vehicle vanished from its spot like a cannonball!

All the people saw was a black afterimage that flashed by!

Immediately afterwards——

"Bang!!"

At the far end of the test field, a huge human-shaped hole was smashed into the obstacle wall, which was made of five layers of "flesh-blood alloy" and was three meters thick!

Kyle stood unharmed on the other side of the wall, even striking what he thought was a cool kneeling pose to cushion the impact.

"..."

The entire command center was completely silent.

Even Shen Ge's eye twitched slightly.

Of course, the others were shocked by the "Raider's" immense power, while Shen Ge was stunned by Kyle's comical "heroic landing" pose.

"Begin the strength test!" Hephaestus's eyes practically sparkled with excitement.

"no problem!"

Kyle's excited shout came through the communicator. In the surveillance footage, he was seen standing up and walking to a solid iron block used specifically for testing the strength of crane booms.

He took a deep breath and gripped the edge of the iron block with both hands.

"Uhhhhh!!!"

With a roar from Kyle, the enormous block of iron, big enough to crush a truck, was lifted off the ground!
Although it was only a few dozen centimeters off the ground, Kyle's legs had sunk deep into the alloy floor due to the enormous load, but he did it!
A human being of flesh and blood, using technological creations, lifted a heavy iron weight capable of crushing a truck!

At this moment, all the engineers of the old "Mechanicus" looked at the black mech in the picture, and the last bit of their obsession with "flesh and blood" vanished completely.

They finally realized that Bishop Arcturus was wrong, terribly wrong.

They finally understood what a vast and infinitely possible path of evolution Shen Ge, the new "ruler," had shown them!
That is neither abandoning the physical body nor embracing chaos.

Instead, it allows the wisdom of mortals to harness the power of gods and demons!

This is the true "Iron Heart," the real... "Mechanical Ascension."

The success of the "Predator" generation has brought more than just a leap in military power to "Ironheart"; it can even be applied to daily production and maintenance.

Heavy tasks that previously required the combined efforts of ten, twenty, or even thirty people can now be easily accomplished by the "plunderers" alone.

"Mass production," a goal that Shen Ge had set from the beginning, was quickly put on the agenda.

However, this prototype alone consumed a huge amount of resources and time. If mass production is to be achieved, the first thing to do is to establish the city's industrial system.

Under the coordination of the "Hermes" biocomputer, the entire city's industrial system was reorganized around the production of the "Raiders".

First, the "Ore and Material Recycling Center" was established, and the strong and healthy survivors under Ragnar's command were no longer satisfied with farming and fishing.

They volunteered to don simple protective suits, drive small engineering boats, and begin excavating the massive urban structures and warship wrecks in the surrounding waters, bringing a continuous stream of higher-quality raw materials to the furnace.

Secondly, the establishment of the "assembly line workshop" demonstrated Ellie's amazing management skills. She divided the assembly of the "Raiders" into dozens of independent processes, allowing each worker to focus on tightening the screw in front of them.

This "Ford production model," which originated in the old era, greatly improved production efficiency.

The "Ironheart Guard" underwent its most rigorous reforms in history, and membership was no longer open to just anyone. To become a glorious "Raider" pilot, one had to pass three tests.

First, there's the "physical fitness and combat skills" assessment, overseen by Roca. Only the strongest and bravest warriors are qualified to tame this steel beast.

Second, there was the "Theory and Coordination" assessment overseen by Hephaestus. Pilots had to study the over 500,000-word "Predator Generation 1 Operation and Maintenance Manual" and undergo hundreds of hours of virtual cooperative combat training via simulator.

The third and most important test was personally conducted by Alai.

—"Psychological assessment".

All candidates must answer a series of questions under the gentle yet insightful guidance of Alaina.

Anyone who demonstrates excessive violence, a lust for power, or a lack of "reverence" for power during the assessment will be disqualified.

Alai once explained his intentions to Shen Ge: "We are creating a group of 'supermen.' But we must never create a group of... 'monsters' that we ourselves cannot control."

Shen Ge wholeheartedly agreed. What he wanted to build was a new civilization in the post-apocalyptic world, not another out-of-control "weird organization".

Although Alai didn't understand what Shen Ge meant by not letting his warriors become "Azu who doesn't eat beef," she believed that Shen Ge also didn't want to see his warriors lose themselves because of power.

Under such a rigorous and scientific system, half a month later, the "Raiders First Squad," composed of ten of the best warriors, was officially established.

After a month of hard work, ten brand-new, jet-black "Raider" armored vehicles marched across the square in perfect unison, prompting a burst of enthusiastic cheers from all the citizens of "Iron Heart" below.

This is the most powerful army of "Iron Heart". From now on, they will no longer need the Executor to be on the front line!

On the “Iron Heart”, agricultural development boosted the enthusiasm of citizens, leading to rapid industrial progress, which in turn supported agriculture.

After successfully solving the "food and clothing" problem for the citizens of "Iron Heart," Ragnar, the deputy minister of the "Ministry of Ecology," began to have new aspirations.

"Sir, our food selection is still too limited."

That day, Ragnar and Alai approached Shen Ge and handed him a report on "Citizen Nutrition Structure," a summary compiled by Alai and Ellie based on a citizen health survey.

"A long-term diet of potatoes and mushrooms has led to many young guards developing symptoms of micronutrient deficiency."

“We need…meat. Although the fishing and hunting teams can guarantee the supply of seafood, sometimes the waters we enter cannot yield a large number of fish. Most importantly, the low-level monsters we capture are too severely corrupted by monster energy, and apart from being able to eat, they have lost all their nutrition.”

"We need a stable and renewable source of meat."

Ragnar put forward a bold idea – “aquaculture”.

They wanted to raise some relatively "docile" and highly reproductive low-level strange sea creatures in the bottom sluice gate area of ​​"Iron Heart".

“This is a good idea, but there are three issues you must address.” Shen Ge immediately expressed his support and offered some suggestions based on his experience in the “real world.”

"The first is the source of feed."

"The second is epidemic prevention and control. How can we ensure that these captive monsters do not 'mutate' due to some unforeseen reason, or even threaten the safety of the city?"

"The third and most important thing is the 'taste'. Most of the strange meat in the deep sea is sour and astringent. If the cultivated seafood also tastes like this, then it is better to make the fishing teams work harder."

It was impossible for the Ministry of Agriculture alone to solve these three problems, so Allai and Ragnar turned to the Ministry of Technology.

With the help of engineers from the technical department, two more research and development teams were quickly established.

First, there was the "Feed Research and Development Center," where technicians began experimenting with using useless organic waste generated daily in the city, such as kitchen waste and plant roots, mixed with the lowest-grade energy liquid, to create a "strange, special synthetic feed" that supposedly tasted terrible but was extremely nutritious.

Secondly, there is the "Gene Monitoring Laboratory." Ellie suppresses the "wildness" and "aggression" of the strange cubs after they grow up by injecting them with a specially programmed "biological virus." Combined with the strange energy inhibitor program proposed by Shen Ge, this reduces their mutation rate.

After two research teams worked day and night, a month later, in the newly built ecological breeding warehouse of "Iron Heart".

The first batch of "Iron Heart No. 1 Armored Tuna," with a hard black shell on its back but flesh texture and taste almost identical to that of a top-grade bluefin tuna, has successfully hatched.

When the first piece of "genetically modified" fish, sizzling and oozing with oil, was served, even Shen Ge couldn't resist eating a few more pieces. (End of Chapter)