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

A dozen or so heavily armored "maintenance guards" surrounded the pipe from both ends.

The weapons they carried were not traditional firearms, but a device that could fire high-frequency vibrating energy cables.

Once entangled by the energy cable, its high-frequency vibrations are enough to instantly disintegrate the "Predator's" living alloy armor!

"Their attack patterns are exactly the same!" Kyle shouted into the communication channel as he dodged an energy stalk.

"Be careful, their attack is anticipated, it's like they're being directed by a single brain!"

Sure enough, no matter how they dodged, the opponent could always block their next possible move half a second in advance.

Roca delivered a shoulder ramming blow, slamming a guard who was trying to get close against the pipe wall. The guard only swayed slightly, and his chest armor didn't even dent.

"Damn, these guys' bodies are as hard as iron!"

"Is it possible that they were originally just lumps of iron?"

Thanks to the Marauder-III's superior mobility and the brothers' seamless teamwork, the two were barely able to hold on. However, being trapped in the narrow pipes and consuming a huge amount of energy, their defeat was only a matter of time.

"Hermes, are you done yet?" Kyle urged anxiously as he parried the attack.

"Data disorder injection is ready... Three, two, one, initiate!"

Just as Kyle was about to be struck by the two energy cables simultaneously, all the lights in the entire underground pipe area, and even in the upper area where they were, suddenly went out!
Immediately afterwards, countless gears emitted a piercing "click" sound, and a platform that should have moved to the left suddenly rose up; a passage that should have narrowed instead extended wildly outward!
The "information virus" planted before the "Iron Heart" campaign has now come into play.

Hephaestus seized the opportunity when the enemy's mainframe was using most of its computing power for the encirclement and suppression, creating a small-scale but deadly "data chaos"!
The sudden chaos caused the "maintenance team," which had been operating with perfect coordination, to experience a collective system crash for a fraction of a second.

It's now!

"go!"

Kyle and Roca seized the fleeting opportunity, activated their thrusters, and leaped out of an emergency repair passage that had been opened due to a malfunction, instantly disappearing into the labyrinthine city structure.

……

"Iron Heart," in the bridge command room.

"The chip data has been cracked!" Hephaestus slammed his fist on the table excitedly. "My lord, you guessed right! There's something big inside!"

On the main screen, a restored, blurry video was played.

The background of the video is a city that, while not as technologically advanced as it is today, is full of life. People walk and talk freely in the streets with smiles on their faces.

Suddenly, the sky darkened, and a huge shadow, like an ancient clock, slowly descended.

As the distant chimes rang for the first time, fear and confusion appeared on everyone's faces.

In the video, a figure dressed in a robe similar to that of Titan-7, but with a style more focused on flesh and energy, slowly descends from inside the bell, announcing the arrival of "God" to the panicked residents.

The video ends abruptly there.

“This ‘Archbishop’ is not Titan-7! He’s not very mechanized; he’s more like… a monster with powerful psionic abilities!” Ellie immediately pointed out the key point.

“That’s right,” Hephaestus continued. “Combined with the other log fragments in the chip, we can deduce that ‘Clockwork City’ was originally a sea city built by human survivors, which was later occupied by this ‘Clock’ and its owner, and forced mechanization began. Titan-7 was likely just a ‘manager’ who was later pushed to the forefront and was completely obedient to the mainframe, or rather… a puppet.”

All the clues point to the mysterious "clock" and the unfathomable owner behind it.

Just then, a low alarm sounded.

Alai pointed out the porthole: "He's here."

Titan-7 walked slowly down the elevator platform alone and finally stopped in front of the Ironheart port.

This time, he was not followed by any attendants.

His emotionless gaze pierced through the alloy shell of "Iron Heart" and stared directly at Shen Ge in the command room.

"The ruler with an iron heart."

His voice, amplified through the loudspeakers, resonated throughout the entire warship: "A minor 'accident' won't affect our shared pursuit of order, will it?"

He clearly knew everything that was happening underground, but he refused to say a word about it.

