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Chapter 499 Arms
Li Sheng and Bartmos had clashed in the Toy City mission, and Li Sheng was deeply impressed by the latter's data-driven approach.

Fortunately, Toy City was an independent entity without any hostile forces at the time, lacking missile silos or automated swarm drone units; otherwise, taking over Bartmos quickly would have been quite a challenge.

On the radar screen, green dots flickered slowly, emitting a regular "tick" sound.

"Everyone at Whale Song possesses data-driven capabilities, enabling them to reshape the environment and create advantages, or to evade and disappear into the distance. Their survivability is off the charts."

Claudia narrowed her eyes and said quickly, "Ordinary dangerous situations can't hold him back at all, and if it's a deadly situation, he can simply choose to quit—there's no penalty for the Tremor Mission."

"It's hard to say. There are quite a few situations in the killing field that can be addressed by data-driven capabilities."

The white horse tombstone glanced at Li Sheng, clearly referring to the situation in the inverted pyramid secret realm where a group of extraordinary individuals had half of their essence taken away by the personalities split off by Cai Anjie, making it impossible for them to return to the real world.

"So, should we go check it out, or continue with the mission?"

Reyes said in a deep voice, "Bartlemos's signal source is about 30 kilometers away from our mission guidance direction."

Thirty kilometers as the crow flies is about the same distance as going downstairs to buy groceries for mid-to-high-level superhumans.

"Let's vote by show of hands. I'm inclined to continue the mission,"

Claudia said indifferently, "There must be something fishy going on. The probability of meeting in an almost infinite space, the completely illogical distress signal, who knows if this is a trap."

"Just let the Whale Song Guild know; that would be more than enough."

"I abstain."

Reyes raised his hands slightly. Tremor missions often occur in teams. If Bartmos's distress signal wasn't for him, but for the lover, family member, or disciple of some high-ranking member of a major guild, then ignoring it might lead to resentment later, so it was better to abstain.

"Since we're already here, why don't we take a look?"

After a moment's thought, Bai Ma Tombstone said, "At worst, you can stop 30 kilometers away and I'll go check the situation myself."

Claudia was not surprised by Tombstone Sister's choice, and said helplessly, "In horror movies, sometimes taking an extra look can lead to your death."

"Indeed, when I was a kid, I watched a horror movie. The Alien said 'What are you looking at?' and the Predator replied 'What's it to you?' and they started fighting."

Li Sheng rubbed his chin. With Reyes abstaining, the vote was now one to one, so he naturally had to vote.
"Let's take a look. We don't need to go to the site in person to investigate. We have this."

Li Sheng picked up the Shahd-136 drone in his hand, decisively activated his Mechanic ability, and began modifying it.

The original Shahd-136 UAV was developed by the Iranian Aircraft Manufacturing Industry Company. It has a fuselage length of 3.5 meters, a wingspan of 2.5 meters, a weight of 200 kg, a maximum range of over 1,000 kilometers, a flight speed of 185 km/h, and a warhead that can carry 50 kg of high explosives, equivalent to 10 155mm artillery shells.

Because it uses civilian GPS and Iranian-made German MD550 two-stroke aircraft engines, it is quite cheap to manufacture, costing only $2 to $3, far lower than the price of anti-aircraft missiles, which puts the enemy in a difficult predicament.

Taking Israel as an example, a single short-range interceptor missile of the Iron Dome system costs $5, while medium- and long-range interceptors cost up to millions of dollars, and they often fail to intercept.

In terms of cost, it was outcompeted by the "Little Motorcycle" – two-stroke engines are often used in motorcycles, hence the nickname "Little Motorcycle" for the Shahd-136.

"The only drawback of this loitering munition drone is its slowness. Other than that, it's cheap to manufacture, has a large payload, and a long range. The United States has no choice but to copy it." Li Sheng, holding a screwdriver and using his ability as a mechanic, quickly replaced the drone's engine, removed the warhead, and filled it with a relay communication system and a small quadcopter.

The skill and lightness of his movements amazed the White Horse Tombstone, who exclaimed, "Is this the ability of a Mechanist? It's really useful."

"I can modify it without using the abilities of a Mechanist, it'll just be a little slower."

Li Sheng casually said, "Before mastering the power of the Mechanist, I paid tribute to and learned from the Arms Queen Liu, and taught myself how to modify drones."

Reyes asked, puzzled, "Arms Queen Liu?"

"You don't know? Your colleague."

Li Sheng casually remarked, "The U.S. State Department previously issued a global arrest warrant for Ms. Liu Baoxia, a businesswoman born in the 80s in Weifang City, Shandong Province, because she sold a large number of drone electronic parts to Iran, a country hostile to the United States. The reward is as high as $1500 million."

Converted to One Piece currency, that's equivalent to 22.5 billion Berries, comparable to a Yonko-level pirate before inflation.

You're Sister Liu from AAA Arms Wholesale, right?

What Four Emperors "BIG MOM"?

Amidst the tense expressions on their faces, Li Sheng shrugged and muttered, "Of course, the FBI's global bounty has never been redeemed. Even if it were, Commissioner Smith would have ripped it off. Anyone who believes that is a fool."

After saying that, he quickly modified the drone and took it to the deck of the pirate ship to launch it.

After extensive modifications, the speed of the Little Motorcycle Drone increased significantly, and it can now be remotely controlled.

After flying for more than ten minutes in the abyss, it approached the signal source. The little motorcycle entered cruise and hovering mode on its own, activated the signal relay function, and then deployed a small quadcopter drone.

Using the signal relay system, Li Sheng continued to control the quadcopter drone with the remote control, turned on the infrared function, and slowly approached the signal source. Finally, he saw Bartmos floating in the green sphere of light.

Compared to the last time we met, the hacker's hair was now dyed white, and two rows of bright silver strip-shaped metal implants were embedded in his temples. His left eye was gone, revealing his forehead bone, which had been replaced with metal.

In addition, his right eye was closed, suggesting he was unconscious; his left arm was broken; his right hand was tightly gripping a mobile phone-shaped personal terminal; his lower body was severed at the waist, and his prosthetic organs were exposed to the air.

Judging from the wounds alone, Bartmos had undoubtedly gone through a tough battle, but there were no signs of any enemies nearby.

The white horse tombstone solemnly asked, "Can we fly into the sphere of light and get his action camera? We can find out what happened to him through the camera's video."

"The sphere of light has its own force field, so it can't fly in."

Li Sheng paused for a moment. If he were to use the small motorcycle to directly ram into it, he might be able to crash into it, but it would really be possible to kill the already dying Barthemos on the spot.

Wait, if I remember correctly.
Li Sheng suddenly realized something and input a command, causing the drone's loudspeaker to blare at Barthes, "How can you sleep? At your age, at this stage of your life, you can sleep? Have some self-respect!"

The drone's loudspeaker played this message on a loop. Bartmos himself didn't wake up, but green data flowed out from the back of his neck, forming a head—a backup of his own personality.

(End of this chapter)