"My purpose in coming here is to deliver the final divine message of the 'Bell of Truth'."

He paused, and his voice suddenly rose.

"Tomorrow at noon, at the 'Heart of the Gear,' you will undergo the test of 'synchronicity.' This will prove whether your 'core' is in sync with the rhythm of 'order.'"

"If you pass through this, you will become a member of the Kingdom of Heaven and gain eternity."

“If it fails…” A cold stream of data flashed in his gem-like eyes: “Any ‘loud noise’ that affects the operation of the machinery will only have one fate—to be forcibly recycled and melted down into more useful parts.”

This is an ultimatum, an absolute confidence in one's own strength.

The command room was silent, and all eyes were on Shen Ge.

Shen Ge slowly stood up from his seat, walked to the porthole, and looked at Titan-7 from a distance of several meters.

After a long while, he smiled and slowly nodded.

"Of course. We have long awaited hearing the truth."

A slight twitch seemed to move the mechanical face of Titan-7, as if mimicking a satisfied smile. He bowed slightly, turned, and left.

As his figure disappeared from the elevator platform, the inside of "Iron Heart" immediately asked anxious questions.

“My lord! Are we really going to accept that ‘synchronization’? It’s clearly a trap!” Kyle couldn’t help but say.

“Of course it’s a trap.” Shen Ge turned around.

He looked at Hephaestus and asked, "Can we find their 'server,' or rather... the real 'mastermind'?"

Hephaestus' eyes gleamed with confidence as he pointed to the highest point of the city's structural diagram on the screen.

“My lord, while we were talking, ‘Hermes’ had already located the source by following the faint data stream of the enemy’s counterattack. The ‘nano probes’ that we used to infect them earlier also received a very faint response from there.”

He stretched out his finger and pressed it heavily on the top of the clock tower where the giant pointer that pierced the heavens and the earth was located.

"It's right there!"

Noon the next day.

In the central plaza of the "Heart of the Gears," an altar has been raised specifically for the "Harmony" ceremony.

Archbishop Titan-7 stood silently atop the altar, his hands clasped behind his back.

Behind him stood hundreds of mechanical priests with their hands at their sides, the eerie blue light shimmering in their mechanical eyes echoing the flowing energy patterns on the altar.

The entire Clockwork City was operating at a three-point slower pace than usual.

Countless surveillance cameras hidden in the gaps between buildings focused their attention on the "Iron Heart" ship at the port, a ship whose style was completely different from the rest of the city.

The atmosphere was depressing to the extreme.

“It seems the ‘welcome ceremony’ is ready.” On the bridge of the Iron Heart, Shen Ge calmly looked at the altar in the distance.

"Sir, all personnel are in combat positions. The 'Raiders' Legion is ready." Kyle's voice came through the communicator, tinged with excitement.

"Just give the order, and we can take this broken tin can apart!"

"Don't rush. The guests haven't all arrived yet. The show must go on slowly," Shen Ge said.

He turned to Hephaestus: "Are you ready on your end?"

“It can begin at any time, my lord.” Hephaestus adjusted his glasses, before him stood the shimmering core of “Hermes 2.0”.

"We've already figured out 70% of the other party's data firewall structure through feedback from the 'nano probes.' Once the connection begins, I'm 90% confident that we can quietly send our 'gift' in."

Shen Ge nodded, slowly stood up, and ordered in a slightly amused voice: "Iron Heart, connect to the 'Synchro' sequence."

With his command, the previously silent "Iron Heart" finally responded.

Below the side of the port, a huge data docking probe, more than ten meters in diameter and made of living alloy, slowly extends out.

Arcs of electricity flickered at its tip, and with a click, it was inserted into the glowing interface on the altar. Under the watchful eyes of countless others, Iron Heart chose to "obey."

On Titan-7's expressionless mechanical face, a glimmer of light flashed in its jewel-like eyes.

"Synchro... Begin!"

A massive torrent of data instantly surged through the docking probes into the "Iron Heart's" main control system. This torrent was not chaotic; it was itself a kind of "rule," a kind of "order." Wherever it passed, it attempted to analyze and format all the "chaotic" programs it could not understand.

The lighting system in the outer area of ​​the "Iron Heart" malfunctioned immediately, flickering uncontrollably.

"Their data structure is more aggressive than we anticipated!" Hephaestus's voice suddenly rose, but without the slightest panic.

"Hermes, activate the 'Labyrinth Protocol'!"

On the main control system interface of "Iron Heart", just before the torrent of enemy data was about to touch the core, an enormous virtual maze was instantly generated, constructed from countless encrypted codes of the pioneers and residual information from "Pandora".

The intrusion data was like rushing into countless intricate "side roads" and tributaries, where it was greatly consumed and delayed.

“Very good…the bait has been taken.” Hephaestus muttered to himself as his fingers typed the final command on the keyboard.

"Undercurrent... Release!"

Just as the opposing mainframe was devoting most of its computing power to cracking the "data maze," an even more secretive intrusion program, perfectly disguised as a harmless response signal by "Zero's" "resonance" ability, flowed upstream towards the top of the clock tower, following the faint data feedback that the opposing side had withdrawn.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the city, in that unknown underground shadow, Shen Ge had left the bridge at some point. He was now standing quietly with Kyle and Roca behind the slowly rotating blades of a massive ventilation fan.

His invisible domain enveloped all three of them, and even if a surveillance crystal eye swept across them, all they would see was an empty wall.

"Directly below the clock tower, there is the No. 13 biological waste discharge pipe."

"Hephaestus has already planned the route for us. Remember, you only have ten minutes to infiltrate. Once the information war is over, the enemy's mastermind will detect the anomaly."

"understand!"

Excitement gleamed in the brothers' eyes. Compared to head-on clashes on the battlefield, this kind of decapitation operation, dancing on the edge of a knife, was far more thrilling for them.

As the ventilation fan blades turned to a certain angle, the three of them leaped out and silently landed in the intricate pipeline data stream of Clockwork City.

Shen Ge had more important things to do, so he entrusted the task of going deep into the clock tower to the two brothers. They didn't need to fight the enemy head-on; they just needed to lure them out.

The two brothers moved with lightning speed, descending along the passageway map provided by Hephaestus, formed by the gaps in the movement of city modules.

Soon, they arrived at their destination.

Before me was a huge pipe with a diameter of over twenty meters. The inner wall of the pipe was covered with a semi-solidified, disgusting, viscous substance, and a pungent smell mixed with blood and rot wafted out from it.

"vomit……"

Roca nearly vomited on the spot: "Are all these lumps of iron this hardcore when they poop?"

Kyle frowned slightly as he looked into the depths of the pipe.

The two entered this "esophagus" leading to the city's dirtiest secrets; at the end of the "excretory pipe" was a huge underground cave.

In the center of the cave, a flesh-and-blood furnace with a diameter of over a kilometer occupies most of the space.

The furnace's surface was covered with thick, dark red biological tissue, which eerily combined with the cold brass pipes, rotating gears, and energy restrainers flashing with blue electric arcs.

Each of its pulsations causes the entire cave to tremble, and black steam mixed with black debris spews from the giant chimney at the top.

Around the furnace, hundreds of enormous robotic arms were working methodically, feeding lifeless mechanical believers, transported from the conveyor belt, into a constantly opening and closing "feeding port" above the furnace, like dumping garbage.

Whenever "waste" is thrown in, the suppressed wailing will suddenly rise for a moment, only to be completely swallowed up by the grinding sound coming from inside the furnace.

“These beasts…” Kyle’s fists clenched so tightly that they cracked, and the metal joints of his armor gloves creaked.

He watched helplessly as a young believer, who appeared to have only a minor arm injury, was ruthlessly grabbed and thrown down by the robotic arm, without the slightest struggle, as if he had already accepted his fate of being recycled as a "part".

Just as Kyle and Roca were preparing to detonate the sinister furnace from the inside, a commotion suddenly erupted from the "recycling area" on the other side of the cave! (End of Chapter)